Home -SD
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00:00 [silence]
00:00:07 [silence]
00:00:12 [silence]
00:00:19 [silence]
00:00:26 Listen to me, please. You're like me. A Homo sapiens. A wise human.
00:00:35 Life, a miracle in the universe, appeared around 4 billion years ago.
00:00:41 And we humans, only 200,000 years ago.
00:00:45 Yet we have succeeded in disrupting the balance that is so essential to life on Earth.
00:00:51 Listen carefully to this extraordinary story, which is yours.
00:00:56 And decide what you want to do with it.
00:01:00 [silence]
00:01:05 [music]
00:01:10 [music]
00:01:15 [music]
00:01:22 [music]
00:01:27 These are traces of our origins.
00:01:30 At the beginning, our planet was no more than a chaos of fire,
00:01:34 formed in the wake of its star, the Sun.
00:01:37 A cloud of agglutinated dust particles,
00:01:40 similar to so many similar clusters in the universe.
00:01:45 Yet this was where the miracle of life occurred.
00:01:48 [music]
00:01:53 [music]
00:01:58 [music]
00:02:03 [music]
00:02:08 [music]
00:02:13 [music]
00:02:18 [music]
00:02:23 [music]
00:02:28 [music]
00:02:33 [music]
00:02:38 [music]
00:02:43 [music]
00:02:48 [music]
00:02:53 Today, life, our life, is just a link in a chain of innumerable living beings
00:02:59 that have succeeded one another on Earth over nearly four billion years.
00:03:04 And even today, new volcanoes continue to sculpt our landscapes.
00:03:10 They offer a glimpse of what our Earth was like at its birth.
00:03:14 Molten rock surging from the depths, solidifying, cracking,
00:03:19 blistering or spreading in a thin crust,
00:03:22 before falling dormant for a time.
00:03:25 [music]
00:03:30 [music]
00:03:35 [music]
00:03:38 These wreaths of smoke curling from the bowels of the Earth
00:03:42 bear witness to the Earth's original atmosphere,
00:03:46 an atmosphere devoid of oxygen.
00:03:50 A dense atmosphere, thick with water vapor, full of carbon dioxide.
00:03:56 [music]
00:03:59 A furnace.
00:04:02 [music]
00:04:07 [music]
00:04:12 But the Earth had an exceptional future, offered to it by water.
00:04:17 At the right distance from the Sun, not too far, not too near,
00:04:21 the Earth was able to conserve water in liquid form.
00:04:27 Water vapor condensed and fell in torrential downpours on Earth,
00:04:32 and rivers appeared.
00:04:35 [music]
00:04:40 [music]
00:04:46 The rivers shaped the surface of the Earth,
00:04:49 cutting their channels, furrowing out valleys.
00:04:53 They ran toward the lowest places on the globe to form the oceans.
00:04:59 They tore minerals from the rocks,
00:05:01 and gradually the fresh water of the oceans became heavy with salt.
00:05:07 [music]
00:05:15 Water is a vital liquid.
00:05:17 It irrigated these sterile expanses.
00:05:20 The paths it traced are like the veins of a body,
00:05:23 the branches of a tree,
00:05:25 the vessels of the sap that it brought to the Earth.
00:05:29 [music]
00:05:36 [music]
00:05:43 [music]
00:05:50 [music]
00:05:57 [music]
00:06:04 [music]
00:06:08 Nearly four billion years later,
00:06:10 somewhere on Earth can still be found these works of art
00:06:13 left by the volcano's ash mixed with water from Iceland's glaciers.
00:06:18 [music]
00:06:35 There they are, matter and water,
00:06:38 water and matter,
00:06:40 soft and hard combined,
00:06:42 the crucial alliance shared by every life form on our planet.
00:06:46 [music]
00:07:02 Minerals and metals are even older than the Earth.
00:07:05 They are stardust.
00:07:07 They provide the Earth's colors.
00:07:10 [music]
00:07:17 Red from iron,
00:07:19 black from carbon,
00:07:21 blue from copper,
00:07:23 yellow from sulfur.
00:07:25 [music]
00:07:51 Where do we come from?
00:07:53 Where did life first spark and be?
00:07:56 [music]
00:07:58 A miracle of time,
00:08:00 primitive life forms still exist in the globe's hot springs.
00:08:04 [music]
00:08:05 They give them their colors.
00:08:08 They're called archaeobacteria.
00:08:11 [music]
00:08:17 They all feed off the Earth's heat,
00:08:20 all except the cyanobacteria,
00:08:22 or blue-green algae.
00:08:24 [music]
00:08:28 They alone have the capacity to turn to the sun to capture its energy.
00:08:32 [music]
00:08:37 They are a vital ancestor of all yesterday's and today's plant species.
00:08:42 [music]
00:08:44 These tiny bacteria and their billions of descendants
00:08:48 changed the destiny of our planet.
00:08:52 They transformed its atmosphere.
00:08:55 [music]
00:09:00 What happened to the carbon that poisoned the atmosphere?
00:09:04 It's still here,
00:09:06 imprisoned in the Earth's crust.
00:09:08 We can read this chapter of the Earth's history
00:09:11 nowhere better than on the walls of Colorado's Grand Canyon.
00:09:15 They reveal nearly two billion years of the Earth's history.
00:09:19 Once upon a time, the Grand Canyon was a sea inhabited by microorganisms.
00:09:25 They grew their shells by tapping into carbon from the atmosphere
00:09:29 dissolved in the ocean.
00:09:31 When they died, the shells sank and accumulated on the seabed.
00:09:38 These strata are the product of those billions and billions of shells.
00:09:43 [music]
00:09:52 Thanks to them, the carbon drained from the atmosphere
00:09:56 and other life forms could develop.
00:09:59 [music]
00:10:12 It is life that altered the atmosphere.
00:10:16 Plant life fed off the sun's energy,
00:10:19 which enabled it to break apart the water molecule
00:10:22 and take the oxygen.
00:10:24 And oxygen filled the air.
00:10:27 [music]
00:10:38 The Earth's water cycle is a process of constant renewal.
00:10:42 Waterfalls, water vapor, clouds, rain, springs, rivers,
00:10:50 seas, oceans, glaciers.
00:10:54 The cycle is never broken.
00:10:56 There's always the same quantity of water on Earth.
00:11:00 All the successive species on Earth have drunk the same water.
00:11:06 The astonishing matter that is water.
00:11:09 One of the most unstable of all,
00:11:11 it takes a liquid form as running water,
00:11:14 gaseous as vapor,
00:11:16 or solid as ice.
00:11:19 [music]
00:11:27 In Siberia, the frozen surfaces of the lakes in winter
00:11:31 contain the traces of the forces that water deploys when it freezes.
00:11:36 Lighter than water, the ice floats rather than sinking to the bottom.
00:11:41 It forms a protective mantle against the cold,
00:11:44 under which life can go on.
00:11:47 [music]
00:12:10 [music]
00:12:30 The engine of life is linkage.
00:12:33 Everything is linked.
00:12:35 Nothing is self-sufficient.
00:12:38 Water and air are inseparable,
00:12:40 united in life and for our life on Earth.
00:12:44 [music]
00:12:49 Thus, clouds form over the oceans and bring rain to the land masses,
00:12:55 whose rivers carry water back to the oceans.
00:12:58 Sharing is everything.
