Choose Earth (2025) s01e01 Episode Script

1
This was a really strange day,
the day I realized I had to choose Earth,
that was part
of the choices I needed to make.
Definitely I saw the world change.
But more than anything, I saw
the changes happening faster and faster.
I started having a form of anxiety,
of seeing what we were losing
and what I was losing.
But also what I would not
be able to share with my children,
what the next generation would not have.
We are playing God with our planet.
We are the gods
for all the other species on this planet.
We are creating this weather,
we are creating this extinction.
We needed to adapt to the Anthropocene.
Our geological era,
the one that has been created
and made and moulded by us humans.
And so once you choose Earth,
what are you going to do about it?
That's how I started
the TimeShrine project,
I was trying to channel my own anxieties
and put them into my art.
I really felt the need
to document our planet.
Create these installations
as quick as possible.
Next thing I knew,
it had been 10 years,
and it was non-stop.
Suki, Suki.
La-la, La-la, Suki, Suki
The camera!
Travelling all over,
learning as much as I could.
So many people around the planet
are on the front line of adaptation,
using what's left of their roots
to create a new foundation
for the world that's coming.
I call them Earth protectors.
They're people who have chosen Earth.
It became clear to me
we were at a crucial moment,
neither in the past nor in the future.
Everything was evolving,
faster and faster.
I started wondering about who we are
and everything we've achieved until now.
What is that going to become?
What is our legacy going to be?
We're running out of time, and we know it.
Today, 54% of the world's population
lives in urban areas,
a proportion that is expected to increase
to almost 70% by year 2050,
according to the UN.
An additional 2.5 billion people
are predicted to move to the cities,
due to climate crisis,
with 37% of the projected growth in India,
which currently
has the largest rural population.
- Oh, yeah, you like drown them.
- Yeah, drown them.
- Wow, look at this place, Tashi.
- Yes.
They're harvesting rice at the moment.
Back in the days, not until long ago,
all of the places outside the city used
to be fields, they'd grow a lot of rice.
And you'd see rice harvest all over.
- Look at this temple.
- Oh, yeah.
I just had no idea the pagoda thing
came from here, and then went to China.
How many people live in Kathmandu?
Now the population
is roughly around 3 million.
That's a lot of people
and it's growing more and more,
migrants in a way,
migrating into Kathmandu.
Most people move
in hopes of better access to health
and educational facilities and such.
You were telling me that
even people from Upper Mustang
and Mustang are coming down here
and trying to find a better life.
As climate refugees
and also other natural disasters,
people see the city
as a more secure place.
You're already seeing people
migrating from the mountains,
from the Himalayas to Kathmandu,
also for climate reasons.
Oh, yeah, but that's
posing as a huge problem because
there's a lot of unplanned urbanization
and construction of infrastructure
that's actually cutting
a lot of freshwater source springs
and aquifers and use of pesticides
and things that are polluting water.
Even though Nepal has 2.7% of the total
fresh water source in the entire planet,
one in every five households
has no access to clean drinking water,
so that's a huge problem.
These really beautiful
stone carved little fountains,
they're called stepwells
and all of these ancient cities
they had stepwells like these that used
to be the major source of drinking water.
Originally all this water came from where?
There are 3000 glaciers
that feed all the waters in Nepal.
So all this glacial melt water comes down
to thousands of rivers and streams
across the country.
But sadly, natural water sources dried up,
so they just put up
a drinking water line in there.
Rise and shine, Everest base camp.
Base camp is frozen right now.
This is the upper side
of the Everest base camp.
You can see here
the Khumbu glacier frozen in time
and all those great mountains in the mist.
This is our little camp set up.
- Hello, Anne!
- Hey, guys!
I'm like a mummy.
Anne is like a mummy,
a mummy fighting a huge yellow thing.
I got my book from my friend
and I got my water bottle.
Oh, cool!
I met Tashi the first time
I went to the Himalayas.
He was helping create a museum in Ladakh
to protect all the ancient art
hidden in the monasteries.
We started talking about Everest
and at the time I was documenting trash
and especially how trash arrived in
the most remote locations on the planet.
He offered to help me organize a trip
with some of the activist Sherpas he knew.
And a very nice kitchen.
Here's our cook,
he's cooking some macaroni, some pasta.
This is the colorful hill,
tons of tons of prayer flags
at Everest base camp.
