ReThink Interview: Philippe Diaz — Poverty is Worse than Climate Change

On 11/18/09, I interviewed Philippe Diaz, the writer/director/cinematographer of the new documentary, THE END OF POVERTY?, at Cinema Libre Studio in Canoga Park, CA. The film traces modern poverty back to 1492 when Europe began an aggressive and brutal expansion into the southern hemisphere, taking the land of the indigenous people and transforming their diversified natural economies into monocultures designed to supply the countries of the north with cheap raw materials. Even after these countries were granted their independence, high-interest loans, debt, and unfair trade policies effectively kept them slaves.

In this clip, Diaz explains why poverty is a bigger threat than climate change.

For more ReThink Reviews and Interviews, go here http://rethinkreviews.net/

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[gibbsisawesome]

I have to debate this in school and this has been immensely helpful because I take the opposite view, personally. And it's hard to come up with an argument for something that you don't believe in.

[Scorceror]

Global warming is a fraud.

[jeffnogo]

Growth for the sake of growth is a terrible goal, and it is not at all sustainable. However, to be harsh, lots of things need to change about first world countries before we'll have the means to end most poverty. Otherwise, we'll quickly destroy our resources, but I guess we've been doing that for a while already. In the end, though, I still believe global warming is more important because it is not easily reversible.