A Young Geographer's Insights into the Modern World

The media uses the same techniques time and time again to appeal to our emotions and instincts. It is their professional duty to entice people to read stories and frequently exaggerate to do so. Stereotypes are an easy way for the media to communicate using categories that we already have an immediate reaction to. Journalists know it is almost inhumane to look away from a person in pain or in need. The media picks up the negative and disastrous stories and rarely reports the good. In fact, our surveillance of suffering has improved making us more likely to see these events occurring in the past. Stories of gradual improvements would not make the headlines so statistics are often used in a dramatic way for political purposes. The media provides us with important news and information but is very selective in the stories it chooses and the way it reports.

Thankfully, one of the many small environmental problems is beginning to improve. All thanks to Sir David Attenborough. 14.01 million people tuned in to Blue Planet II , narrated by Sir David Attenborough. The series particularly brought to light the issue of plastic in oceans. Inspired, many people began to campaign and protest leading to large changes in public perception. People demanded improvements yet the government are still slow to do anything. England's 5p plastic bag charge was introduced in October 2015, a year before Mauritius began to fine the use of plastic bags at around £250 per use. Plastic bag use in England has dropped by 83%, yet still, 8 million tonnes of plastic are being dumped in oceans each year. The world needs to do more. Not just about this small issue but about the countless number of other environmental issues if the world aims to be sustainable . Small changes can have massive impacts.   “One planet, one people. As long as we remember that we