Six years ago, I gave a public lecture at Churchill College Cambridge, called This Civilisation is Finished. Many students were in the audience. It’s far and away the most viral climate talk I’ve ever given. What explains its success? I’m quite certain that the most significant factor is that I began the talk with the following words: “Your leaders have failed you. Your governments have failed you. Your parents surely love you, but they and their generation have failed you. Your teachers, despite the best of intentions, have failed you… and I too have failed you.”

As the climate crisis has escalated over the last decade, there has been a conspicuous absence of films that mirror the predicament we are faced with. Climate philosopher and activist Rupert Read responds to the recently released 'The End We Start From', a mainstream drama that attempts to portray the reality of what may come our way when the floodwaters break. And most of all, what it feels like to live among the ruins of a civilisation we take for granted.

In 2023 everything changed. It has been confirmed as the hottest year on record, the consequences of which have been felt worldwide for perhaps the first time.

The scene begins with a heavily pregnant woman (Jodie Comer, Killing Eve) readying herself for a bath. But the scene is filmed from a very different angle: from within the tub. As it fills up, the viewer’s eye gets flooded out by the rising waters. This unsettling experience foreshadows what is very shortly to come: as her waters break, floodwaters burst into her house, signalling the chaos of an unprecedented climate disaster.