1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:01:18,904 --> 00:01:24,743 This city in Ukraine was once home to almost 50,000 people. 4 00:01:25,327 --> 00:01:29,456 It had everything a community would need for a comfortable life. 5 00:01:30,624 --> 00:01:33,043 [indistinct chatter] 6 00:01:33,126 --> 00:01:38,798 But on the 26th of April, 1986, it suddenly became uninhabitable. 7 00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:45,096 The nearby nuclear power station of Chernobyl exploded. 8 00:01:45,180 --> 00:01:48,058 [helicopter hovering] 9 00:01:49,059 --> 00:01:53,688 And in less than 48 hours, the city was evacuated. 10 00:01:57,192 --> 00:01:59,402 No one has lived here since. 11 00:02:10,247 --> 00:02:16,628 The explosion was a result of bad planning and human error. Mistakes. 12 00:02:17,796 --> 00:02:23,468 It triggered an environmental catastrophe that had an impact across Europe. 13 00:02:24,386 --> 00:02:29,891 Many people regarded it as the most costly in the history of mankind. 14 00:02:32,018 --> 00:02:35,355 But Chernobyl was a single event. 15 00:02:36,147 --> 00:02:40,527 The true tragedy of our time is still unfolding across the globe, 16 00:02:40,610 --> 00:02:42,904 barely noticeable from day to day. 17 00:02:43,738 --> 00:02:47,576 I'm talking about the loss of our planet's wild places, 18 00:02:47,659 --> 00:02:49,577 its biodiversity. 19 00:02:56,835 --> 00:03:00,755 The living world is a unique and spectacular marvel. 20 00:03:02,299 --> 00:03:06,928 Billions of individuals, and millions of kinds of plants and animals... 21 00:03:07,012 --> 00:03:07,887 [birds chirping] 22 00:03:07,971 --> 00:03:10,890 ...dazzling in their variety and richness. 23 00:03:13,018 --> 00:03:16,938 Working together to benefit from the energy of the sun 24 00:03:17,439 --> 00:03:19,566 and the minerals of the earth. 25 00:03:21,693 --> 00:03:27,115 Leading lives that interlock in such a way that they sustain each other. 26 00:03:29,200 --> 00:03:34,581 We rely entirely on this finely tuned life-support machine. 27 00:03:36,041 --> 00:03:40,879 And it relies on its biodiversity to run smoothly. 28 00:03:46,134 --> 00:03:52,807 Yet the way we humans live on Earth now is sending biodiversity into a decline. 29 00:03:52,891 --> 00:03:55,310 [leaves rustling] 30 00:03:58,355 --> 00:04:02,817 This too is happening as a result of bad planning and human error 31 00:04:03,693 --> 00:04:07,572 and it too will lead to what we see here. 32 00:04:10,825 --> 00:04:14,287 A place in which we cannot live. 33 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:20,752 The natural world is fading. 34 00:04:20,835 --> 00:04:24,672 The evidence is all around. It's happened in my lifetime. 35 00:04:24,756 --> 00:04:26,966 I've seen it with my own eyes. 36 00:04:27,634 --> 00:04:32,305 This film is my witness statement and my vision for the future, 37 00:04:32,972 --> 00:04:36,685 the story of how we came to make this our greatest mistake, 38 00:04:36,768 --> 00:04:41,189 and how, if we act now, we can yet put it right. 39 00:04:58,832 --> 00:05:03,461 I am David Attenborough, and I am 93. 40 00:05:04,379 --> 00:05:06,965 I've had the most extraordinary life. 41 00:05:07,757 --> 00:05:11,511 It's only now that I appreciate how extraordinary. 42 00:05:12,470 --> 00:05:14,764 [speaking indistinctly] 43 00:05:17,559 --> 00:05:19,519 [Attenborough] I've been lucky enough to spend my life 44 00:05:19,602 --> 00:05:22,021 exploring the wild places of our planet. 45 00:05:25,150 --> 00:05:27,652 I've traveled to every part of the globe. 46 00:05:34,492 --> 00:05:40,331 I've experienced the living world firsthand in all its variety and wonder. 47 00:05:43,251 --> 00:05:47,547 In truth, I couldn't imagine living my life in any other way. 48 00:05:51,009 --> 00:05:56,055 I've always had a passion to explore, to have adventures, 49 00:05:56,556 --> 00:05:59,184 to learn about the wilds beyond. 50 00:05:59,267 --> 00:06:00,810 [exclaiming in surprise] 51 00:06:00,894 --> 00:06:02,145 And I'm still learning. 52 00:06:03,104 --> 00:06:04,105 Boo! 53 00:06:04,189 --> 00:06:07,692 As much now as I did when I was a boy. 54 00:06:08,818 --> 00:06:10,528 [birds chirping] 55 00:06:25,293 --> 00:06:27,587 It was a very different world back then. 56 00:06:29,130 --> 00:06:33,760 We had very little understanding of how the living world actually worked. 57 00:06:36,554 --> 00:06:39,182 It was called natural history 58 00:06:39,265 --> 00:06:42,143 because that's essentially what it was all about... 59 00:06:43,603 --> 00:06:44,854 history. 60 00:06:48,691 --> 00:06:50,777 It was a great place to come to as a boy, 61 00:06:50,860 --> 00:06:56,157 because this is, um, ironstone workings, but it was disused. 62 00:06:56,241 --> 00:06:58,243 All this was absolutely clear, it was... 63 00:06:58,326 --> 00:07:00,411 only just stopped being a working quarry. 64 00:07:14,133 --> 00:07:17,845 When I was a boy, I spent all my spare time 65 00:07:17,929 --> 00:07:20,598 searching through rocks in places like this... 66 00:07:22,016 --> 00:07:23,434 for buried treasure. 67 00:07:26,688 --> 00:07:27,522 Fossils. 68 00:07:29,274 --> 00:07:31,526 It's a creature called an ammonite. 69 00:07:31,609 --> 00:07:34,904 And in life the animal itself lived in the chamber here 70 00:07:34,988 --> 00:07:38,074 and spread out its tentacles to catch its prey. 71 00:07:39,701 --> 00:07:43,162 And it lived about 180 million years ago. 72 00:07:44,289 --> 00:07:48,877 This particular one has a scientific name of Tiltonicerus, 73 00:07:48,960 --> 00:07:52,547 because the first one ever was found near this quarry 74 00:07:52,630 --> 00:07:55,425 here in Tilton, in the middle of England. 75 00:07:56,843 --> 00:08:02,307 Over time, I began to learn something about the earth's evolutionary history. 76 00:08:03,182 --> 00:08:07,312 By and large, it's a story of slow, steady change. 77 00:08:09,981 --> 00:08:15,194 Over billions of years, nature has crafted miraculous forms, 78 00:08:15,278 --> 00:08:19,407 each more complex and accomplished than the last. 79 00:08:21,659 --> 00:08:25,121 It's an achingly intricate labor. 80 00:08:29,250 --> 00:08:32,712 And then, every hundred million years or so, 81 00:08:32,795 --> 00:08:36,090 after all those painstaking processes, 82 00:08:36,174 --> 00:08:41,262 something catastrophic happens, a mass extinction. 83 00:08:42,347 --> 00:08:47,977 Great numbers of species disappear and are suddenly replaced by a few. 84 00:08:50,063 --> 00:08:52,357 All that evolution undone. 85 00:08:54,442 --> 00:08:57,987 You can see it. A line in the rock layers. 86 00:08:58,071 --> 00:09:02,825 A boundary that marks a profound, rapid, global change. 87 00:09:03,576 --> 00:09:07,288 Below the line are a multitude of lifeforms. 88 00:09:08,831 --> 00:09:10,833 Above, very few. 89 00:09:13,920 --> 00:09:19,634 A mass extinction has happened five times in life's four-billion-year history. 90 00:09:22,220 --> 00:09:23,680 The last time it happened 91 00:09:23,763 --> 00:09:28,142 was the event that brought the end of the age of the dinosaurs. 92 00:09:29,394 --> 00:09:33,022 A meteorite impact triggered a catastrophic change 93 00:09:33,106 --> 00:09:35,233 in the earth's conditions. 94 00:09:37,944 --> 00:09:42,323 75% of all species were wiped out. 95 00:09:45,326 --> 00:09:49,247 Life had no option but to rebuild. 96 00:09:51,040 --> 00:09:56,629 For 65 million years, it's been at work reconstructing the living world... 97 00:09:58,548 --> 00:10:03,970 until we come to the world we know... our time. 98 00:10:11,811 --> 00:10:15,189 Scientists call it the Holocene. 99 00:10:20,695 --> 00:10:24,032 The Holocene has been one of the most stable periods 100 00:10:24,115 --> 00:10:26,242 in our planet's great history. 