Regenerating the Planet: Can We Repair What We’ve Lost? - Full Documentary

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: It's springtime, people are in the streets, in the parks, carefree. And yet behind the scenes, the climate is becoming more and more unstable. A large part of the planet could become uninhabitable by the end of this century. Sometimes I want to scream. For more than 15 years, I've been trying to make a difference. Films, books, protests, the Citizens' Climate Conference. It's time for politicians to do their job. I've even helped take the French state to court. I call on everyone to go to the website for the case of the century to keep signing. Gradually, I've come to understand what we'll need to achieve in order to face the greatest challenge humanity has ever known. Now is the time to make a plan that will change everything. Our planet is miraculous. We are the result of evolution. Bacteria, trees, fish, amphibians, insects, birds, the first mammals, and finally us, humans. And we have disrupted so many natural balances in such a short space of time. The climate crisis is a dire warning to us, but it's also the most amazing opportunity to fix, regenerate, and establish new balances. [00:01:35] Speaker ?: The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. [00:02:10] Speaker 1: The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis is a great plan that we have to achieve. The climate crisis must all be our priority. These three ecosystems are also our main source of carbon for absorbing and storing CO2, making their regeneration doubly essential if we are to fight back against climate change. One of the most wonderful examples of regeneration was launched by a child. At COP16 in 2010, 10-year-old German school pupil Felix Finkbeiner taught politicians an important lesson. [00:03:01] Speaker 2: It is now time that we work together. We combine our forces. We can start a trillion tree campaign. And never forget, one mosquito cannot do anything against a rhino. But a thousand mosquitoes can make a rhino change its direction. [00:03:24] Speaker 1: Felix is now 21 years old and works on a large-scale restoration program with his own team in one of the primeval forests of the Yucatan South Peninsula in Mexico. Over 12 years, he's helped replant 15 billion trees in 130 countries through different UN-led restoration projects, proving just how far your dreams can take you. [00:03:45] Speaker 3: We're here in Las Americas I. That's one of the six project areas we have here in this region. In total, together, they amount to 20,000 hectares. Since the year 2002, we lost over 8% of all the forest cover in the state. A big part of what we want to do here is restore forests. It means understanding as best as possible what that piece of forest was like before the first human ever showed up and try and help that forest get back to that condition. So we're trying to contribute by protecting existing forests, but mostly by restoring degraded or completely destroyed forests. We're doing enrichment planting of later successional species, which means we're essentially adding back the lost tree species in this forest. [00:04:42] Speaker 4: In this area, we have 16 hectares in which we're evaluating the effects of a more diverse microbiome on the results of the restoration project. We wanted to see if a forest floor that has been much better cared for contains more microorganisms, and if these microorganisms can improve plant growth and therefore produce trees which are much taller, stronger and have more vegetation. [00:05:15] Speaker 3: All of this didn't really begin because I had a special relationship with trees. I was nine years old and I was supposed to give a little presentation in my class about the climate crisis. That is why I suggested to my classmates back then that we should plant one million trees in each country of the world. About two months later, we planted our first tree. [00:05:32] Speaker 5: What species is this? This is called a Mayan Walnut. Yes. People say it was a food source for the Mayans. [00:05:58] Speaker 3: In this nursery, we have the capacity to grow a couple of million trees that our team then plants every year to restore the forests. Our goal this year is to plant 25 species as part of our reforestation efforts. Sometimes there are a few challenges with some of these species. But we expect that at least 20 of the species we grow here will then actually be able to be planted by our team. One of the big tragedies is that we used to have so much forest globally. We used to have about six trillion trees on earth. But of those six trillion trees that once existed, only half of them remain today. Now in an ideal world we would bring all those lost trees back and have six trillion trees again. But of course we need a lot of space for agriculture around the world, for settlements and so on. So bringing six trillion trees back in a world with 10 billion people just isn't possible. But according to a great study by our colleagues at ETH in Zurich, we could bring about one trillion trees back. So get close to about four trillion trees on earth. So it's our mission at Plant for the Planet not just to plant as many trees as possible ourselves, but also to convince the world to restore those trillion trees. [00:07:24] Speaker 1: Mangroves are a different type of forest that grow along coastal sandbanks in tranquil waters which contain little oxygen. They're being destroyed by tourist activity and housing construction projects. Both in the Yucatan