Full transcript
0:10Planet Earth,
0:12home to a growing number of Homo sapiens
0:14and a whole lot of other creatures.
0:17It's a great place to live.
0:21When it comes to the future of our small
0:22planet,
0:24now to a dire
0:26disasters like hurricanes or wildfires
0:28and unprecedented decline in nature
0:31threatening humanity. Sixth mass
0:33extinction event is already well
0:35There's so much bad news about our
0:37planet,
0:38so warm.
0:40The fear that we're headed for a cliff
0:44puts most of us into a state of
0:46paralysis.
0:52The truth is,
0:54I've given up.
0:57And the odds are, so have you.
1:00But what if there was another path?
1:08This is the story of a simple solution,
1:11a way to heal our planet, and keep our
1:14species off the extinction list.
1:18In fact, the solution I'm talking about
1:20is right under our feet.
1:23And
1:25it's as old as dirt.
1:27We call it soil, earth, or ground. And
1:30due to its vast scale and its ability to
1:33sequester immense quantities of
1:35greenhouse gases, it could just be the
1:37one thing that can balance our climate,
1:40replenish our fresh water supplies, and
1:43feed the world.
1:47That's why some people are racing to
1:49save our soil
1:51in hopes our soil
1:53just might
1:57save us.
2:11I am a conservation agronomist.
2:15I have been in every state, all the way
2:18from Alaska to Puerto Rico to Hawaii.
2:22I've also been asked to go speak in
2:24Europe, Australia,
2:26just haven't had the time.
2:29If we get the soil right, we can fix a
2:32lot of our issues.
2:34Healthy soils lead to a healthy plant,
2:37healthy plant, healthy animal, healthy
2:39human, healthy water,
2:41healthy climate.
2:44This is what this is about today.
2:46Learning how the soil works and learning
2:49how to farm like nature does.
2:52I have learned
2:53my job is to drop a seed.
2:56And the more you farm like nature, the
2:58more we can reduce your inputs and the
2:59more money you can make.
3:02It's my calling.
3:04Just as simple as that.
3:08I've lived in four or five states.
3:10Everywhere I go and work, we're still
3:12having the same problem.
3:14Massive erosion.
3:21Erosion is when soil becomes dirt.
3:29Rapid erosion began long ago when humans
3:32developed the plow.
3:34Its purpose was to break the soil in
3:37order to sow seeds.
3:41By the Bronze Age, vast areas around
3:43cities were plowed up to plant grains.
3:49But as their soils eroded, those once
3:52great empires
3:54vanished into dust.
4:00But we don't have to look back thousands
4:01of years to see the dangers of erosion.
4:07In the 1930s, America experienced the
4:09largest man-made environmental disaster
4:12in history.
4:16It was called
4:18the Dust Bowl.
4:21It was largely caused by farmers tilling
4:23the once fertile Midwestern plains and
4:27leaving the soil exposed.
4:31By the end of 1934, roughly 200 million
4:35acres of cropland were permanently
4:37damaged.
4:40On a whistle-stop train tour, President
4:43Franklin D. Roosevelt saw the
4:44destruction of America's soil first
4:47hand.
4:49In response, he created the Soil
4:51Conservation Service to save the
4:54nation's soil.
4:57What I have seen
5:00confirms me
5:02in the belief that I've had for a long
5:04time
5:06that we're going to win on this problem.
5:09It relates to working out
5:12a plan of cooperation with nature
5:16instead of going along with what we've
5:18been doing in the past, TRYING TO BUCK
5:20NATURE.
5:30PRACTICE OF PLOWING AND TILLING the soil
5:32continues to this day.
5:36But so does Franklin D. Roosevelt's Soil
5:38Conservation Service.
5:42It was made part of the US Department of
5:44Agriculture,
5:46and it's now called the Natural
5:47Resources Conservation Service, the
5:50NRCS.
5:52We want the water to leave through a
5:55living plant. Today, NRCS field agents
5:59like Ray try to teach farmers to reduce
6:02tilling. Microbes live in there, and
6:05that's called the porosphere. And reduce
6:08the spraying of industrial chemicals
6:10that damage the soil. Tillage is one of
6:12the most intrusive things we do in
6:14modern agriculture. It is not our
6:16friend.
6:20The message is simple,
6:24but getting that message out
6:26is difficult.
6:30We have a social problem.
6:32We have an education issue.
6:34And until we get that right, we can't
6:36fix our ecological issues.
6:39I have been in NRCS for 31 years.
6:42kind of amazing to me as I was teaching
6:43all over the country.
6:45I'm going,
6:46"Wow,
6:47our producers don't really know how the
6:49soil works.
6:51They don't understand the basic
6:52ecological principles.
6:54Everything runs by carbon.
6:57We're built by carbon. The soil microbes
7:00run by carbon. Carbon is the driving
7:03engine.
7:04It runs the system.
7:07But when it comes to the role of carbon
7:09in our world, there's a bit of
7:12confusion.
7:16To be specific, carbon dioxide is
7:19what we breathe out,
7:21and plants breathe it in.
7:25We also make carbon dioxide by burning
7:28fossil fuels.
7:30But carbon isn't bad.
7:32In fact, it's the basis for all life on
7:35Earth.
7:36There's a tendency right now for us to
7:38be at war with carbon. Carbon's the bad
7:40guy, and I think this is a lost
7:42opportunity. Carbon's the good guy.
7:44We're carbon.
7:46I'm I'm 16% carbon, and all of it came
7:49from eating vegetation and things that
7:51eat vegetation.
7:53Plants use sunlight as energy, and they
7:56pull carbon dioxide out of the
7:57atmosphere. They turn it into a carbon
7:59fuel, and that's how they grow.
8:05But 40% of that carbon fuel, they send
8:09down to their roots.
8:11They're leaking it out in a very
8:13strategic way to soil microorganisms.
8:16Plants are feeding soil microorganisms
8:19carbon, and the soil microorganisms are
8:21bringing plants mineral nutrients.
8:24And in the process of all that, those
8:27soil microorganisms make a carbon glue
8:30out of that carbon fuel.
8:32And they make habitat in the soil. They
8:34make little pockets in the soil to
8:36control the flow of air and water. And
8:38that's one of the ways that carbon gets
8:40fixed in the soil.
8:43In other words, soil has the unique
8:45ability to sequester carbon dioxide out
8:48of the atmosphere.
8:51That's a big deal.
8:54What's even more amazing, the soil
8:56contains an entire universe of life.
9:01Here I went through years of college,
9:03and I took soil science, but I didn't
9:05know. I really did not know how the soil
9:07worked.
9:09It's alive.
9:17In every handful of healthy soil, there
9:20are more organisms than the number of
9:22people who've ever lived on PLANET
9:23EARTH.
