1997 WORLD POPULATION: 5.9 BILLION CARBON IN ATMOSPHERE: 360 PARTS PER MILLION REMAINING WILDERNESS: 46%. 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. Watch David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet | Netflix Official Site You saw a blue marble, a blue sphere in the blackness, and you realized that that was the earth. SIMON: So what gives you hope? It was a very different world back then. Sitting on the edge of the Sahara, and cabled directly into southern Europe, Morocco could be an exporter of solar energy by 2050. In this time-jumping dramedy, a workaholic who's always in a rush now wants life to slow down when he finds himself leaping ahead a year every few hours. Morocco generates 40% from renewable power plants and exports solar energy. And we've exterminated the great fisheries. Air transport will be hugely problematic to solve, although electric and hydrogen planes are in the process of being developed. [Attenborough] Animals that had been viewed as little more than a source of oil and meat became personalities. Our predators had been eliminated. Ten thousand years ago, as hunter-gatherers, we lived a sustainable life because that was the only option. Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster and naturalist. Our home was not limitless. David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet | LearnEnglish Uh The Human beings have overrun the world. Today, it generates 40% of its needs at home from a network of renewable power plants, including the worlds largest solar farm. The very thing that gave birth to our civilization. The predators help to keep nutrients in the oceans sunlit waters, recycling them so that they can be used again and again by plankton. Some of the numbers are slightly out too. People had never seen pangolins before on television. When I filmed with the mountain gorillas, there were only 300 left in a remote jungle in Central Africa. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Regenerative and urban farming are two options. [whales singing] [whales continue singing]. And a few years later, that idea became obvious to everyone. 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. 1937 WORLD POPULATION: 2.3 BILLION CARBON IN ATMOSPHERE: 280 PARTS PER MILLION REMAINING WILDERNESS: 66%. 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. Fishing is worlds greatest wild harvest. That without such an immense space, the herds would diminish and the entire ecosystem would come crashing down. But its possible to slow, even to stop population growth well before it reaches that point. Our intelligence changed the way in which we evolved. A century from now, our planet could be a wild place again. In 1998, a Blue Planet film crew stumbled on an event little known at the time. While the future of our planet may look bleak, Attenborough offers us hope and a vision for restoring our planet. Even one as vast as the ocean. He and his son used a plane to follow the herds over the horizon. 1954 WORLD POPULATION: 2.7 BILLION CARBON IN ATMOSPHERE: 310 PARTS PER MILLION REMAINING WILDERNESS: 64%. Thats almost 20 times the energy we need just from sunlight. We rely entirely on this finely tuned life-support machine. 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. When fish stocks began to reduce, the Palauans responded by restricting fishing practices and banning fishing entirely from many areas. 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. [Attenborough] They lived in small numbers and didnt take too much. Yet, we're nowhere near the stage where our population has stopped growing. [Attenborough] They ate meat rarely. Its covered with small family-run farms with no room for expansion. [Attenborough] By working hard to raise people out of poverty, giving all access to healthcare, and enabling girls in particular to stay in school as long as possible, we can make it peak sooner and at a lower level. And they are centers of biodiversity. Governments need to offer financial incentives to create wilderness areas or involve local communities that can benefit from rewilding. Emmy-winning narrator David Attenborough ("Our Planet," "Planet Earth II") looks back and shares a way forward. I noticed that in this transcript the years of the population, carbon & wilderness miss: 1937 & 1954 & repeat the year 1997 twice the last should be 2020. Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. on October 24, 2021. 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. [young Attenborough] We heard a crashing in the branches ahead. In 1937, at age 11, he would cycle from his home in Leicester into the countryside to study fossils in the rocks. Iceland, Albania, and Paraguay generate their electricity without fossil fuels. The ocean has long since become unable to absorb all the excess heat caused by our activities. With David Attenborough, Max Hughes. 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. Fish populations crash. Attenborough says, We run life on the planet to meet our own ends.. Sir David Attenborough explains what he thinks needs to happen to save [chuckles] Because I wish the struggle wasnt there or necessary. My first visit to East Africa was in 1960. These people were hunter-gatherers, as all humankind had been before farming. Its a creature called an ammonite. Urban farming is an option on rooftops, abandoned buildings, and exterior walls of city buildings. And the songs have distinct themes and variations which evolve over time. Today, the forest has taken over the city. And sadly, we don't only deplete our fish. Sunlight, wind, water and geothermal. David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet - Wikipedia The start of my career in my 20s coincided with the advent of global air travel. And I believe we can do our best. The thing we rely upon for every element of the lives we lead. His passion for protecting diverse wildlife, and reclaiming our wilderness is palpable, and A Life on Our Planet is his "witness statement." David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet: Directed by Alastair Fothergill, Jonathan Hughes, Keith Scholey. The white corals are ultimately smothered by seaweed. Scientists call it the Holocene. Orangutan mothers have to spend ten years with their young, teaching them which fruits are worth eating. Back then, it seemed inconceivable that we, a single species, might one day have the power to threaten the very existence of the wilderness. A key reason the population is still growing is because many of us are living longer. When you first see it, you think perhaps that its beautiful, and suddenly you realize its tragic. As nations develop everywhere, people choose to have fewer children. Baby gorillas were at a premium, and poachers would kill a dozen adults to get one. 