This year has not been encouraging for anyone worried about climate change. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report in October that predicts catastrophic flooding, droughts, and heat waves if we continue using fossil fuels at current rates. Last month’s US National Climate Assessment reaches many of the same conclusions. Yet President Trump rejected those findings from his own administration. And global emissions are continuing to rise, with a new study projecting a record 37.1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent for 2018.
National Geographic’s new documentary, From Paris to Pittsburgh, tackles this grim moment with a surprising amount of optimism. Directors Sidney Beaumont and Michael Bonfiglio are not Pollyannas: The film highlights some of the consequences of climate change that we are already dealing with and contains alarming predictions about what will happen if temperatures continue to rise. But it also showcases efforts at local, city, and state levels to promote renewable energy and reduce waste. Even if the US federal government refuses to act, the film argues, there is still much that people can do to fight warming.
Good for the planet, good for jobs
Unlike climate documentaries such as An Inconvenient Truth (2006) or Chasing Coral (2017), From Paris to Pittsburgh spends very little time presenting the scientific case for anthropogenic climate change. Instead, the filmmakers work to warn viewers about how a warming planet will affect their day-to-day lives and showcase what they can do to combat it.
The film takes its title from a comment by President Trump during a 2017 speech announcing that the US would withdraw from the Paris climate accord. Trump declared that he had been “elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.”
The remarks came as a surprise to Pittsburgh’s mayor, Bill Peduto, a Democrat who is leading his city on an ambitious charge toward 100% renewable energy at the municipal level and a 50% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030. In his interview for the film, Peduto soundly rejects the idea that the best way to protect US jobs is to double down on fossil fuels. “There are now more jobs in renewable energy in the state of Pennsylvania than in coal, natural gas, and oil combined,” he says.
The economic viability of renewable energy is a recurring theme in the film, and it’s one that Bonfiglio and Beaumont drive home with personal stories and compelling data. From Paris to Pittsburgh spends a good chunk of time in Iowa, a state that gets 37% of its electricity from renewable sources. Farmers in rural electricity cooperatives have found that solar panels are a cost-effective source of power. Wind farms are booming in the state as well, and some Iowa community colleges are offering degree programs in wind turbine construction and maintenance. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, a conservative Republican, tells the filmmakers that wind energy has been a major boon for jobs in his home state.
Grassley’s short interview is a reminder that it’s almost impossible to talk about climate change in the US without also talking about politics. Beaumont and Bonfiglio take a bipartisan approach, but not a neutral one. The film is sharply critical of the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the Paris agreement as well as its efforts to roll back environmental regulations. The politicians interviewed for the film support renewable energy, and not all of them are Democrats. Representative Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), for example, argues that we can both grow the economy and move to renewable energy. Fellow Florida Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen says the beachfront communities where her constituents live are already seeing the consequences of climate change in their pocketbooks. Notably, neither Curbelo nor Ros-Lehtinen will return to Congress in January; Curbelo was defeated in the midterm election last month, and Ros-Lehtinen did not run for reelection. Both will be replaced by Democrats who campaigned at least in part on climate change.
Worries about the future
The documentary argues that Florida voters have good reason to worry. Cities in Florida face flooding with increasing regularity; some projections suggest that $135 billion of beachfront real estate could become chronically flooded within 15 years. Even more worrisome is the future of southern Florida’s supply of fresh water. We follow Chris Castro, Orlando’s director of sustainability, as he visits freshwater wells in the Florida Everglades. As warming temperatures lead to rising sea levels, salt water will encroach on southern Florida’s water supply—meaning that residents of cities such as Miami and Fort Lauderdale may have to look for a new home. Castro’s team is already preparing for the arrival of climate migrants from Florida’s southernmost cities.
Florida is far from the only state seeing the effects of climate change. The film examines wildfires in California and the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Iowa has seen a 40% increase in heavy precipitation over the past century. The mayor of Clarksville, Iowa, tells viewers that his town has experienced “two 500-year floods within eight years,” affecting the food grown on local farms. The filmmakers take care to make their segments on the victims of floods and hurricanes personal and nonexploitative. But the list of potential consequences from continued warming is grim.
In light of those stakes, it’s easy to walk away from the film feeling despair about the future. But From Paris to Pittsburgh offers hope as well by showcasing policymakers, activists, and businesses taking steps to reduce fossil-fuel dependence. By the end, the film has made a strong case for renewable energy not only as a necessity for the future well-being of the planet but also as a source of economic development and jobs. At this week’s UN climate talks in Poland, Trump administration representative Wells Griffith argued that “no country should have to sacrifice their economic prosperity or energy security in pursuit of environmental sustainability.” The documentary may not sway committed climate deniers, but it does serve as a compelling call to action and a persuasive rebuttal to the idea that saving the environment means sacrificing the economy.
From Paris to Pittsburgh premieres on the National Geographic Channel at 9:00pm EST on 12 December.
