1 00:00:05,839 --> 00:00:08,576 TYSON: Welcome to the planet Earth. 2 00:00:09,177 --> 00:00:12,713 A world of blue nitrogen skies, 3 00:00:13,114 --> 00:00:17,085 oceans of liquid water and more kinds of living things 4 00:00:17,118 --> 00:00:20,020 than you can possibly imagine. 5 00:00:20,888 --> 00:00:22,290 (baby fussing). 6 00:00:22,323 --> 00:00:25,526 You are the newest page in its four-billion-year-old 7 00:00:25,559 --> 00:00:27,328 book of life. 8 00:00:28,629 --> 00:00:30,864 We're all very young here. 9 00:00:30,898 --> 00:00:33,701 New, like you, to the mysteries of the universe. 10 00:00:34,935 --> 00:00:38,806 We hope someday you will add to the little we know. 11 00:00:39,340 --> 00:00:41,475 I can see a future for you that is, 12 00:00:41,509 --> 00:00:44,378 in many ways, longer and brighter, 13 00:00:44,412 --> 00:00:48,882 and more free than any human generation has ever experienced. 14 00:00:51,485 --> 00:00:54,054 I also sense danger. 15 00:00:54,722 --> 00:00:56,190 That's nothing new here. 16 00:00:56,224 --> 00:00:58,126 It's always been that way. 17 00:00:58,159 --> 00:01:00,928 To be alive is to be in some measure of jeopardy. 18 00:01:02,430 --> 00:01:04,732 Life is dangerous. 19 00:01:05,266 --> 00:01:07,768 In every generation, in every time, 20 00:01:08,736 --> 00:01:11,239 everywhere on Earth. 21 00:01:11,572 --> 00:01:13,541 Our species, and our fellow Earthlings, 22 00:01:13,574 --> 00:01:15,709 have gotten through the tough times, 23 00:01:15,743 --> 00:01:18,246 when the prospects for life looked bleak. 24 00:01:18,279 --> 00:01:21,182 Somehow, we manage to endure. 25 00:01:23,050 --> 00:01:25,786 And now, we want to protect you, 26 00:01:26,587 --> 00:01:31,592 and your 360,000 brothers and sisters also born on this day. 27 00:01:33,794 --> 00:01:36,063 I have so much to tell you about our world. 28 00:01:37,298 --> 00:01:40,067 Some of these stories are frightening. 29 00:01:40,100 --> 00:01:42,836 But don't be afraid. 30 00:01:42,870 --> 00:01:45,406 We'll find a way. 31 00:01:47,241 --> 00:01:52,546 (theme music plays). 32 00:02:11,432 --> 00:02:17,104 * 33 00:02:38,192 --> 00:02:44,365 * 34 00:02:49,970 --> 00:02:52,473 TYSON: Where do I begin? 35 00:02:52,506 --> 00:02:54,542 So much has happened before you got here. 36 00:02:55,343 --> 00:02:59,179 Fortunately, our ancestors figured out a way to reach all 37 00:02:59,213 --> 00:03:03,484 the way back in time to piece together the great story of 38 00:03:03,517 --> 00:03:05,853 our planet's own childhood. 39 00:03:06,387 --> 00:03:08,956 And the amazing things that have happened since. 40 00:03:09,523 --> 00:03:14,228 It's called science, and it's your birthright. 41 00:03:16,397 --> 00:03:22,770 It's hard to believe that all of this grandeur was once a sea of fire. 42 00:03:24,238 --> 00:03:27,040 Come, I'll show you. 43 00:03:30,811 --> 00:03:34,315 This time next year, you'll have your first birthday. 44 00:03:34,748 --> 00:03:37,518 That means you will have completed one whole trip 45 00:03:37,551 --> 00:03:40,087 around the Sun, which is what an Earth year is. 46 00:03:41,489 --> 00:03:43,691 To understand the vast time scale of the cosmos, 47 00:03:44,157 --> 00:03:47,160 and our little world, we've squished all of time into the 48 00:03:47,194 --> 00:03:48,729 scale of a single year. 49 00:03:49,530 --> 00:03:51,999 And that's where we are now. 50 00:03:52,032 --> 00:03:53,867 On the Cosmic Calendar. 51 00:03:54,502 --> 00:03:57,237 Every month is a little more than a billion years, 52 00:03:58,071 --> 00:04:01,108 every day a little less than forty million. 53 00:04:02,109 --> 00:04:06,880 A single hour on this calendar is almost two million years. 54 00:04:08,015 --> 00:04:10,884 Earth was born in fire. 55 00:04:13,086 --> 00:04:15,589 Fires within its seething heart. 56 00:04:18,459 --> 00:04:23,297 And great balls of rock and ice that explode in fiery impact. 57 00:04:25,466 --> 00:04:28,302 One was almost as big as Mars, 58 00:04:28,636 --> 00:04:31,138 and when it struck Earth, it formed the Moon. 59 00:04:36,377 --> 00:04:40,781 But not to worry, little one, because those fireballs were 60 00:04:40,814 --> 00:04:42,916 part of the chaotic early solar system. 61 00:04:44,017 --> 00:04:46,119 In the billions of years since, 62 00:04:46,153 --> 00:04:48,956 the other worlds swept free the lanes of their orbits. 63 00:04:49,790 --> 00:04:53,627 So our solar system is a relatively peaceful place now. 64 00:04:56,897 --> 00:04:59,567 After its first half billion years, 65 00:04:59,600 --> 00:05:02,503 Earth was spinning faster than it does today. 66 00:05:03,671 --> 00:05:07,441 The days were shorter, merely six hours long. 67 00:05:10,177 --> 00:05:12,613 The Moon was ten times closer, 68 00:05:12,646 --> 00:05:15,616 and its gravitational grip on the young planet was much stronger. 69 00:05:16,917 --> 00:05:20,287 The shores of the land were battered by the largest tidal 70 00:05:20,320 --> 00:05:22,656 waves the world has ever known. 71 00:05:22,990 --> 00:05:25,893 A thousand times greater than they are today. 72 00:05:26,660 --> 00:05:30,364 The infant Earth was no place for us then. 73 00:05:31,799 --> 00:05:35,302 The atmosphere was mostly carbon dioxide, methane, and ammonia, 74 00:05:36,136 --> 00:05:39,272 a toxic environment for our kind of life. 75 00:05:39,707 --> 00:05:42,309 We don't know what the climate was like back then, 76 00:05:42,342 --> 00:05:44,311 but scientists reason that the thick, 77 00:05:44,344 --> 00:05:47,681 hazy atmosphere trapped the heat of the Earth and 78 00:05:47,715 --> 00:05:50,050 made it scorching hot. 79 00:05:50,718 --> 00:05:54,354 Another kind of life, tiny creatures that could shrug off 80 00:05:54,388 --> 00:05:58,325 the methane and eat carbon dioxide and sunlight for breakfast, 81 00:05:59,159 --> 00:06:02,062 found a way to make a living in the ocean. 82 00:06:03,931 --> 00:06:06,199 And those scrappy little cyanobacteria, 83 00:06:06,233 --> 00:06:09,269 as they're known, remade the whole planet. 