It is the only way out of this crisis that we ourselves have created. David Attenborough is a famous British naturalist. When you first see it, you think perhaps that its beautiful, and suddenly you realize its tragic. Attenborough urges us to restore biodiversity. This particular one has a scientific name of Tiltonicerus, because the first one ever was found near this quarry here in Tilton, in the middle of England. He seems tired of keeping quiet about it. It was only in the 50s that large fleets first ventured out into international waters to reap the open ocean harvest across the globe. Clean energy has to replace fossil fuels. And in life the animal itself lived in the chamber here and spread out its tentacles to catch its prey. 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. That non-human world is gone. It took a visionary scientist, Bernhard Grzimek, to explain that this wasnt true. Each generation able to develop and progress only because the living world could be relied upon to deliver us the conditions we needed. That without such an immense space, the herds would diminish and the entire ecosystem would come crashing down. 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. Seasons blend into one another in these tropical conditions, with lush growth, abundant flowering, and seed production occurring in ongoing cycles. The explosion was a result of bad planning and human error. With this in mind, David Attenborough has dedicated his life to educating us about our planet, and making discourses visible, through his captivating storytelling. Starring: David Attenborough Watch all you want. They are the best technology nature has for locking away carbon. And I believe we can do our best. And powerful evidence that however grave our mistakes, nature will ultimately overcome them. I've seen it with my own eyes. David Attenborough has seen more of the natural world than any other. We had very little understanding of how the living world actually worked. David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet - Transcript An imaginative young squirrel leads a musical revolution to save his parents from a tyrannical leader. Planet Earth. And in less than 48 hours, the city was evacuated. They had never seen the center of New Guinea before. If we want to, we can kill almost anything in the sea that we wish. In the end, after a lifetimes exploration of the living world, Im certain of one thing. With all these things, there is one overriding principle. 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. You can be forgiven for thinking that these plains are endless when they could swallow up such a herd. We need to rediscover how to be sustainable. No plowing and no fertilizers are used. Phytoplankton at the oceans surface and immense forests straddling the north have helped to balance the atmosphere by locking away carbon. [indistinct chatter] It was shot in 39 countries. However, as it does this, carbon dioxide changes into carbonic acid. The white color is caused by corals expelling algae that lives symbiotically within their body. At some point in the future, the human population will peak for the very first time. It needs protecting. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. And suddenly, we realized, you know, we're there together, and we're alone. And sadly, we don't only deplete our fish. Our imprint is now truly global. Download Worksheet Language level David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet - Wikipedia He believes that we have The Planetary Boundaries model as our guide, and that we should be looking to it for inspiration. However, if we had "no fishing" zones in one-third of the sea, our fish stocks could recover over the long term. [Attenborough] They ate meat rarely. Its the only way out of this crisis we have created. Despite its size, the Netherlands is now the worlds second largest exporter of food. These people were hunter-gatherers, as all humankind had been before farming. If we travel back to modern-day Pripyat, David Attenborough tells us that nature is once again asserting itself. His passion for protecting diverse wildlife, and reclaiming our wilderness is palpable, and A Life on Our Planet is his "witness statement." ATTENBOROUGH: Yes. Protected fish populations soon became so healthy, they spilt over into the areas open to fishing. Jonnie Hughes served as director and producer, as he has on Attenborough's documentaries since 2000. You write, for example, we have become too skilled at fishing. Weve come this far because we are the smartest creatures that have ever lived. In one act, this would transform the open ocean from a place exhausted by subsidized fishing fleets to a wilderness that will help us all in our efforts to combat climate change. We have already moved beyond the boundaries of four of these nine. In the 1950s, Borneo was three-quarters covered with rainforest. Rising sea levels could lead to cities like Rotterdam, Ho Chi Minh City, and Miami being evacuated. And because we would be then dedicated to raising plants, we could increase the yield of this land substantially. Its decision to do so has resulted in the human species pushing our planet towards a tipping point. Ive visited the polar regions over many decades. The planet cant support billions of large meat-eaters. In 1937, at age 11, he would cycle from his home in Leicester into the countryside to study fossils in the rocks. 