Focusing on a specific period, from the birth of Black Wall Street to its catastrophic downfall over the course of two bloody days, and finally the fallout and reconstruction. Weve managed to travel by boat to islands that were impossible to get to historically because they were permanently locked in the ice. Thats the sort of commitment you need if you want to even begin making a portrait of the living world. This is not about saving our planet its about saving ourselves. Half of the worlds rainforests have already been cleared. And to begin with, it was quite easy. Its only now that I appreciate how extraordinary. Synopsis. This unique feature documentary is his witness statement. For 65 million years, its been at work reconstructing the living world until we come to the world we know our time. They charted them as they moved across rivers, through woodlands, and over national borders. Since I started filming in the 1950s, on average, wild animal populations have more than halved. To restore stability to our planet, we must restore its biodiversity. A few days after that and theyre gone over the horizon. This might all sound like a post-apocalyptic horror movie. Sir David Attenborough to 60 Minutes on climate change: "A crime has And a few years later, that idea became obvious to everyone. A meteorite impact triggered a catastrophic change in the earths conditions. If we take care of nature, nature will take care of us. Interspersed with footage of his career and of a wide variety of ecosystems, he narrates key moments in his career and indicators of how the planet has changed since he was born in 1926. It was a feature of all five mass extinctions. It has hidden its secrets well because of the difficulties of filming underwater. By the 1980s, uncontrolled logging had reduced this to just one quarter. A Life on Our Planet - Wikipedia Due to carelessness, poor planning, and human error, it's probably the most devastating environmental disaster to date. For much of its expanse, the ocean is largely empty. Because what youre looking at is skeletons. But, there are ways to change direction and alter the doom and gloom we've created. Rewilding the world is simpler than you might think. Results of search for 'ccl=(su:{television programs.})' Marywood The trick is to raise the standard of living around the world without increasing our impact on that world. Um and, in a way, I wish I wasnt involved in this struggle. This film is my witness statement and my vision for the future, the story of how we came to make this our greatest mistake, and how, if we act now, we can yet put it right. There is a double incentive to cut down forests. We learnt how to exploit the seasons to produce food crops. Its crazy that our banks and our pensions are investing in fossil fuel when these are the very things that are jeopardizing the future that we are saving for. For some time, climate scientists had warned that the planet would get warmer as we burned fossil fuels and released carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. Fossil fuels increase the greenhouse effect, releasing gases such as carbon dioxide. SIMON: You project what the world might look like in 10 years and even a century. The various meetings that have been convened by the United Nations - setting out plans which need validation by national governments and which will cost national governments, and I think that we need to persuade our own government in this country - and maybe you in your country - that we as citizens recognize what's happening to the world. A powerful shared conscience had suddenly appeared. Our planet becomes four degrees Celsius warmer. [Attenborough] It felt that nothing would limit our progress. So let's go back to the beginning of this summary. And, of course, the ocean is important to all of us as a source of food. Ive traveled to every part of the globe. By the time Frozen Planet aired in 2011, the reasons for these changes was well established. . SIMON: You advocate what you call no-fish zones. It had everything a community would need for a comfortable life. SIMON: Sir David Attenborough - his book, along with his co-author Jonnie Hughes, is "A Life On Our Planet." [over megaphone] Please stop killing the whales. We eat 50 billion chickens a year and feed them with soy planted on deforested land. The natural world will survive. A world that demanded more every day. That non-human world is gone. This was before any of us were aware that there were problems. The more diverse it is, the better it does that job. A Life on Our Planet David Attenborough A legacy-defining book from Sir David Attenborough, reflecting on his life's work, the dramatic changes to the planet he has witnessed, and what we can do to make a better future. But Chernobyl was a single event. I advocate that there should be zones, parts of the ocean where they should be absolutely sacrosanct, where, in fact, populations of fish can build up and actually from