The 11th Hour
At the core of the Leonardo DiCaprio-produced doc The 11th Hour is the principle that global warming/climate change, damage to the air and oceans, and other ecological problems are not the problems but rather the symptoms of a larger cultural problem. Punctuated by greed, selfishness, and ignorance, we humans have a tendency to ignore and reject the messages our planet sends. We tend to squabble about details or hide behind denial when real change and real answers are required.
The 11th Hour, directed by Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners, is akin to all documentaries regarding environmental issues in that it faces the innate uphill climb of a sceptical society. The comparisons to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth are obvious, but there are differences in the overall message of this film. For starters, The 11th Hour is much more compelling, concise, and urgent in contrast to Gore’s picture.
The collection of experts and scientists amassed for The 11th Hour is deeply impressive. Professor Stephen Hawking, David Suzuki, Interface Inc. chairman Ray Anderson, Mikhail Gorbachev, Thom Hartmann, Wangari Maathai, William McDonough, and others all factor heavily in the conclusions reached in the documentary. It is awe-inspiring to listen to Hawking describe the planet he loves so much and how its decline plays out.
The presentation is clear and the experts make sense without pandering to the audience. There is no condescension and no guilt-mongering here, just cold and difficult facts. The planet will not just up and die; we won’t kill it. Throughout the course of life on earth, over 99% of all species have become extinct. Amazingly, life goes on and more life is created. While human beings are at the top of the food chain for now, we may not stay there if we continue to render our environment unliveable. But as a bold voice expresses towards the end of the film, the lakes, trees, rivers, and land on Earth will replenish without us.
The 11th Hour succeeds because it presents us with the idea of global warming as a symptom. This is not a movie about global warming; it is a movie about the human condition and how our very existence, as it is now, leads to these various symptoms. Our consumption, our consumerism, and other aspects of our humanity are seemingly incompatible with our environment. We cannot simply dump our waste into the air, water, or ground and not expect some sort of reaction from our living planet. It’s just not logical.
The film presses the notion that the Industrial Revolution offered us the idea of consumption on a massive scale and told lies about the endlessness of natural resources. We know now that we don’t have an infinite amount of natural resources and we know now that we must adapt to the planet rather than forcing the planet to adapt to us. While Al Gore’s Truth makes much out of rising graphs and Power Point, The 11th Hour goes a step further and presents these ideas in tangible form.
It would be easy to discard The 11th Hour as a blathering collection of talking heads, especially if one considers the message redundant. But the philosophy here is anything but redundant. It is unpopular, bold, and audacious. The risk is our very extinction, not the planet’s, and the notion of changing our ways to adapt to a tide that threatens to bowl us over can be a tough pill to take. It is the truth, however, and we must acknowledge it as a species and act.
Trailer:
