All language subtitles for PBS.Humanity.from.Space.720p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.eng

-Today, over 7 billion of us
inhabit the Earth...

...in a technological society
of breathtaking complexity.

Now, for the first time,

we can visualize the invisible
bonds that link us all together.

-The world has really shrunk.

We can take in a snapshot of
our entire planet in one view.

-It reveals a fascinating web
of manmade networks

that allow us to thrive

and connect all of us.

Our interconnected planet

has been thousands of years
in the making.

What pivotal moments
forged our global society?

What flashes of ingenuity
allowed us to flourish?

Our success has triggered
a vast population explosion,

straining our global networks.

-This massive increase
of at least 2 billion people

is unprecedented.

-There's gonna be some very big
challenges in the near future

for how we can sustain
this human population.

-To meet these challenges
we'll require

our humanity's long tradition
of ingenuity and innovation.

-How to feed 9 billion people

is obviously
a headache-inducing question.

This is not an easy thing to do.

-The way we do it now
cannot last forever,

and so we're going to have to
find some alternative solutions.

-This is the story
of how our ingenuity

created the modern world

and how it will shape
our future...

as seen from space.

"Humanity From Space"
is made possible

in part by contributions to your
PBS station from

viewers like you...

Thank you!

Our modern world
is a marvel to behold.

We've built a society

that's completely dependent
on technology.

Today, this technology
doesn't just govern our lives...

...it allows us to see

a new and fascinating global
perspective of ourselves...

...revealing,
for the first time,

just how complex
our society has become.

Our new planetary perspective

shows billions of us
are constantly on the move...

...by land...

...sea...

...and air...

how we communicate
with each other...

...and illuminates our
insatiable hunger for food...

water...

and power.

The ability to see humanity
on a global scale

reveals something profound.

For the first time
in our history,

we are completely interdependent
on each other.

-This has changed
our perception of the world.

Today, we live
in a global civilization,

and this enhances
our appreciation of the planet

because we now see it all
as one piece.

-And what we're seeing
is just how interconnected,

how everyone
on planet Earth today

is a part of one vast,
planet-spanning network.

-It's easy to take

these life-sustaining networks
for granted,

but each grew
over thousands of years.

Forged from the simplest ideas

that led to seismic shifts
in human behavior.

[ Morse code beeping ]

-By explaining
the human ingenuity

that built these networks,

we can tell the story of how
our modern world came to be,

seen from the perspective
of space.

To tell our story,
we must travel back in time...

...over 12,000 years.

Long before
the world we know existed.

To a time
when less than 5 million humans

inhabited the Earth.

The fertile crescent
in the Eastern Mediterranean

10,000 B.C.

It's here the story
of our modern world begins

through one of the most
significant innovations

in human history.

For tens of thousands of years,

we lived in small tribes
of hunters and gatherers.

As nomads, we constantly roamed
the land in search of food.

But something happened
in these rich soils

that completely changed
the course of human behavior.

Rather than gathering seeds
to eat, we planted them.

-Planting seeds is hugely
significant in human history

because it's a completely
different way

of feeding ourselves.

[ Sheep bleating ]

-The new idea of farming wasn't
restricted to the Middle East.

Independently, other tribes
in different parts of the world

began to have the same thought.

From a global perspective,

it's possible to see where
the roots of farming took hold.

In Mexico, the Olmecs planted
maize around 9,000 years ago.

8,000 years ago,
in the Peruvian Andes,

the first potatoes
were pulled from the ground.

The first rice was sown
in the Pearl River Valley

in China 7,000 years ago.

And wheat spread into Europe
by 3,000 B.C.

-Humanity went through
a very transformative shift.

We went from being hunters,
gatherers, foragers

like we'd been for most of
the 200,000 years of our history

to beginning to be farmers.

-For the first time,
farming not only provided

a reliable source of food,
it provided a surplus,

which had huge consequences
for humanity.

-The change from
hunter/gathering to farming

is absolutely fundamental.

It's really what allows us,
for the first time,

to stay in one place.

We don't have to run around
looking for our food anymore.

-Farming allowed us
to gather together.

In these fledgling settlements,

we strengthened another
human trait...

cooperation.

Working together
for the greater good

meant we shared
new ideas and skills

allowing our ingenuity
to flourish.

-And those people can go off

and specialize
in new roles in society.

They can become
expert carpenters or weavers

or blacksmiths,
and it's through this process,

founded on agriculture,

that you build complex,
capable civilizations.

-With our newfound skills,

we constructed
our first civilizations,

the ruins of which
we can still see today

found in regions where
we first learned to farm.

Farming allowed us
to build our first cities,

like Jericho...

Eribil...

and Byblos...

...The oldest of which have
been inhabited for 11,000 years.

These are the roots
of our modern world.

-The simple act
of planting a seed

transformed the way we are
as a species.

It made it possible
to congregate in settlements

which eventually became cities,
which eventually became

the heart of ideas
and technology and art,

and the global, connected
society that we have today.

-The Roman, Greek, Mayan,
and Mongolian Empires

were all governed from cities.

Cities that became the first
great hubs of human innovation,

all of which were built
on the foundations of farming.

But what's surprising
is few grew to have populations

greater than a million people.

To create today's mega cities

would take another huge shift
in human behavior.

A shift triggered by another
seemingly insignificant event.

These are our modern cities
from space.

From up here,
it's possible to see

how numerous and vast
they have become.

Many are home
to over 20 million people.

Some have merged
to form giant metropolises,

huge, urban networks
that stretch hundreds of miles,

where more than 50 million of us
have gathered.

-You see major metropolises

all the way up
across the Appalachians,

down the entire
eastern seaboard,

up into the granite
and the ice of Canada,

and you can see all that
in one view.

-In the 90 minutes it takes
for us to orbit the Earth,

we can see the impact
of humanity all around us.

We could see that humanity
has spread all over the globe.

-Today,
we take our cities for granted,

but modern society as we know it
couldn't exist without them.

Over 500 worldwide now contain
more than 1 million people.

What's surprising is
their incredible growth

started just 250 years ago.

-For most of human history,
cities were the exception.

You know, there were
a handful of large ones

and very few in general.

Most of humanity
lived on the land,

and that situation lasted
for thousands of years.

-So, what triggered the
phenomenal growth of our cities?

Great Britain, 1765.

While most of us work
in the fields...

this man,
Scottish engineer James Watt,

sees a way of improving a recent
invention -- the steam engine.

Until now, steam engines were
primitive and had limited uses.

But with just
a few crucial tweaks,

Watt designs a steam engine
that's far more efficient,

one that burns 70% less coal.

Watt's ingenuity unleashes
steam's astonishing potential

with unimaginable consequences.

-We've had
three incredible leaps forward

in our human history.

The first was the discovery
of how to control fire,

the second was how to farm,
and the third massive difference

was made when we learned how to
harness steam to produce power.

[ Steam hissing ]

-Engineers embrace
Watt's engine,

ushering in a new wave of human
innovation almost overnight.

