All language subtitles for The.Earthshot.Prize.Repairing.Our.Planet.S01E03.WEBRip.x264-ION10

There's something about mountains
that draws you in.

Perhaps it's the challenge
of the climb -

a peak to conquer,
an achievement to relish.

Maybe it's the view from the top.

We so rarely get the chance to stop
and take in the world around us.

It's good for our minds to focus
on the distant horizon.

But it's also, surely,
the air up here.

It's fresh, it feels clean.

A lungful of mountain air
makes you feel alive.

It's a sad indication
of the state of the air

that surrounds so many of us
in our everyday lives

that it doesn't feel like this.

We routinely talk about
healthy food and clean water.

But how often do we spare a thought
for what enters our lungs?

We fill our lungs with six litres
of air every minute, on average.

Yet as a result
of our activities today,

our atmosphere, especially
for those living in cities,

is carrying all sorts
of unhealthy particles.

The World Health Organization calls
air pollution the silent killer.

Globally, 90% of us
breathe unclear air every day.

Air pollution is proven
to shorten our lifetimes,

and it hits the vulnerable -

children, the sick and the elderly -

hardest of all.

That's why one of the five goals
of the Earthshot Prize

is to clean our air.

Every year until 2030,

the prize will award £1 million

to a project that will help us
to achieve this goal.

In this film we will explore
the causes of air pollution

and the toll it's taking
on our health.

We meet people around the world

working on innovative solutions.

And I'll introduce you
to the three finalists

shortlisted for this year's
Earthshot Prize.

Here to tell the story
of how we can clean our air

are Sir David Attenborough

and the only member
of our Earthshot Prize council

to travel beyond the atmosphere
we all share,

Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki.

Yeah, like this, coming here.

And just sit. Like this.

The air in Earth's atmosphere
is fundamental to life.

Our life-sustaining air is a product
of billions of years of evolution.

Before life evolved, the atmosphere
was a toxic mix of methane, hydrogen

and high levels of carbon dioxide.

But as plants developed
and started to photosynthesise,

they began to remove the toxins and
flood the atmosphere with oxygen,

allowing the evolution of animals
with high oxygen demands,

like ourselves...

..and even turning the sky blue.

For much of Earth's history,
the gases in our atmosphere

have remained broadly stable.

But over the last 200 years,

as humankind
entered the Industrial Age,

our polluting activities

have threatened the stability
of our air quality.

Every year, we emit up to 100 times
the amount of carbon dioxide

of all the volcanoes on Earth.

Our activities have been dirtying
and poisoning the Earth's

life-giving air to the point
that we are choking ourselves

and the natural world
that helps to sustain us.

We're not unaware of this.
We do so in plain sight.

The main causes of air pollution
are easy to identify.

And one is the reliance on
polluting fuels to heat our homes.

Ulaanbaatar has regularly ranked

as one of the world's
most polluted cities.

In recent years the migration of
nomadic people from the countryside

to the city has increased,

with many setting up residence
in traditional homes, called gers,

on the outskirts.

In winter, temperatures drop
below -40 degrees centigrade.

And coal is one
of the few affordable fuels

for the people to heat their homes
at these brutally cold times.

Coal is a fossil fuel,
and it's one of the dirtiest.

When coal is burned, it releases
harmful airborne pollutants

such as sulphur dioxide -
a toxic gas -

and particulates, or tiny particles,

which are commonly
associated with soot.

These pollutants
lead to smog in the air,

and when breathed in

can cause inflammation in the body

and health issues
that range from lung damage

to heart disorders to cancer.

In Ulaanbaatar, around 600,000
tonnes of coal is burned each winter

inside homes across the city,

whilst huge power plants
add to the already toxic air.

And for some,
the only option of employment

is in the very industry
that so greatly affects their lives.

Efforts have been made
to replace raw coal

with less polluting, but more
expensive, refined coal briquettes.

But even at a subsidised price,

low-income families struggle
to heat their homes safely.

Studies have shown that coal

and other cheap polluting fuels
like charcoal

are used as a domestic fuel

by more than two billion people
around the world.

