Bright afternoon, gloomy later

The sun came out for a while and illuminated this damp copse a short distance from home where the dog and I went to nose around.

Later I went to Home, a documentary film made in 2009 about the state of our planet. It lasts an hour and a half and uses stunning aerial photography to illustrate the terminal devastation wrought upon the world by Homo sapiens. Inconceivably beautiful footage illustrates the catastrophic effects of agribusiness, overfishing, deforestation and climate change. The Earth is revealed to resemble a flayed, scorched, leached and lacerated basket case. Despite a faint note of optimism tacked on at the end the overall message I was left with is that the world is fucked and the best thing that could happen would be for nine tenths of the population to be wiped out by disease or disaster and the remaining fraction to be low-tech subsistence farmers who could nurse the planet back into health.

The film was made by Yann Arthus-Bertrand who released it without copyright to be downloaded or shown free of charge so that it would be seen by the maximum number of people. (The fact that it was bankrolled by a French multinational holding company specializing in retail shops and luxury brands leaves a rather strange taste in the mouth.) It certainly should be seen but don't expect a feel-good film.