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William: I've always loved nature.
-Oh, there. Here. -There you go.
Brilliant. Look at that.
But fatherhood has given me a new sense of purpose.
Now I've got george, charlotte, and now louie.
Your outlook does change.
You want to hand over to the next generation
the wildlife in a much better condition.
So two years ago...
Is that alright?
...A film crew joined me...
No worries -- quick bit of well-done footage
and a cup of tea, perfect.
...On my search for ways to protect the natural world.
Oh, look at that worm. Where did you find him?
You know, they don't like being in your hand 'cause of the heat.
Catherine: Do you all care about the environment?
Is this something you learn at school?
I've always believed it's possible
to give the young people hope...
Whoa.
...And belief that things can get fixed.
It's been quite a journey.
Amazing places...
We'd love to come here and show our children.
You can impress george with your geography knowledge.
Finally my geography chat is useful.
...Inspiring people.
A recognized face.
Good morning.
The children were very upset that we were coming to see you
and they weren't coming.
They're massive fans of yours.
Attenborough: Kids know an awful lot
about what's happening to the world.
It's very remarkable.
I don't want to have a sea empty of all these amazing animals.
William: There's been much to smile about...
If you lived in the bugingham palace, what bug would you be?
I would be the queen bee.
You'd be the queen bee, I'm sure.
-This is pacha. -Pacha. Hi, pacha.
You look like trouble. You're like my little charlotte.
[ laughter ]
...And moments that I found haunting.
It's just a mind-blowing number of tusks.
Above all, it's opened my eyes and given me hope.
This is where the horn belongs -- on a live rhino.
That's where it should stay.
Quickly, get the rhino before it goes.
Somebody has to put their head above the parapet
and say, "I care about this."
I have belief that if we all work together,
we can make a difference.
There you are.
That's probably the first-ever reed warbler you've handled.
It is. I think he's ready to go.
Yeah. Okay.
There you are.
-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com
captions paid for by discovery communications
♪♪
narrator: Sandringham, the queen's norfolk estate,
is a place where prince william feels especially at home.
[ engine starts ]
growing up, he often explored it.
♪♪
it's like a slice of the british countryside in miniature.
There are ancient woodlands...
...Working farms...
...Even a stretch of wild coast.
William: There's quite a few places on sandringham that I love.
Favorite spots like this.
Just get peace and quiet, time to think.
And the views are stunning.
[ birds chirping ]
can hear all the birds. So nice.
Here the oystercatchers?
[ birds chirping ]
they're cool. Got a nest 'round here.
Beautiful birds, the oystercatchers.
[ birds chirping ]
it takes me back to my childhood hearing that noise.
Narrator: As a young boy, prince william
developed a deep connection with the natural world,
one he now shares with his own children.
William: Seeing my children, seeing the passion in their eyes
and their love for being outdoors.
They find a bug or they love watching
how bees are forming the honey.
George particularly, if he's not outdoors,
he's quite like caged animal.
He needs to get outside.
Narrator: His children's passion for nature is no surprise.
It's in their genes.
William: My grandfather, my father have been
in the conservation and the environmental world
for many years.
My grandfather was well ahead of his time,
my father ahead of his time.
I really want to make sure that in 20 years,
george doesn't turn 'round and say,
"were you ahead of your time?"
because if he does, we're too late.
I thought about that the other day, and I just thought,
you know, three generations of the same family
saying the same thing.
When will we see the action that everyone so desperately needs
and wants?
♪♪
narrator: Birkenhead might seem
an unlikely place to find answers.
But today, the duchess of cambridge
is naming a ship after a man
who perhaps has done more for nature than anyone.
[ applause ]
it gives me great pleasure to name this ship
sir david attenborough.
And may god bless her and all those who sail in her.
[ cheers and applause ]
♪♪
narrator: Sir david has had a great influence
over prince william's family
and is a personal mentor to him.
Sir david has been a voice for the environment
for many, many years.
He's been a fantastic inspiration.
A recognized face.
Good morning.
Nice to see you.
Very nice to see you.
What do you think? [ laughs ]
I hope they'll do something about the floor.
The floor, exactly. Yes.
The children were very upset that we were coming to see you
and they weren't coming.
They're massive fans of yours.
They watch all your programs, honestly.
Do they? They watch your programs, yeah.
Honestly, absolutely fascinated by it, yeah.
I've got them quite onto the african ones,
'cause they're quite fond of africa,
but they love all the programs.
Narrator: Like sir david, his oceangoing namesake
is destined to unearth nature's biggest secrets
in the remotest corners of the planet.
The british antarctic survey
hope it will help them better understand the climate crisis.
The polar regions are really the most sensitive areas
of the planet to climate change.
The british antarctic survey
have been monitoring changes in antarctica
for many, many, many years.
We can see that the ice really is thinning
and it's cracking.
The glaciers, they've shrunk and they've retreated.
It's very difficult to predict just what it is
that is going to be the key thing.
So, for example, the discovery of the ozone hole in 1986,
they weren't looking for that.
They were just -- no, I mean,
they were just doing their standard surveys,
and then they noticed this hole.
That rang the warning bell,
and that was the british antarctic survey.
We know that a lot of the ice shelf
in the western part of the antarctic is melting.
It's actually a good way, as well, to connect the public
to the amazing research and to the environment like that
that they might not be familiar with.
Well, that is so.
And the public is becoming extraordinarily well-informed,
in fact, it seems to me.
I mean, kids know an awful lot now about ecology
and about what's happening to the world,
and it's very remarkable.
