- [Host] The ocean makes life on earth possible.
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But this all-important resource
is under extreme threat.
- I looked around me and I just saw
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more plastic bags than fish.
- [Host] Its delicate balance is tipping
towards destruction. - If we lost our coral reef,
that'll kill us. - [Host] And somehow,
because our very existence depends on it,
we must save the ocean.
- [Lacomte] We only have one ocean.
- We can all be part of this solution.
(upbeat inspiring music)
(people cheering)
(inspiring music continues)
- Let me ask you, what is the greatest threat
to the ocean today, plastic pollution?
Temperature increase? Overfishing?
Yes, these and other issues are extremely serious,
but the greatest threat of them all is the lack of awareness
of the vital importance of the ocean for our very existence.
There are so many examples, but here's just one.
Take in a deep breath. Now breathe out. Do this twice.
One of those breaths you took came from the ocean.
Marine organisms produce over half
of the oxygen that land animals, including people,
need to breathe.
And as I said, this is just one example of so many things
that the ocean provides us with,
something we can't live without.
- [Host] The ocean is a stunningly beautiful world
that we are still exploring and learning about.
We do know that it covers about 71% of the earth's surface
and contains an estimated 97% of the planet's water.
We also know that the ocean is in deep trouble
and that presents an existential threat to us all.
2,400 miles away from Hawaii in the central Pacific Ocean,
lies the tiny republic of Kiribati.
For thousands of years, the people of these remote islands
have enjoyed a lifelong relationship with the sea,
but now the ocean seems to be turning against them
and may soon cause this island nation
its ultimate destruction.
Kiribati is expected to be the first country
to be completely swallowed up because of climate change.
- In the year, I think the land lost 1.5 meters.
Every year.
- [Host] The first nation to actually disappear.
Yes, scientists predict that in the near future,
Kiribati will be totally underwater.
American journalist Lulu DeBoer has ancestors from Kiribati.
One year ago, she began an extended stay there.
- The way, you know, grandmas talk
about their place growing up, it sounded like a paradise.
And so for me, I was like, "Oh man,
I have to go back there before it's all gone."
'Cause I want my kids to have that sense
of culture that I grew up with.
And the only way I knew how to pass that on
was to come back here and absorb as much as possible
before it was all gone, so that I could pass it on
to the next generation.
- [Host] In far too many ways, the impending disaster faced
by Kiribati is a microcosmic example of the emergency facing
the ocean and the entire planet.
And it's not just the rising water that presents a danger.
In Kiribati, a much less obvious threat exists
inside the water, the fish and even in the bodies
of the people who live there.
And like the rising sea levels, it has the potential
to affect millions of people around the world.
In 1907, Monaco's Prince Albert I
was making his fourth and final expedition
to study the Arctic Ocean.
It is sadly ironic that at the same time in New York,
chemist Leo Baekeland was inventing a material
that would impact the ocean forever.
60 years later, the whole world was thinking exactly
what Mr. McGuire told Benjamin in The Graduate.
- Are you listening? - Yes, I am.
- Plastics. - [Host] Yes,
everyone had fallen in love with plastic.
Today, plastic is in everything, from the clothes we wear
to even the gum we chew.
No one imagined that this dream material
would create this nightmare.
(water bubbling)
All over the ocean, there are huge collections
of mostly plastic debris known as patches.
These massive accumulations are caused
by complex interactions of the Earth's spin
and ocean currents, which give the garbage patch
the alternative name, trash vortex.
This is the biggest patch of them all,
located in the north Pacific Ocean,
the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Because it is partially submerged
and always moving with the water,
it's hard to know its size exactly,
but common estimates are twice the size of Texas
and three times the size of France.
This long-distance swimmer wanted to raise awareness
of the global problem by swimming through it.
- For me, the vortex swim is a way to shine the light
on the garbage patch and to bring people
into that big discussion of what plastic is
and what it does to the to the ocean.
(water splashing)
Well there is no island of trash,
what we find is a high concentration
of degrees of all sizes but especially microfibers
and the microplastic around.
On this expedition, I was out for two and a half months.
Through my own eyes, I saw the magnitude of the problem.
- [Host] Ben definitely got the attention of the world news.
- One man's effort to bring awareness to pollution,
51 year old Ben Lacomte.
- Is seeing firsthand the true cost
of plastic pollution in our oceans.
- [Host] For Ben, this is also a research expedition.
Working closely with his scientific partners,
he and his crew will be collecting
samples of microplastics
and microfibers in the water and recording the data
for ocean scientists to use later.
- Kind of wears you down.
It's just like would be nice one day to pull it out
and there not to be any plastic in it.
But you know, 50 days, we do two a day,
that's never happened, yeah, it's pretty messed up
when you stop to think about it.
- [Lacomte] I swim every day for about six hours
with my face in a sea of plastic.
At its highest concentration, it looked like a snow storm.
It was very disgusting and extremely disturbing.
I had the amazing opportunity to swim with two sperm whales
and it was a wonderful moment in the water with them.
Unfortunately, right after that event,
I came back on board to find out
that it was our highest count of microplastic
in the water so far, I can't imagine the terrible impact
all that plastic has on their lives.
- [Host] Ben Lacomte swam 338 miles
through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
This amazing accomplishment earned him
a Guinness World Record.
But more importantly to Ben, it sent out a message
that rang out through the world,
we need to solve the problem of plastic in the ocean.
- [Lacomte] We only have one ocean.
We need to all work together to save it.
- The future will certainly bring many more inventions
to replace plastic with better alternatives.
But why wait? You can start right now.
Here's something you can do today
to get off your plastic addiction.
Dish soap is a huge problem
because of the plastic containers it comes in.
So try a dish block, a solid block of earth-friendly soap.
You just wet your sponge on it
and get an instant soapy lather to clean
up the day's dishes.
- Your typical kitchen sponges are made
of petroleum-based polyurethane,
a big polluter for the ocean.
So why not use a loofah scrubber?
Loofahs are the fruit of a tropical vine plant
in the cucumber family.
They're so biodegradable and eco-friendly
that loofahs can actually be eaten if they're harvested
when the fruit is young and tender.
Plus, you can clean them in the dishwasher
or in your washing machine.
(upbeat music)
- How much plastic is there on earth?
It's estimated that over 10 billion tons
of plastic have been created by now
and most of it is still here.
- Plastic pollution is decimating ocean animals
and working its way up in the food chain,
even into our own bodies.
In a disturbing recent study, scientists found microplastics
in four out of six human placentas they studied.
- [Host] Plastic thrown away in the USA
can end up as far away as Antarctica.
Garbage is pulled from our coastal waters
into wind-driven circular ocean currents.
Other currents carry the trash across the ocean.
There are no boundaries in moving water.
So in reality, it's just one ocean.
(dramatic music)
(birds trilling)
2000 miles away from the nearest continent
in one of the most isolated places on the planet,
Dr. Jennifer Lavers learned firsthand the shocking amount
of plastic that can exist inside a dead albatross.
- [Lavers] To try and wrap your mind around the condition
of this animal and the quality of its life
really is quite an overwhelming thing.
I do have some pretty rough days, have to go home
and really wrap my mind around where do we go from here?
- [Host] Just on this island alone,
plastic is killing seabirds by the thousands.
But seabirds are not the only animals being devastated
by plastics in the ocean.
They are just the tip of the iceberg of destruction.
The bags, bottles and all other discarded items
you see floating near the surface are broken down
by sunlight, waves and sea animals until what's left
is like tiny bits of confetti floating in a soup
and releasing any toxic chemicals
that they might contain into the water.
