(2009) Even within the cathedral of environmentalism, where this sermon takes place, preaching to a congregation of the faithful, while most will see and hear (gorgeous images and celestial music), not many will heed the call to conserve and preserve our planet, for most are sinners rather than saints, driving their cars, turning on too many lights and electronic gadgets, consuming nonrenewable fossil resources for comfort and convenience. Consider that even the filmmakers must have burned enormous quantities of fuel in the aircraft employed to photograph from the air 54 countries, adding tons of hydrocarbons into the atmosphere.

Nevertheless, director Yan Arthus-Bertrand's documentary of the interconnectivity of all life on Earth is beautifully photographed onto a cinematic canvas - sometimes abstract, other times Impressionistic, occasionally naturalistic - from the patterns and pigments, geometry and sculptures, waves and strips of water and landscape below. The original music by Armand Amar is ethereal, sometimes incorporating a choir of angelic human voices with the New Age instrumentation.

Narrated (in the English version) by Glenn Close - "The engine is linkage. Everything is linked. Nothing is self-sufficient" - from a script by Isabelle Delannoy, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Denis Carot, and Yen Le Van, we are appraised of the fact that human beings after the miracle of life's arising four billion years ago are responsible for disrupting the fragile balance of nature on Earth.

Human beings are part of nature, but what we do is often artificial and harmful to nature. Having conquered the planet for our own designs of control, now our population, our machines, our pollution are out of control.

In the beginning, early life took the form of microorganisms - the archaebacteria, though more correctly the Archaea - becoming cyanobacteria and ocean algae, separating through photosynthesis oxygen from water to create an atmosphere. Plants arose and soil formed, producing "factories of diversity."

Only about 6,000 years ago (Close incorrectly says "six hundred") towns and their byproduct civilization first came into existence following the revolution of agriculture (8,000-10,000 years ago) - "Give us our daily bread" - changing mankind's relationship to nature. Modulating her awe to an ominous tone - "Forgive us our trespasses" - Close enumerates human abuses.

From pockets of earth, minerals ("pieces of stars") and "concentrate sunlight" (coal, gas, and oil) are dug and drawn out, fueling the engines of industry: "Machines replaced man." Making soils and seasons unnecessary with fertilizers and pesticides, modern agriculture's industry slurps up 70% of freshwater reserves.

Elevators made skyscrapers feasible. In a land of sunlight a forest of skyscrapers are being constructed without solar panels: "Nothing seems further from nature than Dubai," though it's wholly dependent on natural resources. Familiar statistics are repeated: "Half the world's poor live in resource-rich countries."

Close turns her attention to the marine world ("thousands of factory ships are emptying the oceans" of fish, exhausting stocks that are "the staple diet of one in five humans"), the deserts with scarce water resources (rivers no longer reach dying, emptying seas), wetlands (half of the areas where "regeneration and purification of water" take place have been drained), deforestation - varieties of trees, "the perfect living sculpture," containing biodiversity replaced by a monoculture - for more farmland to grow grains, "so a forest is turned into meat." (Speaking of which, that meat often comes from "concentration-camp style cattle farms.")

Climate change is most noticeable at the poles, where the Arctic icecap and Greenland's glaciers are melting, and on mountain summits, such as the Himalayas, causing disruption of the water cycle with dwindling rivers and rising seas. While we may have a decade to adjust to the immanent transformation of weather patterns, an inundation of our coasts, and the multitude of other alterations anticipated to our way of life already in progress, if the Siberian permafrost thaws, releasing trapped methane into the atmosphere, global warming will accelerate beyond our ability to cope with the pace of change.

In comparing the fate of island Earth to Easter Island's, the entire planet's human population may be in for a collapse of civilization - loss of justice and equality - as befell the Rapa Nui. Yet not wanting to conclude on a pessimistic note, Close highlights locations with innovations intended to reverse the degradation set in motion over the previous two centuries.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in video and/or DVD format, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2010 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

Patrick Ivers can be reached via e-mail at .