The short films which can be viewed below have been brought to you by the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation and were produced by Tree Media. It was directed by Leila Conners and executively produced by George DiCaprio, Earl Katz and Roee Sharon Peled, and produced by Mathew Schmid.
Carbon
The first video in the series, "Carbon," explains the role of fossil fuels (oil, coal, and natural gas) in global warming and how we have a budget of 500 gigatons of carbon dioxide in order to prevent catastrophic warming of the planet by 2 degrees Celsius.
However, the fossil fuel industry, which makes trillions in profits, has access to more than five times that, roughly 2,796 gigatons.
Essentially, we need to keep this carbon in the ground, and one vital way to do this is to put a price on carbon pollution by either a carbon tax or a cap and trade. Right now, the United States is spending billions of dollars on climate-related events.
Notably, nations like the Netherlands, Finland, Norway, Ireland, Costa Rica, and the United Kingdom have already implemented a price on carbon many years ago.
Last Hours
The second film, "Last Hours," explains how we may reach a critical tipping point to runaway climate change, which could be triggered by the release of massive amounts of frozen methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
This methane is located under melting Arctic ice, within the tundra in the northern hemisphere, and from under the oceans. By 2014, at least 97% of climate scientists agreed that manmade climate change is real and happening. If all this melting of methane occurs, it can cause disastrous outcomes and unleash a mass extinction event.
"Carbon pollution from burning fossil fuels is changing our climate and transforming our world. From more destructive and more frequent climate-related extreme weather events and rising sea levels, to climate refugees, crop failure and water scarcity, the consequences are profound. Last Hours expertly explains how we got here, and what will happen if we don't work together to stop it. It is a needed and urgent call to action."
- Al Gore, Chairman, The Climate Reality Project
Green World Rising
The third film, "Green World Rising," explains how we can use existing technologies such as solar power, wind power, and other forms of alternative energy to reduce our carbon footprint.
We currently have the solutions, and we must act quickly to implement them. We must drastically reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and, in its place, create a sustainable economy that will support our civilization long into the future.
The advantages of renewable energy, such as wind power or solar power, are that they do not have fuel costs, whereas fossil fuels have expensive fuel costs, which are increasing over time.
Another important thing to do is to replace automobiles using gasoline to electric cars since one-third of emissions from the United States comes from transportation. According to the film, an electric vehicle will save about 13,000 dollars in fuel costs over its lifetime.
If we invest significantly, we can achieve 100% renewable energy in a few decades. Simultaneously, this will create millions of jobs. This is not just the moral thing to do, but also good economically.
Restoration
The fourth and final film in the Green World Rising series, "Restoration," discusses how humanity can work with nature to mitigate climate change.
For example, plants can absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Also, the oceans absorb vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Researchers are using biomimicry, which is basically the imitation of processes done by nature, to create more efficient and eco-friendly products.
“When we plug into the wisdom of nature and work alongside Earth’s ecosystems, we discover new and exciting innovations. Many are already underway. It is this partnership with nature that will solve our most pressing climate concerns and create the building blocks of a civilization that works alongside nature, not against it.”
- Leonardo DiCaprio
“Nature has mechanisms which naturally protect us from the negative effects of climate change. So when we harm nature, we harm ourselves. Technology will play a crucial role in averting a climate crisis. Yet many solutions lie right before our eyes. We must partner with nature – both by preserving wildlife and habitats and by appropriating natural systems in new technologies -- to solve these problems.”
- Thom Hartmann
Solutions - Path Forward
On their website, Green World Rising offers many ways in which to help mitigate climate change.
These include:
- Vote with your wallet
- Lighten your carbon load
- Fund the solutions
- Enact local carbon reduction legislation
- Pressure your politicians
- Spread the word
- Learn about & support regenerative agriculture
- Learn about biomimicry & mushroom mycelium
You can find all this on their website below.
