Are We Changing Planet Earth?
Programme title card
Picture format	16:9
Audio format	Stereo
Episode duration	59 minutes
Director	Nicolas Brown
Producer(s)	Jeremy Bristow
Executive producer	Sacha Baveystock
Presented by	David Attenborough
Music by	Samuel Sim
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Language(s)	English
First shown on	BBC One
Original run	24 May– 1 June 2006
No. of episodes	2
Official website

Are We Changing Planet Earth? and Can We Save Planet Earth? are two programmes that form a documentary about global warming, presented by David Attenborough. They were first broadcast in the UK on 24 May and 1 June 2006 respectively. Sir David Frederick Attenborough, OM, CH, CVO, CBE, FRS (born on May 8, 1926 in London, England) is one of the worlds best known broadcasters and naturalists. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... BBC One (or BBC1 as it was formerly styled) is the primary channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation. ... A documentary is a work in a visual or auditory medium presenting political, scientific, social, or historical subjects in a factual and informative manner. ... Global mean surface temperatures 1856 to 2005 Mean surface temperature anomalies during the period 1995 to 2004 with respect to the average temperatures from 1940 to 1980 Global warming is the observed increase in the average temperature of the Earths atmosphere and oceans in recent decades. ... Sir David Frederick Attenborough, OM, CH, CVO, CBE, FRS (born on May 8, 1926 in London, England) is one of the worlds best known broadcasters and naturalists. ... May 24 is the 144th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (145th in leap years). ... June 1 is the 152nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (153rd in leap years), with 213 days remaining. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Part of a themed season by the BBC entitled "Climate Chaos", the programmes were produced in conjunction with the Discovery Channel and the Open University. They were directed by Nicolas Brown and produced by Jeremy Bristow. The music was composed by Samuel Sim. The British Broadcasting Corporation, invariably known as the BBC (and also informally known as the Beeb or Auntie) is the largest public broadcasting corporation in the world. ... Discovery Channel is a property of Discovery Communications primarily packaged as a network entertainment brand distributed in virtually every pay-television market in the world. ... Affiliations EADTU, MSACS Website www. ...

Attenborough undertook the assignment in between his 'Life' series Life in the Undergrowth and Life in Cold Blood. Around the same time, the naturalist also narrated Planet Earth. Life In The Undergrowth is a BBC natural history television series about invertebrates, written and presented by David Attenborough, which began transmission in the UK on November 23, 2005. ... Life In Cold Blood is a planned BBC natural history television series about reptiles, to be written and presented by David Attenborough, and due for completion in 2009. ... Planet Earth logo. ...

Background

Attenborough had confessed to previously being sceptical about the belief that climate change is predominantly caused by humans. But now, he argued, the evidence of it was too overwhelming too ignore. He became sure of it when he saw graphs provided by climatologists that demonstrated the link between increasing temperatures and the levels of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere, with the growth in population and industrialisation: Variations in CO2, temperature and dust from the Vostok ice core over the last 400 000 years Climate change refers to the variation in the Earths global climate or in regional climates over time. ... Trinomial name Homo sapiens sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Humans, or human beings, are bipedal primates belonging to the mammalian species Homo sapiens (Latin for wise man or knowing man) under the family Hominidae (known as the great apes). ... Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound composed of one carbon and two oxygen atoms. ...

"I was absolutely convinced this was no part of a normal climatic oscillation which the Earth has been going through and that it was something else."^[1]

Throughout his television career, Attenborough had, by and large, purposely avoided specific references to the effect of humans on the ecology of the planet. He saw his role simply as a presenter of programmes on natural history. However, the final episode of The Living Planet (1984) had been devoted to man's own habitat and his destruction of others, and in later years, Attenborough started to become more outspoken about the subject. The three-part State of the Planet in 2000, and the last instalment of The Life of Mammals (2002), which dealt with the evolution of Homo sapiens and subsequent overpopulation, were explicit in this regard. Ernst Haeckel coined the term oekologie in 1866. ... Table of natural history, 1728 Cyclopaedia Natural history is an umbrella term for what are now usually viewed as several distinct scientific disciplines. ... The Living Planet is a 1984 BBC television series presented by David Attenborough. ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... State of the Planet DVD cover. ... This article is about the year 2000. ... The Life of Mammals is a BBC (in conjunction with The Discovery Channel) natural history television series of ten episodes, about mammals, written and presented by David Attenborough, originally transmitted in 2002. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... Map of countries by population —showing the population of the China and India in the billions. ...

