This Year’s Inconvenient Truth Hopes to Make You Care Again

I often feel that the worst part about climate change movies is not simply their disturbing subject matter but also the haunting sense of urgency they leave you with that is certain to remain unresolved no matter what you do. In these moments of frustration that threaten to turn into despair and eventually acquiescence, I remind myself that I continue to watch and share in the hopes of helping push public consensus and pressure to that tipping point that starts all revolutions and will eventually affect the political and business establishments in swift and unprecedented ways. 

Before the Flood – a feature length collaboration between Leonardo DiCaprio and National Geographic (with Martin Scorsese as executive producer) that was just released for free on YouTube (for a limited time) – is the next Inconvenient Truth that hopes to make you care about and act on climate change. It covers the most significant economic, political and technological trends as well as the most recent scientific findings.

We follow DiCaprio as he takes us around the world to see the latest and terrifying damage that has been done to the planet by human activity and also to meet world leaders and scientists in order to give us a ray of hope, as the actor himself admits from the very beginning is not one of the optimists.

But it is the website really (Beforetheflood.com), rather than the movie, that provides that ray of hope. There you can find a comprehensive section covering diverse solutions to the different problems contributing to climate change, backed by academic research and pilot programs. From reforestation, renewable energy and urban resiliency, to scaling technological innovations, climate education and regional leadership – there you can maybe find a cause or a project to channel that unresolved sense of urgency into. 

Photo: Beforetheflood.com