1 00:01:30,173 --> 00:01:32,716 Listen to me, please. 2 00:01:32,801 --> 00:01:36,762 You're like me, a Homo sapiens. 3 00:01:36,846 --> 00:01:39,181 A wise human. 4 00:01:39,265 --> 00:01:42,309 Life, a miracle in the universe, 5 00:01:42,393 --> 00:01:45,604 appeared around four billion years ago, 6 00:01:45,688 --> 00:01:49,608 and we humans only 200,000 years ago. 7 00:01:49,692 --> 00:01:52,528 Yet we have succeeded in disrupting the balance... 8 00:01:52,612 --> 00:01:55,781 that is so essential to life on Earth. 9 00:01:55,865 --> 00:01:59,785 Listen carefully to this extraordinary story, which is yours, 10 00:01:59,869 --> 00:02:03,038 and decide what you want to do with it. 11 00:02:30,316 --> 00:02:33,277 These are traces of our origins. 12 00:02:33,361 --> 00:02:37,531 At the beginning, our planet was no more than a chaos of fire, 13 00:02:37,615 --> 00:02:40,993 formed in the wake of its star, the sun. 14 00:02:41,077 --> 00:02:43,912 A cloud of agglutinated dust particles, 15 00:02:43,997 --> 00:02:48,500 similar to so many similar clusters in the universe. 16 00:02:48,585 --> 00:02:51,837 Yet this was where the miracle of life occurred. 17 00:03:56,361 --> 00:03:59,154 Today, life� our life� 18 00:03:59,239 --> 00:04:02,699 is just a link in a chain of innumerable living beings... 19 00:04:02,784 --> 00:04:08,163 that have succeeded one another on Earth over nearly four billion years. 20 00:04:08,248 --> 00:04:13,585 And even today, new volcanoes continue to sculpt our landscapes. 21 00:04:13,670 --> 00:04:17,547 They offer a glimpse of what our Earth was like at its birth� 22 00:04:17,632 --> 00:04:20,259 molten rock surging from the depths, 23 00:04:20,343 --> 00:04:22,594 solidifying, cracking, 24 00:04:22,679 --> 00:04:25,597 blistering or spreading in a thin crust, 25 00:04:25,682 --> 00:04:28,350 before falling dormant for a time. 26 00:04:42,282 --> 00:04:46,285 These wreaths of smoke curling from the bowels of the Earth... 27 00:04:46,369 --> 00:04:49,788 bear witness to the Earth's original atmosphere. 28 00:04:49,872 --> 00:04:52,791 An atmosphere devoid of oxygen. 29 00:04:54,252 --> 00:04:57,004 A dense atmosphere, thick with water vapor, 30 00:04:57,088 --> 00:04:59,548 full of carbon dioxide. 31 00:05:03,428 --> 00:05:05,429 A furnace. 32 00:05:15,732 --> 00:05:20,986 But the Earth had an exceptional future, offered to it by water. 33 00:05:21,070 --> 00:05:25,490 At the right distance from the sun� not too far, not too near� 34 00:05:25,575 --> 00:05:29,619 the Earth was able to conserve water in liquid form. 35 00:05:31,581 --> 00:05:36,585 Water vapor condensed and fell in torrential downpours on Earth, 36 00:05:36,669 --> 00:05:38,670 and rivers appeared. 37 00:05:49,932 --> 00:05:52,642 The rivers shaped the surface of the Earth, 38 00:05:52,727 --> 00:05:54,853 cutting their channels, 39 00:05:54,937 --> 00:05:56,980 furrowing out valleys. 40 00:05:57,065 --> 00:06:00,984 They ran toward the lowest places on the globe to form the oceans. 41 00:06:03,446 --> 00:06:05,364 They tore minerals from the rocks, 42 00:06:05,448 --> 00:06:08,075 and gradually the freshwater of the oceans... 43 00:06:08,159 --> 00:06:10,327 became heavy with salt. 44 00:06:18,711 --> 00:06:21,171 Water is a vital liquid. 45 00:06:21,255 --> 00:06:24,174 It irrigated these sterile expanses. 46 00:06:24,258 --> 00:06:27,386 The paths it traced are like the veins of a body, 47 00:06:27,470 --> 00:06:32,307 the branches of a tree, the vessels of the sap that it brought to the Earth. 48 00:07:11,806 --> 00:07:13,932 Nearly four billion years later, 49 00:07:14,016 --> 00:07:17,352 somewhere on Earth can still be found these works of art, 50 00:07:17,437 --> 00:07:22,524 left by the volcanoes' ash, mixed with water from Iceland's glaciers. 51 00:07:39,208 --> 00:07:42,127 There they are� matter and water, 52 00:07:42,211 --> 00:07:44,171 water and matter� 53 00:07:44,255 --> 00:07:50,177 soft and hard combined, the crucial alliance shared by every life-form on our planet. 54 00:08:05,943 --> 00:08:09,446 Minerals and metals are even older than the Earth. 55 00:08:09,530 --> 00:08:11,531 They are stardust. 56 00:08:11,616 --> 00:08:13,867 They provide the Earth's colors. 57 00:08:21,250 --> 00:08:25,420 Red from iron, black from carbon, 58 00:08:25,505 --> 00:08:29,090 blue from copper, yellow from sulfur. 59 00:08:55,117 --> 00:08:57,285 Where do we come from? 60 00:08:57,370 --> 00:09:00,038 Where did life first spark into being? 61 00:09:01,832 --> 00:09:03,750 A miracle of time, 62 00:09:03,834 --> 00:09:07,963 primitive life-forms still exist in the globe's hot springs. 63 00:09:09,173 --> 00:09:11,758 They give them their colors. 64 00:09:11,842 --> 00:09:14,302 They're called archaeobacteria. 65 00:09:21,060 --> 00:09:23,228 They all feed off the Earth's heat� 66 00:09:23,312 --> 00:09:28,316 all except the cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae. 67 00:09:31,737 --> 00:09:36,783 They alone have the capacity to turn to the sun to capture its energy. 68 00:09:41,163 --> 00:09:46,835 They are a vital ancestor of all yesterday's and today's plant species. 69 00:09:48,296 --> 00:09:50,380 These tiny bacteria... 70 00:09:50,464 --> 00:09:52,674 and their billions of descendants... 71 00:09:52,758 --> 00:09:56,094 changed the destiny of our planet. 72 00:09:56,178 --> 00:09:59,014 They transformed its atmosphere. 73 00:10:04,687 --> 00:10:08,273 What happened to the carbon that poisoned the atmosphere? 74 00:10:08,357 --> 00:10:12,527 It's still here, imprisoned in the Earth's crust. 75 00:10:12,612 --> 00:10:14,904 We can read this chapter of the Earth's history... 76 00:10:14,989 --> 00:10:18,783 nowhere better than on the walls of Colorado's Grand Canyon. 77 00:10:18,868 --> 00:10:22,704 They reveal nearly two billion years of the Earth's history. 78 00:10:22,788 --> 00:10:27,709 Once upon a time, the Grand Canyon was a sea inhabited by microorganisms. 79 00:10:27,793 --> 00:10:32,297 They grew their shells by tapping into carbon from the atmosphere... 80 00:10:32,381 --> 00:10:34,633 dissolved in the ocean. 81 00:10:34,717 --> 00:10:37,552 When they died, the shells sank... 82 00:10:37,637 --> 00:10:40,221 and accumulated on the seabed. 83 00:10:41,849 --> 00:10:46,645 These strata are the product of those billions and billions of shells. 84 00:10:55,655 --> 00:10:59,616 Thanks to them, the carbon drained from the atmosphere, 85 00:10:59,700 --> 00:11:02,077 and other life-forms could develop. 86 00:11:16,425 --> 00:11:19,594 It is life that altered the atmosphere. 87 00:11:19,679 --> 00:11:23,056 Plant life fed off the sun's energy, 88 00:11:23,140 --> 00:11:25,725 which enabled it to break apart the water molecule... 89 00:11:25,810 --> 00:11:27,727 and take the oxygen. 90 00:11:27,812 --> 00:11:30,689 And oxygen filled the air. 91 00:11:41,701 --> 00:11:45,578 The Earth's water cycle is a process of constant renewal. 92 00:11:45,663 --> 00:11:48,623 Waterfalls, water vapor, 93 00:11:48,708 --> 00:11:52,293 clouds, rain, springs, 94 00:11:52,378 --> 00:11:57,632 rivers, seas, oceans, glaciers. 95 00:11:57,717 --> 00:11:59,718 The cycle is never broken. 96 00:11:59,802 --> 00:12:03,388 There's always the same quantity of water on Earth. 97 00:12:03,472 --> 00:12:08,560 All the successive species on Earth have drunk the same water. 98 00:12:09,812 --> 00:12:12,897 The astonishing matter that is water. 99 00:12:12,982 --> 00:12:15,191 One of the most unstable of all. 100 00:12:15,276 --> 00:12:17,777 It takes a liquid form as running water, 101 00:12:17,862 --> 00:12:19,779 gaseous as vapor... 102 00:12:19,864 --> 00:12:22,532 or solid as ice. 103 00:12:30,916 --> 00:12:35,086 In Siberia, the frozen surfaces of the lakes in winter... 104 00:12:35,171 --> 00:12:40,717 contain the traces of the forces that water deploys when it freezes. 105 00:12:40,801 --> 00:12:43,219 Lighter than water, the ice floats, 106 00:12:43,304 --> 00:12:45,430 rather than sinking to the bottom. 107 00:12:45,514 --> 00:12:48,683 It forms a protective mantle against the cold, 108 00:12:48,768 --> 00:12:51,019 under which life can go on. 109 00:13:33,854 --> 00:13:37,148 The engine of life is linkage. 110 00:13:37,233 --> 00:13:39,317 Everything is linked. 111 00:13:39,401 --> 00:13:41,861 Nothing is self-sufficient. 112 00:13:41,946 --> 00:13:44,155 Water and air are inseparable, 113 00:13:44,240 --> 00:13:48,159 united in life and for our life on Earth. 114 00:13:53,249 --> 00:13:58,795 Thus, clouds form over the oceans and bring rain to the landmasses, 115 00:13:58,879 --> 00:14:02,006 whose rivers carry water back to the oceans. 116 00:14:02,091 --> 00:14:04,467 Sharing is everything. 117 00:14:12,852 --> 00:14:18,690 The green expanse peeking through the clouds is the source of oxygen in the air. 118 00:14:18,774 --> 00:14:23,862 Seventy percent of this gas, without which our lungs cannot function, 119 00:14:23,946 --> 00:14:28,241 comes from the algae that tint the surface of the oceans. 120 00:14:29,910 --> 00:14:32,871 Our Earth relies on a balance... 121 00:14:32,955 --> 00:14:35,707 in which every being has a role to play... 122 00:14:35,791 --> 00:14:39,752 and exists only through the existence of another being. 123 00:14:39,837 --> 00:14:45,717 A subtle, fragile harmony that is easily shattered. 124 00:14:45,801 --> 00:14:51,014 Thus, corals are born from the marriage of algae and shells. 125 00:14:51,098 --> 00:14:54,726 The Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of Australia, 126 00:14:54,810 --> 00:14:58,855 stretches over 350,000 square kilometers... 127 00:14:58,939 --> 00:15:02,734 and is home to 1,500 species of fish, 128 00:15:02,818 --> 00:15:05,236 4,000 species of mollusks... 129 00:15:05,321 --> 00:15:08,406 and 400 species of coral. 130 00:15:08,490 --> 00:15:13,119 The equilibrium of every ocean depends on these corals. 131 00:15:34,475 --> 00:15:38,895 The Earth counts time in billions of years. 