area, but also in Australia. Yandina is a small and vulnerable area located to the north of Brisbane, where Catherine Lovelock, Professor of Biology at the University of Queensland, and her team are working on a remarkable project which could be replicated in other areas around the world. By allowing brackish waters to re-flood damaged farmland, she's helping the mangroves to grow back naturally. [00:08:08] Speaker 6: We are in what was the middle of a sugarcane field, and what we're seeing here is that the tide has been reintroduced to this area, taken down the tide gates, and in the process we're growing a new wetland, a coastal wetland that's got developing mangroves. You can see the little mangroves coming behind us. They sequester, they store, large amounts of carbon in more than most other ecosystems. People believe that mangroves hold per hectare somewhere between four and ten times what maybe a tropical rainforest will hold. Mangroves are saltwater systems, you know, we call them blue carbon. With every tide, sediment comes in and gets stuck in the wetland. And then in addition, all the plant growth produces organic matter, you know, leaves and roots, and they contribute to the soil volume as well. And mangroves have this amazing ultra-filtration capacity. So they leave the salt behind and they take up fresh water and do photosynthesis. But this salt is also sort of suppressing decomposition. What do we get? [00:09:28] Speaker ?: What do we get? [00:09:28] Speaker 6: I don't know. 22 centimetres of organic soil, and then we reach this clay layer. And that's actually an ancient marine sediment. We're working on analysing the carbon by comparing different sites, able to understand how restoration is contributing to carbon capture. It's not a huge amount of money, restore or conserve the mangroves, to try and generate carbon credits. And that's the point we're hoping to get to. So that would be higher diversity. Mangroves are nurseries. They harbour a lot of marine species that come in to forage, and then some that, you know, live here permanently. But they're also really important for terrestrial fauna. In the process, we are going to improve the water quality for the Great Barrier Reef. We're going to make sure there's more fish. I think there's a lot of opportunities in doing an environmentally, you know, friendly activity like farming blue carbon. [00:10:40] Speaker 1: Caring for, saving and regenerating these ecosystems is also how marine biologist Professor Peter Harrison spends his time. He's one of the world's leading coral reef specialists who help discover the spawning secrets of the reefs. He spends a large part of his time off the Gold Coast, and also off the Great Barrier Reef, where he's found a way to restore whole reefs on a large scale, thanks to underwater robots. [00:11:08] Speaker 7: I've been fortunate enough to work on corals and reef systems on the Great Barrier Reef and around the world. And one of the tragedies I've seen during my lifetime is that most of the reef systems, which were spectacularly beautiful when I was young, are now degrading. Coral reefs are spectacularly beautiful and incredibly biodiverse ecosystems. They provide essential homes for up to a million different species that rely on healthy coral communities to exist. In fact, more than 25% of all marine life is focused on coral reef systems. From social and economic points of view, they're worth trillions of dollars to local economies, and they have great cultural significance for hundreds of millions of people around the world who rely on those reef systems for their food and their spiritual awareness. Corals are very fussy creatures. They don't like it too hot and they don't like it too cold. Just the optimum temperature is when corals thrive. About one and a half to two degrees above their normal summer maximum changes corals from healthy functioning communities into bleached areas. And the bleaching is a warning sign. It means that the corals are incredibly stressed and their symbiotic partners, the millions of microscopic algae that are present in their tissues, also become stressed. Climate change models suggest that we may be increasing the sea temperature so quickly that corals can no longer adapt and evolve quickly enough to cope. So that by 2050, we may have lost most of the functioning coral communities on our planet. This baby coral is about two months old. The initial larva that has settled here has survived and grown to bud new polyps around it to form this miniature colony. If this coral continues to survive and grow, it will grow to visible size in about 10 months, and at two years, about 15 centimetres diameter, and by three years, up to 25 centimetres diameter. And at that size, it will become sexually reproductive and the life cycle on the reef will have been closed. So we will have restored breeding coral populations. What we discovered was that many different types of coral species all spawn together on just a few nights after full moon periods in late spring and early summer on the Great Barrier Reef. These spectacular mass spawning events produce trillions of eggs and sperm. I realised that the millions of larvae that are produced by these mass spawning events allow us to think about restoring new corals on damaged reef areas by capturing and culturing some of these larvae. This is huge. This is everything we need right here. We culture those larvae in floating pools and after about five to seven days to settle, we release the larvae back onto damaged reef areas