10 Consequences Of Walking In Darkness, Articles D

At 93, Sir David Attenborough has spent a lifetime studying the natural world, and been knighted for his efforts. The result is that the population has now stabilized and has hardly changed since the millennium. We just have to do what nature has always done. Recordings like these revealed that the songs of the humpbacks are long and complex. There are something like 4,000 million of us today, and weve reached this position with meteoric speed. The deforestation of Borneo has reduced the population of orangutan by two-thirds since I first saw one just over 60 years ago. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. How did that change our view of the world? [thunder rumbling] And the weather is more and more unpredictable. 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. By damming, polluting, and over-extracting rivers and lakes, weve reduced the size of freshwater populations by over 80%. A world that demanded more every day. There was an edge to our existence. Right now, were facing a manmade disaster of global scale. Whole habitats would soon start to disappear. This was before any of us were aware that there were problems. [exclaiming in surprise] And Im still learning. 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. To move from being apart from nature to becoming a part of nature once again. If we push beyond even one of them, we destabilize the balance of our planet. 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. We have such a fascination for wildlife, but wild animals make up only 4% of the mammals on Earth. Your email address will not be published. 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. [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. And the reef turns from wonderland to wasteland. As a child, Attenborough enjoyed studying fossils. 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. That is my witness statement. If you have a global view, which - and science can give us - science would say that there are more species in danger of total disappearance than there have been in human history. We found humpbacks off Hawaii only by listening out for their calls. Today, the forest has taken over the city. If we dont take action, the collapse of our civilizations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon. Increasingly, theyre doing so sustainably. This devastation could happen quickly, with water and food shortages, and the displacement of about 30 million people. In 1937, at age 11, he would cycle from his home in Leicester into the countryside to study fossils in the rocks. Regenerative and urban farming are two options. Let's briefly go back in time. We need to shift to plant-based diets. When I filmed with the mountain gorillas, there were only 300 left in a remote jungle in Central Africa. The Masai in Kenya engages in projects to reduce their cattle herds and develop wildlife. If herds of animals couldn't travel to new grazing, they, along with predators, would starve. You can see it. The rest, from mice to whales, make up just 4%. Thank you for the feedback, the missing data has been added and incorrect year amended. These people were hunter-gatherers, as all humankind had been before farming. And all of them completely undisturbed by your presence. [Attenborough] They ate meat rarely. Sir David. Copyright 2020 NPR. All these years later, its once again the only option. david frost jimi hendrix; Membership. And to begin with, it was quite easy. This docuseries delves into one of our greatest modern mysteries: Flight MH370. David Attenborough is a famous British naturalist. [Attenborough] It was a stark contrast to the world I knew. A line in the rock layers. Starring: David Attenborough. Otherwise, this is brilliant! It was only in the 50s that large fleets first ventured out into international waters to reap the open ocean harvest across the globe. 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. None of us can afford for it to happen. Its quite straightforward. 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. [wildebeest snorting] For every single predator on the Serengeti, there are more than 100 prey animals. The cycle of destruction continues as the sea life is trapped by or ingests this waste. Mistakes. In this . 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. Today, it generates 40% of its needs at home from a network of renewable power plants, including the worlds largest solar farm. One man has seen more of the natural world than any other. 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. And they are centers of biodiversity. In addition to this, we have an increased life expectancy. More recently, you may have heard of Pripyat from the HBO series Chernobyl? You and I belong to the most widespread and dominant species of animal on earth. The Holocene has been one of the most stable periods in our planets great history. Honest, revealing and urgent, David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet is a powerful first-hand account of humanity's impact on nature and a message of hope for future generations. As nations develop everywhere, people choose to have fewer children. Our blind assault on the planet has finally come to alter the very fundamentals of the living world. If we fast-forward to 2020, a mere 83 years later, the statistics are disheartening. Accuracy and availability may vary. That may sound impossible, but there are ways in which we can do this. Without the white ice cap, less of the suns energy is reflected back out to space. Instead, cover crops are planted after harvest to protect the soil, and crops are rotated. Its entirely possible for us to apply both low-tech and hi-tech solutions to produce much more food from much less land. 1954 WORLD POPULATION: 2.7 BILLION CARBON IN ATMOSPHERE: 310 PARTS PER MILLION REMAINING WILDERNESS: 64%. Unless we stopped ourselves. Due to carelessness, poor planning, and human error, it's probably the most devastating environmental disaster to date. And there I was, actually being asked to explore these places and record the wonders of the natural world for people back home. As healthcare and education improved, peoples expectations and opportunities grew, and the birth rate fell. In one person's lifetime, we have demolished our land and sea wilderness. A boundary that marks a profound, rapid, global change. We remember environmental disasters, but do we actually learn from them? Many of the millions of species in the forest exist in small numbers. 