By Ray Falcon
For many years, we have all been warned about the approaching doom promised by climate change. But what might that future actually look like? Endgame 2050 looks three decades into our future to visualize the fate that awaits us all if we do not act now.
The film opens with a 15-minute narrative short that imagines that potential future. In these scenarios, we have systematically decimated the complex bio-diversities which have developed over the course of billions of years. Many species of wildlife have been made extinct. The plague of manmade emissions has decimated infrastructure, acidified the oceans, and generated intense social unrest. In spite of overwhelming physical evidence, a sizeable portion of our population continues to spin dangerous and irresponsible conspiracies.
This presentation is a bit hokey in its presentation, but its messages are nevertheless transmitted directly and effectively.
From there, a panel of biologists and climate scientists join musician Moby for an in-depth, feature-length discussion of the consequences of continued inaction. They speak to the rising pH levels in our oceans, and how that might gravely impact the amount of oxygen in our atmosphere. Our global population has tripled over the course of a single lifetime. This overpopulation has put a particular strain on our resources – from the land we reside on to the food supplies we consume to the classrooms that house our education system.
The film also touches upon the issues of widespread deforestation, melting glaciers, the wastefulness and unspeakable cruelties that run rampant in our agricultural industry, and the untenable amount of CO2 emissions that are choking our atmosphere.
Much of the film plays like an apocalyptic nightmare. Cynicism does creep in throughout, but there are morsels of hope to be found along the way. In order to meaningfully turn the tides of climate devastation, the filmmakers encourage us to assume a healthier plant-based diet, and lobby for improved gender equality and reproductive rights.
The film is admirable in its determination not to sugarcoat the current state of our environment, and what it means for the health and longevity of every species that populate this planet.
Directed by: Sofia Pineda Ochoa
