WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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(intense electronic music)

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(haunting music)

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- [Jeff] I've got a question.

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How long do you think we humans have?

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- How long does the human race have?

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- Ooh.

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- Um.

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- Oh, wow.

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- I don't exactly know, but might be soon.

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- I have no clue.

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- [Jeff] No? (laughing)

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- I hope I get me at least
50 more years. (laughing)

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- I think there's infinite amount of time.

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- Infinite.

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It's infinite, yeah.

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- I give us a million.

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A million years.

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- Being kind, I would say
probably about 10 years.

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- 10, 12 years.

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- Thousands of years.

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- 47 years, three months, five days.

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It's approximate.

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- We're kind of like
cockroaches on the planet,

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no matter how much damage we'll do,

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enough of us will survive to
procreate and keep it going.

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- Unless we can get to another planet,

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but then we're just gonna
fuck it up like we did Earth.

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- Well, I think that we will be here

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for a long time, but we will change.

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We're gonna turn back into apes.

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(suspenseful dramatic music)

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- [Jeff] Have you ever
wondered what would happen

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if a single species took
over an entire planet?

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Maybe they're cute, maybe they're clever

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but lack a certain,

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shall we say,

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self-restraint?

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(somber dramatic music)

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What if they go too far?

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What if they go way, way, way,

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way, way too far?

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(somber dramatic music)

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How would they know when
it's their time to go?

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(intriguing orchestral music)

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(intensifying orchestral music)

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(music fading)

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(old-timey music)

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- Due to our release through factories

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and automobiles every year

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of more than six billion
tons of carbon dioxide,

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our atmosphere seems to be getting warmer.

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- This is bad?

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- Well, it's been calculated
a few degrees rise

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in the Earth's temperature
would melt the polar ice caps.

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(crashing ice into water)

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And if this happens, an inland
sea would fill a good portion

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of the Mississippi valley.

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Foreign weather, we're not
only dealing with forces

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of a far greater variety

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than even the atomic
physicists encounters,

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but with life itself.

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(piano synthesizer music)

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- [Jeff] That was 1958.

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We've known about the dangers

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of climate change for six decades.

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Back then, there was so much air pollution

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it would actually block out the sun.

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There was so much water
pollution, rivers caught on fire.

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(synthesizer music)

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Forget throwing plastic
bottles into the water,

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we tossed our cars in there.

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We also knew someday we'd run out of oil.

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- For millions of Americans,

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this may be the worst
weekend they've ever faced

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for finding gasoline to give
them the automobile freedom

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they take as their due.

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- [Jeff] I never doubted
humans would find a better way

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and I wanted to be part of it.

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A scientist sounded the alarm

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and the modern environmental
movement was born.

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- Unless we do bring these
chemicals under better control,

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we are certainly headed for disaster.

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- [Jeff] Students all across the country

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organized the first Earth Day.

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- This point in time, it's
very, very fashionable

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to talk about the environment

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but as everyday procedure, find very,

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very little concrete being done.

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- [Jeff] As for me, you might say

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I was an early environmentalist.

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When I was nine years old,

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a bulldozer began knocking
down the woods near my home.

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I retaliated by putting
sand in its gas tank.

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(mellowly dramatic music)

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When I grew up, I became
a tree hugger and moved

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to the wilds of Northern Michigan

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to build a sustainable homestead
and commune with nature.

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I wired my cabin for solar panels

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and heated with wood
instead of fossil fuels.

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I wrote about sustainable living

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in environmental issues
for the Mother Earth News

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and several news outlets.

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(mellow singing)

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I traveled the country
documenting invasive species.

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(banging and clunking)

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(buzzing) Ecosystem collapse.

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(eerie music)

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And species threatened with extinction.

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- (tapping) Come on, girls, boys.

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(crowd chanting)

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- I covered protests against
destroying mountains for coal.

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(people shouting and clapping)

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And was once even
confronted by the BP police.

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(car tires crunching)

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- Journalist.
- You're a journalist?

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- [Jeff] Yep, yep, yeah.

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- By all means, you can take
all the pictures you want.

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- [Jeff] Okay.

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- We'll write in our report
and then we have to send it

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to the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys Office.

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They'll call you.

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(traffic whizzing)

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(slamming)

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- [Jeff] Through all of
this, I kept wondering,

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why are we still addicted to fossil fuels?

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So I decided to begin following
the green energy movement.

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(mild rock music)

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What better place to check out

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how our renewable energy
revolution is coming along,

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than a solar festival

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in the Green Mountain state of Vermont.

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Powered by 100% solar energy.

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(bass guitar and guitar music)

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- Solar. (laughing)

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- [Jeff] I was having fun.

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And got a chance to ask

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about getting solar panels installed.

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- You can keep adding, so maybe every time

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you get a tax return,
buy another solar panel?

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(singing rock music)

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- [Jeff] But then, a
little rain began to fall.

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(rock band playing and singing)

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♪ Packed up my guitar ♪

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♪ Headed to the nearest bowling alley ♪

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My camera man noticed some
commotion behind the stage.

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(thudding)

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- [Jeff] What'd you guys set up here?

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- This is for biodiesel generators

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in case we lose power due to the rain.

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- [Jeff] So the festival's going

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on solar energy, primarily?

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- Primarily.

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We do need to bring some of this stuff

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in just 'cause we want to make sure

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we have enough power not
to kill our fancy toys

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that we have lighting the stage.

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- [Jeff] Right.

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- But the biofuel generator wasn't enough,

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so they wound up plugging

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into the electrical grid that we all use.

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- The other inverter operating,

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it's actually pulling
power in from the grid,

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charging the batteries.

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(background chatter)

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It's running backwards from the way

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we originally intended to do it, but.

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(guitar music)

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- [Jeff] That was disappointing.

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(singing)

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But after all, it had been raining.

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Maybe next time things would go better.

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(mellow rock music)

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Luckily for us, hope was on the way.

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- It's been a long time
comin' but tonight,

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change has come to America.

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(crowd cheering)

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(guitar music)

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- [Jeff] Green activists
across the country cheered

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when newly elected
president, Barack Obama,

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rolled out a trillion
dollar stimulus package

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with nearly 100 billion
dollars for green energy.

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(guitar strumming and people chanting)

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Green was finally ramping up

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and everyone wanted to be part of it.

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President Obama brought in
environmental activist Van Jones,

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from the Apollo Alliance,
with shovel ready projects.

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- They've gotta put up tens
of thousands of wind farms,

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they gotta put up
millions of solar panels.

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- [Jeff] Former Vice President Al Gore,

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who had a few years earlier
released an Oscar winning film,

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shared his ideas with the president.

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- We have the opportunity now

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to create jobs all across this country,

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in all 50 states, to re-power America.

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- [Jeff] Al Gore had already encouraged

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billionaire airline owner,
Sir Richard Branson,

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to invest big-time in green energy.

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- Branson is pledging future
profits from his airline

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to the tune of perhaps
three billion dollars.

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Three billion, that's with a
B, to fight global warming!

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- Is Al Gore a prophet?

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(laughing)

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- Ah, um, ah, how do you
spell "prophet?" (laughing)

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(all laughing)

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- [Jeff] Investors came forward.

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- [Newswoman] Investor Vinod
Khosla, known as the father

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of the clean tech revolution,

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has poured over a billion
dollars of his own money

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into some fifty energy startups.

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- [Jeff] Major banks were
eager to get involved.

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- By 2020, we think,
renewables will require

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395 billion on an annual basis.

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- [Jeff] Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.,

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was both on the board of major
environmental organizations

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and was leading a green
energy investment group.

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- We build wind farms,
we build solar farms,

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once you build our plant,
it's free energy forever.

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(calm music)

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- [Jeff] The Sierra Club
received 50 million dollars

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from billionaire and
former New York City mayor,

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Michael Bloomberg.

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Their mission?

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Fight coal and promote clean energy.

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- So with the mayor's gift,
here's what will happen.

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We'll have a large and
aggressive presence in 46 states.

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- It's time for America
to find a new energy path.

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One that takes us beyond coal.

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- So funny--

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- [Jeff] And then Bill McKibben,

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one of the nation's
leading environmentalists

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and author of a breakthrough book called

00:11:15.457 --> 00:11:17.070
"The End of Nature,"

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formed an organization called 350.org

00:11:19.890 --> 00:11:23.378
with the mission of igniting
a global climate movement.

00:11:23.378 --> 00:11:24.612
(calming music)

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- Can I show off my necktie for a minute

00:11:26.990 --> 00:11:28.710
'cause they made it for me yesterday.

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It's got that 350 on it

00:11:30.200 --> 00:11:33.540
'cause it's the most
important number in the world.

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- [Jeff] Things were looking up.

00:11:35.350 --> 00:11:37.943
And the green energy
revolution was under way.

00:11:38.885 --> 00:11:40.240
(wind blowing)

00:11:40.240 --> 00:11:43.150
Michigan had been hit hard
by the Great Recession

00:11:43.150 --> 00:11:44.720
and hundreds of millions of dollars

00:11:44.720 --> 00:11:47.240
in green stimulus money was arriving.

00:11:47.240 --> 00:11:50.710
Now, to do their part for
the new green economy,

00:11:50.710 --> 00:11:54.330
General Motors introduced a
new line of electric vehicles.

00:11:54.330 --> 00:11:56.290
When the Chevy Volt was ready for release,

00:11:56.290 --> 00:11:57.990
I attended their press conference.

00:11:59.150 --> 00:12:01.760
- So, these electric vehicles are ready

00:12:01.760 --> 00:12:04.740
for public consumption and we're ready

00:12:04.740 --> 00:12:06.510
with the infrastructure, with the rates,

00:12:06.510 --> 00:12:08.000
with the communications.

00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:10.800
- I am extremely grateful to
be here today and in fact,

00:12:10.800 --> 00:12:13.970
this is a chance for me to
say, thank you, more formally.

00:12:13.970 --> 00:12:15.440
The Chevy Volt is upstairs.

00:12:15.440 --> 00:12:17.076
We'll be able to take a look at it.

00:12:17.076 --> 00:12:18.440
(banging metal)

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- [Woman] We got about 1,000 photos.

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- [Jeff] Yeah.

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- Here is the plug.

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(crowd laughing)

00:12:26.266 --> 00:12:27.099
(clicking)

00:12:27.099 --> 00:12:29.016
It's as simple as that.

00:12:29.851 --> 00:12:31.470
- [Jeff] The batteries are in the trunk?

00:12:31.470 --> 00:12:35.440
- No, the battery in this
particular design is a T-shape,

00:12:35.440 --> 00:12:39.868
right down the center and
across the backseat area.

00:12:39.868 --> 00:12:41.850
(group talking)

00:12:41.850 --> 00:12:44.382
'Cause everybody thought we
killed the electric vehicle.

00:12:44.382 --> 00:12:45.957
No, we didn't.

00:12:45.957 --> 00:12:47.560
It's alive and well.

00:12:47.560 --> 00:12:50.365
- [Jeff] So, what's charging
the batteries right now?

00:12:50.365 --> 00:12:51.198
What's the source of electricity?

00:12:51.198 --> 00:12:53.090
- Well, here, it's
coming from the building.

00:12:53.090 --> 00:12:55.582
- [Jeff] I mean, is it,
what's our mix of power?

00:12:55.582 --> 00:12:58.300
- Oh, actually, Lansing
feeds the building.

00:12:58.300 --> 00:12:59.133
- [Jeff] What's that?

00:12:59.133 --> 00:13:00.866
- Lansing feeds power to the building.

00:13:00.866 --> 00:13:03.088
So, I don't know--

00:13:03.088 --> 00:13:04.560
- [Jeff] They're--

00:13:04.560 --> 00:13:05.880
- I betcha they're a bit of coal?

00:13:05.880 --> 00:13:08.906
I think they're heavy on
natural gas, aren't they?

00:13:08.906 --> 00:13:10.940
- [Jeff] Right now, the
car's charging off your grid?

00:13:10.940 --> 00:13:12.090
- Right.

00:13:12.090 --> 00:13:17.090
It would be charging off our
grid, which is about 95% coal.

00:13:18.411 --> 00:13:19.369
- [Jeff] How long do you think it will be

00:13:19.369 --> 00:13:23.190
before there's a solar
and wind powered grid?

00:13:23.190 --> 00:13:24.023
- Oh, golly.

00:13:24.023 --> 00:13:26.580
- To suggest that all of the power used

00:13:26.580 --> 00:13:30.353
for these cars will be
generated from wind and solar,

00:13:31.200 --> 00:13:34.270
in the very near future,
would not be correct.

00:13:34.270 --> 00:13:36.320
In fact, these, we're talking
about charging these up

00:13:36.320 --> 00:13:39.080
at night, so there won't
be any solar at that time.

00:13:39.080 --> 00:13:40.770
So, we're down to wind and very often,

00:13:40.770 --> 00:13:42.563
at night, the wind does fall off.

00:13:43.690 --> 00:13:46.757
- I don't think coal is bad.

00:13:46.757 --> 00:13:47.590
The what?
- The big val--

00:13:47.590 --> 00:13:48.423
Mountain top removal.

00:13:48.423 --> 00:13:49.256
- Oh, mount...

00:13:49.256 --> 00:13:50.089
Oh yeah, oh yeah. (laughing)

00:13:50.089 --> 00:13:51.590
- [Jeff] Yeah.

00:13:51.590 --> 00:13:55.193
- It's got lovely BTUs, it's
got lovely energy value.

00:13:56.260 --> 00:13:58.743
How do you burn it more cleanly?

00:14:00.030 --> 00:14:02.650
I mean, do you see natural
gas getting bashed?

00:14:02.650 --> 00:14:05.220
- We will be delivering power based

00:14:05.220 --> 00:14:07.260
on natural gas very shortly.

00:14:07.260 --> 00:14:12.260
And even with that mix, we
intend to use biofuels if we can.

00:14:12.760 --> 00:14:14.513
- [Jeff] Have you gotten any support?

00:14:14.513 --> 00:14:16.750
- Oh, the environment groups
are extremely supportive.

00:14:16.750 --> 00:14:19.140
- We did install the
state's largest solar array

00:14:19.140 --> 00:14:21.030
at my company, The Board
of Water and Lights,

00:14:21.030 --> 00:14:22.916
just down the street from here a few miles

00:14:22.916 --> 00:14:24.020
if you want to take a look at it.

00:14:24.020 --> 00:14:26.510
What outfit are you with?

00:14:26.510 --> 00:14:27.920
- [Jeff] New World Media,
we're doing a segment

00:14:27.920 --> 00:14:28.850
on the renewable energy.

00:14:28.850 --> 00:14:30.021
- Oh, excuse, I gotta go for a second.

00:14:30.021 --> 00:14:30.854
- [Jeff] Okay, sure.

00:14:30.854 --> 00:14:31.937
- Thanks.

00:14:31.937 --> 00:14:34.770
(people chatting)

00:14:35.770 --> 00:14:37.650
- [Jeff] I decided to
take him up on his offer

00:14:37.650 --> 00:14:40.580
to check out their football
field sized solar array

00:14:40.580 --> 00:14:41.680
right down the street.

00:14:43.490 --> 00:14:45.200
- What we're trying to do
with this kind of a tour is,

00:14:45.200 --> 00:14:46.770
get a sense for what they've already done,

00:14:46.770 --> 00:14:48.450
as an indication of what we could do

00:14:48.450 --> 00:14:50.150
to push the envelope even further.

00:14:51.420 --> 00:14:55.400
- We took a hard look at
wind and determined that,

00:14:55.400 --> 00:14:58.670
around here, there's not really
any real good wind coming

00:14:58.670 --> 00:14:59.840
through all the time.

00:14:59.840 --> 00:15:01.450
That's what we liked about solar.

00:15:01.450 --> 00:15:04.470
You would get the power
when you most needed it.

00:15:04.470 --> 00:15:06.130
Pass these around, look at 'em.

00:15:06.130 --> 00:15:07.760
They are pliable.

00:15:07.760 --> 00:15:10.270
Made in Michigan, that
was another good thing.

00:15:10.270 --> 00:15:11.610
Although, the efficiency

00:15:11.610 --> 00:15:14.813
of these panels is only
about, just under 8%.

00:15:16.907 --> 00:15:18.740
If you happen to be NASA and you happen

00:15:18.740 --> 00:15:20.530
to own a rover running around Mars,

00:15:20.530 --> 00:15:22.700
they have very efficient panels.

00:15:22.700 --> 00:15:24.260
But, we can't afford those

00:15:24.260 --> 00:15:26.640
at about a million dollars a square inch.

00:15:26.640 --> 00:15:27.640
- [Jeff] How many homes would

00:15:27.640 --> 00:15:29.950
this array provide electricity for?

00:15:29.950 --> 00:15:31.403
- The standard answer
that we tell everybody is,

00:15:31.403 --> 00:15:32.610
that we're providing enough

00:15:32.610 --> 00:15:35.330
to meet the peak requirements of 50 homes.

00:15:35.330 --> 00:15:38.270
However, for most of the people that look

00:15:38.270 --> 00:15:39.240
at it a little bit closer,

00:15:39.240 --> 00:15:43.330
we generate about 63, 64
thousand kilowatt hours a year.

00:15:43.330 --> 00:15:44.770
Our average customer uses

00:15:44.770 --> 00:15:47.094
about six thousand kilowatt hours a year.

00:15:47.094 --> 00:15:49.833
Six thousand into 64, it's
just a little over 10.

00:15:50.680 --> 00:15:53.223
We can meet the energy
requirements for 10 homes.

00:15:54.390 --> 00:15:55.679
Over a year.

00:15:55.679 --> 00:15:57.060
(traffic humming)

00:15:57.060 --> 00:16:00.763
- Will that be an incentive
to put more solar on?

00:16:01.800 --> 00:16:03.220
- Well, if you wanted to make all

00:16:03.220 --> 00:16:07.520
of the energy required for the
city of Lansing over a year?

00:16:07.520 --> 00:16:08.353
- Well, how about--

00:16:08.353 --> 00:16:09.820
- You'd have a solar array

00:16:09.820 --> 00:16:11.690
that was three miles by five miles.

00:16:11.690 --> 00:16:12.523
- Right.

00:16:12.523 --> 00:16:13.356
But--
- We're not gonna do that.

00:16:13.356 --> 00:16:15.840
- But, but, I mean.
(woman's voice fades out)

00:16:15.840 --> 00:16:18.030
- [Jeff] My friend from
the Sierra Club wanted him

00:16:18.030 --> 00:16:21.423
to be more positive, but
he was not interested.

00:16:22.658 --> 00:16:25.580
(wind blowing)

00:16:25.580 --> 00:16:28.570
As a consequence of the
big push for green energy,

00:16:28.570 --> 00:16:30.920
wind farms were arising around the nation,

00:16:30.920 --> 00:16:33.120
including near my home
in northern Michigan.

00:16:34.340 --> 00:16:35.333
- We've done coal and nuclear for years.

00:16:35.333 --> 00:16:38.760
We've been trying to get in
more into the renewable side.

00:16:38.760 --> 00:16:40.940
These are the largest in Michigan,

00:16:40.940 --> 00:16:43.240
I think it's 482 foot total.

