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Leila Conners Leila Conners founded Tree Media Group in August of 1996. With a background in international politics, Leila set out to build a production company that creates media to support and sustain civil society. Leila and Tree are currently creating an internet television channel, called Tree Channel, that will carry the content that Tree creates, among other media. Most recently Leila directed, wrote and produced a feature-length documentary, The 11th Hour, with Leonardo DiCaprio and 54 leading thinkers and scientists about the state of the world and the state of the human condition. She has written 2 short films with Leonardo DiCaprio on the environment called Global Warning and Water Planet and a feature film script for Ridley Scotts Scott Free Productions on the state of the oceans. Leila has also been published in newspapers and magazines around the world including the International Herald Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Yomiuri Shimbun and Wired Magazine among others. Projects over the last 10 years with Tree Media Group include work with the Council on Foreign Relations, NASA, JPL, Norman Lear, Green Cross International, Harvard University, and Hollywood studios among others. Her article on Death and American Culture was published in War, Media and Propaganda, published by Rowman and Littlefield. Leila is currently in pre-production on her next feature-length documentary on consciousness and how to heal the environmental crisis. Prior to Tree Media, Leila was Associate Editor of New Perspectives Quarterly, an international journal of social and political thought, and Associate Editor of Global Viewpoint of the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, an internationally distributed op-ed column that reaches 200 papers. At NPQ, she interviewed thinkers and policy makers including: Kofi Annan, Nafis Sadik, Betty Friedan, Hans Bethe, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Boutros Boutros Ghali among others. She is now Editor-at-Large for NPQ. In 1991, Leila translated Jacques Attali's book from the French for Random House entitled, Millennium. Leila is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She is also a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy and is a member of the Writers Guild of America (WGAW). Leila serves on the Board of Global Green USA and the Entertainment Board for One Voice, a middle east peace project. Leila is often invited to speak on issues of sustainability and the environment and has served on panels nationally and internationally. The film, The 11th Hour, to date has won the Diversity Award and the Earthwatch award in the United States and the Clarion Award in the UK. Leila lives in Santa Monica with her son Aidan Michael. Drought. Famine. Severe flooding. Record rainfall. Hurricanes. Acid rain. The highest average temperatures in recorded history. Catastrophe is reported on the nightly news as isolated incidents. But are these incidents isolated, or pieces of a larger global puzzle that could unlock humanity's future? In the history of the planet, humanity's time on earth has been short but powerful. The human drive to ensure its own survival and quality of life has revolutionized industry, science, nutrition and medicine. But it has also effected unprecedented changes in the delicate balance that makes life on earth possible. Interview with Leila Conners
What do you see as being the positive and negative impact of the
media in influencing thinking about climate change?
The more media discusses climate change, the better. The problem
with media in terms of climate change is what we call the “10%”
problem, in that, the media is always looking to be “fair and
balanced,” which is commendable. However, when it comes to
climate change, the media looks for “the other point of view”
and less than 10% of scientists oppose the science on climate
change, yet they are given 50% of the coverage just so that
media can appear balanced. This is detrimental to, literally,
the survival of the human race. And I mean that. We have to
understand that every minute we waste “debating” the issue of
climate change, we waste a precious moment in which we could be
spending trying to solve this problem that threatens the very
biological basis upon which human life depends. Climate change
is real, it is caused by human activity, and we need to fix this
problem now.
What
types of initiatives would you like to see the media in
The media needs to stop debating and start showing solutions
that people can implement at every level, from the personal to
the community level, to also changing consumption behaviors, to
putting pressure on politicians to take action.
In your writing of the script for the movie, The 11th Hour, what
were the main themes that you wanted to draw attention to? Do
you believe that you have succeeded in doing this?
The 11th Hour was an investigation
into the state of the planet and its biological ecosystems. What
we did not anticipate was that 95% of the leaders and scientists
who we interviewed were concerned that the human race was very
much at risk of some sort of die-off due to the impacts of
climate change and the disruption of the biological web of life
due to human civilization and how it functions. We were shocked
at this and we put that concept into the film. We also wanted
people to know that there STILL IS TIME to make critical and
much-needed adjustments to how we design our civilization so
that we can reduce the human footprint on planet earth. With the
technologies we know today, we can reduce the human footprint by
90%, with the technologies that we know today at that are on the
shelf!
What were some of the challenges you faced in planning and making
this film from seed idea to completion?
Of all the experts you and your colleagues interviewed, what were
the aspects that you personally found most striking? The most striking aspect was that there is a very high degree of consensus on what is happening to the earth’s biosphere. There is not much disagreement.
What are you hoping the 11th Hour action movement will achieve
globally?
The 11th Hour
Action movement is about personal responsibility and community
action. We hope that the film and the support website that we
have created will generate action on the ground, no matter how
small. We have to start somewhere, and changing the local,
finding out about how clean your water is, where your food comes
from, and making sure these things are OK, and not polluted,
that’s a good start. And we hope most people look into those
things, as a start.
How does the company you founded, Tree Media Group source and
develop stories into media items? Are there a growing number of
people wanting such services? What are the criteria you use to
evaluate initial proposals? Does it include evaluating it in
terms of the authenticity of the product and/or its marketing
strengths?
What are your observations and expectations
of President-elect Barack Obama with respect to climate change
and saving the planet?
Almost anyone
will be better than the Bush Administration that stalled any
progress for 8 years. President Obama knows very well that we
need to tackle the climate question so I expect to see great
strides in dealing with this problem.
In your personal career development, what strategies have you used
to develop your potential and source new alliances?
I have found
that the best advice is to “show up,” meaning that one gets so
many invitations and opportunities to experience new ideas and
new groups, and to the best of your ability, you should “show
up” and be open to what is happening around you. I find that I
don’t show up enough and every time that I do, I am always
thankful because I meet someone new, learn something new, and
almost always, that person or idea resurfaces down the road in a
meaningful way. Life has a plan for you especially if you are
present in it. So I try to practice that myself, although for
some reason, it is not that easy to do. |
