All language subtitles for infected.earth.2024.1080p.web.h264-cbfm_track3_[eng]

Climate change is not only

affecting
the health of the planet.

It's also affecting
human health.

Planet Earth.

We have a problem.

Absolutely.
We're in a climate emergency.

Climate change is doing more
than just melting

ice caps and bleaching coral.

It's making us sick.

Everybody is being impacted.
You name it.

Everything is changing.

The number one
threat to humans.

Hi, my name is Dr.
Dara O'Carroll

and I'm an emergency
and disaster physician.

And I've seen the effects
of climate change firsthand.

We're getting more extremes,
not less.

Chronic fatigue of all of us.

That's when all hell
is going to break loose.

Join me as I travel the global

eating world experts
as they sound the alarm,

seeking solutions
to some of the world's

most pressing health issues.

Even going beyond two degrees
is going to be catastrophic.

We still have
a fighting chance,

but we've got to move fast now

and in today's

program, we

head down
under to the Great Barrier

Reef to see how climate change
is affecting

one of the natural wonders
of the world

and what it means for human
health.

We'll follow the deadly
Irukandji jellyfish,

one of the world's
most venomous creatures

as it trek south directly into
the path of populated areas.

We investigate

the role climate change

is playing on the rising
number of fatal shark attacks.

Before
I go into total meltdown

during a debilitating heat
chamber experiment

and finally will confront
a mega bushfire,

one so catastrophic
it will transform the way

people view
climate change forever.

Nowhere in the world
is climate change

having more of an effect
than here in Australia.

The early 20th century poet
Dorothea McKellar once wrote

I love a sunburnt country,
a land of sweeping plains,

of ragged mountain ranges, of
droughts and flooding rains.

You see, Australia has always
been a land of extremes.

But today,
things are getting much worse.

More than any other
developed nation in the world.

Australia is rapidly changing.

Climate is impacting
the health of its own citizens

and doctors around the country
are sounding the alarm.

Temperature of the planet
is changing

in a way that it hasn't

changed for thousands,
if not millions of years.

That's being driven
by greenhouse gases

which are coming from human
activities mainly.

And that the prognosis

for the future on our current
trajectory is pretty grim.

Despite the bad news,
there is a way out of this,

but we've got to act
decisively now.

Projections
I've seen show that

if we don't get climate change

under control, in other words,

if global average temperatures
go to three degrees or more,

there will be large
swaths of Australia

which will simply be
uninhabitable.

I see climate change
not as a planetary issue, but

as a human issue, one that's
impacting public health today

and that threatens to impact
the very future of our kids.

The single greatest health
challenge that health care

workers globally will have
to face is climate change.

One of the

consequences of climate change
is the loss of biodiversity.

Ground zero for this
loss is our world to reefs,

and nowhere is experiencing it

faster than the Great Barrier
Reef,

which supports the richest,

most complex natural ecosystem
on the planet.

Dying coral is not just
an esthetic loss.

It also jeopardizes

the discovery of future
medicines

and threatens
the livelihood of coastal

populations who rely on reefs
for food and habitat.

So I just arrived in Cairns
here in the tropical north

of Australia at the gateway
to the Great Barrier Reef.

This is one of the only

places in the world
where lush rainforest meets

coral and sustain such a high
degree of biodiversity.

What a lot of people aren't
realizing, though,

is that climate change
is affecting this area

but also having tremendous
consequences for human health.

About 40% of non therapeutic
drugs come from nature.

We're going to miss
some major opportunities

if we let climate change
escalate

and continue
to decimate our biodiversity.

I mean, Australia is one of 17
negative worst countries

in the world.

We want to protect
more than just Australia.

We want to protect
all of those 17 countries.

But climate change is causing
some major problems there

and we're losing medicines
of the future.

I've arranged to meet up

with marine biologist
Richard Fitzpatrick,

who's offered to

take biochemists Rowan Davis
and I out on an exploratory

dive on the Great Barrier Reef

Institute.

Hey, Paul, this
is Darren with Rich Scots.

We're heading down to you now.

We're going to Marlin Marino.

Is that correct?

That's correct.

It's not long before we leave
the port city of Cairns

and make our way out

into the vast
expanse of the Coral Sea.

From the surface,
everything appears is normal.

But due to recent changes
in the climate,

the water temperature
in this part of the world

has been rapidly increasing,
resulting

in a disastrous series
of coral bleaching events.

All right, Richard, these are
these are your waters

or where exactly we are.

This is textured reef,

so it's what
we call a mitchell freak.

So they had to race
another hour at that way.

Just travel 2 hours
to get here.

But these Mitchell freaks
are the ones

that really got hammered
by the coral bleaching events.

And so what you're going
to see today is a recovering

from those events.

There
were a couple of years ago

near it, and the Barrier
Reef actually had a barrier.

We've got this back
lagoon area and that's

where the thermal load
just increased.

And there's just mass
bleaching.

How long does it take for that
bleaching to happen

and how long does it take
to recover?

Well, for a reef
to really fully recover

after a destructive event
takes about 15 to 20 years.

Well,

so destructive

around the events on the reef
you have cyclones.

Crown of thorns.
And now we have bleaching.

But destruction
is part of construction.

You know, you do need corals
to get reduced to rubble

that can fill in the spaces
for a reef to grow.

But it's that balance between
growth in and destruction

at the moment

with the climate change,
it's all out of whack.

It's too much destruction.

Yeah, and the destructive
events are now too frequent.

So the corals can recover.

But if the stress

from the temperature
last too long,

those corals will just
starve and die.

But the issue

that the Barrier Reef is
facing is the right of change,

is too fast for

natural evolutionary processes
to keep up with.

It's the rate of climate
change.

