[Music]
this is our home she provides everything
we need fresh water clean air all kinds
of food there’s a bounty of
animal vegetable and mineral wealth
which now supports seven billion humans
but seven billion people have had an
impact on this planet to the extent that
we have brought about a new geologic age
the Anthropocene the age of man people
earned their domestic animals have
replaced most other creatures and
dramatically changed the planet even the
temperature the atmosphere and the
chemistry of the oceans humans are
thriving but for the rest of life on
earth our impact is comparable to the
common stripe which wiped out the
dinosaurs the fate of these large
mammals reflects what has happened to
everything else birds amphibians
reptiles and fish 90% of large fish have
been wiped out in the last 50 years half
of the world’s coral reefs are dead and
then there’s the bugs
recent studies in Europe have found that
75% of insect life is gone
we have chopped up nature into small
parcels isolated from the other small
parcels that persist even America’s best
idea the national parks are isolated
islands of habitat and that is a formula
for extinction the biosphere is a very
thin layer of life how much biodiversity
can we eliminate before we reach a
tipping point I grew up in a forest full
of songbirds half of them are now gone
we have lost a billion birds in North
America in the last 50 years and I think
it’s a moral issue as well we are not
the only creatures who have at this
planet what gives us the right to push
all these other species to the brink of
extinction I had the privilege of
filming this herd of alpha elephants for
a week and let me assure you elephants
love their children too
we need to understand what will it take
to restore and maintain this fabulous
web of life that we have inherited we
need to ask the question for the good of
all life on Earth what does nature need
well in 2009 conservationist Harvey
Locke working with the wild Foundation
suggested an answer nature needs half
that’s right we need to protect half of
every eco region on earth land and water
and we need to connect them back
together so we once again have the real
world wide web the world wide web of
life conservation needs to happen at the
scale of the problems which are
planetary and this is not a made-up
number study after study in ecoregions
from the Amazon to the Arctic show that
if you want to keep an ecosystem and all
its inhabitants alive you need to
protect at least half and it’s not an
outrageous idea people like nature
communities that integrate nature are
healthier and happier places to live
density and nature are not enemies they
could work together for everyone’s
benefit nature needs half when I first
heard the idea my reaction was one of
gosh that’s a big ask I’ve spent most of
the last thirty years making
conservation films I made shows about
wilderness and sprawl about coral reefs
and logging I’ve made films with
elephants and lions and grizzly bears
and whales most of my films were stories
of conservation heroes doing incredible
work to save the last bits of wild
nature but at the end of the day there
are not enough of us committed to this
task and we are losing ground we need a
big idea we need a big solution to the
extinction crisis nature needs half
could be that idea a clarion call to
action at the scale that we need and
it’s catching on Neil Wilson’s recent
book has the same proposal he calls it
half
earth but whatever you call it one earth
or half earth or nature needs half the
idea is the same our relationship with
this planet is badly broken we need a
new story about how we live here we need
a relationship with the earth that is
thoughtful and balanced 50/50 half and
half that sounds like a fair deal and
around the world people are starting to
think big
here you see it nature needs half is
possible in China and then there’s my
favorite country in the world Bhutan
where they have embraced not gross
national product but gross national
happiness in Bhutan they understand one
of the foundations of national happiness
is a healthy environment so they have
protected more than half of their
country in a connected system of
protected areas from the high Himalayas
to lowland jungles they are maintaining
healthy populations of the rarest and
most endangered species in the world
this is what nature needs conservation
groups around the world are starting to
embrace the idea here’s an article from
the rainforest alliance who’s doing a
lot of great work in the Amazon and the
Amazon is one place where nature in fact
needs more than half you may have heard
that the rainforest makes its own rain
well here’s how that works at this
latitude easterly winds bring moisture
in from the Atlantic Ocean which falls
as rain on coastal areas it transpires
through the forests evaporates and
continues to move west each drop of rain
falls and evaporates many times before
this airflow hits the Andes if we cut
down too much of the forest the rain
will stop and that’s a big problem
because some of this moisture makes it
as far north as the american breadbasket
and as far east as Central Africa and
that’s the function of rain forests
around the world they sequester carbon
dioxide they produce oxygen and they
circulate moisture around the planet
these are big structures that nature
needs
in order to keep working so we need to
practice conservation at the scale that
protects not just individual places that
but these big systems that support life
as we know it here’s a map of some of
the large landscape and seascape
conservation initiatives around the
world and there’s the oceans recently
the United States made the largest
marine protected area in the world
more than a million square kilometers
and these marine protected areas really
work
they provide fish a place to breed and
recover from constant human pressure
people who live near these places have
better and more sustainable livelihoods
nature needs half also recognizes the
