Things aren't good with our planet. Some of us aren't panicking enough
The planet is getting hotter with heat records being broken around the globe. Even though nations around the globe have committed to keeping average global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, extreme weather events are getting worse.
It can be hard to understand how climate change is affecting our world when we just go about our daily lives and don't pay much attention to it. You might be moved to act in ways that might help fix it if you hear from those at the forefront of this emergency.
Climate change and its consequences are important for all humans. The truth is no easy pill to swallow, and anxiety about climate change is real, but our lives and the continued existence of our planet depend on people knowing what's up. Mark Kaufman does a series on Climate 101 for you if you don't have time to sit down with the studies. There's no problem. If you want to learn more about what is happening to the only Earth we have, you can watch a documentary.
We've put together a list of the best climate change films. We have added a tip on how to help in real life after seeing these films.
In 20 years, what would the world look like if we implemented technological solutions to address climate change? Gameau wanted to write a letter to his daughter in order to find out what happened. Gameau traveled the globe to chat with people who are developing ways to reduce emissions, sequester excess carbon from the system, and disrupt the economic system. Gameau presents landscapes of what our world could look like if we used these projects. He describes it as an exercise in fact-based dreaming.
2040 is available to rent or buy from a number of online retailers.
You can create your own action plan after the film on the website, which will let you choose your preferences and create manageable options. We don't all have the same amount of money to give, but there are still things we can do.
"All across our planet, crucial connections are being disrupted." Credit: Sophie Lanfear
Our Planet is a stunning series by Sir David Attenborough that explores Earth's important habitats and the life they support, and shows how they're being affected by rising temperatures and sea levels. You will be able to see the impact climate change is having on the animals and plants who live in these places over the course of eight episodes.
Important connections are being disrupted across the planet. The stability that we rely on is being lost. Future for all life on Earth will be determined by what we do in the next two decades.
The images in this series will make you want to vomit. You won't be able to see the animals.
The film Our Planet is now streaming on the internet.
Five ways you can help can be found on the series website.
In his most recent documentary, A Life on Our Planet, he charts his incredible career while urging real, immediate action on climate change. You can watch a strong climate change 101 documentary on the iPlayer.
An Inconvenient Truth was released in 2006 by former Vice President Al Gore, who spoke about the importance of tackling climate change as a moral and ethical issue. He followed it up with a sequel a decade later. An Inconvenient Truth gives a sense of how long we have been having this conversation, the trivial steps policymakers have made or not, and the lack of concern from our leaders. The film outlines the basic science behind global warming, makes plain the connection between CO2 levels and global temperature rise, and hammers home the fact that today's levels are way beyond Earth's natural cycle. The film makes a connection between rising global and ocean temperatures and extreme weather events like Hurricane Katrina, which sadly is not included in the second film.
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power picks up 10 years later in the same format with Gore hitting the ground and travelling to key locations where extreme weather events have gotten worse.
Gore will speak to Alexandria Villaseor for the Washington Post in 2021.
There is a way to watch.
An Inconvenient Truth is available in the U.S., as well as in the UK.
An Inconvenient Sequel is available to rent or buy from a number of online retailers.
You can check out Gore's Climate Reality Project after the movie.
Extreme weather events like California's raging wildfires are hard to comprehend if you're not on the ground. Fire in Paradise was directed by Drea Cooper and was based on the experiences of people who survived the Camp Fire in California.
The 40-minute documentary recreates this disaster through interviews with Cal Fire and volunteer firefighters, as well as residents who were trapped by walls of fire. Combining news coverage and harrowing phone footage, Fire in Paradise shows you how quickly the fires spread, decimating houses, businesses, and roads. Climate change is causing more frequent and intensified fires in California.
Fire in Paradise is now available on the streaming service.
After the film, read up on the charities detailed in a feature that was published in the year after the fires. Donate or volunteer if you see what they need right now. If you want to learn more about the people who were affected by the fires in California, you can watch After the Fire.
Isle de Jean Charles, a sinking island on the coast of Louisiana, is going to disappear in the near future due to rising sea levels. Lowland Kids is a 20-minute documentary that tells the story of two teens who are about to become America's first climate refugees. The film presents an intimate portrait of a family at a fork in the road, exploring the idea of home and displacement due to climate change.
Lowland Kids is now streaming on Vimeo.
There are more stories from this part of the world that you can watch after the film.
A shocking before and after shot. Credit: XL Catlin Seaview Survey / The Ocean Agency / Richard Vevers
If you don't know what coral bleaching really means, what it looks like, and why it's an indicator of climate change, you'll be left in no doubt by Chasing Coral. When corals are stressed by temperatures, they expel algae that live in their tissues, which causes them to turn white. The documentary follows a team of dedicated divers, photographers, and marine and coral reef biologists as they study the loss of the world's reefs.
Climate change is the biggest threat to coral reefs. Global warming, rising sea temperatures, and ocean acidification have devastated reefs in the Florida Keys. The film shows how devastating it is for the team who watches the reef close up every day to manually track it's ecological collapse. There are a lot of archival comparisons in the film, but they won't prepare you for the time lapse at the end.
