Exploring Our Planet: Nature Films Uncover Vital Facts About Earth

Our home planet, i.e., planet earth, is estimated to have been in existence for approximately the past 4.543 billion years. This is a vast amount of time through which numerous changes have been observed and experienced on the planet. By mere reading of historically recorded events or other publications, some vital information and facts concerning our planet could still have remained unknown to most people (Buttimer, 2012). However, nature films have taken up the responsibility and tried to provide enthusiastic viewers with a glimpse of some of the various aspects of nature that would have otherwise remained unknown to a majority of the population as well as researchers in the fields of geography, marine life, archeology and other related areas of study. As a result, we can understand our world better and also explain why various phenomena are or behave as they do.

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The main element that nature films promise is that they will reveal a world that could not otherwise be seen. Nature films are uniquely calming as the animals and vegetation are beautifully shot. Planet Earth II is a tremendous remarkable and captivating series that brings a person so close to the action with the luxurious looking pictures. The justification of these nature films such as Planet Earth II is that when people watch them they will start caring for the natural world and there are high chances they will get involved in the process of justifying it (Kelley, 1988). Unfortunately, the brilliance and beauty of these films breed contentment about the eternal destruction of the planet.

In the film Planet Earth II, the British Broadcasting Corporation, i.e., BBC has gone into great lengths in the attempt to record various natural phenomena in their indigenous setting uninterrupted by any other external factors such as human encroachment or polluted landscapes. The film has managed to present life on planet earth to the viewer in new different ways entirely bringing the viewer closer to various animal species, as well as reveal new wildlife occurrences, never witnessed before. Besides the filming of natural events, Planet Earth II has also managed to capture the various changes that our planet has undergone for instance in multiple sectors, e.g., global warming that has led to the changes in the world's climatic conditions thus affecting life as and the planet's outlook as well. Covering almost every corner of the earth, the viewer is brought to terms with the extreme lengths that both animals and other life forms go through in the attempt to survive the ever-changing nature of the planetary landscape.

Our planet, as we know it today, was a lot different just some few hundred years ago. Human activities are primarily responsible for the wave of destruction and degradation that has been observed. Global warming which has resulted in the changing of the natural habitats for most of the living organisms. Some of these changes include the melting of polar ice caps, rise in sea levels, and changes in the planetary weather systems and many other occurrences. Together combined, these events have seen the planets outlook change drastically, which may be broadly termed to as "the collapse of the planet's beauty."

With this in mind, it is possible to see that, if these trends continue unchecked, the planet earth as we know it might be destined for even worse destructive activities that will pose a massive threat to the aesthetic beauty. It is, therefore, necessary to identify the various ways in which our planet's aesthetic wellbeing is at risk and come up with measures that will help eradicate these vices.

Destruction of the Planet/Statistics

Biodiversity is another important aspect of the environmental setting that ensures that there is a wide variety of life in a given ecological setting. A given ecosystems ability to support life is an indication of the planet's ability to support life at a bigger scale. As we know it, there are millions and millions of living species, both plants, and animal all over the world. These species are distributed according to their ecosystem requirements, thereby seeing to it that different species are located in specific geographical locations. When these ecosystem settings are changed, the indigenous species to these localities are left exposed to extreme conditions which they may be unable to cope with thereby leading to the extinction of such species.

The living planet report 2016 by the World Wildlife Fund shows that there was a 58% decrease in the vertebrate population between 1970 and 2012 (World Wildlife Fund, 2016). This is the same period that that involves the broadcast of Attenborough's fascinating original series broadcasts. The primary factor of the destructions of the planet and the decline in animal species is the insatiable human cravings for more space for development, which started on the onset of capitalism (Smith, 2013). The habitat is destroying and degrading at an alarming rate facilitated by activities such as pollution, rampant poaching, and climate change. Planet Earth II nature program is shot as if the vast world extinction is not happening.

Destruction of these habitats means that there is the ever-shrinking of the free roam space that the species in this locality are allocated, thereby leading to conflict among the interspecies. For instance, in the Comoro islands of Indonesia, Comoro dragons have fallen victim to these shrinking habitats. With the changes in the global climatic conditions, the habitable space, and limited food on the island often lead to the unwanted competition where only the best-adapted life forms can survive. The Comoro dragons have been observed to constantly engage in fights to obtain food and other necessities such as mates. The weaker dragons always end up being killed, which is a loss to the planet statistics in terms of the species population.