It's just unprecedented.

So literally the longer

we wait,
the worse it's going to be,

because at the moment us doing
nothing is kicking

the can down the road
for future generations.

I'd heard

so much
about the Great Barrier

Reef, the largest
living structure on earth,

and I was just excited
to see it

and experience it for myself
with everything in order.

Rohan Richardson
I set off to explore.

What immediately
struck me was the contrast

between healthy, vibrant coral

and the skeletal remains
of dead and bleached coral,

which look more
like a pile of rubbish.

If anyone has any doubts
that the reef is in trouble,

I'm here to tell you
that the threat is serious

and is very real.

To me it looks
I know not a reef expert, but

I saw a lot of say my health
healthy coral, some not.

Sounds like you're
a reef expert.

It's exactly what it was.

It's a recovering reef.

There's a lot of death.

So we went over that
big rubble bit,

and I was pointing to
an ongoing, you know, no good.

Then right at the end of it,

we saw that big, beautiful
candelabra of staghorn coral.

Right.

That's what that whole area
would have been like

if we don't have any more
destructive events in another.

So ten years, you go in there
and go, it's amazing.

But what you're seeing is,
is a recent recovery, right?

Personally, I'm like,
how does that make you feel?

Or somebody who's been,

you know, diving these waters
for how long?

You have both mixed emotions
like sadness,

because you can see
in your mind's eye

what it was,
how great it would have been.

But then you see bits of hope
with all these new recruits

coming in

and that have weathered

all these storms
that are hanging in there and

and they are trying
to recolonize.

So it's the yin
and the yang. Right.

And I find

that nearly everywhere I go
now, diving on the reef alone.

What do you think
when you see that

as that's your territory
into grabbing

and getting future
pharmaceuticals?

I could definitely see

a lot of harm destruction
there and a lot of, you know,

loss of biodiversity,
especially on

top of the Coral bombing,
where a lot of that

that marine life
was essentially dead.

But I saw snippets of,

you know, optimism as well

as life as we moved around
the whole me, there was

some sponges in the city
and that caught my eye.

And these are two marine
organisms that we know

produce interesting compounds

that might one day developed
into medicines.

It's a real race
against time for you

then to get this stuff
in the can.

Well, it's really
we've already lost

a magnitude of those
before they're even destroyed.

You know, that's
what's really sad is like,

you know, marine biology is a
relatively new science.

You know,

it's only since we've been
able to blow bubbles

carrying these things
on our back.

For the last 40 years,
we've been sticking

our heads under the sink.

We lose that before we even
get a chance to collect.

Describe it, analyze it.

It's tragic.

We are playing catch up

and we're
we're running out of time.

Really.

These these new species

could be sources
of medicines, of the future.

And much of our science
has been biased

in the shallow water,
you know, the top 20 meters.

The stuff below that

hasn't been touched at all.

We've only just had our first
ever full

comprehensive deep sea survey
on the inside of the reef.

There's stuff down there
that will never be known.

It'll be gone before,
you know.

So who knows what
we're losing, right?

Exactly where it's got to be,
to our detriment.

Great Barrier Reef.

How well it's going to hold up

as the canary in the coal
mine.

It's all ecosystems, right?

But yeah, you lose the reef.

You know, most of the world's
populations live

on the edge of the water
in the tropics.

Every part of their life
comes from the reef that goes.

And you've got

literally billions of people
will start starving.

The reef guys erodes away,
The mangroves go at heart.

More high energy storms,
erosion storms.

We just

I can see as a physician,
that's extremely frustrating.

So I can appreciate

as you guys, people
ignoring the science

and seeing the consequences
down there.

Like that's going to be
incredibly frustrating. Yeah.

So so what is the solution
to all this?

I think humanity has to be

faced with absolute crises
sometimes before we react.

But the crisis
is happening now.

It's just hidden because it's,
you know, below the water.

And that's
why it's so important

for the science
and even the media

to get the stories out.

It just to mobilize people.

But I think, you know,
humanity, we're pretty smart,

You know, in
science and engineering.

It's not like we don't have

the components out there
to start fixing things.

It's just the will, right?

You don't appreciate
good health until you lose it.

And so this hopefully not
get to the point where we lose

everything
is the key to the game.

Alarmed
at how much destruction

I saw
while diving out on the reef,

I wanted to speak further
with Roland Davis

about the medicines
we could potentially

be losing in the future.

What is it about Queensland?

I know we've got rainforest
right on top of the huge

Great Barrier Reef.

What is it about this state
that has such a wealth

of potential? This area

is just it's one of the most

biodiverse regions
in in Australia.

We've got so many different
ecosystems

and those ecosystems

hold this unique biodiversity

that as a natural products
chemist I want to go and study

and I have high hopes
that in the future

we're going to find new drugs
from these unique locations.

So how much of our new
pharmaceuticals

are coming from nature?

About 40% of non-therapeutic
drugs come from nature.

They're either natural
products or derivatives.

There's some wonderful
examples out there.

Probably most people know
about morphine from the opium

poppy, which has pain control,
controlling properties

as a way to safeguard
flora and fauna.

Rowan
established a nature bank

to develop medicines
into the future.

So nature banks,
a collection of the biota,

biota, meaning plants
and marine organisms

that we've gone and collected

over the last two decades here
in the state of Queensland.

And they're set aside
for future generations

of scientists to work on.

So if I don't make the big
discovery in the future,

I hope that someone else does
from these natural resources.

We've
had some really interesting

discoveries
over the last couple of years

with this nature
bang collection

when climate change is
threatening our biodiversity.

Are you telling me that it's
threatening

our potential pharmaceutical
and future medicines?

Well, and truly, yeah.

Every time we lose a species,
we could be losing

a potential drug
or therapy of the future.