Chasing Coral is a movie that is now available on the streaming service.
There are ways to take action after the movie.
Fossil fuel industry and its impact on Indigenous communities are examined in The Condor and the Eagle. The film makes plain the serious impact the coal and oil industry is having on First Nations communities and heralds the need for inclusive solutions to the global crisis.
The film focuses on the work of activists in Manchester, Houston, Melina Laboucan-Massimo, and the Ponca Nation. The lack of consultation with local communities from fossil fuel companies is detailed in the Condor and the Eagle.
The Condor and the Eagle can be rented from films for action.
You can check out the filmmakers' Impact campaign after the film.
Sit outside Swedish parliament with the young climate activist — right from the beginning. Credit: Hulu
You know the name of the person. Since she was 15 years old, the young activist has been campaigning for action on climate change by sitting outside of the Swedish parliament on Fridays. The emergence of the Friday'sForFuture youth-organised global climate strike movement saw politicians hand-wringing. Since then, she's been nominated for the peace prize twice and asked for more honesty at the conference.
You wouldn't think that the film is quiet. The documentary will be released in 2020 and will give a personal look at the actions of the 15-year-old activist and her father. Before she shamed apathetic grown-ups at the U.N. Climate Action Summit, Thunberg traveled Britain to New York City on a sailboat.
I Am Greta is available on Disney+ in the UK and on the US streaming service, Hulu.
Here are five more young climate activists to follow as a result of watching the film.
Africa's Great Green Wall is the focus of this stunning documentary, an 8,000-kilometer wall of trees grown by communities across the continent to restore land ravaged by the effects of climate change. Malian singer and activist Inna Modja hosted the production. According to a UN report, temperatures are rising 1.5 times faster than the global average in the Sahel region.
The Great Green Wall can be rented on Sky in the UK.
The Great Green Wall has more community initiatives.
The 2020 documentary narrated by Woody Harrelson takes a look at a solution to climate change that the actor says is right under our feet and is as old as dirt. Due to its ability to sequester immense quantities of greenhouse gases, it could be the one thing that can balance our climate, replenish our fresh water supplies, and feed the world. The documentary initially plays to our more self-motivated tendencies, getting our attention by promoting the health benefits of eating food grown in healthy soil, but for the most part, it hammers home the point.
The film unpacks the threat of soil desertification, the damage caused by industrial agriculture, and the fact that within 60 years, the U.N. predicts. The film shows people who are fighting to restore balance to the planet through the dirt under their feet.
Kiss the Ground is now available on the streaming service.
Kiss the Ground's stewardship and farmland programs that support farmers and their adoption of regenerative agriculture can be found after the film.
This is not a good look at the causes and impact of climate change. Josh Fox is the director of How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate can't Change. "I don't know about you, but I'm about ready to watch a few cat videos right now," Fox says after one particularly doomed scene.
He joined those on the frontline to ask the question: What happens to human beings when our industrial development puts incredible stress on civilization, from coastal areas affected by rising sea levels to places plagued by extreme weather events.
The film How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can't Change is now available on the internet.
The film's website has suggestions on how to take daily action.
The Republic of Kiribati is the focus of Anote's Ark, as well as the viewpoint of Anote Tong, the nation's former president who has twice been nominated for the peace prize. The Pacific Island is facing peril from rising sea levels with many trying to migrate elsewhere. Tiemeri was born in Kiribati and wants to go to New Zealand with her family.
You can now watch Anote's Ark on Prime Video.
The film's website has further information on how to take action, as well as a multimedia project that spotlights the daily lives of Marshall Islands residents.
This one may not be for you if you don't like climate change documentaries. If you're not a fan of Hollywood actor, Before the Flood, and U.N. Messenger of Peace, his use of star power and large budget to draw attention to the climate crisis in this documentary is definitely impactful. He says that the more he learns about the issue, the more he realises how little he knows.
Many of the same areas as Al Gore's films, functioning as a strong primer on climate change, the damage we've done, and what's likely to happen if we don't act were covered in Before the Flood. In the past two years, he's traveled to several key locations, including the melting ice sheets in Greenland and Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic, flooding Florida with its electric flood pumps and raised roads, and the Sumatran rainforest. A lot of people, including then- President Barack Obama and Pope Francis, have 888-492-0 888-492-0 888-492-0s in the film.
Four years later the arguments are the same. Things have happened since the film was made in conjunction with the Paris Climate Agreement. You have to believe that the countries will follow through with their promises. What's the likelihood of that? There is a narration by Leonardo DiCaprio. If you can ignore the fact that he learned about the consequences of thoughtless decadence from a painting that sat over his crib when he was a kid, then you have accomplished something. It's possible to get into this.
The film Before the Flood is now available on Disney+.
The Before the Flood website has suggestions on how to help.
Chasing Ice focuses its efforts on visionary environmental photographer James Balog and the documentation known as the Extreme Ice Survey, which saw him and a group of explorers hauling time-lapse cameras across theArctic. This type of difficult, taxing, and dangerous filming has made communicating the effects of climate change to the public incredibly effective.
