From unprecedented weather events to record-breaking statistics, planet Earth has been facing a lot on the climate and environment front.
But as new six-part series Planet A explores, tackling climate change is only the beginning of the task we are facing. We don’t exactly have a backup plan, and there are many threats to our world that potentially reach much further than we can comprehend.
Drawing on VICE’s award-winning environmental reporting, the documentary series takes a tour of the ecosystems that sustain life on Earth. Whether it is in the air, the oceans, the waterways or on land, with each episode a team of experts reveal the true extent of our impact on the planet.
Dr. Simon Lewis, Professor of Global Change Science, begins the series with a detailed exploration of climate change, but his focus quickly turns to its connection to humanity’s deeper impacts. From the outset, it’s clear that an understanding of climate change only scratches the surface; after all, the Anthropocene identified by Dr. Lewis is a geologic time period defined by human-driven alterations to the process of almost every system on Earth.
Says Professor of Human Ecology, Pamela McElwee, in the series, "70 per cent of the land surface that isn't under ice and tundra was directly impacted by humans, so it leaves about 30 per cent which is in a mostly intact, um, fairly minimally disturbed state. And that 30 per cent is incredibly important, because land provides a lot of benefits to humans that we don't always understand or recognise. And if we start losing components of ecosystems, we start to lose some of those benefits, and it has a ton of different consequences."
The air we breathe on ‘Planet A’. Source: SBS VICELAND
Some we can't predict, she explains.
"In 2019, there was a major UN report that came out that said there was a million species at risk of extinction. And what the report pointed out is we may not even know what a lot of these species are. We haven't discovered them yet. They're in ecosystems that are threatened. When we lose biodiversity, when we warm our planet, those come back and have impacts on us as human civilisation and all of the other species that inhabit the planet with us, as well."
Professor McElwee says that climate change isn't just about the environment. "If we want to fix our relationship with land and nature, we have to fix the way the economy works, the way the global economy works. And reducing inequity is a huge part of that. Climate change isn't about the environment. It's about racial injustices, as well. It's about social injustices. It's about economic injustices."
Professor Deborah McGregor, a research chair in Indigenous Environmental Justice, talks to mass agriculture, the commodification of water and the challenges facing many waterways. As a proud Anishinaabe from the Whitefish River First Nation in Canada, her affirmation of the preciousness of water is especially poignant; her people have been custodians of the Great Lakes region of North America for centuries. Yet it’s not just freshwater ecosystems that are facing problems. Dr. Ayana Johnson, a marine biologist, co-creator of the How To Save A Planet podcast, and expert on ocean conservation, guides viewers through the lasting effects of coral bleaching and overfishing.
Each episode is looks at another piece of the environmental puzzle and shines a light on the consequences of modern human life. After a global tour of the ecosystems that sustain life - air, oceans, freshwater and land - the fifth episode explores energy and fossil fuel. The team of who experts share their insights and opinions make it clear the huge scale of human impacts on the planet.
It's not all doom and gloom though, with the final episode, 'The Human Element', also making it clear that there are people working to find new ways of living: a business working on a technology to pull carbon dioxide from the air to create a carbon-neutral fuel that could be compatible with any vehicle in the world, researchers and activists who see ways the planet can bounce back, cities made more liveable, relationships with the land reclaimed.
The astounding beauty of the planet which underpins VICE’s coverage is a timely reminder of both its value and fragility. As Planet A reiterates with each new episode, giving up on our planet is simply not an option. At the end of the day, it’s the only one we’ve got.
Planet A premieres at 10:20pm, Monday 17 January on SBS VICELAND, with double episodes each week for three weeks. The series is also streaming now at SBS On Demand. Start with episode 1:
