YEAR ON EARTH, A (TV)
Summary
This documentary film is about three American teenagers who travel to twelve different countries around the world and, with the help of various scientists and activists, research and work on different ecological problems and issues. The program begins with the students learning that a loss of biodiversity is the number-one problem currently facing the natural world, and they are instructed to “ask questions” during their travels. The students, chosen by the group Earthwatch on the recommendations of their science teachers, introduce themselves: Jamie from Texas, Arsen from California and Tyler from Massachusetts. They first travel to the “beautiful, shocking, violent” land of Kenya and begin building a website on which they will document their experiences for other students’ perusal. Tensions soon rise as Jamie begins to feel that the boys are not “pulling their weight,” although Arsen is pleased to be in Africa, where he has cultural roots. They soon begin to study a group of flamingos living on a so-called “soda lake,” a chemical-heavy body of water, and they capture some of the birds to measure and study them. They team up with some students from Nairobi and meet with their wildlife club, although some of their ideas about conservation-themed posters are lost in translation. The American students join the Kenyans kids for a game of soccer, although Jamie is annoyed to learn that she is not allowed to participate. At the same time, Arsen struggles with his sense of feeling disconnected from the Africans. The students then travel to Botswana, where they study endangered crocodiles, which are a “keystone species” for the area despite being highly dangerous. At night, the three teens have a rather frightening nighttime experience as they attempt to capture and subdue a very large and powerful crocodile for their research.
They next journey to Brazil, where they plan to study otters. They learn that there are two main species of otters in the area which are “data deficient,” and spend long hours in uncomfortable observation waiting for the shy creatures to show themselves. Jamie then teams up with some Brazilian students and they make plans to enact change and protect the wildlife in the area, deciding to “take a stand” and write letters to their respective governments, although they soon find that they cannot agree on the letters’ precise messages. The boys meet with some of the famous Brazilian beef ranchers and learn that they have started working with ecologists to protect the land. Arsen engages in some Capoiera, a Brazilian martial arts form that he has long studied, with some locals. Later, they make a satellite call to an American school and update the students on their activities. Their next stop is Costa Rica, where they work to preserve the lives of endangered turtles, helping to excavate some ill-placed nests. They take to the beach at night and work with an expert who explains that the increasing number of nearby hotels and casinos are detrimental to the turtles’ survival, and they take many of the eggs to a “hatchery” where they can mature in safety. They talk to another American class and explains their efforts, although Arsen soon finds Tyler’s commitment to the turtles to be somewhat “out there” and they wonder if their videos on their site seem “too trivial.” Indeed, they are soon summoned back to New England by Earthwatch and told that they have behaved frivolously, but they counter that they wanted to make “lighthearted” educational videos to engage otherwise uninterested schoolchildren. After some words of advice from Bill Nye the Science Guy himself, they head off to the Bahamas to study coral reefs.
In the Bahamas, Tyler scuba-dives and takes footage of the reefs, explaining his great love of the sea. He and the others come up with ideas for preserving the fragile ecosystems, and they next travel to Sri Lanka, where they team up with a scientist and study the social behavior monkey population and how it relates to their survival. They also visit an elephant “orphanage,” where some of the animals have been injured by land mines, and Jamie observes that increased human population is a prominent cause of natural destruction and endangerment of animals. They note the need for different groups and species to “make friends” in order to survive, and they share their latest adventures with students back home over the phone. Next they journey to Thailand, where they are distracted from their plan by the 2005 earthquake and tsunami which killed thousands of people and harmed many ecosystems. They attempt to help clean up and travel to a school, where they are touched and saddened by the many newly-orphaned children they meet. In Phuket, they come upon endless photos of missing locals and experience “heartbreaking” guilt over their presence there. As they continue their travels, they sample some local “cuisines,” which turn out not to be quite what they expected, and they explore the ruins of Angkor with a “modern-day Indiana Jones” who shows them a Bronze Age dig site dating back 4,000 years at which they unearth assorted fossils and relics. They are struck by the evidence of high infant mortality rates, and Arsen recounts his experience being born in Haiti and nearly dying as a baby, ending up in an orphanage after his mother’s death. Tyler makes a video about the nuanced, “tonal” Thai language, and they learn about the various problems caused by changing water levels in the land.
They take a whirlwind trip through several other Asian countries and end up in Malaysia, where they study bats, catching them in traps and tagging them for observation. They make a presentation to some Malaysian schoolchildren about the bats, and Tyler notes that he would have been too shy to do so prior to his experience with the program. They connect with American students as well and discuss ways in which they too can make a difference, and the three teens reflect on their journey as they prepare to finally return home. A month later, they learn that schoolchildren in a school in Halifax have gone “bat-crazy” after their exposure to the teens’ studies and are working to protect the endangered species in their area. The students discuss their favorite moments of the trip, and updates are provided about the environmentalist actions of schoolchildren all over the world who took part in the Earthwatch program. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: Discovery Kids
- DATE: December 3, 2006 5:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:39:42
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:89316
- GENRE: Documentary
- SUBJECT HEADING: Documentary; Ecology; Teenagers
- SERIES RUN: Discovery Kids - TV, 2006
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- John Heminway … Producer, Writer, Director
- Katie Carpenter … Producer, Writer, Director
- Lisa Grossman … Coordinating Producer
- David Frank Long … Music by
- Arsen Ewing
- Jamie Fiel
- Bill Nye
- Tyler Robinson