"Saving Walden's World" : Documentary Screening
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Award-Winning PBS-Bound Documentary 'Saving Walden's World' Screens at First UU Church San Diego During Climate Week
SAN DIEGO, California - October 2026 - The First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego, 4190 Front Street, will host a special community screening of Saving Walden's World on Friday, October 2, 2026 at 6:00 p.m. PST, presented by Activist San Diego and the Climate Justice Group of First UU Church San Diego as part of San Diego Climate Week 2026.
The screening follows the film's official acceptance for national distribution on PBS via NETA and comes as the United Nations Environment Programme's Limiting Overshoot report confirmed in September 2026 that global temperatures will cross the 1.5°C threshold within the next few years.
The film follows Jim Merkel, a former military engineer turned sustainability activist, as he travels to Kerala (India), Cuba, and Slovenia to document women-led solutions that have achieved genuine human development within planetary limits, proof that the trade-off between quality of life and ecological sustainability is not inevitable. It is a choice.
The First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego and its Climate Justice Group bring a tradition of faith-rooted environmental action to San Diego Climate Week. Activist San Diego, an information, communications, and mobilization organization networking for social justice, connects grassroots efforts across San Diego County. Together they present a screening that bridges the documentary evidence of what works globally with the community committed to building it locally.
"San Diego Climate Week is exactly the moment for this film," says Director Jim Merkel. "The evidence of what communities in Kerala, Cuba, and Slovenia built is not theoretical. It is documented, operational, and available to any community willing to build it. This screening is part of making that evidence impossible to ignore."
Director Jim Merkel will join the audience live via Zoom for a Q&A following the screening.
Event Supported By
First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego
The First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego has offered a unique religious voice of freedom, reason, and tolerance since 1873. We do not tell you what you must believe. We don't ask you to check your mind at the door. Instead we invite you to join in a conversation with us about the meaning of life, love, and service. At First Church we encourage you to ask the big questions of life. What do my life and death mean? How do I live with integrity? How can I love well? What gifts of service can I bring to help the world heal? Together we explore the answers of humanity's wisdom traditions - not only from Jewish and Christian sources but also from the world's religions, from nature, from science and from modern thought. First Church has an administrative staff, board of directors, and vibrant volunteer community. We host a variety of church groups and spiritual pathways.