and kickstart the recovery of the coral community by allowing lots of baby corals to grow on those dead reef environments. We can restore breeding coral populations in only two to three years and the fish are migrating back into those restored reef environments. And that's really exciting because it means that we can now transfer this technique to other damaged reef areas on many other reef systems around the world. We can restore not only the coral communities but all the other life forms that depend entirely on these healthy coral communities. [00:15:23] Speaker 1: What fascinates me about Peter is that thanks to large-scale group action, he and his team have been able to restore thousands of reefs using species that are more resistant to rising sea temperatures along the 3,000 kilometers of the Great Barrier Reef, but also in the Philippines and in Polynesia. On land, it's the soil which ensures a part of the climate's equilibrium. It's where all plants grow, absorbing carbon via photosynthesis and with the help of thousands of microorganisms living in the soil. And one person has established a plan for large-scale regeneration. Following a tragic event, Colin Seiss came up with an ingenious way to stop farming from exacerbating climate issues and help resolve them instead. He's invented a revolutionary soil regeneration technique which increases its fertility and positive impact. [00:16:17] Speaker 8: My father, he was the first to use chemical fertilizer and was very successful with it. Although, his father said that it would poison the ground and my father didn't take any notice of him. My grandfather turned out to be correct because it was destroying the soil ecosystem and were no longer productive. In 1979, we had a major, major fire. It destroyed the whole property. It devastated everything. The family here, we and I were broke. We had no money at all. Because we had no money, I had to develop a way of surviving on the farm that didn't cost any money. Pasture cropping came out of that. [00:17:04] Speaker 1: The idea behind this is to alternate between livestock farming and crop farming. Using the herd to fertilize the soil between harvests and then sowing seeds on the same land. [00:17:16] Speaker 8: What I'm doing with pasture cropping is mimicking Mother Nature planting cool-season winter-growing crops without killing the summer grasses, multi-species crops or multi-species pasture cropping. Good structure. A lot of roots in there. Worms, they're really very good indicators of soil health. 15 years ago, we did a deep soil test. All of the soil nutrients here have increased by an average of 162%. Phosphorus, potassium, calcium. The carbon levels increased by 21%. The insect damage to crops is basically zero. The reason for that was that the insect numbers and diversity had increased by 600%. So, in other words, we had predators here controlling the crop damaging and pasture damaging insects. We harvested from our grassland at between a tonne and two tonne of seed that we harvest a year on the same area of land within a 12-month period. Not only can we graze animals and grow wool and produce meat and produce grain and multi-species crops, but we also have this native seed. It's been used by our Australian Aboriginal custodians of this country for 50 or 60 or even 70,000 years as a food source. It has great potential. So, from a farmer's point of view, that is extremely profitable. And remember, too, that this is a perennial seed and it will regenerate our land and our soil. It's a major part of fixing our farms, really. If we can get all of our farms functioning in a regenerative manner, farms that are self-sustaining, we'll fix individual farms, then we'll fix individual counties, then countries, and then fix this planet of ours. All we need really to do is follow the blueprint that Mother Nature has given us in the first place. [00:19:42] Speaker ?: We'll see you next time. [00:19:47] Speaker 1: Colin's pasture cropping system has been developed on over 2,000 farms around Australia. And is spreading across the agricultural world in more temperate areas. Transforming our farming models is crucial for the climate and for biodiversity. Today, farming is one of the most destructive activities for ecosystems, forests being the primary victims. It's responsible for 25% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. [00:20:11] Speaker ?: And in the first place, it's responsible for farming. [00:20:14] Speaker 1: David Holmgren has dedicated the last 40 years to finding alternative ways of living and of growing crops. An enthusiastic ecologist from the outset, he's one of the inventors of the revolutionary permaculture concept developed in 1978. [00:20:28] Speaker 9: A lot of people think of it as a cool form of organic gardening, a more self-reliant lifestyle. It is those things, but it's really a design system for both sustainable land use in the form of gardening, agriculture, forestry, aquaculture, animal husbandry, buildings, our water supply systems, energy, security. Financial organisation, health, ageing and disability, so all of the big difficult questions that we have to deal with if we are going to look after ourselves and minimise our footprint. We have already done an earlier olive harvesting for oil. We have already done a lot. We have already done an earlier olive oil. [00:21:34] Speaker ?: We have done a lot of oil. [00:21:34] Speaker 9: We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. [00:21:42] Speaker ?: We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. [00:21:45] Speaker 9: We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. 