An Taisce organised a free screening of the Academy Award nominated documentary 'Racing Extinction (2015)' on the 05/18/2016 as part of National Biodiversity Week. The documentary highlighted the ongoing global biodiversity crisis which is currently unfolding. Scientists predict we may lose half the species on the planet by the end of the century. They believe we have entered the sixth major extinction event in Earth's history. Number five took out the dinosaurs. This era is called the Anthropocene, or 'Age of Man', because the evidence shows that humanity has sparked this catastrophic loss. The documentary follows a team of undercover activists trying to do their best to prevent the extinction of species and highlight the ongoing man-made mass extinction and its main drivers. The documentary highlighted many issues which An Taisce actively work on such as biodiversity loss, climate change and the role that consumers play in driving both.

The documentary was screened in Filmbase, Curved Street, Temple Bar, Dublin. As one of the themes of the film was the role of diet and consumer choices in driving over fishing, climate change and biodiversity loss we took the opportunity to highlight the environmental virtues of a meat free diet. Free catering was provided by Cornucopia, Dublin with a completely vegan menu.

We had a great response to the event and we struggled to meet the demand for tickets. We had to upgrade the event twice ultimately to a capacity of 100 people. We were delighted with the turnout for the event and were glad to see such a powerful response to the emotive issues raised in the film.