00:13:01 [music]
00:13:09 The green expanse peeking through the clouds
00:13:12 is the source of oxygen in the air.
00:13:15 Seventy percent of this gas,
00:13:17 without which our lungs cannot function,
00:13:20 comes from the algae that tint the surface of the oceans.
00:13:26 Our Earth relies on a balance
00:13:29 in which every being has a role to play
00:13:32 and exists only through the existence of another being,
00:13:36 a subtle, fragile harmony that is easily shattered.
00:13:42 Thus, corals are born from the marriage of algae and shells.
00:13:47 The Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of Australia,
00:13:51 stretches over 350,000 square kilometers
00:13:55 and is home to 1,500 species of fish,
00:13:59 4,000 species of mollusks,
00:14:02 and 400 species of coral.
00:14:05 The equilibrium of every ocean depends on these corals.
00:14:10 [music]
00:14:15 [music]
00:14:30 The Earth counts time in billions of years.
00:14:35 It took more than 4 billion years for it to make trees.
00:14:42 In the chain of species,
00:14:45 trees are a pinnacle, a perfect living sculpture.
00:14:50 Trees defy gravity.
00:14:52 They are the only natural element
00:14:54 in perpetual movement toward the sky.
00:14:58 They grow unhurriedly toward the sun
00:15:01 that nourishes their foliage.
00:15:04 [music]
00:15:24 They have inherited from those miniscule cyanobacteria
00:15:28 the power to capture light's energy.
00:15:31 They store it and feed off it,
00:15:34 turning it into wood and leaves,
00:15:37 which then decompose into a mixture of water,
00:15:40 mineral, vegetable, and living matter.
00:15:45 And so, gradually,
00:15:47 the soils that are indispensable to life are formed.
00:15:52 [music]
00:16:00 Soils are the factory of biodiversity.
00:16:04 They are a world of incessant activity
00:16:07 where microorganisms feed, dig, aerate, and transform.
00:16:12 They make the humus,
00:16:14 the fertile layer to which all life on land is linked.
00:16:18 [music]
00:16:38 What do we know about life on Earth?
00:16:41 How many species are we aware of?
00:16:43 A tenth of them?
00:16:45 A hundredth, perhaps?
00:16:47 What do we know about the bonds that link them?
00:16:52 The Earth is a miracle.
00:16:55 Life remains a mystery.
00:16:58 [music]
00:17:16 Families of animals form,
00:17:18 united by customs and rituals that survive today.
00:17:23 [music]
00:17:43 Some adapt to the nature of their pasture,
00:17:47 and their pasture adapts to them.
00:17:50 And both gain.
00:17:52 The animal sates its hunger,
00:17:54 and the tree can blossom again.
00:17:57 [music]
00:18:26 [music]
00:18:38 In the great adventure of life on Earth,
00:18:41 every species has a role to play.
00:18:43 Every species has its place.
00:18:47 None is futile or harmful.
00:18:50 They all balance out.
00:18:53 [music]
00:19:07 And that's where you,
00:19:09 Homo sapiens, wise human,
00:19:12 enter the story.
00:19:16 You benefit from a fabulous,
00:19:18 four billion year old legacy bequeathed by the Earth.
00:19:23 [music]
00:19:30 You're only 200,000 years old,
00:19:32 but you have changed the face of the world.
00:19:37 Despite your vulnerability,
00:19:39 you have taken possession of every habitat,
00:19:42 and conquered swaths of territory,
00:19:45 like no other species before you.
00:19:48 [music]
00:20:00 After 180,000 nomadic years,
00:20:03 and thanks to a more clement climate,
00:20:06 humans settled down.
00:20:08 They no longer depended on hunting for survival.
00:20:11 They chose to live in wet environments
00:20:14 that abounded in fish, game, and wild plants.
00:20:18 There where land, water, and life combine.
00:20:22 [music]
00:20:31 Human genius inspired them to build canoes.
00:20:36 An invention that opened up new horizons
00:20:39 and turned humans into navigators.
00:20:42 [music]
00:20:57 [wind]
00:21:14 Even today, the majority of humankind
00:21:17 lives on the continents coastlines,
00:21:20 or the banks of rivers and lakes.
00:21:23 [music]
00:21:33 [water lapping]
00:21:43 [music]
00:21:57 The first towns grew up less than 600 years ago.
00:22:02 It was a considerable leap in human history.
00:22:06 Why towns?
00:22:07 Because they allowed humans to defend themselves more easily.
00:22:11 They became social beings,
00:22:13 meeting and sharing knowledge and crafts,
00:22:16 blending their similarities and differences.
00:22:19 In a word, they became civilized.
00:22:22 [music]
00:22:51 [music]
00:23:06 But the only energy at their disposal
00:23:09 was provided by nature and the strength of their bodies.
00:23:13 It was the story of humankind for thousands of years.
00:23:18 It still is for one person in four,
00:23:21 over one and a half billion human beings,
00:23:24 more than the combined population of all the wealthy nations.
00:23:29 [music]
00:23:44 Taking from the earth only the strictly necessary,
00:23:47 for a long time,
00:23:48 the relationship between humans and the planet
00:23:51 was evenly balanced.
00:23:53 For a long time,
00:23:54 the economy seemed like a natural and equitable alliance.
00:23:59 [music]
00:24:14 But life expectancy is short,
00:24:17 and hard labor takes its toll.
00:24:20 The uncertainties of nature weigh on daily life.
00:24:24 Education is a rare privilege.
00:24:28 Children are a family's only asset,
00:24:31 as long as every extra pair of hands
00:24:34 is a necessary contribution to its subsistence.
00:24:37 [music]
00:24:48 The earth feeds people,
00:24:50 clothes them,
00:24:51 and provides for their daily needs.
00:24:54 Everything comes from the earth.
00:24:57 [music]
00:25:05 The towns change humanity's nature,
00:25:07 as well as its destiny.
00:25:09 The farmer becomes a craftsman,
00:25:11 trader,
00:25:12 or peddler.
00:25:13 [music]
00:25:18 What the earth gives the farmer,
00:25:20 the city dweller buys,
00:25:21 sells,
00:25:22 or barters.
00:25:24 Goods change hands,
00:25:26 along with ideas.
00:25:28 [music]
00:25:43 Humanity's genius
00:25:45 is to have always had a sense of its weakness.
00:25:48 Humans tried to extend the frontiers of their territory,
00:25:52 but they knew their limits.
00:25:54 The physical energy and strength
00:25:56 with which nature had not endowed them
00:25:59 was found in the animals they domesticated to serve them.
00:26:03 [music]
00:26:20 But how can you conquer the world on an empty stomach?
00:26:24 The invention of agriculture
00:26:26 transformed the future of the wild animals
00:26:29 scavenging for food
00:26:31 that were humankind.
00:26:34 Agriculture turned their history on end.
00:26:38 Agriculture was their first great revolution.
00:26:42 Developed barely 8,000 to 10,000 years ago,
00:26:45 it changed their relationship to nature.
00:26:49 [music]
00:26:56 It brought an end to the uncertainty of hunting and gathering.
00:27:00 It resulted in the first surpluses
00:27:02 and gave birth to cities and civilizations.
00:27:06 [music]
00:27:11 For their agriculture,
00:27:13 humans harnessed the energy of animal species and plant life
00:27:17 from which they at last extracted the profits.
