Watch Leo DiCaprio's "Before the Flood" climate change documentary

Just found out today that until November 6th, you can watch Leonardo DiCaprio's climate change documentary "Before the Flood" for free on the National Geographic (link here).

Summary: the documentary provides a good overview of the climate change threat, with DiCaprio (the UN's Messenger of Peace on Climate Change- who knew?) visiting and exploring the destructive Canadian tar sands; Beijing's industrial pollution; Indonesian forests cut down for palm oil production; agricultural disasters in India because of changed precipitation patterns; coastal flooding in Florida; and ice retreat in Greenland and the Arctic. He talks to locals; experts; Pope Francis; as well as John Kerry and Barack Obama when touching upon a  key question of the role of America and other governments in climate change mitigation.

Beautiful Canadian tar sands, eh? 

Favourite moment: Sunita Narain from the Centre for Science and Environment in Delhi making DiCaprio uncomfortable about America's high consumption habits, then shaking her head at his reply that despite the evidence he doesn't think Americans will change lifestyles, and finally ending with Narain's bombshell "What is the US doing which the rest of the world can learn from? You're a fossil-addicted country, but if you are seriously disengaging, it's something for us to learn from. It'll be leadership that we can all hold up to our governments and say listen if the US can do it, and the US is doing it... we can do it as well."

Sunita Narain is unimpressed with Leo. 

Resonating message: "think about the shame that each of us will carry when our children and grandchildren look back and realise that we had the means of stopping this devastation but simply lacked the political will to do so". While this speech by DiCaprio was specifically directed to the leaders of the world gathered at the UN, we all have a role in finding this will and actually acting to help climate change mitigation and stop environmental degradation.

Leo and Obama discussing climate change. 

Final thoughts: As climate change becomes more and more politicised, and more parties join the debate, celebrities emerge as increasingly important non-state actors in influencing climate change discourse and action. Celebrities can be seen as newly authorized speakers who engage new sections of the public through making climate change more relatable and easier to understand (than scientists, governments and businesses) as well as making climate change more interactive through new media (e.g. social media). DiCaprio in particular, is a relatively well-liked celebrity and thus arguably very influential.

Of course, DiCaprio has faced accusations of hypocrisy, with suggestions that he undermines his pro-environment message by continuing to live a carbon-intense lifestyle himself as well as issues surrounding his credibility to talk on the subject. The cynics among us may also argue that DiCaprio's activism in environment and climate change is simply a part of his brand that the public, as consumers, buy into; or perhaps celebrity involvement simply mobilises action as a temporary fad that then fades when the celebrity becomes less popular and loses influence. Celebrity involvement may also simply be a form of entertainment that distracts from the fundamental issues of political and scientific communication on climate change.

Personally however, I think DiCaprio presents a new opportunity for spreading the climate change message. After DiCaprio's Oscar acceptance speech where he touched upon climate change, tweets and Google searches about the topic soared, with the authors of one study concluding that the "DiCaprio Effect" had engaged so many people about climate change that it rivalled traditional top-down strategies for spreading the message. With the influence of DiCaprio obvious, I think he's doing well in engaging the public and raising awareness; my only niggles would include hypocrisy and leading more by example to encourage individual behavioural change.