All language subtitles for The Age of Nature Series 1 1of3 Awakening 1080p

♪♪

♪♪

-Nature...

the more we learn about it,

the more we realize
how important it is.

Coral reefs cover less than 1%
of the ocean floor,

but are home to a quarter
of all marine life.

And life in the oceans

provides more oxygen
than even the rainforests.

Environments like this
are precious,

something that's taken years
of study to fully appreciate.

Back in time, we saw nature
quite differently.

-Have you ever dreamed of living
an idyllic existence

under the waving coconut palms
of a remote South Sea island?

Of course you have.

To loaf and sleep
and fish and swim

lazily, peacefully, and happily

on the bounty
of a glorious tropical nature.

Yes, life is simpleand
beautiful on Bikini Atoll...

until today, when there enters
into Bikini Lagoon

a fantastically incredible thing
called the atomic bomb.

[ Explosion ]

-In 1946, a nuclear bomb
was detonated

on the Pacific island
of Bikini Atoll.

[ Explosion ]

Over the next 12 years,

22 more nuclear tests
like this were carried out.

One, named Castle Bravo,

was 1,000 times more powerful

than Hiroshima.

Three islands and their
coral reefs were obliterated.

Nature was not the priority.

Today, we see things
differently.

An awakening has begun.

We're at a turning point
in history,

and moving in a new direction.

How we live with nature now

will determine our future.

A new age is upon us...

the age of nature.

♪♪

50 years after the last
nuclear test at Bikini Atoll,

a scientific teamtraveled
to this remote location

in the Pacific Ocean

to see if anything had survived.

-I was invited on
an international expedition

to Bikini Atoll
as the coral expert.

We were, in fact,
the first team of scientists

to conduct our marine surveys

on the reefs.

Heading out to the first dive,
I was really

full of anticipation.
I didn't know what to expect.

Over the 12 years
of nuclear testing,

the marine life and the islands
of Bikini Atoll

were just systematically
decimated.

It was just total annihilation.

Having heard about the extent
of the nuclear devastation,

I thought maybe I would be
confronted with a moonscape.

But as I cut through the water
descending down

to about 20 meters deep,
I couldn't believe it.

I was absolutely shocked
at what I was seeing.

♪♪

There were corals, there were
fish, there were anemones.

There was everything
you would expect to see

on a normal, healthy
reef ecosystem.

If you didn't know
about the history,

you would think that nothing had
ever happened at this location.

♪♪

-Even the wrecks of ships
deliberately sunk in the blast

were covered in coral.

-It's phenomenal to think
that in just 50 years,

coral cover can come back
to close to as good

as you're gonna get on any reef
around the world.

♪♪

♪♪

To think that even
the crater itself

can be recolonized by corals
and other marine life,

it just shows you the potential
that nature has for recovery

if it's left alone.

♪♪

♪♪

-Across much of our planet,
nature is under pressure.

Yet it's essential
for our modern way of life.

One of the first places
we discovered this

was here in Panama.

[ Insects buzzing ]

[ Animals calling ]

♪♪

For most of human history,
we lived among nature..

...with great awareness
of the plants and animals

we depended on...

♪♪

...something that the
Embera-Wounaan still maintain.

♪♪

The forest is their home,

but it is also important
for the wider world

because of one
essential thing...

Water.

[ Speaking Spanish ]

The Embera here live
alongside the Chagres River,

the principal source of water

for the world's greatest
trade corridor...

The Panama Canal.

[ Horn blowing ]

This 50-mile channel allows
cargo ships to take a shortcut

between two oceans
in just 10 hours,

avoiding a month-long journey
around South America.

A million containers a week
are carried along the canal,

accelerating the flow of goods
across the world.

-The building
of the Panama Canal

was the dream of humanity,
of mankind.

It just united the world.

[ Horn blows ]

-Opened in 1914
after 30 years of construction,

this was an incredible feat
of engineering,

still in operation today.

Each vessel is raised up
into the canal

and down the other side

through a series
of colossal locks.

♪♪

-Every ship that goes
through the Panama Canal

requires
about 50 million gallons

of fresh water from
the Chagres... every ship.

And there are 40 ships a day,
so you multiply that

and it's an astronomical
quantity of fresh water.

