All language subtitles for Through the Wormhole s08e03 Can We Hack the Planet

Humanity is under threat

from storms
that seem to get fiercer...

Earthquakes that are
ever more deadly...

And killer viruses
that engulf the globe.

Are we powerless against
these forces of nature?

Or is it time for us to fight
back against planet Earth...

Tame the elements,
harness limitless power,

eliminate entire species

and bring others back to life?

Do we dare to play god
with our world?

Can we?

Should we...

Hack the planet?

Space, time, life itself.

The secrets of the cosmos
lie through the wormhole.

Captions by vitac...
www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by
discovery communications

we all know about hackers.

They hijack a system
meant to do one thing

and make it do
something different.

Usually, that means a computer.

But what if it was a planet?

Astronomers always say,

"Earth is the Goldilocks
planet, ideal for life."

But we know Earth isn't perfect.

Living here means dealing
with deadly natural forces

from plagues to drought
to natural disasters.

And with global warming,
things are getting worse.

Could we use technology
to manipulate an entire world?

Become hackers of planet Earth?

No place on the globe
is safe from nature's onslaught.

Our coastlines
are pounded by tsunamis,

hurricanes and cyclones.

The land we inhabit is riddled

with geological fault lines,

tormented by extremes
of temperature.

But one natural enemy
causes more human suffering

than all others combined.

And that enemy disguises itself

as a tiny flying insect.

Every year, mosquito-borne
diseases kill more

than a million people.

There's malaria, yellow fever,

encephalitis and dengue fever.

Brazilian entymologist
Guilherme Trivellato

knows this enemy personally.

He's a survivor of dengue.

It's the worst disease
I ever had.

Put me in bed,
all my bones were in pain.

My eyeballs were hurting a lot.

I don't want to have
that again, never again.

But planet Earth has
worse in store for us.

In his research outpost

in the Brazilian city
of Piracicaba,

Guilherme is fighting mosquitoes

that are armed
with a new weapon...

The zika virus.

Zika is coming.

And zika is a big menace
for the whole city

and the whole country
and even the whole world.

Even though a zika
infection is usually mild,

this virus poses an enormous
threat to humanity.

If it infects a pregnant woman,

the virus stunts the growth
of her unborn child's brain,

causing a devastating condition
called microcephaly.

Since zika can jump directly
from human to human,

the virus has spread
rapidly around the world,

a global threat
to an entire generation.

More than 40%
of the population of the world

is in contact
with this mosquito.

And that's a huge problem.

To fight the massive
threat posed by mosquitoes,

Guilherme and his team are
doing something radical.

They're giving up on man-made
weapons like insecticide.

Instead, they are hacking
into nature itself,

designing and releasing

genetically modified
mosquitoes into the wild,

letting nature fight nature.

It's quite weird,

the idea of releasing mosquitoes
to have less mosquitoes.

But I think in this project
that we are doing,

I have released something around
44 million mosquitoes already.

The way that we
developed this method

is to use one mosquito
against himself.

Instead of trying to
kill mosquitoes with poisons,

Guilherme and his colleagues

at the biotech firm
Oxitec are attacking them

with mosquitoes

which are genetically
modified to die young

and to pass on that fatal trait

to the entire wild population.

Sex is our secret weapon
in this case.

We changed the genome
of this mosquito in the lab.

We released the male mosquito to
seek for the female to copulate.

And when they do it,
all the offspring will die

before they reach adult phase.

To a female mosquito,
Guilherme's males look normal

and very suitable to breed with.

But they are stealth weapons,

carrying a genetic time bomb.

When the males are in the wild,

they mate with the females.

And all the offspring
of this couple

will carry his father's genes.

The larvae die before
he can bite someone,

before he can
transmit the disease.

Creating
a brand-new living organism

is not Guilherme's
only god-like task.

If his mutant male
mosquitoes are to spread

their premature death genes,

he has to keep them
alive long enough to mate.

Imagine the bike
Guilherme is riding

is a mosquito carrying
the death gene.

And a flat tire
is its fatal flaw.

Because it can't get far
with a flat tire,

Guilherme uses a tire patch kit
to keep it going.

