H20: The Molecule That Made Us (2020): Season 1, Episode 1 - Pulse - full transcript
In Episode 1: pulse, segments from across the planet, intimate documentary and natural history cinematography combine to uncover dramatic discoveries and compelling characters and deliver ...
♪
("Koyaaanisqatsi"
by Courtney Hartman playing)
♪ Your breath is burning
my skin ♪
♪ Your mouth takes in my water
♪ And the clouds roll like
a river ♪
♪ The rain falls sharp as ice
♪ And the oceans tumble over
like mist in the night ♪
♪ And my heart is a machine,
a machine keeping time ♪
♪ And my body is a building
scraping at the sky ♪
♪ And water looks like
water running ♪
♪ Water looks like
water running ♪
Funding is provided by
The Arthur Vining Davis
Foundations,
Lynn Bay Dayton
and Bruce C. Dayton,
Anne Ray Foundation,
and viewers like you.
Thank you.
(animals chittering)
KELLY McEVERS:
Probably because I use it
every day,
I take water for granted.
I'm Kelly McEvers,
and I'm a radio journalist.
And for this story,
I have teamed up with
filmmakers and scientists
to make a podcast-style
documentary...
(drop echoes)
...about what might be
the most important substance
on our planet:
water.
And since embarking
on this journey,
I am now startingto see this molecule everywhere.
We call it the water lens.
Look through it,
and you'll see water
inside everything that lives.
(elephant trumpeting,
birds twittering)
You'll see rivers in the sky.
You'll even see water
shaping human evolution.
You'll see water in
the blueprint of civilization.
♪
(people talking,
distant gunfire)
You'll see water
connected to changes
and even conflicts
across the world.
And for me,
after seeing all this,
I think one thing
becomes clear...
We really can't take water
for granted anymore.
(wind whipping)
(wind whipping continues)
So, if there
are endless ways
to combine atoms
to make molecules,
what's so special
about water?
STEPHEN MOJZSIS:Water is, of course, a molecule,
but it is in the most...
intense and intimate
relationship with life
that one can imagine.
McEVERS:
Geologist Stephen Mojzsis
speaks to
the heart of this film.
♪
We need to understand
this relationship
between water and life
because, to be blunt,
our survival depends on it.
(steam hissing)
♪
Stephen is one of the many
experts we met on our journey.
And his particular expertise
takes us back
to the very beginning ofthis story about water and life.
Stephen shocked
the science world
when he discovered
where Earth's water came from.
MOJZSIS:
We long held this idea--
a belief, really--
that water was delivered bycomets and asteroids and so on.
But instead, what we found is
that water was already here.
And we know this
from the investigation
of the very
oldest minerals of all.
McEVERS:
Stephen says water first
showed up on the surface
about 4.3 billion years ago.
So much of the surface
was molten rock
that we call this time the
Hadean, which means "hell."
MOJZSIS:
This is very much like
what we might imagine
the Hadean earth was like--
a bright red sky,
that atmosphere is
dominantly carbon dioxide.
Soon after it had finished
its cooling,
rocks and minerals
released water as steam.
♪
♪
It goes into
the atmosphere,
expands and cools,
and as clouds
then result in rain.
McEVERS:So began the first water cycle.
And it rained so much
that two-thirds of our planet
was submerged under water.
♪
This water has special powers.
MOJZSIS:
Well, water is like
the superhero of molecules.
Water is
a really great solvent.
♪
McEVERS:
We call it
"the universal solvent"
because it dissolves
more substances
than any other liquid.
And that meant
our ancient oceans were
this primordial soup
of chemicals.
That is the crucible
of life's origin.
McEVERS:
We don't know for sure,
but scientists
think there was a spark.
And then...
MOJZSIS:
A water molecule
is the link between
the non-living
and the living world.
♪
McEVERS:
Stephen says the development
of life
could not have happened
at a more crucial moment.
Because, at this time,
Earth's atmosphere
was mostly carbon dioxide,
which acted like a blanket
hugging the earth.
That heated things up
and threatened
to vaporize all our water.
♪
MOJZSIS:
Earth's fate would have been
a super-hothouse with adense carbon dioxide atmosphere.
No water, no life.
Hellish surface.
McEVERS:
But then, Stephen told me,
early life evolved
to rescue Earth
from this scorching apocalypse.
Because a kind of bacteria
photosynthesized
the carbon dioxide
out of the atmosphere.
And replaced it with...
The highly toxic
substance called oxygen.
Now, that's ironic,
because without oxygen,
we can't...
(inhales and exhales deeply)
(inhales and exhales deeply)
McEVERS:
And it's this interplay
between life
and the atmosphere
that continues to keep Earth
at the perfect temperature--
not too hot, not too cold,
just right for liquid water.
MOJZSIS:
Life has actually perpetuated
the liquid water
on the surface of our planet
for geologic time.
(helicopter blades churn)
(indistinct talking over radio)
McEVERS:
Stephen has spent his career
trying to find evidence
of early life-forms
and their watery origins,
searching for fossils
that might have survived
for 3.8 billion years.
MOJZSIS (over radio):
These rocks here to
the east and north;
they're called the Amitsoq,
which is one of the most
exciting places in the world
to see the earliest evidence
for life on our planet.
McEVERS:
Almost all of the fossil rocks
from such an ancient time
have been churned up
or weathered away.
This is one of
the three places on Earth
where the original sea beds
still survive.
Stephen has traveled
thousands of miles
to see this single rock face.
Get the sun angled right.
There's a layer, here.
McEVERS:
At first, it's hard to tell
if Stephen is impressed...
MOJZSIS:
Look like a...
McEVERS:
And then...
MOJZSIS:
Holy (no audio).
I think...
holy, holy, holy cow.
McEVERS:
Stephen thinks he might be
looking at the oldest life form
ever found.
It'll take months
of testing in a lab
before Stephen can confirm
that these markings
were once living beings.
MOJZSIS:
It's the kind of thing that
many of us have been looking for
for many, many, many years.
This is the ultimate search
for a relative
at the base of the family tree
of all life itself.
McEVERS:
Ever since, all life has been
bound to water.
(water rushing)
It is such a fundamental bond,
no life can exist without it.
Even when life moved onto land,
and the plants colonized
the surface of the earth,
even in the driest deserts,
they still carry a little bit
of the ocean with them.
they still carry a little bit
of the ocean with them.
♪
JILL FARRANT:
All plants are 90 to 95% water
in the first place.
And it's part of
their structure,
it's part of their metabolism,
it's part of
absolutely everything
that they are.
♪
McEVERS:
Vast regions of our world
are getting hotter and drier.
For humans to adapt,
it makes sense to study
how nature overcomes
the absence of water.
So, for 25 years,
plant scientist Jill Farrant
has championed
a rare group of plants
that can dry out
and still come back to life.
FARRANT:So, this is a resurrection moss.
It rehydrates extremely quickly,
it's gonna happen fast,
so watch as I pour the water.
McEVERS:
Mosses like this were among
the first life forms
to colonize dry land.
FARRANT:
The plants that I work with
are commonly called
resurrection plants
because they appear to
resurrect from the dead state.
They're not dead at all;
they're just so dry
that they look dead.