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[00:26:33] Speaker 11: We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. [00:26:44] Speaker ?: We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. [00:26:46] Speaker 11: We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. [00:27:02] Speaker 10: We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. [00:27:05] Speaker ?: We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. [00:27:11] Speaker 1: We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We have done a lot of oil. We as humans capable of continuing to produce things, build houses and maintain industry without destroying everything and in fact even help to regenerate ecosystems. [00:27:45] Speaker 4: Every living species helps to regenerate the area in which it lives through its own activities. [00:27:51] Speaker 1: Yes, no species exists that can exhaust its habitat to the point of disappearance. [00:27:55] Speaker 4: No, they all help directly or indirectly in its regeneration. So you see, you have three types of resources: living, social and technical. Imagine a car, for example. How could you make a car or create an automotive industry that helped regenerate the soil? [00:28:14] Speaker 1: Yes, that doesn't sound easy. [00:28:16] Speaker 4: No, it's not easy. But you could design the car to include many different parts which can be assembled, then reassembled over and over and be reused constantly from machine to machine up to 15 times, which is a lot. [00:28:30] Speaker 1: You could even use them for other products. The more things car parts could be used for, like, I don't know, something for your TV or your house… Exactly. …the fewer parts you would need overall, because you could always reuse them for something else. Exactly. [00:28:43] Speaker 4: That's how living species work. And also, as far as cars are concerned, it makes sense to share them, because 93% of the time they're not in use. We don't need one each. [00:28:53] Speaker 1: We don't need one each. [00:28:54] Speaker 4: So you add the sharing factor into the equation, which means… [00:28:58] Speaker 1: We don't need nearly as many cars or nearly as many car parts. That's it. [00:29:02] Speaker 4: You need 15 times fewer car parts and roughly 8 times fewer cars. [00:29:07] Speaker 1: So that's definitely a decrease, but how does it help in terms of regeneration? [00:29:12] Speaker 4: Well, when you start a cooperative, in this case a car share concept, you ask the municipality, the car maker and the users to become co-investors. And do you know what happens then? You get 30% less deterioration. You provide people with something they need, as well as investment revenue and jobs. [00:29:34] Speaker 1: So it's a form of social regeneration? [00:29:37] Speaker 4: It's social regeneration. And in terms of a car share, that means fewer cars parked on pavements, because they're no longer stationary 93% of the time. So in fact, the town can then take back precious space that has become available. [00:29:52] Speaker 1: To build green spaces? [00:29:54] Speaker 4: Yes, or even develop urban farming, because you're also lowering pollution levels. [00:30:00] Speaker 1: Because the cars follow a symbiotic model on every level. They are made symbiotically, but also used symbiotically, so we can reclaim areas of land to plant trees, grow vegetables, let water flow back into the soil. [00:30:19] Speaker 4: The more you think about how things are connected instead of how they're separate, the more you find these incredible synergies. [00:30:28] Speaker 1: According to Isabelle Delanois' research, if you put all this into practice, by renting and sharing rather than owning, by making things using biodegradable parts which can be repaired, replaced, have been recycled and can continue to be recycled indefinitely, and by powering factories using renewable energy sources, we could reduce the extraction of primary materials by 90%. This would mean we could extract 10 times less from nature, allowing the planet to regenerate, thus improving air quality and our health. Relocalizing production would also mean employment regeneration and less inequality. Another world. The city of Portland is trying to put this sort of symbiotic system in place. Since the 70s, they've been developing the concept of soft mobility. Trams, metros, shared bicycles, scooters and electric cars, as well as car sharing. Between 1990 and 2014, fuel consumption decreased by nearly one-third per person. One billion dollars in transport costs were saved each year, and this money was reinvested in local businesses. The bicycle industry alone has created 1,500 jobs and has an annual turnover of 90 million dollars. [00:32:00] Speaker 12: Is it really a frequent thing to have bridges like that in the US? Because it's like the country of the cars. It is, the country of the cars. [00:32:07] Speaker 13: This is very unusual and fascinating. It's the first bridge that has ever been built like this. And does it work? Yeah, certainly Portland's been very successful building infrastructure. You know, the numbers compared to other European cities are maybe not as good. But for example, in Portland, about 6% of the people who are commuting to work take a bike. Portland's been working on reducing its carbon emissions since about 1993, and we were the first one to make a plan to do so in the US. The transition from fossil fuels is very difficult, it's