Farms take up a combined space the size of North America, South America, and Australia combined, with devastating greenhouse gas emissions. If we all had a largely plant-based diet, we would need only half the land we use at the moment. Videos David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet. 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. Fossils. Whole habitats would soon start to disappear. Against the backdrop of the WWII battle known as Hitler's first defeat, a Norwegian soldier returns home and learns a shocking truth about his wife. Pripyat is situated in Ukraine, and was built by the Soviet Union in the 1970s. 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. Boo! authoritarian parents often quizlet; worley sustainability; joshua blake pettitte; arizona snowbowl ikon pass; upadhyay caste obc or general; when do baby . A marked change in atmospheric carbon has always been incompatible with a stable earth. The 50,000 large dams in the world, change the water flow and temperature of rivers. And the speed of global warming increases. Its all happened within the last 2,000 years or so. The wealthiest 16% in the world are responsible for almost 50% of the environmental impact. [Attenborough] We had broken loose. The deforestation of Borneo has reduced the population of orangutan by two-thirds since I first saw one just over 60 years ago. And then we will suddenly discover that suddenly the seas are almost empty. Billions of individuals, and millions of kinds of plants and animals [birds chirping] dazzling in their variety and richness. Nature will take any chance to reclaim some space. [protester over megaphone] We are men and women, and we speak for children, and were all saying, Please stop killing the whales.. We were transforming what a species could achieve. It seems possible for us to feed ourselves quite happily using half the land we currently use. But to continue, we require more than intelligence. Skeletons of dead creatures. Trailer: David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet. It will lead to our destruction. We are ultimately bound by and reliant upon the finite natural world about us. The planet cant support billions of large meat-eaters. Two legendary Go players, once student and master, face victory and defeat as they inevitably come face to face as rivals. And there I was, actually being asked to explore these places and record the wonders of the natural world for people back home. It was only in the 50s that large fleets first ventured out into international waters to reap the open ocean harvest across the globe. Whales were being slaughtered by fleets of industrial whaling ships in the 1970s. We've adopted a fatalistic attitude that it's "too little too late." The future was going to be exciting. The longer they have to wait for the ice to return, the more they use up their fat supplies. Each generation able to develop and progress only because the living world could be relied upon to deliver us the conditions we needed. Instructions. we would keep consuming the earth until we had used it up. All we need is the will to do so. The United Nations and World Trade Organisation are trying to establish new rules in international waters, which are notoriously overfished by large nations. And of course, if we increase our wilderness areas, we have a natural way of capturing carbon. And we don't learn the lessons. Copyright 2020 NPR. Their solution is to climb higher up the cliffs, but with their poor eyesight, they often fall from the tops of cliffs as the smell of the sea lures them closer. The natural world will survive. Weve managed to travel by boat to islands that were impossible to get to historically because they were permanently locked in the ice. How do we reclaim farmland but also increase the food supply for a growing population? They may have got time to actually - to pay more to sort things out. And this is what they saw what we all saw. We also have to rewild mangroves, salt marshes, and kelp forests to restore biodiversity. 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. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. We had very little understanding of how the living world actually worked. After the death of their father, two half-brothers find themselves on opposite sides of an escalating conflict with tragic consequences. All rights reserved. And we're on the danger of doing that. More than half of the species on land live here. Humanitarian crises would result as people would be forced to relocate, triggering border conflict. This truth defined the life we led in our pre-history, the time before farming and civilization. There is a double incentive to cut down forests. 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. Politicians and corporates have to overcome vested interests and work towards the greater good. A meteorite impact triggered a catastrophic change in the earths conditions. Scientists call it the Holocene. 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. The living world cant operate without a healthy ocean and neither can we. In addition to this, we have an increased life expectancy. Millions of people rendered homeless. We just have to do what nature has always done. attenborough a life on our planet transcript life on earth the greatest story ever told david . If you have not used our catalog since prior to June 6, 2016 contact Circulation at the number below to get your PIN reset. 75% of all species were wiped out. We have pursued animals to extinction many times in our history, but now that it was visible, it was no longer acceptable. Over time, I began to learn something about the earths evolutionary history. The largest whales, the blues, numbered only a few thousand by then. 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. And that completely changed the mindset of the population, the human population of the world. A moment ago, we made this recording with an underwater microphone here in the Pacific near Hawaii. Thank you for the feedback, the missing data has been added and incorrect year amended. Fish populations crash. Our home was not limitless. The herrings have disappeared from the North Sea. Fishing is worlds greatest wild harvest. 70% of the mass of birds on this planet are domestic birds. The white corals are ultimately smothered by seaweed. 