All language subtitles for Our Planet From The Air Home BBC 720p EN Sub

Listen to me. Please.

You're like me - a Homo sapiens.

A wise human.

Life.

A miracle in the universe appeared
around four billion years ago,

and we humans only
200,000 years ago.

Yet we have succeeded
in disrupting the balance

that is so essential to life.

Listen carefully to this
extraordinary story,

which is yours, and decide what you
want to do with it.

These are traces of our origins.

At the beginning, our planet was
no more than a chaos of fire,

a cloud of agglutinated
dust particles

similar to so many similar
clusters in the universe,

yet this was where the miracle
of life occurred.

Today, life, our life,

is just a link in a chain
of innumerable living beings

that have succeeded one another
on Earth

over nearly four billion years.

And even today, new volcanoes
continue to sculpt our landscapes.

They offer a glimpse of what
our Earth was like at its birth -

molten rock surging from the depths,

solidifying, cracking, blistering
or spreading in a thin crust

before falling dormant for a time.

These wreaths of smoke
curling from the bowels of the Earth

bear witness to the Earth's
original atmosphere,

an atmosphere devoid of oxygen.

A dense atmosphere,
thick with water vapour,

full of carbon dioxide.

A furnace.

The Earth cooled,

the water vapour condensed
and fell in torrential downpours

at the right distance from the sun.

Not too far, not too near.

The Earth's perfect balance enabled
it to conserve water

in liquid form.
The water cut channels.

They're like the veins of a body,

the branches of a tree,
the vessels of the sap

that the water gave to the Earth.

The rivers tore
minerals from the rocks

and gradually added them to
the fresh water of the oceans,

and the oceans became
heavy with salt.

Where do we come from?

Where did life first
spark into being?

A miracle of time.

Primitive life forms still exist in
the globe's hot springs.

They give them their colours.

They are called archaebacteria.

They all feed off the Earth's heat,

all except the cyanobacteria,

or blue-green algae.

They alone have the capacity
to turn to the sun

to capture its energy.

They are a vital ancestor

of all yesterday's
and today's plant species.

These tiny bacteria

and their billions of descendants

changed the destiny of our planet.

They transformed its atmosphere.

What happened to the carbon
that poisoned the atmosphere?

It's still here,
imprisoned in the Earth's crust.

Here, there once was a sea
inhabited by microorganisms.

They grew their shells by tapping
into carbon from the atmosphere

dissolved in the ocean.

These strata are
the accumulated shells

of those billions
and billions of microorganisms.

Thanks to them, the carbon
drained from the atmosphere

and other life forms could develop.

It is life that altered
the atmosphere.

Plant life fed off the sun's energy,

which enabled it to break apart
the water molecule

and take the oxygen,

and oxygen filled the air.

The Earth's water cycle is
a process of constant renewal -

waterfalls, water vapour,

clouds, rain,

springs, rivers,

seas, oceans, glaciers.

The cycle is never broken.

There's always the same
quantity of water on Earth.

All the successive species on Earth
have drunk the same water.

The astonishing matter
that is water.

One of the most unstable of all,

it takes a liquid
form as running water,

gaseous as vapour,

or solid as ice.

In Siberia, the frozen
surfaces of the lakes in winter

contain the traces of the forces
that water deploys when it freezes.

Lighter than water, the ice floats.

It forms a protective mantle
against the cold,

under which life can go on.

RUMBLING

The engine of life is linkage.
Everything is linked.

Nothing is self-sufficient.

Water and air are inseparable,

united in life,
and for our life on Earth.

Sharing is everything.

The green expanse peeking
through the clouds

is the source of oxygen in the air.

70% of this gas, without
which our lungs cannot function,

comes from the algae that tint
the surface of the oceans.

Our Earth relies on a balance

in which every being has
a role to play

and exists only through
the existence of another being,

a subtle, fragile harmony that is
easily shattered.

Thus, corals are born from
the marriage of algae and shells.

Coral reefs cover less
than 1% of the ocean floor,

but they provide a habitat
for thousands of species of fish,

molluscs and algae.

The equilibrium of every ocean
depends on it.

The Earth counts time...

in billions of years.

It took more than four billion
years for it to make trees.

In the chain of species,

trees are a pinnacle,
a perfect living sculpture.