But you just have to add water.
♪
McEVERS:
Back in her lab in Cape Town,
Jill is trying to discover
how resurrection plants
are able to break
the sacred bond with water
and still survive.
She wants to use
this knowledge
to help farmers
get through droughts.
FARRANT:
My dream is to create a crop
that tolerates water loss
and does not die
and produce food security
in the face of drought.
Where if there hasn't been rain
and you get a rain,
there's a guaranteed
comeback of your crop.
All yours.
McEVERS:
Imagine if a crop
could resurrect
in 24 hours the way
the resurrection bush does.
FARRANT:Okay, let's pour some water on.
McEVERS:
In its dry state,
the bush transformed its insides
into a glass-like substance.
♪
And now, as it rehydrates,
these glassy tissues soften
and come back to life.
♪
FARRANT:The strategy is extremely rare.
There are only 135 species
in the world that can do this.
But in a drought-prone world,
But in a drought-prone world,
this strategy is a game-changer.
(birds chirping)
McEVERS:
Resurrection plants
might be rare,
but the genetic potential
for resurrection
is actually common.
It's in every plant
that makes a seed.
Every single crop
that we have makes a dry seed.
It has the genetics
to be a resurrection plant,
it just doesn't
switch those genes on
in face of a drought.
Let's actually
just turn on those genes.
McEVERS:
As water sources for crops
become more and more erratic,
Jill hopes she can develop
her resurrection crop
in time to save theworld's most vulnerable farmers.
In the Northern Cape,
Jill took our camera team
to film a spectacular event
that dramatically shows
this ability of life
to survive,
even in the driest extremes.
Now, what fascinates me
is this leaf.
Look at this one, eh?
It's going to...
(chuckling):
Yeah.
Purple juice.
And it's got this capsule,
which all the seedswill erupt from.
McEVERS:
Jill is introducing us
to a secret desert bloom
location where we might film
the mass flowering
of the desert.
FARRANT:
There's so much life here.
It's dormant,
and it's waiting.
But, you know, you're gonnahave to have faith in the system
that the rain's
going to bring it around.
McEVERS:
Christian Muñoz and his son--
also named Christiaan--
are time-lapse experts,
and they have already
spent decades
chasing these
elusive desert blooms.
CHRISTIAN MUÑOZ:
Some people call us
the plant hunters.
We want to showand to capture the change
from the desert tothe beautiful super blooms.
McEVERS:
They use a computer-controlled
camera,
which means they can combine
two shots,
filmed at different times:
once with the bloom,
and once without.
The trouble is,there's at least a six-month gap
between filming
the two images.
And they're not just
shooting in South Africa.
They are chasing super blooms
all over the world.
The Muñoz's biggest challenge
has been to film the
bloom back home in Chile.
The Atacama Desert
is the driest desert on Earth.
There are areas with
no record of rain at all.
There are areas with
no record of rain at all.
♪
Checking the weather radar,
the Muñoz family
has a reason to be hopeful.
CHRISTIAN MUÑOZ:Well, believe it or not,it is raining.
There's just a few drops but
it looks like more rain
is coming this way.
McEVERS:
Sometimes a few drops
is all it takes.
♪
Finally, after a decade of work,
the Muñozes can show us
the transformative power
of water in a desert.
♪
♪
(birds chirping)
♪
♪
(birds chirping)
Before they die,
these flowers
produce millions of seeds.
And with just
a few molecules of water
sealed inside each seed,
these time-capsules of life
can survive everything
the desert throws at them.
We know of seeds that have
sat for 30,000 years
and still germinated
when they finally got water.
Seeds, you know, seeds are--I call them miracle technology.
Imagine if you
had seeds of a Ferrari.
You know, human technology.
Ferrari, a nice car, beautiful,
the object of desire
of many people,
and now you can buy a Ferrari
that will arrive within
an envelope through the mail.
And you get this seed
you put in a pot with soil,
you water it,
and a few months later
you have a Ferrari there.
and a few months later
you have a Ferrari there.
Imagine-- imagine that.
And that's precisely
what nature is doing
quietly, silently,
with a tree.
It started with a seed
that weighed just a few grams.
And it's able to build it,
the whole thing,
from gas, water, and sunshine,
right?
No, stop and think
about this,
what technology we have
that match that?
(birds chirping)
♪
McEVERS:
I have never met someone
who loves trees
as much as Antonio Nobre does.
He's not hugging the tree,
he's listening to the water
rising up through the trunk.
(wildlife calling in distance)
(dull thudding)
NOBRE:
The leaves are pulling
the water column,
and it cavitates.
It makes
tak-tak-tak-tak,
and you can hear it
on the stem,
on the tree trunk.
(dull thudding)
McEVERS:
Antonio, a scientist at INPE--
Brazil's equivalent of NASA--
has dedicated his career
to tracking the water molecule
on its journey through
the greatest forest on Earth.
(wildlife chittering)
♪
Antonio and his colleagues
started by tracking
the journey of the water
rising through the trees,
measuring the molecules
as they are drawn 200 feet high
into the canopy.
(insects chirping)
Coloring the water
with a U.V. dye,
scientists can even
observe the flow of water
through each individual leaf.
A rainforest tree can pump
260 gallons of water a day.
Heated by the sun,
the water escapes
as vapor into the sky.
But Antonio
noticed that alongside water,
the trees were also
releasing something else.
Rising out of the forest,
they measured tiny particles
of dust--
so small they would be dwarfed
by the spray
from a perfume bottle.
NOBRE:
Why trees are releasing
this dust?
You know, this is like
Sherlock Holmes,
sort of, of mystery--
what is going on there?
McEVERS:Antonio and his team discovered
the forest was conducting
transactions in the air,
creating its own cloud system.
Because every cloud
and every raindrop
is formed on a speck of dust.
(thunder rumbling)
The technical term
is "condensation nuclei,"
but Antonio gave it a name
that I like a lot better.
It's like you're dropping
magical dust, like fairy dust,
and then pfff,
it start raining.
McEVERS:Fairy dust is another seemingly
magical expression
of the bond between
life and water.
It's like seeding the air,so that it would benefit itself.
♪
So, forest is cranking
its own rain.
♪
McEVERS:
Antonio's discovery
immediately sparked
a new mystery.
Everyone assumed
that in the dry season,
Amazon trees stop pumping water.
But that's not what happens.
NOBRE:
The Amazon trees do something
that is counter-intuitive.
They transpire more water
during the dry season
than during the wet season.
♪
The trees there are crazy.
But they don't care-- they,they just pump, pump, and pump.
They respond as a group.
McEVERS:
And it's a big group.
400 billion trees pumping
a staggering 20 billion tons
of water each day
into the sky.
It rises and condenses
on fairy dust to make clouds.
And then all these clouds
move like a river.
(wildlife chattering)
Only this river is in the sky.
NOBRE:
It captured the imagination;
people said,
"Wow, there
are rivers in the sky?
"Wow, there
are rivers in the sky?
How come?"
Well, it's a concentrated
flow of moisture,
and they bring moisture
from point A to point B,
like a river.
♪
McEVERS:
Above the forest,
the aerial river is even bigger
than the Amazon River itself.
♪
You could think of this
as the largest river on Earth.