importance of traditional land tenure
indigenous groups occupy more than a
quarter of the intact eco regions around
the earth and if you look at their
traditions and their self-governance and
their land-use patterns you will
discover they are protecting at least
half of the waters and lands where they
live these people need to be empowered
to control their lands and not uprooted
for short-term mineral and timber
extraction indigenous reserves are a key
part of what nature needs a worldwide
system of protected areas so how are we
going to get there well in 1992 people
were starting to wake up to the depth of
the environmental crisis so the United
Nations convened the Rio Earth Summit to
major threats to the planet were
addressed climate change and the loss of
biodiversity for climate they made the
United Nations Framework Convention for
climate change we’ve all heard of them
their work has finally produced the
Paris Accord of 2015 less well known was
the Convention on Biological Diversity
or the CBD which was created to address
the extinction crisis after a few years
of discussion the CBD suggested
conservation targets here’s what they
came up with this is the number of
scientific studies these numbers were
based on
they came not from what nature needs but
what policymakers thought could be
accepted and when you ask policymakers
and scientists how much of the earth we
need to protect you get very different
answers
who should we believe in 2010 they
revised these numbers who thinks this is
enough we need to raise our voices and
push the CBD to what nature needs we
need a Paris Accord for biodiversity a
global deal for nature and these two
groups that were separated at birth
should work together best to stop
cutting primary forests can eliminate a
huge source of co2 maybe 25% of current
emissions and it can happen really fast
protecting nature is the first best
thing we can do to work on the climate
crisis where we are back home no matter
what these international groups come up
with this will need to participation of
every citizen on the earth most of us
are part of the problem most of us need
to be part of the solution nature needs
half is a perfect opportunity to think
global and act local so go out and think
global and vote for people who support
conservation and then go home and act
local support smart land-use and good
growth in your communities bring nature
into your cities and your towns we will
all be healthier and happier in a world
where nature is present and thriving and
support the people who are working to
save your favourite places or your most
beloved species my family and I are very
fond of elephants and we support several
groups doing great work on elephant
conservation if you love the sea you
could find organizations doing fantastic
work to protect the oceans and our
relatives who live there the time is now
it’s all hands on deck nature needs half
and nature needs you
thank you and you nature needs you and
you
[Music]
this is our home she provides everything
we need fresh water clean air all kinds
of food there’s a bounty of
animal vegetable and mineral wealth
which now supports seven billion humans
but seven billion people have had an
impact on this planet to the extent that
we have brought about a new geologic age
the Anthropocene the age of man people
earned their domestic animals have
replaced most other creatures and
dramatically changed the planet even the
temperature the atmosphere and the
chemistry of the oceans humans are
thriving but for the rest of life on
earth our impact is comparable to the
common stripe which wiped out the
dinosaurs the fate of these large
mammals reflects what has happened to
everything else birds amphibians
reptiles and fish 90% of large fish have
been wiped out in the last 50 years half
of the world’s coral reefs are dead and
then there’s the bugs
recent studies in Europe have found that
75% of insect life is gone
we have chopped up nature into small
parcels isolated from the other small
parcels that persist even America’s best
idea the national parks are isolated
islands of habitat and that is a formula
for extinction the biosphere is a very
thin layer of life how much biodiversity
can we eliminate before we reach a
tipping point I grew up in a forest full
of songbirds half of them are now gone
we have lost a billion birds in North
America in the last 50 years and I think
it’s a moral issue as well we are not
the only creatures who have at this
planet what gives us the right to push
all these other species to the brink of
extinction I had the privilege of
filming this herd of alpha elephants for
a week and let me assure you elephants
love their children too
we need to understand what will it take
to restore and maintain this fabulous
web of life that we have inherited we
need to ask the question for the good of
all life on Earth what does nature need
well in 2009 conservationist Harvey
Locke working with the wild Foundation
suggested an answer nature needs half
that’s right we need to protect half of
every eco region on earth land and water
and we need to connect them back
together so we once again have the real
world wide web the world wide web of
life conservation needs to happen at the
scale of the problems which are
planetary and this is not a made-up
number study after study in ecoregions
from the Amazon to the Arctic show that
if you want to keep an ecosystem and all
its inhabitants alive you need to
protect at least half and it’s not an
outrageous idea people like nature
communities that integrate nature are
healthier and happier places to live
density and nature are not enemies they
could work together for everyone’s
benefit nature needs half when I first
heard the idea my reaction was one of
gosh that’s a big ask I’ve spent most of
the last thirty years making
conservation films I made shows about
wilderness and sprawl about coral reefs
and logging I’ve made films with
elephants and lions and grizzly bears
and whales most of my films were stories