I wonder who's taught them so much about it.
They have.
Every generation, you know, after yours, david,
has grown up listening
and seeing all the things that you've shown them,
and hopefully generation listens a little bit more.
-Hi, everybody. -Hi.
-What's your name? -Yasemin.
Hello, yasemin. You're?
George: I think I need to be, like, a scientist.
I want to try and help the polar ice caps,
to stop them from melting.
And do you know where it's going?
To the antarctic.
Oscar: They will see penguins and killer whales,
but it's really cold,
so, like, you can get frostbite, apparently.
Catherine: I wonder what they're going to discover.
They could discover things they don't even know about.
I'll be distraught for all the penguins
to just lose their environment
'cause they need the antarctic to survive.
This is 85,000 years old, this piece of ice.
Now we can tell what the atmosphere was like
85,000 years ago.
What sort of things would be breathing air
that's in the ice of 85,000 years ago?
-Dinosaurs. -Saber-toothed tigers.
-Yeah, saber-toothed tigers. -Saber-toothed tigers.
There you go.
So that ice you saw of 85,000 years ago,
the air that was in there was being breathed
by saber-toothed tigers.
How cool is that?
And woolly mammoths.
Woolly mammoths.
Amazing, isn't it?
The world, at the moment, is facing great, great problems.
And the most aware of that are the young people of today
who will inherit this world.
Thank you very much.
[ cheers and applause ]
narrator: Fixing the planet is a daunting challenge.
But prince william doesn't have to go far
to find seeds of hope,
just the other side of the river mersey.
Elliott: My message to prince william
is to tell everyone that nature needs saving
and it's not too late to save it.
Narrator: Down the road from liverpool's footballing champions,
an inspiring group of children have their own goal...
Ew! [ shouts indistinctly ]
...To give nature a helping hand.
Elliott: The eco emeralds are a group of environmentalists.
Who like to garden, get covered in mud, chat,
and save the world.
I don't want to drop it.
It's wormy! It's wormy! It's wormy!
Narrator: The eco emeralds are beginning with insects
by building a giant bug hotel with a familiar ring to it.
[ indistinct talking ]
prince william is dropping in for a surprise visit.
It's fantastic that you're here, really.
So thank you so much. No, it's great.
I'm keen to see it, actually. Really am.
[ indistinct talking ]
they're very keen to see you. They don't know yet, okay?
As long as you haven't told them
that someone from manfield's turning up, it's alright.
[ both laugh ] they'll be very upset.
I've got a worm!
It's very long.
[ indistinct talking ]
narrator: In liverpool...
You'll notice this huge bug hotel.
...Prince william is dropping in
on some budding environmentalists.
William: Good morning, everybody.
Hi. What's your name? I'm poppy.
Hi, poppy. I'm william.
Daisy. Daisy, poppy.
-This is nell. -Nell. Hello, nell.
Abigail, elliott...
We need to look after bugs
because worms help fertilization.
Can you tell me what you've been up to?
Finding bugs?
The bugingham palace.
Bugingham palace. I love it.
[ laughs ] is that the queen bee?
Very good.
We made all different sections where the animals go.
Girl: So this is where we put, like, the slugs.
Girl: Like, at the top, we've got grass.
That's where the worms live.
Oh, look at that worm.
You know, they don't like being in your hand 'cause of the heat.
Yeah.
Narrator: There's one very special kind of bug
for whom the children will roll out the red carpet.
We gonna get some bees in there this summer, do you think?
Yeah!
Why are bees so important?
Because, like --
they create 75% of our food chain.
They pollinate.
Yes, and why is pollinating plants
and flowers really important?
Because --
because the flowers and plants,
they bring life to our air and they help other animals
like caterpillars.
If there was no nature, no bees, no food, no us.
Very important.
We've also got a few questions for you.
Have you? Okay. Ask me questions.
If you're asking me about percentages of bees
and things like that and what stings,
I might not be able to answer them.
Is princess charlotte cheekier
than prince george?
No, they're about as cheeky as each other.
They're very cheeky.
And does prince george, like, do the floss?
No, charlotte can floss.
She can already floss at 4. Yeah.
You don't want to see me floss.
Catherine can floss, but I can't.
It's like a really horrible film to watch me floss.
If you lived in the bugingham palace, what bug would you be?
What bug would I be? Maybe a millipede.
Have loads of legs, loads of shoes.
I've been completely blown away
by how knowledgeable these children are.
-What is it? -A rose beetle.
It's a rose beetle. Very good knowledge.
They really understand that without these insects,
we lose so much.
[ indistinct talking ]
narrator: Making a home for bugs in their own backyard
may be a small start.
But it has massive implications.
At the minute, we're in the middle
of an extinction crisis.
We have reporting that 40% of all insects across the globe
could be extinct in the next few decades.
I mean, that is catastrophic.
The reasons for that are habitat loss and pollution,
including pesticides and herbicides,
which knock out, obviously, a lot of insects
and the food for insects.
That has implications right throughout the food chain
because for the most part, everything eats insects --
birds, bats, lizards, hedgehogs.
We also need insects, as well.
So we've got in the u.K. 270 species of bee.
As the kids were telling you,
they're really, really important for pollination.
So without them, you know, we don't have things like tomatoes.
Bumble bees pollinate tomato crops.
Narrator: The inspiration for elliott's idea
came from an unlikely place -- his school dinner.
I started the eco emeralds because I saw that the ice cream
had palm oil in.
