The Tenerife filmmaker David Baute presented his new documentary feature film this Thursday, Climate Exodus, a work that puts a face on climate refugees and reflects on the consequences of the current environmental crisis on the most fragile populations.
The film, awarded the Espiga Verde award at the 65th edition of the Valladolid International Film Week (Seminci) for the dissemination of environmental values, gathers the testimony and the story of three women who have lost everything.
In Turkana (Kenya), Lobuin struggles every day to find a last water supply with which to survive; in Ghoramara (India), Nazma lost his harvest and his lands due to rising sea levels; and on the island of San Martín, in the Caribbean Sea, Vanesa was forced to leave her home after a hurricane knocked down her house for the third time.
It is also about populations “that have not caused any damage to the environment”, that lead a “totally sustainable” life and that, nevertheless, “are paying all the consequences in the most cruel way”, said David Baute .
Forced to abandon their homes and their culture, Baute tells how these three women (like so many others), have been left at the mercy of helplessness, blurred on the streets of big cities and forced to beg to survive.
“It is very hard to see that this situation, to a large extent, has been generated by us. And I know that sometimes it is difficult to take responsibility for these issues, but it is increasingly necessary for us to become aware ”, he asserted.
The filmmaker has assured that, many times, these populations do not even understand what is happening. “Some still think that they are divine punishments for something they have done wrong,” he explains.
The feature film will be screened from tomorrow until Sunday at TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, at 7:00 p.m.
Produced by Tinglado Film, ‘Climatic Exodus’ has participated in festivals in Thessaloniki, AtlantiDoc in Uruguay, Durban (the most prestigious film festival in Africa), Mexico, Seoul, Ukraine and Australia.
Your tour will now continue through some municipalities of Tenerife, such as Puerto de la Cruz, Guía de Isora and Buenavista del Norte.
The film has the collaboration of the Ministry of Ecological Transition of the Government of the Canary Islands, the participation of Televisión Canaria and the support of the National Geographic Society.
During his speech, the Minister of Ecological Transition of the Canarian Executive, José Antonio Valbuena, recalled that, according to 2020 data, around fifty million people have been forced to migrate for climatic reasons.
Climate displacement is already the leading cause of migration in the world. However, this number is projected to rise to 300 million in 2050.
Along these lines, Valbuena has emphasized that the Canary Islands, as an island territory, may be one of the first regions to lose the fight against climate change.
“The Canary Islands have weaknesses due to their condition that the continental territory does not have, and we have to accelerate our steps in adaptation measures,” he pointed out.
In this sense, he recalled that the Canary Islands are a gateway to Europe, so that, “without a doubt”, the increase in climate refugees “is going to imply migratory pressure for a territory like ours”.
