All language subtitles for thegretlaces72ray.Ganool.com

We live on the most diverse
planet in the solar system.

Its vast richness is revealed
when we explore the variety

of our world's landscapes.

This is an adventure
of discovery

to seven of the planet's
most dramatic landscapes

and natural wonders.

Perhaps these are the greastest places

Some five billion years ago,
our solar system took form.

More than
200 million years ago

Earth's supercontinent,
Pangaea, began to separate.

New coastlines, continents,
islands and mountain ranges

were formed in massive upheaval.

The greatest places
began to take shape.

Greenland became
the largest island in the world.

Africa became
a separate continent.

The Okavango Delta and the Namib
Desert Regions were formed.

Severed from Africa,
South America was carved in part

by the rivers Amazon
and Iguazu.

India collided with Asia

uplifting the great plateau
of Tibet.

Madagascar separated
from Africa

and became an island...

one of the greatest places.

Set adrift
by the forces of geology

Madagascar became a time capsule

where, for 40 million years,
life evolved in isolation.

This island ark carries life
found nowhere else...

Living treasures of place

and time.

This is the kingdom
of the lemur.

Madagascar is the only place
on earth where lemurs are found.

On the mainland, the lemur's
ancestors were out-competed

by later-evolving monkeys.

But left alone on Madagascar,
these ancient primates thrived.

Here grow the most species
of the upside-down tree...

Looking like its roots
are in the air...

the baobab.

This giant lives
for a thousand years

on the island where
nearly two-thirds

of the world's species
of chameleons stalk their prey.

Of all the world's islands

Madagascar has
the most native species.

Here, where a cactus may grow
as tall as a tree

the ring-tailed lemur has
adapted from forest leaf eater

to connoisseur of cactus.

Millions of years
of rain and wind

have exposed
limestone pinnacles...

silent reminders of the forces
that shaped Madagascar

from the time it was torn
from the bedrock of Africa.

Madagascar's isolation

allowed the lemurs
to flourish and to diversify.

Numerous species exist,
including the black lemur

whose males are jet black.

But the females of the species
are rusty brown.

And the ring-tailed lemur,
the most social.

And the shifak,
called the ghost of the forest.

It's one of the few lemurs

that sometimes comes down
from the trees.

With a tongue as long as its
body, the chameleon dines.

The island ark of Madagascar...

one of the greatest places.

Where India and Asia collided

the world's tallest mountains,
the Himalayas

were uplifted with the highest
plateau in the world, Tibet.

As large as Western Europe

the plateau is higher than
the tallest peaks

of the Rocky Mountains.

Yet people have lived
for thousands of years here

in the place they call
the Chong-Tong

the Lonely Place.

The Buddhists of Tibet
believe in the sacred connection

between people
and the world of nature.

Prayers are written on flags

to be carried
by the mountain wind.

Living as nomads,
people conserve the land

by constantly moving to feed
their yaks, sheep and goats.

Their very survival is closely
bound to their animals.

People trade for barley

but their lives are sustained
by the yak.

The yak carries
all their belongings

and gives milk,
butter and meat...

almost everything they need

to survive.

In the land where temperatures
can drop

80 degrees Fahrenheit
in one day

yak hides
even provide wool and shelter.

For an endangered people

who are among the last
of the nomads

their shelter means
survival and home.

Their prayers are written
inside prayer wheels

to spin to the heavens.

As part of their connection
to the land and their religion

pilgrims travel
hundreds of miles

in walking meditation
to monasteries and holy sites.

Some lakes in Tibet
are considered holy

and are headwaters to
Asian rivers that irrigate land

to feed a quarter of humanity.

Many pilgrimages end
at great monasteries...

monasteries that serve
as centers of learning.

As an act of devotion

Tibetans walk around holy sites
as faithfully

as the earth moves
around the sun.

All people are linked
to the place they live

through their culture

but for all of us everywhere,
the natural landscape

is what sustains
the dance of life.

Tibet,
the world's highest plaeau.

Across the world

flows one of the Earth's
most powerful features...

the river...

and the greatest river of all
is the Amazon.

It crosses more than two-thirds
of the South American continent

and is joined
by a thousand other rivers

as it brings a way of life
to the people of the river.

Rivers everywhere
are arteries of life

for great cities
as well as small villages

bringing food, water to drink
and to grow crops

and for transportation.

The Amazon River Basin
is a vast landscape

of river and forest

almost as large as
the continental United States

encompassing nine nations.

People here follow
the ebb and flow of the river

learned in the journey
of a lifetime.

In the Amazon, people are
only one of millions of species

linked to the greatest watershed
on Earth.