84 00:06:10,303 --> 00:06:12,440 By gobbling up the carbon dioxide, 85 00:06:12,473 --> 00:06:15,743 and giving off oxygen, they turned the sky blue. 86 00:06:17,411 --> 00:06:20,147 All that oxygen destroyed the methane shroud 87 00:06:20,180 --> 00:06:22,450 that enveloped our planet. 88 00:06:22,483 --> 00:06:24,552 And it was cool. 89 00:06:25,018 --> 00:06:28,021 Not as cool as it is now, but more like a really hot 90 00:06:28,055 --> 00:06:30,724 summer day year-round. 91 00:06:30,758 --> 00:06:32,926 And then something wonderful happened. 92 00:06:34,094 --> 00:06:37,230 The atoms of oxygen that the tiny creatures in the ocean 93 00:06:37,264 --> 00:06:41,735 produced began to gather high above the world in the sky. 94 00:06:42,603 --> 00:06:45,906 And a new kind of molecule was made. 95 00:06:45,939 --> 00:06:47,941 Ozone. 96 00:06:47,975 --> 00:06:50,678 It created an invisible canopy against those rays of 97 00:06:50,711 --> 00:06:53,013 the Sun that were lethal. 98 00:06:53,046 --> 00:06:57,084 Now, for the first time, life was free to leave the 99 00:06:57,117 --> 00:07:00,220 oceans for the land. 100 00:07:01,755 --> 00:07:05,125 And before long, life seized these new opportunities. 101 00:07:12,633 --> 00:07:16,870 A wild variety of shapes and sizes evolved as adaptations 102 00:07:16,904 --> 00:07:19,406 to these new habitats. 103 00:07:19,673 --> 00:07:23,611 And there were ears and noses and wings. 104 00:07:31,752 --> 00:07:34,387 I'd like you to meet a fellow Earthling, 105 00:07:35,055 --> 00:07:38,492 a very distant relative of yours. 106 00:07:38,826 --> 00:07:40,894 You've only been here a day, 107 00:07:40,928 --> 00:07:44,565 but beetles have been here for 300 million years. 108 00:07:46,466 --> 00:07:49,069 And the changes they've seen on this world... 109 00:07:51,739 --> 00:07:55,142 Our kind has only been here for a fraction of that amount of time, 110 00:07:56,176 --> 00:07:59,813 11:00 on New Year's Eve of the cosmic year. 111 00:07:59,847 --> 00:08:03,584 That's when our ancestors stood up for the first time. 112 00:08:03,617 --> 00:08:06,687 We call them Homo erectus for that reason. 113 00:08:07,521 --> 00:08:11,091 They were no longer forced to stare at the mud beneath their feet. 114 00:08:11,592 --> 00:08:15,162 Now, they could look up and see the stars, 115 00:08:15,696 --> 00:08:18,265 and their hands were free to change the world. 116 00:08:18,298 --> 00:08:20,901 They began to move around, to explore, 117 00:08:20,934 --> 00:08:24,972 daring to risk everything to get to unknown places. 118 00:08:26,206 --> 00:08:28,341 They were brave. 119 00:08:28,375 --> 00:08:31,211 And their blood runs in your veins. 120 00:08:33,013 --> 00:08:35,949 Some of them explored the vast continent of Africa. 121 00:08:36,817 --> 00:08:40,453 Others ranged north, taking a left turn into Europe. 122 00:08:42,355 --> 00:08:45,292 There is evidence that they would later evolve into the 123 00:08:45,325 --> 00:08:47,995 lost people we call Neanderthals. 124 00:08:49,229 --> 00:08:51,464 We have no idea what they called themselves, 125 00:08:51,498 --> 00:08:53,867 but we named them after the place in Germany where 126 00:08:53,901 --> 00:08:56,169 we first discovered their ancient remains. 127 00:08:58,038 --> 00:09:01,241 Another even more mysterious branch of our family 128 00:09:01,274 --> 00:09:03,877 took a right turn into Asia. 129 00:09:04,177 --> 00:09:07,447 And they evolved into people we call the Denisovans. 130 00:09:09,683 --> 00:09:11,051 But you and I, 131 00:09:11,084 --> 00:09:13,854 and all our other human brothers and sisters, 132 00:09:13,887 --> 00:09:15,989 were mainly descended from the people who stayed in 133 00:09:16,023 --> 00:09:18,859 Africa for another million and a half years. 134 00:09:19,927 --> 00:09:23,330 Sure, most of us have a little blood from the other branches of the family, 135 00:09:24,364 --> 00:09:27,167 but we are mostly the children of Africa. 136 00:09:27,835 --> 00:09:30,704 To see how our kind spread out around the planet, 137 00:09:30,738 --> 00:09:32,740 we have to go even closer to midnight. 138 00:09:33,506 --> 00:09:35,175 11:55. 139 00:09:35,208 --> 00:09:37,277 Or about 150,000 years ago. 140 00:09:40,480 --> 00:09:44,351 It is now a minute and a half to midnight. 141 00:09:50,557 --> 00:09:53,426 Until about 40,000 years ago, 142 00:09:53,460 --> 00:09:56,396 our Neanderthal relatives lived very much as we did. 143 00:09:57,898 --> 00:10:00,200 They had bigger brains than we do, 144 00:10:00,233 --> 00:10:01,769 and were brawnier, 145 00:10:01,802 --> 00:10:04,738 but they did many of the things that we think of as being human. 146 00:10:06,974 --> 00:10:11,611 Most of us still carry some tiny portion of their genes inside us. 147 00:10:13,546 --> 00:10:16,083 But there are no more living Neanderthals today. 148 00:10:16,917 --> 00:10:18,686 Nor are there any of our other cousins, 149 00:10:18,719 --> 00:10:20,587 the Denisovans. 150 00:10:21,088 --> 00:10:25,292 When this happens, when a whole species vanishes... 151 00:10:25,325 --> 00:10:27,828 we call it extinction. 152 00:10:28,762 --> 00:10:33,066 It's the end of a road that began four billion years ago 153 00:10:33,433 --> 00:10:35,903 with the origin of life. 154 00:10:38,772 --> 00:10:40,908 We don't know why they died out. 155 00:10:41,408 --> 00:10:44,144 We do know that they never ranged beyond the ocean 156 00:10:44,177 --> 00:10:46,313 coastlines of their environment. 157 00:10:46,814 --> 00:10:50,617 Maybe our hominid cousins were just a bit more contented, 158 00:10:50,650 --> 00:10:53,687 less anxious and more at peace than we are. 159 00:10:54,654 --> 00:10:57,590 Maybe it's a restlessness that prods us humans to 160 00:10:57,624 --> 00:10:59,592 choose the unknown. 161 00:10:59,626 --> 00:11:03,496 Some powerful force moved our ancestors to daring 162 00:11:03,530 --> 00:11:05,332 feats of courage. 163 00:11:05,365 --> 00:11:09,436 They crossed great oceans with no idea of what lay on the other side, 164 00:11:10,203 --> 00:11:13,240 carrying our people to every continent on Earth. 