The 11th Hour’s Ticking Clock
The planet’s in trouble and we don’t have much time.
By Cara Boekeloo, Calvin College
August 8, 2007
“The evidence is now clear,” says Leonardo DiCaprio early in “The 11th Hour,” the new environmental documentary he narrates. “Industrial civilization has caused irreparable damage. Our political and corporate leaders have ignored the overwhelming scientific evidence. We face a convergence of crises, all of which are a concern for life. Will our pivotal generation create a sustainable world in time?”
“The 11th Hour” underscores the urgency of this question. Depictions of nature’s beauty are juxtaposed with images of its destruction throughout the film, beginning with an opening montage that depicts a fetus in the womb, raging storms, and glacial demolition. A polar bear wandering over a flaming trash dump serves as a stark reminder of the damage being dealt to the natural order.
“We see our large-scale impact on our home, planet Earth, depicted as isolated events by the media,” says DiCaprio. “But when taken together these events form a story, a human global story.”
Going beyond “An Inconvenient Truth,” which focused primarily on global warming, “The 11th Hour” seeks to illustrate the broader scope of the planet’s environmental crisis—a crisis that threatens human existence. The film includes interviews with environmental experts, interspersed with piercing videos and pictures of natural beauty and humankind’s impact on it.
In discussing why humans’ environmental impact has become so damaging, the experts repeatedly cite the belief that humans are separate from and above nature, rather than part of it.
“The big rupture came in the 1800s with the industrial revolution,” says author and editor Nathan Gardels, media fellow of the World Economic Forum. “This was a great rupture from earlier forms and rhythms of life, which were generally regenerative. What happened after the industrial revolution is that nature was converted to a resource and that resource was seen as, essentially, eternally abundant.”
The film’s success lies in its merging of this emotional appeal with a frank look at the earth’s health. Discussions of global warming, deforestation, ocean acidification, oil dependence, and air pollution—among other issues—illustrate the myriad problems the planet is facing, and that humans can no longer afford to put off reparative actions.
“The U.N. estimates that by the middle of the century there may be 150 million environmental refugees,” says author and environmentalist Bill McKibben. Highlighting the fragility of the planet’s balance, he notes that—even though the observed change in the world’s average temperature has only been one degree Celsius so far—even if all carbon emissions stopped today the planet would still slowly, inexorably get five degrees warmer.
The narrative of the film repeatedly emphasizes that the very fate of the human race is at stake. Change isn’t just a good thing to do for nature—change is required for our very survival.
Stephen Hawking, the esteemed physicist and author, most vividly describes the direness of the situation: “We don’t know where the global warming will stop,” he explains, “but the worst-case scenario is that Earth would become like its sister planet, Venus, with a temperature of 250 [degrees] centigrade, and raining sulfuric acid. The human race could not survive in those conditions.”
The film does more than just sound the alarm and call for change; it also devotes plenty of time illustrating the most practical—and economically feasible—ways for us to change our habits. Most engaging is a discussion of biomimicry, a new science that studies nature’s best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems. This idea has inspired new types of ecologically friendly design that mimic the sustainability of nature (for instance, ecological systems in which one organism’s waste is another’s food).
The film highlights sustainable design pioneers such as William McDonough, an architect and designer who built the first solar-heated house in Ireland in 1977. “If we think about the tree as a design,” he says, “it’s something that makes oxygen, sequesters carbon, fixes nitrogen, distills water, provides a habitat for hundreds of species, accrues solar energy, makes complex sugars and food, creates micro-climates, self replicates. So what would it be like to design a building like a tree? What would it be like to design a city like a forest?”
“The 11th Hour” powerfully concludes with an urgent call for changing how we live. “We find ourselves on the brink,” says DiCaprio. “Because we’ve waited, the challenges we face are much more difficult.”
Yet living in such a complex, troubled time also presents opportunities. As environmentalist Paul Hawken puts it: “We live in the greatest time because we get to re-imagine every single thing that we do. This generation gets to completely change this world.”
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I appreciate The 11th Hour combining the overwhelming problem statement with practical solutions. Recognizing the severity of the problem is necessary for short-term motivation, but to build the long-term movement necessary for real change people need something positive to work towards. Unfortunately, as many of us realize that “change is required for our very survival,” it can be difficult to know where to start and who to trust.
While media showers attention on business and government, scant attention has been given to the third pillar of our society: civil society. But for over a century now, people have been organizing themselves around social and environmental issues. These people have been tireless advocates for conservation and justice in a myriad of areas such as sustainable agriculture, elephants, child rights, human trafficking, and industrial ecology. Recently WiserEarth was developed to improve the quality of connections between these organizations so solutions in one area can be shared with others.
WiserEarth provides answers for a spectrum of people. Whether you want to reduce your household impact, find volunteer experiences in your area, or start your own nonprofit, WiserEarth is filled with organizations that can help. In addition, it is continuously expanding its capabilities to help people find the connections and information they are looking for.
— Michael Spalding - Aug 9, 02:54 PM - #Excellent work Cara, thanks for bringing a great movie to our attention!
— John Trippi - Aug 9, 03:57 PM - #Leo DiCaprio, thank you for all you do to support the environment.
You are truly a “hero” to my family and I.