Suddenly, a single steam-powered
water pump in a coal mine

could replace
a team of 500 horses,

and now we could manufacture
not just with our hands,

but with machines.

-And so for the first time,
human society was freed

from constraints
of just using muscle power,

and now you could use machinery.

-Steam power had
a profound effect on our lives.

In hundreds of factories,
new machines brought about

mass production
on a scale unheard of...

...triggering a huge shift
in the labor force.

-No longer do we find work
in the countryside as farmers.

Suddenly, work and opportunity
is located in the city,

in the factories that
are transforming society.

-Before 1800,
few people ever left the village

where they were born.

Transporting them to the cities
to fill the factories

required another revolution...

...One that was also
driven by steam.

[ Train whistle blows ]

-The railways can bring in food,

they can bring in coal,
they can bring in people.

Cities just --
they just roll out.

-And this in itself
became a transformative episode

in human behavior,
in human history.

It opened up the world to us.

-The amazing thing that happens

is that cities can grow
as big as they like

because the railways
can bring the food in,

they can bring the coal in,
it can bring the people in.

You know,
so these things just go "Pbht!"

I mean, you know, you get

a great metropolitan splat,
basically.

-Nowhere is more affected
than Manchester in England.

Thanks to James Watt,

this sleepy market town
soon succumbs to steam power.

With the coming of the railways,

tens of thousands of people
flock in from the countryside

seeking work
in its new factories.

In just 50 years,
Manchester's population soars

from 20,000 to 160,000 people...

as it becomes the world's
first industrialized city.

-The industrial revolution
is absolutely huge.

Basically, the discovery of
steam makes it possible for us

to produce things, and it's
a complete game changer.

-The industrial revolution draws
people together as never before.

For the first time
in human history,

the population of cities around
the world expands massively,

running into millions
in just a few decades.

It's another giant leap forward

in building today's
modern world.

-We see it in India,
we see it in China,

we see it in Tokyo.

Suddenly, you have factory
cities like Detroit

springing up
from a quarter million people

to a million people
in a single decade.

-And it's just extraordinary.

The whole thing
turns on its head.

Cities explode.

-The industrial revolution
triggers

one of the greatest
mass migrations

the modern world
has ever witnessed,

ushering in the urban age.

-If we come to something
like 1800,

there's still only
3% of the global population

living in cities.

Then we get steam power,
we get railways,

the industrial revolution,
and [whistles]

completely hockey stick curve.

-And what started 200 years ago
continues today.

-There's 1.2 million people

moving into cities every week
globally at the moment.

This is extraordinary.

-This human shift has led
to a unique moment

in the history of humanity.

-In the year 2006,

something hugely significant
happened in the human story.

Basically, this year is
the first in history

when more people are living in
cities than in the countryside.

-The industrial revolution

led us to become
a truly urban society.

But keeping
the modern world running

would require another spark
of ingenuity.

Something that would lead

to the greatest engineering
network on the planet.

Something we connect with
across continents

without which the modern world
wouldn't function.

October 28th, 2011, Vandenberg
Air Force Base, California.

-3...2...
Main engine start.

1...zero.

And liftoff of the Delta II.

-NASA launches
the Suomi satellite.

It's designed to study
the world's weather.

But with an electronic eye
hundreds of times more sensitive

that previous satellites,
it reveals something remarkable.

The interconnectivity
of our electrified world.

This is the black marble...

a cloudless composite
of the entire world

made up of thousands of images
collected from Suomi

over 312 orbits.

It reveals almost every light
we've switched on

from office blocks to houses
to individual street lights.

-When I look at the NASA black
marble images, my mind boggles.

It is an amazing illustration
of the impact that electricity

and our power grids have had
on the human species.

-Here, the Nile River shines
as a ribbon of light

that fans out
at the river's delta

just above the city of Cairo.

These are the lights
of hundreds of fishing trawlers.

Unwittingly, they pick out
an invisible manmade boundary

as they patrol
their territorial waters.

We can even see
who's embraced the modern world.

South Korea blazes with light

while North Korea
remains almost entirely dark.

All these lights have
one thing in common --

They require electricity.

-It's hard to overstate

just how important electricity
is to our lives today.

From when we wake up in
the morning to getting to work

to doing our work
to going to bed at night.

Almost everything we do
involves electricity

in one way or the other.

-There's no doubt
electrification marks

a seismic shift
in founding our modern world,

but the events that sparked it

can be traced back in time to
surprisingly humble beginnings.

December 31st, 1879,
Menlo Park, New Jersey.

Inventor Thomas Edison

demonstrates
his improved version

of the electric light bulb.

Before Edison, light bulbs were
unreliable, expensive,

and failed quickly.

His breakthrough comes

when he makes a filament
out of bamboo and carbon.

It's a small change,
but the consequences are huge.

-Edison didn't
invent the light bulb,

but what he did do was tweak

and play around with the designs
that existed at the time.

And looking back, these might
seem like insignificant changes,

but they got the design to work,
and that's the important thing.

-Edison's bulb shines brighter
and longer than any before --

lasting for over 1,000 hours.

He patents his design
and declares,

"We will make electricity
so cheap

that only the rich
will burn candles."

But a bulb is useless
without a source of power.

-It's only half of the solution,
because at the end of the day,

you need to get the electricity

from where it's generated
in your power station

to where you need to use it,
to your homes and factories.

And for that, you need
another kind of invention.

-Thomas Edison perfected
the light bulb as we know it,

but what's not as well known,

but certainly
even more significant

is that Edison was also

the originator
of the electrical grid.

-With a talented group
of electrical engineers,

among them, Nikola Tesla,

Edison built a small network
of electrified cables

supplying power to just 59
customers in southern Manhattan.

Stretching just a few blocks,

this is the world's
first electric grid.

And in a little over 100 years,
it has grown exponentially.

In North America,
hundreds of power stations

feed electricity
into almost half a million miles

of high-voltage
transmission lines.

These, in turn,
connect thousands of cities,

linking over 300 million people
to the North American grid

with enough copper cable
to stretch to the moon and back.

-The electrical grid is
a mind-boggling machine.

It is easily the largest
and most sophisticated machine

ever built by people.

It's hard to even quantify
how massive this device is.

-Seen from a global perspective,

the importance of the grid
becomes clear.

29,000 miles of cable

carry electricity
throughout Australia.

In India, it's double that.

Russia's grid has
73,000 miles of cable.

In Europe,
over 185,000 miles of cable

connects 23 different countries.

Globally, the electrical grid
supplies power

to over 5.5 billion of us,
80% of humanity.

From the ingenuity of a handful
of pioneering electricians,

we've constructed
a modern wonder of the world.

-The electrical grid is

one of the best
and most amazing examples

of how humanity is connected
all around the world.

-And now the interconnectivity
of the grid allows us to see

the electrical consumption

of countries and regions
across the world.

Canada consumes just 2%
of the world's electricity.

America uses 10 times as much.

The combined countries of Europe
use another 16.5%.

And China accounts for almost
a quarter of the world's total.

Every day,
our electricity consumption

could light half a trillion
100-watt light bulbs.

Electricity is the lifeblood
of our modern world,

and the grid we've built
to transport it is its veins.

Its availability has sparked

almost all
of our modern inventions,

from fridges and TVs
to telephones and computers,

to our electrified skylines.

It's only when the supply is cut

that we fully appreciate
its importance.

-Suddenly, life freezes.

Can't go on the Internet.

None of the lights work.

You can't do anything,
and suddenly, you realize

for those moments,
when electricity is not there,

just how ubiquitous it is
in terms of how we function

in the contemporary world.

-Without electricity, our modern
world would be left in the dark.

To keep it powered,
we've drawn on our ingenuity

to provide us with two resources

that our society has become
completely dependent on.

The Cordero Rojo Mine in Powder
River Basin, Wyoming, USA.

This is one of the largest mines
in America --

a vast hole in the ground
over a mile wide.

Here, some of the largest
machines ever built

scoop thousands of tons
of earth a day...

digging for coal.

Coal is critical in the story
of the modern world.

250 years ago,
it fueled the steam engines

that triggered
the industrial revolution.

Changing human behavior

and laying the foundation
of our urban society.

Today, it influences our lives
in another vital way.

-I think
it surprises a lot of people

to learn
that the bulk of electricity

produced all around the world
comes from coal.

-Powder River Basin is

the largest coal-mining region
in North America.

This revealing time lapse
from space

shows the extent
of coal exploration here

over the last 20 years.

Starting from nothing,

we've excavated an area
the size of Miami.

This massive complex of mines

supplies less than half
of America's electricity needs.

Our dependence on coal

has led to a complex network
of supply and demand.

Indonesia is the world's
greatest coal exporter.

It sells 30 million tons
to Japan every year.

Coal from Australia has fueled
China's industrial boom.

And much of Europe,

the world's largest economy,
buys coal from Russia.

When it comes to producing
electricity, coal is king today.

But coal alone doesn't meet
our electricity demands.

Globally, we use
enough electricity every day

to power the average American
home for over 5 million years.

To meet the demand,

we've constructed a vast network
of power plants.

Over 2,300 coal power plants
generate 41% of our electricity.

439 nuclear power stations
supply another 10%.

While natural gas feed
almost 3,000 plants,

generating a fifth
of the electricity we consume.

But these energy sources
pale in significance

when compared to a commodity

that permeates nearly
every component of our world...

...oil.

Titusville, Pennsylvania,
August 27th, 1859.

Until now,
oil could only be collected

where it seeped to the surface,

but this man, Edwin Drake,
thinks differently.

He's hired
by the Seneca Oil Company

to find a way to extract
underground oil deposits.

Drake reasoned,
he could tap oil's potential

by drilling for it

in the same way he'd seen miners
drill for salt.

-And he almost immediately
started to encounter problems.

It didn't go well at first.

What essentially happened,
the further down they got,

they began to hit water,

and this well began filling up
with water, and it collapsed.

So, it was a complete disaster.

-He's practically
laughed out of town.

Drake's Folly will never work.

-People began calling him
Crazy Drake

'cause they literally thought
he was crazy.

No one had done this before
successfully.

-Drake doesn't give up.

He uses iron pipes to shore up
the sides of his well.

-And guess what? It worked.

He was able to drill down
to about 70 feet,

and lo and behold, oil was
coming up out of that well,

and then people didn't think
he was so crazy anymore.

-Drake's ingenuity proves
another powerful example

of how a small innovation

can radically change the scale
of human endeavor.

Drilling meant
we could extract oil

and exploit it
like never before.

In just 10 years,
North America's oil production

leaps from 2,000 barrels
to over 5 million a year.

Setting us on a path to today's
modern, oil-dependent world.

-This moment, when Drake
successfully drilled his well

and oil came up,

was a fundamental seismic shift
in human history.

-Today, our quest for oil
takes us around the globe.

With drilling as far-flung as
Alaska and Southern Australia.

And from the frozen wastes
of Siberia

to the deserts of Saudi Arabia.

Globally, our 350,000 rigs

extract almost 4 million barrels
of the black stuff every hour.

Around 67,000 barrels a minute.

In just 150 years,
we've extracted

almost a trillion barrels of oil
from the Earth.

Without oil, our modern world
would be grounded.

It's what keeps our planes...

cars...

and ships
constantly circling the globe.

But oil does so much more
than keep us on the move.

Our ingenuity
has found ways of using it

that even Edwin Drake
could never have seen.

-Nearly everything that we use,
every product we engage with

every day is related to oil
in some way.

-The versatility of oil
is everywhere.

Walk down any street in
any town, and it surrounds you.

From the tarmac under your feet
to the paint on walls...

...to the goods
in store windows,

and the plastic in cars.

-It's synthetic fibers
in our clothes.

-The very chair I'm sitting in.

-The pesticides,
the insecticides we use

to grow the food that we eat.

-The toothbrush I use
to brush my teeth.

-Televisions or mobile phones.

-The camera that you're using
to film me right now.

Everything that you can think of

is tied to oil
in one way or another.

It's really amazing.

-So, in a sense, we are utterly
dependent to this black stuff.

-Oil's influence over us
is so huge,

a tiny shift in its value
impacts every part of our lives.

From our ability to travel

to the price of a loaf of bread
or a quart of milk.

[ Register beeping ]

And oil underpins
one of the oldest human traits

that govern us today...

...global trade.

Our modern world is built around

a series of vast,
interconnected global networks.

Millions of miles
of roads and rail...

thousands of aircraft spanning
the globe...

and ships that plow the oceans.

Through them flows everything
our civilization makes.

These are
our modern trade routes --

An indispensable network
that connects us.

-Everything that we consume,
everything that we use,

all come from
many different places now,

and that's very different
to any time before.

-If there's one thing that makes
the world go 'round today,

it's this international
global trade.

-Trade with each other

is one of the oldest and
most basic of human connections.

The modern world is
entirely defined by it.

We can see how
by going back to the origins

of the international
trading network in China.

The Chinese were pioneers
of trade.

Over hundreds of years,
the Han Dynasty

created a network of paths
over 6,000 miles long...

...collectively called
the Silk Routes.

Stretching across continents,

the Silk Routes
are widely recognized

as the first intercontinental
trade network.

-And the significance
was profound

because it brought the East
and the West into contact

with each other
for the very first time.

The Silk Routes provided Rome,
Egypt, the Middle East,

and China with a regular,
reliable means of trading.

Becoming the arteries
through which exotic goods

such as spices...

coffee...

silk...

and gold were exchanged,

raising the standard of living
for those who bought and sold.

-Before the introduction of silk
into the Roman empire,

they had scratchy and crumply
linen and wool,

and to them,
silk was a revelation.

They went gaga over it.

-But trading over land was often
arduous and dangerous.

By the mid 1400's,

war between the Byzantine
and Ottoman Dynasties

meant the Silk Routes
became impassable.

But trade between East and West
was too lucrative to lose.

So an alternative route
to the Far East was needed.

Southern Spain,
3rd of August, 1492.

Christopher Columbus departs
on the first

of his four
ground-breaking voyages.

His quest to reach
the East Indies is legendary,

but the real legacy of Columbus

would have
far-greater consequences

for establishing
our global society.

Columbus sailed west
across the Atlantic,

thinking he'd find a passage
to the Far East.

Of course, what lay ahead

was a completely different
continent...

...America.

This serendipitous find sparked
the golden age of discovery.

The flotilla of ships
that sailed the globe

over the next 150 years

would charge routes to new lands

in the Northern
and Southern hemisphere.

And although they were often
depicted in history

as heroic missions
of exploration,

the sailors who risked
life and limb on these voyages

were driven by something
more lucrative --

the desire to trade.

-Columbus, Dias, and Da Gama,
and Magellan

weren't looking for gold,

and they weren't looking
for souls to save.

They were looking for nutmeg and
mace and cloves and cinnamon.

-The age of discovery allowed us
to realize in Europe

that there are places
on the other side of the world

that had untold riches.

-A pound of nutmeg was
the Armani suit

and the Gucci shoe and the BMW
of its era.

-Over the next 400 years,

the effect of these voyages
rippled around the world.

Businesses like Britain's
East India Company revolved

around the prosperity
international trade offered.

Bolstering not just ports such
as London, Paris, and Amsterdam,

trading in tea, coffee,
and spices,

but entire countries like India,
Burma, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

Although not without periods
of hardship and upheaval,

these shipping routes
brought great wealth

to the lands they linked...

...laying the foundations of
today's global trade networks.

-The age of discovery brought
Europeans into contact

with luxury goods
that they had never seen before,

and they gradually developed
an increasing taste for these.

-By the 19th century,
no proper English household

was without its Darjeeling tea
and bone china set.

But luxuries like these
were reserved for the rich.

The start of today's
modern mass market

would have to wait for
another several hundred years.

Port Newark Elizabeth,
New jersey, April 26, 1956.

This man, Malcolm McLean, is
about to introduce an innovation

that will revolutionize trade.

Before McLean, loading
and offloading shipping cargo

is slow and expensive.

Grain was craned into the hold,
and hundreds of porters

packed goods into
every available space.

McLean's bright idea was
to standardize the process

using shipping containers.

-It's just a box, but what the
shipping container does for you

is it gives you a unit of trade,

something which is uniform
in size anywhere in the world,

and you can have the space
on the ships and the cranes,

and you're transporting trucks

all adapted to something
the same size.

-The one-size-fits-all container

slashes the costs of loading
in an instant

from around $6
to just 16 cents a ton.

-And it's that incredible
increase in efficiency

which really drives down the
cost of shipping with container,

and it makes international trade
so much cheaper.

-Cheap shipments meant
people around the world

could afford more.

Today, it's grown into
a $4 trillion network...

...With thousands of ships

carrying over 120 million
containers every year.

From space,
global positioning satellites

track the movement
of this immense fleet...

...revealing today's
international shipping network.

A global network
delivering cargo to and from

over 4,500 container ports.

Much of that cargo passes
through here, the Panama Canal.

Each year, over 14,000 ships
sail this shortcut

between
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans,

making it the most congested
shipping lane in the world.

AnnouTo appreciate howrn t
the humble shipping container

has changed your life, just walk
into your nearest supermarket.

You can buy oranges and bananas
from the USA and Ecuador...

...fish from China...

...beef from Argentina...

...almonds from Morocco.

Such a diversity of products
would be unimaginable

without modern shipping.

-You don't give a second thought

to the fact
that you're looking at goods

from Australia, New Zealand,

Asia, Europe, Africa,
South America.

-Trading routes have brought
the world to our doorstep.

A global network supporting

almost every aspect
of our modern way of life.

It connects us all.

-The ability to buy goods
from around the world,

the shrinking of the world
in terms of its marketplaces,

has brought us
a degree of interconnectedness

that makes the world
everyone's country.

-But in the modern world,

it's not just goods
that are constantly on the move.

Now it's populations that move
around the world quickly.

We can cross countries,
continents,

and cultural boundaries
in a single day.

Yet 150 years ago, many believed

traveling faster
than a galloping horse

would suffocate you.

So, what triggered
today's global travel?

New York, one of the largest
cities on the planet.

Today,
over 800 different languages

are spoken here at any time.

Built by generations
of migrants, the Big Apple

is the most linguistically
diverse city on Earth.

Globally, over 200 million of us

head for a new life abroad
every year.

But the number of us
who travel each day

is considerably greater.

At any one moment, a staggering
one-fifth of humanity,

around 1.5 billion of us,
is on the move.

Navigating
a complex global network

made up of roads...

and railways...

shipping lanes,
and flight paths,

transportation has
opened up the world,

enabling us to go
almost anywhere at any time.

But just 100 years ago,

virtually none of this
infrastructure was in place.

-It took thousands of years

for our ancestors
to move across the land bridge

into North America, for example.

And it took
thousands of years beyond that

for a single person
to circumnavigate the globe.

And today, we do it
all the time, every day.

-Our ability to travel the globe

stems from a long line
of innovations,

each allowing us to travel
further and faster.

For thousands of years,
we moved by foot,

allowing us
to travel between villages.

By boat, we could head upriver
and reach the next town.

By the 1800's,
horse-drawn stage coaches

carried us to the nearest city.

But the real revolution
in travel

comes with innovations
using coal and oil.

The steam train speeds
at 30 miles an hour,

making continental travel
possible.

Then finally comes an invention

that opens up the continent
to everyone.

October 1st, 1908,
Detroit, Michigan.

Industrialist Henry Ford
designs an assembly line

mass producing his car,
the Ford Model T.

It slashes manufacturing costs,

making the car cheap enough
for the average American to buy.

Over the next 20 years,

15 million roll off
the factory floor,

beginning a radical gear change
in human behavior.

-And the car is really
the technology

that binds us together and marks
us as a modern civilization.

Because the car
fulfilled the dream

that we'd had for centuries,
which was point-to-point travel

in individual form.

-The mass production of cars
drives a new network --

our roads.

America's first highway

stretched 600 miles from
the Potomac to the Ohio River.

100 years later,
and North America had built

the world's
largest road network --

4.5 million miles worth.

Globally,
over 35 million miles of roads

links cities, countries,
and even continents together.

Today, you can drive
11,000 miles nonstop

from John O' Groats, Scotland,
to Cape Town in South Africa.

String out all our roads,

and they'd wrap around the
equator well over 1,000 times...

allowing us to drive over
a billion vehicles worldwide.

One for every seven of us.

We've embraced the car
like no other invention.

Today, billions of us head out
on the highway every day.

-The car represents freedom,

the ability to remake
one's life,

the ability to find a new job,

the ability to live
still depends on the car.

-This personal freedom
has transformed

how and where we live,
and in doing so,

we've transformed our world.

-Now suddenly metropolitan
regions span for miles,

and we're able to live at scales
that were completely unheard of

even generations before.

And that sets a final stage
for transportation

that takes us beyond the city
to a global scale.

-Surprisingly,
the innovation that triggered

humanity's
largest spanning network

predates Ford's car
by five years.

Kitty Hawk, North Carolina,
December 17th, 1903.

On this bleak, windswept beach,

the Wright brothers test
a machine called The Flyer.

It's airborne for just
12 seconds, flying 120 feet.

This seemingly insignificant
event begins a new revolution --

the age of powered flight.

Further propelling our journey
towards today's global society.

-From that first flight,

which travels only a couple
hundred feet, the world shrinks.

We now have global networks
that allow us to travel

from one side of the planet
to the other in a single day.

-Using GPS and radar data,
we can reveal every single plane

crisscrossing the globe
each day.

Around half a million of us are
in the air at any one time.

Each year, almost 40 million
flights carry 3 billion of us

to far-flung destinations.

Supporting this moving matrix

is a network
of over 40,000 airports.

Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson
International

is the busiest airport
on the Earth,

serving 95 million passengers
in a year

to 225 different destinations.

Today, aviation paints
an incredible picture

of modern human movement.

-With the invention
of the airplane

and international flights,
it's not only shrunk the world,

but it's also connected
the whole of humanity,

the whole planet into a single,
interconnected city.

-Today, viewing our modern
methods of transportation,

an astonishing picture emerges.

We can reach over 90% of
the planet in just 48 hours...

...startling proof
we are more connected

than at any other time
in human history.

-It has changed our perception
of the world.

We can now see ourselves
as members of a single society,

as members of a single race.

-Travel in the modern world

binds us in ways unimaginable
a century ago.

But in the last 20 years,

we've developed
a transformative network

that connects humanity
in a very different way...

...an invisible system
that allows us to communicate

with the world without the need
to leave our homes.

Today, billions of us carry
around miniature computers.

50 years ago, calculators with
the equivalent processing power

would have filled
your living room.

Now advances in technology have
shrunk them to fit in our hands.

Networked together,
our smartphones

have completely changed
the way society works

with incredible consequences.

At the touch of a button,
we can share our lives

with anyone almost anywhere
in the world.

-We see everyone going around
texting all the time,

snapping all the time, sending
e-mails on their mobile phones.

-Tracking how we keep in touch
in our modern world

gives us a startling new view
of human communication.

Every day, we send 182 billion
e-mails and 500 million tweets.

We Instagram 70 million photos,

and we like
over 3 billion Facebook posts.

We can spread a thought or idea
in an instant.

Going viral, a single post
can reach billions of people.

Today's communication network
is remarkable,

but its roots stem
to the smallest of innovations.

Mainz, Germany, 1450.

For centuries,
books and scriptures

were printed with these --
wooden letters.

Each letter
is meticulously carved,

and every page
individually printed.

Until blacksmith
Johannes Gutenberg

had a very simple idea.

He makes his printing-press
letters from lead.

Metal letters can be cast
rather than carved,

speeding up printing enormously.

-Before 1450, to print a book,

it would take maybe two weeks,
maybe a month.

Now, with Gutenberg's
very flexible

and very fast invention, you
could print a book in an hour.

-The consequence of Gutenberg's
lead letters is stark.

It makes printing
100 times cheaper.

-What the availability
of cheap books and pamphlets did

was it made people want to learn
to read and write.

-Reading and writing is no
longer restricted to the rich.

Over the next 500 years,

the printing press becomes the
method of mass communication...

...rolling out billions of books
and newspapers.

-The printing press wasn't
just a technological innovation,

it was socially transformative.

It allows people to exchange
their ideas far more widely

than they ever would have
been able to before.

-Books and newspapers remain
the fastest way to communicate

for over 200 years,

but they could only travel as
fast as they could be carried...

...In the case of America,

taking over a week to travel
from East Coast to West.

Until the early 1800s sees
the arrival of an invention

that speeds up communication
exponentially...

...the electric telegraph.

[ Morse code beeping ]

With the innovation
of electricity,

messages can be carried
not at the pace of a horse,

but along cables
close to the speed of light.

-At a stroke,
what the telegraph does

is to shorten
that transmission time

from days or weeks,
from city to city, into seconds.

And shrinks the size
of the communications world

almost to nothing.

-But the real test
of the telegraph

would come not
from connecting a country,

but from connecting continents.

July 29th, 1858.

In the mid-Atlantic, two ships
are moving closer together.

Both carry cable made
from seven wound copper wires.

Slowly and carefully,
the cables are bound together,

creating the first
Transatlantic telegraph cable.

-And so for the first time,
Europe and America became joined

by an electrical wire,
and we could harness electricity

to send messages to each other.

-On August 16th, 1858,
Queen Victoria sent

a telegraph message
to President Buchanan.

"The Queen desires
to congratulate the president

upon the successful completion

of this great
international work,

which now connects Great Britain
with the United States."

In all, Her Majesty's message
of 99 words

took 17 hours and 40 minutes
to transmit,

laughably slow
by today's standards,

but the significance is stark.

-When you think about
what that actually meant

is that people
were communicating

across this vast ocean
far, far quicker

than a letter could ever
have been sent by boat.

-It's bringing
two continents together.

It was a huge achievement,
phenomenal.

-Fast forward to today,

and over half a million miles
of submarine fiber optic cable

connects every continent
on Earth.

This communications network
has doubled in size

in the last five years alone.

This is the South East Asia
Middle East

Western Europe 3 cable.

It's an engineering masterpiece,
stretching almost 24,000 miles,

linking 33 countries
directly to each other

from Belgium to Japan.

Through it,
we send the equivalent

of 200 billion words
every second.

-If you and me were
to speak these words,

we would have to start babbling

at the time Jesus Christ
was on this planet

and talk day and night
without sleeping,

without stopping,
without eating,

and we would still be talking
right now.

-This amazing modern network

isn't confined
to the ocean floor.

Around 35 million miles
lace America alone.

Together,
these cables have created

the ultimate
communications network,

one that defines how we interact
and communicate today --

the Internet.

-With all of these
data networks and the Internet,

for the first time, really,
in human history,

we can communicate
to any other person

anywhere on the planet
whenever you like.

-Hip-hop dancers in Shanghai
are learning and swapping ideas

with hip-hop dancers in Harlem
and in Soweto.

-Now, you can be
in the Rocky Mountains

or on the plains of Tibet,

and you can have access
to 100 times more information

than even the best-informed
person did 20 years ago.

-The Internet is the pinnacle
of our interconnected society,

an innovative achievement
that defines our world today.

It shapes almost every aspect
of our daily lives...

...from socializing and shopping

to moving money
and conducting business.

We can do all this
instantaneously

from anywhere in the world.

The Internet shows

just how global
our civilization has become.

We've come a long way
in the last 12,000 years.

Driven by ground-breaking
innovations, we've constructed

a global network
of breathtaking complexity.

Layer by layer, this network
supplies us with food...

power...

goods...

transportation...

and communication,

revealing that we now live in
a truly interconnected society.

These layers help us understand

how we built the modern world
and how it functions.

But what we're really learning

is these networks can help us
in a more surprising way.

They can give us an insight
into our future world.

In today's global society,

almost everything we do
leaves an invisible trace.

Modern technology records every
minute detail of our lives.

It's why each year,
we generate more information

than the whole
of human history before us.

Globally, the world hoards

an unimaginable
2.5 quintillion bytes of data.

-If you would store this
in CD-ROM's,

you could make
seven or eight piles of CD-ROM's

that go from here to the moon --
seven or eight of them.

-Today is the day of data.

-This data has become
incredibly valuable.

It allows us to build a detailed
picture of our modern world.

But more importantly, it helps
expose our vulnerabilities.

-This extraordinary intensity
and richness of data allows us,

for the first time, to get
a better sense of the future.

To be able to work out
how our present actions

are likely to play out
in the future.

-This is the world's
population clock.

With each click, it registers
another person on the planet.

The number increases by
over 200,000 people each day.

There are now 7.3 billion of us.

How did we reach this number?

And how much bigger will it get?

For most
of humanity's existence,

our population was stagnant.

It took 11,500 years
to reach 1 billion people.

But only another 130 years
to double that.

-We've been very effective
at successful agriculture

and feeding our own mouths

and extracting the raw materials
out of the ground,

out of the earth, and converting
them into the crucial materials

we're building
our society out of.

-In the last 50 years, our
population has doubled again.

Our success has set us
on an irreversible track.

In just 15 years, our population
will swell to 8 billion.

20 years later, it's predicted
to peak at over 9 billion.

An increase of 2 billion people

not in thousands of years,
but in a single generation.

-We're about
7 billion people now.

But this massive increase
of at least 2 billion people

over the next 35 years or so
is unprecedented.

The world's population
has never increased by so many.

-Innovation has led us to this
unprecedented population growth.

The big question is

are we becoming victims
of our own success?

-There's gonna be
some very big challenges

in the near future

for how we can sustain
this human population ourselves

without ravaging
the natural environment

of the planet we live on.

-These challenges
revolve around food...

-Food is life.

Without it, we die.

I can't state it more simply.

Food really is life.

-...Water...

-Just about everything
that humans do requires water,

so whether it's growing the
crops that provide us with food

or running our industries,
we need water.

-...and a source of power.

-How are we going to
tackle this problem

of keeping the lights on?

Keeping our vehicles powered?

-The clock is ticking.

With every day that passes,
our rapidly growing population

demands more food...

water...

and energy.

How can we meet the demand on
a plenty with finite resources?

And can we do it while keeping
the accelerating pace of change

from spinning out of control?

-As scientists, we know that
our climate changes naturally.

We've always known that, but now
there's a human contribution

coupled with
that natural change,

and like a magnifying glass,

it's really amplifying
how our systems change.

-This amplification
is set to continue

as technology changes
human behavior

across large areas
of the planet.

-So, as we see
increases in productivity

and population growth

in the developed and developing
parts of our world,

fossil fuel plants
coming online,

less use of bicycling
and more use of automobiles,

those types of things lead
to increases in CO2 emissions.

-Nowhere is this effect
of humanity on the climate

clearer than from space.

NASA's Terra satellite orbiting
440 miles above the Earth

reveals
the extent of air pollution

over vast areas of the globe.

Here, the Himalayan mountains
form a natural barrier

to pollution over India.

Vast, gray clouds of smoke

stretch for thousands of miles
across central China.

And in western Europe, manmade
haze hangs over the continent.

These clouds of pollution
are the result

of thousands of tons
of carbon particles

lofted into the air
as we burn fossil fuels.

-The way we do it now
cannot last forever,

and so we're going to have to
find some alternative solutions.

-These are challenges
that we face,

and when you throw in

2 billion people more
over the next 35 years,

it should be apparent what
the scope of the problem is.

-The wealth of data
we generate today

exposes the weaknesses
of our modern world.

But it's also a powerful tool
in focusing our ingenuity

to alleviate the issues we face,

Allowing us to better prepare

for the problems a rapidly
growing population present.

-We can use this data
to understand the future,

the patterns that are shaping
how civilization will evolve.

Human ingenuity has led
to a population growth

the like of which
we've never experienced before.

Adding another 2 billion people
by 2050

will challenge the way we live.

One of our greatest issues
will be food.

-How to feed 9 billion people

is obviously
a headache-inducing question.

This is not an easy thing to do.

-Feeding the world
is a tall order.

It uses a vast amount of land
for crops and cattle...

millions of gallons of water...

...and energy to raise...

produce...

...and transport
the food we eat.

All of this takes its toll
on the environment.

-These all release
carbon dioxide.

And in fact, the biggest
releaser is our own agriculture.

-The challenge is to find ways
of producing enough food

for everyone with the finite
resources of the planet.

-Imagine you had
a beautiful garden,

and it was full
of all the food you needed

to grow to feed yourself
for a year.

Fantastic.

And now imagine that every year,
the garden shrank by a meter.

And yes, you can probably
cope for a while,

but in the end, you know,
there's just a problem.

What do you do then?

-Today, agriculture is
the single greatest activity

undertaken by humanity...

the consequences of which affect
every one of us on the Earth.

-When you look down
from low Earth orbit,

you see these patchworks
of farms.

We're 250 miles away,
so you can imagine

that the large ares
of land are being used

for agricultural crops.

-The ability to peer down
on our Earth from space

lets us see our enormous imprint
on the planet.

-We use 10% of the Earth's land
surface to grow our crops

and more than double that to
rear our livestock.

The largest cattle farm in
the world is bigger than Israel,

and we grow wheat on an area
the equivalent of Greenland.

Incredibly, to feed us

takes almost half of the land
on the planet,

a figure
that's rapidly increasing

as our population grows.

With rising population,
the amount of land available

to sustain us
will rapidly decrease.

Today,
feeding the average American

uses around 2 acres of land.

But by 2050, it's predicted
2 acres of land

will have to feed not one,
but 4 Americans.

-At this point,
we've used pretty much

all of the arable land
in the world.

-So to feed the world
in the future,

we must seek
new innovations now.

Chicago, on the shores
of the Great Lakes.

It's home
to the Green Sense Farm.

It may not look green inside,

but substituting the sun
with these pink LED lights

allows for a very different way
of planting.

The crops here
are grown vertically,

cutting the amount of land used
by 90%.

Racking up not 1,
but 26 harvests a year.