Upper Mustang used to be an isolated
kingdom in the north of the Himalayas.
Because it was very treacherous
to come here, it was very cut-off,
but being cut-off in a way preserved a
lot of the things as a part of tradition,
people were dependent on animals,
used animal products
and depended on glacial melt water
to grow food in the fields.
Only has around 5000 people living there.
Look at those guys, we used to ride
horses and cows, they're riding bicycles.
I think the first time I saw a foreigner
was when I was eight years old.
As a kid we grew up
playing in the rivers, riding horses,
trying to ride cows and all that.
We saw a foreigner travelling with
a Polaroid camera, he took photos of us
and he gave it to us.
Me and my friends were already blown away
to see the Polaroid photos
of ourselves and things like this.
New set of prayer wheels,
look, they're so shiny and bling bling.
Wow, they are, they're so bling bling.
Oh, no, it's like this Anne, now
you have minus on your good karma points.
I'd love to make electricity out of them,
put a little turbine and then
- You can make electricity.
- That would be amazing.
It would be streetlamps, see.
My family is super religious, prayer
flags, monasteries, monks everywhere.
There's something horrible
happening within the art world here.
That's one of your projects, there's
a big black market for Buddhist art.
We all know there's
a lot of trafficking of art.
Art trafficking is considered
the third most deadliest crime
after human and drug trafficking.
So, on my last project
I tried to film monasteries, stupas
and religious places
of worship that have been looted.
It's a multi-billion dollar
industry annually.
In this new generation,
there's quite a mix of young people
who want to come back and advocate for
their areas, the villages they live in,
and be able to carry out
development projects
to bring more awareness
on art trafficking.
These are all remains
that were found in the caves nearby.
Look at this skeleton.
It's a sign that the village
has been around for a thousand years.
It's a very, very ancient civilization.
They found some kind of mask here.
Can you open it so we can see it?
It looks very, very fragile.
Oh, my goodness, look at that.
There are such artifact leftovers
around here,
which is a sign of how ancient
these civilizations were.
- These things need to be protected.
- Oh, yeah, totally, totally.
- It hasn't snowed yet?
- No, it hasn't snowed yet.
Things will get messy.
I'm here because we want to document
the evolution of the climate here
and climate change
and climate breakdown in a way.
Himalayas, home to the famous peaks
of Everest and K2,
is melting at an unprecedented rate.
Himalayan ice fields could lose
up to 80% of their volume this century
if greenhouse gas emissions
aren't sharply reduced.
There is no denying
the planet is getting warmer.
In Alaska, the effects
of climate change are clear to see.
Glaciers in the State
melting at record rates
and climate scientists say this is
bad news for all of us, not just Alaska.
Swiss glaciers are melting
at an alarming rate this year.
European glaciers have experienced
a 40% reduction in volume since 2000.
In 2024,
Venezuela became the first country
in modern history
to lose all its glaciers.
Greenland's glaciers aren't just melting,
they're reshaping global power.
By 2050 up to 5% of global shipping could
flow through these new Arctic routes.
An alarming new report is out,
it says that the Arctic will have
its first ice-free day in 2027.
Nobody really believes
that is happening in the Himalayas.
The glacial sources
of water are drying up,
and if not drying up, are getting reduced
so much they have not enough water
to irrigate their fields,
which is their main source of food.
It's just a desert everywhere.
Two of these villages we're going to,
the only option is to move
where there's abundant sources of water.
So they're moving right now.
When you go down, you lean backwards
and when you go up, you lean forward.
And you never pull the reins,
like too strong.
Just press your knees on the horse
and it's much easier for them.
Okay, both.
I never really thought
about filming at the beginning.
It's just that what happened
is that when I did my first exhibition,
people started doubting the art, they were
like, oh, well, that's all photoshopped,
that's not possible that you went to this
location and created this and did this.
And I was quite astonished
because I never thought about that.
Everything's been photographed and done on
location, most of this art I'm creating,
these installations, they're a story,
both about the place and about how I
I got there and I was able
to make it, to create it,
so that's when I started thinking about
filming, because people didn't believe me.
It was very challenging
and a little dangerous too,
especially if you're not
a good horseback rider like me.
We travelled for three days, we camped.
You've got these really deep ditches
and your horse
is going on this really thin path.
You shouldn't look down and you just have
to trust your horse and keep on going.
- Tashi!
