In today’s society, climate change has become one of those desensitized topics that people discuss – but it’s not always done with the level of urgency that the issue merits. Climate change is the go-to quip when the weather is unseasonably warm or cold. It’s the first thought that pops into our minds as we scroll passed a story about how summer 2016 was the hottest in history … and the same one that floats out of our thoughts moments later. It’s what we think of when we drive by factories and we see the smoke stacks billowing puffy clouds of gray matter into the air. While these moments bring climate change to the forefront of our minds, if we are ever going to get our ecosystem back on track, it is imperative that climate change stays on peoples’ minds long enough to enact change.

This mission to spread awareness about climate change is at the core of the new Leonardo DiCaprio-produced documentary, Before the Flood. Other producers of the film include Fisher Stevens (who is also the director), Brett Ratner, and James Packer as well as Martin Scorsese as executive producer. DiCaprio and the team decided to premiere the film before the November 8 election in hopes of inspiring people to make educated decisions and ideally vote for candidates who not only acknowledge that climate change is real, but have plans to mitigate its effects.


The documentary made its theatrical release in New York and Los Angeles on October 21st. It has also been shown at international film festivals, the United Nations, and at the White House South By South Lawn event before President Obama. And now, National Geographic, in their quest to spread as much awareness about climate change as possible, will not only share the documentary to 171 countries in 45 languages on the channel from October 30th to November 6th, but they are making it available for viewers via just about any website or device where you regularly stream online videos. This includes Natgeotv.com, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, iTunes, Hulu, Sony PlayStation, GooglePlay, VOD/Video On Demand (through MVPD set-top boxes), MVPD Sites and Apps, Nat Geo TV Apps (iPhone, iPad and Apple TV, Roku, Android phones, Xbox One and 360, Samsung Connected TVs), and more. They are also screening the film at more than 250 colleges and universities as well as churches and religious institutions.

The fact that this important film will be available to such a large number of people and in so many different languages is an incredible victory in the fight against climate change. Leo has said it before, and he will likely continue to say it: climate change is real … it is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and COUNTLESS others, and we need to work collectively together if we are going to save our planet before it is too late. Leo is totally right – climate change is nothing to scoff at. There is currently more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than there has been for the past 800,000 years, and according to NASA, the world has gotten three degrees warmer within the last hundred years. Climate change is behind melting glaciers that are putting millions of animals at risk, it is the reason why eventually entire islands will be engulfed in water, and it is the unstoppable force that has robbed Earth of over 52 percent of its wildlife in the last 40 years. Before the Flood will bring these upsetting realities back to the forefront of peoples’ minds and hopefully get them thinking about what needs to be done if we truly want to to make Earth a habitable place for future generations.

Watch the Before the Flood trailer below:


Image source: Denis Makarenko/Shutterstock

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