Palm oil makes me sad
because it's destroying the monkeys' habitat
because they're cutting down the trees
just so a bunch of kids can eat a bowl of ice cream.
Well, a tub with a plastic lid.
Eabha: It was killing 25 orangutans a day
when they cut down the trees,
so I wanted to stop that and let animals live and be happy.
It's not just orangutans that are in danger.
It's everyone.
-What have you got? -A worm.
Narrator: Bugingham palace is just the beginning.
You can dry your hands on the side there.
Elliott and his mates believe we can all help insects.
So they persuaded the entire school
to scatter seeds to create natural habitats for bugs
across liverpool's open spaces.
Poppy: People plant flowers in their own garden,
but, like, if we can start, like, planting more flowers
in, like, the parks
so, like, animals like caterpillars and bees
and stuff can live in their natural habitat.
Elliott: There's gonna be more bugs in there
than what's usually in that park because it's a bit...
Mm, dodgy.
Barnes: It's an inner-city school here in anfield.
A lot of families don't have gardens.
There are very few green spaces.
That kind of makes it all the more fantastic, really,
these children wanting to do something for nature at large
when their exposure to it is not great.
William: It's important that their energy
inspires the rest of us in positions that can do something
to do something.
That's the way I see it.
I certainly don't want them to worry and have to fix it all,
but we should be harnessing their energy and their passion
for fixing this and helping them do that.
Narrator: It'll be a few months before liverpool comes into bloom.
But today prince william has one final duty to perform.
Has it got a spot to go in the grass?
Just any.
Narrator: He declares bugingham palace
officially open.
[ cheers and applause ]
whoo!
♪♪
narrator: Prince william knows full well
the importance of insects.
At sandringham, they're trying out new ways
to boost bug numbers.
This is a bit of an experiment.
As you can see, the trees are being planted in the field.
Alongside that, you'll have either barley or wheat
growing around it, as well.
So it's mixing the two crops together, if you like.
There's evidence that the insects
and the invertebrates in the trees
protect the crops against pests,
thereby reducing the reliance on a lot of crops for pesticide.
You can produce food
and you can have an abundance of wildlife and invertebrates.
And it's something my father particularly is very keen on.
And ideally that is where more of the country
should go with farming.
We can't just say, "well, it's all for growing crops,
and screw everything else."
we've got to be mindful of that intrinsical balance.
Hares a key species that are very, very affected by change.
We've been very lucky.
We've always kept a very healthy population of hares here.
We're very wary.
We don't want disease to creep in
'cause that will wipe them all out.
And that's what it is. It's a balance.
It's about making sure that our footprint
is not so overly dominant that nothing else survives.
Narrator: Prince william's passion for conservation
started in his teens,
when he visited the continent that would change his life.
♪♪
william: Africa is my second home, if you like.
The wildlife...
The environment...
The people here, scenery, everything about it,
it got into my soul, if you like,
and I realized that this is a very special place.
Narrator: Africa is where prince william spent time
shortly after his mother died.
It's also where he proposed.
♪♪
william: How are you?
This is the first time he's returning
since prince louis was born.
-This is pacha. -Pacha. Hi, pacha.
Can you shake my hand?
I'm here today because I came to meet prince william.
You look like trouble. You're like my little charlotte.
-How old is she? -3.
She's 3, yes. Exactly.
You're just like my little charlotte.
[ laughter ]
I used to follow him since he was born way back in the '80s.
I liked the mother, actually. I liked the mother.
So I think he will help us a lot.
So them people are not gonna wash their hands.
[ laughs ] don't know about that.
Narrator: Prince william is in tanzania to tackle an issue
he's made a personal campaign...
[ speaks swahili ]
...Ending poaching and the illegal smuggling of wildlife.
William: I think you realize a lot more when you become a father.
You're quite happy-go-lucky, young guy.
Enjoy parties.
And then all of a sudden you go, "hang on a second.
There's a little person here.
I'm responsible for that person."
man: This is a lovely lady, this one. This is deborah.
-That's deborah there? -Come on deborah.
Deborah, it's okay. Deborah.
William: I like deborah a lot.
I've never known a rhino be called deborah before.
Now I've got george, charlotte, and now louis in my life.
Your outlook does change.
Man: And these two calves with the wrinkles
are both deborah's calves.
And that's why I had to do something.
I had to get involved, because I really felt
that by the time my children were 20, 25,
at the rate that poaching was at,
there may not have been another rhino in the wild
and there probably wouldn't have been many elephants left at all.
It really was that urgent and that critical.
They are a prehistoric, odd-looking creature,
but when you get to see their characters
and you get to see the family bond they have with their mum,
it does make you feel like you're watching
a really close family unit.
And the fact that they're under a sort of threat
is really quite sad.
Narrator: Rhino horn is smuggled from africa,
much of it for alternative medicine,
even though there's no evidence of it having any benefit at all.
People might see them and think it's a big tank,
big hulk of an animal with a big horn.
But they are incredibly vulnerable.
They have brilliant eyesight.
And people will take advantage of that.
And they want this horn, which is effectively nail.
You know, that is all it is. It's fingernail.
This is where the horn belongs -- on a live rhino.
That's where it should stay.
Narrator: With such a high price on their heads,
deborah and her calves must live out their lives
behind a fortified electric fence.
Today the duke is helping conservationist tony fitzjohn
with some essential maintenance.
Now jcb, the back end is just like flying a helicopter.
So israel thinks you'll have no problem at all.
Okay, israel.
