Dirt Movie Reflection

Dirt Movie Reflection

Several people in the film indicate that working in dirt is calming or satisfying. In your experience, is this true? If so, why?

I agree that working in dirt is calming and satisfying because dirt is what the earth is made up of and what plants and trees grow from. Dirt is the real material from which our earth is made from, not concrete.

What is your reaction to hearing about the number of farmer suicides in rural India over the past decade? (The film reports there were 200,000.) If such a thing occurred in this country, what do you think would happen?

This fact made me very sad because their crops don’t grow well enough to get them enough money to live. If this occurred in this country, it would affect the populations in villages and countrysides a lot and the country’s economy would drop.


In the film, mycologist Paul Stamets characterizes the human species as a virus because of the harmful effects our activities have had on the land. Do you accept his analogy? Why or why not?
I accept this analogy because humans did the most damage to our planet. Rainforests now cover less than 2% of the Earth’s surface while they used to cover 14%.

How can humans “listen to nature” and bring their needs and activities into alignment with those of nature? Are there ways you can be more attentive to the natural world in your daily life? How?
We can spend more time in nature in order to understand it and to help nature we can recycle, treat animals kindly, throw our garbage into garbage/recycling bins, not around our city.

Keeping in mind the hummingbird story told in the film, do you think doing the best you can is enough to preserve the health of the planet, even if millions of people do their best? What responsibility do governments have to help maintain a healthy planet for future generations?

I think that if millions of people try their best we can preserve our planet and make it a better place for the future generations. Governments should make more recycling centers and recycling bins in their countries, make strict rules about throwing garbage into nature and make many animal shelters.

What feelings are you left with after seeing this film? Do you feel motivated or empowered to make changes, either personally or as part of a group effort, to keep Earth’s soil healthy? What part(s) of the film especially resonated with you? What did you learn from the movie? How do you feel about dirt(soil) after watching this film? Do you feel that Dirt is really important as the film states?
  
After seeing this film I feel very inspired but sad about what is happening around the world. I feel motivated to make changes in the world to keep the Earth’s soil Healthy. The part of the film with the hummingbird trying its best to stop the fire inspired me the most. From this movie I learned that even though a lot of people might think that dirt is dirty and disgusting, it is not true because dirt is a home to many living organisms and helps farmers grow crops. I feel very differently about dirt after watching this movie because it explained the purpose and importance of dirt and I feel that dirt is very important to humans and other living organisms.