Is it too late to stopclimate change? Almost.

Polar ice caps are melting. The Amazon is being clear cut. Wildlifefrom orangutans to migrating birds are losing their habitat and suffering under the ability to evolve quickly enough to tolerate the hothouse their world has become.

“By the end of this century we could trigger runaway climate change that is … beyond our control,” says Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist and the former Secretary of Energy for the Obama Administration, in the new documentary “Time to Choose.”

Why are we in this predicament? And really, are there any choices we can make at this point to save the planet?

The chief causes of this calamity, narrates actor Oscar Isaac in the film, have to do with what we use for energy, where we live and what we eat:

Burning coal, oil and natural gas emitcarbon dioxide and other pollutants, turningthe atmosphere into a greenhouse that is causing temperatures on Earth to heat up beyond what Naturecan tolerate.
Urban sprawl forces millions of people to live far away from their jobs and the infrastructure they need to go about daily lifecreating more demand for fossil fuels.
Deforestation, primarily to produce soybeans to feed to livestock, is destroying the forests that help moderate climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing sustaining oxygen back into the air.
Industrial agriculture demands land and petrochemical-based fertilizers and insecticides to produce food for the animals we raise on the land we’ve deforested. Talk about a vicious cycle.

Here’s just one of the many startling statistics the film cites to make its point, delivered by sustainable food guru Michael Pollan: “It takes up to ten times more land to feed ourselves with meat than with vegetables.”

In just one state, Mato Grosso, Brazil, over 20,000 square miles have been deforested just to grow soybeans for animal feed. In fact, soybeans are the most prominent driver of deforestation in South America, while 30 percent of Earth’s land is being used to produce livestock which by the way, belch methane gas, another potent contributor to climate change.

That loss of forests has shrunk drinking water supplies in Brazil. Forests both create rain and protect groundwater, so when forests are cut down, precipitation drops drastically and drinkingwater supplies literally evaporate. Footage in “Time to Choose” shows an expanse of cracked land as arid as a desert. The caption on the screen reveals that this wasteland is a reservoir.

Meanwhile, as the southern hemisphere’s forests are chopped downand the planet heats up, frozen water thousands of miles away in the northern hemisphere is equally affected. Greenland’s ice shield is contracting under Earth’s hotter temperatures, raising sea levels as the region’s enormous glaciers literally melt into the oceans surrounding them.

Climate scientist Dr. James Hansen predicts sea levels will rise 23 feet, threatening more than 600 million people living in San Francisco, Istanbul, Mumbai, London, Singapore, Amsterdam, Bangladesh, Miami and many other coastal communities. Meanwhile, extreme temperature shifts are triggering devastating cyclones and hurricanes. Remember SuperstormSandy? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

After persuasively presenting the evidencethatclimate change is happening and why, the film doesn’t make nearly as compelling a case for the choices we can maketo solve the problems. It highlights the need to transition to electric cars and to build more self-contained communities so that people don’t need to drive to jobs or social services, but that’s hardly enough to make a dent in the problem. And besides, how many of us can buy a Tesla?

Michael Pollan reminds viewers that they’ll be healthier as well as shrink their carbon footprint if they eat more plants and less meat. But he doesn’t suggest the best choices to make to get started. The Sierra Club’s Michael Brune, another prominent expertin this film, says that renewable technologies offer a “huge opportunity,” but how is the viewer supposed to take advantage of it?

The “Time to Choose” website could be more helpful by providing specific suggestions to enablethe public take the next step. Its “Paths to Change” section is too vague to get people to actually choose a wind-based provider for their local utility, for example, while the “Resources” section contains promotional material for the film, rather than useful resources to help viewers choose among the generic options provided.

These flaws can be easily fixed by adding links to some of the excellent “how to” information organizations, like Brune’s own Sierra Club offers or how to take a stand in your own community with online petitions, like Care2′s.

Related:
10 Simple Things You Can Do to Save Money & Energy
5 Ways to Make Your Car More Eco-Friendly
Not a Vegetarian Yet? 13 Ways to Get Started

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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New Documentary Gives the Facts About Climate Change but Few Solutions