Racing Extinction

Racing Extinction the documentary from Louie Psihoyos, the director of The Cove has official been aired on television. Concerning how humans are responsible for the destruction of wildlife and biodiversity across the globe by showing how we are releasing methane trapped in the arctic, killing generations of sharks and manta rays for soup, and talking about how people are not even knowing what they are doing in everyday life can cause endangered species to be pushed to the brink. It shows a restaurant in Los Angles serving whale meat and how it was shut down, a Indonesian village making a livelihood of killing manta rays for profit and conservationists attempt to turn that around, and some of the largest and most disgusting black-markets for wildlife in China. Despite this it also shows what are possibilities to turn things around and how there is still time to change. Showing options such as greater education and the changing of human livelihoods for the greater good of both man and animal and always-reassuring words of wisdom from Jane Goodall.

So what are some people's thoughts and reactions to this documentary?

 

I thought it was good. Personally I would've liked if they spent just a little more time talking about solutions. They talk about reducing meat consumption and helping the Indonesian village move towards a tourism economy, but it would've been nice if they could talk about solutions to more issues. I think a lot of people, they see all the doom and gloom and think that there's nothing we can do, but that isn't true. Oh well. There's only so much runtime, I guess.

I didn't know the film crew for this movie was the group that got the whale restaurant shut down. Good for them.

The projection shows were really cool, I remember watching the live stream when they did it a few months ago. It would be so awesome if they could tour that kind of thing around the world, I bet it would be good for raising awareness. (if nothing else, I'd like to see it in person, ha ha)

I particularly liked how the movie put a lot of focus on the small, obscure animals rather than just the big, popular ones. Even dedicated conservation groups fall into that trap, even though the little animals are in more danger than the big ones. (as the photographer featured in the film pointed out, animals like lions and rhinos would never get phased out of captivity. Few people will notice if a small, brown bird goes extinct, but they'll pay attention when whales are in trouble)