Almera A. Limpao II B.S.

Microbiology (B6)
Eddie Pasetes Mondejar, PhD BIO104 (General Ecology)

REACTION PAPER ON THE DOCUMENTARY:

SIX DEGREES COULD CHANGE THE WORLD

Stories help us share facts, knowledge and experiences about the causality of a changing world.
They are more than just educational tools as they hold the immense ability to alter what we do and do not
see, consequently helping define us and shaping our future decisions. According to the narratives of
climate activists, communities are mostly neither empowered nor resilient, nor do they have a sense of
urgency over the future. When we constantly see stories about environmental crisis such as the rising of
sea levels, the extinction of many species, and extreme weather events becoming more frequent, we go
about an offhanded notion that the Earth could always cope and adapt and the human species as a whole
would continue to survive and thrive. This is why the alarming prophecy of our future as shown in the
documentary Six Degrees Could Change the World is particularly unique as it was made at a time where
news about climate change were considered to be leftists or extremists. In the face of climate denial, the
documentary takes its viewers on a degree-by-degree journey to explore what each rising—and critical—
degree could mean for the future of Earth and its inhabitants.

The documentary begins with several footages portraying past catastrophes such as the melting of
Greenland’s ice sheet, the depletion of resources in the Himalayans and the Amazon, and even the
heatwave that claimed thousands of lives across Europe. Along the way, it has presented a lot of
interesting yet simple information and deductions that appeal to those who may know nothing about
climate change. In fact, the filmmakers of the documentary have smartly organized the sequences of
events in such a way that it was easy for me, a viewer, to follow and process what is real and what is a
fraud. Furthermore, there was also one thing that made the documentary engaging for me, and that was
the comparison between naturally caused environmental changes and the changes that were human
induced – the latter far outweighing the former. Because it is already a given fact that mankind must be
held responsible for the planet’s increasing temperature, it was right for the documentary to include
statements about the need for change regarding human activities and lifestyles that are detrimental to the
ecosystem. I agree that changes in materialism and energy consumption can greatly alleviate the climate
change problem and so, it is important for us to regulate fossil fuels and other sources of energy in order
to encourage a greener economy, global wise. The documentary does not only challenge the viewer with
the responsibility of stopping global warming, but also blames us for the irreversible damages that have
already occurred to the Earth's ecosystem.
 Aside from footages of events that have already happened, the documentary also presented
computer generated images of heat waves, drought, bush fires, rising ocean levels and the ocean
becoming more acidic, climate refugees, changing weather patterns, increased hurricane intensity and
frequency, and other terrifying predictions. One may argue that these images were too far-fetched and
attribute it to fearmongering, but it is undeniable that these predictions are not far from the truth.
According to a 2018 report by the UN Refugee Agency, extreme weather events such as severe drought in
Afghanistan, Tropical Cyclone Gita in Samoa, and flooding in the Philippines led to an increase of
disaster displacement cases that require immediate humanitarian actions. Most disaster displacements
were linked to natural hazards and the impacts of climate change has reached the internal sectors of the
world. Competition over depleted natural resources have also sparked situations of conflict or violence
within a community. With that said, although there is no clear distinction on the exact tipping point where
human actions can no longer stop global warming, it is clear to me that we are nearing that point.
According to the documentary, many species from Ancient Earth were completely wiped out when the
planet’s average temperature cooled down by six degrees, and so, an increase in six degrees may also
have a similar reaction. This is being said on the basis that a mere few degrees can already result to
disappearance of important lands, resource scarcity, increase of wastelands, and in the end, doomsday.
For me, the frightening prophecies were important in order to incite the people to alter their personal
behaviors and actually set out with a goal of changing public policy regarding the environment. The
documentary was almost like a science fiction movie however, it has provided legitimate and strong
environmental statements about where humanity and the Earth at large might be headed if we don't
address some of today's problems.

Over all, Six Degrees Could Change the World was a good documentary as it was able to present
clear and concise data analysis and information capable of initiating discourse on the subject of climate
change. As a biologist, I watched the documentary with a background knowledge about the impacts of
global warming yet, it was still able to give out new and more thorough information that can be easily
understood by the general public. Whether people agreed with it or denounced it for being extremist, the
documentary was successful in pushing environmental concerns into the mainstream. By presenting a
narrative of climate change victims including animals and the ecosystem, the film has smoothly
introduced the concept of conservation of everyday energy use and has provided a few strategies and
support for using energy efficiently. Because at the end of the day, the impacts presented were indeed
terrifying but it was already made clear that it is not unavoidable.