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00:00Only one creature has carved a life for itself in every habitat on Earth.
00:13That creature is us.
00:18All over the world, we still use our ingenuity to survive in the wild places, far from the
00:25city lights, face to face with raw nature.
00:31This is the human planet.
00:51In all the wild places on Earth, we have risen to the challenges nature has thrown
00:56at us.
01:01Now we have created the habitat of our dreams, designed by us, for us, the pinnacle of human
01:14imagination and ingenuity.
01:19This is where we humans like to think we reign supreme, driving out the nature we don't
01:30want, shipping in what we do.
01:37But the natural world isn't easy to control.
01:44Can we humans ever really master nature in the urban jungle, and is it wise to try?
02:10Dubai is the ultimate modern city, orderly, sparkling, and squeaky clean.
02:22It's a temple to man's ingenuity, rising from the desert.
02:32But there's a menace in the air, pigeons.
02:38Thousands of them are making a mess in this pristine metropolis, and Dubai doesn't like
02:48it.
02:50One man can help.
02:54The Arabs call him Al Hur.
02:58His name is David Stead.
03:10His challenge is to keep Dubai pigeon-free, using falcons, an ancient Arabian solution
03:17for a modern urban problem.
03:22Well, birds of prey, of course, are hunting birds, and the falcons in the bird of prey
03:28family are the specialist bird hunters.
03:31They only catch other birds for a living, and as a result, the pigeons are most scared
03:37of falcons compared to any of the other birds of prey.
03:40So even a pigeon that has never seen a falcon in its life does have this almost genetic
03:46fear of the silhouette, the shape of a falcon.
03:58Today he is working for some of Dubai's top hotels with his peregrine falcon, Nimr.
04:07Nimr is a three-year-old falcon now.
04:09They become adult at one, so she's now quite a mature falcon, although at three she still
04:15has an awful lot to learn.
04:18Out of the whole team, she's probably the most arrogant.
04:23She has this tremendous attitude about her, and she knows who's in charge, and I can assure
04:27you it's not us.
04:32City pigeons damage these buildings.
04:35Their corrosive droppings erode chrome and stone, and each bird can produce 12 kilos
04:42of mess a year.
04:52But David's aim isn't to kill or even catch them.
04:57He is hoping to scare them away, and Nimr loves the chase.
05:03After all, she's a peregrine, the fastest creature in the sky, capable of swooping 280
05:10kilometers an hour.
05:17So once she's moved them on, he needs to tempt her back, and that's tricky.
05:25She's an extremely inquisitive falcon, which can be frustrating for me because I tend to
05:30lose all contact and control with her when she's flying and she sees something amusing.
05:40But there's always one way to a falcon's heart, the promise of a chicken dinner.
05:54Thanks to David and Nimr, Dubai's hotels remain pigeon-free.
06:06After all, no one wants pigeon poo to spoil their million-dollar view.
06:14Sometimes driving unwanted wildlife out of the town requires a much more modern solution.
06:29Sergeant Stan Schumacher is on a mission.
06:38He works in Estes Park, Colorado.
06:43Every day he patrols his patch on an unusual police vehicle, a Segway scooter.
06:56His job is to keep the streets free of trouble, and trouble here is particularly large and spiky.
07:13Once the elk come in, getting around town's a hassle, pretty much from June to the beginning of October.
07:22Every summer, the town is invaded by elk stags.
07:26Sergeant Schumacher's job is to make sure that the locals can go about their daily business.
07:31Not easy at this time of year.
07:34They may look placid, but elk weigh over 300 kilos, can be three meters tall, and their antlers are lethal.
07:44They're pretty much everywhere in town.
07:46This whole valley's pretty much full of elk.
07:49Any given time there could be anywhere from five to fifteen hundred.
07:54The female elk love the urban grasslands.
07:58They live here year-round.
08:01We've got the two main golf courses.
08:04The grass is, of course, golf grass, so they absolutely love that.
08:09The male elk are only visiting, and it's not for golf.
08:14The boys are back in town for one thing, a stag party.
08:25At this time of year, the stags fight over the females and can be very dangerous.