165 00:11:14,441 --> 00:11:17,144 And even to the Moon. 166 00:11:17,377 --> 00:11:19,646 By the last second of the cosmic year, 167 00:11:19,679 --> 00:11:23,650 there was no place on Earth that we had left untouched. 168 00:11:26,119 --> 00:11:29,957 We became the first species to remake the planet since the 169 00:11:29,990 --> 00:11:34,027 one-celled cyanobacteria did billions of years ago. 170 00:11:34,627 --> 00:11:38,198 To change the oceans, the land and the atmosphere. 171 00:11:39,733 --> 00:11:44,271 And these changes have led to a new mass extinction. 172 00:11:44,304 --> 00:11:47,207 The scientific community has looked at the evidence, 173 00:11:47,240 --> 00:11:50,878 and decided our age needs a new name. 174 00:11:51,211 --> 00:11:53,680 The Anthropocene. 175 00:11:53,713 --> 00:11:55,482 "Anthropo" from the Greek word for 176 00:11:55,515 --> 00:11:58,886 "Human" and "Cene" the Greek word for "Recent." 177 00:11:59,753 --> 00:12:02,655 It reflects our global impact on the environment and 178 00:12:02,689 --> 00:12:05,058 the life it sustains. 179 00:12:05,092 --> 00:12:08,028 There's disagreement about when it began, 180 00:12:08,061 --> 00:12:10,530 and nobody knows how it will turn out. 181 00:12:12,232 --> 00:12:14,367 Happy New Year, little one. 182 00:12:14,401 --> 00:12:17,704 Welcome to the Anthropocene. 183 00:12:24,744 --> 00:12:27,080 TYSON: I see a great future for you, little one. 184 00:12:28,281 --> 00:12:30,550 But a shadow hangs over it. 185 00:12:31,051 --> 00:12:33,520 We're not exactly sure when the darkening began. 186 00:12:34,955 --> 00:12:38,691 When did we become a force of nature, altering the skies, 187 00:12:39,492 --> 00:12:41,862 the seas and the land of the planet? 188 00:12:43,130 --> 00:12:46,099 When did the age of the Anthropocene begin? 189 00:12:47,100 --> 00:12:49,736 Some would say that it started in places like this one, 190 00:12:50,603 --> 00:12:52,973 more than 10,000 years ago. 191 00:12:53,974 --> 00:12:57,210 Did our ancestors paint these images of mammoths and 192 00:12:57,244 --> 00:13:01,281 saber-tooth tigers and giant sloths to somehow keep their 193 00:13:01,314 --> 00:13:04,952 memory alive after slaughtering the last of them? 194 00:13:07,220 --> 00:13:09,923 Human-caused extinction is nothing new. 195 00:13:10,423 --> 00:13:13,060 But we can't really blame our ancestors. 196 00:13:13,093 --> 00:13:15,795 How could they know that this or that kill meant 197 00:13:15,829 --> 00:13:18,999 the end of an entire species? 198 00:13:19,967 --> 00:13:23,170 I wonder, maybe the Anthropocene started with the 199 00:13:23,203 --> 00:13:26,073 first seed that was planted in the ground, 200 00:13:26,339 --> 00:13:29,209 and the agricultural revolution that followed. 201 00:13:29,910 --> 00:13:33,113 Before that time, the world had twice as many trees to 202 00:13:33,146 --> 00:13:36,984 convert the Earth's carbon dioxide into oxygen. 203 00:13:37,017 --> 00:13:39,052 With the invention of agriculture, 204 00:13:39,086 --> 00:13:43,256 our ancestors stopped wandering to settle down into 205 00:13:43,290 --> 00:13:45,292 farms and cities. 206 00:13:50,998 --> 00:13:54,001 This is Çatalhöyük. 207 00:13:54,034 --> 00:13:56,336 It was one of the earliest cities. 208 00:13:57,070 --> 00:14:00,440 This is how it looked about 9,000 years ago. 209 00:14:01,108 --> 00:14:05,212 The great move indoors changed our relationship to nature. 210 00:14:05,946 --> 00:14:08,648 Those hearths, those fires that warmed the small 211 00:14:08,681 --> 00:14:10,783 dwellings of our ancestors... 212 00:14:10,817 --> 00:14:13,020 were they the beginning? 213 00:14:13,686 --> 00:14:16,223 The smoke from those small fires did little to 214 00:14:16,256 --> 00:14:18,158 alter the atmosphere. 215 00:14:18,191 --> 00:14:19,927 But over thousands of years, 216 00:14:19,960 --> 00:14:21,995 our numbers grew exponentially, 217 00:14:22,495 --> 00:14:24,831 until we were cranking out enough carbon dioxide 218 00:14:24,864 --> 00:14:28,035 into the atmosphere to warm the whole world. 219 00:14:30,003 --> 00:14:32,139 Did the Anthropocene begin with 220 00:14:32,172 --> 00:14:34,341 the domestication of animals? 221 00:14:34,741 --> 00:14:38,211 Cattle convert wild grasses into methane, 222 00:14:38,245 --> 00:14:40,747 another gas that changes the climate. 223 00:14:40,780 --> 00:14:44,217 It happens inside them when they're digesting their meals. 224 00:14:44,251 --> 00:14:45,885 But nobody would figure this out until the 225 00:14:45,919 --> 00:14:47,921 modern scientific era. 226 00:14:48,655 --> 00:14:51,558 How could a few head of cattle do any harm, 227 00:14:51,591 --> 00:14:54,294 let alone change Earth so radically? 228 00:14:55,228 --> 00:14:57,730 Our ancestors wanted to feed their families, 229 00:14:57,764 --> 00:15:00,300 and make sure that the little ones would not go hungry. 230 00:15:01,568 --> 00:15:03,403 That they would live. 231 00:15:05,738 --> 00:15:08,508 In China, around 4,000 years ago, 232 00:15:08,541 --> 00:15:11,344 a world-changing discovery was made. 233 00:15:11,611 --> 00:15:14,714 There were rocks that you could burn for fuel to drive 234 00:15:14,747 --> 00:15:16,916 away the cold and the damp. 235 00:15:18,085 --> 00:15:21,521 These rocks were actually the carbon remains of plants and 236 00:15:21,554 --> 00:15:24,624 trees that had died hundreds of millions of years before, 237 00:15:25,725 --> 00:15:28,261 and lay buried in the earth. 238 00:15:28,728 --> 00:15:32,365 Was the discovery of coal the beginning of the Anthropocene? 239 00:15:33,133 --> 00:15:36,669 Coal became increasingly important to power forges and 240 00:15:36,703 --> 00:15:38,838 foundries and homes. 241 00:15:40,273 --> 00:15:44,177 Or did the Anthropocene really get going about 1,000 years later, 242 00:15:44,644 --> 00:15:48,148 when people all over Asia began to grow rice? 243 00:15:49,016 --> 00:15:50,783 This ingenious technique, 244 00:15:50,817 --> 00:15:53,987 which involves transplanting seedlings into flooded paddies, 245 00:15:54,654 --> 00:15:56,923 is called "Puddling." 246 00:15:57,157 --> 00:16:00,127 There was no way for these hardworking farmers to know 247 00:16:00,160 --> 00:16:02,895 that this particular method of growing rice, 248 00:16:02,929 --> 00:16:06,633 like the cattle, would someday produce tens of millions of 249 00:16:06,666 --> 00:16:09,169 tons of methane per year. 250 00:16:09,769 --> 00:16:13,140 The flooded soil loses oxygen, and then tiny, 251 00:16:13,173 --> 00:16:15,608 invisible creatures, microbes, 252 00:16:15,642 --> 00:16:18,611 digest the plant matter and produce methane. 253 00:16:19,446 --> 00:16:23,350 The leaves of the rice plants release more methane into the atmosphere. 254 00:16:24,751 --> 00:16:27,754 These early farmers had no way of seeing what was 255 00:16:27,787 --> 00:16:30,457 happening on the scale of the very small. 256 00:16:31,291 --> 00:16:34,294 Again, they were just trying to feed themselves 257 00:16:34,627 --> 00:16:36,696 and each other. 258 00:16:41,568 --> 00:16:43,903 There's all kinds of writing. 259 00:16:43,936 --> 00:16:45,838 But this is how time writes. 260 00:16:46,739 --> 00:16:48,941 If you know how to read time's alphabet, 261 00:16:48,975 --> 00:16:52,145 you can reconstruct events in the great story of the planet. 262 00:16:53,280 --> 00:16:56,649 The most dramatic passage in this saga is not written in 263 00:16:56,683 --> 00:16:59,786 the brightest colors, but in pale white. 264 00:17:00,887 --> 00:17:04,391 This pale white line is kind of an epic poem. 265 00:17:05,092 --> 00:17:07,894 It tells the saga of the death of titans, 266 00:17:08,761 --> 00:17:10,630 all over the planet. 267 00:17:10,663 --> 00:17:14,000 This layer of an otherwise rare metal called iridium, 268 00:17:14,033 --> 00:17:16,969 signifies the end of the Cretaceous chapter some 269 00:17:17,003 --> 00:17:19,506 66 million years ago. 270 00:17:19,806 --> 00:17:23,476 This is when dinosaurs, and three quarters of all the 271 00:17:23,510 --> 00:17:26,979 plants and animals became extinct. 272 00:17:27,314 --> 00:17:29,449 There's a custom among geologists. 273 00:17:29,482 --> 00:17:31,584 If you find a layer in the earth that indicates 274 00:17:31,618 --> 00:17:34,754 the boundary of the first or last time that the fossils of 275 00:17:34,787 --> 00:17:36,623 any species can be found, 276 00:17:36,656 --> 00:17:40,160 you mark it with a "golden spike." 277 00:17:40,727 --> 00:17:43,130 You drive it into the rock with a hammer. 278 00:17:43,163 --> 00:17:45,965 If we are living in the Anthropocene, 279 00:17:45,998 --> 00:17:49,169 the age of human- caused extinction, 280 00:17:49,402 --> 00:17:53,540 what wall do we drive our golden spike into? 281 00:17:57,610 --> 00:18:01,047 It's in me, little one. 282 00:18:01,314 --> 00:18:04,784 When I was brand new, just like you, only a day old, 283 00:18:04,817 --> 00:18:07,387 there were two great superpowers fighting 284 00:18:07,420 --> 00:18:09,622 over the planet. 285 00:18:09,656 --> 00:18:13,693 They were both willing to destroy everything to assert 286 00:18:13,726 --> 00:18:15,995 their dominance. 287 00:18:16,028 --> 00:18:20,433 On the very day I was born, both nations exploded nuclear 288 00:18:20,467 --> 00:18:24,103 weapons in the atmosphere just to show how strong they were. 289 00:18:25,738 --> 00:18:28,208 And those were only a few of the thousands that were 290 00:18:28,241 --> 00:18:31,077 detonated over a period of decades. 291 00:18:31,778 --> 00:18:35,081 The bombs gave off strontium 90, 292 00:18:35,448 --> 00:18:39,252 an atom made unstable by its excess nuclear energy. 293 00:18:39,286 --> 00:18:42,021 It's called a radioactive isotope. 294 00:18:42,054 --> 00:18:45,458 It polluted mother's milk all over the planet. 295 00:18:45,992 --> 00:18:50,797 Mothers nursing babies like you refused to live with this horror. 296 00:18:50,830 --> 00:18:57,103 They joined together to protest until a treaty was signed in 1963. 297 00:18:57,737 --> 00:19:00,240 I, and my whole generation, 298 00:19:00,273 --> 00:19:03,243 carry an excess of another radioactive isotope 299 00:19:03,276 --> 00:19:05,945 in the tissues of our bodies. 300 00:19:05,978 --> 00:19:08,648 It's called carbon 14. 301 00:19:08,681 --> 00:19:12,752 So if I ever lose my mind, or forget how old I am, 302 00:19:12,785 --> 00:19:15,255 the echoes of those nuclear explosions on the day 303 00:19:15,288 --> 00:19:18,791 of my birth would tell you my age. 304 00:19:19,859 --> 00:19:23,930 Does this "golden spike" inside me signify the beginning 305 00:19:23,963 --> 00:19:26,499 of the Anthropocene? 306 00:19:27,166 --> 00:19:30,069 Is that when it began? 307 00:19:30,503 --> 00:19:32,171 The atmospheric testing ended, 308 00:19:32,205 --> 00:19:34,807 but we just kept on trashing our home. 309 00:19:34,841 --> 00:19:38,278 All the while knowing that the day would come when 310 00:19:38,311 --> 00:19:41,314 it would all fall down. 311 00:19:41,348 --> 00:19:43,350 What good is it to know of a danger if you don't do 312 00:19:43,383 --> 00:19:46,152 anything about it? 313 00:19:46,185 --> 00:19:49,289 Maybe it's better not to know. 314 00:19:49,322 --> 00:19:51,991 Knowing can be a curse. 315 00:20:01,368 --> 00:20:07,374 TYSON: The stories that live the longest are those that never were, 316 00:20:07,407 --> 00:20:11,077 and always will be: myths. 317 00:20:12,144 --> 00:20:14,947 Apollo, the ancient god of light, 318 00:20:14,981 --> 00:20:17,183 was always on the prowl for attractive humans. 319 00:20:18,685 --> 00:20:21,688 One day, while strolling the bustling streets of Troy, 320 00:20:21,721 --> 00:20:24,524 a rival city of the Ancient Greeks, 321 00:20:24,557 --> 00:20:28,428 he spied Cassandra, the smartest and most beautiful of 322 00:20:28,461 --> 00:20:30,597 the daughters of King Priam. 323 00:20:31,598 --> 00:20:34,534 Apollo fell madly in love with her. 324 00:20:38,938 --> 00:20:42,342 Apollo usually got his way, and he was shocked when 325 00:20:42,375 --> 00:20:44,777 Cassandra rejected him. 326 00:20:45,345 --> 00:20:47,580 How could he win her heart? 327 00:20:47,614 --> 00:20:49,882 She lacked for nothing. 328 00:20:49,916 --> 00:20:52,184 And she was happy. 329 00:20:52,519 --> 00:20:56,022 But Apollo was not so easily dissuaded. 330 00:20:56,055 --> 00:20:59,426 And so he made her an irresistible offer. 331 00:21:00,192 --> 00:21:03,363 He would grant her the gift of prophecy, 332 00:21:03,396 --> 00:21:06,433 the ability to see the future. 333 00:21:07,300 --> 00:21:09,502 Cassandra was thrilled. 334 00:21:09,536 --> 00:21:12,372 Knowing what would happen before anyone else would make 335 00:21:12,405 --> 00:21:15,107 her all-powerful. 336 00:21:15,141 --> 00:21:18,745 But then, Apollo explained to her what he expected in return. 337 00:21:19,979 --> 00:21:23,316 She would have to submit to him as his lover. 338 00:21:23,616 --> 00:21:27,053 This was too high a price for Cassandra. 339 00:21:27,086 --> 00:21:30,657 Apollo's rage took the form of a cruel and ingenious curse. 340 00:21:31,558 --> 00:21:34,961 He granted Cassandra the ability to foresee the future, 341 00:21:34,994 --> 00:21:37,664 but condemned her to be ignored. 342 00:21:56,115 --> 00:21:59,151 The Trojans thought she was nuts. 343 00:21:59,185 --> 00:22:01,454 They contemptuously referred to her as the 344 00:22:01,488 --> 00:22:03,890 "Lady of Many Sorrows." 345 00:22:04,290 --> 00:22:06,926 Today she would be dismissed as a prophet of 346 00:22:06,959 --> 00:22:09,362 gloom and doom. 347 00:22:10,463 --> 00:22:13,800 Cassandra saw nothing but trouble when her brother, Paris, 348 00:22:13,833 --> 00:22:16,168 decided to take a trip to Sparta. 349 00:22:17,069 --> 00:22:19,939 She alone knew that when he got there, 350 00:22:19,972 --> 00:22:22,875 he would fall in love with the King's wife, 351 00:22:23,175 --> 00:22:26,713 a beauty named Helen, whom he would abduct. 352 00:22:26,746 --> 00:22:29,549 This would bring ruin to Troy. 353 00:22:33,019 --> 00:22:35,988 But no one paid any attention. 354 00:22:36,222 --> 00:22:39,592 This was a time of peace and prosperity. 355 00:22:39,626 --> 00:22:42,695 There was no clear and present danger. 356 00:22:43,362 --> 00:22:46,165 The King wouldn't listen to his daughter. 357 00:22:46,666 --> 00:22:49,035 No one would. 358 00:22:49,335 --> 00:22:51,438 When Paris brought Helen home, 359 00:22:51,471 --> 00:22:54,674 the people of Troy celebrated her arrival. 360 00:22:54,907 --> 00:22:57,209 Cassandra was so desperate to prevent the coming 361 00:22:57,243 --> 00:22:59,378 disaster that she attacked Helen. 362 00:23:01,380 --> 00:23:04,116 Cassandra knew that the Greeks would seek revenge 363 00:23:04,150 --> 00:23:06,919 against the Trojans, and that they would be victorious. 364 00:23:07,987 --> 00:23:10,923 She foretold the defeat of her father's army, 365 00:23:10,957 --> 00:23:12,925 and the sacking of Troy by the Greeks. 366 00:23:14,994 --> 00:23:17,396 And the Greeks did come, 367 00:23:17,430 --> 00:23:19,566 just as Cassandra knew they would. 368 00:23:20,533 --> 00:23:24,203 But even after years of warfare, Troy still stood. 369 00:23:27,006 --> 00:23:28,575 When the Greeks retreated, 370 00:23:28,608 --> 00:23:31,277 boarding their ships and sailing out of the harbor, 371 00:23:31,310 --> 00:23:34,113 there must have been a sigh of relief among the few 372 00:23:34,146 --> 00:23:36,082 who wondered if there was 373 00:23:36,115 --> 00:23:38,951 something to Cassandra's dire predictions. 374 00:23:40,286 --> 00:23:44,156 But what about that enormous wooden horse? 375 00:23:44,457 --> 00:23:47,126 A Trojan platoon was sent to investigate. 376 00:23:47,460 --> 00:23:50,429 They found a single Greek soldier. 377 00:23:50,797 --> 00:23:53,232 A man named Sinon. 378 00:23:53,466 --> 00:23:56,268 The Trojans asked Sinon, "What's going on?" 379 00:23:56,936 --> 00:23:59,906 He told them that a King of the Greeks had wanted to offer 380 00:23:59,939 --> 00:24:02,141 him up as a human sacrifice. 381 00:24:02,575 --> 00:24:04,577 So he'd stayed hidden until his brothers 382 00:24:04,611 --> 00:24:06,746 departed for home. 383 00:24:07,079 --> 00:24:09,516 And that colossal wooden horse? 384 00:24:09,549 --> 00:24:13,152 Sinon told them that it was an offering for the goddess Athena. 385 00:24:14,153 --> 00:24:16,723 How wonderful, the Trojans thought. 386 00:24:16,756 --> 00:24:20,459 The horse was the ancient symbol of their city. 387 00:24:20,493 --> 00:24:23,329 Why not move it inside the gates and keep it as a trophy? 388 00:24:24,864 --> 00:24:29,135 Sinon laughed, and told them that the Greeks had said it was way too big 389 00:24:29,168 --> 00:24:31,738 and heavy for weaklings like the Trojans to move. 390 00:24:32,872 --> 00:24:35,508 "Let them stare at it all day and be ashamed about 391 00:24:35,542 --> 00:24:37,109 how feeble they are." 392 00:24:38,578 --> 00:24:39,612 (horn) 393 00:24:40,446 --> 00:24:42,549 (speaking in native languge) 394 00:24:54,561 --> 00:24:58,698 (cheering) 395 00:25:12,111 --> 00:25:16,883 * 396 00:25:17,550 --> 00:25:19,451 TYSON: The Trojans were terrified that Cassandra's 397 00:25:19,485 --> 00:25:23,255 attempt at arson would enrage the goddess Athena, 398 00:25:23,723 --> 00:25:26,626 and bring her wrath down upon the city. 399 00:25:43,009 --> 00:25:45,011 * 400 00:25:45,044 --> 00:25:47,213 Once the invaders gave the signal, 401 00:25:47,246 --> 00:25:49,548 the ships of the Greek navy that had been waiting out of 402 00:25:49,582 --> 00:25:52,484 sight offshore commenced their attack on Troy. 403 00:25:55,221 --> 00:25:58,591 (screams) 404 00:26:18,510 --> 00:26:24,350 * 405 00:26:29,521 --> 00:26:31,791 Apollo had had his fun. 406 00:26:32,124 --> 00:26:35,427 Cassandra's grim prophecies had gone unheeded, 407 00:26:35,928 --> 00:26:39,098 and now it was too late for Troy. 408 00:26:50,910 --> 00:26:54,380 For Cassandra, knowing was a curse. 409 00:26:55,114 --> 00:26:58,250 But it can also be the greatest of blessings. 410 00:27:00,086 --> 00:27:02,288 Let me tell you another story. 411 00:27:03,823 --> 00:27:07,293 Once upon a time, there were no refrigerators. 412 00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:19,038 * 413 00:27:20,306 --> 00:27:23,509 TYSON: It used to be hard to keep food from spoiling in the summertime. 414 00:27:24,543 --> 00:27:26,245 There was a person called the "iceman." 415 00:27:27,446 --> 00:27:30,149 He would come to your house and sell you a big block of ice. 416 00:27:31,851 --> 00:27:35,121 You'd keep it in something called an "icebox" to preserve 417 00:27:35,154 --> 00:27:37,023 the kinds of food that spoil quickly. 418 00:27:38,925 --> 00:27:42,328 But that was a drag because the ice kept melting. 419 00:27:42,361 --> 00:27:45,131 It would drip all over the floor. 420 00:27:45,164 --> 00:27:47,800 So somebody thought up another way to keep food cold. 421 00:27:48,935 --> 00:27:53,472 It was a gas powered system that used ammonia or sulfur dioxide as a coolant. 422 00:27:54,941 --> 00:27:56,608 No more lugging blocks of ice. 423 00:27:57,744 --> 00:27:59,545 What could be bad about that? 424 00:28:00,346 --> 00:28:02,514 The chemicals were not only poisonous, 425 00:28:02,548 --> 00:28:05,051 they smelled terrible and there were leaks. 426 00:28:08,087 --> 00:28:09,889 A substitute coolant was badly needed. 427 00:28:10,857 --> 00:28:13,525 One that would circulate inside the refrigerator, 428 00:28:13,559 --> 00:28:15,762 but would not poison anyone if the refrigerator leaked, 429 00:28:16,863 --> 00:28:18,898 or pose a danger if it was sent to the junkyard. 430 00:28:21,734 --> 00:28:24,036 Something that wouldn't make you sick, 431 00:28:24,303 --> 00:28:26,705 wouldn't burn your eyes, or attract bugs, 432 00:28:26,739 --> 00:28:28,374 or even bother the cat. 433 00:28:29,675 --> 00:28:33,079 But in all of nature, no such material seemed to exist. 434 00:28:35,114 --> 00:28:37,616 So chemists in the United States invented a 435 00:28:37,649 --> 00:28:39,518 class of molecules. 436 00:28:39,551 --> 00:28:42,388 Little collections of even tinier things called atoms, 437 00:28:43,189 --> 00:28:45,457 that had never existed on Earth before. 438 00:28:46,759 --> 00:28:49,361 They called them chlorofluorocarbons, 439 00:28:49,762 --> 00:28:53,432 or CFCs, because they were made up of one or more carbon 440 00:28:53,465 --> 00:28:56,268 atoms and some chlorine and/or fluorine atoms. 441 00:28:58,404 --> 00:29:00,773 These new molecules were wildly successful, 442 00:29:01,707 --> 00:29:04,143 far exceeding the expectations of their inventors. 443 00:29:13,452 --> 00:29:15,454 (overlapping chatter) 444 00:29:18,991 --> 00:29:22,061 Not only did CFCs become the chief coolant in refrigerators, 445 00:29:22,962 --> 00:29:25,564 but also in air conditioners. 446 00:29:25,832 --> 00:29:28,200 There were so many things you could do with CFCs. 447 00:29:29,768 --> 00:29:33,072 People used them to propel great fluffy mounds of shaving cream. 448 00:29:35,808 --> 00:29:38,978 And to protect your hair from wind and rain. 449 00:29:41,013 --> 00:29:44,116 It was also the propellant that made fire extinguishers 450 00:29:44,150 --> 00:29:46,485 and spray paint cans so much fun. 451 00:29:47,820 --> 00:29:49,822 It was good for foam insulation, 452 00:29:50,156 --> 00:29:52,191 industrial solvents and cleansing agents. 453 00:29:53,759 --> 00:29:57,029 The most famous brand name of these chemicals was Freon, 454 00:29:58,030 --> 00:30:00,166 a trademark of DuPont. 455 00:30:00,466 --> 00:30:04,971 It was used for decades and no harm ever seemed to come from it. 456 00:30:05,604 --> 00:30:09,108 Safe as safe could be, everyone figured. 457 00:30:09,675 --> 00:30:13,479 Until, in the early 1970s, two atmospheric chemists at the 458 00:30:13,512 --> 00:30:15,747 University of California, Irvine 459 00:30:15,781 --> 00:30:17,984 were studying Earth's atmosphere. 460 00:30:18,918 --> 00:30:21,820 Mario Molina was a Mexican immigrant, 461 00:30:22,221 --> 00:30:24,090 a young laser chemist. 462 00:30:24,123 --> 00:30:27,126 Sherwood Rowland was a chemical kineticist, 463 00:30:27,159 --> 00:30:31,297 someone who studied the motions of molecules and gases under varying conditions. 464 00:30:33,099 --> 00:30:35,467 He was from a small town in Ohio. 465 00:30:35,834 --> 00:30:39,038 Molina wanted to grow as a scientist. 466 00:30:39,071 --> 00:30:41,640 He was looking for a project that would take him as far 467 00:30:41,673 --> 00:30:44,143 from his previous research experience as possible. 468 00:30:45,077 --> 00:30:46,512 He wondered. 469 00:30:46,545 --> 00:30:49,215 What happens to those Freon molecules when they 470 00:30:49,248 --> 00:30:51,650 leak out of the air conditioner? 471 00:30:51,884 --> 00:30:54,786 This was a time when the Apollo astronauts were still 472 00:30:54,820 --> 00:30:57,556 making regularly scheduled trips to the Moon. 473 00:30:57,890 --> 00:31:00,526 And NASA was contemplating weekly launches of 474 00:31:00,559 --> 00:31:02,528 a space shuttle. 475 00:31:03,362 --> 00:31:08,034 Would all that burning rocket fuel pose a danger to the stratosphere, 476 00:31:08,667 --> 00:31:12,038 that place where Earth's atmosphere meets the blackness of space? 477 00:31:13,906 --> 00:31:16,742 And this is how science works a lot of the time. 478 00:31:17,076 --> 00:31:18,911 You set out to solve one problem, 479 00:31:18,945 --> 00:31:20,646 and you happen on a completely different, 480 00:31:20,679 --> 00:31:22,748 unexpected phenomenon. 481 00:31:25,451 --> 00:31:28,354 Those wonderfully inert, "harmless" CFCs, 482 00:31:28,921 --> 00:31:32,158 the magic molecules of shaving cream and hair spray, 483 00:31:32,992 --> 00:31:35,661 didn't simply vanish when we were done with them. 484 00:31:36,262 --> 00:31:39,398 They had an afterlife at the edge of space, 485 00:31:39,698 --> 00:31:42,668 where they accumulated in the trillions. 486 00:31:42,701 --> 00:31:45,871 They were silently congregating high above the Earth, 487 00:31:46,538 --> 00:31:48,707 and they were up to no good. 488 00:31:50,776 --> 00:31:53,712 Molina and Rowland were alarmed to discover that the 489 00:31:53,745 --> 00:31:57,616 CFCs had thinned the protective layer that shielded 490 00:31:57,649 --> 00:32:01,087 us from the Sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation. 