Racing Extinction: Documentary Analysis

Racing Extinction is an optically stunning documentary that explores the causes and possible solutions to the Anthropocene Extinction Event. The film is directed by Boulder resident and Academy Award winning director of The Cove, Louie Psihoyos, whose background spars from nearly two decades of photojournalism with National Geographic. The term Anthropocene describes the current era of man that lives on the planet Earth. The extinction event itself, the largest in geological history, is caused by the negative externalities that have arisen due to human activity in the relatively fractional moment that humans have subsided on Earth. Racing Extinction conveys a strong message of environmental conservation to an audience of consumers who are sympathetic to nonhumans and ecologically

To get this message across and provide a sense of urgency, the filmmakers had to ignore certain hardships such as the impact of their work on global economies and instances of large scale environmental success in the previous decade. One such success story is the expansion of the Papahānaumokuākea National Monument by President Barack Obama. Using his executive authority by the U.S. Antiquities Act President Obama was able to quadruple the size of the national monument, bringing the size to twice that of Texas, prohibiting fishing in the zone around Hawaii. If the audience was aware of the fact that such massive conservationist projects already do take place, they would be less likely to support the cause under the guise that other people are already doing enough. If this mindset continues to carry on, eventually so many people will believe it that no change will be made. Louie Psihoyos credits this mindset as the cause of the Baiji dolphin