And it flows far beyond
the boundaries of the forest.
Blocked by the Andes mountains,
it is forced to turn south,
traveling 2,000 miles,
beyond the city of Sao Paulo.
Dumping water as it goes,
it transforms areas
that should be deserts
into fertile plains,
and floods the prairies
of the Pantanal,
creating the largest wetland
on Earth...
Which boasts the
highest concentrations
of wildlife in South America.
(birds squawking)
So much water arrives
that the usual rules
for animals seem to be
turned upside down.
Fish eat fruit from trees.
(water splashing)
A tapir,
having lost its meadows,
grazes while holding its breath.
Even jaguars move from land
and hunt in the water.
(birds chirping)
♪
(jaguar emits
high-pitched grunts)
♪
The Amazon isn't
the only flying river.
From the rainforests of Borneo
to the African Congo,
From the rainforests of Borneo
to the African Congo,
there are many forests with the
power to shape global weather.
Combine this with the natural
ebb and flow of the seasons
and what you get
is nature's great pulse.
NOBRE:
This is ten years of data,
of what plants are doing all...
the whole biosphere.
Low productivity in
red and yellow,
and high productivity
in green and blue.
This is showing you what the
biosphere is all about.
Life... it's pulsating,
like a heart... heartbeat.
McEVERS:
Water is Earth's bloodstream.
And life is the result.
And now researchers are
following the paths
that water
and life take together.
♪
(helicopter rotors beating)
And new technology can open up
an even greater understanding
of how the movement of animals
is connected
to the pulse of water.
When we caught up with
Martin Wikelski,
he was busy putting a tracking
device on a young giraffe.
But it's not just giraffe
that he studies.
(crew conversing)
Martin is actually coordinating
a worldwide animal tracking
revolution.
Martin's high-tech
miniature tags
can relay live feeds viathe international space station
to scientists anywhere
in the world.
WIKELSKI:
Well done! (chuckles)
Well, on animalswe have these tiny little tags,
that have a solar panel
and a battery
and electronics inside
and an antenna.
And that can be as a backpack
or it can be a little ear tag.
McEVERS:
Martin even makes tags
small enough for insects.
Like this
death's-head hawkmoth.
(plane engine roars)
With these smaller tags,
Martin follows the signal
from his airplane,
downloading the tracks
to his global maps.
WIKELSKI (over microphone):
It's really amazing,
this is the first time
that we tracked,
that anybody ever tracked
any of these nocturnal moths,
that we really know
what they're doing.
This is completely new.
McEVERS:
Martin is able to gather
all this data
from creatures big and small,
into the Icarus database.
♪
♪
Or, as some call it,
"the internet of wings."
It gives him a live,
global overview,
where he can actually see
how the patterns of animals
connect with the pulse of water.
WIKELSKI:
So, water is actually
the most important thing.
In a lot of cases we see that
water is driving migrations,
movements or entire
life histories of animals.
McEVERS:
Wildebeest follow the rains
as they sweep across
the Serengeti.
(wildebeest braying)
They know the rain will
transform a desert
into one of the
richest grasslands on Earth.
♪
As they graze,
these 1.4 million stomachs
break down the grass
and return the nutrients
to the soil in the form of
dung and urine.
And discoveries
in the Serengeti reveal
the greater the animal impact,
the more the landscape is
enriched and is able
to hold even more water.
(birds squawking)
The movement of animals can
affect the landscape
just as much as the
movement of water does.
12 million snow geese
seem to know the exact moment
the snow will melt
in the far north.
On their migration
they disperse nutrients
and seeds they have eaten
across thousands of miles.
A lot of the movements
we see here
are related to water.
So we have the ice,
when it melts...
you see the snow geese going up
from California.
The productivity of populations
of animals,
like geese in the Arctic,is highly dependent upon water.
So it's... it's really a system
that drives almost everything.
McEVERS:
Everything from great herds
to tiny insects
is perfectly synchronized
with the pulse of water.
(birds squawking)
(thunder roaring)
But, for us,
one story really stood out--
an incredible journey
following water
on a record-breaking adventure.
(birds chirping)
Wandering
glider dragonflies hatch
in the rice paddies of India.
And as the monsoon rains sweep
off the southern coast,
the tiny insects rise
5,000 feet into the air,
following the water far out
into the Indian Ocean.
♪
The mystery
of where the dragonflies go
caught the attention of
biologist Charles Anderson,
when millions of
wandering gliders
suddenly appeared in
the Maldives,
400 miles
off the coast of India.
ANDERSON:
I realized that something
quite extraordinary
was going on because
dragonflies absolutely
need fresh water to breed.
And Maldives is a place
with no surface fresh water.
So, what on earth
are they doing?
Why are they coming here,
what on earth is going on?
McEVERS:
Without breeding waters,
flying all the way
from India makes no sense.
Unless...
the dragonflies were
en route to somewhere else.
Remember those flying rivers
over the Amazon?
In a similar way,
the monsoon brings rain
from India to Africa.
Charles tracked
how the dragonflies
were hitching a ride
on these storms.
Incredibly, the tiny insects
spend about a week
flying 2,500 miles
across the Indian Ocean...
All the way to Africa.
ANDERSON:
Most people cannot believe
that a five centimeter insect
could possibly cross an ocean.
And yet they do.
♪
McEVERS:
The rains create
temporary pools.
And the dragonflies arrive
to be among
the first to colonize them.
In the water, their nymphs
prey on mosquito larvae.
♪
Within just seven weeks,
they're ready to emerge
and transform into adults.
The wandering gliders wait
for the seasons to change.
A circuit of the
Indian Ocean takes
four generations to complete...
A round-trip of 10,000 miles.
♪
(insects chirping, buzzing)
ANDERSON:
This is the-the largest,
most amazing migration
of any insect,
in some ways of any animal.
To cross oceans,
to pass between continents
it is quite extraordinary.
McEVERS:
Their relationship with water
is extraordinary.
And, in Africa,
they eat so many mosquitoes
they can end up being
the most effective way
to control diseases,
like malaria.
So imagine...
what if farmers in India
spray too many pesticides
and kill the dragonflies?
It could cause a deadly malaria
outbreak in Africa.
♪
WIKELSKI:
We are really
just at the beginning
of a new phase of
understanding Earth's systems
because we finally
get a glimpse
of how life is moving and
interacting around the planet,
and this is
super exciting to us.
♪
(thunder roaring)
McEVERS:
The pulse of water
connects all the plants,
all the forests,
and all the animals.
But, of course, this pulse
also connects you and me.
♪
Over seven billion of us
depend on the pulse of water.
Our success as a species
has been to harness the pulse.
We use water, above all,
to feed ourselves.
But we now know that droughts
are increasing in intensity--
becoming longer,
breaking records.
The pulse of water might not
be as reliable as we thought.
♪
♪
♪
On our travels across America,
we met farmers who are expertsat growing food in dry climates.
But for many of them,
the most recent droughts
have been overwhelming.
JIM LEDERHOS:
There are folks
that have run out of water.
And if there's no water here,
there's no value.
There's no value at all.
PASTOR ON RADIO:
All right, we're so thankful
this morning for the rain
that we've had.