132 00:15:38,979 --> 00:15:43,107 It took more than four billion years for it to make trees. 133 00:15:46,612 --> 00:15:48,655 In the chain of species, 134 00:15:48,739 --> 00:15:50,782 trees are a pinnacle, 135 00:15:50,866 --> 00:15:53,952 a perfect living sculpture. 136 00:15:54,036 --> 00:15:56,079 Trees defy gravity. 137 00:15:56,163 --> 00:16:02,001 They are the only natural element in perpetual movement toward the sky. 138 00:16:02,086 --> 00:16:07,048 They grow unhurriedly toward the sun that nourishes their foliage. 139 00:16:27,736 --> 00:16:31,698 They have inherited from those minuscule cyanobacteria... 140 00:16:31,782 --> 00:16:35,034 the power to capture light's energy. 141 00:16:35,119 --> 00:16:38,246 They store it and feed off it, 142 00:16:38,330 --> 00:16:40,957 turning it into wood and leaves, 143 00:16:41,041 --> 00:16:44,335 which then decompose into a mixture of water, 144 00:16:44,420 --> 00:16:47,922 mineral, vegetable and living matter. 145 00:16:48,966 --> 00:16:51,009 And so, gradually, 146 00:16:51,093 --> 00:16:55,763 the soils that are indispensable to life are formed. 147 00:17:04,064 --> 00:17:07,275 Soils are the factory of biodiversity. 148 00:17:08,610 --> 00:17:11,070 They are a world of incessant activity... 149 00:17:11,155 --> 00:17:16,200 where microorganisms feed, dig, aerate and transform. 150 00:17:16,285 --> 00:17:21,956 They make the humus, the fertile layer to which all life on land is linked. 151 00:17:41,643 --> 00:17:44,771 What do we know about life on Earth? 152 00:17:44,855 --> 00:17:47,106 How many species are we aware of? 153 00:17:47,191 --> 00:17:50,777 A 10th of them? A hundredth perhaps? 154 00:17:50,861 --> 00:17:53,905 What do we know about the bonds that link them? 155 00:17:55,908 --> 00:17:58,284 The Earth is a miracle. 156 00:17:58,368 --> 00:18:00,411 Life remains a mystery. 157 00:18:20,182 --> 00:18:22,100 Families of animals form, 158 00:18:22,184 --> 00:18:26,270 united by customs and rituals that survive today. 159 00:18:47,334 --> 00:18:50,628 Some adapt to the nature of their pasture, 160 00:18:50,712 --> 00:18:53,464 and their pasture adapts to them. 161 00:18:53,549 --> 00:18:55,508 And both gain. 162 00:18:55,592 --> 00:18:59,804 The animal sates its hunger, and the tree can blossom again. 163 00:19:41,930 --> 00:19:44,640 In the great adventure of life on Earth, 164 00:19:44,725 --> 00:19:46,934 every species has a role to play, 165 00:19:47,019 --> 00:19:49,562 every species has its place. 166 00:19:50,814 --> 00:19:53,608 None is futile or harmful. 167 00:19:53,692 --> 00:19:56,527 They all balance out. 168 00:20:11,168 --> 00:20:13,211 And that's where you, 169 00:20:13,295 --> 00:20:16,214 Homo sapiens� "wise human"� 170 00:20:16,298 --> 00:20:18,341 enter the story. 171 00:20:19,468 --> 00:20:22,178 You benefit from a fabulous... 172 00:20:22,262 --> 00:20:26,974 four-billion-year-old legacy bequeathed by the Earth. 173 00:20:33,482 --> 00:20:36,275 You're only 200,000 years old, 174 00:20:36,360 --> 00:20:39,278 but you have changed the face of the world. 175 00:20:41,281 --> 00:20:43,282 Despite your vulnerability, 176 00:20:43,367 --> 00:20:46,244 you have taken possession of every habitat... 177 00:20:46,328 --> 00:20:49,121 and conquered swaths of territory... 178 00:20:49,206 --> 00:20:51,874 like no other species before you. 179 00:21:04,554 --> 00:21:07,682 After 180,000 nomadic years, 180 00:21:07,766 --> 00:21:11,644 and thanks to a more clement climate, humans settled down. 181 00:21:11,728 --> 00:21:15,731 They no longer depended on hunting for survival. 182 00:21:15,816 --> 00:21:17,900 They chose to live in wet environments... 183 00:21:17,985 --> 00:21:22,238 that abounded in fish, game and wild plants. 184 00:21:22,322 --> 00:21:25,908 There, where land, water and life combine. 185 00:21:35,043 --> 00:21:38,421 Human genius inspired them to build canoes, 186 00:21:39,548 --> 00:21:43,050 an invention that opened up new horizons... 187 00:21:43,135 --> 00:21:46,387 and turned humans into navigators. 188 00:22:17,919 --> 00:22:21,422 Even today, the majority of humankind... 189 00:22:21,506 --> 00:22:23,424 lives on the continents' coastlines... 190 00:22:23,508 --> 00:22:26,177 or the banks of rivers and lakes. 191 00:23:00,921 --> 00:23:05,841 The first towns grew up less than 600 years ago. 192 00:23:05,926 --> 00:23:09,720 It was a considerable leap in human history. 193 00:23:09,805 --> 00:23:14,892 Why towns? Because they allowed humans to defend themselves more easily. 194 00:23:14,976 --> 00:23:17,019 They became social beings, 195 00:23:17,104 --> 00:23:19,730 meeting and sharing knowledge and crafts, 196 00:23:19,815 --> 00:23:22,608 blending their similarities and differences. 197 00:23:22,692 --> 00:23:26,112 In a word, they became civilized. 198 00:24:10,449 --> 00:24:14,660 But the only energy at their disposal was provided by nature... 199 00:24:14,744 --> 00:24:17,455 and the strength of their bodies. 200 00:24:17,539 --> 00:24:21,625 It was the story of humankind for thousands of years. 201 00:24:21,710 --> 00:24:25,171 It still is for one person in four� 202 00:24:25,255 --> 00:24:28,299 over one and a half billion human beings� 203 00:24:28,383 --> 00:24:32,970 more than the combined population of all the wealthy nations. 204 00:24:47,569 --> 00:24:51,280 Taking from the Earth only the strictly necessary. 205 00:24:51,364 --> 00:24:55,367 For a long time, the relationship between humans and the planet... 206 00:24:55,452 --> 00:24:57,495 was evenly balanced. 207 00:24:57,579 --> 00:25:03,250 For a long time, the economy seemed like a natural and equitable alliance. 208 00:25:18,225 --> 00:25:23,521 But life expectancy is short, and hard labor takes its toll. 209 00:25:23,605 --> 00:25:28,025 The uncertainties of nature weigh on daily life. 210 00:25:28,109 --> 00:25:31,654 Education is a rare privilege. 211 00:25:31,738 --> 00:25:35,157 Children are a family's only asset, 212 00:25:35,242 --> 00:25:37,493 as long as every extra pair of hands... 213 00:25:37,577 --> 00:25:41,247 is a necessary contribution to its subsistence. 214 00:25:51,716 --> 00:25:55,219 The Earth feeds people, clothes them... 215 00:25:55,303 --> 00:25:57,221 and provides for their daily needs. 216 00:25:57,305 --> 00:26:00,182 Everything comes from the Earth. 217 00:26:08,316 --> 00:26:12,820 Towns change humanity's nature, as well as its destiny. 218 00:26:12,904 --> 00:26:16,657 The farmer becomes a craftsman, trader or peddler. 219 00:26:21,454 --> 00:26:27,251 What the Earth gives the farmer, the city dweller buys, sells or barters. 220 00:26:27,335 --> 00:26:29,545 Goods change hands, 221 00:26:29,629 --> 00:26:31,630 along with ideas. 222 00:26:46,980 --> 00:26:51,942 Humanity's genius is to have always had a sense of its weakness. 223 00:26:52,027 --> 00:26:55,487 Humans tried to extend the frontiers of their territory, 224 00:26:55,572 --> 00:26:57,531 but they knew their limits. 225 00:26:57,616 --> 00:27:02,161 The physical energy and strength with which nature had not endowed them... 226 00:27:02,245 --> 00:27:05,914 was found in the animals they domesticated to serve them. 227 00:27:23,099 --> 00:27:27,686 But how can you conquer the world on an empty stomach? 228 00:27:27,771 --> 00:27:30,022 The invention of agriculture... 229 00:27:30,106 --> 00:27:34,652 transformed the future of the wild animals scavenging for food... 230 00:27:34,736 --> 00:27:36,695 that were humankind. 231 00:27:37,906 --> 00:27:41,992 Agriculture turned their history on end. 232 00:27:42,077 --> 00:27:46,080 Agriculture was their first great revolution. 233 00:27:46,164 --> 00:27:49,500 Developed barely 8,000 to 10,000 years ago, 234 00:27:49,584 --> 00:27:52,419 it changed their relationship to nature. 235 00:27:59,761 --> 00:28:03,681 It brought an end to the uncertainty of hunting and gathering. 236 00:28:03,765 --> 00:28:06,767 It resulted in the first surpluses... 237 00:28:06,851 --> 00:28:09,561 and gave birth to cities and civilizations. 238 00:28:15,026 --> 00:28:17,152 For their agriculture, 239 00:28:17,237 --> 00:28:20,989 humans harnessed the energy of animal species and plant life, 240 00:28:21,074 --> 00:28:24,076 from which they at last extracted the profits. 241 00:28:24,160 --> 00:28:29,039 The memory of thousands of years scrabbling for food faded. 242 00:28:29,124 --> 00:28:32,501 They learned to adapt the grains that are the yeast of life... 243 00:28:32,585 --> 00:28:35,504 to different soils and climates. 244 00:28:35,588 --> 00:28:40,509 They learned to increase the yield and multiply the number of varieties. 245 00:28:49,728 --> 00:28:51,770 Like every species on Earth, 246 00:28:51,855 --> 00:28:54,898 the principal daily concern of all humans... 247 00:28:54,983 --> 00:28:58,861 is to feed themselves and their family. 248 00:28:58,945 --> 00:29:02,906 When the soil is less generous and water becomes scarce, 249 00:29:02,991 --> 00:29:07,911 humans deploy prodigious efforts to mark a few arid acres... 250 00:29:07,996 --> 00:29:10,706 with the imprint of their labor. 251 00:29:29,017 --> 00:29:33,395 Humans shaped the land with the patience and devotion that the Earth demands, 252 00:29:33,480 --> 00:29:38,025 in an almost sacrificial ritual performed over and over. 253 00:30:02,217 --> 00:30:07,012 Agriculture is still the world's most widespread occupation. 254 00:30:07,096 --> 00:30:11,642 Half of humankind tills the soil, 255 00:30:11,726 --> 00:30:15,270 over three-quarters of them by hand. 256 00:30:15,355 --> 00:30:18,899 Agriculture is like a tradition handed down... 257 00:30:18,983 --> 00:30:23,612 from generation to generation in sweat, graft and toil, 258 00:30:23,696 --> 00:30:28,116 because for humanity it is a prerequisite of survival. 259 00:30:28,284 --> 00:30:31,745 But after relying on muscle power for so long, 260 00:30:31,830 --> 00:30:36,917 humankind found a way to tap into the energy buried deep in the Earth. 