It's the energy,
the water of the Chagres

that makes possible
the Panama Canal.

-Without this river,
there would be no Panama Canal.

♪♪

Back in the '70s,
the government of the time

wanted the land to be
more productive,

so they encouraged people
to create pastures.

The forest began to disappear.

-I started studying anthropology
and I was asked to study

the peasants
of the Panama Canal watershed.

So in 1979, I went
to the canal watershed.

And that, to me,
was a revelation.

I had no idea of how serious
this situation was.

The rate of conversion
of forests to pastureland

was astronomical.

[ Projector clicking ]

That's what it looked like.

The smoke that you can see
in the background,

they're where
a settler's moving in.

You cut here, you burn, and then
the fire goes out of control

and there's nobody to stop it.

♪♪

What used to be forest,
now it's like a desert.

-When the rains came,

the bare soil
began to wash away,

filling the rivers
and lakes with sediment,

reducing the amount of water
for the canal.

-I came to realize
this is gonna be

such an accelerated rate
of soil erosion

and silting of the lakes,
there would be no canal.

-Then in 1983,
severe drought struck,

threatening the canal.

Its closure would mean
economic ruin.

-The issue went all the way
to the president.

His response was, "Dr. Heckadon,

this is a national security
issue, and we have to stop it."

-The conversion of forest
to pasture was thought to be

the root of the problem.

So Dr. Heckadon's team began
studying the ecosystem

more closely.

-Gradually dawned on me

how important a role
in the cycle of water

trees have.

In the forest, where you have
lots of foliage

and dried-out leaves
and trunks and branches,

the soil is softer,
and so the water permeates.

And the dry season comes,

and all that water stored
in the soil

begins to be pumped into
the creeks, and there's water.

♪♪

-The forest soaks up
the rainwater

and steadily releases it

in what's known
as the sponge effect.

♪♪

This keeps rivers flowing
through the seasons.

♪♪

It's a fundamental
natural process

that the Panama Canal
depends on.

To protect the water supply,

they had to protect the forest.

-If our proposal would not
have been taken then,

there would've been
no Panama Canal today

as we know it.

-A national park was created,

safeguarding 320,000 acres
of watershed forest.

The benefits of these forests
are now officially recognized,

and their value goes
far beyond economics.

-If you do away
with your forests,

it's not only a matter

of the diversity of plants
and creature...

It's life itself.

[ Animals calling ]

-25% of Panama
is now national park.

♪♪

-When you look back,
you get this satisfaction.

My goodness, where are we now?

Look how far we've come.

Human development and nature
have to go hand-in-hand.

I think each country comes to
apoint, it has to make decisions.

What is the best
not in the short term,

but what is the best
in the long term

for the most people?

-By protecting the forest of the
Chagres, Panama has prospered.

And the Embera are able to
continue their way of life.

[ Indistinct conversations ]

♪♪

♪♪

[ Children laughing ]

♪♪

[ Speaking Spanish ]

♪♪

The Panama Canal remains

one of the greatest feats
of human engineering.

And discovering the role that
nature played was an awakening.

All of this is essential

to all of this.

Today, more of us live in cities
than anywhere else...

...where we can feel
far from nature.

But there's a growing awareness

that so much of our day-to-day
lives depends on it.

[ Steam hisses ]

-I think that, in some ways,

people are more connected
to nature than they realize.

I think that there is
a big movement of people

really trying to focus on

where the things that they buy
and the things that they use

and things that they throw away
come from.

And when you think of
the grand scheme of things

and everything that goes into
just a simple cup of coffee,

it can really make you think
about your place in the world.

-All of Seattle's drinking water

comes from the nearby
Cascade Mountains.

It's protected land

where natural filters the water
for free,

providing enough each day
for over a million people.

At least 50 major cities

are now safeguarding
their natural watersheds,

showing increasing awareness
of the need for nature

in our modern world.

♪♪

Midwinter in the Arctic Circle,

the skies are lit
by the aurora borealis.

♪♪

Here in northern Norway,

one of the world's greatestfood
harvests is about to begin.

Each January,
over 400 million Arctic cod

migrate from their feeding
grounds in the Barents Sea

to breed in the warmer,
sheltered waters

of the Lofoten Islands.

