Before the Flood, a documentary about Earth’s climate crisis. The film follows U.N. Messenger of Peace and movie actor Leonardo DiCaprio as he travels the world, looking into various problems caused by climate change and discusses possible solutions.

Leo begins his film by making reference to Bosch’s painting The Garden of Earthly Delights painted in the year 1515. I found the painting to be quite confronting as it depicts the lost paradise paradigm starting in Eden with Adam and Eve in the first panel a
nd then the onslaught of the deadly sins in the second, where men are overcome by last and greed depicting scenes of over population, debartary and excess. The most nightmarish one is the last panel that shows a twisted, decayed burnt landscape, a paradise that has been degraded and destroyed.

The painting sets the tone for the documentary as DiCaprio explores how changes in societal values have influenced climatic conditions and how this is dramatically having a negative influence on planet earth. The themes that stood out to me was the irony of development and the culture of consumerism driven by greed, individualism, lust and pride.

Over indulgence in the Western World is impacting the lives of billions around the world. Those most affected are in the developing world who are still trying to play “catch up”. One thing I note not only as a Papua New Guinean but also a Pacific Islander is that our paradigm of development must not be like that of the West. Over consumption, greed, individualism are not the values of our people. The movie Moana celebrated the spirit of the pacific. Our inter-connectedness to each other, the land and the sea and where the community was always at the core of all we did.

The world has awoken to the realization that man’s actions are having an adverse impact on the planet, champions such as DiCaprio are using their platforms to drive the message of responsibility for the future. World leaders responded to this as well by adopting the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, an ambitious plan that is people centered and future thinking.  Later on in 2016 they came together again to discuss actions they must take to reduce emissions through the Paris Agreements, it is definitely a step in the right direction. It was quite disappointing last year to see America pull out – they are one of the biggest polluters.

The scientist speaking to DeCaprio in the documentary described how by the year 2040, all the ocean ice in the arctic would have melted enabling people to sail through the North Pole. Horrifying!! In just 22 years, many of PNG’s low lying islands will be no more. The rate at which the climate is changing is such that PNG needs to plan how it will deal with people who will be displaced by the rising sea levels. So far we have not been doing a good job with resettlement of the Carteret’s Islanders and other communities displaced by natural disasters. Papua New Guineans are resilient by nature, we have always been able to get through whatever challenges that come our way, but, I am afraid that this impending disaster that will result in the displacement of millions of people; will be one that we’ll have a hard time handling if there is no proper forward consultation and planning. For Melanesians, our land is our life and identity. Isolating us from it is likened to suicidal death.

We need to plan for the future by acting today. The sea levels are raising. Our Islands are sinking.