261 00:30:40,672 --> 00:30:43,131 These flames are also from plants. 262 00:30:43,216 --> 00:30:45,133 A pocket of sunlight. 263 00:30:45,218 --> 00:30:47,928 Pure energy� the energy of the sun� 264 00:30:48,012 --> 00:30:51,306 captured over millions of years by millions of plants... 265 00:30:51,391 --> 00:30:54,017 more than a hundred million years ago. 266 00:30:54,102 --> 00:30:56,770 It's coal. It's gas. 267 00:30:56,855 --> 00:30:59,523 And above all, it's oil. 268 00:31:29,095 --> 00:31:34,308 And this pocket of sunlight freed humans from their toil on the land. 269 00:31:38,062 --> 00:31:43,859 With oil began the era of humans who break free of the shackles of time. 270 00:31:43,943 --> 00:31:48,155 With oil, some of us acquired unprecedented comforts. 271 00:31:48,239 --> 00:31:50,908 And in 50 years, in a single lifetime, 272 00:31:50,992 --> 00:31:53,285 the Earth has been more radically changed... 273 00:31:53,369 --> 00:31:57,039 than by all previous generations of humanity. 274 00:31:59,709 --> 00:32:01,627 Faster and faster. 275 00:32:01,711 --> 00:32:06,048 In the last 60 years, the Earth's population has almost tripled, 276 00:32:06,132 --> 00:32:10,052 and over two billion people have moved to the cities. 277 00:32:14,682 --> 00:32:17,184 Faster and faster. 278 00:32:17,268 --> 00:32:21,521 Shenzhen, in China, with its hundreds of skyscrapers and millions of inhabitants, 279 00:32:21,606 --> 00:32:26,276 was just a small fishing village barely 40 years ago. 280 00:32:30,531 --> 00:32:32,449 Faster and faster. 281 00:32:32,533 --> 00:32:35,953 In Shanghai, 3,000 towers and skyscrapers... 282 00:32:36,037 --> 00:32:38,747 have been built in 20 years. 283 00:32:38,831 --> 00:32:40,874 Hundreds more are under construction. 284 00:32:47,632 --> 00:32:53,512 Today, over half of the world's seven billion inhabitants live in cities. 285 00:33:04,065 --> 00:33:07,567 New York. The world's first megalopolis... 286 00:33:07,652 --> 00:33:10,487 is the symbol of the exploitation of the energy... 287 00:33:10,571 --> 00:33:13,699 the Earth supplies to human genius. 288 00:33:13,783 --> 00:33:16,326 The manpower of millions of immigrants, 289 00:33:16,411 --> 00:33:18,328 the energy of coal, 290 00:33:18,413 --> 00:33:21,540 the unbridled power of oil. 291 00:33:21,624 --> 00:33:24,376 Electricity resulted in the invention of elevators, 292 00:33:24,460 --> 00:33:28,255 which in turn permitted the invention of skyscrapers. 293 00:33:28,339 --> 00:33:32,968 New York ranks as the 16th-largest economy in the world. 294 00:33:36,347 --> 00:33:41,059 America was the first to discover, exploit and harness... 295 00:33:41,144 --> 00:33:44,980 the phenomenal revolutionary power of black gold. 296 00:33:45,064 --> 00:33:47,441 With its help, 297 00:33:47,525 --> 00:33:52,362 a country of farmers became a country of agricultural industrialists. 298 00:33:53,406 --> 00:33:55,574 Machines replaced men. 299 00:33:55,658 --> 00:33:58,493 A liter of oil generates as much energy... 300 00:33:58,578 --> 00:34:02,205 as 100 pairs of hands in 24 hours, 301 00:34:02,290 --> 00:34:07,669 but worldwide only three percent of farmers have use of a tractor. 302 00:34:07,754 --> 00:34:12,466 Nonetheless, their output dominates the planet. 303 00:34:12,550 --> 00:34:16,595 In the United States, only three million farmers are left. 304 00:34:16,679 --> 00:34:21,141 They produce enough grain to feed two billion people. 305 00:34:26,814 --> 00:34:29,357 But most of that grain is not used to feed people. 306 00:34:29,442 --> 00:34:33,153 Here, and in all other industrialized nations, 307 00:34:33,237 --> 00:34:37,532 it's transformed into livestock feed or biofuels. 308 00:34:45,249 --> 00:34:47,292 The pocket of sunshine's energy... 309 00:34:47,376 --> 00:34:51,797 chased away the specter of drought that stalked farmland. 310 00:34:51,881 --> 00:34:55,050 No spring escapes the demands of agriculture, 311 00:34:55,134 --> 00:34:59,387 which accounts for 70% of humanity's water consumption. 312 00:35:03,142 --> 00:35:06,436 In nature, everything is linked. 313 00:35:06,521 --> 00:35:09,815 The expansion of cultivated land and single-crop farming... 314 00:35:09,899 --> 00:35:12,859 encouraged the development of parasites. 315 00:35:12,944 --> 00:35:17,155 Pesticides, another gift of the petrochemical revolution, 316 00:35:17,240 --> 00:35:19,449 exterminated them. 317 00:35:19,534 --> 00:35:24,204 Bad harvests and famine became a distant memory. 318 00:35:24,288 --> 00:35:26,206 The biggest headache now... 319 00:35:26,290 --> 00:35:30,418 was what to do with the surpluses engendered by modern agriculture. 320 00:35:41,889 --> 00:35:45,225 But toxic pesticides seeped into the air, 321 00:35:45,309 --> 00:35:48,812 soil, plants, animals, rivers and oceans. 322 00:35:48,896 --> 00:35:51,273 They penetrated the heart of cells... 323 00:35:51,357 --> 00:35:56,486 similar to the mother cell that is shared by all forms of life. 324 00:35:56,571 --> 00:36:00,073 Are they harmful to the humans that they released from hunger? 325 00:36:00,158 --> 00:36:03,994 These farmers, in their yellow protective suits, 326 00:36:04,078 --> 00:36:06,288 probably have a good idea. 327 00:36:21,429 --> 00:36:26,141 The new agriculture abolished the dependence on soils and seasons. 328 00:36:31,272 --> 00:36:33,982 Fertilizers produced unprecedented results... 329 00:36:34,066 --> 00:36:37,652 on plots of land thus far ignored. 330 00:36:37,737 --> 00:36:40,572 Crops adapted to soils and climates... 331 00:36:40,656 --> 00:36:45,285 gave way to the most productive varieties and the easiest to transport. 332 00:36:45,369 --> 00:36:47,370 And so, in the last century, 333 00:36:47,455 --> 00:36:52,375 three-quarters of the varieties developed by farmers over thousands of years... 334 00:36:52,460 --> 00:36:55,712 have been wiped out. 335 00:36:55,796 --> 00:37:00,508 As far as the eye can see, fertilizer below, plastic on top. 336 00:37:00,593 --> 00:37:03,470 The greenhouses of Almer�a in Spain... 337 00:37:03,554 --> 00:37:05,680 are Europe's vegetable garden. 338 00:37:05,765 --> 00:37:08,725 A city of uniformly sized vegetables... 339 00:37:08,809 --> 00:37:11,728 waits every day for the hundreds of trucks... 340 00:37:11,812 --> 00:37:14,814 that will take them to the continent's supermarkets. 341 00:37:16,150 --> 00:37:18,068 The more a country develops, 342 00:37:18,152 --> 00:37:21,238 the more meat its inhabitants consume. 343 00:37:21,322 --> 00:37:24,574 How can growing worldwide demand be satisfied... 344 00:37:24,659 --> 00:37:28,745 without recourse to concentration camp-style cattle farms? 345 00:37:28,829 --> 00:37:30,747 Faster and faster. 346 00:37:30,831 --> 00:37:34,251 Like the life cycle of livestock which may never see a meadow, 347 00:37:34,335 --> 00:37:39,297 manufacturing meat faster than the animal has become a daily routine. 348 00:37:49,684 --> 00:37:53,728 In these vast food lots, trampled by millions of cattle, 349 00:37:53,813 --> 00:37:56,022 not a blade of grass grows. 350 00:37:57,275 --> 00:37:59,818 A fleet of trucks from every corner of the country... 351 00:37:59,902 --> 00:38:02,696 brings in tons of grain, soy meal... 352 00:38:02,780 --> 00:38:07,534 and protein-rich granules that will become tons of meat. 353 00:38:07,618 --> 00:38:11,329 The result is that it takes 100 liters of water... 354 00:38:11,414 --> 00:38:14,332 to produce one kilogram of potatoes, 355 00:38:14,417 --> 00:38:17,544 4,000 for one kilo of rice... 356 00:38:17,628 --> 00:38:21,881 and 13,000 for one kilo of beef. 357 00:38:21,966 --> 00:38:25,885 Not to mention the oil guzzled in the production process and transport. 358 00:38:35,521 --> 00:38:38,982 Our agriculture has become oil-powered. 359 00:38:39,066 --> 00:38:41,693 It feeds twice as many humans on Earth... 360 00:38:41,777 --> 00:38:46,656 but has replaced diversity with standardization. 361 00:38:46,741 --> 00:38:50,327 It has offered many of us comforts we could only dream of, 362 00:38:50,411 --> 00:38:54,873 but it makes our way of life totally dependent on oil. 363 00:38:56,917 --> 00:39:00,378 This is the new measure of time. 364 00:39:00,463 --> 00:39:03,089 Our world's clock now beats to the rhythm... 365 00:39:03,174 --> 00:39:05,133 of these indefatigable machines... 366 00:39:05,217 --> 00:39:08,636 tapping into the pocket of sunlight. 367 00:39:08,721 --> 00:39:11,681 Their regularity reassures us. 368 00:39:11,766 --> 00:39:15,602 The tiniest hiccup throws us into disarray. 369 00:39:15,686 --> 00:39:19,272 The whole planet is attentive to these metronomes... 370 00:39:19,357 --> 00:39:22,859 of our hopes and illusions. 371 00:39:22,943 --> 00:39:26,988 The same hopes and illusions that proliferate along with our needs, 372 00:39:27,073 --> 00:39:30,867 increasingly insatiable desires and profligacy. 373 00:39:30,951 --> 00:39:33,995 We know that the end of cheap oil is imminent, 374 00:39:34,080 --> 00:39:36,289 but we refuse to believe it. 375 00:39:41,545 --> 00:39:46,966 For many of us, the American dream is embodied by a legendary name: 376 00:39:47,051 --> 00:39:50,053 Los Angeles. 377 00:39:50,137 --> 00:39:53,390 In this city that stretches over 100 kilometers, 378 00:39:53,474 --> 00:39:57,811 the number of cars is almost equal to the number of inhabitants. 379 00:40:09,907 --> 00:40:13,326 Here, energy puts on a fantastic show every night. 380 00:40:46,861 --> 00:40:50,905 The days seem to be no more than the pale reflection of nights... 381 00:40:50,990 --> 00:40:53,950 that turn the city into a starry sky. 382 00:40:57,246 --> 00:40:59,831 Faster and faster. 383 00:40:59,915 --> 00:41:03,960 Distances are no longer counted in miles but in minutes. 384 00:41:04,044 --> 00:41:07,964 The automobile shapes new suburbs where every home is a castle, 385 00:41:08,048 --> 00:41:11,468 a safe distance from the asphyxiated city centers, 386 00:41:11,552 --> 00:41:15,388 and where neat rows of houses huddle round dead-end streets. 