Students help send message on global warming

The New Zealander "was pretty depressed because he wasn't making enough money to pay the rent because he couldn't make the snow," Gold said. "It was January and not getting colder than 26 degrees."

"Everything's Cool" is the second documentary about global warming to be screened at Sundance in the past two years. Last year's "An Inconvenient Truth" followed former Vice President Al Gore on his campaign to make global warming a recognized worldwide problem.

A different perspective on the issue is presented in "Everything's Cool." Oftentimes comedic, the documentary follows many of the people who have made global warming a main focus of their lives.

They include Ross Gelbspan, a former journalist who is the author of "The Heat Is On: The High Stakes Battle Over Earth's Threatened Climate."

"I was early on reluctant to talk to youth about global warming because it's heavy stuff," he said. But he said he realized that American kids especially need to be informed because the United States is one of the only nations that is not actively focusing on reducing carbon emissions.

"Even if we sat in the dark and rode bicycles, that wouldn't do it," said Gelbspan. "It has to be a global effort."

The group behind the national "Step It Up" campaign is led by Bill McKibben, author of "The End of Nature." The group aims to spur changes to help cut carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050. Events and rallies have been organized across the nation, include the Park City aerial photo.

"It's incumbent on us to be aware of this," said Park City Mayor Dana Williams, who attended the event. "It has the potential to seriously affect our town and what goes on."

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