Then these tiny particles of plastic that will last
for hundreds of years disperse with the winds and currents.
This deadly sea of plastic particles,
from the big pieces to the tiny ones,
make it into the bodies of all marine life,
including the largest animals on earth.
- Experts found plastic in the stomach
of a dead blue whale washed ashore
in eastern Japan earlier this month.
They say it's an example of the spread
of marine plastic contamination.
- [Host] And plastic is also found
in the tiniest animals in the ocean.
- Copepods are mini beasts of the ocean.
Small crustaceans, a bit like tiny shrimps.
They belong to an important group of animals,
known as zooplankton, which drift and float
in the surface of our seas.
They may be small, a single copepod could sit
on the head of a pin, but they are very important
and play a vital role in our ocean ecosystems.
- [Host] But as copepods feed by sucking in water,
they have no way to discern
between the phytoplankton they evolved to eat
and the microplastics that now abound in the water.
So plastic has become a part of their diet everywhere,
even in the most remote waters of the planet.
These copepods were filmed swimming
among fluorescent microplastics, the results are striking.
Soon, the plastic is seen within the body
of the animals and it flows up the food chain
into all fish and other marine animals that feed on them.
And from the ocean creatures, the plastic is transferred
to the land animals that eat them, including us.
Researchers are finding that most shellfish
have plastic in them.
- They're all sorts of different colors, they're very small,
all sorts of different shapes and sizes, microplastics.
- [Host] So when you eat oysters and clams.
- [Woman] You're eating plastic as well.
- [Host] And because it's present throughout the food web,
you are ingesting plastic every time you eat any seafood,
from shrimp to swordfish.
So where is all this microplastic coming from?
Here is what ocean pollution expert Dr. Peter Ross
says about what he found in samples he took in the Arctic.
- 92% of the particles that we encountered were fibers
of different colors and 73% of those were polyester.
Well, the shocking thing is that we found polyester
in every single sample of seawater we collected
between Norway, the North Pole,
the Canadian Arctic archipelago
and throughout the Belfort Sea.
- [Host] And what is the source of all this polyester?
You are wearing it.
Much of our clothing now contains plastic fibers.
That means every time you wash your clothes,
fibers are loosened up and go into the wash water.
Depending on the type of garment,
a single wash could release as much as 10 million fibers,
then down the drain they go and often end up in the ocean.
Every day, we are learning more about the risk
that microplastics in the ocean pose
to the animals that are eating them, including us.
What is the best way to reduce this risk?
It's a simple answer.
- Reduce our use of plastic.
(upbeat music)
- Is there plastic everywhere in the ocean?
Unfortunately, yes.
Plastic has been found even at 36,000 feet deep
in the Marianna Trench, the deepest part of the ocean.
- We know that plastic poses an immense threat to the ocean.
So what can we do to turn the tide
of ocean destruction to one of ocean's survival?
One of the tools we have is our creativity
and it will take a lot of it from a lot of people,
but it has begun.
- [Host] In 2011, Dutch teenager Boyan Slat
made an alarming discovery that would've a big impact
on both his life and the ocean.
- When I was 16 years old, I went scuba diving
on the family holiday and I was expecting to see
all these beautiful things like you see
in the nature documentaries.
And then I looked around me and I just saw
more plastic bags than fish.
I wondered, why can't we just clean this up?
- [Host] He made ocean plastic pollution the subject
of his high school project and came up with the idea
of building a passive plastic catchment system,
using circulating ocean currents to capture plastic waste.
In 2013, Slat founded the Ocean Cleanup, and at 27,
he began seeing his dream come to fruition.
- Yeah.
Ah, what a great day.
It's not going away by itself,
so we have to go out there unfortunately
to go and clean it up, if you were to simply skim the ocean
for plastic, it would take forever.
It would be really expensive.
So that's why we came up with this idea
to basically deploy artificial coastlines
where there are no coastline, allowing the plastic
to accumulate in these cleanup systems,
which means that with a boat, we can then periodically
take the plastic out of the system and bring it to land.
We had our ups and downs, we had problems,
we had structural failures, but eventually we had a system
that was successfully catching plastic.
Not just the big stuff, but we were also catching
the small pieces, the microplastics,
down to a millimeter in in size.
Objective of this first campaign wasn't to maximize
our harvest, it was really to prove, to validate
the principles behind the cleanup system.
Yet we still collected some plastics.
We've collected roughly 60 cubic meters of trash,
but still a small amount compared to
the hundred million kilos that we still have to clean up.
But on the other hand, it does already constitute
roughly 14,000 football fields of ocean.
- [Host] And in July, 2021, a new system, 002,
was deployed to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
and was soon sending ships back loaded with plastic.
And today, 002 is still out there doing its job.
But it's not only Boyan Slat's organization
that is attacking the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Ocean Voyages Institute is utilizing a 140-foot
sustainable sailing cargo vessel
to tackle the cleanup as well.
- My name is Mary Crowley and I'm the founder
of Ocean Voyages Institute and I'm very excited
to be here today seeing off the sailing ship Kauai,
who's going on a great mission.
- [Host] Day after day on the rolling ocean,
the crew worked until the ship was full.
- This morning, starting at around 6:30,
the crew started preparing the 103 tons
of ghost nets, derelict fishing gear
and consumer plastics that they just removed in 48 days
from the North Pacific Gyre, accomplishing the largest
at-sea cleanup that's ever been done.
They'll be recycled and repurposed.
Nothing will end up in landfill.
Nothing will ever go back in the ocean.
- I just can't think of any better work to be doing.
Feels wonderful, you get tired at the end of the day
after a good day, but you really feel
like you've accomplished something.
- [Host] But Mary Crowley is not content
with just one ship pulling plastic out of the ocean.
- We are intending to build two sailing cargo ships
with a cargo hold of 200 to 250 tons,
scaling up to address the level of this problem.
We will also be scaling up globally
our educational efforts.
- [Host] Starting with only the ideas of two people,
Boyan Slat and Mary Crowley,
their organizations have grown to make a difference
in the health of the ocean.
But this is only the tip of the iceberg.
It will take the efforts of so many more,
and with this goal in mind,
in Monaco's Ocean Week, 1000 policymakers,
investors and entrepreneurs came together
for seven days to share ideas, expertise,
and hatch innovative solutions.
While the world's superpower countries still try to all get
on the same page to preserve the ocean,
tiny Monaco has a long history of leading the way.
Over 100 years ago, the ruler of Monaco, Prince Albert I,
led groundbreaking, scientific journeys
with a total of 28 expeditions
to the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea
to his credit.
Ever since then, Monaco has been at the forefront
of advocacy for the planet.
The prince's love of nature was passed onto his son,
Prince Rainier III, and ultimately to his grandson,
Prince Albert II, now the sovereign ruler of Monaco.
His Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation
is one of the foremost leaders in efforts
to save the ocean and the planet.
He has led fact-finding expeditions around the world
to bring awareness to the effects of climate change.
And in 2006, he became the first head of state in office
to reach the North Pole.
- Couldn't stop thinking of Prince Albert I
and his arctic travels and he would've loved
to have been here.
(upbeat music)
- How much plastic is going into the ocean?
An estimated two garbage truck loads a minute.
In total, 11 million tons more plastic flows
into the ocean every year.
- No matter how good we become a cleaning up the ocean,
it is like trying to empty a bathtub
without stopping the flow of the water.
So how does all the plastic get
into the ocean in the first place?
And how do we stop the flow?
- [Host] The answer is rivers.