00:16:43.240 --> 00:16:44.137
- [Jeff] How many yards of concrete?

00:16:44.137 --> 00:16:46.750
- [John] It was 800 yards
of concrete in the base,

00:16:46.750 --> 00:16:49.470
right around 140 tons of resteel.

00:16:49.470 --> 00:16:50.770
- [Jeff] What are those
blades made out of?

00:16:50.770 --> 00:16:52.450
- That's all fiberglass and balsam.

00:16:52.450 --> 00:16:54.835
They're about 36,000 pounds a piece.

00:16:54.835 --> 00:16:58.800
This tower will weigh 800,000
pounds when we're done.

00:16:58.800 --> 00:17:01.270
Then the cell is 220,000 pounds

00:17:01.270 --> 00:17:03.830
and the hub rotor assembly is another 160.

00:17:03.830 --> 00:17:05.655
It's pretty substantial.

00:17:05.655 --> 00:17:08.031
(wind blowing)

00:17:08.031 --> 00:17:10.239
- [Jeff] They were impressive machines.

00:17:10.239 --> 00:17:12.330
(wind blowing)

00:17:12.330 --> 00:17:14.470
But is it possible for machines made

00:17:14.470 --> 00:17:15.980
by industrial civilization

00:17:16.990 --> 00:17:19.653
to save us from industrial civilization?

00:17:20.582 --> 00:17:23.165
(wind blowing)

00:17:26.017 --> 00:17:27.690
(group talking together)

00:17:27.690 --> 00:17:29.840
In environmental leader
Bill McKibben's home state

00:17:29.840 --> 00:17:32.530
of Vermont, the Green Mountain state,

00:17:32.530 --> 00:17:33.630
a site was being cleared

00:17:33.630 --> 00:17:36.120
for the installation of wind turbines.

00:17:36.120 --> 00:17:37.830
A group of citizens was concerned

00:17:37.830 --> 00:17:38.960
about how the construction

00:17:38.960 --> 00:17:40.810
might affect the mountains they love.

00:17:41.800 --> 00:17:43.550
I joined them for a tour.

00:17:43.550 --> 00:17:45.290
- It's going to be 21 turbines.

00:17:45.290 --> 00:17:46.230
- [Group] 21?

00:17:46.230 --> 00:17:47.950
- Yeah.
- On this project?

00:17:47.950 --> 00:17:49.900
- In this project, yeah.

00:17:49.900 --> 00:17:54.003
The estimate was maybe there
would be three full-time jobs.

00:17:54.960 --> 00:17:57.310
- If the goal is to try
to make Vermont the leader

00:17:57.310 --> 00:17:59.920
in climate change, I appreciate looking

00:17:59.920 --> 00:18:02.379
to the sky in the hopes we can do that.

00:18:02.379 --> 00:18:05.060
But more importantly,
I'm personally looking

00:18:05.060 --> 00:18:07.480
at the ground thinking, this
is not the kind of legacy

00:18:07.480 --> 00:18:08.887
I want to leave to my kids.

00:18:08.887 --> 00:18:11.660
When I was a kid we'd go
hiking in these woods,

00:18:11.660 --> 00:18:13.530
we would be able to drink from the waters

00:18:13.530 --> 00:18:16.493
down the hill here, and now
you have to question that.

00:18:18.378 --> 00:18:20.290
- [Jeff] And how long are
these towers supposed to last?

00:18:20.290 --> 00:18:21.860
- [Man] 20-something years, 20--

00:18:21.860 --> 00:18:24.460
- I know, it's just a nanosecond.

00:18:24.460 --> 00:18:25.293
- [Jeff] 20 years?

00:18:25.293 --> 00:18:27.617
- Oh, it's a nanosecond
in the time of energy.

00:18:28.646 --> 00:18:29.479
- [Jeff] Has anybody considered

00:18:29.479 --> 00:18:32.220
that this is mountain top
removal for wind instead of coal?

00:18:32.220 --> 00:18:33.937
- Yeah, and we've even had people say,

00:18:33.937 --> 00:18:36.247
"If you can do mountain top removal

00:18:36.247 --> 00:18:39.407
"in Kentucky and West Virginia for coal,

00:18:39.407 --> 00:18:42.057
"then it's about time the
rest of the country shared

00:18:42.057 --> 00:18:44.037
"in mountain top removal, too."

00:18:45.047 --> 00:18:45.880
Uh-oh.

00:18:46.885 --> 00:18:47.968
- [Jeff] You think he's
gonna tell us to move out?

00:18:47.968 --> 00:18:48.801
- [Man In Hat] Probably.

00:18:48.801 --> 00:18:49.840
The thing is that you've got

00:18:49.840 --> 00:18:53.760
to have a fossil fuel
power plant backing it up

00:18:53.760 --> 00:18:55.980
and idling 100% of the time.

00:18:55.980 --> 00:18:58.260
Because if you cycle up or cycle down,

00:18:58.260 --> 00:19:01.070
as the demand on the wind comes through,

00:19:01.070 --> 00:19:03.850
then you actually generate
a bigger carbon footprint

00:19:03.850 --> 00:19:05.700
than if you just ran it straight.

00:19:05.700 --> 00:19:06.817
- [Jeff] Do you ever go to
things where they just go,

00:19:06.817 --> 00:19:07.717
"That's not true.

00:19:07.717 --> 00:19:10.800
"It doesn't matter, we're
gonna have a smart grid."

00:19:10.800 --> 00:19:12.669
- Doesn't make any
difference, they still gotta--

00:19:12.669 --> 00:19:13.650
- They're using it.
- Have it idling.

00:19:13.650 --> 00:19:18.160
Because, let's just say
the wind stopped right now.

00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:20.160
Just stopped for an hour.

00:19:20.160 --> 00:19:21.620
You've got to have that power.

00:19:21.620 --> 00:19:22.637
- [Jeff] What do you do?

00:19:22.637 --> 00:19:24.860
- I'm an environmental
health and safety consultant.

00:19:24.860 --> 00:19:27.450
I usually work with businesses
to help them do things,

00:19:27.450 --> 00:19:30.951
but I would never work
with scum like this.

00:19:30.951 --> 00:19:33.384
(leaves crunching)

00:19:33.384 --> 00:19:35.623
- You didn't get me on
camera doing this, did ya?

00:19:36.550 --> 00:19:39.930
Not being judgmental
or trying to play God,

00:19:39.930 --> 00:19:43.380
but we've got to deal
with population growth

00:19:43.380 --> 00:19:47.520
and sustainable resources,
we've all gotta cut back.

00:19:47.520 --> 00:19:50.830
All this energy's supposedly
going to heat a water park.

00:19:50.830 --> 00:19:54.500
We can find unique and
different ways to waste energy.

00:19:54.500 --> 00:19:56.600
This is not a Vermont company.

00:19:56.600 --> 00:20:00.480
Green Mountain Power will
be bought out by Gaz Metro

00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:03.840
and Gaz Metro is owned by
Enbridge, as I understand it,

00:20:03.840 --> 00:20:08.700
which is a big resource company in Canada

00:20:08.700 --> 00:20:10.438
which is exploiting the PowerSands

00:20:10.438 --> 00:20:12.343
that wants to build the XL pipeline.

00:20:13.700 --> 00:20:14.627
See, it's--

00:20:14.627 --> 00:20:18.170
- [Woman] And they're all in bed together.

00:20:18.170 --> 00:20:20.080
- Still we don't know the whole story.

00:20:20.080 --> 00:20:22.090
- [Jeff] Have you asked Mr.
McKibben to come see this?

00:20:22.090 --> 00:20:25.080
- He thinks anything renewable is good.

00:20:25.080 --> 00:20:25.913
- [Jeff] Yeah.

00:20:25.913 --> 00:20:27.133
- So that's what I've heard people say.

00:20:27.133 --> 00:20:29.716
(wind blowing)

00:20:32.341 --> 00:20:35.091
(up tempo music)

00:20:38.950 --> 00:20:40.750
- [Jeff] I am in a strange position.

00:20:41.960 --> 00:20:44.879
I'm against our addiction to fossil fuels

00:20:44.879 --> 00:20:47.113
and have long been a fan of green energy.

00:20:48.129 --> 00:20:49.090
(crowd talking)

00:20:49.090 --> 00:20:51.283
But everywhere I encountered green energy,

00:20:52.270 --> 00:20:53.823
it wasn't what it seemed.

00:20:54.900 --> 00:20:58.480
- This is like a perpetual energy battery.

00:20:58.480 --> 00:20:59.830
- [Jeff] And where do you
get the hydrogen from?

00:20:59.830 --> 00:21:03.620
- The hydrogen that's in,
the hydrogen is sourced

00:21:03.620 --> 00:21:06.360
from any hydrocarbon material.

00:21:06.360 --> 00:21:10.970
So, you can get it from
natural gas, you can get it

00:21:10.970 --> 00:21:14.243
from any petroleum oil based product.

00:21:15.630 --> 00:21:16.810
- [Jeff] I read about a zoo that was said

00:21:16.810 --> 00:21:18.460
to be powered by elephant manure.

00:21:20.024 --> 00:21:21.020
But it turned out the elephants

00:21:21.020 --> 00:21:24.680
didn't even produce enough
manure to heat the elephant barn.

00:21:24.680 --> 00:21:25.690
- Yeah, we don't even really make enough

00:21:25.690 --> 00:21:28.860
and what we had, elephant
wise, couldn't even do that.

00:21:28.860 --> 00:21:29.884
We would need a lot more.

00:21:29.884 --> 00:21:30.954
- [Jeff] More elephants?

00:21:30.954 --> 00:21:31.900
- [Zoo Keeper] Yep, (woman
laughing) more elephants

00:21:31.900 --> 00:21:32.733
or manure.

00:21:33.980 --> 00:21:35.440
- [Jeff] Ethanol plants also seem

00:21:35.440 --> 00:21:37.250
to have a secret ingredient.

00:21:37.250 --> 00:21:39.780
- This is the most productive
farmland in the world

00:21:39.780 --> 00:21:42.900
and we're not that far west
of the biggest coal mines

00:21:42.900 --> 00:21:43.733
in the world, as well.

00:21:43.733 --> 00:21:46.563
So, bring the two together
and have an ethanol plant.

00:21:47.520 --> 00:21:51.280
- [Jeff] Great, so ethanol
was reliant on two things.

00:21:51.280 --> 00:21:54.760
A giant, fossil fuel based,
industrial agricultural system

00:21:54.760 --> 00:21:58.430
to produce corn and
even more fossil fuels,

00:21:58.430 --> 00:21:59.653
in the form of coal.

00:22:00.530 --> 00:22:04.173
All of this in the attempt
to replace fossil fuels?

00:22:05.840 --> 00:22:07.833
It was enough to make my head explode.

00:22:09.444 --> 00:22:11.090
(pulsating music)

00:22:11.090 --> 00:22:12.850
I was getting the uneasy feeling

00:22:12.850 --> 00:22:15.083
that green energy was
not going to save us.

00:22:16.058 --> 00:22:18.000
And I wasn't the only one.

00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:19.040
- I've counted something

00:22:19.040 --> 00:22:21.930
like 25 different
alternative energy options.

00:22:21.930 --> 00:22:24.037
So surely, among all of those,

00:22:24.037 --> 00:22:26.580
there are enough sources

00:22:26.580 --> 00:22:29.050
of energy to keep us living basically

00:22:29.050 --> 00:22:30.743
the way we are in perpetuity.

00:22:31.670 --> 00:22:32.820
That's not the reality.

00:22:33.660 --> 00:22:36.480
Currently, we're getting, in some cases,

00:22:36.480 --> 00:22:38.883
no energy from these potential options.

00:22:39.760 --> 00:22:42.100
- [Jeff] Richard York, of
the University of Oregon,

00:22:42.100 --> 00:22:44.370
published a study in the Journal of Nature

00:22:44.370 --> 00:22:47.747
in which he posed a question,
"Do non-fossil energy sources

00:22:47.747 --> 00:22:50.090
"actually replace fossil fuels?"

00:22:50.090 --> 00:22:51.930
- What we implicitly assume, often,

00:22:51.930 --> 00:22:54.610
the substitute pushes out

00:22:54.610 --> 00:22:56.823
the thing you want it to substitute for.

00:22:56.823 --> 00:22:58.540
What you find is,

00:22:58.540 --> 00:23:02.830
nations that add non-fossil
energy sources do not seem

00:23:02.830 --> 00:23:05.980
to see a particular
suppression of fossil fuels.

00:23:05.980 --> 00:23:07.420
- [Jeff] That's pretty mind blowing.

00:23:07.420 --> 00:23:09.380
You've got billions of
dollars beings spent

00:23:09.380 --> 00:23:12.210
and green energy is not
even replacing fossil fuels?

00:23:12.210 --> 00:23:14.820
- They don't even know that
that's a question, yes.

00:23:15.660 --> 00:23:19.810
- The story that we're
in, right now, is okay,

00:23:19.810 --> 00:23:21.960
we're in ecological hot water,

00:23:21.960 --> 00:23:23.900
but there are technological fixes

00:23:23.900 --> 00:23:25.790
and if we're just creative enough,

00:23:25.790 --> 00:23:27.520
if we're just ingenious enough

00:23:27.520 --> 00:23:30.640
and if we just work hard
enough, we will triumph.

00:23:30.640 --> 00:23:33.860
Seeking technological
fixes, one after another,

00:23:33.860 --> 00:23:37.600
is simply going to lead
us to another level

00:23:37.600 --> 00:23:40.630
of catastrophe sooner rather than later.

00:23:40.630 --> 00:23:43.550
- We wanna believe that these
things are gonna be available

00:23:43.550 --> 00:23:46.580
for us, so if we get a little worried

00:23:46.580 --> 00:23:50.770
and somebody comes up with
a new thingy and promises

00:23:50.770 --> 00:23:55.770
that this will do it for
us, we wanna believe it.

00:23:56.389 --> 00:23:59.833
(guitar strums)

00:23:59.833 --> 00:24:01.833
- [Jeff] Because we're a little worried,

00:24:02.900 --> 00:24:06.490
are we desperate to accept any
idea that sounds alternative?

00:24:06.490 --> 00:24:07.712
Or green?

00:24:07.712 --> 00:24:09.950
(guitar strumming)

00:24:09.950 --> 00:24:11.780
Are we avoiding looking too closely

00:24:12.720 --> 00:24:14.903
because we don't want to know the answer?

00:24:18.420 --> 00:24:21.320
Ozzie Zehner, a visiting
scholar at UC Berkeley

00:24:21.320 --> 00:24:24.690
and Northwestern
University was asking some

00:24:24.690 --> 00:24:26.083
of the same questions.

00:24:27.160 --> 00:24:28.710
- I mean, I thought that solar

00:24:28.710 --> 00:24:31.170
and wind were probably
very good solutions.

00:24:31.170 --> 00:24:32.700
It wasn't really even that long ago.

00:24:32.700 --> 00:24:36.450
One of the most dangerous
things right now is the illusion

00:24:36.450 --> 00:24:39.740
that alternative technologies,
like wind and solar,

00:24:39.740 --> 00:24:41.423
are somehow different from fossil fuels.

00:24:41.423 --> 00:24:43.930
What I hear a lot of times is solar cells

00:24:43.930 --> 00:24:44.960
are made out of sand.

00:24:44.960 --> 00:24:47.110
- [Announcer] Have you ever
thought about solar panels?

00:24:47.110 --> 00:24:48.030
The main ingredient

00:24:48.030 --> 00:24:50.400
that makes them work is silicon, or sand.

00:24:50.400 --> 00:24:51.266
- [Announcer] This is
the raw material chips

00:24:51.266 --> 00:24:53.940
are made of, sand.

00:24:53.940 --> 00:24:55.460
- They don't use sand at all.

00:24:55.460 --> 00:24:57.012
I'll show you what...

00:24:57.012 --> 00:24:59.080
(chair clicking)

00:24:59.080 --> 00:25:02.190
So, this is one of the ingredients,

00:25:02.190 --> 00:25:04.106
it's actually mined quartz.

00:25:04.106 --> 00:25:05.764
(rocks clattering)

00:25:05.764 --> 00:25:09.060
(rock exploding)

00:25:09.060 --> 00:25:11.100
- [Announcer] Spruce Pine, North Carolina,

00:25:11.100 --> 00:25:14.210
regarded as the finest
source of high purity quartz

00:25:14.210 --> 00:25:16.540
in the world, the semiconductor, solar

00:25:16.540 --> 00:25:18.880
and communication applications.

00:25:18.880 --> 00:25:21.530
- You can't use sand because
sand has too many impurities.

00:25:21.530 --> 00:25:24.250
So, you start with very
high quality quartz

00:25:24.250 --> 00:25:26.770
and a very high quality
coal, and then you put

00:25:26.770 --> 00:25:30.950
those two together into an
arc furnace and you melt them.

00:25:30.950 --> 00:25:33.240
- [Woman] The quartz is
then melted with coal

00:25:33.240 --> 00:25:38.140
in a large furnace at temperatures
of up to 1,800 degrees.

00:25:38.140 --> 00:25:40.090
- And so you need more coal to do that.

00:25:41.119 --> 00:25:42.830
I'll get another coal out.

00:25:42.830 --> 00:25:45.090
When we melt these together,

00:25:45.090 --> 00:25:47.080
we get silicon metal and carbon dioxide.

00:25:47.080 --> 00:25:48.410
The carbon dioxide just goes off

00:25:48.410 --> 00:25:49.260
and you got rid of the carbon

00:25:49.260 --> 00:25:51.180
and you're left with silicon metal.

00:25:51.180 --> 00:25:52.388
This is not clean coal. (laughing)

00:25:52.388 --> 00:25:54.260
- [Jeff] Not clean coal.

00:25:54.260 --> 00:25:56.110
Ozzie Zehner said it was an illusion

00:25:56.110 --> 00:26:00.380
that renewables were replacing
coal or any fossil fuel.

00:26:00.380 --> 00:26:03.480
Environmental groups continue
telling a different story.

00:26:03.480 --> 00:26:06.380
- We've already seen more than 25%

00:26:06.380 --> 00:26:10.170
of the U.S. coal fleet
has already either retired

00:26:10.170 --> 00:26:11.940
or is on a schedule to retire.

00:26:11.940 --> 00:26:14.290
- [Jeff] Coal plants were
closing, but Ozzie explained

00:26:14.290 --> 00:26:16.600
that well meaning people
were being misled.

00:26:16.600 --> 00:26:18.960
- NV Energy's now gonna go
ahead and shut down the plant

00:26:18.960 --> 00:26:19.793
and go with renewable.

00:26:19.793 --> 00:26:21.379
One of the largest solar plants

00:26:21.379 --> 00:26:23.390
and that's gonna happen right behind me.

00:26:23.390 --> 00:26:25.790
- Since you can't replace
a coal plant with solar,

00:26:25.790 --> 00:26:27.650
they're actually replacing the coal plant

00:26:27.650 --> 00:26:29.250
with two natural gas plants.

00:26:29.250 --> 00:26:31.060
And natural gas is a fossil fuel.