I know here every drop counts,
and we've been praying
that drought is broken
in West Texas.
KEVIN GOSS:
After 2010 we've had
a pretty good decline
in rain and I've been stuck
pretty dry for the most part
for about the last nine years.
JEANNE GOSS:
We try to sustain
until we get rain,
and if there's no rain
then we have to sell.
MIKE CALLICRATE:
So, the water table
has dropped significantly
in this area.
Without water,
there's no livestock,
there's no people.
McEVERS:
It's not only farmers
who suffer.
♪
Without water, entire
communities are collapsing.
And it seems like
nothing can be done...
other than to pray.
GOSS:
Heavenly Father,
we thank you for this day,
we thank you for the blessing.
We please ask that you
keep the rainfall coming
and let it nourish our pastures
and nourish our crops.
ALL:
Amen.
(lightning crackles)
(airplane engine droning)
Scientists have developed
a unique technology
to follow the droughts
and to measure
the amount of water held
in the vegetation below.
SCIENTIST (on radio):
If this is clear all to the...
all the way to the end,
you wanna continue down?
GREG ASNER (on radio):
You're gonna run these....
how many miles down?
About ten to go.
Uh, yeah.
Yeah, the sand always clouds up.
McEVERS:
They call Greg Asner
"the drought chaser."
ASNER:We have found ourselves chasing
these drought events.
And when I say chasing,
it's somebody calling me up
and saying,
"Greg, we have this drought,
can you come and help us
to make that assessment?"
And it used to be that
we'd get that call
once a year and now
I'm getting that call,
I'm not kidding, at leastonce a month if not once a week.
McEVERS:
Greg's technology
can see and measure water
in ways impossible
with the naked eye.
As he flies over,
lidar scanners use a laser
As he flies over,
lidar scanners use a laser
to create a high-resolution
3D map of the forest below.
At the same time,
Greg's cameras record
a spectral image,
which means they can see
the chemical makeup
of each tree,
including the movement
of water in the canopies.
In 2010, the drought chasers
were called in
to analyze a drought
in the Amazon.
ASNER:
We had this megadrought
show up
across a lot
of the Amazon basin,
especially in Brazil.
The imaging systems
on board our plane
were lighting up,
literally the big screens were
showing enormous
amounts of loss.
And we saw this everywhere,
all over the western Amazon.
We saw mortality
that easily was
over 50% of the tree canopy,
and the reason
this is alarming is that
at any given moment in time,
you would expect to see aboutone to two percent of the canopy
in a state of dying,
just naturally.
When you see 50%,
50 times the rate,
you-you don't have words for it.
McEVERS:
Scientists like
Greg Asner believe
if just 25% of the Amazon
is lost,
it will reach a tipping point
that could fatally damage
the rivers that fly
above the forest.
People like Antonio Nobre
think we're already there.
And in 2015 there were worrying
signs he might be right.
2,000 miles away in Brazil's
biggest city, Sao Paolo,
the flying river
had stopped its flow
and the people
were running out of water.
(protestors shouting)
Antonio Nobre lives there.
The drought struck us, you know,
head on, and...
and I started getting
really concerned.
The army start preparing
for riots because, imagine,
22 million people in the
largest Brazilian metropolis
running out of water, and...
people got so it was, like,
"What are we going to do?
We don't have water,
not even for drinking."
The only explanation is that
we are damaging the Amazon.
You damage the forest,
you damage the flying rivers,
therefore you damage
the water cycle,
the pulses stop,
it's like a heartbeat
that all of a sudden stops.
McEVERS:
While we were
filming here we found
one of the most unexpected
effects of the Amazon drought
on the Rio Tietê.
Normally, there's enough water
to flush pollutants
Normally, there's enough water
to flush pollutants
from Sao Paolo out to the sea.
But in the drought,
the pollution intensifies.
Phosphatesand industrial chemicals combine
to create this toxic foam.
♪
To kayak here, you have
to wear a biohazard suit.
It is the saddest image
of a river I have ever seen.
Multiple organ failure--
you have that term
in intensive care units.
Multiple organ failure,
it's going on right now
on the planet.
McEVERS:
And that organ failure
has been even more clear
as the Amazon forest recently
started to burn.
That connection between
drought and fire
is a story we know well
where I live in California.
Our drought started in 2011
and lasted six years.
It got so bad the governor
asked Greg Asner
to come map its effects
on our forests.
ASNER:This is a dramatic landscape
where we're seeing,I would say,
30% are severelydrought stricken
and maybe 20% are surviving.
McEVERS:
Greg estimates
the drought in California
killed 140 million trees.
Without moisture, the forests
are like a tinderbox.
(siren blares)
REPORTER:
The famous Malibu coastline
beneath a rising tower of smoke.
McEVERS:
2018 was the
worst fire season
in California's history,
with over 8,500 fires burning
close to two million acres
and killing
over a hundred people.
WOMAN:
Oh my God,
I don't know what to do.
Oh my God,
I'm surrounded by fire
and I don't know
which way to go.
(sighs)
Oh please, dear God...
MAN:
Oh, no way.
ASNER:
So, you know,
the system is changing,
the water cycle
is changing on us.
MAN:
Yeah, it's time to go.
Those are really big,
fundamental,
planetary-scale changes
that are affecting everybody.
McEVERS:
Amidst all this destruction,
Greg Asner remains hopeful.
Because, whenever he flies,
he finds places
that somehow manage
to beat the drought.
He calls these places "refugia."
He calls these places "refugia."
Whenever I've seen
these massive losses,
whether it's in the Amazon basin
or in California
or in the Pacific islands
like Hawaii,
we always have refugia emerge...
as places of survival.
This is an example of a refugia,
or a refuge,
during the 2016 peak
of the drought in California,
and what you see here
are mostly coastal
redwood trees.
What defines this as a refuge
is the fact that there was
enough water
on the landscape
persisting in the soil
to generate a sustained
or resilient set
of trees in this forest,
and that's why they're showing
up in blue.
♪
McEVERS:
Protecting refugia protects
water supplies of the future.
ASNER:
To me those are the...
the nuggets,
the gold nuggets of nature
that give me hope.
And not just hope, but literally
the biological resource
for re-expansion
of those species.
The key is finding them
and protecting them
and allowing them
to persist into the future.
♪
McEVERS:
Our future is bound to water
because of the intimate
connection between life
and the molecule that made us.
On Earth you have a paradise--
you have water
in the liquid form
for four billion years.
What is allowing for the water
to remain on Earth?
It's life.
The take-home message here
is that life is the key.
McEVERS:
The pulse of water,
moving across the Earth,
is the very thing keeping
our planet alive.
♪
But that pulse is changing.
Because of us.
And you don't have to be
a scientist
to realize what's at stake.
Even though our human worldis vulnerable to these changes,
what fascinates meis how resilient nature can be,
if we give it a chance.
I realize now,
it's not the water
I was taking for granted...
(thunder rumbling)
but where it comes from.
It's nature we need
to fight for,
as if our lives depend on it.
Because they do.
Next time on
"The Molecule that Made Us"--
episode two, "Civilizations."
An entire civilization
ends here.
MAN:
That's what we come from,
a water-wading ape.
This is unbelievable.