Urban farming not only
saves land, it saves water, too.

These crops use
only 10% of the water

they'd need out in the fields,

and that's critical
because having enough water

is another challenge we're
going to face in the future.

A shortage of water
may seem paradoxical.

From space, it's clear to see
the Earth is a water world,

but most of it, we can't use.

-97% of the water on Earth
exists as seawater,

and only about 2.5%
is present as freshwater.

-And the amount we can tap into
is even less.

-The majority of that freshwater
is tied up as glaciers

and as groundwater
that's too deep for us to pump.

So, only about 1% of the water
on Earth exists as freshwater,

and that's truly
a limited resource.

-Of that 1% of freshwater,

a staggering two-thirds is used
to make our food.

Look how much goes into making
an everyday meal,

and it's clear to see why.

To grow a couple of potatoes

takes an average 25 liters
of water.

The salad uses
around 140 liters.

Those two eggs?

Together,
that's another 270 liters.

And the steak --
over 2,000 liters of water.

And the glass of milk
you ordered -- 200 liters.

In all, it takes
around 2,600 liters of water

to create this meal.

And millions are eaten
every hour.

-So much of the food that we eat
was ultimately grown in a field

where there was irrigated
agriculture,

so the vegetable,
the meat, the glass of milk,

all of those things took large
quantities of water to make.

-It's why water is fast becoming

one of our
most precious commodities.

Looking at the world from orbit,

we can see the consequences
of our global thirst.

-I'll never forget wanting to
take a picture of the Aral Sea,

and it took a few orbits
to actually find --

a few attempts
to find the Aral Sea

because it's no longer a sea.

-Over 20,000 miles
of canals and 45 dams

have robbed the Aral Sea
of water.

-I didn't see any water there.

There were remnants
of perhaps a shoreline there,

but just a dusty brown gray

is all that remains
that I could see.

-It's not the only water
that's vanishing.

The Yellow River in China,

drained for agriculture,

only 10% of its waters
reach the sea.

The Indus River in Pakistan,

again only around 10% of water
is left in the river.

And in America, less than 10%
of the waters of the Colorado

ever reach Mexico.

By 2050, these rivers
could all but disappear

if we don't seek ways
to preserve our water use.

It's why growing food that helps
preserve land and water

will continue to be critical
in the future.

Urban farming can go a long way,

but it won't safeguard
our future food security alone.

To do that, we'll need to draw
upon other innovations.

Harpenden, north of London.

At the Rothamsted Research Labs,

these wheat plants
look like any other.

But here, scientists
are engineering them

to produce more wheat.

Currently, wheat accounts
for a fifth of the calories

consumed by humans.

But with
a rapidly expanding population,

this soon won't be enough.

-The primary way that we've
increased the amount of food

that we produced
is by increasing yield.

That is increasing
the amount of food produced

on the same area of land.

-A whole range of technologies
have been developed

to increase wheat yields.

-Irrigation, pesticides,

fertilizer to put more nutrients
in the soil.

-But these techniques come
at a price.

They're known
to damage the environment,

poisoning wildlife
and freshwater supplies.

At Rothamsted, scientists are
improving two other technologies

that can help increase yields --

selective breeding
and genetic modification.

Selective breeding essentially
takes the best qualities

of a number of plant species
and fuses them

into one stronger strain.

-We've been breeding
different kinds of plants

for 10,000 or 12,000 years,

and there's still a lot of
potential with that technology

which has served us well.

-More recently,
genetic modification

has proved
another powerful tool.

GM can engineer plants
to be more resistant to pests,

drought,
and produce greater yields.

These plants will
eventually contain a gene

that increases
their photosynthesis,

the way plants produce energy
from sunlight,

meaning they'll have more energy
to produce wheat.

When finally grown
in the fields,

it's hoped the wheat yields
will increase

from around 8 tons
to 20 tons per hectare.

-And so we've been looking
to technologies

like genetic engineering
to keep our crops

being as productive
as we can make them.

-Not everyone recognizes
GM plants as the way forward.

Some are concerned
that they, too,

may contaminate the environment,

and that
these potential problems

could be worse than their cure.

But continued innovations
in biotechnology

could open up new possibilities

of where we can grow the crops
of the future.

We could see drought
and flood-tolerant rice

grown in India and Pakistan...

...drought-tolerant corn
in west Kansas...

...Maize planted
in parched parts of Uganda...

and wheat harvested in the
semi-arid areas of Africa...

Australia...

and South America.

The efficiency biotechnology
offers in growing our food

could also help
in carbon climate change.

-Surprisingly,
agricultural produces

about one quarter
of the greenhouse gases

from human sources going into
the atmosphere.

-One of the biggest culprits
is food transportation.

Take a pound of oranges.

Grown and eaten locally,

they produce around a pound
of carbon dioxide.

But fly them in, and
the emissions rise by over 500%.

Biotechnology employed
by urban farming

drastically reduces
the need for transportation.

Grown on an urban farm,

lettuces typically travel around
50 miles to reach our table.

But if they're imported, they
travel closer to 1,500 miles,

producing
far more greenhouse gases.

There's no silver bullet to
securing our food in the future.

But changing how we grow it,
where we grow it,

and what we grow
all help.

But that begs
another question...

...will we have enough power
to cook our food in the future?

Much of what we do every day
demands power.

Manufacturing...

moving...

eating...

having fun.

As the population races
towards 9 billion,

we'll need even more power.

300 years ago,

the industrial revolution
started a mass migration.

Since then, more and more of us
have flocked to the cities.

-At the moment, we've got

roughly 3.5 billion people
living in cities,

and astonishingly,
the prediction is that by 2050,

there's going to be 7 billion.

There's gonna be
double the number,

and this is a human transition

at a scale
that we've never seen before.

-What's truly amazing is that
we're going to build more cities

in the next 40 years
than we've built

in all of human history.

-Our cities of the future
will need energy -- lots of it.

We'll need vast amounts
of oil and coal to build them.

A ton of steel alone

uses three-quarters
of a ton of coal to make.

And when we finish
building them,

we'll need even more
fossil fuels to power them.

By 2050, it's predicted
70% of the world's population

will live in urban areas.

Such a rapid change means
our society is driving headlong

into a radically
different future.

By 2050,
getting between our cities

means more of us on the move,
surging by a staggering 600%.

Air passengers soar from around
3 billion today to 16 billion...

...the equivalent of flying
44 million people a day.

And the number of cars
on the road leaps to 2 billion.

-So, China today has
250 million of those vehicles

and is adding 20 million a year

as the middle class discovers it
wants the car

and freedom that it conveys.

-In Beijing,
the roads are already jammed

with over 2 million cars....

...a figure that grows
by 1,500 every day.

Powering our predominantly
urban society

means our energy needs are
predicted to double by 2050.

We'll need 110% more oil,

the equivalent of guzzling

an inconceivable
70,000 gallons every second.

