Choose Earth (2025) s01e03 Episode Script

1
Okay, a little further please,
a little further.
- Are you excited?
- I'm nervous to tell you the truth.
For me, I think the weird feeling will be
being able, underwater,
to breathe even through my nose.
It's technologically incredible, we're
going to be able to talk to each other.
I mean, that's probably going
to get us closer to the ocean.
No, I mean, the fact
that you can actually talk underwater.
- This is where the sounds come out.
- Okay, yeah.
And you need When it's wet
So if you wet your fingers.
- And you touch it together?
- Yes.
Yeah, okay!
Hey! Hey, Mariasole, can you hear me?
Wow, we are speaking underwater!
We are!
Amazing!
Oh, look at the biosphere.
This looks like a science fiction movie.
This is actually the first ever
experimental underwater farm in the world.
Is that basil?
It looks so healthy.
It even looks happy! I mean, look at it!
Frame of the underwater canyon.
266 feet below the surface,
equipment can fail and men can go astray
in this pathless world.
It's this duality of our species, no?
We are destructive,
but we are so inventive.
We are invasive, but we also poets.
And we can dream and imagine all these
new inventions that we actually do create.
And we completely have
the potential to save us.
It's up to humanity
and to us as individuals to choose
what is the future that we want to build
as a collective for our planet.
It's so cool!
I don't know what to say, I'm so touched,
I mean I'm underwater
and I'm with some Basilico
and I am with my favourite and absolutely
extraordinary Mariasole Bianco
- Hi!
- Marine biologist.
- And we're in Nemo's garden with Luca.
- Hi, guys!
- Tell us a little bit more about it.
- Yeah, absolutely.
So we have, again, basil right here.
We have a hydroponic system.
We can actually get water to the plants
in this circular system right here,
and we have Wi-Fi, thanks to a connection,
that shoots all the data
from the censoring system
that analyses the biosphere
to the rest of the world.
You know, it's like growing like crazy
and they just planted this two weeks ago.
The technology, as we've just seen,
is already here.
It's just a question of what
we we're going to choose to develop.
We can use it to unify and help humanity
to face the challenges,
the environmental challenges,
the societal challenges
that we will face in the near future.
- The health challenges.
- The health challenges.
What if your surgeon told you
you could have smaller incisions,
fewer complications,
and generally faster recovery,
if a robot did your procedure?
And now AI can detect Parkinson's disease
seven years before clinical diagnosis.
AI has been called medicine's
biggest moment since antibiotics.
They can find biomarkers
of a cancerous tumour
in just three minutes compared
to three weeks with normal technology.
Our life expectancy is so high,
we live like a life
that never was lived before.
In a world obsessed
with turning back time,
people are now injecting DNA
extracted from salmon sperm.
It stimulates collagen,
rejuvenates the face,
and could leave you
looking up to 10 years younger.
We've all seen movies like The Matrix.
With over 700 million views on TikTok,
hashtag biohacking.
From microchips under the skin
to gene editing
and personalized AI-driven nutrition,
cutting-edge biohacking techniques
are reshaping how we live,
tackling the very limits of human biology.
All this came at a cost,
and the cost is to the environment
and to the very life support system
that allows us to live on this planet.
Artificial intelligence
is already helping humanity
tackle some of its greatest challenges,
yet the data centres that power it consume
massive amounts of energy and resources,
creating a paradox in which
the tools designed to solve our problems
are also fuelling them.
Our technology and wealth has never been
so important, so extraordinary,
and yet, you know, our future,
the future of this planet,
has never been in such jeopardy.
The air we breathe,
the food we eat, the water we drink.
Human-made pollution is invading the
very elements essential to our survival.
Air pollution is penetrating deep
into the lungs and bloodstream.
Toxins in our water is leading us
to neurological disorders.
And now, even the fish we eat
carry microplastics and heavy metals.
Technology is a tool, it's like a knife.
