The Dust Bowl is a documentary film by Ken Burns that uses interviews with moral witnesses to the event and their descendants to really highlight the emotional toll that the disaster took on the citizens. of the Great Plains. The film describes the Dust Bowl as "the worst man-made disaster" in American history and uses eyewitness accounts to help shape the narrative of what caused it. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay It could be argued that the theme of the film is human greed and the disconnect between humans and nature. Between the early 1900s and the 1920s, many factors led to the conditions of the Dust Bowl. The American dream of the time was to have land, and it was sold cheaply in the Great Plains region due to the Homestead Act. In fact, years later, a famous real estate scam would occur in Boise City, Oklahoma that the film briefly discusses. The Great Plains were vast, flat expanses covered with buffalo grass. The environment was not the most conducive to farming due to the soil's inability to retain moisture if the buffalo grass was removed. But at that time, the film describes farming as a high-stakes game of chance and even mentions that there were people who came from the city, planted seeds, left and returned to harvest the crop and make a profit. profit. At that time it was wheat that was really grown, due to the high demand for this crop due to the collapse of trade routes following the First World War, known at the time as the Great War. together to create the conditions for this disaster, including the Great Depression, markets crashing on Black Tuesday, bumper harvests, the cause that stood out to me was human greed and ignorance. These farmers viewed their farms as factories, and there was a disconnect with nature and an abuse of its resources. A few elements of this film really resonated with me on a personal level. Hearing one woman describe what it was like, this decade-long horror was, in her words, “evil.” It is hard to imagine what these people had to endure, not even being able to go out without being hurt by the winds. It also serves as a cautionary tale of sorts, a dire warning about the current state of our world and how we are mistreating nature. There are so many things we take for granted, and we imagine that the resources we depend on are infinite. Global warming, fracking, the Pacific waste patch, the list goes on. All of these things and more build simultaneously to a frightening climax unless we can pause, reflect, and change our behaviors as a species. It's important to note that things don't happen in a vacuum, there are always multiple actors. involved, and it is likely that not everyone knows all the relevant information. The humanity of these farmers is on full display here throughout Burns' documentary, not counting the technology factor. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay We can't blame everything on the farmers, or the government, or the scientists of the time, because it could be that some individuals cared and did everything they could to prevent or stop the occurrence of the Dust Bowl, but the ??