Seaspiracy, Cowspiracy: Are These Documentaries the Answer to Changing Human Behaviour?

The pros and cons of viral environmental documentaries

Last week, Seaspiracy hit the Netflix shelves and it’s caused a fair amount of outrage and rash changes in eating habits ever since. One thing that emotionally charged documentaries like Cowspiracy and Seaspiracy do well is they have impact. However, is that short-term impact? Only for people to snap back to old habits as soon as their guilt has faded; or are these eye-opening films creating long-lasting change?

Photo by Meritt Thomas on Unsplash

For those of you who may not be aware of it, Seaspiracy is the latest documentary film raising awareness of how poor a state our planet is in at the moment. It focuses on the commercial fishing industry and how oceans are becoming depleted. It follows on as a sort of sequel to the well known Cowspiracy, which was based on the intensification of animal agriculture.

Photo by Gregor Moser on Unsplash

I think it’s worth noting that generally I believe they’re doing good. It’s refreshing to see such a powerful spotlight on environmental issues such as this. David Attenborough’s documentaries and their regular mention of…