The Role of Media in the Environment
Andrew Niskar
February 3, 2012
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Join Canadian film producer, director and Earth advocate Andrew Nisker for a look at how film, television and even a floppy-eared beagle named Snoopy can change our view of the environment. Nisker travels the world speaking to families, corporations and students about how to flourish without harming the environment and the health of communities.
In 2007, Andrew burst onto the scene as a new kindof activist with Garbage! the Revolution Starts at Home. The film's success and media coverage across North America proved to Andrew that his little film could change the world, one home at a time.
Andrew recently completed Chemerical Redefining Clean for a New 
Generationto address his concerns about exposure to chemicals through everyday cleaning, cosmetic, and personal care products. In 2011 Andrew released The Chemerical Cookbook- a Guide to Toxin Free Living and is currently working on several documentary and fictional movies and series while teaching part time at the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto.
His films explore families’ efforts to rid their lives of chemical-based household products, and to reduce the amount of garbage they produce. Having rid his own life of harmful chemicals, Andrew went on to documents others’ battles to change a lifestyle influenced by the products being marketed to them through mass communication.
But mass media can also boost our awareness and curiosity for the environment.
Opening Night - Peanuts...Naturally
This First Friday Lecture also serves as the opening night for the temporary art exhibit “Peanuts … Naturally” from the Charles M. Schulz Museum. The exhibit shows how cartoonist Schulz explored the natural world through his characters.
Charlie Brown is in trouble with the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) for taking a bite out of a kite-eating tree, Lucy knows the Earth has 48 suns, and Snoopy and Linus are planting French fries in the garden. These are just a few of the misadventures and explanations gone wrong as the Peanuts Gang explores the natural world—what other trouble can they find?!
Schulz touched on many aspects of the natural world during the nearly 50 years he created the Peanuts comic strip (October 1950 to February 2000). During the 1950s and 1960s, his characters explored aspects of the natural world with wonder and delight, and their cockamamie understanding of the world around them afforded many opportunities to introduce readers of the strip to fun facts about the natural world.
By the 1970s Schulz began to address the environment and ecology more directly as citizens of the United States began to come to terms with issues of pollution of the air and water. President Richard M. Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by executive order on December 2, 1970; seven years later Schulz created a hilarious multi-day storyline in which Charlie Brown fears that he has run afoul of the EPA.
Throughout the remaining years of Peanuts, Schulz explored aspects of the relationships between humans and the natural world. Entrance into the exhibit is included with the Friday Lecture Ticket.
Doors open at 7pm, presentation starts at 7:30pm.
Tickets
About Andrew Niskar
Growing up battling severe asthma and influenced by the great artistic movements for social change in the 1980’s like Live Aid and Amnesty International Tours, Andrew has since dedicated his life to making the world a little cleaner using his skills as a filmmaker, activist and speaker.
Since his start making documentaries in 1992, Andrew has interviewed hundreds of subjects, like Oscar Award winner Cate Blanchett, sex therapist Dr. Ruth, and billionaire Donald Trump. He has shot a wide range of stories all over the world in places as diverse as Auschwitz, shanty towns in Cambodia, the world's largest motorcycle rally in South Dakota, hedonistic beaches in Jamaica, and the snow-capped mountains of British Columbia.
Andrew teaches Think Tank part time at the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto and is currently producing a green cleaning guide as a companion to the film.
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For your convenience, we have compiled these resources as a starting point for your research. PNC does not have any relationship with these websites and inclusion on this list does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement.
- Andrew Niskar in the news
- Take Action Films
- Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)—more commonly known as trash or garbage as described by the E.P.A.
- The mass media and our environment blog by Simon Leufstedt
- Gallup Poll: Increased Number Think Global Warming Is "Exaggerated"
- Media and the Environment: Reporting the Environment, a UC multi-media event
GARBAGE Trailor