So how do you personally feel
that your work

is being compromised
by our changing climate?

It's upsetting.

It spurs us on to to make sure
we we collect these samples

while we still can for future
generations of scientists.

These samples, while
we may not get to use them,

our future scientists will

and they'll make the new
discoveries

that are needed

to treat certain
human diseases in the world.

Another powerful
example of the threat posed

by climate change
in this part of the world

is the Irukandji jellyfish,

one of the most venomous
creatures on the planet.

As a water gets warmer here
in the tropical north,

the Irukandji are not only
appearing for longer periods,

they're also pushing

further south directly
into the path of major cities.

It's a recipe for disaster.

All right, big red warning.

These are tropical waters.

We're presence of dangerous
jellyfish as possible.

Calm seas, northerly winds

and high temperatures favor
the presence of stingers,

but other conditions do
not guarantee their absence.

Persons entering these waters
do so at their own risk.

I mean,
this is one of the major

tourist areas
of northern Australia.

This is Palm Cove.

I've seen this sign
and many other

signs up and down this beach

to find out more.

I had to visit Dr.

Jamie Seymour,

the world's leading expert
in Irukandji jellyfish.

For a creature with such
a fearsome reputation.

I was immediately surprised
at just how small they are.

But that's a full grown
animal.

This is it. Let's see.
They're tiny.

Yeah. Yeah.

And that's.

I mean, that's the first thing
that catches most people.

And I mean, yes,

they're on the bottom
of the evolutionary tree,

but these things are seriously
sophisticated animals.

From a pain point of view.

It's probably up there
with the world's worst venom.

Full stop.

And to give you some idea.

Zero. No pain. Ten. The most
you can imagine.

My last trip
with one of these guys

I had the pain of that for.
So you were stunned.

I've been down that trip
11 times.

Never, ever want to go
there, ever. In the beginning.

It's horrific.

If someone had given me
a gun at that point in time,

I was a seriously debilitating
pain.

It's it's hard
to get it across to people

to physically be me.

But the world's worst pain.

You're getting close
in Cairns.

On average,

we put 30 to 50 people

in hospital
a year from Irukandji stings.

That's just Queensland.

The problem is
if you're stung,

you're going to hospital.

It doesn't matter
whether it's a millimeter

tentacle or 20 centimeters.

If you're off the hospital,
end of story.

I've had to personally
warn people

and they have their babies
in the,

you know, on the shoreline
and waiting in those waters.

So there's a real, real risk
and threat to loss of life

from that.

But the problems that you have
is that we've got an idea

in Cairns, but
this is geographic specific.

There's now a direct link

between warming water
and both the length

of the Irukandji season
and their movement.

Further south

we found was the season back
in 1960 was about one

or two months long.

So the jellyfish
would turn up in November

and the last thing you got
was the back end of December.

You look at it in 2000
and that season, now

still starting in around
about November,

the seasons are dragging out
to April, May, possibly June.

Bubble length.

Increasing the season

beautifully correlates
with the increase

in water temperature.

These animals have got all

white
and just north of Brisbane.

That's right down
the east coast of Australia,

who has a water got warmer,

they've got further
and further south.

Water temperatures,
particularly in the ocean,

generally are rising
at a much lower rate.

But up on the northern
Australian coast

are rising almost as fast
as their temperatures,

that about one degree Celsius
hotter than pre-industrial

and that is what is leading
to the massive bleaching

of the Great Barrier Reef.

It's leading to changes in
behavior of marine organisms

like sharks.

It's leading to changes in the
ranges of marine organisms.

If you continue to increase
the water temperature

and it gets warmer and warmer
as we get further south,

these animals will go further
and further south.

Not if,

but when they arrive
on the major beaches

down in Brisbane and places
like that.

That's
when all hell is going to

break loose
because we have no way

of alleviating the problem
at this moment.

Apart from going

the beaches closed,

is it possible they could get
all the way to Sydney

if the water gets warmer?

Absolutely.

You know,
our lifestyle is based

around the ocean and to have

a danger like that moving,

I think a lot of the southern
Queenslanders

wouldn't
be able to comprehend it.

We live with it
here in north Queensland.

We now have two.

But yeah,

I think there'll be a

long learning curve down there

which will involve
a lot of hospital visits.

We don't go out in the water
without

some sort of protection.

A stinger suit
most of the year

now, especially here
along the coastline,

not only those little ones,

but there's some big box
jellies

that also can do some
some serious damage.

And as if to highlight
the severity of the problem,

while I was in Queensland,
a young boy died

while swimming
in the coastal town of Mackay

after being brushed by a box
jellyfish.

You mentioned that
we can fix this.

How do we fix it?

Look, I think the answer
is really simple.

It's one of those problems

that the more money
you throw at it,

the quicker
you find a solution.

But we're not there yet.

We're not even close.

We still don't know how
the venom operates.

And we've been working
on these

for probably 15 or 20 years
and it's

there's just so many unknowns
in the whole situation.

So it's either
going to be one of two things.

We're either
gonna have to do something

specific
to remove those animals.

That's not possible,

but people are have to stop
using the ocean.

It's going to come down
somewhere.

We know climate
change is out there yet.

Let's not get into an argument
who calls it

whatever it is
that we know it is.

There somebody come up with
a conclusion how we fix it?

One person
who's trying to find solutions

to the climate crisis here on
the reef is Dean Miller,

who heads up the Great Barrier
Reef Legacy,

a nonprofit organization

trying to preserve coral
in a living biobank.

This is the holding facility
of Cairns Marine,

which is an industry leader
really in collecting corals

and fish

and holding them

and distributing
to the world's

public and private aquariums.

Right now there'd be,

you know, over 10,000
coral fragments in here.

