Miami Beach’s mayor, Phillip Levine, has been dealing head-on with climate change and sea level rise like no other mayor in the country. So it was only fitting that the premier screening of “Before the Flood / La Tierra Bajo El Agua” be in Miami Beach. The film was executive produced by Brett Ratner, who grew up in Miami Beach and Martin Scorsese. The film follows a journey to find both the crisis points and the solutions to this existential threat to human species. To help raise awareness for the issue and the film’s star and UN messenger Peace on CIimate Change, Leonardo DiCaprio attended and took part in a panel discussion.
The Hollywood hunk and climate change activist narrated and appeared on camera, crisscrossing the globe interviewing luminaries like Barak Obama, Elon Musk and the Miami Beach mayor himself to reveal more on the subject. “The truth is, the more I’ve learned about this issue, and everything that contributes to the problem, the more I realize how much I don’t know. Paradise is being knowingly destroyed. I just want to know how far we’ve gone and if there is anything that can be done to stop it,” says DiCaprio in the film.
The timing could not have been more telling as the screening and discussion took place just as Miamians were hunkering down, boarding up windows, securing outdoor items and preparing for Hurricane Matthew. Hurricane Matthew, a category four storm that killed almost 1,000 people in Haiti, spared the city, instead making U.S. landfall in Daytona Beach on Friday. The increasing strength and frequency of storms is just one of the harbingers of climate change that has scientists and laypeople alike more than a little worried.
“Before the Flood / La Tierra Bajo El Agua” will air on both National Geographic Channels and Nat Geo Mundo in Spanish on October 30th at 9PM ET/PT. The documentary stars Academy-Award winner Leonardo DiCaprio and is directed by Fisher Stevens.
