The Scale of Hope

The Scale of Hope

2022, Environment  -   10 Comments
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Ratings: 7.00/10 from 12 users.

We are living through a climate change crisis, and many parts of the world already feel its adverse effects. The future holds increased competition for scarce resources, which will undoubtedly displace and disenfranchise many. These issues can get extremely overwhelming, making most people feel helpless, small, and unsure of what to do. While many want to do something about it, there seems to be no hope of finding and implementing lasting solutions. Yet that is precisely what Patagonia's latest film, "The Scale of Hope", provides. It is an inspirational film that frames how one person can rise to the climate change challenge positively and proactively.

The film's subject is Molly Kawahata, a former climate advisor to the Obama White House. She is also a dedicated alpine climber who dreams of climbing higher and more challenging summits as she continues to hone her climbing skills. This desire to overcome seemingly impossible situations is mirrored in her lifelong passion for helping the environment and alleviating the effects of global climate change. As she works hard to prepare for a climbing expedition in the Alaska Range, Molly is also working on a hope-centered strategy and narrative in addressing climate change. And in a life-affirming twist, her mental health struggles allow her to find a way.

Molly lived with undiagnosed bipolar disorder for about a decade until she got the confirmation on her second day at the White House. It was never a source of shame, and after getting treatment, she fell madly in love with ice climbing. Discovering that she had an extreme-leaning personality indirectly helped her re-frame how she was personally addressing climate change.

While working at the White House under President Obama, Kawahata went on a mission to make climate messaging optimistic versus the decades of extremely bleak, apocalyptic and desperate warnings. People are more likely to respond when they see the health and benefits of reversing climate change vs their "impending doom", which is what much of the messaging has been about. She realized that while the climate crisis is urgent, humanity can solve it via a zero-carbon economy, and this message needs to spread to everyone.

We join Kawahata as she visits the Topaz Internment Camp in Utah. It is where, after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the US government interned Japanese Americans, including her grandparents. This poignant visit cements her long-held belief that for authentic positive climate action to take place, current policies and systems must change so that their effects can trickle down to the global population. Someone in the White House decided that rounding up Japanese Americans was policy and everyone down the line made it happen. The same can work for the environment.

For this to happen, people, regardless of color, race, political beliefs and religion, must register and vote for climate-conscious government officials. Kawahata is now spreading the word to younger people about the importance of climate policy and participating in politics and social discussions via social media, specifically Instagram and Tiktok.

Directed by: Josh "Bones" Murphy

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Jilan
Jilan
11 months ago

Spot on Razzie!

willam Allen
willam Allen
1 year ago

The Earth's climate has been changing constantly since the big bang. The "man made" climate argument is the largest scam ever pulled off on the public. Carbon dioxide is not "carbon". CO2 is necessary for life. It is a minor gas not major and no correlation between CO2 levels and climate change has ever been established.

Jackal
Jackal
1 year ago

Mental problems? Everybody had them to some extent, so we try to deal with them in our own way or with the help of professionals. I'm old. I've done my share of things that have contributed in a small way to climate change, and I can regret them now and try to rectify them in things that should mean I care. But it's too late. And I'm afraid that it's too late for my two grandchildren. One of them happens to like mountain hiking and drives out of his way to get to places that will allow him to do so. So, he's not carbon neutral, and I doubt he ever will be. I look around and see all those millennials who don't seem to give a s**t about what they are doing to our earth. They don't seem to understand that you are contributing to the CO2 in our atmosphere by driving your 4 by 4 a thousand miles just to have some "fun." Just as the author of this video who doesn't realize her contribution to climate change.

Andrew Blackadder
Andrew Blackadder
1 year ago

When I read that she worked for Obama I knew it was going to be nonsense.
She and other fools think they can control the climate of Planet Earth when they cant even control their own thoughts.
Planet Earth has always gone through climate changes, Northern Europe was once totally covered in Ice, the Sahara was a Lake, southern Arizona and the Mojave were all water, and at that time, no Cars, Planes, no Factories or even people around changed it to what we see today.. So stop with the climate change doomsday nonsense and watch Mother Earth do what Mother Earth has always done, like everything else... It changes, nothing remains the same.

Razzle Bathbone
Razzle Bathbone
1 year ago

For the government "Kawahata went on a mission to make climate messaging optimistic versus the decades of extremely bleak, apocalyptic and desperate warnings".... in spite of the FACT that even they were not only factual but minimized the real dangers!! We should STILL listen to her? Not me.

patricia
patricia
1 year ago

we all die. no one has ever gotten out alive. so what hope is there? hope is a drug.

Claudius Pereira
Claudius Pereira
1 year ago

There is no climate crisis . Its a money making racket !