101 00:10:26,325 --> 00:10:28,578 [birds chirping] 102 00:10:28,661 --> 00:10:34,042 For 10,000 years, the average temperature has not wavered up or down 103 00:10:34,125 --> 00:10:36,335 by more than one degree Celsius. 104 00:10:40,339 --> 00:10:43,801 And the rich and thriving living world around us 105 00:10:44,385 --> 00:10:46,929 has been key to this stability. 106 00:10:51,100 --> 00:10:57,523 Phytoplankton at the ocean's surface and immense forests straddling the north 107 00:10:57,607 --> 00:11:02,653 have helped to balance the atmosphere by locking away carbon. 108 00:11:05,573 --> 00:11:07,408 Huge herds on the plains 109 00:11:07,492 --> 00:11:12,663 have kept the grasslands rich and productive by fertilizing the soils. 110 00:11:18,586 --> 00:11:22,381 Mangroves and coral reefs along thousands of miles of coast 111 00:11:22,965 --> 00:11:25,468 have harbored nurseries of fish species 112 00:11:25,551 --> 00:11:30,181 that, when mature, then range into open waters. 113 00:11:36,813 --> 00:11:41,776 A thick belt of jungles around the equator has piled plant on plant 114 00:11:41,859 --> 00:11:45,071 to capture as much of the sun's energy as possible, 115 00:11:45,655 --> 00:11:49,408 adding moisture and oxygen to the global air currents. 116 00:11:53,746 --> 00:11:56,791 And the extent of the polar ice has been critical, 117 00:11:56,874 --> 00:12:00,044 reflecting sunlight back off its white surface, 118 00:12:00,753 --> 00:12:02,713 cooling the whole earth. 119 00:12:06,676 --> 00:12:11,430 The biodiversity of the Holocene helped to bring stability, 120 00:12:12,557 --> 00:12:19,021 and the entire living world settled into a gentle, reliable rhythm... 121 00:12:20,356 --> 00:12:21,858 the seasons. 122 00:12:21,941 --> 00:12:22,859 [thunder rumbling] 123 00:12:22,942 --> 00:12:24,485 [lowing] 124 00:12:29,615 --> 00:12:31,075 On the tropical plains, 125 00:12:31,158 --> 00:12:36,372 the dry and rainy seasons would switch every year like clockwork. 126 00:12:40,126 --> 00:12:44,755 In Asia, the winds would create the monsoon on cue. 127 00:12:44,839 --> 00:12:46,632 [thunder rumbling] 128 00:12:52,638 --> 00:12:58,019 In the northern regions, the temperatures would lift in March, triggering spring, 129 00:12:59,186 --> 00:13:04,317 and stay high until they dipped in October and brought about autumn. 130 00:13:04,400 --> 00:13:06,152 [birds chirping and chattering] 131 00:13:08,571 --> 00:13:12,283 The Holocene was our Garden of Eden. 132 00:13:12,366 --> 00:13:15,036 Its rhythm of seasons was so reliable 133 00:13:15,119 --> 00:13:18,789 that it gave our own species a unique opportunity. 134 00:13:18,873 --> 00:13:21,417 [mooing] 135 00:13:21,500 --> 00:13:24,128 We invented farming. 136 00:13:27,048 --> 00:13:31,969 We learnt how to exploit the seasons to produce food crops. 137 00:13:33,846 --> 00:13:37,892 The history of all human civilization followed. 138 00:13:39,810 --> 00:13:43,522 Each generation able to develop and progress 139 00:13:43,606 --> 00:13:47,109 only because the living world could be relied upon 140 00:13:47,193 --> 00:13:49,654 to deliver us the conditions we needed. 141 00:13:52,990 --> 00:13:58,079 The pace of progress was unlike anything to be found in the fossil record. 142 00:14:01,332 --> 00:14:05,878 Our intelligence changed the way in which we evolved. 143 00:14:06,671 --> 00:14:07,964 In the past, 144 00:14:08,047 --> 00:14:14,136 animals had to develop some physical ability to change their lives. 145 00:14:14,929 --> 00:14:18,224 But for us, an idea could do that. 146 00:14:18,307 --> 00:14:22,353 And the idea could be passed from one generation to the next. 147 00:14:24,939 --> 00:14:28,484 We were transforming what a species could achieve. 148 00:14:32,738 --> 00:14:38,995 A few millennia after this began, I grew up at exactly the right moment. 149 00:14:41,455 --> 00:14:44,208 The start of my career in my 20s 150 00:14:44,292 --> 00:14:48,379 coincided with the advent of global air travel. 151 00:14:49,922 --> 00:14:53,384 So, I had the privilege of being amongst the first 152 00:14:53,467 --> 00:14:57,638 to fully experience the bounty of life that had come about 153 00:14:57,722 --> 00:15:00,307 as a result of the Holocene's gentle climate. 154 00:15:20,494 --> 00:15:23,956 Wherever I went, there was wilderness. 155 00:15:24,874 --> 00:15:27,209 Sparkling coastal seas. 156 00:15:28,335 --> 00:15:29,962 Vast forests. 157 00:15:31,547 --> 00:15:33,549 Immense grasslands. 158 00:15:33,632 --> 00:15:37,595 You could fly for hours over the untouched wilderness. 159 00:15:40,348 --> 00:15:44,810 And there I was, actually being asked to explore these places 160 00:15:44,894 --> 00:15:48,522 and record the wonders of the natural world for people back home. 161 00:15:50,649 --> 00:15:52,151 And to begin with, it was quite easy. 162 00:15:52,234 --> 00:15:54,653 People had never seen pangolins before on television. 163 00:15:54,737 --> 00:15:56,447 They'd never seen sloths before. 164 00:15:56,530 --> 00:15:58,741 They had never seen the center of New Guinea before. 165 00:16:04,538 --> 00:16:06,791 It was the best time of my life. 166 00:16:08,042 --> 00:16:10,920 The best time of our lives. 167 00:16:11,629 --> 00:16:15,841 The Second World War was over, technology was making our lives easier. 168 00:16:18,386 --> 00:16:22,139 The pace of change was getting faster and faster. 169 00:16:22,890 --> 00:16:24,892 [indistinct chatter] 170 00:16:27,895 --> 00:16:31,065 [Attenborough] It felt that nothing would limit our progress. 171 00:16:32,108 --> 00:16:35,194 The future was going to be exciting. 172 00:16:35,277 --> 00:16:38,239 It was going to bring everything we had ever dreamed of. 173 00:16:41,325 --> 00:16:45,704 This was before any of us were aware that there were problems. 174 00:16:59,301 --> 00:17:03,806 My first visit to East Africa was in 1960. 175 00:17:08,102 --> 00:17:13,315 Back then, it seemed inconceivable that we, a single species, 176 00:17:13,399 --> 00:17:18,904 might one day have the power to threaten the very existence of the wilderness. 177 00:17:22,491 --> 00:17:27,079 The Maasai word "Serengeti" means "endless plains." 178 00:17:27,705 --> 00:17:30,416 To those who live here, it's an apt description. 179 00:17:30,499 --> 00:17:33,169 You can be in one spot on the Serengeti, 180 00:17:33,252 --> 00:17:35,921 and the place is totally empty of animals, 181 00:17:36,005 --> 00:17:37,465 and then, the next morning... 182 00:17:37,548 --> 00:17:39,008 [bellowing] 183 00:17:39,091 --> 00:17:41,135 ...one million wildebeest. 184 00:17:41,218 --> 00:17:44,305 [bellowing] 185 00:17:47,600 --> 00:17:49,852 A quarter of a million zebra. 186 00:17:49,935 --> 00:17:52,438 [snorting] 187 00:17:54,565 --> 00:17:56,358 Half a million gazelle. 188 00:17:59,445 --> 00:18:01,071 A few days after that... 189 00:18:02,406 --> 00:18:05,743 and they're gone... over the horizon. 190 00:18:05,826 --> 00:18:09,914 You can be forgiven for thinking that these plains are endless 191 00:18:10,497 --> 00:18:12,708 when they could swallow up such a herd. 192 00:18:13,792 --> 00:18:15,377 It took a visionary scientist, 193 00:18:15,461 --> 00:18:19,131 Bernhard Grzimek, to explain that this wasn't true. 194 00:18:22,426 --> 00:18:27,848 He and his son used a plane to follow the herds over the horizon. 195 00:18:28,474 --> 00:18:30,851 [grunting] 196 00:18:38,025 --> 00:18:40,945 They charted them as they moved across rivers, 197 00:18:41,028 --> 00:18:44,198 through woodlands, and over national borders. 198 00:18:46,367 --> 00:18:48,786 They discovered that the Serengeti herds 199 00:18:48,869 --> 00:18:53,791 required an enormous area of healthy grassland to function. 200 00:18:55,042 --> 00:18:59,380 That without such an immense space, the herds would diminish 201 00:18:59,463 --> 00:19:03,425 and the entire ecosystem would come crashing down. 202 00:19:05,219 --> 00:19:09,431 The point for me was simple: the wild is far from unlimited. 203 00:19:09,515 --> 00:19:12,434 It's finite. It needs protecting. 204 00:19:12,935 --> 00:19:16,564 And a few years later, that idea became obvious to everyone. 205 00:19:17,356 --> 00:19:22,903 [NASA technician] Five, four, three, two one, zero. 206 00:19:24,863 --> 00:19:29,577 [Attenborough] I was in a television studio when the Apollo mission launched. 207 00:19:33,664 --> 00:19:35,040 It was the first time 208 00:19:35,124 --> 00:19:38,836 that any human had moved away far enough from the earth 209 00:19:38,919 --> 00:19:40,754 to see the whole planet. 210 00:19:42,131 --> 00:19:44,258 And this is what they saw... 211 00:19:46,969 --> 00:19:48,929 what we all saw. 212 00:19:50,347 --> 00:19:55,269 Our planet, vulnerable and isolated. 213 00:20:01,317 --> 00:20:05,904 One of the extraordinary things about it was that the world 214 00:20:05,988 --> 00:20:08,741 could actually watch it as it happened. 215 00:20:09,325 --> 00:20:15,456 It was extraordinary that you could see what a man out in space could see 216 00:20:15,539 --> 00:20:17,625 as he saw it at the same time. 217 00:20:19,043 --> 00:20:23,255 And I remember very well that first shot. 218 00:20:23,756 --> 00:20:26,508 You saw a blue marble, 219 00:20:26,592 --> 00:20:33,057 a blue sphere in the blackness, and you realized that that was the earth. 220 00:20:33,557 --> 00:20:37,519 And in that one shot, there was the whole of humanity with nothing else 221 00:20:37,603 --> 00:20:42,149 except the person that was in the spacecraft taking that picture. 222 00:20:43,150 --> 00:20:47,946 And that completely changed the mindset of the population, 223 00:20:48,030 --> 00:20:49,657 the human population of the world. 224 00:20:53,285 --> 00:20:55,412 Our home was not limitless. 225 00:20:57,039 --> 00:20:59,667 There was an edge to our existence. 226 00:21:01,210 --> 00:21:05,464 It was a rediscovery of a fundamental truth. 227 00:21:06,674 --> 00:21:10,761 We are ultimately bound by and reliant upon 228 00:21:10,844 --> 00:21:14,056 the finite natural world about us. 229 00:21:15,974 --> 00:21:19,853 This truth defined the life we led in our pre-history, 230 00:21:19,937 --> 00:21:23,482 the time before farming and civilization. 231 00:21:24,066 --> 00:21:27,277 Even as some of us were setting foot on the moon, 232 00:21:27,361 --> 00:21:32,866 others were still leading such a life in the most remote parts of the planet. 233 00:21:40,457 --> 00:21:46,505 In 1971, I set out to find an uncontacted tribe in New Guinea. 234 00:21:50,134 --> 00:21:56,724 These people were hunter-gatherers, as all humankind had been before farming. 235 00:21:57,933 --> 00:22:00,227 [speaking tribal language] 236 00:22:00,310 --> 00:22:04,106 [Attenborough] They lived in small numbers and didn't take too much. 237 00:22:04,606 --> 00:22:08,444 [speaking tribal language] 238 00:22:08,527 --> 00:22:10,863 [Attenborough] They ate meat rarely. 239 00:22:11,780 --> 00:22:16,326 The resources they used naturally renewed themselves. 240 00:22:17,286 --> 00:22:21,957 Working with their traditional technology, they were living sustainably, 241 00:22:22,541 --> 00:22:26,420 a lifestyle that could continue effectively forever. 242 00:22:27,212 --> 00:22:29,882 [speaking native language] 243 00:22:29,965 --> 00:22:32,718 [Attenborough] It was a stark contrast to the world I knew. 244 00:22:33,886 --> 00:22:37,139 A world that demanded more every day. 245 00:22:47,149 --> 00:22:51,403 I spent the latter half of the 1970s traveling the world, 246 00:22:51,487 --> 00:22:55,824 making a series I had long dreamed of called Life on Earth, 247 00:22:56,992 --> 00:23:01,330 the story of the evolution of life and its diversity. 248 00:23:03,123 --> 00:23:05,417 It was shot in 39 countries. 249 00:23:06,710 --> 00:23:10,088 We filmed 650 species, 250 00:23:10,172 --> 00:23:13,592 and we traveled one and a half million miles. 251 00:23:14,259 --> 00:23:16,720 That's the sort of commitment you need 252 00:23:16,803 --> 00:23:20,724 if you want to even begin making a portrait of the living world. 253 00:23:22,518 --> 00:23:23,810 But it was noticeable 254 00:23:23,894 --> 00:23:27,064 that some of these animals were becoming harder to find. 255 00:23:43,163 --> 00:23:45,832 When I filmed with the mountain gorillas, 256 00:23:45,916 --> 00:23:50,921 there were only 300 left in a remote jungle in Central Africa. 257 00:23:52,422 --> 00:23:54,841 Baby gorillas were at a premium, 258 00:23:54,925 --> 00:23:58,136 and poachers would kill a dozen adults to get one. 259 00:23:59,888 --> 00:24:04,434 I got as close as I did only because the gorillas were used to people. 260 00:24:06,728 --> 00:24:11,525 The only way to keep them alive was for rangers to be with them every day. 261 00:24:17,781 --> 00:24:22,995 The process of extinction that I'd seen as a boy... in the rocks, 262 00:24:23,996 --> 00:24:28,250 I now became aware was happening right there around me 263 00:24:29,042 --> 00:24:31,461 to animals with which I was familiar. 264 00:24:33,255 --> 00:24:34,965 Our closest relatives. 265 00:24:38,510 --> 00:24:40,512 And we were responsible. 266 00:24:43,348 --> 00:24:45,892 It revealed a cold reality. 267 00:24:47,352 --> 00:24:49,479 Once a species became our target, 268 00:24:49,980 --> 00:24:53,483 there was now nowhere on earth that it could hide. 269 00:25:06,163 --> 00:25:12,711 Whales were being slaughtered by fleets of industrial whaling ships in the 1970s. 270 00:25:16,923 --> 00:25:20,093 The largest whales, the blues, 271 00:25:20,177 --> 00:25:22,804 numbered only a few thousand by then. 272 00:25:27,517 --> 00:25:30,145 They were virtually impossible to find. 273 00:25:33,273 --> 00:25:38,612 We found humpbacks off Hawaii only by listening out for their calls. 274 00:25:39,196 --> 00:25:41,531 A moment ago, we made this recording 275 00:25:41,615 --> 00:25:45,535 with an underwater microphone here in the Pacific near Hawaii. 276 00:25:45,619 --> 00:25:46,787 Just listen to this. 277 00:25:48,413 --> 00:25:52,209 [whales singing] 278 00:25:53,794 --> 00:25:55,796 [whales continue singing] 279 00:25:58,757 --> 00:26:02,719 Recordings like these revealed that the songs of the humpbacks 280 00:26:02,803 --> 00:26:04,930 are long and complex. 281 00:26:06,264 --> 00:26:10,143 Humpbacks living in the same area learn their songs from each other. 282 00:26:11,019 --> 00:26:16,692 And the songs have distinct themes and variations which evolve over time. 283 00:26:16,775 --> 00:26:19,653 [whales singing] 284 00:26:25,742 --> 00:26:28,412 Their mournful songs were the key 285 00:26:28,495 --> 00:26:31,373 to transforming people's opinions about them. 286 00:26:33,417 --> 00:26:35,043 [speaking Russian] 287 00:26:35,877 --> 00:26:38,630 [protester in English] Hello, Boctok. We are Canadian. 288 00:26:40,215 --> 00:26:42,008 [over megaphone] Please stop killing the whales. 289 00:26:44,553 --> 00:26:46,888 [Attenborough] Animals that had been viewed 290 00:26:46,972 --> 00:26:50,183 as little more than a source of oil and meat 291 00:26:50,267 --> 00:26:52,936 became personalities. 292 00:26:55,439 --> 00:26:57,941 [protester over megaphone] We are men and women, and we speak for children, 293 00:26:58,692 --> 00:27:02,904 and we're all saying, "Please stop killing the whales." 294 00:27:04,948 --> 00:27:09,286 We have pursued animals to extinction many times in our history, 295 00:27:10,162 --> 00:27:14,624 but now that it was visible, it was no longer acceptable. 296 00:27:22,591 --> 00:27:27,095 The killing of whales turned from a harvest to a crime. 297 00:27:29,014 --> 00:27:32,559 A powerful shared conscience had suddenly appeared. 298 00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:37,105 Nobody wanted animals to become extinct. 