That tire patch is an antibiotic
called tetracycline,

which attaches to the death gene

and temporarily turns it off.

When we get tetracycline,

it's like we're filling up
the tire of the bike.

And the mosquito can go long
and reach the adult phase.

This antidote is good
for just 14 days.

But that's long enough
for the mosquito to mate.

Its offspring are not so lucky.

They have the death gene
but no antidote.

In the wild, the offspring
carrying the same gene

won't have the equipment
to repair the tire.

And that's why they end up
dying in the larval stage.

Get enough mutant
mosquitoes out there,

and most of the next generation
of disease-bearers

will be doomed to die.

After releasing mutant
mosquitoes for a year,

Guilherme saw cases
of dengue fever

in his neighborhood plummet
from 133 to just 12.

Once we started
to release, in 4 to 6 months,

we can see, like, a huge
knockout on the population.

We don't hear about
dengue fever anymore

in the area
that we are treating.

It was once one of
the most hot spots

for dengue fever in the city
before we started the project.

Since the trial began
before zika hit Brazil,

he can't compare its before
and after numbers.

But the death gene method

is blind to which
disease mosquitoes carry.

The results that
we have for dengue fever,

we will certainly have
the same results for zika virus.

Because we are
killing the mosquito.

If you don't have the mosquito,

you don't have
any of those diseases.

Hacking the genes
of the mosquitoes

could save millions
of human lives.

But hacking into the ecosystem,

even if to rid the world
of devastating disease,

is not welcome by
all the residents of Piracicaba.

Releasing into the wild genes
that trigger death is,

for some, a shocking escalation
of GMO technology.

We work with media
and TV, radio, newspaper.

We deliver leaflets.

We also pass house by house,

carrying a cage
with the male mosquito.

So that people can see
that it's true

that the male does not bite.

The male doesn't
transmit any disease.

The males cannot harm anyone.

As zika has spread
to the United States,

so have the fears
that scientists

are messing with mother nature

with as yet unknown
consequences.

But Guilherme and his colleagues

and Oxitec argue their technique
is a smarter

and safer way to fight
mosquito-borne disease.

The beauty of this
thing is that it's the most

environmental friendly way
to fight the mosquito.

That without releasing 1 gram
of pesticide in the environment,

we're not going
to harm bumblebees.

We're not going
to harm honey bees.

We're not going to harm
any other insects

in the environment.

Hacking into the basic
biology of life

is merely science's first step

in combating the deadly
forces of nature.

Every year, millions of people

suffer the wrath
of natural disasters

like hurricanes and tornadoes.

We can't hope to build defenses

against these colossal forces.

But perhaps we can use
our ingenuity to tame them.

Sometimes, it feels like
the Earth is out to get us.

When Katrina hit New Orleans,

it took more than 1,000 lives

and flooded 80% of the city.

Hurricanes are so powerful,
they can take water

and turn it into a swirling
vortex of destruction.

Today, we are building
better defenses.

But they're never guaranteed
to hold off nature's power.

Maybe we're going about
this the wrong way.

Could we use our ingenuity

to hack into nature directly?

And turn a storm
into a tempest in a teacup?

Every year, hurricanes
and tropical storms

kill around 10,000 people.

They cause billions
of dollars in damage.

With rising sea levels
and rising temperatures,

the toll is only
going to get worse.

Dr. Stephen salter,

one of Britain's leading
marine inventors believes

we can turn back this
rising tide of destruction.

But the only way is to suck
the life out of the storms

before they grow too big.

It gets very difficult

to stop hurricanes once
they've really got going.

The amounts of energy
are really enormous.

And you end up
with a cubic meter of water

having about the same energy

as 12 grams of TNT.

So a cubic kilometer is about
the same as Hiroshima.

And this is very
difficult to control.

A category-5 hurricane

is among the deadliest weapons
in nature's arsenal.

It can be larger
than the state of Texas

and release more energy

than our largest nuclear bombs.

After Katrina,
we were kicking around ways

of trying to prevent
another Katrina.

And the focus is to try
and reduce

the sea surface temperatures.

Warm, surface water
near the equator

is the seed of every hurricane.

