Racing Extinction Film Analysis

Racing Extinction is a Documentary-Action film produced on 2015 that tackles about the continuous mass extinction of anthropogenic species, it also exhibits the efforts from scientists, activists and journalists to substantiate the dilemma in the direction of the Oscar-winning Director Louie Psihoyos, who also directed the documentary film entitled The Cove (2009).

It does not only reveal the effects of human activities in the nature but also features the beauty of environment and how aesthetically pleasing nature is. The film received one Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song, and one Emmy nomination. Racing Extinction was released and premiered at 2015 Sundance Festival followed by limited theater release, with worldwide broadcast premiere on The Discovery Channel in 220 countries or territories on December 2, 2015.

II. Movie Summary

The film talks about the several examples of the overarching problems with regards to the Anthropocene Extinction. It unmasks the enormous effects of the growth of the Homo Sapiens in the mass extinction and considers it as the greatest since the KT event 66 million years ago. Comprising the global warming and poaching, and also features the efforts of the scientists, photographers and volunteers to protect endangered species. The film shows the implication of overpopulation, globalization and animal agriculture to the mass extinction and says that these are the leading causes of it.

Scientists predict that within the next 100 years, half of the Earth’s species will no longer exist if we do not stop being the cause of this extinction. Species go defunct in spite of human involvement in nature, but in the next decade, humans will make other species extinction ten times faster than the expected.

Most parts of the film is focused on the quality of the oceans because oceans are extremely important to the global stability. “When carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere, between a third and a half gets absorbed by the oceans, making them more acidic,” quoted by Louie Psihoyos, the director of Racing Extinction, in the documentary. This extreme acidity phytoplankton— the organisms liable for producing 50% of the world’s oxygen supply—and harmly affects many other oceanic creatures.

The documentation of the film uncovers certain ways that humans contribute to the deforming geochemistry of the planet. In the words of Psihoyos, our farm houses or livestocks contribute more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than all immediate emissions from the transportation sectors. Howbeit, the film also apprehends our abilities to find a way to deal with these problems by providing trails for people to live more sustainability. “If every American skipped meat and cheese just one day a week for a year, it would be like taking 7.6 million cars off the road,” Psihoyos mentioned in Racing Extinction.

Reflection

The film was a good way of advocating and forcing the people to make ways for to stop the mass extinction of the nature. It is not something that we can just ignore, this is not simple but a very crucial thing to focus on. It supports advocacies to palliate the problems engaging geological changes. Racing Extinction uncloaks the hidden mesmerizing beauty of the nature while immersing the viewers to the way of how we can save, protect and conserve our natural treasures.

It is an evidence that we can do both, discovering while saving the planet and its resources. Walking the pathways toward the conservation of the planet requires a lot of efforts but is indeed worthwhile for it does not only benefits the nature itself but also the humans who have been the beneficiaries of all these resources. The film convinces the people to maintain hope and to see the beauty and exuberance of the planet we are living in.