This is indeed a quite powerful and moving film. The subject matter is undoubtedly serious, and as expected I found it undeniably somber at times. But none the less the overall tone to it is not only hopeful but I found it even upliftingly hopeful.
This Changes Everything is a well made and well researched film. And although I do not normally give movie reviews, I consider this film the exception.
This is an extremely important film for our time. Do not miss the opportunity to view it. This is not the time for hopelessness or complacency or business as usual. Action is called for and we can do it together! Please do yourself and your family a favor. The future of our children and our children's children is in our hands.
This Changes Everything
2015
Action / Documentary
This Changes Everything
2015
Action / Documentary
Plot summary
What if confronting the climate crisis is the best chance we'll ever get to build a better world? Filmed over 211 shoot days in nine countries and five continents over four years, This Changes Everything is an epic attempt to re-imagine the vast challenge of climate change. The film presents seven portraits of communities on the front lines, from Montana's Powder River Basin to the Alberta Tar Sands, from the coast of South India to Beijing and beyond. Interwoven with these stories of struggle is Naomi Klein's narration, connecting the carbon in the air with the economic system that put it there. Throughout the film, Klein builds to her most controversial and exciting idea: that we can seize the existential crisis of climate change to transform our failed economic system into something radically better.
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Hope and change
My bias first. No question that humans are having a devastating effect on the environment, not just emitting way too much CO2. As a long time activist I am familiar with Naomi Klein's work, particularly her excellent "Shock Doctrine - the rise of Disaster Capitalism". I have not read her latest book which is the subject of this movie. The movie - despite some fairly inspiring stories - I found lengthy, repetitive, and missing a couple key points.
The movie essentially proposes that local community action and control is the key to avoiding the escalating impact of climate change. While in theory this might be true, at least two of the examples cited don't bear this out. One is the case of Greece, in which mostly peaceful local opposition to the destruction of basically their entire way of life has been crushed by the EU and the IMF. As of Nov 2015 riots have not improved the situation.
The second is the case of India, the 2nd most populous country on the planet and accelerating to 1st sometime around 2025. The issue here is that no matter how you plan to provide electricity to the vast majority of the population who don't have it, that plan will still have severe impacts on the environment as the ecological footprint of each person is magnified by huge population numbers.
Forecast human population growth to 9.2 billion with increasing ecological footprint (including CO2 emissions) is pretty much guaranteed to tip the planet further into devastating ecological overshoot which is already happening and probably beyond control given the ingrained profit driven nature of capitalism (another key topic not really covered in the movie),corporate control, and sheer public apathy.
Skip to the last part of this movie about Germany. That's the positive part about how to succesfully make a change. The rest is doom and gloom. Bummer.
The good: skip immediately to the last part of this movie about Germany, so you can experience first hand the many positive renewable energy alternatives that are IN ACTION RIGHT NOW in the biggest economy of Europe: Germany. The Germans are making a change to implement renewable energy on a mass scale for years on end. Great to watch this inspiring example. However...
The BAD: there is too much doom and gloom in this movie, with only a few positive solutions offered on how to battle and STOP GLOBAL WARMING.
Please do try and watch it though, because this documentary is intelligently told and full of wisdom, however depressing in character.
Only recommended for those who like to know about all the depressing problems that block us from changing everything about global warming.