9:32AND THOSE ORGANISMS ARE processing
9:35organic matter that's in the soil and
9:38putting the nutrients into a form that
9:40the plant needs. Comparing the soil
9:44microbial diversity to the microbial
9:46diversity that we're now seeing inside
9:47the human organism,
9:49you have more bacterial cells in your
9:51body than you have human cells.
9:53Yeah, we're about 1% human
9:56and 99% microbes. It's the truth.
10:01The food that we eat, we actually chew
10:05and break that food material down into
10:08little bits that get eaten by the
10:10bacteria in our gut.
10:12When you eat kale,
10:15let's say, when you're eating kale, your
10:17body doesn't consume kale.
10:19The bacteria consume the kale.
10:22And you feed off of what the bacteria
10:25have processed and released by the
10:28consumption of that kale.
10:30The key to health is eating dirt.
10:33What I mean by that is we need to eat
10:36what's in the dirt that's transferred to
10:38the plants that then we eat and create
10:40health.
10:46You know, my husband is an athlete for a
10:48living, so he wants to provide his body
10:51with the best possible nutrients so he
10:54can perform.
11:00I BEAT MY BODY DOWN SO MUCH OVER THE
11:02course of the season. The last thing I
11:04want to do is add a bunch of food that I
11:06won't be able to properly digest, that
11:08won't be the kind of nutrition that I
11:11need in order to repair and regenerate
11:13my body the way that it needs to be.
11:19And of course the quality of the soil is
11:21huge.
11:22Because it's the beginning of the
11:24quality of the food. That quality of
11:26food provide quality health.
11:29They all comes from the earth, big mama.
11:33Our health and the health of our planet
11:36are connected.
11:42If we choose healthy food, there's a
11:44reciprocation.
11:47Not only we feel better, we are
11:49healthier, but the earth is healthier.
11:54Taking care of the microbes in the soil
11:56is critical for human health.
11:59But spraying soil with toxic chemicals,
12:03well, does something else.
12:07All of our soils that are under chemical
12:10conventional agriculture are almost
12:13completely devoid of microorganisms.
12:22Spraying soil with toxic chemicals kills
12:25those the very microbes we need to give
12:27us health
12:29and pull the carbon from the atmosphere.
12:33The more tilling that's done, the weaker
12:35the soil gets.
12:36And the more farmers feel compelled to
12:39use chemical sprays.
12:44This is the vicious cycle of industrial
12:46agriculture.
12:49And that cycle was developed
12:51as a result of war.
12:58The roots of industrial agriculture go
13:00back to a German scientist named Fritz
13:03Haber.
13:07Haber invented a process for making
13:09synthetic nitrogen fertilizer that
13:12increased food production.
13:15His other scientific breakthrough was
13:17the creation of poisons known as
13:20pesticides.
13:23Haber used his pesticides as the first
13:25chemical weapons in history.
13:31Then he developed the poison used in the
13:33gas chambers of the Holocaust.
13:41When the war ended, US chemical
13:43companies brought Haber's poisons back
13:46to America
13:47and rebranded his toxic chemicals
13:51as pesticides for American farms.
13:56Dow set out to demonstrate the
13:57effectiveness of its chemical killers on
13:59a nationwide scale.
14:03When the war ended, all the energy that
14:06went into fighting the enemies
14:09in the world went into fighting the
14:12enemies on the farm.
14:15All of a sudden, chemical fertilizer
14:17nitrogen was available and farmers could
14:20toss that on a field.
14:23Even if they
14:25Yeah. 1 2
14:27Hey.
14:281 2 3 4 5 6
14:48They haven't taken care of their soil.
14:50They could get a good crop for a while.
14:54Together, these wartime innovations
14:56created the most powerful industrial
14:58food production system
15:01the world had ever seen.
15:13We created an infrastructure around
15:15single types of industry.
15:18And then we decoupled livestock and row
15:21crop production. We found people who
15:23were really good at raising livestock
15:25and we found people who were really good
15:26at growing row crops and you split those
15:28two camps.
15:32That ushered in this big philosophical
15:35shift in terms of how we approached
15:37farming. Instead of
15:39understanding and honoring natural
15:41processes, we could just throw out these
15:43chemicals. We just throw out more and
15:45more of them. It kept going up and up
15:48and up.
15:50It takes more nitrogen now to raise a
15:54bushel of grain than it did in 1960.
15:58Our chemical fertilizers mask the
16:01problem of degraded soils.
16:04Modern agriculture was not designed for
16:06the betterment of the soil.
16:11Today, our most common crops are
16:13genetically altered to resist the
16:15spraying of toxic pesticides.
16:19For example, the number one crop in the
16:22United States, field corn, is almost
16:25entirely sprayed with glyphosate.
16:29A chemical suspected to cause cancer
16:32that's so oversprayed,
16:34it's found its way
16:36into our drinking water.
16:40These chemicals,
16:42which were considered
16:45dangerous to begin with, are now being
16:47used at rates that would have been
16:50inconceivable
16:5120 years ago.
16:54Every year, for every American alive, 3
16:57lb of toxic chemicals are sprayed onto
17:00the food grown on our farms.
17:05That goes into the soil, it goes into
17:07the water, it goes into our bodies. It's
17:09not just on the food you eat.
17:11It's everywhere.
17:15Most of the agricultural industry's
17:17pesticides and herbicides transfer
17:19directly through breast milk
17:22to babies.
17:26There are over 200 peer-reviewed studies
17:29that correlate the spraying of these
17:31toxic chemicals to effects like ADD in
17:35children,
17:36pediatric cancers, and birth defects.
17:42That's why juries have begun to award
17:45billions of dollars in damages to people
17:47who contracted cancer after using
17:49glyphosate.
17:52We know, for example, that glyphosate,
17:55which is also known as Roundup, has an
17:58effect on the gut microbiome that may
18:00lead to disturbances that can create
18:02disease,
18:03including cancer.
18:07A big reason these chemicals make us
18:09sick is because just as toxic chemicals
18:12kill the microbes in the soil,
18:15they also kill the microbes in our
18:17bodies.
18:19What I tell people is
18:21your body can handle acute stresses,
18:24but it cannot handle chronic stresses.
18:27Soil ecosystem is the same way.
18:30If you keep dumping the fungicides, you
18:31keep dumping the herbicides, you keep
18:33dumping the insecticides, you keep doing
18:34the tillage,
18:36chronic stress.
18:38It doesn't function anymore.
18:49Since chemical agriculture ramped up
18:51worldwide in the 1970s,
18:54we have lost 1/3 of the earth's topsoil.
19:00But industrial agriculture isn't just
19:02harming our soils,
19:04it's also affecting something much
19:07larger.
19:14The most
19:16massive
19:18tsunami
19:21perfect storm is bearing down upon us.
19:26That fossil fuels, carbon, coal, and gas
19:29are by no means the only thing that is
19:31causing uh climate change.
19:34Now, because the fate of water and
19:37carbon
19:38are tied to soil organic matter,
19:41when we damage soils, you give off
19:44carbon. Carbon goes back to the
19:46atmosphere.