491 00:32:01,120 --> 00:32:03,555 And it was getting worse all the time. 492 00:32:05,124 --> 00:32:07,326 When UV light hits a CFC molecule, 493 00:32:08,460 --> 00:32:11,397 it strips away the chlorine atoms. 494 00:32:11,430 --> 00:32:15,101 Once that happens, the chlorine atoms start devouring 495 00:32:15,134 --> 00:32:17,803 the precious ozone molecules. 496 00:32:18,070 --> 00:32:20,806 It wasn't until our planet developed an ozone layer, 497 00:32:20,839 --> 00:32:23,342 about two and a half billion years ago, 498 00:32:23,375 --> 00:32:26,578 that it was safe for life to leave the ocean for the land. 499 00:32:27,879 --> 00:32:33,785 A single chlorine atom can destroy 100,000 ozone molecules. 500 00:32:39,758 --> 00:32:44,130 CFCs were in everything, and the manufacturers couldn't 501 00:32:44,163 --> 00:32:46,165 imagine a world without it. 502 00:32:47,266 --> 00:32:50,002 The corporate response to this danger was that the 503 00:32:50,036 --> 00:32:52,338 science hadn't been settled. 504 00:32:52,938 --> 00:32:55,674 People had a hard time believing that we had become 505 00:32:55,707 --> 00:32:59,511 powerful enough as a species to endanger life on the planet. 506 00:33:01,080 --> 00:33:03,849 They looked for non-human causes for the loss of the 507 00:33:03,882 --> 00:33:05,684 ozone in the sky. 508 00:33:05,717 --> 00:33:08,220 One Reagan administration official suggested that 509 00:33:08,254 --> 00:33:12,124 everyone just wear more sunblock and put on a hat and sunglasses. 510 00:33:14,393 --> 00:33:16,895 But the scientists pointed out that the plankton, 511 00:33:16,928 --> 00:33:19,865 those tiny plants at the base of the global food chain, 512 00:33:19,898 --> 00:33:22,901 and the larger plants, were unlikely to do so. 513 00:33:24,036 --> 00:33:27,139 Molina and Rowland tirelessly worked to warn the world. 514 00:33:29,041 --> 00:33:31,643 ROWLAND: What's the use of having developed a science 515 00:33:31,677 --> 00:33:33,779 well enough to make predictions if, 516 00:33:33,812 --> 00:33:37,316 in the end, all we're willing to do is stand around and wait 517 00:33:37,349 --> 00:33:39,218 for them to come true? 518 00:33:40,152 --> 00:33:41,820 TYSON: Rowland and Cassandra would've had a lot 519 00:33:41,853 --> 00:33:43,522 to talk about. 520 00:33:43,555 --> 00:33:46,392 But then something amazing happened. 521 00:33:47,426 --> 00:33:49,861 There was a global outcry. 522 00:33:49,895 --> 00:33:53,031 People all over the world got involved. 523 00:33:53,299 --> 00:33:56,535 In the 1960s, the women of the world demanded an end to 524 00:33:56,568 --> 00:33:59,571 atmospheric nuclear testing because they didn't want to 525 00:33:59,605 --> 00:34:02,441 nurse their babies with poisoned milk. 526 00:34:02,874 --> 00:34:06,312 Then, in the '80s, consumers demanded that the corporations 527 00:34:06,345 --> 00:34:09,415 stop manufacturing CFCs. 528 00:34:09,448 --> 00:34:11,717 And you know what, little one? 529 00:34:11,750 --> 00:34:13,619 The governments listened. 530 00:34:13,652 --> 00:34:17,356 CFCs were banned in 197 countries. 531 00:34:17,389 --> 00:34:20,426 That's just about as many countries as there are on this planet. 532 00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:24,730 And that's why this is one danger you can cross 533 00:34:24,763 --> 00:34:27,299 off your worry list. 534 00:34:27,599 --> 00:34:31,002 The ozone layer has been getting thicker ever since. 535 00:34:35,741 --> 00:34:38,844 But what would've happened if Rowland and Molina 536 00:34:38,877 --> 00:34:41,847 hadn't been curious about the stratosphere, 537 00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:45,217 or if their warnings had been ignored as Cassandra's were? 538 00:34:45,251 --> 00:34:47,719 By the time of your 40th birthday, 539 00:34:47,753 --> 00:34:49,755 the ozone would have been all but gone from 540 00:34:49,788 --> 00:34:51,423 the entire planet. 541 00:34:51,457 --> 00:34:53,692 You would never have been able to take your own little ones 542 00:34:53,725 --> 00:34:56,495 out to bask in the sunshine. 543 00:34:58,697 --> 00:35:01,600 The food crops would have completely failed. 544 00:35:01,633 --> 00:35:03,735 The herbivores, those who live off them, 545 00:35:03,769 --> 00:35:05,604 would have died out. 546 00:35:05,637 --> 00:35:08,807 The carnivores would subsist on their corpses for a while, 547 00:35:08,840 --> 00:35:11,643 but ultimately they, too, would be doomed. 548 00:35:13,812 --> 00:35:17,616 If we continue to safeguard the ozone layer, 549 00:35:17,649 --> 00:35:21,387 it will be completely mended by your 50th birthday. 550 00:35:22,988 --> 00:35:24,990 I may not get to see it, 551 00:35:25,023 --> 00:35:27,926 but I have imagined what it might be like. 552 00:35:36,268 --> 00:35:39,104 TYSON: One last story, little one. 553 00:35:39,505 --> 00:35:41,307 It's about another person who had the power to 554 00:35:41,340 --> 00:35:43,609 foresee the future. 555 00:35:44,343 --> 00:35:48,580 His story remains unknown outside the scientific community. 556 00:35:48,947 --> 00:35:52,284 But even Apollo would've envied his power of prophecy. 557 00:35:53,385 --> 00:35:56,722 He foretold an epic tale of things to come with 558 00:35:56,755 --> 00:35:59,258 astonishing accuracy. 559 00:35:59,291 --> 00:36:04,129 And every one of us, including you, are in his debt. 560 00:36:09,868 --> 00:36:13,205 He was born in a rural part of Japan named Ehime, 561 00:36:14,105 --> 00:36:16,308 which means "Lovely Princess." 562 00:36:16,808 --> 00:36:19,311 A place of unspoiled natural beauty. 563 00:36:20,212 --> 00:36:22,814 But he spent much of his childhood buried beneath the 564 00:36:22,848 --> 00:36:24,850 surface of the earth. 565 00:36:25,116 --> 00:36:29,087 The cruelest war the world had ever seen had forced the boy 566 00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:32,023 and the people of his small town to hide in an underground 567 00:36:32,057 --> 00:36:33,825 bomb shelter. 