00:27:21 The memory of thousands of years scrabbling for food faded.
00:27:25 They learned to adapt the grains that are the yeast of life
00:27:29 to different soils and climates.
00:27:32 They learned to increase the yield
00:27:34 and multiply the number of varieties.
00:27:37 [music]
00:27:46 Like every species on Earth,
00:27:48 the principal daily concern of all humans
00:27:51 is to feed themselves and their family.
00:27:55 When the soil is less generous and water becomes scarce,
00:27:59 humans deploy prodigious efforts to mark a few arid acres
00:28:04 with the imprint of their labor.
00:28:07 [music]
00:28:25 Humans shape the land with the patience and devotion
00:28:28 that the Earth demands
00:28:30 in an almost sacrificial ritual performed over and over.
00:28:34 [music]
00:28:59 Agriculture is still the world's most widespread occupation.
00:29:04 Half of humankind tills the soil,
00:29:08 over three-quarters of them by hand.
00:29:12 Agriculture is like a tradition handed down
00:29:15 from generation to generation in sweat, graft, and toil,
00:29:20 because for humanity it is a prerequisite of survival.
00:29:25 But after relying on muscle power for so long,
00:29:28 humankind found a way to tap into the energy
00:29:31 buried deep in the Earth.
00:29:34 [music]
00:29:37 These flames are also from plants, a pocket of sunlight,
00:29:41 pure energy, the energy of the sun,
00:29:44 captured over millions of years by millions of plants
00:29:47 more than a hundred million years ago.
00:29:50 It's coal, it's gas, and above all, it's oil.
00:29:56 [music]
00:30:25 And this pocket of sunlight freed humans
00:30:28 from their toil on the land.
00:30:31 [music]
00:30:34 With oil began the era of humans
00:30:37 who break free of the shackles of time.
00:30:40 With oil, some of us acquired unprecedented comforts,
00:30:44 and in 50 years, in a single lifetime,
00:30:47 the Earth has been more radically changed
00:30:50 than by all previous generations of humanity.
00:30:55 Faster and faster, in the last 60 years,
00:30:59 the Earth's population has almost tripled,
00:31:02 and over 2 billion people have moved to the cities.
00:31:06 [music]
00:31:11 Faster and faster.
00:31:13 Shenzhen in China, with its hundreds of skyscrapers
00:31:16 and millions of inhabitants,
00:31:18 was just a small fishing village barely 40 years ago.
00:31:23 [music]
00:31:27 Faster and faster.
00:31:29 In Shanghai, 3,000 towers and skyscrapers
00:31:32 have been built in 20 years.
00:31:35 Hundreds more are under construction.
00:31:38 [music]
00:31:44 Today, over half of the world's 7 billion inhabitants
00:31:48 live in cities.
00:31:50 [music]
00:32:00 New York, the world's first megalopolis,
00:32:04 is the symbol of the exploitation of the energy
00:32:07 the Earth supplies to human genius.
00:32:10 The manpower of millions of immigrants,
00:32:13 the energy of coal, the unbridled power of oil.
00:32:17 Electricity resulted in the invention of elevators,
00:32:20 which in turn permitted the invention of skyscrapers.
00:32:24 New York ranks as the 16th largest economy in the world.
00:32:29 [thunder]
00:32:33 America was the first to discover, exploit, and harness
00:32:37 the phenomenal revolutionary power of black gold.
00:32:42 With its help, a country of farmers
00:32:45 became a country of agricultural industrialists.
00:32:49 Machines replaced men.
00:32:52 A liter of oil generates as much energy
00:32:55 as 100 pairs of hands in 24 hours.
00:32:59 But worldwide, only 3% of farmers have use of a tractor.
00:33:04 Nonetheless, their output dominates the planet.
00:33:09 In the United States, only 3 million farmers are left.
00:33:13 They produce enough grain to feed 2 billion people.
00:33:18 [rain]
00:33:23 But most of that grain is not used to feed people.
00:33:26 Here, and in all other industrialized nations,
00:33:29 it's transformed into livestock feed or biofuels.
00:33:34 [rain]
00:33:37 [music]
00:33:41 The pocket of sunshine's energy chased away
00:33:44 the specter of drought that stalked farmland.
00:33:48 No spring escapes the demands of agriculture,
00:33:51 which accounts for 70% of humanity's water consumption.
00:33:56 [music]
00:33:59 In nature, everything is linked.
00:34:02 The expansion of cultivated land and single-crop farming
00:34:06 encouraged the development of parasites.
00:34:09 Pesticides, another gift of the petrochemical revolution,
00:34:13 exterminated them.
00:34:15 Bad harvests and famine became a distant memory.
00:34:20 The biggest headache now was what to do with the surpluses
00:34:24 engendered by modern agriculture.
00:34:27 [rain]
00:34:34 [music]
00:34:38 But toxic pesticides seeped into the air,
00:34:41 soil, plants, animals, rivers, and oceans.
00:34:45 They penetrated the heart of cells
00:34:47 similar to the mother cell that is shared by all forms of life.
00:34:52 Are they harmful to the humans that they released from hunger?
00:34:56 These farmers, in their yellow protective suits,
00:35:00 probably have a good idea.
00:35:03 [music]
00:35:17 The new agriculture abolished the dependence on soils and seasons.
00:35:22 [music]
00:35:27 Fertilizers produced unprecedented results
00:35:30 on plots of land thus far ignored.
00:35:33 Crops adapted to soils and climates
00:35:36 gave way to the most productive varieties
00:35:39 and the easiest to transport.
00:35:41 And so, in the last century,
00:35:43 three-quarters of the varieties developed by farmers
00:35:47 over thousands of years have been wiped out.
00:35:50 [music]
00:35:52 As far as the eye can see, fertilizer below, plastic on top.
00:35:57 The greenhouses of Almeria in Spain are Europe's vegetable garden.
00:36:02 A city of uniformly sized vegetables waits every day
00:36:06 for the hundreds of trucks that will take them to the continent's supermarkets.
00:36:12 The more a country develops, the more meat its inhabitants consume.
00:36:17 How can growing worldwide demand be satisfied
00:36:21 without recourse to concentration camp-style cattle farms?
00:36:25 Faster and faster.
00:36:27 Like the life cycle of livestock which may never see a meadow,
00:36:31 manufacturing meat faster than the animal has become a daily routine.
00:36:36 [music]
00:36:46 In these vast food lots trampled by millions of cattle,
00:36:50 not a blade of grass grows.
00:36:53 A fleet of trucks from every corner of the country
00:36:56 brings in tons of grain, soy meal, and protein-rich granules
00:37:00 that will become tons of meat.
00:37:04 The result is that it takes 100 liters of water
00:37:07 to produce one kilogram of potatoes,
00:37:10 4,000 for one kilo of rice,
00:37:13 and 13,000 for one kilo of beef.
00:37:18 Not to mention the oil guzzled in the production process and transport.
00:37:23 [music]
00:37:32 Our agriculture has become oil-powered.
00:37:35 It feeds twice as many humans on Earth,
00:37:38 but has replaced diversity with standardization.
00:37:43 It has offered many of us comforts we could only dream of,
00:37:47 and makes our way of life totally dependent on oil.
00:37:53 This is the new measure of time.
