Seven Wonders of Nature (New7Wonders)

Welcome to our second video in a new series focusing on the publicly voted on New 7 Wonders. Last week's video covered man-made wonders, while this video covers wonders that are created naturally. This was an internet poll that concluded in 2011, with over 100 million votes worldwide. So remember, people voted, which means you may disagree, and I didn't create this list, so don't get mad at me when your favorites aren't here. These are presented in no particular order, let's dive in. We begin with what's debatably the largest river in the world, the Amazon, which counts both the river itself and the rainforest. The river runs almost the entire width of South America, crossing through Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Brazil. I say it's debatably the longest because the true start and end points of the river are debated, which may or may not make it longer than the other contender, the Nile River. The rainforest that follows this river is known for its biodiversity, with 1 in 10 animal species living in that rainforest. For birds, it gets even crazier, with 1 in 5 species in the world living in that rainforest. This is also an incredibly deadly environment, including piranhas, anacondas, poison dart frogs, electric eels, and large mammals such as jaguars. This land has unfortunately been a victim of deforestation, with nearly 17% of the forest destroyed by 2018. We now visit Vietnam and Ha Long Bay. This bay is home to over 1600 islands, created by rising limestone from the water. Some islands are large and occupied with hotels and homes and tourism attractions. Other islands are small, and some are even hollow with intricate caves and grottos. The mythological origin story is that dragons were sent to assist the villagers against invading ships, so the dragons fit forth jade walls to protect the people. While there's 1600 islands, only about 40 have people living on them. Next up is Jeju Island in South Korea, housing the highest mountain in South Korea, an active volcano. The volcano erupted about 2 million years ago, creating the island as we know it, now flush with forests. In all of South Korea, this island is the only self-governing province, meaning it is run by the locals, not the larger South Korean government. Almost 700,000 people live on this island, with a native language that is also distinct from the rest of South Korea. The economy on this island is focused heavily on tourism, though many outside businesses buy up land and they build there, so it's also a negative factor for the locals that attempt to run their own businesses. We now head to South America, to the border of Brazil and Argentina, Iguazu Falls. This series of waterfalls is the largest waterfall system in the world, flowing through Brazil, but mostly falling into Argentina. There are tourist attractions on both sides of the border in which to witness the falls. To limit pollution, they focus now on using high-occupancy vehicles, including 72 passenger double-decker buses, to bring people in from remote parking. If this site looks familiar, it may be because it was used as a location before being digitally altered in 2018's Black Panther film. Now to the Philippines, to the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River, a river which enters a mountain range and includes a variety of underground caves and river channels. It's incredibly difficult to explore, so some areas are completely uncharted. The underground section is about 5 miles long and holds some of the largest cave rooms in the world. There's also a wide variety of animal life in and around the river, including many bats and pigs and my favorite animal in the world, the Binturong. Speaking of animals, let's head to our next site, Komodo Island in Indonesia. This is the primary habitat of the Komodo dragon. There are human inhabitants on the island, about 2,000 in total. Originally, tales of these dragons included fire-breathing and many other monster-like qualities, but Dutch explorers in the early 1900s found and studied them, deciding that they were a type of monitor, another large lizard. They were almost immediately declared a protected species given their unique and limited habitat. Their massive size is attributed to there being no other predators on these islands, only prey for them to feed on. Our last natural wonder is Table Mountain in South Africa, a massive table-like mountain that overlooks Cape Town. It's popular to either At the top of this range, there is substantial life, including massive vegetation and a variety of wildlife, making this location feel like a whole new world. And that's it for our natural wonders. The New 7 Wonders Foundation did a third voting campaign and it'll be next week's video, focusing on seven important cities, voted by the public for these cities' innovation and accomplishments. If it's been longer than a week, you'll see that video here. Otherwise, we'll see you next Wednesday. Thanks for watching!