You can use it to share a piece of cake
or you can use it to kill.
In the last 100 years,
thanks to medical research,
we have doubled
our species' life expectancy.
They say that by 2050,
science and longevity research
should permit people to look
and especially feel 20 years younger.
And yet we are constantly
polluting our oceans,
our main life support, which is
poisoning us along with all other beings.
Killing our chances for a healthier life.
Down here,
close to the heart of our ocean,
could we find a blueprint
for a better reality?
Most of the time our eyes stop
at the first layer of the ocean
and already that one
is able to make us dream.
But there is so much more
beneath that layer.
You can find the largest habitat
that we have on Earth.
Imagine that 80% of all living species
live in the marine environment.
And the ocean actually covers
71% of the Earth's surface.
So our planet that is called Planet Earth
but it should be called Planet Ocean,
because actually it's more representative
also in the name.
Mariasole, look at the dolphins!
Hey, beautiful!
I was lucky enough as a child
to experience nature,
and spend all my summers barefoot,
climbing rocks, swimming in the water.
My father used to fish and catch fish,
and soon as he was looking
in another side,
I would take the fish
and put it back in water.
Going through teenagerhood,
I went diving for the first time.
When I dove, I understood
that I loved the ocean with all my heart.
But I also understood the vulnerability,
and so I think that that was the time
in which I decided to become
a marine biologist,
to give voice
to what was happening to the ocean
and people couldn't see
with their own eyes.
Can you describe a little bit what is
for you the vulnerability of the ocean?
The ocean is the lungs of our planet,
isn't it?
It's a blue lung that provides us with
over 50% of the oxygen that we breathe.
And by absorbing CO2,
when it comes to the ocean,
it becomes carbonic acid.
And so the ocean
is starting to get more acidic.
You know, it's changing its pH.
And all this has consequences.
We are seeing an increase in temperature
and depth of over 2,000 meters.
Corals are dying for this reason,
currents are changing for this reason.
Climate change translates
into the marine environment
into mainly ocean acidification,
ocean warming and sea level rise.
TSUNAMI HAZARD ZONE
To this, you add, for example,
plastic pollution,
but it's not the only pollution
that we have.
We have pollution from oil.
We have pollution from fertilizer,
from organic matter.
And then on top of that,
we have overfishing.
Basically, we will experience
a complete collapse
of the commercial fishing in 2050
because the fish cannot reproduce enough
to meet the demand
that the market is requesting.
I started discovering the destruction
by going to these locations,
I wasn't expecting it at all…
I was travelling
to these very remote places
and I was finding trash and plastic,
in locations where there were
no humans living for thousands of miles.
So it was a little bit
the other way around.
I was really like going
to these locations,
hoping to create beautiful installations
and realizing that I couldn't,
because what I was finding there
was trash.
If I didn't know about it,
probably most people didn't either.
Plastic pollution lately
had a lot of media attention,
even if most of the people think
that the issue is solved.
But this is not true at all.
Actually, the plastic production
is foreseen to increase
by 40% in the next decade.
- See? Here?
- Female, right?
Let me see.
Hello. See, no, Male!
So beautiful…
being in the bottom of the sea.
Obviously, you know,
not for all living species
it's good to be in a defined tank,
when they're used to swim
for thousands of miles.
However, I recognize the huge potential
that aquariums play in terms of education
and providing accessibility
to the general public
to the beauty of the marine environment.
In this way, you start
a relationship with the ocean in some way.
Marine mammals mistake plastic for food.
Plastic absorbs chemicals
and acts like a sponge
when is in the marine environment
but it also absorbs smells
and so it tastes and smells
like food to them.
Most of the chemicals
that the plastic absorb
transfer in their tissue and start
to circulate in their system.
Many of these chemicals have been proved
to have negative consequences
for their health, for their hormone system
and for their reproduction and fertility.
Toxic chemicals like BPA,
dioxins and phthalates,
leach from plastics,
are invading fish in our ocean,
making their way straight to our plates
and into our bodies.
