The 11th Hour Reflection Paper.docx

The 11th Hour Reflection Paper by Samantha Martrella S. Barretto

The 11th Hour clearly shows how our world is being destroyed naturally and artificially which became an alarming documentary film to everyone. This film was first shown last August 2007 at the Annual Cannes Flim festival. It was directed by Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners. Leonardo de Carpio is the narrator for this film. He is also the producer. The 11th hour is distributed by Warner Independent Pictures.

The 11th hour talks about the different issues our environment is facing such as global warming. Several individualities shared their ideas on what is happening to our world and suggested concrete solutions on how we can survive this crisis. I agree with Thom Hartmann when he said that the human culture thinks that we are superior life form on this earth but truth is we are part of nature. We are nature. With this thinking, human beings tend to take things for granted like how we treat animals. Some people kill them after which they will eat or even use them for clothing. Seeing this example makes us very inhuman. We don’t take care of each other that’s why endangered species are starting to vanish in our world. The film also says that we may have technology now but we are not using it properly. According to Lester Brown, we should use our technology to adapt to the economy today but sad to say time is running out. The 11th hour showcases how important the sun is to us. It has the most energy and it can provide energy to everyone around the world thus we can substitute the sun for the fuel we are using today. Solar powered cars and roofs are being promoted for us to use to be able to maximize our sun light. One solution that struck me the most is the dance club being powered by the human movement. I believe that our advancement of technology today can produce this kind of set-up but we were afraid to take the risk. As what mentioned in the film, this can reduce the human’s footprint by 90%. All of the solutions being presented in the film may mean shifting on what we are used too to something that will make us better humans and surpass this crisis. Nevertheless, the 11th hour reminds us to use our resources wisely.

What bothers me is that this film was shown last 2007, 5 years ago. If 5 years ago our biosphere is greatly damaged what more now after 5 years. This is one truth that everyone is scared to hear and believe. Watching the film, made me realize and appreciate the small things we have such as the sunlight, wind, water and movement we do. I salute the people who are part of this film that they were able to think of alternative ideas that will surely help us solve this predicament. I also realized that our environment is not really the problem, it is us, humans, who are creating the problem and now we are paying for our own actions. As a Lasallian, I am now more conscious of my actions in my environment. I support the no plastic bag campaign in our country. I bring my own reusable bag where I place all my purchases while in my household; they follow strictly the segregation policy of our village where they

should separate biodegradable trash from non biodegradable. These small actions may seem overuse and common but I know and believe that it will have a big impact in saving our mother nature. Personal action is the key in making our world the healthy and fit for the future generations.

The film documentary was most likely called the 11th hour to give emphasis to what would become of humanity in the near future. The latest possible moment – we all must work hand-inhand to make this a favorable possibility for everyone. It is a challenge we would all face today, but in due time we may reap a great harvest for our fellow people if we persevere. In the field of business, the role of this documentary is to give those in the corporate sector as well as those who own small enterprises an in depth look to why corporate social responsibility is important. They are given the opportunity to look back at the past, present and strive for a future that can still be altered. As the film progresses, the issues on global warming, extinction of species, deforestation as well as the slowly disappearing ocean habitats is depicted giving the viewer the chance to think about what he/she ought to do now. These concerns are actually our country’s own, too. Deforestation as a result of illegal logging had played its part in making matters worse for the past few years – floods had devastated lives, no trees to stop it in its tracks. The drought the country is experiencing – a sign of global warming. Polluted bodies of water had driven out the freshness of the fish as well as other aquatic creatures. Even though it has its share of endangered species, the Philippines however, does not have concerns on the extinction of any at the moment. This is most likely because of many other things the government is busy with. But no matter how we look at it, what is happening to the ecosystem around the world is a large outcry to the acts of the past recurring now.

I agree with every word in this tedious documentary. As you can guess from the title, "The 11th Hour" sounds a warning that we have pretty much depleted the woodpile of planet Earth, and to keep things running, have been reduced to throwing our furniture on the fire. It is a devastating message. Once there was a time when Earth existed on current energy. This year's sunlight fell on this year's crops, feeding and warming this year's human beings. With the exploitation of coal and oil, however, we have set fire to millions of years of stored energy as fast as we can, and the result is poisonous pollution, global warming and planetary imbalance. What lies at the end of this suicidal spending spree? Stephen Hawking paints a future in which Earth resembles Venus, with a temperature of 482 degrees Fahrenheit. There would still be rain, however, although unfortunately of sulfuric acid. Earth is cartwheeling out of balance. Did you know, as I learned in the new issue of Discover magazine, that while fish stocks disappear from the oceans, their place is being taken by an unimaginably huge explosion of jellyfish -- literally brainless creatures with a lifestyle consisting of eating? Sounds like us. "The 11th Hour," narrated and co-produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, gathers a group of respected experts to speak from their areas of knowledge about how we are despoiling our planet, and what we might possibly do to turn things around. We don't have much time. The architects John Todd and Bruce Mau explain how we could build "green" buildings that would use solar energy, consume their own waste and function much like a tree. There is no