that, colonize the rest of the seas that we've stripped. [Attenborough] They ate meat rarely. But lines blur when a key informant makes a big ask. Well, weve destroyed it. Humpbacks living in the same area learn their songs from each other. At first, they caught plenty of fish in their nets. Its now time for our species to stop simply growing. David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet: Directed by Alastair Fothergill, Jonathan Hughes, Keith Scholey. Based on a children's book by Paul McCartney. You and I belong to the most widespread and dominant species of animal on earth. And that completely changed the mindset of the population, the human population of the world. In Asia, the winds would create the monsoon on cue. However, if we had "no fishing" zones in one-third of the sea, our fish stocks could recover over the long term. The only way to keep them alive was for rangers to be with them every day. Why wouldnt we want to do these things? Tonight, weve got a rather different program for you. Environmental economists are trying to address this. So, how do we recognize critical thresholds? The worlds greatest wildlife reserve. Ive visited the polar regions over many decades. A mass extinction has happened five times in lifes four-billion-year history. A Life on Our Planet - Google Books In 1937, at age 11, he would cycle from his home in Leicester into the countryside to study fossils in the rocks. Not just ruined it. Within the span of the next lifetime, the security and stability of the Holocene, our Garden of Eden will be lost. In this summary, we'll briefly explore what Attenborough calls "the tragedy of our time," and how, with immediate and decisive action, disaster can be averted. This model outlines nine critical thresholds, or planetary boundaries, such as climate change, air pollution, land conversion, and biodiversity loss. A monoculture of oil palm. attenborough a life on our planet transcript life on earth the greatest story ever told david . A broadcaster recounts his life, and the evolutionary history of life on Earth, to grieve the loss of wild places and offer a vision for the future. And suddenly, we realized, you know, we're there together, and we're alone. Then watch the video and do the exercises. But the longer we leave it, the more difficult itll be to do something about it. No ecosystem, no matter how big, is secure. The natural world is, fading, he writes. Our closest relatives. With David Attenborough, Max Hughes. We need to shift to plant-based diets. Huge herds on the plains have kept the grasslands rich and productive by fertilizing the soils. I wasn't prepared for it. Were certainly the most numerous large animal. It was a great place to come to as a boy, because this is, um, ironstone workings, but it was disused. [protester over megaphone] We are men and women, and we speak for children, and were all saying, Please stop killing the whales.. It was a very different world back then. Ways to fish our seas that enable them to come quickly back to life. Many new plant-based foods are on the market, and in the future, biotechnology may be able to use microorganisms to provide us with proteins. And in life the animal itself lived in the chamber here and spread out its tentacles to catch its prey. It's not too late. Thats almost 20 times the energy we need just from sunlight. If the ice disappears, so does the algae that grow underneath. The complete series [HD DVD] / a BBC/Discovery Channel/NHK co-production, in association with the CBC ; . In 1990, parts of the Mexican Coast were overfished, so a marine protected area was established. When I was a boy, I spent all my spare time searching through rocks in places like this for buried treasure. Watch David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet | Netflix Official Site ATTENBOROUGH: Well, I think it changed everybody's view. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. We have such a fascination for wildlife, but wild animals make up only 4% of the mammals on Earth. He believes that we have The Planetary Boundaries model as our guide, and that we should be looking to it for inspiration. And we've exterminated the great fisheries. Raising yields tenfold in two generations while at the same time using less water, fewer pesticides, less fertilizer and emitting less carbon. And ways to harvest our forests sustainably. The ocean is a critical ally in our battle to reduce carbon in the atmosphere. Instructions. We rely entirely on this finely tuned life-support machine. 24FramesArchives Amazingly the plants on Earth, together with their ocean counterparts of algae and phytoplankton, know all about solar power. Our home was not limitless. Life cycles on, and if we make the right choices, ruin can become regrowth . 