Jon Cooksey

  Jon Cooksey is a writer/producer for TV and movies; his most recent work   as a showrunner was on the dramedy series “The Best Years”, which will    air on Global beginning April 21, 2009.  He’s currently working with Rob  Stewart (director/writer/producer of the film “Sharkwater”) on the  development of two new theatrical features.  Jon’s focus on environmental,  nergy and economic issues began in 2006, when he decided he was going  to have to take personal action to make sure his daughter didn’t end up  living on a raft with the last polar bear.  He set out to make the  documentary “How to Boil a Frog”, which has evolved into an eco-comedy  about overshoot, and its various symptoms (global warming, peak oil,  overpopulation, the war on nature, income inequality, and so on). 

  In the process of making the documentary (currently in the rough cut  phase), Jon has interviewed dozens of experts in climatology,  sustainability, economics, energy, journalism and many other areas, and  also started the movement to save civilization online with the How to Boil  a Frog website, at www.howtoboilafrog.com.  In addition to offering up youtube-sized mini-documentaries and chunks of his interviews, the website offers a variety of entertaining resources and a chance for people to participate by sharing their own feelings about the mess we’re in and what they think our chances are. 

 The process has also led Jon into various kinds of activism; at present he’s focused on getting Vancouver prepared for peak oil with the formation of the Vancouver Peak Oil Executive (www.vancouverpeakoil.org), which will be working with UBC, other NGO’s, and the Vancouver city government on a variety of projects.