1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:03,172 --> 00:00:06,755 (intense electronic music) 3 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 4 00:00:08,504 --> 00:00:11,254 (haunting music) 5 00:00:21,200 --> 00:00:22,513 - [Jeff] I've got a question. 6 00:00:23,700 --> 00:00:25,550 How long do you think we humans have? 7 00:00:26,590 --> 00:00:28,490 - How long does the human race have? 8 00:00:28,490 --> 00:00:29,410 - Ooh. 9 00:00:29,410 --> 00:00:30,323 - Um. 10 00:00:31,390 --> 00:00:32,760 - Oh, wow. 11 00:00:32,760 --> 00:00:34,740 - I don't exactly know, but may be soon. 12 00:00:34,740 --> 00:00:36,000 - I have no clue. 13 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:36,833 - [Jeff] No? (laughing) 14 00:00:36,833 --> 00:00:38,960 - I hope I get me at least 50 more years. (laughing) 15 00:00:38,960 --> 00:00:41,580 - I think there's infinite amount of time. 16 00:00:41,580 --> 00:00:42,640 - Infinite. 17 00:00:42,640 --> 00:00:44,160 It's infinite, yeah. 18 00:00:44,160 --> 00:00:45,340 - I give us a million. 19 00:00:45,340 --> 00:00:46,440 A million years. 20 00:00:46,440 --> 00:00:48,717 - Being kind, I would say probably about 10 years. 21 00:00:48,717 --> 00:00:50,090 - 10, 12 years. 22 00:00:50,090 --> 00:00:51,680 - Thousands of years. 23 00:00:51,680 --> 00:00:54,660 - 47 years, three months, five days. 24 00:00:54,660 --> 00:00:55,630 It's approximate. 25 00:00:55,630 --> 00:00:57,570 - We're kind of like cockroaches on the planet, 26 00:00:57,570 --> 00:00:59,630 no matter how much damage we'll do, 27 00:00:59,630 --> 00:01:04,370 enough of us will survive to procreate and keep it going. 28 00:01:04,370 --> 00:01:05,740 - Unless we can get to another planet, 29 00:01:05,740 --> 00:01:08,183 but then we're just gonna fuck it up like we did Earth. 30 00:01:08,183 --> 00:01:10,240 - Well, I think that we will be here 31 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:13,310 for a long time, but we will change. 32 00:01:13,310 --> 00:01:14,943 We're gonna turn back into apes. 33 00:01:16,974 --> 00:01:20,724 (suspenseful dramatic music) 34 00:01:22,580 --> 00:01:25,180 - [Jeff] Have you ever wondered what would happen 35 00:01:25,180 --> 00:01:27,943 if a single species took over an entire planet? 36 00:01:30,150 --> 00:01:33,520 Maybe they're cute, maybe they're clever 37 00:01:35,150 --> 00:01:36,133 but lack a certain, 38 00:01:37,700 --> 00:01:40,330 shall we say, 39 00:01:40,330 --> 00:01:41,623 self-restraint? 40 00:01:42,823 --> 00:01:44,990 (somber dramatic music) 41 00:01:44,990 --> 00:01:46,633 What if they go too far? 42 00:01:48,730 --> 00:01:52,690 What if they go way, way, way, 43 00:01:52,690 --> 00:01:55,460 way, way too far? 44 00:01:55,460 --> 00:01:57,880 (somber dramatic music) 45 00:01:57,880 --> 00:02:02,880 How would they know when it's their time to go? 46 00:02:05,827 --> 00:02:09,660 (intriguing synthesizer music) 47 00:02:16,356 --> 00:02:20,356 (intensifying music) 48 00:03:20,963 --> 00:03:23,546 (music fading) 49 00:03:25,496 --> 00:03:28,329 (old-timey music) 50 00:03:33,230 --> 00:03:35,000 - Due to our release through factories 51 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:36,550 and automobiles every year 52 00:03:36,550 --> 00:03:40,090 of more than six billion tons of carbon dioxide, 53 00:03:40,090 --> 00:03:42,690 our atmosphere seems to be getting warmer. 54 00:03:42,690 --> 00:03:43,723 - This is bad? 55 00:03:44,620 --> 00:03:47,320 - Well, it's been calculated a few degrees rise 56 00:03:47,320 --> 00:03:50,213 in the Earth's temperature would melt the polar ice caps. 57 00:03:51,446 --> 00:03:54,100 (crashing ice into water) 58 00:03:54,100 --> 00:03:57,510 And if this happens, an inland sea would fill a good portion 59 00:03:57,510 --> 00:03:59,470 of the Mississippi valley. 60 00:03:59,470 --> 00:04:02,260 For in weather, we're not only dealing with forces 61 00:04:02,260 --> 00:04:03,800 of a far greater variety 62 00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:06,590 than even the atomic physicist encounters, 63 00:04:06,590 --> 00:04:08,574 but with life itself. 64 00:04:08,574 --> 00:04:12,610 (synthesizer music) 65 00:04:12,610 --> 00:04:14,863 - [Jeff] That was 1958. 66 00:04:15,930 --> 00:04:17,110 We've known about the dangers 67 00:04:17,110 --> 00:04:19,353 of climate change for six decades. 68 00:04:20,750 --> 00:04:22,900 Back then, there was so much air pollution 69 00:04:22,900 --> 00:04:24,883 it would actually block out the sun. 70 00:04:26,660 --> 00:04:30,173 There was so much water pollution, rivers caught on fire. 71 00:04:31,169 --> 00:04:32,770 (synthesizer music) 72 00:04:32,770 --> 00:04:35,123 Forget throwing plastic bottles into the water, 73 00:04:36,210 --> 00:04:37,803 we tossed our cars in there. 74 00:04:39,840 --> 00:04:42,260 We also knew someday we'd run out of oil. 75 00:04:42,260 --> 00:04:43,570 - For millions of Americans, 76 00:04:43,570 --> 00:04:45,950 this may be the worst weekend they've ever faced 77 00:04:45,950 --> 00:04:48,840 for finding gasoline to give them the automobile freedom 78 00:04:48,840 --> 00:04:50,183 they take as their due. 79 00:04:51,430 --> 00:04:54,120 - [Jeff] I never doubted humans would find a better way 80 00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:55,993 and I wanted to be part of it. 81 00:04:57,050 --> 00:04:58,717 A scientist sounded the alarm 82 00:04:58,717 --> 00:05:01,070 and the modern environmental movement was born. 83 00:05:01,070 --> 00:05:03,690 - Unless we do bring these chemicals under better control, 84 00:05:03,690 --> 00:05:06,633 we are certainly headed for disaster. 85 00:05:07,600 --> 00:05:09,900 - [Jeff] Students all across the country 86 00:05:09,900 --> 00:05:11,530 organized the first Earth Day. 87 00:05:11,530 --> 00:05:13,620 - This point in time, it's very, very fashionable 88 00:05:13,620 --> 00:05:14,860 to talk about the environment 89 00:05:14,860 --> 00:05:17,373 but as every day proceeds, we find very, 90 00:05:17,373 --> 00:05:19,083 very little concrete being done. 91 00:05:21,160 --> 00:05:23,020 - [Jeff] As for me, you might say 92 00:05:23,020 --> 00:05:24,873 I was an early environmentalist. 93 00:05:26,620 --> 00:05:27,700 When I was nine years old, 94 00:05:27,700 --> 00:05:30,450 a bulldozer began knocking down the woods near my home. 95 00:05:31,990 --> 00:05:35,315 I retaliated by putting sand in its gas tank. 96 00:05:35,315 --> 00:05:37,240 (synthesizer music) 97 00:05:37,240 --> 00:05:40,550 When I grew up, I became a tree hugger and moved 98 00:05:40,550 --> 00:05:42,150 to the wilds of Northern Michigan 99 00:05:42,150 --> 00:05:45,313 to build a sustainable homestead and commune with nature. 100 00:05:46,860 --> 00:05:48,710 I wired my cabin for solar panels 101 00:05:49,660 --> 00:05:51,913 and heated with wood instead of fossil fuels. 102 00:05:54,100 --> 00:05:56,000 I wrote about sustainable living 103 00:05:56,000 --> 00:05:58,810 and environmental issues for the Mother Earth News 104 00:05:58,810 --> 00:06:00,696 and several news outlets. 105 00:06:00,696 --> 00:06:03,860 (intensifying music) 106 00:06:03,860 --> 00:06:06,653 I traveled the country documenting invasive species, 107 00:06:08,029 --> 00:06:09,565 (banging and clunking) 108 00:06:09,565 --> 00:06:13,740 (buzzing) ecosystem collapse, 109 00:06:13,740 --> 00:06:16,013 and species threatened with extinction. 110 00:06:17,067 --> 00:06:18,383 - (tapping) Come on, girls, boys. 111 00:06:20,122 --> 00:06:20,955 (crowd chanting) 112 00:06:20,955 --> 00:06:23,724 - I covered protests against destroying mountains for coal. 113 00:06:23,724 --> 00:06:27,400 (people shouting and clapping) 114 00:06:27,400 --> 00:06:30,544 And was once even confronted by the BP police. 115 00:06:30,544 --> 00:06:31,840 (car tires crunching) 116 00:06:31,840 --> 00:06:32,673 - Journalist. - You're a journalist? 117 00:06:32,673 --> 00:06:33,506 - [Jeff] Jeff Gibbs, yeah. 118 00:06:33,506 --> 00:06:35,570 - By all means, you can take all the pictures you want. 119 00:06:35,570 --> 00:06:36,403 - [Jeff] Okay. 120 00:06:36,403 --> 00:06:38,270 - We'll write a report and then we have to send it 121 00:06:38,270 --> 00:06:40,110 to the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's office 122 00:06:40,110 --> 00:06:41,133 they'll call you. 123 00:06:41,133 --> 00:06:44,107 (traffic whizzing) 124 00:06:44,107 --> 00:06:44,940 (door slamming) 125 00:06:44,940 --> 00:06:47,880 - [Jeff] Through all of this, I kept wondering, 126 00:06:47,880 --> 00:06:50,293 why are we still addicted to fossil fuels? 127 00:06:52,290 --> 00:06:55,693 So I decided to begin following the green energy movement. 128 00:06:56,976 --> 00:06:59,960 (mild rock music) 129 00:06:59,960 --> 00:07:01,190 What better place to check out 130 00:07:01,190 --> 00:07:03,980 how our renewable energy revolution is coming along, 131 00:07:03,980 --> 00:07:05,040 than a solar festival 132 00:07:05,040 --> 00:07:07,310 in the Green Mountain state of Vermont 133 00:07:07,310 --> 00:07:10,116 powered by 100% solar energy. 134 00:07:10,116 --> 00:07:12,050 (bass guitar and guitar music) 135 00:07:12,050 --> 00:07:15,050 - Solar. (laughing) 136 00:07:15,050 --> 00:07:16,393 - [Jeff] I was having fun 137 00:07:17,410 --> 00:07:18,710 and got a chance to ask 138 00:07:18,710 --> 00:07:20,870 about getting solar panels installed. 139 00:07:20,870 --> 00:07:22,700 - You can keep adding, so maybe every time 140 00:07:22,700 --> 00:07:25,078 you get a tax return, buy another solar panel? 141 00:07:25,078 --> 00:07:28,260 (singing rock music) 142 00:07:28,260 --> 00:07:30,706 - [Jeff] But then, a little rain began to fall. 143 00:07:30,706 --> 00:07:33,719 (rock band playing and singing) 144 00:07:33,719 --> 00:07:34,552 ♪ Packed up my guitar ♪ 145 00:07:34,552 --> 00:07:36,430 ♪ Headed to the nearest bowling alley ♪ 146 00:07:36,430 --> 00:07:39,203 My camera man noticed some commotion behind the stage. 147 00:07:40,404 --> 00:07:43,072 (thudding) 148 00:07:51,217 --> 00:07:52,050 - [Jeff] So the festival's run off 149 00:07:52,050 --> 00:07:54,060 solar energy, primarily? 150 00:08:06,321 --> 00:08:07,463 - [Jeff] Right. 151 00:08:07,463 --> 00:08:10,290 - But the biofuel generator wasn't enough, 152 00:08:10,290 --> 00:08:11,450 so they wound up plugging 153 00:08:11,450 --> 00:08:14,270 into the electrical grid that we all use. 154 00:08:14,270 --> 00:08:16,490 - The other inverter operating, 155 00:08:16,490 --> 00:08:18,740 it's actually pulling power in from the grid, 156 00:08:18,740 --> 00:08:20,890 charging the batteries. 157 00:08:20,890 --> 00:08:22,270 It's running backwards from the way 158 00:08:22,270 --> 00:08:24,702 we originally intended to do it, but. 159 00:08:24,702 --> 00:08:27,140 (guitar music) 160 00:08:27,140 --> 00:08:28,740 - [Jeff] That was disappointing. 161 00:08:29,898 --> 00:08:30,731 (singing) 162 00:08:30,731 --> 00:08:32,393 But after all, it had been raining. 163 00:08:34,570 --> 00:08:36,520 Maybe next time things would go better. 164 00:08:37,594 --> 00:08:40,594 (mellow rock music) 165 00:08:41,520 --> 00:08:44,430 Luckily for us, hope was on the way. 166 00:08:44,430 --> 00:08:47,593 - It's been a long time comin' but tonight, 167 00:08:48,470 --> 00:08:50,366 change has come to America. 168 00:08:50,366 --> 00:08:52,700 (crowd cheering) 169 00:08:52,700 --> 00:08:54,090 (guitar music) 170 00:08:54,090 --> 00:08:56,530 - [Jeff] Green activists across the country cheered 171 00:08:56,530 --> 00:08:59,200 when newly elected president Barack Obama 172 00:08:59,200 --> 00:09:02,010 rolled out a trillion dollar stimulus package 173 00:09:02,010 --> 00:09:04,915 with nearly 100 billion dollars for green energy. 174 00:09:04,915 --> 00:09:06,490 (guitar strumming and people chanting) 175 00:09:06,490 --> 00:09:08,760 Green was finally ramping up 176 00:09:08,760 --> 00:09:10,643 and everyone wanted to be part of it. 177 00:09:12,020 --> 00:09:15,150 President Obama brought in environmental activist Van Jones, 178 00:09:15,150 --> 00:09:18,060 from the Apollo Alliance, with shovel-ready projects. 179 00:09:18,060 --> 00:09:20,363 - They've gotta put up tens of thousands of wind farms, 180 00:09:20,363 --> 00:09:22,613 they've gotta put up millions of solar panels. 181 00:09:23,550 --> 00:09:25,377 - [Jeff] Former Vice President Al Gore, 182 00:09:25,377 --> 00:09:29,040 who had a few years earlier released an Oscar winning film, 183 00:09:29,040 --> 00:09:31,310 shared his ideas with the president. 184 00:09:31,310 --> 00:09:33,310 - We have the opportunity now 185 00:09:33,310 --> 00:09:36,637 to create jobs all across this country, 186 00:09:36,637 --> 00:09:40,423 in all 50 states, to repower America. 187 00:09:41,620 --> 00:09:43,440 - [Jeff] Al Gore had already encouraged 188 00:09:43,440 --> 00:09:46,600 billionaire airline owner Sir Richard Branson 189 00:09:46,600 --> 00:09:49,600 to invest big-time in green energy. 190 00:09:49,600 --> 00:09:52,300 - Branson is pledging future profits from his airline 191 00:09:52,300 --> 00:09:54,270 to the tune of perhaps three billion dollars. 192 00:09:54,270 --> 00:09:57,560 Three billion, that's with a B, to fight global warming! 193 00:09:57,560 --> 00:09:59,476 - Is Al Gore a prophet? 194 00:09:59,476 --> 00:10:00,785 (laughing) 195 00:10:00,785 --> 00:10:05,353 - Ah, um, ah, how do you spell "prophet?" (laughing) 196 00:10:05,353 --> 00:10:07,936 (all laughing) 197 00:10:09,640 --> 00:10:11,340 - [Jeff] Investors came forward. 198 00:10:11,340 --> 00:10:14,240 - [Newswoman] Investor Vinod Khosla, known as the father 199 00:10:14,240 --> 00:10:16,020 of the clean tech revolution, 200 00:10:16,020 --> 00:10:19,200 has poured over a billion dollars of his own money 201 00:10:19,200 --> 00:10:22,010 into some fifty energy startups. 202 00:10:22,010 --> 00:10:24,950 - [Jeff] Major banks were eager to get involved. 203 00:10:24,950 --> 00:10:28,890 - By 2020, we think, renewables will require 204 00:10:28,890 --> 00:10:32,440 395 billion on an annual basis. 205 00:10:32,440 --> 00:10:34,380 - [Jeff] Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., 206 00:10:34,380 --> 00:10:37,600 was both on the board of major environmental organizations 207 00:10:37,600 --> 00:10:40,467 and was leading a green energy investment group. 208 00:10:40,467 --> 00:10:43,240 - We build wind farms, we build solar farms, 209 00:10:43,240 --> 00:10:46,463 once you build our plant, it's free energy forever. 210 00:10:46,463 --> 00:10:47,729 (calm music) 211 00:10:47,729 --> 00:10:49,700 - [Jeff] The Sierra Club received 50 million dollars 212 00:10:49,700 --> 00:10:51,770 from billionaire and former New York City mayor 213 00:10:51,770 --> 00:10:53,050 Michael Bloomberg. 214 00:10:53,050 --> 00:10:54,060 Their mission? 215 00:10:54,060 --> 00:10:56,620 Fight coal and promote clean energy. 216 00:10:56,620 --> 00:10:58,480 - So with the mayor's gift, here's what will happen. 217 00:10:58,480 --> 00:11:02,022 We'll have a large and aggressive presence in 46 states. 218 00:11:02,022 --> 00:11:05,530 - It's time for America to find a new energy path. 219 00:11:05,530 --> 00:11:07,640 One that takes us beyond coal. 220 00:11:07,640 --> 00:11:08,473 - So funny-- 221 00:11:08,473 --> 00:11:10,450 - [Jeff] And then Bill McKibben, 222 00:11:10,450 --> 00:11:13,350 one of the nation's leading environmentalists 223 00:11:13,350 --> 00:11:15,457 and author of a breakthrough book called 224 00:11:15,457 --> 00:11:17,070 "The End of Nature," 225 00:11:17,070 --> 00:11:19,890 formed an organization called 350.org 226 00:11:19,890 --> 00:11:23,378 with the mission of igniting a global climate movement. 227 00:11:23,378 --> 00:11:24,612 (calming music) 228 00:11:24,612 --> 00:11:26,990 - Can I show off my necktie for a minute 229 00:11:26,990 --> 00:11:28,710 'cause they made it for me yesterday? 230 00:11:28,710 --> 00:11:30,200 It's got that 350 on it 231 00:11:30,200 --> 00:11:33,540 'cause it's the most important number in the world. 232 00:11:33,540 --> 00:11:35,350 - [Jeff] Things were looking up 233 00:11:35,350 --> 00:11:37,943 and the green energy revolution was under way. 234 00:11:38,885 --> 00:11:40,240 (wind blowing) 235 00:11:40,240 --> 00:11:43,150 Michigan had been hit hard by the Great Recession 236 00:11:43,150 --> 00:11:44,720 and hundreds of millions of dollars 237 00:11:44,720 --> 00:11:47,240 in green stimulus money was arriving. 238 00:11:47,240 --> 00:11:50,710 Now, to do their part for the new green economy, 239 00:11:50,710 --> 00:11:54,330 General Motors introduced a new line of electric vehicles. 240 00:11:54,330 --> 00:11:56,290 When the Chevy Volt was ready for release, 241 00:11:56,290 --> 00:11:57,990 I attended their press conference. 242 00:11:59,150 --> 00:12:01,760 - So, these electric vehicles are ready 243 00:12:01,760 --> 00:12:04,740 for public consumption and we're ready 244 00:12:04,740 --> 00:12:06,510 with the infrastructure, with the rates, 245 00:12:06,510 --> 00:12:08,000 with the communications. 246 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:10,800 - I am extremely grateful to be here today and in fact, 247 00:12:10,800 --> 00:12:13,970 this is a chance for me to say, thank you, more formally. 248 00:12:13,970 --> 00:12:15,440 The Chevy Volt is upstairs. 249 00:12:15,440 --> 00:12:17,076 We'll be able to take a look at it. 250 00:12:17,076 --> 00:12:18,440 (banging metal) 251 00:12:18,440 --> 00:12:19,696 - [Woman] You've got about 1,000 photos. 252 00:12:19,696 --> 00:12:20,587 - [Jeff] Yeah. 253 00:12:20,587 --> 00:12:21,698 - This is the plug. 254 00:12:21,698 --> 00:12:24,448 (crowd laughing) 255 00:12:26,266 --> 00:12:27,099 (clicking) 256 00:12:27,099 --> 00:12:29,016 It's as simple as that. 257 00:12:29,851 --> 00:12:31,470 - [Jeff] The batteries are in the trunk? 258 00:12:31,470 --> 00:12:35,440 - No, the battery in this particular design is a T-shape, 259 00:12:35,440 --> 00:12:39,868 right down the center and across the backseat area. 260 00:12:39,868 --> 00:12:41,850 (group talking) 261 00:12:41,850 --> 00:12:44,382 'Cause everybody thought we killed the electric vehicle. 262 00:12:44,382 --> 00:12:45,957 No, we didn't. 263 00:12:45,957 --> 00:12:47,560 It's alive and well. 264 00:12:47,560 --> 00:12:50,365 - [Jeff] So, what's charging the batteries right now? 265 00:12:50,365 --> 00:12:51,198 What's the source of electricity? 