Time for change as the 11th Hour approaches

(Aug 9, 2007) The documentary starts off a half hour of rapid-fire information and sound bites from some of the world’s greenest and most advanced thinkers. They all comment on where humanity is at this present time in space. Humans may think they have conquered Earth but off “ancient pockets of sunlight” that we take out of the earth as coal and oil. It’s given us a massive mechanized civilization that is actually killing our race.

It’s when this is established that we hear anyone discussing “climate” or “greenhouse gas emissions.” And then in true cinematic style the pace quickens with news clips and archival images. It’s a flash of destruction, communities destroyed like New Orleans destroyed by the ferocity of nature’s response to us.

Images of near total destruction bring the point home that we have now entered an era where violent weather and climate change is no longer conjecture. Stephen Schneider, a climatologist from Stanford University reminds us it’s no longer about believing or not in climate change, as if it was a religion that you could choose. Climate change is a grim reality.

But Leonardo DiCaprio, and his fearless team of co-directors co-writers and co-producers Nadia Conners and Leila Conners Petersen didn’t want to just make another movie about climate change. They take apart the problem and go above and beyond the empirical evidence to lay bare all the issues equally indicative of a biosphere in decline. Fifty-two experts talk about the rise in cancer and chronic degeneration, the state of the oceans, the quality or lack of it in our food, the loss of topsoil, forests, rainforests and the subsequent desertification.

Before we can become completely paralyzed by the enormity of the problem, solutions are introduced. It’s evident that most people want to do the correct thing and are willing supporters of solar, clean power, hybrid travel. But as the film asks, why don’t we have them?

And so they venture into the dangerous waters of politics and economics to discuss how both have turned our biosphere into something to be consumed and ultimately discarded. As if humans could do that and survive. Scientists and environmentalists like David Suzuki suggest a new approach to appreciate how much nature does for mankind and transcends manmade parameters.

The challenges may be overwhelming but as environmentalist Paul Hawken reminds us, this is an exciting and wonderful time because “We get to re-imagine everything! We get to change the world!” It would appear there are plenty of tools out there to help with that change: living machines, hybrid trains, solar, wind, buildings designed to mimic trees, biomass, natural ventilation. The 11th Hour calls us to believe in our ability to rework our relationship with Earth and bring about the sweeping changes needed for humans in the 21st century.

Lee Schnaiberg is a Toronto based environmentalist.

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