Documentaries about climate change and sustainability continue to be important devices for educating the masses on the hurdles the environment is facing and how we can counteract them.
In fact, according to a study carried out by GlobalWebIndex, news stories, social media and documentaries are the most impactful mediums in shaping public attitudes towards sustainability.
If you watched David Attenborough’s incredible 2020 film A Life on Our Planet then you’d be well aware of what a precarious situation we are in, and perhaps even implemented changes in your own life to take better care of our planet.
Similarly, if you watched 2017’s What the Health, you may have adopted a whole new diet — like all of my mates who went vegan after watching it (at least for a few weeks).
If you haven’t gone fully vegan, but do your part by following a pescatarian diet, I’m sorry to say we have bad news for you.
From the team behind What the Health and Cowspiracy, Netflix‘s latest documentary Seaspiracy examines the negative impact of commercial fishing — encapsulating everything from commercial whaling to microplastics, fish farm slavery and overfishing.
This “ground-breaking, ocean-focused” project is outlining the urgency to protect our world’s oceans for the sake of our future.
It seems that the original intention behind Seaspiracy was to expose the harmful effects of both plastic pollution in our oceans and ongoing whale hunting in Japan, but filmmaker Ali Tabrizi ended up instead exposing the legal and ethical corruption of the commercial fishing industry.
An article by FlashPack explains that a 2019 report from the UN has found that “only 3% of marine areas are free from human pressure and that industrial fishing takes place in more than half the world’s oceans, leaving one-third of fish populations overexploited”.
The piece also quotes environmental journalist George Monbiot who warns that life is collapsing in our seas even faster than on land and urges people to refrain from consuming fish. “Until fishing is properly regulated and contained, we should withdraw our consent,” he said.
In a trailer released by Netflix, one of the Seaspiracy‘s participants offers a similar call to action in a desperate bid to address the plethora of issues surrounding climate change.
“If you want to address climate change, the first thing you do is protect the ocean. And, the solution to that is very simple. Leave it alone,” the interview subject says.
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