The film “The 11th Hour,” has supported widespread discussion and a social network for environmental activism, while on a college campus tour around the country.
By Nora Fleming / Special to The Malibu Times
Last Tuesday, around 100 Pepperdine University students were faced with the problem of rapidly depleting natural resources, ocean dumping, and extreme weather conditions and species extinction. They were warned of an impending 11th hour, or the last hour that changes could be made to save the world from self-destruction.
It wasn’t a simulation, but a screening and director-led discussion of “The 11th Hour,” a film that examines the reasons why the problems in the current environmental crisis have become what they are today, and what the world population can do to try to stop them.
Leila Connors Petersen, director, writer and co-producer of the film and president and co-founder of Tree Media, a Santa Monica-based company that produces media about global sustainability, participated in the question and answer session at the screening last week to engage Pepperdine students in environmental discussion.
“If we trash the place, what are we going to do?” Petersen asked the students. “We have to change our ways if we want to live well into the future.”
“The 11th Hour,” which was produced and narrated by local actor Leonardo DiCaprio, has supported widespread discussion and the creation of the Web site www.11thhouraction.com, a social network for environmental activism that is leading a college screening tour of the film at campuses around the country.
“College campuses serve as excellent venues to bring together both the local community and the students who will ultimately become the next generation of leaders,” said Blake Lown, content editor for 11th Hour Action and Pepperdine alum. “Our primary aim is to engage and activate youth in taking leadership in the sustainability movement.”
In the film, scientists, world leaders, environmental activists and researchers explore issues surrounding the current state of the environment. Many affirm that an overall pervasion of a world culture focused on consumerism has been one of the most detrimental impacts on the environment.
“A lot of people are completely disassociated from reality,” Petersen said. “Our culture cultivates selfishness. We’re all aware, but we’re too selfish to change.”
Pepperdine students discussed with Petersen why basic awareness of the issues does not seem to be fueling action.
Petersen asked students what they were doing on a local level at Pepperdine, and suggested small steps and choices students could make on a day-to-day basis, such as eating organic or local produce, being energy and fuel conscious, and making smart consumer purchases.
However, some students feel a college campus is a hard place to initiate environmental change, particularly at Pepperdine.
“There’s one recycling bin on campus,” said Meaghan Rossberg, a Pepperdine junior. “It’s in the dark corner of a science building.”
Rossberg said many of the small environmental movements on campus have been squelched by the university and labeled as “too costly.”
Dr. Chris Duran, assistant professor of Religion at Pepperdine, said the university is working to become a more environmentally friendly campus and has taken steps in the right direction, such as treating its own water on site, but due to limited resources, has not reached its potential.
However, some Pepperdine students, such as Cliff Champion who solar-powered his entire dorm room at the university, have proven individual efforts can pay off in a university setting.
Other area colleges are also working to make their campuses more green friendly.
Alisa Ahmadan, a third year student at UCLA who works with Tree Media, said due to student pressure, UCLA has started an environmental education campaign and moved toward providing sustainable food and using cleaner forms of energy to power campus public transportation.
Though the generation marked with low voter turnout is sometimes labeled as apathetic, “The 11th Hour” message encourages the opportunity for future change initiated by the younger generation and remains hopeful, urging a widespread effort to work together to develop cleaner forms of energy and new technologies as means for ending the crisis.
“If you think in general terms, things can seem very daunting,” Lown said. “Our focus needs to steer away from generalizations and preconceived notions, and, instead, start at the grassroots level and have faith in the individual.”
The 11th Hour will be released on DVD by Warner Brothers April 8, available for $4.99. A list of upcoming college campuses on the campus tour is available at the Web site www.11thhouraction.com