387 00:41:16,432 --> 00:41:18,766 The model of a lucky few countries... 388 00:41:18,851 --> 00:41:20,810 has become a universal dream, 389 00:41:20,895 --> 00:41:24,314 preached by televisions all over the world. 390 00:41:28,152 --> 00:41:30,653 Even here in Beijing, 391 00:41:30,738 --> 00:41:33,364 it is cloned, copied and reproduced... 392 00:41:33,449 --> 00:41:38,411 in these formatted houses that have wiped pagodas off the map. 393 00:41:50,925 --> 00:41:56,179 The automobile has become the symbol of comfort and progress. 394 00:41:57,932 --> 00:42:00,725 If this model were followed by every society, 395 00:42:00,809 --> 00:42:05,522 the planet wouldn't have 900 million vehicles, as it does today, 396 00:42:05,606 --> 00:42:07,982 but five billion. 397 00:42:15,407 --> 00:42:17,325 Faster and faster. 398 00:42:17,409 --> 00:42:21,538 The more the world develops, the greater its thirst for energy. 399 00:42:21,622 --> 00:42:26,251 Everywhere, machines dig, bore and rip from the Earth... 400 00:42:26,335 --> 00:42:30,463 the pieces of stars buried in its depths since its creation: 401 00:42:30,548 --> 00:42:32,549 minerals. 402 00:42:56,031 --> 00:43:00,243 In the next 20 years, more ore will be extracted from the Earth... 403 00:43:00,327 --> 00:43:03,329 than in the whole of humanity's history. 404 00:43:04,456 --> 00:43:06,624 As a privilege of power, 405 00:43:06,709 --> 00:43:08,960 80% of this mineral wealth... 406 00:43:09,044 --> 00:43:13,423 is consumed by 20% of the world's population. 407 00:43:31,692 --> 00:43:33,860 Before the end of this century, 408 00:43:33,944 --> 00:43:38,656 excessive mining will have exhausted nearly all the planet's reserves. 409 00:43:48,417 --> 00:43:50,460 Faster and faster. 410 00:43:50,544 --> 00:43:52,879 Shipyards churn out oil tankers, 411 00:43:52,963 --> 00:43:55,131 container ships and gas tankers... 412 00:43:55,215 --> 00:43:59,218 to cater for the demands of globalized industrial production. 413 00:44:03,807 --> 00:44:06,893 Most consumer goods travel thousands of kilometers... 414 00:44:06,977 --> 00:44:11,564 from the country of production to the country of consumption. 415 00:44:11,649 --> 00:44:14,984 Since 1950, the volume of international trade... 416 00:44:15,069 --> 00:44:17,862 has increased 20 times over. 417 00:44:28,374 --> 00:44:32,001 Ninety percent of trade goes by sea. 418 00:44:32,086 --> 00:44:37,423 500 million containers are transported every year, 419 00:44:37,508 --> 00:44:40,510 headed for the world's major hubs of consumption, 420 00:44:40,594 --> 00:44:42,595 such as Dubai. 421 00:44:44,056 --> 00:44:48,267 Dubai is one of the biggest construction sites in the world� 422 00:44:48,352 --> 00:44:51,604 a country where the impossible becomes possible. 423 00:44:51,689 --> 00:44:55,066 Building artificial islands in the sea, for example. 424 00:45:24,680 --> 00:45:27,765 Dubai has few natural resources, 425 00:45:27,850 --> 00:45:31,978 but with the money from oil, it can bring millions of tons of material and people... 426 00:45:32,062 --> 00:45:33,980 from all over the world. 427 00:45:34,064 --> 00:45:38,359 It can build forests of skyscrapers, each one taller than the last, 428 00:45:38,444 --> 00:45:41,529 or even a ski slope in the middle of the desert. 429 00:45:41,613 --> 00:45:46,117 Dubai has no farmland, but it can import food. 430 00:45:46,201 --> 00:45:48,119 Dubai has no water, 431 00:45:48,203 --> 00:45:51,247 but it can afford to expend immense amounts of energy... 432 00:45:51,331 --> 00:45:56,169 to desalinate seawater and build the highest skyscrapers in the world. 433 00:45:56,253 --> 00:46:00,631 Dubai has endless sun but no solar panels. 434 00:46:00,716 --> 00:46:03,634 It is the city of more is more, 435 00:46:03,719 --> 00:46:06,262 where the wildest dreams become reality. 436 00:46:06,346 --> 00:46:09,682 Dubai is a sort of culmination of the Western model, 437 00:46:09,767 --> 00:46:13,394 with its 800-meter high totem to total modernity... 438 00:46:13,479 --> 00:46:16,189 that never fails to amaze the world. 439 00:46:16,273 --> 00:46:19,484 Excessive? Perhaps. 440 00:46:19,568 --> 00:46:22,403 Dubai appears to have made its choice. 441 00:46:22,488 --> 00:46:25,490 It is like the new beacon for all the world's money. 442 00:46:38,462 --> 00:46:41,631 Nothing seems further removed from nature than Dubai, 443 00:46:41,715 --> 00:46:45,718 although nothing depends on nature more than Dubai. 444 00:46:47,554 --> 00:46:51,057 The city merely follows the model of wealthy nations. 445 00:46:51,141 --> 00:46:55,436 We haven't understood that we're depleting what nature provides. 446 00:47:40,315 --> 00:47:44,360 What do we know of the marine world, of which we see only the surface, 447 00:47:44,444 --> 00:47:47,947 and which covers three-quarters of the planet? 448 00:47:48,031 --> 00:47:50,741 The ocean depths remain a secret. 449 00:47:50,826 --> 00:47:55,955 They contain thousands of species whose existence remains a mystery to us. 450 00:48:11,263 --> 00:48:16,183 Since 1950, fishing catches have increased fivefold, 451 00:48:16,268 --> 00:48:20,980 from 18 to 100 million metric tons a year. 452 00:48:21,064 --> 00:48:24,984 Thousands of factory ships are emptying the oceans. 453 00:48:33,493 --> 00:48:36,412 Three-quarters of fishing grounds are exhausted, 454 00:48:36,496 --> 00:48:39,624 depleted or in danger of being so. 455 00:49:19,331 --> 00:49:22,458 Most large fish have been fished out of existence, 456 00:49:22,542 --> 00:49:25,586 since they have no time to reproduce. 457 00:49:25,671 --> 00:49:29,882 We are destroying the cycle of a life that was given to us. 458 00:49:40,560 --> 00:49:45,898 On the coastlines, signs of the exhaustion of stocks abound. 459 00:49:45,983 --> 00:49:49,944 First sign: Colonies of sea mammals are getting smaller. 460 00:49:50,028 --> 00:49:53,823 Made vulnerable by urbanization of the coasts and pollution, 461 00:49:53,907 --> 00:49:57,076 they now face a new threat: famine. 462 00:49:57,160 --> 00:50:00,663 In their unequal battle against industrial fishing fleets, 463 00:50:00,747 --> 00:50:03,749 they can't find enough fish to feed their young. 464 00:50:12,759 --> 00:50:14,719 Second sign: 465 00:50:14,803 --> 00:50:18,848 Seabirds must fly ever greater distances to find food. 466 00:50:18,932 --> 00:50:24,770 At the current rate, all fish stocks are threatened with exhaustion. 467 00:50:36,533 --> 00:50:40,703 In Dakar, traditional net fishing boomed in the years of plenty, 468 00:50:40,787 --> 00:50:43,831 but today, fish stocks are dwindling. 469 00:51:03,727 --> 00:51:07,897 Fish is the staple diet of one in five humans. 470 00:51:34,424 --> 00:51:38,135 Can we envision the inconceivable? 471 00:51:38,220 --> 00:51:40,387 Abandoned boats, 472 00:51:40,472 --> 00:51:42,556 seas devoid of fish? 473 00:52:07,499 --> 00:52:11,377 We have forgotten that resources are scarce. 474 00:52:11,461 --> 00:52:15,297 500 million humans live in the world's desert lands, 475 00:52:15,382 --> 00:52:17,967 more than the combined population of Europe. 476 00:52:18,051 --> 00:52:20,970 They know the value of water. 477 00:52:21,054 --> 00:52:23,430 They know how to use it sparingly. 478 00:52:23,515 --> 00:52:27,393 Here, they depend on wells replenished by fossil water, 479 00:52:27,477 --> 00:52:31,981 which accumulated underground in the days when it rained on these deserts, 480 00:52:32,065 --> 00:52:34,567 25,000 years ago. 481 00:52:41,366 --> 00:52:44,994 Fossil water also enables crops to be grown in the desert... 482 00:52:45,078 --> 00:52:47,830 to provide food for local populations. 483 00:52:47,914 --> 00:52:49,915 The fields' circular shape... 484 00:52:50,000 --> 00:52:54,420 derives from the pipes that irrigate them around a central pivot. 485 00:53:08,768 --> 00:53:12,229 But there is a heavy price to pay. 486 00:53:12,314 --> 00:53:15,983 Fossil water is a nonrenewable resource. 487 00:53:23,783 --> 00:53:29,121 In Saudi Arabia, the dream of industrial farming in the desert has faded. 488 00:53:29,206 --> 00:53:31,248 As if on a parchment map, 489 00:53:31,333 --> 00:53:35,628 the light spots on this patchwork show abandoned plots. 490 00:53:35,712 --> 00:53:38,339 The irrigation equipment is still there. 491 00:53:38,423 --> 00:53:40,716 The energy to pump water also. 492 00:53:40,800 --> 00:53:44,803 But the fossil water reserves are severely depleted. 493 00:53:57,317 --> 00:54:00,778 Israel turned the desert into arable land. 494 00:54:00,862 --> 00:54:04,531 Even though these hothouses are now irrigated drop by drop, 495 00:54:04,616 --> 00:54:08,786 water consumption continues to increase along with exports. 496 00:54:16,711 --> 00:54:20,422 The once mighty river Jordan is now just a trickle. 497 00:54:20,507 --> 00:54:23,550 Its water has flown to supermarkets all over the world... 498 00:54:23,635 --> 00:54:26,345 in crates of fruit and vegetables. 499 00:55:01,381 --> 00:55:03,590 The Jordan's fate is not unique. 500 00:55:03,675 --> 00:55:07,386 Across the planet, one major river in 10... 501 00:55:07,470 --> 00:55:11,348 no longer flows into the sea for several months of the year. 502 00:55:22,610 --> 00:55:26,322 The Dead Sea derives its name from its incredibly high salinity... 503 00:55:26,406 --> 00:55:28,574 that makes all life impossible. 504 00:55:28,658 --> 00:55:30,951 Deprived of the Jordan's water, 505 00:55:31,036 --> 00:55:34,371 its level goes down by over one meter per year. 506 00:55:34,456 --> 00:55:37,082 Its salinity is increasing. 507 00:55:37,167 --> 00:55:39,168 Evaporation, due to the heat, 508 00:55:39,252 --> 00:55:42,338 produces these fine islands of salt evaporites� 509 00:55:42,422 --> 00:55:44,423 beautiful but sterile. 510 00:56:08,406 --> 00:56:13,077 In Rajasthan, India, Udaipur is a miracle of water. 511 00:56:13,161 --> 00:56:17,081 The city was made possible by a system of dams and channels... 