So we could effectively
have in this space

the entire collection
of the world's fault.

How big
is the problem that we have

in my mind, potentially
catastrophic, right?

We're losing pulse
at an alarming rate

and we're we're losing them
very, very quickly.

We've had three mass
bleaching events

in six years
now, and over 50% of Great

Barrier Reef
cover has already been lost.

WHITE So we don't have coral
reefs anymore.

Where are those billion people
going to go?

What are they going to eat?

These are

potentially
catastrophic issues

that we're going to have to
face, right,

I feel in the next
20, 30, 40 years.

And so these are the biobank
corals.

And each one of these little
fragments represents a space.

And so they're sitting
on the little acrylic plugs.

And within that acrylic
plug is a microchip.

So from the moment
they come out of the water,

all the data is collected on

everything about the race
that they came from,

the temperature, the depth,
the water chemistry.

They've had millions of years
to adapt

to different temperatures
around the world.

And we're trying to push them

through that evolution process
in a much faster timeframe.

So they're struggling.

Some corals can do it,

but majority are showing
signs of stress.

And we need to acknowledge
that this is a global problem.

Now, other reef systems
are completely collapsed.

We're in a unique position in

that this is an opportunity
to bank

the biodiversity of Coles

now, whereas
in other places of the world

it's either happening
right now or it's too late

Because I was speaking
with Professor Roland Davis,

he was saying that
we're losing biodiversity

and his ability
to find different chemicals

that can be applicable
for medicines

that I could be using
in the emergency department.

We're losing. Absolutely.

So it's really
an untapped resource.

And when you think that

there's 800 to 1000
coral species around the world

that we really know

very little about
in terms of their genetic,

I guess, bio
prospecting potential.

So one of the things
this project does

is collect a living sample.

Then we run the genetics

and we'll have the full
genetic sequence

for each one of these
coral fragments.

And someone like
a pharmaceutical or medical

research
lab will have access to that

full genetic information.

So this could be the cure
to prostate cancer,

or this one could be the one

that fights COVID
or something like that.

We just don't know
what's out there yet.

We don't know what's out

and what gives you hope
for the future.

The biggest hope is that
we can do something right now

collecting the calls

and keeping them alive
in a biobank scenario

allows us to at least maintain
that biodiversity.

But there's
lots of other stuff

we need to be doing.

So that's
one piece of the puzzle

really needs to address.
Climate change head on.

And I think
as a global community,

unless we start to make
radical changes, we're

going to lose the race
at the end of the day.

And I feel like people

will do the right thing
at the end of day.

A warming planet
not only threatens

the health of coral, it's
also causing extreme

drought and oppressive
heat the world over.

In fact, heat

waves kill more people
across the world

than any other weather
phenomena.

In Australia alone,

an average of over 500
Australians die of heat

illness every year.

So I would say that
extreme heat

probably is the number one
factor

that's driving
change in our climate

and driving health
Health impacts.

One of the biggest
and most immediate challenges

across the world is heat
stress.

Basically, as the weather
gets more extreme and hotter,

we are anticipating
many more 100 plus degrees

in the United States,
specifically in the Southeast.

To learn
more about the problem,

I travel to Sydney to visit
Professor

Ali Jae, a leading heat
and health

expert
at the University of Sydney.

We're facing

pretty dire consequences
potentially in certain

parts of the world,
particularly areas

of northern India,
for example.

They already experience
very high temperatures

alongside
quite high humidities as well.

Here in Australia,
of course, we might expect

temperatures to increase
quite substantially as well.

Also the humidity
that's associated with that

for a long time,

people, we're not really
taking the health impacts,

which with the seriousness

that the expert community
was talking about.

They were talking about
the fact that

we could get to temperatures

where it's impossible
to live outside without an

air conditioner.

This is when,
you know, things are so humid

and so hot that you literally
can't keep yourself cool.

And you, don.

And so we can expect that heat
stress will will continue

to cost thousands of lives
every year.

For some reason, people
aren't embracing

that threat
as much as they should

to get a taste of heat stress
in a simulated environment.

Dr. J invited me to exercise
in a heat chamber,

something I must say
I wasn't looking forward to.

And if that wasn't bad enough,

I had to swallow a
thermometer pills

so they could measure my core
body temperature.

What we see at the moment
is that heat waves,

we definitely get heat
waves with 45 degrees Celsius

or even warmer.

But the challenge
in this particular case

will be the higher humidity.

So when you're indoors,
it's pretty difficult

to simulate
an outdoor environment.

You can simulate
the temperature and you

can simulate the humidity.

But what we can do
with this facility

as well as up to an extent,

we can simulate the extra
thermal radiation that comes

from being in an outdoor
sunny environment.

So it's very what it's doing
is is monitoring

what your breathing
in and what you're breathing

every six.

Growing up in Hawaii,

I was used to working and
exercising in tropical heat,

but nothing could have
prepared me for this.

The future is

very long

from now on.

Screening service
drifting off me.

I'll do that at the moment,

I can feel myself returning

from one degree Celsius.

Your heart rate

to 141.

The level definitely feeling
ceiling increase

15 minutes into the exercise
and I was in a pool of sweat

and I was so hot I felt
my head was about to explode.

The future
was definitely really hot.

I mean,
I wasn't even doing much work.

You guys saw
me like a slow jog

and I felt like
I was sort of suffocating

and I'm not an unfit guy,
you know, that's not possible

to live with in the future.

I mean, that was only
20 minutes or less,

some around 20 minutes
for some reason that all day

I mean, you're talking about
chronic dehydration or even

heat stroke or heat exhaustion
before 3 hours are done.

I hope it's not what's coming
because that's not bearable.

