Social Impact

The ocean drives global systems that make the Earth habitable for humankind. Our rainwater, drinking water, weather, climate, coastlines, much of our food, and even the oxygen in the air we breathe, are all ultimately provided and regulated by the sea. Careful management of this essential global resource is a key feature of a sustainable future. However, at the current time, there is a continuous deterioration of coastal waters owing to pollution, and ocean acidification is having an adversarial effect on the functioning of ecosystems and biodiversity. This is also negatively impacting small scale fisheries.

Coastal seas

I recently watched the coastal seas episode from the documentary “Our Planet”. The episode gave amazing insights as to what life was once like in the ocean, what it is like today, and what it will be like in the future. It is clear that this episode is doing everything it can to help educate its audience on the sustainable UN goal of life below water. This is evident immediately through the blurb alone from the documentary, where it says, “Protecting these habitats is a battle humanity must win”. This episode so brilliantly educates us whilst keeping us entertained. How it does this is by keeping us engaged visually with stunning cinematography, picked up on high quality cameras, whilst we audibly here Sir David tell us consistently interesting facts about the life that we are seeing on screen. The documentary then cleverly gives us a plethora of information looking at all sides of the argument for more ocean life preservations. It starts showing us the ocean as it is, doing this keeps us engaged as this is what we first expected of the episode. However, it then goes on to show us what the ocean used to be like, how it is now, and how it will be in the future. Seeing the devasting news that unless we see a change in how we treat our oceans we may see a large drop in life underwater is terrifying to see. This is when the documentary then shows us how well this could all turn out, it does this by showing us the underwater life of a preserved water space where the fish are able to roam freely without our interruption. It is after we see these glorious shots full of life and colour, that sir David then announces the shows partnership with WWF and urges us to not only donate to the cause, but also to further educate ourselves on how we can help with this sustainable goal.