To order "H2O: The Molecule
That Made Us" on DVD,
This program is also available
on Amazon Prime Video.
♪
♪
("Koyaaanisqatsi"
by Courtney Hartman playing)
♪ Your breath is burning
my skin ♪
♪ Your mouth takes in my water
♪ And the clouds roll like
a river ♪
♪ The rain falls sharp as ice
♪ And the oceans tumble over
like mist in the night ♪
♪ And my heart is a machine,
a machine keeping time ♪
♪ And my body is a building
scraping at the sky ♪
♪ And water looks like
water running ♪
♪ Water looks like
water running ♪
Funding is provided by
The Arthur Vining Davis
Foundations,
Lynn Bay Dayton
and Bruce C. Dayton,
Anne Ray Foundation,
and viewers like you.
Thank you.
(animals chittering)
KELLY McEVERS:
Probably because I use it
every day,
I take water for granted.
I'm Kelly McEvers,
and I'm a radio journalist.
And for this story,
I have teamed up with
filmmakers and scientists
to make a podcast-style
documentary...
(drop echoes)
...about what might be
the most important substance
on our planet:
water.
And since embarking
on this journey,
I am now startingto see this molecule everywhere.
We call it the water lens.
Look through it,
and you'll see water
inside everything that lives.
(elephant trumpeting,
birds twittering)
You'll see rivers in the sky.
You'll even see water
shaping human evolution.
You'll see water in
the blueprint of civilization.
♪
(people talking,
distant gunfire)
You'll see water
connected to changes
and even conflicts
across the world.
And for me,
after seeing all this,
I think one thing
becomes clear...
We really can't take water
for granted anymore.
(wind whipping)
(wind whipping continues)
So, if there
are endless ways
to combine atoms
to make molecules,
what's so special
about water?
STEPHEN MOJZSIS:Water is, of course, a molecule,
but it is in the most...
intense and intimate
relationship with life
that one can imagine.
McEVERS:
Geologist Stephen Mojzsis
speaks to
the heart of this film.
♪
We need to understand
this relationship
between water and life
because, to be blunt,
our survival depends on it.
(steam hissing)
♪
Stephen is one of the many
experts we met on our journey.
And his particular expertise
takes us back
to the very beginning ofthis story about water and life.
Stephen shocked
the science world
when he discovered
where Earth's water came from.
MOJZSIS:
We long held this idea--
a belief, really--
that water was delivered bycomets and asteroids and so on.
But instead, what we found is
that water was already here.
And we know this
from the investigation
of the very
oldest minerals of all.
McEVERS:
Stephen says water first
showed up on the surface
about 4.3 billion years ago.
So much of the surface
was molten rock
that we call this time the
Hadean, which means "hell."
MOJZSIS:
This is very much like
what we might imagine
the Hadean earth was like--
a bright red sky,
that atmosphere is
dominantly carbon dioxide.
Soon after it had finished
its cooling,
rocks and minerals
released water as steam.
♪
♪
It goes into
the atmosphere,
expands and cools,
and as clouds
then result in rain.
McEVERS:So began the first water cycle.
And it rained so much
that two-thirds of our planet
was submerged under water.
♪
This water has special powers.
MOJZSIS:
Well, water is like
the superhero of molecules.
Water is
a really great solvent.
♪
McEVERS:
We call it
"the universal solvent"
because it dissolves
more substances
than any other liquid.
And that meant
our ancient oceans were
this primordial soup
of chemicals.
That is the crucible
of life's origin.
McEVERS:
We don't know for sure,
but scientists
think there was a spark.
And then...
MOJZSIS:
A water molecule
is the link between
the non-living
and the living world.
♪
McEVERS:
Stephen says the development
of life
could not have happened
at a more crucial moment.
Because, at this time,
Earth's atmosphere
was mostly carbon dioxide,
which acted like a blanket
hugging the earth.
That heated things up
and threatened
to vaporize all our water.
♪
MOJZSIS:
Earth's fate would have been
a super-hothouse with adense carbon dioxide atmosphere.
No water, no life.
Hellish surface.
McEVERS:
But then, Stephen told me,
early life evolved
to rescue Earth
from this scorching apocalypse.
Because a kind of bacteria
photosynthesized
the carbon dioxide
out of the atmosphere.
And replaced it with...
The highly toxic
substance called oxygen.
Now, that's ironic,
because without oxygen,
we can't...
(inhales and exhales deeply)
(inhales and exhales deeply)
McEVERS:
And it's this interplay
between life
and the atmosphere
that continues to keep Earth
at the perfect temperature--
not too hot, not too cold,
just right for liquid water.
MOJZSIS:
Life has actually perpetuated
the liquid water
on the surface of our planet
for geologic time.
(helicopter blades churn)
(indistinct talking over radio)
McEVERS:
Stephen has spent his career
trying to find evidence
of early life-forms
and their watery origins,
searching for fossils
that might have survived
for 3.8 billion years.
MOJZSIS (over radio):
These rocks here to
the east and north;
they're called the Amitsoq,
which is one of the most
exciting places in the world
to see the earliest evidence
for life on our planet.
McEVERS:
Almost all of the fossil rocks
from such an ancient time
have been churned up
or weathered away.
This is one of
the three places on Earth
where the original sea beds
still survive.
Stephen has traveled
thousands of miles
to see this single rock face.
Get the sun angled right.
There's a layer, here.
McEVERS:
At first, it's hard to tell
if Stephen is impressed...
MOJZSIS:
Look like a...
McEVERS:
And then...
MOJZSIS:
Holy (no audio).
I think...
holy, holy, holy cow.
McEVERS:
Stephen thinks he might be
looking at the oldest life form
ever found.
It'll take months
of testing in a lab
before Stephen can confirm
that these markings
were once living beings.
MOJZSIS:
It's the kind of thing that
many of us have been looking for
for many, many, many years.
This is the ultimate search
for a relative
at the base of the family tree
of all life itself.
McEVERS:
Ever since, all life has been
bound to water.
(water rushing)
It is such a fundamental bond,
no life can exist without it.
Even when life moved onto land,
and the plants colonized
the surface of the earth,
even in the driest deserts,
they still carry a little bit
of the ocean with them.
they still carry a little bit
of the ocean with them.
♪
JILL FARRANT:
All plants are 90 to 95% water
in the first place.
And it's part of
their structure,
it's part of their metabolism,
it's part of
absolutely everything
that they are.
♪
McEVERS:
Vast regions of our world
are getting hotter and drier.
For humans to adapt,
it makes sense to study
how nature overcomes
the absence of water.
So, for 25 years,
plant scientist Jill Farrant
has championed
a rare group of plants
that can dry out
and still come back to life.
FARRANT:So, this is a resurrection moss.
It rehydrates extremely quickly,
it's gonna happen fast,
so watch as I pour the water.
McEVERS:
Mosses like this were among
the first life forms
to colonize dry land.
FARRANT:
The plants that I work with
are commonly called
resurrection plants
because they appear to
resurrect from the dead state.
They're not dead at all;
they're just so dry
that they look dead.
But you just have to add water.
♪
McEVERS:
Back in her lab in Cape Town,
Jill is trying to discover
how resurrection plants
are able to break
the sacred bond with water
and still survive.