They are the primary source of plastic in the ocean.
And some rivers in less developed countries
are especially impactful.
- In a lot of these underdeveloped countries
what happens is, is there's a formula, right?
There's a large amount of single-use plastic.
There's not a recycling infrastructure
and they don't have a very good sanitation system.
So what happens is, a lot of the locals
will throw their plastic into the alleys,
into the drains and everything,
and in these mountainous areas, whenever it rains,
all that plastic gets swept offshore.
So over 85% of the plastic that's entering
the ocean today actually comes from land-based sources.
- [Host] But where there's a problem,
there's Boyan Slat again with a new solution,
to turn off the faucet of plastic.
- What if we could intercept plastic
in rivers before it reaches the oceans?
What we need is a product,
one integrated system that you can bring anywhere
in the world, install within days and that just works.
And it doesn't exist until today.
- [Host] The Interceptor is the world's first solar-powered
floating robot, a 50 ton monster that collects trash
but leaves the fish alone.
As garbage floats down the river, it runs into a barrier
on the surface of the water, which funnels it
into the mouth of the Interceptor.
Then it travels up a conveyor belt,
which drops it into floating dumpsters.
When they're full, the Interceptor stays anchored
in place while the dumpsters are towed to the shore.
There, whatever can be recycled is processed
and the rest goes to the landfill.
Okay, that's how it operates.
But does it really work?
Well, the numbers speak for themselves.
Since the unveiling of the first one in October, 2019,
eight more Interceptors have been deployed in Indonesia,
Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, two in Malaysia,
and three in Jamaica, seven more are in the works
for other areas, including one planned soon
for Ballona Creek in Los Angeles, California.
Up until now, the ocean Interceptors combined
with the cleanup out in the ocean have removed
over a million pounds of trash.
According to UN estimates, there are between 160
and 440 billion pounds of plastic left to go,
but at least we are seeing a beginning
to the cleanup of the ocean.
To finish the job, we will all have to do our part.
In the Bahamas, Kristal Ambrose took it upon herself
to do exactly that.
- [Ambrose] We're so happy to have you here today.
You happy to be here? Scream.
- [Crowd] Woo.
- [Ambrose] Our Plastic Camp has been so impactful.
We've been doing the program for over six years now.
We've reached more than 500 students
on eight different Bahamian Islands.
- You'll be the solution to plastic pollution.
(crowd cheering)
- So we built that stewardship through our beach cleanups,
through all of our environmental work.
And with the help of a lawyer, we wrote a bill
of what a single-use plastic ban
would look like for the Bahamas.
So we literally went in there beating on the desk,
"We are the change, we're the solution.
We can fix this plastic pollution."
And then we proceeded to tell the Minister of Environment
why we needed to act now and ban single-use plastics.
- In assembling her data and doing her research,
Kristal was able to demonstrate that this problem
isn't just out there, it's actually right
on our front doors, and we need to act now.
- [Host] Soon, the bill that had begun
as a school project became a reality.
- [Ambrose] This is my planet, this is my ocean.
I deserve to fight and my voice matters.
- Let's talk about your toothbrush.
You can find a lot of these in the ocean.
So, why not use a bamboo toothbrush?
Bamboo is biodegradable and highly sustainable.
In fact, it's one of the fastest-growing plants
in the world. - Did you know
that in the US we throw away one
and a half billion plastic toothpaste tubes every year?
They're another huge source of ocean pollution.
But now, you can use toothpaste tablets instead.
You just pop one in your mouth, chew it up
and it becomes effervescent,
then just brush like you always do.
(upbeat music)
- How many countries have outlawed single-use plastics?
Unfortunately, only a few nations have an all-out ban
and sadly, the United States is not one of them.
But recently, India announced
they will ban single-use plastics,
a huge polluter in the ocean.
- Cleaning up the existing plastic
from the ocean and the rivers that flow
into it is a huge step in the right direction.
But once it's all collected, what do we do with it?
Back in the fifties, the long-lasting quality of plastic
was it's biggest selling point.
Now we know it is actually a curse.
How long does it take for plastic items to decompose?
You may be shocked by the numbers.
- [Host] Plastic straws? 200 years.
Six pack plastic rings? 400 years.
Plastic bottles, 450 years.
Plastic cups, 450 years.
Coffee pods, 500 years.
Plastic toothbrushes, 500 years.
Disposable diapers, 500 years.
Fishing line, 600 years.
Of course, reducing our use of plastic
and finding alternatives is essential.
But for all the plastic that currently exists,
we need something that can decompose it rapidly.
Maybe this scientist found the answer.
Her name is Federica Bertocchini.
- I noticed, basically cleaning one of my beehives,
that there was these worms.
So basically I cleaned them, I put them into a plastic bags,
and usually what I used to find was dead invertebrates.
- [Dean] But these worms
managed to eat their way out of the plastic bag.
- So, I said, "This is something interesting."
- [Dean] They're called meal worms
and you can actually buy them online
and watch them become cute beetles
by feeding them styrofoam.
Now it's not the meal worms themselves
that are actually breaking down the styrofoam.
It's the enzymes produced by bacteria
the worms have inside them that make the magic happen.
- The secreted enzymes are really interesting.
Those are the tools
that actually break the wall down into little pieces.
- [Dean] So scientists are now spending
a lot of time searching in places like garbage dumps.
Their goal is to find new bugs and bacteria
that can digest plastic, isolate their enzymes,
and then enhance and mass produce them in bioreactors.
Finding a way to deal with our enormous plastic waste
would be a huge step in the right direction.
But to really improve the planet's health,
we need to attack the ultimate source of the problem.
And that is the world's
insatiable consumption of plastic.
We need safe and sustainable alternatives.
It seems only fitting
that one solution to plastic pollution in the ocean
might come from the ocean itself.
- We're developing new solutions
that try to use seaweed instead of plastic
for a lot of single-use applications
- [Dean] They're focusing on packaging
for foods and other everyday products,
lots of things that we consume quickly
and throw the containers away.
Their first creation
was a space-aged, edible bubble packet
that can hold any liquid,
like water, juice, or sports drinks.
For one thing, it's a great way to avoid
all those little cups left over after a marathon.
To tackle on even bigger plastic problem,
they developed an edible packet for condiments
so you can eat the container right along with the ketchup.
And they've continued to create other packaging solutions.
The company realized that seaweed
has great potential as a sustainable resource.
It's one of the fastest growing organisms on the planet.
Some seaweeds can grow up to to a meter per day.
These ocean plants also have other advantages
when compared to those that grow on land.
Seaweed doesn't require fresh water.
It needs no fertilizer.
In fact, it's really zero maintenance.
You just let it grow.
While one company is having success with seaweed,
another is looking to create plastic alternatives
from a different source.
Mushrooms, or more specifically
their living root structures, mycelium.
The power of mushrooms is nothing new.
For thousands of years, humans have known
how to cultivate them for food and medicines.
This US company is harnessing that age-old knowledge
and applying 21st century technology to it
to give simple mushrooms a new, Earth-saving role.
This is how it all begins.
They start with wood chips, corn husks, or hemp
that would otherwise be thrown out by local farms.
Then sprinkle in some fungal spores,
add water, and place them in special growing chambers.
It only takes a few weeks.
After feeding on the agricultural waste,
the spores have transformed into the base material
for a wide array of products.
Soon it will be used to make
the company's plastic-free foams,
leather-like textiles for fashion
and other applications, and even plant-based meats.
Plus, in keeping with a philosophy to work together
for the good of the planet,
their technology is open access,
helping partner businesses around the world
make Earth-friendly alternatives.