266 00:12:51,198 --> 00:12:53,090 - Well, here, it's coming from the building. 267 00:12:53,090 --> 00:12:55,582 - [Jeff] I mean, is it, what's their mix of power? 268 00:12:55,582 --> 00:12:58,300 - Oh, actually, Lansing feeds the building. 269 00:12:58,300 --> 00:12:59,133 - [Jeff] What's that? 270 00:12:59,133 --> 00:13:00,866 - Lansing feeds power to the building. 271 00:13:00,866 --> 00:13:03,088 So, I don't know-- 272 00:13:03,088 --> 00:13:04,560 - [Jeff] They're-- 273 00:13:04,560 --> 00:13:05,880 - I betcha they're a bit of coal? 274 00:13:05,880 --> 00:13:08,906 I think they're heavy on natural gas, aren't they? 275 00:13:08,906 --> 00:13:10,940 - [Jeff] Right now, the car's charging off your grid? 276 00:13:10,940 --> 00:13:12,090 - Right. 277 00:13:12,090 --> 00:13:17,090 It would be charging off our grid, which is about 95% coal. 278 00:13:18,411 --> 00:13:19,369 - [Jeff] How long do you think it will be 279 00:13:19,369 --> 00:13:23,190 before there's a solar and wind powered grid? 280 00:13:23,190 --> 00:13:24,023 - Oh, golly. 281 00:13:24,023 --> 00:13:26,580 - To suggest that all of the power used 282 00:13:26,580 --> 00:13:30,353 for these cars will be generated from wind and solar, 283 00:13:31,200 --> 00:13:34,270 in the very near future, would not be correct. 284 00:13:34,270 --> 00:13:36,320 In fact, these, we're talking about charging these up 285 00:13:36,320 --> 00:13:39,080 at night, so there won't be any solar at that time. 286 00:13:39,080 --> 00:13:40,770 So we're down to wind and very often, 287 00:13:40,770 --> 00:13:42,563 at night, the wind does fall off. 288 00:13:43,690 --> 00:13:46,757 - I don't think coal is bad. 289 00:13:46,757 --> 00:13:47,590 - [Jeff] The big battle-- The what? 290 00:13:47,590 --> 00:13:48,423 [Jeff] Mountain top removal. 291 00:13:48,423 --> 00:13:49,256 - Oh, mount... 292 00:13:49,256 --> 00:13:50,089 Oh yeah, oh yeah. (laughing) 293 00:13:50,089 --> 00:13:51,590 - [Jeff] Yeah. 294 00:13:51,590 --> 00:13:55,193 - It's got lovely BTUs, it's got lovely energy value. 295 00:13:56,260 --> 00:13:58,743 How do you burn it more cleanly? 296 00:14:00,030 --> 00:14:02,650 I mean, do you see natural gas getting bashed? 297 00:14:02,650 --> 00:14:05,220 - We will be delivering power based 298 00:14:05,220 --> 00:14:07,260 on natural gas very shortly. 299 00:14:07,260 --> 00:14:12,260 And even with that mix, we intend to use biofuels if we can. 300 00:14:12,760 --> 00:14:14,513 - [Jeff] Have you gotten any support? 301 00:14:14,513 --> 00:14:16,750 - Oh, the environment groups are extremely supportive. 302 00:14:16,750 --> 00:14:19,140 - We did install the state's largest solar array 303 00:14:19,140 --> 00:14:21,030 at my company, The Board of Water and Light, it's 304 00:14:21,030 --> 00:14:22,916 just down the street from here a few miles 305 00:14:22,916 --> 00:14:24,020 if you want to take a look at it. 306 00:14:24,020 --> 00:14:26,510 What outfit are you with? 307 00:14:26,510 --> 00:14:27,920 - [Jeff] New World Media, we're doing a segment 308 00:14:27,920 --> 00:14:28,850 on the renewable energy... 309 00:14:28,850 --> 00:14:30,253 - Oh, excuse me, I gotta go for a second 310 00:14:30,253 --> 00:14:31,937 but thanks. 311 00:14:31,937 --> 00:14:34,770 (people chatting) 312 00:14:35,770 --> 00:14:37,650 - [Jeff] I decided to take him up on his offer 313 00:14:37,650 --> 00:14:40,580 to check out their football field sized solar array 314 00:14:40,580 --> 00:14:41,680 right down the street. 315 00:14:43,490 --> 00:14:45,200 - What we're trying to do with this kind of a tour is, 316 00:14:45,200 --> 00:14:46,770 get a sense for what they've already done, 317 00:14:46,770 --> 00:14:48,450 as an indication of what we could do 318 00:14:48,450 --> 00:14:50,150 to push the envelope even further. 319 00:14:51,420 --> 00:14:55,400 - We took a hard look at wind and determined that, 320 00:14:55,400 --> 00:14:58,670 around here, there's not really any real good wind coming 321 00:14:58,670 --> 00:14:59,840 through all the time. 322 00:14:59,840 --> 00:15:01,450 That's what we liked about solar. 323 00:15:01,450 --> 00:15:04,470 You would get the power when you most needed it. 324 00:15:04,470 --> 00:15:06,130 Pass these around, look at 'em. 325 00:15:06,130 --> 00:15:07,760 They are pliable. 326 00:15:07,760 --> 00:15:10,270 Made in Michigan, that was another good thing. 327 00:15:10,270 --> 00:15:11,610 Although, the efficiency 328 00:15:11,610 --> 00:15:14,813 of these panels is only about, just under 8%. 329 00:15:16,907 --> 00:15:18,740 If you happen to be NASA and you happen 330 00:15:18,740 --> 00:15:20,530 to own a rover running around Mars, 331 00:15:20,530 --> 00:15:22,700 they have very efficient panels. 332 00:15:22,700 --> 00:15:24,260 But, we can't afford those 333 00:15:24,260 --> 00:15:26,553 at about a million dollars a square inch. 334 00:15:29,908 --> 00:15:31,403 - The standard answer that we tell everybody is, 335 00:15:31,403 --> 00:15:32,610 we're providing enough to meet 336 00:15:32,610 --> 00:15:35,330 the peak requirements of 50 homes. 337 00:15:35,330 --> 00:15:38,270 However, for most of the people that look 338 00:15:38,270 --> 00:15:39,240 at it a little bit closer, 339 00:15:39,240 --> 00:15:43,330 we generate about 63, 64 thousand kilowatt hours a year. 340 00:15:43,330 --> 00:15:44,770 Our average customer uses 341 00:15:44,770 --> 00:15:47,094 about six thousand kilowatt hours a year. 342 00:15:47,094 --> 00:15:49,833 Six thousand into 64, it's just a little over 10. 343 00:15:50,680 --> 00:15:53,223 We can meet the energy requirements for 10 homes. 344 00:15:54,390 --> 00:15:55,679 Over a year. 345 00:15:55,679 --> 00:15:57,060 (traffic humming) 346 00:15:57,060 --> 00:16:00,763 - Will that be an incentive to put more solar on? 347 00:16:01,800 --> 00:16:03,220 - Well, if you wanted to make all 348 00:16:03,220 --> 00:16:07,520 of the energy required for the city of Lansing over a year? 349 00:16:07,520 --> 00:16:08,353 - Well, how about-- 350 00:16:08,353 --> 00:16:09,820 - You'd have a solar array 351 00:16:09,820 --> 00:16:11,690 that was three miles by five miles. 352 00:16:11,690 --> 00:16:12,523 - Right. 353 00:16:12,523 --> 00:16:13,356 But-- - We're not gonna do that. 354 00:16:13,356 --> 00:16:15,840 - But, but, I mean. (woman's voice fades out) 355 00:16:15,840 --> 00:16:18,030 - [Jeff] My friend from the Sierra Club wanted him 356 00:16:18,030 --> 00:16:21,423 to be more positive, but he was not interested. 357 00:16:22,658 --> 00:16:25,580 (distant machinery noise) 358 00:16:25,580 --> 00:16:28,570 As a consequence of the big push for green energy, 359 00:16:28,570 --> 00:16:30,920 wind farms were rising around the nation, 360 00:16:30,920 --> 00:16:33,120 including near my home in northern Michigan. 361 00:16:34,340 --> 00:16:35,333 - We've done coal and nuclear for years. 362 00:16:35,333 --> 00:16:38,760 We've been trying to get in more into the renewable side. 363 00:16:38,760 --> 00:16:40,940 These are the largest in Michigan, 364 00:16:40,940 --> 00:16:43,240 I think it's 482 foot total. 365 00:16:43,240 --> 00:16:44,137 - [Jeff] How many yards of concrete? 366 00:16:44,137 --> 00:16:46,750 - [John] It was 800 yards of concrete in the base, 367 00:16:46,750 --> 00:16:49,470 right around 140 tons of resteel. 368 00:16:49,470 --> 00:16:50,770 - [Jeff] What are the blades made out of? 369 00:16:50,770 --> 00:16:52,450 - That's all fiberglass and balsam. 370 00:16:52,450 --> 00:16:54,835 They're about 36,000 pounds a piece. 371 00:16:54,835 --> 00:16:58,800 This tower will weigh 800,000 pounds when we're done. 372 00:16:58,800 --> 00:17:01,270 Then the cell is 220,000 pounds 373 00:17:01,270 --> 00:17:03,830 and the hub and rotor assembly is another 160. 374 00:17:03,830 --> 00:17:05,655 It's pretty substantial. 375 00:17:05,655 --> 00:17:08,031 (wind turbine sound) 376 00:17:08,031 --> 00:17:10,239 - [Jeff] They were impressive machines. 377 00:17:10,239 --> 00:17:12,330 (wind turbine sound) 378 00:17:12,330 --> 00:17:14,470 But is it possible for machines made 379 00:17:14,470 --> 00:17:15,980 by industrial civilization 380 00:17:16,990 --> 00:17:19,653 to save us from industrial civilization? 381 00:17:20,582 --> 00:17:23,165 (wind turbine whistling) 382 00:17:26,017 --> 00:17:27,690 (group talking together) 383 00:17:27,690 --> 00:17:29,840 In environmental leader Bill McKibben's home state 384 00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:32,530 of Vermont, the Green Mountain state, 385 00:17:32,530 --> 00:17:33,630 a site was being cleared 386 00:17:33,630 --> 00:17:36,120 for the installation of wind turbines. 387 00:17:36,120 --> 00:17:37,830 A group of citizens was concerned 388 00:17:37,830 --> 00:17:38,960 about how the construction 389 00:17:38,960 --> 00:17:40,810 might affect the mountains they love. 390 00:17:41,800 --> 00:17:43,550 I joined them for a tour. 391 00:17:43,550 --> 00:17:45,290 - It's going to be 21 turbines. 392 00:17:45,290 --> 00:17:46,230 - [Group] 21? 393 00:17:46,230 --> 00:17:47,950 - Yeah. - On this project? 394 00:17:47,950 --> 00:17:49,900 - In this project, yeah. 395 00:17:49,900 --> 00:17:54,003 The estimate was maybe there would be three full-time jobs. 396 00:17:54,960 --> 00:17:57,310 - If the goal is to try to make Vermont the leader 397 00:17:57,310 --> 00:17:59,920 in climate change, I appreciate looking 398 00:17:59,920 --> 00:18:02,379 to the sky in the hopes that we can do that. 399 00:18:02,379 --> 00:18:05,060 But more importantly, I'm personally looking 400 00:18:05,060 --> 00:18:07,480 at the ground thinking, this is not the kind of legacy 401 00:18:07,480 --> 00:18:08,887 I'd want to leave to my kids. 402 00:18:08,887 --> 00:18:11,660 When I was a kid we'd go hiking in these woods, 403 00:18:11,660 --> 00:18:13,530 we would be able to drink from the waters 404 00:18:13,530 --> 00:18:16,493 down the hill here, and now you have to question that. 405 00:18:18,378 --> 00:18:20,290 - [Man] And how long are these towers supposed to last? 406 00:18:20,290 --> 00:18:21,860 - [Young Man] 20-something years, 20-- 407 00:18:21,860 --> 00:18:24,460 - I know, it's just a nanosecond. 408 00:18:24,460 --> 00:18:25,293 - [Jeff] 20 years? 409 00:18:25,293 --> 00:18:27,617 - Oh, it's a nanosecond in the time of energy. 410 00:18:28,646 --> 00:18:29,479 - [Jeff] Has anybody considered 411 00:18:29,479 --> 00:18:32,220 that this is mountain top removal for wind instead of coal? 412 00:18:32,220 --> 00:18:33,937 - Yeah, and we've even had people say, 413 00:18:33,937 --> 00:18:36,247 "If you can do mountain top removal 414 00:18:36,247 --> 00:18:39,407 in Kentucky and West Virginia for coal, 415 00:18:39,407 --> 00:18:42,057 then it's about time the rest of the country shared 416 00:18:42,057 --> 00:18:44,037 in mountain top removal, too." 417 00:18:45,047 --> 00:18:45,880 - [Jeff] Hello. 418 00:18:46,885 --> 00:18:47,968 - [Jeff] You think they're gonna tell us to move back? 419 00:18:47,968 --> 00:18:48,801 - [Man In Hat] Probably. 420 00:18:48,801 --> 00:18:49,840 The thing is that you've got 421 00:18:49,840 --> 00:18:53,760 to have a fossil fuel power plant backing it up 422 00:18:53,760 --> 00:18:55,980 and idling 100% of the time. 423 00:18:55,980 --> 00:18:58,260 Because if you cycle up or cycle down, 424 00:18:58,260 --> 00:19:01,070 as the demand on the wind comes through, 425 00:19:01,070 --> 00:19:03,850 then you actually generate a bigger carbon footprint 426 00:19:03,850 --> 00:19:05,700 than if you just ran it straight. 427 00:19:05,700 --> 00:19:06,817 - [Jeff] Do you ever go to things where they just go, 428 00:19:06,817 --> 00:19:07,717 "That's not true. 429 00:19:07,717 --> 00:19:10,800 It doesn't matter, we're gonna have a smart grid." 430 00:19:10,800 --> 00:19:12,669 - Doesn't make any difference, they still gotta 431 00:19:12,669 --> 00:19:13,650 have it idling. 432 00:19:13,650 --> 00:19:18,160 Because, let's just say the wind stopped right now. 433 00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:20,160 Just stopped for an hour. 434 00:19:20,160 --> 00:19:21,620 You've got to have that power. 435 00:19:21,620 --> 00:19:22,637 - [Jeff] What do you do? 436 00:19:22,637 --> 00:19:24,860 - I'm an environmental health and safety consultant. 437 00:19:24,860 --> 00:19:27,450 I usually work with businesses to help them do things, 438 00:19:27,450 --> 00:19:30,951 but I would never work with scum like this. 439 00:19:30,951 --> 00:19:33,384 (leaves crunching) 440 00:19:33,384 --> 00:19:35,623 - You didn't get me on camera doing this, did ya? 441 00:19:36,550 --> 00:19:39,930 Not being judgmental or trying to play God, 442 00:19:39,930 --> 00:19:43,380 but we've got to deal with population growth 443 00:19:43,380 --> 00:19:47,520 and sustainable resources, we've all gotta cut back. 444 00:19:47,520 --> 00:19:50,830 All this energy's supposedly going to heat a water park. 445 00:19:50,830 --> 00:19:54,500 We can find unique and different ways to waste energy. 446 00:19:54,500 --> 00:19:56,600 This is not a Vermont company. 447 00:19:56,600 --> 00:20:00,480 Green Mountain Power will be bought out by Gaz Metro 448 00:20:00,480 --> 00:20:03,840 and Gaz Metro is owned by Enbridge, as I understand it, 449 00:20:03,840 --> 00:20:08,700 which is a big resource company in Canada 450 00:20:08,700 --> 00:20:10,438 which is exploiting the tar sands 451 00:20:10,438 --> 00:20:12,343 that wants to build the XL pipeline. 452 00:20:13,700 --> 00:20:14,627 See, it's-- 453 00:20:14,627 --> 00:20:18,170 - [Woman] And they're all in bed together. 454 00:20:18,170 --> 00:20:20,080 - Still we don't know the whole story. 455 00:20:20,080 --> 00:20:22,090 - [Jeff] Have you asked Mr. McKibben to come see this? 456 00:20:22,090 --> 00:20:25,080 - He thinks anything renewable is good. 457 00:20:25,080 --> 00:20:25,913 - [Jeff] Yeah. 458 00:20:25,913 --> 00:20:27,133 - At least that's what I've heard people say. 459 00:20:27,133 --> 00:20:29,716 (wind blowing) 460 00:20:32,341 --> 00:20:35,091 (up tempo music) 461 00:20:38,950 --> 00:20:40,750 - [Jeff] I am in a strange position. 462 00:20:41,960 --> 00:20:44,879 I'm against our addiction to fossil fuels 463 00:20:44,879 --> 00:20:47,113 and have long been a fan of green energy. 464 00:20:48,129 --> 00:20:49,090 (crowd talking) 465 00:20:49,090 --> 00:20:51,283 But everywhere I encountered green energy, 466 00:20:52,270 --> 00:20:53,823 it wasn't what it seemed. 467 00:20:54,900 --> 00:20:58,480 - This is like a perpetual energy battery. 468 00:20:58,480 --> 00:20:59,830 - [Jeff] And where do you get the hydrogen from? 469 00:20:59,830 --> 00:21:03,620 - The hydrogen that's in, the hydrogen is sourced 470 00:21:03,620 --> 00:21:06,360 from any hydrocarbon material. 471 00:21:06,360 --> 00:21:10,970 So, you can get it from natural gas, you can get it 472 00:21:10,970 --> 00:21:14,243 from any petroleum or oil based product. 473 00:21:15,630 --> 00:21:16,810 - [Jeff] I read about a zoo that was said 474 00:21:16,810 --> 00:21:18,460 to be powered by elephant manure. 475 00:21:20,024 --> 00:21:21,020 But it turned out the elephants 476 00:21:21,020 --> 00:21:24,680 didn't even produce enough manure to heat the elephant barn. 477 00:21:24,680 --> 00:21:25,690 - Yeah, we don't even really make enough 478 00:21:25,690 --> 00:21:28,860 in what we have, elephant wise, to even do that. 479 00:21:28,860 --> 00:21:29,884 We would need a lot more. 480 00:21:29,884 --> 00:21:30,954 - [Jeff] More elephants? 481 00:21:30,954 --> 00:21:31,900 - [Zoo Keeper] Yep, (woman laughing) more elephants 482 00:21:31,900 --> 00:21:32,733 more manure. 483 00:21:33,980 --> 00:21:35,440 - [Jeff] Ethanol plants also seem 484 00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:37,250 to have a secret ingredient. 485 00:21:37,250 --> 00:21:39,780 - This is the most productive farmland in the world 486 00:21:39,780 --> 00:21:42,900 and we're not that far west of the biggest coal mines 487 00:21:42,900 --> 00:21:43,733 in the world, as well. 488 00:21:43,733 --> 00:21:46,563 So, bring the two together and you have an ethanol plant. 489 00:21:47,645 --> 00:21:51,405 - [Jeff] Great, so ethanol was reliant on two things: 490 00:21:51,405 --> 00:21:54,760 a giant, fossil fuel-based, industrial agricultural system 491 00:21:54,760 --> 00:21:58,430 to produce corn, and even more fossil fuels 492 00:21:58,430 --> 00:21:59,653 in the form of coal. 493 00:22:00,530 --> 00:22:04,173 All of this in the attempt to replace fossil fuels? 494 00:22:05,840 --> 00:22:07,833 It was enough to make my head explode. 495 00:22:09,444 --> 00:22:11,090 (pulsating music) 496 00:22:11,090 --> 00:22:12,850 I was getting the uneasy feeling 497 00:22:12,850 --> 00:22:15,083 that green energy was not going to save us. 498 00:22:16,058 --> 00:22:18,000 And I wasn't the only one. 499 00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:19,040 - I've counted something 500 00:22:19,040 --> 00:22:21,930 like 25 different alternative energy options. 501 00:22:21,930 --> 00:22:24,037 So surely, among all of those, 502 00:22:24,037 --> 00:22:26,580 there are enough sources 503 00:22:26,580 --> 00:22:29,050 of energy to keep us living basically 504 00:22:29,050 --> 00:22:30,743 the way we are in perpetuity. 505 00:22:31,670 --> 00:22:32,820 That's not the reality. 506 00:22:33,660 --> 00:22:36,480 Currently, we're getting, in some cases, 507 00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:38,883 no energy from these potential options. 508 00:22:39,760 --> 00:22:42,100 - [Jeff] Richard York, of the University of Oregon, 509 00:22:42,100 --> 00:22:44,370 published a study in the Journal of Nature 510 00:22:44,370 --> 00:22:47,747 in which he posed the question- do non-fossil energy sources 511 00:22:47,747 --> 00:22:50,090 actually replace fossil fuels? 512 00:22:50,090 --> 00:22:51,930 - What we implicitly assume, often, 513 00:22:51,930 --> 00:22:54,610 the substitute pushes out 514 00:22:54,610 --> 00:22:56,823 the thing you want it to substitute for. 515 00:22:56,823 --> 00:22:58,540 What you find is, 516 00:22:58,540 --> 00:23:02,830 nations that add non-fossil energy sources do not seem 517 00:23:02,830 --> 00:23:05,980 to see a particular suppression of fossil fuel use. 518 00:23:05,980 --> 00:23:07,420 - [Jeff] That's pretty mind-blowing. 