Human-made chemicals
known as forever chemicals,
which are linked to cancer
and other illnesses.
More than 95% of all Americans tested
had detectable levels in their blood.
Infertility, thyroid dysfunction,
neurological disorders,
and even puberty up to six years earlier.
These issues are growing more and more.
The pollutants entering our food chain
are poisoning us too,
along with all the creatures
living in the ocean.
So what happens is
that along the food chains,
those contaminants,
those chemicals accumulate.
And by reaching the top,
you have the accumulation
of everything that was eaten before.
Dolphins, killer whales, many mammals,
but also sharks,
they are especially exposed
to these harmful chemicals.
So we're going to try to move
the less as is possible.
They can get confused
about like moving the hand.
They can think it's just a sick fish
or something like that.
I do a sound with my mouth.
I would be like
It will let you know like
look at that shark, just be careful.
They will show up hands on the camera,
camera right here.
95% of all the plastic
that enters the ocean
sinks after five months.
And sometimes they reach also
the deepest part of the ocean.
So somewhere that is like
yet to be explored by us
is already touched by us
through plastic pollution.
There is already a new type
of sedimentary rock
that's part plastic and part rock.
It has been found on all continents.
So we are physically,
geologically affecting our planet.
And it's the first time in the history
of our planet that humans have that power.
A lot of scientists call it
the Anthropocene era.
And this new era is
in complete contradiction
with what today's humanity
is really seeking to achieve.
A longer and healthier life,
hopefully for all.
Realizing that we were a geological force
is something that really inspired me
because obviously
if we are a negative force,
we can also become a positive one
and finally overcome our contradictions.
My name is Daniel Castro.
I love catching the turtles.
I am here to meet
what I call "Earth Protectors".
If he jumps,
she must keep her eyes on him.
He's in the water,
I'm here following him and driving.
My name is Leticia Noemi Castro Flores,
everyone calls me Mimi.
I am the president
of the youth group for Xcalak.
We tag them with a little earring
before we release them.
So far I haven't seen the same one.
Xcalak is a Paradise.
Why is it a Paradise?
You just need to look around you.
Close your eyes and listen.
This place has mangrove on one side.
It has the national park
in the front of the coast line.
It has lagoons on the back.
We have a beautiful reef,
and I think it's the largest reef
in the whole country.
I feel like I'm helping protect nature
so our children, and their children,
can see and know these species.
Xcalak is very fragile area.
It's a place that is very vulnerable,
and in 1950s it was already devastated
by a hurricane, the hurricane Janet.
Very few people stayed.
And now the community is habited
by about 300, 400 people.
So of course they know
that they are in the frontline.
And I think Xcalak is the tipping point.
The Jovenes por Xcalak
are actually the kids,
these people that started mobilizing
to get a protected area.
Their parents got the knowledge
of conservation
and they got the knowledge
of conservation.
It's a great example of community science,
and they are bringing all these data
to the scientific platform.
And this is real data for science to use.
The Jovenes had to end up school
around 15/16
because the community
doesn't have high school.
So they finish
and some of them get married.
Generations that I knew
from the very beginning
when they were little kids in kindergarten
or in the first grade of school
and seeing them develop themselves
into guardians of Earth
is something very important.
That's when you see
that your work has the value.
But you were a Jovenes yourself.
I mean, this is where you started.
So this is you 10 years later.
I started here when I was 18 years old
as an environmental educator.
And so I learned how to love the ocean
by being in this community.
I learned how to dive, how to snorkel.
I met really the water
and I met the ocean.
This is what I've lived, I know it,
I've touched it, I know the people.
So for me, it is an example
and it's an example
that can be shown around the world.
All this comes from myself
since I have two daughters to teach.
I show them photos and say:
"Mom works with turtles,
look how big they are,
how much they weigh".
Along with monitoring,
we visit the schools where our kids go.
