Many years ago, when I was an undergraduate I saw an environmental film called Suzanne’s Lament. The images stuck with me.

I was reminded of it again as we approach the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day.

I went on a quest to track it down. (It’s something librarians do…)

I did some digging and found that the film is still available.

Suzanne’s Lament

This program is based on detailed field work carried out in 1969 and 1970 along the south-central coast of Alaska by a team of coastal geologists associated with the Geology Department of the University of Massachusetts. Miles O. Hayes, the originator of the concept, took some outstanding photographs of the Alaska coast in February 1970. By then, Hayes and his team, who up to that time had worked on developed coasts in Texas, New Jersey, and New England, after seeing the pristine conditions along the Alaska coast, began to compare it to the previously studied developed coasts. Then, they started thinking about how to preserve the Alaska coast in its natural state as much as possible. Accordingly, Hayes used the slides taken during the February 1970 field trip and compared select ones of them with photos of developed coasts.
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