Changing

♪♪ -Bhutan.

High in the Himalayas.

♪♪ One of the last Buddhist kingdoms.

♪♪ A country rich in ancient culture.

♪♪ But also very forward-thinking.

♪♪ Bhutan is carbon-negative.

It's the only country in the world that absorbs more carbon than it produces... ♪♪ ...achieved by looking after nature.

♪♪ Despite this, Bhutan is now vulnerable to climate change, which is impacting our planet faster than ever before.

♪♪ This is a global problem, that needs a global solution.

♪♪ 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.

♪♪ [ Birds chirping ] -So the fact that we are carbon-negative today, perhaps, may be an example to the rest of the world, but it's also very important in the sense that we have to realize and acknowledge that this is the result of decades of implementation of enlightened, but courageous, policies.

[ Birds chirping ] By law, we are required to maintain a minimum of 60% forest coverage, but, in reality, 70%, a little more than 70% of our country is under forest cover.

Why are forests important?

Well, for many reasons, and I can tell you two very important reasons.

The first, everybody knows of.

It's because it helps to fight against climate change.

♪♪ These forests are a vast reserve of carbon.

It's a carbon sink.

♪♪ The second reason is that our forests are largely pristine.

They're natural.

They've been undisturbed.

So our forests today are a safe haven for our very rich biodiversity.

♪♪ Trees, plants, fungi.

This is why it's very important that you protect the forests as they are.

♪♪ Our country rises from about 100 meters above sea level all the way up to about 7,500 meters above sea level.

♪♪ Bhutan is nothing but mountains and valleys.

♪♪ -Look, look!

[ Birds chirping ] -70% of the population live along the banks of rivers.

It's the only farmable land.

-We've always had a very strong association with water.

In terms of agriculture, obviously, it's very important.

As you can see, the paddy fields around here, they've required water and, for centuries, we've been cultivating rice in these valleys.

-The Bhutanese also harness the power of their rivers to generate renewable energy.

It contributes to the country's carbon-negative status.

But people here still face an uncertain future.

They are on the front line of the climate crisis.

♪♪ As a politician, Tshering Tobgay is concerned for the future of his country.

♪♪ He's monitoring the growing threat, which can only be seen high up in the mountains.

♪♪ -The entire Himalayan region is the world's third-largest repository of ice, after the North and South Poles, so this is why some scientists have called this region the third pole.

♪♪ Global warming and climate change is affecting the glaciers in the Himalayas, just like they're affecting glaciers all over the world.

♪♪ -Over two-thirds of these glaciers are expected to melt by the turn of the century.

♪♪ And the glacial lakes holding the meltwater are growing.

♪♪ Currently held back by natural dams, it's only a matter of time before the dams will give.

♪♪ And the flooding will be disastrous.

♪♪ In 2010, a team of farmers and villagers were recruited to lower the water levels of a lake that was near bursting point.

♪♪ This involved moving each rock by hand to slowly release the water.

♪♪ Working at altitude with little oxygen and in freezing conditions, it took five years in total to lower it by 15 feet.

♪♪ This has bought some time, but it hasn't solved the problem.

♪♪ The glaciers are continuing to melt and Bhutan isn't the only country that's vulnerable.

Eight others would also be directly affected by the melting of the Himalayan ice cap, impacting up to 1.6 billion people.

♪♪ -Well, on the one hand, I know that humanity will persevere.

We will prevail.

Now, protecting the glaciers can't be done by a single country.

The entire world must come together to control global warming.

♪♪ No one country can address climate change adequately to reverse its effects or to prevent its future effects, so we must come together as a world.

♪♪ So, if a small country can do that, my submission is larger, more powerful, more rich countries, with a lot more knowledge and experience, they can obviously do a lot more, and they must.

♪♪ -Bhutan cannot fight climate change alone.

♪♪ It is a global problem, that needs global solutions.

♪♪ [ Birds chirping ] -Ultimately, if we're gonna understand how to stop climate change, we need to understand our planet and so that's what we do.

