Hell or Clean Water

The signs of human destruction of the natural environment are everywhere. Just in my lifetime, our species has developed the ability to see it and, potentially, correct the grossest forms of its malfeasance.

But who would have thought to look under the ocean surface to see the seemingly unlimited crap that our species has deposited there? Empty bottles, old tires, broken machinery from boats and worst of all, due to its deadly peril for aquatic wildlife, discarded fishing gear and nets.

The scene when such is disentangled from the tail of a dead orca whale in a coastal inlet waterway in Newfoundland has to be one of the most horrifying in this documentary.

One gets increasingly involved in the story of Shawn Bath,the protagonist and his struggle to simply raise enough money so that he can keep his CHI: the Clean Harbour Initiative, going. When the governments of Newfoundland and Canada finally recognize in a tangible way the good of what he is doing, it is a heartwarming moment.

But one tempered by the realization that he is one man who saw a problem that had hitherto been totally unforeseen. How many other problems of human manufacture await for us as a species to discover and rectify before we totally destroy our planet?

A wonderful documentary.