david attenborough: a life on our planet transcript david attenborough: a life on our planet transcript

I first witnessed the destruction of an entire habitat in Southeast Asia. web pages Politicians and corporates have to overcome vested interests and work towards the greater good. That is quite true. But we can make them the only source. No plowing and no fertilizers are used. 75% of all species were wiped out. Just imagine that. In international waters, the UN is attempting to create the biggest no fish zone of all. No one wants this to happen. 1997 WORLD POPULATION: 5.9 BILLION CARBON IN ATMOSPHERE: 360 PARTS PER MILLION REMAINING WILDERNESS: 46%. But, the moral of the story is indeed a positive one. All sorts of things that you had no idea had ever existed, all in a multitude of colors, all unbelievably beautiful. The ocean covers 70% of our planet's surface, and it's where all forms of life began. attenborough a life on our planet transcript life on earth the greatest story ever told david . The planet cant support billions of large meat-eaters. Do the preparation task first. Every other species on Earth reaches a maximum population after a time. With all these things, there is one overriding principle. [Attenborough] If we can change the way we live on Earth, an alternative future comes into view. Its entirely possible for us to apply both low-tech and hi-tech solutions to produce much more food from much less land. Some of the numbers are slightly out too. The truth is, with or without us, the natural world will rebuild. Fish populations crash. Be the first one to, David Attenborough - A Life on Our Planet 2020, Advanced embedding details, examples, and help, Terms of Service (last updated 12/31/2014). Increasingly, theyre doing so sustainably. The Netherlands is one of the worlds most densely-populated countries. We were apart from the rest of life on earth, living a different kind of life. The ocean bears the brunt of this because it absorbs the excess heat of global warming. Buy now Even orangutans play a role in this by spreading seeds as they search for ripe fruit. Protected fish populations soon became so healthy, they spilt over into the areas open to fishing. This most pristine and distant of ecosystems is headed for disaster. No one has lived here since. Ive had the most extraordinary life. A boundary that marks a profound, rapid, global change. Our planet becomes four degrees Celsius warmer. A marked change in atmospheric carbon has always been incompatible with a stable earth. Nature, once again, had to start again. That non-human world is gone. In 2008, academic researcher Maxwell Boykoff, studied UK tabloids to determine how climate change was represented across the widest circulating newspapers. Regenerative and urban farming are two options. We need to rediscover how to be sustainable. Yet the way we humans live on Earth now is sending biodiversity into a decline. In 1998, a Blue Planet film crew stumbled on an event little known at the time. 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. Its finite. A story of global decline during a single lifetime. But lines blur when a key informant makes a big ask. It seems that the human population will only really peak early in the 22nd century, at about 11 billion people. If we all had a largely plant-based diet, we would need only half the land we use at the moment. Complete the sentences with words from the . Theyre places in which evolutions talent for design soars. Let me just ask you about the 2030s. Offline ansehen. Pripyat is situated in Ukraine, and was built by the Soviet Union in the 1970s. This is now our planet, run by humankind for humankind. Ive traveled to every part of the globe. Today, forests cover half of Costa Rica. [wildebeest snorting] For every single predator on the Serengeti, there are more than 100 prey animals. David Attenborough has seen more of the natural world than any other. Many experts wrote off Pripyat, and many of us are apathetic about the future of the planet. The white corals are ultimately smothered by seaweed. This city in Ukraine was once home to almost 50,000 people. There are many differences between humans and the rest of the species on earth, but one that has been expressed is that we alone are able to imagine the future. We can solve the problems we now face by embracing this reality. Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. Fishing is worlds greatest wild harvest. In 1950, a Japanese family was likely to have three or more children. When fish stocks began to reduce, the Palauans responded by restricting fishing practices and banning fishing entirely from many areas. 2021 Scraps from the Loft. Unlike land chains, which may have three food chain links, such as grass, to wildebeest, to lion, the sea has about five, so if we overfish at one point, we collapse the entire system. These simple statistics speak as eloquently for our planet as our author does. Which is why weve cut down three trillion trees across the world. [Attenborough] Animals that had been viewed as little more than a source of oil and meat became personalities. Morocco generates 40% from renewable power plants and exports solar energy. And if we do it right, it can continue because theres a win-win at play. Ive seen it with my own eyes. By the time Frozen Planet aired in 2011, the reasons for these changes was well established. Starring: David Attenborough Watch all you want. You and I belong to the most widespread and dominant species of animal on earth. As a result, the no fish zones have increased the catch of the local fishermen, while at the same time allowing the reefs to recover. 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. [chuckles] Because I wish the struggle wasnt there or necessary. ATTENBOROUGH: Well, it could be gone. Below the line are a multitude of lifeforms. I mean, we have completely well, destroyed that world. We found humpbacks off Hawaii only by listening out for their calls. So let's go back to the beginning of this summary. Imagine if we committed to a similar approach across the world. Filmmaker Sir David Attenborough has been documenting the natural world since the 1950s. Theyd never seen sloths before. Once a species became our target, there was now nowhere on earth that it could hide. The purpose of Boykoff's study was to examine environmental representations, to 'provide opportunities to interrogate how particular narratives are translated, and how they make (in)visible certain discourses.' We had very little understanding of how the living world actually worked. Yet, we're nowhere near the stage where our population has stopped growing. And they are centers of biodiversity. 