'11th Hour': The planet is sick and we're the disease, DiCaprio film explains

I admire "The 11th Hour," the labor-of-love documentary co-written and co-produced by narrator Leonardo DiCaprio, more than I like it.

Of course, "The 11th Hour" was not made to be liked. As much a call to action as a documentary, it's a compelling and sobering lesson in the devastating effect of human industry on the planet. But a lesson nonetheless.

Those expecting a battle cry to "Save the Earth" may find it humbling that the planet is remarkably resilient and will survive us all. It's the destruction of the people-friendly environment, that thin bubble of life on the Earth's crust, that alarms scientists and thinkers and leaders from across the political and social spectrum. We have brewed up an environment increasingly hostile to human existence with our industrial chemistry set.

The essential message is not new, but the film backs it up with a wealth of compelling evidence and arguments (and a few dubious witnesses). Directors Nadia Conners and Leila Conners Petersen connect the dots among environmental crises too often discussed as isolated issues and make the modest proposal that we stop treating the planet simply as property to be exploited.

"The 11th Hour" has none of the attention-getting stunts of Michael Moore's entertaining and lively productions, or the personality and palpable passion of Al Gore in "An Inconvenient Truth." The alarming evidence calls for more than a dutiful slide show to rouse audiences to action, but the intelligent and provocative meeting of minds is nonetheless compelling and disturbing.

Climate change is just one symptom of the disease plaguing the planet. Others include deforestation, air pollution, soil degradation, toxins in the oceans and aquifers, and the rapid extinction of species. The planet, just like a sick human with a fever, is heating up to kill the disease. (That would be we.)