Human Footprint

I teach high school Economics and this video is perfect for giving students a real-life look at humanity's impact on the world's resources. Even though it's a bit dated (cell phones are of the flip variety), you can easily introduce or review basic Chapter 1 economic concepts (factors of production, consumption, goods and services, etc) using this video. Basically, the documentary follows the lives and resource consumption of two Americans, from birth to old age. All along, the video documents graphically the quantities of resources necessary to raise these Americans (for example, by showing how many trees, quarts of oil, and gallons of water goes into making diapers). And most importantly, students actually found this documentary both thought-provoking AND more interesting than their cell phones! Now if that's not a ringing endorsement, then I don't know what is...

The documentary was sadly upbeat for the subject matter. The host was constantly smiling and explaining all of the resources which go into any given thing and how many of that particular item the average American uses throughout his/her life. As if its a good thing to say that we use so-many thousand of disposable toothbrushes in our lifetimes.Also, there are parts of the documentary that that disgust me. In order to show you the number of eggs the average American eats, they dump them all from a bulldozer. This, of course, destroys the usefulness of the eggs...and for an animal rights activist its like watching abortions.Continuing, I have to say that the number for how many chickens, pigs and cows each American eats in their lifetime has got to be low. I am currently a 22 year old vegetarian, and I used to eat chicken wings a lot - there's no way I only ate 17 chickens worth of wings, let alone everything else.Now, on to the good stuff. I certainly like how this documentary shows us the consumption - it lays items out that either are that item or represent that item. By the end of the film there are diapers, cans, bread, buns, toothbrushes, hair and skin care products and many more things simply laid out in a fairly open area to show us the massive consumption. If it were not for this visual, I don't think I would have the respect for this documentary that I do.Because the negative moments are fleeting, and the positive moments continue throughout, this documentary was certainly worth purchasing.

I teach high school science and 100 level science classes at the local university. I showed the dvd for both groups with a worksheet I made up for them (anyone in education knows that you must give the students something to work on relating to the movie they're watching, or else they won't pay attention). It was visually impressive to see the amounts of "stuff" we go through in a lifetime, and it's a good movie because students have no idea what these amounts really are; they cannot fathom how immense 43,000 soda cans is. However that's really all there was to this dvd-they show a product (or activity), explain (briefly)how it is constructed, or shipped, and then they actually display the amount with the number (literaly they laid out 43,000+ soda cans in a parking lot). There was no explanation of the impact or problems associated with the levels of consumption or waste. And after 30-40 minutes (the dvd is 1.5hrs) it gets well, kind of boring. So good for providing the visual concept, poor in terms exploring the underlying cause and consequences.

The old saying goes, when visiting a beach or national park, "take only pictures and leave only footprints"; this film even gives that new meaning. This movie really puts in perspective how much 'stuff' we actually use, dispose of, and will leave on this plant after we die. To some, this film may encourage change; personally I wasn't motivated to make much of a change. The Industrial Revolution brought about ways to make our lives easier and have allowed us to get things done quicker, regardless of the price paid. There won't be a person who watches this movie and decides to stop driving or stop eating for that matter, but it's certainly food for thought.I purchased this film three years ago after seeing about it on Natgeo. The packaging is very creative being made of recycled material. This is one film that will encourage you to think if nothing else.

I have been showing this video for a few years now and when it was taken off of YouTube, I needed to purchase it. It came very quickly and I was able to show it by the end of the week.

I love this documentary! I've been using it with my students and they really are able to see a visual representation of our human footprint seeing as how they lay everything out for them to see and show the data. It is great to pair up with a worksheet. It is also cool how the packaging of the DVD is made of recyclable material.

This documentary is a well-done and entertaining introduction to U.S. consumption and the impact of U.S. consumption. It chronicles the lives of a typical boy and girl and follows their lives through the consumption of things needed, used, and consumed to raise them, e.g. diapers, milk, fruits and vegetables, junk food, showers, cosmetics, and so on. It presents some startling statistics and then graphically and visually depicts the consumption of the items. I use this with my high school students as part of a unit on consumption and conservation. My students love viewing it. And because the video is divided into succinct chapters, it's easy to pick and choose appropriate segments to show.

We really like this video. It really brings home the impact we all have on our environment via our daily life and purchases. We show this video along side our landfill site tour.

Awesome teaching video. When we learn about our Ecological Footprint, we hear statistics and numbers of average consumption. This is often difficult to conceptualize. The DVD gives a visual of just how much the numbers mean. The best example is the loaves of bread placed on the front lawn of a house. It was the number of loaves the average person eats in their lifetime! You can imagine how many were there. Very cool.

As a Geography teacher with a responsibility to teach sustainability and consumer consequences, I have been looking for a good DVD to introduce to the students the realities of our human footprint. This DVD has some excellent moments (dumping of the eggs, diapers piled high outside a suburban home) and some great ideas to educate (lining up the resources that are needed to make the 3,000 odd diapers we need to raise one child), but comes up short in the boredom stakes. It features "white happy American dream" families which a lot of my new Canadian students failed to connect with. Having said that I will use this DVD in the classroom but only in short bursts to promote discussion.