1960 WORLD POPULATION: 3.0 BILLION CARBON IN ATMOSPHERE: 315 PARTS PER MILLION REMAINING WILDERNESS: 62%. Many experts wrote off Pripyat, and many of us are apathetic about the future of the planet. The tragedy is that despite powerful stories such as this, including Dian Fossey's work with gorilla populations, and the creation of tiger reserves in India, wildlife habitats are increasingly endangered. The longer they have to wait for the ice to return, the more they use up their fat supplies. This habitat was the subject of the series The Blue Planet, which we were filming in the late 90s. The earths plants capture three trillion kilowatt-hours of solar energy each day. David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet | Official Trailer | Netflix Large carnivores are rare in nature because it takes a lot of prey to support each of them. Farmers in developed countries could be incentivized to build biodiversity on their farms. J.P. Morgan: How One Man Financed America is a fast-paced and informative portrait of Americas most prolific banker a man so powerful that when he died, the NYSE paused all trading for half a day out of respect. Every other species on Earth reaches a maximum population after a time. And if you knock down the whole of the Amazon rainforest, the whole of the climatic systems of rainfall and other climatic factors will be - go off balance. Fortunately, Tanzania and Kenya took far-sighted action to safeguard the sacred paths of the Serengeti migration. No one wants this to happen. However, this time it included humans in its design. Fishing is worlds greatest wild harvest. We cant cut down rainforests forever, and anything that we cant do forever is by definition unsustainable. David Attenborough, Our Planet In his 93 years, Attenborough has visited every continent on the globe, exploring the wild places of the planet and documenting the living world in all its variety and wonder. Above, very few. Filmmaker Sir David Attenborough has been documenting the natural world since the 1950s. Thank you so much for being with us. Yet, we're nowhere near the stage where our population has stopped growing. And tree diversity is the key to a rainforest. Whales were being slaughtered by fleets of industrial whaling ships in the 1970s. The fishing quickly became so poor that countries began to subsidize the fleets to maintain the industry. It needs protecting. Kate Raworth, an economist at the University of Oxford, has added a social boundary to The Planetary Boundaries model - one that requires us to provide minimum levels of human well-being for all, including adequate housing, clean water, food, education, and justice. Every human can make a difference, but we have to come together internationally, and support the many people already hard at work to save our planet. Our blind assault on the planet has finally come to alter the very fundamentals of the living world. Today, the forest has taken over the city. An imaginative young squirrel leads a musical revolution to save his parents from a tyrannical leader. However, these marvels of the underwater food chain have become rarer, owing to overfishing, and because of disruptions in the food chain, our oceans are dying. In one act, this would transform the open ocean from a place exhausted by subsidized fishing fleets to a wilderness that will help us all in our efforts to combat climate change. His book, "A Life On Our Planet: My Witness Statement And Vision For The Future" - and the highly honored broadcaster, historian of nature and best-selling author joins us now. Without large fish and other marine predators, the oceanic nutrient cycle stutters. David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet. Urban farming is an option on rooftops, abandoned buildings, and exterior walls of city buildings. Just listen to this. In international waters, the UN is attempting to create the biggest no fish zone of all. The most remote habitat of all exists at the extreme north and south of the planet. Prehistoric Planet will be back for a second season. For example, the Costa Rican government offered farmers grants to replant indigenous trees twenty-five years ago. Since the Second World War, what's known as the "Great Acceleration" has brought us many progressive things, as our GDPs indicate. All rights reserved. Within 20 years, renewables are predicted to be the worlds main source of power. [Attenborough] They lived in small numbers and didnt take too much. And because we would be then dedicated to raising plants, we could increase the yield of this land substantially. After the death of their father, two half-brothers find themselves on opposite sides of an escalating conflict with tragic consequences. Nature is our biggest ally and our greatest inspiration. The white corals are ultimately smothered by seaweed. We also need to rebuild our seas to capture carbon, increase biodiversity and food supply. [Attenborough] At the turn of the century, Morocco relied on imported oil and gas for almost all of its energy. Which is why weve cut down three trillion trees across the world. [snorting] Whenever we choose a piece of