We Live in a Beautiful World

For the last two Sundays I’ve been fascinated with The Discovery Channel’s Planet Earth. Last night’s episodes of the 11-part mini-series featured Ice Worlds and Deserts. The cinematography throughout the first 5 episodes has been absolutely awe-inspiring and breathtaking. Using innovative camera technology, the filmmakers have been able to capture never seen before animal behaviors and have captured animals for the first time on film including; snow leopards pursuing markhor in the Himalayas and the Gobi desert’s Bactrian camel. Infrared technology is also utilized to show how red kangaroos lick their arms to keep themselves cool in the scorching 125-degree weather in Australia. And, the penguins, unbelievable.

On the very first episode (From Pole to Pole, aired last Sunday) the film team captured wolves chasing a herd of caribou tens of thousands strong across the frozen tundra of Canada. The entire pursuit was captured from an aerial vantage point via a new type of camera mounted on the bottom of a helicopter. The wolves were successful in scaring away one of the calves from its mother and the chase was on. Narrator Sigourney Weaver informed the viewers that the caribou calf is capable of outrunning the wolves as long as it doesn’t trip up and fall. I found myself on the edge of the couch, fists clenched, cheering for the gangly-legged calf to outrun the predator. A couple of trip up’s and the wolf finally caught up to the calf after what seemed like a chase that went on for miles. It was upsetting and disturbing to see that calf lose it’s life, but not nearly as disturbing as what I witnessed in last night’s episode.

During last night’s Ice Worlds episode, I found myself rooting for the predator instead of the prey. The film crew captured a male polar bear, the largest living land carnivore, swimming out to sea in search its favorite food, ringed seals. It’s becoming more and more common to see polar bears swimming up to 60 miles from land to find prey. Since the world’s climate has been getting increasingly warmer, the arctic ice packs (the polar bears’ primary hunting grounds) have been melting leading the bears to take on longer than usual swims to find food and in some cases result in the bears drowning.

The polar bear filmed by the crew was returning from one of these swims out to sea. As he exited the ocean and walked up onto land, it was noted that he had lost half of his body weight. A pack of walrus’ had made their way onto the rocky outcrops of the shoreline, which the bear would attack once he got some much needed rest. In the following days, a dense fog settled across the pack and the polar bear attacked the walrus’, which formed a protective barrier to their young by shielding them with their backs. The bear attempted to kill three or four separate beasts, unable to penetrate their 2-inch thick outer skin with his long claws and teeth. Finally, the bear got one of the enourmous animals away from herd and a battle ensued in the freezing waters, again I found myself on the edge of my seat hoping the bear would finally score a meal.

Despite his efforts, the bear lost as the walrus squiggled away nearly unscathed. I thought, “ok, so the bear will live to fight another day,” until I saw him take his first few steps out of the ocean, barely able to drag his back half with him. The walrus had pretty much destroyed the bear’s hind legs with its giant tusks, leaving him incapacitated. The bear limped back onto land and carved a shallow crater in the ground, left out a bellow, and laid down taking his last few breaths of precious arctic air.

GUILT and frustration is what I felt following the heartbreaking scene, the bear’s attack on the walrus was a last ditch effort to save itself. But that’s what this show is aiming at, trying to create some awareness of how precious and beautiful the world we live in truly is, and to make the American public conscious on how much we’re fucking the place up. I felt frustrated because I work in a field that aims to improve the environment and in my professional experience, I feel like I’ve done little to help the cause. Sometimes it takes a show like this to make people realize what a beautiful world we live in and how much we neglect it and take for granted every day. If everyone lived like us [Americans], we’d need three Earths to support the world’s current population.

Planet Earth continues next Sunday on The Discovery Channel. You can catch last night’s episodes tonight on The Science Channel.