♪♪

At 6:00 a.m.,
the fishing day starts.

People have worked these shores
since the time of the Vikings.

[ Speaking Norwegian ]

♪♪

In its heyday in the 1950s,

over 30,000 of these small boats

would land more than a million
tons of Arctic cod every year,

without any restrictions
on how much they could catch.

It was assumed
that this vast resource

could never be exhausted.

-Even many scientists said
fishing doesn't matter much,

because you cannot deplete
the stock by just fishing.

-But nobody really knew
how the stocks were doing.

So in the 1960s, Odd Nakken
began to investigate.

-I was very interested
in how to find out

how much fish there is
in the ocean.

-By studying cod numbers at sea

rather than assessing
the annual catch,

scientists got
a much clearer picture

of the impact of fishing.

And the timing was important,

as the industry was changing.

By the '70s, trawlers
were making huge catches.

And the smaller fleets
were still unregulated.

-Everyone tried to harvest
as much as he can, of course.

It was very, very
wasteful fishing

and a lot of the fish
were thrown overboard

because it was too small
for the markets.

And if you fish out
the small fish,

there will be no big fish
some few years later.

♪♪

-Even with such heavy fishing,

scientists predicted
that cod numbers would grow

because of increased spawning.

-In the end of the 1980s,

we could see a lot of young ones
up in the Barents Sea.

And on that basis,
we said that there should be

a marvelous, good cod stock
at the end of the 1990s.

-But the fish never came.

[ Speaking Norwegian ]

♪♪

The disappearance of the cod

was linked
to another species of fish.

-The capelin stock broke down,

and that's the main food
for the big cod.

And what do the big cod do
when there is no capelin?

They eat other small fishes.

So the cannibalism
in the cod stock

increased tremendously
in those years.

-The cod were eating
their own young.

This, combined with overfishing,

caused the population
to crash by 75%.

They had to stop fishing
before there was nothing left.

That's exactly what happened

on the other side
of the Atlantic.

The impact on people's lives
in Newfoundland, Canada,

was devastating.

-In St. John's tonight,
angry fishermen

vented their rage.
They charged the room

where John Crosbie
was holding a news conference,

but security
would not let them in.

Mr. Crosbie says
he has no choice

but to close the fishery
if the industry is to be saved.

-I have decided that effective
at midnight tonight,

there will be a moratorium
on harvesting of Northern cod

until the spring of 1994.

-Everyone expected the minister

to close the Northern cod
fishery...

-But it was too late.

Pressure from
international fleets

in the trawling
of the spawning grounds

reduced the largest cod fishery
in the world

to almost nothing.

40,000 people lost their jobs

in the biggest layoff
in Canadian history.

♪♪

The situation in Norway
was hanging in the balance.

-People that grow up in nature
will see that

if I take everything
in one year,

I will have nothing
next year to eat.

-Severe quotas were introduced,

and many fishermen
went out of business.

No one knew if things
would ever get back to normal.

-We were very lucky with nature.

We got a fantastic survival
of the small fish.

For our cod stock,
it took very short time.

So a few years later,
we could start fishing again.

♪♪

♪♪

[ Speaking Norwegian ]

♪♪

-Today, fish stocks are
monitored rigorously.

And the information
the scientists collect

helps set the fishing quotas

to ensure enough cod survive
to spawn in the future.

This is also important
for the ecosystem

because a single cod releases
as many as 9 million eggs.

Only one or two
will become adults...

the rest, the foundation
for an incredible web of life.

♪♪

♪♪

All fishing here
is now sustainable.

And Norway provides
half the world's cod...

♪♪

Working within nature's limits.

♪♪

In Newfoundland, some fishing
villages remain abandoned

and traditions
are likely to be lost.

♪♪

30 years since the moratorium,

the Northern cod stocks
still haven't recovered.

♪♪

Marine ecosystems are complex.

Perhaps in time,
nature will repair itself.

But we can't predict
how and when.

In Gorongosa National Park
in Mozambique,

a team of scientists

are searching
for Africa's top predator.

It's the best indicator
of a healthy environment.

-They love tall grass.

This is where they hang out,

and this is what makes them
really good ambush killers.

It's like trying to find
a needle in a haystack.

The signal is very strong now.

-Even with a tracking device,
it's not easy to hunt them down.

-I think okay here, Doctor.

-Stop.

Be really quiet.

Don't make eye contact.

Do you have a clear shot
from here?

-Yes.

-[ Whispering ] Quiet, quiet.

Nice.
- It went low, ah?

- Yeah, it went low.
- Alright.

-Okay, let's start the timer.

-The tranquilizer is low-risk
to the lioness,

but they still must work fast.

-This is a critical time.

We need to keep her within range

and make sure she's safe
while we sedate her.

You see her?
- Yeah. 12:00, Doctor.

-She's sleeping, ah?

-The team has just 20 minutes
to change the collar

and collect vital statistics.
- [ Clapping hands ]

- She's out, ah?
- [ Clapping hands ]

-Can we get her into the shade?

- Yeah.
- [ Grunts ]

-The condition
of these apex predators

reflects the health
of the entire ecosystem.

-While lion numbers
areplummeting across the continent,

this is one place where
we actually are seeing

a recovery take place.

And the way we study that

is with the use
of satellite collars.

This population of lions
is indigenous to Gorongosa.

There's no one quite like them.

So they're a very unique
group of lions,

and they've survived
a number of things.

But today, they're making
a strong recovery.

-It's remarkable that lion
numbers here are on the rise,

given the difficult history
of Gorongosa National Park.

Gorongosa was once known
as the jewel of Mozambique

because of its range of habitats
and rich biodiversity.

In the 1960s,

this 1,500-square-mile reserve
was described by visitors

as the place
where Noah left his ark.

The amount of wildlife
was extraordinary...

14,000 buffalo,

over 2,000 elephants,

and the highest density
of lions in Africa.

[ Gunshots ]

Then, in 1977,
everything changed.

-Civil war was very bad
in Gorongosa National Park.

Almost 90% of mammals, animals
were killed.

Opposition army used to come
to the park

and hunt animals.

They've killed firstthese
big animals like elephants

because of elephant tusk
in order to sell the ivory,

in order that they can buy
firearms and ammunitions.

It was a disaster.

After war, everybody was down
in terms of hope

because they did not manage

to recover the animal population
in the park.

-With no wardens in the park
and people desperate for food,

the poaching continued.

The situation seemed hopeless.

[ Engine starting ]

In 2003,
philanthropist Greg Carr

was looking for a new project

when he was invited
to Gorongosa.

♪♪

♪♪

Restoring this landscape
was an enormous task.

But a closer look revealed

that the foundations
were still there.

-[ Laughs ] Wow!

You look under
this fallen tree here

and there's termites,
there's ants.

Everything bigger depends
on these little things.

So a slightly larger insect
will eat these tiny insects

and then a bird will eat
the bigger insect

and so on and so forth.

There were small populations

of all the wildlife
that had been here...

maybe only 5%, maybe only 1%,
but they were here.

The medium-sized grazers,
like an impala,

they were here in small numbers.

And that said to me it would be
possible to restore this.

But because we were missing
14,000 buffalo,

the grass was crazy highand
the system was out of whack.

So we did need to bring back

what they call
the bulk grazers...

buffalo, zebra, wildebeest,
the larger animals.

-Working with conservationists
across southern Africa,

they began a program
to reintroduce the animals.

♪♪

♪♪

This included 200 buffalo
and 180 wildebeest.

-You got to start there

'cause it's what's called
a grazing succession,

meaning simply, the big guys
like buffalo come through,

they eat the big, tall grass,
the coarse stuff

that smaller antelope can't eat.

Then the smaller impala and
the bushbuck and the reedbuck

come through, and they munch
on the smaller stuff.

-They also released a handful
of other key animals,

such as hippos and elephants.

[ Elephant trumpets ]

-When animals were released,

that was a very
special occasion.

People start realizing that
the old Gorongosa is coming.

♪♪

-Just 15 years later,

the importance of these
large animals is clear.

Ecologist Dominique Gonçalves
has been studying

the biggest of them all,

and its impact on the forest.

-So, elephants really like
Vichellia,

or we call it here
fever tree forest.

So, what happens, basically,
is that they come here

and they knock down
the trees to eat.

It's really clear evidence
of big, large herbivores

kind of help maintain the place
the way it should be.