519 00:23:07,420 --> 00:23:09,380 We've got billions of dollars being spent 520 00:23:09,380 --> 00:23:12,210 and green energy is not even replacing fossil fuels? 521 00:23:12,210 --> 00:23:14,820 - They don't even know that that's a question, yes. 522 00:23:15,660 --> 00:23:19,810 - The story that we're in, right now, is okay, 523 00:23:19,810 --> 00:23:21,960 we're in ecological hot water, 524 00:23:21,960 --> 00:23:23,900 but there are technological fixes 525 00:23:23,900 --> 00:23:25,790 and if we're just creative enough, 526 00:23:25,790 --> 00:23:27,520 if we're just ingenious enough 527 00:23:27,520 --> 00:23:30,640 and if we just work hard enough, we will triumph. 528 00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:33,860 Seeking technological fixes, one after another, 529 00:23:33,860 --> 00:23:37,600 is simply going to lead us to another level 530 00:23:37,600 --> 00:23:40,630 of catastrophe sooner rather than later. 531 00:23:40,630 --> 00:23:43,550 - We wanna believe that these things are gonna be available 532 00:23:43,550 --> 00:23:46,580 for us, so if we get a little worried 533 00:23:46,580 --> 00:23:50,770 and somebody comes up with a new thingy and promises 534 00:23:50,770 --> 00:23:55,770 that this will do it for us, we wanna believe. 535 00:23:56,389 --> 00:23:59,833 (guitar strums) 536 00:23:59,833 --> 00:24:01,833 - [Jeff] Because we're a little worried, 537 00:24:02,900 --> 00:24:06,490 are we desperate to accept any idea that sounds alternative 538 00:24:06,490 --> 00:24:07,712 or green? 539 00:24:07,712 --> 00:24:09,950 (guitar strumming) 540 00:24:09,950 --> 00:24:11,780 Are we avoiding looking too closely 541 00:24:12,720 --> 00:24:14,903 because we don't want to know the answer? 542 00:24:18,420 --> 00:24:21,320 Ozzie Zehner, a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley 543 00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:24,690 and Northwestern University was asking some 544 00:24:24,690 --> 00:24:26,083 of the same questions. 545 00:24:27,160 --> 00:24:28,710 - I mean, I thought that solar 546 00:24:28,710 --> 00:24:31,170 and wind were probably very good solutions. 547 00:24:31,170 --> 00:24:32,700 It wasn't really even that long ago. 548 00:24:32,700 --> 00:24:36,450 One of the most dangerous things right now is the illusion 549 00:24:36,450 --> 00:24:39,740 that alternative technologies, like wind and solar, 550 00:24:39,740 --> 00:24:41,815 are somehow different from fossil fuels. 551 00:24:41,815 --> 00:24:43,930 Well I hear a lot of the time that solar cells 552 00:24:43,930 --> 00:24:44,960 are made out of sand. 553 00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:47,110 - [Announcer] Have you ever thought about solar panels? 554 00:24:47,110 --> 00:24:48,030 The main ingredient 555 00:24:48,030 --> 00:24:50,400 that makes them work is silicon, or sand. 556 00:24:50,400 --> 00:24:51,266 - [Announcer] This is the raw material chips 557 00:24:51,266 --> 00:24:53,940 are made of, sand. 558 00:24:53,940 --> 00:24:55,460 - They don't use sand at all. 559 00:24:55,460 --> 00:24:57,012 I'll show you what... 560 00:24:57,012 --> 00:24:59,080 (chair clicking) 561 00:24:59,080 --> 00:25:02,190 So, this is one of the ingredients, 562 00:25:02,190 --> 00:25:04,106 it's actually mined quartz. 563 00:25:04,106 --> 00:25:05,764 (rocks clattering) 564 00:25:05,764 --> 00:25:09,060 (rock exploding) 565 00:25:09,060 --> 00:25:11,100 - [Announcer] Spruce Pine, North Carolina, 566 00:25:11,100 --> 00:25:14,210 regarded as the finest source of high purity quartz 567 00:25:14,210 --> 00:25:16,540 in the world, for semiconductor, solar 568 00:25:16,540 --> 00:25:18,880 and communication applications. 569 00:25:18,880 --> 00:25:21,530 - You can't use sand because sand has too many impurities. 570 00:25:21,530 --> 00:25:24,250 So, you start with a very high quality quartz 571 00:25:24,250 --> 00:25:26,770 and a very high quality coal, and then you put 572 00:25:26,770 --> 00:25:30,950 those two together into an arc furnace and you melt them. 573 00:25:30,950 --> 00:25:33,240 - [Woman] The quartz is then melted with coal 574 00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:38,140 in a large furnace at temperatures of up to 1,800 degrees. 575 00:25:38,140 --> 00:25:40,090 - And so you need more coal to do that. 576 00:25:41,119 --> 00:25:42,830 I'll get another coal out. 577 00:25:42,830 --> 00:25:45,090 When we melt these together, 578 00:25:45,090 --> 00:25:47,080 we get silicon metal and carbon dioxide. 579 00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:48,410 The carbon dioxide just goes off 580 00:25:48,410 --> 00:25:49,260 and you got rid of the carbon 581 00:25:49,260 --> 00:25:51,180 and you're left with silicon metal. 582 00:25:51,180 --> 00:25:52,388 This is not clean coal apparently. (laughing) 583 00:25:52,388 --> 00:25:54,260 - [Jeff] Not clean coal. 584 00:25:54,260 --> 00:25:56,110 Ozzie Zehner said it was an illusion 585 00:25:56,110 --> 00:26:00,380 that renewables were replacing coal or any fossil fuel. 586 00:26:00,380 --> 00:26:03,480 Environmental groups continued telling a different story. 587 00:26:03,480 --> 00:26:06,380 - We've already seen more than 25% 588 00:26:06,380 --> 00:26:10,170 of the U.S. coal fleet has already either retired 589 00:26:10,170 --> 00:26:11,940 or is on a schedule to retire. 590 00:26:11,940 --> 00:26:14,290 - [Jeff] Coal plants were closing, but Ozzie explained 591 00:26:14,290 --> 00:26:16,600 that well meaning people were being misled. 592 00:26:16,600 --> 00:26:18,960 - NV Energy's now gonna go ahead and shut down the plant 593 00:26:18,960 --> 00:26:19,793 and go with renewable. 594 00:26:19,793 --> 00:26:21,379 One of the largest solar plants 595 00:26:21,379 --> 00:26:23,390 and that's gonna happen right behind me. 596 00:26:23,390 --> 00:26:25,790 - Since you can't replace a coal plant with solar, 597 00:26:25,790 --> 00:26:27,650 they're actually replacing the coal plant 598 00:26:27,650 --> 00:26:29,250 with two natural gas plants, 599 00:26:29,250 --> 00:26:31,060 and natural gas is a fossil fuel. 600 00:26:31,060 --> 00:26:33,970 This is the Las Vegas Co-Gen natural gas plant. 601 00:26:33,970 --> 00:26:35,330 This is one of the facilities 602 00:26:35,330 --> 00:26:38,110 that's replacing the coal plant that's being shut down. 603 00:26:38,110 --> 00:26:41,240 This is the Sun Peak generating facility. 604 00:26:41,240 --> 00:26:43,099 This is the second natural gas plant 605 00:26:43,099 --> 00:26:46,000 that was used to replace the coal plant. 606 00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:48,260 And you hear the same story in Iowa. 607 00:26:48,260 --> 00:26:50,250 - [Woman] Instead of using energy generated 608 00:26:50,250 --> 00:26:51,917 by coal-fired power plants, 609 00:26:51,917 --> 00:26:53,650 the solar farm will now avoid 610 00:26:53,650 --> 00:26:57,020 about 2.1 million pounds of carbon pollution. 611 00:26:57,020 --> 00:27:00,113 - But then they're building a larger natural gas plant. 612 00:27:01,270 --> 00:27:04,270 This is a 650 megawatt natural gas plant. 613 00:27:04,270 --> 00:27:05,980 That's four times more megawatts 614 00:27:05,980 --> 00:27:09,410 than the coal plant over there that it's replacing. 615 00:27:09,410 --> 00:27:11,360 And they're doing the same thing in North Carolina, 616 00:27:11,360 --> 00:27:12,350 which was the subject 617 00:27:12,350 --> 00:27:15,210 of that Years of Living Dangerously series. 618 00:27:15,210 --> 00:27:17,040 - Duke Energy operates a coal plant right 619 00:27:17,040 --> 00:27:19,300 outside of Asheville that is the biggest source 620 00:27:19,300 --> 00:27:22,470 of climate pollution in western North Carolina. 621 00:27:22,470 --> 00:27:24,340 And we are working to retire that plant 622 00:27:24,340 --> 00:27:25,620 and replace it with clean energy. 623 00:27:25,620 --> 00:27:26,700 - But what they don't tell you is 624 00:27:26,700 --> 00:27:29,670 that we're also building a larger natural gas facility. 625 00:27:29,670 --> 00:27:34,140 - So, we'll be retiring a two-unit 376 megawatt coal plant. 626 00:27:34,140 --> 00:27:36,800 We'll invest $750 million 627 00:27:36,800 --> 00:27:39,340 to build a state-of-the-art natural gas plant. 628 00:27:39,340 --> 00:27:41,790 - When Michael Brune stands up and talks about clean energy, 629 00:27:41,790 --> 00:27:43,390 he's using solar cells and wind turbines. 630 00:27:43,390 --> 00:27:44,910 - This is the new world 631 00:27:44,910 --> 00:27:46,940 100% clean energy. 632 00:27:46,940 --> 00:27:48,327 - When Michael Bloomberg stands up and says, 633 00:27:48,327 --> 00:27:51,070 "Cleaner energy," he's talking about natural gas. 634 00:27:51,070 --> 00:27:55,340 - Create cleaner energy: solar, wind, and natural gas. 635 00:27:55,340 --> 00:27:57,810 - [Ozzie] In fact, the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign 636 00:27:57,810 --> 00:28:00,900 actually coincides with one of the largest expansions 637 00:28:00,900 --> 00:28:03,320 of fossil fuel production that we've ever pulled off, 638 00:28:03,320 --> 00:28:05,233 most of that being natural gas. 639 00:28:06,420 --> 00:28:07,300 - [Jeff] Ozzie's assertion 640 00:28:07,300 --> 00:28:10,290 that renewables were not replacing fossil fuels, 641 00:28:10,290 --> 00:28:12,950 if true, would upend all of our assumptions 642 00:28:12,950 --> 00:28:15,603 about green energy and what was going to save us. 643 00:28:17,022 --> 00:28:18,350 (tranquil piano music) 644 00:28:18,350 --> 00:28:20,510 What would happen if I asked the same question 645 00:28:20,510 --> 00:28:22,053 to industry insiders? 646 00:28:23,280 --> 00:28:25,420 Like, where do solar panels come from? 647 00:28:25,420 --> 00:28:27,726 - Well, you have to start with a mine. 648 00:28:27,726 --> 00:28:29,370 (laughing) 649 00:28:29,370 --> 00:28:31,660 Or, what's stopping us from running the world 650 00:28:31,660 --> 00:28:33,680 on 100% solar and wind? 651 00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:36,440 - Well, intermittency is one of the major challenges. 652 00:28:36,440 --> 00:28:37,850 - Grid stability. 653 00:28:37,850 --> 00:28:40,360 - The sun's everywhere, except when it's not there. 654 00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:42,420 - There's a lot of developers that were flocking 655 00:28:42,420 --> 00:28:45,370 to California, wanting to connect their solar farms 656 00:28:45,370 --> 00:28:46,203 and wind farms. 657 00:28:46,203 --> 00:28:47,870 The utilities would turn to me and my team 658 00:28:47,870 --> 00:28:51,770 to help them look at what the impact to their grid would be. 659 00:28:51,770 --> 00:28:52,860 - [Jeff] When we add solar cells 660 00:28:52,860 --> 00:28:54,000 or wind turbines to a grid, 661 00:28:54,000 --> 00:28:55,750 do we get to shut off a coal plant? 662 00:28:56,690 --> 00:28:58,790 - That's certainly the goal, the problem is, 663 00:28:58,790 --> 00:29:01,780 or the difference is that renewables are intermittent. 664 00:29:01,780 --> 00:29:03,990 All of a sudden, a cloud cover could come over 665 00:29:03,990 --> 00:29:07,330 and your solar generation could drastically decrease, 666 00:29:07,330 --> 00:29:08,760 and if you don't have something else there 667 00:29:08,760 --> 00:29:12,150 to meet whatever the load is at that moment, 668 00:29:12,150 --> 00:29:14,300 then you're gonna have power outages. 669 00:29:14,300 --> 00:29:15,133 - [Jeff] So, we don't get 670 00:29:15,133 --> 00:29:17,000 to turn a fossil fuel power plant off 671 00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:19,140 when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing? 672 00:29:19,140 --> 00:29:20,650 - Well, it's not that easy. 673 00:29:20,650 --> 00:29:23,360 We need to be able to back up that power 674 00:29:23,360 --> 00:29:26,562 to keep the system steady all the time 675 00:29:26,562 --> 00:29:28,190 so it doesn't collapse. 676 00:29:28,190 --> 00:29:32,400 Most likely that's through fast-acting gas plants, 677 00:29:32,400 --> 00:29:35,210 but also what we call the baseload plants, 678 00:29:35,210 --> 00:29:37,630 either nuclear or coal that are on all the time 679 00:29:37,630 --> 00:29:40,700 but that maybe can be dialed down during the day 680 00:29:40,700 --> 00:29:44,270 and dialed up when demand starts rising. 681 00:29:44,270 --> 00:29:45,630 - [Jeff] Does it affect the efficiency 682 00:29:45,630 --> 00:29:48,180 to turn fossil fuel power plants on and off? 683 00:29:48,180 --> 00:29:49,013 - Oh, yeah. 684 00:29:49,013 --> 00:29:51,300 They don't like to be dialed up and down. 685 00:29:51,300 --> 00:29:54,550 It does make, that's wear and tear for them. 686 00:29:54,550 --> 00:29:58,300 - Turning them on, turning it off, there's energy used 687 00:29:58,300 --> 00:29:59,810 and lost and any time, 688 00:29:59,810 --> 00:30:01,340 kind of like when you turn on your car on and off, 689 00:30:01,340 --> 00:30:02,410 you use a little extra gas 690 00:30:02,410 --> 00:30:03,720 to get it turned on. 691 00:30:03,720 --> 00:30:04,610 I do still think you have 692 00:30:04,610 --> 00:30:06,460 to maintain a baseload of some kind. 693 00:30:06,460 --> 00:30:07,700 - [Jeff] What's the solution then? 694 00:30:07,700 --> 00:30:08,960 - You need energy storage. 695 00:30:08,960 --> 00:30:12,160 - Without storage, you can't count on it. 696 00:30:12,160 --> 00:30:15,810 - If you can store the energy that's created off 697 00:30:15,810 --> 00:30:19,210 of things that are intermittent like solar and wind, 698 00:30:19,210 --> 00:30:22,460 you can store that, now you're reducing your need 699 00:30:22,460 --> 00:30:23,560 for a baseload. 700 00:30:23,560 --> 00:30:24,393 - [Jeff] But would adding storage 701 00:30:24,393 --> 00:30:27,070 like batteries increase the carbon footprint? 702 00:30:27,070 --> 00:30:28,343 - Yeah, absolutely. 703 00:30:29,820 --> 00:30:31,130 In a big way, actually. 704 00:30:31,130 --> 00:30:33,503 And as more energy storage gets on the grid, 705 00:30:34,720 --> 00:30:37,701 it has a mass scale implication. 706 00:30:37,701 --> 00:30:38,540 (piano music) 707 00:30:38,540 --> 00:30:40,130 - [Jeff] When I looked up how much battery storage 708 00:30:40,130 --> 00:30:42,310 there is, it was less than one-tenth 709 00:30:42,310 --> 00:30:43,933 of one percent of what's needed. 710 00:30:44,900 --> 00:30:47,200 In a couple years, they begin to degrade 711 00:30:47,200 --> 00:30:49,343 and need to be replaced a few years later. 712 00:30:50,310 --> 00:30:53,130 I learned that the solar panels don't last forever, either. 713 00:30:53,130 --> 00:30:55,960 - Some solar panels are built to last only 10 years. 714 00:30:55,960 --> 00:31:00,530 So, it's not as if you get this magic free energy. 715 00:31:00,530 --> 00:31:02,900 I don't know that it's the solution, 716 00:31:02,900 --> 00:31:07,360 and here I am helping to sell the materials 717 00:31:07,360 --> 00:31:09,010 that would go into photovoltaics. 718 00:31:10,820 --> 00:31:12,890 - [Jeff] And so to overcome profound limitations 719 00:31:12,890 --> 00:31:16,030 of solar and wind, rarely discussed in the media, 720 00:31:16,030 --> 00:31:18,220 a new generation of technology was rising 721 00:31:18,220 --> 00:31:19,573 in the California desert. 722 00:31:20,790 --> 00:31:21,770 - [Woman] What is this? 723 00:31:21,770 --> 00:31:23,730 - What we're using is a field of mirrors 724 00:31:23,730 --> 00:31:26,140 to focus sunlight onto a tower. 725 00:31:26,140 --> 00:31:29,550 The power plant itself, at 377 megawatts, 726 00:31:29,550 --> 00:31:31,630 will be the largest of its kind in the world. 727 00:31:31,630 --> 00:31:34,000 - This will become the biggest solar plant in the world! 728 00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:35,133 (crowd clapping and cheering) 729 00:31:35,133 --> 00:31:37,633 There's some people that look out in a desert, 730 00:31:37,633 --> 00:31:40,780 and they see miles and miles of emptiness. 731 00:31:40,780 --> 00:31:44,970 I see miles and miles of a gold mine. 732 00:31:44,970 --> 00:31:46,560 - [Jeff] But this next generation 733 00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:49,010 had a fossil fuel secret, too. 734 00:31:49,010 --> 00:31:51,250 - This solar facility burns natural gas pretty much 735 00:31:51,250 --> 00:31:53,750 every morning in order to get it started up. 736 00:31:53,750 --> 00:31:55,230 - [Jeff] How long do they have to burn it for? 737 00:31:55,230 --> 00:31:56,730 - Hours, usually. 738 00:31:56,730 --> 00:31:59,540 This is the incoming natural gas for the facility. 739 00:31:59,540 --> 00:32:01,670 This plant would work about as well without natural gas 740 00:32:01,670 --> 00:32:03,360 as I would without coffee in the morning. (laughing) 741 00:32:03,360 --> 00:32:05,218 - [Jeff] Or maybe how you would be without food. 742 00:32:05,218 --> 00:32:06,720 - Or without food, yeah. (laughing) 743 00:32:06,720 --> 00:32:08,900 They have to file for acid rain permits, 744 00:32:08,900 --> 00:32:11,080 permits for nitrous oxide emissions, 745 00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:14,210 they have to apply for carbon offset permits. 746 00:32:14,210 --> 00:32:16,210 Because they're producing carbon dioxide here, 747 00:32:16,210 --> 00:32:17,690 so they have to offset that. 748 00:32:17,690 --> 00:32:20,260 The whole thing is built using fossil fuel infrastructure, 749 00:32:20,260 --> 00:32:22,920 from the concrete to the steel to the mirrors, 750 00:32:22,920 --> 00:32:24,600 to the backing on the mirrors. 751 00:32:24,600 --> 00:32:29,380 The sun is renewable, but the solar arrays are not. 752 00:32:29,380 --> 00:32:30,213 - [Jeff] Oh, come on. 753 00:32:30,213 --> 00:32:31,460 There's got to be something renewable. 754 00:32:31,460 --> 00:32:32,740 Glass is renewable. 755 00:32:32,740 --> 00:32:33,710 - Glass. (laughing) 756 00:32:33,710 --> 00:32:34,960 Glass is not renewable. 757 00:32:34,960 --> 00:32:36,390 - [Jeff] Iron's renewable. 758 00:32:36,390 --> 00:32:38,220 (laughing) 759 00:32:38,220 --> 00:32:39,053 Aluminum? 760 00:32:39,053 --> 00:32:39,886 That's renewable. 761 00:32:39,886 --> 00:32:41,197 I recycle my soda cans. 762 00:32:41,197 --> 00:32:42,980 (laughing) I know it's renewable. 763 00:32:42,980 --> 00:32:44,830 - Yeah, the problem with all of these materials is 764 00:32:44,830 --> 00:32:48,670 that it takes an incredible amount of energy to mine 765 00:32:48,670 --> 00:32:51,080 and process all of the materials 766 00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:52,820 that go into building something like this. 767 00:32:52,820 --> 00:32:55,443 You use more fossil fuels to do this 768 00:32:55,443 --> 00:32:58,240 than you're getting benefit from it. 769 00:32:58,240 --> 00:33:00,030 You would have been better off just burning the fossil fuels 770 00:33:00,030 --> 00:33:03,330 in the first place, instead of playing pretend. 771 00:33:03,330 --> 00:33:04,670 - [Jeff] That green energy has nothing 772 00:33:04,670 --> 00:33:07,610 to do with fossil fuels is apparently a story 773 00:33:07,610 --> 00:33:09,740 only meant for you and me. 774 00:33:09,740 --> 00:33:11,320 Here is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., 775 00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:14,380 speaking to oil and gas company insiders. 776 00:33:14,380 --> 00:33:17,860 - It's a combination solar gas plant. 777 00:33:17,860 --> 00:33:20,270 It's a turbine that we just take from a gas plant, 778 00:33:20,270 --> 00:33:22,780 suspend it from a big scaffolding, a tower, 779 00:33:22,780 --> 00:33:25,120 and surround it by giant mirrors in the desert. 780 00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:26,917 The plants that we're building, the wind plants 781 00:33:26,917 --> 00:33:29,020 and the solar plants, are gas plants. 782 00:33:29,020 --> 00:33:31,170 - [Jeff] What kind of game is being played? 783 00:33:32,310 --> 00:33:36,780 - Well (gusting wind) we're basically just being fed a lie. 784 00:33:36,780 --> 00:33:37,920 For instance, you'll hear 785 00:33:37,920 --> 00:33:39,880 about Germany running on wind and solar. 786 00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:41,330 - They were getting 50% of their power 787 00:33:41,330 --> 00:33:43,310 coming from the sun. 788 00:33:43,310 --> 00:33:45,230 - There were days this past summer 789 00:33:45,230 --> 00:33:46,980 when the Germans were generating 80% 790 00:33:46,980 --> 00:33:48,560 of their power from the sun. 791 00:33:48,560 --> 00:33:49,393 - [Ozzie] But Germany 792 00:33:49,393 --> 00:33:51,820 is still Europe's largest consumer of coal. 793 00:33:51,820 --> 00:33:54,012 - But if the most coal is extracted in this region 794 00:33:54,012 --> 00:33:57,320 then the region must also be the largest source of CO2. 795 00:33:58,295 --> 00:33:59,330 - Uhh. 796 00:33:59,330 --> 00:34:00,480 - [Ozzie] Only a small fraction 797 00:34:00,480 --> 00:34:03,240 of their energy actually comes from wind and solar. 798 00:34:03,240 --> 00:34:05,890 In fact, Germany is pushing forward with a large terminal 799 00:34:05,890 --> 00:34:08,233 that could import natural gas from the United States. 800 00:34:09,770 --> 00:34:11,060 Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, 801 00:34:11,060 --> 00:34:13,180 when he announced his Gigafactory battery plant, 802 00:34:13,180 --> 00:34:16,070 he said it would power itself with wind and solar energy. 803 00:34:16,070 --> 00:34:19,640 - Through a combination of geothermal, wind and solar, 804 00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:22,010 it will produce all the energy that it needs. 805 00:34:22,010 --> 00:34:23,660 - [Ozzie] But in fact, it has lines connecting it 806 00:34:23,660 --> 00:34:26,460 to the same electrical grid that we're all connected to. 807 00:34:28,280 --> 00:34:31,947 (fast paced dramatic music) 808 00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:35,210 Electric cars, wind turbines 809 00:34:35,210 --> 00:34:37,290 and solar panels use rare earth metals. 810 00:34:37,290 --> 00:34:38,690 And in fact, a rare earth mine is 811 00:34:38,690 --> 00:34:41,010 right up the street from here. 812 00:34:41,010 --> 00:34:43,870 In mining these deep deposits, about 90% 813 00:34:43,870 --> 00:34:47,090 of what they pull up out of the ground contains uranium, 814 00:34:47,090 --> 00:34:50,580 thorium and low level of other radionuclides. 815 00:34:50,580 --> 00:34:53,452 Radioactive waste that has to be disposed of somehow, 816 00:34:53,452 --> 00:34:56,000 they kind of turn it into a paste and spread it 817 00:34:56,000 --> 00:34:57,390 over the desert floor. 818 00:34:57,390 --> 00:34:58,620 - [Jeff] Well, that's good for the desert, right? 819 00:34:58,620 --> 00:35:00,272 - Yeah, the desert loves that. 820 00:35:00,272 --> 00:35:02,660 (laughing) 821 00:35:02,660 --> 00:35:04,360 Tesla's electric cars are built with aluminum, 822 00:35:04,360 --> 00:35:05,870 which uses eight times more energy 823 00:35:05,870 --> 00:35:07,393 to manufacture than steel. 824 00:35:07,393 --> 00:35:11,060 They use lithium, which also relies on toxic mining. 825 00:35:11,060 --> 00:35:13,110 And even more graphite, which is one 826 00:35:13,110 --> 00:35:14,610 of the rarest forms of carbon. 827 00:35:15,630 --> 00:35:16,800 In fact, the investors wanted 828 00:35:16,800 --> 00:35:18,670 to open several new graphite mines 829 00:35:18,670 --> 00:35:21,460 after Tesla announced the Gigafactory. 830 00:35:21,460 --> 00:35:23,290 Apple claims to be 100% renewable. 831 00:35:23,290 --> 00:35:26,250 - We never stop thinking about what's best for the planet. 832 00:35:26,250 --> 00:35:29,783 We now run Apple on 100% renewable energy. 833 00:35:29,783 --> 00:35:34,230 (clapping and cheering) All of our facilities, worldwide. 834 00:35:34,230 --> 00:35:35,550 - [Ozzie] And they did chop down a forest 835 00:35:35,550 --> 00:35:38,610 to put up solar panels near their North Carolina plant. 836 00:35:38,610 --> 00:35:41,230 But they didn't disconnect from the grid and they can't. 837 00:35:41,230 --> 00:35:43,360 - Duke says energy hungry companies 838 00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:46,360 like Apple can never go entirely off the grid. 839 00:35:46,360 --> 00:35:48,485 - They're still hooked up to our grid. 840 00:35:48,485 --> 00:35:49,318 (fast paced energetic music) 841 00:35:49,318 --> 00:35:50,800 - [Ozzie] Despite all of the claims, 842 00:35:50,800 --> 00:35:53,630 I haven't found a single entity anywhere in the world 843 00:35:53,630 --> 00:35:57,236 that's running on 100% solar and wind alone. 844 00:35:57,236 --> 00:35:59,480 (suspenseful music) 845 00:35:59,480 --> 00:36:02,220 - [Jeff] It turns out, you don't just need fossil fuels 846 00:36:02,220 --> 00:36:06,340 to run a place like Ivanpah, you need the devil himself, 847 00:36:06,340 --> 00:36:09,190 or in this case, themselves. 848 00:36:09,190 --> 00:36:11,550 - [Ozzie] All of the mirrors that you see there are built 849 00:36:11,550 --> 00:36:14,140 by the Koch brothers, Guardian Glass Industry, 850 00:36:14,140 --> 00:36:15,350 a company that they control. 851 00:36:15,350 --> 00:36:17,776 Koch Carbon creates a lot of the inputs that are used 852 00:36:17,776 --> 00:36:20,620 to create the cement and the concrete and the steel. 853 00:36:20,620 --> 00:36:22,670 And not only that, they build the plants 854 00:36:22,670 --> 00:36:24,770 that builds polysilicon for solar cells. 855 00:36:24,770 --> 00:36:25,603 They have, actually, 856 00:36:25,603 --> 00:36:28,200 their own solar line called Solar Molex. 857 00:36:28,200 --> 00:36:31,570 From every step of the process, the Koch brothers are there. 858 00:36:31,570 --> 00:36:33,540 - [Jeff] But, they're the evil doers. 859 00:36:33,540 --> 00:36:35,130 - Yeah (laughing), the funny part is 860 00:36:35,130 --> 00:36:37,220 that when you criticize solar plants like this, 861 00:36:37,220 --> 00:36:39,534 you're accused of working for the Koch brothers. 862 00:36:39,534 --> 00:36:40,580 (laughing) 863 00:36:40,580 --> 00:36:42,560 That's the idiocy in all of this. 864 00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:44,940 This absolutely can not extend civilization's life. 865 00:36:44,940 --> 00:36:48,160 This relies on the most toxic and industrial processes 866 00:36:48,160 --> 00:36:49,363 that we've ever created. 867 00:36:52,394 --> 00:36:55,333 (drum rolling) 868 00:36:55,333 --> 00:36:58,660 (small triangle dinging) 869 00:36:58,660 --> 00:37:02,243 (pulsating dramatic music) 870 00:37:06,040 --> 00:37:09,873 (music building in intensity) 871 00:37:12,501 --> 00:37:16,001 (up tempo dramatic music) 872 00:37:26,787 --> 00:37:29,537 (music building) 873 00:37:36,280 --> 00:37:39,697 (music tempo increasing) 874 00:39:04,325 --> 00:39:07,992 (music ending dramatically) 875 00:39:12,270 --> 00:39:13,880 - The beauty of a solar facility, 876 00:39:13,880 --> 00:39:15,300 and particularly this technology, 877 00:39:15,300 --> 00:39:17,803 is that it is so environmentally benign. 878 00:39:19,059 --> 00:39:22,451 (roaring of large machinery) 879 00:39:39,587 --> 00:39:40,660 [Jeff] I, too, had once thought 880 00:39:40,660 --> 00:39:42,922 deserts could be sacrifice zones. 881 00:39:42,922 --> 00:39:45,130 (powerful drum based music) 882 00:39:45,130 --> 00:39:46,470 I was wrong. 883 00:39:46,470 --> 00:39:47,713 Deserts are not dead. 884 00:39:48,880 --> 00:39:50,880 They are, in fact, full of ancient life. 885 00:39:53,167 --> 00:39:55,917 (powerful music) 886 00:40:03,190 --> 00:40:06,503 In the desert, the Joshua tree stands, waiting, 887 00:40:08,010 --> 00:40:10,200 waiting for the giant ground sloths 888 00:40:10,200 --> 00:40:12,533 and the mammoths that shall never return. 889 00:40:13,970 --> 00:40:17,280 The Joshua tree depended on the giant mammals 890 00:40:17,280 --> 00:40:20,090 to reach up high and eat their seeds, 891 00:40:20,090 --> 00:40:22,904 and thus disperse the Joshua tree. 892 00:40:22,904 --> 00:40:25,800 (mystical vocal music) 893 00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:29,240 But now, stranded in time and space, 894 00:40:29,240 --> 00:40:31,663 the Joshua tree awaits a new fate. 895 00:40:32,500 --> 00:40:33,680 To be sacrificed 896 00:40:34,680 --> 00:40:36,073 in the name of progress. 897 00:40:37,050 --> 00:40:40,780 - Joshua trees are torn down to make way for solar projects. 898 00:40:40,780 --> 00:40:42,760 23ABC's Cassie Carlisle travels 899 00:40:42,760 --> 00:40:45,130 to the Mojave Desert to talk to neighbors. 900 00:40:45,130 --> 00:40:46,810 - [Cassie] They're not your usual tree. 901 00:40:46,810 --> 00:40:48,410 More like something from fiction, 902 00:40:48,410 --> 00:40:51,050 but these Joshuas are causing quite an uproar. 903 00:40:51,050 --> 00:40:53,570 - No, it makes me sick that they're clearing them off, 904 00:40:53,570 --> 00:40:55,410 killing them real quick, 905 00:40:55,410 --> 00:40:56,870 and now they're grinding them up, 906 00:40:56,870 --> 00:40:58,683 getting rid of all the evidence. 907 00:40:59,820 --> 00:41:03,320 (powerful dramatic music) 908 00:41:06,710 --> 00:41:09,180 - [Jeff] Not far from Ivanpah Solar, 909 00:41:09,180 --> 00:41:10,660 Daggett, California was home 910 00:41:10,660 --> 00:41:13,450 to several generations of solar arrays 911 00:41:13,450 --> 00:41:16,126 including some of the first on the planet. 912 00:41:16,126 --> 00:41:18,876 (wind blowing) 913 00:41:20,370 --> 00:41:22,330 Ozzie and I thought we would take a trip 914 00:41:22,330 --> 00:41:23,903 to see where it all began. 915 00:41:28,580 --> 00:41:31,747 (wind blowing loudly) 916 00:41:37,921 --> 00:41:40,310 - This is one of the sunniest places in the planet, really, 917 00:41:40,310 --> 00:41:43,590 and it's the center of the solar industry 918 00:41:43,590 --> 00:41:45,110 and they've been building and dismantling 919 00:41:45,110 --> 00:41:49,072 and building arrays here for about 40 years. 920 00:41:49,072 --> 00:41:50,600 (man's voice on loudspeaker) 921 00:41:50,600 --> 00:41:51,433 - [Jeff] Then we happened to run 922 00:41:51,433 --> 00:41:53,292 into the mayor of Daggett. 923 00:41:53,292 --> 00:41:55,600 - And then the solar plants out there, my husband, 924 00:41:55,600 --> 00:42:00,220 back in, I'd say '83, '84, they worked out there building 925 00:42:00,220 --> 00:42:01,150 that solar plant out there. 926 00:42:01,150 --> 00:42:02,120 - Yeah, the SEGS. 927 00:42:02,120 --> 00:42:04,590 - And everybody here worked. 928 00:42:04,590 --> 00:42:05,423 - How's that held up? 929 00:42:05,423 --> 00:42:07,110 Is it, are the jobs still here? 930 00:42:07,110 --> 00:42:07,943 - No. 931 00:42:07,943 --> 00:42:09,750 Jobs went bye-bye. 932 00:42:09,750 --> 00:42:11,700 They have their normal people that run the plant, 933 00:42:11,700 --> 00:42:13,650 the plant operators and stuff like that, 934 00:42:13,650 --> 00:42:15,870 the big wigs, you know, they have that. 935 00:42:15,870 --> 00:42:18,080 Where that energy's going, I don't know. 936 00:42:18,080 --> 00:42:20,000 - [Jeff] Were you originally optimistic 937 00:42:20,000 --> 00:42:22,134 that the solar would bring more jobs 938 00:42:22,134 --> 00:42:23,130 and development for people? 939 00:42:23,130 --> 00:42:24,492 - Yeah, we really did, we really did. 940 00:42:24,492 --> 00:42:27,300 A lot of things come into this town, they come and go. 941 00:42:27,300 --> 00:42:28,825 They go really fast. 942 00:42:28,825 --> 00:42:32,010 (loud wind blowing) 943 00:42:32,010 --> 00:42:32,910 - Do you see this? 944 00:42:34,730 --> 00:42:36,130 - [Jeff] Then Ozzie and I discovered 945 00:42:36,130 --> 00:42:38,980 that the giant solar arrays had been razed to the ground. 946 00:42:40,640 --> 00:42:42,319 - Oh, my God. 947 00:42:42,319 --> 00:42:43,410 (wind whooshing) 948 00:42:43,410 --> 00:42:44,960 - [Jeff] I mean, this was huge. 949 00:42:48,740 --> 00:42:51,190 It suddenly dawned on me what we were looking at. 950 00:42:52,520 --> 00:42:53,833 A solar dead zone. 951 00:42:55,660 --> 00:42:57,330 Look at the blowing sand. 952 00:42:57,330 --> 00:42:58,360 - Yeah. 953 00:42:58,360 --> 00:42:59,420 There's sand everywhere, 954 00:42:59,420 --> 00:43:01,760 there's sand dunes forming around this area. 955 00:43:01,760 --> 00:43:02,593 - [Jeff] Wow. 956 00:43:04,705 --> 00:43:08,395 (truck idling) 957 00:43:08,395 --> 00:43:10,978 (solemn music) 958 00:43:17,630 --> 00:43:19,163 So, after all the mining, 959 00:43:20,360 --> 00:43:22,350 the fossil fuels, 960 00:43:22,350 --> 00:43:24,000 the toxins, 961 00:43:24,000 --> 00:43:25,743 the environmental destruction, 962 00:43:26,930 --> 00:43:28,908 here's what happens next. 963 00:43:28,908 --> 00:43:30,290 (somber music) 964 00:43:30,290 --> 00:43:32,790 Only a few years after it was built, 965 00:43:32,790 --> 00:43:35,193 things at Ivanpah began to fall apart. 966 00:43:37,900 --> 00:43:39,883 Broken mirrors littered the desert. 967 00:43:43,364 --> 00:43:44,430 (music intensifying) 968 00:43:44,430 --> 00:43:46,120 Yes, these giant solar 969 00:43:46,120 --> 00:43:49,150 and wind technology installations may last 970 00:43:49,150 --> 00:43:50,591 only a few decades, 971 00:43:50,591 --> 00:43:52,740 (somber music) 972 00:43:52,740 --> 00:43:54,943 then tear it down and start all over again. 973 00:43:55,918 --> 00:43:58,501 (somber music) 974 00:43:59,440 --> 00:44:00,990 If there is enough planet left. 975 00:44:02,552 --> 00:44:05,135 (somber music) 976 00:44:06,930 --> 00:44:08,550 It was becoming clear that 977 00:44:08,550 --> 00:44:11,280 what we have been calling green, renewable energy 978 00:44:12,230 --> 00:44:15,253 and industrial civilization, are one and the same. 979 00:44:17,150 --> 00:44:19,919 Desperate measures not to save the planet, 980 00:44:19,919 --> 00:44:21,480 (thunder crashing) 981 00:44:21,480 --> 00:44:23,489 but to save our way of life. 982 00:44:23,489 --> 00:44:26,740 (somber music) 983 00:44:26,740 --> 00:44:30,320 Desperate measures rather than face the reality, 984 00:44:30,320 --> 00:44:34,380 humans are experiencing the planet's limits 985 00:44:34,380 --> 00:44:36,320 all at once. 986 00:44:36,320 --> 00:44:39,780 - Every different perspective I look at 987 00:44:39,780 --> 00:44:43,410 and imagine, well, we could do more of this, 988 00:44:43,410 --> 00:44:46,570 or go to a larger area or use more of that. 989 00:44:46,570 --> 00:44:48,890 Well, it turns out, there isn't more. 990 00:44:48,890 --> 00:44:51,930 I looked at marine production and fish production 991 00:44:51,930 --> 00:44:54,443 and found that peaked 20 years ago. 992 00:44:55,760 --> 00:44:59,313 More and more of what we eat is from fish farming. 993 00:45:00,240 --> 00:45:03,560 The current acres of actively farmed land, 994 00:45:03,560 --> 00:45:05,560 that has peaked also. 995 00:45:05,560 --> 00:45:08,170 The rivers are already being irrigated 996 00:45:08,170 --> 00:45:11,280 to about the limits of what they can sustain. 997 00:45:11,280 --> 00:45:14,833 The Colorado River doesn't get to the ocean anymore. 998 00:45:15,680 --> 00:45:18,290 Well, then you start looking at ground water, 999 00:45:18,290 --> 00:45:20,210 the Southern Great Plains, 1000 00:45:20,210 --> 00:45:23,350 and I think they can almost predict when they will run out 1001 00:45:23,350 --> 00:45:26,048 of ground water and it's in a decade or two. 1002 00:45:26,048 --> 00:45:27,470 (somber music) 1003 00:45:27,470 --> 00:45:31,500 A human vulnerability at the global scale, 1004 00:45:31,500 --> 00:45:35,280 that any one of them we could maybe compartmentalize, 1005 00:45:35,280 --> 00:45:37,170 but we're seeing them propagating 1006 00:45:37,170 --> 00:45:42,170 across topic after topic of society and the earth system. 1007 00:45:43,265 --> 00:45:46,020 And I don't think the people 1008 00:45:46,020 --> 00:45:48,173 in charge are near nervous enough. 1009 00:45:54,150 --> 00:45:54,983 - [Jeff] Though each 1010 00:45:54,983 --> 00:45:56,840 of them takes climate change seriously, 1011 00:45:56,840 --> 00:45:59,090 every expert I talked to wanted 1012 00:45:59,090 --> 00:46:02,210 to bring my attention to the same, underlying problem. 1013 00:46:02,210 --> 00:46:07,110 - There are too many human beings using too much, too fast. 1014 00:46:07,110 --> 00:46:09,360 - As a global community, we really have got 1015 00:46:09,360 --> 00:46:12,070 to start dealing with the issue of population. 