She wants to use
this knowledge
to help farmers
get through droughts.
FARRANT:
My dream is to create a crop
that tolerates water loss
and does not die
and produce food security
in the face of drought.
Where if there hasn't been rain
and you get a rain,
there's a guaranteed
comeback of your crop.
All yours.
McEVERS:
Imagine if a crop
could resurrect
in 24 hours the way
the resurrection bush does.
FARRANT:Okay, let's pour some water on.
McEVERS:
In its dry state,
the bush transformed its insides
into a glass-like substance.
♪
And now, as it rehydrates,
these glassy tissues soften
and come back to life.
♪
FARRANT:The strategy is extremely rare.
There are only 135 species
in the world that can do this.
But in a drought-prone world,
But in a drought-prone world,
this strategy is a game-changer.
(birds chirping)
McEVERS:
Resurrection plants
might be rare,
but the genetic potential
for resurrection
is actually common.
It's in every plant
that makes a seed.
Every single crop
that we have makes a dry seed.
It has the genetics
to be a resurrection plant,
it just doesn't
switch those genes on
in face of a drought.
Let's actually
just turn on those genes.
McEVERS:
As water sources for crops
become more and more erratic,
Jill hopes she can develop
her resurrection crop
in time to save theworld's most vulnerable farmers.
In the Northern Cape,
Jill took our camera team
to film a spectacular event
that dramatically shows
this ability of life
to survive,
even in the driest extremes.
Now, what fascinates me
is this leaf.
Look at this one, eh?
It's going to...
(chuckling):
Yeah.
Purple juice.
And it's got this capsule,
which all the seedswill erupt from.
McEVERS:
Jill is introducing us
to a secret desert bloom
location where we might film
the mass flowering
of the desert.
FARRANT:
There's so much life here.
It's dormant,
and it's waiting.
But, you know, you're gonnahave to have faith in the system
that the rain's
going to bring it around.
McEVERS:
Christian Muñoz and his son--
also named Christiaan--
are time-lapse experts,
and they have already
spent decades
chasing these
elusive desert blooms.
CHRISTIAN MUÑOZ:
Some people call us
the plant hunters.
We want to showand to capture the change
from the desert tothe beautiful super blooms.
McEVERS:
They use a computer-controlled
camera,
which means they can combine
two shots,
filmed at different times:
once with the bloom,
and once without.
The trouble is,there's at least a six-month gap
between filming
the two images.
And they're not just
shooting in South Africa.
They are chasing super blooms
all over the world.
The Muñoz's biggest challenge
has been to film the
bloom back home in Chile.
The Atacama Desert
is the driest desert on Earth.
There are areas with
no record of rain at all.
There are areas with
no record of rain at all.
♪
Checking the weather radar,
the Muñoz family
has a reason to be hopeful.
CHRISTIAN MUÑOZ:Well, believe it or not,it is raining.
There's just a few drops but
it looks like more rain
is coming this way.
McEVERS:
Sometimes a few drops
is all it takes.
♪
Finally, after a decade of work,
the Muñozes can show us
the transformative power
of water in a desert.
♪
♪
(birds chirping)
♪
♪
(birds chirping)
Before they die,
these flowers
produce millions of seeds.
And with just
a few molecules of water
sealed inside each seed,
these time-capsules of life
can survive everything
the desert throws at them.
We know of seeds that have
sat for 30,000 years
and still germinated
when they finally got water.
Seeds, you know, seeds are--I call them miracle technology.
Imagine if you
had seeds of a Ferrari.
You know, human technology.
Ferrari, a nice car, beautiful,
the object of desire
of many people,
and now you can buy a Ferrari
that will arrive within
an envelope through the mail.
And you get this seed
you put in a pot with soil,
you water it,
and a few months later
you have a Ferrari there.
and a few months later
you have a Ferrari there.
Imagine-- imagine that.
And that's precisely
what nature is doing
quietly, silently,
with a tree.
It started with a seed
that weighed just a few grams.
And it's able to build it,
the whole thing,
from gas, water, and sunshine,
right?
No, stop and think
about this,
what technology we have
that match that?
(birds chirping)
♪
McEVERS:
I have never met someone
who loves trees
as much as Antonio Nobre does.
He's not hugging the tree,
he's listening to the water
rising up through the trunk.
(wildlife calling in distance)
(dull thudding)
NOBRE:
The leaves are pulling
the water column,
and it cavitates.
It makes
tak-tak-tak-tak,
and you can hear it
on the stem,
on the tree trunk.
(dull thudding)
McEVERS:
Antonio, a scientist at INPE--
Brazil's equivalent of NASA--
has dedicated his career
to tracking the water molecule
on its journey through
the greatest forest on Earth.
(wildlife chittering)
♪
Antonio and his colleagues
started by tracking
the journey of the water
rising through the trees,
measuring the molecules
as they are drawn 200 feet high
into the canopy.
(insects chirping)
Coloring the water
with a U.V. dye,
scientists can even
observe the flow of water
through each individual leaf.
A rainforest tree can pump
260 gallons of water a day.
Heated by the sun,
the water escapes
as vapor into the sky.
But Antonio
noticed that alongside water,
the trees were also
releasing something else.
Rising out of the forest,
they measured tiny particles
of dust--
so small they would be dwarfed
by the spray
from a perfume bottle.
NOBRE:
Why trees are releasing
this dust?
You know, this is like
Sherlock Holmes,
sort of, of mystery--
what is going on there?
McEVERS:Antonio and his team discovered
the forest was conducting
transactions in the air,
creating its own cloud system.
Because every cloud
and every raindrop
is formed on a speck of dust.
(thunder rumbling)
The technical term
is "condensation nuclei,"
but Antonio gave it a name
that I like a lot better.
It's like you're dropping
magical dust, like fairy dust,
and then pfff,
it start raining.
McEVERS:Fairy dust is another seemingly
magical expression
of the bond between
life and water.
It's like seeding the air,so that it would benefit itself.
♪
So, forest is cranking
its own rain.
♪
McEVERS:
Antonio's discovery
immediately sparked
a new mystery.
Everyone assumed
that in the dry season,
Amazon trees stop pumping water.
But that's not what happens.
NOBRE:
The Amazon trees do something
that is counter-intuitive.
They transpire more water
during the dry season
than during the wet season.
♪
The trees there are crazy.
But they don't care-- they,they just pump, pump, and pump.
They respond as a group.
McEVERS:
And it's a big group.
400 billion trees pumping
a staggering 20 billion tons
of water each day
into the sky.
It rises and condenses
on fairy dust to make clouds.
And then all these clouds
move like a river.
(wildlife chattering)
Only this river is in the sky.
NOBRE:
It captured the imagination;
people said,
"Wow, there
are rivers in the sky?
"Wow, there
are rivers in the sky?
How come?"
Well, it's a concentrated
flow of moisture,
and they bring moisture
from point A to point B,
like a river.
♪
McEVERS:
Above the forest,
the aerial river is even bigger
than the Amazon River itself.
♪
You could think of this
as the largest river on Earth.
And it flows far beyond
the boundaries of the forest.
