Before the Flood – a must watch documentary by National Geography
The documentary film “Before the Flood,” directed by Fisher Stevens, is a film about the impact of global warming. The Oscar-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio crosses the earth to observe the impact of global warming with his own eyes. Throughout the documentary, he interviewed scientists and activists and went to so many places across five continents. A significant amount of people refuse to acknowledge global warming, claiming that it does not exist. Despite any different political views, people are now weathering more powerful storms and tornados than ever before.
He went to Bahamas to witness the effects of coral bleaching. Because of the ocean’s rising temperatures, the corals are regurgitating algae and starving to death, a big threat of our oceanic ecosystem since coral reefs play a tremendous role reducing carbon emission. He went deep into the ocean in a submarine expedition initiated by marine biologist Jeremy Jackson. Jackson pointed out that over one billion people depend on fisheries from the rapidly-disappearing coral reefs for their diet and livelihoods.
We know that sea level is rising. To see the consequences with his own eyes, DiCaprio went to the South Pacific and met with Anote Tong, the President of Kiribati, and H.E. Tommy E. Remengesau Jr., the President of Palau. Their coastline is declining. They are often hit by powerful storms. They are at the highest risk of sinking because of man-made global warming even though they are not the one who have higher ecological footprints.
In 2013, while DiCaprio was shooting for the film “The Revenant,” the set was melted by the unexpected high temperatures in Northern Canada. In that location, nothing should melt in March because it simply wouldn’t be a normal weather pattern. Because of this, the crew had to relocate 9000 miles away, somewhere in South America. It was quite expensive, and the crew faced the dangerous, first-hand effects of global warming.
Leonardo also visited exotic India where 300 million people has no electricity to use. Coal is one of their abundant natural resource. In some areas they still use coal to cook and they feel that coal is the cheapest way to get energy even though it increases the effects of climate change. India, because of this unavailability of cleaner energy, is considered to be at the very top in the list of carbon emitting countries.
Leonardo DiCaprio and his team went to visit Sumatra as well. Over there, the palm oil farmers are intentionally setting up various fires for the deforestation of their native forests. They want the land to use it for palm oil plantations because palm oil is so cheap to produce and the fact that so many foods, soaps, and toiletries have palm oil as a chief component. The rainforests that the farmers are razing are in general considered to be the lungs of the earth because they absorb a large amount of carbon which helps mitigate the greenhouse effect. Besides that, Sumatra is well known for its biodiversity, where it is home for rhinos, orangutans, various species of birds, elephants and tigers, but because of rapid deforestation, the rainforest’s acreage is decreasing at an alarming rate. Indonesia has already consumed 80% of its forest land for other purposes.
This is a must watch. You can watch the film just by clicking this link.
https://archive.org/details/youtube-90CkXVF-Q8M
Source:
https://archive.org/details/youtube-90CkXVF-Q8M
https://www.beforetheflood.com/explore/the-journey/
I agree that this is a powerful documentary. Thank-you for sharing, Ayesha!
I think it’s so important for everyone to see what Leonardo DiCaprio and his team saw in this documentary. I think that if everyone could see first-hand how climate change and global warming is affecting all parts of the globe, people would realize that it is a real issue that needs action taken against it now. Sometimes it can be hard to think beyond the borders of your town or state, where there may not be a lot of noticeable differences in the climate. It would be interesting to see if a program develops in the future where people are able to travel the globe and help make efforts to reduce global warming and climate change all across the world.
You mentioned that everyone is being affected by this this climate change, regardless of political position. It’s so frustrating to think about how many conservatives feel as though they need to deny climate change simply due to the fact that this is the stance that many people in their party hold. Why do you think, even though all people and beings are affected by climate change regardless of political stance, that some people still deny it?
I currently work at the MUSC Department of Sustainability and Recycling. Our next information session is on the topic of sea level rising. One of the most interesting points of this topic to me is the idea that there are toxic gases inside of the ice. And due to the ice melting, those gases are being exposed into our atmosphere. It’s quite nerve wracking to know that these gases are that old and have yet to disappear!