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Secret of Life on Earth The
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Every form of life on Earth |
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...to capture the sun's energy |
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Sea birds feed on fish, |
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But somewhere their food chain |
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Every food chain is started |
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The great African herds |
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And in their turn, they become food |
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lt is plants, and plants alone, which |
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Without them, |
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And four billion years ago, |
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...dead. |
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A forbidding, hostile place... |
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...bombarded by ultraviolet radiation... |
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...the planet's surface |
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Yet in such conditions, |
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...with power to reproduce themselves. |
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From them appeared the first |
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Drawing energy from the sun, |
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Some combining water with a chemical |
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...and this produced an important |
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An atmosphere was being created |
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...you and l would eventually be able |
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Two billion years ago, this was |
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ln the next billion years, the oxygen |
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...some of it forming a shield of ozone |
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At last, the stage was set |
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And true plants swarmed |
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Now, filter-feeding animals |
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...could flourish |
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The secret of life was formed |
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...binding plants and animals |
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Some animals might live by |
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...but every food chain must start |
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That is the essence |
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By the time fish had evolved... |
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...another stage in the story |
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The teeming life of the oceans |
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About 400 million years ago, |
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Tiny growths |
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ln time, |
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They developed roots. |
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Plants developed woody vessels within |
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...and enabled them to grow tall. |
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Competition with other plants |
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With this dynamic lift off, |
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Plants had successfully |
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Their roots broke the Earth's surface |
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The atmosphere they'd created made life |
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...among them, insects. |
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Wings meant that insects could follow |
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The first land plants |
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...and could therefore |
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But by degrees, plants developed |
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The conifers' male sex cells could be |
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...which produced seeds. |
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Since they reproduced in this way... |
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...the trees could move into new, |
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Like an advancing army, |
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...and occupied the mountainsides. |
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A far cry from the shoreline |
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Today, one-third of all |
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Among them, the largest living |
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...capable of growing to the height |
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A remarkable development... |
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...but there was an even more |
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The plant's male and female parts were |
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The flower. |
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Flower pollen is an attractive source |
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They carry some of it on their bodies |
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ln that way, |
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Many flowers produce nectar, |
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...with guidelines |
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Some flowers |
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The wild arum has a spike |
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...which attracts small mosquitoes. |
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Many slide to the bottom |
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They remain trapped overnight. |
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But next day, |
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The bristles wilt and clear the way |
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...well-coated with a dusting of pollen |
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Again, temporary prisoners... |
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...they pollinate their captor |
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The size and shape of certain flowers |
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Members of the parrot family, |
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...have adapted |
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...and so |
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Other flowers await pollination |
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ln Australia, small nocturnal |
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...visit banksia flowers |
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By chance, they carry pollen |
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...as they move from flower to flower. |
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The traffic to the flowers |
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...is an open invitation |
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Some predatory mantes can disguise |
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...to fool their victims. |
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The killer, poised to strike. |
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Life in the world |
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...with many variations on the theme |
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ln the relationships |
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...it was not always the plant |
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ln some cases, the plants themselves |
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Growing on poor soil, |
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...gets the nitrogen |
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...caught in its sticky leaves. |
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The leaves of another flesh-eating |
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The Venus flytrap. |
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Press the button, |
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Even so, |
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''Win some and lose some'' |
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Each hair is a trigger. |
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Once it has secured its prey, |
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ln all subcontracts written |
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...there's a delicate balance |
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lndividuals will perish, |
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ln the tropical forest |
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...of relationships |
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The success of flowering plants |
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...than anywhere else. They've |
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...and continuous moisture. |
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lt's the variety of plants |
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...of food and living conditions for |
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Over two-thirds of all |
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...are found in tropical forests. |
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Eat and be eaten, |
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Body color that matches the background |
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Slow movers often rely on camouflage. |
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lt's a strange fact that this wealth of |
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The plants survive because scarce |
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Decay, helped by insects and fungi... |
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...returns everything to the soil... |
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...ready to be taken up again by |
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One more relationship between the |
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After pollination, the flowers |
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...succulent and often colorful, |
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Here, wild figs attract |
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...known as flying foxes. |
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While the fruit's |
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...the seeds will pass through |
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...and germinate where they fall. |
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This is very effective |
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...and so creating |
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Each seedling will struggle |
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...and compete for a place |
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Fruits and berries were an important |
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But more crucial |
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...were the seeds of another |
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...which provided the staple food |
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Most plants grow from the tip, |
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So after they have been cropped |
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...the grass will continue to grow |
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All grasses and sedges are flowering |
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No need for insects. |
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When the seeds are set... |
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...they contain a nutritious substance |
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Grind it up and it becomes flour... |
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...a basic human food |
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The wild grasses that we know |
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...were the key to the growth |
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What drives the combine harvesters |
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...processed and stored... |
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...in billions of microscopic marine |
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...as oil, |
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Another fossil fuel is coal... |
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...the carbonized remains |
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lt provides more than 40% |
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And it takes energy to operate |
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...where the prized black seam lies. |
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Fossil fuels, coal and oil... |
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...contain energy which can |
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ln 1 991 , the Gulf War focused |
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...when nature is wantonly put |
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Originally, when plants first gathered |
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...carbon dioxide was used and oxygen |
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Now, fire uses up oxygen... |
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...while carbon gases |
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Less violently, it goes on |
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Modern transport relies |
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The carbon gases discharged |
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...build in the atmosphere and prevent |
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...thereby causing |
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Other harmful chemicals |
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...which shields us |
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...damaging to human skin and also |
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Trash, garbage, litter. |
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What is biodegradable is transformed |
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...but mankind has introduced |
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...the junk outside |
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...which poisons land and sea. |
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For the first time, a single species, |
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...is threatening |
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We have broken the green contract. |
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But we are learning |
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As the world's resources shrink, |
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This factory already uses 30% |
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Soon it will recycle 60% waste |
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We are also learning to capture energy |
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Besides nuclear energy, |
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...solar panels, wind power. |
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We can harness the elements. |
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Our space-age technology can monitor |
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Satellites report the frightening speed |
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...particularly in the rainforests. |
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This is a stretch of forest in Brazil, |
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Forest clearance and roads |
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Three years later, the view provides a |
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Time is running out |
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...at work in the canopy |
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Locked away in the rare plants |
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...are secrets, perhaps, of medical |
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Our heritage is a pool |
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This periwinkle comes |
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...not very important, we might think. |
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But now it is cultivated |
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...to make a drug used |
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Any species we exterminate |
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Lost forever. |
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By discovering how plants |
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...we can enrich our |
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The rainforest shows us that true life |
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...within the available resources |
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Living in harmony with nature |
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...may demand a change in our habits, |
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Some of our world's most beautiful |
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Even these are no longer denied to us. |
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lt seems to be a natural human desire |
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This desire is gratified each day... |
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...for visitors to a remote beach |
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Oh, yes. He's so beautiful. |
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You wanna step out, young man, |
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They're encouraged with food... |
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...but the dolphins do seem to enjoy |
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...as much as the humans enjoy it. |
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She's saying hello again. |
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She wants some more dinner. |
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What? |
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Our world has developed |
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What gave it stability |
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...was an unwritten contract |
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...acknowledging |
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...within a system nourished |
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But we can no longer take for granted |
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The growth of human knowledge has given |
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From the depths of the oceans... |
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...to the sky's final, delicate skin |
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lt is our actions which will change |
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...or for evil. |
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ln the sheer joy of our existence, |
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...those delicately balanced forces of |
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They formed the rules |
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...before we joined the long march |
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They hold the secret |
