If you watch one documentary this year, it has got to be “How to Let Go of the World and Love all the Things Climate Can’t Change” by Josh Fox. It was released at the end of June, and it is easily one of the most engaging, amazing and inspiring films I have ever seen.
Josh traveled around the world to investigate and document communities directly affected by climate change. He starts out in communities like New York that were hit by Hurricane Sandy and travels everywhere from the Amazon to hear indigenous people talk about how their communities are struggling with deforestation and big oil to Australia to fight with the Pacific Climate Warriors who blockade the Newcastle coal port in their homemade canoes.
This film really gives the climate change crisis a personal side – one that I honestly hadn’t really considered before. Of course, when we hear "climate change" or "global warming," we all have our own ideas and images associated with it. Some might picture Senator Inhofe’s ridiculous snowball explanation of climate change, the numerous images of polar bears clinging to melting ice, floods, other natural disasters or even the deathly smog in China.
The effects of a warming world are so vast and profound. I mean, really. The earth’s temperature has increased around 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit between 1880 and 2012. Just recently, the first mammal went extinct due to the effect of rising sea levels. The Bramble Cay melomys lived on the island of Bramble Cay, 10 feet above sea level at most. The rising sea levels have destroyed the little rodents’ home, and now they have been presumed extinct.
This is monumental! Even though it might just sound like the world lost one unimportant species of rodent, this is only a herald of what will happen to society if we continue on this path of destruction.
This year has been the hottest year on record, which is a fact. I don’t understand how anyone can deny the facts that we have proven over and over again. Instead of questioning it, how about we work to fix the problem!
During the film, while Josh was traveling to a deforested zone of the rainforest, he said, “Only millennia after millennia could develop this type of richness, and then you arrive at what man is doing, this culture, which is inevitably to destroy this incredible, intoxicating beauty.”
It is so incredibly true. Our modern culture is the problem. This culture which we live in has no respect for the Earth, and it is only interested in profit and "progress."
Seeing this film really made me step back and appreciate other cultures around the world that are going back to their indigenous roots and have a truly deep connection to the Earth. These communities are the ones who are really fighting to save the Earth and their home.
The problem is that most of us haven’t felt any direct effects of global warming yet. Sure, everyone complains that summers are too hot, but I’m talking about real effects. Rising sea levels and natural disasters are the big ones. Those who haven’t been affected don’t feel compelled to care too much.
We’ve got to start making changes. At one point in the film – I don’t remember who said it – something said something along the lines of, “The earth is going to be around for a while. It will survive the climate crisis. Climate change is becoming an issue for society – people.”
We’ve got to make changes now. Climate change is a very real problem that is occurring. The time is now and we are the generation to save the planet and save ourselves.
“On climate change, we often don't fully appreciate that it is a problem. We think it is a problem waiting to happen.” - Kofi Annan
