SMC Anthropocene the Human Epoch & Death by Design Movie Analysis Essay

Movie Analysis: Write a 750-1000 word essay reviewing documentary films Death by Design (2016) and Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (2018), both available to rent online for minimal cost. Briefly summarize each film and compare topics expressed in each film in a more detailed interpretation and discussion. Select two additional scholarly works to support your arguments, such as books or peer reviewed articles. Essay must be typed, double spaced, 1” margin all around, Times New Roman, and 12-point font. Cite your sources using APA formatting. Upload to Canvas in a timely manner.

References: Sources used for “Reference” section must be scholarly publications such as books and peer reviewed articles published in a newspaper, book or journal. Online access to scholarly publications is available through the SMC online library page. You may use the lectures or online sources in addition to scholarly articles. Make sure to include the films themselves in addition to 2 outside references for a total of 4 minimum.

Movie Analysis Rubric

3 Length (750-1000 words)

2 Summary of both documentary films

4 Interpretation and Discussion (see below)

2 Include at least two supporting references (direct quote, paraphrase, data)

3 Evaluate significance of films to cultural understanding of pollution and climate change 1 Document Format (follow all instructions)

4 Cite your sources using APA formatting with reference section

While viewing the films consider the following questions:

1) Consider the significance of films to our understanding of pollution and consumerism or environment versus economy?

2) Do you think documentary film making is an effective way to communicate ideas about pollution and climate change science? Why or why not?

3) What did you learn by watching this film? Is there anything in this film that you do not agree with or that you find controversial? Do not tell me what you think I want to hear or might agree with. Truly take the time to express your own ideas and opinions.

4) You can quote directly, paraphrase, or cite statistics or data from different sources. Make sure you have at least 4 sources of information, 2 from scholarly articles and the 2 films themselves.

5) How do the two films compare to one another? What do other scholarly books and/or articles have to say about the themes talked about in these films? How to they support or conflict with what was portrayed in the films?

I ALREADY WATCHE DTHE FILMS FOR YOU GUYS AND WILL ATTACH NOTES ON THE FILM ITSELF. TO SUMMARIZE THE FILM LOOK UP SUMMARIES OF FILMS AND MAKE SURE TO PARAPHRASE. I WILL BE CHECKING FOR GRAMMAR AND PLAGARISM REPORTS ON GRAMMARLY. IM EXPECTING A TOP-NOTCH ANALYSIS ON THE TWO MOVIES AND THE ARTICLES THAT YOU CAN CHOOSE AS THE WRITER OF THE ESSAY.

THESE ARE THE FILM NOTES:

THE HUMAN EPOCH

• the environmental destruction of the planet
• barely any dialogue, just pictures and videos of earth
• talks about the sedimentary rocks on earth
• talks about the history of earths formations like carrara

• driest desert in the world, producing lithium
• comes from electric vehicle batteries
• shows how factories pollutes the water
• energy
• creation of cellular phone batteries
• still barely any dialogue
• just let’s the video show everything which isn’t that good

• Hambach Coal Mine 1978
• four towns have been destroyed
• 2 are facing relocation
• largest open pit mine in germany
• terraforming is the act of altering the earths surface for human needs
• human now dominate over 75 perfect of ice free lang because of mining: agriculture industrialization and urbanization growth

• deforestation
• the earths forest is home to 80 percent of terrestrial biodiversity and annually absorbs 30 percent of anthropogenic carbon emissions
• less than 10 percent of old growth forest remains on Vancouver island and raw log exports have grown exponentially since 2014.
• 85% of the earths forest has been cleared for human use

• Lagos, Nigeria
• Shows the cutting of trees and kids carrying the wood, fades into church built to fit 1 million people
• the population of lagos has grown from 200k to 2m in 2 generations
• world population can grow to 20 billion by 2050. Living in the large urban centers

Techno fossils

• Candors Landfill site, Kenya
• 250k people live around Dandora Landfill
• 6k people work and mine it’s grounds
• techno fossils are human created objects such as plastic concrete aluminium that end up in the atmosphere and rock layers of the earth
• estimated to be 30 trillion tons in total

Anthroturbation

• humans have created thousands of kilometers of underground tunnels
• we need to create and establish new lands
• carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are higher than at any other time
• this has put our climate system into a state with no analog for future predictions

• climate change results in unstable global temperatures
• extreme weather events
• sea level rise
• and ocean acidification
• Venice floods
• views of the great barrier reef
• coral reefs are home to more than 25 percent of all marine life.
• One of the earths most complex ecosystems
• coral has existed for 450 million years
• ocean warming and acidification has caused bleaching which can terminate all coral before the 21st century