00:37:57 Our world's clock now beats to the rhythm
00:38:00 of these indefatigable machines tapping into the pocket of sunlight.
00:38:05 Their regularity reassures us.
00:38:08 The tiniest hiccup throws us into disarray.
00:38:12 The whole planet is attentive to these metronomes
00:38:16 of hopes and illusions.
00:38:19 The same hopes and illusions that proliferate along with our needs,
00:38:23 increasingly insatiable desires and profligacy.
00:38:27 We know that the end of cheap oil is imminent,
00:38:30 but we refuse to believe it.
00:38:33 [music]
00:38:37 For many of us,
00:38:39 the American dream is embodied by a legendary name--
00:38:43 Los Angeles.
00:38:46 In this city that stretches over 100 kilometers,
00:38:49 the number of cars is almost equal to the number of inhabitants.
00:38:54 [music]
00:39:06 Here, energy puts on a fantastic show every night.
00:39:10 [music]
00:39:20 [music]
00:39:30 [music]
00:39:43 The days seem to be no more than the pale reflection of nights
00:39:47 that turn the city into a starry sky.
00:39:50 [music]
00:39:54 Faster and faster,
00:39:56 distances are no longer counted in miles,
00:39:59 but in minutes.
00:40:01 The automobile shapes new suburbs where every home is a castle,
00:40:05 a safe distance from the asphyxiated city centers,
00:40:08 and where neat rows of houses huddle around dead-end streets.
00:40:13 The model of a lucky few countries has become a universal dream
00:40:17 preached by televisions all over the world.
00:40:21 [music]
00:40:25 Even here in Beijing,
00:40:27 the automobile is cloned, copied,
00:40:30 and reproduced in these formatted houses
00:40:33 that have wiped pagodas off the map.
00:40:36 [music]
00:40:49 The automobile has become the symbol of comfort and progress.
00:40:55 Followed by every society,
00:40:57 the planet wouldn't have 900 million vehicles as it does today,
00:41:02 but 5 billion.
00:41:04 [music]
00:41:12 Faster and faster,
00:41:14 the more the world develops, the greater its thirst for energy.
00:41:18 Everywhere, machines dig, bore, and rip from the Earth.
00:41:22 The pieces of stars buried in its depths since its creation.
00:41:26 Minerals.
00:41:28 [music]
00:41:52 In the next 20 years, more ore will be extracted from the Earth
00:41:56 than in the whole of humanity's history.
00:42:01 As a privilege of power,
00:42:03 80% of this mineral wealth is consumed by 20% of the world's population.
00:42:10 [music]
00:42:28 Before the end of this century,
00:42:30 excessive mining will have exhausted nearly all the planet's reserves.
00:42:35 [music]
00:42:45 Faster and faster,
00:42:47 shipyards churn out oil tankers,
00:42:49 container ships and gas tankers
00:42:52 to cater for the demands of globalized industrial production.
00:42:56 [music]
00:43:00 Most consumer goods travel thousands of kilometers
00:43:03 from the country of production to the country of consumption.
00:43:08 Since 1950, the volume of international trade
00:43:11 has increased 20 times over.
00:43:14 [music]
00:43:25 90% of trade goes by sea.
00:43:28 500 million containers are transported every year,
00:43:34 headed for the world's major hubs of consumption,
00:43:37 such as Dubai.
00:43:40 Dubai is one of the biggest construction sites in the world,
00:43:45 a country where the impossible becomes possible,
00:43:48 building artificial islands in the sea, for example.
00:43:52 [music]
00:44:21 Dubai has few natural resources,
00:44:24 but with the money from oil,
00:44:25 it can bring millions of tons of material and people from all over the world.
00:44:30 It can build forests of skyscrapers,
00:44:33 each one taller than the last,
00:44:35 or even a ski slope in the middle of the desert.
00:44:38 Dubai has no farmland, but it can import food.
00:44:42 Dubai has no water,
00:44:44 but it can afford to expend immense amounts of energy
00:44:48 to desalinate seawater and build the highest skyscrapers in the world.
00:44:53 Dubai has endless sun, but no solar panels.
00:44:57 It is the city of more is more,
00:45:00 where the wildest dreams become reality.
00:45:03 Dubai is a sort of culmination of the Western model,
00:45:06 with its 800-meter-high totem to total modernity
00:45:10 that never fails to amaze the world.
00:45:13 Excessive? Perhaps.
00:45:16 Dubai appears to have made its choice.
00:45:19 It is like the new beacon for all the world's money.
00:45:23 [music]
00:45:35 Nothing seems further removed from nature than Dubai,
00:45:38 although nothing depends on nature more than Dubai.
00:45:44 The city merely follows the model of wealthy nations.
00:45:47 We haven't understood that we're depleting what nature provides.
00:45:52 [music]
00:46:21 [music]
00:46:36 What do we know of the marine world of which we see only the surface
00:46:40 and which covers three-quarters of the planet?
00:46:44 The ocean depths remain a secret.
00:46:47 They contain thousands of species whose existence remains a mystery to us.
00:46:53 [music]
00:47:07 Since 1950, fishing catches have increased five-fold,
00:47:12 from 18 to 100 million metric tons a year.
00:47:17 Thousands of factory ships are emptying the oceans.
00:47:21 [music]
00:47:29 Three-quarters of fishing grounds are exhausted,
00:47:32 depleted, or in danger of being so.
00:47:36 [music]
00:48:05 [music]
00:48:15 Most large fish have been fished out of existence
00:48:18 since they have no time to reproduce.
00:48:21 We are destroying the cycle of a life that was given to us.
00:48:26 [music]
00:48:37 On the coastlines, signs of the exhaustion of stocks abound.
00:48:42 First sight, colonies of sea mammals are getting smaller.
00:48:46 Made vulnerable by urbanization of the coasts and pollution,
00:48:50 they now face a new threat, famine.
00:48:53 In their unequal battle against industrial fishing fleets,
00:48:57 they can't find enough fish to feed their young.
00:49:00 [music]
00:49:09 Second sign,
00:49:11 seabirds must fly ever greater distances to find food.
00:49:16 At the current rate, all fish stocks are threatened with exhaustion.
00:49:21 [music]
00:49:33 In Dakar, traditional net fishing boomed in the years of plenty,
00:49:37 but today, fish stocks are dwindling.
00:49:41 [music]
00:50:00 Fish is the staple diet of one in five humans.
00:50:04 [music]
00:50:31 We envision the inconceivable.
00:50:34 Abandoned boats, seas devoid of fish.
00:50:39 [music]
00:51:04 We have forgotten that resources are scarce.
00:51:08 500 million humans live in the world's desert lands,
00:51:12 more than the combined population of Europe.
00:51:15 They know the value of water.
00:51:17 They know how to use it sparingly.
00:51:20 Here, they depend on wells replenished by fossil water,
00:51:24 which accumulated underground in the days when it rained on these deserts,
00:51:28 25,000 years ago.
00:51:31 [music]
00:51:38 Fossil water also enables crops to be grown in the desert
00:51:41 to provide food for local populations.
00:51:44 The field's circular shape derives from the pipes that irrigate them
00:51:49 around a central pivot.
00:51:51 [music]
00:52:06 But there is a heavy price to pay.
00:52:09 Fossil water is a non-renewable resource.
00:52:12 [music]
00:52:20 In Saudi Arabia, the dream of industrial farming in the desert has faded.
