The Big Picture. A new industrial revolution, powered by millions of sustainable innovations, is essential, and is indeed already beginning. We will all share in the benefits. Large parts of the earth are uninhabitable. David Attenborough describes the massive variety of life that lives on Earth. Our impact now truly profound. We have overfished 30% of fish stocks to critical levels. Two impassioned fans talk about their hero. For a long time, I and perhaps you have dreaded that future. Indoors, within cities. If we take care of nature, nature will take care of us. Streaming on Netflix, Jon Clays film presents a variety of credible talking heads to explain such matters as the history of the Anthropocene and the importance of the biosphere, with an emphasis on the dangers facing our planet beyond global warming. 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. Lions are the second largest of the'big cats' after the tiger and arethe most social, with related females living together in prides and males forming coalitions. 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. It was extraordinary that you could see what a man out in space could see as he saw it at the same time. And the songs have distinct themes and variations which evolve over time. Right now, were facing a manmade disaster of global scale. The white color is caused by corals expelling algae that lives symbiotically within their body. This city in Ukraine was once home to almost 50,000 people. How Darwin noticed different adaptations in the tortoises from Galapagos. The result is that the population has now stabilized and has hardly changed since the millennium. David Attenborough: (02:24) Global food production enters a crisis as soils become exhausted by overuse. As nations develop everywhere, people choose to have fewer children. Web exclusive: David Attenborough seeks medical attention David Attenborough's Zoo Quest in Colour When David gets a thorn stuck in his hand, Charles Lagus comes to the rescue. Summer sea ice in the Arctic has reduced by 40% in 40 years. The global air temperature had been relatively stable till the 90s. Journalist Jenny Eliscu and filmmaker Erin Lee Carr investigate Britney Spears fight for freedom by way of exclusive interviews and confidential evidence. In yours, you could and should witness a wonderful recovery. In the 30 years since the evacuation of Chernobyl, the wild has reclaimed the space. This is a series of one-way doors bringing irreversible change. Even in places where theres no land at all. There are signs that this has started to happen across the globe. One of the gorillas gives his opinion of the famous broadcaster. Imagine if we phase out fossil fuels and run our world on the eternal energies of nature too. Education leads to increased wealth and reduced birth rates a solution to humanitys overpopulation problem. The movie visualizes these metaphors tritely, for instance by cutting to a moody shot of a window being shut, and relies extensively on an elaborate C.G.I. The predators help to keep nutrients in the oceans sunlit waters, recycling them so that they can be used again and again by plankton. 2021 Scraps from the Loft. 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. As the ocean continues to heat and becomes more acidic, coral reefs around the world die. And powerful evidence that however grave our mistakes, nature will ultimately overcome them. Sir David Attenborough spoke about climate action at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow on November 1, 2021. A speed of change that exceeds any in the last 10,000 years. Ive experienced the living world firsthand in all its variety and wonder. Share: Our Impact. When you first see it, you think perhaps that its beautiful, and suddenly you realize its tragic. A marked change in atmospheric carbon has always been incompatible with a stable earth. Fishing is worlds greatest wild harvest. All sorts of things that you had no idea had ever existed, all in a multitude of colors, all unbelievably beautiful. For much of humanitys ancient history, that number bounced wildly between 180 and 300, and so too did global temperatures. How Sir David Attenborough puts a script together for Planet Earth 2 and records the voiceover. David Attenborough has seen more of the natural world than any other. But it was noticeable that some of these animals were becoming harder to find. Speaker 6: (05:46) Protected fish populations soon became so healthy, they spilt over into the areas open to fishing. David Attenborough and scientist Johan Rockstrm examine Earth's biodiversity collapse and how this crisis can still be averted.David Attenborough and scientist Johan Rockstrm examine Earth's biodiversity collapse and how this crisis can still be averted.David Attenborough and scientist Johan Rockstrm examine Earth's biodiversity collapse and how this crisis can still be averted. Half a million gazelle. Im crying while typing this by the way. we would keep consuming the earth until we had used it up. This was a world of stability humanitys Garden of Eden that led to the Agricultural Revolution and our ability to expand our populations and distribution. And the speed of global warming increases. Our predators had been eliminated. At times, our ancestors existed only in tiny numbers, but just over 10,000 years ago, that number suddenly stabilized and with it, Earths climate. Episode guide 1. Discover why Rev is the #1 speech-to-text service in the world. Large carnivores are rare in nature because it takes a lot of prey to support each of them. We must rewild the world. 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. When Attenborough showed the world how similar we are to some of our closest relatives, mountain gorillas, in his Life on Earth series in 1978, wilderness had dropped to 55% of the planet. Wild Isles. Convert your audio or video into 99% accurate text by a professional. Weve come this far because we are the smartest creatures that have ever lived. . 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. How could the people of Easter Island create and move such imense structures around? We can start to produce food in new spaces. The ocean has long since become unable to absorb all the excess heat caused by our activities. We cut down over 15 billion trees each year. He was sent it two . It had everything a community would need for a comfortable life. But that distant world is changing. On the fifth day of this year, I found myself sitting in the living room of the legendary Sir David Attenborough, drinking coffee and . And beyond that strip, there is nothing but regimented rows of oil palms. And all of them completely undisturbed by your presence. When they do, theyre able to gather the concentrated shoals with ease. We invented farming. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. All available episodes' scripts of Tv Show Planet Earth II . Whenever we restore the wild, it will recapture carbon and help us bring back balance to our planet. A century ago, more than three quarters of Costa Rica was covered with forest. Not just ruined it. It also emphasizes that it's not about taking away our "lives" to save the earth, but to change those small things in the everyday life, each and every person and family, to make a huge difference together. Thank you sir David , for opening my eyes, for letting me see the world as it is now. Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses. They discovered that the Serengeti herds required an enormous area of healthy grassland to function. Well, weve destroyed it. 1978 WORLD POPULATION: 4.3 BILLION CARBON IN ATMOSPHERE: 335 PARTS PER MILLION REMAINING WILDERNESS: 55%. This unique feature documentary is his witness statement. Today, the forest has taken over the city. People were coming to care for the natural world. It was a feature of all five mass extinctions. The black rhinoceros, also known as the hook-lipped rhinoceros,is the best known of the five living rhinoceros species, with its aggressive reputation and highly publicised international conservation drive. There is little left for the rest of the living world. Moving from corporate responsibility to impact, This Jordanian Designer Creates Sustainable Fashion from Food Waste, is affecting economies, industries and global issues, with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale. Its a creature called an ammonite. 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. Scientists call it the Holocene. But scientists started to discover that in many cases where bleaching occurred, the ocean was warming. Banner image: Sir David Attenborough, image courtesy of the BBC. That without such an immense space, the herds would diminish and the entire ecosystem would come crashing down. [Attenborough] I was in a television studio when the Apollo mission launched. On iPlayer. All this was absolutely clear, it was only just stopped being a working quarry. The start of my career in my 20s coincided with the advent of global air travel. David Attenborough: (00:01) David Attenborough. Transcribe your audio files to find high-impact insights in minutes. From Pole to Pole 59 mins This episode journeys across the planet, from pole to pole, following the influence of the sun and discovering how its seasonal journey affects the lives of all who live on earth. This most pristine and distant of ecosystems is headed for disaster. See production, box office & company info, Self - Geological Survey of Denmark & Greenland, Self - Arc Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Self - Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Self - Future Africa: University of Pretoria, Self - Institute of Advanced Studies University of So Paulo, Self - University of California at San Diego, Self - Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Self - Environmentalist at University of Queensland, : . [reindeer grunting] [birds hooting] [buffalo snorting] [birds cawing] [elephants trumpeting]. Its hard to concentrate on land composition and vanishing biodiversity amid the barrage of bizarre visual effects and histrionic music. The Netherlands is one of the worlds most densely-populated countries. 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. Narrated by Sir David Attenborough, the perennial voice of the British nature doc, "Breaking Boundaries" is brimming with grim scientific insight and urgent cautionary pronouncements, but its . On current projections, there will be 11 billion people on Earth by 2100. Thank you. This documentary points out what the problems are, how the problems evolve, and how we can accomplish to reduce this long-termed crisis level. Despite its size, the Netherlands is now the worlds second largest exporter of food. When David gets a thorn stuck in his hand, Charles Lagus comes to the rescue. In this future, we discover ways to benefit from our land that help, rather than hinder, wilderness. And this is what they saw what we all saw. In truth, I couldnt imagine living my life in any other way. Palau is a Pacific Island nation reliant on its coral reefs for fish and tourism. Nothing to stop us. Our planet, vulnerable and isolated. A documentary series on the wildlife found on Earth. The more diverse it is, the better it does that job. David Attenborough: (03:16) Mangroves and coral reefs along thousands of miles of coast have harbored nurseries of fish species that, when mature, then range into open waters. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Episode 6 of 6. A few millennia after this began, I grew up at exactly the right moment. Christopher Hooton. But to Attenborough, he was reliving the same phenomena he had observed as a child in the fossils he found at his local quarry extinction, during his very lifetime. The living world is essentially solar-powered. Boo! That non-human world is gone. I got as close as I did only because the gorillas were used to people. One of the extraordinary things about it was that the world could actually watch it as it happened. Increasingly, theyre doing so sustainably. Old people are much better than young people at recognizing the loss of biodiversity the world has seen over the past few decades, so communication between the generations could reinforce the impact of this intergenerational inequity. Our cities will be cleaner and quieter. Its covered with small family-run farms with no room for expansion. Soon after, missions to space showed the Earth as a lonely, isolated rock covered with water, and we began to recognize that we needed to look after our home. By and large, its a story of slow, steady change. The living world is a unique and spectacular marvel. . Japans standard of living climbed rapidly in the latter half of the 20th century. By damming, polluting, and over-extracting rivers and lakes, weve reduced the size of freshwater populations by over 80%. Stay up to date: There is a double incentive to cut down forests. David Attenborough climbs up a tree to capture a 12 Burmese python. Narrated by David Attenborough. It was a brutal and unpredictable world. Read about our approach to external linking. [thunder rumbling] [lowing] On the tropical plains, the dry and rainy seasons would switch every year like clockwork. Anyone can read what you share. [Attenborough] At the turn of the century, Morocco relied on imported oil and gas for almost all of its energy. It was a brutal and unpredictable world. You and I belong to the most widespread and dominant species of animal on earth. An in-depth, sobering look at the tragic events of a century ago. At the age of 92, Attenborough remains committed to that mission. No one has lived here since. As much now as I did when I was a boy. The global temperature has not wavered over this period by more than plus or minus one degree Celsius, until now. If we all had a largely plant-based diet, we would need only half the land we use at the moment. Why wouldnt we want to do these things? And the reef turns from wonderland to wasteland. We have a lot more than just climate change to worry about, argues this nature doc narrated by Sir David Attenborough. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. How life has changed and adapted over the past three thousand million years. Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet is a documentary about the end of the world. By 1997, only 46% of the planets wilderness remained. Crowdsource Innovation. That is my witness statement. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities. Each generation able to develop and progress only because the living world could be relied upon to deliver us the conditions we needed. Attenborough rewrites each script to fit his own turn of phrase and checks for accuracy. But we can make them the only source. Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster and naturalist. [over megaphone] Please stop killing the whales. Weve managed to travel by boat to islands that were impossible to get to historically because they were permanently locked in the ice. This is a fundamentally important documentary by a man trusted around the world, so ideally, this documentary should be seen by everyone, but the brevity of the biodiversity crisis, the potential impacts and the solutions would be educational to politicians worldwide. My answer would be, yes, we have to. 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. David Attenborough has the honour of a dragonfly being named after him. The Kenya Sea Turtle Conservation Committee (KESCOM). That desperate hope, ladies and gentlemen, delegates, excellencies, is why the world is looking to you and why you are here. Imagine if we committed to a similar approach across the world. The number that can be sustained on the natural resources available. This is not about saving our planet its about saving ourselves. The true tragedy of our time is still unfolding across the globe, barely noticeable from day to day. 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. Because what youre looking at is skeletons. Sir David Attenborough, who will present a new series about nature across the Uk an Ireland for the BBC. It is about empowering people.". David Attenborough explains how life on Earth has evolved, Attenborough's Passion Projects, Darwin's Tree of Life, The final paragraph of "On the Origin of the Species", Attenborough's Passion Projects, Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives, Web exclusive: David Attenborough seeks medical attention, Web exclusive: Davids hopes on what natural history films can do for us, The mysteries of the Easter Island statues revealed, Attenborough's Passion Projects, Lost Gods of Easter Island, David Attenborough recording a village ceremony in 1954, Web exclusive: The day I met Attenborough - Lyrebird, First contact with the Biami tribe in 1971, Attenborough's Passion Projects, A Blank on the Map, A hair raising take off in Guiana in 1955, Web exclusive: The day I met Attenborough - Penguins, David Attenborough captures a python in 1956. Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet Review: A Dire Warning, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/04/movies/breaking-boundaries-the-science-of-our-planet-review.html, A scene from the documentary Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet.. The film traces his 60-year career, outlining how steeply the health of the planet has declined in his lifetime. [chuckles] Because I wish the struggle wasnt there or necessary. Theyd never seen sloths before. Sparkling coastal seas. We must fix our sights on keeping one and a half degrees within reach. 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.