299 00:27:38,565 --> 00:27:41,443 People were coming to care for the natural world... 300 00:27:42,444 --> 00:27:46,072 as they were made aware of the natural world. 301 00:27:49,117 --> 00:27:53,705 And we now had the means to make people across the world aware. 302 00:27:54,372 --> 00:27:56,374 [theme music playing] 303 00:28:01,338 --> 00:28:07,135 [Attenborough] By the time Life on Earth aired in 1979, I had entered my 50s. 304 00:28:07,677 --> 00:28:10,764 There were twice the number of people on the planet 305 00:28:10,847 --> 00:28:13,099 as there were when I was born. 306 00:28:14,935 --> 00:28:21,107 You and I belong to the most widespread and dominant species of animal on earth. 307 00:28:21,191 --> 00:28:24,277 We're certainly the most numerous large animal. 308 00:28:24,361 --> 00:28:28,615 There are something like 4,000 million of us today, 309 00:28:28,698 --> 00:28:32,536 and we've reached this position with meteoric speed. 310 00:28:33,203 --> 00:28:36,957 It's all happened within the last 2,000 years or so. 311 00:28:37,040 --> 00:28:41,419 We seem to have broken loose from the restrictions 312 00:28:41,503 --> 00:28:45,423 that have governed the activities and numbers of other animals. 313 00:28:53,223 --> 00:28:54,975 [Attenborough] We had broken loose. 314 00:28:55,934 --> 00:28:59,604 We were apart from the rest of life on earth, 315 00:29:01,106 --> 00:29:03,608 living a different kind of life. 316 00:29:07,404 --> 00:29:10,198 Our predators had been eliminated. 317 00:29:12,868 --> 00:29:15,704 Most of our diseases were under control. 318 00:29:17,622 --> 00:29:21,168 We had worked out how to produce food to order. 319 00:29:23,545 --> 00:29:26,798 There was nothing left to restrict us. 320 00:29:27,591 --> 00:29:29,551 Nothing to stop us. 321 00:29:30,802 --> 00:29:32,846 Unless we stopped ourselves... 322 00:29:33,972 --> 00:29:38,602 we would keep consuming the earth until we had used it up. 323 00:29:41,521 --> 00:29:45,108 Saving individual species or even groups of species 324 00:29:45,191 --> 00:29:46,943 would not be enough. 325 00:29:47,027 --> 00:29:50,363 Whole habitats would soon start to disappear. 326 00:30:18,475 --> 00:30:24,522 I first witnessed the destruction of an entire habitat in Southeast Asia. 327 00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:30,612 In the 1950s, Borneo was three-quarters covered with rainforest. 328 00:30:31,196 --> 00:30:33,323 [young Attenborough] We heard a crashing in the branches ahead. 329 00:30:34,658 --> 00:30:37,327 And there, only a few yards away, 330 00:30:37,410 --> 00:30:42,290 we spotted a great furry red form swaying in the trees. 331 00:30:43,416 --> 00:30:44,584 The orangutan. 332 00:30:48,255 --> 00:30:49,756 [Attenborough] By the end of the century, 333 00:30:49,839 --> 00:30:54,010 Borneo's rainforest had been reduced by half. 334 00:31:00,058 --> 00:31:03,728 Rainforests are particularly precious habitats. 335 00:31:04,562 --> 00:31:05,814 [birds chirping] 336 00:31:05,897 --> 00:31:09,484 More than half of the species on land live here. 337 00:31:14,239 --> 00:31:19,160 They're places in which evolution's talent for design soars. 338 00:31:33,925 --> 00:31:36,052 [birds squawking] 339 00:31:43,476 --> 00:31:46,688 [clicking] 340 00:32:04,247 --> 00:32:09,794 Many of the millions of species in the forest exist in small numbers. 341 00:32:12,422 --> 00:32:15,759 Every one has a critical role to play. 342 00:32:20,805 --> 00:32:24,851 Orangutan mothers have to spend ten years with their young, 343 00:32:24,934 --> 00:32:28,730 teaching them which fruits are worth eating. 344 00:32:32,067 --> 00:32:33,485 Without this training, 345 00:32:33,568 --> 00:32:37,322 they would not complete their role in dispersing seeds. 346 00:32:38,782 --> 00:32:43,244 The future generations of many tree species would be at risk. 347 00:32:44,204 --> 00:32:48,750 And tree diversity is the key to a rainforest. 348 00:32:48,833 --> 00:32:52,420 [birds chirping] 349 00:32:52,504 --> 00:32:55,465 In a single small patch of tropical rainforest, 350 00:32:55,548 --> 00:32:58,760 there could be 700 different species of tree, 351 00:32:58,843 --> 00:33:02,514 as many as there are in the whole of North America. 352 00:33:03,473 --> 00:33:09,938 And yet, this is what we've been turning this dizzying diversity into. 353 00:33:11,439 --> 00:33:14,484 A monoculture of oil palm. 354 00:33:18,029 --> 00:33:22,242 A habitat that is dead in comparison. 355 00:33:25,870 --> 00:33:30,375 And you see this curtain of green with occasionally birds in it, 356 00:33:31,835 --> 00:33:34,254 and you think it's perhaps okay. 357 00:33:34,337 --> 00:33:35,755 But if you get in a helicopter, 358 00:33:35,839 --> 00:33:39,175 you see that that is a strip about half a mile wide. 359 00:33:40,009 --> 00:33:41,636 And beyond that strip, 360 00:33:41,719 --> 00:33:46,975 there is nothing but regimented rows of oil palms. 361 00:33:56,067 --> 00:33:59,946 There is a double incentive to cut down forests. 362 00:34:01,906 --> 00:34:03,658 People benefit from the timber... 363 00:34:04,242 --> 00:34:08,538 and then benefit again from farming the land that's left behind. 364 00:34:09,664 --> 00:34:12,000 [chainsaw revs] 365 00:34:22,260 --> 00:34:27,891 Which is why we've cut down three trillion trees across the world. 366 00:34:27,974 --> 00:34:32,395 Half of the world's rainforests have already been cleared. 367 00:34:42,071 --> 00:34:43,656 What we see happening today 368 00:34:43,740 --> 00:34:48,786 is just the latest chapter in a global process spanning millennia. 369 00:34:55,168 --> 00:35:00,131 The deforestation of Borneo has reduced the population of orangutan 370 00:35:00,215 --> 00:35:05,595 by two-thirds since I first saw one just over 60 years ago. 371 00:35:12,852 --> 00:35:15,605 We can't cut down rainforests forever, 372 00:35:15,688 --> 00:35:20,360 and anything that we can't do forever is by definition unsustainable. 373 00:35:21,528 --> 00:35:24,489 If we do things that are unsustainable, 374 00:35:24,572 --> 00:35:30,620 the damage accumulates ultimately to a point where the whole system collapses. 375 00:35:32,080 --> 00:35:36,000 No ecosystem, no matter how big, is secure. 376 00:35:38,461 --> 00:35:41,631 Even one as vast as the ocean. 377 00:35:46,386 --> 00:35:50,974 This habitat was the subject of the series The Blue Planet, 378 00:35:51,057 --> 00:35:53,685 which we were filming in the late '90s. 379 00:36:07,615 --> 00:36:13,079 It was... an astonishing vision of a completely unknown world, 380 00:36:13,162 --> 00:36:17,292 a world that had existed since the beginning of time. 381 00:36:25,383 --> 00:36:28,803 All sorts of things that you had no idea had ever existed, 382 00:36:28,886 --> 00:36:33,182 all in a multitude of colors, all unbelievably beautiful. 383 00:36:37,186 --> 00:36:41,983 And all of them completely undisturbed by your presence. 384 00:36:50,199 --> 00:36:54,287 For much of its expanse, the ocean is largely empty. 385 00:36:56,205 --> 00:36:59,542 But in certain places, there are hot spots 386 00:36:59,626 --> 00:37:02,337 where currents bring nutrients to the surface 387 00:37:02,420 --> 00:37:05,673 and trigger an explosion of life. 388 00:37:11,512 --> 00:37:15,516 In such places, huge shoals of fish gather. 389 00:37:23,691 --> 00:37:26,194 The problem is that our fishing fleets 390 00:37:26,277 --> 00:37:30,531 are just as good at finding those hot spots as are the fish. 391 00:37:32,408 --> 00:37:37,872 When they do, they're able to gather the concentrated shoals with ease. 392 00:37:41,876 --> 00:37:45,171 It was only in the '50s that large fleets 393 00:37:45,254 --> 00:37:48,716 first ventured out into international waters... 394 00:37:49,592 --> 00:37:53,221 to reap the open ocean harvest across the globe. 