00:52:25 As if on a parchment map,
00:52:27 the light spots on this patchwork show abandoned plots.
00:52:32 The irrigation equipment is still there,
00:52:34 the energy to pump water also.
00:52:37 But the fossil water reserves are severely depleted.
00:52:41 [music]
00:52:54 Israel turned the desert into arable land.
00:52:57 Even though these hothouses are now irrigated drop by drop,
00:53:01 water consumption continues to increase along with exports.
00:53:05 [music]
00:53:13 The once mighty River Jordan is now just a trickle.
00:53:17 Its water has flown to supermarkets all over the world
00:53:20 in crates of fruit and vegetables.
00:53:23 [music]
00:53:43 [music]
00:53:57 The Jordan's fate is not unique.
00:54:00 Across the planet, one major river in ten
00:54:03 no longer flows into the sea for several months of the year.
00:54:07 [music]
00:54:19 The Dead Sea derives its name from its incredibly high salinity
00:54:22 that makes all life impossible.
00:54:25 Deprived of the Jordan's water,
00:54:27 its level goes down by over one meter per year.
00:54:31 Its salinity is increasing.
00:54:33 Evaporation due to the heat produces these fine islands of salt evaporates,
00:54:39 beautiful but sterile.
00:54:42 [music]
00:55:05 In Rajasthan, India, Udaipur is a miracle of water.
00:55:09 The city was made possible by a system of dams and channels
00:55:13 that created an artificial lake.
00:55:17 For its architects, was water so precious
00:55:20 that they dedicated a palace to it?
00:55:24 [music]
00:55:48 India risks being the country that suffers most
00:55:51 from the lack of water in the coming century.
00:55:54 Massive irrigation has fed the growing population,
00:55:58 and in the last 50 years, 21 million wells have been dug.
00:56:04 The victory over famine has a downside, however.
00:56:07 In many parts of the country,
00:56:09 the drill has to sink ever deeper to hit water.
00:56:13 In western India, 30% of wells have been abandoned.
00:56:18 [music]
00:56:24 The underground aquifers are drying out.
00:56:27 [music]
00:56:47 Vast reservoirs will catch the monsoon rains to replenish the aquifers.
00:56:52 [music]
00:56:57 In dry season, women from local villages dig them with their bare hands.
00:57:02 [music]
00:57:26 Thousands of kilometers away,
00:57:28 800 to 1,000 liters of water are consumed per person, per day.
00:57:34 Las Vegas was built out of the desert.
00:57:37 Millions of people live there.
00:57:40 Thousands more arrive every month.
00:57:43 The inhabitants of Las Vegas
00:57:45 are among the biggest consumers of water in the world.
00:57:48 [music]
00:57:54 Palm Springs is another desert city with tropical vegetation
00:57:58 and lush golf courses.
00:58:00 [music]
00:58:18 How long can this mirage continue to prosper?
00:58:21 [music]
00:58:28 The earth cannot keep up.
00:58:31 The Colorado River, which brings water to these cities,
00:58:34 is one of those rivers that no longer reaches the sea.
00:58:38 Even more alarmingly, its flow is diminishing at source.
00:58:43 Water levels in the catchment lakes along its course are plummeting.
00:58:50 Lake Powell took 17 years to reach high water mark.
00:58:55 Its level is now half of that.
00:58:59 Water shortages could affect nearly 2 billion people before 2025.
00:59:06 Yet water is still abundant in unspoiled regions of the planet.
00:59:13 The wetlands.
00:59:26 These wetlands are crucial to all life on earth.
00:59:30 They represent 6% of the planet.
00:59:36 Marshes are sponges that regulate the flow of water.
00:59:42 They absorb it in the wet season and release it in the dry season.
00:59:47 [music]
01:00:02 The water runs off the mountain peaks,
01:00:04 carrying with it the seeds of the regions it flows through.
01:00:08 This process gives birth to unique landscapes
01:00:12 where the diversity of species is unequaled in its richness.
01:00:21 Under the calm water lies a veritable factory
01:00:24 where this ultimately linked richness and diversity
01:00:27 patiently filters the water and digests all the pollution.
01:00:32 Marshes are indispensable environments
01:00:34 for the regeneration and purification of water.
01:00:39 [music]
01:00:51 These wetlands were always seen as unhealthy expanses,
01:00:55 unfit for human habitation.
01:00:58 In our race to conquer more land,
01:01:00 we have reclaimed them as pasture for our livestock
01:01:04 or as land for agriculture or building.
01:01:08 [music]
01:01:28 In the last century, half of the world's marshes were drained.
01:01:33 We know neither their richness nor their role.
01:01:38 [music]
01:01:43 All living matter is linked.
01:01:48 Water, air, soil, trees.
01:01:52 The world's magic is right in front of our eyes.
01:01:59 [music]
01:02:08 [music]
01:02:30 Trees breathe groundwater into the atmosphere as light mist.
01:02:35 They form a canopy that alleviates the impact of heavy rains
01:02:39 and protects the soil from erosion.
01:02:45 The forests provide the humidity that is necessary for life.
01:02:49 They are the mother and father of rain.
01:02:57 The forests store carbon.
01:03:00 They contain more than all the Earth's atmosphere.
01:03:04 They are the cornerstone of the climactic balance
01:03:07 on which we all depend.
01:03:11 [music]
01:03:18 Trees provide a habitat for three-quarters of the planet's biodiversity.
01:03:24 That is to say, of all life on Earth.
01:03:28 Every year, we discover new species we had no idea existed.
01:03:33 Insects, birds, mammals.
01:03:37 [music]
01:03:46 [music]
01:03:56 [music]
01:04:09 These forests provide the remedies that cure us.
01:04:13 The substances secreted by these plants can be recognized by our bodies.
01:04:18 Our cells talk the same language.
01:04:21 We are part of the same family.
01:04:26 [music]
01:04:48 Tidal waves are forests that step out onto the sea.
01:04:52 Like coral reefs, they are a nursery for the oceans.
01:04:56 Their roots entwine and form a shelter for the fish and mollusks that come to breed.
01:05:02 Mangroves protect the coast from hurricanes, tidal waves, and erosion by the sea.
01:05:08 Whole peoples depend on them.
01:05:11 They were reduced by half during the 20th century.
01:05:18 One of the reasons for the ongoing disaster
01:05:22 is these shrimp farms installed on the mangroves' rich waters.
01:05:26 Ventilators aerate pools full of antibiotics
01:05:30 to prevent the asphyxiation of the shrimps,
01:05:33 not that of the mangroves.
01:05:37 [music]
01:05:40 Since the 1960s, deforestation has constantly gathered pace.
01:05:46 Every year, 13 million hectares of tropical forest,
01:05:50 an area the size of Illinois,
01:05:53 disappear in smoke and as lumber.
01:05:57 [music]
01:06:04 The world's largest rainforest, the Amazon,
01:06:07 has already been reduced by 20%.
01:06:11 The forest gives way to cattle ranches or soybean farms.
01:06:15 95% of these soybeans are used to feed livestock and poultry in Europe and Asia.
01:06:22 [music]
01:06:32 So a forest is turned into meat.
01:06:37 [music]
01:06:44 When they burn, forests and their soils release huge quantities of carbon,
01:06:49 accounting for 20% of the greenhouse gases emitted across the globe.
