The 11th Hour

Narrated and produced by actor Leonardo DiCaprio, The 11th Hour seeks to raise awareness of the depleted state of the Earth’s natural environment. It explores how we have arrived at this state by examining the way we live, our impact on the Earth’s ecosystems and what we can do to reverse the trend. The film features interviews with prominent scientists, politicians and activists, including physicist Stephen Hawking, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and Nobel Prize-winning environmentalist Wangari Maathai.

The 11th Hour emphasises the fact that our way of life is not sustainable for the planet. It begins by showing apocalyptic scenes of deadly hurricanes, floods and forest fires. It then scrutinises how we reached this condition, highlighting our reliance on fossil fuels as the primary cause, and demonstrates the deterioration of our ecosystems, including global warming, soil erosion, deforestation, air and water pollution and the extinction of species.

The film goes beyond merely pointing out problems and offers practical solutions. We hear from two architects about how self-sustaining ‘green’ buildings can be constructed to run on solar energy and process their own waste. New homes could use solar panels for lighting, heating and cooling. The film calls on us to restore the Earth by transforming human activity through social responsibility and reshaping technology.

The film ends with a message of hope and a call to action: it is not too late to save our planet, but time is running out and we must act now. Overall, The 11th Hour provides an excellent insight into the politics, technology and consequences of human behaviour, as well as the desire and methods needed to address the environmental damage humans have created.