• Tiger is endangered
• habitats getting destroyed

• the earth has had 5 major extinctions
• we are in the middle of the 6th great one
• this ones due to the cause of human impact
• extinction rates are up to 10k higher than usual rates from habitat loss pouching pollution climate change and overhunting

• the earth is 4.5 billion years old and its history can be read in the rocks
• modern human civilization has developed within just 10k years yet our success as a species has tipped the planet’s systems outside their natural limits
• we are all implicated. some more profoundly than others
• we can pull earth back to a safe place for life
• by recognizing our dominating signal is the beginning of change

Death By Design 2016

• Talks about the impact of the digital revolution and secrets the industry tried to hide
• Environmental destruction
• devices that are designed to die
• in china, industrialization has put a high impact on the environment – Ma Jun, China
• Technology pollution has all kind of influences. Impacts public health very badly
• more than 60% of chinas groundwater is considered unfit for human contact
• The water is very swampy and gloomy showing how much it was polluted in the Yangtze river
• this also had a social impact, as seen from the old chinese women begging for clean water.
• Ma Jun is trying to inform everyone who owns the technology about how it’s made and how badly it pollutes the earth

• Silicon Valley, richest agricultural city in the country
• Semiconductor Industry
• Ted Smith, Environmentalist
• Apple, Intel, IBM, ETC. All came to silicon valley
• Art Rodeiguez worked for Ibm
• Mike Gray was the first microprocessor buyer for IBM
• the semiconductor industry is a chemical making industry
• they rely on using thousands of chemicals
• clean rooms and clean suits to protect the product, not the people making it
• People started getting sick with strange illnesses
• A small group of people began to think this was due to the small chemical exposure from working in the technology industry

• Yvette Flores worked in technology with many chemicals.
• Her son has a servers development disability because of her exposure at spectra physics
• Woman is clearly emotional about her son and the affect of her exposure and how lead and it’s side effects causes this to her son.

• IBM has a corporate mortality file
• many people had cancer
• one bad cause of death was brain cancer, breast cancer, etc.
• There was a Santa Ana lawsuit going against IBM
• Judge denied use of the document due to excess prejudice and bias
• the case has a settlement and the matters were resolved
• IBM declined the request for an interview

• Solvents that the technology industries used in the 80s contaminated the groundwater, multiple chemicals everywhere
• families drinking the contaminated waters had birth defects, etc.
• Even small exposure in the third trimester can cause significant damages
• santa clara country has 23 superfund sites. Helps clean up the messes they make so that the industrial sites don’t affect the environment
• EPA said the devastation might take 300 years to clean up at the google site and area
• Companies always try to say they learn from their mistakes but everything keeps reoccurring
• Companies moved from silicon valley to china so that they can have the government off they ass.
• The government gave these corporate companies all the land and money that they wanted.
• Apple was making 10 million phones a week
• Outsourcing allows companies like apple to make crazy demands on manufacturers that they couldn’t make on the employees directly
• workers in technology are usually from the countryside and are poor so that they can survive
• Workers pay is so low that labor makes up barely 1% of an iphones cost
• There can’t be any mistakes in the assembly line for apple
• bosses are very strict, make you work until you’re tired as fuck
• if you slow down a bit, it fucks eve hey hung up
• hella people work night shifts
• Unsafe work conditions
• poor work conditions
• man got hurt by the mechanical arm
• foxconn is apples manufacturer, biggest private employer in china with 1 million jobs
• Foxconn made people work 12 hours a day with no breaks for 7 days.
• 26 workers have jumped off the roof due to pressure from working, 18 have died.
• explosion at foxconn due to aluminum dust
• 16 died???? get it fact checked
• 5 months later there was another explosion at the supply chain

• iphone is screwing their batteries with security screws so that people can’t switch the batteries
• this gives the battery an 18 month life span, making people want to upgrade to a new phone after that time period.

• IBM is responsible for the spilling of a lot of chemicals
• Use pipes to take vapors out of the factories. Doesn’t make sense

• up to 90% of global electronics waste is illegally traded or dumped each year

• movie is pretty much about the affects of technology and the chemicals that make it up and how it affects the air, environment, water, and people’s health causing many illnesses to arise and deaths by illnesses.
• Movie also goes through the unsafe work environments people in technology factories work in and the poor labor conditions.
• technology revolution has changed our lives in many ways. However, we can’t let it affect our health and planet

GOOD LUCK. LET ME KNOW OF ANY QUESTIONS!