Further Reading (Sources)
Text for the section above is from;
Under construction
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/leo-dicaprio-climate-change-film-carbon_n_5700723
https://blueandgreentomorrow.com/uncategorized/leonardo-dicaprio-to-lend-his-voice-to-climate-change-film/
Tree Media Releases Carbon, Narrated By Leonardo DiCaprio
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tree-media-releases-carbon-narrated-by-leonardo-dicaprio-272319611.html
Leonardo DiCaprio: Green Tech Can Soon Meet 100% Of Global Energy Needs
https://www.greenlightnational.com/leonardo-dicaprio-green-tech-can-soon-meet-100-global-energy-needs/
Leonardo DiCaprio’s New Climate Change Movie Will Make You Rethink Your Entire Life
https://www.livekindly.com/leonardo-dicapro-movie-global-warming/
Ice on Fire
2019 - 1hr 38min
An eye-opening documentary that focuses on many never-before-seen solutions designed to slow down our escalating environmental crisis, ICE ON FIRE goes beyond the current climate change narrative and offers hope that we can actually stave off the worst effects of global warming. Narrated by producer and Oscar®-winner Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Leila Conners, who first collaborated with DiCaprio eleven years ago on The 11th Hour, the feature-length documentary focuses on cutting-edge research behind today’s climate science – and the innovations aimed at reducing carbon in the atmosphere, which could pave the way for a reduction in the global temperature rises and a benefit to the planet’s life systems. With sweeping cinematography of a world worth saving, Ice on Fire crossing the globe, from Norway to Alaska, Iceland to Colorado, Switzerland to Costa Rica to Connecticut to highlight the firsthand accounts of people at the forefront of the climate crisis, with insights from scientists, farmers, innovators and others, finding that while the risks and urgency may be higher than ever today, there are also greater opportunities for innovative solutions, offering a realistic but hopeful perspective on a key global issue that demands our attention. ©2019 Home Box Office, Inc. All rights reserved. HBO® and all related programs are the property of Home Box Office, Inc.
https://www.kanopy.com/en/product/5898807
About Ice On Fire, a film by Leila Conners:
Produced by Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio, George DiCaprio and Mathew Schmid and directed by Leila Conners, Ice on Fire is an eye-opening documentary that focuses on many never-before-seen solutions designed to slow down our escalating environmental crisis. The film goes beyond the current climate change narrative and offers hope that we can actually stave off the worst effects of global warming.
Eleven years after Conners’ first collaboration with DiCaprio on The 11th Hour, which emphasized the problems of climate change, Ice on Fire instead focuses on the cutting-edge research behind today’s climate science – and the innovations aimed at reducing carbon in the atmosphere, which could pave the way for a reduction in the global temperature rise and a benefit to the planet’s life systems.
With sweeping cinematography of a world worth saving, Ice on Fire was filmed across the globe, from Norway to Alaska, Iceland to Colorado, Switzerland to Costa Rica to Connecticut. The film highlights firsthand accounts of people at the forefront of the climate crisis, with insights from scientists, farmers, innovators and others.
Ice on Fire emphasizes the importance of an immediate, two-pronged approach to reversing the crisis: reducing carbon emissions through traditional renewable energy sources and new ones, like tidal energy, and implementing “drawdown” measures, focusing on methods for drawing down and sequestering carbon, including direct air capture, sea farms, urban farms, biochar, marine snow, bionic leaves and others.
While much of the political and economic focus has been on the energy sector, the film points out that drawdown (pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere and oceans and sequestering it underground or into new materials) is perhaps the best hope for mitigating climate change.
The film visits places such as: the Usal Redwood Forest Foundation in northern California, highlighting a carbon-storage project that focuses on reforestation and creates “biochar” to put CO2 back into the soil; Ron Finley’s urban farm in Los Angeles, where members of the community grow food that takes carbon out of the air and is nutritious; Climeworks’ nimble direct air capture machine in Zurich; and Thimble Island Ocean Farm off the coast of Connecticut, where owner Bren Smith grows shellfish and seaweed that soak up more carbon than land-based plants and can be used for food, animal feed and fertilizer.
Ice on Fire finds that while the risks and urgency may be higher than ever today, there are also greater opportunities for innovative solutions, offering a realistic but hopeful perspective on a key global issue that demands our attention.
Ice on Fire is directed by Leila Conners; narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio; producers, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mathew Schmid and Leila Conners; executive producers, George DiCaprio, Roee Sharon Peled; cinematography by Harun Mehmedinovic. For HBO: executive producers, Nancy Abraham and Lisa Heller.
