Ava Howell

AP Environmental

Mrs. Bobsein

6 October2021

Reflection Paper

A Life on Our Planet is an eye opening documentary by David Attenborough, an activist,

reflecting on the history of the environment. He discusses the planet’s biodiversity and how it has

been degraded. Due to his age and his travels around the world, he is a witness of the

environmental deterioration around him. An idea that Attenborough is trying to demonstrate to

the viewers is the need for humanity to fix their hearts and change their mind about society

around them.

On the first day of the documentary, my reaction was surprised but not totally shocked.

The facts that Attenborough discussed I was already aware of. It was sad to hear about the

extinction of animals, but it was just common knowledge. The second day of the documentary

left me both shocked and depressed. It was very disheartening to see what we, as a society, have

done to the environment. The extinction of many species is all of our fault due to either climate

or the cutting down of trees. With the population getting bigger, it’s obvious we need more

resources. This documentary impacts my view on environmental science by making me realize

that society is the main problem of not living sustainably. With our open access use of resources,

people have become more selfish and take more for themselves which leads to degradation of

plants and animals. It’s depressing hearing all of these problems in the environment when we are

the reason but we just don’t or care to realize it.

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 Attenborough does not seem to me as an alarmist but someone who is wise and looking

out for the future of our environment. He is a naturalist who studies different parts of the world

around him carefully. He seems very knowledgeable and trustworthy and is detailing different

warnings that are going to occur with evidence to support. For example, he talks about how

oceans are starting to become more acidic and to support his theory, he says more coral reefs are

dying. All the ideas he made about the planet changes my whole perspective of how humans

should treat the planet. I thought that humans didn’t have much of an impact on the earth, but all

the evidence that is shown changes my mind. With billions of trees being cut down and 80% of

the freshwater being reduced, this shows how much we take for granted on the planet. The earth

is beginning to lose it’s balance and, to fix it, humans have to live more sustainably.

The film was very heartwarming and eye opening to me and what touched me the most

was the extinction of animals through recent years which was caused by humans. It’s very

disheartening to hear how 70% of the birds are domestic and 60% of animals we raise are to eat.

We use these animals way over the sustainable yield and species populations are getting lower by

the second. It also made me very angry that many people, myself included, can be selfish and

take more than what they need. I am willing to bet if everyone in this world would watch this

documentary, then people would start treating the whole environment the way it should be

treated - with care and consideration. While watching this film, I understood many of the points

that Attenborough was trying to make and I don’t know much about environmental science, yet.

So in reality, for those that do not understand the concepts of environmental science, they would

still appreciate this film due to how in depth and detailed Attenborough delves into the

documentary regarding the struggles of the environment.

Towards the end of the documentary, I feel inspired to help out the environment in any

way I can. I was thinking of different ways to start, perhaps making easily attainable goals which

I can improve on later in the years. For example, I’m going to start eating less meat. I currently
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 eat meat on a daily basis, but now I am going to cut down my meat intake. This film not only

showed me the sobering truth of the damage humans have inflicted to this world, but also

showed me how we can make a big difference in changing the world, by helping the environment

sustainably.

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