The 11th Hour

On Monday, October 18th, students, faculty, and community members gathered in the Fine Arts building to watch a screening of the film The 11th Hour. This film, narrated by famous actor Leonardo DiCaprio, brings together scientists and experts from all corners of the globe to discuss the imminent problem of global warming. The documentary urges the viewer to take action in finding ways to protect our atmosphere before it's too late. One truly unique aspect of the film is that it utilizes more than just scientists in the discussion of the state of our planet. The 11th Hour interviewed politicians, scientists, environmental activists, Native Americans, and many others including physicist Steven Hawking, Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai, and journalist Paul Hawken, to name a few. Each person that they interviewed had a different area of expertise as well as a different view of the world. What was interesting, though, was that despite the differences between them, they could all see that the Earth is undergoing a rapid period of change, and that it's suffering because of it.

The final message of the film really resonated with me because after the experts showed the audience just how poorly we have treated our planet and ourselves, they provided a number of potential solutions to the problem. What struck me so much was that the solution was not simply to abandon technology and return to nature, but to encourage technology to impact the environment in a positive way. It postulates ways of creating entire cities that run on renewable energy from the sun as well as many other ways to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. the film is a powerful use of discourse that is used to affect change in everyday life.