19:52Healthy soils
19:53water and carbon dioxide.
19:57But when we destroy soil, it releases
20:00water and carbon dioxide.
20:05This dries out the soil and turns it
20:08into dust.
20:13The process is called desertification.
20:18And how we deal with it
20:20could determine the fate of more than
20:22just our climate.
20:26Desertification
20:28is a fancy word
20:30for land that is turning to desert.
20:33And this happens only when we create too
20:37much bare ground.
20:45Soil and the plant and the climate are
20:48connected.
20:55If you don't have a living plant,
20:57you're going to have more evaporation.
21:00What we want is transpiration,
21:04when the moisture leaves through the
21:06plant.
21:07When it does that,
21:09it increases humidity, and when we
21:11increase the humidity, we have more
21:13rain.
21:1760% of our rainfall
21:21comes from the ocean.
21:23But a lot of people don't realize 40%
21:25comes from small water cycles where our
21:28rain comes from inland.
21:33What's going on is we disrupted the
21:36small water cycles.
21:38That's when you have too much sensible
21:40heat coming off bare soil,
21:43you're having these huge vortexes of hot
21:46air going up.
21:47Instead of attracting the rain, it's
21:50pushing the rain clouds away.
21:54Take 1 square meter of soil and make it
21:56bare, and I promise you, you will find
21:59it much colder at dawn and much hotter
22:02at midday
22:04than that same piece of ground if it's
22:06just covered with plant litter.
22:08You have changed the microclimate.
22:12Now, by the time you're doing that
22:16on more than half of the world's land,
22:24you are changing macroclimate.
22:35Desertification of our soils is a
22:37pressing threat to our climate and our
22:40species.
22:41But I have for you a very simple
22:44message.
22:46About 2/3 of the world is desertifying.
22:53As soils turn to dust around the world,
22:57every year 40 million people are pushed
22:59off their land.
23:04By 2050,
23:06it's estimated that 1 billion people
23:08will be refugees of soil
23:10desertification.
23:16More than 20 civilizations in all
23:18regions of the world have failed
23:21because of agriculture damaging the
23:24environment.
23:25Their communities could not handle the
23:28deteriorating environment and the rising
23:30population.
23:33Globally, that's what we're doing today.
23:41Poor land leads to poor people.
23:45Poor people leads to social breakdown.
23:51Poor land leads to increasing frequency
23:54of floods and droughts,
23:56mass emigration across borders and into
23:59cities,
24:02and it's leading to ideal recruitment
24:05conditions.
24:08What we
24:10know right now is the way we're
24:13feeding ourselves is undermining
24:17the very ecology
24:19that we're dependent upon.
24:21So, the long-term prognosis for our
24:24survival on this planet,
24:26given business as usual,
24:29is very, very poor.
24:37According to the United Nations, the
24:39world's remaining topsoil will be gone
24:42within 60 years.
24:47In other words,
24:48unless we find a way to save our soils,
24:52we have 60 harvests left.
25:05At a global scale, the problems we face
25:07may seem insurmountable.
25:11But in every fight that seems
25:13unwinnable,
25:15there are those who refuse to give up.
25:41We're very fortunate to have Ray
25:43Archuleta with us today. Ray, as you can
25:45tell, is is someone that has quite a bit
25:47of notoriety. He's got his own He's got
25:49his own
25:53That I'm going to turn the floor over to
25:55Ray. Ray, we appreciate you being here.
25:57Thank you very
25:57Thank you, Ray.
26:00This is a supercomputer
26:02model by NASA.
26:05We're concerned of the red and purples
26:07being CO2.
26:10I want you to notice the dates.
26:14That is February.
26:18March.
26:21Now, what are we doing March, April.
26:24What do we do in modern agriculture in
26:27April?
26:30We are tilling.
26:37We're tilling
26:39the land.
26:41And look at the huge plumes of CO2.
26:45Look at the dates.
26:48May.
26:51Now,
26:52let's see what happens around June.
26:57Look at the colors change.
27:01Ladies and gentlemen,
27:02what is happening in June?
27:11You see how powerful the living plants
27:13are?
27:14Can you imagine if we had all our
27:16rangeland and all our cropland covered?
27:19A covered planet is a healthy planet.
27:24We can fix a lot of our climate issues
27:27to bring the CO2 down into a living
27:29plant and put it back into the soil
27:31where it belongs.
27:39Agriculture is the biggest way that
27:42humans impact our landscape.
27:46We have unleashed through agriculture
27:50over the centuries, over the millennia,
27:52carbon from the land, and it's now up in
27:54the atmosphere. It's now part of that
27:55legacy load of carbon dioxide.
27:59Many people are coming
28:02to this discussion about soil health
28:04because
28:05it can bring that carbon back down and
28:07put it in the ground.
28:09The first season environmentalist and
28:11the editor of Drawdown, the most
28:13comprehensive plan ever proposed to
28:15reverse global warming. Please welcome
28:17Paul Hawken.
28:18Tell us why your plan is different and
28:20why it is the most comprehensive. Well,
28:22it's very different because it's the
28:24first one ever.
28:28You cannot achieve drawdown without
28:31biosequestration.
28:33Biosequestration is using plants, trees,
28:36perennials,
28:37and techniques of grazing and farming to
28:40capture carbon and store it in the sink
28:43of the soil
28:45and retain it for decades if not
28:47centuries.
28:50What we did is map, measured, and
28:51modeled the 100 most substantive
28:54solutions to global warming.
28:57And what I mean by solutions, I mean
28:58things that are at hand. We know how to
29:00do it. They're scaling.
29:02And if we continue to scale in a
29:03rigorous but reasonable way over 30
29:06years, we can reverse
29:08global warming.
29:12When you talk to people about this great
29:15technology that has existed for millions
29:20of years that takes carbon out of the
29:22atmosphere and stores it safely in the
29:24soil, and then it's called plants
29:27working with soil microorganisms, it
29:29seems too simple.
29:33Putting our atmosphere carbon down into
29:35our soil may be a simple idea,
29:39but to do it on a global scale requires
29:43a
29:45There's a lot of hot air.
29:56In 2015, the United Nations held a
29:58climate summit in Paris.
30:01It was called COP21.
30:0440,000 delegates from 196 countries,
30:08from all over the world, met to reach an
30:10agreement on how to address climate
30:13change.
30:18There were presentations and meetings
30:20and speeches
30:22and speeches
30:24and speeches. My name is Bunky.
30:29Please touch my screen.
30:34And there was one proposal that offered
30:36real hope.
30:38And it was presented by
30:40this guy.
31:08FRANCE MAINTAINS THE LARGEST
31:10agricultural science institution in
31:12Europe.
31:13It's called INRA. And it's been studying
31:16soil for over 100 years.
31:21INRA recently developed a program called
31:23the 4 for 1000 initiative.
31:26Their goal is to increase the carbon
31:28content of the world's soils by 0.4%
31:32annually.