- They're stuck with
Please stay with me!
It was like really living the nomad life
and seeing, understanding and feeling
how they how they've been living forever.
Everything's dried up and there's
no more crops and there's no more fields
and there's this trickle of water.
Moving is a very different thing here
because people are dependent
on information and skills
that have been passed down
through so many generations.
Moving an entire village location,
giving up your fields and your animals
would be the worst nightmare,
people are now going through that.
They're having to move,
forget the emotional and psychological
challenges that it brings.
I never thought it would happen as a kid.
All ancient metal statues
that had been abandoned for quite a while.
This monastery
also probably got robbed a few times
and then they cut the base
to take away the valuables inside.
Oh, what a shame, and what
is this a secret room, what's in here?
Yes, so inside,
every monastery has a protector room.
- Oh, my goodness! Oh, that's amazing.
- Yeah.
The protector gods of Chujong.
Wow! There's so strange,
they're so different, no?
Yeah, all the protective gods are made
to look as wrathful as possible.
So, to ward off all evil spirits.
- They're unique.
- Yeah, very unique.
Who takes care of this monastery?
For now, the youth club,
the LoManthang's youth club
is taking total care of this monastery.
They constructed the roof so there
wouldn't be water and snow leakages.
They archived
all the artifacts of this monastery.
So they cannot be stolen.
Artifact preservation
is starting to be ever more challenging.
This monastery
was built around 700 years ago.
In my 69 years,
I have known all this region well.
Long ago,
our elders could tell the time of the land
by looking at the sun rising
from the cliffs.
They were able to tell
when to plant and harvest.
Today, life is more difficult
for our people.
The nature gods are angry,
so we get excess rain,
floods and fierce winds.
People and their faiths go together.
All the young educated people
are migrating.
If only old people stay,
one day we will also vanish.
As a Westerner, I had this vision
of the Himalaya, snow, ice and water.
And so I really didn't realize
that there was such
a drama unfolding in the Himalayas.
There is so much ancient culture there.
And so, it's this incredible duality
because they're losing their glaciers,
but with that, there's a great risk
they're going to be losing their culture.
It was almost immediate that there was no
way I could recount the story of the loss
without integrating
the cultural loss as well.
Nice to have both views!
Yes, this is a bit shaky.
It's a very ancient monastery.
Where they used to practice black magic.
Samjhong is definitely inhabited
by the wind, by the sand, by the dust.
It just blows, moves
and twists everywhere around you.
There's also something very familiar
that you can often feel in places
that have been inhabited
for millennia by humans.
There's a deep sensation of abandonment.
But also of sadness because
there was such a human presence there.
And like the wind, it's just disappearing.
These are the fields
of the 15 houses of Samjhong.
And since this year, all the fields
you see around have been abandoned.
People are moving
because there's not enough water
and that's a result
of the glaciers drying,
which is a result of the earth that is
warming due to things that we're doing.
This is happening all over the Himalaya?
The people of Samjhong are one of the
first climate refugees in the Himalayas.
They cannot sustain
themselves here anymore.
So it's a big reality.
The 2000 Himalayan glaciers that are
feeding around 1.6 billion people on Earth
are now slowly disappearing.
So Samjhong is a reality
we're all probably headed towards
unless we tackle on it on a global level.
We all share one planet.
We share the land and the Earth.
It's all connected, so we should
all head towards finding a solution.
Every single little solution,
there's no bad solution.
We need time to find the solutions.
And the problem is
we are running out of time.
We are altering our planet's water cycles,
our ocean levels are increasing
as much as our glaciers are melting.
Faster and faster, year after year.
And there's this new urgency,
this double urgency.
Not only do we need to save our glaciers
because they are one
of our largest freshwater reserves,
but they also represent an extreme,
incredible environment
where unexplored
microorganisms and bacteria
could become key to even more solutions.
So we are starting to cover them up
with these intelligent materials.
Not to prevent them from melting,
but only to slow it down.
There is a new world
in action for solutions, no doubt.
The question is whether it'll win in time
to avoid some of these tipping points.
What can we still invent
once our glaciers are gone?
Look at this tiny mind the tiny door.
It's starting to be all empty,
except for a few houses.
It's frightening!
There's nothing,
it's just white and empty.
When we were children,
we had many fields,
water was everywhere.
This winter has been so harsh.