512 00:56:17,165 --> 00:56:19,416 that created an artificial lake. 513 00:56:20,627 --> 00:56:23,670 For its architects, was water so precious... 514 00:56:23,755 --> 00:56:26,298 that they dedicated a palace to it? 515 00:56:51,825 --> 00:56:54,493 India risks being the country that suffers most... 516 00:56:54,577 --> 00:56:57,663 from the lack of water in the coming century. 517 00:56:57,747 --> 00:57:01,458 Massive irrigation has fed the growing population, 518 00:57:01,543 --> 00:57:07,423 and in the last 50 years, 21 million wells have been dug. 519 00:57:07,507 --> 00:57:10,801 The victory over famine has a downside, however. 520 00:57:10,885 --> 00:57:16,473 In many parts of the country, the drill has to sink ever deeper to hit water. 521 00:57:16,558 --> 00:57:19,017 In western India, 522 00:57:19,102 --> 00:57:21,687 30% of wells have been abandoned. 523 00:57:27,485 --> 00:57:30,696 The underground aquifers are drying out. 524 00:57:50,967 --> 00:57:55,762 Vast reservoirs will catch the monsoon rains to replenish the aquifers. 525 00:58:00,602 --> 00:58:05,481 In dry season, women from local villages dig them with their bare hands. 526 00:58:29,923 --> 00:58:32,007 Thousands of kilometers away, 527 00:58:32,091 --> 00:58:34,009 800 to 1,000 liters of water... 528 00:58:34,093 --> 00:58:38,180 are consumed per person per day. 529 00:58:38,264 --> 00:58:41,225 Las Vegas was built out of the desert. 530 00:58:41,309 --> 00:58:43,769 Millions of people live there. 531 00:58:43,853 --> 00:58:46,688 Thousands more arrive every month. 532 00:58:46,773 --> 00:58:52,194 The inhabitants of Las Vegas are among the biggest consumers of water in the world. 533 00:58:58,117 --> 00:59:00,035 Palm Springs is another desert city... 534 00:59:00,119 --> 00:59:03,580 with tropical vegetation and lush golf courses. 535 00:59:21,349 --> 00:59:24,643 How long can this mirage continue to prosper? 536 00:59:32,151 --> 00:59:34,736 The Earth cannot keep up. 537 00:59:34,821 --> 00:59:38,198 The Colorado River, which brings water to these cities, 538 00:59:38,283 --> 00:59:41,451 is one of those rivers that no longer reaches the sea. 539 00:59:41,536 --> 00:59:43,996 Even more alarmingly, 540 00:59:44,080 --> 00:59:47,291 its flow is diminishing at source. 541 00:59:47,375 --> 00:59:51,169 Water levels in the catchment lakes along its course... 542 00:59:51,254 --> 00:59:54,131 are plummeting. 543 00:59:54,215 --> 00:59:58,552 Lake Powell took 17 years to reach high-water mark. 544 00:59:58,636 --> 01:00:01,888 Its level is now half of that. 545 01:00:03,266 --> 01:00:06,435 Water shortages could affect nearly two billion people... 546 01:00:06,519 --> 01:00:08,520 before 2025. 547 01:00:10,356 --> 01:00:13,859 Yet water is still abundant in unspoiled regions of the planet. 548 01:00:17,363 --> 01:00:19,281 The wetlands. 549 01:00:29,542 --> 01:00:34,296 These wetlands are crucial to all life on Earth. 550 01:00:34,380 --> 01:00:37,382 They represent six percent of the planet. 551 01:00:39,886 --> 01:00:43,680 Marshes are sponges that regulate the flow of water. 552 01:00:46,392 --> 01:00:48,477 They absorb it in the wet season... 553 01:00:48,561 --> 01:00:51,271 and release it in the dry season. 554 01:01:06,245 --> 01:01:08,580 The water runs off the mountain peaks, 555 01:01:08,665 --> 01:01:12,668 carrying with it the seeds of the regions it flows through. 556 01:01:12,752 --> 01:01:15,587 This process gives birth to unique landscapes, 557 01:01:15,672 --> 01:01:20,008 where the diversity of species is unequaled in its richness. 558 01:01:24,597 --> 01:01:28,183 Under the calm water lies a veritable factory... 559 01:01:28,267 --> 01:01:31,436 where this ultimately linked richness and diversity... 560 01:01:31,521 --> 01:01:36,066 patiently filters the water and digests all the pollution. 561 01:01:36,150 --> 01:01:38,485 Marshes are indispensable environments... 562 01:01:38,569 --> 01:01:42,531 for the regeneration and purification of water. 563 01:01:55,211 --> 01:01:59,214 These wetlands were always seen as unhealthy expanses, 564 01:01:59,298 --> 01:02:02,092 unfit for human habitation. 565 01:02:02,176 --> 01:02:04,386 In our race to conquer more land, 566 01:02:04,470 --> 01:02:08,056 we have reclaimed them as pasture for our livestock, 567 01:02:08,141 --> 01:02:11,893 or as land for agriculture or building. 568 01:02:31,539 --> 01:02:37,043 In the last century, half of the world's marshes were drained. 569 01:02:37,128 --> 01:02:41,548 We know neither their richness nor their role. 570 01:02:46,679 --> 01:02:48,764 All living matter is linked. 571 01:02:51,517 --> 01:02:56,271 Water, air, soil, trees. 572 01:02:56,355 --> 01:03:00,192 The world's magic is right in front of our eyes. 573 01:03:34,227 --> 01:03:38,772 Trees breathe groundwater into the atmosphere as light mist. 574 01:03:38,856 --> 01:03:42,442 They form a canopy that alleviates the impact of heavy rains... 575 01:03:42,527 --> 01:03:45,362 and protects the soil from erosion. 576 01:03:48,866 --> 01:03:52,702 The forests provide the humidity that is necessary for life. 577 01:03:52,787 --> 01:03:56,832 They are the mother and father of rain. 578 01:04:00,545 --> 01:04:03,839 The forests store carbon. 579 01:04:03,923 --> 01:04:07,551 They contain more than all the Earth's atmosphere. 580 01:04:07,635 --> 01:04:10,512 They are the cornerstone of the climatic balance... 581 01:04:10,596 --> 01:04:14,349 on which we all depend. 582 01:04:21,983 --> 01:04:27,362 Trees provide a habitat for three-quarters of the planet's biodiversity� 583 01:04:27,446 --> 01:04:31,533 that is to say, of all life on Earth. 584 01:04:31,617 --> 01:04:36,872 Every year, we discover new species we had no idea existed� 585 01:04:36,956 --> 01:04:40,166 insects, birds, mammals. 586 01:05:12,491 --> 01:05:16,244 These forests provide the remedies that cure us. 587 01:05:16,329 --> 01:05:18,747 The substances secreted by these plants... 588 01:05:18,831 --> 01:05:21,416 can be recognized by our bodies. 589 01:05:21,500 --> 01:05:24,252 Our cells talk the same language. 590 01:05:24,337 --> 01:05:27,464 We are of the same family. 591 01:05:51,197 --> 01:05:55,075 Mangroves are forests that step out onto the sea. 592 01:05:55,159 --> 01:05:59,204 Like coral reefs, they are a nursery for the oceans. 593 01:05:59,288 --> 01:06:02,499 Their roots entwine and form a shelter for the fish... 594 01:06:02,583 --> 01:06:05,543 and mollusks that come to breed. 595 01:06:05,628 --> 01:06:08,046 Mangroves protect the coasts from hurricanes, 596 01:06:08,130 --> 01:06:10,882 tidal waves and erosion by the sea. 597 01:06:10,967 --> 01:06:13,718 Whole peoples depend on them. 598 01:06:13,803 --> 01:06:19,099 Yet, they were reduced by half during the 20th century. 599 01:06:22,812 --> 01:06:25,730 One of the reasons for the ongoing disaster... 600 01:06:25,815 --> 01:06:30,151 is these shrimp farms installed on the mangroves' rich waters. 601 01:06:30,236 --> 01:06:33,863 Ventilators aerate pools full of antibiotics... 602 01:06:33,948 --> 01:06:36,574 to prevent the asphyxiation of the shrimps, 603 01:06:36,659 --> 01:06:38,994 not that of the mangroves. 604 01:06:44,333 --> 01:06:50,005 Since the 1960s, deforestation has constantly gathered pace. 605 01:06:50,089 --> 01:06:54,259 Every year, 13 million hectares of tropical forest� 606 01:06:54,343 --> 01:06:56,594 an area the size of Illinois� 607 01:06:56,679 --> 01:07:00,265 disappear in smoke and as lumber. 608 01:07:07,940 --> 01:07:11,192 The world's largest rain forest, the Amazon, 609 01:07:11,277 --> 01:07:14,654 has already been reduced by 20%. 610 01:07:14,739 --> 01:07:18,867 The forest gives way to cattle ranches or soybean farms. 611 01:07:18,951 --> 01:07:21,119 Ninety-five percent of these soybeans... 612 01:07:21,203 --> 01:07:26,124 are used to feed livestock and poultry in Europe and Asia. 613 01:07:35,468 --> 01:07:39,929 And so, a forest is turned into meat. 614 01:07:47,980 --> 01:07:50,523 When they burn, forests and their soils... 615 01:07:50,608 --> 01:07:52,901 release huge quantities of carbon, 616 01:07:52,985 --> 01:07:58,573 accounting for 20% of the greenhouse gases emitted across the globe. 617 01:07:58,657 --> 01:08:03,078 Deforestation is one of the principal causes of global warming. 618 01:08:13,798 --> 01:08:17,717 Thousands of species disappear forever. 619 01:08:17,802 --> 01:08:22,972 With them, one of the links in a long chain of evolution snaps. 620 01:08:23,057 --> 01:08:26,392 The intelligence of the living matter from which they came... 621 01:08:26,477 --> 01:08:28,478 is lost forever. 622 01:08:44,411 --> 01:08:48,581 Barely 20 years ago, Borneo, the fourth-largest island in the world, 623 01:08:48,666 --> 01:08:52,168 was covered by a vast primary forest. 624 01:08:52,253 --> 01:08:54,671 At the current rate of deforestation, 625 01:08:54,755 --> 01:08:58,216 it will have totally disappeared within 10 years. 626 01:08:58,300 --> 01:09:04,139 Living matter bonds water, air, earth and the sun. 627 01:09:04,223 --> 01:09:07,058 In Borneo, this bond has been broken... 628 01:09:07,143 --> 01:09:11,437 in what was one of the Earth's greatest reservoirs of biodiversity. 629 01:09:26,579 --> 01:09:29,164 This catastrophe was provoked by the decision... 630 01:09:29,248 --> 01:09:31,291 to produce palm oil, 631 01:09:31,375 --> 01:09:35,003 the most consumed oil in the world, on Borneo. 632 01:09:35,087 --> 01:09:39,215 Palm oil not only caters to our growing demand for food, 633 01:09:39,300 --> 01:09:44,762 but also cosmetics, detergents and, increasingly, alternative fuels. 634 01:09:48,767 --> 01:09:53,897 The forest diversity was replaced by a single species� the oil palm. 635 01:09:53,981 --> 01:09:57,859 Monoculture is easy, productive and rapid. 636 01:09:57,943 --> 01:10:00,904 For local people, it provides employment. 637 01:10:00,988 --> 01:10:03,448 It is an agricultural industry. 