Letter from William Polk

Dear Family, Friends, Colleagues and Fellow Members of the Endangered Species,

Distracted, as perhaps you also have been, I have finally got around to watching 

“Before the Flood,” narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio. and distributed by National Geographic. 

It came out in 2016 and is even more remarkable — and urgent.  Today., it has been followed

by such books as Bill Mckibben’s Falter:  Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? and

David Wallace-Wells’ The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming.  They all follow Al Gore’s 

lecture-film “An Inconvenient Truth,”  but DiCaprio reaches the modern, youthful audience in 

what may be the only possible way, with powerful images.

If you are young and want to live a reasonably long, safe and passably pleasant life, you 

must see “Before the Flood," ponder it and act upon what you see;

If you are a parent and want your children to have a chance in life, you must do the same;

Only if you are about my age and either have no younger relatives or don’t care about them

— or anyone else — can you safely ignore what this film remarkably portrays.

Seeing it is not a chore.  It is stunningly filmed and beautifully written and edited.  It lasts

only about an hour and a half.

And, it is available on YOU TUBE at no cost.  

Each of us can see it, free and on his own, But, it should be made available and shown in 

every high school and college throughout America and, indeed,  the rest of the world.  

Making it available would be a great act of foresight and intelligence.  Will not  some 

foundation make this possible?  The cost would be minimal and the effect might be — literally — 

salvation.

I was late in seeing it.  It may be too late for us all.  But “Before the Flood”  is truly a 

life-protecting experience.

I suggest you think of it as a life-boat on the increasingly stormy sea on which we are embarked.  

We are all on a  “Titanic.”  That is our Earth.  We have hit a catastrophe. We are rapidly sinking.  We

cannot wait to be rescued by someone else.  Just as there were no rescuers for that other Titanic, we 

are on our own. Will we do what they did, dancing and drinking the night away as the waters crept up?  

Apparently, we are doing pretty much the same.  Reassuring one another with speech after vapid speech, 

conference after wordy conference, and treaty after unenforced treaty.   But, l for one,  don’t want to fiddle 

or dance away my life as the waters rise.  I know I don’t have much more time left, maybe it is already too

late, but I do care about what i leave behind and particularly about those I leave behind.  

  So, if you, like I, care about others or even care about your own life, SEE IT!  You owe it to yourself, your 

family and us all.

谨致问候, C уважением,تحياتي وتقديري, Selâmlarla, Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Saludos cordiales,  Amitíes

Best regards, 

Bill