For one of my film festival selections, I chose the documentary “The 11th hour”. Most of the production was done by the Oscar winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who is a firm environmentalist. The documentary emphasizes the limited time all humans have on Earth to reverse the damages of climate change. The film also includes the opinions of intelligent scientist, for example from theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. This documentary goes into detail about all the negative impacts made by humans, on individual ecosystems; and to the whole biosphere. And likewise, discusses possible solutions to these issues.
The main topics this film goes into are Global warming, mass species extinction, deforestation,and depletion of the oceans’ habitats. What I really like about this documentary is that is provide real life footage of all these impacts. For example, there is footage of a flood wiping out a town and destroying houses. This scene is powerful because it makes the viewers realize that those are not special effects made by some big production company. The reality of the situation really hits when you see peoples homes and livelihood been completely destroyed while they fend for survival.
Overall, I believe this documentary film did an excellent job of bringing awareness to the whole issue of climate change, deforestation and everything else. The viewers are left with a great take home message. After watching, I thought really hard about all my contributions to these environmental issues. This film motivated me to evaluate my carbon footprint, and do whatever I can to lower it. Also, I found the value in everyday things like tap water, as I try my best not to waste; and try to reuse, reduce and recycle as much as possible.
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 