Call of Life: Facing the Mass Extinction

Call of Life

Facing the Mass Extinction

Austrian Premiere!
Monte Thompson
USA, 2010, 90 min
Sprache
English OV
Saturday May 19th - 19:00

All over the world species are becoming extinct at an astonishing rate, from 1.000 to 10.000 times faster than normal. If current trends continue, scientists warn that within a few decades at least half of all plant and animal species on Earth will disappear forever. The loss of biodiversity has become so severe that scientists are calling it a "mass extinction" event - only the 6th in the history of planet earth, the first one driven by one single species - homo sapiens.

Call of Life: Facing the Mass Extinction is the first feature documentary to investigate the growing threat to Earth's life support systems from this unprecedented loss of biodiversity. Through interviews with leading scientists, psychologists, anthropologists, philosophers, and indigenous and religious leaders, the film explores the causes, the scope, and the potential effects of the mass extinction, but also looks beyond the immediate causes of the crisis to consider how our cultural and economic systems, along with deep-seated psychological and behavioral patterns, have allowed this situation to develop, continue to reinforce it, and even determine our response to it.

Call of Life tells the story of a crisis not only in nature, but also in human nature, a crisis more threatening than anything human beings have ever faced before.