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Business & Tech

Climate Change 'Support Group' Meets in Basking Ridge

Activists show movies, facilitate discussions regarding environmental issues and host pot luck dinner at gathering.

While many people like to forget their problems at parties, around 40 environmental activists in Basking Ridge on Jan. 3 did the opposite. They held lively discussions about global environmental issues over wine and a potluck dinner at the home of Jonathan Cloud and Victoria Zelin.

Cloud is a self-dubbed "Al Gore democrat" who used to install solar paneling in Canada and now helps businesses go green at the Sustainable Business Incubator in Farleigh Dickinson University. Zelin is a management consultant who is also interested in green issues.

"We thought we'd bring together different people we know in the community and [other] people in a lot of different communities involved in sustainability," Cloud said.

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The main event of the evening was the screening of a film called "Earth 2100."

Although it might sound like one, Earth 2100 isn't a science fiction flick, but is rather a documentary hosted by journalist Bob Woodruff that originally aired on ABC. It depicts a worst-case scenario of the near future should people allow climate change to go unchecked.

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The film is narrated by a fictional woman named Lucy, who was born in 2009. During her life, a last-ditch effort to stop climate change failed and the human race scrambles to survive. Hunger, disease and flooding ensues.

Cloud decided to show the film so his friends and colleagues could see it and so he could further publicize it. He found out it wasn't a well-known film after mentioning it a few times to friends and getting puzzled expressions in return. After it aired on ABC, it fell beneath most people's radar, he said.

Some attendees reacted to the movie with a sense of urgency. Jeana Wirtenberg—the president of Transitioning to Green, a company that helps unemployed people find green jobs—was one of them.

"We're running out of time but we can turn it around. But we have to have a quantum leap in [carbon footprint reduction]," Wirtenberg said. "We need radical investments in a short amount of time." She added that the world really only has about 10 years left "to make massive changes."

 Brian Ayling, a family friend of Zelin and Cloud, said the documentary was "terrifying and very sad." Since he is well-versed on the issues surrounding climate change, he added that the movie's conclusions were "not a surprise."

As for Cloud, he said the core of the issue remained clear.

"99.9 percent of scientists in the world agree that (climate change) is a major problem," Cloud said. He added that it's only in the United States that people still argue about whether or not the idea is valid.

But the movie wasn't the only new element that Cloud and Zelin introduced to the party. They also passed around a sign-up sheet for the Sustainable Leadership Forum, which they both co-founded last year.

The forum is designed to help people who are spearheading green programs and initiatives. Cloud and Zelin offer advice on anything from grant writing to how to present ideas to an interested audience.

Cloud added that members talk with each other and learn through each other's experiences.

"We thought it would be useful to have a kind of support group, if you like," Cloud said.

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