We create awareness
on the environment and its protection.
We must protect our planet
and teach our
children to care for it
because we only have one.
So there's suddenly this link
between these kids on the front line
and what they're doing
and them and being empowered
and now going back
and empowering and creating awareness
with city kids
about the potential problems.
Normally we think
that we go to the communities
and teach them something, and now there's
a community going out of the community
and teach the youth in the city
what is happening
in terms of conservation
at the local level.
It definitely made us think
how the world is changing
and how this is a systemic change
and how everything is connected.
Why are we here? We need you.
So, what's the problem?
The sea isn't well. Why?
The sea is full of plastic,
which look like islands.
- They call them plastic island.
- Well done!
What happens when it goes into the sea?
It takes millions of trillions of years
to biodegrade.
The shopping bags
end up looking like jellyfish.
Animals can get trapped inside them.
- Who is fond of jellyfish?
- Turtles!
For me, the responsibility
of being someone that has the knowledge
and works for marine conservation
is the fact of
undressing from my scientist dress
and bring back all this information
to a simple language
that everyone can understand
in order to make the difference.
An unhealthy sea harms our health.
The deep sea
is the lifeblood of our planet.
From this sponge,
we've extracted compounds
used in antiviral drugs,
for HIV, herpes,
even the first leukaemia treatment.
Humanity has incredible potential.
Divided, we've damaged our future
and the future of the planet.
United, we can save it.
Thank you.
If you remain a scientist
and you talk among scientists,
sometimes I think that this also is one
of the reasons why
we are in this situation.
- What is it?
- An hourglass!
This is a symbol of time!
So what future do you want?
The future I want is a future
in which the humankind
are reconnected or connected to nature.
I would like a future
in which we don't see the planet
from an anthropocentric point of view
but an eco-centric one,
in which humans and their descendants
are part of a complex system
and that everyone has to play their part
to keep everything in balance.
Don't pull, see how it breaks?
That's what happens to plastic
after a long time at sea.
Look at this.
- Have you seen it?
- Good!
We have found 970 pieces,
it's not much.
In half an hour it's a lot.
I found a menstrual pad.
8, 9, 10… One planet One future!
Hi five!
Hi five!
All the plastic that was ever produced
still exists.
Because it just breaks down
into smaller pieces,
but it stays. It does not biodegrade.
Here it is.
When it breaks down into pieces
that are smaller than five millimetres,
it's called Microplastic.
What do we know about microplastics?
Microplastic pollution,
invading our oceans and now the soil.
Could it also enter the food chain?
Virtually nowhere on earth is safe from
the insidious spread of microplastics.
That's the finding of new research
by Canterbury University.
They're in the air, the dirt, the water.
They have polluted our environment for
decades, and they're basically everywhere.
We ingest, especially through
tap water and bottled water,
five grams of plastic each week,
which is basically the equivalent
of a credit card every week.
Everyday actions such as driving,
washing clothes, even using cosmetics,
release microplastics
into our environment.
Recent studies points
to possible health risks
linked to those tiny particles,
though research is still ongoing.
This is close to what I find
on the beaches.
Below 100 nanometres,
it's nanoplastics,
a new environmental challenge.
Everyone agrees that plastics
break down into microplastics,
now microplastics can fragment further.
Sure.
Nano plastics
have been found even in plants.
New research shows these particles
could reduce plants' ability
to photosynthesise by 12%,
putting our crops and food supply at risk.
They get carried with the wind,
go to clouds and basically end up
all over the places.
So as microplastic can reach
the bottom of the ocean,
it can also reach
the top of Mount Everest.
- Are those wooden clogs?
- Yes, they are Dutch.
I can't believe it.
Sampling the glacier was a challenge,
we had to avoid contamination.
I bought the clogs on a school trip.
My mom almost turned them
into flower pots.
I stopped her just in time.
The first scientific proof
was on the Forni Glacier,
we found a high concentration
of microplastic fragments.