395 00:37:55,473 --> 00:38:00,311 Yet, they've removed 90% of the large fish in the sea. 396 00:38:08,069 --> 00:38:11,614 At first, they caught plenty of fish in their nets. 397 00:38:12,865 --> 00:38:15,493 But within only a few years, 398 00:38:15,576 --> 00:38:19,872 the nets across the globe were coming in empty. 399 00:38:21,541 --> 00:38:24,377 The fishing quickly became so poor 400 00:38:24,877 --> 00:38:29,465 that countries began to subsidize the fleets to maintain the industry. 401 00:38:34,595 --> 00:38:38,141 Without large fish and other marine predators, 402 00:38:38,224 --> 00:38:41,477 the oceanic nutrient cycle stutters. 403 00:38:48,276 --> 00:38:52,947 The predators help to keep nutrients in the ocean's sunlit waters, 404 00:38:53,030 --> 00:38:57,660 recycling them so that they can be used again and again by plankton. 405 00:39:02,457 --> 00:39:03,750 Without predators, 406 00:39:03,833 --> 00:39:07,044 nutrients are lost for centuries to the depths 407 00:39:07,128 --> 00:39:10,339 and the hot spots start to diminish. 408 00:39:11,507 --> 00:39:14,010 The ocean starts to die. 409 00:39:19,432 --> 00:39:23,895 Ocean life was also unravelling in the shallows. 410 00:39:29,442 --> 00:39:32,820 In 1998, a Blue Planet film crew 411 00:39:32,904 --> 00:39:36,240 stumbled on an event little known at the time. 412 00:39:39,911 --> 00:39:43,247 Coral reefs were turning white. 413 00:39:47,585 --> 00:39:51,798 The white color is caused by corals expelling algae 414 00:39:51,881 --> 00:39:54,967 that lives symbiotically within their body. 415 00:40:02,183 --> 00:40:03,684 When you first see it, 416 00:40:03,768 --> 00:40:07,897 you think perhaps that it's beautiful, and suddenly you realize it's tragic. 417 00:40:08,523 --> 00:40:11,234 Because what you're looking at is skeletons. 418 00:40:11,317 --> 00:40:13,736 Skeletons of dead creatures. 419 00:40:21,536 --> 00:40:25,498 The white corals are ultimately smothered by seaweed. 420 00:40:26,165 --> 00:40:31,838 And the reef turns from wonderland... to wasteland. 421 00:40:36,759 --> 00:40:40,137 At first, the cause of the bleaching was a mystery. 422 00:40:40,221 --> 00:40:44,934 But scientists started to discover that in many cases where bleaching occurred, 423 00:40:45,518 --> 00:40:47,520 the ocean was warming. 424 00:40:48,521 --> 00:40:49,522 For some time, 425 00:40:49,605 --> 00:40:53,150 climate scientists had warned that the planet would get warmer 426 00:40:53,234 --> 00:40:57,238 as we burned fossil fuels and released carbon dioxide 427 00:40:57,321 --> 00:41:00,700 and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. 428 00:41:04,203 --> 00:41:06,455 A marked change in atmospheric carbon 429 00:41:06,539 --> 00:41:10,084 has always been incompatible with a stable earth. 430 00:41:10,877 --> 00:41:14,714 It was a feature of all five mass extinctions. 431 00:41:19,760 --> 00:41:20,803 In previous events, 432 00:41:20,886 --> 00:41:25,641 it had taken volcanic activity up to one million years 433 00:41:25,725 --> 00:41:28,519 to dredge up enough carbon from within the earth 434 00:41:28,603 --> 00:41:30,479 to trigger a catastrophe. 435 00:41:32,773 --> 00:41:36,277 By burning millions of years' worth of living organisms 436 00:41:36,360 --> 00:41:39,572 all at once as coal and oil, 437 00:41:39,655 --> 00:41:43,701 we had managed to do so in less than 200. 438 00:41:45,703 --> 00:41:50,124 The global air temperature had been relatively stable till the '90s. 439 00:41:50,625 --> 00:41:53,669 But it now appeared this was only because the ocean 440 00:41:53,753 --> 00:41:58,424 was absorbing much of the excess heat, masking our impact. 441 00:42:01,719 --> 00:42:03,888 It was the first indication to me 442 00:42:03,971 --> 00:42:07,600 that the earth was beginning to lose its balance. 443 00:42:15,775 --> 00:42:18,277 The most remote habitat of all 444 00:42:18,361 --> 00:42:22,239 exists at the extreme north and south of the planet. 445 00:42:26,827 --> 00:42:30,706 I've visited the polar regions over many decades. 446 00:42:30,790 --> 00:42:32,500 [imperceptible] 447 00:42:35,169 --> 00:42:38,714 They've always been a place beyond imagination... 448 00:42:39,298 --> 00:42:42,510 with scenery unlike anything else on earth... 449 00:42:44,178 --> 00:42:49,266 and unique species adapted to a life in the extreme. 450 00:42:53,020 --> 00:42:55,314 But that distant world is changing. 451 00:42:58,401 --> 00:43:03,406 In my time, I've experienced the warming of Arctic summers. 452 00:43:06,075 --> 00:43:08,119 We have arrived at locations 453 00:43:08,202 --> 00:43:12,331 expecting to find expanses of sea ice and found none. 454 00:43:15,543 --> 00:43:17,461 We've managed to travel by boat 455 00:43:17,545 --> 00:43:21,048 to islands that were impossible to get to historically 456 00:43:21,132 --> 00:43:24,093 because they were permanently locked in the ice. 457 00:43:27,096 --> 00:43:32,184 By the time Frozen Planet aired in 2011, 458 00:43:32,268 --> 00:43:35,396 the reasons for these changes was well established. 459 00:43:40,234 --> 00:43:43,863 The ocean has long since become unable to absorb 460 00:43:43,946 --> 00:43:48,117 all the excess heat caused by our activities. 461 00:43:48,993 --> 00:43:52,246 As a result, the average global temperature today 462 00:43:52,329 --> 00:43:56,792 is one degree Celsius warmer than it was when I was born. 463 00:44:02,339 --> 00:44:07,595 A speed of change that exceeds any in the last 10,000 years. 464 00:44:15,019 --> 00:44:20,733 Summer sea ice in the Arctic has reduced by 40% in 40 years. 465 00:44:23,027 --> 00:44:25,696 Our planet is losing its ice. 466 00:44:31,619 --> 00:44:37,500 This most pristine and distant of ecosystems is headed for disaster. 467 00:44:55,601 --> 00:44:58,854 Our imprint is now truly global. 468 00:44:59,647 --> 00:45:02,775 Our impact now truly profound. 469 00:45:03,359 --> 00:45:05,236 Our blind assault on the planet 470 00:45:05,319 --> 00:45:09,949 has finally come to alter the very fundamentals of the living world. 471 00:45:18,457 --> 00:45:23,546 We have overfished 30% of fish stocks to critical levels. 472 00:45:26,090 --> 00:45:30,469 We cut down over 15 billion trees each year. 473 00:45:30,553 --> 00:45:32,888 [warbling] 474 00:45:32,972 --> 00:45:37,726 By damming, polluting, and over-extracting rivers and lakes, 475 00:45:37,810 --> 00:45:43,482 we've reduced the size of freshwater populations by over 80%. 476 00:45:44,275 --> 00:45:47,903 We're replacing the wild with the tame. 477 00:45:52,199 --> 00:45:57,413 Half of the fertile land on earth is now farmland. 478 00:46:04,003 --> 00:46:09,675 70% of the mass of birds on this planet are domestic birds. 479 00:46:10,259 --> 00:46:13,178 The vast majority, chickens. 480 00:46:17,182 --> 00:46:22,354 We account for over one-third of the weight of mammals on earth. 481 00:46:23,314 --> 00:46:27,526 A further 60% are the animals we raise to eat. 482 00:46:32,781 --> 00:46:37,953 The rest, from mice to whales, make up just 4%. 483 00:46:41,332 --> 00:46:44,084 This is now our planet, 484 00:46:44,168 --> 00:46:47,463 run by humankind for humankind. 485 00:46:47,546 --> 00:46:51,133 There is little left for the rest of the living world. 486 00:46:57,514 --> 00:47:00,601 Since I started filming in the 1950s, 487 00:47:00,684 --> 00:47:06,273 on average, wild animal populations have more than halved. 488 00:47:09,068 --> 00:47:12,404 I look at these images now and I realize that, 489 00:47:12,488 --> 00:47:15,991 although as a young man I felt I was out there in the wild 490 00:47:16,075 --> 00:47:19,662 experiencing the untouched natural world... 491 00:47:20,245 --> 00:47:21,372 it was an illusion. 492 00:47:23,707 --> 00:47:28,629 Those forests and plains and seas were already emptying. 493 00:47:33,676 --> 00:47:36,679 Um, so, the world is not as wild as it was. 494 00:47:38,013 --> 00:47:41,475 Well, we've destroyed it. Not just ruined it. 495 00:47:41,558 --> 00:47:45,896 I mean, we have completely... well, destroyed that world. 