Balog was a climate change sceptic until 2005, when he was assigned to take pictures for National Geographic. Balog's 75-minute time-lapse capture of the calving of the Jakobshavn Glacier is included in Chasing Ice. It is impossible to dispute.
Chasing Ice is available to rent or buy from a number of online retailers.
You can watch Chasing Coral after the film.
Kisilu Musya filmed the experiences of his home and village with his wife, Christina, and demonstrated how climate change is making extreme weather events there more extreme for his family and community. Thank You for the Rain is a climate justice, climate refugees, and gender equality documentary that he and Julia Dahr made together.
Thank You for the Rain can be rented on Vimeo.
You can demand climate action, host a screening, or support Musya's work after watching the film.
Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret is a film about the effects of the livestock industry on the planet and how it contributes to global warming. Nobody wants to discuss it.
The film argues that the main focus of many environmental groups fighting climate change is fossil fuels, while Andersen finds a lack of cooperation with leaders within the movement to discuss animal agriculture. It will make you rethink your eating habits.
The movie Cowspiracy is now available on the streaming service.
You can find ideas on how to pick plants over meat on the film's website after the film.
The Anthropocene Working Group, an international group of scientists, decided in 2016 that the Anthropocene epoch, in which human activity has irreversibly changed, is over. The term inspired this documentary, which was created by Nicholas de Pencier, and narrated by Alicia Vikander. Anthropocene: The Human Epoch is described as a cinematic meditation on humanity's massive reengineering of the planet.
What to watch: Anthropocene: The Human Epoch is now available to watch.
The filmmakers' preferred organizations can be found on the website.
The rate of extinction is getting faster. We lost all of the things in 2019. Changes in land and sea use, direct exploitation of organisms, climate change, pollution, and alien species are some of the causes attributed by the U.N. The film uses a lot of clever filming techniques to dig into some serious truths about the impact of humans on wildlife. The team uses lab experiments, photo comparison, and high-definition cameras to reveal CO2 emissions from transportation and factories. The illegal wildlife trade is examined in the documentary as well as undercover cameras and covert techniques.
Racing Extinction can be purchased/rented on Amazon or on the internet.
You can learn more about the act after watching the movie. It's crucial.
If you don't know what you can do on a local level to contribute to the goals of the Paris Agreement, this documentary is for you. Donald Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and the Mayor of Pittsburgh's decision to stay in was the subject of Paris to Pittsburgh. Cities around America pledged to use 100 percent renewable energy as a result of citizens hitting the streets.
The documentary is narrated by Mrs. Maisel's Rachel Brosnahan and talks to climate scientists, politicians, and local pioneers about what those cities are actually doing to achieve this. Extreme weather events like Hurricane Maria, which caused widespread power outages in Puerto Rico, are included in this. Climate deniers within the American government are shamed and the EPA has its budget slashed by the Trump administration.
Paris to Pittsburgh is now available on Disney+.
The We are Still In campaign can be found after the film.
It's a strong enough film to make this list, even though it has Leonardo DiCaprio's fingerprints on it. Executive-produced and narrated by the actor, Ice on Fire looks at the devastating impact the melting of the ice caps will have on the Earth. Methane gases released into the atmosphere from the melting caps will have catastrophic repercussions on the planet. Making plain the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions, the film consults innovative scientists focused on strategies to pull CO2 from the atmosphere as well as other renewable and sustainable projects. Maybe technology can help us out of this mess.
Ice on Fire is now available on a number of platforms.
There are a lot of resources on the site after you watch the movie.
The documentary is based on Naomi Klein's book This Changes Everything and was directed byAvi Lewis. The film was shot in nine countries and five continents and was narrated by Klein.
The effects of government inaction on climate change, as well as false benefits promised to local communities around fossil fuel plants and the growth of only those exploiting natural resources at the top of the economic system, are shown in this Changes Everything. Klein suggests that we could seize this current climate crisis to tackle our failed economic systems and create something better, and that change occurs only through pressure from below.
You can now rent or buy This Changes Everything on Amazon.
The team's directory of those creating solutions to the climate crisis can be found after the film.
Climate Refugees is a documentary about the human face of climate change: how people, towns, and even whole countries are moving around the globe due to rising sea levels and following extreme weather events, and how increasing global temperatures affects food supply for populations. It's 10 years old now, and situations have gotten worse, but it's still an important film to consult.
40% of the world's population lives within 100 kilometres of the coast, and these communities are at the forefront of the impact of climate change. Nash traveled around the world for 18 months talking to people in those communities, as well as aid workers and activists, scientists, and politicians.
Climate Refugees is now available on Hoopla and Kanopy in the US and the UK.
Lowland Kids opens in a new tab and you can read about the daily lives of Marshall Islands residents after the movie.
Disobedience can help you if you don't know if there's anything you can do to combat climate change. The film is a convincing presentation of what happens when people get sick of waiting for governments to act and unite to take things into their own hands, like the 50,000-strong human chain in Turkey in 1990. The film looks at the power of climate activism and features interviews with Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben, and others.
Disobedience can be watched on the film's website.
You can find more inspiration on how to get involved in the fight to tackle climate change by reading the article on how to become an activist by Mashable.
If this has caused climate change anxiety, here's how to deal with it.
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