1016 00:46:12,070 --> 00:46:15,350 - Population growth continues to be the, 1017 00:46:15,350 --> 00:46:18,870 not the elephant, the herd of elephants, in the room. 1018 00:46:18,870 --> 00:46:20,310 - [Jeff] Can a single species 1019 00:46:20,310 --> 00:46:21,930 that's come to dominate an entire planet-- 1020 00:46:21,930 --> 00:46:26,910 - Be smart enough to voluntarily limit its own presence? 1021 00:46:26,910 --> 00:46:28,538 - [Jeff] Is there any precedence for that in nature? 1022 00:46:28,538 --> 00:46:30,170 (laughing) 1023 00:46:30,170 --> 00:46:31,003 - Wow. 1024 00:46:31,003 --> 00:46:35,163 - We have to have our abilities to consume reined in. 1025 00:46:36,280 --> 00:46:39,230 Because we're not good at reining them in 1026 00:46:39,230 --> 00:46:43,070 if there are seemingly unrestrained resources. 1027 00:46:43,070 --> 00:46:47,030 - Species hit the population wall a lot and then they crash. 1028 00:46:47,030 --> 00:46:49,850 I mean, that's a common story in biology. 1029 00:46:49,850 --> 00:46:51,960 If that happens to us, in a way, 1030 00:46:51,960 --> 00:46:53,660 it's the natural order of things. 1031 00:46:53,660 --> 00:46:56,373 And I don't think we're gonna find a way out of this one. 1032 00:46:57,700 --> 00:46:58,533 I don't. 1033 00:46:58,533 --> 00:46:59,366 - [Jeff] As a scientist, 1034 00:46:59,366 --> 00:47:01,020 what leads you to that conclusion? 1035 00:47:01,020 --> 00:47:05,540 - Well, because right now, a large percentage 1036 00:47:05,540 --> 00:47:09,600 of that number is supported by industrial agriculture, 1037 00:47:09,600 --> 00:47:11,600 which is heavily subsidized by oil, 1038 00:47:11,600 --> 00:47:13,003 and it's not sustainable, 1039 00:47:15,976 --> 00:47:17,161 and there's no going back. 1040 00:47:17,161 --> 00:47:20,640 Without seeing some sort of major die-off in population, 1041 00:47:20,640 --> 00:47:22,023 there's no turning back. 1042 00:47:23,340 --> 00:47:24,640 - [Jeff] What's the thing that nobody ever asks you 1043 00:47:24,640 --> 00:47:25,840 that you want-- 1044 00:47:25,840 --> 00:47:27,860 (laughing) 1045 00:47:27,860 --> 00:47:29,810 - Nobody's ever asked me if I'm scared. 1046 00:47:30,910 --> 00:47:31,743 - [Jeff] Yeah. 1047 00:47:31,743 --> 00:47:32,576 - And, I am. 1048 00:47:32,576 --> 00:47:33,520 I actually am scared. 1049 00:47:33,520 --> 00:47:35,530 I lose sleep over all of this. 1050 00:47:36,364 --> 00:47:38,947 (somber music) 1051 00:47:42,800 --> 00:47:44,610 - [Jeff] It took modern humans tens of thousands 1052 00:47:44,610 --> 00:47:47,623 of years to reach a population of 700 million. 1053 00:47:48,750 --> 00:47:50,580 And then we tapped into millions of years 1054 00:47:50,580 --> 00:47:53,600 of stored energy, known as fossil fuels. 1055 00:47:53,600 --> 00:47:55,463 Our human population exploded. 1056 00:47:56,340 --> 00:48:00,290 It increased by 10 times in a mere 200 years. 1057 00:48:00,290 --> 00:48:02,530 Our consumption has also exploded, 1058 00:48:02,530 --> 00:48:04,910 on average ten times per person, 1059 00:48:04,910 --> 00:48:07,363 and many times more in the Western world. 1060 00:48:08,280 --> 00:48:10,170 You put the two together, 1061 00:48:10,170 --> 00:48:14,130 the result is a total human impact 100 times greater 1062 00:48:14,130 --> 00:48:16,307 than only 200 years ago. 1063 00:48:16,307 --> 00:48:18,880 (mellow music) 1064 00:48:18,880 --> 00:48:22,963 And that is the most terrifying realization I have ever had. 1065 00:48:25,570 --> 00:48:29,203 We humans are poised for a fall from an unimaginable height. 1066 00:48:31,010 --> 00:48:32,483 Not because of one thing, 1067 00:48:33,520 --> 00:48:35,133 not climate change alone, 1068 00:48:36,360 --> 00:48:38,480 but all the human-caused changes 1069 00:48:38,480 --> 00:48:40,083 the planet is suffering from. 1070 00:48:41,618 --> 00:48:43,180 (slow tempo music) 1071 00:48:43,180 --> 00:48:46,400 So, why are bankers, industrialists 1072 00:48:46,400 --> 00:48:48,280 and environmental leaders only focused 1073 00:48:48,280 --> 00:48:50,523 on the narrow solution of green technology? 1074 00:48:52,440 --> 00:48:53,753 Is it the profit motive? 1075 00:48:55,430 --> 00:48:58,440 And why, for most of my life, have I fallen 1076 00:48:58,440 --> 00:49:00,980 for the illusion green energy would save us? 1077 00:49:00,980 --> 00:49:04,397 (waves lapping on shore) 1078 00:49:05,371 --> 00:49:06,204 (squeaking door) 1079 00:49:06,204 --> 00:49:08,090 Clearly, to answer this question, 1080 00:49:08,090 --> 00:49:10,300 I needed professional help. 1081 00:49:10,300 --> 00:49:11,570 - Keep my stuff. 1082 00:49:11,570 --> 00:49:13,650 No, I never heard... 1083 00:49:13,650 --> 00:49:15,530 - I'll just be honest with you about my dilemma. 1084 00:49:15,530 --> 00:49:20,000 You can be my clinical social psych-- (laughing) 1085 00:49:20,000 --> 00:49:22,723 It's like, the right has religion, 1086 00:49:23,760 --> 00:49:26,420 and they have a belief in infinite fossil fuels. 1087 00:49:26,420 --> 00:49:30,077 Our side says, "Oh, it's gonna be okay, 1088 00:49:30,077 --> 00:49:31,247 we're gonna have solar panels, 1089 00:49:31,247 --> 00:49:33,410 we're gonna have wind towers." 1090 00:49:33,410 --> 00:49:35,470 Soon as I heard you talk about our denial of death, 1091 00:49:35,470 --> 00:49:37,967 I'm like could that be it? 1092 00:49:37,967 --> 00:49:40,587 Could it be that we can't face our own mortality? 1093 00:49:40,587 --> 00:49:42,830 Could we have a religion that we're unaware of? 1094 00:49:42,830 --> 00:49:43,663 - Absolutely. 1095 00:49:43,663 --> 00:49:47,010 I think you've hit the proverbial nail on the head. 1096 00:49:47,010 --> 00:49:50,950 What just differentiates people from all other forms 1097 00:49:50,950 --> 00:49:53,590 of life is that, we're not only here 1098 00:49:53,590 --> 00:49:55,140 but that we know that we're here. 1099 00:49:55,140 --> 00:49:59,260 If you know that you're here, then you recognize, 1100 00:49:59,260 --> 00:50:02,490 even dimly, that you'll not be here someday. 1101 00:50:02,490 --> 00:50:05,980 And on top of that, we don't like that we're animals. 1102 00:50:05,980 --> 00:50:08,010 So we don't like that we're gonna die someday, 1103 00:50:08,010 --> 00:50:10,050 and we don't like that you could walk outside 1104 00:50:10,050 --> 00:50:12,130 and get hit by a fuckin' meteor. 1105 00:50:12,130 --> 00:50:14,140 What human beings did back 1106 00:50:14,140 --> 00:50:17,270 in yesteryear is to envelop ourselves 1107 00:50:17,270 --> 00:50:19,970 in culturally constructed belief systems. 1108 00:50:19,970 --> 00:50:21,400 You know, call them cultures, 1109 00:50:21,400 --> 00:50:25,330 call them world views, schemes of things. 1110 00:50:25,330 --> 00:50:29,330 Whatever you call them, every human community has them. 1111 00:50:29,330 --> 00:50:33,500 Every culture has an account of the origin of the Universe. 1112 00:50:33,500 --> 00:50:35,110 Every culture has a prescription 1113 00:50:35,110 --> 00:50:36,960 for how you're supposed to behave while you're here. 1114 00:50:36,960 --> 00:50:40,870 And every culture offers its denizens hope of immortality, 1115 00:50:40,870 --> 00:50:44,880 either literally or symbolically. 1116 00:50:44,880 --> 00:50:47,510 Then the question is, well, what happens when you bump 1117 00:50:47,510 --> 00:50:51,270 into people who don't share those beliefs? 1118 00:50:51,270 --> 00:50:54,180 Whether you know it or not, whether you like it or not, 1119 00:50:54,180 --> 00:50:56,500 that's undermining the confidence 1120 00:50:56,500 --> 00:50:59,530 with which you subscribe to your own views, 1121 00:50:59,530 --> 00:51:02,110 and exposing you to the very anxiety 1122 00:51:02,110 --> 00:51:04,210 that those beliefs were constructed 1123 00:51:04,210 --> 00:51:06,370 to eradicate in the first place. 1124 00:51:06,370 --> 00:51:09,260 If we're to make progress, whatever that word means, 1125 00:51:09,260 --> 00:51:12,760 or even to persist as a form of life, we're gonna need 1126 00:51:12,760 --> 00:51:17,760 to radically overhaul our basic conception 1127 00:51:18,780 --> 00:51:22,313 of who and what we are, and what it is that we value. 1128 00:51:23,360 --> 00:51:26,100 Because the people that you referred to earlier, 1129 00:51:26,100 --> 00:51:29,520 both on the left and the right 1130 00:51:29,520 --> 00:51:34,520 that think we're gonna be able to discover more oil, 1131 00:51:35,040 --> 00:51:40,040 or solar panel ourselves into the future, 1132 00:51:40,170 --> 00:51:43,460 where life will look pretty much like it does now. 1133 00:51:43,460 --> 00:51:45,630 You know, only cleaner and better. 1134 00:51:45,630 --> 00:51:47,270 - [Jeff] Either with more oil or greener or both. 1135 00:51:47,270 --> 00:51:48,103 - Correct. 1136 00:51:48,103 --> 00:51:51,210 I think that's just frankly delusional. 1137 00:51:51,210 --> 00:51:54,150 - What I'm hearing is that, if I haven't come to grips 1138 00:51:54,150 --> 00:51:58,040 with my own anxiety about death and life, 1139 00:51:58,040 --> 00:52:02,470 and presented with a reminder of that, I'm highly likely 1140 00:52:02,470 --> 00:52:07,340 to make some tragic decisions for the community. 1141 00:52:07,340 --> 00:52:08,430 - Yes. 1142 00:52:08,430 --> 00:52:13,430 The only solution in principle is, as Albert Camus put it, 1143 00:52:14,230 --> 00:52:17,477 he said, "There's only one liberty, to come to terms 1144 00:52:17,477 --> 00:52:21,190 with death, thereafter anything is possible." 1145 00:52:21,190 --> 00:52:24,403 I find that downright inspiring. 1146 00:52:25,960 --> 00:52:27,860 - [Jeff] As for our environmental leaders, 1147 00:52:27,860 --> 00:52:29,970 who dwelled in comfortable illusions, 1148 00:52:29,970 --> 00:52:32,623 how tragic of decisions were they capable of making? 1149 00:52:34,800 --> 00:52:36,227 I was about to find out. 1150 00:52:38,731 --> 00:52:41,981 (humming of machinery) 1151 00:52:49,061 --> 00:52:51,731 (leaves crunching) 1152 00:52:51,731 --> 00:52:54,330 - [Josh] They claim they're just using forest residues, 1153 00:52:54,330 --> 00:52:57,490 but actually a great deal of what the McNeil facility, 1154 00:52:57,490 --> 00:53:00,490 and lots of biomass facilities burn, is whole trees. 1155 00:53:00,490 --> 00:53:02,610 As you can see by this pile that's stacked right 1156 00:53:02,610 --> 00:53:05,363 outside of the facility, these are trees. 1157 00:53:06,980 --> 00:53:08,400 - [Jeff] It turns out that the biggest source 1158 00:53:08,400 --> 00:53:11,823 of green energy in Vermont is something called biomass. 1159 00:53:13,070 --> 00:53:15,143 Burning trees to create electricity. 1160 00:53:16,770 --> 00:53:18,920 - This is definitely not the way. 1161 00:53:18,920 --> 00:53:21,430 At the first step is actually looking at our lifestyles, 1162 00:53:21,430 --> 00:53:23,823 how we can reduce our energy consumption. 1163 00:53:25,350 --> 00:53:30,350 This is all the ash that has varying levels of toxic metals, 1164 00:53:30,650 --> 00:53:32,240 a great deal of radiation 1165 00:53:32,240 --> 00:53:33,610 because these trees have been absorb... 1166 00:53:33,610 --> 00:53:34,633 Oops, there's the... 1167 00:53:35,765 --> 00:53:38,670 (machinery humming) 1168 00:53:38,670 --> 00:53:40,607 - You're in uh forbidden territory here. 1169 00:53:40,607 --> 00:53:41,440 - [Jeff] Are we? 1170 00:53:41,440 --> 00:53:44,170 - May I ask both of you to come up to our office, okay? 1171 00:53:44,170 --> 00:53:45,100 - [Josh] Is that something you're interested in doing? 1172 00:53:45,100 --> 00:53:47,880 - It's not an interest, you've got five seconds 1173 00:53:47,880 --> 00:53:49,111 or I'm calling 911. 1174 00:53:49,111 --> 00:53:49,944 - [Jeff] Okay. 1175 00:53:49,944 --> 00:53:53,033 - [Security Guard] We've got two individuals here-- 1176 00:53:53,033 --> 00:53:54,272 (loud crunching footsteps) 1177 00:53:54,272 --> 00:53:56,390 The police will be down here in about two minutes. 1178 00:53:56,390 --> 00:53:57,890 - [Josh] But you asked us to leave and we're doing so. 1179 00:53:57,890 --> 00:53:59,080 - [Security Guard] I'm not asking you to leave, 1180 00:53:59,080 --> 00:54:01,210 I'm asking you to come up to the office. 1181 00:54:01,210 --> 00:54:02,670 - [Josh] Okay, thanks for the offer. 1182 00:54:02,670 --> 00:54:03,633 Maybe next time. 1183 00:54:04,531 --> 00:54:06,354 (electronic beeping) 1184 00:54:06,354 --> 00:54:07,350 (machinery humming) 1185 00:54:07,350 --> 00:54:08,653 You got everything here. 1186 00:54:09,620 --> 00:54:12,210 You have the number one polluter in the state 1187 00:54:12,210 --> 00:54:14,760 that people think emits magical fairy dust 1188 00:54:14,760 --> 00:54:16,670 from the smokestack. 1189 00:54:16,670 --> 00:54:18,540 Reality is what you have is a facility 1190 00:54:18,540 --> 00:54:22,470 that burns 400,000 green tons a year of trees. 1191 00:54:22,470 --> 00:54:25,850 This facility burns thirty cords of wood per hour. 1192 00:54:25,850 --> 00:54:26,950 - [Jeff] That's a hell of a lot of wood. 1193 00:54:26,950 --> 00:54:27,783 - [Josh] And on top of that, 1194 00:54:27,783 --> 00:54:30,650 it actually burns natural gas, as well. 1195 00:54:30,650 --> 00:54:31,860 - [Jeff] And to think you would have to have 10 1196 00:54:31,860 --> 00:54:35,160 of these to replace one average coal-fired power plant. 1197 00:54:35,160 --> 00:54:36,560 It's just not gonna work. 1198 00:54:36,560 --> 00:54:37,890 - It's just nuts. 1199 00:54:37,890 --> 00:54:39,620 It takes a great deal of fossil fuels 1200 00:54:39,620 --> 00:54:42,230 to cut down all these trees, 1201 00:54:42,230 --> 00:54:44,230 to truck 'em in, to use the big machinery 1202 00:54:44,230 --> 00:54:46,030 to dump the wood chips everywhere. 1203 00:54:46,030 --> 00:54:48,533 So, the idea that somehow this is not anything to do 1204 00:54:48,533 --> 00:54:51,290 with fossil fuels just doesn't even make any sense. 1205 00:54:51,290 --> 00:54:53,950 It couldn't happen without fossil fuels, in fact. 1206 00:54:53,950 --> 00:54:55,560 - [Jeff] How did the environmental groups 1207 00:54:55,560 --> 00:54:56,600 get pulled into this? 1208 00:54:56,600 --> 00:54:59,210 - Obviously, the main factor is delusion. 1209 00:54:59,210 --> 00:55:01,880 A lot of these environmental groups have been saying 1210 00:55:01,880 --> 00:55:03,940 that all we have to do is, for instance, 1211 00:55:03,940 --> 00:55:06,220 switch our fossil fuel economy over 1212 00:55:06,220 --> 00:55:08,210 to a few solar panels and windmills, 1213 00:55:08,210 --> 00:55:11,740 and we can continue living life as normal. 1214 00:55:11,740 --> 00:55:13,890 Some of the environmental groups have been, 1215 00:55:13,890 --> 00:55:17,910 for years, touting facilities like this saying that, 1216 00:55:17,910 --> 00:55:21,110 number one, it's carbon neutral. 1217 00:55:21,110 --> 00:55:24,720 That this will actually help us fend off climate change 1218 00:55:24,720 --> 00:55:27,990 because there are no CO2 emissions. 1219 00:55:27,990 --> 00:55:30,170 It actually emits over 400 thousand tons 1220 00:55:30,170 --> 00:55:32,740 per year of carbon dioxide. 1221 00:55:32,740 --> 00:55:35,410 "Oh, but once we cut 'em, they'll grow back." 1222 00:55:35,410 --> 00:55:38,970 They'll grow back over a period of decades to centuries 1223 00:55:38,970 --> 00:55:40,950 but if we cut every tree in the United States, 1224 00:55:40,950 --> 00:55:43,830 it would be able to power the country for a year. 1225 00:55:43,830 --> 00:55:46,693 Then what happens when, you know, those trees are gone? 1226 00:55:49,310 --> 00:55:51,893 (wind blowing) 1227 00:55:53,320 --> 00:55:54,930 - [Jeff] I discovered biomass plants 1228 00:55:54,930 --> 00:55:57,343 were not even always biomass plants. 1229 00:55:58,330 --> 00:56:00,580 - This is actually a solid waste incinerator 1230 00:56:00,580 --> 00:56:02,670 that's posing as a biomass plant. 1231 00:56:02,670 --> 00:56:06,960 The impact in this community is severe. 1232 00:56:06,960 --> 00:56:11,300 The plant is right next to a Head Start school 1233 00:56:11,300 --> 00:56:13,030 for preschool kids. 1234 00:56:13,030 --> 00:56:14,810 There is Green Hill Manor and 1235 00:56:14,810 --> 00:56:18,800 that's an assisted living senior residence. 1236 00:56:18,800 --> 00:56:22,280 And there's also a Catholic elementary school 1237 00:56:22,280 --> 00:56:24,043 right next door. 1238 00:56:24,950 --> 00:56:26,110 - [Jeff] How do you know they're polluting? 1239 00:56:26,110 --> 00:56:26,943 Can you see it ever? 1240 00:56:26,943 --> 00:56:27,810 - We can see it. 1241 00:56:27,810 --> 00:56:30,240 The snow at the elementary school 1242 00:56:30,240 --> 00:56:35,100 and at the preschool is covered with black, 1243 00:56:35,100 --> 00:56:36,850 some kind of black soot. 1244 00:56:36,850 --> 00:56:38,400 We just had it analyzed 1245 00:56:38,400 --> 00:56:43,400 and it came back as mostly tire chips. 1246 00:56:44,090 --> 00:56:47,210 They have to add tire-derived fuel 1247 00:56:47,210 --> 00:56:49,410 to raise the temperature of the fire, 1248 00:56:49,410 --> 00:56:52,920 because anybody who's tried to burn green wood or wet wood, 1249 00:56:52,920 --> 00:56:55,053 knows that it doesn't burn very well. 1250 00:56:56,190 --> 00:56:57,530 - [Jeff] But this biomass plant had 1251 00:56:57,530 --> 00:56:58,853 yet another surprise. 1252 00:57:00,360 --> 00:57:03,870 - They admit that they burn 20.1 tons per hour 1253 00:57:03,870 --> 00:57:06,410 of creosote treated railroad ties. 1254 00:57:06,410 --> 00:57:11,407 Besides that, they are allowed to burn 500 pounds per hour 1255 00:57:11,407 --> 00:57:15,310 of PCP treated railroad ties. 1256 00:57:15,310 --> 00:57:17,173 These are shipped in from Canada. 1257 00:57:18,330 --> 00:57:22,360 It's not green, it's not renewable, it's not carbon-neutral, 1258 00:57:22,360 --> 00:57:24,610 it's not anything that they claim it to be. 1259 00:57:24,610 --> 00:57:28,360 Yet, they got $11.5 million grant 1260 00:57:28,360 --> 00:57:31,093 because it was classified as renewable. 1261 00:57:31,960 --> 00:57:33,600 The plant owner told us 1262 00:57:33,600 --> 00:57:38,340 that they were having trouble getting enough wood chips. 1263 00:57:38,340 --> 00:57:41,950 And he even asked us if we had any scrap wood 1264 00:57:41,950 --> 00:57:44,900 where we lived, would we call the plant 1265 00:57:44,900 --> 00:57:47,790 and let them know so they could come up and pick it up. 1266 00:57:47,790 --> 00:57:48,623 - [Jeff] We're not talking 1267 00:57:48,623 --> 00:57:50,840 about some old industrial site, 1268 00:57:50,840 --> 00:57:52,300 we're next to one of the most beautiful places in the world. 