A documentary from CNN called “Planet in Perils” came out on Oct. 23rd and 24th, 2007. I will admit that before I saw the show, I never fully paid attention to global warming or anything else regarding our environment. If you are new to the environmental issues that our world is experiencing today, “Planet in Perils” is the perfect show for you. It basically summed up problems of global warming, species loss, deforestation and overpopulation and compressed everything into a reasonable length movie.
I honestly thought it would be just another documentary that talks about climate, weather, pollution…or something basic. There were moments during the show where I was glued to my seat and seconds where I felt like crying. One of the things I love about this film is the way it has a huge spoon of information distributed into different areas of environmental issues. Sometimes though, I get the feeling that CNN was trying to talk about too many things that it seemed a little bit sloppy in terms of the way an issue shifted from one to another.
The film has many parts to it. But one of my favorite would be the section when the film talked about the “Red Water” in China. Due to the nearby mining company, a Chinese river turned red. Villagers who live around there can do nothing since they rely on this red water. I liked the way the story shifts to a personal level where it showed a lady who lost her husband to a type of cancer caused by drinking water near the mining company. If enough people care, surely, there will be a solution to this problem. And I am quite positive that China is not the only country that has problems with dirty water.
Also, another scene from the documentary that moved me was the part with Sister Dorothy. She was a 74 years old activist who spent the last years of her life in the Amazon. Sister Dorothy helped the poor by teaching the villagers how to live off the woods while still caring for the forest. Because Sister Dorothy was helping the peasants and became very successful with what she did, she attracted many powerful enemies from the big ranching company who tried to take over the poor villagers’ lands for illegal logging. She was assassinated by two gun men on October 12th, 2005. Yet, her death had a positive impact rather than what the ranchers hoped for. I thought that this passage about Sister Dorothy and what she did for those poor villagers was very important in showing the audience how one person can make a difference in so many people’s lives.
Overall, I liked “Planet in Perils” very much. This would be the first movie I’d show people regarding the environmental problems we have in our world today. I believe one of the messages CNN was trying to convey is that we, humans, are the ones causing these ecological dilemmas. Whether or not that is true, you can draw your own conclusion. If you have not seen this film yet, I highly recommend it. Perhaps it will make you change your mind.
Written by truelife90
Truelife90 is the big winner of the Fall 2007 contest, and was invited to write a review of some environmental program or book after winning one of the competitions offered during the Fall 2007 contest.
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