37 Analysis of Urgent Solutions for Urgent Times – Sarah Stewart
Author: Sarah Stewart, Pima Community College
The United Nations premiered a film on September 19th, 2020, called “Urgent Solutions for Urgent Times”. The film marked the 75th anniversary of the United Nations as well the fifth anniversary of Sustainable Development Goals. Thandie Newton presented the film on behalf of the UN. They presented countless of issues the globe faces today including climate crisis, poverty, inequality, justice, human rights, gender, and inequality. Every one of these issues a person on this planet has experienced once or multiple times. Presenting the background of the United Nations, they represent each country of the world and they come together to solve global issues. Their main goal for people of the world is to have peace, dignity, equality, and to live on a healthy plant. I’m going to be reviewing certain concerns they presented in the film that I discover to be crucial.
The film’s first problem it presented was climate crisis and the planet. It referenced a personal vlog of a women in Australia during the extreme outbreak of wildfires. Her neighborhood was on fire, in the background you can hear on the television a man broadcasting to evaluate the area. She scrambles to leave her home and shows the conditions she had to drive through. Her whole neighborhood was on fire, smokey, red, and ash falling. She was panicking. She arrived near a lake with a ton of people with their animals and whatever they could grab. December 2019 was above recorded of 117 degrees, the hottest temperature in Australia. Close to three billion animals were killed or displaced by the fire. “Urgent Solutions” Not only Australia had record beating temperatures, so did other countries. The planet is getting hotter. The land and plants are drying up, easier for fires to start. When wildfires begin, private property gets damaged, people and animals are killed or displaced. It is a domino effect we can help change. From 1880-2020 earth’s temperature has been rising since the industrial revolution. Billions of tons of CO2 gases releases into our atmosphere from oil, gas, and coal production. Manufactured greenhouse gases are penetrating our air with recorded beating emissions and it’s not slowing down. (United Nations )
Therefore, United Nations wants to create a solution for clean energy to save our planet, animals, and people. The film needs to take more of a drastic measure to fright people for climate change. People sometimes do not realize how serious climate change is or they don’t believe it. Providing images of dead or burnt animals or the effects of burnt land. People do not take issues seriously until it happens to themselves. The tone, music, vlog of the videos of disasters were interesting to display. The UN presented a great deal of logical thinking for climate change. It showed statistics, research, and cause and effect.
The next concern the film showed which I found powerful was injustice. Injustice can be defined as simply by the act of unfairness or lack of justice. The film surrounds this concept of George Floyd. What happened to George Floyd was extremely devastating, people have died in the arms of the police force. Police officers have died in pursuit of a suspect. With the issue they presented, I find they should have presented more people that had a lack of justice in the court system in my perspective. All the other issues they offered to show, the injustice they only given one person. The film should have unearthed people that were wrongfully convicted and spent time in prison, victims that do not receive the justice they deserve, or suspects that get an unfair sentence. There are substantial amounts of people that don’t receive the justice they deserve. This subject is widely bias. I do believe the UN has a strong belief in people receiving justice, but I desired more reports of other people. The emotional appeal to this topic is wrenching. Imagining your family member died in the arms of the police force, someone who is supposed to protect and serve. Then the globe took support to your deceased family member. His kids will remember the day. That situation should have never happened.
The last topic I am going to be reviewing is gender equality. It has only been a little over a hundred years since women have been given the right to vote. Civilization began 10-12 thousand years ago. That is a large gap for inequality also injustice. In the film they shown statistics of the ratio between men and women that are leaders, managers, decision makers in political, business, and government. It is stunning the ratio is and I ask myself why? Listening to this makes me confused. Why are there majority of men making decisions for women that do not even have the same reproductive system?
Every year 12 million girls are married before the age of 18 years old. “Urgent Solutions” That is mostly about religion and culture, not business. Sadly, to say these young girls do not have a future, they aren’t given one the day they were born because of their culture or religion. Newton said in the film, “It’s time to stop trying to change women, start changing the system, which prevent them from achieving their potential.” “Urgent Solutions” This statement is very honest and true, but with religion and culture getting in the way, these young girls won’t be able to. Malala Yousufzain was featured in the film, simply she wanted girls to have the right to a better education. The Taliban shot her because she spoke up. Fortunately, she survived her wounds. This is the best example of gender inequality because of the culture, religion, and government.
Reviewing this film was a well-rounded vision of what the United Nations wants for our globe. I find the film moving and hope one day we will get to this point in the future. The tone, graphics, the way the images were juxtaposed were great. I would have liked more examples of other’s people’s experiences with different issues but understand it would have been a longer film. The UN established credibility by displayed facts, past videos of events, and showed appearances from people that have gone through these events. I’m confident that one day the UN Sustainable Development Goals will all be accomplished.
Works Cited
United Nations . United Nations The Climate Crisis – A Race We Can Win. n.d. 18 October 2021.
Urgent Solutions for Urgent Times. Urgent Solutions. 2020.