World Environment Day: 5 must-watch documentaries that show how we are choking our planet with plastic

On this World Environment Day lets Beat Plastic Pollution.

We humans mistreat Mother Earth so badly that we think nothing of discarding over 300 million tonnes of plastic every year. Plastic that destroys life as it relentlessly encroaches into all ecosystems. Happy World Environment Day!

Every 5 June since 1974 marks World Environment Day, as established by the United Nations, with the aim of raising awareness regarding a different Earth-threatening issue each year. The theme for this year is #BeatPlasticPollution.

Now, it is pretty simple to plant the customary sapling today or wipe our messes today with fewer tissues than we would normally use. While that does bring change to some extent, that change is only fleeting. The nightmare of plastic pollution that Earth is currently dealing with is definitely not getting treated in a day.

Plastic does not degrade easily and what gets into the biosphere stays there for basically forever. We are choking our Earth with plastic, and how!

Corrective measures in the use of plastic need to be a daily habit. And if you are unable to see the piles of garbage and plastic stacked around you, you’re not going to realise how you’re dooming the Earth. To help you understand better, here are five documentaries that are bound to break your heart for the way we treat the land we live on.

Plastic Oceans

A documentary by United Nations, Plastic Ocean talks about how the durability of plastic makes it simultaneously wonderful and extremely dangerous. The worst offender is single-use plastic. The packagings and plastic wrapping that have no re-use and directly land in the bin is what hurts the most. Most is never recycled and remains on our land and in our seas forever.

India: Drowning in plastic

Founders’ Valley followed German entrepreneur Fridtjof Detzner on his journey through India, and found one of the most hazardous paradoxes of the country. Where India worships cows, and considers them to be most holy, these same cows have also been robbed of pasture lands and are feeding on the growing pile of plastic.

This Whale Had A Message From The Deep

A message that humans have failed to hear even though the Earth has been screaming for help has now come forth as proof in the form of a whale corpse. This is a video that points at the dying flora and fauna on the planet because of the horrible amount of plastic deposit.

What really happens to the plastic you throw away

This TED-Ed video is a great way to understand how different plastics affects the Earth depending on the way you treat it. If you use plastic, you need to take the responsibility of ensuring that it is recycled. Do your bit!

How Much Plastic is in the Ocean?

And finally, this heart-breaking video by YouTube channel It’s Ok To be Smart shows the tons of plastic that has now deposited itself in different gyres in the oceans across the globe. This plastic never decomposes, of course, but breaks down into tiny pieces, which are consumed by marine animals, who eventually die because of it. And the plastic that remains unconsumed released toxins that are absorbed in the water, which again kills aquatic animals and plants, and pollutes the water that ultimately comes to our taps.