08:34But it's not just the elk causing problems.
08:37Sergeant Schumacher also has to control the tourists.
08:42A lot of these tourists have no idea that these animals are wild.
08:47It's the craziest thing, but they, for some reason, they think these animals are tame.
09:05There's no messing with an irritable elk.
09:17In the wild west of the 21st century,
09:21the sheriff's white stallion has been replaced by a giant scooter.
09:26The elk do not like the Segway.
09:28I don't know what it is.
09:29I think it's the movement, because I'm not moving normal as a human would walk,
09:34and I'm scurrying around a lot quicker on that Segway,
09:37so the elk do not like it whatsoever.
09:41Today has been a good day for Sergeant Schumacher.
09:45He's run the troublemakers out of town.
09:50But not all the invaders who come to our cities are so easy to chase away.
09:58Some cities are plagued by creatures who are just as wily and streetwise as us.
10:06Jaipur, one of the fastest growing cities in India,
10:11Shakuntala, a local market seller, is terrorized by street gangs,
10:16and these are not the local lads.
10:41She has to face them every day.
10:47They're a terrifying bunch.
10:55The posse of Reese's macaques hang out on the rooftops.
11:00One bite from these canines can inflict horrible damage.
11:11For the macaques, life in the urban jungle is even easier than life in the real one.
11:26Like us, they can be smart and slick.
11:31Jaipur's temples and streets provide endless pockets to pick,
11:37and their favorite place is the food market.
11:44The macaques are known for their delicious food,
11:47but they are also known for being a bit of a pain in the butt.
11:51Jaipur's temples and streets provide endless pockets to pick,
11:57and their favorite place is the food market.
12:03The question today is, will Shakuntala's stall survive all the monkey business?
12:09The attack is led by the gang leader, an alpha male.
12:29The macaques work as a coordinated team, ducking and diving.
12:34Attacking from all angles, the smaller macaques distract Shakuntala,
12:40while the bolder males grab the loot.
12:43Life on Jaipur's streets is tough enough,
12:46but there's nothing like a good meal to end your day.
12:55The macaques are known for their delicious food,
12:58and their favorite place is the food market.
13:04The macaques are known for their delicious food,
13:07but their favorite place is the food market.
13:13Life on Jaipur's streets is tough enough,
13:16but when your enemy is protected by a deity, there's nothing you can do.
13:21These monkeys are sacred to the monkey god, Hanuman.
13:26Monkeys can be a menace in the market,
13:29but there is a wider war going on under all our city streets.
13:44Some species have become extinct,
13:47while others have become extinct.
13:51Some species have become a threat to our domination
13:54of our very own urban world.
13:59Jeff and Junior are on a stakeout,
14:02hunting down mortal enemies on the Manhattan front line.
14:07My job is a nighttime exterminator in New York City.
14:12Daytime guys where I work do bedbugs,
14:15we just do rats, mice, roaches.
14:18What time do you think we're going to be getting up in this place?
14:21I don't know.
14:23They said about midnight.
14:25They're not closed yet.
14:28I mean, I don't really have a problem telling people what I do,
14:30but we try to be as discreet as possible,
14:32just because I don't want people to think that
14:34they're eating in an area that's full of rats,
14:36but East Village is full of them, so you can't hide that.
14:40Rats love fine dining too,
14:43but they don't leave tips behind.
14:47They leave excrement and disease.
14:50No one wants to admit that the Big Apple has a big rat problem,
14:55so Jeff and Junior only work at night.
14:58Trash is a big deal.
15:00Us being sloppy humans,
15:02throwing your trash out on the sidewalks
15:04and leaving the juices and meat juices
15:06and chicken bones everywhere,
15:08that's a buffet for them, you know what I mean?
15:11Tonight, they're laying traps in Chinatown.
15:15Wow.
15:18OK.
15:20Another one of these, man.
15:22Another one of these.
15:24Wow.
15:26How do you even leave your restaurant like this?
15:29Oh, man. Dude, look at this.
15:31Look at all this stuff.
15:33Sushi, rice, noodles.
15:38Rats will eat anything,
15:40from chop suey to the chopsticks themselves.
