Cove director's new doc warns of impending ecological catastrophe

Johnny Langenheim: Racing Extinction shows humans are driving earth's sixth great extinction; coral reefs could be the first global ecosystem to disappear

In early 2014, a story made headlines around the world. At a factory in Wenxhou, southeast China owned by a Mr Li, whale sharks were being slaughtered in their hundreds, their various constituent parts distributed for food, medicine and cosmetics not just in China, but in the west too.

Footage of an undercover sting in the factory is among the most viscerally shocking sequences in Racing Extinction, which airs tonight on the Discovery Channel in the UK. The new documentary by Louis Psihoyos, director of The Cove, is based on the premise that we humans are driving earth's sixth great extinction event - the first time that such a happening has been caused by a species.