very expensive. [00:32:39] Speaker 12: But for example, biking is kind of cheap. [00:32:42] Speaker 13: Biking is very cheap, but the infrastructure to support it is not cheap. You have to change your financing model. This is where we need to do, and we need to do it quickly. [00:32:50] Speaker 1: As well as transport, the city has taken measures to reintroduce plants and natural life cycles into the urban environment. [00:33:11] Speaker 12: So, what is the story of this place? [00:33:14] Speaker 13: Well, as you can see, we're standing on top of a roof, and this is a vegetated roof, or what we call an eco-roof. It essentially treats the water as it comes from the sky, hits the roof. And when you're in an urban environment, it's really important that you slow the rate of stormwater coming into the system, so they don't get overloaded, and then you also clean what comes out of the drain before it hits either the river or the ocean. Another important thing that eco-roofs do is it helps reduce the temperature, and we also know that it invites birds and insects and other habitat into the city. One interesting dialogue that we've had here in Portland is combining eco-roofs with solar panels. The university did a study, and what they found was it actually helps solar panels do better, because it keeps them cooler. [00:34:00] Speaker 1: The city has also redeveloped a strong local economy through its Made in Portland program, and a second-hand system for building projects and essential needs. [00:34:13] Speaker 13: This is a really special place in Portland. It's a non-profit organization, so materials get donated here, and then people can come and buy them at a very affordable price. And so, from a pure environmental perspective, that really helps reduce carbon emissions, provide opportunities for people to fix up their houses without using new materials. It basically takes what would have been a liability, which is waste, into a community asset. [00:34:38] Speaker 14: And honestly, we are also trying to create an alternate economy that relies more on sharing and mutual care than on extraction and exploitation. The dream for us would be to raise enough money in donations that we could just give the stuff away. Yeah. Because for us, it's not about selling and making a profit. It's about making it available. We're not close to that quite yet, but that's sort of the vision of this place, is to really be an example of that type of alternative way of existing in a community. [00:35:11] Speaker 1: But today, Portland is forced to accelerate its transformation. Its first climate refugees have appeared on nearly every street downtown. These people have become financially ruined, forced from their homes by widening levels of inequality during the Trump years and the recent heat dung. [00:35:32] Speaker 12: Did you have major droughts these last years here, that you could see on the level of the river? [00:35:39] Speaker 13: Definitely the level of the river, the water table, the amount of snowfall, that's a big indicator. We're in another drought year, which is partly why it got so hot here. You can no longer ignore climate or make it this abstract issue. We're going to have to see it for what it is, which is the climate is changing and either we do something about it or we're going to be in real danger. Just a couple of weeks ago, we had the hottest day on record here ever of 115 degrees Fahrenheit. And that's very unusual here, which makes it that much more dangerous because people aren't prepared for it. It was so hot here that for a moment it was the hottest place on earth. [00:36:20] Speaker 15: The earth is actually being very gentle, it's not being violent at all. We're the ones who are being violent, actually, to each other, to nature. So regenerating the planet and reversing global warming, it's about reconnecting what has been broken. And one of the things that has been broken is the conversation between people. And a conversation cannot occur unless you really sincerely want to hear the other person. We're here for a short time, so who do we want to be? Kind, compassionate, generous, helpful, or selfish, angry, antagonistic, and violent. I mean, you choose. We want to go to where people are celebrating life. We really do. And making a difference. And being effective. And creating livelihoods that give them a sense of purpose and meaning. That's what we want to do, so let's do it. [00:37:23] Speaker 1: Godfrey Nzamujo hasn't wasted any time in applying these positive, symbiotic, and regenerative notions at the University Farm of Songhai, named after the Songhai Empire, now Benin. In 1985, on an area of wasteland measuring just one hectare, he started a new farming model. Today, the farm is spread over 24 hectares and functions completely independently, employing several hundred people. In his words, the Songhai project is creating a new African society. [00:37:56] Speaker 5: When we dance with nature, nature smiles at us. At Songhai, we dance with nature. Songhai is not a farming project. It's a starting point. Because farming influences everything. A farming concept, which is a primary resource for energy, which creates jobs. Firstly, we started channeling the water. So we could use it to water crops all year round. We water with water from the fish farm. Dead leaves are used for compost. And that's why the soil here, which was dead, has woken up. Biology today shows us that everything is connected. That our world is all about relationships. We're going to remove all the little seeds in