When the warm water
evaporates and rises,

it forms thunder clouds

that are whipped
into a spiral shape

by the Earth's rotation.

When these winds hit
74 miles per hour,

a hurricane is born.

We cannot compete
with a full-grown hurricane.

But Stephen thinks we can
drain them of their power,

if we get them
while they're young.

We all know about
oil and vinegar.

Because one is lighter
than the other,

it floats to the surface.

The same is true for the warm
and cold airs in the ocean.

Brown vinegar is the cold water.

And the yellow oil
is the warm water.

And it's the warm water

that's doing the damage
to hurricane growth.

And what we want
to do is to bury

that warm water
somewhere down deep.

But it's one thing

to mix up the contents
of a water glass.

It's another to mix up
the entire ocean.

And that's the hurricane
hack Stephen is working on.

This is a test tank,

where we can test
models of any devices

with any sea state
at about a hundredth scale.

And we can make
highly repeatable

and accurate representations
of very realistic seas.

Today, Stephen is testing

his newest
hurricane-taming device.

It's called the salter sink.

What I'm trying to do here

is to move a layer of warm water

down to bury it deep

in all the cold water,

using only the energy
from the existing sea waves.

Like any sink,
salter's device collects

and drains water.

Warm water from
the ocean's surface

enters the device
through one-way valves.

As water gets trapped
in the center,

the sea level there
rises slightly.

This creates a downward pressure

as the water levels
try to equalize,

driving the warmer water

through a tube
into the colder layer

deeper in the ocean.

In full scale,
this would be made

as a network
of used tires latched together.

The idea of this
is that we can't afford

to make anything strong enough

to resist the forces
of big seas,

so what we want is something
that can bend enough

to move with a punch.

The salter sink is made
of recycled materials

and requires no power
other than the waves themselves.

But to stop a hurricane,

we'd need to build them
very big,

with diameters more than twice
the length of a football field

and plastic tubes
dropping down nearly as deep.

Stephen imagines
nearly 500 sinks

dotting the ocean's surface,
draining away the warm water

fuel that powers hurricanes.

He knows that his invention
might be a long shot.

But with destructive storms
becoming more common,

Stephen believes
we must dream big.

I think we have to try to do it.

But at least I can go
to my grave saying,

"I've tried to do my bit."

If we can tame the ocean's fury,

coastal cities would become
safer places to live.

And with our
ever-growing population,

we need every patch
of land we can get.

But will planet Earth fit
11 billion human beings?

And even if it can,
what are we going to eat?

Can we hack deserts into oases?

We think of Earth
as a fertile planet.

It provides vast
quantities of food

with its abundant green fields.

But by the end of this century,

that will be 11 billion of us.

And take a look
at the land that's left.

Desert.

Will we all bite the dust?

Or is there a way to hack it?

Most architects design homes
and office buildings.

But Michael Pollan
is thinking bigger.

He wants to redesign
the driest places on Earth

by mimicking
the designs of nature.

Biomimicry is about
looking to nature

as the source of inspiration
for design solutions.

In biology, there's
an amazing source book

of ready-made solutions
for many of the big challenges

that we face over
the next few decades.

Feeding everybody in
the world is a challenge today.

And it's only going
to get more difficult.

And right now, we're not
creating new farmland.

In fact, we're doing
just the opposite.

A lot of the world's deserts
have only been that way

for a fairly short amount
of time.

And they're that way because
humans made them that way.

A lot of north Africa,
when Julius Caesar arrived,

was this wooded landscape.

Caesar's armies set about
clearing those forests.

And within about 200 years,

they had substantially
trashed that landscape.

And once you've made that flip,

it's very difficult
to get it back.

Today, one-third
of all land on Earth is desert.

Case in point,
the Arab state of Qatar.

It's bordered on three
sides by water,

but that water
is too salty for farming.

Michael began thinking about
how to get rid of the salt.

He researched traditional
desalination plants.

But found they were
too expensive.

Then he came across
a tiny creature

that seemed to have
the problem figured out.

The Namibian fog-basking beetle

is an amazing example
of an adaptation to a very

resource-constrained
environment.

What the beetle does is it

comes out of its
hiding place at night,

it crawls to the top
of a sand dune.

