People told me that “Home” is an impossible initiative. So I would like to tell you, “Let’s believe together in impossible initiatives. Let’s believe in it.” We can all change many things. We need actions; it’s too late to be pessimistic.

Hallo, eco-conscious viewers, and welcome to Planet Earth: Our Loving Home. Today we present Part 2 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 2 of the landmark documentary, “Home” with narration by award-winning US actress Glenn Close.

We haven't understood that we're depleting what nature provides. Since 1950, fishing catches have increased fivefold from 18 to 100 million metric tons a year. Thousands of factory ships are emptying the oceans. Three-quarters of fishing grounds are exhausted, depleted or in danger of being so. Most large fish have been fished out of existence since they have no time to reproduce. We are destroying the cycle of a life that was given to us. At the current rate, all fish stocks are threatened with exhaustion.

We have forgotten that resources are scarce. Five hundred million humans live in the world's desert lands, more than the combined population of Europe. They know the value of water. They know how to use it sparingly. Here, they depend on wells replenished by fossil water, which accumulated underground in the days when it rained on these deserts 25,000 years ago.

Fossil water also enables crops to be grown in the desert to provide food for local populations. The fields' circular shape derives from the pipes that irrigate them around a central pivot. But there is a heavy price to pay. Fossil water is a non-renewable resource.

In Saudi Arabia, the dream of industrial farming in the desert has faded. As if on a parchment map, the light spots on this patchwork show abandoned plots. The irrigation equipment is still there. The energy to pump water also. But the fossil water reserves are severely depleted.

Israel turned the desert into arable land. Even though these hothouses are now irrigated drop by drop, water consumption continues to increase along with exports. The once mighty River Jordan is now just a trickle. Its water has flown to supermarkets all over the world in crates of fruit and vegetables. The Jordan's fate is not unique.

Across the planet, one major river in ten no longer flows into the sea for several months of the year. Deprived of the Jordan's water, the level of the Dead Sea goes down by over one meter per year. India risks being the country that suffers most from the lack of water in the coming century. Massive irrigation has fed the growing population and in the last 50 years, 21 million wells have been dug.

In many parts of the country, the drill has to sink ever deeper to hit water. In western India, 30% of wells have been abandoned. The underground aquifers are drying out. Vast reservoirs will catch the monsoon rains to replenish the aquifers. In the dry season, women from local villages dig them with their bare hands.

Thousands of kilometers away, 800 to 1,000 liters of water are consumed per person per day. Las Vegas was built out of the desert. Millions of people live there. Thousands more arrive every month. The inhabitants of Los Vegas are among the biggest consumers of water in the world. Palm Springs is another desert city with tropical vegetation and lush golf courses. How long can this mirage continue to prosper? The Earth cannot keep up.

The Colorado River, which brings water to these cities, is one of those rivers that no longer reaches the sea. Water levels in the catchment lakes along its course are plummeting. Water shortages could affect nearly 2 billion people before 2025. The wetlands represent six percent of the surface of the planet. Under their calm water lies a veritable factory, where plants and micro-organisms patiently filter the water and digest all the pollution.

These marshes are indispensable environments for the regeneration and purification of water. They are sponges that regulate the flow of water. They absorb it in the wet season and release it in the dry season. In our race to conquer more land, we have reclaimed them as pasture for our livestock, or as land for agriculture or building. In the last century, half of the world's marshes were drained. We know neither their richness nor their role.

All living matter is linked. Water, air, soil, trees. The world's magic is right in front of our eyes. Trees breathe groundwater into the atmosphere as light mist. They form a canopy that alleviates the impact of heavy rains. The forests provide the humidity that is necessary for life.

They store carbon, containing more than all the Earth's atmosphere. They are the cornerstone of the climatic balance on which we all depend. The trees are the primary forests provide a habitat for three-quarters of the planet's biodiversity, that's to say, of all life on Earth. These forests provide the remedies that cure us. The substances secreted by these plants can be recognized by our bodies. Our cells talk the same language. We are of the same family.

But in barely 40 years, the world's largest rainforest, the Amazon, has been reduced by 20%. The forest gives way to cattle ranches or soybean farms. Ninety-five percent of these soybeans are used to feed livestock and poultry in Europe and Asia. And so, a forest is turned into meat. Barely 20 years ago, Borneo, the fourth largest island in the world, was covered by a vast primary forest. At the current rate of deforestation, it will have totally disappeared within 10 years. Living matter bonds water, air, earth and the Sun.