15:43We walk in at night because we have keys.
15:45We have to go when the customers are gone.
15:47And when the people leave the restaurant,
15:49the rats think it's time to come out.
15:51But we go in there later, like an hour after they close,
15:54so they're out partying.
15:55Uh-oh, there he is, there he is, there he is.
15:57Right there, right there. Right there, right there, right there.
15:59See him?
16:01Uh-oh, he's going down, he's going down.
16:03Right there, right in the hole.
16:05Damn.
16:07He was drinking coffee. Something.
16:09That's the last thing that this guy needs is coffee.
16:13Unbelievable.
16:15That's why I don't eat takeout, man.
16:17Yes, you do.
16:19Come on, let's go to the basement, man.
16:23Watch out, man. It's slippery.
16:28And there's another horror in the basement.
16:31Yo, look at the water bugs in the ceiling.
16:33Yo, you never see that. Right there, behind the door.
16:36Cockroaches.
16:38This is professional extermination.
16:40Oh.
16:42You seen this basement?
16:44What's in there, man?
16:46Old buildings connected by pipes and basements
16:48allow the rats and roaches to scuttle through the city unseen.
16:51It's disgusting in here.
16:53Look at the water dripping all over the place.
16:55We were basically trying to be quiet
16:57to hear noises for any, you know,
16:59any signs of rats actually squeaking or anything.
17:01You hear that? You hear that?
17:03The little pitter-patter?
17:05The little fingernails?
17:07Yep.
17:09Over here.
17:12That goes right into the...
17:14I can see the kitchen.
17:17For Jeff and Junior, it's a lifelong fight.
17:20It's said there's at least one rat
17:22for every person in New York.
17:24That's nearly nine million rats.
17:28As far as humans winning the battle over rats,
17:31no, we're close.
17:33I don't even know how you would stop it.
17:35I really don't.
17:37They're going to use every contraption they can devise
17:41in the battle with the pests.
17:43I don't want to call them out, but...
17:45Listen to that.
17:47All those people out there,
17:49they have no idea what's happening down here.
17:51And they're going to come eat here tomorrow.
17:5350% off all day, huh?
17:55Yeah.
17:57Yeah, no wonder.
18:0724 hours later, Jeff and Junior
18:09are back to assess the death toll.
18:12Ah, dude.
18:16The snap traps have worked.
18:18Damn.
18:20Man, he's cute.
18:22And the glue mats.
18:24This one is decomposing.
18:27And the poison.
18:29Oh, dude.
18:31Look at the size of him.
18:33He's dead.
18:35Looks like he's been fighting or something, bro.
18:38Damn, look at them teeth, bro.
18:40Whoa.
18:42What's the weight on that?
18:44I'm telling you, man.
18:46My arm got tired.
18:48That's pretty...
18:50That's brutal.
18:52This is just another night
18:54in the ongoing battle
18:56with our eternal enemies.
18:58Sometimes we'll walk out
19:00with bags of dead things,
19:02and I'll take a take-out bag
19:04from the restaurant
19:07and drink it.
19:09And it gets worse.
19:25There are other tiny creatures
19:27which take advantage
19:29of dense urban populations.
19:31They exploit us
19:33in much more intimate ways.
19:35They're reaching epidemic proportions.
19:40Not just feeding off us like rats, but literally feeding on us.
19:46Londoner Carol Anderson has these unwanted houseguests.
19:51Have you got any bites on you at the moment?
19:54Yeah, the bites that you had all around here.
19:57There's still little red marks from them, aren't there?
20:01Where do you think they are?
20:04Where do you think they are in your room?
20:07Down the side of the bed.
20:09That's what I meant.
20:10And crawling up the walls.
20:14Irritating parasites which only come out at night.
20:19Right. Right, come on then.
20:21Indigo, hop up.
20:24That's it then.
20:25Goodnight. Sleep tight.
20:27Don't let the...
20:28Dead bugs bite.
20:30Let's hope not.
20:34Bed bugs are insect vampires
20:38attracted to carbon dioxide, heat and body odours.
20:46They like clean, warm houses.