And globally, we'll build

over 1,000
new coal-fired power stations

to meet the demand
for electricity.

-Looking ahead into the future,

the greatest increases
and demand for energy

are going to come from places
like China and India.

People in these parts
of the world

are going to be driving
more cars.

They're going to be flying more.

They're going to be
using more devices

that consume electricity.

-Both oil and coal
have served us well

in constructing
the modern world.

But for how much longer
can we depend on them?

Is there enough to meet
our soaring energy demand?

At our current
consumption rates,

oil is likely to last
for around 50 years.

Coal may see us through
to the next century,

so at least for a while,
we might just have enough,

but using
what's left of these resources

will get us into hot water.

-There's a lot of coal
left in the ground,

but if you burn all that coal
to generate the power you need,

you now have a very big problem
with climate change.

You can't burn your way
out of this.

-Using fossil fuels could add

an extra 300 billion tons
of carbon dioxide

into the atmosphere by 2050...

greatly increasing the effects
of climate change...

...meaning powerful storms
and rising sea levels

will affect more of us
more frequently.

-Look at Superstorm Sandy.

It's likely
that Superstorm Sandy

pushed more water
into New York City in 2012

than it would have
100 years ago.

-And taking into consideration

the location
of our major cities

and the predicted
transient migration,

the problem of storms like Sandy
become all too clear.

-What's really interesting

is that many
of the world's largest cities,

particularly in Asia,
are near or on the coast,

and more people every day
are flocking to the coast,

building homes,
developing businesses there.

That places even greater
populations at risk.

-Over the next 35 years,

the populations
in coastal cities in Asia

is set to skyrocket.

Future predictions show

just how many more people
will be at risk.

Worldwide,
coastal flooding threatens

to invade up to a billion people
by 2050.

In the coming years,
cutting back on fossil fuels

to produce carbon emissions
won't be a matter for debate,

it will be a necessity.

But there are alternatives
already out there.

-Human beings have an
amazing capacity for innovation.

We are supreme toolmakers.

We create things,
and we are already beginning

to create technologies
and machines

that will provide us
with alternative ways

of creating
and gathering energy.

-This is the Ivanpah Solar
Electric Plant.

Located in
the Californian desert,

it's the world's
largest solar power station.

Over 300,000
computer-controlled mirrors

focus sunlight on the top
of this giant tower...

...turning water into
super-heated steam

driving
electric-generating turbines.

-There was a time
not that long ago,

maybe just a few decades ago,

when something like solar energy

was seen as more
of a sort of Utopian dream,

a kind of niche fantasy.

-But plants like these are
turning fantasy into reality.

Ivanpah alone
produces enough electricity

to power over 140,000 homes,

The equivalent of saving around
45,000 tons of coal a year.

-I think that we've really seen
that these large power plants

have demonstrated
that this technology

has really come into its own.

The technology works.

We can produce large amounts
of power using solar energy.

-Ivanpah is just a glimpse

of what power is possible
from the sun.

Our nearest star provides us

with other sources of energy,
as well.

Its heat drives
the world's winds.

-Wind power is probably

the single most successful form
of renewable energy.

It is active all over the world.

There are entire countries now
that are getting

a significant portion
of their energy through wind.

-And along with the moon,

it raises and lowers
our oceans around the world.

In the Bay of Fundy
in Nova Scotia,

tides rise and fall
by 55 feet a day.

Unlocking the energy within
could help power the planet.

-There are scientists
and researchers right now

working on amazing technologies

that are getting better
every single day

at being able
to take the power of waves

and make that useful for us.

-Each year,
the sun delivers enough energy

to meet our global needs
20,000 times over.

It's reliable, it's limitless,

and most important of all,
it's clean.

And we're tapping into it.

In the last five years alone,

the energy provided
by solar power

has increased by almost 100%.

China can now produce
almost 400 gigawatts

of renewable energy
at any given time --

more than twice the total
energy consumption of Africa.

In Canada alone, wind power has
risen almost 2,000% in 10 years,

powering 1.5 million homes
and businesses.

All with barely a whiff
of greenhouse gases.

-Long before we ever started
taking coal out of the ground

and drilling for oil,
we relied mainly, essentially,

on the power of the sun.

Looking ahead,
we will come full circle

to once again relying on the sun
to produce most of our energy.

There's only so much coal
and oil in the ground,

but the sun will shine on
for billions of years.

The wind will always blow.

Water will always flow.

The sun offers a way
to wean us off fossil fuels.

Technologies
that harness its energy

could significantly help
meet the demand

of our ever-growing
energy needs.

So, do we have
a bright future ahead of us?

The last 12,000 years
has seen our society undergo

an incredible transformation.

From sparsely scattered
nomads...

...to building
the modern world...

...one where innovation

has led us to construct
a vast, interconnected web...

...a web that now touches
all of us.

-This incredible connectivity

leads to
greater interdependency.

It also means we have to care

about the systems
and each other more

because what we do as
individuals affects others more.

-We now have the ability
to see how we are all connected.

The things we do
during our daily lives

generate vast amounts
of information.

Put it all together,

and we can see our species
as never before

on a global scale --

How we move, eat, trade.

And if you want to understand
any aspect of our modern world,

you can do it
at the click of a button.

This is the breathtakingly
complex planet we've created.

-For the first time in history,

what all this data
allows us to do

is see ourselves
in our fullness.

-But the success of our modern
world hangs in the balance.

Our ingenuity comes at a price.

We've created a world that
must support 7 billion people,

and in just a human generation,

the number is set to rise
by another 2 billion,

propelling us
into an uncertain future.

-As a species, we certainly are
facing some big challenges

in the coming years.

-But our civilization

has triumphed
against adversity before.

-From looking back
throughout human history,

is that time and time again,
we pull together,

and we've solved
those challenges.

-It's the same ingenuity
that has led us to this point

we must draw on in the future.

-We've showed
throughout the ages

that we are able
to meet global challenges

through technology,
through our brain power.

We are inventive in ways
that surprise even us,

the very people
who are being inventive.

-Today, we can draw upon
a vast pool of resources

to solve the problems
that lie ahead.

-We have more knowledge
than we've ever had before.

We have incredible ingenuity.

We have the ability
to share knowledge,

to spread knowledge,
to build on knowledge.

-For the first time
in human history,

thanks to the digital network,

we can now communicate
with everybody at any time

everywhere instantaneously.

-We've got so much data.

We've got so much information,

I believe it would be a tragedy
if we don't use it effectively,

and we need to learn to use it.

And that period will give us
the wisdom

to understand how we've used it.

-How we decide to manage changes
in the future

with the information
we have today

will determine our outcome.

-Would I like to live
in the future? Which future?

'Cause I don't believe in the
future,

there's a single future
ahead of us.

I want to make the future.

I believe
we all make the future together,

and so I want to live
in a future

that's even more connected
than it is now.

I want to belong
to a global society

that binds us all together
in ways where we can achieve

our full potential, and I think
that future is possible.

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