01:06:55 Deforestation is one of the principal causes of global warming.
01:07:02 [music]
01:07:10 Thousands of species disappear forever.
01:07:14 With them, one of the links in a long chain of evolution snaps.
01:07:19 The intelligence of the living matter from which they came is lost forever.
01:07:25 [music]
01:07:40 Barely 20 years ago, Borneo, the fourth largest island in the world,
01:07:45 was covered by a vast primary forest.
01:07:48 At the current rate of deforestation, it will have totally disappeared within 10 years.
01:07:55 Living matter bonds water, air, earth, and the sun.
01:08:00 In Borneo, this bond has been broken
01:08:03 in what was one of the earth's greatest reservoirs of biodiversity.
01:08:08 [music]
01:08:23 This catastrophe was provoked by the decision to produce palm oil,
01:08:27 the most consumed oil in the world, on Borneo.
01:08:31 Palm oil not only caters to our growing demand for food,
01:08:35 but also cosmetics, detergents, and increasingly, alternative fuels.
01:08:41 [music]
01:08:45 The forest diversity was replaced by a single species, the oil palm.
01:08:50 Monoculture is easy, productive, and rapid.
01:08:54 For local people, it provides employment.
01:08:57 It is an agricultural industry.
01:09:00 [music]
01:09:09 Another example of massive deforestation is the eucalyptus.
01:09:13 Eucalyptus is used to make paper pulp.
01:09:16 Plantations are growing as demand for paper has increased five-fold in 50 years.
01:09:22 [music]
01:09:28 The monocultures of trees are gaining ground all over the world.
01:09:32 But a monoculture is not a forest.
01:09:36 By definition, there is little diversity.
01:09:40 One forest does not replace another forest.
01:09:44 At the foot of these eucalyptus trees,
01:09:47 nothing grows because their leaves form a bed that is toxic for most other plants.
01:09:53 They grow quickly, but exhaust water reserves.
01:09:58 [music]
01:10:05 [music]
01:10:13 Soybeans, palm oil, eucalyptus trees.
01:10:18 Deforestation destroys the essential to produce the superfluous.
01:10:23 But elsewhere, deforestation is a last resort to survive.
01:10:28 [music]
01:10:32 Over two billion people, almost a third of the world's population,
01:10:38 still depend on charcoal.
01:10:41 [music]
01:10:51 In Haiti, one of the world's poorest countries,
01:10:55 charcoal is one of the population's main consumables.
01:10:59 Once the pearl of the Caribbean,
01:11:02 Haiti can no longer feed its population without foreign aid.
01:11:06 [music]
01:11:20 On the hills of Haiti, only two percent of the forests are left.
01:11:25 Stripped bare, the soil no longer absorbs the rainwater.
01:11:29 With no vegetation and no roots to reinforce them,
01:11:33 nothing holds the soils back.
01:11:35 The rainwater washes them down the hillsides as far as the sea.
01:11:40 Erosion impoverishes the quality of the soils,
01:11:43 reducing their suitability for agriculture.
01:11:46 [music]
01:11:49 In some parts of Madagascar, the erosion is spectacular.
01:11:53 Whole hillsides bear deep gashes hundreds of meters wide.
01:11:58 [music]
01:12:07 Thin and fragile, soil is made by living matter.
01:12:11 With erosion, the fine layer of humus,
01:12:14 which took thousands of years to form, disappears.
01:12:18 [music]
01:12:47 [music]
01:12:53 [music]
01:13:03 Here's one theory of the story of the Rapa Nui,
01:13:07 the inhabitants of Easter Island,
01:13:09 that could perhaps give us pause for thought.
01:13:13 Living on the most isolated island in the world,
01:13:16 the Rapa Nui exploited their resources until there was nothing left.
01:13:21 Their civilization did not survive.
01:13:25 On these lands stood the highest palm trees in the world.
01:13:29 They have disappeared.
01:13:31 The Rapa Nui chopped them all down for lumber.
01:13:34 They then had to face widespread soil erosion.
01:13:38 The Rapa Nui could no longer go fishing.
01:13:41 There were no trees to build canoes.
01:13:44 And yet the Rapa Nui formed one of the most brilliant civilizations in the Pacific.
01:13:49 Innovative farmers, sculptors, exceptional navigators.
01:13:53 They were caught in the vice of overpopulation and dwindling resources.
01:13:58 [music]
01:14:00 They experienced social unrest, revolts, and famine.
01:14:05 Many did not survive the cataclysm.
01:14:08 [music]
01:14:15 [music]
01:14:19 [music]
01:14:25 [music]
01:14:31 [music]
01:14:37 [music]
01:14:43 [music]
01:14:49 [music]
01:14:55 [music]
01:14:57 The real mystery of Easter Island is not how its strange statues got there.
01:15:02 We know now.
01:15:04 It's why the Rapa Nui didn't react in time.
01:15:07 [music]
01:15:14 It's only one of a number of theories, but it has particular relevance to us today.
01:15:21 Since 1950, the world's population has almost tripled.
01:15:26 And since 1950, we have more fundamentally altered our island, the Earth,
01:15:32 than in all of our 200,000-year history.
01:15:37 [music]
01:15:40 Nigeria is the biggest oil exporter in Africa,
01:15:44 and yet 70% of the population lives under the poverty line.
01:15:49 The wealth is there, but the country's inhabitants don't have access to it.
01:15:55 The same is true all over the globe.
01:15:57 Half the world's poor live in resource-rich countries.
01:16:02 [music]
01:16:18 Our mode of development has not fulfilled its promises.
01:16:22 In 50 years, the gap between rich and poor has grown wider than ever.
01:16:28 Today, half the world's wealth is in the hands of the richest 2% of the population.
01:16:36 [music]
01:16:40 Can such disparities be maintained?
01:16:43 They're the cause of population movements whose scale we have yet to fully realize.
01:16:49 The city of Lagos had a population of 700,000 in 1960.
01:16:55 That will rise to 16 million by 2025.
01:16:59 [music]
01:17:04 Lagos is one of the fastest-growing megalopolises in the world.
01:17:08 The new arrivals are mostly farmers forced off the land
01:17:12 for economic or demographic reasons, or because of diminishing resources.
01:17:17 [music]
01:17:24 This is a radically new type of urban growth,
01:17:27 driven by the urge to survive rather than to prosper.
01:17:35 Every week, over a million people swell the populations of the world's cities.
01:17:41 [music]
01:17:57 One human being in six now lives in a precarious, unhealthy, overpopulated environment,
01:18:03 without access to daily necessities such as water, sanitation, electricity.
01:18:09 [music]
01:18:38 Hunger is spreading once more. It affects nearly one billion people.
01:18:43 [music]
01:19:12 [music]
01:19:30 All over the planet, the poorest scrabble to survive on scraps,
01:19:34 while we continue to dig for resources that we can no longer live without.
01:19:40 We look farther and farther afield, in previously unspoiled territory,
01:19:45 and in regions that are increasingly difficult to exploit.
01:19:49 [music]
01:19:58 We're not changing our model. Oil might run out.
01:20:04 We can still extract oil from the tar sands of Canada.
01:20:09 The largest trucks in the world move thousands of tons of sand.
01:20:13 The process of heating and separating bitumen from the sand requires millions of cubic meters of water.
