 |
|
|
|
 
While policymakers and scientists argue about how much - or how little - to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next decades, there are others who wonder if they have a future at all. For seven million people living on thousands of islands scattered across the Pacific, global warming is not something which looms in the distant future: it's a threat whose very real effects have already begun. Through personal stories of Pacific Islanders - fisherman, elders, scientists and farmers - RISING WATERS puts a human face on the international climate change debate.
Combining stunning photography of the tropical Pacific Islands with the latest scientific evidence, RISING WATERS explores some of the most pristine and beautiful places in the world: the sunken island of Bikeman, a former landmark to guide fisherman home now totally submerged at high tide; Kirabati, one of the smallest and most isolated nations in the world; the historic Marshall Islands, used as atomic testing grounds after World War II; the Samoas and Micronesia. The men, women and children who live in these island paradises give us firsthand accounts of unusual tides, dying coral reefs and houses washed away by storm and sea.
The United States, the largest emitter of greenhouse gasses, bears a special responsibility in the debate yet has failed to formulate a consistent government policy on the reduction of emissions. Some U.S. experts have resisted taking action because they fear a global economic slowdown if stringent measures are taken. Meanwhile, in the Pacific Islands - some of which are American protectorates - all eyes turn toward the U.S. for relief from the rising waters. While the policy makers and scientists argue about how much to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next 20 years, many Pacific Islanders are wondering whether they will even have a future.
RISING WATERS brings home the point the islanders are trying to make to us all. The film follows Penehuro Lefale, a Pacific Islander climatologist, to New York City, where he attends a United Nations conference on climate change. He joins Dr. Vivian Gornitz, sea level scientist for the island of Manhattan at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, on a very unusual tour of Manhattan Island - a tour of the areas potentially threatened by sea level rise, the lowest of which is Wall Street. She reminds her audience of a devastating 1991 Nor'Easter, which swamped the Manhattan subway system and flooded the PATH trains to New Jersey, virtually shutting the city down. The effects of global warming now seem devastatingly close.
RISING WATERS explores what it means to live under a cloud of scientific uncertainty, examining both human experience and expert scientific evidence. The problems facing the islanders serve as an urgent warning to the rest of the world.
|
|
|