there. The most important thing is the soil. The second most important thing is the soil. The third most important thing is the soil. The soil is alive with thousands and thousands of bacteria working for us. We work together in synergy. It's symphonic. And there are others involved, as you will learn, who make soil, who make nitrogen, who make phosphorus together. Can I ask something? Go ahead. [00:39:11] Speaker 16: Where did the idea to build Songhai come from? [00:39:13] Speaker 5: Oh, that's a long story. Give me some money and I'll tell you. No money, no story. [00:39:24] Speaker 16: I'm from the Democratic Republic of Congo. In my country, it's rare to find people using organic farming methods. That's why I'm here, to learn about the Songhai integrated system. Here, it's really like… It's like I'm inside an encyclopedia and I'll be able to replicate it back to my own country. [00:39:47] Speaker 5: Songhai farming is like a weapon of mass construction rather than a weapon of mass destruction against the challenges the world faces today. Unemployment, poverty, food insecurity, the destruction of the environment. The water hyacinths filter the waste water. Instead of causing problems, the water hyacinths and the bacteria transform it, using energy from the sun to capture to CO2. You see, we've created what's called an eco-service. The fish need animal proteins and the algae provide vegetable proteins. There are so many insects in Africa. And many insect life cycles require water. So when we use this, it attracts the insects. We use the fact that their life cycles require water to capture large deposits of animal protein at a fraction of the usual cost. The insects which we saw as pests have become our partners. We produce more, better, with less. And we're proud because we've achieved all this on our own. If every African were to adhere to this system, there'd be no more poverty, right? No more poverty. No more. [00:41:07] Speaker 1: Today, there are 13 similar sites in Africa. The largest is in Nigeria, which in the long term should help 50,000 young farmers to earn a living. [00:41:24] Speaker ?: And then there's a lot of information. And then there's a lot of information. [00:41:26] Speaker 1: And then there's a lot of information. And there's a lot of information. And there's a lot of information. And there's a lot of information. And there's a lot of information. And there's a lot of information. And there's a lot of information. And there's a lot of information. And there's a lot of information. And there's a lot of information. And there's a lot of information. And there's a lot of information. [00:41:38] Speaker ?: And there's a lot of information. [00:41:39] Speaker 1: In this forest school in Germany, the children are connected to nature from a very young age. There are hundreds of schools like it all over the country. As well as in the UK, Denmark, Canada, Australia. [00:41:53] Speaker 3: What's the final color? [00:41:56] Speaker 16: What color do you see? What do blue and yellow make? They make green. Green. The idea of the forest school is that the children grow up in nature. They learn with nature. And as our teachers, we just need to give them a push in the right direction. Or simply be there to listen to their needs and wishes. We see what makes them curious. The forest is full of things that awaken their curiosity. It's really a magical place. [00:42:31] Speaker 4: The children show great levels of creativity. And also develop their imagination in the forest. [00:42:37] Speaker 17: Man-made toys are restrictive. [00:42:41] Speaker 4: Whereas nature and the living world are one huge playground. For a child, a tree root may be a spaceship one day. And a car the next. Children who spend their days in the forest school receive a huge amount of sensory stimulation. [00:43:00] Speaker 17: The children have a huge amount of energy. [00:43:01] Speaker 4: Of course, we have a teaching program to follow as well, which is a legal requirement. But we're careful to make sure we always keep an eye on the children's center of interest at any given moment. And to use that within the program, so that they remain enthusiastic learners, who learn via their own experiences. [00:43:19] Speaker 1: Research comparing the skill levels gained in a forest school with those of a normal nursery school show much better results from the forest school in terms of psychomotor development, group cooperation, self-assertion and self-control. Who knows what five plus five is? [00:43:39] Speaker 16: Ten. [00:43:40] Speaker 3: Yes. Okay. [00:43:43] Speaker 16: Has everyone had a drink? [00:43:45] Speaker 3: Yes. [00:43:46] Speaker 16: The children here learn to listen to nature. They're at one with it. It's no less important than they are. They coexist with nature. The children always take a little of what they've learned home with them, and that will help them in their future lives as they find their path. They'll leave with a lifelong respect for nature and an understanding that they must look after it. They'll pass that on to their parents and perhaps one day their own children. And that's how a society that is kind towards nature and the world is born. [00:44:43] Speaker 1: The future of our planet depends on us educating children who have a reason to love and protect the world in which they live. As they grow up, it will galvanize them to get involved in society and influence their country's political choices. Thus learning to exert their responsibilities, to work together, to regenerate our