Educational Media Reviews Online

As the hole in the ozone layer widens, the Amazon River basin is further deforested, thousands of plant and animal species become extinct, fossil fuel usage expands, and the world's population explodes at a cataclysmic rate, our global society continues to consume the planet we share. Lester Brown of the World Watch Institute hosts a comprehensive look at the current status as well as the retrospective account of our interrelationship with the earth. Rather than simply providing a sad litany of results of our efforts at manipulating nature, the producers provide a low-key, subtle but firm motivation for viewers to become activists in changing current practices which have caused our shared problems. Instead of the hand-wringing and near-whining tone of many programs on the environment, this technically superb collection of archival footage intermixed with brilliant, colorful, and highly effective visuals can't help but impact viewers. It proposes a logically developed program of "sustainable development" technological growth which respects the finite limits of what the Earth can provide while at the same time meets the needs of the people on our planet; the key message is that we cannot continue the destruction our planet suffered with the huge population and scientific/industrial patterns of the last century. This highly recommended and affordable ($89.95) program would be most useful in contemporary issues as well as ecology-oriented classes from middle school through the college level.