Home Page #3

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it is cloned, copied and reproduced

in these formatted houses

that have wiped pagodas off the map.

The automobile has become the symbol

of comfort and progress.

If this model were followed

by every society,

the planet wouldn't have 900 million

vehicles, as it does today,

but 5 billion.

Faster and faster.

The more the world develops,

the greater its thirst for energy.

Everywhere, machines dig, bore

and rip from the Earth

the pieces of stars buried

in its depths since its creation...

Minerals.

As a privilege of power,

is consumed

by 20% of the world's population.

Before the end of this century,

excessive mining will have exhausted

nearly all the planet's reserves.

Faster and faster.

Shipyards churn out oil tankers,

container ships and gas tankers

to cater for the demands

of globalized industrial production.

Most consumer goods travel

thousands of kilometers

from the country of production

to the country of consumption.

Since 1950, the volume of international

trade has increased 20 times over.

are transported every year.

Headed for the world's major hubs

of consumption,

such as Dubai.

Dubai is a sort of culmination

of the Western model,

a country where the impossible

becomes possible.

Building artificial islands in the sea,

for example.

Dubai has few natural resources,

but with oil money it can bring in

millions of tons of material

and workers from all over the planet.

Dubai has no farmland,

but it can import food.

Dubai has no water, but it can afford

to expend immense amounts of energy

to desalinate seawater and build

the world's highest skyscrapers.

Dubai has endless sun,

but no solar panels.

It is the totem to total modernity

that never fails to amaze the world.

Dubai is like the new beacon

for all the world's money.

Nothing seems further removed

from nature than Dubai,

although nothing depends on nature

more than Dubai.

Dubai is a sort of culmination

of the Western model.

We haven't understood that

we're depleting what nature provides.

Since 1950, fishing catches

have increased fivefold

from 18 to 100 million metric tons

a year.

Thousands of factory ships

are emptying the oceans.

Three-quarters of fishing grounds

are exhausted,

depleted or in danger of being so.

Most large fish have been fished

out of existence

since they have no time to reproduce.

We are destroying the cycle of a life

that was given to us.

At the current rate, all fish stocks

are threatened with exhaustion.

Fish is the staple diet

of one in five humans.

We have forgotten

that resources are scarce.

live in the world's desert lands,

more than the combined population

of Europe.

They know the value of water.

They know how to use it sparingly.

Here, they depend on wells

replenished by fossil water,

which accumulated underground

back when it rained on these deserts.

Fossil water also enables crops

to be grown in the desert

to provide food for local populations.

The fields' circular shape derives

from the pipes that irrigate them

around a central pivot.

But there is a heavy price to pay.

Fossil water

is a non-renewable resource.

In Saudi Arabia,

the dream of industrial farming

in the desert has faded.

As if on a parchment map,

the light spots on this patchwork

show abandoned plots.

The irrigation equipment

is still there.

The energy to pump water also.

But the fossil water reserves

are severely depleted.

Israel turned the desert

into arable land.

Even though these hothouses

are now irrigated drop by drop,

water consumption continues

to increase along with exports.

The once mighty River Jordan

is now just a trickle.

Its water has flown to supermarkets

all over the world

in crates of fruit and vegetables.

The Jordan's fate is not unique.

Across the planet,

one major river in ten

no longer flows into the sea

for several months of the year.

Deprived of the Jordan's water,

the level of the Dead Sea goes down

by over one meter per year.

India risks being the country

that suffers most

from lack of water

in the coming century.

Massive irrigation

has fed the growing population

and in the last 50 years,

In many parts of the country,

the drill has to sink every deeper

to hit water.

In western India,

The underground aquifers

are drying out.

Vast reservoirs will catch monsoon rains

to replenish the aquifers.

In the dry season, local village women

dig them with their bare hands.

Thousands of kilometers away,

are consumed

per person per day.

Las Vegas was built out of the desert.

Millions of people live there.

Thousands more arrive every month.

Its inhabitants are among the biggest

water consumers in the world.

Palm Springs is another desert city

with tropical vegetation

and lush golf courses.

How long can this mirage

continue to prosper?

The Earth cannot keep up.

The Colorado River,

which brings water to these cities,

is one of those rivers

that no longer reaches the sea.

Water levels in the catchment lakes

along its course are plummeting.

Water shortages could affect nearly

The wetlands represent

Under their calm waters

lies a veritable factory,

where plants and micro-organisms

patiently filter the water

and digest all the pollution.

These marshes are indispensable

environments for the regeneration

and purification of water.

They are sponges

that regulate the flow of water.

They absorb it in the wet season

and release it in the dry season.

In our race to conquer more land,

we have reclaimed them

as pasture for livestock,

or as land for agriculture or building.

In the last century,

half the world's marshes were drained.

We know neither their richness

nor their role.

All living matter is linked.

Water, air, soil, trees.

The world's magic

is right in front of our eyes.

Trees breathe groundwater

into the atmosphere as light mist.

They form a canopy that alleviates

the impact of heavy rains.

The forests provide the humidity

that is necessary for life.

They store carbon,

containing more

than all the Earth's atmosphere.

They are the cornerstone of the climatic

balance on which we all depend.

The primary forests provide a habitat

for three-quarters

of the planet's biodiversity,

that is to say,

of all life on Earth.

These forests provide the remedies

that cure us.

The substances secreted by these plants

can be recognized by our bodies.

Our cells talk the same language.

We are of the same family.

But in barely 40 years,

the world's largest rainforest,

the Amazon,

has been reduced by 20%.

The forest gives way to cattle ranches

or soybean farms.

to feed livestock and poultry

in Europe and Asia.

And so, a forest is turned into meat.

Barely 20 years ago, Borneo,

the 4th largest island

in the world,

was covered by a vast primary forest.

At the current rate of deforestation,

it will have disappeared

within 10 years.

Living matter

bonds water, air, earth and the sun.

In Borneo, this bond has been broken

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