Search - Earth Report: State of the Planet 2009 (Ws) on DVD

A green or scientific almanac

Jeffery Mingo | Homewood, IL USA | 11/20/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This focuses exclusively on 2008. Nothing is said of Hurricane Katrina or the terrible post-Christmas tsunami.
This work says the world has severe natural and climate-based threats, however, solutions are being mapped out. If we can use water movement to make electricity maybe we won't need fossil fuels. Norway is keeping a seed of every plant, so if there is a potato famine-like virus, maybe the saved seeds and replenish things. Species are dying out, but some like the whale are coming back. Gorillas live in place humans didn't know they exist. Still, sometimes the work congratulates scientists for studying phenomena, but there's no proof the study will lead to a solution.
THis work has diverse topics, including volcanoes, the polar ice caps, biodiversity, the urbanization of humans, finding skeletons of species long gone. The scientific community can be homogenous, so it was surprising and refreshing to see so many women and people of color interviewed in this documentary.
The work has English language captions, but I wish it had foreign language subtitles too.
I hated science as a student, but this work is science-hater-friendly at the same time that it will inform the scientifically-inclined."

Earth Report-State of the Planet 2009

Gerald Gordon | New York | 02/17/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The film is dynamic and was well received by students in my wife's college class on environmental science which she teaches."