And then because it's got
this matte black shell,

it's able to radiate heat
out to the night sky.

And it becomes slightly cooler
than its surroundings.

And as the moist breeze blows
in off the sea,

you get droplets of water
forming on the cool shell.

Just before the sun comes up,

it tips the shell up, the water
runs down to its mouth.

It has a good drink,
goes off and hides

for the rest of the day.

Michael began sketching designs

for an equivalent
of the beetle's shell

that farmers could use
to give plants a drink.

Usually, we use greenhouses
to trap the sun's heat.

But Michael turned
that idea upside down.

In the desert, at night,

the outer surface
of a greenhouse

becomes very cool

and could condense water
from the air around it.

I put a mirror
in the ice box to cool down.

If we hold this over
a bit of hot water,

we should find that we get
condensation forming

that leaves the salt
behind in the solution

and it just evaporates
pure water into the air.

Michael has designed
a greenhouse

which uses solar energy
to pump in warm seawater.

That water flows into a space
between two roof layers,

where it soaks
into cardboard pads.

At nights, that roof
loses heat to the night sky

and becomes cooler
than its surroundings

so that you can get this
condensation forming.

The roof is at an angle.

And once that starts
to form droplets,

then we can use
that to water the plants.

Michael put his
greenhouse to the test in Qatar.

It was the opening salvo
of what he calls

"the Sahara forest project".

And soon, it was producing
fruits and vegetables

just like European farmland.

By bringing concentrated
solar power

and the saltwater-cooled
greenhouse together,

we're using what
we have a lot of...

Sunlight, seawater,
and carbon dioxide...

To produce more of what we need.

With the success in Qatar,

Michael's ready to scale up
his designs

and transform deserts

into bread baskets
all around the globe.

The project in Qatar
was 2 1/2 acres.

There's the potential
to go really big.

Five years down the road,
we hope that we will have,

significantly scaled up.

And we'll be producing

really massive
quantities of food in some

of the most water-distressed
parts of the world.

Humanity has been
decimating ecosystems

for millennia.

But now we have the chance
to use technology and ingenuity

to restore them,

transforming the face
of our planet.

If a beetle can do it, then we
ought to be able to do it.

Humans are ingenious.

By turning deserts
into fertile places,

we could dramatically boost
the world's food supply.

But why do deserts become
deserts in the first place?

Because the ecosystems that made
them fertile have collapsed.

There may be a hack
for this, too,

bringing long-extinct
species back.

Scientists have identified
upwards of 8 million species

now living on our planet.

But they're disappearing.

For every thousand species
that has ever lived,

there's only one that
is still around.

And our life depends
on other life.

When just a handful
of species dies,

it can bring down
an entire ecosystem.

Rich forests can
turn into desert,

just like they did
in the Sahara.

The first step to prevent
the demise of our species

might be to bring another
one back from the dead.

On her day off, molecular
paleontologist Beth Shapiro

likes to drink
in the abundance of nature.

You would, too,
if your day job...

Took you to the Siberian tundra.

Few places on Earth
are as barren and desolate.

But the tundra
only became that way

because its animal
populations died.

Extinction is a natural process.

But the rate of extinction
today is not natural.

We're in a crisis.

But Beth is working on a fix,

one that sounds
like science fiction.

She's bringing dead species
back to life.

It's clear that
the Siberian tundra

would benefit greatly
from having

a large herbivore up there,

roaming around and distributing
nutrients and regenerating

that rich grassland
that used to be there.

A large herbivore,
say an elephant,

could start to turn things
around in Siberia.

Except that no elephant
can survive in Siberia.

But Beth knows an elephant-like
creature that could...

The long-extinct wooly mammoth.

Asian elephants can't
live in the frozen tundra,

but a mammoth could.

So if we want to take
an Asian elephant

and turn it into an animal
that can live in the tundra,

we're going to have to find

those characteristics
of a mammoth

and somehow
get those characteristics

into an Asian elephant.

Beth's plan is to hack together

the DNA of two species

separated by tens of thousands
of years of evolution.

But first, she needs to get
her hands on mammoth DNA.

