The 11th Hour

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For anyone who cares about the planet (BEACHY), this is a must see movie.

OK, so maybe you don't believe in global warming, still, there is no denying the other kinds of ecological damage we are doing. Some of the information here is astounding. For instance, there is a company (I believe it's in north ga but I could be remembering wrong) that buys methane from the local landfill to power their plant, instead of buying natural gas. (Apparently methane is produced by garbage, why aren't we harnessing it?) There are about 10,000 landfills in the United States, and only about 300 of them are doing this. This could be one solution to our dependence on foreign oil. And, in utilizing the landfills in this way, we don't need to create more landfills.

Before we learned how to extract energy from the earth (ancient sunlight), the earth could only sustain about a billion people. In the past 200 years or so, the population has exploded. In fact, it has more than doubled since 1963, when Kennedy was president.  Between 1980 and 2000 total world population grew from 4.4 billion to 6 billion. By 2015, at least another billion people will be added for a total of more than 7 billion. By the year 2050, there will be 9 billion people. That's NINE BILLION. 

Think about that really hard. Think about all the extra trash, especially since we have become such a "disposable" society. Think about all the extra energy that will need to be produced. The food, the water, the cars, the pollution that will be created. Something HAS to be done about the way we think and the way we live. This film explores those questions, and interviews people with remarkable ideas about how to solve these problems, some of which can be done now.

Another example, there is a mushroom that cures small pox in addition to 6 other viruses. It's in the rainforest and is being destroyed at an astronomical rate. Why would we destroy something that has so much potential? I have read about another mushroom (somewhere else, not in this film) that cleans up toxic waste. It is a "magic" mushroom though, so we may never use it, at least, not in the current climate (plants that make you high, bad, must be destroyed or illegal).

It looks at consumerism and HOW we consume, and talks about smarter ways of doing it. It really is a fascinating film. I highly suggest seeing it. I bought it on sale at Best Buy for $5. It's still on sale thru Saturday if anyone is interested. We may screen it here at the house if I ever get well.

And the fact is, the earth will go on without us. We aren't saving the planet, but saving ourselves.

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