We try to categorize the forests and the soils around the world so we can understand how much carbon is in them and how much carbon they could absorb.

-Tom Crowther and his team collect information from scientists working in different forest environments.

They combine this with satellite data to generate world maps that show where forests are and their capacity for storing carbon.

-So, every year, we emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

And one of the main ones is carbon dioxide.

Each year, we emit about 10 gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere.

That's like 27,000 Empire State Buildings.

And, over time, some of that gets absorbed by the oceans or on land, but, since the start of the industrial revolution, we've increased that number in the atmosphere by about 300 gigatons.

So that's completely changed our planet and our climate across the globe.

This is a NASA simulation of the carbon cycle changing throughout the year.

And what's cool is you can see the high concentrations of carbon indicated by the red colors in the high latitudes.

But as we take on into spring and then summer, we see these concentrations fade and that's caused by one thing.

It's just the emergence of leaves on trees.

This transforms the carbon cycle each year.

Just look at the power of trees.

Just imagine what was possible if we had more.

-The scale of global forest cover has only recently become clear.

-So we use a really brand-new approach.

Our models are made from people on the ground all over the world actually counting trees and saying how big they are and, by sending us in all of that information, we use machine learning and artificial intelligence to then build the maps from the bottom up.

So it's really so much stronger that we can build them from real, on-the-ground information.

So this map actually shows where the existing trees are around the planet.

But, by characterizing which ecosystems store trees, we can also say how many trees there could be, and that's indicated by the yellow colors.

See, before the expansion of human civilization, there was almost twice as many trees on the planet as there are today.

There's about 5.8 trillion trees across the planet.

Now, obviously, we've depleted that by about almost 3 trillion, so there's huge areas that are available for restoration.

Obviously, we can't use the areas that we're using for agriculture or urbanization, but there's still almost a billion hectares of forest area around those spaces that we could actually use right now.

♪♪ It's degraded ecosystems that aren't being developed, so, if we were to make the most of those regions, we could go a long way in the fight against climate change.

♪♪ -We've known, for a long time, that trees draw down carbon from the atmosphere.

But it's only now that we can really see their potential.

♪♪ -So the key is that we restore these ecosystems in the right, ecologically minded way.

That means we don't plant trees in ecosystems that would naturally be grasslands and we also restore trees in a very biodiverse mixture.

We don't just want plantations, monocultures of the same species.

You need all the different interacting species which help one another to grow and capture huge amounts of carbon.

♪♪ There are no downsides.

As long as we restore in the right ecosystems, that would naturally be forests, and we restore good, healthy biodiversity, then, we get strong carbon capture and all the other thousands of ecosystem services that forests provide.

♪♪ We absolutely need nature to survive on this planet.

If humanity is gonna have a chance, we're gonna need to restore ecosystems all across the globe.

♪♪ So there are people restoring ecosystems already.

All over the world, there's thousands of projects, but this has to increase, both in the scale of those projects and in the number of projects.

♪♪ So the really fascinating thing is the areas that are most important for carbon storage are also the most important for biodiversity.

And biodiversity isn't just a magical thing.

It's the life support system for our planet.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -The Olavsoka, in Poland, is the oldest forest in Europe... ♪♪ ...one of the last ancient woodlands left standing.

♪♪ It's a rare example of nature in good condition.

♪♪ The perfect place to study biodiversity.

♪♪ -This forest is unique.

You don't have second forest like this in the world.

♪♪ It's also irreplaceable.

We humans cannot recreate it.

We cannot do anything to get it back if it -- if it's just gets damaged, if it gets cut down.

♪♪ What we know, that the more species there are in an ecosystem, the more stable and resilient it is.

[ Birds chirping ] [ Bird cawing ] [ Creature whooping ] -This ancient woodland is made up of a great variety of trees and an even greater variety of fungi.

-So, in the whole Olavsoka forest, it's estimated that it's about between 4,000 and 5,000 of species of fungi.

And it is also said that it's probably an underestimation.