- Here's another way to cut down on plastic pollution,
and it's one you might not think of, dental floss.
It's made of plastic and often ends up in the ocean.
And don't forget the plastic container that it comes in
that takes 500 years to decompose.
But, you can switch to a biodegradable dental floss.
There are options made from silk, corn,
and bamboo fibers available. And each comes in
a biodegradable or reusable container.
When it comes to shampoo,
the biggest problem is the plastic container.
So instead, try a shampoo bar.
They come with or without conditioner built in.
You just lather them up and scrub away.
(exciting music)
- Which countries burn the most fossil fuels?
China tops the list,
burning almost twice as much fossil fuel
as the United States,
with India, Russia, and Japan close behind.
But when it comes to the amount burned per person,
the United States uses twice as much as China.
- The Industrial Revolution is considered to be
one of the most significant events in human history
because of the sweeping changes it made in people's lives.
Only now, some 200 years later,
are we beginning to fully acknowledge
the profound impact it has had on our planet.
(ethereal music)
(water gurgles)
- [Dean] It was the burning of fossil fuels
that provided us the power to drive
the Industrial Revolution.
But at the same time,
it caused us to release large amounts of carbon dioxide
into the atmosphere.
This caused a greenhouse effect,
a condition where heat is trapped
in the Earth's atmosphere.
Plus, there are other greenhouse gases like methane,
which have increased in recent years
due to things like livestock production,
especially on crowded factory farms,
other types of agriculture, sewage treatment,
and natural gas and oil distribution.
What does this mean for the Earth?
The planet is trapping
roughly double the amount of heat in the atmosphere
than it did 15 years ago.
So the Earth is warming.
Now to survive, plants and animals
that evolved for millions of years
to live at pre-industrial temperatures
are forced to adapt to a warmer Earth.
For many species, that may be impossible.
Corals evolved 500 million years ago.
They are vitally important to both the ocean
and the world's human population.
But corals around the world
are under threat,
and that's true in Kiribati as well.
- For me, the biggest scare is coral bleaching
'cause our islands, our entire subsistence,
is off of our coral reef.
It's where we get all of our food.
That's what keeps the islands' ecosystems running.
It's the coral.
And coral's really fragile.
And that's absolutely terrifying to me.
If we lost our coral reef, that'll kill us.
- [Dean] Coral is a colonial marine animal.
The individuals are dependent on one another for survival.
What we see as a coral structure
is actually hundreds to thousands
of tiny individual organisms called coral polyps
living together in a colony.
Each soft-bodied polyp
secretes a hard outer skeleton of calcium carbonate
that attaches either to a rock
or the dead skeletons of other polyps.
But the polyps live not only with each other,
but also with algae that lives inside the coral's tissues.
Like other plants, algae use photosynthesis
to produce nutrients and pass many
directly to the coral's cells.
In return, the coral provides a safe home for the algae.
So a coral formation is one of the natural world's
perfect symbiotic relationships.
But nature takes it even one step further.
By itself, the coral skeleton is ghostly white.
But the chlorophyll in the algae
gives them a green-brown color.
And on top of that,
the algae produce a variety of pigments
which finally give the coral formations their stunning hues.
But when the algae becomes stressed,
they stop providing enough nutrients to support the coral.
And soon the starving coral expel the algae
and turn back into their ghostly white,
a condition called bleaching.
If the situation continues long enough,
the coral weaken and die.
What can stress the algae
to begin this chain of destruction?
One thing is water temperatures that are too warm.
And as climate change causes global temperatures
to rise around the world,
we are seeing coral bleaching in the ocean everywhere,
including the largest system of coral structures
in the world,
Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
This scientist is widely known as the godfather of coral,
and he has identified more than 20%
of all the world's coral species.
Back in the 1990s, he started getting very worried
as he began seeing changes in the climate.
And back then, 30 years ago,
he made some pretty scary predictions.
- I predicted that by 2015,
the carbon monoxide levels would be so high
that it would cause bleaching practically every year.
It's all happened and the consequences of that
have turned out to be much worse than those predictions.
It's exactly like me
seeing my family slowly dying or something.
It's very grave-like.
- Corals are really the linchpin of the ecosystem.
When you go out there and you say, in the ocean,
how many species of fish live in and around coral reefs?
The answer is about a quarter.
- [Dean] Yes although coral reefs
cover less than 1% of the ocean floor,
they provide a home for 25% of the ocean's species
that we know of today.
And in more human terms, 60% of the fish
the world depends on for food
depend on healthy coral for survival.
But the value of coral to human beings goes even further.
As one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth,
there may be millions of undiscovered species
of organisms living there.
Many scientists believe that these reefs
hold the key to finding new medicines for the 21st century.
Medical researchers are now developing new drugs
from coral reef animals and plants
as possible cures for arthritis, viruses,
cancer, and other diseases.
(waves crash)
- The other thing that is very important
is coral is protecting us from the waves.
- [Dean] Coral reefs help prevent the loss of life,
property damage, and erosion
as they buffer shorelines against 97%
of the energy from waves, storms, and floods.
- If the coral is dying, then we won't
have this protection against a storm surge,
especially in the area where we've got cyclones
and huge storm surge is coming up from cyclones,
so the coral reef can protect against this.
- [Dean] If this natural barrier was gone,
millions of people
who live on the ocean's shores would suffer.
And from an economic standpoint,
besides all the industries surrounding fishing,
corals have great importance for another human activity
that is extremely valuable to many countries.
- Tourism, five to 6 billion dollars
worth of tourist revenue coming into our country
because we have this pristine, beautiful structure.
- If you see something you really love dying,
of course it has a huge impact.
It's very hard to continue when so many people think,
oh, there's nothing wrong.
And that makes me angry because this is utter stupidity.
- [Dean] But corals are not just being damaged
by rising temperatures.
They are also being attacked by another problem,
a major change in the actual chemistry of the ocean.
- Ocean acidification,
which we talk much less about, at least in the media.
- [Dean] It is yet another issue
caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
Like a sponge, the ocean soaks up
the added carbon dioxide in the air.
- We know that today the oceans
pump about one half of the excess carbon
that humans are putting into the atmosphere,
which means that
they're already taking out of the atmosphere
huge amounts of carbon that would otherwise
be heating the atmosphere even more.
- [Dean] But as that helps the atmosphere,
it hurts the ocean.
This added CO2 dissolves and becomes carbonic acid.
As a result, seawater has become more acidic.
A lot more.
Acidity is 30% higher
than before the Industrial Revolution.
This inhibits the coral's ability
to build its calcium carbonate skeleton.
The effect is similar to osteoporosis,
slowing growth and making corals weaker.
- There's huge parts of the world
where you can swim over a coral reef,
and you just see individual corals here and there.
It really is decimated.
At least 30% of all the coral of this planet is gone.
If we continue business as usual,
the only hope for a coral reef is that humans
will destroy their own capacity to make carbon dioxide.
- There is a real chance that ocean acidification,
if it continues on the track that it is now,
that coral-dominated reef systems
like the Great Barrier Reef will soon disappear.
And of course, if the reef disappears,
then the habitat for over a million species
will also disappear as well.
At a global scale, losing coral reefs has implications
for over 500 million people
who depend on coral reefs each day
for their food and income.
- Coral reefs are saying, "We are in trouble."
And when coral reefs are in trouble,
then the oceans are in trouble.
- [Dean] Some scientists
predict that all the world's corals
could be wiped out by the middle of the century.
But corals are not the only sea life being threatened
by ocean acidification.
