Announcer: (singing) mtv.
Narrator: In the 1960s, for the first time in history,
Manned space flight becomes a reality.
It inspires people around the world
And forever changes the way we view our planet.
We get a startling new perspective.
Boundaries that separate countries disappear,
And the air that surrounds us flows uninterrupted over land
And sea.
Earth has an invisible feature that sets it apart from almost
All other heavenly bodies--
An atmosphere that makes life possible.
It's a mix of gases, mostly nitrogen, then oxygen, argon,
Co2, methane, and water vapor, a balance
That's existed for longer than we're able to calculate.
And then humans arrive on the scene.
Full of curiosity and hard-wired ingenuity, our ancestors
Discover fire.
Fire creates new sources of food and allows
Us to settle the northern regions of our planet.
At this moment, humans gain the ability
To alter the air in our atmosphere,
And we've never stopped.
This is the era some call the age of humans,
A period in earth's history where people are
The dominant force, reshaping earth, sea, and sky,
The air that gives us life.
[majestic music]
Humanity's need for energy is what has most affected
The air on planet earth.
Pollution and chemical changes caused by our need for fuel
Are the biggest causes of climate change.
This is iceland, a country that's witnessing the effects
Of a warming planet firsthand.
In the summer of 2019, they mark the death of a glacier.
Within just 130 years, ice that was once more
Than 400 feet thick melted.
It's a fate that may await many more glaciers in the future.
The world's ice sheets are losing
An astonishing 125 billion tons of mass every year.
[somber music]
At the goddard space flight center in washington, dc,
Nasa scientists are monitoring the glaciers
And can tell exactly where the mountains of ice
Are most affected.
What we see here are these bubbles popping
Up as we move across the globe.
And these bubbles are indicating each individual glacier
From the himalaya through alaska,
And then we're going to move to south america.
And underlying these glaciers-- we're
Going to show a map here-- in these particular regions,
We're getting a lot of blue.
And that blue color is indicating
That these glaciers are melting, and
They're losing mass over time.
And as we move to alaska, we'll see an even darker purple.
And that purple is really indicating
A strong amount of mass loss.
Narrator: Glaciers are like thermometers
That indicate the health of the world's climate.
Since 1850, they've been steadily receding.
In iceland alone, 28 out of 34 glaciers
Have shrunk by thousands of feet.
Some people believe this is due to natural causes,
Such as volcanic activity, which is widespread in iceland.
The thrihnukagigur volcano, for example,
Has been dormant for 4,000 years.
It provides a unique glimpse into a magma
Chamber almost 400 feet deep.
Despite the impressive dimensions of volcanoes,
Their contribution to worldwide co2 emissions
Is small, responsible for only 1% of greenhouse
Gases in the atmosphere.
Yet today, we have more co2 in our air
Than in the last 3 million years.
[birds chirping]
[water rushing]
Many of us think of modern industry
As the main cause of changes to our air,
And it is by far the biggest factor.
But humans were changing the air long
Before the existence of factories
And the combustion engine.
For more than 5,000 years, the chinese have
Worked their land to grow rice.
It's one of the most important agricultural crops in the world
And the main source of nutrition for half
The population of the planet.
China is its biggest producer.
[majestic music]
Rice can be farmed in different ways.
Wet cultivation is the most common,
Done by flooding paddy fields.
Given the right conditions, heat, and humidity,
This method can yield three harvests a year,
But it takes a tremendous amount of water.
Each pound of rice takes about 500 gallons of water to grow.
The upside is increased food production.
The downside is that wet farming produces gases.
Permanent flooding of the soil creates an environment almost
Free of oxygen, feeding anaerobic, single-celled
Organisms that create methane.
Wet rice farming is responsible for 17% of all
The methane in our atmosphere.
Though carbon dioxide is considered the most destructive
Man-made greenhouse gas, methane is more potent because of how
Effectively it absorbs heat.
In fact, its effect on global warming
Is 25 times greater than co2.
[tense music]
As human civilizations evolve around the world,
They create new ways to impact the atmosphere.
2,000 years ago in ancient rome, glass production
Is a flourishing industry, requiring
Huge quantities of firewood.
The ovens churn out enough smoke to create what the locals call
Gravioris caeli, latin for the overcast sky that
Shrouds the city.
Eventually, the emperor expels the glassblowers
From the capital.
By then, the forests around rome have been largely chopped down,
And a new fuel is on the horizon.
Coal is created when organic material like trees and plants
Decompose at the bottom of lakes or swamps
In the absence of air.