Blocked by the Andes mountains,
it is forced to turn south,
traveling 2,000 miles,
beyond the city of Sao Paulo.
Dumping water as it goes,
it transforms areas
that should be deserts
into fertile plains,
and floods the prairies
of the Pantanal,
creating the largest wetland
on Earth...
Which boasts the
highest concentrations
of wildlife in South America.
(birds squawking)
So much water arrives
that the usual rules
for animals seem to be
turned upside down.
Fish eat fruit from trees.
(water splashing)
A tapir,
having lost its meadows,
grazes while holding its breath.
Even jaguars move from land
and hunt in the water.
(birds chirping)
♪
(jaguar emits
high-pitched grunts)
♪
The Amazon isn't
the only flying river.
From the rainforests of Borneo
to the African Congo,
From the rainforests of Borneo
to the African Congo,
there are many forests with the
power to shape global weather.
Combine this with the natural
ebb and flow of the seasons
and what you get
is nature's great pulse.
NOBRE:
This is ten years of data,
of what plants are doing all...
the whole biosphere.
Low productivity in
red and yellow,
and high productivity
in green and blue.
This is showing you what the
biosphere is all about.
Life... it's pulsating,
like a heart... heartbeat.
McEVERS:
Water is Earth's bloodstream.
And life is the result.
And now researchers are
following the paths
that water
and life take together.
♪
(helicopter rotors beating)
And new technology can open up
an even greater understanding
of how the movement of animals
is connected
to the pulse of water.
When we caught up with
Martin Wikelski,
he was busy putting a tracking
device on a young giraffe.
But it's not just giraffe
that he studies.
(crew conversing)
Martin is actually coordinating
a worldwide animal tracking
revolution.
Martin's high-tech
miniature tags
can relay live feeds viathe international space station
to scientists anywhere
in the world.
WIKELSKI:
Well done! (chuckles)
Well, on animalswe have these tiny little tags,
that have a solar panel
and a battery
and electronics inside
and an antenna.
And that can be as a backpack
or it can be a little ear tag.
McEVERS:
Martin even makes tags
small enough for insects.
Like this
death's-head hawkmoth.
(plane engine roars)
With these smaller tags,
Martin follows the signal
from his airplane,
downloading the tracks
to his global maps.
WIKELSKI (over microphone):
It's really amazing,
this is the first time
that we tracked,
that anybody ever tracked
any of these nocturnal moths,
that we really know
what they're doing.
This is completely new.
McEVERS:
Martin is able to gather
all this data
from creatures big and small,
into the Icarus database.
♪
♪
Or, as some call it,
"the internet of wings."
It gives him a live,
global overview,
where he can actually see
how the patterns of animals
connect with the pulse of water.
WIKELSKI:
So, water is actually
the most important thing.
In a lot of cases we see that
water is driving migrations,
movements or entire
life histories of animals.
McEVERS:
Wildebeest follow the rains
as they sweep across
the Serengeti.
(wildebeest braying)
They know the rain will
transform a desert
into one of the
richest grasslands on Earth.
♪
As they graze,
these 1.4 million stomachs
break down the grass
and return the nutrients
to the soil in the form of
dung and urine.
And discoveries
in the Serengeti reveal
the greater the animal impact,
the more the landscape is
enriched and is able
to hold even more water.
(birds squawking)
The movement of animals can
affect the landscape
just as much as the
movement of water does.
12 million snow geese
seem to know the exact moment
the snow will melt
in the far north.
On their migration
they disperse nutrients
and seeds they have eaten
across thousands of miles.
A lot of the movements
we see here
are related to water.
So we have the ice,
when it melts...
you see the snow geese going up
from California.
The productivity of populations
of animals,
like geese in the Arctic,is highly dependent upon water.
So it's... it's really a system
that drives almost everything.
McEVERS:
Everything from great herds
to tiny insects
is perfectly synchronized
with the pulse of water.
(birds squawking)
(thunder roaring)
But, for us,
one story really stood out--
an incredible journey
following water
on a record-breaking adventure.
(birds chirping)
Wandering
glider dragonflies hatch
in the rice paddies of India.
And as the monsoon rains sweep
off the southern coast,
the tiny insects rise
5,000 feet into the air,
following the water far out
into the Indian Ocean.
♪
The mystery
of where the dragonflies go
caught the attention of
biologist Charles Anderson,
when millions of
wandering gliders
suddenly appeared in
the Maldives,
400 miles
off the coast of India.
ANDERSON:
I realized that something
quite extraordinary
was going on because
dragonflies absolutely
need fresh water to breed.
And Maldives is a place
with no surface fresh water.
So, what on earth
are they doing?
Why are they coming here,
what on earth is going on?
McEVERS:
Without breeding waters,
flying all the way
from India makes no sense.
Unless...
the dragonflies were
en route to somewhere else.
Remember those flying rivers
over the Amazon?
In a similar way,
the monsoon brings rain
from India to Africa.
Charles tracked
how the dragonflies
were hitching a ride
on these storms.
Incredibly, the tiny insects
spend about a week
flying 2,500 miles
across the Indian Ocean...
All the way to Africa.
ANDERSON:
Most people cannot believe
that a five centimeter insect
could possibly cross an ocean.
And yet they do.
♪
McEVERS:
The rains create
temporary pools.
And the dragonflies arrive
to be among
the first to colonize them.
In the water, their nymphs
prey on mosquito larvae.
♪
Within just seven weeks,
they're ready to emerge
and transform into adults.
The wandering gliders wait
for the seasons to change.
A circuit of the
Indian Ocean takes
four generations to complete...
A round-trip of 10,000 miles.
♪
(insects chirping, buzzing)
ANDERSON:
This is the-the largest,
most amazing migration
of any insect,
in some ways of any animal.
To cross oceans,
to pass between continents
it is quite extraordinary.
McEVERS:
Their relationship with water
is extraordinary.
And, in Africa,
they eat so many mosquitoes
they can end up being
the most effective way
to control diseases,
like malaria.
So imagine...
what if farmers in India
spray too many pesticides
and kill the dragonflies?
It could cause a deadly malaria
outbreak in Africa.
♪
WIKELSKI:
We are really
just at the beginning
of a new phase of
understanding Earth's systems
because we finally
get a glimpse
of how life is moving and
interacting around the planet,
and this is
super exciting to us.
♪
(thunder roaring)
McEVERS:
The pulse of water
connects all the plants,
all the forests,
and all the animals.
But, of course, this pulse
also connects you and me.
♪
Over seven billion of us
depend on the pulse of water.
Our success as a species
has been to harness the pulse.
We use water, above all,
to feed ourselves.
But we now know that droughts
are increasing in intensity--
becoming longer,
breaking records.
The pulse of water might not
be as reliable as we thought.
♪
♪
♪
On our travels across America,
we met farmers who are expertsat growing food in dry climates.
But for many of them,
the most recent droughts
have been overwhelming.
JIM LEDERHOS:
There are folks
that have run out of water.
And if there's no water here,
there's no value.
There's no value at all.
PASTOR ON RADIO:
All right, we're so thankful
this morning for the rain
that we've had.
I know here every drop counts,
and we've been praying
that drought is broken
in West Texas.
