We have a long-standing joke in our home about rom-coms. It started a few years back when on a Saturday night, my husband and I were settling in to watch something light and tasty. I left the room for a few minutes and returned to find he’d chosen Captain Philips- the action packed action/thriller in which Somali pirates kidnap Captain Richard Philips. There began an agonising two hours and 14 minutes in which I sat on the edge of my seat and worried how it would all end.
This Sunday night delivered another agonising thriller except that everyone in the room: husband, two teens – and –myself are all protagonists in the film. As we landed on the couch, with lollies in hand, to watch Sir David’s Attenborough’s new film A Life on our Planet, I was half expecting some never-seen-before adorable footage of his life’s work. Instead, it was enlightening, heavy, sobering, alarming and hopeful.
At 94 years old time is running out for Sir David and his message to us all is to take action while we still can. Please take 90 minutes to watch the documentary. You will be awestruck and inspired to make a difference by taking action, supporting or advocating for one or more these solutions:
- Slowing population growth rate by raising people out of poverty, improving access to healthcare and keeping children, especially girls, in school for as long as possible
- Investing in renewable energy such as wind, water and solar
- Restoring diverse ecosystems
- Moving to a mostly plant-based diet. This reduces the amount of land we use for farmland which can then be returned to wilderness
- Stopping de-forestation. The more bio diverse a forest is, the more effective it becomes at absorbing carbon
Photo by David Clode on Unsplash