Geological processes compress the material,
And, over millions of years, it becomes
Buried by layers of earth or marine sediment,
Eventually becoming coal.
The first people to use coal are the chinese about 5,000 years
Ago, and then the rest of the world
Discovers it, mostly for use in homes.
By the mid-1500s in europe, it's first mined for industrial use.
Extracting coal may be hard work,
But it becomes highly lucrative.
Coal is much denser than wood.
It burns longer, hotter, and more evenly,
Although the ash and soot it creates are much dirtier.
As coal becomes popular, tens of thousands of people
Earn a living from coal mining, at first,
Using primitive methods.
Gradually, surface coal extraction
Gives way to mining at greater depths,
Since generally, the deeper the seam, the better the coal.
[speaking german]
Interpreter 1: To smelt ore, which usually is won by mining,
You need extremely high temperatures, which
Can only be achieved by burning coal,
Which has to be mined, too.
That's why coal mining, which started
In the 12th and 13th centuries, until it was carried out
On a grand scale at the end of the 18th century,
Is of immeasurable importance for the development
Of the age of humans.
That's when the world started to change in earnest.
[speaking german]
Narrator: Lignite is a rock that's
Also known as brown coal.
It's almost exclusively extracted in pit mines
And is performed by some of the biggest machines in the world.
90% of brown coal is used in power stations
To create electricity.
Worldwide, humans extract approximately 8 million tons
Of coal and lignite each year.
These resources will last for several more centuries,
But they come with a cost.
Mining doesn't just scar the earth.
Emissions from burning coal have already been changing the air
For well over a century.
[whimsical music]
It's 1870.
London is the biggest city in the world, and it runs on coal.
3 and 1/2 million fires burn day and night
In factories and private homes.
For families that heat their houses with coal,
Their chimneys need cleaning.
We've come to sweep your chimney, sir.
Man: In you come.
Narrator: Accumulations of soot are dangerous.
They can burn and start accidental fires.
As chimneys are too small for adults to climb through,
Male children known as chimney boys are put to work.
Chimney sweep: Get in there, and up you go.
Narrator: Usually, they're orphans or children who have
Been sold by their parents.
No attention is paid to the soot these boys
Breathe into their lungs.
Many suffer serious health problems
And die at an early age.
The exploitation of chimney boys is finally
Outlawed at the end of the 19th century,
But the tragedies don't end there.
[ominous music]
It's 1952 in london, and the air is
Choked in soot from coal fires.
A dangerous weather anomaly forms when pollution joins
With fog to form a noxious blanket that covers
The city for several days.
It becomes known as the great smog,
Causing respiratory infections and thousands of deaths.
Today, coal heating has been banned
In many major cities like london,
But it's still widely used around the world.
8 billion tons of coal are still mined every year
Around the world, primarily in china, followed
By india and the united states.
Coal-fired power stations produce about 40%
Of the world's electricity, supplying more
Than 12,000 power stations.
One of the most serious problems of burning coal
Is that it produces carbon dioxide, the most
Dangerous and prevalent of the greenhouse gases
And one of the main causes of global warming.
The scale of the problem is the hardest
Thing for people to grasp.
At the moment, we're putting 50 gigatons of co2
Into the atmosphere every year.
Now, what would it take to get just 1/10 of that
Out, say, five gigatons out of the atmosphere?
To do that, we'd have to plant the lower 48 states of the usa
In forest, the whole thing, and have it growing vigorously
For a century to get, on average,
Around five gigatons of co2 out of the atmosphere
By planting trees.
So you can see the scalability problem, which, it's just--
It is immense.
[peaceful music]
[water rushing]
Narrator: Around the world, all kinds of efforts
Are underway to remove carbon dioxide from the air.
One pilot project in iceland is turning co2 to stone, drawing
Inspiration from nature itself.
Under certain conditions, co2 becomes
A mineral called carbonate.
As a natural process, this takes thousands of years.
But this group has created technology that imitates
And accelerates natural processes
And literally turns co2 into stone in less than two years.
These rocks, called basalt, they
Contain high amount of calcium, magnesium, and iron.
And when water, which we capture co2 in,
Comes into contact with this rock formation,
It actually dissolves, releasing the calcium, magnesium,
And iron into the water face, where these chemicals can meet
Up with the dissolved co2, and a new mineral
Is formed, called carbonate.
Narrator: The work here is energy-intensive and therefore
Linked to a geothermal power plant,
Since the process to transform greenhouse gases only
Makes sense if it uses clean energy.
