I have not yet watched the documentary because I don’t have a TV set and or a TV licence. Someone else has this to say about it:
“I've just watched David Attenborough's new Extinction documentary on the threat to planetary bio-diversity. It is of course well made and makes clear the deadly threats facing all life on this earth. But there was a major weakness and it can be summed up in one word: 'we'. Throughout the programme it was repeatedly said the 'we' have done this and that and 'we' are doing the other and 'we' are all responsible. The fact that there is a massive difference between the impact of the rich countries and the poor got a very brief mention but the fact there is a huge difference between giant corporations and ordinary people , between the super-rich and the world's working class was never mentioned. Nor, of course, was 'capitalism'. In reality understanding that production for profit is THE central problem is the beginning of wisdom in all of this.”
I agree. However, and not in the way Attenborough thinks and analyses, I would say that after the findings of what has been happening to nature and which most people, especially in the West have heard of and read about for years, “we” are also responsible, not only the capitalist system. We have continued “our way of life” like before except with some small amendments (reduction of using plastic bags and paper, for example).
“We” are responsible in the similar way when we vote for those who maintain the system and the regimes of corruption, wars, sales of weapons, support of brutal dictators, etc. although “we” heard of and read about all that.
—John Molyneux, 13 September 2020
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