Keeping the climate change conversation going with The Here Now Project

ProQuest recently interviewed award-winning filmmaker Greg Jacobs about his newest documentary, The Here Now Project, which was co-directed with Jon Siskel and is now available in Academic Video Online from ProQuest, part of Clarivate. The documentary, part of the popular collection from Film Platform, educates viewers about climate change and offers a refreshing sense of hope for the future.

Jacobs notes, ”No matter what field you go into, climate change will still be happening, and will still affect you; second, know that despite all appearances, the situation is not hopeless, and you are not helpless—there are countless things, large and small, that you can do to make a difference, starting with the simple act of just talking about it; and third, the courage such acts demand—and the agency they create—can lead you to a place of hard-earned, genuine hope.”

According to Jacobs, The Here Now Project is an “engaging way to start the climate conversation” on campus or in the classroom.

About The Here Now Project

The Here Now Project chronicles a year in the life of climate change through the eyes—and cameras—of ordinary people around the world. Jacobs describes it as “the story of the rest of our lives” because the kind of climate-accelerated extremes it depicts will continue to affect more and more people in the coming years. The film also captures something bigger than these individual events: its global simultaneity—the fact that the consequences of a warming planet are happening everywhere, to all of us, all the time.

A Unique and Adaptable Format

One of the implicit themes of The Here Now Project is that fighting climate change is not about “saving the planet.” Rather, it’s about preserving the human habitability of the planet. It’s visual approach—all raw, self-shot video—supports the theme by capturing the impact climate change already has on ordinary people worldwide. The film can be watched all at once or in shorter sequences. Because it is not focused on either the politics of climate change or the specifics of one issue, it can reach a wide range of students while remaining broadly adaptable for classrooms.

Beyond Earth Science and Environmental Studies

The Here Now Project can be incorporated into a wide variety of courses. Environmental studies and earth sciences are obvious choices, but as climate change impacts human lives in more immediate and far-reaching ways, other disciplines are adding climate change to their syllabi:

• • Business/Finance/Economics/Innovation: What are the costs and benefits of sustainability? How do we anticipate, account for, and pay for the impacts of climate change? How do we make our financial systems more resistant to climate impacts (supply chains, insurance, etc.)? How can climate tech help address the challenges shown in the film?
  • Psychology/Social Work/Medicine: How do we deal with the effects of climate change and climate-accelerated disasters on mental health? On human health more broadly?
  • Architecture/Urban Planning: How do we build more resilient homes, cities, and infrastructure?
  • Political Science/Government/International Studies: How do we address the fiscal burden of climate change? How do governments and politicians address the impacts of climate change (taxes, migration, infrastructure) at a time of deep division? What policies and institutions are best suited to tackle a global issue that can have such devastating local impacts?

A Film That Builds Urgency About Climate Change

Given that even among young people, there’s a wide variety of beliefs about climate change, and a broad spectrum of concern, Jacobs hopes that after watching The Here Now Project, students and faculty will find a newfound or renewed sense of the urgency of the issue, an awareness of the courage it will take to address it, and an understanding that, whether we like it or not, we’re all in this fight together.

The Here Now Project is available in Academic Video Online for academic librarians, faculty and students to immerse themselves in and spark discussion in classrooms, libraries and throughout campus.

Not an Academic Video Online subscriber yet? Request a trial.