Trees defy gravity.
They are the only natural element

in perpetual movement
toward the sky.

They grow unhurriedly toward the sun
that nourishes their foliage.

They have inherited,
from those miniscule cyanobacteria,

the power to capture light's energy.

They store it and feed off it,

turn it into wood and leaves

which then decompose
into a mixture of water, mineral,

vegetable and living matter.

And so, gradually,

soils are formed.

Soils teem with the incessant
activity of microorganisms,

feeding, digging, aerating...

and transforming.

They make the humus,
the fertile layer

to which all life on land is linked.

BIRDS SQUAWK

What do we know about life on Earth?

How many species are we aware of?

A tenth of them?

A hundredth, perhaps?

What do know about the bonds
that link them?

The Earth is a miracle.

Life remains a mystery.

Families of animals form,
united by customs

and rituals that are handed
down through the generations.

Some adapt to the nature
of their pasture,

and their pasture adapts to them.

And both gain.

The animal sates his hunger
and the tree can blossom again.

In the great adventure
of life on Earth,

every species has a role to play,
every species has its place.

None is futile or harmful.

They all balance out.

And that's where you, Homo sapiens,

wise human, enter the story.

You benefit from a fabulous
four-billion-year-old legacy,

bequeathed by the Earth.

You're only 200,000 years old,

but you have changed
the face of the world.

Despite your vulnerability, you have
taken possession of every habitat

and conquered swathes of territory,

like no other species before you.

After 180,000 nomadic years, and
thanks to a more clement climate,

humans settled down.

They no longer
depended on hunting for survival.

They chose to live in
wet environments

that abounded in fish,
game and wild plants -

there, where land,
water and life combine.

Even today,
the majority of humankind

lives on the continents' coastlines,
or the banks of rivers and lakes.

Across the planet,

one person in four lives as
humankind did 6,000 years ago -

their only energy, that which nature
provides, season after season.

It's the way of life of
1½ billion people,

more than the combined population
of all the wealthy nations.

But life expectancy is short,
and hard labour takes its toll.

The uncertainties of nature
weigh on daily life.

Education is a rare privilege.

Children are a family's only asset,
as long as every extra

pair of hands is a necessary
contribution to its subsistence.

Humanity's genius is to have always
had a sense of its weakness.

The physical energy and strength
with which nature insufficiently

endowed humans is found in animals

that help them to discover new
territories.

But how can you conquer the world
on an empty stomach?

The invention of agriculture
turned our history on end.

It was less than 10,000 years ago.

Agriculture was our first
great revolution.

It resulted in the first surpluses,

and gave birth to cities
and civilisations.

The memory of thousands of years
scrabbling for food faded.

Having made grain,
the yeast of life,

we multiplied
the number of varieties

and learned to adapt them to our
soils and climates.

We're like every species on Earth -

our principal daily concern is
to feed ourselves.

When the soil is less than generous

and the water becomes scarce,

we're able to deploy
prodigious efforts

to extract from the land
enough to live on.

Humans shaped the land with the
patience and devotion that the Earth

demands, in an almost sacrificial
ritual performed over and over.

Agriculture is still the world's
most widespread occupation.

Half of humankind tills the soil.

Over three-quarters of them by hand.

Agriculture is like a tradition
handed down

from generation to generation in
sweat, graft and toil.

Because, for humanity, it is
a prerequisite of survival.

But after relying on muscle
power for so long,

humankind found a way to
tap into the energy buried

deep in the Earth.

These flames are also from plants,

a pocket of sunlight, pure energy.

The energy of the sun,

captured over millions of years,
by millions of plants,

more than 100 million years ago.

It's coal, it's gas,
and, above all, it's oil.

This pocket of sunlight freed
humans from their toil on the land.

With oil began the era of humans

who break free
of the shackles of time.

With oil, some of us
acquired unprecedented comforts.

In 50 years, in a single lifetime,

the Earth has been more
radically changed

than by all previous
generations of humanity.

SIRENS WAIL

Faster and faster,
in the last 60 years,

the Earth's population has
almost tripled.

Over two billion people have
moved to the cities.

Faster and faster.
Shenzhen in China,

with its hundreds of skyscrapers
and millions of inhabitants,

was just a small fishing village

barely 40 years ago.

Faster and faster. In Shanghai,
3,000 towers and skyscrapers

have been built in 20 years.