Attenborough acknowledged that the tone of the "Climate Chaos" programmes was more forthright than most of those in which he had previously appeared:

"It's true to say these programmes about climate change are different, in that previously I have made programmes about natural history, and now you could say I have an engaged stance. The first is about the fact that there is climate change and that it is human-induced. I'm well aware that people say it's all a fuss about nothing, and even if it is getting warmer, it's nothing to do with us. So I'm glad that the BBC wanted some clear statement of the evidence as to why these two things are the case."^[2]

Although the two programmes represent Attenborough's personal take on global warming and the surrounding controversy, he backs up his arguments with findings from leading scientists and climatologists. The first instalment investigates the effects and probable causes of the phenomenon, and the likely outcome if things remain unchecked. The second looks at the future in more detail and discusses preventative measures that can be implemented. Computer graphics are used to demonstrate how the atmosphere is polluted by day-to-day activities that human beings take for granted. The global warming controversy is an ongoing dispute about the effects of humans on the global climate and what, if any, policies should be followed to avoid future effects. ... Computer graphics (CG) is the field of visual computing, where one utilizes computers both to generate visual images synthetically and to integrate or alter visual and spatial information sampled from the real world. ...

Are We Changing Planet Earth?

"This is our planet: planet Earth. It contains an astonishing variety of landscapes and climates. Since life began, around 4,000 million years ago, it has gone through extraordinary changes in its climate and in the species that live on it. But now it seems that our planet is being transformed — not by natural events, but by the actions of one species: mankind."

— David Attenborough's opening narration

Effects

Attenborough begins by returning to his 1979 series, Life on Earth, and specifically his closing words: "…Man has an unprecedented control over the world and everything in it. And so, whether he likes it or not, what happens next is very largely up to him." He notes that when he spoke those words he could have had no idea that man might have unleashed forces that are now altering the Earth's climate. The naturalist highlights several meteorological and climatological catastrophes: Hurricane Katrina, the collapse of glaciers in Greenland, drought in the Amazon River, forest fires in Australia, and one of Europe's hottest summers (that caused 27,000 deaths). He wonders if, somehow, there is a connection between these events. Scientists all over the world are linking the changes in the Earth's weather to a global rise in temperatures. The actual figure is just 0.6°C since 1900, but this is only an average. For example, the Arctic has warmed by up to 3°C, and this threatens its whole ecosystem. A team has been surveying polar bears in the region for the last 25 years, and over that time, the animals have declined in number by a quarter. The Arctic ice is also now melting three weeks earlier each year. The overall rate of glacier melt is accelerating: in southern Greenland, the amount of ice flowing into the sea has doubled in a decade, which is causing sea levels to rise. This is exacerbated by the increase in temperatures, which causes oceans to expand. When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, the sea temperatures of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean were the highest ever recorded. In addition, the 2005 hurricane season was the worst ever. Scientists who have studied such severe weather warn that from now on hurricanes in the area will be more intense, more destructive and possibly more frequent. Also in 2005, the Amazon region suffered its worse drought in 60 years, decimating local fish populations. Six months later, trees have still not recovered. The abnormally warm seas in the Atlantic had disrupted the rainfall in the forest and for similar reasons, coral reefs are also at risk, leading to the phenomenon of coral bleaching. This article is about the tv programme Life on Earth. ... Earth (IPA: , often referred to as the Earth, Terra, or Planet Earth) is the third planet in the solar system in terms of distance from the Sun, and the fifth largest. ... Lowest pressure 902 mbar (hPa; 26. ... A glacier is a large, long-lasting river of ice that is formed on land and moves in response to gravity. ... A drought is an abnormally dry period when there is not enough water to support agricultural, urban or environme fdsdesntal water needs. ... A satellite image of the mouth of the Amazon River, looking south The Amazon River or River Amazon; Spanish: Río Amazonas, Portuguese: Rio Amazonas) of South America is the second largest, most voluminous river on earth, having a greater total flow than the next six largest rivers combined. ... The Old Fire burning in the San Bernardino Mountains (image taken from the International Space Station) A wildfire, also known as a forest fire, vegetation fire, grass fire, brush fire, bushfire (in Australasia), or hill fire, is an uncontrolled fire often occurring in wildland areas, but which can also consume... World map showing Europe Political map (neighboring countries in Asia and Africa also shown) Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth. ... For other senses of this word, see Summer (disambiguation). ... Weather is an all-encompassing term used to describe all of the many and varied phenomena that can occur in the atmosphere of a planet. ... The red line indicates the 10°C isotherm in July, commonly used to define the Arctic region border Satellite image of the Arctic surface The Arctic is the area around the Earths North Pole, opposite the Antarctican area around the South Pole. ... An ecosystem, a contraction of ecological and system, refers to the collection of components and processes that comprise, and govern the behavior of, some defined subset of the biosphere. ... Binomial name Ursus maritimus Phipps, 1774 The polar bear (Ursus maritimus), also known as the white bear, northern bear, or sea bear, is a large bear native to the Arctic. ... The worlds oceans as seen from the South Pacific Ocean Oceans (from Okeanos in Greek, the ancient Greeks noticing the strong current that flowed off Gibraltar and assuming it was a great river) cover almost three quarters (71%) of the surface of the Earth, and nearly half of the... New Orleans is the largest city in the state of Louisiana, United States of America. ... Gulf of Mexico in 3D perspective. ... This article is about weather phenomena. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Some of the biodiversity of a coral reef. ... Warm pink and yellow tones show where sea surface temperatures in the Great Barrier Reef were warm in the top image. ...

