Review on “Home - Arthus-Bertrand”

Name: Sweety Umesh Ingale.

Class: MBA (General), Division A

Roll Number: 56

Institution Name: Chhatrapati Shahu Institute Of Business Education And Research-[CSIBER]

Review:
Firstly, the documentary has some really breath taking clips of the Earth as it is with its variety of
landscapes and cities by the French photographer – Yann Arthus-Bertrand. And not to forget,
the background music was good. You will probably find yourself watching the documentary with
an open mouth if you actually make the effort of watching and listening.

The documentary first shows about the origins of life on Earth and how it used to be. The
documentary then explains the balance in the ecosystem and how the engine of life on Earth is
based on linkage – every life form is linked to the others. Glenn Close narrates the
interdependence of flora and fauna and their delicate balance which has been disturbed and
has affected the whole Earth.

Agriculture came up less than 10,000 years ago and it gave surplus food which further led to the
birth or civilizations and cities. Population grew by manifolds, industries flourished and demand
fuel rose to meet demands of globalized industrial production which led to oil and mineral
exploitation and humans started polluting the environment at an alarming rate.

“80% of the minerals are used up by 20% of the world’s population.”

Cities like Dubai, Los Angeles and Las Vegas are shown to be completely dependent on these
non-renewable fuel sources and their unsustainable development is shown while 1/6th of the
population lives without basic amenities and over a million people flock to cities every week. The
gap between the rich and poor keeps increasing.

“Species are dying at a rhythm 1000 times faster than the natural rate.” By 2050, 1/4th of the
Earth’s species may be threatened or extinct.

Rivers and the water table have been dangerously depleted. Many have been reduced to
trickling water during the summers and some don’t even meet the ocean.

Forest land has been cleared for supply of Palm oil, Eucalyptus and Soya bean and also to
grow grains to feed poultry animals for meat. Large scare deforestation has led to loss of habitat
and humus. Every year, 13 million hectares of forest land disappears, which is alarming.

Hunger is spreading again, affecting nearly 1 billion people with the explosion in population that
has multiplied 3 times since 1950.
The carbon that was trapped in the fuels, forests and the ground is being released again into the
atmosphere, heating it up. The polar ice caps are melting fast due to global warming and the
ecological balance is being threatened. By 2050, 1/4th of the Earth’s species may be threatened
or extinct. As Greenland’s ice melts, the fresh water mixes with sea water and hence the sea
level rises, submerging the low lying coastal areas. This shows that the atmosphere is an
indivisible whole and activities at one place show results all over the globe. Ice caps are 40%
thinner than they were 40 years ago. The average temperature over the last 15 years has been
the highest ever recorded. Major winds are changing direction and rain cycles are being altered.
There may be at least 200 million climate refugees by the year 2050.

And if you aren’t scared enough, here’s food for thought: The Permafrost methane time bomb.
In Siberia and Alaska, the ground is actually an ice layer trapping huge amounts of methane
which is a 20 times stronger greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. So if this cover melts, there
will be irreversible greenhouse effect and then life on Earth will be doomed. We have only 10
years to stop this from happening. We need to act FAST. It really is too late to be a pessimist.
And there is hope. Alternate fuel sources (like solar, wind and hydro energy) are being
harvested.

“Oil might run out, but we can extract oil from the tar sands of Canada.”

The above statement in the video was rather surprising. Aren’t we supposed to harvest
renewable energy from inexhaustible sources like the sun rather than scrounging for more
reserves and finishing every last of these resources?

All these facts are highly alarming and hard to ignore, even though it’s a PPR group initiative
which is ironic. But they do have guts. After all, it’s all those huge companies whose logos you
see in the beginning of the documentary who are majorly responsible in the first place. It may be
a gimmick to showcase their ‘concern’ towards the destruction of the ecosystem, and especially
to their horror, the depletion of resources that fuel their factories, but the documentary still has
facts that are shocking. But like Close said in the documentary, we need to become responsible
consumers (and boycott these big ass companies) and actually think before we buy. And when
I saw how much we’ve damaged the environment, I was ashamed and worried. Ashamed
because the whole Earth will pay the price of our reckless energy and resource consumption
and worried, because 10 years isn’t a long time.

The video really leaves an impression on the mind so deep