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PLANET EARTH: OUR LOVING HOME
"Home": An Eco-Documentary by Yann Arthus-Bertrand - P1/3
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We know that the solutions
are there today.
We all have the power
to change.
So what are we waiting for?
Hallo,
eco-conscious viewers,
and welcome to
Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home.
Today we present Part 1
of a three part series
featuring the acclaimed
2009 documentary
“Home” directed
by world famous
French photographer
Yann Arthus–Bertrand.
He is particularly
renowned for
his aerial photography.
Entranced by
the beauty of nature,
Mr. Arthus Bertrand
has taken scores
of photographs
of majestic landscapes
from helicopters
and hot air balloons.
Yann Arthus-Bertrand
established the
GoodPlanet Foundation
in 2005.
The Foundation focuses
on raising public awareness
of global warming
and helps to implement
various innovative
programs to offset
carbon emissions.
Recognizing his
commitment to the planet,
the United Nations
Environment Programme
presented him
with the
“Champions of the Earth”
award and appointed him
as a Goodwill
Ambassador in 2009.
I think that as journalists,
we have a real power of
informing and certainly
this title of
“Goodwill Ambassador”
will allow me
to do things perhaps
I could not do before.
“Home” explores
issues impacting
our planet’s viability
such as
the environmental
devastation caused by
the livestock industry,
serious water shortages,
rapidly rising sea levels,
dependency
on fossil fuels,
and the severe depletion
of natural resources.
With high definition
aerial views of our abode,
the documentary
clearly illustrates
the extent to which
our precious Earth has been
enormously damaged
by humanity’s actions.
The film’s ultimate message
is that we have only
a few short years left
to reverse
the tremendous destruction.
Home was filmed on
location in 54 countries
over a period
of 18 months,
generating 488 hours
of footage in the process.
Filming was done
using helicopter-mounted
high definition
Cineflex cameras
that are able to record
moving images smoothly.
True to Home’s eco-ideals,
the producers mitigated
the emissions released
during the making of it
through carbon offsets.
It took approximately
three years for the
93-minute documentary
to be finally completed.
On June 5, 2009,
coinciding with
World Environment Day,
Home premiered in
over 100 countries.
The producers say
it is the first movie ever
to be released
simultaneously through
all media channels,
including theaters, TV,
DVD, and Internet and
across five continents.
Many cinemas
offered free screenings
and it was on shown
on big screens
at the Champ de Mars
in Paris, France as well as
in London, England
and New York, USA.
In France,
8 million viewers
watched Home
on France2 Television
the day it debuted.
As a gift to the world,
the work is distributed
free of charge and
is available for viewing
on the website YouTube.
We now present Part 1
of the landmark
documentary, “Home”
with narration
by award-winning
US actress Glenn Close.
Listen to me, please.
You're like me,
a homo sapiens,
a wise human.
Life, a miracle
in the Universe,
appeared around
4 billion years ago.
And we humans
only 200,000 years ago.
Yet we have succeeded
in disrupting the balance
that is so essential to life.
Listen carefully to this
extraordinary story,
which is yours,
and decide what
you want to do with it.
These are traces
of our origins.
At the beginning,
our planet was no more
than a chaos of fire,
a cloud of agglutinated
dust particles, similar to
so many similar clusters
in the Universe, yet was
where the miracle of life
occurred.
Today, life, our life,
is just a link in a chain of
innumerable living beings
that have succeeded
one another on Earth
over nearly 4 billion years.
And even today,
new volcanoes continue
to sculpt our landscapes.
They offer a glimpse
of what our Earth
was like at its birth,
molten rock surging
from the depths,
solidifying, cracking,
blistering or spreading
in a thin crust, before
falling dormant for a time.
These wreaths of smoke
curling from the bowels
of the Earth bear
witness to the Earth's
original atmosphere.
An atmosphere devoid
of oxygen.
A dense atmosphere,
thick with water vapor,
full of carbon dioxide.
A furnace.
The Earth cooled.
The water vapor
condensed and fell in
torrential downpours.
At the right distance
from the Sun, not too far,
not too near,
the Earth's perfect
balance enabled it
to conserve water
in liquid form.
The water cut channels.
They are like
the veins of a body,
the branches of a tree,
the vessels of the sap
that the water
gave to the Earth.
The rivers tore minerals
from the rocks, and
gradually added them
to the freshwater
of the oceans.
And the oceans
became heavy with salt.
Where do we come from?
Where did life
first spark into being?
A miracle of time,
primitive life forms
still exist in the globe's
hot springs.
They give them their colors.
They're called
archeobacteria.