Causes

Attenborough points out that because of natural forces, the Earth's temperature has been fluctuating for millions of years, long before humans arrived. However, it is the additional carbon dioxide, leading to an increase in the greenhouse effect, which must also be taken into account. When fossil fuels are burnt, such as coal, fuel oil or natural gas, the carbon emissions combine with oxygen to further thicken the Earth's atmospheric 'blanket' and thus warm the planet. An analysis of ice cores can provide information from thousands of years ago. Comparisons of carbon dioxide levels show that those of today are far beyond anything seen in the past. The scientists interviewed are convinced that humans are responsible. A schematic representation of the exchanges of energy between outer space, the Earths atmosphere, and the Earth surface. ... Coal rail cars in Ashtabula, Ohio Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from the remains of dead plants and animals. ... Coal Coal is a fossil fuel extracted from the ground by underground mining or open-pit mining (surface mining). ... Fuel oil is a fraction obtained from petroleum distillation, either as a distillate or a residue. ... Natural gas is commonly referred to as gas. ... General Name, Symbol, Number oxygen, O, 8 Chemical series Nonmetals, chalcogens Group, Period, Block 16, 2, p Appearance colorless (gas) very pale blue (liquid) Atomic mass 15. ... Ice Core sample taken from drill. ...

The future

Scientists cannot predict changes to the climate with any certainty — but they can anticipate the likelihood that they will occur. Attenborough visits the Met Office in Exeter to learn their conclusions. Their findings include several factors, and allow for natural climate change as well as man-made carbon dioxide emissions. A graph shows that up until around 1970, the variance in Earth's temperatures was largely due to inherent anomalies, but from then on there is a marked escalation, which can only be explained by human activity. A computer model reveals that, for example, the 2003 European heat wave — by present reckoning a 1 in 200 years event — will be something that occurs every other summer by 2040, and by 2080 would be considered to be cool weather. Attenborough is wholly persuaded: The new building on the edge of Exeter The Met Office (originally an abbreviation for Meteorological Office, but now the official name in itself), which has its headquarters at Exeter in Devon, is the UKs national weather service. ... The city of Exeter is the county town of Devon, in England, UK. It is located at , . In the 2001 census its population was recorded at 111,066. ... The summer of 2003 was one of the hottest on record in Europe; this led to a health crisis in certain countries as well as considerable impact on crops. ...

"We're all involved in this: our whole way of life is structured around the burning of fossil fuels. I find it sobering to think that while I've been travelling the world, trying to record the complexity and beauty of our planet, that I too have been making my own contribution to global warming. As I recognised when I presented Life on Earth all those years ago, we are a flexible and innovative species and we have the capacity to adapt and modify our behaviour. Now we most certainly have to do so if we're to deal with climate change. It's the biggest challenge we have yet faced."

Can We Save Planet Earth?