meat, we too are unwittingly demanding a huge expanse of space. I am David Attenborough, and I am 93. Its all happened within the last 2,000 years or so. Even in places where theres no land at all. That is my witness statement. PDF David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet - British Council And Im going to tell you how. Yet the way we humans live on Earth now is sending biodiversity into a decline. The world population was 2.3 billion, the carbon in the atmosphere was 280 parts per million, and the remaining wilderness was 66%. our planet from deserts to grasslands transcript But we can make them the only source. The last one is thought to have been a meteorite that struck Earth, destroying anything bigger than a dog. on the Internet. And we understand that it's going to cost something if you put it right and that the Western and developed countries had more than their fair share. And yet, this is what weve been turning this dizzying diversity into. When I filmed with the mountain gorillas, there were only 300 left in a remote jungle in Central Africa. Starring: David Attenborough. Global food production enters a crisis as soils become exhausted by overuse. And powerful evidence that however grave our mistakes, nature will ultimately overcome them. Then you deal so with the land. We also have to rewild mangroves, salt marshes, and kelp forests to restore biodiversity. In his 93 years, Attenborough has visited every continent on the globe, exploring the wild places of the planet and documenting the living world in all its variety and wonder. 1954 WORLD POPULATION: 2.7 BILLION CARBON IN ATMOSPHERE: 310 PARTS PER MILLION REMAINING WILDERNESS: 64%. In the past, animals had to develop some physical ability to change their lives. The government decided to act, offering grants to land owners to replant native trees. David Attenborough is a famous British naturalist. At times, our ancestors existed only in tiny numbers, but just over 10,000 years ago, that number suddenly stabilized and with it, Earth's climate. My first visit to East Africa was in 1960. His book, "A Life On Our Planet: My Witness Statement And Vision For The Future" - and the highly honored broadcaster, historian of nature and best-selling author joins us now. Fewer trees and more carbon in the atmosphere would escalate global warming significantly. Sunlight, wind, water and geothermal. David Attenborough became a household name in 1979 with his ground-breaking BBC series, "Life On Earth," which was seen by an estimated 500 million people worldwide. Attenborough's wildlife journey started at a young age. Jonnie Hughes served as director and producer, as he has on Attenborough's documentaries since 2000. Just imagine that. But, the moral of the story is indeed a positive one. After all, theres plenty of it. We can start to produce food in new spaces. Today, it generates 40% of its needs at home from a network of renewable power plants, including the worlds largest solar farm. The biodiversity of the Holocene helped to bring stability, and the entire living world settled into a gentle, reliable rhythm the seasons. In 1998, a Blue Planet film crew discovered that the beautiful colors of the coral reefs were turning to skeletal chalky white. We've adopted a fatalistic attitude that it's "too little too late." At the same time, the Arctic becomes ice-free in the summer. But its possible to slow, even to stop population growth well before it reaches that point. . Ocean life was also unravelling in the shallows. In my time, Ive experienced the warming of Arctic summers. All that evolution undone. Oil and gas companies represent the largest businesses globally, heavy industry uses fossil fuels, and there's a hefty stock market investment in these companies. [young Attenborough] We heard a crashing in the branches ahead. thank you soo much this script was very good, Your email address will not be published. 'Prehistoric Planet' Renewed For Season 2 At Apple TV+ Great numbers of species disappear and are suddenly replaced by a few. Let's briefly go back in time. As a result, the average global temperature today is one degree Celsius warmer than it was when I was born. Soil would be inadequate, insects and bees destroyed, and droughts and flooding would increase. And who knows what effect that will have on the world. Landslides and floods would occur, but worse still, this thawing would release 1,400 gigatonnes of carbon into the atmosphere. It was a brutal and unpredictable world. An amazing and delicate web of connected relationships exists everywhere, particularly in rainforests. Executive-produced by his sons, Rodrigo and Gonzalo. ATTENBOROUGH: Well, it could be gone. as they were made aware of the natural world. Chris Rock makes comedy history with this global livestreaming event. Leading lives that interlock in such a way that they sustain each other. It seems utterly impossible that after such a devastating environmental