Hundreds more are under
construction.

Today, over half of the world's
seven billion inhabitants

live in cities.

New York.

The world's first megalopolis

is a symbol of the exploitation
of the energy

the Earth supplies to human genius.

The manpower of millions
of immigrants, the energy of coal,

the unbridled power of oil.

MACHINE WHIRS

America was the first to
harness the phenomenal

revolutionary power of black gold.

In the fields,
machines replaced men.

A litre of oil
generates as much energy

as 100 pairs of hands in 24 hours.

In the United States,
only three million farmers are left.

They produce enough grain to
feed two billion people.

But most of that grain is not
used to feed people.

Here, and in all other
industrialised nations,

it's transformed into livestock feed

or biofuels.

The pocket of sunshine's energy

chased away the spectre of drought

that stalked farmland.

No spring escapes
the demands of agriculture,

which accounts for 70% of humanity's
water consumption.

In nature, everything is linked.

The expansion of cultivated land
and single-crop farming

encouraged the development
of parasites.

Pesticides, another gift
of the petrochemical revolution,

exterminated them.

Bad harvests
and famine became a distant memory.

The biggest headache now
was what to do

with the surpluses
engendered by modern agriculture.

But toxic pesticides
seeped into the air,

soil, plants, animals,
rivers and oceans.

They penetrated the heart of cells
similar to the mother cell

that is shared by all forms of life.

Are they harmful to the humans
that they released from hunger?

These farmers,
in their yellow protective suits

probably have a good idea.

Then came fertilisers,

another petrochemical discovery.

They produced unprecedented
results on plots of land

thus far ignored.

Crops adapted to soils and climates,

gave way to the most
productive varieties

and the easiest to transport.

In the last century,
three quarters of the varieties

developed by farmers over
thousands of years,

have been wiped out.

As far as the eye can see,

fertiliser below, plastic on top.

The greenhouses of Almeria in Spain

are Europe's vegetable garden.

A city of uniformly-sized vegetables

waits every day for the hundreds
of trucks that will take them

to the continent's supermarkets.

The more a country develops,

the more meat its inhabitants
consume.

How can growing worldwide demand

be satisfied without recourse to

concentration-camp style
cattle farms?

Faster and faster.
Like the life cycle of livestock,

which may never see a meadow.

Manufacturing meat faster
than the animal,

has become a daily routine.

In these vast food lots,

trampled by millions of cattle,

not a blade of grass grows.

A fleet of trucks from every
corner of the country

brings in tons of grain,
soymeal and protein-rich granules

that will become tons of meat.

The result is that it
takes 100 litres of water

to produce 1kg of potatoes,

4,000 litres for 1kg of rice.

And 13,000 litres for 1kg of beef,

not to mention the oil
guzzled in the production process

and transport.

Our agriculture has become
oil powered.

It feeds twice as many
humans on Earth

but has replaced diversity with
standardisation.

It has offered many of us
comforts we could only dream of.

But it makes our way of life
totally dependent on oil.

This is the new measure of time.

Our world's clock now
beats to the rhythm

of these indefatigable machines

tapping into the pocket of sunlight.

The whole planet is attentive to
these metronomes

of our hopes and illusions.

The same hopes
and illusions that proliferate,

along with our needs -

increasingly insatiable desires
and profligacy.

We know that the end of cheap
oil is imminent

but we refuse to believe it.

For many of us, the American dream
is embodied by a legendary name...

..Los Angeles.

In this city that stretches
over 100 kilometres,

the number of cars is almost
equal to the number of inhabitants.

Here, energy puts on a fantastic
show every night.

SIRENS WAIL

The days seem to be no more than
the pale reflection

of nights that turn the city
into a starry sky.

Faster and faster. Distances are no
longer counted in miles

but in minutes.

The automobile shapes new suburbs

where every home is a castle,

a safe distance from the asphyxiated
city centres

and where neat rows of houses

huddle round dead-end streets.

The model of a lucky few countries

has become a universal dream,

preached by televisions
all over the world.

Even here in Beijing,

it is cloned, copied and reproduced

in these formatted houses

that have wiped pagodas off the map.

The automobile has become
the symbol of comfort and progress.

If this model were
followed by every society,

the planet wouldn't
have 900 million vehicles,

as it does today,

but 5 billion.

