A Reflection On the Documentary Film "Before The Flood"

What can be done about the issue of Global Warming? That’s the big question in “Before the Flood”. Leonardo DiCaprio was in almost every scene talking to scientific and world leaderssuch as US President Obama. This documentary really made me more aware of what is generallygoing on in this world.

At first I was confused as to why DiCaprio was even doing adocumentary about this stuff but it is made clear early in the documentary: He is appointed U.N.Messenger of Peace. I appreciated how he asked the scientists important questions so I could learn more from them. An interesting effect of global warming was Greenland’s melting ice causing the land to change color. This causes heat to be absorbed and created rather than reflected. Jason Box says that if this issue continues Greenland is going away. This is sad to me because if I were living in Greenland I would fear for my future. I still am fearful of my future and future generations because global warming is obviously a global issue.

Rising ocean water is also discussed in this documentary and Florida is a victim of this. In Miami Beach they actuallyhave to raise the roads higher because of the rising water. This made me think that maybe oneday San Antonio will have its own large beach due to the rising waters. Developing countries such as India are victims to pollution induced climate change. They can barely even develop anymore because if they do create, for example, coal-produced power it will only worsen theclimate change. They are pretty much trapped in their current development. It makes me angry that money is such a big obstacle in the way of fixing these issues. If countries didn’t value money more than the well being of our planet then we would possibly be en route to a healthy planet. Money is also an issue because coal is cheap, the less polluting substances are moreexpensive. We are on the way to a dead planet if nothing is done on a global scale.

Another key issue discussed in this film is the issue of population growth. Everyone has known about this issue for decades but barely anything has been done to resolve it. If I were to try and fix it I would probably mimic some parts of Asia, how they limit how many children one couple can have. Something I can do myself as a person to solve this is to adopt my kids in the future. Will Id o this? I can’t say for sure but it would be a smart thing for me to do to combat the issue of population growth. DiCaprio says that this issue is even harder to solve now that the world has let it go on for so long.

On another note I’m glad this documentary doesn’t only focus on the bad side of things, it also focuses on the possible solutions and a light at the end of the tunnel. Obama relates it to gay marriage which I found very interesting. Apparently he wasn’t for gay marriage until a majority of the world was indeed for it. This means that if a majority of the world wants to reverse global warming and be active about it, then a surplus of the world will want to be active about reversing it.

Another solution brought up in the film is a change in people’s diets. If people ate less beef there would be less cow slaughter facilities which are a major contribution to pollution. I for one can contribute to this because I already reduced the amount of red meat that Ieat for other reasons. Though DiCaprio admits that he himself isn’t all that innocent. He says that he has a large carbon footprint on this world which many people can probably relate to. AlthoughI’ve reduced the amount of red meat I eat, I still use a car frequently and use a ton of electricity.

So I’m not all innocent either. In fact, almost all American citizens have large carbon footprints as long as they can afford their luxuries. DiCaprio has actually donated a large amount of money to some habitat conservation projects which is a notable action on his part. Another prominent solution is discussed when DiCaprio talks with Tesla founder Elon Musk. Musk states that his goal is for every car to be electric to reduce the amount of carbon in the air. This documentary projects the message that the world has to do something about global warming, and fast.