KEVIN GOSS:
After 2010 we've had
a pretty good decline
in rain and I've been stuck
pretty dry for the most part
for about the last nine years.
JEANNE GOSS:
We try to sustain
until we get rain,
and if there's no rain
then we have to sell.
MIKE CALLICRATE:
So, the water table
has dropped significantly
in this area.
Without water,
there's no livestock,
there's no people.
McEVERS:
It's not only farmers
who suffer.
♪
Without water, entire
communities are collapsing.
And it seems like
nothing can be done...
other than to pray.
GOSS:
Heavenly Father,
we thank you for this day,
we thank you for the blessing.
We please ask that you
keep the rainfall coming
and let it nourish our pastures
and nourish our crops.
ALL:
Amen.
(lightning crackles)
(airplane engine droning)
Scientists have developed
a unique technology
to follow the droughts
and to measure
the amount of water held
in the vegetation below.
SCIENTIST (on radio):
If this is clear all to the...
all the way to the end,
you wanna continue down?
GREG ASNER (on radio):
You're gonna run these....
how many miles down?
About ten to go.
Uh, yeah.
Yeah, the sand always clouds up.
McEVERS:
They call Greg Asner
"the drought chaser."
ASNER:We have found ourselves chasing
these drought events.
And when I say chasing,
it's somebody calling me up
and saying,
"Greg, we have this drought,
can you come and help us
to make that assessment?"
And it used to be that
we'd get that call
once a year and now
I'm getting that call,
I'm not kidding, at leastonce a month if not once a week.
McEVERS:
Greg's technology
can see and measure water
in ways impossible
with the naked eye.
As he flies over,
lidar scanners use a laser
As he flies over,
lidar scanners use a laser
to create a high-resolution
3D map of the forest below.
At the same time,
Greg's cameras record
a spectral image,
which means they can see
the chemical makeup
of each tree,
including the movement
of water in the canopies.
In 2010, the drought chasers
were called in
to analyze a drought
in the Amazon.
ASNER:
We had this megadrought
show up
across a lot
of the Amazon basin,
especially in Brazil.
The imaging systems
on board our plane
were lighting up,
literally the big screens were
showing enormous
amounts of loss.
And we saw this everywhere,
all over the western Amazon.
We saw mortality
that easily was
over 50% of the tree canopy,
and the reason
this is alarming is that
at any given moment in time,
you would expect to see aboutone to two percent of the canopy
in a state of dying,
just naturally.
When you see 50%,
50 times the rate,
you-you don't have words for it.
McEVERS:
Scientists like
Greg Asner believe
if just 25% of the Amazon
is lost,
it will reach a tipping point
that could fatally damage
the rivers that fly
above the forest.
People like Antonio Nobre
think we're already there.
And in 2015 there were worrying
signs he might be right.
2,000 miles away in Brazil's
biggest city, Sao Paolo,
the flying river
had stopped its flow
and the people
were running out of water.
(protestors shouting)
Antonio Nobre lives there.
The drought struck us, you know,
head on, and...
and I started getting
really concerned.
The army start preparing
for riots because, imagine,
22 million people in the
largest Brazilian metropolis
running out of water, and...
people got so it was, like,
"What are we going to do?
We don't have water,
not even for drinking."
The only explanation is that
we are damaging the Amazon.
You damage the forest,
you damage the flying rivers,
therefore you damage
the water cycle,
the pulses stop,
it's like a heartbeat
that all of a sudden stops.
McEVERS:
While we were
filming here we found
one of the most unexpected
effects of the Amazon drought
on the Rio Tietê.
Normally, there's enough water
to flush pollutants
Normally, there's enough water
to flush pollutants
from Sao Paolo out to the sea.
But in the drought,
the pollution intensifies.
Phosphatesand industrial chemicals combine
to create this toxic foam.
♪
To kayak here, you have
to wear a biohazard suit.
It is the saddest image
of a river I have ever seen.
Multiple organ failure--
you have that term
in intensive care units.
Multiple organ failure,
it's going on right now
on the planet.
McEVERS:
And that organ failure
has been even more clear
as the Amazon forest recently
started to burn.
That connection between
drought and fire
is a story we know well
where I live in California.
Our drought started in 2011
and lasted six years.
It got so bad the governor
asked Greg Asner
to come map its effects
on our forests.
ASNER:This is a dramatic landscape
where we're seeing,I would say,
30% are severelydrought stricken
and maybe 20% are surviving.
McEVERS:
Greg estimates
the drought in California
killed 140 million trees.
Without moisture, the forests
are like a tinderbox.
(siren blares)
REPORTER:
The famous Malibu coastline
beneath a rising tower of smoke.
McEVERS:
2018 was the
worst fire season
in California's history,
with over 8,500 fires burning
close to two million acres
and killing
over a hundred people.
WOMAN:
Oh my God,
I don't know what to do.
Oh my God,
I'm surrounded by fire
and I don't know
which way to go.
(sighs)
Oh please, dear God...
MAN:
Oh, no way.
ASNER:
So, you know,
the system is changing,
the water cycle
is changing on us.
MAN:
Yeah, it's time to go.
Those are really big,
fundamental,
planetary-scale changes
that are affecting everybody.
McEVERS:
Amidst all this destruction,
Greg Asner remains hopeful.
Because, whenever he flies,
he finds places
that somehow manage
to beat the drought.
He calls these places "refugia."
He calls these places "refugia."
Whenever I've seen
these massive losses,
whether it's in the Amazon basin
or in California
or in the Pacific islands
like Hawaii,
we always have refugia emerge...
as places of survival.
This is an example of a refugia,
or a refuge,
during the 2016 peak
of the drought in California,
and what you see here
are mostly coastal
redwood trees.
What defines this as a refuge
is the fact that there was
enough water
on the landscape
persisting in the soil
to generate a sustained
or resilient set
of trees in this forest,
and that's why they're showing
up in blue.
♪
McEVERS:
Protecting refugia protects
water supplies of the future.
ASNER:
To me those are the...
the nuggets,
the gold nuggets of nature
that give me hope.
And not just hope, but literally
the biological resource
for re-expansion
of those species.
The key is finding them
and protecting them
and allowing them
to persist into the future.
♪
McEVERS:
Our future is bound to water
because of the intimate
connection between life
and the molecule that made us.
On Earth you have a paradise--
you have water
in the liquid form
for four billion years.
What is allowing for the water
to remain on Earth?
It's life.
The take-home message here
is that life is the key.
McEVERS:
The pulse of water,
moving across the Earth,
is the very thing keeping
our planet alive.
♪
But that pulse is changing.
Because of us.
And you don't have to be
a scientist
to realize what's at stake.
Even though our human worldis vulnerable to these changes,
what fascinates meis how resilient nature can be,
if we give it a chance.
I realize now,
it's not the water
I was taking for granted...
(thunder rumbling)
but where it comes from.
It's nature we need
to fight for,
as if our lives depend on it.
Because they do.
Next time on
"The Molecule that Made Us"--
episode two, "Civilizations."
An entire civilization
ends here.
MAN:
That's what we come from,
a water-wading ape.
This is unbelievable.
To order "H2O: The Molecule
That Made Us" on DVD,
This program is also available
on Amazon Prime Video.
♪
♪