But such dense pollution is rarely
seen in wealthier countries,

where coal burning
is now mostly kept out of cities.

Here, societies are changing
to cleaner domestic fuels

like natural gas and electricity.

Yet unclean air is here too,

due primarily to one thing.

So many children in my year
had asthma.

They would be comparing their pumps,

they would be talking
about their pumps.

It was almost part of the culture
to have asthma.

I was aware that Ella had asthma

but I wasn't aware
of how serious it was.

Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah

died in 2013
at the age of just nine.

An inquest into Ella's death

revealed a pattern linking spikes
in illegal levels of air pollution

and the severity
of her asthma attacks.

The inquest,
which took seven years to resolve,

made a landmark ruling in 2020 -

for the first time in the UK,

air pollution was recorded
as a cause of death.

We were all part of
the same community.

It was definitely a loss
that we all collectively felt

when she passed away.

Thinking about it now,
it's honestly so shocking.

How is this not a red flag
for everyone in our community

that so many children had asthma
and this issue was very much linked

to the area that we lived in
which was highly polluted?

Because you can't always
see air pollution,

the dangers of it
often feel hidden or less severe.

As with the burning of coal,

the combustion of fossil fuels,
such as diesel and petroleum,

that power our transport,

also release dangerous gases
and particulates into our air.

Nitrogen dioxide, one of the
pollutants emitted from vehicles,

can damage our lungs
when breathed in,

and worsen pre-existing
health problems such as asthma.

Particulate pollution from vehicles

not only comes from the combustion
of fossil fuels

but from the wear and tear
of brakes and tyres.

Emerging research shows
that UFPs, or ultrafine particles,

are especially dangerous
to our health.

Measuring at less than
0.1 microns in diameter,

which is smaller than
many airborne viruses,

the tiny size of these particulates
makes them extremely inhalable.

Whether emitted from the combustion
of fossil fuels

or the wear and tear
of brakes and tyres,

these particulates
not only enter our lungs

but are small enough
to enter the bloodstream,

and can travel to different
organs in the body,

the result of which can cause tissue
damage, inflammation of organs

and lead to chronic health issues
such as heart disease and strokes.

I'm constantly thinking about
what is entering my lungs

when I'm walking down busy roads.

How could my commute to school
actually be harming me?

I wonder if my lungs' capacity
is reduced.

I wonder if I'm going to have
a shorter live expectancy

simply because of the air
that I'm breathing right now.

There are so many issues
that come from air pollution

that impact the development
of children.

Air pollution is even found
in placentas.

It is affecting us
before we are even born.

My generation has inherited
a polluted and dirty planet

that it is now our role
to fix and clean up.

Because it's our lives
that depend on it.

The battle has begun in London
to reduce polluting transport

with an Ultra Low Emission Zone
in the centre

and support for a new generation
of greener public transport.

But children in cities
around the world

are still faced with harmful levels
of airborne pollutants.

Children's developing bodies
are particularly vulnerable

to the impacts of air pollution.

The World Health Organization
states that, every day,

more than 90% of the world's
children breathe air

that is so polluted it puts their
health and development at risk.

But it's not only
the health of children,

nor the air quality in our cities,
that is a cause for concern.

The air around us has travelled
for thousands of miles,

and on its journey
across the planet,

it picks up particulates
and toxic gases

emitted from
our polluting activities,

carrying them far from source.

The interconnectivity
of our global air currents

means that air pollution
doesn't recognise borders,

so it doesn't matter
where you live on Earth -

in the city or far from it -

air pollution will affect your life,
as the Sami reindeer herders

from northern Scandinavia
have experienced.

Chernobyl was perhaps one of the
worst single air pollution events

in modern history.

On April the 26th, 1987,

the nuclear power plant exploded,

casting radioactive particles
into the atmosphere.

The plumes of deadly
radioactive material

spread hundreds of miles
across Europe

with devastating effects to
communities and the natural world.

Chernobyl was a unique event.