01:20:21 Colossal amounts of energy are needed. The pollution is catastrophic.
01:20:29 The most urgent priority, apparently, is to pick every pocket of sunlight.
01:20:39 [music]
01:21:08 Our oil tankers are getting bigger and bigger.
01:21:12 Our energy requirements are constantly increasing.
01:21:15 We try to power growth like a bottomless oven that demands more and more fuel.
01:21:22 [music]
01:21:39 It's all about carbon. In a few decades, the carbon that made our atmosphere a furnace,
01:21:45 and that nature captured over millions of years, allowing life to develop,
01:21:50 will have largely been pumped back out. The atmosphere is heating up.
01:21:57 It would have been inconceivable for a boat to be here just a few years ago.
01:22:05 Transport, industry, deforestation, agriculture.
01:22:10 Our activities release gigantic quantities of carbon dioxide.
01:22:15 Without realizing it, molecule by molecule, we have upset the Earth's climatic balance.
01:22:22 [music]
01:22:27 All eyes are on the poles, where the effects of global warming are most visible.
01:22:35 It's happening fast, very fast.
01:22:39 The Northwest Passage that connects America, Europe and Asia via the pole is opening up.
01:22:45 The Arctic ice cap is melting.
01:22:53 Under the effect of global warming, the ice cap has lost 40% of its thickness in 40 years.
01:23:01 Its surface area in the summer shrinks year by year.
01:23:05 It could disappear before 2030. Some predictions suggest 2015.
01:23:12 Soon these waters will be free of ice several summer months a year.
01:23:21 [music]
01:23:32 The sunbeams at the ice sheet previously reflected back now penetrate the dark water, heating it up.
01:23:39 The warming process gathers pace.
01:23:43 [music]
01:23:51 This ice contains the records of our planet.
01:23:55 The concentration of carbon dioxide hasn't been so high for several hundred thousand years.
01:24:02 Humanity has never lived in an atmosphere like this.
01:24:07 [music]
01:24:18 Is excessive exploitation of our resources threatening the lives of every species?
01:24:24 Climate change accentuates the threat.
01:24:27 By 2050, a quarter of the Earth's species could be threatened with extinction.
01:24:35 In these polar regions, the balance of nature has already been disrupted.
01:24:40 [music]
01:25:09 [music]
01:25:19 [music]
01:25:29 [music]
01:25:39 [music]
01:25:49 [music]
01:25:59 [music]
01:26:09 [music]
01:26:19 [music]
01:26:26 Off the coast of Greenland, there are more and more icebergs.
01:26:30 [music]
01:26:56 Around the North Pole, the ice cap has lost 30% of its surface area in 30 years.
01:27:03 [music]
01:27:06 But as Greenland rapidly becomes warmer, the fresh water of a whole continent flows into the salt water of the oceans.
01:27:15 Greenland's ice contains 20% of the fresh water of the whole planet.
01:27:20 If it melts, sea levels will rise by nearly 7 meters.
01:27:26 [music]
01:27:55 [music]
01:27:58 But there is no industry here.
01:28:02 Greenland's ice sheet suffers from greenhouse gases emitted elsewhere on Earth.
01:28:08 Our ecosystem doesn't have borders.
01:28:11 Wherever we are, our actions have repercussions on the whole Earth.
01:28:16 The atmosphere of our planet is an indivisible whole.
01:28:20 It is an asset we share.
01:28:23 On Greenland's surface, lakes are appearing on the landscape.
01:28:27 The ice cap has begun to melt at a speed that even the most pessimistic scientists did not envision 10 years ago.
01:28:35 [music]
01:28:44 More and more of these glacier-fed rivers are merging together and borrowing through the surface.
01:28:51 It was thought the water would freeze in the depths of the ice.
01:28:55 On the contrary, it flows under the ice, carrying the ice sheet into the sea, where it breaks into icebergs.
01:29:03 [music]
01:29:32 [music]
01:29:45 As the fresh water of Greenland's ice sheet gradually seeps into the salt water of the oceans,
01:29:50 low-lying lands around the globe are threatened.
01:29:54 [music]
01:30:04 Sea levels are rising.
01:30:06 Water expanding as it gets warmer caused, in the 20th century alone, a rise of 20 centimeters.
01:30:14 Everything becomes unstable.
01:30:17 Coral reefs, for example, are extremely sensitive to the slightest change in water temperature.
01:30:23 30% have disappeared.
01:30:25 They are an essential link in the chain of species.
01:30:29 [music]
01:30:44 In the atmosphere, the major wind streams are changing direction.
01:30:49 Rain cycles are altered.
01:30:51 The geography of climates is modified.
01:30:55 The inhabitants of low-lying islands, here in the Maldives, for example, are on the front line.
01:31:00 They are increasingly concerned.
01:31:02 Some are already looking for new, more hospitable lands.
01:31:06 [music]
01:31:13 If sea levels continue to rise faster and faster,
01:31:16 what will major cities like Tokyo, the world's most populous city, do?
01:31:21 Every year, scientists' predictions become more and more alarming.
01:31:26 70% of the world's population lives on coastal plains.
01:31:31 11 of the 15 biggest cities stand on a coastline or river estuary.
01:31:37 As the seas rise, salt will invade the water table, depriving inhabitants of drinking water.
01:31:43 [music]
01:31:58 Migratory phenomena are inevitable.
01:32:01 The only uncertainty concerns their scale.
01:32:04 [music]
01:32:33 In Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro is unrecognizable.
01:32:37 80% of its glaciers have disappeared.
01:32:40 In summer, the rivers no longer flow.
01:32:43 Local peoples are affected by the lack of water.
01:32:48 Even on the world's highest peaks, in the heart of the Himalayas,
01:32:52 eternal snows and glaciers are receding.
01:32:55 [music]
01:32:59 Yet these glaciers play an essential role in the water cycle.
01:33:02 They trap the water from the monsoons as ice
01:33:06 and release it in the summer when the snow melts.
01:33:09 [music]
01:33:20 The glaciers of the Himalayas are the source of all the great Asian rivers,
01:33:25 the Indus, Ganges, Mekong, Yangtze Kang.
01:33:29 Two billion people depend on them for drinking water
01:33:33 and to irrigate their crops, as in Bangladesh.
01:33:37 [music]
01:33:42 On the delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra,
01:33:45 Bangladesh is directly affected by the phenomena
01:33:48 occurring in the Himalayas and at sea level.
01:33:52 This is one of the most populous and poorest countries in the world.
01:33:56 It is already hit by global warming.
01:33:58 The combined impact of increasingly dramatic floods and hurricanes
01:34:02 could make a third of its land mass disappear.
01:34:06 When populations are subjected to these devastating phenomena,
01:34:09 they eventually move away.
01:34:12 [music]
01:34:18 Wealthy countries will not be spared.
01:34:21 Droughts are occurring all over the planet.
01:34:24 In Australia, half of farmland is already affected.
01:34:28 [music]
01:34:35 [music]
01:34:40 [music]
01:34:45 [music]
01:34:50 [music]
01:34:55 [music]
01:35:00 [music]
01:35:05 [music]
01:35:10 [music]
01:35:13 We are in the process of compromising the climactic balance
01:35:17 that has allowed us to develop over 12,000 years.
01:35:22 [music]
01:35:31 More and more wildfires encroach on major cities.