20:57They're not afraid of the cold.
21:01Their only food is human blood.
21:07The sheer numbers is quite daunting, really.
21:12They literally were streaming up the wall, up to the ceiling,
21:15just full of blood, so they'd obviously all just been feeding.
21:18First thing in the morning, I woke up and looked up.
21:20It was horrible, it really was horrible.
21:24Carol calls in the best bed bug detector in the business.
21:30Charlie the Chocolate Labrador,
21:33ably assisted by his handler, Adam.
21:43Right, well, the sofa seems to be the worst affected.
21:47We've got lots of bugs in here, haven't we?
21:49Charlie's nose is 44 times more sensitive than ours.
21:53He can literally sniff out the bed bugs.
21:56Seek.
22:04If they are present, he's trained to sit down.
22:10Good boy, Charlie.
22:12It's all Adam needs to know.
22:16Bed bugs are on the increase,
22:19hitchhiking as we travel from city to city,
22:22often infesting furniture like Carol's sofa.
22:28I do resent them, but I quite admire them as well.
22:31They're actually quite amazing, which makes it even creepier, you know?
22:36Because...
22:38I don't know.
22:41But with Adam's spray and Charlie's nose,
22:44the bugs here have met their match.
22:47This is one urban intruder nobody wants to live with.
23:02In some parts of the world,
23:04bed bugs are the most dangerous insect.
23:08In some parts of the world,
23:10people have learned to put their urban invaders to good use.
23:17The Moroccan city of Fez, a bit like Dubai,
23:20has a problem with pigeons.
23:25But rather than chasing them away,
23:27the people of Fez invite them in.
23:31Nourdine has built a home for pigeons on his roof.
23:55He doesn't do this just for the love of animals.
23:58Pigeon droppings are vital to a local industry.
24:04And Nourdine's friend, Tami, has come to buy some.
24:28Tami works at the local tannery.
24:31Fez is the centre of the Moroccan leather industry.
24:41The leather here is famed for its softness,
24:44and the pigeon droppings are a secret ingredient.
24:48Pigeon droppings are essential for our leather.
24:55Wild pigeon droppings contain an enzyme
24:58which eats at the protein in the animal's skin,
25:01softening it up.
25:05The hides are soaked in the bats for three days,
25:08and Tami works them with his feet.
25:12This could be the stinkiest job in the world.
25:17It's hard to say, but it's normal.
25:20After a while, you can smell it.
25:23At first, you can't smell it, but then you can.
25:27For Tami, it's a price worth paying.
25:30The pigeon droppings give the skins a softness
25:33no man-made chemical can produce.
25:41When the pigeons sleep in the bath,
25:44their skin becomes soft.
26:07Thanks to Fez's wild pigeons,
26:10the skins will reach the highest possible price.
26:15Another very different city
26:18is also working with an urban intruder.
26:31Sometimes, even the most unlikely species
26:34can turn out to be good news.
26:37Austin, Texas, is now home
26:40to one and a half million free-tailed bats,
26:43and today, they are very welcome here.
26:5120 years ago, they set up home on this bridge
26:54in downtown Austin,
26:56and the residents wanted to get rid of them.
26:59But now, they have a new home.
27:02River boatman Captain Mike remembers it well.
27:05Oh, they're already taking off.
27:08Look over the treetops along the right-hand side.
27:11They are off and running.
27:13There was a fair amount of people
27:16that were actually afraid of the bats
27:18because they were afraid we were going to have a rabies problem
27:21or a disease outbreak,
27:23so there are actually groups of people
27:25coming in and out of the house
27:27to get rid of the bats.
27:30But bats turned out to be helpful for the city.
27:34The 24-hour urban lifestyle
27:36means that Austin is a city of light,
27:39and that attracts millions of insects,
27:42which are, in turn, fast food for bats.
27:50The bats are a great source of nutrition
27:53and a great source of energy.
27:56The city of Austin is known for its bats.
28:03Every night, the bats eat six tons of insects.
28:07That's an incredible 2,000 tons a year.
28:14However, they are more than just bug killers.
28:17Captain Mike saw bats as a commercial opportunity.
