Our Planet

One of the most disturbing moments in the series takes place in the “Frozen Worlds” episode. The episode discusses how many animals’ habits and icy environments are changing due to the rise in global temperatures, causing more ice to melt much quicker. The end of the episode focuses on a beach on the eastern coast of Russia. Because all of the ice sheets melt during the summer now, the walrus population in that area of the Arctic must find land to rest on. Over 100,000 walruses would collect on this small island, causing random stampedes and death to individuals crushed by other walruses trying to move around the island. Some of the walruses would climb an 80-meter cliff to get space of their own. However, walruses do not have very good eyesight on land, leading to many walruses losing their footing on the cliff and falling to their death. There was a graveyard of dead walruses being feasted on by a lone polar at the bottom of the cliff. Attenborough notes, “The walruses have become a danger to themselves.”

Though Our Planet was well filmed and focused more on conservation than previous series by the BBC, it lacked in new content. This made it, for me, more boring and less interesting. Had the BBC taken a different approach to presenting information or even showing different species interactions that were never shown in other similar series, this show could’ve been more exciting to watch. I think perhaps the most attracting scenes were of the blue whales and the narwhals, as they are both not filmed often and have not been filmed and shown extensively in the other BBC nature series. Overall, the amount of conservation information discussed in the series was still rather minimal, making it a hit or miss with an informed audience. This series may likely be more interesting and informative to an audience new to understanding conservation and the impacts of climate change and global warming. With this, I would recommend this to people to watch before watching the other new Planet Earth series.