Alongside with our fancy eco-bag and our Flip MinoHD, the competitors received a copy of the Yann Arthus-Bertrand film HOME. The film brings breathtaking aerial images of the planet and information on how mankind is changing the face of Earth for thousands of years and will eventually culminate in the impoverishment of natural resources. Cases such as the use of water in big cities and the growing population demands for more and more food production resulting in deforestation for crop and cattle are highlighted during the film.

The reality of Brazil might not be much different from what is seen in HOME. We have big cities that are responsible for mass consumption of water and food, the majority (if not all) of the rivers that permeate the cities are polluted and, although there are serious and noteworthy efforts to reverse deforestation, it is still growing in many Brazilian states and food production is responsible for the deforestation of the Amazon as well as the Atlantic Forest. The latter has already less than 8% of its original area as of 2008 data.

In my own state, Bahia, eucalyptus has been damaging the forest diversity and impoverishing the soil.  Thousands of species died, and the forest will never get to its original form again. In addition, the populations living in affected areas suffer from a bad quality of life. Who benefits from all of this? A handful of companies that exploit natural resources to its maximum and take advantage on poor communities and less educated people in search of a job, even though the same job is harmful to their health and environment.

Anyway, HOME tries to convince people on how connected we are on this planet. It is just like a proper home, with bedrooms, rooms, kitchen etc. Sooner or later, if one of the dependencies is not in a good state, the inhabitants of the home will feel its effects. If there’s trash scattered all the way in the kitchen, the residents’ lives might be in danger. It is not the best of allusions, but it is quite straightforward and easy to get the idea.

But still, people might not get the idea of HOME. “Why?” You may ask. Because people have created a protection against responsibility discussions or they only feel influenced by the film in the very moment they watch it. Days later, people forget all of that stuff and information and become addicted to their ignorant lives once again. That’s why children might be included in the audience of this type of films: we need to educate people from the beginning.

Hence those who fight the climate changes need to evaluate their actions and think through on means to really influence people, rather than promoting superficial demonstrations and actions that won’t change people’s ideas over the environment effectively. On that subject, a friend of mine who participated in the recent TckTckTck demonstrations in Copenhagen on September 22nd has questioned if NGOs and internet’s campaigns towards reflecting on our lifestyle and changing it are really sufficient.

The beauty of HOME is not enough to touch people’s heart for the climate change cause. You may agree with me, even partially, that we have plenty of footage, images and data regarding the world’s life condition, the floods, droughts, hurricanes, earthquakes, pollution, water waste etc on the daily news reports. And yet, as our friend Federico Pistono informed in this great post, we only need 10 months to use the ecological services it takes 12 months for the Earth to regenerate.

Finally, I bring you a video I found on YouTube accidentally and that really deserves to be spread on the internet in the months prior to COP15. It is the speech of a little girl from Canada who lectured the representatives of world’s nations in the RIO92 Climate Conference, 17 years ago. I’d love to see this girl, now a woman, in the COP15 in Copenhagen; it would be a great surprise for the key players on climate change!

Update: I found more information on her profile in Wikipedia. Just follow this link, please.