28:22I started doing bat-watching cruises
28:24and then word spread,
28:26and they started getting more and more popular,
28:28so we do those seven nights a week during the season,
28:30from March through October.
28:32Bats have really helped me in my business,
28:34so I love them.
28:36If you look up underneath the bridge,
28:38you'll watch them drop out of these cracks here.
28:40Visitors who come to see the bats
28:42generate $10 million in tourist revenue every year,
28:46so the free-tailed bats of the state capital
28:49are now protected.
28:55It turns out we still want to be connected to nature,
28:59and perhaps we always have.
29:07In India, one group of people
29:10take caring for animals to the ultimate extreme,
29:13and they've been doing it for centuries.
29:16Shyam Sunder has rescued a chinkara gazelle
29:19on the outskirts of his town in Rajasthan.
29:25Her mother has been killed.
29:27Without milk, the fawn will not survive,
29:30so Shyam is taking her home.
29:33In our business,
29:35we don't have a lot of animals,
29:37and we don't have a lot of people,
29:39and we don't have a lot of animals,
29:41and we don't have a lot of people.
29:43Shyam is taking her home.
29:45In our business society,
29:47we are very fond of raising animals.
30:11They're calling her Aarti,
30:14and a spot of sandalwood honours her arrival.
30:22Kaira, Shyam's wife,
30:24has cared for many gazelles.
30:38The Sunders belong to a Hindu sect of nature worshippers
30:42called the Bishnoi.
30:44Shyam supplies milk to the Bishnoi temple,
30:47which has its own orphans to care for.
30:52The Bishnoi were India's first environmentalists
30:56and have brought their traditions from the country
30:59into the towns and cities.
31:04It is their belief that gazelles are their children,
31:07and so the Bishnoi women show an incredible act of kindness.
31:12They breastfeed the fawns that don't take to the bottle.
31:28Even for gazelles, breast is best.
31:43After six weeks with her new family,
31:46Aarti is weaned.
32:13She's now fit and healthy.
32:16Shyam can take her back to the wild.
32:22Watching a child leave home is always tough for a mum,
32:26even a surrogate one.
32:32Aarti's mother, Aarti,
32:34is the only one who can take care of her.
32:42Aarti is returned to the desert,
32:45where she'll join up with the wild herds.
32:52This may appear to be a tiny gesture of kindness,
32:56but all of us who live in cities
32:59need the nature that exists beyond the city walls.
33:04Because the natural world feeds our hungry cities.
33:14And what the urban jungle needs, the urban jungle gets.
33:23More than three billion of us now live in cities.
33:34To feed this huge population,
33:37we ship in billions of tonnes of fresh food and produce all year round.
33:45We have the technology to bring in what we want
33:48from thousands of kilometres away.
33:56Peaches may grow here in Spain,
33:59but these are imported from South America.
34:04We consume what we want when we want it.
34:14We no longer need to eat locally or seasonally.
34:24And we have an insatiable appetite.
34:28We've never been so good at exploiting nature,
34:32but we're not quite so good at dealing with the consequences.
34:41Massive consumption creates mountains of waste.
34:50And we're not quite so good at dealing with the consequences.
34:58In the UK alone, we produce over 100 million tonnes of rubbish each year.
35:05And we dump it safely out of sight.
35:11But in some places, this world is home to an unfortunate few.
35:28Here in Mombasa, Kenya,
35:30people must scratch a living from the things others throw away.
35:41For Asha and her family, this dump is both home and hunting ground.
35:47They are modern-day hunter-gatherers,
35:50adapted to survival on the dark side of the urban jungle.
35:58When I wake up in the morning,
36:01I go to the dump to pick up the rubbish.
36:09When they come here, they don't see the rubbish.
36:12They only see garbage, plastic, and plastic bags.
36:18When they pick up the rubbish,
36:20other people come and pick it up.
36:23When the rubbish arrives,
36:26the race is on to grab the best scraps.
36:53Asha's husband, Ali, gets stuck in.
37:02This really is life on the road.
37:06It's a struggle to get through.
37:09It's a struggle to get through.
37:12It's a struggle to get through.