People who had 100 goats lost 50
and those with 300 lost about 100.
Thinking we could get ground water,
we all worked hard digging,
but water never came out.
As kids, we'd stick these on our teeth.
We pretended to have goldteeth.
They speak this ancient language
that nobody really understands anymore.
And Tashi was able
to communicate with them.
There's probably just a few thousand
people left who speak Loba today.
It's really disappearing
at the same time
as everything else from that village.
Are you all leaving?
Yes, what else should we do?
Will you carry everything from the houses?
Just some clothes and stuff.
Everything else will stay here.
I saw growing up, when there was a temple,
the whole village worshipped.
When the main idol, statues or artifacts
from the temples disappear,
people's minds register subconsciously
that something in common
between them is not there anymore.
So people become more fragile in terms
of social harmony, social cohesion.
The village unity
actually becomes more fragile.
The installation I did
in Samjhong is about memory.
It's about loss.
But mainly about preserving that memory.
You see, people are having
to abandon their houses,
and then like two houses,
two families have moved completely.
Five others are split between here and
the new location, even families are split.
We basically saw only women, elderlies
and children, there's no more men left.
Because all the men
have moved to the new location
where they want to plant new fields
and they've already built houses,
they all want to move there
eventually next year.
Arriving in this new settlement
was definitely a shock.
There's no history, there are no roots,
of course the houses are new,
but you know, they have no memory.
They all stand there on line,
one after the other, the same.
Everyone is moving hereto grow apples.
In the old village
we used to have three kinds of harvests.
We only have apples here.
It's scary not knowing
how the harvest will turn out each year.
I'm not so happy living here.
- They don't grow that much.
- If you live with lack of resources.
- Yeah.
- It's desert. It takes a while.
In Nepal's Mustang region, apple
cultivation is moving to higher altitudes
due to changing environmental conditions.
In just three decades, apple orchards
have climbed from 1200 metres
to 3500 metres above sea level,
clear evidence of how a warming planet
is reshaping agriculture.
The climate change is changing
freshwater ecosystems worldwide,
killing plants and animals, spreading
diseases and threatening local species.
These changes threaten human livelihoods,
forcing communities to adapt
to new environmental conditions.
The apples are promising,
not the water.
The weather is unpredictable.
Everyone is at risk of flash floods.
We work hard every day to get by,
because apples need a lot of manure.
There's more wind coming.
Look, be careful.
I live with my old mother.
My wife stayed behind
to take care of our old house.
My daughter is in Kathmandu at school.
It's always difficult
to not be with your family.
It's not only just physical moving,
it's a lot of emotional
and psychological challenges
for them to feel secure.
I just also feel like somehow
we're all to share the blame.
These people are the least, they're the
least contributors, but the most affected.
But they're on the edge,
so they have to leave.
Climate change is grossly unfair.
Every year, the average American causes
16 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
That's about eight times
as much as the average Indian.
Manhattan alone matches
the entire carbon footprint of Nepal.
The Global North has caused
nearly 92% of excess CO2 emissions
since the Industrial Revolution.
Africa alone receives at least
250.000 metric tons of e-waste every year,
exposing local communities
to toxic pollution,
respiratory diseases
and contaminated soil.
People living in some of the most
fragile and conflict-affected countries
are often disproportionately
affected by the climate crisis
and the first to be displaced.
In 2025,
Donald Trump's decision to cut USAID
will also have huge impacts
on the fight against climate change.
Experts say it will make it even harder
to meet the Paris Agreement's
1.5 degree target.
Developing countries will struggle
even more with extreme weather,
leaving millions who contributed
the least to climate change defenseless,
losing homes, livelihoods and their future
to a crisis they did not create.
Climate related displacement
could be one of the gravest challenges
created by our warming planet.
We are asking if we are prepared
for a world of climate refugees.
Year after year, days pass.
We have all been living here,
hoping that the apples do well.
He says they will try their best
to see if the apples work.
He says if it works,
it's great, if it doesn't work,
they will go somewhere else,
look for something else.
Other rocks Anne, see it's a prayer wheel.
Another carved prayer stone.
It says: "Om Mani Padme Hum".
It's a combination of many, many mantras.
Praying to the precious jewels,
referring to the protector gods.
Here's your hourglass.
- Time.
- Yup, to tell the world: time is ticking.
- You want me to put this on the front?
- Yeah, perhaps over there.