Faster and faster.
The more the world develops,

the greater its thirst for energy.

Everywhere, machines dig ore and rip
from the Earth

the pieces of stars
buried in its depth

since its creation - minerals.

As a privilege of power,
80% of this mineral wealth

is consumed by 20% of the world's
population.

Before the end of this century,
excessive mining will have exhausted

nearly all the planet's reserves.

Faster and faster.

Shipyards churn out oil tankers,

container ships and gas tankers,

to cater for the demands
of globalised industrial production.

Most consumer goods travel
thousands of kilometres

from the country of production
to the country of consumption.

Since 1950,
the volume of international trade

has increased 20 times over.

90% of trade goes by sea.

500 million containers
are transported every year...

..headed for the world's major hubs
of consumption, such as Dubai.

Dubai is a sort of culmination
of the western model,

a country where the impossible
becomes possible,

building artificial
islands in the sea, for example.

Dubai has few natural resources.

But with the money from oil it can
bring millions of tons of material.

And workers
from all over the planet.

Dubai has no farmland
but it can import food.

Dubai has no water
but it can afford to expend immense

amounts of energy to
desalinate sea water

and build the highest
skyscrapers in the world.

Dubai has endless sun
but no solar panels.

It is a totem to total modernity
that never fails to amaze the world.

Dubai is like the new beacon
for all the world's money.

Nothing seems further
removed from nature than Dubai.

Although nothing depends on nature
more than Dubai.

Dubai is a sort of culmination
of the Western model.

We haven't understood that we're
depleting what nature provides.

Since 1950 fishing catches have
increased five-fold,

from 18 to 100 million
metric tons a year.

Thousands of factory ships
are emptying the oceans.

Three quarters of fishing
grounds are exhausted,

depleted or in danger of being so.

Most large fish have been
fished out of existence

since they have no time
to reproduce.

We are destroying the cycle
of a life that was given to us.

At the current rate, all fish stocks
are threatened with exhaustion.

Fish is the staple diet
of one in five humans.

We have forgotten that
resources are scarce.

500 million humans
live in the world's desert lands -

more than the combined
population of Europe.

They know the value of water.

They know how to use it sparingly.

Here, they depend on wells
replenished by fossil water,

which accumulated underground
in the days

when it rained on these deserts -

25,000 years ago.

Fossil water also enables crops to
be grown in the desert to

provide food for local populations.

The fields' circular shape derives
from the pipes that irrigate them

around a central pivot.

But there's a heavy price to pay.

Fossil water is
a non-renewable resource.

In Saudi Arabia,

the dream of industrial farming
in the desert has faded.

As if on a parchment map,

the light spots on this
patchwork show abandoned plots.

The irrigation equipment is
still there.

The energy to pump water, also.

But the fossil water
reserves are severely depleted.

Israel turned the desert
into arable land.

Even though these hothouses are now
irrigated drop by drop,

water consumption continues to
increase along with exports.

The once-mighty River Jordan
is now just a trickle.

Its water has flown to
supermarkets all over the world

in crates of fruit and vegetables.

The Jordan's fate is not unique.

Across the planet,
one major river in ten

no longer flows into the sea
for several months of the year.

Deprived of the Jordan's water,

the level of the Dead Sea goes down
by over one metre per year.

India risks being the country
that suffers most

from the lack of water
in the coming century.

Massive irrigation has fed
the growing population.

And in the last 50 years,
21 million wells have been dug.

In many parts of the country,

the drill has to sink ever deeper
to hit water.

In western India,
30% of wells have been abandoned.

The underground aquifers
are drying out.

Vast reservoirs will catch
the monsoon rains

to replenish the aquifers.

In dry season,
women from local villages dig them

with their bare hands.

Thousands of kilometres away,
800 to 1,000 litres of water

are consumed per person per day.

Las Vegas was built
out of the desert.

Millions of people live there.

Thousands more arrive every month.

The inhabitants of Las Vegas

are among the biggest
consumers of water in the world.

Palm Springs is another desert city
with tropical vegetation

and lush golf courses.

How long can this mirage
continue to prosper?

The Earth cannot keep up.

The Colorado River,
which brings water to these cities,

is one of those rivers that
no longer reaches the sea.

Water levels in the catchment lakes
along its course are plummeting.

Water shortages could affect nearly
two billion people before 2025.