It's promising new technology, but it's not enough.
All around the world, corporations
Can buy the right to emit certain quantities of co2,
A program that has plenty of critics.
In this world, money is what speaks,
And we need to make the polluters pay
For the damage they're doing.
We know that we can extract carbon out of the atmosphere
For a cost of about $100 a ton.
And we know that, in 10 to 20 years,
We'll be doing our utmost to do that,
And we'll be paying that cost.
So how is it that today, we can let people put that pollution
Into the atmosphere for free?
Narrator: Other efforts are also looking
To nature for solutions, but without high-tech processes.
In china, deserts are expanding as forests were cut
Down aggressively over decades.
All that ended in 1978 and was replaced
By an unprecedented reforestation program.
So far, an astonishing 60 billion
Trees have been planted.
[stately music]
Workers place brush in the sand to form
Windbreaks that prevent young trees
From being buried under sand.
The goal is to recreate a forest as big as germany
By the year 2050, forming a green wall
To hold back the gobi desert.
The great green wall of china is keeping the sand in place,
And, as the forest grows, it will also help filter co2.
Elsewhere, in milan, Italy, the bosco
Verticale, or vertical forest, is an example
Of green architecture.
Though there aren't enough trees here to filter the air,
They are a stunning reminder of our relationship
To the natural world.
For centuries, humans have wanted
To know what's in our air.
Joseph priestley was an englishman known as the man who
Discovered oxygen. In the 17th century,
He's running experiments to find out
How objects and living things behave in the absence of air.
He discovers that, without air, candles
No longer burn and animals die.
But when he introduces plants into the experiment,
The candle burns and the mouse lives.
He concludes that plants refresh the air, the process we
Know today as photosynthesis.
Photosynthesis occurs when plants, with the help of light,
Water, and carbon dioxide, produce glucose that
Releases oxygen into the air.
These days, co2 is usually talked
About for the harmful role it plays in climate change.
But the gas is critical for life on earth
And essential for plant growth.
In fact, when carbon dioxide levels increase,
Plants actually grow faster, as if being fertilized.
It's a phenomenon known as the co2 fertilization effect,
And in the netherlands, they're putting it to work.
Here, massive greenhouses cover more than 19
Square miles, growing everything from flowers
To fruit and vegetables.
Inside these carefully controlled environments,
Crops can produce 10 times more than what
Farmers get in regular fields.
At this sweet pepper plantation, they use co2 emissions
From nearby factories to accelerate
The growth of their plants.
Roos varekamp: [speaking dutch]
Interpreter 2: All along these hoses,
There are tiny holes through which the co2 may pass out.
It then slowly rises among the plants,
So they have ample time to absorb it.
[speaking dutch]
Narrator: Since plants store and use carbon dioxide,
Trees play a big part in the story of co2.
But here, too, humans are using up natural resources
At an unprecedented rate and, in some cases,
Actually burning them down to use the land.
In the summer of 2019, more than 70,000 fires
Are burning in the amazon basin, destroying more
Than a million acres of forest.
Most of them are intentionally started to make room, not
For people, but for livestock.
[tense music]
[speaking german]
Interpreter 1: If we burn down forests on a large scale,
This not only increases the amount
Of co2 in the atmosphere.
We also destroy the reservoirs where
Carbon dioxide can be stored.
By practicing deforestation, we influence the climate,
And many of our other activities also
Have an effect, both on the biosphere and the geosphere.
[speaking german]
Narrator: Large-scale cattle farming
Is another significant cause of greenhouse gases.
Around the world, about 1 and 1/2 billion cattle
Are raised for food, with devastating
Consequences to the air.
Today, 15% of greenhouse gases originate from
Large-scale livestock farming.
In the australian outback, the animals number
In the tens, sometimes hundreds, of thousands.
Mega ranches like this one help satisfy
The worldwide hunger for beef.
And here, the concern isn't co2.
It's methane.
The digestive tracts of cows emit methane,
Far more than is created on chinese rice paddies.
A single cow produces about as much
Greenhouse gas in one year as a car
Driven more than 11,000 miles.
In fact, if cows were their own country,
They'd be the third largest greenhouse
Gas emitter in the world.
Eating less beef would certainly help clear the air,
But is the human race willing to make that change?
[cows lowing]
[dramatic music]
Since 1950, worldwide consumption of meat
Has increased sixfold, and methane emissions
Have increased as well.
But now that humans realize the cost,
That statistic may be changing.