An estimated 130 to 160 million.
- 160 million fragments?
- In an area of about 0.4 square miles.
- A lot.
- More than expected.
It shows how much plastic is in the air.
We went to Norway, to Patagonia,
a glacier in Santiago de Chile.
- Also Mount Kenya.
- Yes, we went also to Mount Kenya.
Yes, this was our latest expedition.
We took samples there too
and found microplastics.
So, plastic contamination is airborne?
Yes, most of the plastic on glaciers
arrives through the air,
carried from cities and valleys,
following the same paths
as other pollutants.
There is no place on Earth
free from human contamination.
So, we breathe microplastic every day.
Yes, every day.
Over the years, microplastics, the word
you probably started to hear more,
they've been found in almost every organ
in the body as well as in the bloodstream.
But now, for what seems to be
the first time, the microscopic pollutants
have been found in tissue
in the human brain.
While scientists continue to investigate
the consequences,
microscopic nylon fragments
have already been found in human blood.
This has consequences,
especially on our endocrine system
and in this way it causes
many types of cancer
and other diseases
such as diabetes and many others.
In 2024 alone, an estimated
15,000 children and teens
were diagnosed with cancer
across the United States.
A 30% rise. The suspected cause?
Human pollution.
I was diving
and suddenly, this current came through
and I saw all these jellyfish.
I started to try and avoid them
and then suddenly one of them touched me
and I backed off.
And it wasn't jellyfish,
it was like a piece of plastic and
And that's when I was like, "Whoa, okay.
We're way beyond the TimeShrine now",
because now we're entering
into this new anthropogenic moment
of what our oceans look like now.
It was this piece of pink plastic
and it was exactly the same pink
as the jellyfish.
And so I grabbed it, and I tied this tiny,
miniature hourglass
around the piece of plastic.
And then I took my smallest vanity,
my smallest skull,
and I kind of wrapped that around
the other part of the piece of plastic,
and suddenly it just looked like
this scary mermaid.
It's a moment where jellyfish and plastic
kind of look the same
and it's like just a new reality.
How do you make a living in a place
that is very sensitive,
that needs protection?
But you also want to use it.
How do you use it in a sustainable way?
Knowing that there was this big
developing tourism coming from the north.
After they had built Cancun
as a big tourism destination in Mexico.
And all this tourism development is going
south with Playa Carmen, with Tulum.
So the community gets the initiative
of having eco-tourism,
having a tourism where they are not
just cleaning the toilets.
They're actually in power.
The population is increasing
at a speed that is unbelievable.
Communities are starting to grow
from people that come to work
in the tourism industry.
Urban Planning is very limited,
so that goes directly,
all the poop directly to the system.
It's really getting worse.
At the local level too, the aquifers
are being polluted,
the Cenotes, as you know,
the Yucatan Peninsula
has this connecting underwater system.
Poor planning and sanitation
makes all the gray water
come directly to the Cenotes,
to the sinkholes,
and that goes into the ocean.
The Cenotes,
those ancient suspended cathedrals,
are the middle world to all kingdoms.
Immersed in those blue veins,
you can perceive our planet's story,
its beauty, and cruelty.
It carries on the experience
of forgotten civilizations and rituals
and also remains a
constant laboratory of adaptation
for all those seeking refuge.
Each one a precious miracle
of compromise, evolution and rebirth.
The first time I dove in the Cenote
was like being in a mother womb,
in Mother Earth womb.
And there's actually divers that have said
that when they're diving on this sinkhole,
in the Cenote, they're seeing these lines
of fecal material in the water.
Now I'm feeling that sacredness
is being polluted
with shit.
I'd never seen anything like this.
My parents, older than me, haven't either.
It's called the Great Atlantic
Sargassum Belt.
So big it can be seen from space.
And what's commonly known as a red tide
is killing fish and other sea life.
We work at sea,
and because of the sargassum,
many species are dying.