William: I spent a lot of time when I was 18 in my gap year here.
It broadened my horizons living amongst everybody.
Another line of instructions in swahili.
[ laughs ]
I got exposed to all the hard work
and the effort it takes to look after the wildlife,
to look after a spectacular place such as this.
Narrator: Protecting threatened species is costly.
William: They are watched the whole time.
These rhino have more bodyguards than I do.
[ speaking native language ]
and that is crazy that we have to
put that amount of guns around rhino
because people want to have the horn.
Into the bunker.
Narrator: Thankfully, not all of africa's wildlife
live like this.
William: It's rare you get to see
so many rhino interacting together.
Normally it's one or two.
Narrator: Prince william is about to see
one of the rarest sites of all.
♪♪
-that's a good walk. -Yes.
Early morning.
Nice to get out the car. Oh, yeah.
In namibia, prince william is hoping to catch a rare glimpse
of one of the world's last remaining
truly wild black rhinos.
Of this subspecies, there are fewer than a thousand left.
Uri-khob: It's a huge area.
It's actually difficult.
It's like searching for a needle in the desert.
We've got very good evidence that the rhino is here.
We found some fresh dung.
This dung is very fresh, wet still.
There's still lots of water in it.
Maybe 45 minutes.
Even dung beetles hasn't come yet.
After two hours tracking in the desert heat,
they get their reward.
There he is.
Finally.
Just watch.
-Big spray. -Yeah.
Quickly, get the rhino before he goes.
It's a cow, actually.
It's not a bull, it's a cow.
It's a once-in-a-lifetime moment.
It looks very good.
It's okay.
Yeah.
Here the poachers are successfully kept at bay
by what amounts to a vast neighborhood-watch scheme.
The local communities co-own the people's park,
seeing living wildlife as a valuable resource
for their future.
William: The more we can do community conservation,
the more the locals realize that if I have an elephant
in my backyard, I can tolerate it
every now and again causing a bit of trouble,
but I know that it's gonna bring loads of money
and tourism into the area.
And then they start valuing it.
And then they teach their children.
And so on.
Tjijahura: We stood up for the people's park
for the sake of our children's future.
You saw the merits in what was being done
and you wanted to show your support?
-Yes. -Good.
That's why I care so much about illegal wildlife traders,
'cause you take that rhino out of there,
you poach that elephant out of there,
they're being robbed of their natural resources.
What you've set up here in namibia is incredibly important.
That is the best way to have wildlife thrive
that the people thrive, too.
Every single live rhino that you see is good news,
but we don't want to see one anymore.
We want to see hundreds.
Narrator: Preventing poaching on the ground
is just the first battle.
Prince william believes governments could win the war
by stopping the smugglers.
[ siren wailing ]
in tanzania, the authorities are keen to show the duke
the scale of the problem
at a heavily guarded secret facility.
♪♪
narrator: For prince william, protecting the natural world
for the next generation has become a priority.
♪♪
since the queen was born, the global elephant population
has plummeted 90%.
It's just a mind-blowing number of tusks.
It really is.
Work your head 'round it.
In this warehouse,
along with around 43,000 pieces.
♪♪
narrator: Nearly half the ivory in this room
is from poached animals.
The tusks are impounded to keep them from the black market,
where they would fetch over $60 million.
William: Look at the size of that thing.
How many tons of ivory is here?
145.
145 tons of ivory. Yeah.
It's a weird feeling. It's a really weird feeling.
-It's unbelievable. -87 kilograms.
And this one is 85.
-87 kilograms. -87.
Is that the biggest tusk ever seen?
The biggest in...
My goodness.
It's a really weird feeling.
It's kind of when you try and visualize
how many elephants were attached to these tusks,
that's when it gets really quite scary.
This guy -- I mean, this guy
must have been a hell of a character.
Very impressive elephant.
The size of those tusks are enormous.
They should have stayed in him.
I've never seen anything quite like it.
♪♪
[ siren wailing ]
narrator: The illegal wildlife trade
is now the world's fourth largest organized crime.
The duke believes he can help stamp it out for good...
You want to open it? You'll put the dog in.
...By influencing countries to work together.
[ cheering ]
william: I feel that I can use my position to help,
and I'm in a unique position to do that.
We'd love the tanzanian port authority to sign up
to the transportation...
Every now and again, somebody has to put their head above the parapet
and say, "I care about this."
narrator: Back home in london, the duke uses his status
to pile pressure on the world's leaders.
William: Your excellencies, ministers, ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to london.
It is heartening to see so many of you here today,
united by a common desire to end the illegal wildlife trade.
I've just returned from a visit to tanzania and namibia.
I saw some tremendous work being done to intercept the trade.
Over 100 representatives of the transport sector
have signed the buckingham palace declaration,
committing to disrupt the flow of illegal wildlife products
passing through their trucks, their ships, and their planes.
For me, I felt very strongly we had to start with something
that you can unite the conservation world around
to give the young people hope and belief
that things can get fixed, because if we can't fix
something like the illegal wildlife trade,
how on earth are we going to fix climate change
and some of these more complex global issues?
[ applause ]
narrator: When it comes to fixing the problems of the planet
the best place to start is at home.
William: I'm very privileged in many ways.
I get to travel around the world
and see lots of incredible landscapes,
but every time I fly back into this country
and the cloud breaks,
the green fields and the variety of the weather here,
you can't take it for granted.
It's so impressive.
And I think people forget just what's on their back doorstep
and how lucky we are to have such beautiful countryside.
