Scientists from around the world are today telling us that we need to cut the emissions of greenhouse gases (mainly carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide) urgently and immediately if we are to avert a global warming of more than two degrees Celsius which would be catastrophic for life on the planet. The earth had the capacity to absorb these emissions (mostly from fuel emissions and land use changes in the last 50 years) but now we emit far beyond what the earth can clean — our oceans have already gotten warmer from absorbing these gases. The fossil fuel era, which has shaped modern society giving us jets, cars, shipping, skyscrapers, computers, etc, has come at a heavy cost to the earth’s fragile environment. To truly grasp how humans have altered the face of the earth in the last half-century or so when oil was first discovered, we need a bird’s eye view that goes beyond scientific statements and reports.

French film-maker,Yann Arthus Betrand, takes us on a stunning aerial voyage of the earth’s surface, seen from cameras hoisted upon small helicopters that buzz over cityscapes like the skyscraper dotted Shanghai and vehicle choked Lagos and natural landscapes like the Amazon and Borneo rainforests, which are being cut down to make way for cattle ranches and palm oil plantations.

Yann happened to be in Pakistan last month and the French Embassy in Islamabad organised a special screening of his film Home at the Pakistan National Council of Arts. Home took viewers on a spectacular journey around the world, spanning 54 countries, allowing one the opportunity to see for oneself how humans are changing the earth through mining, deforestation, urbanisation, increasing meat consumption, over use of water, and carbon emissions that are melting our polar caps and glaciers and acidifying our oceans. Unsustainable cities like Dubai are rising from the deserts, using excessive amounts of fossil fuel energy to produce water that enables them to thrive — for now at least. But is this kind of wasteful development, where golf courses are made on desert sands and artificial islands on reclaimed coastal land, the right model to follow on a planet that has finite resources?

“About 19 billion barrels of petrol are used every day around the world. We have to use less energy. This type of growth is not good! The economy is out of control — we need a spiritual revolution, we have to change ourselves,” said Yann after the screening of the film to a packed audience. A youthful looking man probably in his mid-60s, he exuded positive energy although he must have been exhausted after a few weeks spent filming up in Skardu, Hunza and the Shimshal Valley in Pakistan’s north (where he is working on a new film called Human due to be released in September 2015).

As the invitation to the event pointed out: “Home is a compelling emotional reminder of what is at stake: the Earth, in all its beauty, and the people who live on it.” Released in 2009, Home was the first major film about climate change and soon after it was screened in cinemas around the world it was made available on the Internet where it can be downloaded for free for everyone to view. “Home was made three years ago and now the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change comprising scientists from around the world) is telling us that the situation is worse than I thought. The melting of ice (in the polar caps) is worse than expected!” Today the science of climate change is clear and really the debate on whether mankind has caused changes to our climate systems is now over. As Yann pointed out, “We need action … we consume too much, we have to learn to live with less.”

One of the more compelling images in the film is an aerial shot of Shanghai’s port, with millions of containers waiting to be transported onto large ships that will take Chinese manufactured items to ports around the world. After all, elites around the world need their brand new iPhones, Macbooks, flat screen TVs and so on. Sadly, all this exploitation of the Earth’s resources is not even equitable — 20 per cent of the world’s population (mostly in the West) consumes more than 80pc of the earth’s resources and the divide between rich and poor is becoming bigger. For countries that are catching up with the West like China, yet even more minerals, coal and petrol will be needed. Yann stated that “It was too late to be pessimistic” but that he didn’t know the solution either. “I love life — I’m an ecologist. I love trees, animals, I love you all!” he smiled at the audience.

His new film, Human is an attempt to reach out to humanity, whether they live in war-torn Syria or post-genocide Rwanda, to ask a few basic questions about how to forgive, how to survive and what happiness is. “This film is all about love,” he explained. There are seven billion of us on the planet and Yann wants us to feel inter-connected and have empathy for each other whether we are yak herders in Shimshal or survivors of war in Iraq. Having followed the global negotiations on climate change in Copenhagen and Cancun, where nothing much happened, he has decided to go out of conference rooms and reach out to people themselves, to spread the word that we need a revolution, a way of growth that does not harm our planet — our only home.