37:15It's a struggle to get through.
37:18It's a struggle to get through.
37:21This really is life on the edge.
37:27Finding food for your children in a city's rubbish.
37:42More than half of us now live in cities,
37:46and we are using up nature's resources as never before.
37:52We are, without doubt,
37:55the most inventive and powerful creature on the planet.
38:03We're so successful,
38:05we've hijacked the whole world for our own ends.
38:14But the consequences of our voracious lives
38:17are spiralling out of control.
38:22Are we pushing the natural world towards a crisis?
38:30Where do we go from here?
38:41There are a few people who seem to be heading in a new direction.
38:52One challenge is to design a city that's in balance with nature.
38:59This is Masdar,
39:01a green city being built in the desert of Abu Dhabi.
39:05It's designed by architect Norman Foster.
39:12Masdar excites me
39:14because it's really the only true experiment
39:18on the planet at the moment
39:21in terms of seeking to achieve an environment,
39:25a community, a mini-city,
39:27which is carbon-free and waste-free.
39:32Now, that would be a tough challenge anywhere in the world.
39:36To do it in a desert environment,
39:39you could say, you know, you must be crazy to even attempt it.
39:49Masdar will be powered by the sun.
39:55It will not waste a single drop of water.
40:01There will be no need for gas-guzzling cars.
40:06The starting point for Masdar was really working with nature
40:11in terms of the solar cycle,
40:13making the greenery not just a cosmetic greenery,
40:16but creating shade, burning the waste that we produce
40:20and, out of that process, creating energy.
40:23So it's starting with nature
40:25and then it's using the technology,
40:28working with nature, in harness with nature.
40:37It is a noble ambition and it can be achieved.
40:42However, the immediate challenge
40:44is to try and change the way we live with nature
40:47in our existing cities.
41:12This is the Union Square market in New York.
41:16It sells produce that's grown locally,
41:19often on the rooftops of New York's tower blocks.
41:22Hello, would you like to try some of our honey?
41:25Local, broad...
41:27Whipped honey, miss?
41:29No? You're sweet enough?
41:32Good morning. Honey for you, miss?
41:34Oh, you're doing the right thing.
41:37Andrew Cote is the guru of high-rise beekeeping
41:41and a third-generation beekeeper.
41:45Until recently, urban beekeeping was illegal in New York,
41:49but that didn't stop Andrew.
41:54Personally, in my case, I was never caught,
41:56even though I was very public about having bees.
42:00I didn't tell people exactly where they were.
42:03Happily, New York changed its mind
42:06and Andrew's mission is to bring bees into everyone's lives.
42:11Today, he's on the balcony of a swanky Manhattan apartment
42:15with novice Vivian Wang.
42:17You're going to have a problem with the outer cover
42:20because there are a lot of bees on the inside of it.
42:23Smoke them.
42:25Smoke them if you've got them.
42:27Andrew is sort of the king of beekeeping.
42:30Those of us who are his students,
42:32I think of myself as the honey-sorcerer's apprentice,
42:35in a way.
42:37What do you see?
42:38I see a lot of capped honey under here,
42:41and I see what looks like raw nectar.
42:44It's an unusual pastime for a New York lawyer.
42:48I think my friends, when I told them
42:50that I was going to start being a beekeeper, were amused.
42:53They thought it was quirky, but kind of funny.
42:56Because it's a different way for us to all connect with nature.
42:59I think all of us need a little more sweetness in our lives,
43:02and it's nice to be able to cast our eyes skyward in this city,
43:07away and above the traffic,
43:09and to think about all these bees buzzing above our heads.
43:13But being a novice beekeeper has its ups and downs.
43:17Ow. Ow.
43:19What, what, what?
43:20Nothing. Sorry, I didn't mean to.
43:23What, what, what?
43:24Nothing. Sorry, I didn't know they could sting through pants quite like that.
43:28They're stinging me like crazy. I really want you to let go.
43:32There are now nearly 10 million bees living on the rooftops of New York.
43:43Over the river in Queens, it's a special day for beekeeper Stephanos.
43:48He's harvesting his first honey with Andrew's help.
