Thursday, July 13, 2017

Keep An Open Mind, Watch "Chasing Coral" On Netflix

Editorial by Rob Reep

We typically don't have movie reviews on salineriverchronicle.com.  Perhaps we should.  Maybe today will be the start of more to come.

My wife Jessi and I travelled to Telluride, Colorado Memorial Day weekend to attend the Mountainfilm Festival, a several day documentary film festival that promotes humanity's spirit to overcome and extend the limits of our own knowledge.  Each year Mountainfilm has a theme, and this year's happened to be "The New Normal," an education in how we can go about living in this age of climate change and global warming.

The winning film at this year's Mountainfilm Festival was a flick called Chasing Coral.  It chronicles the recent death of a vast amount of earth's coral reefs, including a big, and I mean really big, chunk of the Great Barrier Reef.

I don't want to give too much of the film away, but I will tell you it's worth watching.

Now, I'm not going to presume I know how the majority of our readership feel about global warming, but a quick look at a 2016 poll showed that 45% of Arkansans believe that the seriousness of global warming/climate change are generally exaggerated.

For me, I tend to think I understand where most of that number is coming from.  The problems of global warming seem foreign.  It's affecting coastal cities.  And those hot summers?  Well, it's always hot in Arkansas in June, July, and August.  It's hard to want to spend money to solve a problem that's main consequences are one hundred or more years away.

The truth however is that according to most scientists, the effects of this global disease in which we humans have put upon our own planet are coming quicker than most people realize, even here in our own Natural State.  Arkansas alone is expected to face more numerous and more harsh droughts.  While those droughts may not totally decimate our great pine forests, which we rely on so much for our local economy, they are very likely to damage the overall yield of those forests.  Warmer water temperatures in Arkansas are set to rise as well, which means fewer fish in our rivers and lakes, since fish are unable to regulate their own body temperature as we humans are.  There are many more effects which are coming, but those two alone should worry all of us living in and around Bradley County.

I don't think it's much of a secret, but I've been an advocate for addressing global warming for years, although I haven't been too outspoken about it, at least through salineriverchronicle.com.  And let me be clear, I'm not telling anyone that I have all of the answers, nor am I advocating we shut down our economy, but I am asking everyone to keep an open mind, no matter what side of the political spectrum you reside.  After all, this planet is our only home.  We all live on its grounds and breath its air, so there are no sides when it comes to protecting the earth we were given.

Whether you already believe in climate change, are on the fence, or just outright positive that scientists are exaggerating the problem, I'm going to ask you to watch Chasing Coral.  If you have Netflix, it will be available to watch starting Friday, July 14, 2017.  It's one terrific film to which I give massive applause.  Give it a chance.  Watch the film, and see how you feel afterwards.  No harm in that, right?

You can see the official trailer for Chasing Coral below:

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