638 01:10:12,458 --> 01:10:16,920 Another example of massive deforestation is the eucalyptus. 639 01:10:17,004 --> 01:10:19,756 Eucalyptus is used to make paper pulp. 640 01:10:19,840 --> 01:10:25,511 Plantations are growing, as demand for paper has increased fivefold in 50 years. 641 01:10:31,477 --> 01:10:36,105 Monocultures of trees are gaining ground all over the world. 642 01:10:36,190 --> 01:10:39,859 But a monoculture is not a forest. 643 01:10:39,944 --> 01:10:44,030 By definition, there is little diversity. 644 01:10:44,114 --> 01:10:48,076 One forest does not replace another forest. 645 01:10:48,160 --> 01:10:50,078 At the foot of these eucalyptus trees, 646 01:10:50,162 --> 01:10:53,790 nothing grows, because their leaves form a bed... 647 01:10:53,874 --> 01:10:56,793 that is toxic for most other plants. 648 01:10:56,877 --> 01:11:01,339 They grow quickly, but exhaust water reserves. 649 01:11:17,106 --> 01:11:21,526 Soybeans, palm oil, eucalyptus trees� 650 01:11:21,610 --> 01:11:26,823 Deforestation destroys the essential to produce the superfluous. 651 01:11:26,907 --> 01:11:31,369 But elsewhere, deforestation is a last resort to survive. 652 01:11:36,250 --> 01:11:38,626 Over two billion people� 653 01:11:38,711 --> 01:11:41,629 almost a third of the world's population� 654 01:11:41,714 --> 01:11:43,631 still depend on charcoal. 655 01:11:55,227 --> 01:11:59,022 In Haiti, one of the world's poorest countries, 656 01:11:59,106 --> 01:12:03,484 charcoal is one of the population's main consumables. 657 01:12:03,569 --> 01:12:06,529 Once the pearl of the Caribbean, 658 01:12:06,613 --> 01:12:10,158 Haiti can no longer feed its population without foreign aid. 659 01:12:24,340 --> 01:12:28,843 On the hills of Haiti, only two percent of the forests are left. 660 01:12:28,927 --> 01:12:32,930 Stripped bare, the soil no longer absorbs the rainwater. 661 01:12:33,015 --> 01:12:36,517 With no vegetation and no roots to reinforce them, 662 01:12:36,602 --> 01:12:39,270 nothing holds the soils back. 663 01:12:39,355 --> 01:12:43,608 The rainwater washes them down the hillsides as far as the sea. 664 01:12:43,692 --> 01:12:46,903 Erosion impoverishes the quality of the soils, 665 01:12:46,987 --> 01:12:49,989 reducing their suitability for agriculture. 666 01:12:52,368 --> 01:12:57,121 In some parts of Madagascar, the erosion is spectacular. 667 01:12:57,206 --> 01:13:01,667 Whole hillsides bear deep gashes hundreds of meters wide. 668 01:13:10,803 --> 01:13:15,056 Thin and fragile, soil is made by living matter. 669 01:13:15,140 --> 01:13:17,892 With erosion, the fine layer of humus, 670 01:13:17,976 --> 01:13:21,979 which took thousands of years to form, disappears. 671 01:14:07,401 --> 01:14:10,570 Here's one theory of the story of the Rapa Nui, 672 01:14:10,654 --> 01:14:12,738 the inhabitants of Easter Island, 673 01:14:12,823 --> 01:14:15,324 that could perhaps give us pause for thought. 674 01:14:16,660 --> 01:14:19,787 Living on the most isolated island in the world, 675 01:14:19,872 --> 01:14:22,415 the Rapa Nui exploited their resources... 676 01:14:22,499 --> 01:14:24,750 until there was nothing left. 677 01:14:24,835 --> 01:14:28,713 Their civilization did not survive. 678 01:14:28,797 --> 01:14:32,592 On these lands stood the highest palm trees in the world. 679 01:14:32,676 --> 01:14:34,635 They have disappeared. 680 01:14:34,720 --> 01:14:37,638 The Rapa Nui chopped them all down for lumber. 681 01:14:37,723 --> 01:14:40,558 They then had to face widespread soil erosion. 682 01:14:41,894 --> 01:14:44,270 The Rapa Nui could no longer go fishing. 683 01:14:44,354 --> 01:14:47,607 There were no trees to build canoes. 684 01:14:47,691 --> 01:14:52,612 And yet the Rapa Nui formed one of the most brilliant civilizations in the Pacific. 685 01:14:52,696 --> 01:14:56,782 Innovative farmers, sculptors, exceptional navigators, 686 01:14:56,867 --> 01:15:01,287 they were caught in a vise of overpopulation and dwindling resources. 687 01:15:04,291 --> 01:15:08,836 They experienced social unrest, revolts and famine. 688 01:15:08,921 --> 01:15:11,631 Many did not survive the cataclysm. 689 01:16:00,681 --> 01:16:05,643 The real mystery of Easter Island is not how its strange statues got there. 690 01:16:05,727 --> 01:16:07,645 We know now. 691 01:16:07,729 --> 01:16:11,107 It's why the Rapa Nui didn't react in time. 692 01:16:17,990 --> 01:16:20,616 It's only one of a number of theories, 693 01:16:20,701 --> 01:16:23,327 but it has particular relevance to us today. 694 01:16:24,955 --> 01:16:30,001 Since 1950, the world's population has almost tripled. 695 01:16:30,085 --> 01:16:35,423 And since 1950, we have more fundamentally altered our island, the Earth, 696 01:16:35,507 --> 01:16:39,677 than in all of our 200,000-year history. 697 01:16:43,724 --> 01:16:47,602 Nigeria is the biggest oil exporter in Africa, 698 01:16:47,686 --> 01:16:52,732 and yet 70% of the population lives under the poverty line. 699 01:16:52,816 --> 01:16:58,321 The wealth is there, but the country's inhabitants don't have access to it. 700 01:16:58,405 --> 01:17:00,906 The same is true all over the globe. 701 01:17:00,991 --> 01:17:05,202 Half the world's poor live in resource-rich countries. 702 01:17:21,553 --> 01:17:25,890 Our mode of development has not fulfilled its promises. 703 01:17:25,974 --> 01:17:29,644 In 50 years, the gap between rich and poor... 704 01:17:29,728 --> 01:17:32,396 has grown wider than ever. 705 01:17:32,481 --> 01:17:35,066 Today, half the world's wealth... 706 01:17:35,150 --> 01:17:39,820 is in the hands of the richest two percent of the population. 707 01:17:43,492 --> 01:17:45,660 Can such disparities be maintained? 708 01:17:46,828 --> 01:17:48,913 They're the cause of population movements... 709 01:17:48,997 --> 01:17:52,667 whose scale we have yet to fully realize. 710 01:17:52,751 --> 01:17:58,422 The city of Lagos had a population of 700,000 in 1960. 711 01:17:58,507 --> 01:18:02,760 That will rise to 16 million by 2025. 712 01:18:07,766 --> 01:18:11,852 Lagos is one of the fastest-growing megalopolises in the world. 713 01:18:11,937 --> 01:18:15,523 The new arrivals are mostly farmers forced off the land... 714 01:18:15,607 --> 01:18:18,192 for economic or demographic reasons, 715 01:18:18,276 --> 01:18:21,070 or because of diminishing resources. 716 01:18:27,244 --> 01:18:29,620 This is a radically new type of urban growth, 717 01:18:29,705 --> 01:18:34,125 driven by the urge to survive rather than to prosper. 718 01:18:37,629 --> 01:18:40,464 Every week, over a million people... 719 01:18:40,549 --> 01:18:43,718 swell the populations of the world's cities. 720 01:19:01,278 --> 01:19:04,530 One human being in six now lives in a precarious, 721 01:19:04,614 --> 01:19:07,199 unhealthy, overpopulated environment, 722 01:19:07,284 --> 01:19:09,368 without access to daily necessities... 723 01:19:09,453 --> 01:19:12,621 such as water, sanitation or electricity. 724 01:19:44,070 --> 01:19:46,238 Hunger is spreading once more. 725 01:19:46,323 --> 01:19:48,616 It affects nearly one billion people. 726 01:20:33,870 --> 01:20:38,249 All over the planet, the poorest scrabble to survive on scraps, 727 01:20:38,333 --> 01:20:42,211 while we continue to dig for resources that we can no longer live without. 728 01:20:43,713 --> 01:20:45,798 We look farther and farther afield, 729 01:20:45,882 --> 01:20:48,425 in previously unspoilt territory... 730 01:20:48,510 --> 01:20:52,721 and in regions that are increasingly difficult to exploit. 731 01:21:01,773 --> 01:21:03,732 We're not changing our model. 732 01:21:04,901 --> 01:21:07,570 Oil might run out? 733 01:21:07,654 --> 01:21:12,283 We can still extract oil from the tar sands of Canada. 734 01:21:12,367 --> 01:21:16,579 The biggest trucks in the world move thousands of tons of sand. 735 01:21:16,663 --> 01:21:19,123 The process of heating and separating bitumen... 736 01:21:19,207 --> 01:21:23,335 from the sand requires millions of cubic meters of water. 737 01:21:24,796 --> 01:21:27,756 Colossal amounts of energy are needed. 738 01:21:27,841 --> 01:21:30,593 The pollution is catastrophic. 739 01:21:32,846 --> 01:21:35,139 The most urgent priority, apparently, 740 01:21:35,223 --> 01:21:38,309 is to pick every pocket of sunlight. 741 01:22:13,678 --> 01:22:16,847 Our oil tankers are getting bigger and bigger. 742 01:22:16,932 --> 01:22:20,059 Our energy requirements are constantly increasing. 743 01:22:20,143 --> 01:22:23,312 We try to power growth like a bottomless oven... 744 01:22:23,396 --> 01:22:26,148 that demands more and more fuel. 745 01:22:43,041 --> 01:22:44,959 It's all about carbon. 746 01:22:45,043 --> 01:22:48,963 In a few decades, the carbon that made our atmosphere a furnace, 747 01:22:49,047 --> 01:22:52,174 and that nature captured over millions of years, 748 01:22:52,258 --> 01:22:54,176 allowing life to develop, 749 01:22:54,260 --> 01:22:56,887 will have largely been pumped back out. 750 01:22:56,972 --> 01:22:59,515 The atmosphere is heating up. 751 01:23:01,434 --> 01:23:05,896 It would have been inconceivable for a boat to be here just a few years ago. 752 01:23:09,317 --> 01:23:14,071 Transport, industry, deforestation, agriculture� 753 01:23:14,155 --> 01:23:18,867 Our activities release gigantic quantities of carbon dioxide. 754 01:23:18,952 --> 01:23:22,496 Without realizing it, molecule by molecule, 755 01:23:22,580 --> 01:23:26,083 we have upset the Earth's climatic balance. 756 01:23:31,131 --> 01:23:33,132 All eyes are on the poles, 757 01:23:34,426 --> 01:23:38,512 where the effects of global warming are most visible. 758 01:23:38,596 --> 01:23:42,933 It's happening fast� very fast. 759 01:23:43,018 --> 01:23:46,603 The Northwest Passage that connects America, Europe and Asia... 760 01:23:46,688 --> 01:23:49,189 via the pole is opening up. 761 01:23:49,274 --> 01:23:52,109 The Arctic ice cap is melting. 