— Marco Garcia - Aug 9, 06:15 PM - #Another source of information on these dangers and solutions, broader in scope and deeper in detail than a movie can be, (including 70 pages of notes with bibliographical references) is the (updated) book PLAN B 2.0, Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble, by Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Insititute.
The book is available from www.earthpolicy.org, including bulk discounts. (I bought three copies @ $14 each, one for myself, one for the local public library, and one I gave to a green state representative candidate whose campaign I worked for).
Other problems addressed in Plan B (although not mentioned in the review of the 11th Hour movie) include overpopulation, falling water tables, desertification, collapse of ocean fisheries, and declining technology driven gains in agricultural productivity. Where the movie has it right is that the issue is survival of the human species, at least in numbers sufficient to support a technology based civilization.
I had a review of the book published in a local newspaper, with a longer version of it on the Oregon2020 blog (http://www.2020oregon.net/blog/ under ‘reviews’ – ‘which to fear?’)
. The theme of the latter is that Americans are faced with competing public concerns: the issues outlined in Plan B on one hand, and “terrorism” on the other.
There’s no point here in being coy about my position – I believe that the ‘terrorist threat’ is largely, if not entirely, fabricated to make us pay for continuing the profitable digging deeper of the socio-economic, political, and ecological hole we’re in. Brown estimates that the problems facing the world could be solved by spending $161billion per year. That happens to be the amount the U.S. spends occupying Iraq plus the amount the Pentagon spends on obsolete weapons systems. It should be a no-brainer, but very powerful corporate media are working really hard on your brain.
— G.P. Franck-Weiby - Aug 9, 07:32 PM - #Hello Gentle Friends: I continuosly attempt to unite governments and corporations and environmental groups together, only to undermined be the profit motive.
— Joseph Raglione - Aug 10, 12:58 AM - #Signed: Joseph Raglione
Executive director: The World Humanitarian Peace and Ecology Movement.
Hello Gentle Friends: I continuosly attempt to unite governments and corporations and environmental groups together, only to be undermined be the profit motive.
— Joseph Raglione - Aug 10, 12:59 AM - #Signed: Joseph Raglione
Executive director: The World Humanitarian Peace and Ecology Movement.
Unrestrained greed for wealth, power and prestige is the root cause of war, world poverty and the environmental devastation of our planet.
If the above statement is true, what can be done to treat this deep-rooted cancer in our culture?
— Oscar Priem - Aug 10, 12:47 PM - #Another book that’s way cool – physically and in its content – is “Cradle to Cradle,” by William McDonough (quoted in the film, apparently) and Michael Braungart, discussing sustainable product design and the concept of industry not being less bad – its current motto – but actually being good for the environment. The book itself is made of a polymer blend that can be recycled completely, including the binding. It’s waterproof and just a fantastic display of the idea behind its content.
— Gwynne M - Aug 10, 04:01 PM - #Brain washed? Wake up and smell the science! Anthropogenic global warming is just the next fanatical liberal attempt to control our lives and compromise our freedoms. Gore is an unstable fraud and liberalism is an obvious mental disorder.
— Simon - Aug 12, 01:41 PM - #You neo-cons are a bunch of anti-American Fascists that can’t think for themselves and musst have a DADDY strong figure to think for me. You all are a sad sad pitiful reminder of what neo-cons are—-a bunch of sheepl alias lehmmings alias Pavlov’s Dopes.
— miklo16 - Aug 12, 04:26 PM - #If you all would go to church you wouldn’t be concerned.
BTW, Google 1963 communist goals
— Tim - Aug 26, 12:00 AM - #Understanding environmental interactions involves some of the most difficult issues in engineering, chemistry, physics and computer science. Regrettably, many environmental students aren’t interested in the hard stuff; they want to influence policy. This emphasis occurs in a wide range of colleges. As an example, at Princeton we have an endowment to support ‘a Freshman Seminar in environmental studies, exploring environmental issues primarily through literary, philosophical, ethical, spiritual, or other humanistic perspectives.’ We have elevated scientific ignorance to an art form.
— Chris - Aug 26, 12:55 PM - #——Kenneth Deffeyes
Quothe the moron (miklo): “You neo-cons are a bunch of anti-American Fascists that can’t think for themselves…” Why not try thinking for YOURSELF, rather than use every un-informed teenage liberal cliche in the book, including “sheeple”. Being a political parrot does not make you politically informed, son. You present no facts, just lame stereotypes and name-calling. Grow up.
— Tony Pistone - Oct 26, 05:30 PM - #The Earth has not warmed at all in almost 10 years, the hottest year on record (a very short record) was revised to 1934 (not 1998), and much of the warming can be attributed to the urban heat island effect (many sensing stations deemed as “rural” are now surrounded by development). 11th hour? No, I don’t think so.
— Louis Burwell - Oct 26, 07:49 PM - #Here is some wicked Global Warming eco bucks anybody can print out to give to friends.
earthe.org/e/g/Globa…
EarthE .org is the place to find eco money, art, kisses, awards and other goodies that can be used to thank friends, customers and others for helping protect this exquisite planet.
— Stele Ely - Feb 28, 04:14 AM - #In sults are no substitute for imformed arguments
— john fedden - Aug 15, 05:15 AM - #