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. Ive had the most extraordinary life. Above, very few. Executive-produced by his sons, Rodrigo and Gonzalo. Not just ruined it. However, Attenborough points out that vested interests will hold us back. And tree diversity is the key to a rainforest. There was an edge to our existence. [imperceptible] Theyve always been a place beyond imagination with scenery unlike anything else on earth and unique species adapted to a life in the extreme. A century ago, more than three quarters of Costa Rica was covered with forest. Iceland, Albania, and Paraguay generate their electricity without fossil fuels. In the end, after a lifetimes exploration of the living world, Im certain of one thing. Its now time for our species to stop simply growing. When fish stocks began to reduce, the Palauans responded by restricting fishing practices and banning fishing entirely from many areas. So, what do we do? 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. It was a feature of all five mass extinctions. It was an astonishing vision of a completely unknown world, a world that had existed since the beginning of time. Our predators had been eliminated. In the extreme Alaskan wild, 16 survivalists compete for a chance to win a massive cash prize but these lone wolves must be part of a team to win. And they are centers of biodiversity. These simple statistics speak as eloquently for our planet as our author does. Coral reefs were turning white. It was the first time that any human had moved away far enough from the earth to see the whole planet. With this in mind, David Attenborough has dedicated his life to educating us about our planet, and making discourses visible, through his captivating storytelling. The last one is thought to have been a meteorite that struck Earth, destroying anything bigger than a dog. He and his son used a plane to follow the herds over the horizon. The more diverse it is, the better it does that job. I first witnessed the destruction of an entire habitat in Southeast Asia. You write, for example, we have become too skilled at fishing. From a person that has seen just how quickly our natural world has disappeared in his own lifetime, at the present rate how little time could be left, what solutions, course to take. Required fields are marked *. [protester in English] Hello, Boctok. By damming, polluting, and over-extracting rivers and lakes, weve reduced the size of freshwater populations by over 80%. We rely entirely on this finely tuned life-support machine. David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet. And I believe we can do our best. We also need to rebuild our seas to capture carbon, increase biodiversity and food supply. But during his lifetime, Attenborough has also seen first-hand the monumental scale of humanity's impact on nature. In 1998, a Blue Planet film crew discovered that the beautiful colors of the coral reefs were turning to skeletal chalky white. This city in Ukraine was once home to almost 50,000 people. And, of course, the ocean is important to all of us as a source of food. 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. 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. And you could happily retire. Emmy-winning narrator David Attenborough ("Our Planet," "Planet Earth II") looks back and shares a way forward. Then you deal so with the land. And in life the animal itself lived in the chamber here and spread out its tentacles to catch its prey. Attenborough is famous for many of the truly epic natural history documentaries on our planet. In just 25 years, the forest has returned to cover half of Costa Rica once again. Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. However, if we had "no fishing" zones in one-third of the sea, our fish stocks could recover over the long term. My first visit to East Africa was in 1960. And in that one shot, there was the whole of humanity with nothing else except the person that was in the spacecraft taking that picture. So there's not a profit in it, we still go killing it, and they throw a heck of a lot of it back. But its possible to slow, even to stop population growth well before it reaches that point. Our imprint is now truly global. Farming would be pushed to a crisis point. As much as 60% of farmland is devoted to beef production. As a result, the average global temperature today is one degree Celsius warmer than it was when I was born. Without the white ice cap, less of the suns energy is reflected back out to space. urgency ? Recent surveys indicate that one-third of the population has either stopped or reduced their meat consumption in the UK, and 39% of Americans are trying to eat less meat. But we can make them the only source. Population growth peaked in about 1962. Soil would be inadequate, insects and bees destroyed, and droughts and flooding would increase. Nature, once again, had to start again. All this was absolutely clear, it was only just stopped being a working quarry. People benefit from the timber and then benefit again from farming the land thats left behind. The return of the trees would absorb as much as two thirds of the carbon emissions that have been pumped into the atmosphere by our activities to date. We filmed 650 species, and we traveled one and a half million miles. Go behind the scenes of Netflix TV shows and movies, see what's coming soon and watch bonus videos on, Trailer: David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Throughout the north, frozen soils thaw, releasing methane, a greenhouse gas many times more potent than carbon dioxide, accelerating the rate of climate change dramatically. But it was noticeable that some of these animals were becoming harder to find. In this future, we discover ways to benefit from our land that help, rather than hinder, wilderness. Um, and I certainly would feel very guilty if I saw what the problems are and decided to ignore them. Our closest relatives. 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. From Pripyat, an area deserted after a nuclear disaster, Attenborough gives an overview of his life. Its been staring us in the face all along. To establish a life on our planet in balance with nature. Thats the sort of commitment you need if you want to even begin making a portrait of the living world. Today, the forest has taken over the city. The complete series [HD DVD] / a BBC/Discovery Channel/NHK co-production, in association with the CBC ; . SIMON: What does that mean? And a few years later, that idea became obvious to everyone. Well, weve destroyed it. 