"The Midwest, overrun, devastated by pests." "Plagues sweep across California." "And then what happened next was something none of us saw coming." "t became a race aga/nst t/me to save our future, to even have a future." "t's the year 2100 and / surv/ved." "(VO) To change the future, f/rst you have to /mag/ne /t." "'Earth 2100"" "starts now." "The idea that within this century, perhaps in your lifetime, our civilization could lie in ruins seems unbelievable." "But according to some of the world's leading minds, that's notjust a worst-case scenario, it's a real possibility." "Good evening, I'm Bob Woodruff." "Over the next two hours, we'II take you on ajourney into a world thatcouId await us and our children." "370,000 babies will be born today." "And we've taken the liberty of creating one more, a fictional characterwe're calling Lucy, who will be our guide through this century." "Her life story is not a prediction aboutwhatwiII happen, but what might happen." "(Lucy) Th/s once g/or/ous c/ty, whose //ghts at n/ght cou/d be seen for m//es, empty now." "ts tower/ng skyscrapers, once a testament to our /ngenu/ty, now stand as crumb//ng monuments to our dem/se." "Maybe only artists can grasp what that kind offuture really holds for us." "It's perhaps in the area thatwe think of today as science fiction, but that could be a very real future forthe planet." "A hundred years from now, if New York is abandoned," "I can imagine some advanced creatures, maybe humans, maybe extraterrestriaIs," "looking at New York and saying, those ignorant people, how on Earth could they have ever expected to survive?" "(Lucy) / can ask myse/f what happened, but where do / beg/n?" "W/th the droughts, the fam/nes, the p/ague?" "t began /ong before a// that." " //ved through /t a//." "My story /s everyone's story, the story of the /ast century." "(Lucy) / was born June 2nd, 2009." "C/v///zat/on was at a crossroads." "We were /n a race for our future." "(Barack Obama) Today, / say to you that the cha//enges we face are rea/." "They are ser/ous and they are many." "(VO) The temperature /s expected to keep go/ng up." "(VO)The stock market p/unged." "(VO) Doug/as County w/// run out of dr/nk/ng water." "(Barack Obama) They w/// not be met eas//y or /n a short span of t/me." "(VO) S/xth grader came down w/th suspected sw/ne f/u on Wednesday." "Energy, climate, food, population, economic pressures, any one of these challenges might be very serious in itself." "But because they're happening all simultaneously, it's going to be very difficult for our governments to cope." "When I Iook at the next century, I feel it's up for grabs." " (VO) Ra/s/ng sea /eve/s..." " Catastroph/c weather." " Ten-year drought..." " /t's scary." "These are th/ngs that are happen/ng today." "The t/me for act/on /s now." "(Lucy) The wor/d had never known such uncerta/nty." "We were used to hav/ng what we wanted and do/ng what we wanted." "The analogy that I would draw is someone looking at their bank account and week afterweek, they're withdrawing money and they're enjoying the good life." "If they would botherto read the statements, they would see that the bank account is dropping $900, $800, $700, $600." "And at that rate you know that another six months of the good life is not gonna be a good life anymore." "We've acted as though we were independent ofthe environment." "We burned fossil fuels." "We've overused our renewable resources in the belief thatwe could do that forever." "people are complaining about the economic crisis we have right now." "You haven't seen nothing yet." "You know, if we continue down this suicidal pathway thatwe're on, where we basically turn living stuff into dead stuff and call that economic growth, this will look like the good old days." "(Lucy) A/though the wor/d / was born /nto was runn/ng out of so much, water, o//, /and," " remember a /ov/ng fam//y, a b/g house, green /awn, more water than we knew what to do w/th." "My parents must have known what was happen/ng." "We had a compact car and recyc/ed." "And /t wasn't just us." "Smart, /mag/nat/ve peop/e everywhere were work/ng fur/ous/y on so/ut/ons." "Our government was pour/ng money /nto a/ternat/ve energy." "t seemed //ke everyone was grow/ng the/r own vegetab/e garden." "windmills were sprouting up all over." "Peop/e were beg/nn/ng to understand." "But the c/ock was runn/ng out, and nature was a/ways one step ahead." "flowers are blooming earlier and trees are leafing earlier." "Birds are coming back from migration much earlier." "If you were to pull back from the Earth, what you would see is sort of a refugee movement, if you will." "And species are moving their ranges farther north to get to cool, from south to north, and from the valleys up to the mountain tops." "(Lucy) Of course, as a ch//d, / d/dn't not/ce these th/ngs, hav/ng noth/ng to compare /t to." " was a //tt/e g/r/ enchanted by my sma// wor/d." "Unt// one summer, thousands, maybe m////ons, of dragonf//es showed up out of nowhere." "They were de//cate and beaut/fu/ and / put one /n a jar." "My mother was puzz/ed and /ooked them up." "They were supposed to be /n Cuba, not M/am/." "t was not unt// much /ater that / rea//zed they were a s/gn of what was to come." "It's 