Before the flood 2016

I still remember Leonardo Di Caprio’s oscar speech, it was about 3 minute long and it was quite the usual and he began by thanking all the people involved in his career and then all of a sudden in the middle he was pertaining to global warming and how we should see it as a real issue, he finished quite cinematically “ Let us not take this planet for granted. I do not take tonight for granted”. My immediate thought was that he has finally given up on his oscars and making a fool of it completely, given his history in his previous year nominations. I did not know that he was the U.N Ambassador for the environment until very recently. After seeing his documentary " Before the flood” it was clear to me how much he has been working to understand the crisis and how far have we gone in deteriorating the planet.

There are really two sides to this write up, One is that the documentary is completely free and the link for it is even available in youtube and I have given it below. So I can comment completely what happens and tell spoilers and no one is going to come after me. The other side of it is that there is no fun in telling what's happening in a documentary, its quite scientific, there is no plot or twist which i can reveal. Thats why commenting on a documentary is quite boring but what makes “Before the Flood” an interesting thing in the internet? Is it the truth it has to offer or is it issue itself which we need to be aware of? For me personally, the Leonardo factor works, As I told initially, I was taken completely aback on the fact that the lead Hollywood actor has spent the last 3-4 years tracking this issue and understanding it. One who has no science degree or even remotely working in this field.

Actually he himself accepts in the documentary that the he is not the man for the job. In the initially few minutes of the documentary there is strong opposition from the media against Dicaprio being chosen as the ambassador for the environment. The documentary begins from the early ages of Dicaprio and shows his interest in the natural life and environment and finally shows the last 3-4 years where he travels the world understanding the environment and how is the global warming really affecting us.

The film pans to almost all continents of the globe and show cases what is now as present the situation of different geographical region, it is not more about the science of global warming. For most of the film the film shows the dialog between Leonardo and prominent environment activist around the world and their perspective on this issue, 

Paris Agreement:

One of the major portion of the film is about the Paris Environmental conference 2015 and its implications. In short all the nation’s leaders have jointly agreed to aim for a reduction of 2 degrees  on an average. The focus is now on US and china who have been the major emitters of greenhouse gasses, of which China has been very active in the implementation of Solar and Wind power. The focus now comes to U.S. which seems not to consider global warming as an issue yet, there is a separate interview with many US senators and governors who openly accept that the present ruling party and the future parties do not accept Global Warming an issue which needs action.

There are many more documentary which reveal much more shocking truths about the US like No End in Sight, The inside job , Time to choose all by the same American director Charles Ferguson talking various issues like the Iraq occupation of the US, The wall street meltdown and finally the US contribution to the environmental crisis. As compared to the above films the things said in Before the flood is not that revealing or that much with proof but it's quite real to believe the entire issue. For example Leonardo is in his final stages of his documentary and in parallel shooting for The Revenant movie, The cast and crew had to relocate from Canada to half way down south to Argentina to find snow, That's quite a real proof of Climate change and its really an issue which need our immediate attention.

Movie Link :