Dear Leo,
I was confused to find you heading a documentary on
climate change, because, honestly, I was pretty certain you drowned at the end
of your previous documentary, Titanic. But after spending the 90-ish minutes
taking in your message, I was actually quiet thankful you had miraculously survived,
after all.
Recently, while sitting on a virtual panel with
soon-to-be-graduating ESST* students at Acadia University, I was asked how do you discuss environmental issues
without making everyone depressed? My answer was, of course, I left Canada
and moved to Uganda where there is a high degree of discussion and conversation
around the topic, because the impacts of climate change, global warming, global
dimming, or whatever you want to call it, are felt here on a daily basis. But
that’s not the point I’m trying to make… well…
The point is, in good ‘ol We the West where we remember to bring our reusable grocery bags
with us to the store and then proceed to pat ourselves on the back for the next
35 minutes, we’re a little bit in full blown denial. And this is kind of
what I believe you, my dear friend, United Nations Messenger of Peace on
Climate Change, and teen heartthrob/Academy Award winning (finally!) actor,
Leonardo DiCaprio, are trying to get across in your recent collaboration with
National Geographic – a documentary entitled Before the Flood.
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During your journey to become one of the most
recognizable “non-credible” voices for the fight against climate change, you
have also come up against a lot of criticism. This, as you’ve pointed out, is because
you don’t have a formal education on the matter**. But I think the fact that
you didn’t grow up surrounded by nature gives you even more credibility, because
it essentially makes you an outsider. What I mean by this, is that you didn’t
grow up with an ingrained value for nature, it came to you over time, through
your own initiative, and has shaped the message you are trying to impart on the
world today. It is, really, people like you, that we are needing to convert
more than any others – because it’s those who have no relationship with nature
that are usually the quickest to dismiss the direction we’re headed.
I will be honest; I have watched this film a couple of
times now. The first time, I jotted down some fairly petty critiques and facts
that I intended to follow up on (but even as I type have yet to actually do) –
the most memorable being my disappointment that you could lead a discussion of
this sort while standing next to a sir wearing a Canada Goose jacket in the
Baffin Islands, and take him seriously. I mean, come on – how was that
possible, what with your message of the tar sands, rainforest destruction, and
a number of other related issues?!
Anyway, I took another glance at the film – once
again, notebook in hand – and tried to really sort out how I felt about it.
Here’s what I’ve come up with.
This is actually nothing more than a rehash of Al
Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, except
its far more engaging, visually appealing, uses basic terminology and as a
result is easily digestible to the average North American. And for me, this has
been one of the biggest problems with the discussions of climate change, or
environmental issues on the whole. They tend to be geared to scientific
audiences already familiar with the lingo, and therefore the average
working-class individual is lost before they’ve even begun.
But however informative and thought provoking this doc
may have been, I fear the conversation will start and stop within the confines
of this film’s popularity. I mean, I’m delayed in addressing it, and I think we
can both agree the conversation has died down dramatically, already. This isn’t
because the information wasn’t convincing, or the visual evidence you tried to
highlight didn’t show the real impacts of climatic change currently happening
in the world, but rather, we have yet to truly experience these effects in the
West. In fact, many of the impacts that have already been felt have been
considered fairly positive – less snow in the winters, better temperatures for
growing seasons (such as the recently booming wine industry in my home province
of Nova Scotia), for example. But, if North Americans in particular lived with
the conditions already happening in places such as my current home of Uganda, I
think the conversation would be much, much different. This doesn’t make North Americans
bad, careless people, it just makes them the exact product of Western culture
that has put us in this mess in the first place – act now, think later, because
it will be someone else’s mess to clean up…
Furthermore, there was a comment related to the 2015
Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and how there was nothing in place to
enforce the outcomes of these discussions. You asked how likely it will be for
the signatory countries to follow through with the implementation of the
agreements made. And to that, sadly, I say minimal, if at all. This speaks more
to the ineffectiveness of the UN, rather than any country’s willingness to act
(although that leaves much to be desired, as well). But it is also reflective
of a pattern we have seen time and time again, where a lack of action is
demonstrated throughout recent (global) enviro-political history.
Let’s take Kyoto, for example (and yes, admittedly,
this might be a bad example). When then-Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper backed
out of the Kyoto Protocol, he received a lot of negative feedback and press. I,
on the other hand, commended him for
this, not because I wanted him to further deny the very realities of our world,
but because he knew it was not possible to reach those targets, and was at
least honest about his lacking desire to follow through. And believe me, I know
how bad that sounds, all around! But again, unlike many other leaders who
signed the declaration and then turned the other way, he actually acknowledged
that he just wasn’t going to do anything about it.
The fact of the matter is, climate change (or whatever
the latest buzz word is to describe this occurrence), although a global issue,
needs to focus on a series of locally relevant actions that are interlinked
from one country to the next – not this painting everyone with the same brush nonsense
that we’ve been witnessing with past UN initiatives like the MDGs. THAT’S the only
way we will tackle this crisis! Not by unfairly assigning tasks to countries
that neither caused the issue in the first place, nor have the means to achieve
the targets that have arbitrarily been set for them, but by focusing on the
meaningful actions that are relevant to their own fight, within the greater
context of the global crisis. And it’s for this same reason that I resent your
statement that small steps are no longer enough. In fact, this remains entirely
relevant! These “small steps” are the beginning for so many to enter into the
realm of environmental consciousness, which leads to environmental activism
and/or justice. I can say this with great confidence, because, although I grew up
playing in the woods, using nature to spark my imagination, I was just like the
vast majority of North Americans – completely in denial. It took several small
steps to bring me to where I am today, both geographically, but also
intellectually, compassionately, and ethically. Yet despite this, I’m still not
perfect, and I, too, need to be reminded. So please, do not be so quick to
dismiss this entry point.
But after all is said and done, I don’t have the
answers for how to make the deniers or unshakables begin to wake up and act –
even if slowly at first. I mean, after all, I’ve basically left Western
culture, because I find it frustrating at the best of times. But this isn’t to
suggest it’s a lost hope, and I truly think attempts such as your most recent
one, can help to change mindsets, actions, etc. Maybe it won’t spark a global movement,
but maybe it will motivate someone to
take the first step towards environmental awareness, who will, in turn,
influence someone else’s first steps. After all, that’s what it’s really all
about, is it not? So, I do commend you on this initiative, but I also ask that
you help search for alternative means to convey these urgent messages to those
who presently have not or refuse to be converted.
This fight it is, without a doubt, a much bigger one
than we realize. But as I’ve already said, it must involve many local steps,
not just one giant global one. We need everyone on board if we’re to make
things better. So, please, keep your fight going, with energy, positivity, and
just the right amount of humility so that you don’t come off as an overly preachy
celebrity*** who thinks his word is all that there is.
All the best,
-the Orange Canadian
*That stands for
Environmental and Sustainability Studies
**To be fair, I do have a formal education on the
matter, and I’m also probably not the best voice for it either!
*** *cough* Bono *cough*
*** *cough* Bono *cough*
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