31:34That would sequester the same amount of
31:36carbon that humanity emits each year.
31:46The soil environment can hold more
31:49carbon than the atmosphere and plants
31:54living on the surface of the soil
31:55combined.
31:57We have an incredible ability to be able
31:59to store that carbon in the soil in a
32:02relatively short period of time.
32:45At a side meeting at COP21,
32:47Monsieur Le Foll, the French Minister of
32:50Agriculture, presented an idea
32:53that just might change the world.
33:35At the 4 for 1000 event, many countries
33:38signed Stéphane Le Foll's pledge to draw
33:41carbon down into their soils.
33:44There's 30 countries from around the
33:46world
33:47signing on to what I believe is going to
33:51be one of the most significant changes
33:53in agriculture. Cuz to achieve this 4
33:57for 1000, we have to change the way we
34:00do agriculture.
34:02And doing agriculture in a way that
34:03sequesters carbon requires a radical
34:07reduction in toxic pesticides,
34:10GMOs,
34:11and synthetic chemicals.
34:14But the three largest contributors to
34:16carbon dioxide and the three largest
34:19agricultural producers were missing from
34:22the agreement.
34:24India, the United States, and China did
34:27not show.
34:31Does it frustrate you that America did
34:33not sign on to the agreement?
34:35Yes, it's frustrating.
35:01And after all that, the United States
35:03announced that it had pulled entirely
35:05out of the Paris agreement.
35:09If we are going to succeed in balancing
35:12our climate, we do need to switch to
35:14renewable energies.
35:17But none of that will alter the
35:18tremendous amount of carbon we've
35:20already put into the atmosphere.
35:26Since 1750, when the Industrial
35:28Revolution began, we've pumped about
35:311,000 billion tons, also known as
35:34gigatons,
35:36of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
35:40It's called our
35:42legacy load of carbon.
35:45And even if we stopped all greenhouse
35:47gas emissions today,
35:50that legacy load of carbon will still be
35:53there.
35:55That legacy load of carbon dioxide is
35:57still going to be warming the atmosphere
35:59for decades, if not centuries.
36:02So,
36:03if all we talk about is reducing
36:05emissions,
36:07it's not enough.
36:10If electric cars and solar panels aren't
36:12enough,
36:14then what is the solution?
36:16The only goal that makes sense with
36:18humanity is drawdown.
36:21A year-to-year reduction in carbon in
36:24the upper atmosphere.
36:27Anything else is climate chaos.
36:31If we want to achieve drawdown,
36:34we have to go thank the earth
36:37and start to farm and grow our plants
36:41and trees in an entirely different way.
36:46Once you achieve drawdown, within 20
36:48years, you have cooling.
36:50You have the beginning of cooling.
36:53So, now we have a horizon that if you're
36:5620, 30 years old, you can say, "In my
36:59lifetime, we can achieve this."
37:04In other words, the very practices that
37:06heal our soils will also heal our
37:09climate.
37:14To stabilize Earth's climate, we can use
37:17the most powerful carbon capture
37:19technologies,
37:21the photosynthesis of plants and the
37:24microorganisms in the soil.
37:27And the one type of farming that does
37:28this the best and draws down the most
37:31carbon
37:32is based on the concept of
37:35regeneration,
37:37which simply means to repair the damage
37:39we've done
37:41and make things better.
37:47So, we are sitting in a food forest.
37:50This is agroforestry.
37:53It's agriculture through trees, tree
37:56diversification.
38:00I've got an avocado tree, banana tree,
38:03fig tree, coffee trees.
38:07We went from a lot of crop off of single
38:10Haas avocado to now having about 40
38:12different fruit varieties on the site.
38:19By diversifying, we can now have
38:21harvests every month.
38:25If you're looking to do something that
38:27would greatly impact Mother Earth,
38:30plant a tree.
38:32You don't need acres and acres and acres
38:33to build a food forest. You really just
38:36need a few hundred square feet.
38:40You're going to look outside one day and
38:41go, "What is something we buy every day
38:43at the grocery store
38:45that instead of waiting for it to be
38:47shipped around the world to me, what can
38:49I put in my own backyard that I can do
38:50myself?"
39:02Regenerative agriculture grows more food
39:05per acre. It's scalable to our entire
39:08agricultural system. And what's more,
39:10it's already being done right now,
39:13today.
39:20I'm a rancher.
39:22That's how I prefer to be
39:23thought of as I'm a rancher.
39:26A farmer, technically, grows crops. A
39:29rancher
39:31raises livestock.
39:32Why I like to be considered a rancher is
39:34because
39:36I'm all about living things and taking
39:38part in living ecosystems. And to me,
39:41that's what my
39:42is about, a living ecosystem.
39:47We purchased this place in 1991 and for
39:49the first 2 years, I was farming
39:52conventionally. Heavy heavy tillage,
39:55high use of synthetics.
39:581995 came along and the day before I was
40:01going to start combining, I lost 100% of
40:04our crop to a hail storm. So, we were
40:05totally wiped out.
40:07No income from our crops.
40:10That was really tough to take cuz we
40:12didn't have crop insurance.
40:141996 came along, we lost 100% of our
40:17crop to hail again.
40:191997 came along.
40:24We dried out. Nobody combined an acre.
40:26There was a major drought in this area.
40:291998 came along and we lost 80% of our
40:31crop.
40:32So, we were 4 years with basically no
40:35crop income.
40:37The neighbors were all taking bets and
40:39waiting for my land. Times were really
40:42getting tough financially and the banker
40:43didn't want to loan me any money to buy
40:45inputs.
40:47Best thing that could have happened.
40:50I wasn't going to fail.
40:53I really had to start focusing, how can
40:56I make this farm and ranch get these
40:59soils to produce a crop without all
41:01these inputs?
41:05So, I started to be a studier of soil
41:09ecosystems.
41:11I actually went back and I read Thomas
41:13Jefferson's old journals cuz I was
41:15trying to figure out, how did they do
41:17this previous to the use of all these
41:20synthetics?
41:25We have been promoting no-till for many
41:27many years. No tillage means you don't
41:30till the soil at all. You just plant
41:32directly into it. This is a no-till
41:34drill.
41:36No-till drills are available everywhere
41:38in the world.
41:40This will help you grow topsoil.
41:43Any type of tillage equipment will
41:45destroy topsoil.
41:47This is your firming wheel. This holds
41:49this residue so the disc here can cut
41:52it. Just making a small slit.
41:54The seed travels down at a specific rate
41:58per acre.
41:59This comes around, moves a small amount
42:02of soil right over that seed. We're
42:04keeping all this armor on the soil
42:06surface in order to protect the soil
42:08from wind erosion, water erosion, so we
42:11can grow crops on much less moisture
42:13with this type of a system.
42:18Rain falls on this, it's going to go
42:20right into the soil. Rain falls on bare
42:23soil, it's going to run off and then
42:25it's going to evaporate very quickly.