Especially juveniles and larvae.
There's no growth.
Sargassum blooms
every spring in the Atlantic.
But in the past decade
it's been flourishing,
breaking records nearly every year.
Scientists think ocean warming
and industrial run-off could be to blame.
You know, that's what shocked me the most,
when we arrived in Xcalak,
is that we actually smell the sargassum
seaweed before we actually saw it.
And then you get to the beach and it's
just everywhere. There's no white sand.
Seeing that amount of sargassum
really tells you that
something is wrong.
Something is happening in the world.
Sargassum is a natural ecosystem
floating in the water.
And it actually has
its own endemic species on it.
It's a natural thing.
But having a lot of it
is really causing problems
when it arrive to the beach.
There's less oxygen in the water,
fish get suffocated and they die.
Of course, it's affecting the economy,
it's affecting their health.
So here they don't have gloves.
I mean, they're getting skin infections.
Yeah. Rash and skin infections.
Human activity is likely fuelling
the massive plumes growth.
They've detected rising levels of nitrogen
that have doubled since 1984,
apparently from farm run-off,
fertilizer, human and industrial waste.
How do all these new nutrients
arrive in our ocean?
Well, perhaps it comes from agriculture.
The nutrients come in the water system,
the river system,
all this irrigates to the ocean.
So the activities that we do on land
affect the ocean.
In their office,
there was this huge whalebone.
Like humongous. And I was like, "My gosh,
can we use it to create the installation?"
They really jumped up. "Yes!"
Just kind of carried it out
and helped me create this installation.
So this was a real collaboration
with them.
They had like this turtle skull
and this alligator skull,
which is obviously very symbolic
because that amount of sargassum
is basically what's killing
so many of the marine species.
Probably my big worry
is that we ignore things.
If we keep thinking
that nothing is happening,
we're not going to be able to do anything.
So if we live in ignorance,
we are not going to make a difference.
We're not going to make it work.
That's my big worry.
I've never done such a big collaboration
with so many people.
And this is one of those places
that really made me want to go
beyond the installation
and tell the stories
of who was behind the installation,
the backstage of the installation,
what I'd learned and who I'd met
and what I had encountered.
I come from a small place, and I lived
most of my life in small communities,
bringing that reality into a global level,
representing an NGO at the United Nations,
and seeing that reality in my mind,
having that reality in my being
and bringing that voice of the community
to a global level to make a difference.
That's my seed, in making
a little bit of a difference.
It's just a small thing,
but it makes me feel
that I'm doing something.
Welcome to the World Ocean's Day!
We live in a crucial time.
We have a huge responsibility
to be the drivers of the change
to really address the life of the planet
and our own existence.
With the budget of NASA, the American
Agency for the Exploration of Space,
NOA which is the American Agency
for Exploration of the ocean
we could potentially work 1,600 years.
So it's almost as if, you know,
in a way our leaders have already chosen.
You know, they haven't chosen Earth.
They haven't chosen our planet.
It's Incredible that we have explored
just 5% of the ocean floor.
It's crazy. There's 95% of the ocean
that has not been explored
and it's dying, it's disappearing
and it could potentially be key to…
Lifesaver, it could be a lifesaver.
The next story comes
from a remote fishing village
in the beautiful Yucatan Peninsula
in Mexico.
Please join me in welcoming on stage
Mrs. Anne de Carbuccia.
As you can see, Mimi and Panchita
are excellent, incredible examples
of why 50% of humanity
is key for the world of tomorrow
and for the protection of the oceans.
But right now, you may have noticed
they are dealing with a very big problem,
the sargassum seaweed
has tripled from last year.
As much as they are courageous
and are doing locally
everything that they should
and can do to survive,
are very much aware
of how fast the environment is changing
and how polluted our planet is becoming.
But they are just on the front line.
Pollution will affect all species
and us humans regardless of social
and economic status.
Now is the time to finally understand
how much our survival
depends on global change.