Yet data have shown that toxic gases
like sulphur dioxide

and particulates from industry
and power generation

are also carried
in air currents around Europe.

The movement of air about the globe
means that, ultimately,

we share our air pollution
with each other,

and with the natural world.

With each passing year,
we continue to emit particulates

and toxic gases into our air.

Air pollution,
both indoors and outdoors,

is now a leading risk factor
for death and disability worldwide.

Nine out of ten of us live our lives
in an environment of unhealthy air.

The full effect of our air pollution
on the natural world

is still being assessed,

but studies have shown that the
particulates we're adding to the air

are making the atmosphere
less transparent,

lowering the amount of sunlight
reaching the Earth's surface,

and causing an effect
known as global dimming.

The dimmer sunlight at the surface
can reduce evaporation,

impeding nature's water cycle
and potentially lowering rainfall

in some parts of the world.

Our dirtying of the air
comes back to affect us all.

It causes premature deaths, and by
changing the patterns of rainfall,

it may lead to droughts
and failed harvests.

The next few decades are expected
to bring a growth in cities,

of heavy industry,
and of vehicle use around the world.

How can we ensure
that this can happen

without making the air we share
dirtier still?

What the world needs

is real, built examples

of how to do things differently.

My name is Bjarke Ingels.
I'm an architect.

Architecture, essentially,
is the art and science

of turning fiction into fact,
or turning fantasy into reality.

So you can imagine, you know,

a power plant
with a ski slope on the roof,

and ten years later
that's just how it is.

Normally when you think about
power plants

or waste management facilities
you think about giant eyesores,

but in this case we could actually
turn it into a man-made mountain,

a 100-metre tall landscape,

as a way to change people's minds
about what can a power plant be?

When you take the elevator
up to the top of the mountain,

you are actually looking into
the belly of the beast,

or the inside of the mountain.

Half of the volume inside
the mountain is not the machinery

that turns the waste into energy,

it's actually the machinery
that extracts and filters.

A normal chimney represents
the failures of our technology

or our society, that it's
essentially all the air pollution

that we sort of just leak out

and if we build the chimney high
enough we hope it sort of goes away

and disappears,
and we've learned that it doesn't.

Whereas in this case,
the Copenhageners can now

actually alpine ski in the middle
of a country that has no mountains

because the power plant that
turns our waste into electricity

and district heating is
so clean that you almost have

fresh mountain air on top of it.

I'm not saying that all power plants
should be skiable,

but the technologies
that are inside CopenHill,

of course, are scalable.

Sustainable buildings,
clean technology,

allows you to imagine a much more
exciting and inviting city

than one where you really have to
stay far away

from all the sort of dirty industry.

Sustainability should not only be
a kind of moral imperative,

or let's say,
call it necessary sacrifice.

I love that idea that it's almost
radically changing the expectation

for what the future might hold.

Houston,
the Eagle has landed.

That's one small step for man.

One giant leap for mankind.

If you ever stop
and look at a tyre...

It's something that is so ordinary
that I think a lot of us

don't really take the time
to look at,

but, like, they're a huge,
like, object,

like, rolling around our cities
all the time, wearing down.

I'm Siobhan Anderson.

I'm one of the four co-founders
of The Tyre Collective.

We all decided to work together
to focus on pollution

because we felt like it was
something where we could intervene

and really make a tangible impact.

In cities we've become really
focused on air pollution

from tailpipe emissions.

But we know that vehicles,

when they drive, accelerate,
brake and corner...

..they produce these things
called non-exhaust emissions,

which is very fine particles
that can become airborne,

and tyre wear contributes to that.

To try and visualise how much
different vehicles produce,

we were actually able to track
the longest bus route in London.

And then we calculated
the total amount of tyre wear

that was produced
in 24 hours from that,

and it produced a cube that was
about the size of a grapefruit.

It was really big.
and it completely shocked us.

I think about every car
that you see on the road

and imagining that that's
what's coming off of that car,

going into our air
and into our water.

That was one of the starting points

that convinced us that we needed
to do something about this.

We wanted to make an impact now,

before more could be added
to the environment.

