Like watching a classic Planet Earth doc, we are immediately introduce to long, smooth shots of the planet we call home. Only this time, we find ourselves on the other side of the camera instead of the King of the Jungle.
The scenes aren’t very stunning or peaceful to watch. Rather, the signs of the negative human impacts on the planet are shown plainly through the trainyard beaches being occupied for a sunbathe in Russia, the extreme excavation sights, the deforested temperate trees in Canada, the floods filling city streets, the overpopulated streets and churches built for millions in Nigeria, the bare feet buried in trash.
“Yearly, humans extract 60-100 billion tons of materials from Earth, moving more sediment than all of Earth’s rivers combined.” Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (2019)
When we finally get our glimpse at a mighty jungle cat, it’s only behind glass in captivity at the London Zoo as awareness to protect endangered species. The only animals in this nature documentary are those critically endangered or extinct in the wild due to human taking their habitats or hunting them for their beautiful assets. This is the sixth large extinction to happen throughout history, but this is the first time that the blame can be pointed.
I think the approach that this film takes to expressing the urgency of climate change is very effective. We constantly hear things about climate change happening, numbers that sound scary, and projections about what could occur. This clearly has been an ineffective message for many, but the lack of dialogue here can be heard much louder. It is very in your face and shows exactly the impact that humans have made to the planet thus far, rather than just preaching that it is just simply happening.
It shouts “Look here! See your damage?”