[speaking german]
Interpreter 1: The less meat we consume, the less we contribute
To climate change, the less gases are emitted
Into the atmosphere, and the less land has to be
Cleared for forage production.
Narrator: Americans are the biggest meat eaters
On the planet, consuming about 265 pounds per person
Each year.
Next in line are south americans,
Europeans, and chinese.
Meat consumption is lowest in africa.
But even in the united states, attitudes
Are changing in the face of global warming,
Especially with young people.
And chefs are happy to oblige.
I think we've gone slightly off the direction
That we should be going in terms of food.
I think that we've done things on an industrial scale
Because that was easier and cheaper, but not necessarily
Better for the environment.
Narrator: Today's meatless burgers are the result
Of many years of research.
This may look like ground beef, but it is in fact
A blend of pure plant products.
Its taste and texture are intended
To resemble meat in every way.
After all, these burgers don't need to convince
Vegetarians, but meat lovers.
And it seems to be working.
Between 2018 and 2019, sales of vegetarian burgers
Alone increased by an incredible 268% in the united states.
If the trend continues, it could be good news for our atmosphere
And life on earth.
[ominous music]
While cattle ranches do their share of damage to the air,
It's fossil fuels that are doing far
More, using coal, natural gas, and, of course, oil.
Each year, more than 4 billion tons of crude oil
Are produced around the world.
[liquid pouring]
In the mid-19th century, an american chemist named benjamin
Silliman distills a substance from crude oil
That will change the world--
Petroleum.
In fact, the so-called "black gold" is nothing new.
Native american indians from the seneca tribe traded oil
That oozed out of the ground naturally--
Excellent.
Narrator: --While european settlers used it predominantly
As ointment or grease.
Silliman's discovery attracts investors.
Gentlemen, I'm honored to see you.
Narrator: A new york lawyer hears that petroleum
Can be used in lamps.
Actor as benjamin silliman: This will be one of your greatest
Opportunities ever.
Narrator: Up to this point, lamps
Are fueled by whale oil, a commodity that even
Back then is becoming scarce.
The oil rush in america begins in 1859 with the pennsylvania
Rock oil company, which commissions
An adventurous character named edwin drake to track
Down indian sources of oil.
Seneca man: Try it.
Narrator: No one could possibly have imagined the process
This sets in motion.
All right.
Where's it from?
Follow the way.
Narrator: Drake is directed to the northwestern
Corner of pennsylvania.
[wagon clattering]
At that time, nobody knows exactly how to extract
Large quantities of oil.
Determined to get at the source, drake starts digging.
[pick-axe impacts]
[heavy breathing]
It's painful work.
In the end, he does find oil, but it's not much.
[laughs]
Narrator: Drake realizes that he must dig deeper
And eventually tries a drilling tower that allows a steel pipe
To be forced into the ground.
Tension!
Narrator: On August 27, 1859, he hits the jackpot, a reserve
Of oil about 70 feet down that can produce
400 gallons of crude a day.
It's the beginning of oil fever.
[ominous music]
The new fuel, which is rich in energy and comparatively cheap,
Spreads around the world and has been in continuous use
Since then.
But of course, it comes at a cost.
Oil harms the environment, not only when it's burned,
But when gasoline and diesel are distilled from it.
Cars above all are responsible for what scientists call
The great acceleration, the dramatic surge
In human activities since the 1950s
And their impacts on the earth.
One of the key developments we see, of course,
Is the emission of carbon dioxide
To the atmosphere as the most important gas
That is warming the climate.
And that, for much of the preceding 10,000 years,
Was around 280 parts per million, which
Is a unit we use to measure it.
And by mid-20th century, it had only
Crept up to about 300 or 310.
But after 1950, it's gone from 310 or so all the way up
To about 405.
So that's a key parameter that was slowly changing
And then went up.
Narrator: In the year 2009, more than a billion cars
Are on the road worldwide.
By 2025, that figure could reach 2 billion.
The vast majority are private cars.
Once again, the united states leads the pack
With the most cars of any country,
Perhaps due in part to another american invention that makes
Car engines run more smoothly without knocking,
Tetraethyl lead, or tel.
When it was introduced in 1923, the press
Reported that several people had died of lead poisoning
During its development.
Chemical engineer thomas midgley tries damage control
With an impressive pr stunt.
Actor as thomas midgley: Tetraethyl.
[gasps]
[shutter clicks]
Narrator: On October 30, 1924, he performs a demonstration
And tells the press that even daily contact with tel
Is completely safe.
