Well, last night was the debut of Part 1 of the much-anticipated “Planet in Peril” documentary. And in summary, I thought it was terrific! I know that there's a bit of it that those of us who watch AC360° most nights have already seen, but to see it all put together was wonderful. The cinematography is spectacular, and the stories are even more compelling once they are weaved together as they were in Part 1.
In two hours, viewers were taken to Thailand, Madagascar, Cambodia, Yellowstone National Park, China, and New York City. The images of an injured tiger and an injured baby elephant due to snares from poachers are heartbreaking. The poaching of endangered species and the animal cruelty being practiced around the world under the guise of “medicinal necessity” is reprehensible and should be punished to the extent that these practices would end – for good.
So far, my favorite segments were about tracking poachers in Cambodia, reintroducing wolves into the Yellowstone ecosystem and Dr. Sanjay Gupta “infiltrating” an iron ore mine in China. Well, not quite that dramatically, but he did walk up to the front door of the facility, walk in, track down the person in charge and question him as to why the mine was continuing to openly pollute the local water supply with lethal chemicals. I almost wanted to stand up and cheer (!!)
This occurred after a segment that was shown about a young Chinese woman whose husband died of cancer. They lived in the village adjacent to the mine and had to drink the contaminated water and eat food that had been irrigated with water from the same source.
There was also a segment where Anderson had his blood tested for the presence of environmental chemicals. Poor AC - he looked surprised to learn that he had DDT and PCB’s in his bloodstream – and that the make-up worn for TV isn’t having a positive effect on his blood chemical profile either!
I'm really looking forward to tonight and Part 2 - with the Amazon Rainforest segment and the Greenland/Alaska segments!
But if you watched the first PIP airing, you saw that during every commercial break, there were ‘updates’ about the California wildfires. Since I’m so close to the situation, it’s difficult for me to say if it was distracting from the documentary, or if it reinforced a certain level of urgency to the program.
Anderson (and company) had a live one-hour broadcast both before and after “Planet in Peril”. AC was stationed at QualComm Stadium in San Diego, talking with evacuees interviewing officials from the San Diego Fire Dept., US Forest Service, CA Dept. of Forestry & Fire Protection (Cal Fire) and DHS. Also located elsewhere in the SD area – and providing live reports – were Rick Sanchez, John King, Ted Rowlands and Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Chad Myers gave a weather update – and thankfully, the winds are subsiding a little earlier than first anticipated. And CNN’s “map guru” Tom Foreman demonstrated why the cycle of California wildfires can be (potentially) linked to global warming (i.e. – changing weather patterns promotes increased plant growth in some years, which ends up providing additional “fuel” during a high-fire-prone drought period). BTW – “map guru” is a title bestowed with all due respect, as I find the explanations he gives on a number of different subjects to be very informative!
Anyway – I hope we’ve turned the corner, as they say, with regard to this latest “round” with Mother Nature ... and that many of the evacuees will be able to return to their neighborhoods to find that, if anything, all they’ve sustained is smoke damage to their homes!
Thanks for visiting – updates posted as needed – have a terrific day and watch Part 2 of “Planet in Peril” tonight!!
1 comment:
I agree; it was brilliant! It is one thing to watch the chopped up segments on "360," it is quite another to see it woven together in a way that helps the viewer understand how something in one part of the world impacts on another thousands of miles away.
The beauty of the program is that it is understandable to almost anyone at any age and the interlacing of the stories is interesting to watch. I think that Anderson's gentle narration is perfect.
As a supporter of animal rights, I thought the animal issues talked about in part one were extremely important! Unfortunately, the only way to get some people to appreciate the issue of animal suffering is to somehow relate it to humans.
The "penis emporium" that Sanjay “dined” at was nauseating to watch! I still can't believe that he ate that stuff! They couldn't pay me enough!
I think it was quite poignant to end both hours in the United States. I didn’t know how the second hour would end, but ending the first hour with Anderson’s personal body burden test results created an unexpected impact on the viewer.
I thought part two was just as good if not better, but I will post my comments on it later.
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