42:30Soil that is not tilled stores more
42:32water, thus increasing microbe growth,
42:36which leads to more plant growth and
42:38even to more local rainfall.
42:43This is the virtuous cycle of
42:45regeneration.
42:49Gabe Brown's soil is also pulling more
42:52carbon out of the atmosphere.
42:55For every 1% increase in organic matter,
42:59an acre of soil draws down 10 more tons
43:02of carbon.
43:04I mean, that's huge.
43:06We have to reduce tillage.
43:09We got to grow cover crops.
43:11We have to get a living root all the
43:13time. We can't have these bare periods
43:15with nothing growing on them. We've got
43:17to start using these principles to
43:20restore the water cycle. And it is
43:22fixable.
43:28So, I'm taking you to a field here that
43:31is a multi-species cover crop.
43:37The purpose of a cover crop is to
43:39enhance the life and the function of the
43:41soil.
43:44Think of it this way, if I grow a
43:45monoculture on this field, we'd only be
43:48feeding the soil biology one type of
43:50root exudate.
43:51I'm growing 19 species here. We're
43:54accelerating biological time. We're
43:56feeding the soil biology what it would
43:59take a conventional farmer 19 years to
44:02do. I'm doing it in 1 year.
44:05So, people might ask, how do you get any
44:08money from this thing?
44:15Our livestock will graze this during the
44:17winter.
44:18Speeding up the process of regenerating
44:21those soils.
44:25Animals grazing living plants are a a
44:29part of the carbon cycle.
44:37Here in the northern plains, our soils
44:39were formed by large herds of bison and
44:41elk being moved by predators,
44:44grazing the landscape, trampling that
44:46carbon, the plants onto the soil
44:48surface,
44:49not coming back for maybe a year,
44:51allowing full recovery.
44:55It wasn't that long ago that over 60
44:58million buffalo roam the continent.
45:05In an attempt to starve the Native
45:07Americans, the US military and the
45:10railroads killed most of the buffalo.
45:14By the time the culling ended, only a
45:16few thousand of the majestic animals
45:18remained.
45:25Where buffalo once roamed, industrial
45:27agriculture now grows hundreds of
45:31millions of acres of crops
45:33just to feed animals.
45:36And those animals are concentrated
45:38into feedlots.
45:42In turn, feedlots produce a tremendous
45:45amount of greenhouse gases.
45:49A feedlot situation has a positive
45:53amount of greenhouse gases being
45:54emitted.
45:56In a grazing situation, the data shows
45:58that we actually get greenhouse gases
46:00sequestered.
46:02So, in one situation, you get emissions
46:04and the other situation, you get
46:06sequestration.
46:08The problem isn't
46:10the animal.
46:12The problem is where the animals are at.
46:16Cows can be good.
46:19That is one of the most controversial
46:22statements
46:25of mankind at this point.
46:29Using cattle, allowing them to roam and
46:32graze land grazing, can literally revive
46:36enough space to create a tremendous
46:39amount of drawdown.
46:41I'm from southeast Louisiana. I grew up
46:42in an incredibly delicate ecosystem.
46:46Conservation was always a very serious
46:49part of my life.
46:52I had no idea that the earth was
46:55desertified.
47:01I got on a plane from New York City to
47:03fly to Zimbabwe to meet Allan Savory.
47:06So, he could show us the difference
47:08between desertification
47:11and regeneration.
47:13Land that has been holistically managed
47:17through planned grazing using cattle,
47:20the most vilified animal in the world,
47:24We are not for right now driving through
47:25the field
47:28that has been under Allan Savory's
47:30holistic management for 9 years
47:34and it is Eden.
47:37This is what you call high grass.
47:41Using livestock to reverse
47:42desertification is totally scalable to
47:45about 2/3 of the world's land
47:49and nothing else is.
47:50And frankly, that can be done at
47:53extremely low cost.
48:02Here we are.
48:05This is what it should be like.
48:07You've been working on this land 8 or 9
48:10years. It went from a place of
48:13turning into a total desert
48:15and using proved herding herbivores,
48:19you have literally transformed
48:22that what we've been seeing
48:24into this. Yeah.
48:26How in the hell do you make this happen?
48:37So, dung, the urine and the hooves of
48:39the animals are what caused this grass
48:41to grow.
48:43That livestock is never on more than a
48:45hectare of this land, about 2 and 1/2
48:47acres, never more than 3 days. And
48:50they're never back on that piece of land
48:52under about 6 to 9 months. Wow. So,
48:55there no plant can get overgrazed.
48:58You can come any day of the year,
49:00anywhere on this land
49:02and you will see no livestock
49:04because they will be on less than 1
49:06hectare of land unless we take you
49:08there, you won't even know it.
49:14Dealing with this beast of climate
49:16change, a lot of people don't understand
49:19that this
49:22helps climate change. This
49:25sequesters carbon.
49:28This takes the one thing that we so
49:31desperately need out of the air
49:33and it holds it
49:35and it makes oxygen.
49:37Yeah, if we can produce solid grassland,
49:40you can pull down enormous amounts of
49:43carbon back into the soil.
49:452/3 of the world, roughly, is grasslands
49:47and savannas where the rainfall is too
49:50low to support a solid canopy of trees
49:53giving you soil cover. So, grass is
49:55essentially what has to stabilize that
49:57soil.
49:59You look at this and you realize this is
50:01what the world should look like. This is
50:02what Africa should look like. This is
50:04what South Central America should look
50:06like. This is what Texas should look
50:08like.
50:10This is how we win.
50:13We can get the Earth back to the Garden
50:16of Eden that it once was by
50:19regeneration.
50:23When you smartly herbivores can pull
50:26down carbon and reverse desertification.
50:30But it doesn't just work for Africa.
50:33It works everywhere in the world.
50:53It's long pants today, right? You guys
50:55are going to ride horses? Yeah.
50:58Okay.
50:59I'll see you
51:18I was raised in a rural area in
51:20Washington.
51:22Adopted by a Lakota elder.
51:25We were out in nature
51:28every day.
51:31I found permaculture and that was very
51:34influential in my life.
51:37Where I could see that there could be a
51:39permanent agriculture, an agriculture
51:42that not only fed the planet, but also
51:46fed the people
51:48in a way that regenerated and didn't
51:51deplete resources.
51:54Holistic ranchers, like the market
51:56guards, use careful planning so their
51:59cows sequester carbon and actually
52:02regenerate the land.
52:05So, this is our grazing plan and control
52:08chart. This tells us where we're
52:11planning to have the cattle with.
52:23Let's see, it's July 22nd.
52:26So, they were in G1
52:30and they are going to move
52:35here.
52:45All these paddocks correlate with a map
52:49that I have here.
52:52So, these are all segments of fencing
52:55where the cattle are. It tells me how
52:57big it is. I can record observations,
53:01species, all right in here in the field.