Although some habitats have managed to remain hidden from the ongoing changes in the planetary system, it is only estimated that it is a matter of time before the living conditions in these areas are also affected. A good example of such ecosystems are the aquatic habitats. Coral reefs are among the basic sources of food for most aquatic habitats that are home to most sea animals. Other food supplements are obtained from dead-sea animals such as fish, turtles, and ells, among others. Destruction of the planets population has however seen a decline in the food supply to these dependent creatures, thereby resulting in a decline in the population of these aquatic species. Given that these creatures respire anaerobically, they play a vital role in the balancing of the oxygen levels in the deep waters (Myers, 2017). A decline in their population, therefore, indicates that there is an unprecedented imbalance in the oxygen levels, thus affecting a vast majority of other present life forms in the given habitat.

Such events have seen the continuous destruction of the planet species statistics where some species either undergo extinction, or there is a sudden increase in the population of another species. Such imbalances in the biodiversity distribution also pose a significant threat in the population distribution given that if the predatory species population rises uncontrollably, the prey species face a critical danger of being wiped out as food which will consequently have a reversal effect on the predators (Smith, 2013). As a result, it is necessary that these species populations remain within a sustainable proportion that the given ecosystem can sustain comfortably.

False Representation

Planet earth II has gone to a great extent to present the viewer with an unadulterated view of the natural world. However, one aspect that remains is that despite the pleasant display of this raw natural setting, change is sweeping in at an alarming rate that threatens the future existence of these habitats. Nature films such as Planet Earth II continues to be shot at the rapidly shrinking parks, reserves, and waters, creating a beautiful fantasy world of a false sense of security. A vast audience of the world is lured into a mistaken belief that the earth is a lovely planet where animals like Tigers still roam free without being troubled. As planet Erath II was being filmed, a report was released showing that the numbers of lions and elephants had rapidly reduced. However, no hint of the reality of the disaster is allowed in the film.

The human impact on the planet is huge than most people perceived it before. Species invasion in foreign habitats is one of the leading causes of the false representation of the actual representation on the conditions as it is on the ground. Islands have been the most severely hit by these cases of foreign species invasions. This happens when say ships on a cruise dock at a given location and end up leaving behind these new species (Pollard, 1979). For instance, the yellow ants at the islands of Comoro's have had to be controlled by human interference as they almost wiped out the crab's population in the island. Having no predators here, the ants managed to reproduce and multiply so fast given that there was an abundant food supply as well as favorable living conditions.

This, therefore, goes to show the false representation that some of the nature films have taken up on is quite misinforming to the viewer. It is essential that nature films take up the responsibility to present the situation on the ground as it is to the viewer which will in turn help to reach out to more people and therefore come up with solutions that will help to address the problem at hand. The continued shrinking of these natural habitats may continue to go unnoticed until it is too late to apply any combative measures to address the situation at hand.

Nature films such as Planet Earth II could serve as an important informative base for the viewers as well as other nature conservancy agencies by providing vital information on what is going on out there in the natural world. With such crucial information, it will be possible for the relevant agencies involved to come up with ways of improving our human-nature interaction, thereby helping to prevent the looming planet's beauty destruction.

Conclusion

Nature is an important aspect of our wellbeing as the human race as well as for other species that we share the planet with. The conservation of our natural environment is one area that should be treated with paramount importance. This is because, not only should we do this for our future generations to come, but the benefits of living in a well-conserved beautiful planet will be to our advantage as well. Nature films have already taken up the vital role of providing crucial information on the natural planetary systems; we can use this information as the base framework for coming up with strategies to improve our species inter-relations while still improving on the earth's aesthetic beauty.

The brilliance and beauty of nature films breed contentment about the eternal destruction of the planet. It is not a suggestion that the movie should not be aired. Instead, it is essential that the imaginations be balanced by reality. Planet Earth II and many nature films are a fantastic show of beauty that is fast disappearing from the planet. With this in mind, it is necessary to come up with conservational measures that will help in the restoration of our planets wellbeing as well as its aesthetic value.

References

Buttimer, A. (2012). Alexander von Humboldt and planet earth's green mantle. Cybergeo: European Journal of Geography.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/01/bbc-planet-earth-not-help-natural-worldhttps://www.vox.com/culture/2017/2/17/14614220/planet-earth-2-climate-change-impactKelley, K. W. (Ed.). (1988). The home plane...