The wetlands represent
6% of the surface of the planet.

Under their calm water lies
a veritable factory,

where plants and microorganisms
patiently filter the water

and digest all the pollution.

These marshes are indispensible
environments

for the regeneration
and purification of water.

They are sponges that regulate
the flow of water.

They absorb it in the wet season
and release it in the dry season.

In our race to conquer more land,

we have reclaimed them
as pasture for our livestock

or as land for agriculture
or building.

In the last century, half of
the world's marshes were drained.

We know neither their richness,
nor their role.

All living matter is linked -
water, air, soil, trees.

The world's magic is
right in front of our eyes.

Trees breathe ground water
into the atmosphere as light mist.

They form a canopy which alleviates
the impact of heavy rains.

The forests provide the humidity
that is necessary for life.

They store carbon, containing more
than all the Earth's atmosphere.

They are the cornerstone
of the climactic balance on which

we all depend.

The trees of the primary forest

provide a habitat for three-quarters
of the planet's biodiversity,

that's to say, of all life on Earth.

These forests provide
the remedies that cure us.

The substances secreted by these
plants can be

recognised by our bodies.

Our cells talk the same language,
we are of the same family.

But in barely 40 years, the world's
largest rainforest, the Amazon,

has been reduced by 20%.

The forest gives way to cattle
ranches, or soybean farms.

95% of these soybeans are used

to feed livestock and poultry in
Europe and Asia.

So, a forest is turned into meat.

Barely 20 years ago, Borneo,
the fourth largest

island in the world, was
covered by a vast primary forest.

At the current
rate of deforestation,

it will have totally
disappeared within ten years.

Living matter bonds water, air,
earth and the sun.

In Borneo, this bond has been
broken

in what was one of the Earth's
greatest reservoirs of biodiversity.

This catastrophe was provoked
by the decision to produce palm oil,

one of the most productive

and consumed oils in the world,
on Borneo.

Palm oil not only caters
to our growing demand for food,

but also cosmetics, detergents and,
increasingly, alternative fuels.

The forest diversity was replaced
by a single species, the oil palm.

For local people,
it provides employment,

it is an agricultural industry.

Another example of massive
deforestation is the eucalyptus.

Eucalyptus is used to make
paper pulp.

Plantations are growing, as demand
for paper has increased five fold

in 50 years.

One forest does not replace
another forest.

At the foot of these eucalyptus
trees, nothing grows because

their leaves form a bed which is
toxic for most other plants.

They grow quickly,
but exhaust water reserves.

Soybeans, palm oil,
eucalyptus trees -

deforestation destroys the essential
to provide the superfluous.

But elsewhere, deforestation is
a last resort to survive.

Over two billion people, almost
a third of the world's population,

still depend on charcoal.

In Haiti, one of the world's
poorest countries,

charcoal is one of the population's
main consumables.

Once the pearl of
the Caribbean, Haiti can no longer

feed its population
without foreign aid.

On the hills of Haiti,
only 2% of the forests are left.

Stripped bare,
nothing holds the soils back.

The rainwater washes them down the
hillsides as far as the sea.

What's left is increasingly
unsuitable for agriculture.

In some parts of Madagascar,
the erosion is spectacular.

Whole hillsides bear deep gashes
hundreds of metres wide.

Thin and fragile,
soil is made by living matter.

The erosion,
the fine layer of humus,

which took thousands of years to
form, disappears.

Here's one theory of the story
of the Rapa Nui, the inhabitants

of Easter Island, that could perhaps
give us pause for thought.

Living on the most isolated
island in the world, the Rapa Nui

exploited their resources
until there was nothing left.

Their civilisation did not survive.

On these lands stood the highest
palm trees in the world.

They have disappeared.

The Rapa Nui chopped them
all down for lumber.

They then had to face
widespread soil erosion.

The Rapa Nui could no longer
go fishing.

There were no trees to build
canoes.

And yet the Rapa Nui formed
one of the most brilliant

civilisations in the Pacific.

Innovative farmers, sculptors,
exceptional navigators -

they were caught in the vice
of overpopulation

and dwindling resources.

They experienced social unrest,
revolts and famine.

Many did not survive the cataclysm.

The real mystery of Easter Island
is not how its strange statues

got there - we know now - it's why
the Rapa Nui didn't react in time.

