Disclaimer: Graphic content in the article. Viewer discretion is advised.
Alert: This article contains spoilers.
Netflix’s new documentary series, Our Planet is the most hard-hitting thing we all need to watch right now. Not just because it shows how beautiful our planet is, but also because it documents the ugly way we are ruining our planet.
The series realistically portrays melting glaciers, receding sea ice, depleting forests and many such irreparable events, that are leading us to the brink of our extinction.
But if there’s one moment of reckoning in the entire series that will stay with you long after you’ve finished watching it, it’s the last 8-10 minutes of the second episode.
Somewhere in the northeastern parts of Russia, the largest gathering of walruses come together every summer. This has become a recurrent event over the years because the sea ice, which is their original habitat has been receding north.
The scene shows hundreds of thousands of walruses gathered on a beach because they are left with no other choice to stay close to their breeding grounds.
With no space to move, or even breathe, these disturbing visuals show how these mammals are struggling to survive.
What follows is tragic footage showing walruses trying to escape the stampede and climbing the surrounding cliffs to rest.
However, in their clumsy and desperate attempts to get back to the water in search of food, these animals weighing around 1-2 tonnes, stumble from the edge of the cliff.
It’s heartbreaking to watch hundreds of walruses falling off the high cliff and being crushed to death.
People all over the internet are talking about this particular scene and how it has impacted them.
Literally full on sobbed to the walrus moment. This whole docu series is so heart breaking. #OurPlanet I wish as humans we can do more.
— 🌿▪ Jessica ▪ 🌿 (@Fernevie) April 5, 2019
Mate
— DC (@alexdafforn98) April 9, 2019
That Walrus scene in Our Planet is harrowing to watch, and if it doesn’t wake you up to what we’re doing to this planet then you’re lost 😔
And it is the tragedy of this situation that really makes us think what our existence means to the planet.
We need to do something about OUR PLANET now!
— Matthew Lush (@MatthewLush) April 9, 2019
This Walrus scene is a rude awakening of climate change.
pic.twitter.com/Nn4Se5qTet
I’m watching #OurPlanet and it’s actually making me really sad. There’s the world’s largest gathering of walrus in Northeast Russia. There are over 100,000 beached there. All of them. Just packed there. No space. Because their usual habitat (ice) has melted.
— Clitar Hero (@TheCheesePatty) April 6, 2019
This one scene single-handedly can move you to tears, and make you question if we humans really deserve to exist?
To those who say climate change isn’t a legitimate threat I implore you to watch just the second episode of Our Planet and watch a Walrus fall off a cliff it should never have had to scale were it not for its natural hahitat literally melting before them
— James Humphreys (@J_Humphreys16) April 5, 2019
Been watching that ‘our planet’ on Netflix and it’s not even funny how fucked we are, human beings are a disease on this earth
— paddy (@paddyjc123) April 8, 2019
I just finished watching the documentary entitled “Our Planet”……
— Misael (@misaelb97) April 9, 2019
CAN WE HUMANS STOP FUCKING UP OUR PLANET?! THE POLAR BEARS ARE DYING. THE WALRUSES ARE DYING, ETC. These animals depend on life in the Polar region to SURVIVE.
The walrus sequence in #OurPlanet is the most heartbreaking wildlife footage I’ve seen. A v hard but important watch from @sajlanfear and @BooMcP @NetflixUK @wwf_uk Walruses plunging to their deaths become new symbol of climate changehttps://t.co/dgVPLpfmAW
— Damian Whitworth (@Damwhit) April 5, 2019
None of those who’ve watched this scene will be able to recover from it, until we really do something about it.
Attenborough’s Our Planet. Spectacular and horrifying in equal measure. I will never recover from the walrus scene
— Ursula Heger (@ursulaheger) April 7, 2019
The walrus ending of episode 2 of #OurPlanet is the saddest wildlife sequence I’ve ever seen. Fuck
— Sam Langford (@scottishscicomm) April 6, 2019
Burst into tears watching #OurPlanet , that walrus scene was the most harrowing thing I’ve ever seen on a documentary. But well done #netflix, sometimes the heartbreaking scenes are what will inspire people to make a difference
— Rhiannon (@_rhiannonirving) April 7, 2019
David Attenborough’s ‘Our Planet’ is a wake up call for the entire human race. It is our reckoning and a reflection of how we have changed our eco-system for worse, and for good.
And this one scene, alone, makes us wonder what have we done to a planet that isn’t just our home; but is home to a million other organisms that facilitate our survival.
If this scene doesn’t make us reconsider our actions, nothing else will.