It can be much more, but they still haven't been discovered and there can be many more species that we don't know about.

-The diversity of fungi shows this is a healthy forest.

♪♪ Another indicator is the presence of a very rare keystone species.

♪♪ -[ Snort ] [ Rumbling ] -This is the last place in Europe where European bison can be seen roaming free in the forest, in the fields.

[ Insects buzzing ] And I think you can call it a success story, European bison disappeared from this area.

The last one was shot about 100 years ago.

But people realized that this is a problem and they made efforts to reintroduce the species.

♪♪ So, now, we have about 700 bisons roaming the Olavsoka forest and I think they have quite a large role in the ecosystem.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Bringing the bison back has helped make the Olavsoka as natural as possible.

♪♪ They spread seeds over long distances and maintain open spaces... ♪♪ ...creating a variety of habitats for other species.

♪♪ This is how biodiversity works.

♪♪ -So, the more complex a forest is, the more resilient against different changes it will be, against different environmental pressures, which is really important now, in relation to climate change.

Because, the more complexity there is, it's easier to adapt to new conditions because, even if one species with some particular function in an ecosystem disappears because of climate change, there will be other species that take over this function.

-This complexity gives the whole ecosystem a natural buffer, helping it to cope with any disruption.

A forest like this is likely to stay healthier.

-And natural forest is not a stable forest.

It's not that you always have, let's say, 20% of spruce, 10% of pine, and 30% of oak.

It is changing with time.

It's a very long process, but it's changing.

I think also that's why it's quite important to keep the forest like this, as a place of research where you actually can learn how things work and the different connections between species.

♪♪ And I would say that this is why biodiversity decline is such a worrying thing, because, if you have less biodiversity, the ecosystems will be simpler.

They will not be that complex, as they should be, to be able to withstand different pressures, like climate change.

♪♪ We humans are realizing that we have done quite many bad things to nature and we see our mistakes.

We also realize that nature gives us so much and can give even more in the future and I guess we'll definitely learn from this, learn from what we have done, and so I look brightly into the future, [ Laughs ] I guess.

♪♪ -Nature is one of our best allies in the fight against climate change.

♪♪ And scientists are discovering new ways of working with it in our modern world.

♪♪ Dr. Joanne Chory works at the Salk Institute in California.

Her project genetically modifies crop plants, to see if they can store more carbon.

-We're looking for the plants to be better at three traits.

The three traits are -- make more of this, make more of a carbon storage kind of molecule, and that molecule's called suberin.

The second is make plants that have more root biomass.

And then, the third thing is make the plants have longer roots.

And that's because we want the plant to bury that fixed carbon into the ground for us.

♪♪ -Plants need carbon to grow.

They draw it from the atmosphere during photosynthesis.

♪♪ The roots take some of that carbon underground, where it remains for as long as the soil is undisturbed.

♪♪ Dr. Chory's ambition is to create crops that will lock away three times the carbon.

♪♪ And around the world, there's 4 billion acres of arable farmland to plant them in.

♪♪ -I think the main benefit of our solution is that it's gonna happen in a time-frame that will make a difference as we try to relieve ourselves of our carbon dependence.

This work is so important because we face an existential threat with climate change.

♪♪ Our hope for this project is that, you know, we can be part of the solution, of the changes that are happening in temperature, which are causing all these climate extremes.

I don't know if there is a right place to find the answer to problems of climate change.

All I think, though, is that nature itself can play a big role in this process.

But, in addition to that, we need to get rid of our dependence on fossil fuels and so humans have to get back into the equation.

We can't just say nature can do it for us, while we sit back and do nothing.

So I think, together, humanity and nature will solve the problem.

Whether or not I will see my plants out in the field, I can't say, you know, because I'm 64 years old and I may or may not be around when that will have its big impact.

But that doesn't bother me, that, you know, I might not be there for the impact.

I just hope that, you know, someone will carry it on.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Fighting climate change is a race against time.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the Great Barrier Reef of Australia.