And my hands, as you see, stay absolutely clean and pure.
Any more questions?
Narrator: Midgley himself eventually become
Sick from lead poisoning.
And yet, leaded gas becomes the worldwide standard
For the next 50 years.
Co2 emissions are increasing every year.
The us is responsible for 15% and south america, 6%.
Europe accounts for 10%,
Africa 4%, and russia 5%.
China emits the most at 28%, mostly because it's
The largest producer of consumer goods
For the rest of the world.
As we consume earth's natural resources,
We're effectively transforming geological time
Into human time, using up reserves that took
Millions of years to create.
And with the help of science and technology,
We're moving faster and faster, consuming more
And more at breathtaking speed.
What happens when we don't give earth time to replenish itself?
It's one of the biggest questions of the age of humans.
[peaceful music]
Air knows no country, borders, or boundaries.
We all share each other's pollution in one atmosphere.
Nasa scientists at the goddard space flight center
Track the air quality of planet earth.
What we see here is air pollution across the globe,
And we see the different sources of air pollution
And how they're being transported across the globe.
And in white, we see this is mostly
Man-made, anthropogenic emissions that cause pollution,
And we see a lot of that, especially here over in china.
Air pollution is a truly global problem.
It gets emitted locally, but then it can be transported
Across the ocean, and it can reach
Places far away from where it actually originated.
We know that there are approximately 8 million
Deaths per year that is directly attributable to air pollution.
That's one out of nine deaths every year.
Narrator: Changes to our atmosphere affect
Not just the air we breathe--
They're impacting our weather, too.
As the world gets warmer, storms are becoming
More damaging and more deadly.
[dramatic music]
Cyclone formation is increasing, especially in the north
Atlantic, and catastrophic storms are happening with more
Frequency now than they did just 50 years ago, causing damage
In the billions of dollars.
In the winter of 2019, it seems that all of australia
Is on fire.
After an unusually dry winter, bushfires rage up and down
The eastern coast of the country,
Destroying almost 3,000 homes.
It kills dozens of people and more than a billion animals.
Though the full causes of the disaster aren't yet known,
It's no longer possible to dismiss the effect of climate
Change on events like this.
Today's technology gives us the ability
To predict and track weather better than it
Did for previous generations.
But even our best inventions can't save
Us from cataclysmic events.
And according to scientists worldwide,
It's only going to get worse.
Tim winton: My ancestors and yours did, to a great extent,
Live at the mercy of nature.
The weather was the chief impact on their life.
The great irony is that our effect on nature
Is now to the degree that we determine the weather.
But of course, that means that we are now more subject
And, in the future, will be more subject to the weather
And more subject to the vagaries of nature
Than our ancestors were.
[soaring music]
Narrator: Finding alternatives to fossil fuels will help.
In the middle of the last century,
It appeared that nuclear energy might
Provide the clean, cheap solution
That would save the world.
Nuclear fission has been used since 1954 to create
Electricity, and the russians built the world's
First nuclear reactor.
Russia has dozens of nuclear plants today,
But the world knows the most about just one, chernobyl.
[speaking russian]
Interpreter 1: At school, they told us
That a matchbox-sized piece of uranium
Can produce as much energy as a trainload of coal.
It was generally perceived as an intellectual, high-tech,
Trendy, elite occupation.
I had the impression that it was an honorable and top-notch job
To be a nuclear engineer.
[speaking russian]
Narrator: On April 26, 1986, a series of fateful events
Occurs.
A safety test is being performed at the chernobyl station.
Human error and technical faults combine
To create overheating that leads to an explosion in reactor
Block 4.
It's called an mca, the maximum credible
Accident, a nuclear disaster.
Everyone within a radius of 30 miles is evacuated.
400,000 people become homeless, and 31 people die.
Alexey breus: [speaking russian]
Interpreter 1: I guess the main outcome of chernobyl
For me is that it divided my life into before and after.
It changed my life dramatically.
Life is very fragile, and it's very easy to destroy it
All by pressing just one button if, behind that button,
There is a multitude of different man-made systems.
[speaking russian]
Narrator: Accidents like those at chernobyl
And the 2011 disaster in fukushima, japan
Have caused some countries to make
The decision that the risks of nuclear power
Are just too high.
[crows cawing]
[speaking german]
Interpreter 1: Today, we are at a crossroads
When it comes to nuclear energy.
Soon, the first countries, including germany,
Will have completely closed down their nuclear reactors.
Other countries will follow that example.
