Tonkel+Human+Footprint

1. The human footprint was create by national geographic and released in 2008. 2. This film was about the huge amounts of stuff that a single typical American will consume, use, and throw away in their lifetime. 3. Only a few sustainability problems were addressed throughout the film. It really only covered the major problems with consumption and disposal. Looking a little deeper, the film did show signs of addressing the poor way our nation goes about producing these goods and the vast amounts of raw materials that are put into everything that we buy or eat. 4. The most amazing part of this film was how the volunteers put everything an average person uses into one place so that it can be viewed together. It really helps address the out of sight out of mind problem that our culture faces. The last scene of the documentary is a house in the middle of an open field surrounded by almost everything that was talked about during the film. It was remarkable to see how much space even just the small portion of stuff took up when it is gathered in one place. It makes me wonder how much space of resources each person uses throughout their lives. How big of an open field would I need to have filled with trees, minerals, and crops to make everything I have or will have used in my life? 5. Since the film really only dealt with the gathering and placement of goods, there wasn’t much to be unconvinced by. However, the documentary lasted for a long time and began to repeat the same process of throwing out number after number. Towards the end of the film I became almost immune to facts and figures that were being thrown out so that they no longer had much of an impact on how I viewed my consumptive patterns. 6. I did think the film did a good job of putting a spark into me in order to get me to search for ways to buy, use or consume less. It talked about the huge amounts of water used in washing machines, so I am very curious to know how often someone really needs to wash their cloths. It sounds silly because no one wants to wear stinky smelly cloths, but often I have probably washed items of clothing that were still perfectly fine to wear. Also, washing clothes takes a huge toll on their quality, causing them to wear down. Wouldn’t refraining from washing your clothes too often make them last longer, reducing the energy use involved with all your clothes consumption? It is many small little questions similar to this that I want to know after watching this. A few other examples would be how many showers should a person take to stay relatively clean for sanitary and health reasons or what ways could a consumer find out what TV has the least energy input during its production and shipping process? Overall, after watching this film I want to know at what point in history did our society become obsessed with over cleanliness and sanitation. It seems as though we would be perfectly healthy if we stopped being as clean, so why does it matter to so many people? 7. Obviously this film was created to show the typical American their impact on our planet. I think it shows problems with all ages of American people. Although most of the ways to change address the adults that spend the money, it would be just as helpful, if not more helpful to show this to young kids and young adults that can make changes throughout their entire lives to help reduce this amazing consumption problem. I would like to be optimistic and say that after watching this people may have a different attitude. It’s just so hard to change habits that have been instilled in people for years. 8. The film has a website and so throughout the film, the narrator routinely refers to the website to show people what else they can do to help. The problem is that I am not so sure that all the tips they give are the best way to go about creating change. They talk about changing light bulbs, but like we have discussed in class, it is not helpful to just go out and buy these new florescent bulbs to replace perfectly good bulbs at home. Like any television channel, sponsor and advertising are what allow it to be paid for. It was very easy to spot who these sponsor were within the film. For example, all the cars just happened to be ford’s newest models. 9. There could have been a lot done to enhance the educational value of this film. I understand that this film was made for American TV and not exactly created for the same reasons as many of the films we view in this course, but even with its lighter tone and simpler matrix of problems many things could have been added. First off the film spent too much time with the placement and views of all this stuff, after a while the piles of trash looses their effect. Instead the director could have begun discussing the causes both cultural and political that are often the cause for the consumptive problem. Things like planned obsolescence, the magnitude of advertising, and the differences between many Americans consumption and those of people of other countries like Demark. Very rarely did the film talk about the root of the problem or the way to solve the problem. It basically just showed what the problem was. I think that adding more suggested solutions would have added to its value and even a segment about what types of things organizations and groups are doing to reduce consumption and change cultural norms.