HUMAN PLANET (2011)

HUMAN PLANET 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Planet
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1806234/

EXCERPTS:

Part.1 - OCEANS - Into the Blue

"We are not evolved for a life aquatic."

Part.2 - DESERTS - Life in the Furnace

"We can survive two months without food."

"7000 years ago, the Sahara was crossed by a network of rivers and lakes."

"Against the odds, they have turned a life of thirst into a thirst for life."

Part.3 - ARCTIC - Life in the Deep Freeze

"These legendary whales are looking for a way into the bay.
...but it is also a source of the rarest vitamin in the Arctic.
Vitamin C."

"(In Arctic) In June, the sun simply circles the sky, never dipping below the horizon."

"in recent years, thin ice has become a real problem for us...
it melts so quickly, making it difficult ...
to get close to the narwhal."

"The most prized part of the narwhal is the skin.
They call it muktuk.
It's their primary source of vitamin C.
Ounce for ounce, narwhal skin contains almost as much vitamin C as oranges."

Part.4 - JUNGLES - People of the Trees

"As only 2% of sunlight reaches the forest floor,
surprisingly few plants grow and this means few animals."

"There's less protein here than in the desert...
and much that is here is poisonous."

"The Mount Hagen Sing Sing
is the world's largest jungle-themed fancy-dress party."

"For forest people, simple things can hold extraordinary value,
but it's the trees themselves that are most in demand all around the world."

"In just 50 years, half the planets's tropical forest has been cleared.
As many as 100 rainforest species go extinct every day...
... often before they've even been discovered.
And it's not just animals and plants.
We're also losing human cultures that we know almost nothing about."


"Brazil is thought to be home to around 70 isolated tribes."


"i think i'd much rather live a shorter, fuller life, like they do out here."
(cameraman Gavin Thurston. referring to Lahayu clan's village - Papua.)

Part.5 - MOUNTAINS - Life in Thin Air

-

Part.6 - GRASSLANDS - The Roots of Power

"Grass is a remarkable plant.
It supports a great abundance of life.
Wheat, rice, barley and corn,
they're all grasses and they feed us."


"So how do mere humans,
without fangs or claws,
who can't outrun a wildbeest,
get a meal around here?
Rakita uses BRAINS and TEAMWORK."


"This is a scene which has played out throughout human existence,
hunters using brains, not brawn to outwit their mighty competitors."
(marvelous scene when 3 africans took prey of 15 hungry pride of lions right under their nose)


"It's the perfect partnership, but,
as every Masai boy knows,
if you don't give the Honey Guide (a bird) its reward,
next time it will lead you to a lion's den!"


"They are quelea.
They come in their millions and people call them locust birds.
They are the most numerous bird species on Earth."


"The Mongolian steppe is the biggest grassland on Earth.
There are more horses running wild here than anywhere else in the world."


"Without the grasslands, planet Earth would never have become the Human Planet."

Part.7 - RIVERS - Friend and Foe

-

Part.8 - CITIES - Surviving the Urban Jungle

"More than three billion of us now live in cities."


"We are, without doubt, the most inventive and powerful creature on the panet.
We're so successful, we've hijacked the whole world for our own ends.
But the consequences of our voracious lives are spiralling out of control."


"The Destiny of our planet is now in human hands."
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