1269 00:57:52,300 --> 00:57:55,160 - We're next to Lake Superior, this is Keweenaw B... 1270 00:57:55,160 --> 00:57:58,283 this is actually L'Anse Bay, it's part of Keweenaw Bay. 1271 00:57:59,565 --> 00:58:04,565 It's Lake Superior, our lake. (voice breaking) 1272 00:58:05,420 --> 00:58:08,673 So, it's a very sacred place to many people. 1273 00:58:12,069 --> 00:58:13,877 (clopping horse feet) 1274 00:58:13,877 --> 00:58:15,325 - Are you with the news? 1275 00:58:15,325 --> 00:58:16,158 - [Jeff] No, there's supposed 1276 00:58:16,158 --> 00:58:17,070 to be a climate change rally. 1277 00:58:17,070 --> 00:58:18,705 - Oh. 1278 00:58:18,705 --> 00:58:21,622 - (group chanting) 1279 00:58:22,540 --> 00:58:25,020 - [Jeff] Michigan State University students, 1280 00:58:25,020 --> 00:58:28,350 inspired by 350.org, were holding a rally 1281 00:58:28,350 --> 00:58:31,327 for the clean energy future they'd been promised. 1282 00:58:31,327 --> 00:58:35,327 - (crowd shouting and cheering) 1283 00:58:36,520 --> 00:58:37,970 - Imagine when I found out 1284 00:58:37,970 --> 00:58:41,680 that it is the largest on-campus coal plant in the nation. 1285 00:58:41,680 --> 00:58:44,250 The goal is to get the whole world moving 1286 00:58:44,250 --> 00:58:45,624 beyond fossil fuels. 1287 00:58:45,624 --> 00:58:47,611 (crowd cheering and clapping) 1288 00:58:47,611 --> 00:58:51,934 - [Student] Who wants to do a 350 sign on the steps? 1289 00:58:51,934 --> 00:58:53,880 - [Jeff] But it turned out Michigan State had a form 1290 00:58:53,880 --> 00:58:57,163 of green energy in mind the students did not support. 1291 00:58:58,210 --> 00:58:59,530 - The university contracted 1292 00:58:59,530 --> 00:59:02,380 with an energy contracting company. 1293 00:59:02,380 --> 00:59:04,110 They put together a modeling tool. 1294 00:59:04,110 --> 00:59:05,550 The first two or three months 1295 00:59:05,550 --> 00:59:08,590 that the steering committee was using this modeling tool, 1296 00:59:08,590 --> 00:59:11,320 it didn't even contain data for wind or solar. 1297 00:59:11,320 --> 00:59:12,200 So there was (voice fading out) 1298 00:59:12,200 --> 00:59:13,550 - [Jeff] Adam told me they were planning on 1299 00:59:13,550 --> 00:59:16,510 substituting coal burning with biomass burning. 1300 00:59:16,510 --> 00:59:18,480 - But the permit that is currently being considered 1301 00:59:18,480 --> 00:59:22,893 by the state is a permit for 24,000 tons of biomass, 1302 00:59:24,920 --> 00:59:25,760 I think per year. 1303 00:59:25,760 --> 00:59:28,591 And the plan is to do that in all four boilers. 1304 00:59:28,591 --> 00:59:30,280 Unfortunately, the steering committee considers 1305 00:59:30,280 --> 00:59:32,470 biomass renewable at the moment, 1306 00:59:32,470 --> 00:59:35,121 which we're not happy with. 1307 00:59:35,121 --> 00:59:36,910 (students laughing) 1308 00:59:36,910 --> 00:59:38,970 - [Jeff] Michigan State wasn't the only university 1309 00:59:38,970 --> 00:59:39,863 to go green. 1310 00:59:41,390 --> 00:59:43,740 - I'm happy to announce that Carolina will be going 1311 00:59:43,740 --> 00:59:46,850 beyond coal in the next decade. 1312 00:59:46,850 --> 00:59:50,310 Now, as we begin to wean ourselves on coal, we are about 1313 00:59:50,310 --> 00:59:53,993 to try another alternative energy source, biomass. 1314 00:59:54,930 --> 00:59:55,763 - [Jeff] And who was here 1315 00:59:55,763 --> 00:59:57,460 to help the University of North Carolina switch 1316 00:59:57,460 --> 00:59:59,593 from burning coal to burning trees? 1317 01:00:01,030 --> 01:00:03,550 - So, it is a great pleasure to be here today 1318 01:00:03,550 --> 01:00:05,500 to celebrate the remarkable step 1319 01:00:05,500 --> 01:00:07,887 that the university is taking to say, 1320 01:00:07,887 --> 01:00:09,821 "We're gonna do our part." 1321 01:00:09,821 --> 01:00:10,680 (solemn music) 1322 01:00:10,680 --> 01:00:12,663 - [Jeff] A remarkable step, indeed. 1323 01:00:13,900 --> 01:00:15,690 We're to do our part by getting out 1324 01:00:15,690 --> 01:00:17,800 of bed with coal companies 1325 01:00:17,800 --> 01:00:19,883 and into bed with logging companies? 1326 01:00:22,010 --> 01:00:24,130 Where did the idea of colleges going green 1327 01:00:24,130 --> 01:00:26,163 by burning trees come from, anyway? 1328 01:00:27,330 --> 01:00:31,113 A little college called Middlebury in the heart of Vermont. 1329 01:00:32,640 --> 01:00:34,920 - Welcome to the celebration of the opening 1330 01:00:34,920 --> 01:00:38,720 of Middlebury's new biomass gasification system. 1331 01:00:38,720 --> 01:00:40,880 It's now my great pleasure to introduce 1332 01:00:40,880 --> 01:00:43,114 this afternoon's speaker, Bill McKibben. 1333 01:00:43,114 --> 01:00:44,810 (audience clapping) 1334 01:00:44,810 --> 01:00:47,640 - What powers a learning community? 1335 01:00:47,640 --> 01:00:50,470 And as of this afternoon, the easy answer 1336 01:00:50,470 --> 01:00:53,160 to that is wood chips. 1337 01:00:53,160 --> 01:00:56,190 It's incredibly beautiful to stand over there 1338 01:00:56,190 --> 01:00:59,210 and see that big bunker full of wood chips. 1339 01:00:59,210 --> 01:01:02,130 You can put any kind of wood in, oak, willow, 1340 01:01:02,130 --> 01:01:03,090 whatever you want. 1341 01:01:03,090 --> 01:01:06,020 Pretty much anything that burns we can toss in there 1342 01:01:06,020 --> 01:01:08,260 if we can chip it down to the right size. 1343 01:01:08,260 --> 01:01:10,860 And there are very few similar cases anyplace 1344 01:01:10,860 --> 01:01:14,450 in this country of that kind of change over that scale. 1345 01:01:14,450 --> 01:01:15,997 But it shows it could happen anywhere 1346 01:01:15,997 --> 01:01:17,710 and it should happen anywhere. 1347 01:01:17,710 --> 01:01:21,120 In fact, it must happen everywhere. 1348 01:01:21,120 --> 01:01:23,253 - [Jeff] It must happen everywhere. 1349 01:01:24,836 --> 01:01:26,210 (dramatic piano music) 1350 01:01:26,210 --> 01:01:28,040 And now it's time for a nature break, 1351 01:01:28,040 --> 01:01:31,139 enjoying our sustainably managed Michigan forests. 1352 01:01:31,139 --> 01:01:32,670 (classical piano music) 1353 01:01:32,670 --> 01:01:34,057 - If you walk through here and you look, 1354 01:01:34,057 --> 01:01:36,490 there's virtually nothing growing. 1355 01:01:36,490 --> 01:01:38,253 A little bit of grass occasionally. 1356 01:01:39,102 --> 01:01:40,630 (increasing classical music) 1357 01:01:40,630 --> 01:01:42,650 - [Jeff] And it seemed that biomass plants, indeed, 1358 01:01:42,650 --> 01:01:43,923 were suddenly everywhere, 1359 01:01:44,890 --> 01:01:47,074 like this one in Cadillac, Michigan. 1360 01:01:47,074 --> 01:01:49,817 (truck engine rumbling) 1361 01:01:49,817 --> 01:01:51,300 In Detroit, an incinerator 1362 01:01:51,300 --> 01:01:53,619 that burned garbage was considered green. 1363 01:01:53,619 --> 01:01:55,080 (classical piano music) 1364 01:01:55,080 --> 01:01:58,300 - The Detroit incinerator is known to emit horrible smells 1365 01:01:58,300 --> 01:02:00,885 and pollutants that neighbors say make them feel sick 1366 01:02:00,885 --> 01:02:02,204 and put their health at risk. 1367 01:02:02,204 --> 01:02:05,370 - It's a stink, it's a horrendous stink. 1368 01:02:05,370 --> 01:02:06,810 - [Jeff] A proposed biofuel plant 1369 01:02:06,810 --> 01:02:09,820 for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan would consume trees 1370 01:02:09,820 --> 01:02:12,570 from tens of thousands of square miles. 1371 01:02:12,570 --> 01:02:15,540 - In order to create 40 million gallons of ethanol, 1372 01:02:15,540 --> 01:02:17,570 they were going to have to use up 1373 01:02:17,570 --> 01:02:19,640 over a million tons of green wood. 1374 01:02:19,640 --> 01:02:21,270 We pointed out that they were gonna be using 1375 01:02:21,270 --> 01:02:24,410 more natural gas than they were gonna be creating ethanol 1376 01:02:24,410 --> 01:02:25,920 to displace the natural gas. 1377 01:02:25,920 --> 01:02:27,120 If you continue to do this, 1378 01:02:27,120 --> 01:02:29,050 you're gonna be fertilizing the forests. 1379 01:02:29,050 --> 01:02:31,189 - [Jeff] Fertilizing forests with? 1380 01:02:31,189 --> 01:02:32,090 Fossil fuels? - Fossil fuel 1381 01:02:32,090 --> 01:02:33,560 based fertilizers. 1382 01:02:33,560 --> 01:02:34,393 - [Jeff] Made from natural gas? 1383 01:02:34,393 --> 01:02:35,226 - Yeah. 1384 01:02:35,226 --> 01:02:36,059 (frenzied piano music) 1385 01:02:36,059 --> 01:02:37,770 [Jeff] Then came a ballot proposal backed 1386 01:02:37,770 --> 01:02:41,800 by Bill McKibben and nearly every major environmental group, 1387 01:02:41,800 --> 01:02:45,530 requiring Michigan to get 25% of its electricity 1388 01:02:45,530 --> 01:02:48,710 from renewable sources by the year 2025. 1389 01:02:48,710 --> 01:02:51,470 - [Announcer] This year, Michigan voters have a choice: 1390 01:02:51,470 --> 01:02:54,560 keep burning dirty coal and oil, or move Michigan 1391 01:02:54,560 --> 01:02:57,710 to clean, renewable energy like wind and solar. 1392 01:02:57,710 --> 01:02:59,910 Vote 'Yes' on Proposal 3. 1393 01:02:59,910 --> 01:03:01,770 - [Jeff] Surprisingly, Proposal 3, 1394 01:03:01,770 --> 01:03:06,320 also known as 25 by '25, was the brain child 1395 01:03:06,320 --> 01:03:11,280 of an organization that was 100% biofuels and biomass. 1396 01:03:11,280 --> 01:03:13,810 - Allowing America's farms, ranches and forest lands 1397 01:03:13,810 --> 01:03:16,450 to be active participants in contributing 1398 01:03:16,450 --> 01:03:18,480 to America's energy future. 1399 01:03:18,480 --> 01:03:19,820 - [Jeff] These are the biomass 1400 01:03:19,820 --> 01:03:22,497 and biofuel plants across the U.S. 1401 01:03:22,497 --> 01:03:24,664 (popping) 1402 01:03:28,280 --> 01:03:29,293 How did this happen? 1403 01:03:31,110 --> 01:03:32,970 And it wasn't just the U.S.A., 1404 01:03:32,970 --> 01:03:35,470 it was all around the world. 1405 01:03:35,470 --> 01:03:39,710 Wood chips, which is just a euphemism for trees, 1406 01:03:39,710 --> 01:03:42,520 are being exported to Europe from America, 1407 01:03:42,520 --> 01:03:46,540 British Columbia, Brazil, and Indonesia. 1408 01:03:46,540 --> 01:03:48,697 Wherever they can get them from. 1409 01:03:48,697 --> 01:03:49,850 (classical piano music) 1410 01:03:49,850 --> 01:03:52,790 Biomass, especially when you add in biofuels, 1411 01:03:52,790 --> 01:03:56,360 is by far the largest portion of green energy 1412 01:03:56,360 --> 01:03:58,980 around the world, even in Germany, 1413 01:03:58,980 --> 01:04:01,255 source of the solar miracle. 1414 01:04:01,255 --> 01:04:03,890 (classical piano music) 1415 01:04:03,890 --> 01:04:06,040 But maybe I was missing something. 1416 01:04:06,040 --> 01:04:07,681 Maybe I had it all wrong. 1417 01:04:07,681 --> 01:04:09,270 (woman's voice on loudspeaker) 1418 01:04:09,270 --> 01:04:12,610 I decided to ask people protesting fossil fuels 1419 01:04:12,610 --> 01:04:16,890 how they felt about biomass and biofuels as green energy. 1420 01:04:16,890 --> 01:04:18,690 Would you say we don't need to do biofuels 1421 01:04:18,690 --> 01:04:20,513 and food and forests for energy? 1422 01:04:20,513 --> 01:04:21,940 - No, no, definitely not. 1423 01:04:21,940 --> 01:04:23,940 Of course not, of course not. 1424 01:04:23,940 --> 01:04:25,730 - Burning biomass, any kind of combustion, 1425 01:04:25,730 --> 01:04:28,100 is something we just need to move away from. 1426 01:04:28,100 --> 01:04:29,440 - The more trees we have, the better. 1427 01:04:29,440 --> 01:04:30,740 - A lot of that didn't grow overnight. 1428 01:04:30,740 --> 01:04:32,900 If we cut it down, we don't know the impact of that. 1429 01:04:32,900 --> 01:04:33,918 - [Jeff] You're here as an oak tree? 1430 01:04:33,918 --> 01:04:34,751 - Yes. 1431 01:04:34,751 --> 01:04:35,584 - If I had a chainsaw, 1432 01:04:35,584 --> 01:04:36,530 that wouldn't be saving the planet, would it? 1433 01:04:36,530 --> 01:04:37,450 - No, it's a painful, 1434 01:04:37,450 --> 01:04:38,283 it's a painful way to go. 1435 01:04:38,283 --> 01:04:39,992 I can tell you that right now. 1436 01:04:39,992 --> 01:04:41,262 - [Jeff] It would take you a while to regrow. 1437 01:04:41,262 --> 01:04:42,095 (laughing) 1438 01:04:42,095 --> 01:04:43,061 - Yeah, oh yeah. 1439 01:04:43,061 --> 01:04:45,850 And it wouldn't be me, it'd be an off-spring. 1440 01:04:45,850 --> 01:04:48,720 - With so many people doing it on such a massive scale, 1441 01:04:48,720 --> 01:04:52,810 all of a sudden at once, that's pretty serious. 1442 01:04:52,810 --> 01:04:54,860 - No, I think we should not be burning trees. 1443 01:04:54,860 --> 01:04:56,340 - [Group] No, no. 1444 01:04:56,340 --> 01:04:57,990 - Why would we cut down trees? 1445 01:04:57,990 --> 01:05:00,410 - We shouldn't replace one terrible way of getting energy 1446 01:05:00,410 --> 01:05:02,000 with another terrible way of getting energy. 1447 01:05:02,000 --> 01:05:03,604 Because it's one thing. 1448 01:05:03,604 --> 01:05:04,760 (girl's voice fading) 1449 01:05:04,760 --> 01:05:07,210 - [Jeff] Clearly, most citizens are opposed 1450 01:05:07,210 --> 01:05:08,801 to biomass and biofuels. 1451 01:05:08,801 --> 01:05:10,725 (calming guitar music) 1452 01:05:10,725 --> 01:05:12,575 But what about environmental leaders? 1453 01:05:13,450 --> 01:05:18,160 At times, they have promoted biomass but other times, 1454 01:05:18,160 --> 01:05:20,283 they sound like they are against biomass. 1455 01:05:21,370 --> 01:05:23,587 Like this Sierra Club policy, 1456 01:05:23,587 --> 01:05:25,887 "We are deeply concerned about the implications 1457 01:05:25,887 --> 01:05:29,320 of wood-to-energy for native forests." 1458 01:05:29,320 --> 01:05:32,837 Or this statement signed on by 75 environmental groups, 1459 01:05:32,837 --> 01:05:35,427 "Burning forests for energy will destroy one 1460 01:05:35,427 --> 01:05:38,750 of our best defenses against climate change." 1461 01:05:38,750 --> 01:05:41,940 But then again, their language leaves loopholes 1462 01:05:41,940 --> 01:05:43,880 that enable biomass. 1463 01:05:43,880 --> 01:05:47,877 The NRDC says you must use the "right types of biomass." 1464 01:05:48,780 --> 01:05:50,010 The Dogwood Alliance says 1465 01:05:50,010 --> 01:05:52,513 maybe small biomass plants are okay. 1466 01:05:54,020 --> 01:05:55,937 And the Sierra Club flat out states, 1467 01:05:55,937 --> 01:05:58,354 "biomass can be sustainable." 1468 01:05:58,354 --> 01:06:00,150 (pensive guitar music) 1469 01:06:00,150 --> 01:06:01,723 Which side are they really on? 1470 01:06:03,630 --> 01:06:05,410 I thought for sure with the camera rolling, 1471 01:06:05,410 --> 01:06:07,808 environmental leaders would speak for the trees. 1472 01:06:07,808 --> 01:06:10,489 - [Group] No frackin' way. 1473 01:06:10,489 --> 01:06:14,440 - Where's the science, where's the science? 1474 01:06:14,440 --> 01:06:18,190 - We're here to tell a story about what the forests 1475 01:06:18,190 --> 01:06:22,260 of this state, of our commonwealth, mean to us. 1476 01:06:22,260 --> 01:06:24,610 - [Jeff] Does your organization have any stance on that? 1477 01:06:24,610 --> 01:06:27,080 - I'm not sure I would say we support it as much 1478 01:06:27,080 --> 01:06:29,750 as we can wrap our heads around it. 1479 01:06:29,750 --> 01:06:32,380 We've almost made a peace with the timber industry. 1480 01:06:32,380 --> 01:06:34,230 - [Jeff] I'm just curious, what's your group stance 1481 01:06:34,230 --> 01:06:37,153 on using forests for biomass? 1482 01:06:37,153 --> 01:06:42,153 - Biomass is renewable, biomass is sustainable. 1483 01:06:42,680 --> 01:06:46,063 - And I'm with Clean Water Action, 1484 01:06:47,000 --> 01:06:49,240 we don't really have a stand on it. 1485 01:06:49,240 --> 01:06:51,810 If the director of the Sierra Club was here, 1486 01:06:51,810 --> 01:06:55,737 she'd be able to talk your ear off about it. 1487 01:06:55,737 --> 01:06:59,080 - I'm the director for the Sierra Club in Pennsylvania. 1488 01:06:59,080 --> 01:07:00,180 - [Jeff] Does the Sierra Club support 1489 01:07:00,180 --> 01:07:01,863 or not support biomass? 1490 01:07:05,030 --> 01:07:06,550 - Um... I'm not totally prepared to talk 1491 01:07:06,550 --> 01:07:08,530 about our policy on biomass today. 1492 01:07:08,530 --> 01:07:10,960 Our position is somewhat nuanced, 1493 01:07:10,960 --> 01:07:14,083 so I just want to be careful not to... 1494 01:07:14,083 --> 01:07:16,707 (crowd talking) 1495 01:07:16,707 --> 01:07:17,540 - [Jeff] So, you're with 350? 1496 01:07:17,540 --> 01:07:18,373 - I am. 1497 01:07:18,373 --> 01:07:20,110 - Do 350 have a position on biomass 1498 01:07:20,110 --> 01:07:21,176 'cause I'm kind of actually-- 1499 01:07:21,176 --> 01:07:23,420 - I can't really speak for 350. 1500 01:07:23,420 --> 01:07:25,160 - Do you personally have an opinion about 1501 01:07:25,160 --> 01:07:28,330 whether we should be burning trees for green energy? 1502 01:07:28,330 --> 01:07:30,230 - No, I don't have an opinion on that. 1503 01:07:31,330 --> 01:07:33,500 I like a fire. (laughing) 1504 01:07:33,500 --> 01:07:34,830 - [Jeff] One of my biggest concerns 1505 01:07:34,830 --> 01:07:36,590 as an environmentalist is that we're trying to burn trees, 1506 01:07:36,590 --> 01:07:38,570 there are tree burning power plants. 1507 01:07:38,570 --> 01:07:40,730 Are you aware of the problems with biomass or biofuels? 1508 01:07:40,730 --> 01:07:43,843 - Yeah, yeah, I'm not as aware of that 1509 01:07:43,843 --> 01:07:45,680 as I could be or I should be. 1510 01:07:45,680 --> 01:07:47,670 - Jeff Gibbs, working on a documentary. 1511 01:07:47,670 --> 01:07:49,210 In Michigan where I live, where I'm from, 1512 01:07:49,210 --> 01:07:51,920 there's large plants that burn trees for energy 1513 01:07:51,920 --> 01:07:53,387 and pretty much whole trees chipped up. 1514 01:07:53,387 --> 01:07:54,610 Do you have a thought about whether 1515 01:07:54,610 --> 01:07:57,370 that should be a part of green energy or not? 1516 01:07:57,370 --> 01:07:59,200 - The great thing about green energy is 1517 01:07:59,200 --> 01:08:00,850 you don't have to pick a favorite. 1518 01:08:00,850 --> 01:08:01,683 - Jeff Gibbs. 