Upbeat look at battling climate catastrophe
So many environmental documentaries have come out in recent years and covered the same ground that some viewers (and reviewers) feel that the genre is in a rut. Give credit, then, to the French production “Tomorrow,” an advocacy film that’s more vibrant than many movies with similar themes and focuses on some less common angles.
The film urges decentralization and bottom-up decision making as tools in remedying problems of global warming, food production and the like. The tone is more upbeat than you might expect, and there’s a certain glossiness to the movie that’s a refreshing change from some of its more dour documentary siblings.
“Tomorrow” even has a bit of fun, such as showing codirector Mélanie Laurent (also an actress, in “Inglourious Basterds” for instance) and her crew trudging single file from location to location, crossing many borders in their search for ideas and answers. (Laurent shared filmmaking duties with environmental activist Cyril Dion.)
But make no mistake that the issues at play are monumental. As the film begins, we hear from two Bay Area scientists, paleontologist Anthony Barnosky and biologist Elizabeth A. Hadly, about how climate change may be a sign of a new cycle of mass extinction. The rest of the film examines how this catastrophe might be reduced or avoided.
The answers, by and large, are local. Much of what follows has been reported before, but the stakes could hardly be greater. We’re taken to Detroit to witness the growth of urban farming. In Kuttambakkan, India, different castes are working side by side to combat environmental problems. And residents of Copenhagen have made huge strides toward their goal of weaning themselves from fossil fuels, trying to be the world’s first carbon-neutral city by 2025.
To me, the most intriguing idea is one that’s being tried in Bristol, England (and elsewhere), that of localized currencies — in this case, the Bristol pound. Using this form of money is voluntary, and it is not legal tender. But because the currency is good only in its own community, the theory goes, it keeps money circulating within that community.
Indirect approaches, like local currencies and the castebusting going on in Kuttambakkan, promise progress in fighting issues other than environmental abuses, as well.
The film’s generally upbeat tone is a good thing, though I could have done without the self-righteous ditties on the soundtrack. Otherwise, “Tomorrow” is a generous cut above the standard envirodoc.