Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Friday 17 February 2017
Epic ‘Planet Earth II’ offers

creatures’-eye view of nature

In this Thursday, May 17, 2012 lowed close-ups of elusive covered in sticky seeds.
file photo, British television snow leopards and grizzly “In certain situations, where
personality Sir David Atten- bears. you can see very little ben-
borough stands with a floral The result is a show that efit of that bird dying, apart
sculpture of himself at Kew gets viewers closer to the from maybe a bit of fertil-
Gardens in London.
Associated Press animals than ever before izer for the tree, it feels fair
— and more emotionally enough to help the animal
JILL LAWLESS involved. Broadcast in Brit- out of a sticky situation,”
Associated Press ain in the fall, “Planet Earth Hugh-Jones said.
LONDON (AP) — From jun- II” has been sold around It’s not just technology
gles to deserts to moun- the world and starts airing but the planet that has
tains, the BBC’s epic na- this week in Canada and changed in the decade
ture series “Planet Earth II” Australia. since the first “Planet Earth.”
takes viewers around the Attenborough says in the For one thing, a majority of
world — and around many past, program-makers felt the world’s population now
genres of television. “we weren’t giving the lives in cities.
The fortitude of a penguin viewers the climax that Alongside episodes ex-
family tugs heartstrings like they wanted” if a predator ploring islands, mountains,
a love story. The snail’s- failed to catch their prey. In jungles, deserts and grass-
pace courtship of a three- real life, he said, “the failure lands, “Planet Earth II” de-
toed sloth is soothing com- is more common and more votes one episode to ur-
fort TV. And a life-or-death significant than the catch- ban wildlife — including
contest between baby ing. ... Lions fail about eight Mumbai’s leopards, Man-
iguanas and writhing racer times out of 10.” hattan’s peregrine falcons
snakes is heart-in-mouth Nowadays, producers un- and the pesky raccoons of
action thriller. derstand that viewers of- Toronto.
The seven-part series, ten want to cheer for the Climate change is also re-
which begins in the U.S. on underdog. When “Planet shaping the globe and cre-
Saturday with a simulcast Earth II” aired in Britain, mil- ating new dangers. It wor-
on BBC America, AMC and lions watched, caught be- ries Attenborough, who has
SundanceTV, is a spectac- tween horror and hope, as been exploring the beauty
ular demonstration of how newly hatched baby igua- of the natural world for nine
far nature programs have nas tried to make it across a decades.
come. And no one has Galapagos beach without He admits he is not an op-
been more closely linked being devoured by hungry timist about the future of
to their evolution than racer snakes. the natural world.
David Attenborough, the Series producer Tom Hugh- “I don’t think the world is
90-year-old naturalist who Jones said he thinks a going to recover to what it
narrates “Planet Earth II.” growing number of female was like when I was a boy,”
Attenborough has been producers has added “a he said “But I am persuad-
making wildlife documen- lot more emotion” to wild- ed that we can ameliorate
taries for so long that, when life programs. things. We can prevent
asked about the biggest “They see different things, things getting worse than
technological change little looks or tender mo- they might be if we did
he’s seen, suggests “the ments,” he said. “The male nothing.”
shift from black-and-white producers tend to go for Attenborough thinks the
to color” before settling on the more bombastic stuff.” keys to that are cutting
the transformative power The crew, who spent more waste and getting far more
of digital photography. than 2,000 days filming in of our energy from renew-
Speaking to The Associ- 40 countries, also faced the able sources. He’s among
ated Press ahead of the fraught question of wheth- the scientists and educa-
show’s U.S. premiere, he er to intervene in life-and- tors behind the Global
said in the days of celluloid death situations. Apollo Program, aimed at
film, “I went for as long as 2 “We wouldn’t stop a pred- drastically cutting the cost
1/2 months without seeing ator from catching its prey, of carbon-free energy.
what I’d filmed.” because that’s the natu- Attenborough believes
A decade ago, the BBC’s ral cycle of things. And the plentiful and cheap green
original “Planet Earth” was predator needs to eat as energy is “just out there, just
the first nature series filmed much as the prey,” Hugh- beyond our reach. And all
in high definition. The new Jones said. we need to do is organize
series — shot in razor-sharp But crew members stepped scientific research to solve
ultra-HD — uses even more in to save a fledgling nod- the particular problems on
technological wizardry. dy bird that had become that roadmap.”q
Stabilizers and drones let
the cameras roam, cap-
turing creatures’-eye-views
of leaping lemurs and
fighting Komodo dragons.
Remote camera traps al-