National Geographic: Adventures in Time Page #4

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as grand as Africa's Victoria Falls.

He pushed his way through much of

the wild and forbidding Tsangpo gorges

but never found what he was seeking.

On this expedition Ken and Ian

are determined to finish

Kingdon-Ward's journey."

"It's a place that gives life

but it's a place also of enormous danger

that can take life at any moment."

The Tsangpo gorge can plunge

over sixteen thousand feet

three times deeper than the Grand Canyon.

A single misstep could send a traveler

a thousand feet to his death.

It was near here that Kingdon-Ward's

exhausted guides insisted on turning back.

And sure enough

this modern team had doubts as well.

"I think we all reached a point

where we were suddenly questioning

whether it was really going to

be possible at all."

Despite seventeen days

of difficult trekking

the expedition decides to press on.

Finally, they punch their way

through a clearing.

"Oh, all of the Tsangpo is...

pouring into that energy.

Can you imagine?!"

"Incredible!"

"Every drop...

from the Kailas Mountain

all the way past Mount Everest

all the way to this point!"

After a century of speculation

the great falls has finally been placed

on the map.

Named Hidden Falls of Dorje Phagmo

it measures between a hundred

and a hundred fifteen feet

with an enormous volume of water

that makes it so extraordinary.

"To actually come upon something new

and undiscovered late in the 20th century

is remarkable."

Even in places that are mapped

there are new worlds to explore

like the lush rain forest canopy.

"I realized at that moment

that first rope climb

I knew where I was goin' for the rest

of my life.

I was going up to the canopy."

"It takes hard work and courage to

conquer this new world.

But when they climb

Nalini and other canopy researchers

are also returning to a very old world."

"We really felt like pioneers.

We felt like we were frontiersmen going

to where no human had ever gone before

and everything we picked up

was something new and something different

- new species, new interactions."

For aerialist Philippe Petit

a life in balance is a challenge in itself.

Here he undertakes a daring walk

over three hundred feet

above the medieval Swiss village

of Saillon.

"I am discovering, conquering uh

a new world

a world that is actually no-man's land.

It is dangerous - yes -

if I miss the wire I am not here anymore

but it's so simple, so beautifully simple

the left or right, the center, the balance.

It's the essence of life...

What I do is seemingly useless

but actually is an inspiration.

Looking up is, is flying your own way.

People who don't have wing

they can fly by looking up."

The earth is some four and

a half billion years old

yet little time remains to undo the damage

that we've wrought in our own brief moment

on the planet.

The oil fields of Kuwait

but destructive war.

The fires have now raged for months.

The damage to the environment

is nothing short of catastrophic.

But much sooner than anyone expected

an international team

of workers snuffed out the flames

one by one.

Many of these people had never

done such work before.

"We have proved so many things that we-

nobody took a chance before to do it.

Nobody was daring before to do it.

We proved that yes, we can do it.

Once you have the will,

you can do anything you'd like to do

and we were given a chance

to prove this and we did prove it."

All over the globe concerned citizens

have mobilized to preserve

and protect endangered species

and habitats.

The power of such dedicated people is

proved today by the continued existence

of creatures once nearly annihilated

by man:

the great whales.

Today, they are known and loved with

such passion that the survival

of most species of whales seems assured.

But for other creatures

time is running out.

In central China, Professor Pan Wenshi

dedicates his life

to the imperiled population

of giant pandas remaining in the wild.

"My friends in Beijing always ask

why do you continue to work

in the field year after year?

When will it end?

Your work has been published

why don't you stop?

I tell them my goal is

to protect the panda

and to establish a refuge

for them in the wild.

That is my mission

but it will be difficult.

Achieving this goal may take

my entire lifetime

and even that may not be enough."

In suburban Atlanta

Sue Barnard tries to overcome popular fears

about a creature valuable to the ecosystem.

"We're gonna see some bats, okay?

Are you ready?"

"Yeah..."

"Are you ready? All right.

"The children, the children are our future

and they're marvelous.

They're open to learning.

They see and they form their own opinions

by what they're seeing.

The bat's got friends but

the bat's got to have more friends."

From the suburbs to the inner city,

conservationists are often

where you least expect to find them.

Arthur Bonner, ex-gang member

spent seven years in juvenile detention

and prison.

"Good morning.

My name is uh, Arthur and uh you guys

are out here to help us out

to save an endangered species.

It's called a Palos

Verdes..."

When Arthur got out of jail

he joined the LA Conservation Corps.

His life was soon turned around

by a tiny 6-legged companion

called the Palos Verdes Blue butterfly...

Arthur is one of just three people who

are permitted to gather the butterflies...

"I'm very dedicated to coming down here.

I love to do what I'm doing

I love my work."

"He uses all his powers of persuasion to

help his captives reproduce."

"Okay girls, which one of you

laid some eggs for me today?"

"The uh, 5 females I collected out

in the wild.

I bring them in I have to watch them

lay their eggs..."

"There you go, you gave me one..."

The butterfly only has

a five day life span...

and it's up to me to keep her baby alive.

"For ten years the Palos Verdes Blue

butterfly was thought to be extinct.

It is still considered one of

the rarest butterflies in the world."

"Those are my girls.

I love them all.

They actually kept me from being extinct

as much as I'm saving them

from being extinct.

They're saving me and I'm saving them."

"It's very easy to dismiss...

the bugs and the weeds of the world

but science is revealing every year...

just how important are

these little things on which

we and other larger organisms depend.

They cleanse the water

they create the soil,

they generate the very air we breathe."

The case for protecting all life forms

has been made powerfully

by Dr. Jane Goodall.

She now speaks to the next generation

for it is our children

who must carry the message forward.

"It's terribly important I think

that children should grow up

not having this incredibly arrogant view

that the world was made for us humans.

We all matter

we all have a place in the world.

Each species whether it's human or

non human has been evolved over

countless thousands and thousands of

years into a perfect organism

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