Before the Flood – Environmental Activism Report

Before the Flood starring Leonardo DiCaprio won Best Documentary and the Hollywood Documentary Award last month.

Sea levels are rising, ice is melting, dangerous weather patterns are more common. Before the Flood is an educational documentary. It shows us what is happening to the world, what will happen in the future and what we can do to stop it.

DiCaprio, the U.N. Messenger of Peace, undertook this film for the National Geographic Channel. It was debuted October 30, 2016. He travels around the world over a three-year period. DiCaprio is passionate about climate change, and he serves as a stand-in for those that might not know too much about it by interviewing and asking questions in the documentary.

Barack Obama discusses the historic Paris agreement in the film, where countries met together to discuss the steps and targets they had to make to deal with this problem in a serious way. He fears that resources will be scarce and there’ll be subject to competition between populations in the future due to climate change.

The Revenant star described his experience as “an incredible three-year journey that took place with my co-creator and director Fisher Stevens. We went to every corner of the globe to document the devastating impacts of climate change and questioned humanity’s ability to reverse what may be the most catastrophic problem mankind has ever faced.”

DiCaprio travels around the world to witness how other countries like China and India are dealing with climate change, and getting a first-hand account of the effects of climate change and an insight of worse things to come.

We see that Greenland’s melting ice is causing the colour to change, it no longer reflects the sun but absorbs it, becoming a heat creator rather than a reflector. And we see how Miami Beach, Florida is having to raise the elevation of its roads to deal with rising water levels.

We also see how developing communities in places like India are already battling pollution even as their population doesn’t completely have access to power. When coal-produced electricity becomes available, the climate change problem will only become worse.

The U.S. is an example across the globe, as money continues to be a deciding factor that divides our politician and makes widespread change impossible.

Our small carbon footprints can make a difference. So, what can we do to stop climate change?

1. Save energy

It’s simple, switch off the lights when you don’t need them. Use energy efficient lightbulbs. Unplug computers and televisions when not in use. Look for the energy symbol on electronics when purchasing. Use solar panel or windmill energy if available in your area.

2. Change form of transport

By carpooling or going by bus it emits less fossil fuels into the environment. Walking or cycling can save the environment but it can also benefit your health and you’ll save money.

3. Reduce, reuse, recycle

Reduce your waste. Complain to manufacturers who use too much packaging. Reuse shopping bags, boxes, bottles, etc. Encourage children to use waste materials for arts and crafts. Recycling and composting benefits the environment as landfills produce methane, a harmful greenhouse gas. Having separate bins for glass, paper, compost and general waste leaves less waste in the landfills. Wilton Waste claim that:

• 1 recycled tin can would save enough energy to power a television for 3 hours.
• Aluminum cans can be recycled and ready to use in just 6 weeks.
• Around 50% of waste in the average bin can be composted.
• Glass is 100% recyclable and can be reused over and over.
• Glass that is thrown in landfills will never decompose.
• Recycled paper produced 73% less air pollution than if it was made from raw materials.
• It takes 24 trees to make a ton of newspaper.
• Plastic takes up to 500 years to compose.

4. Eat wisely

Avoid processed foods. Buy organic foods. Try to grow some of your own food. Try to eat one meat free meal a day as 18% of greenhouse gas emissions come from meat and dairy production.

The film even highlights specific changes we can make that are as simple as changing our diet. Methane produced from the cattle industry is a massive polluter, but if citizens simply reduced eating beef from their diet, a portion of that pollution would be gone. Replacing beef in the diet with chicken would be ideal as chicken production produces less methane and takes up less land space.

5. Get involved

Contact local TDs and media to tell them about climate change. State that reducing gases will make communities healthier, spur economic innovation and create new jobs.

The burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas is a major cause of climate change, which is worsening hunger and poverty in the developing world. The Irish Government is investing our money in some of the most polluting fossil fuel companies in the world. On Thursday 19th January, a Bill proposing that the Irish State withdraws its investments from the fossil fuel industry will be debated in the Dáil. TDs need to support this crucial Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill.

Fossil fuels are behind the carbon emissions that are causing climate change. Climate change is already having a devastating impact on the world’s poorest people. Today, around 10 million people in Ethiopia, roughly twice the population of Ireland, need food aid due to an El Nino drought, which has been made worse due to climate change.

In the documentary, Barack Obama spoke about COP21 in Paris in December 2015. Governments across the world, including the Irish Government, agreed to tackle climate change. The Paris Agreement includes a commitment to keep global temperature below 2°C. This will make a safe future. If this is to be achieved, up to 80% of known fossil fuel reserves need to remain in the ground. But fossil fuel companies are planning to burn them all.

Climate change is real, and it’s happening. Before the Flood is a piece of education that will hopefully encourage people to enact their own further research. And maybe it might stimulate action. Before the Flood can be watched online for free at https://www.beforetheflood.com/. Text Flood to 52886 to join in helping stop climate change.

• enviroment