♪♪ It's the largest coral reef in the world, extending over 400 miles along the Queensland coast, home to more than 3,000 individual reefs and more than 600 islands.

♪♪ Coral reefs cover less than 1% of the planet's surface, yet, a quarter of all ocean species depend on them for food and shelter.

♪♪ The whole reef is sustained by an annual event that scientists have been studying for 40 years... ♪♪ ...the spawning of the coral.

♪♪ -In 1981, I was working with some friends and colleagues and discovered something quite extraordinary... ...the mass coral spawning on the Great Barrier Reef, where many different types of corals and literally hundreds of thousands of colonies all spawn together on just a few nights each year after full Moon periods in late spring or early summer.

♪♪ Corals are incredibly beautiful creatures.

They have these amazing, microscopic architectural masterpieces that they create, the skeletons, and their tissues are extraordinarily beautiful.

♪♪ At present, the Great Barrier Reef is in trouble.

When corals become stressed by high temperature and high light, this beautiful symbiosis between the millions of algae in their tissues and the coral tissue itself starts to break down.

As a result of that, they're expelled from the coral tissue and therefore the corals turn white, which is why it's called coral bleaching.

The problem for corals is that they, in many cases, rely, to a very large extent, on the energy that's provided by those algae and, when those algae are no longer present in their tissues, they run out of energy really quickly.

But if they don't reacquire some of that energy, then, the coral tissues start to dissolve and the coral dies, leaving a dead, bare skeleton behind.

I'd seen one of the first bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef way back in 1982 and that was itself a bit of a shock and a bit of a wake-up call.

But the 2016 and 2017 marine heat waves were at a scale and severity that had not previously been seen.

♪♪ -As the temperature in the ocean continues to rise, there is a real danger that the Great Barrier Reef could be lost forever.

♪♪ In an effort to stop these corals going extinct, Peter is leading the largest project of its kind.

♪♪ -It's an idea that I first had back in 1982.

♪♪ I was swimming in a sea of sexual soup after one of these great spawning events.

♪♪ And I was literally surrounded by millions of eggs and sperm in the water and I was thinking, "It must be possible to capture some of these, grow larvae, and retain them on the reef, rather than having them disappear in currents."

♪♪ And, if we could do that, we could put them back onto the damaged reef systems and kick-start the recovery of the coral communities.

The initial experiments were done at small scale on the highly degraded reef systems.

We've proven that it can be effective and we can rapidly restore breeding populations on these reef systems.

The challenge now is to take what we know and scale it up.

Within the next few years, we have to be operating at kilometer scales if we're going to have an impact and start to reverse the decline of corals.

♪♪ So we're in a race against time to make this meaningful and to try and protect and preserve as many corals as we can.

-With scientists like Peter fighting for it, the Great Barrier Reef still has a chance.

♪♪ But, in 2020, it's bleaching again.

Our best hope of saving it is if we can find ways to slow climate change by drawing down as much carbon as possible from the atmosphere.

♪♪ The reef itself is not a carbon sink.

♪♪ But right next to it, there's an ecosystem that could make a real difference.

♪♪ -So here we are on the Great Barrier Reef and we discovered, about a decade ago, that one of the world's largest sea grass meadows is right here.

It's an area about the size of Switzerland.

And we've started taking samples to measure carbon sequestration by this meadow.

And we've learnt that this meadow is storing enormous amounts of carbon.

We estimate it is storing 274 million tons.

And, to put that into perspective, it is about equivalent to the yearly emissions of 200 million cars on the road.

♪♪ -Sea grass meadows are found in shallow water.

♪♪ They, along with other coastal ecosystems, like tidal marshes... ♪♪ ...and mangrove forests... ♪♪ ...all lock massive amounts of carbon underwater.

♪♪ This is known as blue carbon.

♪♪ -Yeah, blue carbon is definitely one of the new heroes in the climate change mitigation scene.

They're really seen as like a new weapon we've just discovered in the fight against climate change.

And it's not just their ability to sequester carbon and help mitigate climate change.

They provide these other, amazing co-benefits.

