At our May MOGO meeting, we watched the documentary 11th Hour, narrated by Leonardo di Caprio, which focuses on the degree to which people have had a negative impact on the earth and what we might do to find solutions that will create a healthy, sustainable, compassionate world. The film also featured numerous experts in their fields, from David Suzuki to Sylvia Earle to Lester Brown to Wangari Maathai (if you don’t know these names, go to the website’s Ideas & Experts page to read their bios & see film clips).
Although watching the film was expectedly disheartening, there were also some fascinating ideas and information shared, such as the fact that one tree can absorb up to 57,000 gallons of water — which comes in handy when you have a flash flood.
The film skims over some of the possible solutions to our environmental challenges, from completely rethinking building design to changing the ways we transport ourselves. It would have been nice if they’d spent more time on some of the details of these solutions; it was difficult to track these, and thus, left some of us feeling less hopeful at the end.
While a couple of MOGOers thought the movie spent too much time “cheerleading,” everyone still thought it was definitely a worthwhile view, and some people plan to buy copies to share with friends and family. Check it out, and see what you think.
~ Marsha
Filed under: films | Tagged: 11th Hour, citizen action, environmental protection, films, global warming
11th Hour does an admirable job tracing our environmental woes back to our individual habits; the “Nature’s Instructions” extra feature was especially interesting… there is some amazing technology built into nature
I didn’t see the extra features. I’m going to have to rent it again so that I can check that out. Thanks for the tip! Appreciate your comment