Other sea creatures and plants are also in danger.
The acidity of the ocean
can disrupt the delicate natural balance
between predator and prey populations.
In many important ways, fish rely on their sense of smell.
One scent in particular is essential for their survival.
- The smell of chewed up fish.
Yeah, the smell of chewed up fish.
- [Dean] This is the odor that fish would recognize
if a predator was attacking their group.
- [Scientist] This is the alarm cue.
So if their sense of smell is working properly,
then this is the smell that they should identify
and want to run away from.
- [Dean] But in water of a higher acidity,
the fish's ability to detect odors is disrupted.
- And it's important because
once they lose their sense of smell,
they have inability to detect and respond
or avoid predators,
pick up chemical cues associated with finding food,
or in the case of salmon, honing to their native streams.
- [Dean] But fish are not the only sea life affected
by ocean acidification.
It especially impacts any animals with a shell.
- The ocean is so acidic
that it is dissolving the shell of our baby oysters.
Our farm is what has kept this family together.
It's our glue and it would be devastating
to lose that, such a big part of our history.
What we're experiencing here in the Puget Sound
is what other people will be experiencing
not too long in the future.
- [Dean] While the damage caused
by the acidification of the ocean
may be most evident in coral and shellfish,
there is a less visible,
but perhaps even more destructive problem.
- There are also alarming signs of plankton,
that is responsible for 50% of the oxygen we breathe.
And for the vast food chains in our polar oceans,
are beginning to struggle
to make their delicate calcium carbonate skeletons.
- Our study has found that phytoplankton levels
have diminished by up to 40% over the last 50 years,
so since 1950.
Phytoplankton is important
because it's the base of everything in the ocean
and the ocean is the base for everything on the planet.
- If we start losing the plankton of the southern oceans,
we start losing the capacity of the southern oceans
to support just about all their marine life.
- It can completely change ocean ecosystems,
starting with the ocean microorganisms
in the ocean surface waters,
which are those that are actually
pumping carbon from the atmosphere
into the oceans through photosynthesis.
If the oceans were to go beyond a certain level of acidity,
well paradoxically,
they could actually destroy some of these organisms
that are actually helping us to keep carbon levels
in the atmosphere lower than they would otherwise be.
- The only thing we can do,
which will control ocean acidification,
is to stop burning fossil.
(exciting music)
- Besides plastics,
what else is polluting the ocean?
Some other major sources of pollution are:
toxic metals, like mercury from mining,
fertilizers and herbicides in farm runoff,
and oil.
- Oil spills
are one of the most visible threats to the ocean.
Who has not seen the gut-wrenching pictures
of helpless seabirds
stuck in the deadly mess of spilled oil?
However, below the surface,
there is even more destruction going on.
- [Dean] A spill that happens
in a matter of hours or days
can devastate the fragile ocean ecosystem for years.
According to the US Department of Energy,
1.3 million gallons of oil
are spilled into US waters alone
from vessels, pipelines, and drilling rigs
in a typical year.
(rig explodes)
- On April 20th, 2010,
41 miles off the Louisiana coast,
the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig
exploded in the Gulf of Mexico.
There were months of cleanup efforts,
but still, it turned into one of the largest
environmental catastrophes in US history.
To keep the oil from moving to fragile coastlines,
air crews sprayed the oil slick
with over 1 million gallons of dispersants.
Unfortunately, dispersants
do not remove the oil from the water.
They just break the huge oil slicks down
into small droplets.
Floating plankton and algae
were so stressed by the dispersants
that they released streams of sticky mucus into the water.
This sticky mixture of the oil, dispersants,
dead plankton, and other particles
sunk from the surface all the way to the bottom,
covering the ocean floor
in what has become known as a dirty blizzard.
Organisms that couldn't escape its path suffocated.
When researchers returned to the site 10 years later,
they were shocked by the devastation that still remained.
- The oil and the dispersants are a toxic mixture, right?
And so by having all that oil deposited on the sea bottom,
it's going to interact with all the creatures
that live at the surface of the sediment
and also the creatures that live in the sediment.
And so that created a lot of mortality.
- [Dean] Clearly we need a better way
to respond to the inevitable spills that will occur
as long as oil is a part of our global economy.
One company has a creative idea,
using not only their brains,
but something else from their bodies as well.
- So Clean Wave is our program.
We've been doing it for over 20 years
and it's where you take hair from hair salons,
hair clippings, fur clippings from pet groomers,
waste fleece and fiber from alpaca farms
and sheep farms and buffalo herds and everything.
And you can take all of this fiber,
which would normally go to a landfill,
and we felt it into mats that soak up oil spills.
And we do that because hair collects oil.
- [Dean] A pound of hair can soak up
around five times its weight in oil.
The finished product could be mistaken for a doormat.
Hair is acquired from salons in over 30 countries.
- And so it's one way to use a renewable resource
to suck up oil spills and everybody who gets a haircut
can participate in this.
And it's free
and just you mail in the hair.
So it's the cost of a postage stamp or whatever,
and it helps us.
And so that's a way everybody can help.
- [Dean] Oil spills are just one of the great costs
of our dependence on fossil fuels for energy.
To support our growing world population,
other things we need come with their own costs to the ocean.
One is probably something that may surprise you.
It's the second-most consumed natural resource
on the planet.
Only water is used more.
It's sand.
- We are using a huge amount of sand.
In fact, our entire development is based on sand.
- [Dean] Yes, sand.
- We are using 50 billion tons of sand per year.
And that's just to give a rough idea.
This is the equivalent of the wall of 27 meter high,
27 meter wide, or around planet Earth every year.
That's the amount of sand we are using.
We need sand for construction,
we need sand for land reclamation,
we need sand for windows.
Glass is made of sand.
Even computer screen and chips are made of sand.
- [Dean] Now, it would seem
with vast deserts around the world filled with it,
there would be no shortage of sand.
The problem is that desert sand caused by wind erosion
is almost useless to us.
It's too smooth for what most sand is used for,
concrete production.
That requires sand grains eroded by water
with sharper edges that can lock together
to form stable concrete.
This sand is found in riverbeds and beaches.
But those resources have been tapped to the point
where fierce competition has pushed even criminal gangs
to traffic in sand.
Now some companies are looking
to a new area for sand extraction.
- One big thing that is happening now is dredging sand.
Imagine a giant vacuum cleaner
that goes at the bottom of the sea
and suck all the sand
and then all the microorganisms that live there
get basically destroyed.
And it change the turbidity of the water.
That has an impact on biodiversity and on fisheries.
- [Dean] What is the solution
to our growing sand problem?
A number of scientists are working on ways
to replace sand in concrete with other materials,
including shredded plastic, crushed palm shells,
and rice husks.
Others are trying to recycle old concrete.
Sand highlights the fact that almost anything we do
comes with a cost to the environment
that we need to recognize and account for.
Even as we address the issue of fossil fuel dependence
and carbon emissions by moving to electric vehicles,
it comes with costs to the planet
we must carefully consider.
- We need a lot more of cobalt as well as lithium
and other metals to make batteries for electric vehicles.
- [Dean] To supply the growing demand,
mining companies are moving to new technology
that is of special concern to ocean scientists.
- These mining companies are gearing up
to put huge machines on the seabed floor
and rip up the seabed floor.
- When we look at the deep sea mining,
the problem is we have to be extremely careful
when we are taking material from this environment.
- The stakes are so high.
When you've ruined the ocean,
you've ruined life on earth effectively.
We've already pushed the ocean
to the absolute brink through over-exploitation.