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. Complete the sentences with words from the . SIMON: I feel the need to take up some of the very practical points that you raise in this book. Half of the fertile land on Earth is currently farmed, and it's often overgrazed, over-sprayed with pesticides, and denuded of topsoil. If you have not used our catalog since prior to June 6, 2016 contact Circulation at the number below to get your PIN reset. Polar bears need ice as the launching pads for hunting. And the extent of the polar ice has been critical, reflecting sunlight back off its white surface, cooling the whole earth. The cycle of destruction continues as the sea life is trapped by or ingests this waste. Copyright 2020 NPR. we would keep consuming the earth until we had used it up. Netflix's 'David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet' Is The Most And you could happily retire. 70% of the mass of birds on this planet are domestic birds. It was going to bring everything we had ever dreamed of. We also need to rebuild our seas to capture carbon, increase biodiversity and food supply. list the consequences of walking in darkness; tate brothers romania; lac courte oreilles tribal membership requirements; uva men's volleyball roster. Without predators, nutrients are lost for centuries to the depths and the hot spots start to diminish. Ocean life was also unravelling in the shallows. There just isnt the space. The sooner it happens, the easier it makes everything else we have to do. Life had no option but to rebuild. They had never seen the center of New Guinea before. We cant cut down rainforests forever, and anything that we cant do forever is by definition unsustainable. But somehow, it really changed the attitude of people. 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 over his lifetime. He researched how the Earth had experienced massive eruptions at specific points, destroying many species. Prehistoric Planet will be back for a second season. ATTENBOROUGH: Well, it could be gone. Coral reefs don't like acid, and 90% of our reefs could die off in a few years. We just have to do what nature has always done. And as the natural environment fails, pandemics are likely to increase. It was a brutal and unpredictable world. Um and, in a way, I wish I wasnt involved in this struggle. The best time of our lives. 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. Instead, cover crops are planted after harvest to protect the soil, and crops are rotated. The number that can be sustained on the natural resources available. People benefit from the timber and then benefit again from farming the land thats left behind. David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet | LearnEnglish David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet. Instructions Preparation David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet | Official Trailer | Netflix Watch on Transcript Task 1 Task 2 Discussion Have you seen any of David Attenborough's films? Renewable energy, such as solar, wind, and water, could supply power. 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. Immense grasslands. Im talking about the loss of our planets wild places, its biodiversity. And if there's a profit in it, we do that - worse than that, even when there's not a profit in it, when governments actually see fit to subsidize it. In such places, huge shoals of fish gather. NPR's Scott Simon talks with British natural historian and broadcaster David Attenborough about his new book, Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and Vision for the Future. David Attenborough Quotes (Author of A Life on Our Planet) And that's because of the oceanic commons, as they say, the areas of the ocean in which anybody can do what they like. Attenborough's wildlife journey started at a young age. And you see this curtain of green with occasionally birds in it, and you think its perhaps okay. Politicians and corporates have to overcome vested interests and work towards the greater good. But to continue, we require more than intelligence. And ways to harvest our forests sustainably. As much as 60% of farmland is devoted to beef production. I spent the latter half of the 1970s traveling the world, making a series I had long dreamed of called Life on Earth, the story of the evolution of life and its diversity. Palau is a Pacific Island nation reliant on its coral reefs for fish and tourism. It had everything a community would needfor a comfortable life. An in-depth, sobering look at the tragic events of a century ago. As the Arctic warms, the tundra in Alaska, northern Canada, and Russia, would collapse as the permafrost would not stay sufficiently frozen to hold the soil together. There's some good news though. So it's very profitable in the short term. Phytoplankton at the oceans surface and immense forests straddling the north have helped to balance the atmosphere by locking away carbon. And the rich and thriving living world around us has been key to this stability. A Life on Our Planet is a masterpiece that explores the life and legacy of natural historian and national treasure David Attenborough. 