496 00:47:45,980 --> 00:47:49,191 That non-human world is gone. 497 00:47:49,858 --> 00:47:53,612 Uh... The... Human beings have overrun the world. 498 00:48:35,738 --> 00:48:39,199 That is my witness statement. 499 00:48:39,867 --> 00:48:44,705 A story of global decline during a single lifetime. 500 00:48:49,668 --> 00:48:51,962 But it doesn't end there. 501 00:48:53,714 --> 00:48:55,966 If we continue on our current course, 502 00:48:56,050 --> 00:49:00,179 the damage that has been the defining feature of my lifetime 503 00:49:00,262 --> 00:49:04,683 will be eclipsed by the damage coming in the next. 504 00:49:16,361 --> 00:49:20,949 Science predicts that were I born today, 505 00:49:21,533 --> 00:49:24,244 I would be witness to the following. 506 00:49:29,249 --> 00:49:35,506 The Amazon Rainforest, cut down until it can no longer produce enough moisture, 507 00:49:36,340 --> 00:49:38,801 degrades into a dry savannah, 508 00:49:39,384 --> 00:49:42,179 bringing catastrophic species loss... 509 00:49:43,388 --> 00:49:46,809 and altering the global water cycle. 510 00:49:53,482 --> 00:49:58,362 At the same time, the Arctic becomes ice-free in the summer. 511 00:50:00,989 --> 00:50:03,158 Without the white ice cap, 512 00:50:03,242 --> 00:50:06,954 less of the sun's energy is reflected back out to space. 513 00:50:08,288 --> 00:50:11,834 And the speed of global warming increases. 514 00:50:18,215 --> 00:50:24,096 Throughout the north, frozen soils thaw, releasing methane, 515 00:50:24,596 --> 00:50:29,268 a greenhouse gas many times more potent than carbon dioxide, 516 00:50:30,394 --> 00:50:34,481 accelerating the rate of climate change dramatically. 517 00:50:42,114 --> 00:50:46,034 As the ocean continues to heat and becomes more acidic, 518 00:50:46,118 --> 00:50:49,329 coral reefs around the world die. 519 00:50:52,958 --> 00:50:55,878 Fish populations crash. 520 00:51:04,636 --> 00:51:10,601 Global food production enters a crisis as soils become exhausted by overuse. 521 00:51:19,735 --> 00:51:22,070 Pollinating insects disappear. 522 00:51:23,572 --> 00:51:24,531 [thunder rumbling] 523 00:51:24,615 --> 00:51:27,951 And the weather is more and more unpredictable. 524 00:51:33,624 --> 00:51:37,461 Our planet becomes four degrees Celsius warmer. 525 00:51:39,630 --> 00:51:43,842 Large parts of the earth are uninhabitable. 526 00:51:46,678 --> 00:51:49,890 Millions of people rendered homeless. 527 00:51:53,352 --> 00:51:56,230 A sixth mass extinction event... 528 00:51:57,314 --> 00:51:59,066 is well underway. 529 00:52:05,447 --> 00:52:09,284 This is a series of one-way doors... 530 00:52:10,535 --> 00:52:13,121 bringing irreversible change. 531 00:52:15,165 --> 00:52:17,709 Within the span of the next lifetime, 532 00:52:18,585 --> 00:52:21,838 the security and stability of the Holocene, 533 00:52:23,257 --> 00:52:25,342 our Garden of Eden... 534 00:52:27,010 --> 00:52:28,345 will be lost. 535 00:52:37,646 --> 00:52:43,652 Right now, we're facing a manmade disaster of global scale. 536 00:52:44,903 --> 00:52:47,322 Our greatest threat in thousands of years. 537 00:52:48,323 --> 00:52:49,908 If we don't take action, 538 00:52:50,492 --> 00:52:52,995 the collapse of our civilizations 539 00:52:53,745 --> 00:52:59,209 and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon. 540 00:52:59,876 --> 00:53:01,503 But the longer we leave it, 541 00:53:02,004 --> 00:53:05,507 the more difficult it'll be to do something about it. 542 00:53:06,216 --> 00:53:08,135 And you could happily retire. 543 00:53:09,511 --> 00:53:15,976 But you now want to explain to us what peril we are in. 544 00:53:17,060 --> 00:53:18,312 Um... 545 00:53:18,395 --> 00:53:23,942 and, in a way, I wish I wasn't involved in this struggle. 546 00:53:24,026 --> 00:53:25,027 [chuckles] 547 00:53:25,110 --> 00:53:27,779 Because I wish the struggle wasn't there or necessary. 548 00:53:28,280 --> 00:53:32,534 But I've had unbelievable luck and good fortune. 549 00:53:33,035 --> 00:53:38,081 Um, and I certainly would feel very guilty... 550 00:53:39,041 --> 00:53:44,463 if I saw what the problems are and decided to ignore them. 551 00:53:44,546 --> 00:53:46,048 [audience applauding] 552 00:53:47,674 --> 00:53:49,885 [Attenborough on video] Climbing over the tightly-packed bodies 553 00:53:49,968 --> 00:53:52,304 is the only way across the crowd. 554 00:53:52,387 --> 00:53:53,847 [groaning] 555 00:53:53,930 --> 00:53:56,475 Those beneath can get crushed to death. 556 00:54:02,606 --> 00:54:03,732 [walruses groaning] 557 00:54:13,909 --> 00:54:19,164 [Attenborough] We are facing nothing less than the collapse of the living world. 558 00:54:20,999 --> 00:54:24,419 The very thing that gave birth to our civilization. 559 00:54:25,837 --> 00:54:30,133 The thing we rely upon for every element of the lives we lead. 560 00:54:33,470 --> 00:54:35,597 No one wants this to happen. 561 00:54:36,264 --> 00:54:39,476 None of us can afford for it to happen. 562 00:54:42,979 --> 00:54:44,815 So, what do we do? 563 00:54:47,109 --> 00:54:48,819 It's quite straightforward. 564 00:54:49,778 --> 00:54:52,614 It's been staring us in the face all along. 565 00:54:54,991 --> 00:54:57,285 To restore stability to our planet, 566 00:54:58,203 --> 00:55:00,831 we must restore its biodiversity. 567 00:55:03,166 --> 00:55:05,544 The very thing that we've removed. 568 00:55:09,881 --> 00:55:13,885 It's the only way out of this crisis we have created. 569 00:55:16,721 --> 00:55:20,100 We must rewild the world. 570 00:55:20,183 --> 00:55:22,561 [uplifting music playing] 571 00:55:22,644 --> 00:55:24,271 [reindeer grunting] 572 00:55:26,731 --> 00:55:28,650 [birds hooting] 573 00:55:37,242 --> 00:55:38,827 [buffalo snorting] 574 00:55:44,958 --> 00:55:46,751 [birds cawing] 575 00:55:51,590 --> 00:55:53,592 [elephants trumpeting] 576 00:56:00,015 --> 00:56:03,935 Rewilding the world is simpler than you might think. 577 00:56:04,603 --> 00:56:06,313 And the changes we have to make 578 00:56:06,396 --> 00:56:10,358 will only benefit ourselves and the generations that follow. 579 00:56:11,526 --> 00:56:15,822 A century from now, our planet could be a wild place again. 580 00:56:16,615 --> 00:56:18,492 And I'm going to tell you how. 581 00:56:20,160 --> 00:56:22,496 [cawing and chirping] 582 00:56:26,249 --> 00:56:32,172 Every other species on Earth reaches a maximum population after a time. 583 00:56:33,548 --> 00:56:37,761 The number that can be sustained on the natural resources available. 584 00:56:40,680 --> 00:56:42,182 With nothing to restrict us, 585 00:56:42,265 --> 00:56:46,603 our population has been growing dramatically throughout my lifetime. 586 00:56:46,686 --> 00:56:47,854 [crowd chanting] 587 00:56:47,938 --> 00:56:49,564 On current projections, 588 00:56:49,648 --> 00:56:55,362 there will be 11 billion people on Earth by 2100. 589 00:56:56,238 --> 00:56:58,031 But it's possible to slow, 590 00:56:58,114 --> 00:57:03,411 even to stop population growth well before it reaches that point. 591 00:57:08,166 --> 00:57:10,126 Japan's standard of living 592 00:57:10,210 --> 00:57:13,797 climbed rapidly in the latter half of the 20th century. 593 00:57:15,090 --> 00:57:17,926 As healthcare and education improved, 594 00:57:18,009 --> 00:57:21,513 people's expectations and opportunities grew, 595 00:57:21,596 --> 00:57:23,932 and the birth rate fell. 596 00:57:25,559 --> 00:57:31,231 In 1950, a Japanese family was likely to have three or more children. 597 00:57:32,440 --> 00:57:36,403 By 1975, the average was two. 598 00:57:39,531 --> 00:57:43,159 The result is that the population has now stabilized 599 00:57:43,243 --> 00:57:46,454 and has hardly changed since the millennium. 