We're now gonna feed in
an industrial activity under the water
and it may just be the thing that pushes the ocean over.
It may be that straw that breaks the camel's back.
- So there's gonna be a ship at the sea surface.
That ship is going to lower a machine down onto the seabed.
These are huge machines
with traction wheels
that are going to move along the seabed.
- Basically sterilizing the bottom of the sea
and it's creating a plume.
- So there'll be a continuous,
non-stop plume of sediment particles
being released for up to, say,
30 years per mining operation.
These little particles are really destructive
to a lot of marine species.
They get into their gills,
get into basically what is their way of breathing.
These plumes get suspended into the water column
and there are currents in the water column
which will take these plumes,
they're thinking up to a hundred kilometers out.
- [Dean] Deep sea mining companies
have often proclaimed themselves to be eco-warriors
because the materials they plan to mine
can be used in electric vehicle batteries.
But this type of mining
could actually be catastrophic for the climate.
The largest active carbon sink on Earth is the deep sea.
Carbon will be released back into the environment
if the sediment on the ocean floor is stirred up.
The deep ocean's ability to sequester carbon
could be severely damaged
and cause seawater to become even more acidic.
Yes, we need electric vehicles,
but to build them we must avoid using
what might be the easiest or most profitable technology
in favor of what's best for the planet.
Unfortunately, a closer look at the land-based sources
for one metal needed for clean vehicle batteries, cobalt,
exposes a dirty secret.
Most of it comes from the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, where mines have been linked
to a long list of environmental damage,
safety issues, and human rights abuses
involving child laborers as young as six years old.
The good news is that some companies
have vowed to stop using cobalt-based batteries,
sending manufacturers
racing to develop cleaner alternatives.
Batteries using manganese, iron, and boron hold promise.
But most recently, in September 2022,
an even more sustainable and biodegradable battery component
was unveiled.
And it comes from a surprising source, shellfish.
Yes, as outlined in the journal Matter,
a University of Maryland scientist created a battery
using chitosan, a derivative of chiton,
as the electrolyte.
The most abundant source of chiton?
The exoskeletons of crustaceans,
including crabs, shrimps, and lobsters,
which can easily be obtained from seafood waste.
Yes, once again, a solution for a human problem
comes from the ocean.
Undoubtedly, the future holds
even better and cleaner battery advancements.
But right now,
many ocean scientists say we need to stop deep sea mining
in its tracks before it's too late.
- If there was ever a future problem that we can stop now,
it's this.
We don't need to deep-sea mine.
We shouldn't be doing it.
Let's stop it before it happens.
That would be, that would be a genuine win for humanity.
It would be a win on a par with saving the Amazon.
(instrumental fanfare)
- How many people in the world depend on fish
as a food source?
For 2.6 billion people, a major part
of the protein in their diet comes from fish.
- Today, overfishing and illegal fishing
are threatening the world's food supply.
By disrupting the delicate balance
of its fragile ecosystems,
they also threaten the ocean itself.
- [Narrator] Since the beginning of our time on the planet,
fish have been a major food source for humans.
But now with our exploding global population
approaching eight billion people, we are
in danger of depleting that important resource
beyond the point of recovery.
- So, over-fishing is when you are taking more fishes
than they can reproduce themselves.
Once your population start to decrease,
the entire supply of fish is going to go down.
So at one stage, if the entire fishes collapse,
and we saw that happening in several places already,
you have no more fishes.
- [Narrator] All across the earth,
fish populations are threatened by not only overfishing
but also what's called IUU fishing,
illegal, unreported and unregulated.
Of the world's 17 main fisheries,
13 are facing serious decline.
The Mediterranean, the North Sea, the Grand Banks,
the Baltic, the ocean around Australia,
the Gulf of Thailand, and the waters of Southeast Asia
are all in a critical state.
If fishing is not effectively regulated,
scientists warn that many fish populations
may never recover.
Seychelles is well known as a place to enjoy the sun,
crystal clear turquoise waters, and beautiful beaches,
but there's something else going on here.
It's a battle between David and Goliath.
These huge industrial fishing vessels
can hold 280 tons of tuna at one time.
- We used to go fishing for a day
and we'd catch enough fish to sell at the market.
But nowadays, we're lucky if we can bring in one or two.
How can I call myself a fisherman
if there's no fish to catch?
You know, it's clear that the stock is depleting
and it's mainly because of these vessels,
these industrial vessels that you see around me.
- [Narrator] They are constantly unloading
and can haul in 2,000 tons of the fish in a year.
From here, the tuna goes to Seychelles' cannery.
It's one of the biggest in the world,
producing 1.5 million cans of tuna per day.
The global demand for tuna has now risen
to over $40 billion per year.
Most of the tuna caught around the world
is eaten far away from its source,
with the European Union, the USA and Japan
the biggest importers.
Thousands of miles away from Seychelles
is General Santos City,
known as the tuna capital of the Philippines.
Here, local fishermen are also seeing a decline
in tuna catches.
The fish are getting harder to catch
and everyone here is affected by it.
- There's a nice fish.
This will be good enough to ship directly
to the United States today.
- [Narrator] In less than 48 hours,
this tuna will be in a fashionable sushi restaurant
in the USA.
John has noticed a concerning trend.
It is apparent that the fish just can't
reproduce fast enough to keep up with the demand.
Scientists say that in our lifetime,
some tuna populations are in danger of extinction.
John puts the problem in perspective, simply.
- Too many people, too many boats catching the fish.
- [Narrator] General Santos City is located
in a part of the world where the ocean
is especially rich in marine life.
It lies in what is known as the Coral Triangle,
located between the Pacific and Indian Oceans
and spanning a 2.3 million square mile area
from Indonesia to the Solomon Islands.
This is the most diverse marine region on earth,
home to 75% of the world's coral species
and some 3,000 species of fish.
Across the Coral Triangle, fish populations are under threat
and not just because of their value
when packed in ice and shipped.
Fish bring a price many times higher
per pound when they're sold live.
This started 40 years ago as a new demand emerged
providing live reef fish to restaurants in Singapore,
Hong Kong and more recently, mainland China.
Driven by the high prices and unending demand,
poor fishermen have not abided by any laws or quotas.
Their tool of choice: usually, cyanide.
It can take all day to catch a fish or two
with a hook and line, but by crushing a cyanide tablet
in a squeeze bottle and squirting it at the fish,
you can capture dozens of the stunned but still live fish
in a few hours.
- Normally, if you export fish from Indonesia,
you should report how much you take out,
where you're taking it to, and also where it's come from.
So there's these Hong Kong boats,
they come here every month and they come into this place,
take all the fish and leave from here.
And that's illegal.
So if you look at this fish,
you actually see a lot of the evidence
that this was caught with cyanide.
Start with the eye.
It's completely damaged.
It is, this is a milky eye.
You can't see anything with that anymore.
And then if you look real carefully,
you see that the skin is sort of scarred like it was burned.
For every fish that makes it to Hong Kong,
there's a lot of dead fish and reefs.
You know, corals are are dead from the cyanides
that stay behind.
So the impact of this industry is actually really large.
- [Narrator] The live fish market has grown
to billions of dollars worldwide.
Although Asian restaurants demand most
of the edible live fish, the largest percent
of ornamental fish go to U.S. aquariums.
In a warehouse, Lida is shocked
by the magnitude of the trade.
- Wow, that's a lot of fish.
I hadn't seen that before.
So, many of these bags have just one fish
but some of the bigger bags have at least 10.
You can see them from here.
I see so many fish that are going out here tomorrow.