It's hard

to imagine how people

can function and work in such
debilitating conditions.

And it just gave me
a small insight

into what life could be like
in a warmer future.

So once we surpassed
the age of 65 or 70 years old,

you start getting age
related reductions

in the ability to sweat.

So the other group of people
that we're also concerned

about are people
who are physically active.

So if because of your job

or because of the sport
that you participate

in or something like that,

so in that situation,

you be

more likely to experience

something called
exertional heat stroke.

Whereas the other situation,
I would describe

older individuals

who just simply at home
can't keep cool.

That would be something called
classic heat stroke,

heat stress.

I can now feel it now

personally
that it's the number one

killer going forward when
it comes to climate change.

More people are going to die

of heat, stress
and everything else.

Every year,

thousands of people die
as a result of heat stress.

This is not a unique
to the developing world.

It's in the developed world
as well.

At the end of the day,
we've got to be making sure

that we turn that create
those greenhouse gases off,

because if you don't turn them
off, then all of this unique

and innovative
science will be found.

I think

rising temperatures

are not only affecting
the health of humans,

they're also affecting
shark behavior.

In the last few years,
the east coast of Australia

has experienced

an unusually high number
of fatal shark attacks.

To find out
more about the problem,

I caught up with leading shark
researcher Dr.

Daryl McPhee on North
Stradbroke Island,

the scene
of a horrific, fatal attack.

So Daryl, what makes this

area prone to shark attacks
and having to have that sign

up there?

The environmental conditions
here are perfect for bull

sharks in particular.

We have an extremely deep

channel roaring
close to the beach

and we have all the water
coming in and out of water

by that large,

large environment
which sits next to Brisbane.

And most of the fish
that come in and out,

lots of scalding
fish like sea mullet,

which are really preferred
food in this area

for bull sharks hugging
the beach and the sharks

can fight back in 2006
in this very spot.

A 21 year old girl suffered
a terrifying fatal attack

when she was mauled
just meters away

from the beach
by a number of sharks.

And it's an encounter that
still haunts this area today.

What was so bad about that
shark attack was

was that it occurred
in the late afternoon,

quite a hot day when there was

a lot of families
here was multiple bites

from multiple bull shops.

And it really just
shattered the community.

And that shocked blood
is still etched indelibly

on people's memories.

Daryl,
there's been a recent record

number of fatal
great white shark attacks

here on the East
coast of Australia.

What's the role
climate change may be having?

There's never one reason
for a trend in unprovoked

shark bites,

but certainly
on the Australian east coast,

with changing currents
and warming water,

there's a correlation

between those factors
and the occurrence of sharks

on beaches where people are
swimming and surfing.

What's been unusual,
particularly

the last couple of years, is
a high number of fatalities.

In 2020,
the east coast of Australia

experienced 22 unprovoked
shark attacks, including

eight fatalities, making it
the worst year on record.

If we're seeing
an influx of sharks

or really high numbers,

lots of sightings of sharks
in one area,

we have to kind of wonder
what's bringing them in there.

Are they falling prey

or is there
something in the environment

that's telling them
this is where they should be?

So when we were talking about
what could be changing

shark movement,
shark behavior,

we have to look
at those environmental cues.

The sharks are moving around

in relation to food
and where their food goes,

where they go.

And so

what we find
with climate change

is that
their prey is being affected.

So therefore, ultimately
sharks are being affected.

We know that
their migratory patterns

are getting pushed
by climate change as well.

Warming seas are changing

where and where
those currents occur.

We all have theories as to
why we see more sharks now.

And I've had a dozen
encounters

in the last ten years
at least.

Do you foresee

more attacks

due to the changing climate
and the changing ecology

of the ocean?

Again, it's
very difficult to predict,

but I certainly
wouldn't be surprised.

With increasing warmer water,
you actually expect to see

mobile sharks spending longer
in the greater Sydney region

and even pushing further
south.

The other climate change
trigger was bull.

Sharks respond and move
to beaches during rain,

particularly flooding rain.

So the more flooding rain
you get, the more overlap

you expect a bull.

Sharks with surface,
the seasons are going longer.

That means people will be
spending more

and more time in the water.

So therefore, the chance
of a negative shark,

human interaction
also increases.

Australia's population is
going to continue to increase.

A lot of people
are going to go to the beaches

just to try and cool off.

More people in the water

equals the potential
for more shark bites.

Incredibly, just a day prior
to meeting with Dr.

McPhee,

my producer shocked me
with the news of another fatal

shark attack of

this time in Sydney
and the first in 60 years.

Dara, you are not going to
believe this

fatal shark attack
in Sydney who dies,

but they are first time
in 60 years

mauled to death by a man
eaters,

Great White,
the three of great

white celebrities in a video,
someone caught on film

got pretty full
on having worked in the E.R..

I've seen all sorts of trauma,

but nothing could have
prepared me

for the horrific scenes

as a five meter
great White mauled a swimmer.

So I've just seen
a really horrific video

of a fatal shark attack
in Sydney.

It's all over the newspapers
as well.

What's your take on that
absolutely horrific video?

It really puts things
in a context

that was clearly
a shark intent

on killing
that particular person.

It was a very
sustained attack.

And it just continued.

So there was obviously
motivation there.

We don't

tend to see that predatory
motivation that often from

great white sharks
in every sense of it.

It was an absolutely horrific
example of what can happen.

I guess the whole world

got to see the brutality
of a shark attack.

That's

I know that

I don't need to see
that tonight,

that having survived

a brutal attack himself
while out surfing,

Dave Pearson understands
the problem as well as anyone.

We got down the beach
and just the beach

that we always surf at.

When I was paddling out

after the third wave,
then just bang.

It was just

totally not expected
to hit me like a freight train

and it's bottom

jaw got stuck in my surfboard
on the way through.

