WEBVTT

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And we do.

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Hi

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There is a place in the universe unlike

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any other a modest blue and white
planet circling a very ordinary star.

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It is the only place we
know of with oceans of

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liquid water and an
atmosphere rich in oxygen.

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It\'s the only place we know of which
expresses the magical essence called Life of

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30 million life forms a species called Man

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has grown so powerful that it threatens
the creativity of the planet.

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That species is now searching for a new
understanding of its relationship with the Earth

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One and only home place

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What do you suppose at ground squirrel sees
as she looks out across this mountain meadow.

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I wonder if she sees the
incredible beauty of

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her home place or does she
only see bits and pieces

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a world of fragments some of
which you can eat other\'s

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useful for making her burrow nest
still others which might harm her.

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If I move I may become important to her
as a potentially dangerous intruder.

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But standing quietly I fade into
insignificance not a threat not editable.

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I\'m an unimportant part of her environment

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But right now she\'s an important
part of my environment.

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As I admire the sheen
of her for the sparkle

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of her bright eyes and the
antics of her family.

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Just like her I perceive my environment as
being the important things that surround me.

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She sees food plants and covered.

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I see her and a wonderfully
colourful meadow.

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We look at the same landscape but we
would not list the same things as being

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the important parts of our environment
because we have different points of view

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A person gains a different
understanding of a mountain meadow by

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leaving it in climbing to a
ridge higher on the mountain.

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From here we can see some of
the other animals which share

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the mountain side the high snow banks

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and icy ponds which trickle
water through the meadow.

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We can see how ridges and valleys direct the
flow of wind and the formation of clouds.

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From up here it\'s obvious that the meadow
is connected to the rest of the mountain.

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It\'s part of a larger system.

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These are things that we could not
see while we were within the meadow.

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The ground squirrel will
probably never climb up here.

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She will never have this broader viewpoint
that puts her little home place in

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perspective for people and for ground
squirrels that problem is the same.

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We can\'t really understand our
surroundings what we call our environment.

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As long as we can only see
them from the inside.

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Until recently that\'s the only way
we\'ve been able to look at the world.

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As a result we\'ve developed an image of

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environment that is
people-centered and fragmented.

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Our understanding is not complete.

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What we\'ve been lacking
is a view from outside

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our immediate surroundings a view from
a lofty and separate vantage point.

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If we wanted to have a clear
understanding of our place on earth.

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We must look at Human Ecology
from different viewpoints.

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We must ask some searching questions.

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The first question is wat
on as his environment.

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Here we are in the Cypress Hills
of southwestern Saskatchewan.

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Most people would call this a
quality environment whether

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an abundance of natural beauty
and appealing landscape.

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We can look around and
make a list of the things

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which make up the Cypress
Hills environment.

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To begin there\'s the air the earth

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water and there are plants
and animals which wander

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about near the boundary square
air meets water and soil.

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Nearby. There\'s an old log bunk hosts
that renters built many decades ago.

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There\'s a car going fast on a gravel road.

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We can hear it see it and taste
the dust that it\'s raising.

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This is how we usually define environment
by listing the things around us which we

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can sense and measure people automatically
start to assign values to things.

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So I\'m seeing very important
especially things that people have

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built and things that
people use as raw materials

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When there is no obvious use
we often ask what\'s a good

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for everything is evaluated through
human eyes and assigned human value.

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That\'s a problem when you\'re short sighted.

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We\'ve come to see the
Earth as a storehouse of

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raw materials just waiting to
be gathered and used by us.

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This way of thinking is most obvious in

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industrial societies but it\'s
prevalent around the world.

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We have had so little understanding
of our surroundings that

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we couldn\'t see the danger of this
self-centered way of thinking

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This stream in British
Columbia is home to salmon for

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few weeks each year as they
traveled to spawning beds.

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Suppose that you are a
salmon trying to define

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its environment like we
did in the Cypress Hills.

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The salmon\'s home place is
very different from animals.

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It\'s a world of swilling

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bubbles noise buffet in currents
rounded stones and gradually bars.

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There are chemical smells in the water
aquatic insects and other fish.

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From a salmon\'s point of view
this is its environment.

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Clouds and trees and winds would
not likely seem important.

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Would a salmon even understand
what water is in order

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to really understand this dream you have
to observe it from the outside as well.

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Considering it\'s limited knowledge.

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Would we want to trust a salmon to
make decisions about the River Valley.

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From inside the river a fish could not
possibly know that trees control stream flow.

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So it might see no problem with logging
the watershed right to the water\'s edge.

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A salmon has no use for dry land.

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So it might see no harm in
mining poisonous minerals from

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deepen the earth or using a
hillside as a garbage dump.

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It would not occur to a fish that
deforestation and mine wastes

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and garbage on dry land could
make its environment unlivable.

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As far as we know a salmon
cannot understand that it and

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its stream a part of a
larger system a watershed.

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It could not possibly
understand the importance of

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the watershed ecosystem
because it\'s never seen it.

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We\'ve been a lot like the salmon immersed
in surroundings which we do not really

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understand and placing value only on the
parts of the Earth which are nearby

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Useful to us all we have been
able to see is human environment.

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It\'s only been very recently
that we\'ve been able to leave

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our home place like a salmon
making a great leap into the air.

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Now what we have seen earth from space and
that has changed our perspective forever.

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The view from space shows
that environment is

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much more than disconnected
things surrounding people.

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Our home place has a blue and white sphere

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The blue is from the sea the White
from the cloudy atmosphere.

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Earth is a single body
floating alone in space.

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Everything on the planet is
united by billions of years

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of coevolution and by
ecological relationships.

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Standing on Earth\'s surface
we seem to see distinct

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and water sediments plants and animals.

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From the inside reality seems
to be separate bits and pieces.

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From space we see all the bits and
pieces as interrelated parts.

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We see Earth as one single system

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System is called the ecosphere.

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The big picture that we get
from space helps us to

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understand the landscapes and water
escapes where we spend our lives.

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Now we have a high vantage point from which
we can see the ground squirrels Meadow

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the salmon stream and the Cypress Hills all
as parts of a larger more complex system.

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These pieces of the ecosphere are
ecosystems the ecosphere and

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its ecosystems envelop us where
within them where parts of them.

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So ecosystems are very different from

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environments which seemed to lie
outside and around ourselves.

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But separate from us

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Ecosystem is a more useful concept as we
try to understand our role as earthlings.

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Ecosystems represent one very important
level of organization of matter.

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We recognize many levels of
organization in nature from atoms

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to molecules from molecules to
compounds like rock and protoplasm.

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At higher levels of organization
water and minerals and

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cells are combined within bodies
a cat tail or a duckling.

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At the next level organisms
along with S surrounding

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air water soil and sediments
constitute ecosystem.

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All of Earth\'s ecosystems
together comprise the ecosphere.

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There are even higher
levels of organization.

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Earth is part of a solar system

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the solar system as part of a
galaxy and ultimately part of

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the infinite universe because
of modern chemistry and physics

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we\'ve learned to think of
reality as being built from

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the bottom up from atoms to the universe.

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I think this has been a mistake.

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Nature makes much more sense if we
look at it from the top down. At night

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With the Sun hidden behind us
we look away to the millions of

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other distant suns and galaxies littering
points of light we call stars.

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Our little planet turns.

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But to us earthlings it looks
like the stars are moving.

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Now wonder the ancients believed the Earth
was at the center of the universe even

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though they were aware that the sun and

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the planets didn\'t move
quite the way they should.

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If this were true then 450 years
ago the Polish astronomer

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Copernicus developed the
idea of a solar system

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with the planets including
a circling around the Sun.

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This new broader mental image explain
things better and allowed new insights

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With Copernicus\'s belief in their minds
people saw earth and sky in a different way.

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Eventually people had to
throw out centuries of

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scientific and religious doctrine that had
been based on an idea that was wrong.

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In a similar way the idea of the
ecosphere as a living entity

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Enlarges our awareness of
where we are and what we are.

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This new mental image allows us to study
and understand nature in a truer way.

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Thanks to Copernicus we\'ve
learned to think of

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the solar system as a whole of
which Earth is just one part.

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Now we must learn to think of Earth\'s ecosphere
as a whole of which ecosystems are apart.

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And then to see ourselves as
parts of those ecosystems.

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The ecosphere is like a layer cake with
organisms the nuts and raisins in the mix.

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The way to appreciate it is to mentally
slice it into three-dimensional chunks

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with air above lambda1 water below with

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organisms between the layers
living off solar energy.

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These chunks of the
ecosphere our ecosystem a

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lake a forest a watershed
amount and Meadow.

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The easiest way to visualize
an ecosystem is to think of

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a large aquarium altro area
like the glass pyramid.

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So the mutant Conservatory and Edmonton.

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Each of the pyramids is an ecosystem with
well-defined boundaries the glass walls

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Inside we have air water soil
and many species of plants.

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There are many more invisible
forms here to bacteria and

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other microorganisms in the soil and the
plant leaves just about everywhere.

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While the term Mariam seem
self-contained it really is not.

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It depends on artificial heating or cooling
to maintain the proper temperature.

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The air is constantly mixed with
air from outside exchanging gases.

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Water is added regularly so our mineral
and organic nutrients for the plants.

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So while this is an ecosystem
with well-defined boundaries

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It still depends very much on other
ecosystems which surrounded.

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In nature the boundaries between
ecosystems are not so clear cut.

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We have to imagine the transparent
walls with separate them.

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And we have to study the ways in which
ecosystems are connected to each other.

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Here are three beautiful chunks of the
ecosphere three interconnected ecosystems.

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We\'re looking at the shore of Lake
Athabasca in northwestern Saskatchewan.

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It\'s one of my favorite places on her

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One of the ecosystems is a
magnificent sand dune complex.

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Another is the William River and its
Valley which cuts across the sand dunes.

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The third ecosystem is
Lake Athabasca itself.

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The sand dunes began to form
over 8 thousand years ago is

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the last ice age ended leaving great
expanses of sand exposed to the wind.

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The dunes have been
restlessly moving ever since.

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The sand interacts with groundwater
with forests and lakes and with

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a sparse vegetation of hardy plants to form

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the intricate sand dune
patterns visible from the air.

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The unique appearance of the William river
results from its ecological relationships with

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the surrounding Sands about
half of the water in the river

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comes from the dunes which gather
rainfall and snow melt as groundwater.

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The rivers also choked by wind
blown sand from the Juan\'s.

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If we want to understand how
the river system works we

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have to look inside the system
and study its physiology

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The flowing water of the William
river carries a load of

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suspended sand grains which are
picked up where the current is

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fast and dropped where it slows

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the result is an ever changing
pattern of sandbars and channels.

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Deep places look dark because
of the greater depth of

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tea colored water and an
accumulation of organic matter.

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In these places in northern pike
lie in wait for smaller fish.

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Bit by bit the Rivest steadily
transports its burden

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of sand and organic matter and
northward to Lake Athabasca.

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The sand is deposited where the river
current is slowed by lake water

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It forms the fan-shaped delta which marks
the end of the William river ecosystem.

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Now the Lake Athabasca ecosystem
takes over crosscurrents and

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waves move the sand along the shore
creating broad sandbars and beaches.

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In periods of unusually low water
these deposits are exposed to

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when the blows the sand inland again
as part of the traveling dunes.

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Dunes River and Lake are all
connected ecologically.

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At the same time each has
distinct inner workings.

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Each has its own unique physiology

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When we relate a system such as
this leaf to the system that

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surrounds it the forest system
we\'re practicing ecology.

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And when we relate the parts of a system
to the system itself where practicing

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physiology it\'s a matter of looking
outside or of looking inside

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When we have the benefit of
both viewpoints it becomes

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clear that there is a continuity of
relationships throughout the ecosphere.

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And this has important implications
for the idea of life itself.

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In our usual way of looking at the
world there are important things like

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us living organisms surrounded
by non-living air soil water.

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What seemed to be less important we
appeared to inhabit a world that is dead.

00:20:17.450 --> 00:20:23.610
We perceive our surroundings much like
the larva of this Longhorn Beetle

00:20:32.740 --> 00:20:36.049
The beetle larva hatches
beneath the bark of

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a tree and spends as many
as four years chewing

00:20:38.900 --> 00:20:41.479
its way through the word
of the trunk and that

00:20:41.480 --> 00:20:45.484
time it gets to know it\'s
woody environment very well.

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A grub with human intelligence
would probably think that

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the center of the trunk is
composed of dead cells filled with

00:20:52.190 --> 00:20:56.659
Roslyn and hard to chew surrounding
this it finds a thick layer of

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light moist sapwood which is edible
but still shows no sign of life.

00:21:02.980 --> 00:21:07.249
The only place where the grub find
cells which it considers to be

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truly alive is in a thin
layer just beneath the bark.

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The cells are respiring and
dividing and expanding.

00:21:16.010 --> 00:21:19.699
There\'s no question that they are
alive but they still contain

00:21:19.700 --> 00:21:24.439
dead things starch grains
oil globules cell walls.

