In the 21st century the world has become a global village. People have moved towards industrialization and modernization, taking over the care of nature which is causing various kinds of destruction’s. We lack in realizing that little things across the globe, serve major purposes of human life. However, various films and documentaries have been released to bring nature and its miracles into limelight and Racing Extinction is one of its best examples.
“Racing Extinction”:
Racing Extinction is a masterpiece based on anthropological mass extinction, directed by Louie Psihoyos. It is powered by Okeanos- foundation for sea and Discovery. I feel out of words to describe how amazingly the thoughts on animal extinction have been brought into attention. This movie is based on the thought that mankind is causing mass extinction and is even over-looking the factors which are resulting in it. It has an essence of inspiring its audience with a notion that this world is not only what we see from our two eyes and two ears but this world is far beyond our imaginations. Psihoyos purpose was to direct this movie in such a way that it gives audience a vision of the hidden world. The movie made me feel that there literally is a hidden world out there which has been beyond my realization since long and the idea of this movie wants me to see that hidden world as an audience. This realization certainly marks the success of this movie.
The movie starts with a scene in restaurant where whales are cooked at a massive scale. Later, due to protests against selling whale meat, the restaurant was shut down. The team believed that to fix extinction we need to go to different places and look at it in depth. Later, the investigation was taken to another level in Guangzhou, China where the entire team went to a market where wildlife animals were illegally traded for purpose of dry sea food, medicines and much more. They went with spy cameras and changed their identities to seafood sellers who want to start up a business by trading wildlife. The most interesting moment in the movie was when the vendor showed some worms to the team who were illegally captivated from their habitats and they weren’t any ordinary worms. Those worms were worth 44800 Dollars per kilo and that also in whole-sale! The vendor also believed that there’s nothing wrong in trading wildlife and hence he showed some sharks as well to the team. He stated that every bit of sharks can be sold as money and it’s a big business for him. It made me realize that how shamelessly one living thing can kill another living thing for the sake of money. The movie explains tons of drawbacks of such businesses through facts and figures coming up from experts. Dr.Michael Naveek, curator of palaeontology, stated that we are likely of losing around 50% of species in 100 years. Another expert in the movie, Dr.Stuart Pim stated that naturally 1 million species should expire naturally. However, it’s going to be thousand times faster than it should be in the upcoming years.
If I am asked to tell you about the most interesting and amazing part of this movie, it’s when the team fixed under water digital sound recorders to hear a whale sing. I honestly replayed the whale singing thrice since it was extremely fascinating and enthralling. Later, the movie shows a museum of repository range of sounds which can no more be heard as the species are now extinct. This museum is regarded as living example of masses of rate of extinction across the globe. Here, the narrator beautifully describes the idea that the whole world is singing but we’ve stopped listening. We need to explore those voices and listen to those enchanting sounds. The movie has so much beauty to be discussed that I cannot miss out how an underwater diver explains his affection that he developed with a Manta Ray fish by removing a hook from her neck. I cannot explain in words, the emotions in his narration while he saved the Manta Ray.
After tremendous stories of mass extinction, the team experts discuss that in five major mass extinctions we can see one common trend that is increasing levels of carbon dioxide, 3% of which is absorbed by oceans making carbonic acid that destructs the marine life. It explains that we need to control the level of carbon dioxide to stop extinction of marine species.
The cast and crew of Racing Extinction certainly believe that we can save the creatures only if we show their beauty and importance to people. A potential message that this movie gives to its audience is that we have millions of things beyond our sight and if we can’t do anything good for them we must also not do things to vanish them. Hence, activities like illegal trade of wildlife and hunting should be banned, and global warming should be controlled to overcome mass extinction. Racing extinction is a package of information and entertainment, hence I strongly recommend it.
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