"Climbing K2 was up there," says Rick Ridgeway, who did it in 1978, without supplemental oxygen. "But getting people to understand our environmental crises is a Herculean task." To that end, the mountaineer, author, and filmmaker has teamed with "conscious living" advocate Gay Hendricks to launch Earth Cinema Circle, a DVD club that delivers eco-documentaries straight to subscribers' mailboxes ($23 per disc; earthcinemacircle.com). "There are powerful films that don't have distribution beyond festivals like Telluride and Banff," says Ridgeway. December's premiere DVD includes Buyer Be Fair, an hourlong look at how Fair Trade coffee benefits organic farmers in Oaxaca, and The Ride of the Mergansers, an 11-minute short on rarely seen merganser ducklings. Here, Ridgeway shares his five favorite eco films.

Darwin's Nightmare (2004) "Sounds the alarm on the environmental and social consequences of globalization."

Monumental: David Brower's Fight for Wild America (2004) "After watching it, you can't help but be motivated."

The Queen of Trees (2006) "The story of one fig tree dramatizes the ecological interdependency of species."

The Hellstrom Chronicle (1971) "It influenced my understanding of the hubris of our efforts to control nature."

Koyaanisqatsi (1982) "The evocation of landscape and the soundtrack by Philip Glass affected me like Brower did with his large-format Sierra Club books in the 1960s."