The Day The Earth Stood Still, Humans Did… Nothing!

So I heard the title and assumed it was some natural disaster movie, then overheard somewhere that it involved aliens. One word came to mind – tacky! I watched the movie with as little expectation as possible, and came out changed. Suddenly, I was (and wanted to be) aware about every single thing in daily life that leaves carbon footprint. I had figures running in my head calculating the 6.76 billion people in the world who were leaving carbon footprints just like me and I panicked.

For those that haven’t watched the movie, an alien spaceship comes to earth, unleashes a swarm of destroyer bugs that chomps on anything in sight, marking the end of the world as we know it. Why? Because humans are killing the planet and our favourite plank-faced actor Keanu Reeves, who plays the expressionless alien negotiator Klaatu (no surprise, he pulls it off effortlessly), is sent to evaluate if humans would change their ways in the face of an ultimatum.

Sorry for the spoiler, but the aliens in an act of mercy, sends an electromagnetic pulse (minus the giant-mushroom-in-the-sky explosion) resulting in us humans descending into the dark ages again, quite literally – everything electronic ceased to function. Imagine a world with no lightbulbs, no microwave oven, no TV, no iPods, not even watches. (WTF? A world without music?)

While aliens may seem an unlikely scenario, it’s still food for thought. Countless documentaries have been made, and The Day The World Stood Still released last year is actually an adaptation of a 1951 movie of the same name – marking that environmental issues have long plagued humankind, but how much is really done about it?

Start today – reduce wastage of electricity and water, recycle plastics, aluminium, glass and paper, and reuse whatever you can, whenever you can. Toilet paper notwithstanding. That’s just gross.