In Borneo, this bond has been broken in what was one of the Earth's greatest reservoirs of biodiversity. This catastrophe was provoked by the decision to produce palm oil, one of the most productive and consumed oils in the world, on Borneo. Palm oil not only caters to our growing demand for food, but also cosmetics, detergents and, increasingly, alternative fuels. The forest's diversity was replaced by a single species, the oil palm. For local people, it provides employment. It's an agricultural industry.

Another example of massive deforestation is the eucalyptus. Eucalyptus is used to make paper pulp. Plantations are growing as demand for paper has increased fivefold in 50 years. One forest does not replace another forest. At the foot of these eucalyptus trees, nothing grows because their leaves form a bed that is toxic for most other plants. They grow quickly, but exhaust water reserves.

Soybeans, palm oil, eucalyptus trees... Deforestation destroys the essential to produce the superfluous. But elsewhere, deforestation is a last resort to survive.

Over two billion people, almost a third of the world's population, still depend on charcoal. In Haiti, one of the world's poorest countries, charcoal is one of the population's main consumables. Once the "Pearl of the Caribbean," Haiti can no longer feed its population without foreign aid. On the hills of Haiti, only two percent of the forests are left. Stripped bare, nothing holds the soils back. The rainwater washes them down the hillsides as far as the sea. What's left is increasingly unsuitable for agriculture.

In some parts of Madagascar, the erosion is spectacular. Whole hillsides bear deep gashes hundreds of meters wide. Thin and fragile, soil is made by living matter. With erosion, the fine layer of humus, which took thousands of years to form, disappears.

Here's one theory of the story of the Rapanui, the inhabitants of Easter Island, that could perhaps give us pause for thought. Living on the most isolated island in the world, the Rapanui exploited their resources until there was nothing left. Their civilization did not survive. On these lands stood the highest palm trees in the world. They have disappeared. The Rapanui chopped them all down for lumber. They then faced widespread soil erosion.

There were no trees to build canoes. Yet the Rapanui formed one of the most brilliant civilizations in the Pacific. Innovative farmers, sculptors, exceptional navigators, they were caught in the vise of overpopulation and dwindling resources. They experienced social unrest, revolts and famine. Many did not survive the cataclysm.

The real mystery of Easter Island is not how its strange statues got there, we know now. It's why the Rapanui didn't react in time. It's only one of a number of theories, but it has particular relevance to us today.

After these brief messages, we will continue our presentation of the powerful documentary “Home.” Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

We saw the film “Home” in Champ-de-Mars. What was your impression?

My impression of course was very positive. And what pleased me is that I realized that now in France, there are many environmental movements. I believe that it would be necessary to begin to eat less meat, because that pollutes the planet, that’s a lot of cereals for animals, water for animals, not to talk about flatulence from cows that pollute the planet. Thus we should try to see things differently. Be more vegetarian.

Welcome back to Planet Earth: Our Loving Home on Supreme Master Television. We now continue with the environmental documentary, “Home,” which serves as a clear warning to all humanity that our planet is in grave danger as our natural resources are being rapidly depleted and climate change is accelerating.

Since 1950, the world's population has almost tripled. And since 1950, we have more fundamentally altered our island, the Earth, than in all of our 200,000-year history. Nigeria is the biggest oil exporter in Africa, yet 70% of the population lives under the poverty line. The wealth is there, but the country's inhabitants don't have access to it. The same is true all over the globe. Half the world's poor live in resource-rich countries.

Our mode of development has not fulfilled its promises. In 50 years, the gap between rich and poor has grown wider than ever. Today, half the world's wealth is in the hands of the richest two percent of the population. Can such disparities be maintained? They are the cause of population movements whose scale we have yet to fully realize.

The city of Lagos had a population of 700,000 in 1960 that will rise to 16 million by 2025. Lagos is one of the fastest growing megalopolises in the world. The new arrivals are mostly farmers forced off the land for economic or demographic reasons, or because of diminishing resources. This is a radically new type of urban growth, driven by the urge to survive rather than to prosper.

Every week, over a million people swell the populations of the world's cities. 1 human being in 6 now lives in a precarious, unhealthy, overpopulated environment without access to daily necessities, such as water, sanitation, electricity. Hunger is spreading once more. It affects nearly 1 billion people.

All over the planet, the poorest scrabble to survive on scraps, while we continue to dig for resources that we can no longer live without. We look farther and farther afield in previously unspoilt territory and in regions that are increasingly difficult to exploit. We're not changing our model.

Oil might run out? We can still extract oil from the tar sands of Canada. The biggest trucks in the world move thousands of tons of sand. The process of heating and separating bitumen from the sand requires millions of cubic meters of water. Colossal amounts of energy are needed. The pollution is catastrophic. The most urgent priority, apparently, is to pick every pocket of sunlight.