00:26:31.060 --> 00:26:33.970
This is the Las Vegas
Co-Gen natural gas plant.

00:26:33.970 --> 00:26:35.330
This is one of the facilities

00:26:35.330 --> 00:26:38.110
that's replacing the coal
plant that's being shut down.

00:26:38.110 --> 00:26:41.240
This is the Sun Peak generating facility.

00:26:41.240 --> 00:26:43.099
This is the second natural gas plant

00:26:43.099 --> 00:26:46.000
that was used to replace the coal plant.

00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:48.260
And you hear the same story in Iowa.

00:26:48.260 --> 00:26:50.250
- [Woman] Instead of
using energy generated

00:26:50.250 --> 00:26:51.917
by coal-fired power plants,

00:26:51.917 --> 00:26:53.650
the solar farm will now avoid

00:26:53.650 --> 00:26:57.020
about 2.1 million pounds
of carbon pollution.

00:26:57.020 --> 00:27:00.113
- But then they're building
a larger natural gas plant.

00:27:01.270 --> 00:27:04.270
This is a 650 megawatt natural gas plant.

00:27:04.270 --> 00:27:05.980
That's four times more megawatts

00:27:05.980 --> 00:27:09.410
than the coal plant over
there that it's replacing.

00:27:09.410 --> 00:27:11.360
And they're doing the same
thing in North Carolina,

00:27:11.360 --> 00:27:12.350
which was that subject

00:27:12.350 --> 00:27:15.210
of that Years of Living
Dangerously series.

00:27:15.210 --> 00:27:17.040
- Duke Energy operates a coal plant right

00:27:17.040 --> 00:27:19.300
outside of Asheville that
is the biggest source

00:27:19.300 --> 00:27:22.470
of climate pollution in
western North Carolina.

00:27:22.470 --> 00:27:24.340
And we are working to retire that plant

00:27:24.340 --> 00:27:25.620
and replace it with clean energy.

00:27:25.620 --> 00:27:26.700
- But what they don't tell you is

00:27:26.700 --> 00:27:29.670
that we're also building a
larger natural gas facility.

00:27:29.670 --> 00:27:34.140
- So, we'll be retiring a
two-unit 376 megawatt coal plant.

00:27:34.140 --> 00:27:36.800
We'll invest $750 million

00:27:36.800 --> 00:27:39.340
to build a state-of-the-art
natural gas plant.

00:27:39.340 --> 00:27:41.790
- When Michael Brune stands up
and talks about clean energy,

00:27:41.790 --> 00:27:43.390
he's using solar cells and wind turbines.

00:27:43.390 --> 00:27:44.910
- This is the new world.

00:27:44.910 --> 00:27:46.940
100% clean energy.

00:27:46.940 --> 00:27:48.327
- When Michael Bloomberg
stands up and says,

00:27:48.327 --> 00:27:51.070
"Cleaner energy," he's
talking about natural gas.

00:27:51.070 --> 00:27:55.340
- Create cleaner energy,
solar, wind and natural gas.

00:27:55.340 --> 00:27:57.810
- [Ozzie] In fact, the Sierra
Club's Beyond Coal campaign

00:27:57.810 --> 00:28:00.900
actually coincides with one
of the largest expansions

00:28:00.900 --> 00:28:03.320
of fossil fuel production
that we've ever pulled off.

00:28:03.320 --> 00:28:05.233
Most of that being natural gas.

00:28:06.420 --> 00:28:07.300
- [Jeff] Ozzie's assertion

00:28:07.300 --> 00:28:10.290
that renewables were not
replacing fossil fuels,

00:28:10.290 --> 00:28:12.950
if true, would upend
all of our assumptions

00:28:12.950 --> 00:28:15.603
about green energy and
what was going to save us.

00:28:17.022 --> 00:28:18.350
(tranquil piano music)

00:28:18.350 --> 00:28:20.510
What would happen if I
asked the same question

00:28:20.510 --> 00:28:22.053
to industry insiders?

00:28:23.280 --> 00:28:25.420
Like, where do solar panels come from?

00:28:25.420 --> 00:28:26.893
- Well, you do have to start with a mine.

00:28:26.893 --> 00:28:27.726
- [Jeff] Wait till you see my--

00:28:27.726 --> 00:28:29.370
(laughing)

00:28:29.370 --> 00:28:31.660
Or, what's stopping us
from running the world

00:28:31.660 --> 00:28:33.680
on 100% solar and wind?

00:28:33.680 --> 00:28:36.440
- Well, intermittency is
one of the major challenges.

00:28:36.440 --> 00:28:37.850
- Good stability.

00:28:37.850 --> 00:28:40.360
- The sun's everywhere,
except when it's not there.

00:28:40.360 --> 00:28:42.420
- There's a lot of
developers that were flocking

00:28:42.420 --> 00:28:45.370
to California, wanting to
connect their solar farms

00:28:45.370 --> 00:28:46.203
and wind farms.

00:28:46.203 --> 00:28:47.870
The utilities would turn to me and my team

00:28:47.870 --> 00:28:51.770
to help them look at what the
impact to their grid would be.

00:28:51.770 --> 00:28:52.860
- [Jeff] When we add solar cells

00:28:52.860 --> 00:28:54.000
or wind turbines to a grid,

00:28:54.000 --> 00:28:55.750
do we get to shut off a coal plant?

00:28:56.690 --> 00:28:58.790
- That's certainly the
goal, the problem is,

00:28:58.790 --> 00:29:01.780
or the difference is that
renewables are intermittent.

00:29:01.780 --> 00:29:03.990
All of the sudden, a cloud
cover could come over

00:29:03.990 --> 00:29:07.330
and your solar generation
could drastically decrease.

00:29:07.330 --> 00:29:08.760
And if you don't have something else there

00:29:08.760 --> 00:29:12.150
to meet whatever the
load is at that moment,

00:29:12.150 --> 00:29:14.300
then you're gonna have power outages.

00:29:14.300 --> 00:29:15.133
- [Jeff] So, we don't get

00:29:15.133 --> 00:29:17.000
to turn a fossil fuel power plant off

00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:19.140
when the sun is shining
or the wind is blowing?

00:29:19.140 --> 00:29:20.650
- Well, it's not that easy.

00:29:20.650 --> 00:29:23.360
We need to be able to back up that power

00:29:23.360 --> 00:29:26.570
to keep the system steady all the time

00:29:26.570 --> 00:29:28.190
so it doesn't collapse.

00:29:28.190 --> 00:29:32.400
Most likely that's through
fast-acting gas plants,

00:29:32.400 --> 00:29:35.210
but also what we call
the base load plants,

00:29:35.210 --> 00:29:37.630
either nuclear or coal
that are on all the time

00:29:37.630 --> 00:29:40.700
but that maybe can be
dialed down during the day

00:29:40.700 --> 00:29:44.270
and dialed up when demand starts rising.

00:29:44.270 --> 00:29:45.630
- [Jeff] Does it affect the efficiency

00:29:45.630 --> 00:29:48.180
to turn fossil fuel
power plants on and off?

00:29:48.180 --> 00:29:49.013
- Oh, yeah.

00:29:49.013 --> 00:29:51.300
They don't like to be dialed up and down.

00:29:51.300 --> 00:29:54.550
It does make, that's
wear and tear for them.

00:29:54.550 --> 00:29:58.300
- Turning them on, turning
it off, there's energy used

00:29:58.300 --> 00:29:59.810
and lost and any time,

00:29:59.810 --> 00:30:01.340
kind of like when you
turn on your car and off,

00:30:01.340 --> 00:30:02.410
you use a little extra gas

00:30:02.410 --> 00:30:03.720
to get it turned on.

00:30:03.720 --> 00:30:04.610
I do still think you have

00:30:04.610 --> 00:30:06.460
to maintain a base load of some kinds.

00:30:06.460 --> 00:30:07.700
- [Jeff] What's the solution then?

00:30:07.700 --> 00:30:08.960
- You need energy storage.

00:30:08.960 --> 00:30:12.160
- Without storage, you can't count on it.

00:30:12.160 --> 00:30:15.810
- If you can store the
energy that's created off

00:30:15.810 --> 00:30:19.210
of things that are intermittent
like solar and wind,

00:30:19.210 --> 00:30:22.460
you can store that, now
you're reducing your need

00:30:22.460 --> 00:30:23.560
for a base load.

00:30:23.560 --> 00:30:24.393
- [Jeff] But would adding storage

00:30:24.393 --> 00:30:27.070
like batteries increase
the carbon footprint?

00:30:27.070 --> 00:30:28.343
- Yeah, absolutely.

00:30:29.820 --> 00:30:31.130
In a big way, actually.

00:30:31.130 --> 00:30:33.503
And as more energy
storage gets on the grid,

00:30:34.720 --> 00:30:37.701
it has a mass scale implication.

00:30:37.701 --> 00:30:38.540
(piano music)

00:30:38.540 --> 00:30:40.130
- [Jeff] When I looked up
how much battery storage

00:30:40.130 --> 00:30:42.310
there is, it was less than one-tenth

00:30:42.310 --> 00:30:43.933
of one percent of what's needed.

00:30:44.900 --> 00:30:47.200
In a couple years, they begin to degrade

00:30:47.200 --> 00:30:49.343
and need to be replaced a few years later.

00:30:50.310 --> 00:30:53.130
I learned that the solar panels
don't last forever, either.

00:30:53.130 --> 00:30:55.960
- Some solar panels are
built to last only 10 years.

00:30:55.960 --> 00:31:00.530
So, it's not as if you get
this magic free energy.

00:31:00.530 --> 00:31:02.900
I don't know that it's the solution,

00:31:02.900 --> 00:31:07.360
and here I am helping
to sell the materials

00:31:07.360 --> 00:31:09.010
that would go into photovoltaics.

00:31:10.820 --> 00:31:12.890
- [Jeff] And so to overcome
profound limitations

00:31:12.890 --> 00:31:16.030
of solar and wind, rarely
discussed in the media,

00:31:16.030 --> 00:31:18.220
a new generation of technology was rising

00:31:18.220 --> 00:31:19.573
in the California desert.

00:31:20.790 --> 00:31:21.770
- [Woman] What is this?

00:31:21.770 --> 00:31:23.730
- What we're using is a field of mirrors

00:31:23.730 --> 00:31:26.140
to focus sunlight onto a tower.

00:31:26.140 --> 00:31:29.550
The power plant itself, at 377 megawatts,

00:31:29.550 --> 00:31:31.630
will be the largest of
its kind in the world.

00:31:31.630 --> 00:31:34.000
- This will become the biggest
solar plant in the world!

00:31:34.000 --> 00:31:35.133
(crowd clapping and cheering)

00:31:35.133 --> 00:31:37.633
There's some people that
look out in a dessert,

00:31:37.633 --> 00:31:40.780
they see miles and miles of emptiness.

00:31:40.780 --> 00:31:44.970
I see miles and miles of a gold mine.

00:31:44.970 --> 00:31:46.560
- [Jeff] But this next generation

00:31:46.560 --> 00:31:49.010
had a fossil fuel secret, too.

00:31:49.010 --> 00:31:51.250
- This solar facility burns
natural gas pretty much

00:31:51.250 --> 00:31:53.750
every morning in order
to get it started up.

00:31:53.750 --> 00:31:55.230
- [Jeff] How long do they
have to burn it for it?

00:31:55.230 --> 00:31:56.730
- Hours, usually.

00:31:56.730 --> 00:31:59.540
This is the incoming natural
gas for the facility.

00:31:59.540 --> 00:32:01.670
This plant would work about
as well without natural gas

00:32:01.670 --> 00:32:03.360
as I would without coffee
in the morning. (laughing)

00:32:03.360 --> 00:32:05.218
- [Jeff] Or maybe how you
would be without food.

00:32:05.218 --> 00:32:06.720
- Without food, yeah. (laughing)

00:32:06.720 --> 00:32:08.900
They have to file for acid rain permits,

00:32:08.900 --> 00:32:11.080
permits for nitrous oxide emissions,

00:32:11.080 --> 00:32:14.210
they have to apply for
carbon offset permits.

00:32:14.210 --> 00:32:16.210
Because they're producing
carbon dioxide here,

00:32:16.210 --> 00:32:17.690
so they have to offset that.

00:32:17.690 --> 00:32:20.260
The whole thing is built using
fossil fuel infrastructure,

00:32:20.260 --> 00:32:22.920
from the concrete to the
steel to the mirrors,

00:32:22.920 --> 00:32:24.600
to the backing on the mirrors.

00:32:24.600 --> 00:32:29.380
The sun is renewable, but
the solar arrays are not.

00:32:29.380 --> 00:32:30.213
- [Jeff] Oh, come on.

00:32:30.213 --> 00:32:31.460
There's got to be something renewable.

00:32:31.460 --> 00:32:32.740
Glass is renewable.

00:32:32.740 --> 00:32:33.710
- Glass. (laughing)

00:32:33.710 --> 00:32:34.960
Glass is not renewable.

00:32:34.960 --> 00:32:36.390
- [Jeff] Iron's renewable.

00:32:36.390 --> 00:32:38.220
(laughing)

00:32:38.220 --> 00:32:39.053
Aluminum?

00:32:39.053 --> 00:32:39.886
That's renewable.

00:32:39.886 --> 00:32:41.197
I recycle my soda cans.

00:32:41.197 --> 00:32:42.980
(laughing) I know it's renewable.

00:32:42.980 --> 00:32:44.830
- Yeah, the problem with
all of these materials is

00:32:44.830 --> 00:32:48.670
that it takes an incredible
amount of energy to mine

00:32:48.670 --> 00:32:51.080
and process all of the materials

00:32:51.080 --> 00:32:52.820
that go into building something like this.

00:32:52.820 --> 00:32:55.443
You use more fossil fuels to do this

00:32:55.443 --> 00:32:58.240
than you're getting benefit from it.

00:32:58.240 --> 00:33:00.030
You would have been better off
just burning the fossil fuels

00:33:00.030 --> 00:33:03.330
in the first place,
instead of playing pretend.

00:33:03.330 --> 00:33:04.670
- [Jeff] That green energy has nothing

00:33:04.670 --> 00:33:07.610
to do with fossil fuels
is apparently a story

00:33:07.610 --> 00:33:09.740
only meant for you and me.

00:33:09.740 --> 00:33:11.320
Here is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.,

00:33:11.320 --> 00:33:14.380
speaking to oil and gas company insiders.

00:33:14.380 --> 00:33:17.860
- It's a combination solar gas plant.

00:33:17.860 --> 00:33:20.270
It's a turbine that we
just take from a gas plant,

00:33:20.270 --> 00:33:22.780
suspend it from a big
scaffolding, a tower,

00:33:22.780 --> 00:33:25.120
and surround it by giant
mirrors in the desert.

00:33:25.120 --> 00:33:26.917
The plants that we're
building, the wind plants

00:33:26.917 --> 00:33:29.020
and the solar plants, are gas plants.

00:33:29.020 --> 00:33:31.170
- [Jeff] What kind of
game is being played?

00:33:32.310 --> 00:33:36.780
- Well (gusting wind) we're
basically just being fed a lie.

00:33:36.780 --> 00:33:37.920
For instance, you'll hear

00:33:37.920 --> 00:33:39.880
about Germany running on wind and solar.

00:33:39.880 --> 00:33:41.330
- 35% right now.

00:33:41.330 --> 00:33:43.310
- 50% of their power.

00:33:43.310 --> 00:33:45.230
- They were days this past summer

00:33:45.230 --> 00:33:46.980
when the Germans were generating 80%

00:33:46.980 --> 00:33:48.560
of their power from the sun.

00:33:48.560 --> 00:33:49.393
- [Ozzie] But Germany

00:33:49.393 --> 00:33:51.820
is still Europe's
largest consumer of coal.

00:33:51.820 --> 00:33:55.903
- (speaking in foreign language)

00:33:58.295 --> 00:33:59.330
- Uhh.

00:33:59.330 --> 00:34:00.480
- [Ozzie] Only a small fraction

00:34:00.480 --> 00:34:03.240
of their energy actually
comes from wind and solar.

00:34:03.240 --> 00:34:05.890
In fact, Germany just
built a large terminal

00:34:05.890 --> 00:34:08.233
to import natural gas
from the United States.

00:34:09.770 --> 00:34:11.060
Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla,

00:34:11.060 --> 00:34:13.180
when he announced his
Gigafactory battery plant,

00:34:13.180 --> 00:34:16.070
he said it would power itself
with wind and solar energy.

00:34:16.070 --> 00:34:19.640
- Through a combination of
geothermal wind and solar,

00:34:19.640 --> 00:34:22.010
it will produce all energy that it needs.

00:34:22.010 --> 00:34:23.660
- [Ozzie] But in fact, it
has lines connecting it

00:34:23.660 --> 00:34:26.460
to the same electrical grid
that we're all connected to.

00:34:28.280 --> 00:34:31.947
(fast paced dramatic music)

00:34:33.920 --> 00:34:35.210
Electric cars, wind turbines

00:34:35.210 --> 00:34:37.290
and solar panels use rare earth metals.

00:34:37.290 --> 00:34:38.690
And in fact, the rare earth mine is

00:34:38.690 --> 00:34:41.010
right up the street from here.

00:34:41.010 --> 00:34:43.870
In mining these deep deposits, about 90%

00:34:43.870 --> 00:34:47.090
of what they pull up out of
the ground contains uranium,

00:34:47.090 --> 00:34:50.580
thorium and low level
of other radionuclides.

00:34:50.580 --> 00:34:53.452
Radioactive waste that has
to be disposed of somehow,

00:34:53.452 --> 00:34:56.000
they kind of turn into
a paste and spread it

00:34:56.000 --> 00:34:57.390
over the desert floor.

00:34:57.390 --> 00:34:58.620
- [Jeff] Well, that's good
for the desert, right.

00:34:58.620 --> 00:35:00.272
- Yeah, the desert loves that.

00:35:00.272 --> 00:35:02.660
(laughing)

00:35:02.660 --> 00:35:04.360
Tesla's electric cars
are built with aluminum,

00:35:04.360 --> 00:35:05.870
which uses eight times more energy

00:35:05.870 --> 00:35:07.510
to manufacture than steel.

00:35:07.510 --> 00:35:11.060
They use lithium, which
also rely on toxic mining.

00:35:11.060 --> 00:35:13.110
And even more graphite, which is one

00:35:13.110 --> 00:35:14.610
of the rarest forms of carbon.

00:35:15.630 --> 00:35:16.800
In fact, the investors wanted

00:35:16.800 --> 00:35:18.670
to open several new graphite mines

00:35:18.670 --> 00:35:21.460
after Tesla announced the Gigafactory.

00:35:21.460 --> 00:35:23.290
Apple claims to be 100% renewable.

00:35:23.290 --> 00:35:26.250
- We never stop thinking about
what's best for the planet.

00:35:26.250 --> 00:35:29.783
We now run Apple on 100% renewable energy.

00:35:29.783 --> 00:35:34.230
(clapping and cheering) All
of our facilities, worldwide.

00:35:34.230 --> 00:35:35.550
- [Ozzie] And they did chop down a forest

00:35:35.550 --> 00:35:38.610
to put up solar panels near
their North Carolina plant.

00:35:38.610 --> 00:35:41.230
But they didn't disconnect
from the grid and they can't.

00:35:41.230 --> 00:35:43.360
- Duke says energy hungry companies

00:35:43.360 --> 00:35:46.360
like Apple can never go
entirely off the grid.

00:35:46.360 --> 00:35:48.485
- They're still hooked up to our grid.

00:35:48.485 --> 00:35:49.318
(fast paced energetic music)

00:35:49.318 --> 00:35:50.800
- [Ozzie] Despite all the claims,

00:35:50.800 --> 00:35:53.630
I haven't found a single
entity anywhere in the world

00:35:53.630 --> 00:35:57.236
that's running on 100%
solar and wind alone.

00:35:57.236 --> 00:35:59.480
(suspenseful music)

00:35:59.480 --> 00:36:02.220
- [Jeff] It turns out, you
don't just need fossil fuels

00:36:02.220 --> 00:36:06.340
to run a place like Ivanpah,
you need the devil himself,

00:36:06.340 --> 00:36:09.190
or in this case, themselves.

00:36:09.190 --> 00:36:11.550
- [Ozzie] All of the mirrors
that you see there are built

00:36:11.550 --> 00:36:14.140
by the Koch brothers,
Guardian Glass Industry,

00:36:14.140 --> 00:36:15.350
a company that they control.

00:36:15.350 --> 00:36:17.776
Koch Carbon creates a lot
of the inputs that are used

00:36:17.776 --> 00:36:20.520
to create the cement and
the concrete and the steel.

00:36:20.520 --> 00:36:22.670
And not only that, they build the plants

00:36:22.670 --> 00:36:24.770
that builds polysilicon for solar cells.

00:36:24.770 --> 00:36:25.603
They have, actually,

00:36:25.603 --> 00:36:28.200
their own solar line called Solar Molex.

00:36:28.200 --> 00:36:31.570
From every step of the process,
the Koch brothers are there.

00:36:31.570 --> 00:36:33.540
- [Jeff] But, they're the evil doers.

00:36:33.540 --> 00:36:35.130
- Yeah (laughing), the funny part is

00:36:35.130 --> 00:36:37.220
that when you criticize
solar plants like this,

00:36:37.220 --> 00:36:39.534
you're accused of working
for the Koch brothers.

00:36:39.534 --> 00:36:40.580
(laughing)

00:36:40.580 --> 00:36:42.560
That's the idiocy in all of this.

00:36:42.560 --> 00:36:44.940
This absolutely can not
extend civilization's life.

00:36:44.940 --> 00:36:48.160
This relies on the most toxic
and industrial processes

00:36:48.160 --> 00:36:49.363
that we've ever created.

00:36:52.394 --> 00:36:55.333
(drum rolling)

00:36:55.333 --> 00:36:58.660
(small triangle dinging)

00:36:58.660 --> 00:37:02.243
(pulsating dramatic music)

00:37:06.040 --> 00:37:09.873
(music building in intensity)

00:37:12.501 --> 00:37:16.001
(up tempo dramatic music)

00:37:26.787 --> 00:37:29.537
(music building)

00:37:36.280 --> 00:37:39.697
(music tempo increasing)

00:39:04.325 --> 00:39:07.992
(music ending dramatically)

00:39:12.270 --> 00:39:13.880
- The beauty of a solar facility,

00:39:13.880 --> 00:39:15.300
and particularly this technology,

00:39:15.300 --> 00:39:17.803
is that it is so environmentally benign.

00:39:19.059 --> 00:39:22.809
(roaring of large machinery)

00:39:39.587 --> 00:39:40.660
[Jeff] I, too, had once thought

00:39:40.660 --> 00:39:42.922
that deserts could be sacrifice zones.

00:39:42.922 --> 00:39:45.130
(powerful drum based music)

00:39:45.130 --> 00:39:46.470
I was wrong.

00:39:46.470 --> 00:39:47.713
Deserts are not dead.

00:39:48.880 --> 00:39:50.880
They are, in fact, full of ancient life.

00:39:53.167 --> 00:39:55.917
(powerful music)

00:40:03.190 --> 00:40:06.503
In the desert, the Joshua
tree stands, waiting,

00:40:08.010 --> 00:40:10.200
waiting for the giant ground sloths

00:40:10.200 --> 00:40:12.533
and the mammoths that shall never return.

00:40:13.970 --> 00:40:17.280
The Joshua tree depended
on the giant mammals

00:40:17.280 --> 00:40:20.090
to reach up high and eat their seeds,

00:40:20.090 --> 00:40:22.904
and thus disperse the Joshua tree.

00:40:22.904 --> 00:40:25.800
(mystical vocal music)

00:40:25.800 --> 00:40:29.240
But now, stranded in time and space,

00:40:29.240 --> 00:40:31.663
the Joshua tree awaits a new fate.

00:40:32.500 --> 00:40:33.680
To be sacrificed

00:40:34.680 --> 00:40:36.073
in the name of progress.

00:40:37.050 --> 00:40:40.780
- Joshua trees are torn down
to make way for solar projects.

00:40:40.780 --> 00:40:42.760
23ABC's Cassie Carlisle travels

00:40:42.760 --> 00:40:45.130
to the Mojave Desert to talk to neighbors.

00:40:45.130 --> 00:40:46.810
- [Cassie] They're not your usual tree.

00:40:46.810 --> 00:40:48.410
More like something from fiction,

00:40:48.410 --> 00:40:51.050
but these Joshuas are
causing quite an uproar.

00:40:51.050 --> 00:40:53.570
- No, it makes me sick that
they're clearing them off,

00:40:53.570 --> 00:40:55.410
killing them real quick.

00:40:55.410 --> 00:40:56.870
And now they're grinding them up,

00:40:56.870 --> 00:40:58.683
getting rid of all the evidence.

00:40:59.820 --> 00:41:03.320
(powerful dramatic music)

00:41:06.710 --> 00:41:09.180
- [Jeff] Not far from Ivanpah Solar,

00:41:09.180 --> 00:41:10.660
Daggett, California was home

00:41:10.660 --> 00:41:13.450
to several generations of solar arrays.

00:41:13.450 --> 00:41:16.126
Including some of the first on the planet.

00:41:16.126 --> 00:41:18.876
(loud machinery)

00:41:20.370 --> 00:41:22.330
Ozzie and I thought we would take a trip

00:41:22.330 --> 00:41:23.903
to see where it all began.

00:41:28.580 --> 00:41:31.747
(wind blowing loudly)

00:41:37.921 --> 00:41:40.310
- This is one of the sunniest
places in the planet, really,

00:41:40.310 --> 00:41:43.590
and it's the center of the solar industry

00:41:43.590 --> 00:41:45.110
and they've been building and dismantling

00:41:45.110 --> 00:41:49.072
and building arrays
here for about 40 years.

00:41:49.072 --> 00:41:50.600
(man's voice on loudspeaker)

00:41:50.600 --> 00:41:51.433
- [Jeff] Then we happened to run

00:41:51.433 --> 00:41:53.292
into the mayor of Daggett.

00:41:53.292 --> 00:41:55.600
- And then the solar plants
out there, my husband,

00:41:55.600 --> 00:42:00.220
back in, I'd say '83, '84,
they worked out there building

00:42:00.220 --> 00:42:01.150
that solar plant out there.

00:42:01.150 --> 00:42:02.120
- Yeah, the SEGS.

00:42:02.120 --> 00:42:04.590
- And everybody here worked.

00:42:04.590 --> 00:42:05.423
- How's that hold up?

00:42:05.423 --> 00:42:07.110
Is it, are the jobs still here?

00:42:07.110 --> 00:42:07.943
- No.

00:42:07.943 --> 00:42:09.750
Jobs went bye-bye.

00:42:09.750 --> 00:42:11.700
They have their normal
people that run the plant,

00:42:11.700 --> 00:42:13.650
plant operators and stuff like that,

00:42:13.650 --> 00:42:15.870
the big wigs, you know, they have that.

00:42:15.870 --> 00:42:18.080
Where that energy's going, I don't know.

00:42:18.080 --> 00:42:20.000
- [Jeff] Were you originally optimistic

00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:22.134
that the solar would bring more jobs

00:42:22.134 --> 00:42:23.130
and development for people?

00:42:23.130 --> 00:42:24.492
- Yeah, we really did, we really did.

00:42:24.492 --> 00:42:27.300
A lot of things come into
this town, they come and go.

00:42:27.300 --> 00:42:28.825
They go really fast.

00:42:28.825 --> 00:42:32.010
(loud wind blowing)

00:42:32.010 --> 00:42:32.910
- Do you see this?

00:42:34.730 --> 00:42:36.130
- [Jeff] Then Ozzie and I discovered

00:42:36.130 --> 00:42:38.980
that the giant solar arrays
had been razed to the ground.

00:42:40.640 --> 00:42:42.319
- Oh, my God.

00:42:42.319 --> 00:42:43.410
(wind whooshing)

00:42:43.410 --> 00:42:44.960
- [Jeff] I mean, this was huge.

00:42:48.740 --> 00:42:51.190
It suddenly dawned on me
what we were looking at.

00:42:52.520 --> 00:42:53.833
A solar dead zone.

00:42:55.660 --> 00:42:57.330
Look at the blowing sand.

00:42:57.330 --> 00:42:58.360
- Yeah.

00:42:58.360 --> 00:42:59.420
There's sand everywhere,

00:42:59.420 --> 00:43:01.760
there's sand dunes
forming around this area.

00:43:01.760 --> 00:43:02.593
- [Jeff] Wow.

00:43:04.705 --> 00:43:08.395
(humming of solar factory)

00:43:08.395 --> 00:43:10.978
(solemn music)

00:43:17.630 --> 00:43:19.163
So, after all the mining,

00:43:20.360 --> 00:43:22.350
the fossil fuels,

00:43:22.350 --> 00:43:24.000
the toxins,

00:43:24.000 --> 00:43:25.743
the environmental destruction,

00:43:26.930 --> 00:43:28.908
here's what happens next.

00:43:28.908 --> 00:43:30.290
(somber music)

00:43:30.290 --> 00:43:32.790
Only a few years after it was built,

00:43:32.790 --> 00:43:35.193
things at Ivanpah began to fall apart.

00:43:37.900 --> 00:43:39.883
Broken mirrors littered the desert.

00:43:43.364 --> 00:43:44.430
(music intensifying)

00:43:44.430 --> 00:43:46.120
Yes, these giant solar

00:43:46.120 --> 00:43:49.150
and wind technology installations may last

00:43:49.150 --> 00:43:50.591
only a few decades,

00:43:50.591 --> 00:43:52.740
(somber music)

00:43:52.740 --> 00:43:54.943
then tear it down and
start all over again.

00:43:55.918 --> 00:43:58.501
(somber music)

00:43:59.440 --> 00:44:00.990
If there is enough planet left.

00:44:02.552 --> 00:44:05.135
(somber music)

00:44:06.930 --> 00:44:08.550
It was becoming clear that

00:44:08.550 --> 00:44:11.280
what we have been calling
green, renewable energy

00:44:12.230 --> 00:44:15.253
and industrial civilization,
are one and the same.

00:44:17.150 --> 00:44:19.919
Desperate measures not to save the planet,

00:44:19.919 --> 00:44:21.480
(thunder crashing)

00:44:21.480 --> 00:44:23.489
but to save our way of life.

00:44:23.489 --> 00:44:26.740
(somber music)

00:44:26.740 --> 00:44:30.320
Desperate measures rather
than face the reality,

00:44:30.320 --> 00:44:34.380
humans are experiencing
the planet's limits

00:44:34.380 --> 00:44:36.320
all at once.

00:44:36.320 --> 00:44:39.780
- Every different perspective I look at

00:44:39.780 --> 00:44:43.410
and imagine, well, we
could do more of this,

00:44:43.410 --> 00:44:46.570
or go to a larger area
or use more of that.

00:44:46.570 --> 00:44:48.890
Well, it turns out, there isn't more.

00:44:48.890 --> 00:44:51.930
I looked at marine production
and fish production

00:44:51.930 --> 00:44:54.443
and found that peaked 20 years ago.

00:44:55.760 --> 00:44:59.313
More and more of what we
eat is from fish farming.

00:45:00.240 --> 00:45:03.560
The current acres of actively farmed land,

00:45:03.560 --> 00:45:05.560
that has peaked also.

00:45:05.560 --> 00:45:08.170
The rivers are already being irrigated

00:45:08.170 --> 00:45:11.280
to about the limits of
what they can sustain.

00:45:11.280 --> 00:45:14.833
The Colorado River doesn't
get to the ocean anymore.

00:45:15.680 --> 00:45:18.290
Well, then you start
looking at ground water,

00:45:18.290 --> 00:45:20.210
the southern great plains,

00:45:20.210 --> 00:45:23.350
and I think they can almost
predict when they will run out

00:45:23.350 --> 00:45:26.048
of ground water and
it's in a decade or two.

00:45:26.048 --> 00:45:27.470
(somber music)

00:45:27.470 --> 00:45:31.500
A human vulnerability at the global scale,

00:45:31.500 --> 00:45:35.280
that any one of them we
could maybe compartmentalize,

00:45:35.280 --> 00:45:37.170
but we're seeing them propagating

00:45:37.170 --> 00:45:42.170
across topic after topic of
society and the earth system.

00:45:43.265 --> 00:45:46.020
And I don't think the people

00:45:46.020 --> 00:45:48.173
in charge are near nervous enough.

00:45:54.150 --> 00:45:54.983
- [Jeff] Though each

00:45:54.983 --> 00:45:56.840
of them takes climate change seriously,

00:45:56.840 --> 00:45:59.090
every expert I talked to wanted

00:45:59.090 --> 00:46:02.210
to bring my attention to the
same, underlying problem.

00:46:02.210 --> 00:46:07.110
- They're too many human beings
using too much, too fast.

00:46:07.110 --> 00:46:09.360
- As a global community,
we really have got

00:46:09.360 --> 00:46:12.070
to start dealing with
the issue of population.

00:46:12.070 --> 00:46:15.350
- Population growth continues to be the,

00:46:15.350 --> 00:46:18.870
not the elephant, the herd
of elephants, in the room.

00:46:18.870 --> 00:46:20.310
- [Jeff] Can a single species

00:46:20.310 --> 00:46:21.930
that's come to dominate an entire planet--

00:46:21.930 --> 00:46:26.910
- Be smart enough to voluntarily
limit its own presence?

00:46:26.910 --> 00:46:28.538
- [Jeff] Is there any
precedence for that in nature?

00:46:28.538 --> 00:46:30.170
(laughing)

00:46:30.170 --> 00:46:31.003
- Wow.

00:46:31.003 --> 00:46:35.163
- We have to have our
abilities to consume reined in.

00:46:36.280 --> 00:46:39.230
Because we're not good at reining them in

00:46:39.230 --> 00:46:43.070
if there are seemingly
unrestrained resources.

00:46:43.070 --> 00:46:47.030
- Species hit the population
wall a lot and then they crash.

00:46:47.030 --> 00:46:49.850
I mean, that's a common story in biology.

00:46:49.850 --> 00:46:51.960
If that happens to us, in a way,

00:46:51.960 --> 00:46:53.660
it's the natural order of things.

00:46:53.660 --> 00:46:56.373
And I don't think we're gonna
find a way out of this one.

00:46:57.700 --> 00:46:58.533
I don't.

00:46:58.533 --> 00:46:59.366
- [Jeff] As a scientist,

00:46:59.366 --> 00:47:01.020
what leads you to that conclusion?

00:47:01.020 --> 00:47:05.540
- Well, because right
now, a large percentage

00:47:05.540 --> 00:47:09.600
of that number is supported
by industrial agriculture,

00:47:09.600 --> 00:47:11.600
which is heavily subsidized by oil.

00:47:11.600 --> 00:47:13.003
And it's not sustainable.

00:47:15.976 --> 00:47:17.161
And there's no going back.

00:47:17.161 --> 00:47:20.640
Without seeing some sort of
major die off in population,

00:47:20.640 --> 00:47:22.023
there's no turning back.

00:47:23.340 --> 00:47:24.273
- [Jeff] What's the thing
that nobody ever asked you

00:47:24.273 --> 00:47:25.840
that you want--

00:47:25.840 --> 00:47:27.860
(laughing)

00:47:27.860 --> 00:47:29.810
- Nobody's ever asked me if I'm scared.

00:47:30.910 --> 00:47:31.743
- [Jeff] Yeah.

00:47:31.743 --> 00:47:32.576
- And, I am.

00:47:32.576 --> 00:47:33.520
I actually am scared.

00:47:33.520 --> 00:47:35.530
I lose sleep over all of this.

00:47:36.364 --> 00:47:38.947
(somber music)

00:47:42.800 --> 00:47:44.610
- [Jeff] It took modern
humans tens of thousands

00:47:44.610 --> 00:47:47.623
of years to reach a
population of 700 million.

00:47:48.750 --> 00:47:50.580
And then we tapped into millions of years

00:47:50.580 --> 00:47:53.600
of stored energy, known as fossil fuels.

00:47:53.600 --> 00:47:55.463
Our human population exploded.

00:47:56.340 --> 00:48:00.290
It increased by 10 times
in a mere 200 years.

00:48:00.290 --> 00:48:02.530
Our consumption has also exploded.

00:48:02.530 --> 00:48:04.910
On average, ten times per person,

00:48:04.910 --> 00:48:07.363
and many times more in the Western world.

00:48:08.280 --> 00:48:10.170
You put the two together,

00:48:10.170 --> 00:48:14.130
the result is a total human
impact 100 times greater

00:48:14.130 --> 00:48:16.307
than only 200 years ago.

00:48:16.307 --> 00:48:18.880
(mellow music)

00:48:18.880 --> 00:48:22.963
And that is the most terrifying
realization I have ever had.

00:48:25.570 --> 00:48:29.203
We humans are poised for a fall
from an unimaginable height.

00:48:31.010 --> 00:48:32.483
Not because of one thing.

00:48:33.520 --> 00:48:35.133
Not climate change alone.

00:48:36.360 --> 00:48:38.480
But all the human-caused changes

00:48:38.480 --> 00:48:40.083
the planet is suffering from.

00:48:41.618 --> 00:48:43.180
(slow tempo music)

00:48:43.180 --> 00:48:46.400
So, why are bankers, industrialists

00:48:46.400 --> 00:48:48.280
and environmental leaders only focused

00:48:48.280 --> 00:48:50.523
on the narrow solution
of green technology?

00:48:52.440 --> 00:48:53.753
Is it the profit motive?

00:48:55.430 --> 00:48:58.440
And why, for most of
my life, have I fallen

00:48:58.440 --> 00:49:00.980
for the illusion green
energy would save us?

00:49:00.980 --> 00:49:04.397
(waves lapping on shore)

00:49:05.371 --> 00:49:06.204
(squeaking door)

00:49:06.204 --> 00:49:08.090
Clearly, to answer this question,

00:49:08.090 --> 00:49:10.300
I needed professional help.

00:49:10.300 --> 00:49:11.570
- Keep my stuff.

