When you think of a climate-change documentary, chances are your mind instantly goes to starving polar bears on shrinking ice-caps, or a sea of smoke stacks emitting dirty green house gases. While those films are effective in their own ways, This Changes Everything, is anything BUT your stereotypical climate change documentary.

What is different about this film is that it approaches the issue of climate change from a very realistic point of view. It paints the picture of environmental degradation as something that all of humanity is a part of, and even more so, something that we all need to be part of the solution together.

Through the different stories of indigenous tribes, protesting villages in India, and European city rallies, you can see that people are taking a collective stand and refusing the continual destruction of our planet. The uprising of citizens is a common theme throughout the movie (and also the book which is was based on) as being one of the most effective catalysts for change.

This Changes Everything also depicts the climate change story from an economic perspective. Naiomi Klein, the narrator of the movie, details how our resource-intensive industries and our consumerism-focused societies are the drivers that ultimately damage our landscapes and atmospheres. This side of the story is not glamorous, as our actions as a first-world nation do not reflect the significant positive change we are capable of – and as we learn throughout the film, actually hinder it.

The message of this thought-provoking movie is very clear. We must act now, together and united, or it will be too late. As the movie title alludes, this film, truly changes everything.

[star v=4]