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. And then you clear that furthermore for cattle. ATTENBOROUGH: Yes. We will finally learn how to work with nature rather than against it. His passion for protecting diverse wildlife, and reclaiming our wilderness is palpable, and A Life on Our Planet is his "witness statement." Energy everywhere will be more affordable. We account for over one-third of the weight of mammals on earth. So let's go back to the beginning of this summary. And the changes we have to make will only benefit ourselves and the generations that follow. A Life on Our Planet. Saving individual species or even groups of species would not be enough. But on the 26th of April, 1986, it suddenly became uninhabitable. The ocean has long since become unable to absorb all the excess heat caused by our activities. Earth could be 4 degrees Celsius warmer, making farming in many areas impossible. The Holocene has been one of the most stable periods in our planets great history. There were twice the number of people on the planet as there were when I was born. Without predators, nutrients are lost for centuries to the depths and the hot spots start to diminish. The very thing that gave birth to our civilization. However, here's a curveball. Filmmaker Sir David Attenborough has been documenting the natural world since the 1950s. But scientists started to discover that in many cases where bleaching occurred, the ocean was warming. list the consequences of walking in darkness; tate brothers romania; lac courte oreilles tribal membership requirements; uva men's volleyball roster. The Maasai word Serengeti means endless plains. To those who live here, its an apt description. Ten thousand years ago, as hunter-gatherers, we lived a sustainable life because that was the only option. It's not too late. We seem to have broken loose from the restrictions that have governed the activities and numbers of other animals. Large parts of the earth are uninhabitable. Yet, theyve removed 90% of the large fish in the sea. In such places, huge shoals of fish gather. 2030s. Or is that question not called for under the circumstances? In the Frozen Planet series, filming crews noticed that the Arctic summers were growing longer, the summer sea ice had reduced by 30% in thirty years, and glaciers were far smaller. One of the greatest films ever made, The Sorrow and The Pity is a contribution to history, to social psychology, to anthropology, and to art. If we push beyond even one of them, we destabilize the balance of our planet. 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. As much now as I did when I was a boy. 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. It had everything a community would needfor a comfortable life. Follow him @davidattenborough. ATTENBOROUGH: Well, it could be gone. Sir David, thanks so much for being with us. The living world is a unique and spectacular marvel. And we've exterminated the great fisheries. If there is no corner of the oceans which is safe from fishing vessels of one kind or another, we are heading for total elimination of the edible fish from the sea. And as the natural environment fails, pandemics are likely to increase. The Holocene was our Garden of Eden. They had never seen the center of New Guinea before. These rivers are also dumping grounds for chemicals and pesticides, destroying birds and freshwater fish. As Attenborough says: 'We regard the Earth as our planet, run by mankind for mankind.' 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. This begs the question, 'What will the next 100 years look like if we dont change?'. Were certainly the most numerous large animal. A speed of change that exceeds any in the last 10,000 years. Its covered with small family-run farms with no room for expansion. The government decided to act, offering grants to land owners to replant native trees. After moving his family into his childhood home, a man's investigation into a local factory accident connected to his father unveils dark family secrets. It was a great place to come to as a boy, because this is, um, ironstone workings, but it was disused. 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. Its a sanctuary for wild animals that are very rare elsewhere. Attenborough's wildlife journey started at a young age. [thunder rumbling] [lowing] On the tropical plains, the dry and rainy seasons would switch every year like clockwork. With all these things, there is one overriding principle. When you first see it, you think perhaps that its beautiful, and suddenly you realize its tragic. In this . SIMON: You're 94, but I have to ask, for all you have seen - almost a century - in times that have been bleak, where does this moment rank? Life cycles on, and if we make the right choices, ruin can become regrowth . The natural world is fading. In one person's lifetime, we have demolished our land and sea wilderness. In 1998, a Blue Planet film crew stumbled on an event little known at the time. Attenborough is now 94, and throughout his long life, has watched the natural world wither before his eyes. Humpbacks living in the same area learn their songs from each other. Every other species on Earth reaches a maximum population after a time. 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. If we fast-forward to 2020, a mere 83 years later, the statistics are disheartening. The worlds greatest wildlife reserve. In the northern regions, the temperatures would lift in March, triggering spring, and stay high until they dipped in October and brought about autumn. Forests are a fundamental component of our planets recovery. Based on a children's book by Paul McCartney. And ways to harvest our forests sustainably. That without such an immense space, the herds would diminish and the entire ecosystem would come crashing down. We had worked out how to produce food to order. With nothing to restrict us, our population has been growing dramatically throughout my lifetime. It seems that the human population will only really peak early in the 22nd century, at about 11 billion people. In international waters, the UN is attempting to create the biggest no fish zone of all. [Attenborough] It was a stark contrast to the world I knew. It is the only way out of this crisis that we ourselves have created. Overnight, Pripyat transformed from a pleasant, bustling town to a nightmarish disaster zone. As Attenborough cautions, the bleached coral is like canaries in a coal mine.