Review of Reading 27: Seeing Green: Knowing and Saving the Environment on Film

Seeing Green: Know and Saving the Environment on Film, this was quite an interesting piece of reading. I believe what this article was trying to accomplish is to give the reader a sense of how the mass media depicts its role in establishing and conveying environmental problems and solutions. It goes into depth on the topics of natural processes, environmental degradation and solutions from filmmakers making these documentaries. Because mass media plays a large role on our society many of these documentary films are going to affect the viewers.

These filmmakers are able to display a rain forest disappearing or wildlife in danger and get people into taking action on these problems. A lot of it is due to the dramatic feeling that can be captured from watching these films. Think of the difference, if you are simply told that over in the Amazon Rain Forest trees are being cut down by the hundreds each day. Is this going to have the same effect on you as if you were to view it happening on film and tied in with dramatic music?

The Fantasies of Natural History Film

Much of us will watch a film on the environment and only take in and believe what we see, not what may really be there. For example, the article states that a film that shows a cheetah in dead sprint to catch a gazelle in an open field looks secluded from the world but do we really know what surrounds that area. There may be a van of tourists, roads nearby, or even power lines. So when we view this film we get a sense that the scene is taking place in an untouched, unpopulated, and uncivilized area. It seems as if they do this to mislead us in how our planet really looks like. Possibly the point of them doing this is to comfort us so that we THINK that environement is what it use to be and not becoming.

Framing Environmental Degradation

I would like to go over one of the many films this section talks about. The film is called On Natures Terms (de Graaf 2001). This film shows the life of large predatory mammals in the United States. The main point for this film is that mammals such as wolves, pumas, and bears are "keystone species," which means they are critical indicators to a healthy ecosystem. They get this label because these mammals require so much land and are able to regulate the population of other animals. Due to government polices and suburban sprawl is contributing to the decline in population levels of those three animals, causing a domino effect into ruining the ecosystem health. This film shows just that and how citizens are taking actions into conserve the land and preserve the species but doesn't show any change in attitudes of Americans thoughts on predator loss. You have to be able to show attitude in order to have an impact on others to change thier attitude about the problem and commit to finding a solution. Another interesting point I found in this section was about a Malaysian logging company is cutting and exporting tropical timber on a Solomon Island called Rendova. It goes on to talk about a group called Haforai Development Corporation, villagers of this group are not sure whether to resign a contract to allow them to continue cutting down trees basically because there has been a steep decline in the tropical tree resources on the island. It confuses me to think that these people must have not thought what may happen after continous exportation of thier resrouces. According to one logger interviewd "the devestation of logging is obvious and what once use to be a clear river is now muddy." Such continous acts of degradation will be very detrimental to our planet.

Visualizing Green Crusades

The green crusades reference the films that are entirely up to saving the environment or atleast raise questions about what strategies will work. These films try to illustrate that knowledge on environemental practices are based on social orders and hierarchies, and the role of individuals promoting structural change. The film Save the Panda (Birch 1983) says it all in the title. The goal is to catalyst individuals to take there own actions on saving China's pandas which are still on the road to extinction. It sets the path for people to take action but many people just aren't sure how to go about that path. Setting up signs to tell poachers about the consequences won't get us anywhere. Although these films may encourage peope to act, I just don't feel many people do, they think others will take action. This section didn't give to much insight into solutions that would hopefully lead to green crusades.

I Pondered...

This article contained quite a bit of information so I had to read through it twice but I stil don't think I fully understand everything on the pages. What really made me think was the section about the Malaysian logging company and the villagers of Rendova. It seems to me that this still occurs in our world today. We are cutting down trees and its like DUH!, we don't even get what were doing. The villagers only realize the damage to there environment when its to late. Also I guess I never thought of what may be cut out of scences when I view a documentary like Planet Earth (A MUST SEE) or any othere, there may be roads or power lines or a town nearby. We accept to much of what we see and not the reality. That has made me to be more aware of what mass media is feeding us.