"The 11th Hour" gives hope to the end of this grim forecast

Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" was dominated by one voice: Gore's.

A scary new global-warming documentary, "The 11th Hour," assembles the voices of dozens of experts on climate change and the future of the planet. Among dignitaries to weigh in are Stephen Hawking, former CIA chief James Woolsey, Mikhail Gorbachev and "Air America's" eloquent host Thom Hartmann.

There's even room (but not much) for President Bush, who expresses his reservations on the subject, and Sen. James Inhofe, who calls global warming "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people." In context, the latter comes off as comic relief.

Narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, who also co-produced the film and worked on the script, "The 11th Hour" focuses on worst-case scenarios, most of them presented as the inevitable result of shortsighted practices: overfishing, the cutting of old-growth forests, pollution of lakes and rivers, ruinous reliance on fossil fuels.

Drought, hurricanes, acid rain, tornadoes and massive flooding are the consequences, along with a decrease in air quality and an increase in asthma. The Earth's human population, which has doubled in just a few decades, could be the most perplexing dilemma.

Reflecting on the problem of dwindling resources and the arrival of billions of new Earthlings, some of the talking heads mention extinction as a natural occurrence. The Earth will survive the changes that are likely to arrive in the next century, but humans may soon find the planet uninhabitable.

The movie begins with a montage of apocalyptic images, accompanied by a pounding beat out of a horror movie, but in the closing comments, some hope is offered. While the United States is branded as "the greatest consumer and source of waste," it's also suggested that we could still reach "our finest hour" by responding to the threat.

Time may be running out (hence the movie's title), but past examples of American ingenuity (the filmmakers show FDR's imaginative use of industry after the attack on Pearl Harbor) are common enough to demonstrate that bureaucracy can be conquered and success is not impossible.

"The 11th Hour" is sometimes guilty of preaching, and especially of preaching to the darkest instincts of the choir. The shadowy photography of the interviewees lends an ominous tone to nearly every scene, but what they're saying is often pragmatic and helpful.

John Hartl: johnhartl@yahoo.com