The Human Footprint: A Review of the BBC Documentary

Documentaries are very entertaining and can easily be found online. The BBC documentary The Human Footprint is one of the best documentaries I have recently watched. It visually shows the impact our lives will have on the environment and the amount of products we will consume. The documentary features counts of how many words we will speak, how many tears we will cry, and how many people we will know. Since it is a BBC documentary, the numbers are catered toward British people. So, of course, the bean consumption per person in Britain is probably less than that of an American.

The documentary is separated into the different stages of our lives from birth to death. The amount of diapers Britain uses, while less than American consumption, leads to the fact that by the time a child reaches two they are already responsible for more carbon dioxide emissions than someone in Tanzania". The first chapter deals with food and drinks. Foods such as eggs, potatoes, bread, and meats are all covered in the film. The documentary also visually shows what it would look like if you gathered all of the farts you will ever emit and lit them on fire. Quite amazing. The documentary also calculates that, in our lifetimes we will create just over 3 tons of waste.

The documentary goes on to deal with words. They found that 4,300 is the amount of words we will say. They also compile a book of how many words we will ever speak in our lifetimes, it all adds up to 5 volumes, full of all of the words we will ever say. The documentary goes on to deal with clothes, shoes, and accessories, all 30,322 total pounds of it.

There is so much that we will do, say, use, and dispose of in our lifetimes and it is so interesting to see it all laid out in just under one hour of visual presentation. The BBC documentary, The Human Footprint is not to be missed. It is a wonderful documentary and truly puts life into perspective. They leave no stone unturned and investigate every aspect of the human life. So if you ever wondered about how many baths you will take or how many great loves you will have- this is the documentary for you. After watching it, all I could think of was carpe diem.