Perspectives on Climate Change

Part I

Watch the film “Before the Flood” by Leonardo DiCaprio. It’s available on Netflix (link below) and also on youtube or Amazon to rent. Run time is approximately 90 minutes. Please take your time and watch this documentary carefully. It is very good. DiCaprio traveled around the world to examine different aspects and perspectives on climate change, and this is what makes this documentary so effective and educational to those who don’t know much about it.

https://www.netflix.com/watch/80141928?trackId=13752289&tctx=0%2C0%2C55a30e48-5514-4a5e-86db-b7c38872d889-93941269%2C%2C

Part II

After watching the film, interview 2 friends or family members of yours who are not in this class and ask them what they think of climate change. It’s important to start with an open-ended question like that to give them more flexibility in how they answer it. If the conversation goes well, please feel free to talk to them more about what you’ve learned so far about climate change and what you learned from the film. See if you can diplomatically find out how old they are. I want to keep track of how people answer by gender and age.

Part III

Answer the following questions and submit them here:

1. Which part of the documentary do you think was most effective and why?

2. How did your interviewees answer your question, what were there ages and gender? It’s ok to guess on age if you didn’t have the nerve to ask.

3. How much do you think where a person lives and how old they are factor into their beliefs on climate change? What does this tell you more generally about belief systems and environmental issues?