All I remember
was tons of bubbles

and then something big
in front of me.

I was semi-conscious,
like I was so dazed.

I was looking down on my arm
and all of these muscles

was just hanging over
and the blood was squirting

probably 6
to 8 foot from the city.

The activity back over
and squeezing

as hard as I could
to just try and stem it

and ASM squeezing it,
squirting through my fingers.

And I'm thinking, well,
this isn't that good at all.

Just as I was
looking in the water,

I seen the shot
directly under me.

It was still probably only

two foot under the water
and it was like,

you know, five foot that way
and fight for that way.

It was big fish. shit,
I'm going to die today.

I was in a ton of pain,
but if you're in pain,

you're alive.

And I was pretty happy
about that.

Alarmed

at the rising
number of attacks

and the lack of post-traumatic
support,

Dave Pearson founded a support
group called the Fight Club.

The first year out of,

you know, after a year attack,

it's a mental mess that
you don't need to get into.

And I searched to see
if there was any support

network and slating

got in touch with a few people

and it was really nice
to be able

to help people through
some really tough times.

And and they've helped me
just as much.

Most of the climate
predictions I've been hearing

are that

Waters
are just going to continue

to get warmer
and warmer and warmer.

How problematic can this be
for surfers and people

who are in the ocean?

Potentially
extremely problematic.

We do know that

in amongst the information
on unprovoked shark bite,

there is a climate change
signal in that

there are some correlations
at times

concentrating
some white sharks

closer to that shoreline
and overlapping

more with people will expect
to see bites in Australia from

bull sharks and tiger sharks
to extend further south.

And likewise, in the US
mainland, we expect to see

bull sharks and tiger shark
bites moving further north.

As the water gets warmer,
sharks are going to be moving.

We're seeing
that distribution is changing.

We're seeing it in
bull sharks.

We're seeing in tiger
sharks in Australia

and in other places
around the world.

So we will have to understand

that these sharks are going
to be popping up in places

that we haven't seen them
before.

The difference from
when I was younger to now,

it wasn't as many attacks,
that's for sure.

But now

there's a lot more awareness
about what's out there.

And we should be shark smart,

We should be smarter
about what we do

and not put ourselves
in a situation

could lead to us
being attacked too

as humans to change
their behavior is a big ask.

But I think that
what people just need to to do

is to be aware, to educate
themselves, to know the risk

and to do whatever they can
to mitigate against that risk.

We want to alter
an entire ecosystem

by calling sharks,
removing sharks.

So then we have a safer
environment for recreation.

It's kind of a bit
the height of human arrogance,

I think, for us to

think that, let's change
a whole ecosystem

for our pleasure.

So for that extra
peace of mind

and in fact extra
risk reduction,

there are
scientifically tested

shark deterrents
that do actually work,

but none of them are 100%
effective.

The risk of a shark
bite is low.

It will remain low,
but it will never be zero.

So now hitting
south down to Canberra

to see Professor Will Steffen.

He's an expert
in climate science.

It's amazing
that just two years ago

Australia had its worst
bushfire season on record.

Now we're driving through

what allegedly is a one
in 1000 year flood.

Evacuation warnings
have also been issued for

the environment

and a

danger
if you are trying around

anywhere
in the whole of an area.

This really is a land
of climate extremes.

So climate change
is basically a disruption

of the energy balance
at the surface of the earth.

We are changing
the energy balance

of the lower atmosphere

and of course it changes
circulation, changes

how rainfall and where
rainfall falls, it changes

extreme weather events and all
sorts of things like that.

What are the general
climate trends

that are happening here
in Australia?

Well, probably
the first and foremost

one is it's
getting hot, really hot.

So extreme heat is going up.

That's still the number one

killer of climate
related extreme.

And it's affecting
all of our capital cities.

It's affecting the bush,
affecting everything.

So it's this combination
of our coasts are changing.

We're heating wood
burning more.

When droughts come,
they are much more severe.

They tend to be longer
and they tend to be drier.

It's spreading around
the rest of the world, too.

But I think there's nowhere
like Australia

where climate change now
is so pervasive

in so many different ways
and to such extreme,

all the natural variability
we have is getting worse.

When storms
come, the packing more power,

when rain comes, it
rains more,

more runoff, higher flooding,
sea levels are coming

up, storm
surges are coming in.

The other thing
I think that makes Australia

so unique is
we've put a lot of our people

and infrastructure
in vulnerable places.

We love our coastlines.

So all of Australia's
major cities

except the one we're
in now, Canberra,

all the others are located on
the coast.

People
love to go down to the beach,

up to the houses on the coast,
but sea level is coming up.

Storm
surges are becoming stronger.

So we have a lot of
infrastructure,

a lot of people at risk
from rising sea levels.

So it's a combination
of a very erratic climate

and just sort of
by the way we live,

we've tended to put ourselves
in harm's way

as the water continues
to warm.

Professor Steffen
also has real concerns for the

health of the Great Barrier
Reef.

Coral reefs are really, really

in a very vulnerable position
now, and I think my prognosis

is that not many of them
are going to survive.

Remember also that the oceans
absorb 90% of the extra heat

that we're generating
with greenhouse gases.

Big ocean currents
are going to start to change,

speeding up,
slowing or whatever.

That's going to wreak havoc
with climate around the world.

A lot of other continents,
they haven't experienced it

like we're experiencing it,
but it's going to come.

Are we in a climate emergency?

Absolutely.
We're in a climate emergency.

Temperatures are accelerating.

Our emissions are increasing.

So not only do
we have to reduce them,

we've got to learn

how slow them down
really fast,

pick them and
get them going now.

People don't appreciate
their health until it's gone.