They really give a lot of bang for our carbon buck because, in addition to the carbon sequestration, they're protecting our coasts.

They can mean the difference between life and death in many parts of the world.

They support about half the world's fisheries, providing valuable nutrition to people.

-Blue carbon could make a huge difference.

But, here, too, nature is out of balance.

-Now, when there's too many herbivores, like turtles, in a landscape, they can destroy sea grass meadows.

Whether or not turtles are removing a lot of sea grass has been quite a contentious issue.

So we said, "Well, let's test this out.

Let's put some cages out here, to restrict the ability of turtles to eat the sea grass and let's see what happens."

Sure enough, in areas where the cages had been put in place, we started to see that sea grass flourishing.

We've removed a lot of apex predators from the oceans -- sharks, for example -- and what we've started to see is that the sharks and their removal can affect even the sea grass meadows.

For example, out here in the Great Barrier Reef, we've shown that removal of the sharks affects turtle behavior.

There's been about a 75% to 90% loss of sharks in this area.

[ Squawking ] One of the things that amazes me bout these apex predators is they're not eating many turtles... [ Squawking ] ...but they have remarkable ability to affect the behavior of turtles and other organisms, through fear.

It's called the ecology of fear.

Through fear, they affect how much turtles breed, where they forage, where they move around.

And so we're studying the possibility of rewilding our oceans and bringing back that natural food web, with apex predators at the top, turtles in healthy balance, and sea grass meadows thriving.

♪♪ I think we're learning that blue carbon ecosystems are a form of life support for us.

We depend on nature.

We depend on these blue carbon ecosystems and, now, these blue carbon ecosystems are depending on us.

So we've got a lotta work to do to try and protect them going forward.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Even the very smallest plants, microscopic phytoplankton, can lock up carbon through photosynthesis.

♪♪ In Antarctica, under 24 hours of daylight in summer, they turn the water green.

♪♪ When they bloom, it can be seen from space.

♪♪ ♪♪ [ Wind whistling ] These phytoplankton are at the bottom of the food chain.

They feed krill, one of the most important animals on the planet.

♪♪ They, too, can live in vast shoals, supporting a huge web of marine life.

♪♪ [ Squawking ] ♪♪ [ Groans ] [ Trilling ] [ Chattering ] -[ Growl ] -[ Squeak ] ♪♪ ♪♪ These whales are consuming the krill.

♪♪ But they're also sustaining them.

Their feces provide essential nutrients, like nitrogen, phosphorus, and iron, that feed the phytoplankton.

And the circle of life begins again.

These humpback whales are a good-news story.

Whaling had taken almost 95% of their population.

But, with protection, they're making a comeback.

[ Rumbling ] The more whales there are, the more phytoplankton there will be.

To help the great whales of the ocean recover further, it's important to protect their home.

-I've been coming to Antarctica for the last 15 years and, ever since my first trip here, I've felt such a visceral compulsion to protect this place.

It's such an extreme environment, but it's incredibly beautiful and no place I'd ever been had made me feel so tiny and insignificant.

-The need to protect the Southern Ocean seems obvious.

The political will to do so is complicated.

-Antarctica is a global commons.

It simultaneously belongs to no one and everyone at the same time.

There are no states that have sovereignty over Antarctica and so it becomes a global responsibility to come together to protect this place.

-The Ross Sea lies in the southwest corner of Antarctica and it has the largest ice shelf in the world.

[ Chattering ] Adélie penguins are one of 16,000 species thought to live here.

-The Ross Sea, in particular, has been deemed to be perhaps the last intact marine ecosystem we have left in the whole world.

[ Squawking ] -If protected, it would be a sanctuary... [ Rumbling ] ...a place where animals can breed safely and then disperse... ...replenishing the wider ocean.

-And, over the course of 10 years, a marine protected area proposal was formulated and came to the table and, after many years of intense political negotiations, the protected area was adopted in 2016 and I'll never forget that feeling in the room.

In the moment when we came to consensus and the Ross Sea Marine Protected Area was adopted, the entire room exploded in applause.

