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Human threat to the environment
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Recommended: Human threat to the environment
Vanessa Heredia
Jennifer Huerta
MCWP 50
8 February 2016
Research Proposal: The Impact of Environmental Documentaries If you were to place a timeline of the Earth’s existence and events on a 24-hour clock, humans have existed for less than one minute of the entire 24 hours. Less than one minute, and yet in those seconds humans have managed to destroy natural habitats and ecosystems, deposit over 525 billion tons of CO2 into the ocean and drive hundreds of species to extinction. As the human world is evolving into a modern, technological society dominated by globalization and overexploitation, events such as these become commonplace casualties brushed aside by various other occurrences in the world. How, then, does a society combat these issues
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Examining the impact of these films, as a result, can generate further data on the practice of these films as fundamental components of the conservation toolbox. Racing Extinction and Mission Blue are environmental documentaries based on the ongoing Anthropogenic mass extinction of species and the efforts from scientists, activists, and journalists to create and display contemporary campaigns to display its components and solutions. Each film portrays particular ideas on the various aspects of the Anthropogenic extinction and era. Racing Extinction focuses on implications of globalization, overexploitation, and animal agriculture as leading causes of extinction while Mission Blue documents the story behind legendary biologists, environmentalists, and explorers and their efforts to portray the devastation in certain areas around the globe as well as their campaign to create a global network of protected marine sanctuaries, or Hope Spots. By applying these films to David Whiteman’s model and examining statistical data surrounding their ideas, I will determine their overall effect on environmental issues in desperate need of attention. As critically acclaimed films produced by Oscar winning directors like Louie Psihoyos they will serve as ideal models for their impact and the need for future use of similar
Humans can not be the only thing that is hurting the Earth. When you really think about it, Earth goes through a lot of natural disasters, which cannot be controlled. According to an activist, Tim Haering, “Tsunamis, floods, volcanoes, earthquakes, tornadoes, wildfires, disease nature kills more than we kill each other.” Earth throws in all of these natural ...
There have been five mass extinctions over the last half-billion years while the sixth extinction is currently being examined by scientists around the world. Studies have shown that this is the most shocking and damaging event since the impact that caused the extinction of dinosaurs. This one is different from all others, because humans are the cause of this disaster to our current environment. If we don’t start to realize this issue and do something about it, eventually it will be too late to try to save the Earth and ourselves. I am going to analyze the sixth chapter, “The Sea Around Us,” for pathos, ethos, visual rhetoric and other related issues
The first two acts of this film are truly inspiring because they capture the "fire" of the environmental movement. It chronologically begins by discussing the origins of conservative environmentalists, to documenting the details of successful environmental movements, and concluding by explaining the merging of civil rights with environmentalists. Ultimately, “A Fierce Green Fire “serves as a dynamic call for the continuing action of protecting and conserving our biosphere.
...ishing. While it makes clear that changes need to be made politically, this is a film meant to appeal to the environmentally concerned citizen. The film-like elements, while distracting to those watching the film with analytical intent, would most likely evade the average viewer. Such thematic elements help to increase viewer engagement, already lacking in environmental films, as becomes significantly easier to watch. Rupert Murray created a film not to be picked apart by critics, but to serve as conversational material between average citizens. He takes steps to ensure that viewers are given simple directives and memorable arguing points, such as repeating images of the MSC sustainable logo. While the statistics may have be victim to claims of arbitrariness, it is easy to visualize an individual at a party asking if others have heard that seafood will end in 2048.
In 1989, seventy five percent of Americans identified themselves as environmentalists, and the number has continued to grow since then (Walls 1). Environmentalism is now the most popular social movement in the United States, with over five million American families donating regularly to environmental organizations (Walls 1). Environmentalists today focus on what kind of world they hope to see in the future, and largely deal with limiting pollution and changing consumption rates (Kent 1 and 9). Modern environmentalists also have much different issues than those Carson’s America faced. With climate change becoming more threatening each year, protection of the natural world is needed more than ever. Pollution has caused the warmest decade in history, the deterioration of the ozone layer, and species extinction in extreme numbers (Hunter 2). It not only threatens nature, but also human populations, who already suffer from lack of clean water and poisoning from toxic chemicals (Hunter 16). Unlike environmental actions in the 1960’s, which were mostly focused on protection, a massive increase in pollution has caused efforts to be focused on environmental restoration (Hunter 16). Like in the time of Silent Spring, environmentalists are not only concerned with one country. Protecting the environment remains a global issue, and every nation is threatened by the
More than seven billion people currently live in this world, and the number continues to increase.The human race has become like a mindless horde, it leaves nothing behind andconsumes everything in its path. Since the end of the Black Death in the fourteenth century,the human population has been growing steadily and it has been exploding since the 1950's.The resources are rapidly becoming depleted. There is massive environmental pollution that is increasing the global temperature and the sea levels are rapidly rising. In short the resources are rapidly getting depleted. In a similar way to the survivors in the zombie films, the human race feels helpless to stop this(Robson, 2013).