00:49:11.570 --> 00:49:13.650
No, I never heard...

00:49:13.650 --> 00:49:15.530
- I'll just be honest
with you about my dilemma.

00:49:15.530 --> 00:49:20.000
You can be my clinical
social psych-- (laughing)

00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:22.723
It's like, the right has religion.

00:49:23.760 --> 00:49:26.420
And they have a belief
in infinite fossil fuels.

00:49:26.420 --> 00:49:30.077
Our side says, "Oh, it's gonna be okay,

00:49:30.077 --> 00:49:31.247
"we're gonna have solar panels.

00:49:31.247 --> 00:49:33.410
"We're gonna have wind towers."

00:49:33.410 --> 00:49:35.470
Soon as I heard you talk
about our denial of death,

00:49:35.470 --> 00:49:37.967
I'm like, "Could that be it?

00:49:37.967 --> 00:49:40.587
"Could it be that we can't
face our own mortality?

00:49:40.587 --> 00:49:42.830
"Could we have a religion
that we're unaware of?"

00:49:42.830 --> 00:49:43.663
- Absolutely.

00:49:43.663 --> 00:49:47.010
I think you've hit the
proverbial nail on the head.

00:49:47.010 --> 00:49:50.950
What just differentiates
people from all other forms

00:49:50.950 --> 00:49:53.590
of life is that, we're not only here

00:49:53.590 --> 00:49:55.140
but that we know that we're here.

00:49:55.140 --> 00:49:59.260
If you know that you're
here, then you recognize,

00:49:59.260 --> 00:50:02.490
even dimly, that you'll
not be here someday.

00:50:02.490 --> 00:50:05.980
And on top of that, we don't
like that we're animals.

00:50:05.980 --> 00:50:08.010
So, we don't like that
we're gonna die someday.

00:50:08.010 --> 00:50:10.050
We don't like that you could walk outside

00:50:10.050 --> 00:50:12.130
and get hit by a fuckin' meteor.

00:50:12.130 --> 00:50:14.140
What human beings did back

00:50:14.140 --> 00:50:17.270
in yesteryear is to envelop ourselves

00:50:17.270 --> 00:50:19.970
in culturally constructive belief systems.

00:50:19.970 --> 00:50:21.400
You know, call them cultures,

00:50:21.400 --> 00:50:25.330
call them world views, schemes of things.

00:50:25.330 --> 00:50:29.330
Whatever you call them, every
human community has them.

00:50:29.330 --> 00:50:33.500
Every culture has an account
of the origin of the Universe.

00:50:33.500 --> 00:50:35.110
Every culture has a prescription

00:50:35.110 --> 00:50:36.960
for how you're supposed to
behave while you're here.

00:50:36.960 --> 00:50:40.870
And every culture offers its
denizens hope of immortality,

00:50:40.870 --> 00:50:44.880
either literally or symbolically.

00:50:44.880 --> 00:50:47.510
Then the question is, well,
what happens when you bump

00:50:47.510 --> 00:50:51.270
into people who don't share those beliefs?

00:50:51.270 --> 00:50:54.180
Whether you know it or not,
whether you like it or not,

00:50:54.180 --> 00:50:56.500
but that's undermining the confidence

00:50:56.500 --> 00:50:59.530
with which you subscribe
to your own views.

00:50:59.530 --> 00:51:02.110
And exposing you to the very anxiety

00:51:02.110 --> 00:51:04.210
that those beliefs were constructed

00:51:04.210 --> 00:51:06.370
to eradicate in the first place.

00:51:06.370 --> 00:51:09.260
If we're to make progress,
whatever that word means,

00:51:09.260 --> 00:51:12.760
or even to persist as a form
of life, we're gonna need

00:51:12.760 --> 00:51:17.760
to radically overhaul our basic conception

00:51:18.780 --> 00:51:22.313
of who and what we are, and
what it is that we value.

00:51:23.360 --> 00:51:26.100
Because the people that
you referred to earlier,

00:51:26.100 --> 00:51:29.520
both on the left and the right

00:51:29.520 --> 00:51:34.520
that think we're gonna be
able to discover more oil.

00:51:35.040 --> 00:51:40.040
Or solar panel ourselves into the future,

00:51:40.170 --> 00:51:43.460
where life will look pretty
much like it does now.

00:51:43.460 --> 00:51:45.630
You know, only cleaner or better.

00:51:45.630 --> 00:51:47.270
- [Jeff] Either with
more oil or greener oil.

00:51:47.270 --> 00:51:48.103
- Or both.

00:51:48.103 --> 00:51:51.210
I think that's just frankly delusional.

00:51:51.210 --> 00:51:54.150
- What I'm hearing is that,
if I haven't come to grips

00:51:54.150 --> 00:51:58.040
with my own anxiety about death and life,

00:51:58.040 --> 00:52:02.470
and presented with a reminder
of that, I'm highly likely

00:52:02.470 --> 00:52:07.340
to make some tragic
decisions for the community.

00:52:07.340 --> 00:52:08.430
- Yes.

00:52:08.430 --> 00:52:13.430
The only solution in principle
is, as Albert Camus put it,

00:52:14.230 --> 00:52:17.477
he said, "There's only one
liberty, to come to terms

00:52:17.477 --> 00:52:21.190
"with death, thereafter
anything is possible."

00:52:21.190 --> 00:52:24.403
I find that downright inspiring.

00:52:25.960 --> 00:52:27.860
- [Jeff] As for our environmental leaders,

00:52:27.860 --> 00:52:29.970
who dwell in comfortable illusions,

00:52:29.970 --> 00:52:32.623
how tragic of decisions
were they capable of making?

00:52:34.800 --> 00:52:36.227
I was about to find out.

00:52:38.731 --> 00:52:41.981
(humming of machinery)

00:52:49.061 --> 00:52:51.731
(leaves crunching)

00:52:51.731 --> 00:52:54.330
- [Josh] They claim they're
just using forest residues,

00:52:54.330 --> 00:52:57.490
but actually a great deal
of what the McNeil facility,

00:52:57.490 --> 00:53:00.490
and lots of biomass facilities
burn, is whole trees.

00:53:00.490 --> 00:53:02.610
As you can see by this
pile that's stacked right

00:53:02.610 --> 00:53:05.363
outside of the facility, these are trees.

00:53:06.980 --> 00:53:08.400
- [Jeff] It turns out
that the biggest source

00:53:08.400 --> 00:53:11.823
of green energy in Vermont
is something called biomass.

00:53:13.070 --> 00:53:15.143
Burning trees to create electricity.

00:53:16.770 --> 00:53:18.920
- This is definitely not the way.

00:53:18.920 --> 00:53:21.430
At the first step is actually
looking at our lifestyles,

00:53:21.430 --> 00:53:23.823
how we can reduce our energy consumption.

00:53:25.350 --> 00:53:30.350
This is all the ash that has
varying levels of toxic metals,

00:53:30.650 --> 00:53:32.240
a great deal of radiation

00:53:32.240 --> 00:53:33.610
because these trees have been absorb...

00:53:33.610 --> 00:53:34.633
Oops, there's the...

00:53:35.765 --> 00:53:38.670
(machinery humming)

00:53:38.670 --> 00:53:40.607
- You're in unforbidden territory there.

00:53:40.607 --> 00:53:41.440
- [Jeff] Are we?

00:53:41.440 --> 00:53:44.170
- May I ask both of you to
come up to our office, okay.

00:53:44.170 --> 00:53:45.100
- [Josh] Is that something
you're interested in doing?

00:53:45.100 --> 00:53:47.880
- It's not an interest,
you've got five seconds

00:53:47.880 --> 00:53:49.111
or I'm calling 911.

00:53:49.111 --> 00:53:49.944
- [Jeff] Okay.

00:53:49.944 --> 00:53:53.033
- [Security Guard] We've
got two individuals here--

00:53:53.033 --> 00:53:54.272
(loud crunching footsteps)

00:53:54.272 --> 00:53:56.390
Police will be down here
in about two minutes.

00:53:56.390 --> 00:53:57.890
- [Josh] You asked us to
leave and we're doing so.

00:53:57.890 --> 00:53:59.080
- [Security Guard] I'm
not asking you to leave.

00:53:59.080 --> 00:54:01.210
I'm asking you to come up to the office.

00:54:01.210 --> 00:54:02.670
- [Josh] Okay, thanks for the offer.

00:54:02.670 --> 00:54:03.633
Maybe next time.

00:54:04.531 --> 00:54:06.354
(electronic beeping)

00:54:06.354 --> 00:54:07.350
(machinery humming)

00:54:07.350 --> 00:54:08.653
You got everything here.

00:54:09.620 --> 00:54:12.210
You have the number one
polluter in the state

00:54:12.210 --> 00:54:14.760
that people think, and
it's magical fairy dust

00:54:14.760 --> 00:54:16.670
from the smokestack.

00:54:16.670 --> 00:54:18.540
Reality is what you have is a facility

00:54:18.540 --> 00:54:22.470
that burns 400,000 green
tons a year of trees.

00:54:22.470 --> 00:54:25.850
This facility burns thirty
cords of wood per hour.

00:54:25.850 --> 00:54:26.950
- [Jeff] That's a hell of lot of wood.

00:54:26.950 --> 00:54:27.783
- [Josh] And on top of that,

00:54:27.783 --> 00:54:30.650
it actually burns natural gas, as well.

00:54:30.650 --> 00:54:31.860
- [Jeff] And to think
you would have to have 10

00:54:31.860 --> 00:54:35.160
of these to replace one
average coal-fired power plant.

00:54:35.160 --> 00:54:36.560
It's just not gonna work.

00:54:36.560 --> 00:54:37.890
- It's just nuts.

00:54:37.890 --> 00:54:39.620
It takes great deal of fossil fuels

00:54:39.620 --> 00:54:42.230
to cut down all these trees,

00:54:42.230 --> 00:54:44.230
to truck 'em in, to use the big machinery

00:54:44.230 --> 00:54:46.030
to dump the wood chips everywhere.

00:54:46.030 --> 00:54:48.533
So, the idea that somehow
this is not anything to do

00:54:48.533 --> 00:54:51.290
with fossil fuels just
doesn't even make any sense.

00:54:51.290 --> 00:54:53.950
It couldn't happen without
fossil fuels, in fact.

00:54:53.950 --> 00:54:55.560
- [Jeff] How did the environmental groups

00:54:55.560 --> 00:54:56.600
get pulled into this?

00:54:56.600 --> 00:54:59.210
- Obviously, the main factor is delusion.

00:54:59.210 --> 00:55:01.880
A lot of these environmental
groups have been saying

00:55:01.880 --> 00:55:03.940
that all we have to do is, for instance,

00:55:03.940 --> 00:55:06.220
switch our fossil fuel economy over

00:55:06.220 --> 00:55:08.210
to a few solar panels and windmills,

00:55:08.210 --> 00:55:11.740
and we can continue living life as normal.

00:55:11.740 --> 00:55:13.890
Some of the environmental
groups have been,

00:55:13.890 --> 00:55:17.910
for years, touting facilities
like this saying that,

00:55:17.910 --> 00:55:21.110
number one, it's carbon neutral.

00:55:21.110 --> 00:55:24.720
That this will actually help
us fend off climate change

00:55:24.720 --> 00:55:27.990
because there are no CO2 emissions.

00:55:27.990 --> 00:55:30.170
It actually emits over 400 thousand tons

00:55:30.170 --> 00:55:32.740
per year of carbon dioxide.

00:55:32.740 --> 00:55:35.410
Oh, but once we but
them, they'll grow back.

00:55:35.410 --> 00:55:38.970
They'll grow back over a
period of decades to centuries.

00:55:38.970 --> 00:55:40.950
We cut every tree in the United States,

00:55:40.950 --> 00:55:43.830
it would be able to power
the country for a year.

00:55:43.830 --> 00:55:46.693
Then what happens when
those trees are gone?

00:55:49.310 --> 00:55:51.893
(wind blowing)

00:55:53.320 --> 00:55:54.930
- [Jeff] I discovered biomass plants

00:55:54.930 --> 00:55:57.343
were not even always biomass plants.

00:55:58.330 --> 00:56:00.580
- It's actually a solid waste incinerator

00:56:00.580 --> 00:56:02.670
that's posing as a biomass plant.

00:56:02.670 --> 00:56:06.960
The impact in this community is severe.

00:56:06.960 --> 00:56:11.300
The plant is right next Head Start school

00:56:11.300 --> 00:56:13.030
for preschool kids.

00:56:13.030 --> 00:56:14.810
There is Green Hill Manor and

00:56:14.810 --> 00:56:18.800
that's an assisted
living senior residence.

00:56:18.800 --> 00:56:22.280
And there's also a
Catholic elementary school

00:56:22.280 --> 00:56:24.043
right next door.

00:56:24.950 --> 00:56:26.110
- [Jeff] How do you
know they're polluting?

00:56:26.110 --> 00:56:26.943
Can you see it ever?

00:56:26.943 --> 00:56:27.810
- We can see it.

00:56:27.810 --> 00:56:30.240
The snow at the elementary school

00:56:30.240 --> 00:56:35.100
and at the preschool
is covered with black,

00:56:35.100 --> 00:56:36.850
some kind of black soot.

00:56:36.850 --> 00:56:38.400
We just had it analyzed

00:56:38.400 --> 00:56:43.400
and it came back as mostly tire chips.

00:56:44.090 --> 00:56:47.210
They have to add tire-derived fuel

00:56:47.210 --> 00:56:49.410
to raise the temperature of the fire,

00:56:49.410 --> 00:56:52.920
because anybody whose tried to
burn green wood or wet wood,

00:56:52.920 --> 00:56:55.053
knows that it doesn't burn very well.

00:56:56.190 --> 00:56:57.530
- [Jeff] But this biomass plant had

00:56:57.530 --> 00:56:58.853
yet another surprise.

00:57:00.360 --> 00:57:03.870
- They admit that they
burn 20.1 tons per hour

00:57:03.870 --> 00:57:06.410
of creosote treated railroad ties.

00:57:06.410 --> 00:57:11.410
Besides that, they are allowed
to burn 500 pounds per hour

00:57:11.540 --> 00:57:15.310
of PCP treated railroad ties.

00:57:15.310 --> 00:57:17.173
These are shipped in from Canada.

00:57:18.330 --> 00:57:22.360
It's not green, it's not
renewable, it's not carbon-neutral,

00:57:22.360 --> 00:57:24.610
it's not anything that
they claim it to be.

00:57:24.610 --> 00:57:28.360
Yet, they got $11.5 million grant

00:57:28.360 --> 00:57:31.093
because it was classified as renewable.

00:57:31.960 --> 00:57:33.600
The plant owner told us

00:57:33.600 --> 00:57:38.340
that they were having trouble
getting enough wood chips.

00:57:38.340 --> 00:57:41.950
And he even asked us if
we had any scrap wood

00:57:41.950 --> 00:57:44.900
where we lived, would we call the plant

00:57:44.900 --> 00:57:47.790
and let them know so they
could come up and pick it up.

00:57:47.790 --> 00:57:48.623
- [Jeff] We're not talking

00:57:48.623 --> 00:57:50.840
about some old industrial site,

00:57:50.840 --> 00:57:52.300
we're next to one of the most
beautiful places in the world.

00:57:52.300 --> 00:57:55.160
- We re next to Lake Superior,
this is Keweenaw B...

00:57:55.160 --> 00:57:58.283
This is actually L'Anse Bay,
it's part of Keweenaw Bay.

00:57:59.565 --> 00:58:04.565
It's Lake Superior, our
lake. (voice breaking)

00:58:05.420 --> 00:58:08.673
So, it's a very sacred
place to many people.

00:58:12.069 --> 00:58:13.877
(clopping horse feet)

00:58:13.877 --> 00:58:15.325
- Are you with the news?

00:58:15.325 --> 00:58:16.158
- [Jeff] No, there's supposed

00:58:16.158 --> 00:58:17.070
to be a climate change rally.

00:58:17.070 --> 00:58:18.705
- Oh.

00:58:18.705 --> 00:58:21.622
- (group chanting)

00:58:22.540 --> 00:58:25.020
- [Jeff] Michigan State
University students,

00:58:25.020 --> 00:58:28.350
inspired by 350.org, were holding a rally

00:58:28.350 --> 00:58:31.327
for the clean energy future
they'd been promised.

00:58:31.327 --> 00:58:35.327
- (crowd shouting and cheering)

00:58:36.520 --> 00:58:37.970
- Imagine when I found out

00:58:37.970 --> 00:58:41.680
that it is the largest on-campus
coal plant in the nation.

00:58:41.680 --> 00:58:44.250
The goal is to get the whole world moving

00:58:44.250 --> 00:58:45.624
beyond fossil fuels.

00:58:45.624 --> 00:58:47.611
(crowd cheering and clapping)

00:58:47.611 --> 00:58:51.934
- [Student] Who wants to do
a 350 sign on the steps?"

00:58:51.934 --> 00:58:53.880
- [Jeff] But it turned out
Michigan State had a form

00:58:53.880 --> 00:58:57.163
of green energy in mind the
students did not support.

00:58:58.210 --> 00:58:59.530
- The university contracted

00:58:59.530 --> 00:59:02.380
with a energy contracting company.

00:59:02.380 --> 00:59:04.110
They put together a modeling tool.

00:59:04.110 --> 00:59:05.550
First two or three months

00:59:05.550 --> 00:59:08.590
that the steering committee
was using this modeling tool,

00:59:08.590 --> 00:59:11.320
it didn't even contain
data for wind or solar.

00:59:11.320 --> 00:59:12.200
So there was (voice fading out)

00:59:12.200 --> 00:59:13.550
- [Jeff] Adam told me
they were planning on

00:59:13.550 --> 00:59:16.510
substituting coal burning
with biomass burning.

00:59:16.510 --> 00:59:18.480
- But the permit that is
currently being considered

00:59:18.480 --> 00:59:22.893
by the state is a permit
for 24,000 tons of biomass,

00:59:24.920 --> 00:59:25.760
I think per year.

00:59:25.760 --> 00:59:28.591
And the plan is to do
that in all four boilers.

00:59:28.591 --> 00:59:30.280
Unfortunately, the steering
committee considers

00:59:30.280 --> 00:59:32.470
biomass renewable at the moment.

00:59:32.470 --> 00:59:35.121
Which we're not happy with.

00:59:35.121 --> 00:59:36.910
(students laughing)

00:59:36.910 --> 00:59:38.970
- [Jeff] Michigan State
wasn't the only university

00:59:38.970 --> 00:59:39.863
to go green.

00:59:41.390 --> 00:59:43.740
- I'm happy to announce
that Carolina will be going

00:59:43.740 --> 00:59:46.850
beyond coal in the next decade.

00:59:46.850 --> 00:59:50.310
Now, as we begin to wean
ourselves on coal, we are about

00:59:50.310 --> 00:59:53.993
to try another alternative
energy source, biomass.

00:59:54.930 --> 00:59:55.763
- [Jeff] And who was here

00:59:55.763 --> 00:59:57.460
to help the University
of North Carolina switch

00:59:57.460 --> 00:59:59.593
from burning coal to burning trees?