01:35:36 In turn, they exacerbate global warming.
01:35:39 As the trees burn, they release carbon dioxide.
01:35:43 The system that controls our climate has been severely disrupted.
01:35:48 The elements on which it relies have been disrupted.
01:35:53 [music]
01:35:58 [music]
01:36:03 [music]
01:36:08 [music]
01:36:13 [music]
01:36:18 [music]
01:36:23 [music]
01:36:28 [music]
01:36:33 [music]
01:36:38 [music]
01:36:43 [music]
01:36:48 The clock of climate change is ticking in these magnificent landscapes.
01:36:54 Here in Siberia, and elsewhere across the globe,
01:36:58 it is so cold that the ground is constantly frozen.
01:37:02 It's known as permafrost.
01:37:06 [music]
01:37:11 [music]
01:37:16 [music]
01:37:19 Under its surface lies a climactic time bomb, methane,
01:37:24 a greenhouse gas 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.
01:37:29 If the permafrost melts, the methane released would cause the greenhouse effect
01:37:34 to race out of control with consequences no one can predict.
01:37:39 We would literally be in unknown territory.
01:37:43 [music]
01:37:48 [music]
01:37:53 [music]
01:37:58 [music]
01:38:03 Humanity has no more than 10 years to reverse the trend
01:38:08 and avoid crossing into this territory, life on Earth as we have never known it.
01:38:14 [music]
01:38:19 [music]
01:38:24 [music]
01:38:29 [music]
01:38:34 [music]
01:38:39 [music]
01:38:44 [music]
01:38:49 We have created phenomena we cannot control.
01:38:54 Since our origins, water, air, and forms of life are intimately linked.
01:38:59 We have broken those links. Let's face the facts.
01:39:04 We must believe what we know.
01:39:08 All that we have just seen is a reflection of human behavior.
01:39:13 We have shaped the Earth in our image.
01:39:17 We have very little time to change.
01:39:21 How can this century carry the burden of 9 billion human beings
01:39:26 who refuse to be called to account for everything we alone have done?
01:39:31 [music]
01:39:36 [music]
01:39:41 [music]
01:39:46 [music]
01:39:51 [music]
01:39:56 [music]
01:40:01 [music]
01:40:06 [music]
01:40:11 [music]
01:40:16 [music]
01:40:21 [music]
01:40:26 [music]
01:40:31 [music]
01:40:36 [music]
01:40:41 [music]
01:40:46 [music]
01:40:51 [music]
01:40:56 [music]
01:41:01 [music]
01:41:06 [music]
01:41:11 [music]
01:41:16 [music]
01:41:21 [music]
01:41:26 [music]
01:41:31 [music]
01:41:36 [music]
01:41:41 [music]
01:41:46 [music]
01:41:51 [music]
01:41:56 [music]
01:42:01 [music]
01:42:06 [music]
01:42:11 [music]
01:42:16 [music]
01:42:21 [music]
01:42:26 [music]
01:42:31 [music]
01:42:36 [music]
01:42:41 [music]
01:42:46 [music]
01:42:51 [music]
01:42:56 [music]
01:43:01 [music]
01:43:06 [music]
01:43:11 [music]
01:43:16 [music]
01:43:21 [music]
01:43:26 [music]
01:43:31 [music]
01:43:36 [music]
01:43:41 [music]
01:43:46 [music]
01:43:51 [music]
01:43:56 [music]
01:44:01 [music]
01:44:06 [music]
01:44:11 [music]
01:44:16 [music]
01:44:21 [music]
01:44:26 [music]
01:44:31 [music]
01:44:36 [music]
01:44:41 [music]
01:44:46 [music]
01:44:51 [music]
01:44:56 [music]
01:45:01 [music]
01:45:06 [music]
01:45:11 [music]
01:45:16 [music]
01:45:21 [music]
01:45:26 [music]
01:45:31 [music]
01:45:36 [music]
01:45:41 [music]
01:45:46 [music]
01:45:51 [music]
01:45:56 [music]
01:46:01 [music]
01:46:06 [music]
01:46:11 [music]
01:46:16 [music]
01:46:21 [music]
01:46:26 [music]
01:46:31 [music]
01:46:36 [music]
01:46:41 [music]
01:46:46 [music]
01:46:51 [music]
01:46:56 [music]
01:47:01 [music]
01:47:06 [music]
01:47:11 [music]
01:47:16 [music]
01:47:21 [music]
01:47:26 [music]
01:47:31 [music]
01:47:36 [music]
01:47:41 [music]
01:47:46 [music]
01:47:51 [music]
01:47:56 [music]
01:48:01 [music]
01:48:06 [music]
01:48:11 [music]
01:48:16 [music]
01:48:21 [music]
01:48:26 [music]
01:48:31 [music]
01:48:36 [music]
01:48:41 [music]
01:48:46 [music]
01:48:51 [music]
01:48:56 [music]
01:49:01 [music]
01:49:06 [music]
01:49:11 [music]
01:49:16 [music]
01:49:21 [music]
01:49:26 [music]
01:49:31 [music]
01:49:36 [music]
01:49:41 [music]
01:49:46 [music]
01:49:51 [music]
01:49:56 [music]
01:50:01 [music]
01:50:06 [music]
01:50:11 [music]
01:50:16 [music]
01:50:21 [music]
01:50:26 [music]
01:50:31 [music]
01:50:36 [music]
01:50:41 [music]
01:50:46 [music]
01:50:51 [music]
01:50:56 [music]
01:51:01 [music]
01:51:06 [music]
01:51:11 [music]
01:51:16 [music]
01:51:21 [music]
01:51:26 [music]
01:51:31 [music]
01:51:36 [music]
01:51:41 [music]
01:51:46 [music]
01:51:51 [music]
01:51:56 [music]
01:52:01 [music]
01:52:06 [music]
01:52:11 [music]
01:52:16 [music]
01:52:21 [music]
01:52:26 [music]
01:52:31 [music]
01:52:36 [music]
01:52:41 [music]
01:52:46 [music]
01:52:51 [music]
01:52:56 [music]
01:53:01 [music]
01:53:06 [music]
01:53:11 [music]
01:53:16 [music]
01:53:21 [music]
01:53:26 [music]
01:53:31 [music]
01:53:36 [music]
01:53:41 [music]
01:53:46 [music]
01:53:51 [music]
01:53:56 [music]
01:54:01 [music]
01:54:06 [music]
01:54:11 [music]
01:54:16 [music]
01:54:21 [music]
01:54:26 [music]
01:54:31 [music]
01:54:36 [music]
01:54:41 [music]
01:54:46 [music]
01:54:51 [music]
01:54:56 [music]
01:55:01 [music]
01:55:06 [music]
01:55:11 [music]
01:55:16 [music]
01:55:21 [music]
01:55:26 [music]
01:55:31 [music]
01:55:36 [music]
01:55:41 [music]
01:55:46 [music]
01:55:51 [music]
01:55:56 [music]
01:56:01 [music]
01:56:06 [music]
01:56:11 [music]
01:56:16 [music]
01:56:21 [music]
01:56:26 [music]
01:56:31 [music]
01:56:36 [music]
01:56:41 [music]
01:56:46 [music]
01:56:51 [music]
01:56:56 [music]
01:57:01 [music]
01:57:06 [music]
01:57:11 [music]
01:57:16 [music]