At first, explaining climate change to a wolf appears as an absurd proposition. However, addressing our climate crisis will require more than a simple technological fix. Ultimately, we need a renewed and radically reconfigured relationship between humans and their natural environments. As essential as embracing science is to address the climate crisis, this documentary also suggests that successful communication with wolves or other non-human species will require abandoning scientific assumptions about the language and the animal mind and embracing alternative modes of communication and perception. Might the act of explaining climate change to a wolf also require reconsideration of the acts of communication and representation? That is, a fundamental reconsideration of how humans create and relate meaning to one another? And could such radical reconsiderations actually help us navigate our global climate crises by guiding us toward new and sustainable relationships with our natural environment?
Addressing our climate crisis requires a crucial paradigm shift, we need co-constituting, mutualistic, symbiotic, and entangled relationships with the non-human world that challenge and reorient our ingrained ideas. “Explaining Climate Change to a Wolf” offers a thought-provoking exploration of the intersection between climate change, communication, and coexistence. Through diverse perspectives and engaging conversations with scientists, philosophers, and environmentalists, the documentary challenges viewers to rethink their relationship with the natural world and consider new possibilities for understanding and collaboration across species boundaries.