We have the extraordinary seasons,
the variety, you know -- the trees, the hedgerows,
the crops, the undulating hills, the moorland.
We've got everything.
♪♪
I mind awfully that if we're not gonna protect the u.K.,
then we are letting a very beautiful gem just disintegrate.
Narrator: One of the biggest threats to wildlife is plastic.
In britain, there are some 5,000 pieces
polluting every mile of coastline.
But prince william has already seen what's possible
when communities work together.
So today he and the duchess are returning to lend a hand
in what was once their own neighborhood
as newlyweds.
Sykes: Newborough beach was very special to them
when they were here on anglesey.
And they were often running on the beach and enjoying the sea.
It'll be nice that they're giving some love back.
So thank you very much for coming to help
with the litter pick.
8 million pieces of plastic enters our oceans every day.
These are cotton bud sticks
which have been flushed down the toilet.
Takes 150 years
for that to break down in the marine environment.
Have you done plastic and microplastics and things here?
So, yeah, so this is tiny bits of microplastics
we've been finding, and these are noodles.
Fish, birds will eat this,
and it's just getting into their stomachs,
which is quite frightening to see.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
Look, is this something?
Oh, that's a balloon.
I've given my children such a talking-to about balloons.
Narrator: The anglesey community's regular beach cleans
helped make this the first county in the u.K.
To achieve plastic-free status.
-Having a nice visit. -Very nice to be back.
Woman: It's nice to be back.
It is. Very nostalgic.
Is it? Aww.
Couple of bays around the corner where we were over there
were really bad. Man: Were they?
Yeah, huge great tubs of fishing kits,
polystyrene, boxes, lots of stuff washing up.
It's amazing how quickly it came back.
Yeah, but at least you're stopping it going out
in the next tide, which is really good.
What we're trying to do is encourage people
to be more responsible with their actions,
to break that habit with single-use plastics,
to bring reusable, and we are seeing that change,
and it is having an impact now, which is great.
Do you all care about the environment?
Is this something you learn at school?
Yeah, yeah.
Why do you think it's important for young people
to care about the environment?
We saw a video on youtube,
and it was a turtle that had a straw stuck up its nose.
Some people in this world just don't care.
Like, the world is worthless,
and they don't care about these animals.
William: If it matters to them and they're that passion
that they then go and spend hours
protecting their local environment,
then we should all be trying to do our very best
to make that difference.
Narrator: When we do pull together for the natural world,
there can be far-reaching benefits.
At the northernmost tip of scotland,
the ullapool sea savers
are a children's environmental action group
who are making waves protecting their patch.
Maia: We're still young, which means when we're grown up,
I don't want to have a sea
which is empty of all these amazing animals,
like herring, scallop, maerl.
The children aren't just safeguarding
their wonderful sea life.
They're protecting the future of their whole community.
Where's the mouse?
Prince william had planned to visit in person,
but due to lockdown...
She's very, very excited.
...They have to make do with a virtual version.
He's gonna be on, like, stamps and stuff and coins
when he's king.
Feet are vibrating.
[ laughs ]
I can't stop.
He's here.
Hello, guys.
-Hello! -Hello!
[ laughs ] now, which one of you's maia,
and which one of you is caillin?
I'm maia.
I'm caillin.
Really keen to hear and talk a bit
about your ullapool sea savers.
We all love the sea.
Everything sea saver can tell you
that it's a really incredible place.
Narrator: This stretch of coast
is one of britain's best-kept secrets,
scotland's own version of the great barrier reef.
The jewel in the crown of this rich underwater ecosystem
is maerl.
Caillin: Maerl, it looks a lot like a coral,
but it's actually an algae.
It grows super slowly,
one millimeter per year in slightly warmer waters,
but in colder waters such as here,
it can grow way slower.
It's absolutely tiny but it's super beautiful.
It's got this really kind of naturally vibrant pink color
coming through it.
It provides the nursery grounds for loads of species.
The maerl creates such biodiversity
that this is a fertile breeding ground for scallops.
♪♪
and that's a huge lure for industrial fishing dredges.
♪♪
maia: When dredges come, they're like big rakes.
They'll scrape up the entire seafloor clean off,
and it can be filled with wildlife,
and it wipes out entire habitats.
♪♪
when you dredge the scallops,
you will completely damage everything else that's there.
It can be so devastating.
With maerl especially, that could have taken decades to grow
and takes minutes to destroy.
And it's all for a few quid.
We decided that we should take action.
We should say, "hold on a minute.
No, you can't do that."
with both the marine life
and local fishing industry in jeopardy,
the whole town, young and old,
petitioned the scottish parliament.
The community all came together,
and we actually managed to make it
a permanent marine protected area.
William: You've been snorkeling, and what you've seen down there
is the fish life and the marine life coming back.
It looks healthier.
You can really see the changes happening.
♪♪
narrator: Marine protected areas
are like national parks for the sea.
Claudia, claudia... Channel eight.
They're protected by law.
So there's now only one way to fish for scallops.
By hand.
Holbrow: As a diver, if you can put your hand
on top of a scallop
and you can see shell either side of your hand,
you know it's a legal size, so that goes in the bag.
Just take what you need to make a living and take no more,
and it'll be there for your children, grandchildren.
Andy, yeah, hi. Are you on a boat, andy?
We are on a boat, yes. It's my boat.
So we're sitting at the moment in ullapool harbor.
You know, during, obviously, this covid outbreak,
how has it affected your business
and you doing the diving?
Has it had impact on the demand for scallop?