1519 01:08:01,683 --> 01:08:02,550 - Oh, hello. 1520 01:08:02,550 --> 01:08:04,930 - My biggest concern is that in Germany, for instance, 1521 01:08:04,930 --> 01:08:06,780 they're moving towards solar and wind 1522 01:08:06,780 --> 01:08:09,980 but 60% of their actual energy is coming from biomass. 1523 01:08:09,980 --> 01:08:12,510 60% of what's considered renewable energy. 1524 01:08:12,510 --> 01:08:13,780 Burning trees for energy? 1525 01:08:13,780 --> 01:08:15,620 - I don't know the details out of Germany. 1526 01:08:15,620 --> 01:08:17,410 What Germany's really doing is a lot 1527 01:08:17,410 --> 01:08:20,400 of sun and wind and that's really powerful to see. 1528 01:08:20,400 --> 01:08:21,280 - [Jeff] I'd like to see us come out 1529 01:08:21,280 --> 01:08:22,113 against any burning of trees- 1530 01:08:22,113 --> 01:08:23,077 - All right, well go ahead and do it. 1531 01:08:23,077 --> 01:08:23,910 - [Jeff] for clean energy. 1532 01:08:23,910 --> 01:08:25,315 Would you- 1533 01:08:25,315 --> 01:08:27,930 - Although I confess I stoke my wood stove 1534 01:08:27,930 --> 01:08:29,180 almost every night of the winter, 1535 01:08:29,180 --> 01:08:30,465 so I'm not really the right person to ask. 1536 01:08:30,465 --> 01:08:32,451 - But designating green energy for power plants? 1537 01:08:32,451 --> 01:08:35,190 - Yeah, yeah, I don't know. 1538 01:08:35,190 --> 01:08:36,898 It's not what this day's about. 1539 01:08:36,898 --> 01:08:38,574 - [Jeff] But if we're burning trees 1540 01:08:38,574 --> 01:08:40,574 instead of fossil fuels. 1541 01:08:41,839 --> 01:08:42,910 - (crowd drowns out) from Taiwan. 1542 01:08:42,910 --> 01:08:44,500 - Oh, good. 1543 01:08:44,500 --> 01:08:47,446 - We're wondering what role do you want 1544 01:08:47,446 --> 01:08:48,949 to play in this (voice fading out)? 1545 01:08:48,949 --> 01:08:50,903 - [Jeff] I think the biomass question's a non-starter. 1546 01:08:54,413 --> 01:08:56,310 (somber music) 1547 01:08:56,310 --> 01:08:58,530 I found only one environmental leader willing 1548 01:08:58,530 --> 01:09:00,823 to reject biomass and biofuels. 1549 01:09:02,530 --> 01:09:03,580 - So we are talking 1550 01:09:03,580 --> 01:09:07,750 of the old oil economy trying 1551 01:09:07,750 --> 01:09:09,620 to maintain itself now 1552 01:09:09,620 --> 01:09:13,650 through another raw material, the green planet. 1553 01:09:13,650 --> 01:09:17,420 The only reason corn and soy has been planted for biofuel 1554 01:09:17,420 --> 01:09:20,245 in this country is the subsidies make it profitable. 1555 01:09:20,245 --> 01:09:23,020 I think the big crisis of our times is 1556 01:09:24,002 --> 01:09:28,030 our minds have been manipulated to give power to illusions. 1557 01:09:28,030 --> 01:09:30,370 We shifted to measuring growth, 1558 01:09:30,370 --> 01:09:34,520 not in terms of how life is enriched 1559 01:09:34,520 --> 01:09:36,967 but in terms of how life is destroyed. 1560 01:09:36,967 --> 01:09:39,200 (peaceful guitar) 1561 01:09:39,200 --> 01:09:41,000 - [Jeff] Her honesty was refreshing. 1562 01:09:42,870 --> 01:09:45,763 But as for the rest of them, I wondered, 1563 01:09:47,880 --> 01:09:49,183 what are they hiding? 1564 01:09:50,750 --> 01:09:52,103 And why are they hiding it? 1565 01:09:54,350 --> 01:09:55,483 Is it their ignorance? 1566 01:09:57,620 --> 01:09:59,254 Or is it something else? 1567 01:09:59,254 --> 01:10:01,210 (music increasing in tempo) 1568 01:10:01,210 --> 01:10:03,998 What if they, themselves, had become misguided? 1569 01:10:03,998 --> 01:10:05,890 (intensifying dramatic music) 1570 01:10:05,890 --> 01:10:07,800 What if they've made some kind of deal 1571 01:10:07,800 --> 01:10:09,050 they shouldn't have made, 1572 01:10:11,140 --> 01:10:14,373 and are leading us all off the cliff? 1573 01:10:18,997 --> 01:10:22,830 (light upbeat music) 1574 01:10:22,830 --> 01:10:24,630 It was long past time for me to come to grips 1575 01:10:24,630 --> 01:10:27,053 with the other elephant in the living room. 1576 01:10:27,900 --> 01:10:29,023 The profit motive. 1577 01:10:31,290 --> 01:10:33,320 The only reason we've been force-fed the story, 1578 01:10:33,320 --> 01:10:36,683 climate change plus renewables equals "we're saved!", 1579 01:10:37,540 --> 01:10:39,490 is because billionaires, bankers, 1580 01:10:39,490 --> 01:10:41,543 and corporations profit from it. 1581 01:10:43,040 --> 01:10:45,900 And the reason we're not talking about over-population, 1582 01:10:45,900 --> 01:10:49,620 consumption, and the suicide of economic growth is 1583 01:10:51,170 --> 01:10:53,740 that would be bad for business. 1584 01:10:53,740 --> 01:10:55,840 Especially the cancerous form of capitalism 1585 01:10:55,840 --> 01:10:57,820 that rules the world, 1586 01:10:57,820 --> 01:11:00,620 now hiding under a cover of green. 1587 01:11:00,620 --> 01:11:02,370 - Today Bloomberg Philanthropies is making, 1588 01:11:02,370 --> 01:11:05,090 I'm happy to announce, a new investment 1589 01:11:05,090 --> 01:11:08,416 of $30 million in the Beyond Coal campaign. 1590 01:11:08,416 --> 01:11:11,230 (crowd cheering and clapping) 1591 01:11:11,230 --> 01:11:12,063 We have more. 1592 01:11:12,063 --> 01:11:13,150 I'm glad to say that more 1593 01:11:13,150 --> 01:11:15,500 than a dozen additional funders have committed 1594 01:11:15,500 --> 01:11:17,452 to match that $30 million. 1595 01:11:17,452 --> 01:11:20,256 (clapping and cheering) 1596 01:11:20,256 --> 01:11:22,330 - [Jeff] And who were these new partners? 1597 01:11:22,330 --> 01:11:24,160 One of them was Jeremy Grantham. 1598 01:11:24,160 --> 01:11:28,021 Billionaire, world's leading timber investment advisor. 1599 01:11:28,021 --> 01:11:29,390 (man speaking in background) 1600 01:11:29,390 --> 01:11:30,980 They were not investing in trees 1601 01:11:30,980 --> 01:11:32,853 to turn them into nature preserves. 1602 01:11:34,300 --> 01:11:36,003 Which might answer another riddle, 1603 01:11:37,640 --> 01:11:40,763 why is this name redacted on the Sierra Club's tax return? 1604 01:11:41,880 --> 01:11:44,820 Would they be embarrassed to take three million dollars 1605 01:11:44,820 --> 01:11:47,100 from a man who made his living selling the forests 1606 01:11:47,100 --> 01:11:47,943 of the world? 1607 01:11:49,760 --> 01:11:52,700 Bloomberg, bringing a timber investment billionaire 1608 01:11:52,700 --> 01:11:54,883 to the party, was no coincidence. 1609 01:11:55,730 --> 01:11:58,280 Bloomberg sponsored a U.N. climate session 1610 01:11:58,280 --> 01:12:00,030 to discuss ramping up biomass 1611 01:12:00,030 --> 01:12:01,623 and biofuels around the world. 1612 01:12:03,940 --> 01:12:06,390 Billionaires were in love with the idea of turning 1613 01:12:06,390 --> 01:12:09,063 what was left of nature into green profits. 1614 01:12:10,730 --> 01:12:13,060 Remember when Al Gore had gotten Richard Branson 1615 01:12:13,060 --> 01:12:15,730 to invest billions into saving the planet? 1616 01:12:15,730 --> 01:12:18,310 - [News Anchor] Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Atlantic, 1617 01:12:18,310 --> 01:12:21,540 powered a Boeing 747 from London to Amsterdam 1618 01:12:21,540 --> 01:12:24,310 on a coconut oil mixture to highlight the potential 1619 01:12:24,310 --> 01:12:27,143 of this amazing oil as a clean energy biofuel. 1620 01:12:28,770 --> 01:12:31,990 - [Jeff] Branson had actually invested in biofuels. 1621 01:12:31,990 --> 01:12:33,750 He was attempting to replace the jet fuel 1622 01:12:33,750 --> 01:12:35,960 damaging the planet with biofuels 1623 01:12:35,960 --> 01:12:38,510 that required the consumption of the living planet. 1624 01:12:40,070 --> 01:12:42,533 And it was game-on for the airline industry. 1625 01:12:42,533 --> 01:12:43,690 - [News Anchor] Dozens of researchers 1626 01:12:43,690 --> 01:12:44,950 from all over the northwest gathered 1627 01:12:44,950 --> 01:12:47,170 in Missoula the past two days to explore the idea 1628 01:12:47,170 --> 01:12:49,070 of converting the region's mass of reserves 1629 01:12:49,070 --> 01:12:50,610 of wood into jet fuel. 1630 01:12:50,610 --> 01:12:53,090 Especially with the demand for aircraft fuel expected 1631 01:12:53,090 --> 01:12:55,800 to grow by a billion gallons in the northwest alone. 1632 01:12:55,800 --> 01:12:58,680 - [News Anchor] United Airlines will buy a $30 million stake 1633 01:12:58,680 --> 01:13:01,280 in biofuel company, Fulcrum BioEnergy. 1634 01:13:01,280 --> 01:13:05,433 The airline used 3.9 billion gallons of fuel last year. 1635 01:13:06,280 --> 01:13:09,645 - [Jeff] What technology was Silicon Valley billionaire 1636 01:13:09,645 --> 01:13:12,530 Vinod Khosla hoping to profit from? 1637 01:13:12,530 --> 01:13:16,500 - Nature takes a million years to produce our crude oil. 1638 01:13:16,500 --> 01:13:18,950 KiOR can produce it in seconds. 1639 01:13:18,950 --> 01:13:21,530 - [Lesley] The company took over this old paper mill 1640 01:13:21,530 --> 01:13:24,730 where logs are picked up by a giant claw, 1641 01:13:24,730 --> 01:13:28,700 dropped into a shredder and pulverized into wood chips. 1642 01:13:28,700 --> 01:13:29,734 Clean gasoline? 1643 01:13:29,734 --> 01:13:31,570 - Clean, green gasoline. 1644 01:13:31,570 --> 01:13:33,260 - There must be a downside. 1645 01:13:33,260 --> 01:13:34,833 - There is no downside. 1646 01:13:35,890 --> 01:13:37,770 - [Jeff] The bank that crashed the economy, 1647 01:13:37,770 --> 01:13:40,540 ruined millions of lives and has their tentacles 1648 01:13:40,540 --> 01:13:42,610 on the levers of power, 1649 01:13:42,610 --> 01:13:45,583 what would their favorite form of green energy be? 1650 01:13:45,583 --> 01:13:46,960 - One of the very interesting markets 1651 01:13:46,960 --> 01:13:48,710 that we deal with is Brazil. 1652 01:13:48,710 --> 01:13:51,630 It's unlike any other market in that today, 1653 01:13:51,630 --> 01:13:53,670 alternative energy isn't really alternative energy. 1654 01:13:53,670 --> 01:13:57,040 It's so much a part of the fabric of the society. 1655 01:13:57,040 --> 01:14:00,500 The country began to utilize its vast resources 1656 01:14:00,500 --> 01:14:02,213 of sugarcane to produce ethanol. 1657 01:14:03,430 --> 01:14:05,320 - [Jeff] There was a man from Goldman Sachs 1658 01:14:05,320 --> 01:14:07,210 who was particularly in love 1659 01:14:07,210 --> 01:14:09,930 with turning forests into profits. 1660 01:14:09,930 --> 01:14:11,993 - Has everybody got enough coffee? 1661 01:14:12,920 --> 01:14:14,850 Might want to get some more. 1662 01:14:14,850 --> 01:14:17,220 - [Jeff] Meet David Blood, former CEO 1663 01:14:17,220 --> 01:14:19,833 of Asset Management for Goldman Sachs. 1664 01:14:20,840 --> 01:14:22,860 How much money did Mr. Blood believe should 1665 01:14:22,860 --> 01:14:24,670 be invested in green energy? 1666 01:14:24,670 --> 01:14:27,770 - A natural alignment for something in the order 1667 01:14:27,770 --> 01:14:31,237 of $40-50 trillion worth of capital. 1668 01:14:31,237 --> 01:14:32,633 - [Jeff] $40-50 trillion. 1669 01:14:34,370 --> 01:14:37,790 And who was going to help the man from Goldman Sachs, 1670 01:14:37,790 --> 01:14:40,343 help him raise that astronomical amount of money? 1671 01:14:41,430 --> 01:14:43,520 - A gentleman some of you may recognize 1672 01:14:43,520 --> 01:14:45,870 and know, Bill McKibben. 1673 01:14:45,870 --> 01:14:48,620 - It's entirely dependent on what kind 1674 01:14:48,620 --> 01:14:50,550 of political will we can muster. 1675 01:14:50,550 --> 01:14:53,940 And if we do not get this done very fast, 1676 01:14:53,940 --> 01:14:56,023 then we're not gonna get it done. 1677 01:14:57,100 --> 01:14:59,220 - [Jeff] And so Bill McKibben went forth 1678 01:14:59,220 --> 01:15:01,760 to generate the political will for trillions 1679 01:15:01,760 --> 01:15:03,623 of dollars in green investments. 1680 01:15:04,520 --> 01:15:05,710 - Our next guest has been called 1681 01:15:05,710 --> 01:15:07,930 our nation's leading environmentalist. 1682 01:15:07,930 --> 01:15:09,270 - And you are, in some sense, 1683 01:15:09,270 --> 01:15:11,992 the Grand Poobah of the environmental movement. 1684 01:15:11,992 --> 01:15:16,290 - My guest tonight is on a global crusade. 1685 01:15:16,290 --> 01:15:18,680 - [Jeff] On a global crusade for what? 1686 01:15:18,680 --> 01:15:20,770 - Commit to divesting from fossil fuels. 1687 01:15:20,770 --> 01:15:24,110 We can't justify investing our money in companies 1688 01:15:24,110 --> 01:15:26,750 that are basically running Genesis backward. 1689 01:15:26,750 --> 01:15:29,560 - [Jeff] So when you divest from fossil fuels, 1690 01:15:29,560 --> 01:15:33,193 and invest in green funds, what are you investing in? 1691 01:15:34,070 --> 01:15:36,470 I took a deep dive into Securities 1692 01:15:36,470 --> 01:15:39,423 and Exchange Commission filings to find out. 1693 01:15:40,310 --> 01:15:43,210 For instance, in the Green Century Funds, 1694 01:15:43,210 --> 01:15:47,420 recommended by 350.org and Bill McKibben, 1695 01:15:47,420 --> 01:15:50,510 I found less than one percent solar and wind 1696 01:15:50,510 --> 01:15:54,030 and 99% things like mining, 1697 01:15:54,030 --> 01:15:57,697 (increasing dramatic music) 1698 01:15:59,150 --> 01:16:01,566 oil and gas infrastructure companies, 1699 01:16:01,566 --> 01:16:03,070 (dramatic music) 1700 01:16:03,070 --> 01:16:05,203 including a tar sands exploiter, 1701 01:16:06,570 --> 01:16:09,750 McDonald's, one of the companies driving meat consumption 1702 01:16:09,750 --> 01:16:10,803 across the planet, 1703 01:16:12,480 --> 01:16:14,110 Archer Daniels Midland, 1704 01:16:14,110 --> 01:16:17,023 one of the world's largest producers of biofuel, 1705 01:16:18,290 --> 01:16:20,840 Coca Cola, the largest creator 1706 01:16:20,840 --> 01:16:22,423 of plastic pollution on earth, 1707 01:16:23,820 --> 01:16:27,090 logging and paper companies including one 1708 01:16:27,090 --> 01:16:32,090 that brags about biomass burning. And banks. 1709 01:16:32,115 --> 01:16:34,170 (dramatic music) 1710 01:16:34,170 --> 01:16:35,314 Lots of banks - 1711 01:16:35,314 --> 01:16:37,930 (dramatic music) 1712 01:16:37,930 --> 01:16:41,260 including BlackRock, the largest financer 1713 01:16:41,260 --> 01:16:43,163 of deforestation on earth. 1714 01:16:44,260 --> 01:16:46,600 - The business that they're engaged in 1715 01:16:46,600 --> 01:16:49,923 is actually destroying our life support system. 1716 01:16:49,923 --> 01:16:51,710 (dramatic music) 1717 01:16:51,710 --> 01:16:53,480 - [Jeff] The Sierra Club, also partners 1718 01:16:53,480 --> 01:16:56,003 with a green fund called Aspiration. 1719 01:16:57,150 --> 01:17:00,970 Aspiration also includes dozens of companies profiting 1720 01:17:00,970 --> 01:17:02,720 from the destruction of the planet, 1721 01:17:04,770 --> 01:17:09,770 including Chevron, ExxonMobil, Chesapeake Energy. 1722 01:17:10,570 --> 01:17:12,900 - [Announcer] In order to maximize the production potential 1723 01:17:12,900 --> 01:17:14,000 of the well, 1724 01:17:14,000 --> 01:17:17,160 the shale formation will be hydraulically fractured. 1725 01:17:17,160 --> 01:17:19,633 - [Jeff] The Russian gas giant, Gazprom. 1726 01:17:20,530 --> 01:17:22,390 - [Announcer] Gazprom owns the world's largest 1727 01:17:22,390 --> 01:17:26,423 explored gas reserves, 36 trillion cubic meters. 1728 01:17:27,370 --> 01:17:30,360 - [Jeff] And in perhaps the most bizarre twist of all, 1729 01:17:30,360 --> 01:17:34,780 the Sierra Club's green fund's biggest holding is in Enviva, 1730 01:17:34,780 --> 01:17:37,240 the world's largest consumer of forests, 1731 01:17:37,240 --> 01:17:40,013 to be incinerated in green energy biomass plants. 1732 01:17:41,653 --> 01:17:44,736 (somber piano music) 1733 01:17:47,110 --> 01:17:49,860 Of course, one investment option is a green fund, 1734 01:17:49,860 --> 01:17:52,323 run by Bill McKibben's buddy, David Blood. 1735 01:17:53,290 --> 01:17:55,473 And who was the chairman of this fund? 1736 01:17:56,600 --> 01:17:58,350 Someone familiar. 1737 01:17:58,350 --> 01:18:01,370 - Use capitalism, it gives incentives 1738 01:18:01,370 --> 01:18:04,350 for people to do their best. 1739 01:18:04,350 --> 01:18:06,640 - [Jeff] Al Gore and David Blood partnered 1740 01:18:06,640 --> 01:18:09,523 to form a company called Blood and Gore. 1741 01:18:11,310 --> 01:18:15,373 No, scratch that, Generation Investment Management. 1742 01:18:16,300 --> 01:18:18,850 And within this fund, Blood and Gore designated 1743 01:18:18,850 --> 01:18:23,850 a special investment category targeting $650 million 1744 01:18:23,990 --> 01:18:25,973 of biomass and biofuels. 1745 01:18:27,180 --> 01:18:28,960 Funny thing was, they partnered 1746 01:18:28,960 --> 01:18:31,240 before Al Gore's film came out. 1747 01:18:31,240 --> 01:18:33,160 (dramatic music) 1748 01:18:33,160 --> 01:18:38,050 Was that movie just about climate change or something else? 1749 01:18:38,050 --> 01:18:41,240 - On one side, we have gold bars. 1750 01:18:41,240 --> 01:18:45,330 Mm, mm, mm. (audience laughing) 1751 01:18:45,330 --> 01:18:46,630 Don't they look good? 1752 01:18:46,630 --> 01:18:49,270 I'd just like to have some of those gold bars. 1753 01:18:49,270 --> 01:18:53,472 On the other side of the scales, the entire planet. 1754 01:18:53,472 --> 01:18:55,610 (audience laughing) 1755 01:18:55,610 --> 01:18:57,360 If we do the right thing, 1756 01:18:57,360 --> 01:18:59,423 then we're gonna create a lot of wealth. 1757 01:19:00,440 --> 01:19:02,160 - [Jeff] And when it came time for Al Gore 1758 01:19:02,160 --> 01:19:06,900 to choose between the entire planet and getting him some 1759 01:19:06,900 --> 01:19:10,980 of them gold bars, what choice did he make? 1760 01:19:10,980 --> 01:19:13,830 Here's Al Gore earning his keep by pretending to care 1761 01:19:13,830 --> 01:19:16,340 about the rain forest while lobbying Congress 1762 01:19:16,340 --> 01:19:19,483 on behalf of the sugarcane ethanol industry. 1763 01:19:20,410 --> 01:19:21,960 - Let me come in on the Brazilian effort here 1764 01:19:21,960 --> 01:19:24,310 with the issue of the possibility of expanding into 1765 01:19:24,310 --> 01:19:27,590 that Amazon River basin with further deforestation 1766 01:19:27,590 --> 01:19:29,760 to produce more ethanol out of sugarcane is a worry. 