Home: An amazing documentary

Yesterday, I watched an amazing documentary called 'Home', about how humans are affecting the environment. Here's the link. I highly recommend it. The picturization and music are terrific. It starts off with a brief overview about evolution and how water, air, land and life are all inter linked and in intricate balance (until the arrival of humans). It then goes on to explain how we have managed to bring the whole system to the brink of collapse within a few decades. It does a very good job in explaining the dangers of overusing non-renewable resources: oil, coal, fossil water and minerals. It also explains how intensive agriculture, which in turn is propelled by the demand for meat, depletes the earth's resources including water and forests. One of the most troubling things is that in the last three decades, about a quarter of the amazon rain forest has been cleared to grow soybeans, 95% of which are being fed to cattle and poultry and converted into milk and meat. This is happening in spite of the fact that over a billion people live in extreme poverty and hunger.

Towards the end the narrator suggests and supports investing in renewable energy sources: solar, geo thermal, tidal and wind. My only criticism is that they don't quite advocate what we can do individually to help the cause. I think it is indisputable that going vegan or at least significantly cutting out animal products is one of the most effective ways to help the environment. That way we would use less resources (land, water, power), help in reducing global warming and pollution and contribute towards reducing world hunger.