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“Before the Flood” Documentary Review

Garden of Earthly Delights painted by Hieronymous Bosch


Often, we seem to approach the problem of climate change at a zoomed in level, but this documentary attempts to decode the problem “zooming out”. This much anticipated documentary by National Geographic is profound and deep in sense that it is spread across the nations and races, delving deep in to myriad of problems, yet interconnected; with such intricate imagery and visuals that makes the whole issue easier to grasp than the conceptual understandings. At one point we are at the Arctic, then to the South East Asian rainforest spanning Indonesia, to the visuals from space, interweaving the interviews with leaders and environmentalists around the world. And of course, the way all of it is communicated by a host, who’s not shown as the preacher but a learner just like the audience. Leonard DiCaprio is trying to grasp the meaning of various of our actions and its results which aren’t much uplifting.

There are innumerable results which we are currently bearing, results of voluntary ignorance by climate change deniers. We are today witnessing sea level rise, forest fires, degradation of coastal ecosystems, water wars, climate refugees, tropical deforestation, magnanimous beef consumption and umpteen others. But we here tend to divert this issue by putting as a personal issue or a moral issue. It is to be looked beyond this realm of personalism. Because that is simply not enough. We as individuals are not going to be able to make the scale of difference that’s required now. We need the interference of regulations and policies by governments and institutions that wield significant power over the masses. This again, reflects the behavioral and cultural state of people. The foremost task for these big organisations is to ignite a sense of recognition for what has been happening. 

The point regarding the “carbon tax” and ecological footprints not just by humans but by huge corporates, is of importance. There are whole of nations; Sweden for instance, who have sworn to and working towards being fossil fuel free countries. Most of the Scandinavian countries are at the fore front of this transformation. With wind and solar energy consumption on a rise in those countries, these nations are progressing towards lesser dependence on fossil fuels and hence attaining sustainability.
For India particularly, as pointed out by Ms. Sunita Narain in the documentary, the problem of making energy available; to the 30 Mn population who are yet to have access to electricity, is almost as big as the problem of climate change. For India, we need to focus on both aspects, its possible to have solar and wind energy in place, if we solve the problem of availability.

So, what can we do not just on individual basis but also a collective reform of sorts, is we can be judicious enough to vote for leaders who will fight climate change, who will invest in renewables, and lessen the dependence on fossil fuels, coal, oil and natural gas. Thus, reducing the emissions of carbon. The documentary cleverly provides points to act and think upon rather than providing solutions which, most of the times need to be thought deeply upon.

Namaste!

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