1978 WORLD POPULATION: 4.3 BILLION CARBON IN ATMOSPHERE: 335 PARTS PER MILLION REMAINING WILDERNESS: 55%. Its all happened within the last 2,000 years or so. Back then, it seemed inconceivable that we, a single species, might one day have the power to threaten the very existence of the wilderness. They discovered that the Serengeti herds required an enormous area of healthy grassland to function. "No fishing" zones cover less than 7% of the ocean. However, stressed polyps dispose of their algae partners, leading them to bleach and turn into skeletons. But to continue, we require more than intelligence. The most remote habitat of all exists at the extreme north and south of the planet. Synopsis. [whales singing] Their mournful songs were the key to transforming peoples opinions about them. Ive traveled to every part of the globe. This begs the question, 'What will the next 100 years look like if we dont change?'. Global food production enters a crisis as soils become exhausted by overuse. 75% of all species were wiped out. A century ago, more than three quarters of Costa Rica was covered with forest. At some point in the future, the human population will peak for the very first time. Required fields are marked *. It was designed for employees working at Chernobyl, a nearby nuclear plant. David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet . Vast forests. Downloads sind nur bei werbefreien Abos verfgbar. The pace of progress was unlike anything to be found in the fossil record. Thank you so much for being with us. For 10,000 years, the average temperature has not wavered up or down by more than one degree Celsius. So when he asks that people heed his "witness statement" about the peril humans . The sooner it happens, the easier it makes everything else we have to do. Summer sea ice in the Arctic has reduced by 40% in 40 years. There is no international law at the moment to stop it. Within the span of the next lifetime, the security and stability of the Holocene, our Garden of Eden will be lost. Our planet, vulnerable and isolated. You say in this book, with us or without us ATTENBOROUGH: Oh, well, yes. In David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet (2020), which premiered on Netflix, co-director Keith Scholey of Silverback Films and producer Colin Butfield of the World Wildlife Fund bring us Sir David's witness statement. The history of all human civilization followed. Since I started filming in the 1950s, on average, wild animal populations have more than halved. According to Attenborough, the 22nd century could herald massive enforced human migration. But, the moral of the story is indeed a positive one. It's a statement of his past experiences, what will happen if our current destructive path continues, and what we need to do to rehabilitate our remarkable planet. As Attenborough says: 'We regard the Earth as our planet, run by mankind for mankind.' [Attenborough] We are facing nothing less than the collapse of the living world. The natural world will survive. 2020 | Maturity Rating: PG | 1h 23m | Documentary Films. No one wants this to happen. The world population was 2.3 billion, the carbon in the atmosphere was 280 parts per million, and the remaining wilderness was 66%. In such places, huge shoals of fish gather. [young Attenborough] We heard a crashing in the branches ahead. We had very little understanding of how the living world actually worked. [Attenborough] By the end of the century, Borneos rainforest had been reduced by half. And we don't learn the lessons. We were transforming what a species could achieve. However, Attenborough points out that vested interests will hold us back. Do the preparation task first. Attenborough urges us to restore biodiversity. From Pripyat, a deserted area after the nuclear disaster, Attenborough gives an overview of his life. We account for over one-third of the weight of mammals on earth. Prehistoric Planet will be back for a second season. Downloads only available on ad-free plans. It was the first indication to me that the earth was beginning to lose its balance. As with the citizens of Pripyat, we carry on with our daily lives, unaware that our carelessness and lack of planning will ultimately destroy us, and our natural world, unless we alter our self-destructive trajectory. And the changes we have to make will only benefit ourselves and the generations that follow. There are no reviews yet. [snorting] Whenever we choose a piece of meat, we too are unwittingly demanding a huge expanse of space. Morocco generates 40% from renewable power plants and exports solar energy. People were coming to care for the natural world. 