It's only one of a number
of theories,

but it has particular
relevance to us today.

Since 1950, the world's population
has almost tripled

and since 1950, we have more
fundamentally

altered our island, the Earth, than
in all of our 200,000-year history.

Nigeria is the biggest oil
exporter in Africa,

and yet 70% of the population lives
under the poverty line.

The wealth is there, but the
country's inhabitants

don't have access to it.

The same is true all over the globe.

Half the world's poor
live in resource-rich countries.

Our mode of development has not
fulfilled its promises.

In 50 years, the gap between rich
and poor has grown wider than ever.

Today, half the world's wealth

is in the hands of the richest
2% of the population.

Can such disparities be maintained?

They are the cause of population
movements whose scale

we have yet to fully realise.

The city of Lagos had
a population of 700,000 in 1960.

That will rise to 16 million
by 2025.

Lagos is one of the fastest-growing
megalopolises in the world.

The new arrivals are mostly famers,

forced off the land for economic
or demographic reasons,

or because of diminishing
resources.

This is a radically new
type of urban growth,

driven by the urge to survive
rather than to prosper.

Every week, over a million people

swell the populations of the
world's cities.

One human being in six now
lives in a precarious, unhealthy,

over-populated environment,

without access to
daily necessities such as water,

sanitation, electricity.

Hunger is spreading once more.

It affects nearly one billion
people.

BIRDS CAW

All over the planet, the poor
scrabble to survive on scraps

while we continue to dig
for resources

that we can no longer live without.

We look farther and farther afield,
in previously unspoilt territory

and in regions that are increasingly
difficult to exploit.

We're not changing our model.

Oil might run out.

We can still extract
oil from the tar sands of Canada.

The biggest trucks in the world move
thousands of tons of sand.

The process of heating
and separating bitumen from the sand

requires millions of cubic metres
of water.

Colossal amounts of energy
are needed.

The pollution is catastrophic.

The most urgent priority,
apparently,

is to pick every pocket of sunlight.

Our oil tankers are getting bigger
and bigger,

our energy requirements
are constantly increasing.

We try to power
growth like a bottomless oven

that demands more and more fuel.

It's all about carbon.

In a few decades, the carbon that
made our atmosphere a furnace,

and that nature captured over
millions of years,

allowing life to develop,

will have largely been
pumped back out.

The atmosphere is heating up.

It would have been inconceivable for
a boat to be here

just a few years ago.

Transport, industry,
deforestation, agriculture -

our activities release gigantic
quantities of carbon dioxide.

Without realising it,
molecule by molecule,

we have upset the Earth's
climatic balance.

All eyes are on the Poles...

where the effects of global
warming are most visible.

It's happening fast, very fast.

The Northwest Passage that connects
America, Europe and Asia

via the Pole is opening up.

The Arctic ice cap is melting.

Under the effect of global warming,

the ice cap has lost
40% of its thickness in 40 years.

Its surface area in the summer
shrinks year by year.

It could disappear in the summer
months by 2030,

some say 2015.

The sunbeams that the ice sheet
previously reflected back

now penetrate the dark water,
heating it up.

The warming process gathers pace.

This ice contains the records
of our planet.

The concentration of carbon dioxide
hasn't been so high

for several hundred thousand years.

Humanity has never
lived in an atmosphere like this.

Is excessive
exploitation of our resources

threatening the lives of every
species?

Climate change accentuates
the threat.

By 2050,
a quarter of the Earth's species

could be threatened with extinction.

In these polar regions,

the balance of nature has already
been disrupted.

Around the North Pole,
the ice cap has lost

30% of its surface area in 30 years.

But as Greenland rapidly
becomes warmer,

the freshwater of the whole
continent

flows into the saltwater
of the oceans.

Greenland's ice contains 20% of the
freshwater of the whole planet.

If it melts, sea levels will
rise by nearly seven metres.

RUMBLING

But there is no industry here.

Greenland's ice sheets suffers
from greenhouse gases

emitted elsewhere on Earth.

Our ecosystem doesn't have borders.

Wherever we are, our actions have
repercussions on the whole Earth.

The atmosphere of our planet is
an indivisible hole -

it is an asset we share.

On Greenland's surface, lakes are
appearing on the landscape.

The ice cap has begun to melt
at a speed

that even the most pessimistic
scientists

did not envision ten years ago.