reason every home (every newly built one, for sure) would not have solar panels on the roof, to help heat, light and cool itself. Well, one reason, actually: The energy companies would resist any effect to redirect their own gargantuan subsidies toward eco-friendly homeowners. We hear of the destruction of the forests, the death of the seas, the melting of the poles, the trapping of greenhouse gases. And in another forthcoming documentary, "In the Shadow of the Moon," about the surviving astronauts who walked on the moon, we see their view of Earth from 250,000 miles away; it strikes us what an awfully large planet this is to be wrapped in such a thin and vulnerable atmosphere. All of this is necessary to know. But are we too selfish to do anything about it? Why isn't everybody buying a hybrid car? They can run for a year and pump less pollution into the atmosphere than a gallon of paint. They can get a third up to a half more fuel mileage. And here's the kicker: They can go faster, because they have two engines. So you ask people if they're getting a hybrid, and they squirm and say, gee, they dunno, they'd rather stick to the old way of going slower, spending more on gas and destroying the atmosphere. If booze companies advertise for responsible drinking and tobacco companies warn of health hazards, why don't gas companies ask you to buy a hybrid? Some of these points are in "The 11th Hour," others are offered by me, and the lesson is: We more or less know all this stuff, anyway. So does the movie motivate us to act on it? Not really. After I saw Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth," my next car was a hybrid. After seeing "The 11th Hour," I'd be thinking more about my next movie. The film sidesteps one of the oldest laws of television news and documentaries: Write to the picture! When Gore's film tells you something, it shows you what it's talking about. Too much of the footage of "The 11th Hour" is just standard nature photography, as helicoptercams swoop over hill and dale and birds look unhappy and ice melts. This is intercut with 50 experts, more or less, who talk and talk and talk. Even DiCaprio sounds like he's presenting a class project. They're all depicted as talking heads, so we see them talk, then get some nature footage, then see them talk some more, until finally we're thinking, enough already; I get it. "A bore," Meyer the hairy economist once told the private eye Travis McGee, "is anyone who deprives you of solitude without providing you with companionship." This movie, for all its noble intentions, is a bore. Rent "An Inconvenient Truth" instead. Even if you've already seen it.

11hour is a 2007 documentary film produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCapriowhich talks about the state of our natural environment. In addition, this film provides theviewers a look at the state of the global environment including visionary and practical solutionsfor restoring the planet¶s ecosystem. With contributions from scientists, politicians,environmental specialists, and other more experts knowledgeable about the current state of our environment, the film documents and presents grave problems we are facing nowadaysincluding global warming, deforestation, mass species extinction, and depletion of the ocean¶shabitats along with the possible potential solutions and actions such as reshaping andrethinking of global human activity through technology, social responsibility, and

conservation.Moreover, this film creates awareness to the society by letting us now of what our planet earthis going through right now and provides practical applications of what we can contribute tomake this earth a better place to live in not only for us, but most especially for the futuregeneration which could be possible through sustainable development.One of the most talked about and known problem we are facing today is GlobalWarming. As stated by Leonardo ³Global warming is not only the number one environmentalchallenge we face today, but one of the most important issues facing all of humanity. We allhave to do our part to raise awareness about global warming and the problems we as a peopleface in promoting a sustainable environmental future for our planet.´ This environmental issueis very important to solve because the main reason why it is happening is because of our actions, and it not only simply destroys our earth but it leads and results to many moreproblems like depletion of the ocean¶s habitat because of the different shift in tides, destructionof marine life and increasing chemicals in the ocean, and deforestation which causes massspecies extinction because the ecosystem where most of our animals are living is destroyedthrough the drought and calamities that are happening in our earth.Through the film, the experts tried to provide potential solutions that could possibly helpour earth from the environmental issues we are currently facing. The most important for solution these problems is OURSELVES. In order to save our earth, we must change our