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. We have arrived at locations expecting to find expanses of sea ice and found none. ATTENBOROUGH: Well, it could be gone. The herrings have disappeared from the North Sea. The Amazon rainforest could suffer from "forest dieback" and be starved of moisture, becoming an open savannah and destroying its biodiversity. Theres a chance for us to make amends, to complete our journey of development, manage our impact, and once again become a species in balance with nature. David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet. The Maasai word Serengeti means endless plains. To those who live here, its an apt description. His passion for protecting diverse wildlife, and reclaiming our wilderness is palpable, and A Life on Our Planet is his "witness statement." Ive seen it with my own eyes. 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. One Hundred Years of Solitude. The start of my career in my 20s coincided with the advent of global air travel. Farms take up a combined space the size of North America, South America, and Australia combined, with devastating greenhouse gas emissions. Giving people a greater opportunity of life is what we would want to do anyway. The natural world is fading. The last time it happened was the event that brought the end of the age of the dinosaurs. Fossils. Rainforests are particularly precious habitats. Attenborough is now 94, and throughout his long life, has watched the natural world wither before his eyes. Sitting on the edge of the Sahara, and cabled directly into southern Europe, Morocco could be an exporter of solar energy by 2050. You can be forgiven for thinking that these plains are endless when they could swallow up such a herd. Even as some of us were setting foot on the moon, others were still leading such a life in the most remote parts of the planet. For the first time, Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garca Mrquez's masterwork comes to the screen. As a result, the average global temperature today is one degree Celsius warmer than it was when I was born. Starring: David Attenborough. David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet: Directed by Alastair Fothergill, Jonathan Hughes, Keith Scholey. An in-depth, sobering look at the tragic events of a century ago. As Attenborough cautions, the bleached coral is like canaries in a coal mine. Saving individual species or even groups of species would not be enough. It triggered an environmental catastrophe that had an impact across Europe. There's some good news though. In 1950, a Japanese family was likely to have three or more children. Just listen to this. The ocean covers 70% of our planet's surface, and it's where all forms of life began. People had never seen pangolins before on television. We also have to rewild mangroves, salt marshes, and kelp forests to restore biodiversity. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Imagine if we phase out fossil fuels and run our world on the eternal energies of nature too. Yet, we're nowhere near the stage where our population has stopped growing. Protected fish populations soon became so healthy, they spilt over into the areas open to fishing. 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. A moment ago, we made this recording with an underwater microphone here in the Pacific near Hawaii. 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. However, if we had "no fishing" zones in one-third of the sea, our fish stocks could recover over the long term. [over megaphone] Please stop killing the whales. But, there are ways to change direction and alter the doom and gloom we've created. . Pollinating insects 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. Today, forests cover half of Costa Rica. You saw a blue marble, a blue sphere in the blackness, and you realized that that was the earth. It is the only way out of this crisis that we ourselves have created. I got as close as I did only because the gorillas were used to people. 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 a few years later, that idea became obvious to everyone. Sir David, thanks so much for being with us. A sixth mass extinction event is well underway. He believes that we have The Planetary Boundaries model as our guide, and that we should be looking to it for inspiration. Overnight, Pripyat transformed from a pleasant, bustling town to a nightmarish disaster zone. 2020 | Maturity rating: 7+ | 1h 23m | Nature & Ecology Documentaries. Ive always had a passion to explore, to have adventures, to learn about the wilds beyond. Many experts wrote off Pripyat, and many of us are apathetic about the future of the planet. The process of extinction that Id seen as a boy in the rocks, I now became aware was happening right there around me to animals with which I was familiar. When they do, theyre able to gather the concentrated shoals with ease. And in life the animal itself lived in the chamber here and spread out its tentacles to catch its prey. So, Dutch farmers have become expert at getting the most out of every hectare. It was called natural history because thats essentially what it was all about history. David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet is a 2020 film by the documentarian and natural historian David Attenborough. Forests are a fundamental component of our planets recovery. 1960 WORLD POPULATION: 3.0 BILLION CARBON IN ATMOSPHERE: 315 PARTS PER MILLION REMAINING WILDERNESS: 62%. Scientists call it the Holocene. It revealed a cold reality. SIMON: You project what the world might look like in 10 years and even a century. The ocean bears the brunt of this because it absorbs the excess heat of global warming. [groaning] Those beneath can get crushed to death. In the 1950s, Bernhard Grzimek, a German scientist, realized that wildlife was under threat in the Serengeti and needed the entire expanse of the plains to survive. The point for me was simple: the wild is far from unlimited. And freshwater is equally at risk. That non-human world is gone. A few millennia after this began, I grew up at exactly the right moment. The more diverse it is, the better it does that job. For example, the Costa Rican government offered farmers grants to replant indigenous trees twenty-five years ago. It worked out the secret of life long ago. We now have the opportunity to create the perfect home for ourselves, and restore the rich, healthy, and wonderful world that we inherited. The living world cant operate without a healthy ocean and neither can we. The complete series [HD DVD] / a BBC/Discovery Channel/NHK co-production, in association with the CBC ; . But that rainforest is one of the key elements in the whole of the weather patterns of the world. 