“Racing Extinction” the Movie and what WE can do!

One of the few things to complain about while living in Los Angeles, aside from the traffic jams, is the smog (yes, there’s a correlation). On a daily basis an ugly brownish gray pall hangs over our fair metropolis. Between the air at street level and the azure blue skies above, a blanket of carcinogenic ozone presides over our otherwise beautiful city of angels. Why? Decades of internal combustion engines that have been pumping their fetid exhaust into our precious air. Unfortunately, it’s something that Angelenos have come to live with and accept. Arguably, it has been worse in the past, but it can and must improve!

More than ever the problem of air pollution that affects the health of everyone has been on the forefront of my mind. In September, a few like minded electric riding friends and I saw the movie, “Racing Extinction” from the Oscar winning director Louie Psihoyos of “The Cove” fame. “Racing Extinction” illustrates in often graphic detail how we as human beings are actively contributing to the potential loss of half the world’s species over the next few decades. The incredible detriment that extinction of other species would be to the overall biodiversity of our earth notwithstanding, this is a potential extinction event for humanity as well! Phytoplankton within the earth’s oceans is dying off at an unprecedented rate due to the rising temperatures which contribute to the melting of the permafrost of Siberia and Alaska’s tundras which house vast quantities of Methane. This is creating a positive feedback loop (in the negative sense), leading to an increase of carbon in the air as absorption is slowing and additional greenhouse gases are being released.

What can WE do?

As per the messaging of “Racing Extinction”; pick one thing to change, do or not do to help the environment. Some examples of a daily change you can implement would include:

• Not consuming meat or dairy products for 1 day a week (methane emissions from cattle raised for human consumption is a major producer of greenhouse gases) Going vegetarian/vegan (puts less of a resources/energy strain on food production)
• Driving/Riding Electric vehicles
  • Hollywood Electrics (shameless plug for Electric Motorcycles and Bicycles)
  • Tesla
  • Nissan Leaf
  • BMW i3
  • BMW i8
  • Chevy Volt
  • Kia Soul
• Installing solar panels on your home
• Recycling and reusing (shopping bags, cups, water bottles)
• Carpooling
• Utilizing public transportation (to decrease congestion on Freeways)
• Purchasing local sourced products (so as not to include unnecessary transportation emissions)
• Conserving water/electricity
  • planting drought resistant plants, shortening shower times, collecting and watering plants with rainwater, using a broom to sweep instead of hosing off driveways or using a leaf blower
• Composting
• Signing up for renewable energy sources from your provider (no coal, no nuclear, no oil)

In addition to these daily actions, being aware of, discussing, and informing others of environmental issues is critical. We’re all contributing to the problem of a warming planet, but we can all contribute to the solution as well. A great way to visually realize the immensity of this problem is by going to see and support the movie “Racing Extinction.” It’s in theaters internationally for as long as people go to support it and will also be on the Discovery Channel on December 2, 2015 at 9pm ET/PT.

There is a problem on our planet. The time to address it is now. We are the species that can make a difference to save all of life… or the one to kill it.

Choose to #StartWith1Thing and actively decide to not be part of the chain of polluters that are contributing to the decline of the overall health of all living creatures on our planet.

It is our choice to collectively address it and make personal changes starting on an individual basis.

Enjoy the Ride,
Harlan Flagg