My husband and I were in the room during that moment and it was one of the most amazing moments of our life.

[ Groan, rumbling ] ♪♪ [ Squawking ] ♪♪ We know that marine protected areas can conserve biodiversity and they're more important than ever because, in the face of climate change, they may be one of the only things that can provide resilience to our system.

Our system is undergoing incredible stress and it's one thing that we can help with, is set aside areas that we know are important, that we know are vulnerable, and give them a chance to be resilient in the face of climate change.

♪♪ -[ Trilling ] -[ Cheeping ] ♪♪ -The Ross Sea protected area shows that we can successfully cooperate on global environmental issues, putting nature first.

♪♪ There are now plans to protect 30% of the world's oceans by 2030.

♪♪ But there are landscapes on Earth that have suffered almost a century of human destruction.

[ Flames crackling ] Every year, fires burn out of control across the island of Borneo.

♪♪ In 2019, the blazes were as bad as ever, putting farmers in a desperate situation.

♪♪ ♪♪ The fires are typically lit to clear land for commercial plantations, but, once burning, they are almost impossible to extinguish.

This has consequences for the whole planet because it's not just the vegetation that's on fire.

It's also the ground beneath it.

♪♪ [ Birds chirping ] ♪♪ This is how forests should be -- lush, wet, tropical jungle.

♪♪ ♪♪ Taryono is a scientist who works at the Katingan Mentaya project, studying the soil beneath the trees.

♪♪ It's this soil that has huge significance for the climate.

It's called peat.

-[ Grunts ] -Peat is an unusual kind of soil, which only forms in wet conditions.

The water slows the decomposition of plant matter.

That's what makes it such a good carbon sink.

But these wet forests are being drained by canals that were made by the logging industry for transport.

[ Creatures croaking ] Although logging is now illegal, the waterways are still here... [ Creature calling ] ...slowly drying out the peat... ...making it vulnerable to fire.

There is so much carbon locked up within the peat, when it burns, it escapes into the atmosphere.

[ Wind whipping ] The Borneo fires of 2015 released more carbon than all of North America's industry that same year.

[ Flames crackling ] Destroying nature is directly contributing to climate change.

Protecting these peat forests will help slow it down.

And that protection is coming from an unlikely place.

Companies that want to offset their carbon emissions can buy carbon credits from projects that restore and protect rainforests.

[ Horn honks ] We are the project developers of Katingan Mentaya project.

It's the largest forestry carbon credit project in the world registered today.

♪♪ So, when I started this in 2007, I was actually on the brink to go into palm oil or to go to this project.

♪♪ And, you know, now, here we are, 12 years later.

We are the largest project in the world, so I think it's sort of like a dream-come-true scenario for us.

♪♪ -Dharsono's carbon credit project protects an area of peatland forest almost twice the size of New York City.

♪♪ Businesses across the world pay to look after nature, in order to offset their carbon footprint.

♪♪ As well as protecting the forest that's left, they are planning to block the drains and re-wet the peat... ♪♪ ...starting the long process of restoration.

♪♪ Peatlands only cover 3% of the land on Earth, but they absorb twice the carbon as all the world's forests, which are 10 times the size.

♪♪ Not only is this peatland forest a vital carbon sink, it is also home to an extraordinary biodiversity... ♪♪ ...including critically endangered species, like orangutans.

♪♪ ♪♪ For these peatland forests to absorb carbon again on a large scale, a huge amount of restoration is needed.

♪♪ Awareness is growing and there's a grassroots movement that's crucial to the future of Borneo's forests.

♪♪ The first time I experienced the fires is 23 years ago.

It was when I was five years old.

But, at the time, I didn't realize that it was something that should not be accepted.

[ Speaking foreign language ] I believe in the power of the youth.

I believe in youth power.

I believe in the power of unity to stop the forest fires now and to protect what is left now in Kalimantan.

Climate emergency.

I was born here and it's not okay to see your own home burning.

It's not okay to see your own home being destroyed.

