地球滅絕倒數 | markacey | 財經政論分享 | 痞客邦 | PIXNET

Jul 20 Mon 2009 00:00
地球滅絕倒數

地球生成約四十五億年於十億年前生物誕生

人類僅二十萬年演化至今將使其滅絕

早在二○○六年以美國前副總統高爾巡迴演講內容拍攝的紀錄片《不願面對的真相》，即針對全球暖化問題深入探索，引起關注。相對於高爾的滔滔雄辯、引經據典，《搶救地球》的手法則是堆砌美麗得令人屏息的地景畫面，展現「數大便是美」的魅力。

貝松首度監製的紀錄片《搶救地球》（Home），與世界知名空中攝影家亞祖‧貝特杭（Yann Arthus-Bertrand）合作，呼籲地球村民關心全球暖化問題。

亞祖‧貝特杭是位傳奇性人物，一九四六年生於巴黎，長期關注大自然保育議題攝影。他曾為知名的生態保育專家黛安‧佛西及她的大猩猩研究擔任攝影工作，卅歲曾移居肯亞以觀察非洲動物生態，攝影作品散見於《國家地理雜誌》、《生活》等刊物。一九九一年貝特杭創立了世界第一個專門從事航空攝影的組織，提供超過五○萬張的影像供全球媒體使用。他的攝影集《從空中看地球》由聯合國教科文組織贊助，在全球銷售已超過三百萬冊。這次為了《搶救地球》，他以熟悉的空中攝影手法掌鏡，以絕美的畫面帶領觀眾認識地球，並宣揚環保的迫切。紀錄片一開始從地球誕生開始講起。亞祖‧貝特杭大量剪接美國黃石公園、科羅拉多峽谷、澳洲大堡礁等世界奇景，模擬地球剛生成的模樣。空拍畫面色彩瑰麗，猶如大地彩繪。

科羅拉多峽谷

大堡礁

隨著電影進入正題，切入人類濫用地球資源，片子出現了大量噴灑農業、超大型牧場的牛隻養殖畫面，透過空中攝影所呈現的「大」，令人怵目驚心。片中特別強調人工化城市對地球的傷害，深入全世界最人工化的城市杜拜，呈現這個城市如何無中生有，耗費的資源令人咋舌。透過獨特的拍攝角度與快速剪接，這座奇蹟之城帶來視覺震撼。而非洲沙漠地區利用人工鑿水井的方式來經營的圓形綠洲，在沙漠中構成錯落有致的幾何圖形。但這種大量汲水的開發方式，消耗資源特別快，荒廢的綠洲迅速呈現白色，與緊鄰新開發的綠洲形成強烈對比，空中鳥瞰猶如一盤預示地球未來的詭譎棋局。

Edo, renamed Tokyo, the 'eastern capital', by Emperor Meiji in 1868 is now the world's biggest megalopolis with a population of 35.3 million people within 140 kilometers of coastline. Destroyed by fires, earthquakes and bombing during World War Two, Tokyo is constantly changing and is home to the many audacious constructions. Between the main drags and freeways that criss-cross in the sky, however, nestles a village of houses and small apartment buildings where the pedestrian and bicycle are king. In this constant transfer from urban anonymity to village conviviality, Tokyo is surprising for its houses without addresses, safety (crime rates are lower than almost anywhere in the world) and the civic sense of its citizens, who hand in objects lost in a store, train or subway.

Lake Baikal in Siberia holds at least three world records: with a maximum depth of 1,637 meters, it is the world's deepest lake; its 23,000 cubic kilometers of fresh water, roughly 20% of the fresh water present on the surface of the Earth, mean that it has the greatest volume of fresh water in liquid state; and in geological terms, it is the world's oldest lake, dating back 25 million years. (636 kilometers long and 80 kilometers wide, Lake Baikal was formed by the opening of a major rift in the Earth's crust. Over time, under the floor of the lake, sediment has accumulated to depths of 7 kilometers. Moreover, the rift is still very active, widening by 2 centimeters every year. Lake Baikal is also noteworthy for its endemism: 60% of the 1,200 animal and vegetable species in the lake do not exist anywhere else. These include the world's only species of freshwater seal. Among its endemic fish, the best known is the Baikal omul (coregonus autumnalis migratorius) of the salmon family. Intensive fishing means that the species is now under threat and the quotas are lowered every year (2,100 metric tons in 2007; 1,800 in 2008). A paper factory built on the lake's shores in 1950 is a major source of chemical pollution. Industrial towns that often have no water purification plants and farming on the drainage basin that stretches as far as Mongolia also contribute to pollution of the lake's water.)

In India, where the dry season is very long, underground water reserves are an essential resource and landowners can exploit aquifers on their land as they see fit. Due to agricultural industrialization and improved drilling techniques, 2-3 million wells have been dug in India. Today, nearly 50% of irrigation water comes from aquifers. In some places, the underground reserves are diminishing at an alarming rate. In over 75% of the country, they have dropped by 1-3 meters. Around 600 cubic kilometers of water are taken from natural environments every year, 90% of which is for agricultural purposes. In the cities and countryside, women are most affected by the shortage of water. They spend hours fetching water, walking many kilometers and sometimes waiting their turn for a whole day. In some cases, young girls leave school early to help in this task. According to the United Nations Programme for the Environment (UNPE), by 2050, when the Indian population will have stabilized at 1.5-1.8 billion people, the country will need 30% more water.