See, with the shutting of all the hotels
and local restaurants and everything else,
we couldn't sell anything locally.
We had scallops going down to london and eastgate market.
And then that city shut.
It's a massive impact. It stopped dead, basically.
I know billingsgate fish market quite well, andy,
'cause they forced me to eat jellified eel at 5:00 a.M.
One morning when I went down there.
Ooh, nice.
I can tell you, it's not a pleasant experience, that.
Jellified eel at any time of the day is bad,
let alone at 5:00 a.M., with a hangover I think I had
at the time when I was a bit younger.
But, andy, will the market
better pick up for you guys again?
I see it as a bit of a blip, this.
It will come back.
And we gave scallops away to the ullapool sea savers
to pass around the village.
They're quite heavy.
I didn't think they'd be this heavy.
William: Your example is something
that will give a lot of people hope.
We all need a bit of hope right now.
-There's your scallops. -Thank you very much.
Thank you. [ doorbell rings ]
and the fact that you guys have got the community together,
you've created a difference.
-Hand-dive. -Oh, they're hand-dive.
That's the best ones.
And you guys should be so proud of yourselves
and what you've done.
And I can see you two are a force for good
that no one's gonna mess with.
-Thank you. -So much.
With this little team on board, you can't go far wrong, can you?
William: And I hope I can come up soon and see you guys.
Yeah, you need to come snorkeling.
I'm reluctant to get in a wet suit,
but I will do that if I have to.
[ laughter ]
thank you.
[ bird squawking ]
narrator: As an island nation,
the ocean has shaped britain's landscape,
but as climate change warms our world
and melts the polar ice caps,
much of the coast is at risk.
And at sandringham, prince william can see the rising tide
right before his eyes.
William: We are right on the coast.
So we've got the marshland out here, the wash.
We've seen the water level on this bank up here
within a millimeter or two of coming over the top of the bank,
and you suddenly realize, you know,
those extreme events are gonna happen
more and more in the future.
And also how low-lying
particularly this part of east anglia all is.
It could really very drastically change.
We'll lose the whole lot, and it'll sweep in and stay.
You know, when sea levels rise, it will stay.
It will not go back out again like everyone thinks.
It would, you know, be a flood.
And you'll lose the wildlife habitats here.
You'd lose the farm and you'd lose the communities.
It's in everyone's interests
that we protect these sorts of areas.
We have to get on top of the climate change issue.
Narrator: By the turn of the century,
climate change is predicted to cause our oceans
to rise by as much as two meters,
and across the world, extreme weather
and its impact are intensifying.
[ helicopter blades whirring ]
[ thunder crashing ]
every summer since 2015, fast-moving floods in pakistan
have washed away himalayan villages and roads,
leaving thousands of people cut off and homeless.
Like a wall of water coming down?
Yeah, you can see the boulders.
So last year, the duke and duchess took a trip
to see not just the devastation,
but the source of the floods...
...Rapidly melting glaciers.
When prince william first met catherine
at st. Andrews university, he was studying geography.
So climate change is a familiar subject.
William: We are very lucky to be up here to see this.
Nothing is more important right now than climate change
and the environment.
They're meeting dr. Furrukh bashir,
a world-leading climatologist
who's been studying how the glaciers are melting
at record speed.
Bashir: Over here in hindu kush,
this area holds world's largest ice reserve
outside polar region.
We have got more than 2,700 kilometer cube of water
in form of snow and ice.
Narrator: Dr. Bashir is warning of a terrifying truth --
that millions of people could soon see their taps run dry.
Bashir: So majority of glaciers in pakistan are retreating.
And they are retreating at alarmingly high rate,
and global warming is responsible for that.
And these glaciers provide drinking and irrigation water
to 200 million people in pakistan.
Narrator: It's not just pakistan.
If the planet's glaciers continue to melt,
a quarter of the world's population
would lose access to freshwater.
William: A lot of people in cities around the world
are used to just turning the tap on and having instant water,
forgetting, you know, this is where it comes from
and this is how we have to manage it.
This is where, you know --
if this goes wrong up here,
there goes all our water.
Bashir: Very right.
Because cities are expanding,
and the natural availability of water
is not good enough to sustain that big population.
It takes the story, doesn't it, away from just being about
the environment and climate change,
but it takes it into people's homes, actually.
This is about water.
Yes, there is water -- yeah, exactly.
It's about survival, isn't it?
Survival, exactly, because that is their lifeline.
Because these glaciers provide water
in spring and summer period where we have no rainfall.
Bashir: I heard that you are a geographer by training.
William: Yeah, dr. Warren, my geography teacher,
would be well impressed that I'm back at a glacier
after all these years.
We'd love to come and show our children environments like this.
You can impress george with your geography knowledge.
Finally my geography chat about terminal moraines is useful.
I've been given ridicule about it for years,
and now I can actually talk to professors about it.
He's like, "oh, you know what a moraine is?
That's good news."
♪♪
what is going on here is climate change,
and 1.6 billion people depend on this freshwater.
That is a huge amount of the world's population.
Now, imagine if this goes.
It's a huge environmental and humanitarian disaster,
and yet we still don't seem to be picking up the pace
and understanding it quick enough.
Narrator: In the fight against climate change,
forests are our greatest natural ally.
They draw carbon from the air and lock it into wood.
But across the world, a forest the size of the u.K.
Is lost every year.
♪♪
at sandringham, the estate safeguards
a number of magnificent ancient trees.
William: It's got lots of trees.