One of the best places
in the world

to find DNA in bones
is in the arctic.

And that's because those bones
get buried in the permafrost.

It's like sticking it
in a freezer.

So this is really cool.

What we just found,
you can see, is one, two, three,

four pieces of mammoth
bone here.

This is part of a vertebrae.

So you can see how big this is.

Recovering mammoth
bones is surprisingly easy.

But it's a different story
with the DNA inside them.

My job,

once I've gotten
the DNA out of this bone,

is to take all of those tiny
little fragments of mammoth DNA

and figure out how they line up
against the elephant genome.

That's how we really
start to piece together

what a mammoth genome
looks like.

Because mammoth DNA
comes in bits and pieces,

Beth has to put them together
in the right order,

using closely related modern
elephant DNA as a template.

Building a mammoth is a bit like
building mail-order furniture.

Suppose someone
sent you a chair,

but it came in many pieces.

And they forgot to
include the instructions.

You have to figure out
which piece does what.

If you tried to make
a mammoth like this,

you'd wind up
with a monstrosity.

But now suppose you started

with a fully assembled elephant.

And all you had
to do was modify it.

To make it in Siberia,

it will need some
mammoth pieces.

Long, thick hair...

larger tusks...

And thicker layers of fat.

You'd end up with a hybrid

that's neither elephant
nor mammoth,

but a new custom species
of your own design.

With 21st-century gene editing,

Beth thinks we're close
to achieving this godlike feat.

De-extinction is
still science fiction.

But there are many
scientists out there

who are trying to make it
cross that divide,

to become science
instead of science fiction.

As humanity demands

ever more of our planet's
resources, Beth believes

custom-designing species
to revive

dying ecosystems will become
a vital technique.

Now as our population
continues to grow

and we need bigger cities
and more agriculture,

we can use this
technology to provide

a little bit of
an evolutionary booster shot,

if you will, to protect species
that are alive today,

to protect ecosystems that are
still here while we can.

Hacking into the animal kingdom

could keep our planet
in balance,

even as our population swells.

But if we can't slow
down global warming,

aren't we all doomed?

Or can technology kick
climate change... Into reverse?

Our civilization
depends on things

that spew carbon dioxide...

Cars, airplanes, power plants.

We're always hearing about how
if we want to save the world,

we'll need to get
rid of all that.

But is there a radically
different solution out there?

Is all that carbon
dioxide really the enemy?

Or is it a potential ally?

Canadian engineer
Jeffrey Holmes understands

that all living
things make a mess.

But Jeffrey believes if we're
going to save the planet,

we need to reuse
the mess we make.

Carbon dioxide.

Today, we make most of our power

by burning carbon-based fuel
dug up from the Earth.

Carbon dioxide is
the waste product we release

that's trapping the sun's heat

and causing all of
our climate problems.

So co2 in the air,
it's a bit like this dirt.

We need some amount.
It's useful.

But too much,
we've got ourselves a mess.

If we don't clean up the mess,
it just continues to build.

In Squamish, British Columbia,

Jeffrey and his colleagues
at carbon engineering

are working on a hack
for the entire atmosphere.

It begins the same way
you clean up a pile of dirt

except with a much
bigger vacuum.

Now, the ability to take
co2 back out of the air,

turn it into something useful,
it's like reusing dirt.

That's a game changer
kind of idea.

Jeffrey didn't invent the idea

of capturing
carbon dioxide for fuel.

Trees do it all the time.

But Jeffrey's prototype
carbon plant

take this idea
and turbocharges it.

It starts by sucking air

into a big box
called an air contacter.

Inside, the carbon dioxide
in the air combines

with a chemical solution

and is converted into
pellets of synthetic,

carbon-based fuel.

We can take the co2
that's produced by this plant.

We can form molecules
of octane or diesel

or any of the other fuels
that we use in transportation.

When your car gives off
co2 in its exhaust,

that gas usually builds up
in the atmosphere.

But Jeffrey's plant
captures that gas

and turns it back into fuel.

No more waste, no more mess.

If he's going to do
this on a global scale,

however,

Jeffrey's going to need
a lot more fans.

We could build large,
factory-scale facilities.

So instead of one fan
on the unit behind me,

we'd have hundreds or even
a couple thousand fans.

Because carbon dioxide

is everywhere
in Earth's atmosphere,

we could build these plants
wherever there's space for them.

And because they devour carbon
dioxide much faster than trees,

we could not only
stop global warming.

We might even reverse it.

But such a massive project
would take decades.

And that's time we may not have.

That's the worry
of Jeffrey's boss,

David Keith,
founder of carbon engineering.

Even if we could bring
emissions to zero tomorrow,

that doesn't eliminate
the carbon risk.

We might already
have put enough carbon

in the atmosphere
to make west Antarctica melt

and drown a bunch of cities.

So we need backup options.

David thinks we might
be able to turn down

the temperature dial
on the whole planet.

But it would take a radical idea

called solar geoengineering,

a kind of sunscreen
for the planet.

In 1991, the eruption

of mount Pinatubo
in the Philippines

spewed 20 million tons
of sulfur dioxide

into the Earth's stratosphere.

It was one of the most
devastating eruptions

in a century.

But it had one positive effect.

It spewed a cloud of tiny
sulfuric-acid particles

all across the stratosphere,

which reflected some
of the sun's heat.

Over the next 2 years,

the entire planet
cooled by 1 degree Fahrenheit.

Sulfuric acid is
the most common suggestion

for stratospheric
solar geoengineering,

simply because it's what nature
does with big volcanoes.

A big volcano can
put enough sulfuric acid

in the stratosphere
to cool the whole planet.

Now that our climate
appears to be changing rapidly,

David has a short-term solution.

Pollute on purpose.

Pretend I'm a giant,
20 kilometers tall.

Typical commercial aircraft fly

at about this altitude,
say 10 kilometers.

The stratosphere
starts somewhere

between about here
and about here.

And the tropical stratosphere
may be at this altitude.

It'd be the place where
people would put aircraft.

They would release particles

if we were going
to do solar geoengineering.

David's radical
proposal is to use

a fleet of airplanes
to dump millions of tons

of sulfur-dioxide particles
into the stratosphere,

where high winds
would keep them aloft.

When combined with water vapor,

they would do just
what the volcano did,

bounce back heat from the sun.

David admits
his stop gap measure

has some ugly side effects,

like smog and acid rain.

But it will buy us the time
to develop better solutions.

I got involved in the
solar geoengineering

really because of a taboo.

I was curious of why people
wouldn't talk about something

that seemed like it
might be important.

Of course meddling
with nature scares me.

That's precisely
why I work on this topic.

We may one day turn the
tables on our changing climate.

But one scientist thinks

we have a better future
beyond the atmosphere,

in outer space.

He's working on
an extension cord to the sun.

We're on the brink of making

some serious upgrades
to planet Earth.

Scientists are already
envisioning the day

when we can regulate
the global temperature,

control storms,

bring our deserts back to life

and when we can manipulate
our fellow creatures,

both big and small,

to make the world safer.

But there's more we can
do to hack the Earth.

Out there, beyond the sky,

is a source of energy
that is unimaginably vast.

If we could tap into that,

we would truly become
masters of the planet.

For spacecraft
engineer Paul Jaffe,

thinking big is part
of the job description.

Living on the Earth,
it's easy to forget

there are tremendous resources
out there.

The sun is unique
among the sources

of energy that we're exploring

because it is
effectively limitless.

If you look at fossil fuels,

which are limited
and will run out,

there is no such fundamental
limit with the sun.

Solar panels are nothing new.

We've been building them
for decades.

And they supply the majority

of our satellites
with free power.

Today, Paul is working on a way

to collect the sun's energy

for all of us,

directly from outer space

without any of the limitations
of solar panels on the ground.

When we collect
sunlight in space,

not only is it brighter
than anywhere on Earth,

we don't have to worry
about nighttime.

We don't have to worry
about clouds or rain.

We have essentially
unlimited access

to sunlight in space.

We just need to bring
the energy to Earth.

The first challenge would be

building enormous
solar arrays in outer space.

But that's not
slowing Paul down.

The good news is, is it's easier

to build large things in space

than you might realize.

The spacecraft would be larger

than anything we've
built in space before.

But because we're building it
in a zero-gravity environment,

it's actually a lot easier
to build, in some ways,

than building
a similar-sized structure

would be on the ground.

But if we build a solar
farm orbiting the Earth,

there's another challenge.

How on Earth do we get
that energy... Down?

Imagine you tried to run
an extension cord

from a satellite in space.

That satellite is
whipping around the planet

at thousands of miles an hour.

You could fix this by putting
it in an orbital sweet spot,

so it's always over
the same place on Earth.

But then you'd need
an extension cord

that's 22,000 miles long.

Fortunately, Paul and his team

at the U.S. naval
research laboratory

think we don't need
a cord at all.

This is a model of how
the space solar concept works.

We have the sun
through the satellite

and the receiver on the ground.

The sunlight in space
gets to the satellite.

In the satellite, we have
the solar panel on top,

which converts the electricity
into direct current.

And then the electronics,
which convert

that direct current
into a radio signal.

A radio signal
is sent to the ground,

where it is received and
converted back to electricity

that we would use at home
or in our places of work.

Transmitting energy across space

sounds like magic.

But we do it all the time.

Our radios, cellphones,

and microwave ovens
all move energy

through invisible waves.

So does the Wi-Fi signal
in your home.

We use Wi-Fi
every day to send data.

But we can also use
it to send power.

Using just my phone
and the Wi-Fi signal,

I'm going to power
this led bulb,

just using the Wi-Fi signal
from my phone.

Imagine if we could take this

and scale it up
to power the entire world.

Paul and his team
have already built a tiny

working prototype
of the satellite

they want to put into orbit.

It combines a thin layer
of solar panels

with special electronics

that convert the energy
to a radio signal.

To ensure it will work
in outer space,

Paul puts it through its paces

in a series of test chambers.

One of them simulates
the vacuum of space,

another simulates
the extreme cold.

This is not science fiction.

We have it. It works.

It can be made
into a real system.

A full-sized
solar system in space

would be nine times longer

than the international
space station.

Too massive to launch
on a single rocket,

it would be assembled
piece-by-piece

by a team of robots.

Meanwhile, we'd be building
a big receiver called

a rectenna on the ground.

The rectenna would look
like a big mesh.

So the sunlight would
come through it,

you could grow crops under that.

You could raise
livestock under that.

You could even collect
regular solar energy

so you had that
as an extra source

of energy during the day.

Paul wants to outfit
his rectennas

with the same wireless
power system as his satellites.

That means we wouldn't have
to plug them into anything.

But what will happen
to life on Earth

when we start shooting beams
of energy around?

People often ask,
"well, won't this fry birds?"

And the answer is no because
the power density is too low.

You are not going to walk
under it and get melted.

It's not gonna
knock down planes.

And these invisible
beams of energy from satellites

would supply
a huge amount of power.

A given satellite would
probably be about a gigawatt,

enough for a small city.

With just a few
thousand of these satellites,

we could cover
all of the current

and projected future
demand for energy

for our civilization.

A few thousand
satellites would cost a fortune.

But as we learn to reuse rockets

and mass-produce satellites,

the cost of putting
things in space

is rapidly going down.

And Paul thinks we'll
spend the money anyway.

The only question is how.

For tens of billions of dollars,

we can kick our addiction
to fossil fuels.

This is going to be way less

than the economic impact
of global warming.

That doesn't come free.

That's going to be
extraordinarily expensive.

If we didn't have to worry
about energy anymore,

think about what our lives
could become.

Energy would be as effortless

and easy and unconscious

as we think now about breathing.

The human race has spent
most of its history

doing whatever it liked
to this planet.

Cutting down forests,

hunting species to extinction

and polluting without
a care in the world.

But in the past half century,

some of us began to realize

that we have to limit
our footprint.

However, unless
the entire world agrees

to tread lightly,

environmentalism
isn't going to be enough.

We have to actively
undo our past mistakes.

And when we gain
confidence in our ability

to hack the planet,

we can try to make this world
better than it has ever been.

Of course, when you hack
into anything,

you run the risk
of crashing the system.

But it's a risk we may
soon have to take.

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