Likely changes

Attenborough starts the second programme by looking at potential future events, before warning that what happens over the next few years is crucial. A BBC weather forecast for the year 2050 shows that summer temperatures of 38°C for the UK are "par for the course". The probable range by which the planet will warm over the next century is between 1.4°C and 5.8°C. Or, says Attenborough, "to put it another way, the impact of global warming will be somewhere between severe and catastrophic." The naturalist is invited to watch a film that illustrates regional change over the next 100 years. A 2°C rise for the south of England, for example, may not seem to be much but that is not all there is to it. Rainfall is also predicted to be more intense and storms could be five times more frequent than they are at the moment. This makes extreme events, such as the 2004 Boscastle flood, much more likely. Current defences for severe wind or rain will shortly become inadequate. Even Hurricane Katrina, with the devastation it caused, is described as "not particularly powerful". In Australia, a new approach is needed to combat brush fires after the hottest year on record. If the Amazon tropical rainforest were to disappear, not only would an entire ecosystem vanish, but a valuable way of cooling the planet would go as well. Meanwhile, the glaciers continue to melt: one scientist reveals that an area the size of Texas has been lost over the last 20 years. Attenborough is told that a warming of 2°C is inevitable, as a consequence of our actions over the last 25 years, but whether or not we end up at 6°C is still very much within our control. Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq... A roll cloud associated with a heavy or severe thunderstorm over Enschede, Netherlands A storm is any disturbed state of a planets atmosphere, especially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather. ... Looking upstream from the bridge after the flood Looking at the Old Cornish Stores Shop Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Boscastle flood, 2004 The Boscastle flood, 2004 occurred on Monday 16 August 2004 in Boscastle, Cornwall. ... Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, also known as tropical wet forests and tropical rainforests, are a tropical and subtropical forest biome. ... Official language(s) See: Languages of Texas Capital Austin Largest city Houston Area  Ranked 2nd  - Total 268,581 sq mi (695,622 km²)  - Width 773 miles (1,244 km)  - Length 790 miles (1,270 km)  - % water 2. ...

Domestic pollution

The Carbon family home and their pollution

Every year humans add 25 billion tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, and over half of it comes from their domestic activity. Attenborough introduces the Carbons, a fictional family occupying an average Western suburban house near a city. Their electrical requirements are supplied via fossil fuels. As Attenborough points out, the Carbons are not bad people, but as Westerners, they have one of the most energy-hungry lifestyles on the planet. They are a two-car household, and each vehicle emits 10 tons of CO₂ over the course of a year. The power used to run the Carbons' home and all its comforts translates into a similar amount. Much of the family's plentiful food supply will have crossed continents by the time it reaches their kitchen, and will have added a tenth to their annual emissions. Yet more are produced by their refuse: buried in a landfill, it heats up as it decomposes and releases greenhouse gases. Mr Carbon's business trips by air contribute to the fastest growing source of CO₂. The combined total of the Carbons' yearly air pollution is 45 tons. Electric power is the amount of work done by an electric current in a unit time. ... A landfill compaction vehicle in operation A landfill, also known as a dump (US) or a tip (UK), is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment. ... Top: Increasing atmospheric CO2 levels as measured in the atmosphere and ice cores. ... Before flue gas desulfurization was installed, the emissions from this power plant in New Mexico contained excessive amounts of sulfur dioxide. ...

Also shown are Mr and Mrs Tan, a fictional couple who live in an average Chinese suburb. At present, their energy usage is one seventh of that of the Carbons. However, this is set to change. As China becomes more industrialised, its emissions are set to overtake those in the West. The country is planning to build a large, coal-fired power plant every week for the next seven years.

Reducing emissions

The challenge is to freeze emissions at their current level. Attenborough investigates the measures that can be implemented in order to achieve this, and some are more controversial than others:

• Household solutions
  • Turning heating down by a few degrees
  • Turning off televisions and similar equipment instead of leaving them in 'standby'
  • Composting vegetable waste
  • Buying locally grown food to save on transporting it
  • Using energy-efficient lighting
  • Insulating homes properly
  • Using a gas cooker instead of an electric one
• Driving more fuel-efficient cars
• Using more public transportation
• Tripling the world's nuclear power
• Scaling up renewable energy, such as solar and wind power
• Pumping back emissions to below the sea bed

Attenborough notes that the world is waking up to climate change, and that everyone has a part to play in halting it. He paints an apocalyptic picture of the world if we do nothing. If the Greenland ice cap were to melt, the sea would flood much of south-east Britain, including central London. It would take just a 5-metre rise to drown most of Florida and leave Miami 50 miles off shore. A similar deluge would wipe Bangladesh off the map. Worldwide, 150 million people could be displaced within 50 years. Sleep mode, stand by, and hibernation, all refer to a low power mode for electronic devices such as computers. ... For the process of producing compost see composting A handful of compost Compost is the aerobically decomposed remnants of organic materials (those with plant and animal origins). ... Skytrain Bangkok. ... A nuclear power station. ... Renewable energy (sources) or RES capture their energy from existing flows of energy, from on-going natural processes, such as sunshine, wind, wave power , flowing water (hydropower), biological processes such as anaerobic digestion, and geothermal heat flow. ... Solar power describes a number of methods of harnessing energy from the light of the sun. ... Wind farm in Neuenkirchen, Dithmarschen, Germany. ... London (pronounced ) is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article is about the city in Florida. ...