Beetles the size
of a person's fist

miniature geckos

venomous caterpillars

and spiders that walk on water.

Located within a few degrees
latitude of the equator

the Amazon basin receives
nearly direct sun all year.

Heat from the morning sun
evaporates moisture

and causes humid air to rise.

By late morning,
it condenses into clouds.

Cloud droplets gather mass
and then fall as rain.

The daily rhythm of the rain
replenishes the river.

Moving with the currents
are floating meadows...

a seasonal mass of plants
and debris...

islands of life.

Some meadows become
part of the landscape

and support even trees

and the most colouful life
in this lush environment.

Where the powerful river
exposes clay banks

macaws and parrots fly in
for a meal.

They eat the clay as an antidote
to toxic seeds in their diet

and for its life-sustaining
minerals.

Great rivers flow
across the planet

and the Amazon is the greatest.

Rivers everywhere meet
disruptions to their flow.

When they flow across a boundary
of hard and softer rock

there can be great disruptions.

The world's greatest waterfall
is Iguazu...

four times wider than Niagara.

South of the Amazon basin

at the border of
Brazil and Argentina

Lava once flowed
from ancient volcanoes.

When the hard lava ends,
less-resistant rock has eroded.

Here, the Iguazu River plunges
into more than 200 waterfalls

Along the southwest coast
of Africa

the Namib is a desert
in motion.

Across this
80 million-year-old desert

prevailing winds build

the earth's
tallest sand dunes

dunes over a thousand feet tall

that migrate
a grain of sand at a time.

Of all the deserts

the Namib contains
the greatest variety of life:

Beetles that collect moisture
on their backs

at the top of the dunes.

Adders that store water
between their scales.

And venomous scorpions.

The Namib is even graced
with large mammals

like the gemsbok.

Everywhere on earth

the interaction
of the same basic elements...

Land, air, water and life...

has created landscapes
of dramatic diversity.

The Namib is one of the world's
five west coast deserts

that stretch to a cold sea.

As warm wind passes over
cold water, fog forms

bringing life-giving moisture
that never falls as rain.

But the fog of Namib
also brings death

scattering bones along
the treacherous Skeleton Coast.

A cold southern current
from Antarctica

and the warmer Atlantic Ocean
mix to create a fertile sea

and bring abundant life.

At this ocean oasis,
fur seals feed all year

and warm themselves
from the frigid water

at the edge of the hot desert.

The Namib

desert of the great dunes.

At the Arctic Circle,
the largest island in the world

lies covered by
a permanent landscape of ice.

Beneath the enormous weight
of the Greenland ice cap

the world's oldest landscape
has sunk below sea level.

At the sea,
glaciers calve into icebergs...

floating mountains of ice

that are five times more massive
under water than above water.

Only the narrow ice-free coast
supports life.

Here, the musk ox is cloaked in
one of nature's warmest coats

even in summer's bloom.

Greenland's storyteller,
the drum dancer

celdbrates
the thousands of years

people have survived
at this icy edge.

This is life near the coldest
limit of human existence.

Survival here is dependent on
people inventing what they need

like the harpoon, the dogsled
and the kayak.

Even at 40 degrees below zero

people have
successfully adapted.

Greenland a cold extreme
of earth's diversity.

In Botswana, southern Africa

the Okavango River Delta
is Africa's greatest oasis.

Flowing from the north,
the Okavango River

has carried millions of tons
of sand and debris

to create one of the largest
inland river deltas

in the world.

It forms a maze
of land and water.

This river never flows
to the sea.

Instead, it spreads
across the Kalahari Desert

and the desert blooms with life.

This massive, landlocked
river delta

depends on water
hundreds of miles away

that travels half the year
to reach the dry, lower delta.

Everywhere, water restores life.

In this Eden of Okavango

as in all places

diversity of life is linked
to the land, air and water

and the patterns
of landscape they form.

Every thing is interrelated.

Even the wild dogs of Okavango
are linked together from birth.

Only one male and female mate
to produce a litter of pups

the entire pack will raise.

In dynamic equilibrium,
one generation follows another.

In the Okavango, and everywhere

the procession of life is
a reflection of the landscape.

Only on this planet have
elemental processes combined

to create so many great places,
inanimate features of land

which make possible
the drama of life.

In the unending partnership
of predator and prey

one life gives way
to many others.

Here, in the cradle of Africa,
and everywhere

we are both witness
and participant

in the Earth's
most intricate patterns

of the land and life.

This rich variety of landscapes
is found only on one planet.

To explore these greatest places

is to recognize
our common bond

that we share
a miraculous home

the most diverse planet
in the solar system

perhaps the most diverse
in the universe.

Earth

the greatest place of all.