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. Do the preparation task first. You could fly for hours over the untouched wilderness. They charted them as they moved across rivers, through woodlands, and over national borders. Fossil fuels increase the greenhouse effect, releasing gases such as carbon dioxide. And all of them completely undisturbed by your presence. SIMON: You were a BBC executive in the control room when the first pictures of Earth were sent back by the Apollo 8 crew. Instructions. Attenborough is now 94, and throughout his long life, has watched the natural world wither before his eyes. However, this time it included humans in its design. Starring: David Attenborough Watch all you want. That non-human world is gone. Great numbers of species disappear and are suddenly replaced by a few. All rights reserved. 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. From Pripyat, a deserted area after the nuclear disaster, Attenborough gives an overview of his life. Tonight, weve got a rather different program for you. So let's go back to the beginning of this summary. Video zone: David Attenborough: A Life on Our . 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. A 12-year-old boy learns he's the returned Jesus Christ, destined to save humankind. That may sound impossible, but there are ways in which we can do this. [snorting] Whenever we choose a piece of meat, we too are unwittingly demanding a huge expanse of space. Attenborough is famous for many of the truly epic natural history documentaries on our planet. David Attenborough is a famous British naturalist. 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. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural history documentary series that form the Life collection, which form a comprehensive survey of animal and plant life on Earth. 24FramesArchives This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Were certainly the most numerous large animal. Ways to fish our seas that enable them to come quickly back to life. We have overfished 30% of fish stocks to critical levels. 'David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet' review: The naturalist - CNN Thats the sort of commitment you need if you want to even begin making a portrait of the living world. We humans cannot presume the same. And beyond that strip, there is nothing but regimented rows of oil palms. Starring: David Attenborough. Below the line are a multitude of lifeforms. To start to thrive. And we're on the danger of doing that. We all need to change our mindset, and we need to implement a new order right now. They discovered that the Serengeti herds required an enormous area of healthy grassland to function. 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. A meteorite impact triggered a catastrophic change in the earths conditions. Results of search for 'ccl=(su:{television programs.})' Marywood Still, energy use, production, transport, farming, and telecommunication have also shown their sinister side. You say in this book, with us or without us ATTENBOROUGH: Oh, well, yes. Imagine if we committed to a similar approach across the world. As healthcare and education improved, peoples expectations and opportunities grew, and the birth rate fell. 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. Our closest relatives. 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. And then, every hundred million years or so, after all those painstaking processes, something catastrophic happens, a mass extinction. We have such a fascination for wildlife, but wild animals make up only 4% of the mammals on Earth. David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet is a 2020 film by the documentarian and natural historian David Attenborough. The worlds greatest wildlife reserve. There is little left for the rest of the living world. Its an achingly intricate labor. Chris Rock makes comedy history with this global livestreaming event. [Attenborough] By the end of the century, Borneos rainforest had been reduced by half. 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. An amazing and delicate web of connected relationships exists everywhere, particularly in rainforests. Large carnivores are rare in nature because it takes a lot of prey to support each of them. The biodiversity of the Holocene helped to bring stability, and the entire living world settled into a gentle, reliable rhythm the seasons. There are signs that this has started to happen across the globe. 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. But on the 26th of April, 1986, it suddenly became uninhabitable. Life cycles on, and if we make the right choices, ruin can become regrowth . SIMON: What does that mean? A Life on Our Planet. We must rewild the world. It will lead to our destruction. It was designed for employees working at Chernobyl, a nearby nuclear plant. The United Nations and World Trade Organisation are trying to establish new rules in international waters, which are notoriously overfished by large nations. [groaning] Those beneath can get crushed to death. Well, weve destroyed it. And if we do it right, it can continue because theres a win-win at play. 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. The Amazon Rainforest, cut down until it can no longer produce enough moisture, degrades into a dry savannah, bringing catastrophic species loss and altering the global water cycle. Algal forests would not attach to ice, damaging the ocean food chain. 2020 | Maturity Rating: 7+ | 1h 23m | Science & Nature Docs. According to Attenborough, the 22nd century could herald massive enforced human migration. David Attenborough, A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future 33 likes Like "We live our comfortable lives in the shadow of a disaster of our own making.