‘Beautiful Islands’ Explores Climate-Change Impact

Venice, Italy, has been affected by the rising sea level caused by global warming.

It’s easy to forget in the bustle of New York City that the place we call home is actually an island. So the documentary Beautiful Islands, which gives a glimpse of daily life on three islands in danger of being lost to rising sea levels due to global warming, was especially moving for us. Japanese filmmaker Kana Tomoko takes a look at three very different, beautiful places: Venice, Italy; Shishmaref, Alaska, and Tuvalu in the South Pacific. Tomoko decided not to include narration or music in the film, allowing these endangered locations to speak for themselves.

The first stop is Tuvalu, a chain of nine coral islands that are home to about 10,000 people and a rich Polynesian culture with deeply rooted environmental values. Floods in February and March threaten the islands, which some believe may be the first lost to global warming. Doom seems so inevitable that inhabitants participate in a yearly lottery to relocate to New Zealand.

The journey continues to Venice, Italy, the “City of Water.” Interviews with a Murano glassmaker, the proprietor of Hotel Danieli and the son of a gondolier show the pride Venetians have in their city. Over the past 100 years, the city has not only sunk 5.1 inches, but the sea level has risen 3.9 inches. “Acqua Alta” (high water) has been flooding the city’s streets, businesses and homes with increasing frequency, leaving people to scramble for higher ground and damaging this historic city.

The film then explores Shishmaref, located near the Bering Strait, with a population of about 600 people, who are mostly descendants of the Iñupiat natives who first settled there about 4,000 years ago. Here, we found heartbreaking stories, such as that of a family whose son slipped through the thinned ice and died, and haunting images, such as a house teetering on the side of cliff. Permafrost is melting because of climate change and the island is experiencing severe erosion. In 2002, the residents decided to move the community to mainland Alaska, but haven’t secured funding to leave. Students in the town have been raising relocation funds, with the S.O.S. Project (Save Our Shishmaref).

Beautiful Islands is currently playing in Los Angeles at Laemmle’s Music Hall 3 through July 29, and is expected to open in other cities some time this year. There’s also a flood camera iPhone app that shows what flooding can do to a treasured place of your own. What do you think we can do to save endangered islands?