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 also have to rewild mangroves, salt marshes, and kelp forests to restore biodiversity. [Attenborough] We are facing nothing less than the collapse of the living world. Tune in for a live pre-show 30 minutes before Chris set, followed by an aftershow. This was before any of us were aware that there were problems. It will survive. All this was absolutely clear, it was only just stopped being a working quarry. David Attenborough became a household name in 1979 with his ground-breaking BBC series, "Life On Earth," which was seen by an estimated 500 million people worldwide. But that distant world is changing. Over billions of years, nature has crafted miraculous forms, each more complex and accomplished than the last. This model outlines nine critical thresholds, or planetary boundaries, such as climate change, air pollution, land conversion, and biodiversity loss. The ocean is a critical ally in our battle to reduce carbon in the atmosphere. The history of all human civilization followed. However, here's a curveball. There are signs that this has started to happen across the globe. Recordings like these revealed that the songs of the humpbacks are long and complex. . We have pursued animals to extinction many times in our history, but now that it was visible, it was no longer acceptable. 70% of the mass of birds on this planet are domestic birds. He and his son used a plane to follow the herds over the horizon. In fact, in 2019, New Zealand dropped GDP as its formal measurement of progress and created its own index, taking into account people, profit, and the planet. 2030s. Over time, I began to learn something about the earths evolutionary history. [thunder rumbling] And the weather is more and more unpredictable. And skeletal is precisely what these reefs were becoming. But, there are ways to change direction and alter the doom and gloom we've created. Global food production enters a crisis as soils become exhausted by overuse. However, this time it included humans in its design. One of the greatest films ever made, The Sorrow and The Pity is a contribution to history, to social psychology, to anthropology, and to art. Rainforests are particularly precious habitats. The truth is, with or without us, the natural world will rebuild. The predators help to keep nutrients in the oceans sunlit waters, recycling them so that they can be used again and again by plankton. As nations develop everywhere, people choose to have fewer children. Large parts of the earth are uninhabitable. 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. But during his lifetime, Attenborough has also seen first-hand the monumental scale of humanity's impact on nature. Overnight, Pripyat transformed from a pleasant, bustling town to a nightmarish disaster zone. Were certainly the most numerous large animal. Levies and carbon taxes will go somewhere to shift this. 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. This unique feature documentary is his witness statement. And if you knock down the whole of the Amazon rainforest, the whole of the climatic systems of rainfall and other climatic factors will be - go off balance. You say 75% of the Amazon rainforest could be gone. 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? No one has lived here since. This unique feature documentary is his witness statement. Be the first one to, David Attenborough - A Life on Our Planet 2020, Advanced embedding details, examples, and help, Terms of Service (last updated 12/31/2014). He researched how the Earth had experienced massive eruptions at specific points, destroying many species. Downloads only available on ad-free plans. One man has seen more of the natural world than any other. David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet | Netflix - offizielle Webseite They charted them as they moved across rivers, through woodlands, and over national borders. The living world is essentially solar-powered. A Life on Our Planet by David Attenborough Summary - Briefer To move from being apart from nature to becoming a part of nature once again. However, Attenborough points out that vested interests will hold us back. You put crops on the land and get another reward. The ocean bears the brunt of this because it absorbs the excess heat of global warming. In this summary, we'll briefly explore what Attenborough calls "the tragedy of our time," and how, with immediate and decisive action, disaster can be averted. David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet - netflix.com And if we do it right, it can continue because theres a win-win at play. It had everything a community would need for a comfortable life. If we fast-forward to 2020, a mere 83 years later, the statistics are disheartening. For much of its expanse, the ocean is largely empty. Results of search for 'ccl=(su:{television programs.})' Marywood You can be in one spot on the Serengeti, and the place is totally empty of animals, and then, the next morning [bellowing] one million wildebeest. Immense grasslands. David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (2020) - IMDb We account for over one-third of the weight of mammals on earth. Today, forests cover half of Costa Rica. It was a feature of all five mass extinctions. Some of the numbers are slightly out too. You knock down a rainforest tree, and you get a lot of money from the timber which you sell. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Our planet becomes four degrees Celsius warmer. Fish populations crash. We all need to change our mindset, and we need to implement a new order right now. Attenborough's wildlife journey started at a young age. How do we reclaim farmland but also increase the food supply for a growing population? David Attenborough A Life On Our Planet 2020 An important documentary that everyone should watch. If we continue on our current course, the damage that has been the defining feature of my lifetime will be eclipsed by the damage coming in the next. But on the 26th of April, 1986, it suddenly became uninhabitable. Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future. Attenborough's wildlife journey started at a young age. The Happy Planet Index measures both an ecological footprint and human well-being component in a country.