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It now seems that our entire universe is living on borrowed time. How long it can survive depends on whether Stephen Hawking’s theory checks out. Special thanks to Ivan Bridgewater for use of footage.

Time is flying by on this busy, crowded planet… as life changes and evolves from second to second.

And yet the arc of human lifespan is getting longer: 65 years is the global average … way up from just 20 in the Stone Age.

Modern science, however, provides a humbling perspective. Our lives… indeed the life span of the human species… is just a blip compared to the age of the universe, at 13.7 billion years and counting.

It now seems that our entire universe is living on borrowed time…

And that even it may be just a blip within the grand sweep of deep time.

Scholars debate whether time is a property of the universe… or a human invention.

What’s certain is that we use the ticking of all kinds of clocks… from the decay of radioactive elements to the oscillation of light beams… to chart and measure a changing universe… to understand how it works and what drives it.
Our own major reference for the passage of time is the 24-hour day… the time it takes the Earth to rotate once. Well, it’s actually 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.1 seconds… approximately… if you’re judging by the stars, not the sun.
Earth acquired its spin during its birth, from the bombardment of rocks and dust that formed it.
But it’s gradually losing that rotation to drag from the moon’s gravity.
That’s why, in the time of the dinosaurs, a year was 370 days… and why we have to add a leap second to our clocks about every 18 months.
In a few hundred million years, we’ll gain a whole hour.
The day-night cycle is so reliable that it has come to regulate our internal chemistry.
The fading rays of the sun, picked up by the retinas in our eyes, set our so-called “circadian rhythms” in motion.

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This programme is about how plants gain their sustenance. Sunlight is one of the essential requirements if a seed is to germinate, and Attenborough highlights the cheese plant as an example whose young shoots head for the nearest tree trunk and then climb to the top of the forest canopy, developing its leaves en route. Using sunshine, air, water and a few minerals, the leaves are, in effect, the “factories” that produce food. However, some, such as the begonia, can thrive without much light.

To gain moisture, plants typically use their roots to probe underground. Trees pump water up pipes that run inside their trunks, and Attenborough observes that a sycamore can do this at the rate of 450 litres an hour — in total silence. Too much rainfall can clog up a leaf’s pores, and many have specially designed ‘gutters’ to cope with it. However, their biggest threat is from animals, and some require extreme methods of defence, such as spines, camouflage, or poison.
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The first episode looks at how plants are able to move. The bramble is an aggressive example: it advances forcefully from side to side and, once settled on its course, there is little that can stand in its way. An altogether faster species is the birdcage plant, which inhabits Californian sand dunes. When its location becomes exposed, it shifts at great speed to another one with the assistance of wind — and it is this that allows many forms of vegetation to distribute their seeds. While not strictly a plant, the spores of fungi are also spread in a similar fashion. One of the most successful (and intricate) flowers to use the wind is the dandelion, whose seeds travel with the aid of ‘parachutes’. They are needed to travel miles away from their parents, who are too densely packed to allow any new arrivals. Trees have the advantage of height to send their seeds further, and the cottonwood is shown as a specialist in this regard. The humidity of the tropical rainforest creates transportation problems, and the liana is one plant whose seeds are aerodynamic ‘gliders’. Some, such as those of the sycamore, take the form of ‘helicopters’, while others, such as the squirting cucumber release their seeds by ‘exploding’. Water is also a widely used method of propulsion. However, most plants use living couriers, whether they be dogs, humans and other primates, ants or birds, etc., and to that end, they use colour and smell to signify when they are ripe for picking.
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Experts say over the next hundred years the “perfect storm” of population growth, resource depletion and climate change could converge with catastrophic results.

In order to plan for the worst, we must anticipate it. In that spirit, guided by some of the world’s experts, ABC News’ “Earth 2100,” hosted by Bob Woodruff, will journey through the next century and explore what might be our worst-case scenario.
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Filming in Abkhazia, with 5DMII
September – October 2009
Gagra, Mamdzisha
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The earth is indeed an extraordinary planet, and not just because of the almost infinitely variety of life that is supports, its very fabric – the land itself – is marvelously varied and impressive. In this program, we’re going on a global journey in search of the greatest natural wonders of the world.

Long ago, the surface of the earth was born a fire. This was the raw material from which the face of our planet was created. Then over an immense length of time, the earth’s crust was shaped and reshaped by the forces of nature.

Its’ rocks have been carved by the powers of the elements, and by that great leveler, time itself. What we see around us today is the result of these unrelenting processes of natural erosion, a dramatic story of continuous change. The world we see now is the result of monumental changes that are barely detectable in our own brief lives.
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“THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MONSANTO ‘is investigating the U.S. multinational” Monsanto, the world leader in biotechnology and one of the most controversial companies in the industrial era. 90% of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) cultivated on the planet today, such as soybeans, canola, corn, cotton …, owned and run it the entire food chain it is can control. Monsanto GMOs have invaded the world and yet never applied agro-industry has generated so much passion and controversy. Why? What are the issues of GMOs? Risks or benefits for humanity? Based on unpublished documents and testimony of scientists, representatives of civil society, victims, lawyers, politicians, representatives of the Food and Drug Administration … in conducting surveys land among the peasants in India, Mexico, Paraguay, filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin – winner of the prestigious Albert Londres – has patiently assembled the pieces of a vast economic puzzle. The film reconstructs the genesis of an industrial empire became one of the first seed of the planet. It shows how, behind the image of clean and green society that describe the campaigns lies a hegemonic project that threaten world food security but also the ecological balance of the planet.
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Are we making Holes in Heaven? HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) is a controversial high frequency radio transmitter, or “ioniospheric heater,” which is believed to be descended from the works of Nikola Tesla and is operated by the U.S. Navy/Air Force and Phillip Laboratories in remote Gakona, Alaska.

Using HAARP, the military can focus a billion-watt pulsed radio beam into our upper atmosphere, ostensibly for ionospheric research. This procedure will form extremely low frequency waves and send them back to the Earth, enhancing communications with submarines and allowing us to “see” into the Earth, detecting anything from oil reserves to underground missile silos.

However, several researchers claim HAARP poses many dangers, including blowing thirty-mile holes in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. They also warn of possible disruption of the subtle magnetic energies of our Earth and ourselves.

“In an already hot scenario of global warming, extreme heating our atmosphere with high frequency radio wave technology might not be the best experimentation for studying our upper atmosphere for communications” – Paula Randol-Smith, Producer

Holes in Heaven? is a prime example of grassroots filmmaking by producer Paula Randol-Smith and Emmy-winning director Wendy Robbins. Narrated by Martin Sheen, the film, investigates HAARP, its history and implications, and examines the dangers and benefits of high and low frequencies and of electromagnetic technology.
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