For example,
knocking down these trees

not just maintain the ecosystem,
the system the way it is,

which is a mix of grasslands
and forests

and the way that it does not
take over the grassland,

but also, it's very important
for the other organisms...

smaller antelopes and herbivores
that would go and eat,

for example, the roots
of the trees and other things.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

This male elephant is just
eating the shrub.

He's just enjoying some nicegreen
leaves now from the shrub.

So, elephants can eat a lot.

And here in this park, we
have more than 650 elephants,

so imagine all of them eating
and knocking down trees,

shaking trees, eating the fruits
just like he did.

Now he takes the seeds, see?

He shook that tree,
he's eating the fruit.

It's all about
taking the seeds from here.

And then he moves around
throughout the landscape,

which means it's just
replanting the trees.

And that's why
the trees also depend

on the animals in this forest.

♪♪

-Today, the park
is working well,

and people have been
a big part of that success.

-[ Singing in native language ]

-Villages are helping
to replant native forest,

which creates shade
for their coffee plantations.

♪♪

Agroforestry improves land
and livelihoods,

one of the many initiatives
that benefits 200,000 people.

♪♪

A team of rangers
patrol the park,

keeping wildlife safe by
removing any traps and snares.

-The park rangers here are all
hired from the local community,

and that's really key.

So, if the local community
is empowered as the rangers,

it's really the local people
protecting their own heritage.

They're protecting
their own national park.

-People are at the center
of conservation.

If you don't help people,

then conservation
will not success.

-We ultimately removed
27,000 traps and snares

from Gorongosa Park.

So, just as important as going
to some other country

and finding animals was
just removing the traps here

that were killing them
and maiming them,

and let nature rebound
all by itself.

-The rate of the recovery
is extraordinary.

A recent aerial census revealed
the number of large animals

had risen tenfold
in just a decade,

to 100,000.

♪♪

♪♪

Carnivores are returning.

There are now 150 lions
and counting.

Not one

was reintroduced.

♪♪

♪♪

-And this teaches that
when given time,

protection, and space,

nature can come back
very strongly.

It bounced back.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-Now that we're finding ways
to help nature,

we can see the potential
to restore the Earth.

♪♪

Much of central China
once looked like this.

♪♪

But there are places where
8,000 years of human activity

had stripped the land bare.

♪♪

The story of the Loess Plateau
is little short of a miracle.

John Liu has followed it
for over 25 years.

-Coming out to the Loess Plateau

has completely changed
my perspective on life.

There's no difference between
the interests of human beings

and the interests of nature.

-In 1994, John was sent to
coverthe biggest story of his career.

-I'd been a journalist in China
for about 15 years,

and then the World Bank asked me
to go out to the Loess Plateau.

Well, the Loess Plateau
is 640,000 square kilometers,

approximately the size
of France.

But it's also the cradle
of Chinese civilization

because all the cultures
were growing up

around the Yellow
Riverbecause it's very, very fertile.

The soil type is loess,
and it's a wind-borne sediment.

It's very minerally rich.

But because it's so powdery,
if you remove the vegetation

and you expose it to the wind
and to the rain,

you get a completely
different result.

Essentially, when it rained,
without any vegetation,

all of that water would run off
and it would take the topsoil.

And so that's what makes
the Yellow River

the Yellow River.

And so, over thousands of years,

it became the most eroded
place on Earth.

The Loess Plateau
was contributing

1.6 billion tons of silt
into the river every year.

-This made it prone
to flash floods.

Over the last 150 years,

it has claimed 7 million lives,

earning it the name
China's Sorrow.

-We had images of the place
without any vegetation.

This is the scale of it.
The scale was just astonishing.

You couldn't believe
that this was happening.

I mean, the whole place
was denuded of vegetation.

There was just nothing there.

We saw that the sheep and goats
were just denuding everything.

I mean, if anything stuck
its head up, it was food.

The area was in
ecologic collapse,

and the reason
was human activity.

[ Bleating ]

-The loess soil is so fine,
it would take to the wind,

causing severe respiratory
symptoms,

and send dust storms
as far as Beijing.

-You know, the situation
was so grim...

the repeated cycle of flooding

then followed by drought
and followed by famine.