600 00:57:48,331 --> 00:57:52,210 There are signs that this has started to happen across the globe. 601 00:57:54,963 --> 00:57:59,551 As nations develop everywhere, people choose to have fewer children. 602 00:58:03,972 --> 00:58:07,350 The number of children being born worldwide every year 603 00:58:07,934 --> 00:58:10,061 is about to level off. 604 00:58:12,147 --> 00:58:14,691 A key reason the population is still growing 605 00:58:15,317 --> 00:58:17,319 is because many of us are living longer. 606 00:58:19,946 --> 00:58:21,615 At some point in the future, 607 00:58:22,115 --> 00:58:26,328 the human population will peak for the very first time. 608 00:58:27,579 --> 00:58:29,080 The sooner it happens, 609 00:58:29,164 --> 00:58:32,751 the easier it makes everything else we have to do. 610 00:58:32,834 --> 00:58:34,753 [crowd cheering] 611 00:58:37,130 --> 00:58:40,091 [Attenborough] By working hard to raise people out of poverty, 612 00:58:40,800 --> 00:58:43,511 giving all access to healthcare, 613 00:58:44,179 --> 00:58:48,975 and enabling girls in particular to stay in school as long as possible, 614 00:58:49,059 --> 00:58:53,146 we can make it peak sooner and at a lower level. 615 00:58:54,981 --> 00:58:57,442 Why wouldn't we want to do these things? 616 00:58:57,525 --> 00:58:59,653 Giving people a greater opportunity of life 617 00:58:59,736 --> 00:59:01,863 is what we would want to do anyway. 618 00:59:02,530 --> 00:59:06,701 The trick is to raise the standard of living around the world 619 00:59:06,785 --> 00:59:10,246 without increasing our impact on that world. 620 00:59:10,330 --> 00:59:11,915 That may sound impossible, 621 00:59:11,998 --> 00:59:14,751 but there are ways in which we can do this. 622 00:59:24,177 --> 00:59:27,973 The living world is essentially solar-powered. 623 00:59:30,600 --> 00:59:32,143 The earth's plants 624 00:59:32,227 --> 00:59:37,232 capture three trillion kilowatt-hours of solar energy each day. 625 00:59:37,315 --> 00:59:38,483 [birds chirping] 626 00:59:38,566 --> 00:59:44,614 That's almost 20 times the energy we need... just from sunlight. 627 00:59:49,119 --> 00:59:52,455 Imagine if we phase out fossil fuels 628 00:59:53,039 --> 00:59:57,919 and run our world on the eternal energies of nature too. 629 00:59:58,920 --> 01:00:04,009 Sunlight, wind, water and geothermal. 630 01:00:06,970 --> 01:00:08,972 [indistinct chatter] 631 01:00:10,348 --> 01:00:12,267 [Attenborough] At the turn of the century, 632 01:00:12,350 --> 01:00:18,273 Morocco relied on imported oil and gas for almost all of its energy. 633 01:00:19,107 --> 01:00:23,028 Today, it generates 40% of its needs at home 634 01:00:23,778 --> 01:00:30,410 from a network of renewable power plants, including the world's largest solar farm. 635 01:00:34,414 --> 01:00:36,040 Sitting on the edge of the Sahara, 636 01:00:37,125 --> 01:00:39,753 and cabled directly into southern Europe, 637 01:00:40,336 --> 01:00:46,760 Morocco could be an exporter of solar energy by 2050. 638 01:00:53,516 --> 01:01:00,231 Within 20 years, renewables are predicted to be the world's main source of power. 639 01:01:01,566 --> 01:01:04,486 But we can make them the only source. 640 01:01:05,445 --> 01:01:11,826 It's crazy that our banks and our pensions are investing in fossil fuel... 641 01:01:12,786 --> 01:01:14,579 when these are the very things 642 01:01:14,662 --> 01:01:18,291 that are jeopardizing the future that we are saving for. 643 01:01:18,792 --> 01:01:20,376 [sirens wailing] 644 01:01:21,044 --> 01:01:24,547 A renewable future will be full of benefits. 645 01:01:25,298 --> 01:01:28,510 Energy everywhere will be more affordable. 646 01:01:29,803 --> 01:01:32,806 Our cities will be cleaner and quieter. 647 01:01:34,015 --> 01:01:37,185 And renewable energy will never run out. 648 01:01:52,700 --> 01:01:58,331 The living world can't operate without a healthy ocean and neither can we. 649 01:02:04,879 --> 01:02:09,968 The ocean is a critical ally in our battle to reduce carbon in the atmosphere. 650 01:02:12,929 --> 01:02:17,308 The more diverse it is, the better it does that job. 651 01:02:20,812 --> 01:02:22,021 [whales singing] 652 01:02:34,868 --> 01:02:40,456 And, of course, the ocean is important to all of us as a source of food. 653 01:02:43,293 --> 01:02:46,671 Fishing is world's greatest wild harvest. 654 01:02:46,754 --> 01:02:50,049 And if we do it right, it can continue... 655 01:02:51,134 --> 01:02:54,512 because there's a win-win at play. 656 01:02:55,513 --> 01:02:57,557 The healthier the marine habitat, 657 01:02:57,640 --> 01:03:01,603 the more fish there will be, and the more there will be to eat. 658 01:03:09,068 --> 01:03:12,780 Palau is a Pacific Island nation 659 01:03:12,864 --> 01:03:17,702 reliant on its coral reefs for fish and tourism. 660 01:03:21,915 --> 01:03:24,250 When fish stocks began to reduce, 661 01:03:24,334 --> 01:03:28,504 the Palauans responded by restricting fishing practices 662 01:03:28,588 --> 01:03:32,425 and banning fishing entirely from many areas. 663 01:03:35,678 --> 01:03:39,474 Protected fish populations soon became so healthy, 664 01:03:39,557 --> 01:03:43,144 they spilt over into the areas open to fishing. 665 01:03:48,733 --> 01:03:49,776 As a result, 666 01:03:49,859 --> 01:03:54,113 the "no fish" zones have increased the catch of the local fishermen, 667 01:03:54,197 --> 01:03:58,368 while at the same time allowing the reefs to recover. 668 01:04:03,247 --> 01:04:07,877 Imagine if we committed to a similar approach across the world. 669 01:04:08,920 --> 01:04:14,050 Estimates suggest that "no fish" zones over a third of our coastal seas 670 01:04:14,133 --> 01:04:18,972 would be sufficient to provide us with all the fish we will ever need. 671 01:04:24,686 --> 01:04:26,562 In international waters, 672 01:04:26,646 --> 01:04:32,276 the UN is attempting to create the biggest "no fish" zone of all. 673 01:04:34,487 --> 01:04:38,157 In one act, this would transform the open ocean 674 01:04:38,241 --> 01:04:42,036 from a place exhausted by subsidized fishing fleets 675 01:04:42,620 --> 01:04:47,834 to a wilderness that will help us all in our efforts to combat climate change. 676 01:04:49,502 --> 01:04:52,213 The world's greatest wildlife reserve. 677 01:05:08,855 --> 01:05:10,940 When it comes to the land, 678 01:05:11,024 --> 01:05:14,694 we must radically reduce the area we use to farm, 679 01:05:14,777 --> 01:05:17,613 so that we can make space for returning wilderness. 680 01:05:17,697 --> 01:05:22,744 And the quickest and most effective way to do that is for us to change our diet. 681 01:05:23,453 --> 01:05:25,496 [birds chirping] 682 01:05:28,416 --> 01:05:31,085 Large carnivores are rare in nature 683 01:05:31,169 --> 01:05:34,839 because it takes a lot of prey to support each of them. 684 01:05:35,548 --> 01:05:37,550 [wildebeest snorting] 685 01:05:41,512 --> 01:05:44,599 For every single predator on the Serengeti, 686 01:05:44,682 --> 01:05:47,769 there are more than 100 prey animals. 687 01:05:47,852 --> 01:05:49,854 [snorting] 688 01:05:52,190 --> 01:05:54,150 Whenever we choose a piece of meat, 689 01:05:54,233 --> 01:05:59,363 we too are unwittingly demanding a huge expanse of space. 690 01:06:04,243 --> 01:06:09,290 The planet can't support billions of large meat-eaters. 691 01:06:09,791 --> 01:06:11,542 There just isn't the space. 692 01:06:12,043 --> 01:06:13,002 [dings] 693 01:06:16,089 --> 01:06:19,175 If we all had a largely plant-based diet, 694 01:06:20,176 --> 01:06:23,971 we would need only half the land we use at the moment. 695 01:06:25,556 --> 01:06:29,560 And because we would be then dedicated to raising plants, 696 01:06:29,644 --> 01:06:33,439 we could increase the yield of this land substantially. 697 01:06:39,278 --> 01:06:44,367 The Netherlands is one of the world's most densely-populated countries. 