The 11th Hour

Leonardo DiCaprio

As usual, it’s been way too long since I’ve visited my own activism blog. That doesn’t mean I’ve shut down my efforts, they’ve just been playing out away from the computer.

Today I’m watching my latest Netflix goodie, Leonardo DiCaprio’s environmental documentary, The 11th Hour. While I’m a huge fan of the “environmentary” in general, I think this is one of the most compelling I’ve seen. Unlike An Inconvenient Truth, DiCaprio’s effort is much more cinematic, incorporating more gorgeous visuals along with commentary by scientific, academic, and economic professionals.

I’m specifically thinking about this documentary from the point of view of my students. I’m teaching a class over research and argument this semester, and we’re dealing with some of the hot button issues included in our textbook, Everything’s an Argument. We always examine media pretty intensely, but last semester we put our efforts into analyzing media and advertising as they relate to body image in America as well as censorship and intellectual freedom.

This semester I think we’ll tackle environmental issues. To that end, I always offer extra credit points to students who take the time to watch and respond to a documentary outside of class (no other way for them to do it since we’re an online section). I think The 11th Hour might be the way to go for its innovation and its argumentative prowess. Instead of focusing purely on doom and gloom scenarios (although there’s plenty of that, too), the documentary really takes a look at some innovative solutions to our environmental problems. There’s a distinct focus on the capability of humans to create technologies and innovations that could help us live smarter and break our dependence on oil and other finite resources.

On the other side of the coin, I like to offer balanced, unbiased options for the students. Does anyone know of any documentaries refuting global warming? Although I suspect they’d be harder to find in the local video store, I would like to offer the option for students to watch both and then react.

In the meantime, a favorite poem from Sara Teasdale who knew that life would go on beautifully without us: “There Will Come Soft Rains.”

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white;

Robins will wear their feathery fire,
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

In the Beginning…

For some time now I’ve been posting about my passions for environmentalism, politics, and all sorts of other impassioned topics at my book and life blog, Tripping Toward Lucidity: Estella’s Revenge. While I have a shoddy record of maintaining more than one blog at a time, I’ve decided to take the plunge and attempt it once more.

While a number of readers at Tripping Toward Lucidity share my passions for the environment and my other “causes,” I often feel as if 1) I’m preaching to the choir or 2) getting in the way of what readers really came for…books. With those reasons in mind, I will put unique material, as well as some cross-posted material about the environment, politics, and social movements here at Unlikely Activist.

Why unlikely? Well, I suppose in my younger days I wouldn’t have considered myself particularly interested in activism. I was the usual flighty teen, more interested in getting into college than making a splash by bettering the world around me. Time and a teaching career have really put the charge in me to make a difference in the world for the better, and so I hope this little corner of the web can help me do that to a greater extent.

Not only will I post about current events in my areas of interest, but I’ll also argue with myself, pass along links of interest, rant, rave, review books and documentaries, and various other posts that I hope will interest potential readers.

Thanks in advance to those who follow my efforts here, and I can only hope it will open up new avenues of discussion in a variety of areas.

Cheers!