Paying the True Price of Oil:

Energy, Environment, Community, and Corporate Responsibility

A film screening, Q&A, and faculty panel discussion at Columbia University

Wednesday March 4, 2015 at 6 pm 

The Kellogg Center at 1501 International Affairs Building 420 W 118th St. NYC

To register for the event: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/paying-the-true-price-of-oil-film-screening-discussion-tickets-15476680167

The price at the gasoline pump doesn’t reflect the social and environmental cost of oil development to the communities and ecosystems near extraction sites. Global production and consumption of oil and gas are projected to increase for decades to come, with development projects expanding into socially and environmentally sensitive areas. How can the industry and users of oil and gas products learn from the mistakes of the past and build a more responsible, less disruptive future for oil and gas development?

The documentary film Oil & Water tells the story of people and places in the Amazon Basin harmed by irresponsible oil development dating back to the 1960s and asks what can be done to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Join Columbia faculty and Equitable Origin for a screening of Oil & Water, Q&A with one of its subjects, and a panel discussion of the film, the pathway of future oil and gas development, who will endure its damages, and who will reap its benefits.

About the Film

Filmed over eight years, Oil & Water follows two boys coming of age amid devastation from decades of irresponsible oil development in Ecuador. Hugo fights for the survival of his Amazonian tribe, while David attempts to revolutionize the oil industry. Their journeys lead them to explore a more just future for people around the world born with oil beneath their feet. A winner of several film festival awards, Oil & Water aired on the PBS program Global Voices in October 2014.

About the Q&A

Following the screening, David Poritz, the humanitarian volunteer and social entrepreneur featured in Oil & Water will answer questions about his experiences with oil development in the Amazon and raising the bar for the oil and gas industry with voluntary standards and certification of best practices.

About the Panel Discussion

A panel of Columbia University faculty will discuss the themes of the film and weigh the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches to curbing the negative impacts of oil and gas development. On the panel:

• Steven Cohen (moderator), Executive Director of the Earth Institute and Professor in the Practice of Public Affairs
• Lisa Sachs, Director of the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
• Elsa Stamatopoulou, Professor of Anthropology at the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race
• Josh Fisher, Director of the Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity and Professor of Environmental Conflict Resolution

Equitable Origin (EO) is the world’s first independent social and environmental standards and certification system for the oil and gas industry. Company President David Poritz founded EO in 2009 at the age of 20, after spending much of his teenage years as a humanitarian aid worker addressing the societal and environmental disruption of reckless oil development in the Amazon Basin.