"In the past, we didn't understand the effect of our actions. Unknowingly, we sowed the wind and now, literally, we are reaping the whirlwind. But we no longer have that excuse: now we do recognise the consequences of our behaviour. Now surely, we must act to reform it: individually and collectively; nationally and internationally — or we doom future generations to catastrophe."

— David Attenborough, in closing

References

1. ^ Times Online: It's serious — Attenborough says stop climate change
2. ^ Commondreams.org: Climate Change is the Major Problem Facing the World

See also

For Government policy, see Energy policy of the United Kingdom Energy use and conservation in the United Kingdom has been receiving increased attention over recent years. ... Conceptual assessment of the risks and impacts of global warming according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and how those risks increase relative to increasing global temperatures. ... // Mitigation of global warming involves taking actions aimed at reducing the extent or likelihood of global warming. ... The issue of human-caused, or anthropogenic, climate change (global warming) is becoming a central focus of the Green movement. ... The politics of global warming looks at the current political issues relating to global warming, as well as the historical rise of global warming as a political issue. ... The economics of global warming relates to the size and distribution of the economic costs and benefits of global warming and of a variety of actions aimed at the mitigation of global warming. ... Attribution of recent climate change is the problem of discovering what mechanisms are responsible for observed changes in climate. ... This article serves as a glossary of the most common terms and how they are used. ... The timeline of environmental events is a historical account of events that have shaped humanitys perspective on the environment. ... An Inconvenient Truth book cover An Inconvenient Truth is a documentary film about climate change, especially global warming, directed by Davis Guggenheim and starring former United States Vice President Al Gore. ...

External links

• BBC Climate Chaos homepage
• BBC News: How you can save energy

v·d·e  David Attenborough: Major Television Series

The "Life" Series Life on Earth | The Living Planet | The Trials of Life | Life in the Freezer | The Private Life of Plants The Life of Birds | The Life of Mammals | Life in the Undergrowth | Life in Cold Blood Other Work and Narrated: Zoo Quest | The First Eden | Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives | State of the Planet | The Blue Planet | Planet Earth Are We Changing Planet Earth? Image File history File links David_attenborough. ... Sir David Frederick Attenborough, OM, CH, CVO, CBE, FRS (born on May 8, 1926 in London, England) is one of the worlds best known broadcasters and naturalists. ... This article is about the tv programme Life on Earth. ... The Living Planet is a 1984 BBC television series presented by David Attenborough. ... Trials of Life is a BBC (in conjunction with The Australian Broadcasting Service and Turner Broadcasting System Inc. ... Life in the Freezer is a BBC natural history television series (in conjunction with The National Geographic Society and Lionheart International Limited) of six episodes about life in and around the continent of Antarctica. ... The Private Life of Plants (1995) is a six-part BBC television series presented by David Attenborough, on the growth, movement, reproduction and survival of plants around the world. ... The Life of Birds is a BBC (in conjunction with BBC Worldwide Americas Inc. ... The Life of Mammals is a BBC (in conjunction with The Discovery Channel) natural history television series of ten episodes, about mammals, written and presented by David Attenborough, originally transmitted in 2002. ... Life In The Undergrowth is a BBC natural history television series about invertebrates, written and presented by David Attenborough, which began transmission in the UK on November 23, 2005. ... Life In Cold Blood is a planned BBC natural history television series about reptiles, to be written and presented by David Attenborough, and due for completion in 2009. ... Zoo Quest was a series of multi-part nature documentaries broadcast on BBC television between 1954 and 1964. ... Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives DVD cover. ... State of the Planet DVD cover. ... The Blue Planet is a Discovery Channel/BBC Natural History Unit co-produced television series subtitled a natural history of the oceans, consisting of eight episodes, presented by David Attenborough, originally transmitted in September/ October 2001. ... Planet Earth logo. ...