of conservation heroes doing incredible
work to save the last bits of wild
nature but at the end of the day there
are not enough of us committed to this
task and we are losing ground we need a
big idea we need a big solution to the
extinction crisis nature needs half
could be that idea a clarion call to
action at the scale that we need and
it’s catching on Neil Wilson’s recent
book has the same proposal he calls it
half
earth but whatever you call it one earth
or half earth or nature needs half the
idea is the same our relationship with
this planet is badly broken we need a
new story about how we live here we need
a relationship with the earth that is
thoughtful and balanced 50/50 half and
half that sounds like a fair deal and
around the world people are starting to
think big
here you see it nature needs half is
possible in China and then there’s my
favorite country in the world Bhutan
where they have embraced not gross
national product but gross national
happiness in Bhutan they understand one
of the foundations of national happiness
is a healthy environment so they have
protected more than half of their
country in a connected system of
protected areas from the high Himalayas
to lowland jungles they are maintaining
healthy populations of the rarest and
most endangered species in the world
this is what nature needs conservation
groups around the world are starting to
embrace the idea here’s an article from
the rainforest alliance who’s doing a
lot of great work in the Amazon and the
Amazon is one place where nature in fact
needs more than half you may have heard
that the rainforest makes its own rain
well here’s how that works at this
latitude easterly winds bring moisture
in from the Atlantic Ocean which falls
as rain on coastal areas it transpires
through the forests evaporates and
continues to move west each drop of rain
falls and evaporates many times before
this airflow hits the Andes if we cut
down too much of the forest the rain
will stop and that’s a big problem
because some of this moisture makes it
as far north as the american breadbasket
and as far east as Central Africa and
that’s the function of rain forests
around the world they sequester carbon
dioxide they produce oxygen and they
circulate moisture around the planet
these are big structures that nature
needs
in order to keep working so we need to
practice conservation at the scale that
protects not just individual places that
but these big systems that support life
as we know it here’s a map of some of
the large landscape and seascape
conservation initiatives around the
world and there’s the oceans recently
the United States made the largest
marine protected area in the world
more than a million square kilometers
and these marine protected areas really
work
they provide fish a place to breed and
recover from constant human pressure
people who live near these places have
better and more sustainable livelihoods
nature needs half also recognizes the
importance of traditional land tenure
indigenous groups occupy more than a
quarter of the intact eco regions around
the earth and if you look at their
traditions and their self-governance and
their land-use patterns you will
discover they are protecting at least
half of the waters and lands where they
live these people need to be empowered
to control their lands and not uprooted
for short-term mineral and timber
extraction indigenous reserves are a key
part of what nature needs a worldwide
system of protected areas so how are we
going to get there well in 1992 people
were starting to wake up to the depth of
the environmental crisis so the United
Nations convened the Rio Earth Summit to
major threats to the planet were
addressed climate change and the loss of
biodiversity for climate they made the
United Nations Framework Convention for
climate change we’ve all heard of them
their work has finally produced the
Paris Accord of 2015 less well known was
the Convention on Biological Diversity
or the CBD which was created to address
the extinction crisis after a few years
of discussion the CBD suggested
conservation targets here’s what they
came up with this is the number of
scientific studies these numbers were
based on
they came not from what nature needs but
what policymakers thought could be
accepted and when you ask policymakers
and scientists how much of the earth we
need to protect you get very different
answers
who should we believe in 2010 they
revised these numbers who thinks this is
enough we need to raise our voices and
push the CBD to what nature needs we
need a Paris Accord for biodiversity a
global deal for nature and these two
groups that were separated at birth
should work together best to stop
cutting primary forests can eliminate a
huge source of co2 maybe 25% of current
emissions and it can happen really fast
protecting nature is the first best
thing we can do to work on the climate
crisis where we are back home no matter
what these international groups come up
with this will need to participation of
every citizen on the earth most of us
are part of the problem most of us need
to be part of the solution nature needs
half is a perfect opportunity to think
global and act local so go out and think
global and vote for people who support
conservation and then go home and act
local support smart land-use and good
growth in your communities bring nature
into your cities and your towns we will
all be healthier and happier in a world
where nature is present and thriving and
support the people who are working to
save your favourite places or your most
beloved species my family and I are very
fond of elephants and we support several
groups doing great work on elephant
conservation if you love the sea you
could find organizations doing fantastic
work to protect the oceans and our
relatives who live there the time is now
it’s all hands on deck nature needs half
and nature needs you
thank you and you nature needs you and
you
[Music]
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