43:54This one's perfect. Couldn't be better.
43:57Oh, yeah.
43:59I think we should give the honey a taste, just to make sure.
44:04Oh, man, this is going to be so good.
44:14Oh, my God.
44:17Oh, my God.
44:20It's like caramelized sunlight.
44:24It's just quality control.
44:33Bees make honey, and they pollinate the city's parks and gardens.
44:38But most importantly, they bring New Yorkers back in touch with nature.
44:47I think a lot of people are beekeeping in the city
44:50because they want to feel a connection to nature.
44:53They live in tall buildings. They walk on asphalt.
44:56They ride around in trains under the ground.
44:59When they have a beehive on their roof,
45:01they can spend one or two hours a week and really be connected to nature
45:05and be creating their own food with almost no footprint,
45:08and I think that's great.
45:11Beekeeping in New York isn't going to save the planet,
45:15but it's a step in the right direction.
45:26There is just no doubt.
45:28If we are to continue living in cities,
45:31we'll have to stop stripping nature bare with no thought for tomorrow.
45:36What we do in our homes and in our streets affects the entire planet.
45:46The future of our civilization depends on us restoring the balance
45:51between the natural world and the urban jungle.
45:57Can we do it?
45:59There are clear signs of hope from around the world.
46:04We do have the intelligence and ingenuity to adapt to a changing world.
46:10The ancient art of falconry now helps protect the modern city of Dubai.
46:19We can work hand in hand with nature to solve the problems we face.
46:24In India, we train fig trees to make living bridges.
46:30And we team up with elephants to extract valuable timber without trashing the whole forest.
46:38We can think as a community and plan ahead.
46:41In Mali, the fish in this lake are shared out only once a year.
46:47When we work together, it's incredible what we can achieve.
46:52Everyone in the mud city of Djenné collaborates to protect their sacred mosque.
47:02We have such strong ties with nature.
47:06We have such strong ties with nature.
47:10We have such strong ties with nature.
47:14We have such spirit and such bravery in the face of adversity.
47:23If we combine these natural abilities with the best of our imagination and our biggest ideas,
47:32then surely our cities can adapt and change.
47:37The destiny of our planet is now in human hands.
47:58Over three years, the Human Planet team has filmed people around the world.
48:03All had amazing endurance, local know-how and ingenuity.
48:15Just keeping up with them proved to be a huge challenge.
48:20The demands on our teams and kit pushed them to the limit.
48:34Filming on an active volcano in Java tested the cameras to breaking point.
48:42The crew were here to film sulphur miners.
48:46The air they breathed was a danger to both people and kit.
48:51I'm just going to go in there, a bit closer in with a gas meter and see what it does.
48:57It's reading 93 parts per million.
49:02It's going up to 194 now.
49:05So we're right in the middle of the cloud. We'd better get out.
49:09This is 40 times the safe working limit.
49:13The gas is a hydrogen sulphide mix that corrodes every surface it lands on.
49:19The gas masks protected the crew, but not the cameras.
49:27They've got an RF warning on the camera,
49:30which means that the signals aren't actually getting onto the tape.
49:34It's usually a head clog.
49:36The crew found that sulphide particles had stuck to the tape head
49:41and open heart surgery was needed.
49:43After cleaning, the camera lived to work another day.
49:52But the crew's problems were nothing compared to those faced daily by the sulphur miners.
50:03In the Sulu Sea off Borneo,
50:06cameraman Simon Enderby was working on the camera.
50:09In the Sulu Sea off Borneo,
50:12cameraman Simon Enderby filmed a remarkable freediving fisherman called Sulbin.
50:24Here I was with the latest in scuba gear
50:27and here was Sulbin in a pair of underpants and wooden goggles.
50:30We really made for a bizarre dive duo.
50:33To capture the perfect hunt, I had to match my scuba dive skills with those of Sulbin's freediving.
50:39Our money, our swimming, our search for food and finally his successful capture of a fish
50:45all had to evolve together.
50:47Luckily, on the third dive, it all came together and we both came up happy.
50:52Oh, wow, mate, that's the one. That's definitely the one.