They all feed off
the Earth's heat.
All except
the cyanobacteria,
or blue-green algae.
They alone have the
capacity to turn to the Sun
to capture its energy.
They are a vital ancestor
of all yesterday's
and today's plant species.
These tiny bacteria
and their billions
of descendants
changed the destiny
of our planet.
They transformed
its atmosphere.
What happened
to the carbon that
poisoned the atmosphere?
It's still here, imprisoned
in the Earth's crust.
Here, there once was a sea,
inhabited by
micro-organisms.
They grew their shells
by tapping into carbon
from the atmosphere
dissolved in the ocean.
These strata are
the accumulated shells of
those billions and billions
of micro-organisms.
Thanks to them,
the carbon drained
from the atmosphere
and other life forms
could develop.
It is life that
altered the atmosphere.
Plant life fed off
the Sun's energy, which
enabled it to break apart
the water molecule
and take the oxygen.
And oxygen filled the air.
The Earth's water cycle
is a process
of constant renewal.
Waterfalls, water vapor,
clouds, rain,
springs, rivers,
seas, oceans, glaciers...
The cycle is never broken.
There's always
the same quantity of water
on Earth.
All the successive species
on Earth have drunk
the same water.
The astonishing matter
that is water; one of
the most unstable of all.
It takes a liquid form
as running water,
gaseous as vapor,
or solid as ice.
In Siberia,
the frozen surfaces
of the lakes in winter
contain the trace of the
forces that water deploys
when it freezes.
Lighter than water,
the ice floats.
It forms a protective mantle
against the cold,
under which life can go on.
The engine of life
is linkage.
Everything is linked.
Nothing is self-sufficient.
Water and air
are inseparable,
united in life and
for our life on Earth.
Sharing is everything.
The green expanse
peeking through the clouds
is the source of oxygen
in the air.
Seventy percent of this gas,
without which
our lungs cannot function,
comes from the algae
that tint the surface
of the oceans.
Our Earth relies on
a balance, in which
every being has a role
to play and exists only
through the existence
of another being.
A subtle, fragile harmony
that is easily shattered.
Thus, corals are born
from the marriage
of algae and shells.
Coral reefs cover less than
1% of the ocean floor,
but they provide a habitat
for thousands of species
of fish, mollusks
and algae.
The equilibrium
of every ocean
depends on them.
The Earth counts time
in billions of years.
It took more than
four billion years
for it to make trees.
In the chain of species,
trees are a pinnacle,
a perfect, living sculpture.
Trees defy gravity.
They are
the only natural element
in perpetual movement
toward the sky.
They grow unhurriedly
toward the Sun that
nourishes their foliage.
They have inherited
from those miniscule
cyanobacteria the power
to capture light's energy.
They store it and feed off it,
turning it into wood
and leaves, which then
decompose into a mixture
of water, mineral,
vegetable and living matter.
And so, gradually,
soils are formed.
Soils teem with
the incessant activity
of micro-organisms,
feeding, digging,
aerating and transforming.
They make the humus,
the fertile layer to which
all life on land is linked.
What do we know
about life on Earth?
How many species
are we aware of?
A tenth of them?
A hundredth perhaps?
What do we know about
the bonds that link them?
The Earth is a miracle.
Life remains a mystery.
Families of animals form,
united by customs
and rituals
that are handed down
through the generations.
Some adapt to the nature
of their pasture and their
pasture adapts to them.
And both gain.
The animal sates its hunger
and the tree can
blossom again.
In the great adventure
of life on Earth,
every species
has a role to play,
every species has its place.
None is futile or harmful.
They all balance out.
And that's where you,
homo sapiens, wise human,
enter the story.
You benefit from a fabulous
4-billion-year-old legacy
bequeathed by the Earth.
You are only
200,000 years old,
but you have changed
the face of the world.
Despite your vulnerability,
you have taken possession
of every habitat
and conquered swathes
of territory, like
no other species before you.
After 180,000 nomadic
years, and thanks to
a more clement climate,
humans settled down.
They chose to
live in wet environments.
Even today, the majority
of humankind lives on
the continents' coastlines
or the banks of rivers
and lakes.
Across the planet,
one person in four lives
as humankind
did 6,000 years ago,
their only energy that
which nature provides
season after season.
It's the way of life
of 1.5 billion people,
more than
the combined population
of all the wealthy nations.
But life expectancy is short
and hard labor
takes its toll.
The uncertainties of nature
weigh on daily life.
Education is
a rare privilege.
Children are a family's
only asset as long as
every extra pair of hands
is a necessary contribution
to its subsistence.
Humanity's genius is to
have always had a sense
of its weakness.
The physical energy
and strength, with which
nature insufficiently
endowed humans,
is found in animals
that help them to
discover new territories.
But how can you
conquer the world
on an empty stomach?
The invention
of agriculture turned
our history on end.
It was less than
10,000 years ago.
Agriculture was
our first great revolution.
It resulted in the first
surpluses and gave birth
to cities and civilizations.
The memory
of thousands of years
scrabbling for food faded.
Having made grain
the yeast of life,
we multiplied the number
of varieties and
learned to adapt them
to our soils and climates.
We are like every species
on Earth.
Our principal daily concern
is to feed ourselves.
When the soil is
less than generous and
the water becomes scarce,
we are able to deploy
prodigious efforts
to extract from the land
enough to live on.
Humans shaped the land
with the patience
and devotion
that the Earth demands
in an almost
sacrificial ritual
performed over and over.
Agriculture is still
the world's most
widespread occupation.
Half of humankind
tills the soil,
over three-quarters of them
by hand.
Agriculture is like
a tradition handed down
from generation
to generation in sweat,
graft and toil,
because for humanity it is
a prerequisite of survival.
But after relying on
muscle-power for so long,
humankind found a way
to tap into the energy
buried deep in the Earth.
After these brief messages,
we will continue
our presentation of the
powerful documentary
“Home.”
Please stay tuned
to Supreme Master
Television.
Welcome back to
Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home
on Supreme Master
Television.
We now continue
with our presentation
of the eco-documentary
“Home.”
These flames are also
from plants.
A pocket of sunlight.
Pure energy.
The energy of the Sun,
captured over
millions of years
by millions of plants
more than
100 million years ago.
It's coal. It's gas.
And, above all, it's oil.
And this pocket of sunlight
freed humans from
their toil on the land.
With oil began
the era of humans
who break free
of the shackles of time.
With oil,
some of us acquired
unprecedented comforts.
And in 50 years,
in a single lifetime,
the Earth has been
more radically changed
than by all previous
generations of humanity.
Faster and faster.
In the last 60 years,
the Earth's population
has almost tripled.
And over 2 billion people
have moved to the cities.
Faster and faster.
Shenzhen, in China,
with its hundreds
of skyscrapers and
millions of inhabitants,
was just
a small fishing village
barely 40 years ago.
Faster and faster.
In Shanghai, 3,000
towers and skyscrapers
have been built in 20 years.
Hundreds more
are under construction.
Today, over half of
the world's seven billion
inhabitants live in cities.
New York.
The world's
first megalopolis is the
symbol of the exploitation
of the energy
the Earth supplies
to human genius.
The manpower of
millions of immigrants,
the energy of coal,
the unbridled power of oil.
America was the first to
harness the phenomenal,
revolutionary power
of “black gold.”
In the fields,
machines replaced men.
A liter of oil generates
as much energy
as 100 pairs of hands
in 24 hours.
In the United States, only
3 million farmers are left.
They produce
enough grain to feed
2 billion people.
But most of that grain
is not used to feed people.
Here, and in all other
industrialized nations,
it is transformed into
livestock feed or biofuels.
The pocket
of sunshine's energy
chased away
the specter of drought
that stalked farmland.
No spring escapes
the demands of agriculture,
which accounts for
70% of humanity's
water consumption.
Bad harvests and famine
became a distant memory.
The biggest headache now
was what to do with
the surpluses engendered
by modern agriculture.
But toxic pesticides
seeped into the air, soil,
plants, animals, rivers
and oceans.
They penetrated
the heart of cells
similar to the mother cell
that is shared
by all forms of life.
Are they harmful
to the humans that
they released from hunger?
These farmers in their
yellow protective suits
probably have a good idea.
Then came fertilizers,
another
petrochemical discovery.
They produced
unprecedented results
on plots of land
thus far ignored.
Crops adapted
to soils and climates
gave way to the most
productive varieties and
the easiest to transport.
And so, in the last century,
three-quarters
of the varieties
developed by farmers
over thousands of years
have been wiped out.
As far as the eye can see,
fertilizer below,
plastic on top.
The greenhouses
of Almeria in Spain, are
Europe's vegetable garden.
A city of uniformly
sized vegetables
waits every day
for the hundreds of trucks
that will take them to the
continent's supermarkets.
The more
a country develops,
the more meat
its inhabitants consume.
How can growing
worldwide demand
be satisfied without
recourse to concentration
camp-style cattle farms?
Faster and faster.
Like the life cycle
of livestock, which may
never see a meadow,
manufacturing meat
faster than the animal
has become a daily routine.
