The World is in Your Hand. Let’s Start with Care:
The discussing meeting of the movie, Home, was held successfully on December 9, 2009.
Policy and Law Center for Environmental Sustainability (PLES) held a movie-watching discussing meeting at the International Conference Hall of Wan-Tsai Building at 2:00 p.m. on December 9, 2009. The movie, Home, was filmed from an eyeshot of the Creator by the well-known photographer, Yann Arthus-Bertrand. PLES hoped that the consideration for the earth would be aroused after the showing of the movie.
The activity began after the director of PLES, Professor Jiunn-rong Yeh, delivered a welcome. He indicated the importance of signing new conventions to cope with the problems of climate change by quoting the 15th conference on the parties of UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held at present as proof. He mentioned that the showing of the movie had been expected to bring some new thoughts to people who had practiced or studied law. Professor Jiunn-rong Yeh was the host of the discussing meeting. Professor of College of Live Science of NTU, Ling-ling Lee, and the secretary director of Taiwan Environmental Protection Union, Zhuo-han Lee were the guests.
Professor Ling-ling Lee mentioned that we had faced lots of environmental problems, such as the drain on natural resources, the extinction of species, and extensive environmental disasters. However, even in the present conference held in Copenhogen, there were still some people not believing that global warming had become a problem. They thought that the phenomenon had been exaggerated by scientists. Professor Lee also asked participants for their reflections after watching the movie. She stated that the youth had played a crucial role in environmental issues, and UN conference had placed importance on the participation of young people. “People could influence the environment with slight behavior, such as habits of consumption and attitudes to living” she said.
“Being touched by the movie is not enough”, said the secretary director, Zhuo-han Lee. He mentioned that taking actions is the most important part of environmental protection. “Besides individual behavior, policies of the government are the keys of environmental protection and sustainability in one country” he said, “ As the saying goes, ‘Knowledge is power’, the one with knowledge should take heavier responsibility. Lawmakers and executors of policies have to insist on the goal of environmental protection.”
Professor Wen-Chen Chang participated in the activity as well. Continuing with the point of the secretary director, Lee, she revealed that the political figures in Taiwan had still lacked the concern for environmental issues. Take the district and urban areas election held recently as instance, there were no candidates taking environmental issues as their political view. “That was a worrisome phenomenon” Professor Chang said, “It is difficult to arouse the concern for the environment of the people in Taiwan without the government’s promotion.”
Professor Yeh also agreed on the opinion of the secretary director, Lee. He suggested the participants thinking the movie deeply by the special tempo and angles that the photographer had taken. In his perspective, the slow tempo of movie is a contrast to the industrial civilization. The movie intended to show the audiences the beauty and destruction on the earth with its slow pace. As what Professor Lee said, the pictures showed the beauty with sorrow. Professor Yeh mentioned that the movie had showed lots of stunning and worrisome pictures with the voice-over repeating the words: faster and faster, to warn us of the unprecedented disaster of the nature.
Some of participants addressed their reflections on the movie. One of them mentioned that he had thought of the myth, Pandora's Box, when he had seen the picture of the fire enkindled by oil. “Petroleum provides us the convenience and comfort in our lives; however, it also generates the insatiable need for resources” said the student. Another participant provided her perspective that taking actions is meaningful. “We should prepare ourselves for the key moment”, she said.
“It is so special that there are neither ending nor dialogues in the movie” Professor Yeh said,”It is probably because that the film maker hoped that the audiences would have their own dialogues after watching the movie.” In his perspective, the ending of the movie would be created by humankind on the earth. “There is no time to hesitate.” Professor Yeh continued, ”Humans should take the responsibility for our former behavior. We should be not only a person be touched, but also a person to act. The fate of the earth is determined by us. To make things better, we could show consideration for environmental issues as the first pace!”