This river is legally a “person”

BBC Earth Podcast

Jenkins Laura

Society & Culture, Places & Travel, Tv & Film

4.6 • 611 Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2019

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode of the BBC Earth Podcast, we’re getting glimpses into brave new worlds, advancing into unfamiliar territories and breaking new ground. We’re pushing at the frontiers between us and the natural world.

In New Zealand there is a river so integral to the history of the Maori people, it has just been granted "personhood". It has been a fight fought for 140 years but finally, this giver of life and symbol of rich history has the same legal rights as the human beings that love it so much. This week we reveal stories of discovery from tiny tales of moss to the unexplored and vast ocean floor. We listen to James, a rhino keeper who talks about the plight of a species which is "functionally extinct": the Northern White Rhino. There are only two left in the world but conservation scientists have hope; using Southern White Rhinos as surrogates, the scientists are taking on a pioneering mission to bring the species to term.

Make sure you're subscribed so you never miss an episode and let us know what you thought of this week's episode on social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bbcearth/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bbcearth/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/bbcearth

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is a podcast from BBC Studios.
0:03.8	BBC Studios.
0:05.9	A commercial subsidiary of the BBC.
0:13.1	When you look at mosses, it is like there's a little tiny forest right at your fingertips,
0:23.6	a forest designed to harness the world's energies at the scale of a raindrop.
0:29.6	This glistening, emerald green world where every little leaf is exquisitely shaped to interact with water, to catch water,
0:41.9	and hold water.
0:44.8	Today on the BBC Earth's podcast, we're getting glimpses into brave new worlds, advancing into
0:51.9	unfamiliar territory and breaking new ground.
0:55.6	We're pushing at the frontiers between us and the natural world.
1:02.3	I'm Emily Knight, and in this first story, we're entering a world that's existed long before we were here,
1:08.1	and persists quietly and unobtrusively right under our noses.
1:14.6	My name is Robin Wall Kimmer. I am a professor of plant ecology at the SUNY College of
1:21.6	Environmental Science and Forestry. And I am a member of the citizen Potawatomi Nation
1:27.4	and director of the Center for Native Peoples in the Environment.
1:31.7	Robin is our guide into the world of moss.
1:34.5	A world of color and texture,
1:37.3	all guided by the play of light on the leaves.
1:41.4	It's a habitat at once familiar and completely alien.
1:45.0	Soft as felt, shiny, ribbons dark and woolly and a little bit wiry.
1:53.0	I like to say, brio-arithrophilum, racurvorostum,
1:57.0	Phicidens Grandafrons, Tetrophyspalusida.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jenkins Laura, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Jenkins Laura and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.