Off Australia's north-eastern coast, the Great Barrier Reef brings together, over 2,500 kilometers, more than 400 species of coral in the world's largest coral formation. Made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981, this rich, silent sanctuary of marine life provides refuge for over 1,500 species of fish and 4,000 species of mollusk, dugong—a marine mammal threatened with extinction—and six species of sea turtle out of the seven left on Earth. Essential for the protection of the coastline and for oceanic fauna, the coral reefs also provide an array of goods and services for coastal populations: food, construction materials, income from tourism...

Easter Island Isolated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Easter Island recalls a historic tragedy that is yet to be fully explained. The island used to be covered in forest, but the island's expanding population exhausted the forest and other resources, destroying their own means of sustenance. These giant statues are the last remaining trace of their presence on what has become inhospitable territory.

Kenya, Kilimandjaro
In the last few years, the world-famous snows of Kilimanjaro have suffered from the effects of global warming. The surface area of the glaciers has gone from 12 to 2 square kilometers in a single century. 2009 seems to have been a better year for fresh snowfall but the impact of global warming could mean that the highest point in Africa (5,891 meters) could lose its 'eternal snows' by 2020.

Kenya's leading tourist destination, the Masai Mara National Reserve is one of the world's largest protected areas when added to the adjacent Serengeti National Park in Tanzania (25,000 sq. kilometers in total). The reserve now has a population of 40,000 wild animals. They may inconvenience Masai livestock farmers, but they are essential to the reserve's continued popularity with tourists.

Buffalo in the savannah of the Okavango delta, Botswana
Despite a difficult climate and vegetation made up of herbaceous plants and a smattering of trees and bushes, the animal biodiversity in the African savannah is particularly rich. The buffalo's range stretches from the southern Sahara to the tip of southern Africa. In Bostwana, a country of preserved desert expanses, a protection policy has been in place since the Fauna Conservation Act of 1963. National parks and reserves extend from the Kalahari in the south to the Chobe River in the north and represent 17% of the country's territory. The conservation of this biodiversity (164 species of mammals, 550 species of birds and over 150 species of reptiles) now involves repression (of poaching, particularly on the northern border), education of everybody about nature's riches, and increasing association of local populations in the profits from tourism. (This paradise is, however, threatened by a Namibian project (the Rundu River Project) to divert water from the Okavango to irrigate southern Namibia. The project is of great concern to Botswana and a source of conflict. The Delta's fragile ecosystem is also disrupted by the increasing pressure of livestock and the booming water demands from the mines that make Botswana the world's 5th largest producer of diamonds.)

It's possible to exploit wood resources while respecting the primary forest. Woodcutting is not necessarily harmful since, with time and means, wood is a renewable resource. Gabon strictly regulates its timber industry: it is illegal to chop down more than one tree of each species per hectare. This is a way of conserving this resource for the future and of allowing the forest to play its role in the cycle of water and carbon.

Slums in Makoko opposite Lagos Island, Lagos, Nigeria
The population of Lagos has increased thirty times over since 1950. In a city marked by great inequality, the rich live in areas separated from the rest of the population. The vast majority barely scrapes a living by working several different jobs. Many country people have come to Lagos hoping to find work and make their fortune. Buying a few planks and recycling other materials enables them to build a home, so the city has mushroomed as slums spread rapidly in the absence of urban planning. These shanties have no electricity or running water and can disappear as quickly as they are built when bulldozers cut swathes through the slums to clear land for buildings. Poverty and precariousness make crime a booming business in this notoriously unsafe but resourceful city.

Boats in the port of Mopti on the Niger River, Mali
On the Niger Inland Delta, the river floods tens of thousands of hectares every year in the wet season. Depending on the height of the waters and the season, stockbreeders, farmers and fishermen occupy the same land, and canoes replace walking or wagons as means of transport. A million people live in the Delta, which seems like a land of milk and honey in the frequently drought-hit Saharan region.

Caravan of dromedaries near Tichit, Mauritania
The Sahara, the world's largest hot desert, covers 9 million square kilometers (the size of the USA) and is shared by eleven countries. On its western edge, Mauritania, already three-quarters desert, is badly affected by anthropic desertification. Overgrazing and clearing of land for firewood gradually remove the vegetation that holds the great dunes in place, encouraging the sand's creeping advance on towns. Arid and semi-arid zones make up two-thirds of the African land mass and their soils are rapidly deteriorating. In the last half-century, 65% of Africa's arable land has thus been degraded. This deterioration leads to lower yields with repercussions for food security. In this vicious circle, poverty is both cause and consequence of the degradation of arable land and diminishing agricultural productivity.

For trade, humans overcame numerous obstacles--seas, deserts and mountains. First with rudimentary and then increasingly evolved means. By taming animals such as donkeys, horses and camels, humans were able to travel vast distances. When muscle power was no longer enough, oil and other types of fossil energy sources took over to fuel trains, trucks, cargo ships and airplanes that carry merchandise in ever larger quantities from one side of the globe to the other.

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