More and more of these glacier-fed
rivers are merging together

and burrowing through the surface.

It was thought the water would
freeze in the depths of the ice.

On the contrary,
it flows under the ice,

carrying the ice sheet into the sea,
where it breaks into icebergs.

As the freshwater of Greenland's
ice sheet gradually seeps

into the saltwater of the oceans,

low-lying lands around the globe
are threatened.

Sea levels are rising.

Water expanding as it gets warmer,
caused, in the 20th century alone,

a rise of 20cm.

Everything becomes unstable.

Coral reefs, for example, are
extremely sensitive

to the slightest change in water
temperature.

30% have disappeared.

They are an essential
chain of species.

In the atmosphere, the major
wind streams are changing direction.

Rain cycles are altered.

The geography of climates
is modified.

The inhabitants of low-lying islands
here in the Maldives, for example,

are on the front line.

They are increasingly concerned.

Some are already looking for new,
more hospitable lands.

If sea levels continue to rise
faster and faster,

what will major cities like Tokyo,
the world's most populous city, do?

Every year, scientist predictions
become more and more alarming.

70% of the world's population
lives on costal plains.

11 of the 15 biggest cities stand
on a coastline or river estuary.

As the seas rise, salt will invade
the water table,

depriving inhabitants
of drinking water.

Migratory phenomena are inevitable.

The only uncertainty
concerns their scale.

In Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro is
unrecognisable.

80% of its glaciers have
disappeared.

In summer,
the rivers no longer flow.

Local peoples are affected
by the lack of water.

Even on the world's highest
peaks in the heart of the Himalayas,

eternal snows
and glaciers are receding.

Yet these glaciers plan an essential
role in the water cycle.

They trap the water
from the monsoons as ice

and release it in the summer
when the snow melts.

The glaciers of the Himalayas

are the source of all the great
Asian rivers -

the Indus, Ganges, Mekong,
Xiangjiang.

Two billion people depend on them
for drinking water

and to irrigate their crops,
as in Bangladesh.

On the delta of the Ganges,
in Brahmaputra,

Bangladesh is directly affected by
the phenomena incurring

in the Himalayas and at sea level.

This is one of the most populous
and poorest countries in the world.

It is already hit by global warming.

The combined impact of increasingly
dramatic floods and hurricanes

could make a third
of its landmass disappear.

When populations are subjected to
these devastating phenomena,

they eventually move away.

Wealthy countries will not
be spared.

Droughts are occurring all over
the planet.

In Australia, half of farmland is
already affected.

We are in the process of
compromising the climactic balance

that has allowed us
to develop over 12,000 years.

More and more wildfires
encroach on major cities.

In turn,
they exacerbate global warming -

as the trees burn,
they release carbon dioxide.

This system that controls our
climate has been severely disrupted.

The elements on which it relies
have been disrupted.

The clock of climate change
is ticking

in these magnificent landscapes.

Here in Siberia,
and elsewhere across the globe,

it is so cold that the ground is
constantly frozen.

It's known as permafrost.

Under its surface lies a climactic
time bomb - methane,

a greenhouse gas 20 times more
powerful than carbon dioxide.

If the permafrost melts,

the methane released would
cause the greenhouse effect

to race out of control with
consequences no-one can predict.

We would literally
be in unknown territory.

Humanity has no more than ten years
to reverse the trend

and avoid crossing into this
territory -

life on Earth as we have
never known it.

We have created phenomena
we cannot control.

Since our origins,

water, air and forms of life are
intimately linked.

But recently we have
broken those links.

Let's face the facts -
we must believe what we know.

All that we have just seen is
a reflection of human behaviour.

We have shaped the Earth
in our image.

We have very little time to change.

How can this century carry the
burden of nine billion human beings

if we refuse to be called to account
for everything we alone have done?

The cost of our actions is high.

Others pay the price without
having been actively involved.

I have seen refugee camps as big
as cities, sprawling in the desert.

How many men, woman and children

will be left by the wayside
tomorrow?

Must we always build walls to break
the chain of human solidarity,

separate peoples and protect
the happiness of some

from the misery of others?

It's too late to be a pessimist.

I know that a single human
can knock down every wall.

It's too late to be a pessimist.

Worldwide, four children
out of five attend school.

Never has learning been given to
so many human beings.