[ Speaking Chinese ]

♪♪

The Chinese government said
we have to do something here.

And when I went out there
and I saw a place

that looked like the moon,
I was just fascinated.

So enormous,

and really nobody knew
anything about it.

You know, when you look
in an area

which is that
massively degraded,

it's not your first thought
that,

"Well, that's fine.
We can just fix that."

-In the 1980s,
around 85 million people

were living
in the Loess Plateau,

putting enormous pressure
on the land.

-When the experts came through
and started to analyze

what was going on, they said,
well, in order to change it,

we have to basically changethe
behaviors of all the people.

-[ Speaking Chinese ]

-Essentially, all their
behaviors were banned.

So they were unable
to cut trees,

they were unable to farm
on the slopes,

and then free-ranging of goats
and sheep was made illegal.

-The people had to be part
of the solution.

[ Speaking Chinese ]

-So what they did was
they paid the people

to redevelop the landscape.

-In 1994, work began in earnest
on one of the biggest

land rehabilitation projects
ever attempted.

The hills were terraced
to slow the flow of water,

allowing it
to soak into the soil.

-The scale of this
was just unbelievable

when you when you went out
thereand you saw that they were using

just hand tools
or simple machinery

and that they were doing this
over vast areas.

And of course, revegetation
was a big part of it.

The top had to be treesand
had to be totally vegetated,

totally reforested.

♪♪

♪♪

-John has documented
the results ever since.

♪♪

-I put my tripod here
and looked out

at these areas back in 1995.

♪♪

Well, this is a change.

This is amazing.

If you can take a place
that has been destroyed

over thousands of years
and bring it back to life,

this is pretty astonishing.

Took a long time to degrade,

but actually, the restoration
is going much faster.

Now you can see, in 25 years,
it's completely different.

And this is done
by ordinary people.

This is huge.
This is the way forward.

-In just a generation,

the land has returned to health.

The fertile soil is now stable,

and the water is retained
in the earth and the plants.

-Now we feel
the relative humidity,

we see the mist in the air,

and so that's very important
for increased productivity.

♪♪

-More plants mean
more insects...

...attracting more birds,

which spread new seeds,

increasing the plant life
further

in a natural cycle of recovery.

-When we see a stream which is
flowing clear as this is,

then it's an indicator
of ecological health.

Without all this vegetation,
without organic soil,

you'd be taking the sediments
in here and it would be cloudy.

Amphibians are a really good
indicator of ecologic health.

-And healthy nature
benefits everyone.

The people who still live
in these communities

now have a much better
quality of life.

♪♪

[ Speaking Chinese ]

-Humans are part of nature.

And we need to change the
intention of human civilization

to restoring ecological function
on a planetary scale.

If we do this, we're ensuring
the quality of life

for future generations.

[ Speaking Chinese ]

I'm happy to see
that they're in another space.

The grandchildren
are all college-educated.

That's pretty impressive.

There's been massive improvement
not only in the ecology,

but in socioeconomic
circumstances.

Materialism has suggested that
wealth is coming from things,

but in fact, wealth is coming
from ecological function.

-The benefits
of this restoration

are felt all across China.

[ Birds crying ]

The sediment in the Yellow River
has been reduced by 80%.

It's the healthiest it's been
for centuries.

-The lessons
of the Loess Plateau,

you can see that it's possible

to rehabilitate large-scale
damaged ecosystems.

But we can also see a next step,

the next level of understanding.

We're looking at a new age...

the age of nature.

-Our world faces
many challenges,

but we have learned so much.

We're aware that our actions
have impact.

We can see nature's ability
to recover...

...and the good that comes
with restoring our Earth.

This is the awakening
of a new era.

♪♪

-Next time, on "The Age
of Nature: Understanding"...

Scientists are discovering

unusual approaches
to restoring nature.

[ Revving ]

♪♪

[ Rumbling ]

They're finding
that nature has the answers

to repairing our planet.

-If humans start thinking about
the whole ecosystem,

ultimately, we're going to be
saving ourselves.

-On "The Age of Nature."

-To order
"The Age of Nature" on DVD,

visit shopPBS or call
1-800-PLAY-PBS.

This program is also available
on Amazon Prime Video.

♪♪

♪♪

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