How do you personally feel
about the inaction

that may be happening
for many people?

Climate
change was theoretical.

It was a science problem.
Something for the future.

Exactly.

As you say,

it's only after you lose
something

that you realize
how much you valued it,

like your health, obviously.

And then when I tell them

that these major events
don't just change

linearly as an even group,
they go up sharply.

And so 1.5, it's
going to be much more than 50%

worse than one

and two degrees
is going to be far worse

than double
what's happening at one.

And then I reminded

just remember
the last couple of years

what was happening
at one degree.

We still have
a fighting chance,

but we've got to move fast.

Despite all the negativity,

Professor Stephan
hasn't given up all hope

just yet and is encouraged

by the attitude of the world's
youth.

We see all sorts
of what I call

trusted voices
now standing up.

It's hard for people to forget
about what

the young people are saying,
saying It's our future.

You older people are in charge
of making sure

we have a future
and you're failing us.

That's a strong message.

But medical people are
speaking out like yourself.

Firies are speaking out.

Farmers speaking out.

Sportspeople are speaking out.

So this idea that we need to
move and we need to move past

is permeating
many aspects of our society.

And it's not unique
to Australia.

It's happening in
other parts of the world too.

Can we get to the social
tipping point in time?

I don't have the answer,
but every day

when I see someone else
speaking out,

it gives me some
hope that we might get there.

Greg Mullins

The son of a fireman
and a fireman himself

with over
50 years of experience

fighting fires on the front
line,

was so alarmed
by climate change

and its effects on bushfire,

he felt compelled to write
a book called Firestorm.

When I first became
a firefighter,

nobody was talking
about climate change.

It wasn't even on the radar.

And my father taught me
about the fire seasons

and patterns of weather.

What I'm seeing across
the world is

climate change is driving up

temperatures, it's
drying out forests, even wet

rainforests never used to burn

for millions of years,
couldn't burn.

Now they're burning.

So this problem is getting
bigger and bigger and bigger.

Wildfires
get turned on by particular

types of conditions.

It's the increase
in those conditions,

the dryness,
the amount of tinder,

the temperature

that are driving
this sort of cycle of fires.

In the summer of 2019 2020,
climate change

came to a head in Australia

when the east

coast of the country
literally went up in flames.

It was a fire so intense,
so catastrophic

and so widespread
it would change

Australia's view
on climate change forever.

It was a fire so devastating

it would make the whole world
stand up and take notice.

Stretching right
along the east coast

of Australia
and burning for over

six months, the fire would
become known as Black Summer.

If you look up the Australian
east coast from Victoria

up through to southern
and central Queensland,

on average about two
or 3% of those forests

burn every year.
That is a normal bushfire.

Some were equipped
to handle it.

Firefighters
couldn't go out and deal

with a wildlife
can deal with it.

That's the way ecology works.

While 2019
and 2020 came along, we jumped

from two or three or 4% to 21%
burnt in one year.

We had our hottest,
driest year ever

recorded in Australia,

so it was far more severe
than any previous drought.

So they're saying it was
the worst drought on record.

The forest
became critically dry

and the temperatures became

critically hot
at the same time.

So it crossed the threshold
in which

the fires were uncontrollable.

There was so much fire
activity

going on over
such a large area

from the top of the state

all the way down into Victoria

over such an extended
period of time.

It was months and months,

consistent devastation,
consistent destruction

on a scale that we hadn't
seen ever before.

Not just the sheer
scale of them,

but the length of time
they went for rather

fighting fires.
Over two or three months.

We were fighting fires

in some areas from August
right through to the end

of February and the march.

I saw

kangaroos on dying on fire,
coming out of blazing forests

and they know how to get away.

They know where the water is

and they fast
that the fires at random.

What I heard was so loud
that I turned around

and was confronted
with a world flame

unlike I'd ever seen this
enormous explosion of power.

And it was it was deafening.

People were trapped
and had to make for the sea.

We're standing on the beaches.

As fires were bearing down,
the Navy had to come in,

bring them out.

We had a pyro convective storm
above us, which used to be

something of legend.

You know, all my time

fighting fires.
I've never seen that now

so common during that fire
season.

There was one instance
during the fires

where an eight tonne fire
truck was picked up

and dumped on its race
and killed one firefighter.

I can show you

an image of flames
that are 50, 60 meters high.

Within sight of Canberra,

we were within hours
of having 40 and 50,000

people trapped.

I don't know

how many people
realized the situation,

but I was really sweating
that night.

In the time
I've been in the fire service,

I've seen some really
significant fires,

never to the scale
of the amount of fires

and five and a half million
hectares that were burnt here

in New South Wales
by far and away exceeds

what we've ever dealt with
before.

No firefighting organization
on this planet

could have dealt
with those fires.

We're
now talking about mega-fires,

things that are going for
for longer, hotter,

more intense, more threatening
and so on.

We're seeing these things
start to amplify.

We lost 2470 times, 11 times

more than any previous fires
in history in this state.

Fires are now

appearing in ecosystems
and regions of Australia

that they hadn't before.

So in addition
to the intensity of huge fires

in the eucalypts, other force

which didn't burn
are starting to burn.

Why? Because they're having
extended dry periods

and then heat.

There's big parts of this
state where there's nothing

there you go
there, there's not even birds.

It's sterilized because it's
the hundreds of kilometers.

It's just blackened
and everything died.

So our scientists are saying
there's

never been anything like this
or as widespread

as this or as intense disease.

And so a firefighter
who's been on the front lines

for 15 years, I've never seen
anything like it.

There's now

very strong evidence
that they wouldn't

have occurred
without climate change.

Well, as you know,
as I mentioned,

we're a fire prone continent
anyway.

