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1 * 1 1 o m GoodPlaneb.org All Rights Reserved. GoodPlanet.anon-profitorganizationfounded byYannArthus-Bertrandin2005,aimstoraisepublicawarenessanddeviseconcrete solutionsforamoreresponsiblelifestyle—onethatismorerespectfuloftheplanetanditsinhabitants. Managing editor forGoodPlanet: OlivierBlond Editorial team: Olivier Blond,Olivier Milhomme, Anne Jankeliowitch, Sabine de Lisle,Celine Cros,Julien Leprovost, YvesSciama Editorial coordinator: Isabelle Delannoy The GoodPlanet team would also liketo thank Yann Godeluck ^-»v ThepublisherswouldliketothankUNEPforgrantingpermissiontoreproduceinthisworkninepreviouslyunpublishedposters,desi- &) gnedfortheoccasionofthe25thSessionoftheGoverningCouncil/Global Ministerial EnvironmentForum,heldinNairobi,Kenya,in unep February2009. HOME A project by Yann Arthus-Bertrand and GoodPlanet ABRAMS, NEW YORK We 6 billion human beings are not the only inhabitants of this Carbon dioxide is collected from the air by plants which are planet. Weshare it with billions and billions of animals, plants, eaten byanimals or humans, and then one day returns to the and single-cell organisms.Anditisnot merelyacaseofcohabita earthor theair whenthebodyoftheselivingbeingsdecompose. tion: our very existence depends on our close links with these Oxygen, given off by plants in photosynthesis—the process otherorganisms.Albert Einsteinoncepredictedthatifthehoney whereby plants synthesize organic compounds from solar bee disappeared, the human race could energy, carbon dioxide, and water—is only survivefor four years: without bees ALBERT EINSTEIN ONCE breathed in by animals or humans. Exer to pollinate theirflowers, the majorityof tion willcause these to perspire and this PREDICTED THAT IF THE plantswould failto reproduce and would perspiration will contain molecules of die out, along with all the animals that HONEY BEE DISAPPEARED, water that may previously have been depend upon them for food, and that presentinthesky,intheriver,inthesoil, in THE HUMAN RACE COULD ONLY includesmankind. afruit, inourbrain...Understandingthese All livinq organisms, including SURVIVE FOR FOUR YEARS relationships is the objective of what we humans, are part of a complex web of call ecology. relationshipsthatconnectsthemwithoneanotherandwiththeir Whatdifferentiatesusfromallotherspeciesisourawareness environment.This interdependence relatesto the food chain, to of this interdependence between all living things and of the the balance of populations, and to natural cycles. Asa result of processesthat sustain life.AsAlbertJacquard put it,the nature these relationships, all the basic elements circulate and are ofmankindisto"beawarethattomorrowwillexistandthatIcan exchanged between living beings and the environment in a actuponit." processthatisconstantand universal,occurringthrough usand MillenniumEcosystemAssessment(MEA) allaroundus. www.millenniumassessment.org PinklapachotreeontheslopesofMt.Kaw,FrenchGuiana(4°30'N-52°00'W) AnativeofdamptropicalforestsfromMexicotoArgentina,Tabebuiaimpetiginosalosesall itsleavesbeforefloweringinspectacularfashion.Thispinklapacho,floweringinisolationamidanoceanofgreen,demonstratesthelowdensityofthespecies.Unlikethe temperateforests,inwhichhomogenouspopulationsofasingleorjustafewspeciesoftreearecommon,theforestsofthetropicscontainthousands ofplantspecies. *. *(cid:127)(cid:127) ' ? The miracle of life occurs within a context of awesome dimen Butthisisnotall.Its mass,itsmetalliccore,andtheeffectsof sions.Firstly,intermsoftime:theuniverseitselfissome14billion gravityequip Planet Earth witha magneticshieldand anatmos yearsold,thefirst mammalsappeared almost 200 million years pherethat blockthedeadlycosmicrays, retain theSun'senergy ago,andhumankind hasexistedfor around200,000years. Sec in the form of heat, and protect the planet from being bom ondly,intermsof space:we still do notknowwhetherthereislife barded by meteorites. Finally, with the formation of water on elsewhere in the universe; since 1995, Earth, a cradle for life was created. Envi however,wehavebeenawareof theexis ITS MASS, ITS METALLIC CORE, ronmentalconditions,andtheintensityof tence of planets that revolve around solar energy, subsequently remained AND THE EFFECTS OF GRAVITY stars in a similar way to our own solar stable for a sufficient period of time for I system, and it