Sunday Movie - 1pm at Cafe La Villa (BCP Center) - "Before the Flood" - a documentary

[NewsLady]

Movie starts at 1pm, and food, drinks and popcorn will be available from Cafe La Villa.  (If you like, you can bring cushions for the hard restaurant chairs, or folding/camp chairs for more comfort.)  There is no admission charge, but we ask for voluntary donations at the end of the movie to support the program and help pay for the video system.  Early arrivals get the La Villa's sofas and other comfortable seating. 

This week's film - a documentary - is about some very serious problems that we are facing as a civilization, but it does offer some rays of hope.  I will select a good comedy with broad appeal for next week to lighten the mood a bit. 

David van Harn

Film Club Curator

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Please join me this Sunday for the screening of this extraordinarily popular new National Geographic documentary.  With over 60 million views,it is already the most watched documentary in the internet age.   The release of "Before the Flood" ended up being timed perfectly to coincide with some serious new challenges that will hamper the worldwide effort to mitigate the effects of global warming and climate change. 

(This subject of this film is something that is very important to me, and on which I have a fair amount of expertise.  I have a degree in Conservation and Ecology from the University of California at Berkeley.  I recently completed an online college-level course in basic Climate Science from Canada's University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and I have participated for the last several years in the discussions at the Wunderground blog of Dr.Ricky Rood, a former NASA climate science modeling specialist who is now a professor at the University of Michigan where he teaches classes and mentors grad students in climate science problem-solving.) 

Leonardo DiCaprio says in the film "Try to have a conversation with anyone about climate change and people just tune out.  If the UN really knew how I feel, how pessimistic I am about our future, I mean to be honest they may have picked the wrong guy.”  Before the Flood shows DiCaprio urging world leaders at the UN to act on reducing the burning of fossil fuels.

But later in the film, after touring the world to see global warming impacts first-hand, from Canada’s tar sands and Greenland’s ice to China’s coal belt and Miami’s flood problems, the actor came away more upbeat.  “When we started he was much more pessimistic than I was,” says Fisher Stevens, the documentary’s director. “But by the end of the film he became a little bit more optimistic after meeting Obama, the Pope, Elon Musk, of Tesla.  I didn’t get any more optimistic … but I still do believe we can turn it around.”

There are serious new climate change challenges facing the world due to the proposed science, energy and environmental policies of the incoming new U.S. government.  These new leaders in Washington D.C. are strongly anti-science and anti global warming / climate change.  Their policies will have a very serious effect on the ability of modern, globalized  high-tech civilization to continue to thrive for our children and grandchildren.  The new political leaders in the U.S., and many of it's party members - deny the very existence of anthropogenic global warming and climate change.  This newly emboldened and enabled cadre of "conservative" politicians and their included "alt-right" partners is beholden to their biggest donors - the fossil fuel industry.  They oppose the growing renewable and alternative energy industry in favor of their donors in the coal and oil industries - even though the renewable / alternative energy sector produces more jobs for more people - and is better overall for the economy.   

Link to trailer

movie

Edited November 18, 2016 by NewsLady

[Marcelyn]

 Yesterday we were part of the large crowd at Cafe LaVilla watching the National Geographic documentary film "Before the Flood". This presentation is a look at how climate change affects our world environment. Some folks remained after the showing for discussion of the material from the film.

An important topic and great photography.

David Van Harn promises a comedy show next Sunday.