Probably many more from the companies next door.
Sure looks like a lot of fish.
- [Narrator] Our understanding of the ocean's ecosystems
makes clear the potential for great harm that can come
from overfishing and illegal fishing,
but there is one marine ecosystem
we know almost nothing about
and that may make it even more urgent to protect it
before it's too late.
It is called the midwater layer
and also known as the twilight zone,
the ocean's last frontier.
It is an entire layer that starts 200 meters
below the surface down to 1,000 meters.
Only recently have researchers been able to explore
this deep in the ocean.
- You're in the pitch black
in the middle of the ocean twilight zone.
The sub lights come on and what you see
looks like a blizzard of snow.
When you look even closer, you can see there are
tiny microscopic plankton jumping
from one particle to another.
- [Narrator] Here, animals have adapted in amazing ways
such as huge eyes to capture scarce light
and bioluminescence to attract prey.
This ocean layer actually holds the largest
and least understood ecosystem on the entire planet,
with more species and biomass than anywhere on earth.
In fact, it might contain more fish
than the rest of the ocean combined.
Also, we are now beginning to understand that the animals
of the midwater twilight zone play an important role
in the ocean's ability to pull carbon
out of our atmosphere by eating carbon-filled phytoplankton.
Eventually, when the animals die,
they sink to the bottom and safely store the carbon there
where it cannot contribute to global warming.
But a serious threat looms that has scientists
racing against time.
- The more we learn about the ocean twilight zone,
the more important we are finding it seems to be
for the whole ocean ecosystem.
- The animals that live in the twilight zone
almost certainly play a major role
in regulating our planet's climate.
- And if we took all of the marine life
out of the twilight zone, that would have huge impacts
on the ocean's ability to sequester carbon.
- It will be a critical piece of how humans
both sustain and hopefully thrive in the following century.
(instrumental fanfare)
- Is there life in the deepest parts of the ocean?
Yes, it's amazing.
Even though the pressures down there can be
up to 15,000 pounds per square inch,
scientists have found small organisms
in the mud at the very bottom of the ocean.
- So far, scientists have identified over 240,000
different species of plants and animals in the ocean.
(dramatic instrumental music)
- [Narrator] And while that is a huge number,
it may only be 10% of those that actually exist
since there is so much of the ocean
we have not yet been able to explore.
Of the incredible array of diverse plants and animals
found in the ocean, there are certain ones
that have been singled out by scientists
as keystone species, organisms that are essential
to the health of the entire marine ecosystem.
(water burbling)
- Sharks, by feeding themselves,
they are feeding on big fishes
that are themselves fishing other small fishes.
And so by maintaining that population of predators,
they can maintain a bigger population of the fishes.
If you remove the shark, if there are no more
sharks the one, the level just below
will multiply and they will eat more fishes
and they will, could potentially come to
a collapse of the fish population.
So the shark has been hunted a lot for their fins.
Traditional food that is taking fins
and makes fin soup, and it's very popular.
They basically cut it off and just leave the shark dying.
The shark population is also declining
because we are taking more fishes
than they can reproduce themselves.
We tend to be afraid of shark,
but sharks are very important in the ecosystem.
- [Narrator] Montel Williams hosted a groundbreaking event
in the Bahamas to educate a special envoy
of United Nations representatives
about this essential ocean animal.
- Jaws came out.
We take the top of the food chain, vilify it
and then think that the rest of the food chain
will sustain itself.
And we want you to have an experience
over the next couple days that's gonna blow you away
and make you go back to the halls of the UN
and say, you know, they're doing something here, guys.
In 2011, The Bahamas became
only the fourth country in the world
to establish a shark sanctuary
prohibiting the commercial fishing of sharks,
thus protecting the more than 40 species
of the animal found in its waters.
A much needed measure since sharks face extinction
primarily due to overfishing and illegal shark finning.
But sharks know no boundaries
and the need to protect them
goes far beyond Bahamian waters.
So throughout the week, the UN delegates learned firsthand
about the importance of shark preservation,
a win for the sharks
and for the countries that protect them.
- A shark life can bring a huge, huge income
for the economy of a country.
- In The Bahamas alone, shark tourism
and research adds some $80 million U.S. dollars annually
to the national economy.
- [Montel] Led by Bahamas ambassador to the UN
and chair of the Shark Coalition,
Dr. Elliston Rahming, delegates listened
as experts at the Island School in Cape Eleuthera
debunked myths of the misunderstood shark,
including the notion that sharks hunt humans.
- You've been diving for certain number of years?
- [Woman] Yes, I have.
- And sharks have been all around you
and you've never had an incident.
- They're just curious more than anything else,
so they might bump you.
- [Montel] The truth is, shark attacks are extremely rare,
yet the role the shark plays in the ocean is vital,
from controlling fish populations
to maintaining healthy reefs,
a lesson ambassadors took to heart.
- Preserving the shark preserves the ocean.
So the same care we take, you know, for our land,
we have to become aware
that we must do likewise for our seas.
- Protection of oceans is one of the most important subject
United Nations is debating.
It's extremely important for us
actually to be well-educated.
- [Montel] And for these delegates, the education
goes beyond the classroom and into the ocean.
Next, delegates were able to enrich their knowledge
by diving or snorkeling and observing
the magnificent creature in the deep water.
- [Woman] How was it looking at the sharks?
- Really extraordinary.
Oh, it's wonderful, you get addicted to it.
I didn't wanna come out.
- Great experience.
I did it. I jumped in the water.
- I went down there with the sharks
because I want my country to protect them.
- While there is much to learn
as we work to understand the bewildering shark species,
what is clear is that we must move beyond our fears
and learn to coexist with this incredible creature
to ensure the future of our oceans.
(instrumental fanfare)
How fast is the ocean rising?
It's hard to know for sure because the
rate is accelerating,
but current estimates are, by 2050,
sea levels will rise from three feet to six feet.
- There are many potentially devastating effects
of rising sea levels.
To put it in perspective, according to a recent study,
a two meter or six foot sea level rise
could displace over 187 million people
and destroy more than half a million square miles
of essential farmland.
- [Narrator] In the tiny island nation of Kiribas,
the residents are facing rising sea levels
never experienced by their ancestors.
- My first house is in the water.
My second house is also in the water.
And then my last house was here, just on the beach here.
- [Man] Where do you live now?
- Now I live inland,
just to move away from the ocean side.
- I'm afraid.
What about our future, even our children?
What is the future of our children, our grandchildren?
So sad.
- [Narrator] Why is Kiribas being swallowed up by the ocean?
Again, it's all because of global warming
caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
As the ocean's temperature goes up, the warmer water expands
and takes up more space, and the polar ice is melting,
adding more water to the ocean.
This is Antarctica, containing over 90% of the world's ice,
but the ice has gotten thinner over the last 25 years
and all that added water has brought up sea levels,
and the melting is accelerating
and could become even faster.
One of the most important tipping points
is the leading edge of the Thwaites Glacier,
a giant ice formation with a frightening nickname,
the Doomsday Glacier
- Thwaites is called the Doomsday Glacier because
if this glacier completely retreats,
the world's oceans go up by 60 centimeters at least.
But if this system really does collapse,
we're more likely gonna look at a couple of meters
of sea level rise, and that's scary.
- [Narrator] While that specific scenario
sounds frightening enough,
what seems to concern many scientists the most
is three degrees.
Now that might sound insignificant, but it's not.
It is the three degrees Celsius
average global temperature rise
we're on track to hit unless we do something fast.