01:00:01.030 --> 01:00:03.550
- So, it is a great
pleasure to be here today

01:00:03.550 --> 01:00:05.500
to celebrate the remarkable step

01:00:05.500 --> 01:00:07.887
that the university is taking to say,

01:00:07.887 --> 01:00:09.821
"We're gonna do our part."

01:00:09.821 --> 01:00:10.680
(solemn music)

01:00:10.680 --> 01:00:12.663
- [Jeff] A remarkable step, indeed.

01:00:13.900 --> 01:00:15.690
We're to do our part by getting out

01:00:15.690 --> 01:00:17.800
of bed with coal companies

01:00:17.800 --> 01:00:19.883
and into bed with logging companies?

01:00:22.010 --> 01:00:24.130
Where did the idea of colleges going green

01:00:24.130 --> 01:00:26.163
by burning trees come from, anyway?

01:00:27.330 --> 01:00:31.113
A little college called Middlebury
in the heart of Vermont.

01:00:32.640 --> 01:00:34.920
- Welcome to the
celebration of the opening

01:00:34.920 --> 01:00:38.720
of Middlebury's new biomass
gasification system.

01:00:38.720 --> 01:00:40.880
It's now my great pleasure to introduce

01:00:40.880 --> 01:00:43.114
this afternoon's speaker, Bill McKibben.

01:00:43.114 --> 01:00:44.810
(audience clapping)

01:00:44.810 --> 01:00:47.640
- What powers a learning community?

01:00:47.640 --> 01:00:50.470
And as of this afternoon, the easy answer

01:00:50.470 --> 01:00:53.160
to that is wood chips.

01:00:53.160 --> 01:00:56.190
It's incredibly beautiful
to stand over there

01:00:56.190 --> 01:00:59.210
and see that big bunker
full of wood chips.

01:00:59.210 --> 01:01:02.130
You can put any kind of
wood in, oak, willow,

01:01:02.130 --> 01:01:03.090
whatever you want.

01:01:03.090 --> 01:01:06.020
Pretty much anything that
burns, we can toss in there

01:01:06.020 --> 01:01:08.260
if we can chip it down to the right size.

01:01:08.260 --> 01:01:10.860
And there are very few
similar cases anyplace

01:01:10.860 --> 01:01:14.450
in this country of that kind
of change over that scale.

01:01:14.450 --> 01:01:15.997
But it shows it could happen anywhere

01:01:15.997 --> 01:01:17.710
and it should happen anywhere.

01:01:17.710 --> 01:01:21.120
In fact, it must happen everywhere.

01:01:21.120 --> 01:01:23.253
- [Jeff] It must happen everywhere.

01:01:24.836 --> 01:01:26.210
(dramatic piano music)

01:01:26.210 --> 01:01:28.040
And now it's time for a nature break.

01:01:28.040 --> 01:01:31.139
Enjoying our sustainably
managed Michigan forests.

01:01:31.139 --> 01:01:32.670
(classical piano music)

01:01:32.670 --> 01:01:34.057
- If you walk through here and you look,

01:01:34.057 --> 01:01:36.490
there's virtually nothing growing.

01:01:36.490 --> 01:01:38.253
A little bit of grass occasionally.

01:01:39.102 --> 01:01:40.630
(increasing classical music)

01:01:40.630 --> 01:01:42.650
- [Jeff] And it seemed that
biomass plants, indeed,

01:01:42.650 --> 01:01:43.923
were suddenly everywhere,

01:01:44.890 --> 01:01:47.074
like this one in Cadillac, Michigan.

01:01:47.074 --> 01:01:49.817
(truck engine rumbling)

01:01:49.817 --> 01:01:51.300
In Detroit, an incinerator

01:01:51.300 --> 01:01:53.619
that burned garbage was considered green.

01:01:53.619 --> 01:01:55.080
(classical piano music)

01:01:55.080 --> 01:01:58.300
- The Detroit incinerator is
known to emit horrible smells

01:01:58.300 --> 01:02:00.900
and pollutants that neighbors
say make them feel sick

01:02:00.900 --> 01:02:02.204
and put their health at risk.

01:02:02.204 --> 01:02:05.370
- It's a stink, it's a horrendous stink.

01:02:05.370 --> 01:02:06.810
- [Jeff] A proposed biofuel plant

01:02:06.810 --> 01:02:09.820
for the Upper Peninsula of
Michigan would consume trees

01:02:09.820 --> 01:02:12.570
from tens of thousands of square miles.

01:02:12.570 --> 01:02:15.540
- In order to create 40
million gallons of ethanol,

01:02:15.540 --> 01:02:17.570
they are going to have to use up

01:02:17.570 --> 01:02:19.640
over a million tons of green wood.

01:02:19.640 --> 01:02:21.270
We pointed out that
they were gonna be using

01:02:21.270 --> 01:02:24.410
more natural gas than they
were gonna be creating ethanol

01:02:24.410 --> 01:02:25.920
to displace the natural gas.

01:02:25.920 --> 01:02:27.120
If you continue to do this,

01:02:27.120 --> 01:02:29.050
you're gonna be fertilizing the forest.

01:02:29.050 --> 01:02:31.189
- [Jeff] Fertilizing forests with?

01:02:31.189 --> 01:02:32.090
Fossil fuels?
- Fossil fuel

01:02:32.090 --> 01:02:33.560
based fertilizers.

01:02:33.560 --> 01:02:34.393
- [Jeff] Made from natural gas?

01:02:34.393 --> 01:02:35.226
- Yeah.

01:02:35.226 --> 01:02:36.059
(frenzied piano music)

01:02:36.059 --> 01:02:37.770
[Jeff] Then came a ballot proposal backed

01:02:37.770 --> 01:02:41.800
by Bill McKibben and nearly
every major environmental group,

01:02:41.800 --> 01:02:45.530
requiring Michigan to get
25% of its electricity

01:02:45.530 --> 01:02:48.710
from renewable sources by the year 2025.

01:02:48.710 --> 01:02:51.470
- [News Anchor] This year,
Michigan voters have a choice:

01:02:51.470 --> 01:02:54.560
keep burning dirty coal
and oil or move Michigan

01:02:54.560 --> 01:02:57.710
to clean, renewable energy
like wind and solar.

01:02:57.710 --> 01:02:59.910
Vote yes on Proposal three.

01:02:59.910 --> 01:03:01.770
- [Jeff] Surprisingly, Proposal three,

01:03:01.770 --> 01:03:06.320
also known as 25 by
25, was the brain child

01:03:06.320 --> 01:03:11.280
of an organization that was
100% biofuels and biomass.

01:03:11.280 --> 01:03:13.810
- Allowing America's farms,
ranches and forest lands

01:03:13.810 --> 01:03:16.450
to be active participants in contributing

01:03:16.450 --> 01:03:18.480
to America's energy future.

01:03:18.480 --> 01:03:19.820
- [Jeff] These are the biomass

01:03:19.820 --> 01:03:22.497
and biofuel plants across the U.S.

01:03:22.497 --> 01:03:24.664
(popping)

01:03:28.280 --> 01:03:29.293
How did this happen?

01:03:31.110 --> 01:03:32.970
And it wasn't just the U.S.A.

01:03:32.970 --> 01:03:35.470
It was all around the world.

01:03:35.470 --> 01:03:39.710
Wood chips, which is just
a euphemism for trees,

01:03:39.710 --> 01:03:42.520
are being exported to Europe from America,

01:03:42.520 --> 01:03:46.540
British Columbia, Brazil and Indonesia.

01:03:46.540 --> 01:03:48.697
Wherever they can get them from.

01:03:48.697 --> 01:03:49.850
(classical piano music)

01:03:49.850 --> 01:03:52.790
Biomass, especially when
you add in biofuels,

01:03:52.790 --> 01:03:56.360
is by far the largest
portion of green energy

01:03:56.360 --> 01:03:58.980
around the world, even in Germany,

01:03:58.980 --> 01:04:01.255
source of the solar miracle.

01:04:01.255 --> 01:04:03.890
(classical piano music)

01:04:03.890 --> 01:04:06.040
But maybe I was missing something.

01:04:06.040 --> 01:04:07.681
Maybe I had it all wrong.

01:04:07.681 --> 01:04:09.270
(woman's voice on loudspeaker)

01:04:09.270 --> 01:04:12.610
I decided to ask people
protesting fossil fuels

01:04:12.610 --> 01:04:16.890
how they felt about biomass
and biofuels as green energy.

01:04:16.890 --> 01:04:18.690
Would you say we don't need to do biofuels

01:04:18.690 --> 01:04:20.513
and food and forests for energy?

01:04:20.513 --> 01:04:21.940
- No, no, definitely not.

01:04:21.940 --> 01:04:23.940
Of course not, of course not.

01:04:23.940 --> 01:04:25.730
- Burning biomass, any kind of combustion,

01:04:25.730 --> 01:04:28.100
is something we just
need to move away from.

01:04:28.100 --> 01:04:29.440
- The more trees we have, the better.

01:04:29.440 --> 01:04:30.740
- A lot of that didn't grow overnight.

01:04:30.740 --> 01:04:32.900
If we cut it down, we don't
know the impact of that.

01:04:32.900 --> 01:04:33.918
- [Jeff] You're here as an oak tree?

01:04:33.918 --> 01:04:34.751
- Yes.

01:04:34.751 --> 01:04:35.584
- If I had a chainsaw,

01:04:35.584 --> 01:04:36.530
that wouldn't be saving
the planet, would it?

01:04:36.530 --> 01:04:37.450
- No, it's painful.

01:04:37.450 --> 01:04:38.283
It's a painful way to go.

01:04:38.283 --> 01:04:39.992
I can tell you that right now.

01:04:39.992 --> 01:04:41.262
- [Jeff] It would take
you a while to regrow.

01:04:41.262 --> 01:04:42.095
(laughing)

01:04:42.095 --> 01:04:43.061
- Yeah, oh yeah.

01:04:43.061 --> 01:04:45.850
But it wouldn't be me,
it'd be an off-spring.

01:04:45.850 --> 01:04:48.720
- With so many people doing
it on such a massive scale,

01:04:48.720 --> 01:04:52.810
all of a sudden at once,
that's pretty serious.

01:04:52.810 --> 01:04:54.860
- No, I think we should
not be burning trees.

01:04:54.860 --> 01:04:56.340
- [Group] No, no.

01:04:56.340 --> 01:04:57.990
- Why would we cut down trees?

01:04:57.990 --> 01:05:00.410
- We shouldn't replace one
terrible way of getting energy

01:05:00.410 --> 01:05:02.000
with another terrible
way of getting energy.

01:05:02.000 --> 01:05:03.604
Because it's one thing.

01:05:03.604 --> 01:05:04.760
(girl's voice fading)

01:05:04.760 --> 01:05:07.210
- [Jeff] Clearly, most
citizens are opposed

01:05:07.210 --> 01:05:08.801
to biomass and biofuels.

01:05:08.801 --> 01:05:10.725
(calming guitar music)

01:05:10.725 --> 01:05:12.575
But what about environmental leaders?

01:05:13.450 --> 01:05:18.160
At times, they have promoted
biomass but other times,

01:05:18.160 --> 01:05:20.283
they sound like they are against biomass.

01:05:21.370 --> 01:05:23.587
Like this Sierra Club policy,

01:05:23.587 --> 01:05:25.887
"We are deeply concerned
about the implications

01:05:25.887 --> 01:05:29.320
"of wood-to-energy for native forests."

01:05:29.320 --> 01:05:32.837
Or this statement signed on
by 75 environmental groups,

01:05:32.837 --> 01:05:35.427
"Burning forests for
energy will destroy one

01:05:35.427 --> 01:05:38.750
"of our best defenses
against climate change."

01:05:38.750 --> 01:05:41.940
But then again, their
language leaves loopholes

01:05:41.940 --> 01:05:43.880
that enable biomass.

01:05:43.880 --> 01:05:47.877
The NRDC says you must use
the "right types of biomass."

01:05:48.780 --> 01:05:50.010
The Dogwood Alliance says

01:05:50.010 --> 01:05:52.513
maybe small biomass plants are okay.

01:05:54.020 --> 01:05:55.937
And the Sierra Club flat out states,

01:05:55.937 --> 01:05:58.354
"Biomass can be sustainable."

01:05:58.354 --> 01:06:00.150
(pensive guitar music)

01:06:00.150 --> 01:06:01.723
Which side are they really on?

01:06:03.630 --> 01:06:05.410
I thought for sure with
the camera rolling,

01:06:05.410 --> 01:06:07.808
environmental leaders
would speak for the trees.

01:06:07.808 --> 01:06:10.489
- [Group] No frackin' way.

01:06:10.489 --> 01:06:14.440
- Where's the science,
where's the science?

01:06:14.440 --> 01:06:18.190
- We're here to tell a
story about what the forests

01:06:18.190 --> 01:06:22.260
of this state, of our
commonwealth, mean to us.

01:06:22.260 --> 01:06:24.610
- [Jeff] Does your organization
have any stance on that?

01:06:24.610 --> 01:06:27.080
- I'm not sure I would
say we support it as much

01:06:27.080 --> 01:06:29.750
as we can wrap our heads around it.

01:06:29.750 --> 01:06:32.380
We've almost made a peace
with the timber industry.

01:06:32.380 --> 01:06:34.230
- [Jeff] I'm just curious,
what's your group stance

01:06:34.230 --> 01:06:37.153
on using forests for biomass?

01:06:37.153 --> 01:06:42.153
- Biomass is renewable,
biomass is sustainable.

01:06:42.680 --> 01:06:46.063
- And I'm with Clean Water Action,

01:06:47.000 --> 01:06:49.240
we don't really have a stand on it.

01:06:49.240 --> 01:06:51.810
If the director of the
Sierra Club was here,

01:06:51.810 --> 01:06:55.737
she'd be able to talk
your ear off about it.

01:06:55.737 --> 01:06:59.080
- I'm the director for the
Sierra Club in Pennsylvania.

01:06:59.080 --> 01:07:00.180
- [Jeff] Does the Sierra Club support

01:07:00.180 --> 01:07:01.863
or not support biomass?

01:07:05.030 --> 01:07:06.550
- I'm not totally prepared to talk

01:07:06.550 --> 01:07:08.530
about our policy on biomass today.

01:07:08.530 --> 01:07:10.960
Our position is somewhat nuanced,

01:07:10.960 --> 01:07:14.083
so I just want to be careful not to...

01:07:14.083 --> 01:07:16.707
(crowd talking)

01:07:16.707 --> 01:07:17.540
- [Jeff] So, you're with 350?

01:07:17.540 --> 01:07:18.373
- I am.

01:07:18.373 --> 01:07:20.110
- Do 350 have a position on biomass

01:07:20.110 --> 01:07:21.176
'cause I'm kind of actually--

01:07:21.176 --> 01:07:23.420
- I can't really speak for 350.

01:07:23.420 --> 01:07:25.160
- Do you personally have an opinion about

01:07:25.160 --> 01:07:28.330
whether we should be burning
green trees for green energy?

01:07:28.330 --> 01:07:30.230
- No, I don't have an opinion on that.

01:07:31.330 --> 01:07:33.500
I like a fire. (laughing)

01:07:33.500 --> 01:07:34.830
- [Jeff] One of my biggest concern

01:07:34.830 --> 01:07:36.590
as an environmentalist is that
we're trying to burn trees.

01:07:36.590 --> 01:07:38.570
There are tree burning power plants.

01:07:38.570 --> 01:07:40.730
Are you aware of the problems
with biomass or biofuels?

01:07:40.730 --> 01:07:43.843
- Yeah, yeah, I'm not as aware of that

01:07:43.843 --> 01:07:45.680
as I could be or should be.

01:07:45.680 --> 01:07:47.670
- Jeff Gibbs, working on a documentary.

01:07:47.670 --> 01:07:49.210
In Michigan where I live, where I'm from,

01:07:49.210 --> 01:07:51.920
there's large plants that
burn trees for energy

01:07:51.920 --> 01:07:53.387
and pretty much whole trees chopped up.

01:07:53.387 --> 01:07:54.610
Do you have a thought about whether

01:07:54.610 --> 01:07:57.370
that should be a part
of green energy or not?

01:07:57.370 --> 01:07:59.200
- The great thing about green energy is

01:07:59.200 --> 01:08:00.850
you don't have to pick a favorite.

01:08:00.850 --> 01:08:01.683
- Jeff Gibbs.

01:08:01.683 --> 01:08:02.550
- Oh, hello.

01:08:02.550 --> 01:08:04.930
- My biggest concern is that
in Germany, for instance,

01:08:04.930 --> 01:08:06.780
they're moving toward solar and wind

01:08:06.780 --> 01:08:09.980
but 60% of their actual
energy is coming from biomass.

01:08:09.980 --> 01:08:12.510
60% of what's considered renewable energy.

01:08:12.510 --> 01:08:13.780
Burning trees for energy?

01:08:13.780 --> 01:08:15.620
- I don't know the details out of Germany.

01:08:15.620 --> 01:08:17.410
What Germany's really doing is a lot

01:08:17.410 --> 01:08:20.400
of sun related and that's
really powerful to see.

01:08:20.400 --> 01:08:21.280
- [Jeff] I'd like to see us come out

01:08:21.280 --> 01:08:22.113
against any burning of trees.

01:08:22.113 --> 01:08:23.077
- All right, well go and do it.

01:08:23.077 --> 01:08:23.910
- For clean energy

01:08:23.910 --> 01:08:25.315
Would you?

01:08:25.315 --> 01:08:27.930
- Although I confess I stoke my wood stove

01:08:27.930 --> 01:08:29.180
almost every night of the winter,

01:08:29.180 --> 01:08:30.465
so I'm not really the right person to ask.

01:08:30.465 --> 01:08:32.451
- But designating green
energy for power plants.

01:08:32.451 --> 01:08:35.190
- Yeah, yeah, I don't know.

01:08:35.190 --> 01:08:36.898
It's not what this day's about.

01:08:36.898 --> 01:08:38.574
- [Jeff] But if we're burning trees

01:08:38.574 --> 01:08:40.574
instead of fossil fuels.

01:08:41.839 --> 01:08:42.910
- (crowd drowns out) from Taiwan.

01:08:42.910 --> 01:08:44.500
- Oh, good.

01:08:44.500 --> 01:08:47.446
- We're wondering what role do you want

01:08:47.446 --> 01:08:48.949
to play in this (voice fading out)?

01:08:48.949 --> 01:08:50.903
- [Jeff] I think the biomass
question's a non-starter.

01:08:54.413 --> 01:08:56.310
(somber music)

01:08:56.310 --> 01:08:58.530
I found only one
environmental leader willing

01:08:58.530 --> 01:09:00.823
to reject biomass and biofuels.

01:09:02.530 --> 01:09:03.580
- So we are talking

01:09:03.580 --> 01:09:07.750
of the old oil economy trying

01:09:07.750 --> 01:09:09.620
to maintain itself now

01:09:09.620 --> 01:09:13.650
through another raw
material, the green planet.

01:09:13.650 --> 01:09:17.420
The only reason corn and soy
has been planted for biofuel

01:09:17.420 --> 01:09:20.245
in this country is the
subsidies make it profitable.