democracies. This is the type of thinking developed by Helen Landmore, professor of political sciences at Yale University in the U.S. She's campaigning for what she calls an open democracy. She recognized the Citizens' Climate Convention in France, where 150 people chosen at random established a more ambitious plan than any of the country's governments have ever put together in the last 30 years, as a first step in that direction. How do you see democracy and climate change becoming more interwoven in the future? [00:45:38] Speaker 4: I'd say that, to start with, I thought that the issue of climate change was such a global one, both technical and scientific, that I didn't see what ordinary citizens on such a small local level could do to change anything. And in fact, to be completely honest, when President Macron announced the Citizens' Climate Convention, I was frightened, I thought, won't this undermine any kind of citizen-instigated action, because we'll see that it doesn't work? I'll admit that watching what happened during the convention made me completely change my opinion. [00:46:12] Speaker 1: For me, the real obstacle to these bold measures that I think should be taken is our understanding of democracy. [00:46:18] Speaker 4: Yes, I think we're basically in agreement, except that I have an even more extreme view, which is that deep down the reason democracy is so weak in how it deals with climate issues is that it's not a real democracy. Political science has shown that there is no correlation between what the majority of people want and what they get, except when they have the same preferences as the richest 10% of the population. What does that show? That we are governed by people who are only interested in what big corporations want, and the people who pay taxes and who finance them. And while that's the case, I don't see how the climate crisis can improve because deep down, the obstacle isn't democracy, it's a plutocracy, the oligarchy and capitalism itself. The system doesn't work anymore, it doesn't work, and we're heading for disaster. [00:47:08] Speaker 1: What might a more democratic society look like? [00:47:12] Speaker 4: My alternative vision is that of what I call an open democracy, where the centre of power, which for me is legislative power, would be accessible to everyone, equally. And I can only see one way to do it, choosing people at random. Because you might be shy, you might not be at all outgoing, you might be poor, you might be stupid, but there's still a chance you'll be chosen. Even a person like the one I've just described, who doesn't seem to have many qualities, would discover the qualities they do have, and learn about themselves when talking to people with a different point of view. And they would become more informed, because it's also a process of education, when you listen to other points of view, when you read things, and when others respect you. [00:48:01] Speaker 1: These new democratic models are starting to appear, like here in Ireland. [00:48:05] Speaker ?: I'm not going to read it. [00:48:06] Speaker 1: I'm not going to read it. [00:48:07] Speaker ?: I'm not going to read it. [00:48:07] Speaker 1: I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. [00:48:11] Speaker ?: I'm not going to read it. [00:48:11] Speaker 1: I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. [00:48:42] Speaker ?: I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. [00:48:44] Speaker 18: I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. [00:49:40] Speaker 19: I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. [00:49:52] Speaker 18: I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. [00:50:20] Speaker 19: I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. I'm not going to read it. Our views were reflected in the reports. It was a good way of testing the air, I suppose, for our government to get an idea of what way something might go. [00:51:18] Speaker 18: At the very beginning of the process, there was a lot of scepticism as to whether this would work or not. But when it got going and when people began to see how it was working and the spirit in which the people who were in the room were taking it, there was really considerable public interest. [00:51:40] Speaker 1: Based on the convention's conclusions, a referendum was organised. Against all expectations, even though the Catholic Church had announced it was against it, a 62% vote in favour of gay marriage was recorded with no social backlash. Another convention was organised to see if abortion should also be legalised. The citizens chosen at random voted that there should be a new referendum and abortion was made legal. These examples are proof that informed citizens can settle complex public decisions and regenerate our democracies. All over the planet, women and men are building this new world. The climate crisis may feel threatening, but it's also an extraordinary opportunity for us to reinvent ourselves, to bring back meaning to our existence and our civilisations. And also to be happy, work in jobs we're passionate about, be useful to others, make the most of our powers of creativity, become the farmers, the engineers, the teachers, the skilled workers or the politicians of tomorrow. It's up to us to start this new world. And the time is now. [00:52:53] Speaker 20: Let's build a home again, the earth revival, the dreams and the ocean, birds flying high. Let's build a home again, the earth revival, the trees, the ocean, birds flying high. [00:53:52] Speaker ?: Thank you.