1767 01:19:29,760 --> 01:19:31,740 And apparently you're not as concerned about that. 1768 01:19:31,740 --> 01:19:34,352 - No, no, I am, I simply forgot. 1769 01:19:34,352 --> 01:19:35,803 (helicopter roaring) 1770 01:19:35,803 --> 01:19:38,800 (children screaming & crying) 1771 01:19:38,800 --> 01:19:43,636 What's been going on there, it is really very troubling. 1772 01:19:48,880 --> 01:19:51,573 And with your permission, I'll show you a very quick example 1773 01:19:51,573 --> 01:19:55,031 of it over a period of 25 years. 1774 01:19:55,031 --> 01:19:57,614 (loud tapping) 1775 01:19:59,060 --> 01:20:01,020 - [Announcer] The invasion of sugarcane monocultures 1776 01:20:01,020 --> 01:20:02,410 in the region clashes 1777 01:20:02,410 --> 01:20:05,370 with the indigenous people's right to land. 1778 01:20:05,370 --> 01:20:07,850 These are images of a last ditch attempt 1779 01:20:07,850 --> 01:20:10,700 by the Guarani-Kaiowá to resist eviction. 1780 01:20:10,700 --> 01:20:13,691 - Important to note that the exploitation 1781 01:20:13,691 --> 01:20:18,691 of the sugarcane growing areas in Brazil does not have 1782 01:20:18,730 --> 01:20:22,610 to inevitably have the knock-on consequence 1783 01:20:22,610 --> 01:20:27,063 of causing destruction in the Amazon. 1784 01:20:28,530 --> 01:20:30,640 - Sugarcane fields are burning. 1785 01:20:30,640 --> 01:20:32,650 They're set alight before the harvest 1786 01:20:32,650 --> 01:20:35,040 to eliminate the leaves and tops of the plant, 1787 01:20:35,040 --> 01:20:37,193 which makes cutting more efficient. 1788 01:20:37,193 --> 01:20:39,170 (somber music) 1789 01:20:39,170 --> 01:20:41,160 Environmentalists blame the seemingly 1790 01:20:41,160 --> 01:20:44,600 endless sugarcane fields for air and water pollution 1791 01:20:44,600 --> 01:20:46,430 on an epic scale. 1792 01:20:46,430 --> 01:20:49,480 And along with deforestation, the threat it poses 1793 01:20:49,480 --> 01:20:52,080 to the environment is becoming clear. 1794 01:20:52,080 --> 01:20:53,440 (dramatic music) 1795 01:20:53,440 --> 01:20:55,970 Once the indigenous families were expelled, 1796 01:20:55,970 --> 01:20:58,973 the land owners set their homes on fire. 1797 01:21:01,101 --> 01:21:03,851 (dramatic music) 1798 01:21:06,290 --> 01:21:07,980 - [Jeff] Is there anything too terrible 1799 01:21:07,980 --> 01:21:09,473 to qualify as green energy? 1800 01:21:11,850 --> 01:21:14,760 - Thank you very much Secretary Mabus, and the U.S. Navy for 1801 01:21:14,760 --> 01:21:17,160 once again, inviting me to speak with you today. 1802 01:21:17,160 --> 01:21:18,725 The Navy's work to help launch 1803 01:21:18,725 --> 01:21:22,111 this new fuels industry is invaluable. 1804 01:21:22,111 --> 01:21:24,665 (roaring plane engine) 1805 01:21:24,665 --> 01:21:26,660 - [Announcer] The U.S. Navy has a special message 1806 01:21:26,660 --> 01:21:27,493 this year. 1807 01:21:27,493 --> 01:21:29,620 It is time to turn green. 1808 01:21:29,620 --> 01:21:32,170 Joining the vessels is what the U.S. Navy calls, 1809 01:21:32,170 --> 01:21:34,010 it's great green fleet of warships, 1810 01:21:34,010 --> 01:21:36,980 powered by fuel from renewable sources like algae, 1811 01:21:36,980 --> 01:21:39,185 grass and animal fat. 1812 01:21:39,185 --> 01:21:40,852 - [Jeff] Animal fat? 1813 01:21:42,268 --> 01:21:45,601 (thudding and pounding) 1814 01:21:48,473 --> 01:21:50,190 - The next time you fill up 1815 01:21:50,190 --> 01:21:51,830 at your neighborhood gas station, 1816 01:21:51,830 --> 01:21:54,900 you might find yourself pumping a little alligator 1817 01:21:54,900 --> 01:21:55,733 into your tank. 1818 01:21:55,733 --> 01:21:57,850 That's right, U.L. Lafayette researchers 1819 01:21:57,850 --> 01:21:59,580 have developed alligator fat 1820 01:21:59,580 --> 01:22:02,293 into a renewable source for biofuels. 1821 01:22:04,570 --> 01:22:08,640 - [Jeff] And once we run through the animals, what's next? 1822 01:22:08,640 --> 01:22:12,590 GE, who brings you nuclear energy and wind turbines, 1823 01:22:12,590 --> 01:22:13,783 is ready with a plan. 1824 01:22:15,240 --> 01:22:18,330 - I believe that liquid fuels, chemicals, 1825 01:22:18,330 --> 01:22:21,310 are eventually gonna have to be made 1826 01:22:22,640 --> 01:22:24,600 from sustainable raw materials. 1827 01:22:24,600 --> 01:22:26,550 We believe that seaweed is one 1828 01:22:26,550 --> 01:22:28,343 of the most attractive opportunities. 1829 01:22:29,520 --> 01:22:32,270 (majestic music) 1830 01:22:39,270 --> 01:22:40,370 - [Jeff] Better hurry. 1831 01:22:43,110 --> 01:22:47,253 One year after it was filmed, this seaweed forest was dead. 1832 01:22:49,576 --> 01:22:52,159 (somber music) 1833 01:22:55,510 --> 01:22:58,450 You might ask yourself, how could men destroy 1834 01:22:58,450 --> 01:23:01,233 what remains of nature to enrich themselves? 1835 01:23:02,530 --> 01:23:06,414 Well, that's why they're billionaires and you're not. 1836 01:23:06,414 --> 01:23:08,664 (laughing) 1837 01:23:10,060 --> 01:23:11,950 The takeover of the environmental movement 1838 01:23:11,950 --> 01:23:14,660 by capitalism is now complete. 1839 01:23:14,660 --> 01:23:16,820 Environmentalists are no longer resisting those 1840 01:23:16,820 --> 01:23:19,823 with a profit motive, but collaborating with them. 1841 01:23:21,100 --> 01:23:25,070 The Nature Conservancy is now the logging conservancy. 1842 01:23:25,070 --> 01:23:29,760 - We will capture the most important pieces biologically 1843 01:23:29,760 --> 01:23:32,810 and there will be another large block sold 1844 01:23:32,810 --> 01:23:34,940 to timber investment groups. 1845 01:23:34,940 --> 01:23:38,410 The Union of Concerned Scientists has become the union 1846 01:23:38,410 --> 01:23:41,410 of concerned salesmen, having taken millions, 1847 01:23:41,410 --> 01:23:42,760 not for science, 1848 01:23:42,760 --> 01:23:46,523 but to create markets for electric cars. 1849 01:23:48,260 --> 01:23:50,280 The Sierra Club sells electric cars 1850 01:23:50,280 --> 01:23:52,463 and solar panels right from their website. 1851 01:23:53,530 --> 01:23:55,110 - The best thing about Sungevity is 1852 01:23:55,110 --> 01:23:56,760 that they make it easy for you. 1853 01:23:56,760 --> 01:23:59,223 All that you have to do is to say yes. 1854 01:24:00,130 --> 01:24:02,860 - [Jeff] The New York Times partners with ExxonMobil 1855 01:24:02,860 --> 01:24:05,410 to bring you the good news about biofuels. 1856 01:24:05,410 --> 01:24:06,350 - [Announcer] Algae derived fuel 1857 01:24:06,350 --> 01:24:08,100 could help us meet growing demand. 1858 01:24:09,095 --> 01:24:11,100 - [Jeff] Treehugger.com, which claims 1859 01:24:11,100 --> 01:24:14,330 to be the largest single source of environmental news, 1860 01:24:14,330 --> 01:24:17,810 was founded and funded by Georgia Pacific, 1861 01:24:17,810 --> 01:24:19,660 a logging company. 1862 01:24:19,660 --> 01:24:21,203 In fact, they are neighbors. 1863 01:24:23,150 --> 01:24:26,440 Georgia Pacific is owned by our friends, the Koch brothers, 1864 01:24:26,440 --> 01:24:28,590 who are likely the largest recipient 1865 01:24:28,590 --> 01:24:32,020 of green energy biomass subsidies in the United States. 1866 01:24:32,020 --> 01:24:34,320 (somber music) 1867 01:24:34,320 --> 01:24:36,560 Yes, the merger of environmentalism 1868 01:24:36,560 --> 01:24:39,500 and capitalism is now complete. 1869 01:24:39,500 --> 01:24:41,300 But maybe it's always been complete. 1870 01:24:42,310 --> 01:24:45,200 - How is 350.org funded? 1871 01:24:45,200 --> 01:24:46,905 - Well, not very well. 1872 01:24:46,905 --> 01:24:49,420 - (laughing) Who are your funders? 1873 01:24:49,420 --> 01:24:51,100 - To the degree that we have any money at all, 1874 01:24:51,100 --> 01:24:53,169 it's come from a few foundations in Europe and U.S. 1875 01:24:53,169 --> 01:24:55,301 - [Karyn] Which ones? 1876 01:24:55,301 --> 01:24:56,530 - Ah, let's see. 1877 01:24:56,530 --> 01:25:01,519 The, uh, I'm trying to think who the biggest funders are. 1878 01:25:02,812 --> 01:25:04,003 Ah... 1879 01:25:06,153 --> 01:25:10,886 There's a foundation in, based in Sweden called, 1880 01:25:13,020 --> 01:25:15,170 I think it's called the Rasmussen Foundation 1881 01:25:16,504 --> 01:25:18,650 that I think has been the biggest funder. 1882 01:25:18,650 --> 01:25:21,220 - So you don't get money from Pew or Rockefeller 1883 01:25:21,220 --> 01:25:22,780 or any of those big foundations? 1884 01:25:22,780 --> 01:25:23,613 - [Bill] No, we did. 1885 01:25:23,613 --> 01:25:26,520 Rockefeller Brothers Fund gave us some money right 1886 01:25:26,520 --> 01:25:27,550 when we were starting out. 1887 01:25:27,550 --> 01:25:28,750 That's been useful, too. 1888 01:25:29,730 --> 01:25:31,984 - But they no longer fund you? 1889 01:25:31,984 --> 01:25:34,468 - I don't know, I don't have this sort of- 1890 01:25:34,468 --> 01:25:36,670 - [Karyn] (laughing) Really? 1891 01:25:36,670 --> 01:25:38,493 - Funders sitting in front of me. 1892 01:25:38,493 --> 01:25:40,493 - [Karyn] That's usually something that people know. 1893 01:25:40,493 --> 01:25:43,983 - Rockefeller's been one of our, is one of the, 1894 01:25:43,983 --> 01:25:46,630 is a great ally in this fight. 1895 01:25:46,630 --> 01:25:50,310 - [Interviewer] You just sold your TV network to Al Jazeera. 1896 01:25:50,310 --> 01:25:51,143 - Right. 1897 01:25:51,143 --> 01:25:53,270 - [Interviewer] And that government is basically nothing 1898 01:25:53,270 --> 01:25:54,550 but an oil producer. 1899 01:25:54,550 --> 01:25:55,930 - Gas, mainly and oil. 1900 01:25:55,930 --> 01:25:58,860 - Your take on that, about a hundred million dollars pre-tax 1901 01:25:58,860 --> 01:26:02,960 from a country that bases it's wealth on fossil fuels. 1902 01:26:02,960 --> 01:26:05,070 Isn't there a bit of hypocrisy in that? 1903 01:26:05,070 --> 01:26:08,170 - Well, I get the criticism, I just disagree with it. 1904 01:26:08,170 --> 01:26:09,840 I'm proud of the transaction. 1905 01:26:09,840 --> 01:26:13,150 - You couldn't find, for your business, 1906 01:26:13,150 --> 01:26:15,000 a more sustainable choice? 1907 01:26:15,000 --> 01:26:16,820 - What is not sustainable about it? 1908 01:26:16,820 --> 01:26:19,231 - Because it is backed by fossil fuel money. 1909 01:26:19,231 --> 01:26:21,573 - I get it, I get it, I get it. 1910 01:26:21,573 --> 01:26:23,190 - [Jeff] And so, if you got yourself 1911 01:26:23,190 --> 01:26:25,930 an environmental movement and environmental leaders, 1912 01:26:25,930 --> 01:26:28,574 why not buy the holy day itself? 1913 01:26:28,574 --> 01:26:30,021 - [Man] (crowd screaming) Happy Earth Day! 1914 01:26:30,021 --> 01:26:31,559 ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ 1915 01:26:31,559 --> 01:26:33,504 ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ 1916 01:26:33,504 --> 01:26:35,671 ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ 1917 01:26:35,671 --> 01:26:39,141 ♪ You make me want to say ♪ 1918 01:26:39,141 --> 01:26:42,540 ♪ Ah, you make me want to say ♪ 1919 01:26:42,540 --> 01:26:45,970 - Now we are facing the greatest sets of issues 1920 01:26:45,970 --> 01:26:48,170 that we've seen in my lifetime. 1921 01:26:48,170 --> 01:26:50,600 It's time now for a new generation to jump up 1922 01:26:50,600 --> 01:26:53,560 on the stage and create a habitable country, 1923 01:26:53,560 --> 01:26:56,660 a habitable planet, that we can all enjoy. 1924 01:26:56,660 --> 01:26:58,419 Are you that generation? 1925 01:26:58,419 --> 01:27:01,530 (crowd screaming and cheering) 1926 01:27:01,530 --> 01:27:03,540 I need to thank Building Energy 1927 01:27:03,540 --> 01:27:06,463 which provided so much solar power to this 1928 01:27:06,463 --> 01:27:09,748 that we powered the entire event with solar energy. 1929 01:27:09,748 --> 01:27:13,310 (crowd cheering and screaming) 1930 01:27:13,310 --> 01:27:15,100 - [Jeff] But when I went backstage to see 1931 01:27:15,100 --> 01:27:16,350 what was really going on. 1932 01:27:17,260 --> 01:27:19,082 - It ain't running this whole thing on that, Jack. 1933 01:27:19,082 --> 01:27:19,957 I can tell you that. 1934 01:27:19,957 --> 01:27:23,810 For a toaster is 1200 watts. 1935 01:27:23,810 --> 01:27:27,320 So, that run right there could run a toaster. 1936 01:27:27,320 --> 01:27:29,520 - [Jeff] I found the installer. 1937 01:27:29,520 --> 01:27:30,910 - Hi. 1938 01:27:30,910 --> 01:27:31,930 - [Jeff] Are they running the festival 1939 01:27:31,930 --> 01:27:33,340 on these solar panels? 1940 01:27:33,340 --> 01:27:37,573 - The concert is run by diesel generation system. 1941 01:27:38,820 --> 01:27:43,630 They didn't ask us to energize the concert. 1942 01:27:43,630 --> 01:27:45,090 - [Jeff] Oh, okay. 1943 01:27:45,090 --> 01:27:45,923 - And we'd also like 1944 01:27:45,923 --> 01:27:48,340 to thank our incredible corporate sponsors 1945 01:27:48,340 --> 01:27:50,830 who've been behind the movement to end extreme poverty 1946 01:27:50,830 --> 01:27:53,480 and tackle climate change since the very beginning. 1947 01:27:53,480 --> 01:27:54,836 I want to thank Toyota. 1948 01:27:54,836 --> 01:27:58,080 (loud roaring engine) 1949 01:27:58,080 --> 01:27:58,913 Citibank. 1950 01:27:58,913 --> 01:28:02,160 (clanging bell and cheering) 1951 01:28:02,160 --> 01:28:03,860 We want to thank Caterpillar. 1952 01:28:03,860 --> 01:28:05,680 - We're standing at the construction site 1953 01:28:05,680 --> 01:28:07,820 of the Dakota Access Pipeline. 1954 01:28:07,820 --> 01:28:09,360 It looks like there are 1955 01:28:09,360 --> 01:28:13,808 at least three bulldozers actually bulldozing the land. 1956 01:28:13,808 --> 01:28:16,970 (group yelling and cheering) 1957 01:28:16,970 --> 01:28:18,700 People have gone through the fence, 1958 01:28:18,700 --> 01:28:20,497 the bulldozers are still going 1959 01:28:20,497 --> 01:28:21,850 (people screaming) 1960 01:28:21,850 --> 01:28:24,973 and they're marching over the dirt mounds. 1961 01:28:24,973 --> 01:28:26,181 (loud angry screaming) 1962 01:28:26,181 --> 01:28:27,744 - [Man In Orange Shirt] Get the fuck off! 1963 01:28:27,744 --> 01:28:28,860 Get the fuck out of here! 1964 01:28:28,860 --> 01:28:30,500 - Without these partners, it wouldn't be possible. 1965 01:28:30,500 --> 01:28:32,322 Let's give them a round of applause, everyone. 1966 01:28:32,322 --> 01:28:36,155 (crowd cheering and clapping) 1967 01:28:37,932 --> 01:28:40,932 (slow solemn music) 1968 01:28:45,300 --> 01:28:47,843 - [Jeff] Now I know this all might seem overwhelming. 1969 01:28:50,020 --> 01:28:50,900 It's a kind of thing 1970 01:28:50,900 --> 01:28:54,027 that we normally don't try and think about. 1971 01:28:54,027 --> 01:28:57,470 (slow solemn music) 1972 01:28:57,470 --> 01:28:58,920 But by not thinking about it, 1973 01:29:00,400 --> 01:29:02,572 it stands a good chance of doing us in. 1974 01:29:02,572 --> 01:29:05,240 (slow solemn music) 1975 01:29:05,240 --> 01:29:07,910 I truly believe that the path to change 1976 01:29:09,210 --> 01:29:10,889 comes from awareness. 1977 01:29:10,889 --> 01:29:12,800 (slow solemn music) 1978 01:29:12,800 --> 01:29:17,125 That awareness alone can begin to create the transformation. 1979 01:29:17,125 --> 01:29:20,125 (slow solemn music) 1980 01:29:21,750 --> 01:29:23,223 There is a way out of this. 1981 01:29:24,890 --> 01:29:28,240 We humans must accept that infinite growth 1982 01:29:28,240 --> 01:29:31,633 on a finite planet is suicide. 1983 01:29:33,250 --> 01:29:35,430 We must accept that our human presence 1984 01:29:36,290 --> 01:29:38,833 is already far beyond sustainability, 1985 01:29:40,510 --> 01:29:42,600 and all that that implies. 1986 01:29:42,600 --> 01:29:44,980 (slow solemn music) 1987 01:29:44,980 --> 01:29:48,400 We must take control of our environmental movement 1988 01:29:48,400 --> 01:29:51,860 and our future from billionaires 1989 01:29:51,860 --> 01:29:54,533 and their permanent war on Planet Earth. 1990 01:29:54,533 --> 01:29:56,380 (slow solemn music) 1991 01:29:56,380 --> 01:29:58,444 They are not our friends. 1992 01:29:58,444 --> 01:30:01,110 (slow solemn music) 1993 01:30:01,110 --> 01:30:02,810 Less must be the new more 1994 01:30:04,350 --> 01:30:06,430 and instead of climate change, 1995 01:30:06,430 --> 01:30:08,230 we must at long last accept 1996 01:30:09,400 --> 01:30:11,340 that it's not the carbon dioxide molecule 1997 01:30:11,340 --> 01:30:12,440 destroying the planet, 1998 01:30:14,268 --> 01:30:15,668 (slow solemn music) it's us. 1999 01:30:17,369 --> 01:30:19,860 (slow solemn music) 2000 01:30:19,860 --> 01:30:24,123 It's not one thing, but everything we humans are doing. 2001 01:30:25,850 --> 01:30:29,330 A human-caused apocalypse. 2002 01:30:29,330 --> 01:30:33,875 If we get ourselves under control, all things are possible. 2003 01:30:33,875 --> 01:30:37,656 (slow solemn music) 2004 01:30:37,656 --> 01:30:38,583 And if we don't... 2005 01:30:39,950 --> 01:30:42,617 (ominous music) 2006 01:30:50,087 --> 01:30:53,004 (chainsaw buzzing) 2007 01:30:58,326 --> 01:31:01,076 (crashing trees) 2008 01:31:02,654 --> 01:31:05,737 (sad mournful music) 2009 01:31:07,112 --> 01:31:09,862 (trees crashing) 2010 01:31:12,820 --> 01:31:15,820 (slow solemn music) 2011 01:31:23,487 --> 01:31:26,320 (trees scrapping) 2012 01:31:27,884 --> 01:31:30,967 (orangutan chirping) 2013 01:31:33,112 --> 01:31:35,195 ♪ Ah-Ooh ♪ 2014 01:31:42,445 --> 01:31:46,112 (mournful orchestral music) 2015 01:32:00,546 --> 01:32:03,129 (music fading) 2016 01:32:08,318 --> 01:32:11,568 (snapping tree branch) 2017 01:32:13,586 --> 01:32:16,586 (slow solemn music) 2018 01:32:25,779 --> 01:32:29,196 (roaring crackling fire) 2019 01:32:31,927 --> 01:32:36,927 ♪ Ah-Ah-Ooh ♪ 2020 01:32:38,833 --> 01:32:43,833 ♪ Ooh-Ooh (increasing in intensity) ♪ 2021 01:32:46,125 --> 01:32:48,208 ♪ Ah-Ooh ♪ 2022 01:32:49,971 --> 01:32:53,054 (orangutan chirping) 2023 01:32:57,273 --> 01:33:00,940 (female singing mournfully) 2024 01:33:05,677 --> 01:33:07,312 (orangutan squealing) 2025 01:33:07,312 --> 01:33:08,895 - Yeah, yeah, yeah. 2026 01:33:10,770 --> 01:33:11,939 (low talking) 2027 01:33:11,939 --> 01:33:15,840 ♪ Ah-Ah-Ah ♪ 2028 01:33:15,840 --> 01:33:18,318 ♪ Oh-Oh-Ah ♪ 2029 01:33:18,318 --> 01:33:22,809 ♪ Oh-Oh-Ah ♪ 2030 01:33:22,809 --> 01:33:27,809 ♪ Ooh-Ah ♪ 2031 01:33:28,747 --> 01:33:33,552 ♪ Oh-Oh-Oh ♪ 2032 01:33:33,552 --> 01:33:35,385 ♪ Ooh ♪ 2033 01:33:54,617 --> 01:33:57,175 (somber music)