The Cove is a film of activism, a film meant to move the hearts of individuals who love and support the rights of mammalian sea-dwellers like that of whales, porpoises, and most importantly dolphins. Produced in 2009 by the Oceanic Preservation Society it offers a unique perspective, when compared with other activist documentaries. In The Cove the producer and co-founder of the Oceanic Preservation Society was actually personally involved in the filming efforts and worked directly with dolphin trainer Richard O’Barry in drawing light on the events occurring in a private cove in the city of Taiji, Japan. The documentary is, of course, very biased towards the topic, with obvious pro-animal rights leanings supported indirectly with a strong utilitarian basis. When analyzing documentaries such as this it is vitally important to take as objective a perspective as possible, though humanity tends to be innately prone to bias, and scrutinize through perspectives that have established ethical guidelines.
Racing Extinction is an optically stunning documentary that explores the causes and possible solutions to the Anthropocene Extinction Event. The film is directed by Boulder resident and Academy Award winning director of The Cove, Louie Psihoyos, whose background spars from nearly two decades of photojournalism with National Geographic. The term Anthropocene describes the current era of man that lives on the planet Earth. The extinction event itself, the largest in geological history, is caused by the negative externalities that have arisen due to human activity in the relatively fractional moment that humans have subsided on Earth. Racing Extinction conveys a strong message of environmental conservation to an audience of consumers who are sympathetic to nonhumans and ecologically
Modern-day genetic technology has granted mankind with the opportunity to bring back extinct species from the dead. If humans have come to possess the DNA from an extinct animal population, it is possible to create an identical clone of the animal in question, effectively “bringing it back from the dead”. Many ethical dilemmas surround the practice of de-extinction, and rightfully so. Recreating an extinct species could produce groundbreaking scientific breakthroughs, generating exciting opportunities for future genetics-based research. However, there could also be monumental consequences: the newly revived, once-extinct species might destroy the ecological equilibrium of modern Earth
The Portrayal of the Ocean in Documentaries Compared to Hollywood Films The purpose of this montage is to showcase how the portrayal of the ocean in documentaries and Hollywood films is markedly different. “Ocean,” in this case, refers to any large body of water and the living creatures it. Also, “Hollywood” as used here does not strictly refer to filming location. Rather, “Hollywood” means films made in the Classical Hollywood Cinema style, which typically means usage of straightforward cause and effect narratives and continuity editing.
nuclei was then inactivated and substituted with dead nuclei from the extinct frog. Some eggs started to grow and divide to early embryo stage (a tiny ball of m...
Did you know that more than 90 percent of all organisms that have ever lived on Earth are extinct? According to Pandey, the author of Humans Pushing Marine Life toward ‘Major Extinction’, nearly 10,000 species go extinct each year, and this rate is estimated to be 1,000 times higher than the natural extinction rate (1). Human beings are causing irreversible damage to the oceans and their wildlife, which is being led by two major reasons: Commercial fishing or over-fishing, which damaged the marine environment and caused a loss in the marine life diversity, and pollution, which is a primary way of the extinction causes that drastically modifies the marine life habitat. As a result of the commercial fishing and pollution, many of the marine species will start disappearing of the oceans. Briggs emphasizes that over-fishing “has induced population collapses in many species. So instead of having less than a hundred species at risk, as was the case some 30-40 years ago, there are now a thousand or more (10).”
Everyone’s all seen those wildlife shows on tv. The shows on National Geographic and such, showing animals in beautiful environments, everything lush and growing and nothing at all wrong that could threaten these creatures and places. But, have anyone seen the other side? The side where all these beautiful creatures and plants starve, are decimated by predators that have never been there before, and sometime even become poisoned by their very own homes and habitats? Of course no one has. That doesn’t mean that its not happening. It is happening, and its happening everywhere. And guess who is to blame? People. Society. Humans as a race pollute the environment, hunt animals simply for their parts, fish way more than humans will ever need just for the sake of money, introduce new species to new places for our own gain, and even purposefully destroy entire regions just for human expansion. And its starting to take its toll. While it is true that nature is constantly in flux and certain species come and go, humans are causing more species to disappear in the past few hundred years then nature has ever caused since the age of the dinosaurs, and therefore it is up to humans to repair the damage caused, be it cleaning the environment and habitats of these creatures, or taking more direct action to protect and preserve the species that are on the brink of extinction.
Human beings, ever since its creation has never been alone on the earth. As we all know we share this planet with lots of different species of living creatures, such as animals, and plants. But even though we name ourselves the superior species due to our ability to think, make decisions and choose how we want to live our lives, we start to grow. Our growth ranges among many different aspects, such as infrastructure and lifestyle. This led to us somehow neglecting the fact that we are not alone in this planet. We start pushing other species out of the way, and we sometimes don’t realize that the impact felt by those other species has terrible and sometimes deadly consequences, and also we sometimes fail to understand that it can also cause harm to us.
...as human we need to take care of it by following all the correct measurement. Maybe, the smallest action can bring huge difference to the world and help to save the ecosystem. Any extinction species can be preserved and make a plantation to help the world green. Cut off any unnecessary activities that bring damage to the surrounding. Besides, generate of energy also can be changed with alternative ways like renewable energy that must be more clean and safe. The fossil fuel source also will not remain exists and will run out someday. Take a good action and care for our world as we live on it. This because the world content all the sources we need to survive like food, water, shelter and etc. The most important thing is to start activities and usage that are environmentally friendly, for example, organic foods and materials, natural gases, less electrical use and etc.