51:03In the Philippines, we filmed fishermen herding all the fish on a reef into a huge net.
51:10Here, we found that fish can be adaptable too.
51:14Cameraman Roger Munns inadvertently saved one fish from becoming supper.
51:22He nicknamed him Nemo.
51:25Nemo sheltered in Roger's dive kit and hid there until the coast was clear,
51:33eventually swimming off back home.
51:40We filmed in many locations where people had never seen film cameras before.
51:47In northern India, the children constantly looked into the lens.
51:52So, to get the shots he wanted, director Mark Flowers tried to distract the children by singing a song.
51:59Much to his surprise, the children knew the nursery rhymes better than he did.
52:30Filming at height always involves complex safety measures.
52:36But in Central Africa, the crew had an added complication.
52:42Tim Fogg rigged ropes to film Tete collecting honey from a wild bee's nest.
52:50Unfortunately, the angry bees went straight for Tim.
52:54Smoke, smoke, smoke, bees!
52:57Smoke, smoke, smoke for Tim, quickly!
53:12The first thing I remember seeing was a bee right in front of my face with its abdomen twisted as if it was ready to sting me.
53:19They got inside?
53:20No, they were stinging through the face mask.
53:25After 30 stings, Tim fully appreciated Tete's bravery in gathering honey for his family.
53:35When filming people with animals, nothing's entirely predictable.
53:42In Greenland, director Nick Brown wanted to film the Inuit catching the elusive Greenland shark that lives in these deep waters.
54:01After an anxious 10 days, everyone was thrilled, when in the middle of the night, they finally felt something on the line.
54:10We're very excited, because we've all been playing with the line that's 800 metres down into the water, and you can actually feel the shark on the end of it.
54:21Somewhere down there, we think we've got a Greenland shark on a hook. We're hoping.
54:28This is the hole for our underwater camera, and this is the hole for the shark.
54:33They discovered they'd underestimated the hole size, because the Jensen's had caught a huge 4 metre long shark.
54:54Coordinating helicopters with action on the ground is both expensive and difficult.
54:59But in Australia, director Susan Macmillan had to coordinate three helicopters at once.
55:05Two of them were flown by heli-cowboys Ben Tapp and his mate Rankin, dicing with death to corral their captain.
55:15The challenges of filming three helicopters in the air have been quite considerable on this trip, because I'm filming it for real.
55:21It's not a drama, there's no take two. I have to actually capture the events as it happens.
55:26And it's quite a dangerous situation. I've got three helicopters in the air, I've got quad bikes and horses on the ground, I've got stampeding cattle.
55:34So actually, the biggest pressure, I think, has been safety.
55:43Working on the ground can be just as dangerous, especially when it comes to big cats.
55:48The crew wanted to film Dorobo tribesmen in Kenya chasing lions off a kill.
55:54So cameraman Toby Strong offered to film with them on foot, to be in the thick of the action.
56:01The thought of getting out of a vehicle and walking towards lions on foot goes against every common sense bone in my body.
56:10I mean, and these guys are amazing. They've got their bows and arrows.
56:16But I haven't got anything. I've got a camera and a lens cloth to protect myself with.
56:24It's all getting a bit real, though. It's a bit butterflies in the stomach.
56:28Having located the lions, Toby followed the Dorobo as they moved in to have a look.
56:36Walking down there towards thick bushes where you know there are lions,
56:40God, it's something very primal in the back of your neck and everything.
56:45Hair's at the back of your neck and you can't see a thing.
56:48Walking down there towards thick bushes where you know there are lions,
56:52God, it's something very primal in the back of your neck and everything.
56:57Hair's at the back of your neck and you just feel these eyes on you, but you feel very, very alive.
57:02It's a magical feeling. I sort of recommend it to everyone before going to work.
57:06Have a walk through lion country. It gets things in perspective.
57:10Amazing.
57:14Without the cooperation and support of all the people we filmed around the world,
57:19this series could not have been made.
57:24Their unique knowledge and survival skills have relevance for us all
57:29in an increasingly human planet.
57:40For more information, visit www.nasa.gov
57:45NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
58:09NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology