Inspired, perhaps, by the international success of David Attenborough's
highly influential Life on Earth (BBC, 1979), Fragile Earth brought a fresh, new
perspective to traditional nature/wildlife documentaries. Avoiding the
conventional descriptive approach, the programme instead focused on an
elucidatory form for how plant and animal life interrelates and develops within
the environment.
The series covered a wide range of habitats, from the lush Central American
rain forest to the harsh Kalahari desert. As championed by the series' original
producer, Michael Rosenberg, its simple and direct philosophy was to show a
world that was intricate and beautiful but easy to destroy. What was made
unequivocally obvious was that these programmes informed and reflected a deep
understanding of and a real concern with the rapidly escalating threats to the
earth's fragile skin of life.
From its early days, Fragile Earth was among the first to draw attention on
the threats to the great rain forests, with 'Korup - An African Rain Forest'
(tx. 11/11/1982) and 'Selva Verde - Central American Rainforest' (tx.
19/11/1983). Both programmes were filmed by Phil Agland; the former
featured an extraordinarily wide range of wildlife in the virgin forests of
South-West Cameroon, while the latter (a sequel to 'Korup') explored the ties
which link predators and their prey to a larger organism, the rainforest itself.
Hovering over this fascinating study of the interdependence of animals and
plants and their environment was the doom-laden message that these environments
are also the most endangered on earth (due to deforestation) and bring us all
nearer to catastrophic changes in world climate.
Apart from the warning about these consequences, as Rosenberg observed, the
series did not aim to carry a message but simply showed how the various
ecological systems work. At the same time it managed to project a remarkable
combination of sensitivity and vision with consummate technical skill and
imagination.
Considered as a whole (grasping the complexities as well as the pleasures),
Fragile Earth may be seen as a series of key documents and evaluations not just
about our environment but also about our very existence. The programme awakened
our wonder at the continuous creativity of our fragile planet, while forcing us
to confront the implications of the extermination of species on a scale
equivalent to a genocide of nature.
Tise Vahimagi
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