53:06We manage over 8,000 acres throughout
53:10the Bay Area. So, we're constantly on
53:13the move.
53:19I never get bored.
53:22I never get bored.
53:28They call cows mobile microbe tanks. You
53:31know, because cows employ microbes in
53:34their rumen to break down the fibers in
53:38food. So, when cows poop, that is just
53:41like a steaming mound of microbes dumped
53:43onto the land and it's it it you know,
53:46it's a powerful stuff for the land.
53:50So, it's been about 3 months since the
53:53cattle have been in this pasture.
53:59Did you hear that little pop when I
54:02popped it out? That was all these root
54:05hairs popping off.
54:08There's just thousands and thousands of
54:11feet of these root hairs that are
54:14interconnected with all of these other
54:17bunch grasses and all of these other
54:19species through their root hairs and
54:22also through the mycorrhiza fungi.
54:25The cattle will come along
54:27and they'll eat
54:30the tops off.
54:34What happens when the grasses get bitten
54:38off is these roots slough off.
54:42And what is that root made out of?
54:46Carbon.
54:47We're taking carbon from the atmosphere
54:49via photosynthesis
54:52into the plant
54:54and then it's going through the plant
54:57into the root system, that carbon, and
55:01it sloughs off and turns into humus.
55:06Where it belongs.
55:17The form of agriculture that we use
55:22creates billions of lives
55:26in the form of soil microbes and
55:30nematodes and grassland birds. All of
55:35that wildlife is flourishing under an
55:38agriculture system
55:42versus
55:43a tilled crop field, which is denuded of
55:48life.
55:53And the vast majority of those tilled
55:55fields grow one thing.
55:59Animal feed.
56:02Corn, soy, and hay.
56:06These crops and the feed lots that rely
56:09on them exist only because they are
56:11subsidized by our tax dollars.
56:16I was speaking to a group of corn and
56:18soybean producers from Missouri this
56:20past winter. And one guy stood up and
56:22said, "Why would I want to plant
56:23anything else than corn and beans when
56:26I'm guaranteed a profit before I even go
56:28in the field?"
56:30The United States Department of
56:31Agriculture uses something called the
56:33Commodity Credit Corporation to give
56:36farmers price guarantees for growing
56:38specific crops.
56:42In the current system taxpayers
56:45subsidize farmers to grow the crops that
56:48feed the animals that live in feed lots,
56:52which emit greenhouse gases.
56:56The result
56:58our land is turning to dust and our
57:00farmers are going bust.
57:03And then I come back and I ask them,
57:05"Now, how much money would you be making
57:07if the government wasn't subsidizing
57:09your operation?" And they know, they
57:11know the answer. They're not going to be
57:13making money.
57:15I dropped off all those programs. I tell
57:17producers, "I don't want to be on
57:18welfare anymore."
57:21Even with genetically altered seeds,
57:23chemical sprays, and government
57:26subsidies, most farmers struggle to make
57:29a few dollars per acre.
57:31But on its 5,000 acres, Brown's Ranch
57:34generates over $100 profit per acre per
57:38year.
57:41If you build a healthy farm ecosystem
57:45you're going to be resilient. You're
57:46going to take the risk out of it. Yes, I
57:48grow corn. I don't grow soybeans, but I
57:50grow peas.
57:52That's good. But I also grow wheat and
57:54barley and oats and triticale and
57:56alfalfa, grass-finished beef, lamb,
57:59pork, honey, vegetables, all these other
58:01products. I could care less what the
58:03price of corn or beans are cuz they're
58:05such a small fraction of my operation. I
58:08built resiliency into the ecosystem.
58:14Most of the land that's managed by
58:16farmers is owned by somebody other than
58:19the farmer.
58:21We believe landowners, as they come to
58:24understand the long-term benefits of
58:26managing for soil health, will encourage
58:29their farmers to prioritize this.
58:33Once a farmer starts to manage for soil
58:35health
58:36and see those economic benefits
58:38they won't turn back.
58:41By switching to regenerative
58:43agriculture, American farmers could
58:45increase their profits by over $100
58:49billion annually
58:51and virtually eliminate their subsidies.
58:54You know, we have a motto on our
58:56operation. We want to sign the back of
58:57the check and not the front. It's a
58:59pretty good motto. It leaves a lot more
59:01in your pocket.
59:03The federal farm program we have today
59:06is the most detrimental thing there is
59:09to regenerative agriculture.
59:12In order for our governments to support
59:14the shift to regeneration, the people
59:17may have to lead the way.
59:20And the odds are there are some things
59:22that you can do to save our soils
59:26today.
59:27This is everybody's life every hour of
59:29the day, almost. Food waste.
59:31Yeah, food waste is ubiquitous and
59:33everybody does it.
59:36Well, not everybody does it.
1:00:08There are continents and other really
1:00:10large regions that are getting hit with
1:00:12a double whammy of higher temperature
1:00:15and drought. This kills soil.
1:00:18Kills life.
1:00:21One of the solutions to that challenge
1:00:24is to collect the food scraps from
1:00:26cities like San Francisco, turn them
1:00:28into compost, and get it onto local
1:00:31farm,
1:00:32and that helps them retain water cuz
1:00:35compost is a natural sponge.
1:00:39The unfortunate reality is most trash or
1:00:42garbage gets incinerated or sent to a
1:00:45landfill.
1:00:47We need to model nature.
1:00:49I had the good fortune of being mayor
1:00:51when we brought the United Nations World
1:00:52Environment Day into our city. We made
1:00:54it a week-long celebration of the
1:00:56environment and a call to action.
1:01:00And one of the specific strategies was
1:01:02reducing waste.
1:01:06San Francisco residents are actually
1:01:08fined for not putting compost into the
1:01:11green bin. We incentivize people to keep
1:01:14things out of the black bins.
1:01:16When you have nothing in the black bin,
1:01:18we don't charge you. When you have a ton
1:01:19of stuff in the black bin, we charge you
1:01:20a lot. So, your goal is to get it in the
1:01:22green and blue bins, the composting and
1:01:25the recycling bins.
1:01:27You want to move the mouse, got to move
1:01:29the cheese.
1:01:32In San Francisco, we're collecting 700
1:01:35tons of food scraps and plant cuttings
1:01:38per day.
1:01:50It's 5:00 in the morning
1:01:52and we're making compost.
1:01:56This is the most important kind of
1:01:58garbage that there is because this is
1:02:00where the nutrients are and this is
1:02:02where the carbon is.
1:02:05Compost arrives, the food scraps from
1:02:07the restaurants and people's homes.
1:02:10We put them in the sorting system.
1:02:1560 days ago, this was eggshells and
1:02:19chicken bones and vegetable peelings,
1:02:22and now
1:02:23it's a beautiful finished compost. And
1:02:26I'm digging in and it's quite warm here.
1:02:29It's still composting very actively.
1:02:33We collect our food scraps, we put them
1:02:34in the green bin.
1:02:36It goes off to Recology's compost
1:02:38facility, we turn it into compost, and
1:02:39it gets on a farm.
1:02:41That's a simple solution.
1:02:46San Francisco became the most
1:02:47sustainable big city in the United
1:02:49States of America in just a few short
1:02:51years and we grew our economy.
1:02:55But if San Francisco can prove an ideal,
1:03:00then that success can be replicated in
1:03:02other cities, in other states, and other
1:03:03nations around the rest of the world.
1:03:12Compost is the natural decomposition of
1:03:14organic matter in nature.
1:03:17In a forest floor, it's when the leaves
1:03:18drop, the fungi and bacteria take it
1:03:20over and literally build the soil at the
1:03:22root zone.
1:03:24Compost is all about community.
1:03:26From the community of microbes that are
1:03:28breaking down the pile to the community
1:03:29of individuals in Los Angeles that are
1:03:31physically turning and sifting and
1:03:34contributing to that pile.
1:03:39I collect food scraps from restaurants,
1:03:41manure from zoos, manure. Do you know
1:03:44why? To keep this stuff out of landfills
1:03:47and use it to make good rich dirt.
1:03:49That's why.
1:03:52How do we take waste and repurpose and
1:03:54reuse it because it's really not waste.
1:03:58My name is Passion. It's Passion Ruffin.
1:04:01So, that was my destiny to be passionate
1:04:03about the environment.
1:04:09And when we went to Haiti to run this
1:04:11compost sanitation pilot,
1:04:14everybody kind of thought I was crazy.
1:04:16And maybe I am.
1:04:18That was Timben, yeah. And you're the
1:04:20fish man. And I'm the woman.
1:04:26When Haiti happened, obviously this
1:04:28earthquake that was just so devastating,
1:04:32we all felt like we wanted to do
1:04:33something. Patricia's, she's a problem
1:04:35solver.
1:04:36As soon as she got there, she was like,
1:04:38"Okay, they have a sanitation problem.
1:04:41Water under the soil was getting
1:04:42contaminated."
1:04:452.5 billion people don't have sanitation
1:04:48around the world.
1:04:49And that means people can get diseases.
1:04:54So, we train people around the world to
1:04:56have composting toilets so they can
1:04:58learn how to collect and treat their own
1:05:00waste for their community. The most
1:05:03noticeable change that we saw was the
1:05:06smell. The experience of living around
1:05:08the latrines was night and day. We're in
1:05:10front of this compost plot. Do you guys
1:05:13smell anything bad here? No.
1:05:17Part of the strength of this system is
1:05:19that it's very easy to learn. You don't
1:05:21have to order some part or component.
1:05:25People can learn how to do this
1:05:27everywhere. So, here is the spare
1:05:29container.
1:05:30Here is the sawdust available. What I
1:05:33love about thermophilic composting is
1:05:35that it helps address multiple climate
1:05:38change issues. It helps us protect water
1:05:40resources, treating it and getting rid
1:05:42of all the pathogens, and ending up with
1:05:44compost. And when it's finished, it will
1:05:47be like
1:05:48beautiful dirt. You can then amend the
1:05:51soil and have more crop growth.
1:05:55The only problem with it is that people
1:05:56are hung up on the fact that it's human
1:05:58feces. We just in general as humans have
1:06:01approval.
1:06:04But what most people don't know is that
1:06:06all across America, if you buy some
1:06:08potting mix, it probably has biosolids
1:06:11in it and that comes from human sewage.
1:06:15We eat food, we poop it out, we can then
1:06:19treat it and create soil that has good
1:06:23content for the plants, and then the
1:06:25circle just goes around and around.
1:06:29The poop has stayed in the loop.
1:06:32This is a very nice toilet.
1:06:35And I would love to go to the bathroom
1:06:36in your toilet. Excuse me, [ __ ]
1:06:41Compost is just one of a suite of
1:06:44soil-based carbon capture solutions.
1:06:48The more we choose regenerative foods,
1:06:50the more the farmers will grow them.
1:06:53We're at a critical moment in human
1:06:56history.
1:06:58There could be a way to eat food that
1:07:02heals the planet.
1:07:07The way we're articulating it is the
1:07:09regenerative diet.
1:07:14I've personally been vegan for 20 years.
1:07:16I'm just going to prove in in my own
1:07:18role like, "Hey, you can rock life in a
1:07:20very healthy, strong, powerful fashion
1:07:23on a plant-based diet."
1:07:26If you're eating meat, you can eat it
1:07:28off from a lot more correct, high-level
1:07:30farms.
1:07:33If we do eat meat,
1:07:35we need to eat meat that comes from
1:07:37pasture-raised,
1:07:39grass-fed, humanely killed animals.
1:07:42This is the most crucial choice all of
1:07:44us can make for the future of the
1:07:45planet. What are we eating and what kind
1:07:48of farming systems
1:07:49are we supporting? Are we regenerating
1:07:51the earth or we degenerating?
1:07:56So, all we have here are two of our
1:07:58eggmobiles.
1:07:59Approximately 3 days after the cattle
1:08:02move through an area and grazed, we'll
1:08:04bring the laying hens in. They are truly
1:08:06are free range. They could walk to
1:08:09California if they so choose.
1:08:11What we did here is we went to the local
1:08:13grocer and we bought a dozen cage-free,
1:08:18all-natural, humanely raised eggs. We'll
1:08:21reach in here, crack one of those open.
1:08:24Now, what we have here
1:08:26is one from our pastured laying hen.
1:08:31Ours on the left is much darker colored.
1:08:34Now, watch this.
1:08:37See how that breaks open rather easily?
1:08:40It's runny.
1:08:41Now, look at this.
1:08:43I can poke my finger into there several
1:08:45times
1:08:46before they finally break it. Now, look
1:08:48at the color of that yolk
1:08:50and look at the difference.
1:08:54Ours are out on pasture. They eat
1:08:56whatever they can forage for. These,
1:08:59although they're cage-free, they're no
1:09:01doubt in confinement and they're fed
1:09:04mostly grain.
1:09:06Ours are going to be much higher in
1:09:08nutrient density as compared to these.
1:09:12And what you're really feeling there is
1:09:14the nutrients and the complexity
1:09:16of regenerative agriculture.
1:09:20Eating a regenerative diet is important,
1:09:23but so is working with the people who
1:09:26grow our food.
1:09:29Today, we estimate 5% or less of farms
1:09:32are managed for soil health.
1:09:35The Nature Conservancy has partnered
1:09:37with the National Corn Growers
1:09:39Association to establish the Soil Health
1:09:41Partnership.
1:09:43Our goal is to grow this to 50% of US
1:09:46farms
1:09:47managed for soil health by 2025.
1:09:51This idea of the Soil Health Academy
1:09:54started about 5 years ago when Ray first
1:09:58stepped onto my ranch and we first met.