In these vast foodlots,
trampled by
millions of cattle,
not a blade of grass grows.
A fleet of trucks
from every corner
of the country
brings in tons of grain,
soy meal and
protein-rich granules that
will become tons of meat.
The result is that
it takes 100 liters of water
to produce
one kilogram of potatoes,
4,000 liters
for one kilogram of rice
and 13,000 liters
for one kilogram of beef.
Not to mention the oil
guzzled in the production
process and transport.
Our agriculture
has become oil-powered.
It feeds twice as many
humans on Earth, but
has replaced diversity
with standardization.
It has offered
many of us comforts
we could only dream of,
but it makes our way of life
totally dependent on oil.
This is the new measure
of time.
Our world's clock now
beats to the rhythm
of these indefatigable
machines tapping into
the pocket of sunlight.
The whole planet
is attentive
to these metronomes of
our hopes and illusions.
The same hopes and
illusions that proliferate
along with our needs,
increasingly insatiable
desires and profligacy.
We know that the end
of cheap oil is imminent,
but we refuse to believe it.
For many of us,
the American dream
is embodied by
a legendary name –
Los Angeles.
In this city that stretches
over 100 kilometers,
the number of cars
is almost equal to the
number of inhabitants.
Here, energy puts on
a fantastic show
every night.
The days seem to be
no more than
the pale reflection of nights
that turn the city
into a starry sky.
Faster and faster.
Distances are no longer
counted in miles,
but in minutes.
The automobile shapes
new suburbs, where
every home is a castle,
a safe distance from the
asphyxiated city centers,
and where neat rows
of houses huddle around
dead-end streets.
The model
of a lucky-few countries
has become
a universal dream
preached by televisions
all over the world.
Even here in Beijing,
it is cloned, copied
and reproduced
in these formatted houses
that have wiped pagodas
off the map.
The automobile
has become the symbol
of comfort and progress.
If this model were
followed by every society,
the planet wouldn't have
900 million vehicles,
as it does today,
but 5 billion.
Faster and faster.
The more the world develops,
the greater
its thirst for energy.
Everywhere,
machines dig, bore and rip
from the Earth
the pieces of stars
buried in its depths since
its creation... minerals.
As a privilege of power,
80% of this
mineral wealth
is consumed by 20%
of the world's population.
Before the end
of this century,
excessive mining will
have exhausted nearly
all the planet's reserves.
Faster and faster.
Shipyards churn out
oil tankers, container ships
and gas tankers
to cater for the demands
of globalized
industrial production.
Most consumer goods
travel thousands
of kilometers from
the country of production
to the country
of consumption.
Since 1950, the volume
of international trade has
increased 20 times over.
90% of trade goes by sea.
500 million containers
are transported every year,
headed for the world's
major hubs of consumption,
such as Dubai.
Dubai is
a sort of culmination
of the Western model,
a country
where the impossible
becomes possible.
Building artificial islands
in the sea, for example.
Dubai has
few natural resources,
but with the oil money it
can bring millions of tons
of material and workers
from all over the planet.
Dubai has no farmland,
but it can import food.
Dubai has no water, but
it can afford to expend
immense amounts of energy
to desalinate seawater
and build the highest
skyscrapers in the world.
Dubai has endless sun,
but no solar panels.
It is the totem
to total modernity
that never fails
to amaze the world.
Dubai is like the new beacon
for all the world's money.
Nothing seems further
removed from nature
than Dubai, although
nothing depends on nature
more than Dubai.
Dubai is
a sort of culmination
of the Western model.
We sincerely thank
Yann Arthus-Bertrand
for producing
this significant film that
serves as a wake-up call
to aid our planet.
Let us all now
take immediate action
to save our fragile abode.
For more details
on “Home,”
please visit
www.Home-2009.com
Treasured viewers, please
join us next Wednesday
on Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home
for the presentation of
Part 2 of our three-part
series featuring
the eco-documentary
“Home.”
May your life be filled
with peace and grace
from Heaven.
Auntie Jia-Jia is the
founder of the non-profit
organization Homeless
& Orphan Pets Exist
(HOPE) which provides
a haven for stray
and abandoned dogs
in the small town
of Lima Kedai in
Johor state, Malaysia.
Seeing the dogs
living happily every day
is my biggest motivation.
Seeing them healthy,
happy and running
around freely is my
biggest motivation.
Join us for
the presentation
of the Shining World
Compassion Award
to the deserving
Auntie Jia -Jia,
Thursday, March 18,
on Animal World:
Our Co-Inhabitants.
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