'Ice on Fire': The Leonardo DiCaprio-produced documentary is about giving 'hope' in the growing fight against climate change
The latest documentary that targets the world of climate change and how to try and save the planet, HBO's Ice on Fire, is different in a small way from all the others. Aside from the fact that it is produced and narrated by award-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio, the documentary focuses on the ways that scientists and experts around the world are trying to find sustainable solutions to help with curbing the problem.
We have written pieces before about how human-induced climate change is responsible for the extinction of multiple species of flora and fauna. 'Ice on Fire' is different that way because it talks about all the problems with the climate situation currently but also tries to spread one important message: there is hope.
There have been countless documentaries talking about how much the human race has ruined/is ruining our planet but few of them talk about what some of the world's population is trying desperately to do to curb the problem. HBO's latest is one such show that shines the much-deserved spotlight on the people who are actively trying to make a change by finding environmentally beneficial methods of reducing the effects of climate change. It veers away from the 'doomsday mentality' and that is certainly a cheerful outlook.
The documentary has numerous never-before-seen solutions that have been designed to slow down the massively escalating crisis. Directed by Leila Conners, the documentary had its world premiere at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival as the Official Selection for May 22. The project is Conners' collaboration with DiCaprio eleven years after they worked on "The 11th Hour" together.
Some of the research that is mentioned in Ice on Fire includes innovative technology that is aimed at reducing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. The actor said in a previously released statement: "My partners and I made Ice on Fire to give a voice to the scientists and researchers who work tirelessly every day on the front lines of climate change."
It continued: "We wanted to make a film that depicts the beauty of our planet while highlighting much-needed solutions across renewable energy and carbon sequestration. This film does more than show what is at stake if we continue on a course of inaction and complacency – it shows how, with the help of dedicated scientists, we can all fight back. I hope audiences will be inspired to take action to protect our beautiful planet."
Filmed across the world, the documentary gives an insight into the climate crisis from the perspectives of scientists, farmers, innovators, and other experts. It was made to emphasize the importance of an immediate approach to reversing the current situation through traditional renewable energy sources as well as some new ones such as tidal energy. Other "drawdown" measures that are discussed in the film focus on methods of sequestering carbon that includes direct air capture, sea farms, urban farms, biochar, marine snow, and bionic leaves.
The documentary explains that drawdown, which is the process of pulling carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and oceans and then sequestering it underground or into new materials, is the best way to try and lessen the effects of climate change. Ice on Fire revealed that even though the urgency is higher than ever before currently, there are still great opportunities for innovative solutions that give a realistic but hopeful perspective on a major global issue.
Ice on Fire debuts Tuesday, June 11 (8:00-9:35 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.