No, I loved climbing trees when I was younger
and used to muck around in the trees,
and my father used to get very upset,
us climbing trees and falling out of them.
Narrator: Prince william's own tree-climbing days
may be behind him,
but tree specialist
natural history cameraman james aldred
is here to help him understand
how vital these ancient trees are
in the fight against climate change.
It is an absolute treat to be climbing a tree like this.
I don't think that --
well, I'd be surprised if anyone's had the opportunity
to climb this tree ever before.
But I think that's the beauty of an estate like sandringham.
It's clearly a refuge for trees like this.
This was planted in the reign of elizabeth I,
and there's something quite fitting about that.
This tree is hard to beat.
This is king of the wood, really.
Absolutely amazing.
Hello, james.
Good morning.
[ both laugh ]
make yourself at home.
-How you doing? -Good, thanks.
I think this is probably about 400 years old,
something like that.
400. Really? Yeah, yeah.
How can you tell? Overall, it's the sheer size.
This is at least 6 or 7 meters around,
and as a general rule of thumb,
that means sort of 400, 450 years.
It's amazing, isn't it? Yeah.
It is absolutely phenomenal.
They're such fantastic specimens.
Absolutely.
Narrator: For the u.K. To become carbon-neutral,
scientists say we'll need to plant 1.5 billion new trees
by 2050.
But just as urgent is the need
to conserve the trees we already have.
Aldred: As trees grow older, they grow faster,
and these days of global warming,
where excessive carbon
in the atmosphere is a big issue,
what better way than to leave the big ancient trees standing
and just let them do what they've evolved to do
over millions of years?
And you hear this a lot with property developers.
They might need to remove a tree like this,
but they say, "it's okay
'cause we'll plant half a dozen others in its place."
well, the reality is that won't be any good
for half a millennia.
Yeah, take a while for it to get to the same level.
Yeah. Yeah.
More planting, the better, I guess.
But ultimately, trees are best left where they are.
Agreed.
Incredible, aren't they? Absolutely phenomenal.
William: If we want people to protect nature,
they've got to experience it.
They've got to value it.
Just being outside, being amongst it,
and realizing all the special treasures that are there.
♪♪
[ birds chirping ]
♪♪
narrator: With a growing population,
experiencing nature may get much harder.
Because by 2050, over 2/3 of children
will grow up in cities.
Mooney: That's a reed warbler.
-There? -Yeah.
Saying hello.
Such a cool noise.
♪♪
one solution is to bring the wild into our cities.
♪♪
so reed warblers come all the way from africa
to summer in hackney.
For the community here gonna be looking onto this green space,
I bet you ask everyone up there,
they love the fact they can see this.
Oh, god, like, who wouldn't want a kingfisher
darting past their kitchen windows?
Fantastic.
Narrator: 10 years ago,
david mooney gave up his career as a science teacher
to help give this 11-acre london reservoir a new lease of life.
With lots of amazing local people, volunteers,
we planted reed beds, planted woodland, planted hedgerows,
established wildflower meadows.
Mooney: From a barren, depressing reservoir
with fences, "keep out" signs, and barbed wire,
we've literally wilded a corner of hackney.
It's taken less than 10 years
for dragonflies to be hunting.
The kingfishers are now breeding.
That's incredible. That's a huge turnaround.
And if you look closely, emperor dragonflies.
Really?
In fact, can you see one just to your right?
-Oh, there. Here. -There you go.
Brilliant. Look at that. It's hovering nicely.
-Yep. -Look at the size of him.
Narrator: It's not just the wildlife
drawn to this magical place.
Woman: I live on the estate here on woodberry down.
My little one, she's autistic.
So she's got no sense of danger.
Here, she can come and just be free.
This is like a bit of sanctuary.
My granddaughter loves coming here.
We love looking at the birds.
Do you see the birds? Look at the birds. Wow.
Yeah.
♪♪
mooney: The moment you bring kids into a wild space like this
here at woodberry wetlands, you see their eyes light up.
And that connection with the natural world
is something that leaves a mark on them.
Birds.
Woman: It's important to them to see things
they would normally see.
I get to write down the things I've seen,
and then I can, like, research them.
Mooney: So this is called a eurasian reed warbler.
If we put a unique number onto their leg,
we can learn about their migrations.
So if you want to, I'll let you release this bird.
Yeah. So bottom hand first or top hand first?
Top hand first. If you just gently grab it around its neck.
Yeah, lovely. There you are.
That's probably the first-ever reed warbler you've handled.
It is. Absolutely.
Do I just literally just -- yeah, just open your hand.
It'll fly off into the weed bed, yeah.
Okay, he's ready to go. Yeah.
Okay.
There we are.
Going back to its chicks now.
Narrator: Recently, wild places like these
have become much more than oases for birdlife.
They've become lifelines for us all.
♪♪
2020 has been an extraordinary year,
one that nobody could have predicted.
William: I've been very lucky that through the lockdown,
I've been here, surrounded by wildlife.
I can't talk about coronavirus without mentioning
about how many people sadly lost their lives
and how terrible and sad that all is.
But I think the tiny little ray of light,
if there's any ray of light from this,
is that it allows us to take stock
and to refocus our priorities.
I've been really heartened
by what I've been hearing from other people
and how they've started to appreciate nature
and experience it
and see all the things that they never thought they would.
The details come out because they have the time.
Narrator: Lockdown has given prince william time
to reflect on his journey.
Is it really possible for local action to have global impact?
In scotland, the ullapool sea savers
aren't stopping their campaign
to protect marine life anytime soon.