Narrator: In the year 2019, there are 444 nuclear reactors
Operating around the world, in the united states and europe,
And in russia, china, japan, and elsewhere.
Though the number of nuclear plants
Overall is expected to decline worldwide,
Not all scientists agree that closing them
Is a good idea, since they provide a clean source
Of almost unlimited energy.
Still, the risks remain, and nuclear waste
Disposal is another concern.
Waste that's low in radioactivity
Is safe for shallow burial, but dealing with high-level waste
Is complex and controversial.
One of the first deep repositories for nuclear waste
In europe is in a former salt mine near the german city
Of salzgitter.
Radioactive material will be stored here
At a depth of about 3,300 feet in specially
Constructed chambers.
By the year 2060, the chamber will be full
And then sealed permanently, toxic to plants and animals
For millions of years.
With every form of energy, we humans weigh the benefits
Against the dangers.
But today, it's clear our choices could
Have disastrous consequences.
America in the early 1900s.
Thomas midgley didn't just discover
A lead additive for gasoline.
He's also responsible for creating
Freon, the coolant that fuels air
Conditioners and refrigerators.
In 1930, he calls another press conference
To show that his new gas is safer than existing coolants
By inhaling it.
[sucking tube]
Midgley survives this presentation unharmed.
But once again, what seems like a success for the scientist
Comes with unforeseen consequences.
[speaking german]
Interpreter 1: Thomas midgley is a tragic figure in history in
So far as he made two ingenious inventions at the beginning
Of the 20th century which had an enormous impact
On the age of humans, and thus, on our environment.
We all know about leaded fuel, yet it is cfc, the gas which
Is responsible for the ozone hole, that
Had incredible consequences.
[speaking german]
Narrator: Freon is one of a few dozen chlorofluorocarbons,
Or cfcs for short.
They become widely used in aerosolized products
Until the mid-1970s, when scientists sound the alarm
That cfcs are destroying the ozone layer, which is
Crucial for life on our planet.
Earth's atmosphere is composed of several layers.
Just outside the troposphere lies the stratosphere,
And then the mesosphere furthest out.
The ozone layer is located here, between 9 and 18 miles
Above the earth's surface.
Ozone absorbs ultraviolet light called uvb that harms
Humans, crops, and marine life.
Industrialized nations finally prohibit the use of cfc gases
In 1989, and since then, the ozone layer has regenerated.
It's an example of scientists' warnings being taken seriously
And of the success we humans can have when we work together.
[waves lapping]
We still have stratospheric ozone.
The governments and the private sector
Should have listened earlier.
But in a relative scheme, it has become,
In my opinion, a reasonable success
Story of scientific evidence being used by governments
And by the private sector to solve
A global environmental issue.
[dramatic music]
Narrator: The sun and wind are also sources of energy that
Hold promise for the future.
Solar energy is transformed into electricity in two ways.
In solar thermal power stations, the light of the sun
Creates steam that drives turbines.
The other method is photovoltaic,
In which solar cells transform the energy of light
Directly into electricity.
The advantage is that it can be used
On a small scale on the roofs of houses
And individual developments.
In simple mathematical terms, the wind and sun can
Provide all the energy we need.
The abundance of natural energy that's
Coming to this earth is enormous, more
Than we could ever utilize in terms of solar
And wind and geothermal.
They're basically limitless resources.
So if we can build the technologies
That tap into them inexpensively,
We can change everything.
Narrator: Alternatives are certainly needed,
As the demand for electricity is increasing
Rapidly around the globe.
According to some estimates, the 27 largest cities
Consume almost 8% of the world's energy.
[soaring music]
And there's one more big energy hog that's a relative newcomer
On the scene--
The internet.
One study calculates that if the internet were a country,
It would be the sixth largest consumer
Of electricity in the world.
Every minute, 2 and 1/2 billion people are online,
And the demand is steadily increasing.
We need policies to stimulate a transition from fossil fuels
To renewable energy.
But we also need behavior change.
We need individuals, we need communities,
We need governments and the private sector
To recognize their current behavior
Is inconsistent with a more sustainable
World in the future.
So technology will play a key role,
But it's only one element of how we
Need to address these large, global-scale issues.
Narrator: How much change will people be willing to make?
We learned with cfcs that it's possible to undo some damage.
That's a success story from the age of humans.
What will the next one be?
From fossil fuels to nuclear power and alternative energies,
Will we choose wisely?
One thing's for sure--
The choices we make now will affect
Not just our own lives, but the lives of humanity to come.