01:09:20.245 --> 01:09:23.020
I think the big crisis of our time is

01:09:24.002 --> 01:09:28.030
our minds have been manipulated
to give power to illusions.

01:09:28.030 --> 01:09:30.370
We shifted to measuring growth,

01:09:30.370 --> 01:09:34.520
not in terms of how life is enriched

01:09:34.520 --> 01:09:36.967
but in terms of how life is destroyed.

01:09:36.967 --> 01:09:39.200
(peaceful guitar)

01:09:39.200 --> 01:09:41.000
- [Jeff] Her honesty was refreshing.

01:09:42.870 --> 01:09:45.763
But as for the rest of them, I wondered,

01:09:47.880 --> 01:09:49.183
what are they hiding?

01:09:50.750 --> 01:09:52.103
And why are they hiding it?

01:09:54.350 --> 01:09:55.483
Is it their ignorance?

01:09:57.620 --> 01:09:59.254
Or is it something else?

01:09:59.254 --> 01:10:01.210
(music increasing in tempo)

01:10:01.210 --> 01:10:03.998
What if they, themselves,
had become misguided?

01:10:03.998 --> 01:10:05.890
(intensifying dramatic music)

01:10:05.890 --> 01:10:07.800
What if they've made some kind of deal

01:10:07.800 --> 01:10:09.050
they shouldn't have made?

01:10:11.140 --> 01:10:14.373
And are leading us all off the cliff?

01:10:18.997 --> 01:10:22.830
(light upbeat music)

01:10:22.830 --> 01:10:24.630
It was long past time
for me to come to grips

01:10:24.630 --> 01:10:27.053
with the other elephant
in the living room.

01:10:27.900 --> 01:10:29.023
The profit motive.

01:10:31.290 --> 01:10:33.320
The only reason we've
been force fed the story,

01:10:33.320 --> 01:10:36.683
climate change plus
renewables equals we're saved,

01:10:37.540 --> 01:10:39.490
is because billionaires, bankers

01:10:39.490 --> 01:10:41.543
and corporations profit from it.

01:10:43.040 --> 01:10:45.900
And the reason we're not
talking about over-population,

01:10:45.900 --> 01:10:49.620
consumption and the suicide
of economic growth is

01:10:51.170 --> 01:10:53.740
that would be bad for business.

01:10:53.740 --> 01:10:55.840
Especially the cancerous
form of capitalism

01:10:55.840 --> 01:10:57.820
that rules the world.

01:10:57.820 --> 01:11:00.620
Now hiding under a cover of green.

01:11:00.620 --> 01:11:02.370
- Today Bloomberg
Philanthropies is making,

01:11:02.370 --> 01:11:05.090
I'm happy to announce, a new investment

01:11:05.090 --> 01:11:08.416
of $30 million in the
Beyond Coal campaign.

01:11:08.416 --> 01:11:11.230
(crowd cheering and clapping)

01:11:11.230 --> 01:11:12.063
We have more.

01:11:12.063 --> 01:11:13.150
I'm glad to say that more

01:11:13.150 --> 01:11:15.500
than a dozen additional
funders have committed

01:11:15.500 --> 01:11:17.452
to match that $30 million.

01:11:17.452 --> 01:11:20.256
(clapping and cheering)

01:11:20.256 --> 01:11:22.330
- [Jeff] And who were these new partners?

01:11:22.330 --> 01:11:24.160
One of them was Jeremy Grantham.

01:11:24.160 --> 01:11:28.021
Billionaire, world's leading
timber investment advisor.

01:11:28.021 --> 01:11:29.390
(man speaking in background)

01:11:29.390 --> 01:11:30.980
They were not investing in trees

01:11:30.980 --> 01:11:32.853
to turn them into nature preserves.

01:11:34.300 --> 01:11:36.003
Which might answer another riddle,

01:11:37.640 --> 01:11:40.763
why is this name redacted on
the Sierra Club's tax return?

01:11:41.880 --> 01:11:44.820
Would they be embarrassed to
take three million dollars

01:11:44.820 --> 01:11:47.100
from a man who made his
living selling the forest

01:11:47.100 --> 01:11:47.943
to the world?

01:11:49.760 --> 01:11:52.700
Bloomberg, bringing a timber
investment billionaire

01:11:52.700 --> 01:11:54.883
to the party, was no coincidence.

01:11:55.730 --> 01:11:58.280
Bloomberg sponsored a U.N. climate session

01:11:58.280 --> 01:12:00.030
to discuss wrapping up biomass

01:12:00.030 --> 01:12:01.623
and biofuels around the world.

01:12:03.940 --> 01:12:06.390
Billionaires were in love
with the idea of turning

01:12:06.390 --> 01:12:09.063
what was left of nature
into green profits.

01:12:10.730 --> 01:12:13.060
Remember when Al Gore had
gotten Richard Branson

01:12:13.060 --> 01:12:15.730
to invest billions into saving the planet?

01:12:15.730 --> 01:12:18.310
- [News Anchor] Richard Branson,
founder of Virgin Atlantic,

01:12:18.310 --> 01:12:21.540
powered a Boeing 747
from London to Amsterdam

01:12:21.540 --> 01:12:24.310
on a coconut oil mixture
to highlight the potential

01:12:24.310 --> 01:12:27.143
of this amazing oil as
a clean energy biofuel.

01:12:28.770 --> 01:12:31.990
- [Jeff] Branson had actually
invested in biofuels.

01:12:31.990 --> 01:12:33.750
He was attempting to replace the jet fuel

01:12:33.750 --> 01:12:35.960
damaging the planet with biofuels

01:12:35.960 --> 01:12:38.510
that required the consumption
of the living planet.

01:12:40.070 --> 01:12:42.600
And it was game-on for
the airline industry.

01:12:42.600 --> 01:12:43.690
- [News Anchor] Dozens of researchers

01:12:43.690 --> 01:12:44.950
from all over the northwest gathered

01:12:44.950 --> 01:12:47.170
in Missoula the past two
days to explore the idea

01:12:47.170 --> 01:12:49.070
of converting the
region's mass of reserves

01:12:49.070 --> 01:12:50.610
of wood into jet fuel.

01:12:50.610 --> 01:12:53.090
Especially with the demand
for aircraft fuel expected

01:12:53.090 --> 01:12:55.800
to grow by a billion gallons
in the northwest alone.

01:12:55.800 --> 01:12:58.680
- [News Anchor] United Airlines
will buy a $30 million stake

01:12:58.680 --> 01:13:01.280
in biofuel company, Fulcrum BioEnergy.

01:13:01.280 --> 01:13:05.433
The airline used 3.9 billion
gallons of fuel last year.

01:13:06.280 --> 01:13:09.645
- [Jeff] What technology was
Silicon Valley billionaire

01:13:09.645 --> 01:13:12.530
Vinod Khosla hoping to profit from?

01:13:12.530 --> 01:13:16.500
- Nature takes a million years
to produce our crude oil.

01:13:16.500 --> 01:13:18.950
KiOR can produce it in seconds.

01:13:18.950 --> 01:13:21.530
- [Lesley] The company took
over this old paper mill

01:13:21.530 --> 01:13:24.730
where logs are picked up by a giant claw,

01:13:24.730 --> 01:13:28.700
dropped into a shredder and
pulverized into wood chips.

01:13:28.700 --> 01:13:29.734
Clean gasoline?

01:13:29.734 --> 01:13:31.570
- Clean, green gasoline.

01:13:31.570 --> 01:13:33.260
- There must be a downside.

01:13:33.260 --> 01:13:34.833
- There is no downside.

01:13:35.890 --> 01:13:37.770
- [Jeff] The bank that
crashed the economy,

01:13:37.770 --> 01:13:40.540
ruined millions of lives
and has their tentacles

01:13:40.540 --> 01:13:42.610
on the levers of power,

01:13:42.610 --> 01:13:45.583
what would their favorite
form of green energy be?

01:13:45.583 --> 01:13:46.960
- One of the very interesting markets

01:13:46.960 --> 01:13:48.710
that we deal with is Brazil.

01:13:48.710 --> 01:13:51.630
It's unlike any other
market in that today,

01:13:51.630 --> 01:13:53.670
alternative energy isn't
really alternative energy.

01:13:53.670 --> 01:13:57.040
It's so much a part of
the fabric of the society.

01:13:57.040 --> 01:14:00.500
The country began to
utilize its vast resources

01:14:00.500 --> 01:14:02.213
of sugar cane to produce ethanol.

01:14:03.430 --> 01:14:05.320
- [Jeff] There was a
man from Goldman Sachs

01:14:05.320 --> 01:14:07.210
who was particularly in love

01:14:07.210 --> 01:14:09.930
with turning forests into profits.

01:14:09.930 --> 01:14:11.993
- Has everybody got enough coffee?

01:14:12.920 --> 01:14:14.850
Might want to get some more.

01:14:14.850 --> 01:14:17.220
- [Jeff] Meet David Blood, former CEO

01:14:17.220 --> 01:14:19.833
of Asset Management for Goldman Sachs.

01:14:20.840 --> 01:14:22.860
How much money did Mr.
Blood believe should

01:14:22.860 --> 01:14:24.670
be invested in green energy?

01:14:24.670 --> 01:14:27.770
- A natural alignment for
something in the order

01:14:27.770 --> 01:14:31.237
of $40-50 trillion worth of capital.

01:14:31.237 --> 01:14:32.633
- [Jeff] $40-50 trillion.

01:14:34.370 --> 01:14:37.790
And who was going to help
the man from Goldman Sachs?

01:14:37.790 --> 01:14:40.343
Help him raise that
astronomical amount of money?

01:14:41.430 --> 01:14:43.520
- A gentleman some of you may recognize

01:14:43.520 --> 01:14:45.870
and know, Bill McKibben.

01:14:45.870 --> 01:14:48.620
- It's entirely dependent on what kind

01:14:48.620 --> 01:14:50.550
of political will we can muster.

01:14:50.550 --> 01:14:53.940
And if we do not get this done very fast,

01:14:53.940 --> 01:14:56.023
then we're not gonna get it done.

01:14:57.100 --> 01:14:59.220
- [Jeff] And so Bill McKibben went forth

01:14:59.220 --> 01:15:01.760
to generate the political
will for trillions

01:15:01.760 --> 01:15:03.623
of dollars in green investments.

01:15:04.520 --> 01:15:05.710
- Our next guest has been called

01:15:05.710 --> 01:15:07.930
our nation's leading environmentalist.

01:15:07.930 --> 01:15:09.270
- And you are, in some sense,

01:15:09.270 --> 01:15:11.992
the Grand Poobah of the
environmental movement.

01:15:11.992 --> 01:15:16.290
- My guest tonight is on a global crusade.

01:15:16.290 --> 01:15:18.680
- [Jeff] On a global crusade for what?

01:15:18.680 --> 01:15:20.770
- Commit to divesting from fossil fuels.

01:15:20.770 --> 01:15:24.110
We can't justify investing
our money into companies

01:15:24.110 --> 01:15:26.750
that are basically
running genesis backward.

01:15:26.750 --> 01:15:29.560
- [Jeff] So when you
divest from fossil fuels,

01:15:29.560 --> 01:15:33.193
and invest in green funds,
what are you investing in?

01:15:34.070 --> 01:15:36.470
I took a deep dive into Securities

01:15:36.470 --> 01:15:39.423
and Exchange Commission
filings to find out.

01:15:40.310 --> 01:15:43.210
For instance, in the Green Century Funds,

01:15:43.210 --> 01:15:47.420
recommended by 350.org and Bill McKibben,

01:15:47.420 --> 01:15:50.510
I found less than one
percent solar and wind

01:15:50.510 --> 01:15:54.030
and 99% things like mining,

01:15:54.030 --> 01:15:57.697
(increasing dramatic music)

01:15:59.150 --> 01:16:01.566
oil and gas infrastructure companies,

01:16:01.566 --> 01:16:03.070
(dramatic music)

01:16:03.070 --> 01:16:05.203
including a tar sands exploiter,

01:16:06.570 --> 01:16:09.750
McDonald's one of the companies
driving meat consumption

01:16:09.750 --> 01:16:10.803
across the planet.

01:16:12.480 --> 01:16:14.110
Archer Daniels Midland,

01:16:14.110 --> 01:16:17.023
one of the world's largest
producers of biofuel,

01:16:18.290 --> 01:16:20.840
Coca Cola, the largest creator

01:16:20.840 --> 01:16:22.423
of plastic pollution on earth,

01:16:23.820 --> 01:16:27.090
logging and paper companies including one

01:16:27.090 --> 01:16:32.090
that brags about biomass
burning and banks.

01:16:32.115 --> 01:16:34.170
(dramatic music)

01:16:34.170 --> 01:16:35.314
Lots of banks.

01:16:35.314 --> 01:16:37.930
(dramatic music)

01:16:37.930 --> 01:16:41.260
Including BlackRock, the largest financer

01:16:41.260 --> 01:16:43.163
of deforestation on earth.

01:16:44.260 --> 01:16:46.600
- The business that they're engaged in

01:16:46.600 --> 01:16:49.923
is actually destroying
our life support system.

01:16:49.923 --> 01:16:51.710
(dramatic music)

01:16:51.710 --> 01:16:53.480
- [Jeff] The Sierra Club, also partners

01:16:53.480 --> 01:16:56.003
with a green fund called Aspiration.

01:16:57.150 --> 01:17:00.970
Aspiration also includes
dozens of companies profiting

01:17:00.970 --> 01:17:02.720
from the destruction of the planet.

01:17:04.770 --> 01:17:09.770
Including Chevron,
ExxonMobil, Chesapeake Energy.

01:17:10.570 --> 01:17:12.900
- [Announcer] In order to
maximize the production potential

01:17:12.900 --> 01:17:14.000
of the well,

01:17:14.000 --> 01:17:17.160
the shale formation will
be hydraulically fractured.

01:17:17.160 --> 01:17:19.633
- [Jeff] The Russian gas giant, Gazprom.

01:17:20.530 --> 01:17:22.390
- [Announcer] Gazprom
owns the world's largest

01:17:22.390 --> 01:17:26.423
explored gas reserves,
36 trillion cubic meters.

01:17:27.370 --> 01:17:30.360
- [Jeff] And in perhaps the
most bizarre twist of all,

01:17:30.360 --> 01:17:34.780
the Sierra Club's green fund's
biggest holding is in Viva,

01:17:34.780 --> 01:17:37.240
the world's largest consumer of forests,

01:17:37.240 --> 01:17:40.013
to be incinerated in green
energy biomass plants.

01:17:41.653 --> 01:17:44.736
(somber piano music)

01:17:47.110 --> 01:17:49.860
Of course, one investment
option is a green fund,

01:17:49.860 --> 01:17:52.323
run by Bill McKibben's buddy, David Blood.

01:17:53.290 --> 01:17:55.473
And who was the chairman of this fund?

01:17:56.600 --> 01:17:58.350
Someone familiar.

01:17:58.350 --> 01:18:01.370
- Use capitalism, it gives incentives

01:18:01.370 --> 01:18:04.350
for people to do their best.

01:18:04.350 --> 01:18:06.640
- [Jeff] Al Gore and David Blood partnered

01:18:06.640 --> 01:18:09.523
to form a company called Blood and Gore.

01:18:11.310 --> 01:18:15.373
No, scratch that, Generation
Investment Management.

01:18:16.300 --> 01:18:18.850
And within this fund,
Blood and Gore designated

01:18:18.850 --> 01:18:23.850
a special investment category
targeting $650 million

01:18:23.990 --> 01:18:25.973
of biomass and biofuels.

01:18:27.180 --> 01:18:28.960
Funny thing was, they partnered

01:18:28.960 --> 01:18:31.240
before Al Gore's film came out.

01:18:31.240 --> 01:18:33.160
(dramatic music)

01:18:33.160 --> 01:18:38.050
Was that movie just about
climate change or something else?

01:18:38.050 --> 01:18:41.240
- On one side, we have gold bars.

01:18:41.240 --> 01:18:45.330
Mm, mm, mm. (audience laughing)

01:18:45.330 --> 01:18:46.630
Don't they look good?

01:18:46.630 --> 01:18:49.270
I'd just like to have
some of those gold bars.

01:18:49.270 --> 01:18:53.472
On the other side of the
scales, the entire planet.

01:18:53.472 --> 01:18:55.610
(audience laughing)

01:18:55.610 --> 01:18:57.360
If we do the right thing,

01:18:57.360 --> 01:18:59.423
then we're gonna create a lot of wealth.

01:19:00.440 --> 01:19:02.160
- [Jeff] And when it came time for Al Gore

01:19:02.160 --> 01:19:06.900
to choose between the entire
planet and getting him some

01:19:06.900 --> 01:19:10.980
of them gold bars, what
choice did he make?

01:19:10.980 --> 01:19:13.830
Here's Al Gore earning his
keep by pretending to care

01:19:13.830 --> 01:19:16.340
about the rain forest
while lobbying Congress

01:19:16.340 --> 01:19:19.483
on behalf of the sugar
cane ethanol industry.

01:19:20.410 --> 01:19:21.960
- Let me come in on the
Brazilian effort here

01:19:21.960 --> 01:19:24.310
with the issue of the
possibility of expanding into

01:19:24.310 --> 01:19:27.590
that Amazon River basin
with further deforestation

01:19:27.590 --> 01:19:29.760
to produce more ethanol out
of sugar cane is a worry.

01:19:29.760 --> 01:19:31.740
And apparently you're not
as concerned about that.

01:19:31.740 --> 01:19:34.352
- No, no, I am, I simply forgot.

01:19:34.352 --> 01:19:35.803
(motor roaring)

01:19:35.803 --> 01:19:38.800
(children screaming & crying)

01:19:38.800 --> 01:19:43.636
What's been going on there,
it is really very troubling.

01:19:43.636 --> 01:19:47.553
(speaking in foreign language)

01:19:48.880 --> 01:19:51.573
And with your permission, I'll
show you a very quick example

01:19:51.573 --> 01:19:55.031
of it over a period of 25 years.

01:19:55.031 --> 01:19:57.614
(loud tapping)

01:19:59.060 --> 01:20:01.020
- [Announcer] The invasion
of sugar cane on the cultures

01:20:01.020 --> 01:20:02.410
in the region clashes

01:20:02.410 --> 01:20:05.370
with the indigenous
people's right to land.

01:20:05.370 --> 01:20:07.850
These are images of a last ditch attempt

01:20:07.850 --> 01:20:10.700
by the Guarani-Kaiowá to resist eviction.

01:20:10.700 --> 01:20:13.490
- Important to note that the exploitation

01:20:13.490 --> 01:20:18.490
of the sugar cane growing
areas in Brazil does not have

01:20:18.730 --> 01:20:22.610
to inevitably have the
knock on consequence

01:20:22.610 --> 01:20:27.063
of causing destruction in the Amazon.

01:20:28.530 --> 01:20:30.640
- Sugar cane fields are burning.

01:20:30.640 --> 01:20:32.650
They're set alight before the harvest

01:20:32.650 --> 01:20:35.040
to eliminate the leaves
and tops of the plant,

01:20:35.040 --> 01:20:37.193
which makes cutting more efficient.

