Photo via Inhabitat
In this sense, seeing this documentary was a much needed and very welcome reminder to shift my focus again to include more than just my own little world in my big, lofty goals for the future, because the truth is that my world (and any of our worlds really) wouldn't exist or be possible if the world at large, our planet, is not well. I've been aware of most major issues talked about in the movie - the exploitation of the oil sands happening right here in our own country (Canada), the melting glaciers, the damage caused by palm oil production and cattle raising, the Paris Agreement that was signed last December - but to be able to learn more details and see the sobering images in a way reignited that urgency in my heart again to start doing something and truly contributing to the wellness of our planet - and of our own lives along with it.
I know that for many of us living in developed countries, it is hard to fully grasp the impact of climate change yet, seeing as there haven't been too many shifts severely affecting our quality of life, and the movie was a good reminder for me that the people who do the least harm to our planet, are the first and most deeply affected by these changes - and that, although we may not be able to see it in our day-to-day, it doesn't mean that the change isn't happening.
Watching the documentary really motivated me to start taking action. I'll start with the easier and more straight-forward changes I can make: being really mindful of all the products I buy to make sure that they don't contain any palm oil and further reducing our consumption of meat, especially beef (although that is already very minimal), but I plan to keep going much further. I really believe there is always room for improvement in everything we do, so I think that a good way to make progress in this case is to constantly ask myself, "Is there a better way - one with a smaller negative impact or, even better, with a positive impact, on our planet?" and use the answers to make changes in the things I use, buy, and create.
One of the main points that stuck out to me thanks to Leo's film is the need to speak up and work together towards better ways; to speak up and ask for better things that will benefit rather than harm our planet; to speak up and ask for better solutions, more mindfulness, and a heightened awareness - because, as with most anything, if we don't ask for it, it will more than likely not be given to us. While I've been passionate about this for a long time, I generally conduct my life by the idea "live and let live" which, coupled with my shyness and introverted nature, has meant that I haven't been very vocal about any of my passions so far, and have only shared with the few people I've come across who are just as interested as me in the same things. Over the last few months though, it's become clear to me that keeping things to myself isn't going to produce any changes, so it's time to start finding ways to be more outspoken in ways that respect my own personality. Not only that, but there's also a big need to work together to create change, because we won't go nearly as far as we could by doing things separately, each in our own little corners.
So, I'll end this post with the following thought: if you've seen Before the Flood and/or are just as passionate about creating positive change for our planet, reach out and let's talk about whether we can do something together to make it happen.
I'd love to know, have you seen the documentary? (If not, it's now streaming on Youtube.) What did you think about it?
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