- If you have three degrees more
as compared to preindustrial level,
we are heading to, that's where we are heading to
if we don't make more efforts.
Then, we are talking about seven meters more.
Imagine New York, imagine Miami.
Imagine all the small islands states
where some of the point is at 1.4 meters above sea level.
That's all gone.
- [Narrator] It's not just the ice in AntArctica
that we have to worry about.
On the other side of the earth,
the Arctic is also in a critical state.
Monaco's Prince Albert II has been sounding the alarm
for years.
Back in 2005, he led an expedition to document
the rapid loss of Arctic ice.
He returned to the exact spot where his grandfather
had stood 100 years before.
Using a photo taken on his grandfather's visit,
the scientists were shocked
by the graphic proof they saw with their own eyes.
- Exactly. And right now, it looks like
it's more like 30, 40 meters height.
- Yeah.
- So that is significant there.
- The glacier has receded, you know,
anywhere from three to six kilometers.
It's just mind boggling.
And the picture from a hundred years ago
is extremely clear and some specialists
even here in Norway had never seen that picture.
And to be able to use that, first of all,
makes me very proud.
- [Narrator] Since then, the loss of ice
has even accelerated.
This NASA graphic shows the shrinking Arctic ice
over from 1984 to 2018.
The difference is striking.
By 2050, Arctic sea ice may disappear altogether
during the summer months.
Many animals depend directly on sea ice.
Polar bears for instance, hunt seals from the ice
and gain most of their weight in winter,
but with the ice declining and breaking up earlier,
bears have less time to hunt.
Because their habitat is melting,
polar bears and other Arctic life
are in danger of extinction in the near future.
The melting of the Arctic ice also adds to sea level rise.
- The iceberg and the floating sea ice
is not contributing directly to the increase
of sea level rise, but indirectly it is so
because the whiteness of the Arctic sea ice
is reflecting the sunrise.
When you remove the Arctic sea ice,
the water is absorbing the heat.
And then through thermal expansion,
you are back to this thermal expansion,
so indirectly, it is still contributing.
- [Narrator] The Arctic is actually warming
four times as fast as the rest of the planet.
On the other end of the earth,
Antarctica is also experiencing accelerating warming.
The higher temperatures at the poles and in the polar oceans
spell big problems for the rest of the planet,
and not only because they are raising sea levels.
- The ocean is probably the most important element
of the climate system.
In fact, the ocean is basically the planet's thermostat.
- [Narrator] The ocean can perform this essential role
because rather than being a still body of water,
it is a constantly moving system.
In much the same way that heat is transferred
around your home through pipes or ducts,
the ocean moves heat around
using a system of ocean currents.
It's known as the ocean conveyor.
In a home heating system,
the circulation is accomplished by a fan or a pump.
Ocean currents are driven by two things:
temperature and salinity.
The concept is simple.
Denser water sinks.
The colder the water is and the saltier it is,
the more dense it becomes.
Denser waters from the polar oceans sink
and flow southward toward the equator.
Warm surface waters from the tropics are drawn northward
and keep the conveyor moving.
The problem is that now at the poles,
the seawater is warming and the polar ice
made of freshwater is melting and mixing into the ocean,
causing it to be less salty.
These two things are reducing the ability of the conveyor
to drive the ocean currents.
One well-known current within the ocean conveyor
is called the Gulf Stream.
- The Gulf Stream, it starts in the Gulf of Mexico
and there's a place where we've got lots of heat,
and that current is migrating north eastward
up to England and way higher.
And then the water is going down because it's getting colder
close to the Greenland and then sinking.
And that sinking is enabling that circulation.
- Which actually explains why this northernmost part
of Europe remains ice free even in the middle of the winter.
- [Narrator] Now as the Arctic is warming,
the Earth's temperature differential becomes less.
- Because the poles have become warmer
and even moreso than the tropics.
So you need to transfer less heat
to balance these two systems.
And of course, this means that ultimately,
the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic
and the other ocean currents can start slowing down.
- It means that it will be warmer in the United States
and cooler in Europe, but way cooler.
- [Narrator] The Gulf Stream is part of what is called
the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, AMOC.
And we now believe it may be approaching a tipping point.
- I mean, there's this, I guess by now famous saying
that climate has always changed for the earth
or on Earth, and that is true.
But the AMOC has been stable for a very, very long time.
And in that sense, we humans are adapted to it
but not what just we humans, like the whole marine ecosystem
of the Atlantic is adapted to the current being there.
We know if it gets weaker,
this could enhance the sea level rise
at U.S. East Coast cities like New York or Boston.
A weaker AMOC is linked to enhanced storminess
over the North Atlantic,
so this could worsen winter storms for Northwestern Europe.
There also seem to be links to the AMOC
and the position of weather patterns
in the northern hemisphere.
Once we cross this tipping point,
there is no going back for a very, very long time.
(instrumental fanfare)
- How is the ocean able to produce
over half of the oxygen we breathe?
Well, the answer lies in marine photosynthesis.
From long kelp strands down to microscopic algae
and even some bacteria that can photosynthesize,
the ocean is full of life that creates life giving oxygen.
So with every breath you take, thank the ocean.
- As I said at the beginning of this program,
the greatest threat to the ocean
is the lack of awareness of its vital importance.
The only way we can fight that is through education.
- People here, they have a big gap of information.
They don't know much about climate change.
- The question now is, who believe in climate change?
Hands up, high, high, high.
Hands up, hands up.
- If you try to explain to someone here who's, you know,
like, lived in this environment their whole life
that giant icebergs are melting,
it's not something they can really picture
because, you know, it's an iceberg.
There's no icebergs here
and it's hard to imagine the magnitude of an iceberg
when you're on an island that's so small.
- [Narrator] First of all, we must realize
that every one of us on the planet
will suffer the consequences of this problem.
- I think what the world has got to understand
is we would be the first of the people
who would be dislocated as a result
of what is happening on climate change.
But I can guarantee you, we will not be the last.
- Then we must recognize that it will take every one of us
to solve it.
Like Mary, Boyan, Ben, Crystal
and so many others in this program,
we should do what we can on our own
and let our words, actions and energy
build the momentum for change we need
throughout our communities and governments,
in our own country and throughout the world.
- We know the solutions.
We have a set of solutions that are there.
It's not that we are going to go back in caveman time.
It just takes a transformation of our industry.
We should, for example,
stop subsidizing the fishing industry
so that the fleet will be reduced.
We should, of course, reduce our consumption of fishes
and get more protein from vegetables.
We should move into renewable energies.
Business could take on those solutions
and make a profitable economy.
But what is needed is this transition from this old economy
that has invested so much on fossil fuel
and do not want to change,
into this new era of renewable energy.
- [Narrator] Education will be the driving force
that moves the world to that new economy
and the new paradigm of protecting the ocean
instead of just taking from it.
And the facts are clear. We must do it now.
It was the uniquely human capability for problem solving
that brought us from cave dwellers to where we are today,
and that is what we must rely on to solve
the massive environmental challenges that we now face.
- The solution is in our hands, right?
We need to change our habit on land.
We need to change our behavior
because that impacts directly the state of the ocean.
- I remain optimistic because of the success
of our efforts and because of all the wonderful people
and the joy that they get by being part of this solution.
- [Boyan] Now, we can do this.
We have the technologies to solve it.
I'm pretty sure that it's going to happen.
- As human beings, we are fortunate to have inherited
this amazing planet with its wondrous ocean.
We must act now before it is too late
and put all our energy and creativity
toward preserving it for ourselves and our future.
Thank you for joining us.
(dramatic instrumental music)