Poor Leo, water is evidently not his friend.
As avid a Titanic fan as my roommate forced me to be (at gunpoint on a Tuesday of her choice in February), I was entirely unaware of Leonardo DiCaprio's commitment to climate change. Much like many of the skeptics at the beginning of the film Before the Flood (which is free to watch on YouTube, FYI), it initially struck me as odd that an actor found himself so entwined with a highly scientific cause.
But the more I thought about it, the more a celebrity spokesperson for the planet made a twisted sort of sense. People follow their favorite media personalities with cult-like loyalty, actors are somehow experts on diet and nutrition, and public presidential candidate endorsements in 2024 soared to an all-time high in attempts to sway voters.
And the truth - for better or worse - is that it works. The average person believes the average famous person, not the expert scientists. I'm making an assumption here, but I may as well since authority can come from anywhere.
Watching the documentary, the scene that stood out to me the most was the conversation Leo had with Sunita Narain from the Centre for Science and Environment in Dehli, India. The film focuses on climate challenges and solutions on a large, industrialized scale in mostly developed countries, but Leo's trip to India sheds light on the tangible challenges faced by the poor population in India. Millions of people live without power at all, surviving by burning cow dung. To that person, the global harm of fossil fuels is secondary to their day-to-day living necessities.
Dr. Narain tells it like it is, begging Leo to understand that America must lead the charge to sustainable energy because we have the means to do it. Who in India can afford to invest in alternative energy sources when access to electricity is already sparse? When fields of crops are flooding in a matter of days?
"If it was that easy, I would have really liked the U.S. to move toward solar, but you haven't. So, let's put our money where our mouth is... Your consumption is really going to put a hole in the planet. We need to put the issue of lifestyle and consumption at the center of climate negotiations," Dr. Narain shares with Leo. He's eager to agree with her.
Later in the film, Leo chats with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who essentially reveals that 100 Tesla-style gigafactories producing power-storing batteries could effectively transition the entire world to solar energy. Tesla currently has three completed gigafactories in Nevada, Austin, and Berlin, with a plan to start construction on a fourth in Nuevo León, Mexico, in 2026. The gigafactories range in construction costs from $4 billion to $10 billion. With a humble net worth of $402 billion, the one thing Musk can't afford is to build the remaining 96 gigafactories on his own dime in the next few years.
He could, however, easily fund at least a few gigafactories each year. But he's quick to defer construction responsibilities to other developed countries and large industrial companies. Because as Dr. Narain pointed out, just because we can, in theory, do something, that doesn't necessarily mean that we will.
Anyway, this whole film gets me thinking about another movie DiCaprio starred in back in 2021, a Netflix creation called Don't Look Up.
The basic premise, if you haven't seen it, is that a planet-killing comet is headed toward Earth. DiCaprio and Lawrence are scientists who point out this unfortunate fact and embark on a sort of media campaign to inform the public and urge the government into action.
The film is an obvious satire on the crises of the world and the inaction of the American government. Spoilers, but the people in power learn that this asteroid has trillions of dollars in mineable resources, and instead of blowing it up to save the planet, they opt to risk worldwide destruction to harvest the comet's materials.
It doesn't end well.
The truth can be terrifying and debilitating, especially when it's entirely our own fault. Humans hide from shame. We avoid the dark parts of our own personal lives, so it's only following pattern for legislators to avoid owning up to their own climate-centric mistakes, bribes, and corruption.
Films and documentaries like these shove our heads underwater and force us to recognize the major consequences of our reality. We either swim or we choke, and at the rate our cities are becoming oceans, swimming is sounding pretty good.
Thanks, Collen. this is an astute and thoughtful blog. You point out one of the three most difficult parts in "Before the Flood," Leo in India talking with Dr. Narain. She makes a powerful appeal. I am not a fan of sci fi/diaster films, so I have not seen "Don't Look Up," so I had no idea it was a satire on political greed and corrupt inactivity. What a great and emblematic satire. Leo was interested in the environmental movement before "The Revenant," but it was the film's problem finding enough snow for the film's winter scenes that pushed him into activism, that and the 19th century's bison slaughter. Thanks for the honest look.
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