ENDGAME 2050 – An Urgent Wake Up Call Before It’s Too Late
“In the last 40 years, we have lost more than half of all the wildlife on the planet.”
“Life on Earth is at a crossroads. Our actions, or inactions, today will determine our fate, in the very near-term and for centuries to come.”
ENDGAME 2050 looks at what the future will look like if humans continue along the path we are currently on. What will life look like in 2050 if we continue to reproduce at the rate we are currently, eat the same Western diet, drive cars fueled by fossil fuels, overfish our oceans depleting marine life, pollute the planet with plastic, and maintain a constant consumption of products that is clearly unsustainable? At this pace, in three short decades, there will massive problems. The fictional part of the film plays out in 2050 with methane gas explosions leading to poisonous air, massive ice and permafrost melts, severe food and water shortages, significant food and water rationing, dead oceans with no life, toxic and contaminated water that is undrinkable, massive civil unrest everywhere, and only enough food for one meal a day.
Featuring musician Moby along with leading scientists, and created by physician turned environmentalist Sofia Pineda Ochoa, ENDGAME 2050 lays out the existential crises bearing down on the planet and underscores the harsh reality that, unless we take responsibility and act urgently now, we are hastening our own destruction and that of virtually all other life on the planet. The film reveals this dystopian nightmare future, while also presenting the reasons that got us there in the first place. Writer and film director, Sofia Pineda Ochoa, presents compelling data and the scientific research that has been predicting what we humans have been ignoring for decades—that we alone are responsible for destroying our planet, little by little, day by day, by making our planet virtually uninhabitable for human civilization and for the millions of other species we share it with. The film highlights that in the last 40 years, we have lost more than half of all the wildlife on the planet and are responsible for causing the 6th mass extinction event we are currently in. It is the only extinction event that is not caused by natural phenomena like the previous five events, and the only one caused by humans. An alarming wake-up call if anyone is listening. We are causing complete biological annihilation because of the way we live.
The one constant we know is change. The film shows how each of us has the power to change this current trajectory by changing our consumption behavior, reducing our environmental footprint, shifting our attitudes and changing the way we eat to a plant-based diet. It’s an urgent call to action to change the way we behave and consume.
Film Length: 1 Hour, 33 Minutes
Film Released: July 26, 2020 (streaming)
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Visit the website: www.endgame2050.com
Statistics in the Film
- In the last 40 years, we have lost more than half of all the wildlife on the planet.
- By 2048, we will have fishless oceans, all fisheries will be completely decimated. If we keep fishing the way we are fishing, all fish stocks will collapse.
- 80 percent or more of fish species are completely depleted or being overfished and cannot reproduce.
- Using animal foods is tremendously inefficient for feeding humans. Feeding animals requires massive amounts of water, grains, and crops. Only 4 percent of the plants that animals eat, is returned to humans when they consume animals. We lose 90 percent of calories going from the grains animals eat to the meat we eat.
- The livestock sector is by far the major driver of de-forestation and is the single largest user of land on the planet, a staggering 45 percent of the land worldwide.
- The United Nations predicts we will face a food crisis in 2050 if we reach a population of 9.5 – 10 billion people by 2050 (Currently, we are at 7.5 billion).
- It took 200,000 years to become one billion people, but only 200 years later we have multiplied this by 7 times to 7.5 billion people. The last billion took only 12 years. Every year, we are adding 80 million people to the planet that need food, healthcare, shelter, resources and goods.
- People in the U.S. consume far more than any other country or area. For every American’s consumption habits you would need 5 more planets.
- Methane is 20 times more powerful than CO2 in trapping heat from the sun. If the enormous store of methane is released into the atmosphere due to the melting of the permafrost in the Arctic, it will accelerate climate change dramatically.
- In a very short period of time, we have increased the CO2 in the atmosphere from 200 parts-per-million (PPM) over thousands of years to more than 400 PPM today. An doubling and increase of 200 PPM in 300 short years.
Quotes from the Film
Our massive human footprint is annihilating other species in every conceivable way.
We know what we need to do, but we’re not doing it.
Children now already have high cholesterol, cholesterol disease, and plaque build-up from eating animals — meat, dairy and eggs.
According to the United Nations, the equivalent of 1440 garbage trucks of plastics are dumped into the sea, every single day.
If you care about the ocean, you need to stop eating animals that live in the oceans. Destroying the eco-system of the ocean is just not environmentally responsible.
The World Economic Forum predicted that by 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish.
We’re taking too much life out of the ocean, while dumping too many harmful things into the ocean.
If you are eating seafood, you are eating a lot of plastic as well. About 11,000 tiny pieces of plastic per year. It accumulates in the organs of fish — and us too.
We are the only species in the world that is setting out to destroy itself.
Experts warn life on Earth will change drastically if we continue business as usual.
We are not judged on how we self-identify, we are judged on our actions, and if our actions cause misery, destruction and suffering, then we are not good people. If the product of our lives is nothing but suffering and destruction to animals, the environment, nature, the planet, how can we justify this?
All the animals in the slaughterhouse seek to live, they fight for their lives. They fight to live before going inside.
We should be doing everything in our power to help protect our planet–now.
The biggest cause of extinctions is habitat destruction. When you destroy the habitat, you are wiping out species. The basic cause of the 6th Mass Extinction is the number of people on the planet and population growth and how we consume resources.
We are co-opting more of the Earth’s resources to produce animal agriculture, essentially taking it away from other species and biodiversity.
If we can’t change ourselves and live in sustainable harmony, we need to go away.
The oceans pH has been stable for millions of years, but in the last one hundred years the acidification has sped up dramatically. Species are not accustomed to the chemical environment of a higher acidity. This level of acidification is completely unprecedented in history.
One third of all the CO2 we put in the atmosphere ends up in the ocean, which gets absorbed and makes the ocean more acidic.
According to the United Nations, animal agriculture is responsible for more greenhouse gasses and CO2 than all of the cars, buses, trains and ships in the world—combined. It is also the major driver of deforestation in the world. A mass global shift away from animal foods will be the biggest difference in reducing this.
Severe food and water shortages are expected in the future if we continue “business as usual.”
People who eat a plant-based diet can inhibit cancer cell growth by 70 percent, versus those eating an animal-based diet, only 9 percent. Eating animal-based protein can increase cancer risk significantly.
What Can You Do?
- Educate yourself on the urgency of these pressing issues.
- Advocate for clean, renewable energy and reduce your energy use.
- Minimize your use of plastic, especially single-use plastic, and recycle everything possible.
- Eat plant foods instead of animal foods – changing your diet is the most impactful action you can take.
- Reduce your environmental footprint by reducing your waste stream, consuming less, growing your own food, eliminating all meat, dairy and seafood, driving less, reducing the purchase of packaged products, using less energy – and by riding a bike!
Film Credits
Written, Directed and Narrated by: Sofia Pineda Ochoa, M.D.
Producers: Sofia Pineda Ochoa and Robert Rapfogel
Executive Producer: Sofia Pineda Ochoa
Guests Featured
- Moby
- Boris Worm
- Paul Ehrlich
- Claire Kremen
- Bill Ryerson
- Malcolm Potts
- Alicia Graves
- David M. Romps
- Daniel H. Miller
- James Gerber
- Philip Wollen
- Kim A. Williams
- Josh LaJaunie
- T. Colin Campbell