Hi Everyone,
I haven't blogged in a while, apologies.
I wanted to talk a little bit about the BBC 1 Documentary that aired this evening in the UK 'Extinction - The facts'
I can honestly say the documentary shocked me, scared me, and left me feeling a little frustrated, gone are the times it seems when you could watch a documentary with Sir David Attenborough on a Sunday night with the family and be left in awe at the natural world, tonights documentary had a very different vibe, didn't it?
The documentary was hard hitting from the start, in times past we have had similar documentaries from the bbc but instead of showing the harrowing footage, they chose to show animals in their natural habitat, seemingly happy and unharmed. Tonight we seen less of that, and more of the heart wrenching footage of animal abuse, slaughter, climate breakdown and the effects of the illegal wildlife trade. That was a good move, a change that needed to happen and, if you have any heart, that would have made you sit a little less comfortably in your seat. I'm not going to repeat all the facts and information from the documentary into this blog, i'm not going include the photos and graphs, if you didn't watch it then you can get it on iPlayer. I will say this however, the footage, coupled with the evidence from scientist around the world painted a very bleak outlook for us all.
I sat there, watching the documentary and I could feel myself getting emotional. I was angry, I was scared, I was worried, I actually teared up! Some will read this and laugh, some will read this and make fun of me, and to be honest....I COULDN'T CARE LESS! You should have felt this way, this should have been the automatic response from any human. What I care about is the state of our planet, our home! I see the way society is rapidly becoming more obsessed with consumerism, status, and self-gratification and it disgusts me.
The documentary proved one thing tonight, whether you're vegan, veggie or a meat eater, we are all having a negative impact on the world.......ALL OF US!
We need to change, COVID has shown the world that we can actually change and adapt our ways, but this is where the documentary fell short for me, towards the end of the documentary I was hoping for some solutions, some actions, something I could go away with and think "yeah, I can change that, I can do this" some direction to give the casual viewer, something to help, but there wasn't really anything was there? It wasn't exactly clear what any of us should be doing. I can take an educated guess on how to help, but i'm already doing those things and trying to implement them into my family life, but what about those viewers who don't have the same peers as me, those viewers who don't have that access to the information that I, and many others have? This was a prime time to give that advice, and it kind of fell short in my opinion. Then, to end on a success story, for me, just ruined the whole narrative of the documentary. It set out from the start to be shocking, harrowing, and a real insight into how we, the human race, are fucking this planet up, and that narrative should have stayed throughout, but it didn't. Instead, we got cute cuddly gorillas to end with and its in my opinion this is why people don't take these types of documentaries serious. You finish watching the documentary thinking "look, these animals are fine, look at this success" and then tomorrow you go about your life thinking its somebody else's job to save the world......IT'S NOT.
Don't get me wrong, it is a great success story, and one that should most definitely be celebrated, but not at the end of a documentary that was clearly designed to give the human race a little wake up call, but of course thats just my opinion.
I'm going to bed this evening extremely disappointed, worried, and a little lost.
The documentary for the most part was good, it was definitely different from the normal ones we get, but I still think theres room to be more brutal and honest about what exactly goes on in the world.
Click the link here to watch - BBC 1 - Extinction - The facts