698 01:06:45,618 --> 01:06:50,790 It's covered with small family-run farms with no room for expansion. 699 01:06:53,709 --> 01:06:59,257 So, Dutch farmers have become expert at getting the most out of every hectare. 700 01:07:02,051 --> 01:07:05,304 Increasingly, they're doing so sustainably. 701 01:07:08,599 --> 01:07:14,856 Raising yields tenfold in two generations while at the same time using less water, 702 01:07:15,523 --> 01:07:21,112 fewer pesticides, less fertilizer and emitting less carbon. 703 01:07:25,908 --> 01:07:27,118 Despite its size, 704 01:07:27,201 --> 01:07:32,665 the Netherlands is now the world's second largest exporter of food. 705 01:07:37,211 --> 01:07:43,176 It's entirely possible for us to apply both low-tech and hi-tech solutions 706 01:07:43,259 --> 01:07:46,929 to produce much more food from much less land. 707 01:07:49,140 --> 01:07:52,727 We can start to produce food in new spaces. 708 01:07:55,188 --> 01:07:58,107 Indoors, within cities. 709 01:08:01,444 --> 01:08:04,780 Even in places where there's no land at all. 710 01:08:18,502 --> 01:08:20,963 As we improve our approach to farming, 711 01:08:21,047 --> 01:08:25,176 we'll start to reverse the land-grab that we've been pursuing 712 01:08:25,259 --> 01:08:27,345 ever since we began to farm, 713 01:08:28,054 --> 01:08:34,143 which is essential because we have an urgent need for all that free land. 714 01:08:41,359 --> 01:08:46,405 Forests are a fundamental component of our planet's recovery. 715 01:08:48,032 --> 01:08:52,745 They are the best technology nature has for locking away carbon. 716 01:08:54,497 --> 01:08:57,416 And they are centers of biodiversity. 717 01:09:01,587 --> 01:09:04,590 Again, the two features work together. 718 01:09:05,132 --> 01:09:08,219 The wilder and more diverse forests are, 719 01:09:08,302 --> 01:09:12,765 the more effective they are at absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. 720 01:09:14,433 --> 01:09:19,188 We must immediately halt deforestation everywhere... 721 01:09:20,064 --> 01:09:26,737 and grow crops like oil palm and soya only on land that was deforested long ago. 722 01:09:27,863 --> 01:09:30,533 After all, there's plenty of it. 723 01:09:32,702 --> 01:09:34,829 But we can do better than that. 724 01:09:38,457 --> 01:09:44,171 A century ago, more than three quarters of Costa Rica was covered with forest. 725 01:09:51,887 --> 01:09:58,144 By the 1980s, uncontrolled logging had reduced this to just one quarter. 726 01:10:01,022 --> 01:10:02,982 The government decided to act, 727 01:10:03,065 --> 01:10:07,987 offering grants to land owners to replant native trees. 728 01:10:12,450 --> 01:10:14,577 In just 25 years, 729 01:10:14,660 --> 01:10:20,041 the forest has returned to cover half of Costa Rica once again. 730 01:10:20,708 --> 01:10:22,835 [birds chirping] 731 01:10:25,296 --> 01:10:29,508 Just imagine if we achieve this on a global scale. 732 01:10:32,219 --> 01:10:34,555 The return of the trees would absorb 733 01:10:34,639 --> 01:10:37,725 as much as two thirds of the carbon emissions 734 01:10:37,808 --> 01:10:41,937 that have been pumped into the atmosphere by our activities to date. 735 01:10:49,528 --> 01:10:51,238 With all these things, 736 01:10:51,822 --> 01:10:54,492 there is one overriding principle. 737 01:10:57,411 --> 01:11:02,750 Nature is our biggest ally and our greatest inspiration. 738 01:11:05,086 --> 01:11:09,090 We just have to do what nature has always done. 739 01:11:10,716 --> 01:11:14,970 It worked out the secret of life long ago. 740 01:11:20,851 --> 01:11:24,855 In this world, a species can only thrive... 741 01:11:26,273 --> 01:11:30,277 when everything else around it thrives, too. 742 01:11:36,242 --> 01:11:39,078 We can solve the problems we now face 743 01:11:39,161 --> 01:11:42,123 by embracing this reality. 744 01:11:44,792 --> 01:11:47,211 If we take care of nature, 745 01:11:48,713 --> 01:11:51,715 nature will take care of us. 746 01:11:54,510 --> 01:11:59,890 It's now time for our species to stop simply growing. 747 01:12:01,851 --> 01:12:07,189 To establish a life on our planet in balance with nature. 748 01:12:10,025 --> 01:12:12,528 To start to thrive. 749 01:12:15,948 --> 01:12:19,785 When you think about it, we're completing a journey. 750 01:12:21,328 --> 01:12:24,415 Ten thousand years ago, as hunter-gatherers, 751 01:12:25,124 --> 01:12:29,462 we lived a sustainable life because that was the only option. 752 01:12:30,504 --> 01:12:35,968 All these years later, it's once again the only option. 753 01:12:36,051 --> 01:12:38,345 We need to rediscover... 754 01:12:39,430 --> 01:12:41,056 how to be sustainable. 755 01:12:41,140 --> 01:12:45,060 To move from being apart from nature 756 01:12:45,144 --> 01:12:49,732 to becoming a part of nature once again. 757 01:12:54,862 --> 01:12:57,740 Tonight, we've got a rather different program for you. 758 01:13:00,618 --> 01:13:03,871 [Attenborough] If we can change the way we live on Earth, 759 01:13:04,872 --> 01:13:07,708 an alternative future comes into view. 760 01:13:11,295 --> 01:13:12,797 In this future, 761 01:13:13,380 --> 01:13:19,845 we discover ways to benefit from our land that help, rather than hinder, wilderness. 762 01:13:21,555 --> 01:13:27,520 Ways to fish our seas that enable them to come quickly back to life. 763 01:13:34,109 --> 01:13:38,614 And ways to harvest our forests sustainably. 764 01:13:42,243 --> 01:13:48,999 We will finally learn how to work with nature rather than against it. 765 01:13:51,669 --> 01:13:56,131 In the end, after a lifetime's exploration of the living world, 766 01:13:56,215 --> 01:13:58,509 I'm certain of one thing. 767 01:13:59,426 --> 01:14:02,388 This is not about saving our planet... 768 01:14:03,264 --> 01:14:05,849 it's about saving ourselves. 769 01:14:10,604 --> 01:14:16,944 The truth is, with or without us, the natural world will rebuild. 770 01:14:26,871 --> 01:14:31,125 In the 30 years since the evacuation of Chernobyl, 771 01:14:31,792 --> 01:14:35,421 the wild has reclaimed the space. 772 01:14:35,504 --> 01:14:37,339 [birds chirping] 773 01:14:46,682 --> 01:14:50,769 Today, the forest has taken over the city. 774 01:15:04,700 --> 01:15:09,413 It's a sanctuary for wild animals that are very rare elsewhere. 775 01:15:16,128 --> 01:15:21,175 And powerful evidence that however grave our mistakes, 776 01:15:21,258 --> 01:15:24,637 nature will ultimately overcome them. 777 01:15:29,141 --> 01:15:32,019 The living world will endure. 778 01:15:34,063 --> 01:15:37,816 We humans cannot presume the same. 779 01:15:40,653 --> 01:15:42,196 We've come this far 780 01:15:42,279 --> 01:15:46,116 because we are the smartest creatures that have ever lived. 781 01:15:50,871 --> 01:15:55,584 But to continue, we require more than intelligence. 782 01:15:57,628 --> 01:16:00,381 We require wisdom. 783 01:16:13,852 --> 01:16:18,315 There are many differences between humans and the rest of the species on earth, 784 01:16:18,899 --> 01:16:24,196 but one that has been expressed is that we alone are able to imagine the future. 785 01:16:25,531 --> 01:16:29,493 For a long time, I and perhaps you have dreaded that future. 786 01:16:30,494 --> 01:16:35,082 But it's now becoming apparent that it's not all doom and gloom. 787 01:16:36,166 --> 01:16:38,585 There's a chance for us to make amends, 788 01:16:39,336 --> 01:16:43,048 to complete our journey of development, manage our impact, 789 01:16:43,132 --> 01:16:47,803 and once again become a species in balance with nature. 790 01:16:48,887 --> 01:16:51,640 All we need is the will to do so. 791 01:16:52,141 --> 01:16:57,021 We now have the opportunity to create the perfect home for ourselves, 792 01:16:57,563 --> 01:17:03,610 and restore the rich, healthy, and wonderful world that we inherited. 793 01:17:04,945 --> 01:17:06,447 Just imagine that.