762 01:23:57,365 --> 01:23:59,533 Under the effect of global warming, 763 01:23:59,617 --> 01:24:04,872 the ice cap has lost 40% of its thickness in 40 years. 764 01:24:04,956 --> 01:24:09,209 Its surface area in the summer shrinks year by year. 765 01:24:09,294 --> 01:24:12,546 It could disappear before 2030. 766 01:24:12,630 --> 01:24:15,883 Some predictions suggest 2015. 767 01:24:15,967 --> 01:24:20,471 Soon these waters will be free of ice several summer months a year. 768 01:24:35,653 --> 01:24:39,239 The sunbeams that the ice sheet previously reflected back... 769 01:24:39,324 --> 01:24:42,409 now penetrate the dark water, heating it up. 770 01:24:42,494 --> 01:24:45,329 The warming process gathers pace. 771 01:24:54,422 --> 01:24:58,342 This ice contains the records of our planet. 772 01:24:58,426 --> 01:25:00,844 The concentration of carbon dioxide... 773 01:25:00,929 --> 01:25:04,890 hasn't been so high for several hundred thousand years. 774 01:25:06,184 --> 01:25:10,646 Humanity has never lived in an atmosphere like this. 775 01:25:21,991 --> 01:25:27,704 Is excessive exploitation of our resources threatening the lives of every species? 776 01:25:27,789 --> 01:25:30,958 Climate change accentuates the threat. 777 01:25:31,042 --> 01:25:34,753 By 2050, a quarter of the Earth's species... 778 01:25:34,838 --> 01:25:38,423 could be threatened with extinction. 779 01:25:38,508 --> 01:25:43,679 In these polar regions, the balance of nature has already been disrupted. 780 01:27:29,661 --> 01:27:33,747 Off the coast of Greenland, there are more and more icebergs. 781 01:28:00,400 --> 01:28:02,859 Around the North Pole, the ice cap has lost... 782 01:28:02,944 --> 01:28:06,780 30% of its surface area in 30 years. 783 01:28:09,867 --> 01:28:12,369 But as Greenland rapidly becomes warmer, 784 01:28:12,453 --> 01:28:14,621 the freshwater of a whole continent... 785 01:28:14,706 --> 01:28:18,917 flows into the salt water of the oceans. 786 01:28:19,002 --> 01:28:24,214 Greenland's ice contains 20% of the freshwater of the whole planet. 787 01:28:24,299 --> 01:28:28,802 If it melts, sea levels will rise by nearly seven meters. 788 01:29:02,086 --> 01:29:04,421 But there is no industry here. 789 01:29:05,757 --> 01:29:08,508 Greenland's ice sheet suffers from greenhouse gases... 790 01:29:08,593 --> 01:29:11,428 emitted elsewhere on Earth. 791 01:29:11,512 --> 01:29:14,514 Our ecosystem doesn't have borders. 792 01:29:14,599 --> 01:29:19,519 Wherever we are, our actions have repercussions on the whole Earth. 793 01:29:19,604 --> 01:29:23,523 The atmosphere of our planet is an indivisible whole. 794 01:29:23,608 --> 01:29:26,443 It is an asset we share. 795 01:29:26,527 --> 01:29:30,906 On Greenland's surface, lakes are appearing on the landscape. 796 01:29:30,990 --> 01:29:33,200 The ice cap has begun to melt at a speed... 797 01:29:33,284 --> 01:29:38,121 that even the most pessimistic scientists did not envision 10 years ago. 798 01:29:47,590 --> 01:29:50,550 More and more of these glacier-fed rivers... 799 01:29:50,635 --> 01:29:54,596 are merging together and burrowing through the surface. 800 01:29:54,680 --> 01:29:58,725 It was thought the water would freeze in the depths of the ice. 801 01:29:58,810 --> 01:30:01,853 On the contrary, it flows under the ice, 802 01:30:01,938 --> 01:30:03,897 carrying the ice sheet into the sea, 803 01:30:03,981 --> 01:30:05,941 where it breaks into icebergs. 804 01:30:48,693 --> 01:30:50,944 As the freshwater of Greenland's ice sheet... 805 01:30:51,028 --> 01:30:54,114 gradually seeps into the salt water of the oceans, 806 01:30:54,198 --> 01:30:57,868 low-lying lands around the globe are threatened. 807 01:31:07,128 --> 01:31:09,504 Sea levels are rising. 808 01:31:09,589 --> 01:31:12,591 Water expanding as it gets warmer caused, 809 01:31:12,675 --> 01:31:17,137 in the 20th century alone, a rise of 20 centimeters. 810 01:31:17,221 --> 01:31:20,432 Everything becomes unstable. 811 01:31:20,516 --> 01:31:24,102 Coral reefs, for example, are extremely sensitive... 812 01:31:24,187 --> 01:31:26,605 to the slightest change in water temperature. 813 01:31:26,689 --> 01:31:29,107 Thirty percent have disappeared. 814 01:31:29,192 --> 01:31:32,360 They are an essential link in the chain of species. 815 01:31:47,835 --> 01:31:52,464 In the atmosphere, the major wind streams are changing direction. 816 01:31:52,548 --> 01:31:54,841 Rain cycles are altered. 817 01:31:54,926 --> 01:31:58,553 The geography of climates is modified. 818 01:31:58,638 --> 01:32:01,681 The inhabitants of low-lying islands here in the Maldives, 819 01:32:01,766 --> 01:32:03,683 for example, are on the front line. 820 01:32:03,768 --> 01:32:06,228 They are increasingly concerned. 821 01:32:06,312 --> 01:32:09,231 Some are already looking for new, more hospitable lands. 822 01:32:16,280 --> 01:32:20,200 If sea levels continue to rise faster and faster, 823 01:32:20,284 --> 01:32:22,410 what will major cities like Tokyo, 824 01:32:22,495 --> 01:32:25,580 the world's most populous city, do? 825 01:32:25,665 --> 01:32:29,709 Every year, scientists' predictions become more and more alarming. 826 01:32:29,794 --> 01:32:34,923 Seventy percent of the world's population lives on coastal plains. 827 01:32:35,007 --> 01:32:41,179 Eleven of the 15 biggest cities stand on a coastline or river estuary. 828 01:32:41,264 --> 01:32:44,391 As the seas rise, salt will invade the water table, 829 01:32:44,475 --> 01:32:47,644 depriving inhabitants of drinking water. 830 01:33:02,326 --> 01:33:04,911 Migratory phenomena are inevitable. 831 01:33:04,996 --> 01:33:08,331 The only uncertainty concerns their scale. 832 01:33:36,402 --> 01:33:41,156 In Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro is unrecognizable. 833 01:33:41,240 --> 01:33:44,159 Eighty percent of its glaciers have disappeared. 834 01:33:44,243 --> 01:33:46,953 In summer, the rivers no longer flow. 835 01:33:47,038 --> 01:33:50,040 Local peoples are affected by the lack of water. 836 01:33:51,709 --> 01:33:55,587 Even on the world's highest peaks, in the heart of the Himalayas, 837 01:33:55,671 --> 01:33:58,298 eternal snows and glaciers are receding. 838 01:34:02,470 --> 01:34:06,348 Yet these glaciers play an essential role in the water cycle. 839 01:34:06,432 --> 01:34:09,351 They trap the water from the monsoons as ice... 840 01:34:09,435 --> 01:34:12,604 and release it in the summer when the snow melts. 841 01:34:23,991 --> 01:34:28,411 The glaciers of the Himalayas are the source of all the great Asian rivers� 842 01:34:28,496 --> 01:34:32,749 the Indus, Ganges, Mekong, Yangtze Kiang. 843 01:34:32,833 --> 01:34:36,753 Two billion people depend on them for drinking water... 844 01:34:36,837 --> 01:34:40,465 and to irrigate their crops, as in Bangladesh. 845 01:34:45,554 --> 01:34:48,848 On the delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra, 846 01:34:48,933 --> 01:34:52,060 Bangladesh is directly affected by the phenomena... 847 01:34:52,144 --> 01:34:55,271 occurring in the Himalayas and at sea level. 848 01:34:55,356 --> 01:34:59,275 This is one of the most populous and poorest countries in the world. 849 01:34:59,360 --> 01:35:01,569 It is already hit by global warming. 850 01:35:01,654 --> 01:35:06,491 The combined impact of increasingly dramatic floods and hurricanes... 851 01:35:06,575 --> 01:35:09,411 could make a third of its landmass disappear. 852 01:35:09,495 --> 01:35:13,081 When populations are subjected to these devastating phenomena, 853 01:35:13,165 --> 01:35:15,458 they eventually move away. 854 01:35:22,133 --> 01:35:24,467 Wealthy countries will not be spared. 855 01:35:24,552 --> 01:35:27,554 Droughts are occurring all over the planet. 856 01:35:27,638 --> 01:35:31,975 In Australia, half of farmland is already affected. 857 01:36:17,062 --> 01:36:21,232 We are in the process of compromising the climatic balance... 858 01:36:21,317 --> 01:36:25,653 that has allowed us to develop over 12,000 years. 859 01:36:35,539 --> 01:36:39,751 More and more wildfires encroach on major cities. 860 01:36:39,835 --> 01:36:43,254 In turn, they exacerbate global warming. 861 01:36:43,339 --> 01:36:47,550 As the trees burn, they release carbon dioxide. 862 01:36:47,635 --> 01:36:52,472 The system that controls our climate has been severely disrupted. 863 01:36:52,556 --> 01:36:56,726 The elements on which it relies have been disrupted. 864 01:37:52,449 --> 01:37:57,328 The clock of climate change is ticking in these magnificent landscapes. 865 01:37:58,789 --> 01:38:02,458 Here in Siberia and elsewhere across the globe, 866 01:38:02,543 --> 01:38:06,754 it is so cold that the ground is constantly frozen. 867 01:38:06,839 --> 01:38:09,173 It's known as permafrost. 868 01:38:23,272 --> 01:38:27,901 Under its surface lies a climatic time bomb: methane, 869 01:38:27,985 --> 01:38:33,239 a greenhouse gas 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. 870 01:38:33,324 --> 01:38:36,034 If the permafrost melts, the methane released... 871 01:38:36,118 --> 01:38:39,829 would cause the greenhouse effect to race out of control, 872 01:38:39,914 --> 01:38:42,749 with consequences no one can predict. 873 01:38:42,833 --> 01:38:46,669 We would literally be in unknown territory. 874 01:39:09,068 --> 01:39:13,112 Humanity has no more than 10 years to reverse the trend... 875 01:39:13,197 --> 01:39:16,199 and avoid crossing into this territory� 876 01:39:16,283 --> 01:39:18,618 life on Earth as we have never known it. 877 01:39:51,235 --> 01:39:54,988 We have created phenomena we cannot control. 878 01:39:55,072 --> 01:40:01,411 Since our origins, water, air and forms of life are intimately linked. 879 01:40:01,495 --> 01:40:05,832 But recently, we have broken those links. 880 01:40:05,916 --> 01:40:08,418 Let's face the facts. 881 01:40:08,502 --> 01:40:11,587 We must believe what we know. 882 01:40:11,672 --> 01:40:16,843 All that we have just seen is a reflection of human behavior. 