Finite: The Climate Of Change (2022)

We have reviewed a few climate documentaries over the years here at OC Movies, TV & Streaming. The fact that we have, the fact that they are still being made, still have to be made, saddens us to the core.

The latest comes from director Rich Felgate who shows us what’s going on around the world in the current state of fighting those with money and power burning the rest of us, and themselves, alive.

If you think that’s an overstatement (you probably won’t want to watch this documentary in that case, though you should) then take the words from the opening credits of the documentary: “World leaders first met to discuss climate change in 1995, since then CO2 emissions have risen since 60%…with coal the largest culprit”.

We kick things off in Pont Valley, County Durham, UK. Here they have been fighting plans for an open cast coal mine for the last 30 years. The Banks Group, the people who want to create the mine and remove the dirty fuel from the ground, are your typical large faceless corporate company.

The residents at Pont Valley speak to the Coal Action Network which sees some Germans come over to assist in the fight against the mine. Their first plan is to stop the creation of an access road onto the site, something Banks need to do if they are to meet their 4th June deadline for removing coal from the ground as per the licence they have been granted.

The residents use squatters rights which means Banks Group must take them to court in order to remove them from the site. This is all aimed at delaying the start of the mine. At the same time, the residents are doing everything they can to prove that there are Great Crested Newt’s on the site, a protected species which will stop the mine in its tracks.

However, despite finding them, nothing happens. A call to the local police to report a wildlife crime falls on deaf ears as the police don’t know who their wildlife officer is and the police onsite, now evicting the residents, don’t want to know and won’t listen.

Despite Banks Group saying they didn’t find any evidence of Great Crested Newts, it is interesting that the first place they dig is where the residents found them…Anyway, despite this, Banks Group continue but the residents believe they miss the 4th June deadline and then find out it means nothing, they begin mining.

Over in Germany meanwhile, the Hambach Forest is being ripped down, hundreds of acres a time, millions upon millions of ancient trees felled, in order to allow for an open cast coal mine that’s the size of Cologne, where one million people live.

Protestors have been doing everything they can, legally and otherwise, to stop the tree felling but getting nowhere, well, unless you count a lot of pepper spray to the face by the police. Then, tragedy, a young, freelance journalist falls from a tree, succumbing to his injuries. You would have thought this would stop things, you would have thought the death of a human being would be cause for concern. But nothing stops, after a very brief pause, everyone is back at it.

There is some good news come the end of the documentary; the German government seems to have a slight change of heart and vows to protect the Hambach Forest, at least, what’s left of it now. In the UK, an application to extend the open cast mine is refused and the mine closes, the land now being restored.

What we see from Finite: The Climate Of Change is what we have seen in other documentaries on this subject, that is, governments around the world will do what they can when money is involved and, generally, you, the so-called ‘little man’, have zero powers against a giant corporation with money to throw at lawyers, and MP’s, to get what they want.

You can’t say nothing has changed since 1995 because it has, I’d argue we’re all certainly more aware of what’s going on, or so I thought, until one German proved me wrong when he’s asked if he’s worried about climate change and he answers, “if it gets warm, I take my jacket off, if it gets cold, I put it on…what are we afraid of?”…people like you my friend, people like you.