I Have Seen the Earth Change, Mongolia

One feels that a lot of the discussion surrounding climate change is concerned with graphs, maths and statistics, which leaves the ordinary person wondering and doubtful.

For the next two weeks I will be showing a couple of films made by Jérôme-Cécil Auffret showing how the changes are affecting people in various parts of the world.

The two films are part of a longer series of ten films looking at climate change in different parts of the world.

Tonight’s film is set in Mongolia amongst the nomads on the steppes, and follows the story of 70-year old Marush Narankhuu, a matriarch with 14 children and 40 grandchildren.

Some of the them are settled in the cities now, owing to the difficulties of maintaining their traditional way of life, and the ones who remain on the steppes are looking at a spiralling situation whereby as the weather gets worse it forces them to do things which degrade the environment even more, which again makes the weather worse.

The film is concerned with whether they can adjust sufficiently, and quickly enough, to the changing situation so that they can maintain their age-old life style.

Although we do see how devastating the effects of global warming has been, the film is not one of despair, but of hope and trust in the ability to adapt.