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. This alga is vital because it's the start of the Arctic and Antarctic food chains. In 1998, a Blue Planet film crew discovered that the beautiful colors of the coral reefs were turning to skeletal chalky white. Ways to fish our seas that enable them to come quickly back to life. For 65 million years, its been at work reconstructing the living world until we come to the world we know our time. Wherever I went, there was wilderness. This is a series of one-way doors bringing irreversible change. David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet 2020 | Maturity rating: PG | 1h 23m | Science & Nature Documentaries 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. Without large fish and other marine predators, the oceanic nutrient cycle stutters. This city in Ukraine was once home to almost 50,000 people. The nearby nuclear power station of Chernobyl exploded. Its been staring us in the face all along. Tune in for a live pre-show 30 minutes before Chris set, followed by an aftershow. So let's go back to the beginning of this summary. There are signs that this has started to happen across the globe. It was shot in 39 countries. The future was going to be exciting. Or is that question not called for under the circumstances? 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. Population growth peaked in about 1962. Our imprint is now truly global. David Attenborough. To establish a life on our planet in balance with nature. I first witnessed the destruction of an entire habitat in Southeast Asia. Based on a children's book by Paul McCartney. Sir David,. Within 20 years, renewables are predicted to be the worlds main source of power. I don't think anybody has actually said that they were prepared for it, either. Were certainly the most numerous large animal. . 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. 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. One of the significant findings was that we pay attention to the environment when it affects us. It had everything a community would needfor a comfortable life. 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. Levies and carbon taxes will go somewhere to shift this. But Chernobyl was a single event. In just 25 years, the forest has returned to cover half of Costa Rica once again. authoritarian parents often quizlet; worley sustainability; joshua blake pettitte; arizona snowbowl ikon pass; upadhyay caste obc or general; when do baby . 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. "A Life on Our Planet" is as much a love story, a requiem, and a final request as it is a film about deforestation, overfishing, exponential population grown, and the various other culprits. And suddenly, we realized, you know, we're there together, and we're alone. Large parts of the earth are uninhabitable. We must immediately halt deforestation everywhere and grow crops like oil palm and soya only on land that was deforested long ago. The number that can be sustained on the natural resources available. If this is the case, surely it's up to us to treat our planet with kindness and respect. on October 24, 2021. There we are, on it, and everybody in the entire world is in that picture except for the two people in the spacecraft. Attenborough's BBC production, The Blue Planet, changed this when its sophisticated camera equipment filmed a bait ball frenzy, a fantastic underwater hunt the likes of which no one had seen before. Weve come this far because we are the smartest creatures that have ever lived. They are the best technology nature has for locking away carbon. We learnt how to exploit the seasons to produce food crops. We had worked out how to produce food to order. But you now want to explain to us what peril we are in. These mass extinctions have occurred five times during our planet's four billion-year lifespan. SIMON: Sir David Attenborough - his book, along with his co-author Jonnie Hughes, is "A Life On Our Planet." Attenborough's wildlife journey started at a young age. The biodiversity of the Holocene helped to bring stability, and the entire living world settled into a gentle, reliable rhythm the seasons. A determined detective continues his search for the truth behind Asia's largest drug organization and its elusive boss he has unfinished business with. The true tragedy of our time is still unfolding across the globe, barely noticeable from day to day. By burning millions of years worth of living organisms all at once as coal and oil, we had managed to do so in less than 200. Polar bears need ice as the launching pads for hunting. But that distant world is changing. No one has lived here since. And if we do it right, it can continue because theres a win-win at play. And this is what they saw what we all saw. [Attenborough] Animals that had been viewed as little more than a source of oil and meat became personalities. He has perpetually been on the road ever since. Boo! The pace of change was getting faster and faster. In the northern regions, the temperatures would lift in March, triggering spring, and stay high until they dipped in October and brought about autumn.