Climate change’s threat to planet Earth gets worse by the day, and it’s crucial for people to educate themselves about the realities of the subject. Humanity’s precarious future depends on such education, if we’re to mitigate this crisis together. With all the uncertainty and cultural denial around global warming, film can bring us closer to nature and inspire people to protect the environment. Here are three thought-provoking documentaries on climate change that you should check out.
An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
Davis Guggenheim and former US Vice President Al Gore’s film did a lot to raise awareness and bust myths around climate change at a time when the world was still yet to fully wake up to its realities. In a simple, straightforward way, it lays out the role of fossil fuels and CO2 emissions play in rising global temperatures and related extreme weather events. It remains a relevant, thoroughly interesting presentation on ethics and geopolitics.
On Paramount+, Kanopy, and other platforms.
This Changes Everything (2015)
Directed by Avi Lewis and inspired by his partner Naomi Klein’s bestseller of the same name, this film takes the viewer to seven communities on the frontlines of climate disaster, from farmers in Montana’s Powder River Basin to anti-mining protesters in Greece to those living with air pollution in urban China. Highlighting government inaction, it tells their stories of grassroots activism. Unlike most films on this topic, it leaves the viewer with a positive message of hope and possibility.
David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (2020)
Every film and series naturalist David Attenborough has made over his long career is worth watching and learning from. But this recent film, his “personal witness statement,” is a potent wakeup call showing the extent of the damage that’s been done to Earth just over the course of his own lifetime. It’s an urgent call to action informed by his documentary experiences.
On Netflix.