883 01:40:16,927 --> 01:40:20,763 We have shaped the Earth in our image. 884 01:40:20,848 --> 01:40:24,183 We have very little time to change. 885 01:40:24,268 --> 01:40:28,771 How can this century carry the burden of nine billion human beings... 886 01:40:28,856 --> 01:40:31,774 if we refuse to be called to account... 887 01:40:31,859 --> 01:40:34,694 for everything we alone have done? 888 01:44:31,348 --> 01:44:33,599 The cost of our actions is high. 889 01:44:33,684 --> 01:44:37,436 Others pay the price without having been actively involved. 890 01:44:37,521 --> 01:44:40,731 I have seen refugee camps as big as cities, 891 01:44:40,816 --> 01:44:42,942 sprawling in the desert. 892 01:44:43,026 --> 01:44:45,736 How many men, women and children... 893 01:44:45,821 --> 01:44:47,780 will be left by the wayside tomorrow? 894 01:44:51,702 --> 01:44:53,619 Must we always build walls... 895 01:44:53,704 --> 01:44:55,788 to break the chain of human solidarity, 896 01:44:55,872 --> 01:45:01,794 separate peoples and protect the happiness of some from the misery of others? 897 01:45:01,878 --> 01:45:04,505 It's too late to be a pessimist. 898 01:45:04,589 --> 01:45:08,217 I know that a single human can knock down every wall. 899 01:45:08,302 --> 01:45:10,886 It's too late to be a pessimist. 900 01:45:10,971 --> 01:45:15,224 Worldwide, four children out of five attend school. 901 01:45:15,309 --> 01:45:18,477 Never has learning been given to so many human beings. 902 01:45:18,562 --> 01:45:23,065 Everyone, from richest to poorest, can make a contribution. 903 01:45:23,150 --> 01:45:25,901 Lesotho, one of the world's poorest countries, 904 01:45:25,986 --> 01:45:30,740 is proportionally the one that invests most in its people's education. 905 01:45:30,824 --> 01:45:33,409 Qatar, one of the world's richest states, 906 01:45:33,493 --> 01:45:36,412 has opened its doors to the best universities. 907 01:45:36,496 --> 01:45:42,251 Culture, education, research and innovation are inexhaustible resources. 908 01:45:42,336 --> 01:45:45,046 In the face of misery and suffering, 909 01:45:45,130 --> 01:45:48,758 millions of N.G.O.'s prove that solidarity between peoples... 910 01:45:48,842 --> 01:45:52,136 is stronger than the selfishness of nations. 911 01:45:52,220 --> 01:45:55,306 In Bangladesh, a man thought the unthinkable... 912 01:45:55,390 --> 01:45:58,434 and founded a bank that lends only to the poor. 913 01:45:58,518 --> 01:46:01,270 In barely 30 years, it has changed the lives... 914 01:46:01,355 --> 01:46:04,982 of 150 million people around the world. 915 01:46:06,943 --> 01:46:10,529 Antarctica is a continent with immense natural resources... 916 01:46:10,614 --> 01:46:12,948 that no country can claim for itself, 917 01:46:13,033 --> 01:46:16,702 a natural reserve devoted to peace and science. 918 01:46:16,787 --> 01:46:21,749 A treaty signed by 49 states has made it a treasure shared by all humanity. 919 01:46:22,959 --> 01:46:24,877 It's too late to be a pessimist. 920 01:46:24,961 --> 01:46:29,799 Governments have acted to protect nearly two percent of the world's territorial waters. 921 01:46:29,883 --> 01:46:32,843 It's not much, but it's two times more than 10 years ago. 922 01:46:32,928 --> 01:46:37,348 The first natural parks were created just over a century ago. 923 01:46:37,432 --> 01:46:40,559 They cover over 13% of the continents. 924 01:46:40,644 --> 01:46:43,312 They create spaces where human activity is in step... 925 01:46:43,397 --> 01:46:47,566 with the preservation of species, soils and landscapes. 926 01:46:47,651 --> 01:46:52,071 This harmony between humans and nature can become the rule, 927 01:46:52,155 --> 01:46:54,073 no longer the exception. 928 01:46:54,157 --> 01:46:58,244 In the United States, New York has realized that nature does for us. 929 01:46:58,328 --> 01:47:02,331 These forests and lakes supply all the drinking water the city needs. 930 01:47:07,170 --> 01:47:11,215 In South Korea, the forests have been devastated by war. 931 01:47:11,299 --> 01:47:14,218 Thanks to a national reforestation program, 932 01:47:14,302 --> 01:47:17,388 they once more cover 65% of the country. 933 01:47:17,472 --> 01:47:21,600 More than 75% of paper is recycled. 934 01:47:21,685 --> 01:47:26,981 Costa Rica has made a choice between military spending and the conservation of its lands. 935 01:47:27,065 --> 01:47:28,983 The country no longer has an army. 936 01:47:29,067 --> 01:47:32,403 It prefers to devote its resources to education, ecotourism... 937 01:47:32,487 --> 01:47:35,406 and the protection of its primary forest. 938 01:47:35,490 --> 01:47:38,576 Gabon is one of the world's leading producers of wood. 939 01:47:38,660 --> 01:47:40,911 It enforces selective logging� 940 01:47:40,996 --> 01:47:43,581 not more than one tree every hectare. 941 01:47:43,665 --> 01:47:47,251 Its forests are one of the country's most important economic resources, 942 01:47:47,335 --> 01:47:50,129 but they have the time to regenerate. 943 01:47:50,213 --> 01:47:54,592 Programs exist that guarantee sustainable forest management. 944 01:47:54,676 --> 01:47:57,011 They must become mandatory. 945 01:48:01,016 --> 01:48:03,100 For consumers and producers, 946 01:48:03,185 --> 01:48:05,853 justice is an opportunity to be seized. 947 01:48:05,937 --> 01:48:09,607 When trade is fair, when both buyer and seller benefit, 948 01:48:09,691 --> 01:48:12,568 everybody can prosper and earn a decent living. 949 01:48:20,035 --> 01:48:22,077 How can there be justice and equity... 950 01:48:22,162 --> 01:48:25,164 between people whose only tools are their hands... 951 01:48:25,248 --> 01:48:29,919 and those who harvest their crops with a machine and state subsidies? 952 01:48:36,426 --> 01:48:38,886 Let's be responsible consumers. 953 01:48:38,970 --> 01:48:41,138 Think about what we buy. 954 01:48:42,974 --> 01:48:45,726 It's too late to be a pessimist. 955 01:48:45,810 --> 01:48:48,145 I have seen agriculture on a human scale. 956 01:48:48,230 --> 01:48:53,275 It can feed the whole planet if meat production doesn't take the food out of people's mouths. 957 01:48:53,360 --> 01:48:57,363 I have seen fishermen who take care what they catch... 958 01:48:57,447 --> 01:48:59,907 and care for the riches of the ocean. 959 01:49:01,117 --> 01:49:04,036 I have seen houses producing their own energy. 960 01:49:04,120 --> 01:49:08,207 5,000 people live in the world's first ever eco-friendly district, 961 01:49:08,291 --> 01:49:10,209 in Freiburg, Germany. 962 01:49:10,293 --> 01:49:12,253 Other cities partner the project. 963 01:49:12,337 --> 01:49:15,506 Mumbai is the thousandth to join them. 964 01:49:18,468 --> 01:49:22,388 The governments of New Zealand, Iceland, Austria, Sweden... 965 01:49:22,472 --> 01:49:24,723 and other nations have made the development... 966 01:49:24,808 --> 01:49:28,102 of renewable energy sources a top priority. 967 01:49:28,186 --> 01:49:31,897 I know that 80% of the energy we consume... 968 01:49:31,982 --> 01:49:34,233 comes from fossil energy sources. 969 01:49:34,317 --> 01:49:39,572 Every week, two new coal-fired generating plants are built in China alone. 970 01:49:39,656 --> 01:49:42,241 But I have also seen, in Denmark, 971 01:49:42,325 --> 01:49:44,910 a prototype of a coal-fired plant... 972 01:49:44,995 --> 01:49:48,747 that releases its carbon into the soil rather than the air. 973 01:49:48,832 --> 01:49:51,458 A solution for the future? Nobody knows yet. 974 01:49:52,669 --> 01:49:54,587 I have seen, in Iceland, 975 01:49:54,671 --> 01:49:59,466 an electricity plant powered by the Earth's heat� geothermal power. 976 01:49:59,551 --> 01:50:02,595 I have seen a sea snake lying on the swell... 977 01:50:02,679 --> 01:50:06,849 to absorb the energy of the waves and produce electricity. 978 01:50:11,021 --> 01:50:13,981 I have seen wind farms off the coast of Denmark... 979 01:50:14,065 --> 01:50:17,776 that produce 20% of the country's electricity. 980 01:50:17,861 --> 01:50:21,822 The U.S.A., China, India, Germany and Spain... 981 01:50:21,906 --> 01:50:25,117 are the biggest investors in renewable energy. 982 01:50:25,201 --> 01:50:29,038 They have already created over two and a half million jobs. 983 01:50:29,122 --> 01:50:32,541 Where on Earth doesn't the wind blow? 984 01:50:34,085 --> 01:50:39,465 I have seen desert expanses baking in the sun. 985 01:50:39,549 --> 01:50:41,634 Everything on Earth is linked, 986 01:50:41,718 --> 01:50:46,138 and the Earth is linked to the sun, its original energy source. 987 01:50:46,222 --> 01:50:50,017 Can humans not imitate plants and capture its energy? 988 01:50:50,101 --> 01:50:53,187 In one hour, the sun gives the Earth... 989 01:50:53,271 --> 01:50:58,817 the same amount of energy as that consumed by all humanity in one year. 990 01:50:58,902 --> 01:51:03,739 As long as the Earth exists, the sun's energy will be inexhaustible. 991 01:51:03,823 --> 01:51:08,327 All we have to do is stop drilling the Earth and start looking to the sky. 992 01:51:08,411 --> 01:51:11,747 All we have to do is learn to cultivate the sun. 993 01:51:11,831 --> 01:51:17,378 All these experiments are only examples, but they testify to a new awareness. 994 01:51:17,462 --> 01:51:20,923 They lay down markers for a new human adventure... 995 01:51:21,007 --> 01:51:25,260 based on moderation, intelligence and sharing. 996 01:51:41,027 --> 01:51:43,779 It's time to come together. 997 01:51:43,863 --> 01:51:49,284 What's important is not what's gone, but what remains. 998 01:51:49,369 --> 01:51:52,287 We still have half the world's forests, 999 01:51:52,372 --> 01:51:54,957 thousands of rivers, lakes and glaciers... 1000 01:51:55,041 --> 01:51:57,126 and thousands of thriving species. 1001 01:52:01,756 --> 01:52:05,551 We know that the solutions are there today. 1002 01:52:05,635 --> 01:52:08,137 We all have the power to change. 1003 01:52:10,140 --> 01:52:12,808 So what are we waiting for?