01:20:37.193 --> 01:20:39.170
(somber music)

01:20:39.170 --> 01:20:41.160
Environmentalists blame the seemingly

01:20:41.160 --> 01:20:44.600
endless sugar cane fields,
the air and water pollution

01:20:44.600 --> 01:20:46.430
on an epic scale.

01:20:46.430 --> 01:20:49.480
And along with deforestation,
the threat it poses

01:20:49.480 --> 01:20:52.080
to the environment is becoming clear.

01:20:52.080 --> 01:20:53.440
(dramatic music)

01:20:53.440 --> 01:20:55.970
Once the indigenous
families were expelled,

01:20:55.970 --> 01:20:58.973
the land owners set their homes on fire.

01:21:01.101 --> 01:21:03.851
(dramatic music)

01:21:06.290 --> 01:21:07.980
- [Jeff] Is there anything too terrible

01:21:07.980 --> 01:21:09.473
to qualify as green energy?

01:21:11.850 --> 01:21:14.760
- Thank you very much, Secretary
Mabus and U.S. Navy for,

01:21:14.760 --> 01:21:17.160
once again, inviting me
to speak with you today.

01:21:17.160 --> 01:21:18.725
The Navy's work to help launch

01:21:18.725 --> 01:21:22.111
this new fuel industry is invaluable.

01:21:22.111 --> 01:21:24.665
(roaring plane engine)

01:21:24.665 --> 01:21:26.660
- [Announcer] The U.S.
Navy has a special message

01:21:26.660 --> 01:21:27.493
this year.

01:21:27.493 --> 01:21:29.620
It is time to turn green.

01:21:29.620 --> 01:21:32.170
Joining the vessels is
what the U.S. Navy calls,

01:21:32.170 --> 01:21:34.010
it's great green fleet of warships,

01:21:34.010 --> 01:21:36.980
powered by fuel from
renewable sources like algae,

01:21:36.980 --> 01:21:39.185
grass and animal fat.

01:21:39.185 --> 01:21:40.852
- [Jeff] Animal fat?

01:21:42.268 --> 01:21:45.601
(thudding and pounding)

01:21:48.473 --> 01:21:50.190
- The next time you fill up

01:21:50.190 --> 01:21:51.830
at your neighborhood gas station,

01:21:51.830 --> 01:21:54.900
you might find yourself
pumping a little alligator

01:21:54.900 --> 01:21:55.733
into your tank.

01:21:55.733 --> 01:21:57.850
That's right, U.L. Lafayette researchers

01:21:57.850 --> 01:21:59.580
have developed alligator fat

01:21:59.580 --> 01:22:02.293
into a renewable source for biofuels.

01:22:04.570 --> 01:22:08.640
- [Jeff] And once we run through
the animals, what's next?

01:22:08.640 --> 01:22:12.590
GE, who brings you nuclear
energy and wind turbines,

01:22:12.590 --> 01:22:13.783
is ready with a plan.

01:22:15.240 --> 01:22:18.330
- I believe that liquid fuels, chemicals,

01:22:18.330 --> 01:22:21.310
are eventually gonna have to be made

01:22:22.640 --> 01:22:24.600
from sustainable raw materials.

01:22:24.600 --> 01:22:26.550
We believe that seaweed is one

01:22:26.550 --> 01:22:28.343
of the most attractive opportunities.

01:22:29.520 --> 01:22:32.270
(majestic music)

01:22:39.270 --> 01:22:40.370
- [Jeff] Better hurry.

01:22:43.110 --> 01:22:47.253
One year after it was filmed,
the seaweed forest was dead.

01:22:49.576 --> 01:22:52.159
(somber music)

01:22:55.510 --> 01:22:58.450
You might ask yourself,
how could men destroy

01:22:58.450 --> 01:23:01.233
what remains of nature
to enrich themselves?

01:23:02.530 --> 01:23:06.414
Well, that's why they're
billionaires and you're not.

01:23:06.414 --> 01:23:08.664
(laughing)

01:23:10.060 --> 01:23:11.950
The takeover of the environmental movement

01:23:11.950 --> 01:23:14.660
by capitalism is now complete.

01:23:14.660 --> 01:23:16.820
Environmentalists are no
longer resisting those

01:23:16.820 --> 01:23:19.823
with a profit motive, but
collaborating with them.

01:23:21.100 --> 01:23:25.070
The Nature Conservancy is
now the logging conservancy.

01:23:25.070 --> 01:23:29.760
- We will capture the most
important pieces biologically

01:23:29.760 --> 01:23:32.810
and there will be another large block sold

01:23:32.810 --> 01:23:34.940
to timber investment groups.

01:23:34.940 --> 01:23:38.410
The Union of Concerned
Scientists has become the union

01:23:38.410 --> 01:23:41.410
of concerned salesmen,
having taken millions,

01:23:41.410 --> 01:23:42.760
not for science,

01:23:42.760 --> 01:23:46.523
but to create markets for electric cars.

01:23:48.260 --> 01:23:50.280
The Sierra Club sells electric cars

01:23:50.280 --> 01:23:52.463
and solar panels right from their website.

01:23:53.530 --> 01:23:55.110
- The best thing about Sungevity is

01:23:55.110 --> 01:23:56.760
that they make it easy for you.

01:23:56.760 --> 01:23:59.223
All that you have to do is to say yes.

01:24:00.130 --> 01:24:02.860
- [Jeff] The New York Times
partners with ExxonMobil

01:24:02.860 --> 01:24:05.410
to bring you the good news about biofuels.

01:24:05.410 --> 01:24:06.350
- [Announcer] Algae derived fuel

01:24:06.350 --> 01:24:08.100
could help us meet growing demands.

01:24:09.095 --> 01:24:11.100
- [Jeff] Treehugger.com, which claims

01:24:11.100 --> 01:24:14.330
to be the largest single
source of environmental news,

01:24:14.330 --> 01:24:17.810
was founded and funded by Georgia Pacific,

01:24:17.810 --> 01:24:19.660
a logging company.

01:24:19.660 --> 01:24:21.203
In fact, they are neighbors.

01:24:23.150 --> 01:24:26.440
Georgia Pacific is owned by
our friends, the Koch brothers,

01:24:26.440 --> 01:24:28.590
who are likely the largest recipient

01:24:28.590 --> 01:24:32.020
of green energy biomass
subsidies in the United States.

01:24:32.020 --> 01:24:34.320
(somber music)

01:24:34.320 --> 01:24:36.560
Yes, the merger of environmentalism

01:24:36.560 --> 01:24:39.500
and capitalism is now complete.

01:24:39.500 --> 01:24:41.300
But maybe it's always been complete.

01:24:42.310 --> 01:24:45.200
- How is 350.org funded?

01:24:45.200 --> 01:24:46.905
- Well, not very well.

01:24:46.905 --> 01:24:49.420
- (laughing) Who are your funders?

01:24:49.420 --> 01:24:51.100
- To the degree that we
have any money at all,

01:24:51.100 --> 01:24:53.169
it's come from a few
foundations in Europe and U.S.

01:24:53.169 --> 01:24:55.301
- [Karyn] Which ones?

01:24:55.301 --> 01:24:56.530
- Ah, let's see.

01:24:56.530 --> 01:25:00.853
The, I'm trying to think
who the biggest funders are.

01:25:05.320 --> 01:25:10.320
There's a foundation in,
based in Sweden called,

01:25:13.020 --> 01:25:15.170
I think it's called
the Rasmuson Foundation

01:25:16.504 --> 01:25:18.650
that I think has been the biggest funder.

01:25:18.650 --> 01:25:21.220
- So you don't get money
from Pew or Rockefeller

01:25:21.220 --> 01:25:22.780
or any of those big foundations?

01:25:22.780 --> 01:25:23.613
- [Bill] No, we did.

01:25:23.613 --> 01:25:26.520
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
gave us some money right

01:25:26.520 --> 01:25:27.550
when we were starting out.

01:25:27.550 --> 01:25:28.750
That's been useful, too.

01:25:29.730 --> 01:25:31.984
- But they no longer fund you?

01:25:31.984 --> 01:25:34.468
- I don't know, I don't have this sort of-

01:25:34.468 --> 01:25:36.670
- [Karyn] (laughing) Really?

01:25:36.670 --> 01:25:38.493
- Funders sitting in front of me.

01:25:38.493 --> 01:25:40.493
- [Karyn] That's usually
something that people know.

01:25:40.493 --> 01:25:43.983
- Rockefeller's been one
of our, is one of our,

01:25:43.983 --> 01:25:46.630
is a great ally in this fight.

01:25:46.630 --> 01:25:50.310
- [Interviewer] You just sold
your TV network to Al Jazeera.

01:25:50.310 --> 01:25:51.143
- Right.

01:25:51.143 --> 01:25:53.270
- [Interviewer] And that
government is basically nothing

01:25:53.270 --> 01:25:54.550
but an oil producer.

01:25:54.550 --> 01:25:55.930
- Gas, mainly and oil.

01:25:55.930 --> 01:25:58.860
- Your take on that, about a
hundred million dollars pre-tax

01:25:58.860 --> 01:26:02.960
from a country that bases
it's wealth on fossil fuels.

01:26:02.960 --> 01:26:05.070
Isn't there a bit of hypocrisy in that?

01:26:05.070 --> 01:26:08.170
- Well, I get the criticism,
I just disagree with it.

01:26:08.170 --> 01:26:09.840
I'm proud of the transactions.

01:26:09.840 --> 01:26:13.150
- You couldn't find, for your business,

01:26:13.150 --> 01:26:15.000
a more sustainable choice?

01:26:15.000 --> 01:26:16.820
- What is not sustainable about it?

01:26:16.820 --> 01:26:19.231
- Because it is backed
by fossil fuel money.

01:26:19.231 --> 01:26:21.573
- I get it, I get it, I get it.

01:26:21.573 --> 01:26:23.190
- [Jeff] And so, if you got yourself

01:26:23.190 --> 01:26:25.930
an environmental movement
and environmental leaders,

01:26:25.930 --> 01:26:28.574
why not buy the holy day itself?

01:26:28.574 --> 01:26:30.021
- [Man] (crowd screaming) Happy Earth Day!

01:26:30.021 --> 01:26:31.559
♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪

01:26:31.559 --> 01:26:33.504
♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪

01:26:33.504 --> 01:26:35.671
♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪

01:26:35.671 --> 01:26:39.141
♪ You make me want to say ♪

01:26:39.141 --> 01:26:42.540
♪ Ah, you make me want to say ♪

01:26:42.540 --> 01:26:45.970
- Now we are facing the
greatest sets of issues

01:26:45.970 --> 01:26:48.170
that we've seen in my lifetime.

01:26:48.170 --> 01:26:50.600
It's time now for a new
generation to jump up

01:26:50.600 --> 01:26:53.560
on the stage and create
a habitable country,

01:26:53.560 --> 01:26:56.660
a habitable planet, that we can all enjoy.

01:26:56.660 --> 01:26:58.419
Are you that generation?

01:26:58.419 --> 01:27:01.530
(crowd screaming and cheering)

01:27:01.530 --> 01:27:03.540
I need to thank Building Energy

01:27:03.540 --> 01:27:06.463
which provided so much solar power to this

01:27:06.463 --> 01:27:09.748
that we powered the entire
event with solar energy.

01:27:09.748 --> 01:27:13.310
(crowd cheering and screaming)

01:27:13.310 --> 01:27:15.100
- [Jeff] But when I went backstage to see

01:27:15.100 --> 01:27:16.350
what was really going on.

01:27:17.260 --> 01:27:19.082
- It ain't running this
whole thing on that, Jack.

01:27:19.082 --> 01:27:19.957
I can tell you that.

01:27:19.957 --> 01:27:23.810
For a toaster is 1200 watts.

01:27:23.810 --> 01:27:27.320
So, that run right there
could run a toaster.

01:27:27.320 --> 01:27:29.520
- [Jeff] I found the installer.

01:27:29.520 --> 01:27:30.910
- Hi.

01:27:30.910 --> 01:27:31.930
- [Jeff] Are they running the festival

01:27:31.930 --> 01:27:33.340
on these solar panels?

01:27:33.340 --> 01:27:37.573
- The concert is run by
diesel generation system.

01:27:38.820 --> 01:27:43.630
They didn't ask us to
energize the concert.

01:27:43.630 --> 01:27:45.090
- [Jeff] Oh, okay.

01:27:45.090 --> 01:27:45.923
- And we'd also like

01:27:45.923 --> 01:27:48.340
to thank our incredible corporate sponsors

01:27:48.340 --> 01:27:50.830
have been behind the movement
to end extreme poverty

01:27:50.830 --> 01:27:53.480
and tackle climate change
since the very beginning.

01:27:53.480 --> 01:27:54.836
I want to thank Toyota.

01:27:54.836 --> 01:27:58.080
(loud roaring engine)

01:27:58.080 --> 01:27:58.913
Citibank.

01:27:58.913 --> 01:28:02.160
(clanging bell and cheering)

01:28:02.160 --> 01:28:03.860
We want to thank Caterpillar.

01:28:03.860 --> 01:28:05.680
- We're standing at the destruction site

01:28:05.680 --> 01:28:07.820
of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

01:28:07.820 --> 01:28:09.360
It looks like there are

01:28:09.360 --> 01:28:13.808
at least three bulldozers
actually bulldozing the land.

01:28:13.808 --> 01:28:16.970
(group yelling and cheering)

01:28:16.970 --> 01:28:18.700
People have gotten through the fence,

01:28:18.700 --> 01:28:20.497
the bulldozers are still going

01:28:20.497 --> 01:28:21.850
(people screaming)

01:28:21.850 --> 01:28:24.973
and they're marching over the dirt mounds.

01:28:24.973 --> 01:28:26.181
(loud angry screaming)

01:28:26.181 --> 01:28:27.744
- [Man In Orange Shirt] Get the fuck off!

01:28:27.744 --> 01:28:28.860
Get the fuck out of here!

01:28:28.860 --> 01:28:30.500
- Without these partners,
it wouldn't be possible.

01:28:30.500 --> 01:28:32.322
Let's give them a round
of applause, everyone.

01:28:32.322 --> 01:28:36.155
(crowd cheering and clapping)

01:28:37.932 --> 01:28:40.932
(slow solemn music)

01:28:45.300 --> 01:28:47.843
- [Jeff] Now I know this
all might seem overwhelming.

01:28:50.020 --> 01:28:50.900
It's a kind of thing

01:28:50.900 --> 01:28:54.027
that we normally don't
try and think about.

01:28:54.027 --> 01:28:57.470
(slow solemn music)

01:28:57.470 --> 01:28:58.920
But by not thinking about it,

01:29:00.400 --> 01:29:02.572
it stands a good chance of doing us in.

01:29:02.572 --> 01:29:05.240
(slow solemn music)

01:29:05.240 --> 01:29:07.910
I truly believe that the path to change

01:29:09.210 --> 01:29:10.889
comes from awareness.

01:29:10.889 --> 01:29:12.800
(slow solemn music)

01:29:12.800 --> 01:29:17.125
That awareness alone can begin
to create the transformation.

01:29:17.125 --> 01:29:20.125
(slow solemn music)

01:29:21.750 --> 01:29:23.223
There is a way out of this.

01:29:24.890 --> 01:29:28.240
We humans must accept that infinite growth

01:29:28.240 --> 01:29:31.633
on a finite planet is suicide.

01:29:33.250 --> 01:29:35.430
We must accept that our human presence

01:29:36.290 --> 01:29:38.833
is already far beyond sustainability.

01:29:40.510 --> 01:29:42.600
And all that that implies.

01:29:42.600 --> 01:29:44.980
(slow solemn music)

01:29:44.980 --> 01:29:48.400
We must take control of
our environmental movement

01:29:48.400 --> 01:29:51.860
and our future from billionaires

01:29:51.860 --> 01:29:54.533
and their permanent war on Planet Earth.

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(slow solemn music)

01:29:56.380 --> 01:29:58.444
They are not our friends.

01:29:58.444 --> 01:30:01.110
(slow solemn music)

01:30:01.110 --> 01:30:02.810
Less must be the new more

01:30:04.350 --> 01:30:06.430
and instead of climate change,

01:30:06.430 --> 01:30:08.230
we must at long last accept

01:30:09.400 --> 01:30:11.340
that it's not the carbon dioxide molecule

01:30:11.340 --> 01:30:12.440
destroying the planet,

01:30:14.268 --> 01:30:15.668
(slow solemn music) it's us.

01:30:17.369 --> 01:30:19.860
(slow solemn music)

01:30:19.860 --> 01:30:24.123
It's not one thing, but
everything we humans are doing.

01:30:25.850 --> 01:30:29.330
A human-caused apocalypse.

01:30:29.330 --> 01:30:33.875
If we get ourselves under
control, all things are possible.

01:30:33.875 --> 01:30:37.656
(slow solemn music)

01:30:37.656 --> 01:30:38.583
And if we don't.

01:30:39.950 --> 01:30:42.617
(ominous music)

01:30:50.087 --> 01:30:53.004
(chainsaw buzzing)

01:30:58.326 --> 01:31:01.076
(crashing trees)

01:31:02.654 --> 01:31:05.737
(sad mournful music)

01:31:07.112 --> 01:31:09.862
(trees crashing)

01:31:12.820 --> 01:31:15.820
(slow solemn music)

01:31:23.487 --> 01:31:26.320
(trees scrapping)

01:31:27.884 --> 01:31:30.967
(orangutan chirping)

01:31:33.112 --> 01:31:35.195
♪ Ah-Ooh ♪

01:31:42.445 --> 01:31:46.112
(mournful orchestral music)

01:32:00.546 --> 01:32:03.129
(music fading)

01:32:08.318 --> 01:32:11.568
(snapping tree branch)

01:32:13.586 --> 01:32:16.586
(slow solemn music)

01:32:25.779 --> 01:32:29.196
(roaring crackling fire)

01:32:31.927 --> 01:32:36.927
♪ Ah-Ah-Ooh ♪

01:32:38.833 --> 01:32:43.833
♪ Ooh-Ooh (increasing in intensity) ♪

01:32:46.125 --> 01:32:48.208
♪ Ah-Ooh ♪

01:32:49.971 --> 01:32:53.054
(orangutan chirping)

01:32:57.273 --> 01:33:00.940
(female singing mournfully)

01:33:05.677 --> 01:33:07.312
(orangutan squealing)

01:33:07.312 --> 01:33:08.895
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:33:10.770 --> 01:33:11.939
(low talking)

01:33:11.939 --> 01:33:15.840
♪ Ah-Ah-Ah ♪

01:33:15.840 --> 01:33:18.318
♪ Oh-Oh-Ah ♪

01:33:18.318 --> 01:33:22.809
♪ Oh-Oh-Ah ♪

01:33:22.809 --> 01:33:27.809
♪ Ooh-Ah ♪

01:33:28.747 --> 01:33:33.552
♪ Oh-Oh-Oh ♪

01:33:33.552 --> 01:33:35.385
♪ Ooh ♪

01:33:54.617 --> 01:33:57.200
(somber music)