00:21:24.440 --> 00:21:29.700
All in all the grubs tree trunk
environment seems mostly dead.

00:21:32.410 --> 00:21:37.264
After three or four years the
insect emerges as an adult

00:21:37.265 --> 00:21:42.034
leaves the tree trunk and enters a
world that it has never known before.

00:21:42.035 --> 00:21:48.334
What does it make if the tree now
green leaves and growing branches.

00:21:48.335 --> 00:21:51.454
Photosynthesis respiration.

00:21:51.455 --> 00:21:56.029
Suddenly that massive mostly
dead woody cells is alive.

00:21:56.030 --> 00:22:00.379
How can this be well the
beetle grubs spent most of

00:22:00.380 --> 00:22:05.869
its life on the inside in the dark about
the true nature of its environment.

00:22:05.870 --> 00:22:10.669
What a difference the view from outside
mix in the perception of what is dead

00:22:10.670 --> 00:22:14.929
And what is alive from
inside the trees seem to be

00:22:14.930 --> 00:22:18.439
a dead environment from outside it is

00:22:18.440 --> 00:22:23.400
obviously a living system connected
to other living systems.

00:22:24.100 --> 00:22:27.544
It\'s been the same for people on earth.

00:22:27.545 --> 00:22:31.519
As long as we only knew about
our immediate environment.

00:22:31.520 --> 00:22:36.210
It seemed that Earth was made up
mostly of dead bits and pieces.

00:22:38.410 --> 00:22:43.219
But now that we have seen it from space
we\'re beginning to understand that we

00:22:43.220 --> 00:22:48.179
are living within one unified system
that we now call the ecosphere

00:22:48.970 --> 00:22:55.320
And we\'re beginning to understand
that the entire ecosphere is alive.

00:22:57.610 --> 00:23:00.979
The ecosphere has
properties which could not

00:23:00.980 --> 00:23:04.399
exist in a purely chemical
and physical system.

00:23:04.400 --> 00:23:08.179
And within this framework we
find an unbelievable variety

00:23:08.180 --> 00:23:11.689
of organisms fixing energy from sun growing

00:23:11.690 --> 00:23:19.504
reproducing and evolving the organizing force
which makes all this possible is life.

00:23:19.505 --> 00:23:23.554
Until very recently we believed
that life was a property of

00:23:23.555 --> 00:23:29.580
organisms even though we knew that they would
die without support from their environment

00:23:32.230 --> 00:23:36.109
Now logic tells us that life whatever

00:23:36.110 --> 00:23:40.129
that magical essence may be is a
property of the ecosphere and

00:23:40.130 --> 00:23:44.299
not just an organism\'s life exists as

00:23:44.300 --> 00:23:49.219
much in the improbable layer rocks
and water as it does in organisms.

00:23:49.220 --> 00:23:53.640
All our components of one living ecosphere.

00:24:02.140 --> 00:24:08.299
Until we saw our home place
from space view was a

00:24:08.300 --> 00:24:13.729
short sighted is the salmon and its stream
the would-be Laura and its tree trunk.

00:24:13.730 --> 00:24:17.479
Well the ground squirrel
and it\'s isolated meadow.

00:24:17.480 --> 00:24:22.399
On this limited Foundation we have
built human civilizations that

00:24:22.400 --> 00:24:28.110
value the wrong things and
ignore the essentials.

00:24:30.490 --> 00:24:33.739
Now we know where we are.

00:24:33.740 --> 00:24:37.519
Now we know the importance
of what surrounds us.

00:24:37.520 --> 00:24:44.839
Now we know that the ecosphere is the source
of creativity of evolution of life itself.

00:24:44.840 --> 00:24:48.888
This understanding opens the
way to solving the so-called

00:24:48.889 --> 00:24:52.639
environmental problems
which we have created.

00:24:52.640 --> 00:24:57.049
They\'re not problems of the
earth their problems of people.

00:24:57.050 --> 00:25:01.639
When it comes to basics I\'m not part
of the ground squirrels environment.

00:25:01.640 --> 00:25:03.349
Nor is she part of mine.

00:25:03.350 --> 00:25:08.764
Were both small cooperative parts
of one magnificent Living Earth.

00:25:08.765 --> 00:25:11.764
We share the same home place.

00:25:11.765 --> 00:25:16.050
We must tend it compliant Lee. Together

00:25:30.460 --> 00:25:32.760
Okay