Today during periods two and three, I was in the video studio watching Disney Nature’s Earth. This movie was a very beautiful movie reminding us the importance of nature that we don’t always think about. Often we spend a lot of time with modern day society, with transportation vehicles, supermarkets, recreational activities and technology that we forget about sustainability of our Earth. Earth Day each year on the twenty-second of April reminds us of the wildlife that is suffering from the consequences of our actions. I was amazed by the beauty of our planet as I saw the different species of animals and different parts of our world from the Arctic Circle to the Deserts closest to the Equator.
We don’t realize what is happening around us in other parts of the world unless we are amongst it. Changes are slowly happening and in no time it will be too late. The movie Earth, showed us the many affects that are causing changes that many animals have been used to for the past decades. Temperatures are warming causing polar ice caps melting too soon enough for polar bears to find food after hibernation. Baby cubs are starving and mother bears are weak after giving birth and feeding her cubs. The ice caps only stay firm for a small period of time making survival more crucial and dangerous than ever. The trees in the Arctic refreshes atmospheres of the entire planet as the number of trees in the arctic measure up to a total of 1/3 of the total rainforests that are still left on our planet today. The slight increase of deserts have totaled to 1/3 of all land and this keeps growing bigger; making it more difficult for elephants to find water and food. Dust storms make it harder for new elephants to travel through and make them more prone to be predators to nearby lions. Ultimately, challenges to survive are greater than ever.
Just like how we don’t realize the importance of wild life preservation since we live in the city, doesn’t mean that nature is not important to us. We abuse it and mistreat it: we litter over the grounds we walk on and use harmful pesticides to keep pests off our crops. Grass is a very important plant; in East Africa many animals and birds rely on grass for survival. Sometimes we just have to open our eyes and realize what is upon us to really know the true meaning of nature. Unfortunately, with nature comes the cycle of life. The movie also displayed how nature has taken its toll on species, like when the cheetah isolated one of the deer during migration and hunted it. Another example was when the lions were watching the elephants as they shared the same water supply. The lions knew that the older elephants were too big for them to hunt individually, so then they tried to go after the baby elephants. The older elephants used a defense mechanism that kept a baby in between a few of the large ones so that they could be protected. Not only did the elephants have to face dust storms but they also had to worry about being prey. Nature’s cycle life is natural, we shouldn’t have to make their life time shorter because of our relentless actions.
For a long time I have forgotten how beautiful nature was. I was caught up with present day life; with people going to convenient stores for medicine instead of natural remedies at home, going to the grocery store to get food rather than to farm and harvest your own and many more. The way of life has changed drastically but nature has remained. The only change to nature is the effects that have resulted from our careless actions; our littering, pesticide use, over exploitation of fisheries and forests and excessive human activity like pollution. Disney Nature’s Earth Movie helped me to remember and contemplate the importance of sustainability and wildlife. This movie has brought out the “greener” side of me and will continue to remind me to think twice before I think about littering carelessly.