Everyone, from richest to poorest,
can make a contribution.

Lesotho, one of the world's poorest
countries, is proportionally

the one that invests
most in its people's education.

Qatar,
one of the world's richest states,

has opened its doors to the best
universities.

Culture, education,

research and innovation
are inexhaustible resources.

In the face of misery and suffering,

millions of NGOs prove that
solidarity between peoples is

stronger than
the selfishness of nations.

Bangladesh,
a man thought the unthinkable

and founded a bank that lends
only to the poor.

In 30 years, it has changed
the lives of 150 million people.

Antarctica is a continent with
immense natural resources

that no country
can claim for itself.

A natural reserve devoted to peace
and science.

A treaty signed by 49 states
has made it a treasure

shared by all humanity.
It's too late to be a pessimist.

Governments have acted to protect
nearly 2% of the world's

territorial waters.

It's not much, but it's two times
more than ten years ago.

The first natural parks were created
just over a century ago.

They cover over
13% of the continents.

They create spaces where human
activity is in step with

the preservation of species,
soils and landscapes.

This harmony between humans
and nature can become the rule,

no longer the exception.

In the United States, New York has
realised what nature does for us.

These forests and lakes supply all
the drinking water the city needs.

In South Korea, the forests
have been devastated by war.

Thanks to a national
reforestation programme,

they once more
cover 65% of the country.

More than 75% of paper is recycled.

Costa Rica has made
a choice between military spending

and the conservation of its lands.
The country no longer has an army.

It prefers to devote its resources
to education, ecotourism

and the protection
of its primary forest.

Gabon is one of the world's
leading producers of wood.

It enforces selective logging - not
more than one tree every hectare.

Its forests are one of the country's
most important economic resources,

but they have the time
to regenerate.

Programmes exist that guarantee
sustainable forest management.

They must become mandatory.

For consumers and producers, justice
is an opportunity to be seized.

When trade is fair,
when both buyer and seller benefit,

everybody can prosper
and earn a decent living.

How can there be justice and equity
between people whose only tools are

their hands, and those who
harvest their crops with a machine

and state subsidies?

Let's be responsible consumers.
Think about what we buy.

It's too late to be a pessimist.

I've seen agriculture on a human
scale. It can feed the whole planet,

if meat production doesn't take
the food out of people's mouths.

I've seen fishermen who take
care what they catch

and care for the riches
of the ocean.

I have seen houses
producing their own energy.

5,000 people live in the world's
first-ever ecofriendly

district in Freiburg, Germany.
Other cities partner the project.

Mumbai is the 1,000th to join them.

The governments of New Zealand,
Iceland, Austria, Sweden

and other nations have made
the development of renewable

energy sources a top priority.

I know that 80% of the
energy we consume

comes from fossil energy sources.
Every week,

two new coal-fired generating plants
are built in China alone, but I have

also seen, in Denmark, a prototype
of a coal-fired plant that

releases its carbon into the soil
rather than the air.

A solution for the future?
Nobody knows yet.

I have seen, in Iceland,
an electricity plant

powered by the Earth's heat.
Geothermal power.

I have seen a sea snake
lying on the swell to absorb

the energy of the waves
and produce electricity.

I have seen wind farms off the coast
of Denmark that

produce 20% of the country's
electricity.

The USA, China, India, Germany

and Spain are the biggest
investors in renewable energy.

They've already created
over 2.5 million jobs.

Where on Earth doesn't
the wind blow?

I have seen desert expanses
baking in the sun.

Everything on Earth is linked,
and the Earth is linked to the sun,

its original energy source.

Can humans not imitate plants
and capture its energy?

In one hour,
the sun gives the Earth the same

amount of energy as that consumed
by all humanity in one year.

As long as the Earth exists, the
sun's energy will be inexhaustible.

All we have to do is stop
drilling the earth

and start looking to the sky.

All we have to do is learn to
cultivate the sun.

All these experiments are only
examples,

but they testify to a new awareness.

They lay down markers for a new
human adventure,

based on moderation,
intelligence and sharing.

It's time to come together.

What's important is not what's gone,
but what remains.

We still have half the world's
forests, thousands of rivers,

lakes and glaciers,
and thousands of thriving species.

We know that the
solutions are there today.

We all have the power to change.

So, what are we waiting for?