But normally that would be

maybe three
or 4% of the force burned.

And you went back

three decades
and you saw this oscillation

and then you saw over
the last decade,

it kept creeping
up, up and up.

And up.

And by the time 2019 came by,

it was probably
at the 99th percentile.

In other words,
above anything else

in terms of the combination
of drought and heat.

It's easy to say,
well, we've had fires before.

I definitely consider the fact
that major fire events

are inevitable,
but the climate change

is making it so much worse.

We haven't seen it
on this scale before

and this is why we should be
paying more attention to it.

Climate change

just shoved the temperature
that much too high.

The drought

was that much to try
and the whole thing took off.

Bushfires
not only threaten ecosystems

and whole communities,

they also have a devastating
effect on human health.

During our fires, 33

people were killed,
including nine spots on us.

I was actually standing

because I thought
there'd be thousand, but

450 people died
from the effects of smoke.

So major capital cities of
Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra

were just covered in smiles.

I understand
there was some studies done

that showed

once that got it
up into the upper atmosphere,

that smoke was actually
circling the planet.

We saw heavy, heavy effects of
smoke impact on human health

for months on end.

So it was very much

not only that

immediate effect
of how far the smoke would go,

but the cumulative effect
as well.

One night
I was delivering a baby

when little spotlight

and it was just running
through smoke,

and we realized that the whole
birth room was full of thick

smoke.

As people
start to inhale more smoke.

And we saw massive increases
in hospitalizations

during the bushfires

in Sydney delivered babies
who ended up in the need

of UCERIS at rates that
I had not experienced before.

Our health is being impacted
across the globe yet

there doesn't seem to be
the action that's needed yet.

It's impossible for the world
to function in people

that it isn't a
theoretical future

threat to people
that people are living in now.

We are seeing heatwaves,

we see bushfire
smoke affecting people

and people are very anxious
about their children's health.

So it's really

been an extraordinary changing
philosophy.

Was Black Summer a warning
for the rest of the world

caught? Most definitely.

And soon after that

California burned yet again
and tied together.

So there were big warnings
and no human being

has fought fires
in those conditions before.

We're heading for 2.7 degrees,

which is catastrophic
for the human race.

Indigenous Australians

have been successfully
managing the environment

with controlled burns

for thousands of years
and it's a practice

that the Western world
can learn from.

Europeans have been here
for about 200 years

and for 60,000 years
before that.

The Indigenous people

managed the land and healed

the land and we've screwed it
up in just 200 years.

So what can

the indigenous of this land
teach us about fires?

Well,

I believe there's
a lot of buildup of fuel

and that's
creating a lot of fires.

Once that fire goes,
it's pretty hard to sort out

if you've got a lot of fuel
around.

The cultural burning really
does have a place.

The more we can

look at how it integrates

into our fire management
practices.

Now I think the law wind from
the bushfires

can be reduced If we do
a lot of traditional banning.

We just don't go walking in
and burning

the whole
we burn certain areas, section

by section so we don't create
a big mega bushfire.

Cultural burning
has much deeper meaning

than a just been as simple
as saying

it's a good way
to do hazard reduction.

Why is it required?

What is
the connection to country?

Climate change
is having such an impact

on the severity of fires
in Australia.

It's forced the authorities
to extend the fire danger

rating from extreme
to catastrophic.

It's an algorithm
that takes maximum

temperature,

lowest relative humidity,
the moisture in the air,

highest wind

speed and a drought factor
number of days since rain

jumps it all up
and comes up with a number

between one and 100.

The Fire Authorities
council decided together

with the federal government,
we need a new category.

Once it gets to catastrophic
leave the day before.

I think more
than any single incident,

that is the one that's
got people realizing

that climate change
is not only real,

it's not something
for the future.

We continue to learn more

and hopefully we can implement
those learnings

to better mitigate the risks

so we now know what
the New West is

and we need to be getting
ready to deal with that.

Or worse.

The thing that gives
me hope for the future is

children are utterly focused

on the health of the planet
in a way that never happened

when I was a kid.

They want ethical

and responsible
environmental stewardship.

I see that fundamental
to the way the watch work.

Watching my kids
fire up about climate change

is really exciting.

This generation cares
a lot about the climate.

It is quite an exciting time,

especially for kids
coming through now

because the answers will be
science and technology.

Everything's been looked at.

Nothing's off the table
for climate change.

It's not something
for the future.

This continent is
probably the most vulnerable,

and we're feeling that
right now.

There is a huge capacity
for us to solve problems.

If we consider them
to be problems we're solving.

We need to make sure
that people realize that

this is a problem
worth solving

because it's the planet

upon which we live on
and there is no other planet.

But we have a moral
responsibility

to take care of those
most vulnerable

and to hand our kids a future
that we want to be proud of.

Treat it as an emergency
and go on a wartime footing

to turn this around.

Anyone who is involved
in delivering babies

and delivering
a new generation

has an interest
in making sure the babies

we deliver their children
have the healthiest possible

starting lives.

We must get on
with the solutions

if only for the kids.

I mean,
you think about children

and what we're leaving them.

That's
the great moral argument.

Do you think as physicians,
we should be leading

the charge
in the climate emergency?

It is our absolute
responsibility

to make sure that we are
in the lead.

Both advocacy and in how
we live our own lives

and how we treat patients.

We need people power.

Humans
need to take responsibility,

and it'll come back in terms
of the health benefits for us

because it's not all over.

But it is one of those grand

challenges that we must meet
and we are staying away from.

The solutions
is not an option.

I've learned
a lot about climate change

in my time Down Under

and how it's affecting health

in ways
I never thought possible.

I've also seen that now
more than ever,

I'm hopeful we will act
because when it's our health,

we can't afford to wait.