That would be great, like accompanying.
They have these prayer stones
everywhere and they're all carved
and they're really beautiful.
People have been carving them
since ever and they are quite sacred.
They told me it was okay for me
to use them for my installation.
That was something
that really blew my mind
because in my religion
you don't touch anything that's sacred
and you can't really share it and
you have to just look at it and honor it.
I think they understood why I was there
and they thought that was the most
important, they wanted to make sure
that I was able to transmit
who they were and what they are.
And what's happening to them
is so, so harsh and so unfair.
They're probably the people who are
the least linked to the Anthropocene.
They're probably the least anthropogenic
part of the population of this planet.
They're definitely leaving
the stones behind.
So, all those carved mantras
are gonna stay in Samjhong
and they're gonna leave.
Cities today are where
most of humanity is going.
More and more people are coming down
from those mountains to live there too.
They're now living in these outskirts
of the city, in these ghettos.
They have to adapt to a new environment
that's so completely different.
Their cultural references are gone.
Their roots are gone.
The wind and the dust have been replaced
by trash and by pollution.
And that story needs to be told
because it's them today,
but it will be everybody else tomorrow.
They're just on the front line.
We have 110 million people
that have fled because of conflict,
persecution, discrimination, violence,
often mixed with other motives,
in particular
the impact of climate change.
My baby!
My baby!
My baby!
The global migrant population
has doubled in just a decade
and the challenge of managing
the growing number of displaced people
is becoming increasingly urgent.
We're not criminals!
By 2050, a staggering 1.2 billion people
could be forced to flee their homes
as extreme weather events
escalate across the globe.
Thousands of people die or go missing
each year in the Mediterranean
while seeking refuge in Europe.
One in five migrants is a child
and the numbers are only expected to rise.
Hey, my baby!
- Where is he?
- My baby!
In a desert or something like that,
there is no policeman, there is no rule.
The human being and the chicken
are the same for them.
Five days in the Sahara, so bad.
So bad because I have not eaten.
It's deadly, but you don't have a choice,
you have to reach
the destination you are thinking.
The humanitarian consequences
of climate migration are mounting.
Vulnerable groups as women, children,
the elderly, and indigenous communities,
bear the brunt of these hardships.
At a certain point I met five men.
They prevented me from passing.
They raped me, all five of them.
I gave birth to a son.
People are suffering, everyone.
Especially women.
Women suffer a lot.
What frightens me the most
about the future
is people still denying
how fast our planet is evolving
and not realizing
how much we're going to need to adapt.
Three regions of the world
in particular: Latin America,
Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia.
Without decisive action widespread drought
and crop failures will become more common
and this would force
hundreds of millions of people
to leave home
and cross borders in search of food.
One displacement occurring per second.
It's not just due to conflict, it's due
to climate change, it's due to disasters.
I worked my whole life.
What scares me is how we're going to react
to it, what are we going to do about it?
Is our definition of human rights
still going to be the same?
I'm really afraid of us.
Global North
is no longer a passive observer,
but an active participant
in the climate crisis.
The next wave of migration will include
the middle class, the educated,
those who can no longer secure a mortgage
or insurance as jobs and stability vanish.
Hurricanes, storms and wildfires are
forcing Americans to abandon their homes.
As nature lashes out
against human-made climate change,
over three million Americans have
already moved due to a risk of flooding.
To the Spanish region of Valencia,
days after devastating floods
led to the deaths of almost 160 people
and caused widespread devastation.
I don't think anyone was really quite
prepared for just how devastating it was.
In Australia, soaring insurance costs
driven by escalating climate risks
are making coverage unaffordable
for countless families,
leaving them vulnerable and unprotected.
Firefighters in Los Angeles
are managing to hold the line.
Almost 180.000 people
have been ordered to leave their homes.
Entire neighborhoods
completely destroyed, everything gone.
What is very often difficult
to quantify in disasters
such as this is the loss of creative
neighborhoods, various artworks.
Many artists have seen
their homes and artworks destroyed.
The climate change has played a
significant role in the Los Angeles Fire.
Do we want to keep on saying that's far
away and it's never gonna happen to us?
Or do we feel that these are fellow
humans and we need to be compassionate
and we need to find solutions
where everybody on this planet is
going to be able to adapt in a fair way.
And it's that choice
that's gonna make a difference
about what
we're gonna become as a civilization.