My MacBookPro crashed last Friday - busted graphics card - my computer where I do all my photo editing. Soooooo new recipe posts are a big challenge until it returns from the Genius Bar. For now I'm squinting into my tiny screened travel computer. But that's ok because no recipe today. Today we watch a movie! Yup. Movie hour, courtesy of Leo DiCaprio.
Before The Flood is a climate change documentary narrated and produced by Oscar-winner, Leonardo DiCaprio's company Appian Way. You may have heard of him. Directed by Fisher Stevens. While writing this post I have watched and re-watched the film and love it each time - I have found something new on each viewing. The cinematography is gorgeous, despite the depressing subject matter, and the film is packed with interviews, facts and on-site discoveries.
It is no secret that "climate change" gets a lot of bad PR, and many people regard it as a "fake" or "made up" issue. Well whatever your point of view on this topic, please give this beautiful film a look and see how you feel when you walk away. I promise you, you will learn something new!
Ahead, watch the film and learn my favorite moment in the film..
My favorite scene and quote from Before the Flood is when Leo is on Baffin Island in the arctic and chatting with Dr. Enric Sala, National Geographic Explorer-in-residence. They are walking on this frighteningly thin light blue ice and then suddenly the camera zooms out and they are surrounded by thousands of Narwhal whales, all diving in and out of the crisp, freezing water. It is gorgeous and magical. Narwhals have these long pointy tips on their nose, so they are basically a giant dolphin and a unicorn combined into. Gorgeous.
As Leo and his two guests walk and listen, Leo says he is stunned by the beauty and says it sounds like the Narwhals are purring. His reaction actually reminded me of his "acted" reaction in Titanic when Jack spots the dolphins swimming and jumping alongside the bow of the ship. But I digress. My fave part in the film..
Dr. Sala pauses and says a beautiful, simple phrase that really hit me with emotion,
"You know, I don't want to be on a planet without these animals."
YES. Me too. Hand raised.
Before The Flood Film. So basically, if Leo narrated a film about paint drying I would probably enjoy watching/listening to it. Truth. But really, this film was incredible.
I loved the interviews, some behind the scenes shots from his work on The Revenent and how that tied in with the subject matter and so. much. more.
I walked away feeling like Leo is truly a warrior for climate change.
Climate change is truly something that effects each person and living creature on this planet and we have to start talking about it in a more honest and aware manner. And we have to stop treating it like a unicorn, tooth fairy or Santa Claus... Climate change is real.
No matter what you think the outcomes will be, climate change is happening, the ice is melting, the coral reefs are dying, we are burning down the rain-forests, animals are losing their natural homes, species are dying off, we are addicted to animal products which take up insane amounts of resources, the weather patterns are changing -- things are changing. Facts.
Skeptic? Read this interesting fact..
In the film, Leo is chatting with a NASA scientist who is showing how Europe's temperatures will decrease as climate change progresses and Leo says,
"So Europe would get colder? Because that is the big misconception about climate change is that everything gets warmer."
..Interesting, right?
Watch Leo's intro below I share some of my favorite screen grabs and quotes from the film...
Sadly the 'watch for free' phase must have passed, but you can still rent the film or buy it. It is around $3-4 to rent. About the price of a small latte! Worth it. Rent or buy it on Amazon here: Before the Flood.
Some interesting facts about diet and beef consumption in Before The Flood, all quotes by Gidon Eshel, PhD..
"Of all the reasons for tropical deforestation, the foremost is beef. Beef is one of the most inefficient uses of resources on the planet."
"In the US, 40% of land is used for food production. 70% of that is used for feed for cattle and 1% is used for thing we actually eat, fruit, vegetables, nuts."
"Every molecule of methane is equivalent to 23 molecules of CO2. And of the methane in the atmosphere, nearly all of it is due to livestock."
"Maybe not everybody is ready to eat tofu 24/7, I get that, ... but if you switch to chicken, you will have eliminated 80% of what you emit, depending on where you are coming from."
More images from the film..
**All images are screen grabs from the film and copyright to Before The Flood film.
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Stefanie says
I'm so glad you shared about this movie, because it truly is inspiring and eye opening. Climate change is happening and it's up to us to make the changes we need to do to save the planet. It kills me how many animals are going extinct every day and hope our planet is slowly degrading because of us. Thank you for spreading the word about this amazing film and I hope it inspires others to take action to help our planet.
Kathy Patalsky says
Thank you for your comment Stefanie, I'm so glad you enjoyed the film as well. It makes me so sad to hear when animals are not thriving on this planet. I wish every human felt the same way as we do!
Sharon Kelly says
I watched it last night and I thought it was interesting, but like every other documentary on climate change I was disappointed that it failed to address the biggest elephant in the room. It is a controversial subject, so no one touches it. Population is growing at 140 people per minute - or more than 200,000 more people per DAY. Each one of these new people require more of earth's resources. Yet DiCaprio still brings up his future children (who surely will each have an enormous carbon footprint like himself). Animals are becoming extinct at an accelerated rate due to the human invasion. The poor things can't survive because we take everything for ourselves or we exploit them for our own purposes. Soon enough humans will be fighting each other for increasingly scarce resources. They already are.. . Sioux nations should be standing strong for protection of their water. Water IS life and the future is scary. Obama mentioned that climate change is being addressed in terms of national security. I suspect coming wars are inevitable. And what will the impact of carbon emissions from all the fighting now and in the future be?
At the very least, the film has made commit more strongly to not purchase anything in a box (processed/palm oil) and it will be easier to give up potato chips.
p.s negative movie review and realist attitude aside, I do love your blog and your recipes. Thanks. 🙂
Kathy Patalsky says
I'm so surprised that you didn't love it with your knowledge on the topic! I think it hit SO many great points.
- I absolutely think people will think twice about buying palm oil products. Even today I was deciding on an almond butter and all the no-stir varieties had palm oil! So annoying. So I settled on a palm oil free brand out of pure guilt! Small steps.
- I don't think it is really fair to condemn Leo for wanting kids. I think that is a bit harsh. I think you bring up an interesting point about population explosion, but I personally would never want to see any laws against how many kids you can have, here in the USA - like China had experimented with. So I definitely do not agree with you there! But I absolutely think that every kid in this country needs to learn from US the adults in the room. How we are consuming. How we are talking. And what we are eating.
But anyways, thank you so much for your insight! I know this is a controversial and touchy subject -- kinda like food these days! -- So I love having an open conversation about it all.
Sharon Kelly says
To clarify, I would not deny anyone children. But I do consider having them a selfish act and the never-ending population 'explosion' is the reason that I consider any resistance on my part as a futile effort. What will be, will be.
Ivy Castillo says
I agree, there's way too many of us! But overpopulation isn't just a result of birth rates, but also LARGELY due to reduced death rates. We're fortunate to live in a time when our medical knowledge, facilities, medications, and (for a very lucky few of us) access to care have improved so much that as a whole people are living longer than ever (the quality of that longer life, may be a different story). Having only one shot at this (hopefully long) life, I'm grateful to those (like Kathy, Thanks Kathy!) who help and inspire me to make it as healthy, happy and low impact as possible. Also delicious. Definitely delicious.