The 11th Hour

The documentary “The 11th Hour” directed by Leila and Nadia Conners is considered the final movement when change is possible. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking and former CIA director R. James Woolsey along with more than fifty other scientists, scholars, and leaders discuss pressing issues facing today’s world. The film explores how we’ve arrived at this moment- how we live, how we impact the earth’s ecosystems, and what we can do to change our course. The documentary gives various examples of evidence about Global Warming and putting other animals in danger as well as their environment.

One convincing piece of evidence from “The 11th Hour” was when was when the scientist said that over ninety five percent of our old growth trees have disappeared. Deforestation is a big part of global warming and when people are cutting down trees, it ends up in a result of deserts floods, and mudslides. When trees are cut down and there are heavy rains, there are no trees to absorb the rain water which results in mudslides and floods. This evidence is convincing because people that live near mountains might fear that their cities or towns might flood or get destroyed by mudslides which might urge the citizens of that city or town to do something.

Another good example of evidence is when the documentary showed the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Dead zones are areas in the ocean of such low oxygen concentration that animal life suffocates and dies. The 11th hour showed the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico because it is one of the largest dead zones that forms more each year in spring due from fertilization from farming ends up going into the streams and rivers from rain wash which eventually ends up going to the ocean. This evidence is also convincing because dead zones could be a potential problem for fisherman and Marine life in the ocean.

If this continues then the dead zones will only grow causing more and more problems for the fish in the ocean and other living creatures living in it. With dead zones reducing fish stock and killing other life in the ocean, this will cause people to feel sympathy for life in the ocean and try to make people at least try and maybe help clean rivers and streams preventing less garbage and chemicals into the ocean. Many scientists and scholars have now described global warming as a serious crisis.

David Suzuki CC OBC FRSC is a Canadian academic, science broadcaster and environmental activist. Suzuki states that he sat in a United Nations group called the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment a four year study, which he said was the biggest study ever done about the ecosystems around the world. Suzuki claims that “There were over thirteen hundred different scientists at the study and at the end of all that in March 2005, the final reports came in and they documented the staggering destruction of ecosystems and the services they perform for us around the world.”

This means that over one thousand scientists gathered at a study for four years and at the end of those results, the reports came in that we have done a tremendous amount of damage to ecosystems around the world and the services they perform for us. This evidence is convincing because David Suzuki is already very credible because he’s scientist and the study that he went to was full of more than one thousand scientists with four years in study, and the reports that came in stated that there’s destruction towards our ecosystem.

Another good example of evidence was when Rick Piltz a former senior associate in the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, sent a draft of his nonfiction novel to the white and said that “It comes back with a large number of edits, handwritten on hardcopy by the Chief of Staff of the council on environmental quality.” This means that Piltz sent a draft of his editing government documents on climate change to the Chief of Staff and it came back crossing out all the things that could help out the ecosystems and environments.

This is also convincing and true because it was proved that in 2005, New York Times exposed the role of Philip Cooney in editing government documents on climate change to create scientific uncertainty. This proves that global warming is coming out of hand and even our government won’t help us because of these companies that pay them to let them pollute however much they want.

Global warming, deforestation, mass species extinction, and depletion of the oceans’ habitats are all addressed. The film’s premise is that the future of humanity is in jeopardy. The film proposes potential solutions to these problems by calling for restorative action by the reshaping and rethinking of global human activity through technology, social responsibility and conservation. The whole system has to change and we need to realize we are all one, and part of nature. It has to be achieved through a world realization and it needs to happen now.