Educational Media Reviews Online

The documentary Animate Earth seeks to inspire scientists to embrace a new holistic science. Stephen Harding, the host and author of the film and the companion book explains “our world is in crisis . . . I think that science has contributed . . . but I also think that science has the answer.” Thus, he calls for a scientific revolution for the 21st century that has a reverence for Gaia. Harding interviews historians, scientists, philosophers, and a mythologist who discuss Goethe, Descartes, Plato, and Galileo. Through these interviews they seek to explain the history of science’s views on nature and where science went astray.

Harding takes an autobiographical approach through much of the film. For example, he recounts his own experiences as a young ecologist who became lost in “a world of abstraction and quantities.” In another scene, he and his young son are preparing a snack and discussing the value of water. Harding wants viewers to “realize everything on the earth is deeply connected” and the world is not “an exhaustible store house of materials.”

Harding seems to have a specific audience in mind for this documentary, which is primarily scientists. Yet, as a scientist myself I felt he was preaching to the choir. Despite this, the documentary’s beautiful photography and interesting discussions related to the history of science warrant a recommendation. Therefore, this film would be a good supplement for collections in history of science or environmental ethics and philosophy.