You've got to start small,
'cause, like, rome wasn't built in a day.
So you've got to start small,
and then you can slowly work your way
bigger and bigger and bigger.
To find out how marine protected areas
can be expanded across the planet,
the duke is seeking expert advice...
-Callum, hello. -Hello.
...From marine biologist professor callum roberts.
William: For me, this example really shows
that local communities coming together can have an impact.
Roberts: This is exactly true.
What we need to do now
is to scale up those efforts across the world
so that they can turn around the state of the ocean as a whole.
What the science tells us
is that we need to be covering the ocean
with something like 30% coverage of marine protected areas,
and then the oceans themselves will rebuild and recover.
So this new kind of youthquake and interest in the environment
will gradually overtake the more destructive ways
of using the environment.
I think people will look back
and wonder what the hell we were doing
to be destroying things just for short-term gain
rather than trying to manage them in a way
which is gonna produce long-term benefit.
Narrator: In liverpool, the eco emeralds youthquake
is producing shock waves of its own.
Before lockdown, prince william
saw bugingham palace taking shape.
We gonna get some bees in there this summer, do you think?
Yeah!
That'd be good if you get some bees.
Narrator: Now the children's urban wildflower meadows
are erupting into color.
♪♪
elliott: It makes me really happy because this park wasn't very nice.
But now it's bright and colorful.
Usually when I came, I just saw seagulls
eating leftover takeaway.
I think it's amazing because we can see loads of bees,
like, loads and loads and loads and loads.
And one of our main goal to protect the bees,
so it's very good.
That means that we're doing something right.
Narrator: Thanks to the power of a social-media campaign,
the eco emeralds' message is blossoming nationwide.
Barnes: Their idea of backyard nature
is saying it doesn't matter where you live.
You can still do something
which is gonna impact on your environment
and raise that awareness.
Narrator: There are now over 10,000 backyard nature guardians
across the country...
...Among them prince george,
princess charlotte, and prince louis.
Byrne: We know in the u.K., there's about 15 million gardens,
and that is equivalent of a national park
the size of dartmoor.
If every garden in the u.K. Took on board backyard nature
and made it a haven for wildlife, that would be immense.
They'd be on their way to restoring wildlife in the u.K.
Elliott: Anything's possible as long as you put your mind to it
because if the eco emeralds didn't put their minds to it,
then this wouldn't have happened.
William: This project is a prime example of what everyone can do
up and down the country.
It harnesses the enthusiasm
and the determination of the younger generation
to really tackle
and be involved in some of these big environmental issues.
As you can see, the poppies have come through.
This field was absolutely bright red earlier on in the season.
You got pretty much every color in the rainbow,
and it's wonderful, the sea of color, the diversity.
And that's what it is.
It's about creating that diversity.
When I come for walks along here with the children,
you really notice on a warm day just the vast amount of insects
that are here and the birds coming and going,
taking the insects off the field.
So nice.
Narrator: Two years ago,
prince william made it his personal mission
to find ways to protect the natural world
for future generations.
William: This is where the horn belongs.
That's where it should stay.
William: Imagine if this goes.
It's a huge environmental and humanitarian disaster.
Narrator: He's seen the vital importance
of preserving what we have left...
This tree will keep giving back to this environment here
for hundreds and hundreds of years.
...And how effective communities can be
at pulling together to get things done.
We've literally wilded a corner of hackney.
Do you see the birds? Look at the birds. Wow.
A recognized face.
Sir david's wise words have rung true.
Kids know an awful lot now about ecology
and about what's happening to the world.
William: Why are bees so important?
Because, like --
they create 75% of our food chain.
Narrator: Young people are spearheading the action we need,
and their voice has grown louder,
spurred on by the most famous of them.
William: What greta's done is really quite interesting.
People were desperate for someone to come along.
Thank goodness there's somebody there with a young voice
being active.
Narrator: But prince william has discovered
plenty more unsung heroes and heroines.
You guys should be so proud of yourselves and what you've done,
and I can see you two are a force for good
that no one's gonna mess with.
-Thank you. -So much.
These young children doing these bug palaces in liverpool,
the girls up in ullapool saving their coast,
I owe it to them to help their voices be heard.
We are the generation who are gonna inherit this planet.
It's really, really vital that we are the ones
who make some of the decisions.
That generational gap has to be bridged somehow
so the older political leaders understand
that the younger generation mean business.
They want their futures protected.
I feel it is my duty and our collective responsibility
to leave our planet in a stronger position
for our children.
Thank you.
Adults should stop just watching it happen and help us
'cause they've done it all.
We've seen from coronavirus
organizations mobilize themselves
like something we've never seen before --
the research collaboration
that's going on 'round the world,
the sharing of expertise.
[ indistinct talking ]
the money found by governments
to support people through this economic turmoil.
These are big deals.
If we can provide the same motivation
with the environment, we have truly turned a corner.
We need to make sure that all the investment
that goes in from now on comes back in a green fashion.
We need to build back greener,
because I think the younger generations
will not stand for saying that it's not possible.
It clearly is.
Don't be lazy lemons. Get up and do something.
As we've seen from covid-19,
the world can act when it needs to act.
So why won't it?
♪♪
we can't just sit on our laurels
and say, "oh, you know, it's someone else's problem.
It'll get fixed down the line."
we all need to take our turn to take our responsibility
and push forwards with this where we can.
And the oystercatcher's telling us the same thing, too.
[ bird chirping ]
♪♪