Racing Extinction

Historically, the Earth has suffered five mass extinctions that were triggered by various causes. As The Sixth Extinction author Elizabeth Kolbert—briefly featured here—argues, the next one will likely be a consequence of human activity on the planet. Claiming that up to 50% of all species could go extinct within 100 years, this new documentary from Oscar-winning filmmaker Louis Psihoyos (The Cove) serves up a sobering if also somewhat scattershot look at the issue. Psihoyos and his activist team infiltrate a warehouse in Hong Kong to surreptitiously film evidence of 10,000-20,000 illegally obtained shark fins (used in soup), help to successfully introduce legislation protecting manta rays, expose a Los Angeles restaurant that serves whale meat, and witness an ultimately promising effort to save the grasshopper sparrow. Along the way, the documentary touches on a wide range of ancillary subjects related to global warming, from rampant oil consumption (the entire output of the Deepwater Horizon gulf oil spill represents about one-quarter of the oil that Americans consume in a day) to the dangers of meat-based diets (livestock produce more greenhouse gases than all forms of fossil fuel transportation). Racing Extinction winds up with a gimmick, albeit a visually impressive one: racecar driver Leilani Münter drives one of Elon Musk's Tesla cars outfitted with a super-powerful projection image that throws gigantic moving images of endangered species (along with factoids) onto walls and skyscrapers (including a cool sequence of King Kong climbing the Empire State Building). Although a bit unfocused, this is still a thought-provoking, beautifully filmed (although some of the images are quite disturbing) clarion call to action to help save Earth's creatures, including ourselves. Recommended. (R. Pitman)