disaster, there would be any kind of happy ending. Theyre places in which evolutions talent for design soars. Uploaded by And in less than 48 hours, the city was evacuated. They discovered that the Serengeti herds required an enormous area of healthy grassland to function. Estimates suggest that no fish zones over a third of our coastal seas would be sufficient to provide us with all the fish we will ever need. We humans cannot presume the same. Rising sea levels could lead to cities like Rotterdam, Ho Chi Minh City, and Miami being evacuated. And the idea could be passed from one generation to the next. The cycle of destruction continues as the sea life is trapped by or ingests this waste. Life had no option but to rebuild. watch for yourself. If we fast-forward to 2020, a mere 83 years later, the statistics are disheartening. You knock down a rainforest tree, and you get a lot of money from the timber which you sell. The best time of our lives. However, here's a curveball. And all of them completely undisturbed by your presence. While the future of our planet may look bleak, Attenborough offers us hope and a vision for restoring our planet. ATTENBOROUGH: I don't think it is a responsible thing to do is to simply say that what we see the future, it's very dangerous, and to hell with it. If we want to, we can kill almost anything in the sea that we wish. Imagine if we committed to a similar approach across the world. Imagine if we phase out fossil fuels and run our world on the eternal energies of nature too. Forests are a fundamental component of our planets recovery. Its entirely possible for us to apply both low-tech and hi-tech solutions to produce much more food from much less land. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. We have to do our best. In this future, we discover ways to benefit from our land that help, rather than hinder, wilderness. Im talking about the loss of our planets wild places, its biodiversity. And beyond that strip, there is nothing but regimented rows of oil palms. Nobody wanted animals to become extinct. In previous events, it had taken volcanic activity up to one million years to dredge up enough carbon from within the earth to trigger a catastrophe. Half of the fertile land on Earth is currently farmed, and it's often overgrazed, over-sprayed with pesticides, and denuded of topsoil. In the 30 years since the evacuation of Chernobyl, the wild has reclaimed the space. 2030s. The largest whales, the blues, numbered only a few thousand by then. As much now as I did when I was a boy. In a single small patch of tropical rainforest, there could be 700 different species of tree, as many as there are in the whole of North America. They capture 3 trillion kilowatt-hours of solar energy every day. Over billions of years, nature has crafted miraculous forms, each more complex and accomplished than the last. Fast forward to 2021, and a far greater catastrophe looms. There is little left for the rest of the living world. David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet | LearnEnglish 70% of the mass of birds on this planet are domestic birds. 2020 WORLD POPULATION: 7.8 BILLION CARBON IN ATMOSPHERE: 415 PARTS PER MILLION REMAINING WILDERNESS: 35%, Science predicts that were I born today, I would be witness to the following. He has perpetually been on the road ever since. 2020 | Maturity Rating: PG | 1h 23m | Documentary Films. Fossils. A Life on Our Planet Quotes by David Attenborough - Goodreads If you have not used our catalog since prior to June 6, 2016 contact Circulation at the number below to get your PIN reset. So, what do we do? Algal forests would not attach to ice, damaging the ocean food chain. SIMON: I - forgive me, but I feel the need to quote a movie in which your brother starred (laughter), "Jurassic Park," where the scientist says, nature finds a way. The herrings have disappeared from the North Sea. Search the history of over 797 billion Those forests and plains and seas were already emptying. David Attenborough. David Attenborough, A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future 8 likes Like "To restore stability to our planet, therefore, we must restore its biodiversity, the very thing we have removed. We account for over one-third of the weight of mammals on earth. One Hundred Years of Solitude. Rainforests are particularly precious habitats. People were coming to care for the natural world. The Maasai word Serengeti means endless plains. To those who live here, its an apt description. It was called natural history because thats essentially what it was all about history. urgency ? Ice-free summers in the Arctic would also start. Starring: David Attenborough. Planet Earth. That disaster is being brought about by the very things that allow us to live our comfortable lives." All we need is the will to do so. Plankton would also be destroyed by the acid, affecting the entire food chain.

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