568 00:36:34,493 --> 00:36:36,862 At first, Syukuro Manabe, 569 00:36:36,895 --> 00:36:41,099 or "Suki," wanted to be a doctor, like his father and grandfather. 570 00:36:45,237 --> 00:36:49,007 He discovered physics and became enchanted by it, 571 00:36:49,040 --> 00:36:51,510 but didn't think he could do the math. 572 00:36:52,378 --> 00:36:55,981 His grades were poor, until he began to concentrate 573 00:36:56,014 --> 00:36:58,417 on the questions that interested him most. 574 00:36:59,485 --> 00:37:03,955 Why is the atmosphere and climate of Earth the way that it is? 575 00:37:03,989 --> 00:37:07,192 He wondered why Earth maintained the same average 576 00:37:07,225 --> 00:37:10,095 global temperature year after year. 577 00:37:11,162 --> 00:37:14,333 What was keeping the planetary thermostat set at that 578 00:37:14,366 --> 00:37:16,468 particular temperature? 579 00:37:16,835 --> 00:37:20,439 Was it possible to take all the variables of the planet's climate 580 00:37:20,472 --> 00:37:22,341 its atmospheric pressure, 581 00:37:22,374 --> 00:37:25,311 cloud cover, humidity, surface conditions, 582 00:37:25,344 --> 00:37:27,646 ocean and wind currents; 583 00:37:27,679 --> 00:37:30,015 and create a climate model for the planet? 584 00:37:31,283 --> 00:37:34,219 One that had the power of prophecy? 585 00:37:35,186 --> 00:37:38,824 Now remember, this was before climatologists in Japan 586 00:37:38,857 --> 00:37:40,992 had any access to computers. 587 00:37:42,093 --> 00:37:45,431 He did these brain-numbing calculations by hand. 588 00:37:50,235 --> 00:37:53,872 In 1958, he was invited to immigrate to the United States 589 00:37:53,905 --> 00:37:55,841 by the US Weather Service. 590 00:37:56,575 --> 00:37:59,244 Five years later, Manabe was given access to 591 00:37:59,277 --> 00:38:01,279 one of the first "super computers." 592 00:38:05,517 --> 00:38:08,119 When the great volume of data about Earth's climate 593 00:38:08,153 --> 00:38:11,089 crashed the entire system, he was mortified. 594 00:38:13,659 --> 00:38:17,529 It took him another four years to assemble the evidence 595 00:38:17,563 --> 00:38:21,299 for a bold and tragic prediction. 596 00:38:43,489 --> 00:38:46,592 There are broken branches on the four-billion-year-old 597 00:38:46,625 --> 00:38:48,827 tree of life. 598 00:38:48,860 --> 00:38:52,263 And this is their monument. 599 00:38:52,598 --> 00:38:56,101 Each hallway memorializes the mass extinctions that 600 00:38:56,134 --> 00:39:00,806 were so widespread that life itself came close to dying. 601 00:39:01,707 --> 00:39:04,610 The first five catastrophes happened a long time 602 00:39:04,643 --> 00:39:06,745 before we got here. 603 00:39:06,778 --> 00:39:11,517 But the sixth is now, and it has our name on it. 604 00:39:24,329 --> 00:39:26,331 (growl) 605 00:39:29,435 --> 00:39:31,870 (wind) 606 00:39:39,778 --> 00:39:43,882 Sometimes prophecy comes as a cry from the heart of a Trojan princess, 607 00:39:44,716 --> 00:39:46,051 but it can also be the 608 00:39:46,084 --> 00:39:49,387 dry-as-dust title of a scientific paper. 609 00:39:49,421 --> 00:39:53,525 Thermal Equilibrium of the Atmosphere with a Given Distribution 610 00:39:53,559 --> 00:39:55,994 of Relative Humidity. 611 00:39:56,027 --> 00:39:57,228 Doesn't sound like, 612 00:39:57,262 --> 00:39:59,498 "The sky is falling, the sky is falling!" 613 00:39:59,531 --> 00:40:01,633 But that's what it said. 614 00:40:05,537 --> 00:40:09,274 Maybe this is where we should place our golden spike. 615 00:40:16,114 --> 00:40:18,717 Manabe and his colleague, Richard Wetherald, 616 00:40:18,750 --> 00:40:21,620 predicted how the temperature of the planet would change as 617 00:40:21,653 --> 00:40:24,756 a function of the increased greenhouse gases humans pumped 618 00:40:24,790 --> 00:40:26,825 into the atmosphere. 619 00:40:27,125 --> 00:40:29,961 The scientists foresaw precisely how the looming 620 00:40:29,995 --> 00:40:32,297 catastrophe would unfold. 621 00:40:34,432 --> 00:40:36,234 They saw far. 622 00:40:36,267 --> 00:40:40,138 Into our own time, and beyond. 623 00:40:43,241 --> 00:40:46,512 Some people still claim the science is unsettled, 624 00:40:46,545 --> 00:40:49,881 but if that's so, how was it possible for Manabe and 625 00:40:49,915 --> 00:40:52,651 Wetherald to correctly predict the rise in Earth's 626 00:40:52,684 --> 00:40:55,754 temperature across more than 50 years? 627 00:40:55,787 --> 00:40:57,956 And if it wasn't caused by us, 628 00:40:57,989 --> 00:41:00,892 where was all that carbon dioxide coming from? 629 00:41:01,126 --> 00:41:04,262 The larger community of climate scientists predicted 630 00:41:04,295 --> 00:41:06,698 heightened flooding of coastal cities, check. 631 00:41:06,732 --> 00:41:09,768 The mass death of coral reefs by ocean warming, check. 632 00:41:10,268 --> 00:41:13,539 The increase in intensity of catastrophic storms, check. 633 00:41:13,572 --> 00:41:15,140 Lethal heat waves, 634 00:41:15,173 --> 00:41:19,310 droughts and runaway wildfires of unprecedented magnitude, check. 635 00:41:20,378 --> 00:41:23,314 The scientists warned us. 636 00:41:28,219 --> 00:41:32,991 What about your future, your life, little one? 637 00:41:45,704 --> 00:41:48,840 Your first day of kindergarten was postponed until the 638 00:41:48,874 --> 00:41:52,377 thermometer dropped below the lethal temperature level. 639 00:42:01,219 --> 00:42:03,321 When the wildfires came, 640 00:42:03,354 --> 00:42:07,292 your family was forced to flee with nothing from your childhood home. 641 00:42:17,468 --> 00:42:20,538 Water was the champagne at your wedding. 642 00:42:40,592 --> 00:42:45,430 (wind) 643 00:42:56,174 --> 00:42:58,677 (distant cries) 644 00:43:01,613 --> 00:43:03,414 This doesn't have to be. 645 00:43:03,448 --> 00:43:05,684 It's not too late. 646 00:43:06,017 --> 00:43:09,755 There's another hallway, another future, we can still have. 647 00:43:11,222 --> 00:43:14,592 I promise to get you there. We'll find a way. 648 00:43:53,431 --> 00:43:55,433 Captioned by Cotter Captioning Services.