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. SIMON: What does that mean? Farming would be pushed to a crisis point. We must immediately halt deforestation everywhere and grow crops like oil palm and soya only on land that was deforested long ago. And then you clear that furthermore for cattle. So when he asks that people heed his "witness statement" about the peril humans . Small creatures called polyps, create reefs by building walls of calcium carbonate to protect their tiny forms, while the fantastic colors of a coral reef come from the algae in their tissues. And beyond that strip, there is nothing but regimented rows of oil palms. But you now want to explain to us what peril we are in. The Amazon rainforest could suffer from "forest dieback" and be starved of moisture, becoming an open savannah and destroying its biodiversity. Within the span of the next lifetime, the security and stability of the Holocene, our Garden of Eden will be lost. Within 20 years, renewables are predicted to be the worlds main source of power. The earths plants capture three trillion kilowatt-hours of solar energy each day. on October 24, 2021. There is little left for the rest of the living world. So, I had the privilege of being amongst the first to fully experience the bounty of life that had come about as a result of the Holocenes gentle climate. A speed of change that exceeds any in the last 10,000 years. Its happened in my lifetime. The resources they used naturally renewed themselves. At first, they caught plenty of fish in their nets. 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. We humans cannot presume the same. The pace of change was getting faster and faster. We have overfished 30% of fish stocks to critical levels. SIMON: Sir David Attenborough - his book, along with his co-author Jonnie Hughes, is "A Life On Our Planet." As Attenborough cautions, the bleached coral is like canaries in a coal mine. Baitfish are driven into tight balls by tuna, before they attack, then sharks and dolphins join the hunt; they're followed by gannets, and even a whale. The sooner it happens, the easier it makes everything else we have to do. 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. One of the extraordinary things about it was that the world could actually watch it as it happened. [whales singing] Their mournful songs were the key to transforming peoples opinions about them. The complete series [HD DVD] / a BBC/Discovery Channel/NHK co-production, in association with the CBC ; . What has that done? We must rewild the world. Its a creature called an ammonite. When her husband dies, Sole decides that the best way to take care of her son is to become a crime boss even if that means being her father's enemy. ATTENBOROUGH: Well, I think it changed everybody's view. When I was a boy, I spent all my spare time searching through rocks in places like this for buried treasure. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. In this world, a species can only thrive when everything else around it thrives, too. Walruses rest on the sea ice when they're not hunting, and because there isn't enough space on the diminishing ice, it becomes very overcrowded. . Because what youre looking at is skeletons. It will lead to our destruction. Nature is our biggest ally and our greatest inspiration. My first visit to East Africa was in 1960. It's happening already. Emmy-winning narrator David Attenborough ("Our Planet," "Planet Earth II") looks back and shares a way forward. All these years later, its once again the only option. We had worked out how to produce food to order. In this trailer, he talks about his documentary A Life on Our Planet. 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. However, stressed polyps dispose of their algae partners, leading them to bleach and turn into skeletons. The natural world will survive. But scientists started to discover that in many cases where bleaching occurred, the ocean was warming. Clean energy has to replace fossil fuels. A habitat that is dead in comparison. SIMON: So what gives you hope? Half a million gazelle. This was before any of us were aware that there were problems. And the quickest and most effective way to do that is for us to change our diet. As carbon release accelerates, the ocean will continue to absorb its share of this. When they do, theyre able to gather the concentrated shoals with ease. Thats the sort of commitment you need if you want to even begin making a portrait of the living world. And a few years later, that idea became obvious to everyone. This unique feature documentary is his witness statement. There just isnt the space. There are no reviews yet. As much now as I did when I was a boy. Huge herds on the plains have kept the grasslands rich and productive by fertilizing the soils. The Second World War was over, technology was making our lives easier. The Holocene has been one of the most stable periods in our planets great history. Half of the fertile land on earth is now farmland. [birds chirping] Just imagine if we achieve this on a global scale. As Attenborough says: 'We regard the Earth as our planet, run by mankind for mankind.' 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. The fishing quickly became so poor that countries began to subsidize the fleets to maintain the industry. But that rainforest is one of the key elements in the whole of the weather patterns of the world. You saw a blue marble, a blue sphere in the blackness, and you realized that that was the earth. Life cycles on, and if we make the right choices, ruin can become regrowth . Still, energy use, production, transport, farming, and telecommunication have also shown their sinister side. It will survive. One man has seen more of the natural world than any other. In the 30 years since the evacuation of Chernobyl, the wild has reclaimed the space. The last time it happened was the event that brought the end of the age of the dinosaurs. And the extent of the polar ice has been critical, reflecting sunlight back off its white surface, cooling the whole earth. The rest, from mice to whales, make up just 4%. Many of the millions of species in the forest exist in small numbers. Um and, in a way, I wish I wasnt involved in this struggle. So it's very profitable in the short term. Weve managed to travel by boat to islands that were impossible to get to historically because they were permanently locked in the ice. 1954 WORLD POPULATION: 2.7 BILLION CARBON IN ATMOSPHERE: 310 PARTS PER MILLION REMAINING WILDERNESS: 64%. There are signs that this has started to happen across the globe. And then, every hundred million years or so, after all those painstaking processes, something catastrophic happens, a mass extinction. The natural world is fading. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. I'm quite sure. Required fields are marked *. It was a brutal and unpredictable world. Sunlight, wind, water and geothermal. Ways to fish our seas that enable them to come quickly back to life. [Attenborough] By the time Life on Earth aired in 1979, I had entered my 50s. Jonnie Hughes served as director and producer, as he has on Attenborough's documentaries since 2000. Furthermore, less ice means that the Arctic would be unable to cool the planet down. Over billions of years, nature has crafted miraculous forms, each more complex and accomplished than the last. People had never seen pangolins before on television. That may sound impossible, but there are ways in which we can do this. Fast forward to 2021, and a far greater catastrophe looms. But for us, an idea could do that. It was an astonishing vision of a completely unknown world, a world that had existed since the beginning of time. 2.4M views 2 years ago In this unique feature documentary, titled David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet, the celebrated naturalist reflects upon both the defining moments of his. If theres any justice in the world, Marcel Ophls monumental labor will be studied and debated for years. A few days after that and theyre gone over the horizon. Boo! Today, it generates 40% of its needs at home from a network of renewable power plants, including the worlds largest solar farm. They have a symbiotic relationship; the algae absorb sunlight, which provides the polyps with the energy they need to snap up their passing prey, and expand their coral colony. Mangroves and coral reefs along thousands of miles of coast have harbored nurseries of fish species that, when mature, then range into open waters. [NASA technician] Five, four, three, two one, zero. And as the natural environment fails, pandemics are likely to increase. We now have the opportunity to create the perfect home for ourselves, and restore the rich, healthy, and wonderful world that we inherited. From Pripyat, a deserted area after the nuclear disaster, Attenborough gives an overview of his life. In 1990, parts of the Mexican Coast were overfished, so a marine protected area was established. A team of scientists led by Johan Rockstrom and Will Steffen, developed The Planetary Boundaries Model. 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. 24FramesArchives All rights reserved. The living world is a unique and spectacular marvel. And when the government of Brazil is saying that that's what they actually want to happen because knocking down the rainforest is a very good (ph) way to get a quick buck. In addition to this, we have an increased life expectancy. Whole habitats would soon start to disappear. Weve come this far because we are the smartest creatures that have ever lived. Thank you so much for being with us. But during his lifetime, Attenborough has also seen first-hand the monumental scale of humanity's impact on nature. A thick belt of jungles around the equator has piled plant on plant to capture as much of the suns energy as possible, adding moisture and oxygen to the global air currents. This particular one has a scientific name of Tiltonicerus, because the first one ever was found near this quarry here in Tilton, in the middle of England. [Attenborough] Ive been lucky enough to spend my life exploring the wild places of our planet. And sadly, we don't only deplete our fish. If this is the case, surely it's up to us to treat our planet with kindness and respect. At some point in the future, the human population will peak for the very first time. But that distant world is changing. 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. For 10,000 years, the average temperature has not wavered up or down by more than one degree Celsius. Sir David Attenborough is 94 years old and has some stark, startling sentences in the first few pages of his new book. If we travel back to modern-day Pripyat, David Attenborough tells us that nature is once again asserting itself. Despite its size, the Netherlands is now the worlds second largest exporter of food. It was a great place to come to as a boy, because this is, um, ironstone workings, but it was disused. I wasn't prepared for it. In his more recent travels, Attenborough noticed fishers using mosquito nets in the hope of catching something to eat. David Attenborough. This is a series of one-way doors bringing irreversible change. 2020 | Maturity Rating: 7+ | 1h 23m | Science & Nature Docs. Polar bears need ice as the launching pads for hunting. It had everything a community would need for a comfortable life. And in less than 48 hours, the city was evacuated. The last one is thought to have been a meteorite that struck Earth, destroying anything bigger than a dog. 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. The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, and Optimizing Your Microbiome, Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are, An Introductory Guide to Deeper States of Meditation, Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun, 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind. He and his son used a plane to follow the herds over the horizon. Sir David,. It was a rediscovery of a fundamental truth. Fossils. Sir David Attenborough was 28-years-old when he convinced his bosses at the BBC to let him travel the world and document his explorations. 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. Then watch the video and do the exercises. The 'why' behind this, points to global warming. This begs the question, 'What will the next 100 years look like if we dont change?'. The wealthiest 16% in the world are responsible for almost 50% of the environmental impact. 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.