When these particles are created,

if you imagine a spinning wheel,

as they come off right at
the ground, at the contact patch,

they're actually charged
due to the friction of the road.

And what this is means is,
as they're flying through the air,

we can actually use
electrostatics...

..to capture and attract them.

Right now we're creating
a retrofittable device,

so this would be able
to go on any vehicle.

Something like a box
behind the wheel.

From there, we are actually
able to store them

in a different storage tank
in our device

where they can be removed
and collected.

Right now is the perfect time

to try and create systemic change
that's needed.

As we're shifting towards
electric vehicles,

we definitely need to make sure
that we really are considering

every source of pollution
in that transition.

I really hope that the technology
that we're developing will be

on every vehicle out there
that has a wheel or a tyre,

to make sure that this pollution
is really stopped.

My name is Esther An.

I'm the Chief Sustainability Officer
at City Developments Limited.

Sustainability has always been
at the heart of the way we design.

I will say that I am passionate
about all things sustainability.

It's kind of like an addiction.

Building our cities sustainably
with nature in mind

can make a huge impact,

especially on our air quality.

But sadly, many urban cities
have become concrete jungles,

with buildings towering all over.

We all know that plants absorb
carbon and help to filter toxins.

They are nature's greatest
air purifier.

We need to really appreciate nature
and tap into the energy

and positivity
that nature can provide us.

We must adopt biophilic design

in the way we design
and build our infrastructure.

If you can adopt biophilic design
in your infrastructure

and in your building,
it's definitely, you know,

benefitting users and making
everyone happier, healthier

and even more productive.

Biophilia literally means
a love of nature.

It is about living in harmony with,

and also embracing, nature -
not fighting it.

Today, Singapore
has gone one step further

to set its sight
on becoming a city in nature.

This is the world we want
for our future generations,

a world that, you know,
you have clean air, blue sky

and happiness and health
for everyone.

Our shared air could be made
far cleaner and healthier

if we put our collective energies
and minds to the task.

The Earthshot Prize is here
to recognise those efforts

by rewarding and supporting
the most innovative ideas

to bring this inspiring ambition
to pass.

And here are the finalists
of the first-ever Earthshot Prize

to clean our air.

We head to India to meet the young
designer of an ironing cart

that uses solar panels
instead of polluting fuel.

India is currently grappling

with significant air pollution
in its cities.

The bad air quality
has a long list of causes.

One is the burning of polluting
fuels like charcoal on the streets

by the country's estimated
ten million ironing vendors.

At just 14 years old,
Vinisha Umashankar,

a student from Tamil Nadu,

has come up with the beginnings
of a clean solution.

The story started
when I was 12 years old

and I was just coming back home
from school

and I noticed the ironing vendors
in my street using charcoal.

I knew there was
something wrong about it

so I did a bit of research
and I figured out

that charcoal causes air pollution,
respiratory diseases,

and all of this
is linked to climate change.

In 2019, with a lot of homework,
as well as the attention and support

of India's
National Innovation Foundation,

Vinisha came up with her winning
design for a solar ironing cart.

The cart has solar panels
forming its roof,

and these are connected
to a battery.

It takes around five hours
of bright sunshine to fully charge.

And this powers the iron
for six hours.

It even has a mobile phone
charging point,

meaning street vendors
can gain extra income

by selling
their stored solar energy.

The benefits of the cart being
mobile is that the ironing vendors

don't need to stay stationary
in one place.

Instead, they can move across town
and cover a larger area

thus expanding their customer base.

Vinisha's idea represents
one specific application,

but its significance
is that it proves a point -

wherever we use polluting fuels,
we can swap them for clean energy.

With more funding, she wants to
mass-produce the carts cheaply

so that street vendors
using charcoal in India,

the rest of Asia and Africa,
can also benefit.

Vinisha deserves her place on this
list because she's an inspiration.

Proof that you're never too young
to see a problem, take action,

and innovate.

Now, there's just one last feature -

a very loud horn to let you know
that the ironing vendor

is now in your street.

