Netflix Documentaries about the Planet
Updated: Apr 15, 2021
Welcome back to Way to Zero Waste, in this post we bring you three fantastic documentaries to inform you about the context of the sustainability of the planet and all the essential aspects that this entails.
A PLASTIC OCEAN
Filmmaker Craig Leeson began filming a documentary in 2011 about the blue whale. What they didn't know was that they would find themselves with a sea shrouded in plastic, and they would be forced to change the direction of the project.
They focused on discovering where all that amount of human waste came from, who generated it, in what quantity, what are the consequences of this material in our lives,....
The truth is that we believe that when we throw something in the trash or throw it in the sea, it just disappears. This documentary aims to inform about the importance of preventing plastic consumption, both for our own good and for the health of animals and planet earth.
Scientists estimate that there are more than five trillion pieces of plastic floating in the seas around the world, we must take into account that the animals that inhabit the marine habitat must feed under these circumstances and unfortunately end up ingesting toxins, and these pass into their circulatory system, and then accumulate in the fatty tissue and around vital organs. When they use fat, the toxins circulate throughout the body, affecting their metabolism and their renal reproductive system. We must also bear in mind that a large part of the society that consumes meat will end up ingesting the toxins that have previously been ingested by marine animals.
Another important aspect to mention is the consumption of plastic that comes from food packaging. We do not realize it, but a large part of the consumption of this material comes from the food industry, which generates eighty million tons of garbage a year in unnecessary packaging alone. We should be aware of the amount of plastic waste we generate every day and the short life of plastic.
COWSPIRACY
This documentary tries to disprove certain myths about the livestock industry and the consumption of meat in society today.
Kip is an American man who decides to immerse himself in a sustainable life for the planet, which is why he changes all aspects of his life that are not in line with his values and decides to undertake a documentary based on various interviews with the most recognized organizations that support the environment worldwide, as well as multinationals that have not established a sustainable business model; and debate about the ethics of their actions.
Throughout the film, Kip comes to the conclusion that living a zero waste life was not enough to contribute to a sustainable life for the planet. The livestock and dairy industries generate more greenhouse gases than all cars, trucks, trains, ships and planes combined. The UN states that not only do livestock greatly influence climate change, but they are the biggest destroyer of resources.
The protagonist mentions that he always tried to take very short showers to save water, but that it was basically useless if he then ate an animal meat burger, as it was the equivalent of taking a shower for two whole months. The truth is that nine liters of water are needed to produce 450 grams of meat, a barbarity! Environmental experts from the World Bank state that the livestock industry is responsible for 51% of greenhouse gases.
Livestock currently generates 65% of the world's nitrous oxide, a gas whose warming capacity is 296 times that of CO2. Yet we only hear about fossil fuels.
Consuming fish is also a problem for the environment. Humanity empathizes much more with land animals compared to sea animals and the truth is that we should not underestimate them, because not only do we make species disappear, but we also destroy a number of marine habitats essential for the survival of all species that inhabit the sea.
Therefore, the only way to live ethically and sustainably on this planet, along with 7 billion other people, is to go vegan.
MINIMALISM
You can never have enough of something you don't really want.
This documentary tries to give us the hidden vision of today's consumerism, which has led us to the destruction of the planet by inciting us more and more to unnecessary purchases.
Ryan Nicodemus along with his best friend Joshua Fields Millburn tell their experience with the minimalist lifestyle and the feeling of happiness it brings them.
Mass consumerism has been evolving over the last hundred years and has been increasing due to its normalization in society, caused by the influences of big industries and the media.
We live our lives depending on our space, which is given by all the material goods we have consumed throughout our lives, and what we should do is to create our space to fit our lives. This would bring us much more simplicity, since we do not need big things for our survival, always according to the great phrase "less is more".
The craving for new goods to satisfy your needs comes from the concept of fashion, which embodies the idea that you can get rid of things not when they cease to be useful, but when they cease to have social value.
Irrational consumption also causes the degradation of our habitat. We can afford 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but the truth is that we are reaching 400 parts per million. This is because of the burning of oil, natural gas, coal and all the fuels we use to fuel the consumer economy, that is, the amount of unnecessary goods that we don't really need and are nothing more than a whim.
Another problem of society is the fact of believing that the more money you have the more secure you will feel. But the reality is that the vast majority of the time we will not have control over the fact of earning more, but on the contrary, we do have control over spending less money. When you start on the path to minimalism you realize that having less automatically stretches what you have.
It is very important to be informed about the current state of the planet and all the factors that damage it. The more information you have, the freer you will be to act on all the current problems. Any change, no matter how small it may seem, is of great help for the future of all of us.
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