Reaction Paper: Racing Extinction
I’ve never really considered myself as an environmentalist or even a ‘tree hugger’. And with our society
today, very little influenced me about Mother Nature or urged me to look around and analyze whatever
it is that is happening. Maybe at some point I did, but that concern I once harbored was easily erased
and covered by the things our society thinks matters.
But Racing Extinction didn’t only serve as an eye-opener for me: the movie broke my heart, for it
showed me how much we have destroyed our environment. How the things we carelessly do has made
such a great impact in the place we call our home, our only home.
Racing Extinction is a documentary-like film that was made in 2015. It tells of how we humans have
damaged the Earth and all its inhabitants, and how a group of environmentalists are trying to fix that
problem through small steps of raising awareness.
Racing Extinction gives us the painful truth of what’s going on today. Not only did it show our present
and our possible future through charts and data, but the footages shown gives us a blunt and honest
view of our carelessness and greed. And I didn’t expect it to have such a great impact on me.
Like I said in the first paragraph, we live in a selfish world who has forgotten their past and their roots
and only wants to keep on taking. And we say that we are doing the right thing, that we our lives are
improving because of the technology that we made, and we must keep on advancing the same way. It’s
quite funny to think that human beings believe they can flourish in life while they kill the reason of their
success. Funny that we are so proud of what we do, we’re so proud of our factories and the money we
get from chopping trees, clearing away forests for golf courses and expensive, unnecessary settlements,
and extracting manta innards because it’s called progress. It’s wrong.
There’s nothing bad in humans improving, it’s just that our way of growth is not sustainable. It’s
damaging our earth and what’s sad is that more than half of us don’t even know or don’t care at all. We
just keep on living our lives, thinking that this world we live in is constant and it won’t change and we
certainly cannot change it because hey, we’re just one in a billion and surely nothing’s going to happen if
I buy this car that consumes a lot of oil and bursts out a myriad of atmosphere-damaging chemicals. It’s
just one gasoline-dependent car, and I need it, nothing bad at all. Besides, I don’t have time to think
about our environment because there are other things in this world that is more important than caring
for the place we live in.
It’s exactly this mindset that we need to change. We got so caught up and distracted by ‘other things’
that we don’t even have time to look around and truly see what’s happening to our surroundings when
in fact, it’s one of the things that truly matter. And right now, we need to take immediate action if we
don’t want to lose this beautiful gift God has given us. We have to rethink our ways, and by small, simple
steps, save what’s left of our planet.
I belong to the greater population who doesn’t care at all and keeps on overlooking this problem. And
honestly, I used to think that environmental campaign videos or generally anything that promotes
change is totally useless because I am a pessimistic person who has lost faith on our kind and believes
that nothing can be done, that humans these days naturally do not care and what can you do about
that? What can a small group of people who care do about that. But after one hour and twenty-eight
minutes of being exposed to a truthful film with a powerful message, all I can say is that it changed me.
Negative and unmindful I may be, but that is the reason why I am so touched whenever I see people
who would risk their lives just to save the remaining beings on Earth and their home. It makes me feel so
glad to realize that there are still people like that in this world, people who actually care.
It was mentioned in the movie that these people come from different professions (one is a sports car
racer) and I realized that being an advocate of something doesn’t mean that that has to be your sole job.
Watching their teams make a difference made me want to do the same thing (and I quote my thought
earlier, “their job is one of the most honorable things to do”).
My dream of becoming a computer programmer further shows my indifference towards Mother Nature.
I thought that our future relied solely on technology, that it’s the future we’re bound to have. And it
didn’t really occur to me that when used and done in the wrong way, technology can be really harmful.
If by now you’re thinking that I’m quitting my dream, no, and sorry to have led you to such conclusion.
Most of my thoughts on the latter half of the movie is how I could make a difference. How someday, I’m
going to help them save our planet, to save Earth and its children. We all could do so in any job we take.
Whether we want to be a doctor, an architect, an artist or an entrepreneur or even a student. If we
cared, we could make a difference.
And that’s all that Mother Nature needs right now: people who care. Imagine if all 7 billion (???) of us
worked together to change the our wrong doings and ways of living for the better, how could our
environment not be saved? If all of us made simple steps to protect what’s left of the animals, then
surely, they will be saved and will be able to live alongside the next generations.
Although, making all 7 billion humans cooperate is hard and maybe impossible. But now I know that
even a small group of people can make a great impact. Remedying the effects of our past actions and
saving species will be difficult. But taking action is better than ignoring the horrible reality we live in. If
we really want to keep on living in this world, then we have to move, otherwise, we will see our planet
crumble and die before our very eyes, die all because of us.
