The Gulf of Mexico’s coastal wetlands and marshes are home to thousands of species of plants and animals – and its beaches help support a hundred billion-dollar tourist industry. It’s also a place whose waters provide 40% of the commercial seafood caught in the lower 48 States.
After 87 days of oil spewing into the Gulf, the beaches and salt marshes were hit hard. Hundreds of thousands of marine animals and birds died. Tourists abandoned the beaches. And watermen were unable to work. The oil spill put at stake not only a way of life, but also the future of one of the most biologically fertile regions in the world.
The creators of award-winning environmental series Journey to Planet Earth (hosted by Matt Damon) present Dispatches from the Gulf – an upcoming documentary film and educational outreach initiative highlighting exclusive scientific discoveries in health, ecosystems, innovation and recovery in the post-oil spill Gulf of Mexico.
Share your thoughts at the following “Dispatches from the Gulf” Social Media links:
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“Dispatches from the Gulf” is a new Journey to Planet Earth (J2PE) episode showing how scientists confront the challenges of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The documentary also investigates the impact of the event on the ecosystems and communities along the Gulf of Mexico.
J2PE dramatizes new ways of looking at the delicate relationship between people and the world they inhabit. The series is designed to help viewers understand and cope with the most important environmental issues of the 21st century.
Through an interdisciplinary approach, these programs reach beyond the physical sciences and draw connections to politics, economics, sociology, and history. A common thread runs throughout — the necessity to achieve a balance between the needs of people and the needs of the environment. Though photographed on different continents and focusing on different sets of problems, audiences come to see why all of these stories are connected, providing a dramatic mosaic of how the Earth works as an interrelated system.