1:10:02Little did we know what would become of
1:10:04that plan to try and move regeneration
1:10:07forward.
1:10:08It's finally come to fruition. Ray
1:10:11Archuleta. Yes, sir. Hi Jesse, good to
1:10:13see you. Let me Let me start off with
1:10:15myself. My name is Jesse. Ray Archuleta.
1:10:18I had 32 years going service. Our goal
1:10:21was to make the soil healthy to teach
1:10:22more these ecological principles.
1:10:26We wanted to to mentor, to inspire
1:10:30people
1:10:32that they're part of the planet
1:10:34and that we're going to have a better
1:10:36relationship with it.
1:10:39Used to be you'd pick up a farm magazine
1:10:41and there wasn't a single article about
1:10:43soil health. Now you cannot pick one up
1:10:45without there being some article about
1:10:47soil health. That gives me hope.
1:10:51We can improve soil health much much
1:10:53faster than we used to think possible.
1:10:56Sometimes when I give presentations, I
1:10:58get this group that's just no way, won't
1:11:01happen here, can't happen here.
1:11:03So I offer them this challenge. I said I
1:11:05will bet my ranch against yours that I
1:11:07can get it to work on your operation.
1:11:09Because the principles of soil health,
1:11:13least amount of mechanical disturbance,
1:11:15diversity, armor on the soil, living
1:11:18root at all times, animal integration,
1:11:21those principles are universal. There is
1:11:24zero doubt. And I mean zero doubt in my
1:11:26mind I can get these practices to work
1:11:28anywhere in the world.
1:11:35Battery remaining 55%.
1:11:37my neighbor's land
1:11:39that has been chemical fallowed. It has
1:11:41had nothing growing on it for over a
1:11:44year except for the few Roundup
1:11:46resistant weeds that are on here.
1:11:48It's an ecological desert. Then you look
1:11:51over at our paddocks.
1:11:53You have a diversity of different plant
1:11:55species. You have insects. You have
1:11:57wildlife plus the livestock grazing on
1:11:59it. We're capturing sunlight from early
1:12:03in the spring till late in the fall,
1:12:05converting that sunlight into liquid
1:12:07carbon to drive and fuel the system.
1:12:11There you have soil. Over on this side
1:12:13you have dirt.
1:12:18Where do you want your food to come
1:12:20from? Which model do you want your food
1:12:23to be produced from?
1:12:25The answer's pretty simple to me.
1:12:35All over our planet, people are using
1:12:37the practices of regeneration to heal
1:12:40the land and balance the climate.
1:12:44Some of these projects are big.
1:12:48We know that about 25% of the world's
1:12:51landmass has been degraded by human
1:12:53beings over historical time.
1:12:58When we look at the cradles of
1:13:00civilization,
1:13:02Greece and Rome, we find that many of
1:13:05these places have turned into deserts.
1:13:09The sand is blowing across the ruins of
1:13:12once great civilizations.
1:13:15The Loess Plateau,
1:13:17the cradle of Chinese civilization, was
1:13:20the place where settled agriculture
1:13:23first began.
1:13:25When I was asked to film the baseline
1:13:27study in the Loess Plateau, I found
1:13:29myself alone standing on a mountaintop
1:13:32and I could look in 360° and there was
1:13:35no vegetation.
1:13:40This was fundamentally ecologically
1:13:43destroyed. It was called the most eroded
1:13:46place on Earth
1:13:48filled with miserably poor people.
1:13:51So I felt that I had to spend the rest
1:13:54of my life dealing with this.
1:14:01It was hard to imagine at that time that
1:14:04you could restore that.
1:14:07So from about 1994
1:14:10till 2009, 14 years, an area of 35,000
1:14:16square kilometers, approximately the
1:14:17size of Belgium,
1:14:19they had the top Chinese scientists.
1:14:22They had international scientists from
1:14:23the World Bank supporting them. They
1:14:25created mapping systems with satellites
1:14:28so that every watershed had a unique
1:14:32address.
1:14:33The results were
1:14:37stunning.
1:15:04Hundreds of millions of people were
1:15:05lifted out of poverty.
1:15:08We met people who were illiterate and
1:15:11their children now go to the top
1:15:13universities in the country.
1:15:23Human beings emerged in paradise. If we
1:15:26restore all the degraded land on the
1:15:28Earth, we can return to paradise.
1:15:32If we start now to build a restoration
1:15:35economy, a regeneration economy,
1:15:38this is the way forward.
1:15:41To see a stream return and flow, to
1:15:45bring back fertile soils, to see
1:15:48biodiversity return to a place that was
1:15:50completely devastated, this is where
1:15:54everyone can find tremendous
1:15:55satisfaction.
1:16:23So let's restore a little bit of
1:16:25paradise every day.
1:16:28It's not that difficult.
1:16:30If we stop distracting ourselves with
1:16:33shiny objects and we start to think
1:16:35about what's really important to us,
1:16:37to see biodiversity return to a place
1:16:40that was completely devastated,
1:16:44this is where everyone can find
1:16:47tremendous satisfaction
1:16:49and the meaning of our lives.
1:16:55We're all in this together.
1:16:57Every action that we take affects every
1:17:00other action like a ripple in the pond.
1:17:05So what decision are you going to make
1:17:08that will make a positive impact on this
1:17:11beautiful planet so that our
1:17:13great-grandchildren, seven generations
1:17:16in the future, can actually go up and
1:17:18hug an old-growth redwood tree
1:17:21and swim in clean waters
1:17:25and be able to open their mouths and
1:17:27drink while they're swimming.
1:17:33And what is it that we can do today so
1:17:36that our children can flourish in the
1:17:40abundance that we've created by our
1:17:42decisions?
1:17:49I will drive 100 miles,
1:17:501,000 miles if we have to,
1:17:53to save
1:17:54one farm, open one heart and one mind.
1:17:59It's that one mind that you change, you
1:18:02don't know it'll affect another mind,
1:18:04another heart.
1:18:06That's what happened to us. Changed our
1:18:08hearts and it changed our lives.
1:18:12You know, it's not about religion, it's
1:18:14not about politics,
1:18:16it's about love.
1:18:18And if you love something or you love
1:18:19somebody, you want to understand them
1:18:21and you want to like take care of them
1:18:22and protect them.
1:18:25And keep them safe.
1:18:27And that's what we're all here to do.
1:18:30Even like the little like rhizal fungi
1:18:32and the worms and the bacteria.
1:18:36And if we take care of them, they'll
1:18:37take care of us.
1:18:41From the smallest microbes to the
1:18:43largest creatures,
1:18:46our blue planet pulses with life.
1:18:51For millions of years, it has
1:18:53self-healed and self-balanced.
1:18:57But today, our species faces its biggest
1:19:01test.
1:19:04Our mission is simple.
1:19:06We must harness the regenerative power
1:19:09of Earth itself.
1:19:15I'll make you a deal.
1:19:17I won't give up
1:19:20and neither should you.