♪♪ -Emmanuela Shinta works closely with local youth groups to promote indigenous rights.

Together, they begin the long journey to restore the forest they have lost.

She sees the people of Kalimantan as the guardians of the forest.

They are the people to protect it.

-What we see in the news, it's always [ Speaking foreign language ] money, dollars.

It's really annoying, actually, and, for me, it's really emotional because you have to see forest more than that.

♪♪ Take the strength to continue walking and make a change.

I think that's the only way you can live.

♪♪ -Our natural ecosystems not only absorb carbon.

♪♪ We depend on them for everything.

♪♪ Protecting them is essential.

♪♪ In Belize, in Central America, the second-largest barrier reef in the world was under threat from the oil industry.

♪♪ [ Explosion ] In 2016, seismic survey ships were spotted just off the coast.

[ Explosion ] ♪♪ In their search for gas and oil, they release explosions that penetrate the seabed.

These sounds disrupt life underwater and can deafen marine animals, -You don't kill the goose that lays the golden egg.

I'm a third-generation fishing guide and this only came because of sustainable fishing, responsible fishing, catch and release, things like this, where we protect what we have.

Drilling in that reef is the same thing.

We don't -- There's no benefit to it.

It's not even about me.

It's about the next guy that wants to fish after me, or his son or his grandson, you know.

It's the bigger picture.

One spill, and it's stuck on the reef and let's say goodbye to the second-largest barrier reef in the world.

-With the threat of drilling looming, 11-year-old Madison Edwards joined the movement.

-We depend on the Belize Barrier Reef so greatly.

We depend on it for food, for tourism.

We depend on it for everything, really.

♪♪ -Madi.

[ Laughs ] Madi's my little hero.

I look at Madi and I say, "I wish that, when I was her age, I would've had the courage she has."

♪♪ -Inspired by the uprising around her, Madison began a social media campaign.

♪♪ -When they were fighting to stop the offshore drilling and the seismic ship was out there and a lot of people, I think, were asking questions and people were not sure what it is that they were protecting, Madi, her family, jumped in a sailboat and they sailed the entire length of the reef in front of Belize.

♪♪ -I went on a reef swim from north to south of the Belize Barrier Reef and we did this to spread awareness and it really worked.

People really paid attention and they realized how important the reef was.

♪♪ -Everybody knew who Madi was.

Not just they knew who Madi was.

They were listening to Madi.

They were listening to what she was saying and I think that's the big thing.

She's given people some courage to say, "If Madi can stand up to Big Oil, then we all need to stand up behind her.

-[ Chanting ] -It made a big difference into how much pressure was then put on the government.

People signed the petitions.

She made a big impact on getting that offshore drilling stopped.

♪♪ -In late 2017, Belize officially ended oil activity in its waters.

-I think that people of the world should really look up to the people in Belize.

They fight for something that they really believe in and something that they love and, if the entire world does that, then, we have a really bright future ahead of us.

♪♪ -This is a moment where, you know, the truth had to come out and the action has to be taken.

I'm quite hopeful the world is actually moving to a better place.

I think we are smart enough, humanity is smart enough, to figure out if we want to do it.

♪♪ -With the massive energy that we have behind the climate crisis, I honestly think that it's possible to stop this thing, if we all get behind these powerful solutions.

Even if you've only got a tiny little garden, just think, "Is there space for nature on your land?"

Every little helps, if we all pull together.

-We are not powerless.

I think this is the message that's sort of very, very important.

We are not powerless.

We showed the world this is what we can do.

♪♪ -Nature is a finely tuned system.

♪♪ When we upset the balance, the consequences can be severe.

♪♪ ♪♪ Events like the COVID pandemic can show us just how vulnerable humanity really is.

♪♪ Now, more than ever, we need to give nature space and protection.

♪♪ What it does for us has never been clearer.

♪♪ What we can do for nature is our next challenge.

♪♪ A global movement is happening.

-[ Chanting ] -People are calling for change.

♪♪ This is 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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