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Stream National Geographic: Human Footprint Movie Online. Movie Title: National Geographic: Human Footprint Average customer review: National Geographic: Human Footprint is available for streaming or downloading. Click Here to Stream or Download National Geographic: Human Footprint

I teach high school science and 100 level science classes at the local university. I showed the dvd for both groups with a worksheet I made up for them (anyone in education knows that you must give the students something to work on relating to the movie they’re watching, or else they won’t pay attention). It was visually impressive to see the amounts of “stuff” we go through in a lifetime, and it’s a good movie because students have no idea what these amounts really are; they cannot fathom how immense 43,000 soda cans is. However that’s really all there was to this dvd-they show a product (or activity), explain (briefly)how it is constructed, or shipped, and then they actually display the amount with the number (literaly they laid out 43,000+ soda cans in a parking lot). There was no explanation of the impact or problems associated with the levels of consumption or waste. And after 30-40 minutes (the dvd is 1.5hrs) it gets well, kind of boring. So good for providing the visual concept, poor in terms exploring the underlying cause and consequences.

This film tracks the life of a boy and girl from childhood through old age.

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At various stages of life their consumption of various resources is examined in great detail.

The early displays of actual counts of what they use are at first fascinating and impressive. Gee…I thought… someone went to lot of effort to assemble and set up over 43,000 soft drink cans.

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Then as the statistical bombardment continues, one begins to wonder are these numbers really correct. Each stat is accompanied with yet another visual display of what the number means. OK…I get it…I don’t need to see the actual number of toothbrushes I will use in a lifetime.

Finally, the whole experience becomes irritating, if there is a point here the film is not making it clear (at least for me). Even small uses become large values over the 77 years of the average lifespan.

Are we supposed to apologize for being alive? That was the way I felt a few times. Apparently you are really not a good person if you eat cheeseburgers.

I would certainly agree that there are waste and excesses that need to be curbed especially here in America, but the film seems to imply that consumers are to blame for all of it.

There is nothing in the film about the endless marketing and advertising that drive all of us to over-buy and over-use. Consumption and more consumption is just what corporations want and their role in driving that to excess is never explored.

The planned and engineered obsolescence of many products that requires us to re-buy the same items that fill up the landfills is also never considered.

As an hypothetical example, the “Acme Widget Company” wants you to buy as many “widgets” as possible in your lifetime, building them to last is the very last thing they want to do. Meanwhile landfills are accumulating thousands of broken and worn out “widgets”.

There is also nothing about the real source of the human footprint impact and that is over-population. Even consumption in moderate amounts really starts to add up with 6+ billion of us out there.

Finally, it seems the film misses a golden opportunity to discuss the positive benefits of recycling. If it was discussed at all I missed it.

Human Footprint is certainly worth a look, but the steady stream of “average” statistics may not be entertaining for some. For me, I felt a sense of relief when the film was over.

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