Our oil tankers are getting bigger and bigger. Our energy requirements are constantly increasing. We try to power growth like a bottomless oven that demands more and more fuel. It's all about carbon. In a few decades, the carbon that made our atmosphere a furnace and that nature captured over millions of years, allowing life to develop, will have largely been pumped back out. The atmosphere is heating up.

It would have been inconceivable for a boat to be here just a few years ago. Transport, industry, deforestation, agriculture... Our activities release gigantic quantities of carbon dioxide. Without realizing it, molecule by molecule, we have upset the Earth's climatic balance. All eyes are on the poles, where the effects of global warming are most visible. It's happening fast, very fast.

The Northwest Passage that connects America, Europe and Asia via the pole is opening up. The Arctic ice cap is melting. Under the effect of global warming, the ice cap has lost 40% of its thickness in 40 years. Its surface area in the summer shrinks year by year. It could disappear in the summer months by 2030. Some say 2015.

The sunbeams that the ice sheet previously reflected back now penetrate the dark water, heating it up. The warming process gathers pace. This ice contains the records of our planet. The concentration of carbon dioxide hasn't been so high for several hundred thousand years. Humanity has never lived in an atmosphere like this.

Is excessive exploitation of our resources threatening the lives of every species? Climate change accentuates the threat. By 2050, a quarter of the Earth's species could be threatened with extinction. In these polar regions, the balance of nature has already been disrupted. Around the North Pole, the ice cap has lost 30% of its surface area in 30 years. But as Greenland rapidly becomes warmer, the freshwater of a whole continent flows into the salt water of the oceans.

Greenland's ice contains 20% of the freshwater of the whole planet. If it melts, sea levels will rise by nearly seven meters. But there is no industry here. Greenland's ice sheet suffers from greenhouse gases emitted elsewhere on Earth.

Our ecosystem doesn't have borders. Wherever we are, our actions have repercussions on the whole Earth. The atmosphere of our planet is an indivisible whole. It is an asset we share. On Greenland's surface, lakes are appearing on the landscape.

The ice cap has begun to melt at a speed even the most pessimistic scientists did not envision 10 years ago. More and more of these glacier-fed rivers are merging together and burrowing though the surface. It was thought the water would freeze in the depths of the ice. On the contrary, it flows under the ice, carrying the ice sheet into the sea, where it breaks into icebergs.

As the freshwater of Greenland's ice sheet gradually seeps into the salt water of the oceans, low-lying lands around the globe are threatened. Sea levels are rising. Water expanding as it gets warmer caused, in the 20th century alone, a rise of 20 centimeters. Everything becomes unstable. Coral reefs, for example, are extremely sensitive to the slightest change in water temperature. Thirty percent have disappeared. They are an essential link in the chain of species.

In the atmosphere, the major wind streams are changing direction. Rain cycles are altered. The geography of climates is modified. The inhabitants of low-lying islands, here in the Maldives, for example, are on the front line. They are increasingly concerned. Some are already looking for new, more hospitable lands.

If sea levels continue to rise faster and faster, what will major cities like Tokyo, the world's most populous city, do? Every year, scientists' predictions become more and more alarming. Seventy percent of the world's population lives on coastal plains. Eleven of the 15 biggest cities stand on a coastline or river estuary. As the seas rise, salt will invade the water table, depriving inhabitants of drinking water. Migratory phenomena are inevitable. The only uncertainty concerns their scale.

In Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro is unrecognizable. Eighty percent of its glaciers have disappeared. In summer, the rivers no longer flow. Local peoples are affected by the lack of water. Even on the world's highest peaks, in the heart of the Himalayas, eternal snows and glaciers are receding.

Yet these glaciers play an essential role in the water cycle. They trap the water from the monsoons as ice and release it in the summer when the snows melt. The glaciers of the Himalayas are the source of all the great Asian rivers, the Indus, Ganges, Mekong, Yangtze, Kiang... two billion people depend on them for drinking water and to irrigate their crops, as in Bangladesh.

On the delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra, Bangladesh is directly affected by phenomena occurring in the Himalayas and at sea level. This is one of the most populous and poorest countries in the world. It is already hit by global warming. The combined impact of increasingly dramatic floods and hurricanes could make a third of its land mass disappear.

When populations are subjected to these devastating phenomena, they eventually move away. Wealthy countries will not be spared. Droughts are occurring all over the planet. In Australia, half of farmland is already affected. We are in the process of compromising the climatic balance that has allowed us to develop over 12,000 years.

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

Esteemed viewers, please join us next Wednesday on Planet Earth: Our Loving Home for the presentation of Part 3 of our three-part series featuring the eco-documentary “Home.” Coming up next is Enlightening Entertainment. May your days be filled with love and bliss.