is possible that the uni EQUIP PLANET EARTH WITH A lifeto continue and pass from a primitive verse contains many such planets form to that which we know today— MAGNETIC SHIELD AND AN andsuns. a processthattook3.8billionyears. The birth ofthe Sun, approximately ATMOSPHERE THAT BLOCK THE Thanks to our mastery of the world, 4.5 billion years ago, brought about a DEADLY COSMIC RAYS we have a tendency to relate everything chain of events that established all the back to ourselves and to evaluate every conditions necessary to life. It was around this phenomenal thing on a human scale—that of the few decades of our sourceofenergythattheeightplanetsofoursolarsystemwere individuallives,orthefew thousandormillionsquaremilesofthe formed. Venus is closer than the Earth to the Sun and is a country we inhabit. But willwe ever take in the bigger picture? furnace, whereas Mars islocatedfurtherfrom theSun and isicy Will we ever learn to take care of the planet we inhabit, of its cold.The Earth, ontheotherhand, islocatedat justtherightdis limitedand preciousresources,sothatwe can handitoningood tanceto beableto supportlife. conditiontoourdescendants? MillenniumEcosystemAssessment(MEA) www.millenniumassessment.org Lake Holmsarlon, near the Myrdalsjokull glacier, Iceland (6305VN-19°53'W) The landscape of Iceland was formed byvolcanosand glaciers. In2006, hydraulicand geothermalpowerrepresented70.6% ofIceland'senergy.Morespecifically,geothermalpowerprovidesdomesticheatandelectricity,whiledams produceelectricitydes tinedinlargepartforthehydrometallurgicalindustryandinparticulartheextractionofaluminum. e r The biosphere is made up of a series of natural habitats thecliffs, datebackalmost2 billion years—revealthatthewhole together with the living organisms that populate them, and it regionwas infactcoveredbyseawaterat severaldifferentpoints coversthesurfaceoftheEarthwitha thinfilm notunliketheskin inthepast. ofanapple.Butinthiscasetheappleisfullofmovement,from its The mineralsto be found on Earthtake useven further back coreto itssurface.Weliveon aplanetthatisactiveanddynamic, intime.The majorityof elements were created by nuclear reac whosefeaturesareconstantlychanging. tionsoccurringbillionsofyearsagoatthe Continental drift, caused by move THE MAJORITY OF ELEMENTS core of stars like our Sun. They are the mentsin the Earth'scrustoverbillionsof WERE CREATED BY NUCLEAR dust of stars, relics of the infancy of our years, hasshapedourcurrentmapofthe world,when it was no morethan an accu world. The shifting of the continental REACTIONS OCCURRING mulation of dust and gases which plates near the surface is perceptible to BILLIONS OF YEARS AGO graduallyagglomerated. us as tremors and earthquakes or vol The result of 4.5 billion years of geo canic eruptions, which frequently AT THE CORE OF STARS logical history is a rich and fertile world destroy human constructions. However, LIKE OUR SUN full of resources necessaryto life,of min we often remain unaware of the effects erals, and energy sources. In search of of these movements over hundreds of millions of years, during thesemineralsandresources,mankinddigseverdeeperintothe the course of which mountain ranges are created, oceans are soil, leaving ever deeper scars. Sometimes we even resort to formed andrecede,andcontinentschangeposition. dynamiting mountains. But despite their profusion, the Earth's It is in its crust that the Earth's memories of the past are resources are not boundless. Today we are beginning to realize stored.Whenwind or watererodethesoil,theypresentachapter thattheyhaveto be usedsparingly. oftheEarth'sgeologicalhistoryfor usto read.The rocky strataof MillenniumEcosystemAssessment(MEA) the Grand Canyon—the oldest of which, exposed at the base of www.millenniumassessment.org TheMaelifellvolcano, neartheMyrdalsjokullglacier, Iceland (63°51'N-19°13'W) ThisvolcanicconeinsouthernIceland,composedofsolidifiedejectaandash,wascreated byoneofthemanyeruptionsthatoccurredbeneaththe icecapbeforetheMyrdalsjokullglacierreceded.Freedfromtheglaciersome10,000yearsago,the Maelifellisnow bathedbytheglacialstreamsthatflowfromit.Itsperfectconerises 650feet (200meters)abovetheplainand iscoveredwithgrimmia,amoss thatcommonlygrows on cooledlavaflows,varyingincolorfrom silver-graytobrilliantgreendependingonthelevelofhumidityintheground.
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