The carbon in the air

Acclaimed documentary on climate change screened

LAHORE: The Last Word on Friday kicked-off its summer line-up with a screening of This Changes Everything—an acclaimed documentary on climate change.

The work—based on a bestseller by Naomi Klein—draws a connection between the carbon in the air and the economic system that placed it there. The film furthers Klein’s controversial message on how the existential crisis can be seized to radically transform the enshrined economic system for the better. “It is a wake-up call. A potent message—delivered through fires, floods, droughts and extinctions—impressing the need for a new economic model and better ways of sharing the planet, Klein says.

Filmed on location over 211 days across nine countries in five continents This Changes Everything attempts to re-imagine the formidable challenge of climate change. Helmed by Avi Lewis, the film presents portraits of seven communities grappling with climate change. The locales include Montana’s Powder River Basin, Alberta’s Tar Sands, the coastal regions of south India, Beijing and austerity measures put in place by Greece, Italy and Spain much to the detriment of the environment.

While development at a cost makes for no news, Klein presents the argument that capitalist consumer culture has proven to be a pernicious way of bringing about social prosperity and reaching development milestones. This Changes Everything is on people who have refused to quietly relinquish their properties and holdings and have instead opted to fight for them. The documentary is also a testament to how community ownership and participation can promote sustainable lifestyles.

Klein also sheds light on how anti-capitalist communities epitomise a new wave of successful environmentalism activism.  She maintains that indigenous people do not see losing their lands to mining corporations as a lucrative economic opportunity.

Using such examples, Klein also posits the argument that tackling climate change does not merit a major overhaul as governments and corporations can create jobs by implementing a few smart policy shifts. She says environment-friendly means of producing energy can generate as many jobs as coal mining does.

Klein argues that relocating communities in connection with mining initiatives does not constitute a long-term investment. Rather, she believes, it is a calculated move on part of the government and multinational corporations to exploit short-term economic benefit at the expense of natural resources.

She says the majority is stuck in a quandary as it is held hostage by an economy, political process and media that are dominated by a minority.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 22^nd, 2016.