Drone Footage Shows the Scale of the Destruction of Aleppo

DESTRUCTION IN ALEPPO, SYRIA

Statistical figures describing the scale of humanitarian crises do not cause us to feel empathy in the same way that images of people that are suffering do. The world was moved by the plight of Syrians when images of young children were shared on social media, such as Aylan Kurdi lying lifeless on a Turkish beach or Omran Daqneesh sitting in an ambulance after a bombing, wiping blood off his face. These pictures capture the suffering of two individuals, but how do you document the deaths of tens, even hundreds of thousands? The war in Syria has claimed the lives of 470,000 people and the Assad regime and Russia continue to bombard what was Syria's most populous city, Aleppo.

The New York Times has published a video that was shot by a drone surveying the destruction in Aleppo. The author of the accompanying article wonders whether the video will cause people to feel empathy for the victims of the bombings in the same way as images of individual people. What are we to make of such large scale destruction? Are we able to fully process that each dot seen below is person with a life, a story, a family, a future? And more importantly, will any sympathy generated from such visual accounts move the world to act in preventing further deaths in Syria?

You can view the video on The New York Times website by clicking here.