Our next finalist

has helped transform
China's air quality in recent years

with an app that enables the naming
and shaming of the worst polluters.

For many years, China has been
the world's biggest manufacturer,

with a reputation for exceptionally
high levels of air pollution.

The people of China desperately
needed to get their blue skies back,

and a former journalist, Ma Jun,

decided to use an app
to let them do so.

During the smoggy season,

checking the air quality
is like checking the weather.

Our users can find out

whether they should wear a mask,
open the window,

or whether it's safe to send
their children outside to play.

Or if it's not, they can figure out
who is polluting and tweet it.

When China began
to release the emissions data

for thousands of factories...

..Ma Jun placed it all
on a map in an app,

revealing to everyone
when and where the air was dirty

and who was making it dirty.

It's a way for us
to tap into transparency

and information technologies

to empower millions of people
to join the clean-up efforts.

Ordinary citizens can use the app
to call out polluters,

and major brands
are using the app to monitor

and improve the environmental
performance of their suppliers.

The app is making the polluters
change their ways.

In just one case,

a major listed steel plant
spent more than $1 billion

to make a very deep cut
of its emission.

With more than ten million
downloads,

the app has already had
a huge impact.

To date, it has led to reduced
pollution at more than 10,000

of China's most seriously
polluting factories.

So now the blue skies
are coming back to China.

But Ma Jun
doesn't want to stop there.

He now has plans to develop the app

for other polluted parts
of the world.

I hope more people in the world can
see the value of the combination of

technology, transparency and public
participation, and be more hopeful

to join the efforts to bring back
those blue skies.

Blue Map App shows the potential
impact of new technology

and the online community
and teaches the world a lesson -

that clever innovation
combined with public participation

is a recipe for progress.

For our final idea,
we head back to India

to learn about the Takachar machine,

a portable device that can
safely burn crop waste,

to deal with a key source
of air pollution in India.

Each year, huge amounts of crop
residues are burnt by rural farmers

in India, leading to urban smog
in nearby cities.

A young engineer
decided to take action.

I've been experiencing

poor quality of air since childhood.

Open burning of crop residues

contribute about 25-30% of the smog

and they take the already bad
quality of air

to an extremely poor level.

What we have found is that
farmers do not want to burn

this agricultural waste

and also are aware
of the smoke problem,

as it affects
their families as well.

But due to lack of alternatives,

they have no other choice
but to burn them in the open.

Vidyut co-developed
the Takachar machine

which uses a low-oxygen
burning technique

to not only reduce pollution

but also convert the farmers' waste
into valuable fertiliser and fuels.

And because it's portable,
it can do so right in the fields.

We feed in agricultural waste,
like rice straw, coconut shells,

into the machine.

The agriculture waste
then undergo torrefaction,

which is essentially
roasting the biomass

between 200-350 degrees Celsius.

This process superheats the residues
while starving them of oxygen,

producing much less smoke
and emissions.

It then gets converted
to a carbon-rich material

and gets collected in a box,
ready to be stored and packaged.

The carbon-rich product
is used by the farmers as fuel,

fertiliser, or sold
to industry for factory

and domestic water filtration.

It can consume up to 200kg per hour
of agricultural and forest waste,

so if you run it for ten hours
a day, its capacity is two tonnes.

Takachar are providing
a meaningful solution

that benefits both farmers
and the planet.

If scaled up, they believe
they have the potential to increase

the income of rural communities

while improving the air quality
of 200 million people.

These incredible solutions

could ultimately improve
the lives of so many of us.

One of these projects
will soon win the Earthshot Prize

and get the support,
platform and resources it needs

to take the initiative to scale.

Humans can achieve remarkable things
when we set our minds to it.

In the next episode,

we will learn how we may achieve
the fourth Earthshot

and revive our oceans.

We'll discover a fishing
community in Mexico

that has quadrupled its marine life
in 15 years,

meet sniffer dogs helping us
to understand and halt

our poisoning of the seas,

and find people all over the world
who are demonstrating

just how quickly and spectacularly
the oceans can recover -

if we let them.