The big news for the first quarter of 2016 was Leonardo Dicaprio finally clinching that long-awaited Academy Award. Like every ardent fan, I was ecstatic about it and waited for his speech. Matthew McConaughey’s speech last year blew my mind and the hype was real. And why not? He FINALLY won the award. THE AWARD.
“Climate change is real, it is happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating.”
“For our children’s children, and for those people out there whose voices have been drowned out by the politics of greed. I thank you all for this amazing award tonight. Let us not take this planet for granted. I do not take tonight for granted. Thank you so very much.”
Whilst expecting something more personal, the speech made me wonder why he would say that. He had probably been waiting to win the award for SO many years, and yet he decided to bring up the topic of climate change. I decided to do some reading and learned that he was designated as the UN Messenger of Peace in 2014.
What would you do after doing that? Well, I forgot about it in a few days and stopped paying attention.
Last month, the trailer for Before the Flood came out and it was trending on Facebook. Curious, I decided to check it out. It was quite captivating, speaking about climate change and how we have been ignoring this problem for decades. Half the people in the office (U.S. Senate) don’t believe in climate change and hence, the steps taken towards it are very minimal. Tackling questions like, “Can we change our course in time?”, raised my interest and I couldn’t wait for the release of this documentary.
Immersing into the McGill culture, which comprises of heaps of studying and extracurriculars, once again, I forgot about this issue/documentary.
Released on October 30th, 2016, the documentary started to trend on social media, and ONCE AGAIN, I found it and gained interest. Soon after, I read about it, watched it with a friend and had some discussions with people. The documentary had some terrifying visuals and statistics that were shot beautifully across a few countries.
This time, my approach was different.
Now, I know YOU are busy with things happening in your life, and honestly, we all are. We often sympathize, talk and worry about things, and forget to actually DO SOMETHING about it. But this is a documentary that you NEED to watch. Why? Because you won’t have anything left in the near future to worry about if the planet deteriorates to uncontrollable amounts. You just need to spend 90 minutes of your day on it. It’s a rather short time to educate yourself about such a serious and important topic.
The next set of questions and statements being, “Can I actually do something about it? What will happen if I am the only one who changes? Do I even matter? This is a scam. Not worth my time.”
The answer is, YES you matter and a lot can be done. You can do something about it. The first step is to stop being ignorant. Do that and the rest shall follow. Think about these things, because the next generation might have a horrendous experience because of our faults. Previous generations did not have the means to calculate or prove climate change on a micro-level, but we can and we are. Simple things like consuming excessive meat, smoking, and careless use of electricity are leading towards this problem and it’s not stopping. Talking is not helping. It won’t help. What the world requires is action. And we ALL need to take action. These actions will change the policies locally, and soon, globally.
“The world is now watching. You will either be lauded by future generations, or vilified by them.”
Lincoln’s words still resonate with all of us here today:
“We will be remembered in spite of ourselves. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the last generation… We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.”
“That is our charge now – you are the last best hope of Earth. We ask you to protect it. Or we – and all living things we cherish – are history.”
You can watch the documentary here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90CkXVF-Q8M
Thank you.
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