Lost Worlds: Life in the Balance Page #4

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Experts still debate what happened to

this metropolis of kings and priests,

warriors and farmers...

where the rare black jaguar,

sacred to the Mayans,

can sometimes be seen at dawn.

New studies suggest that,

if we could imagine Tikal as it was,

we might see that

its expanding population

had stripped away the forest

for miles around...

exhausted the soil, water,

and food supply...

with famine, warfare...

and collapse not far behind.

Over a thousand years,

the forest has returned...

but the high civilization

of the Mayans is no more.

Did the people of Tikal

lose their life-support system...

without ever understanding it?

Surrounded by the marvels

of a modern city,

we believe we are masters

of our destiny.

But everything in our homes, everything

that keeps us alive, comes from nature.

A hundred years ago,

the people of New York

had the foresight to preserve

a critical part

of its life-support system...

the mountain forests and soil

that clean its drinking water.

Thirty years ago, the marine ecosystem

off the California coast

began to restore itself...

because we had the wisdom

to protect the sea otter.

When we protect nature,

we protect ourselves.

After more than a week on Roraima,

soaked by the rain,

we've flown to another tepuy for

a few days work on its summit

We'll be on our way home soon...

But in a sense, this is our home.

The air is fresh...

and the waters flow endlessly.

These places give us life...

and remind us that we are just

a small part of nature.

Could frogs be

a kind of bellweather

for the health of the planet?

If so, things are okay up here.

Will it stay this way?

I'd like to think that

places like this

to be here for my children.

Maybe our work here will help us to

understand the world we have...

and the world we have to lose.

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