2015, six short years from now, and the best-Iaid plans are getting underway." "Awave farm off scotland is harnessing the ocean's energy." "vatican City has gone totally solar." "And here in America, cars are running cleaner and more efficiently." "still, we cling to that old habit, oil, and it's getting harder and more expensive to find." "(VO) From coast to coast, motor/sts are search/ng for re//ef from soar/ng gas pr/ces /n Ca//forn/a..." "We could see a doubling ortripIing of real oil prices, that's after inflation." "We're running out of oil and we've created a society, the American way of Iife is what we call it, based on the assumption that oil will be plentiful forever." "The large spread out suburbs that we've grown accustomed to, the strip malls, the big box stores with theirenormous parking lots around them, all of those have been made possible because we've had cheap gasoline," "and as energy becomes much more expensive, you'II see that those areas become" "less desirable places to live." "(Lucy) The f/rst t/me / moved, / was s/x." "A /ot of peop/e were /eav/ng the suburbs for the c/ty." "There were new jobs, and you d/dn't need a car for everyth/ng." "My dad was go/ng to work on the new streetcar system /n M/am/." "And my mother to/d me we were go/ng to //ve on the top f/oor of an apartment bu//d/ng." "She sa/d we'd see the pa/m trees be/ow us." " was exc/ted, but a/so a //tt/e sad to /eave." "(VO) As the pr/ce of o// goes up," "t w/// r/pp/e through every part of the g/oba/ economy." "(Reporter) /n Wash/ngton today, protesters demanded an end to r/s/ng food pr/ces." "Our agriculture system is almost wholly dependent on cheap oil." "Tremendous amounts of diesel fuel that are used in planting and harvesting and then moving the stuff, all these vast distances." "By 2015 in the United States, add about 20 million people to the population and thenjust play outwhat that does to consumption patterns." "I mean, the, the number of people that we've got to feed." "There'sjust basically this slow, creeping tension for natural resources." "(VO) As the Amer/can way of //fe becomes /ncreas/ng/y unsusta/nab/e, the rest of the wor/d w/// be try/ng to catch up." "The Chinese like cars." "And they like big cars." "You have 14,000 cars out onto China's roads daily." "Incomes are rising really rapidly." "They're moving into meat-based diets." "You need 10 pounds of grain to get one pound of meat." "There is simply no way that the rest of the world can start eating meat the way we do." "(VO) /f everyone /n the wor/d consumed as much as the average Amer/can," "t wou/d take the resources of four Earths to support the p/anet's popu/at/on, wh/ch ra/ses the quest/on, shou/d the rest of the wor/d consume /ess, or shou/d we?" "Amer/can hab/ts, though, are hard to break." "We in the US have gotten used to the idea that we're somehow immune to natural limits and it's the other people who are going to suffer." "(Reporter) Good morn/ng, M/am/." "The summer of 2015 /s on track to become one of the hottest /n h/story." "Temperatures are expected to be /n the tr/p/e d/g/ts." "(Lucy) My mother and / were wa/t/ng for gas." "The //ne went around the b/ock and then some." "Noth/ng new." "But th/s t/me, the //ne had stopped mov/ng a/together." "A man who worked at the gas stat/on came out ho/d/ng a s/gn." "Peop/e started ye///ng and they got out of the/r cars and started mov/ng towards h/m." "My mother got us out of there fast." "(V/dographer, Ma/e) /'ve been stak/ng out an area that's been h/t hard recent/y by gas snatchers." "Look at h/m, he gets out, wa/ks r/ght up to the car." "Wow." "Look at th/s, r/ght /n the m/dd/e of the day." "There's cars go/ng by, and these guys are - s/phon/ng gas out of someone's car." "(Reporter) /n the face of mount/ng protests over r/s/ng gas and food pr/ces," "Congress today approved a p/an to fund the construct/on of 40 new coa/-f/red power p/ants over the next f/ve years." "(Lucy)The country took the easy way out." "Coa/ was once aga/n touted as our so-ca//ed sa/vat/on." "But the more coa/ we burned, the faster our p/anet warmed." "You get the p/cture." "We're spewing more carbon, more methane, more nitrous oxide into the atmosphere." "AII the bad things of climate change are coming true." "(Lucy) And most peop/e werejust go/ng a/ong w/th the/r everyday //ves as /f noth/ng had changed." "And until we have a crisis of some kind," "I don't think we're going to be motivated to wake up and say, okay, now we have to change." "Sometimes it takes a big shock to get people, you know, out of the inertia that, that, that's built into the system." "(Reporter) They're ca///ng /t the storm of the century," "Hurr/cane L/nda pack/ng Category 5 w/nds." "(Lucy) B/g storms weren't unusua/." "But th/s one was b/gger than the others." "And /t was headed for M/am/." "(Reporter) A// coasta/ reg/ons are be/ng evacuated." "Th/s storm makes /andfa//, we're go/ng to see a tremendous storm surge." "(Lucy) My mother was a nurse and she wou/dn't /eave unt// a// the s/ck were evacuated from the hosp/ta/." "My father was afra/d we wou/dn't get out /n t/me." " was afra/d too." "(Reporter) Those who make the dec/s/on not to evacuate face //fe threaten/ng danger, between the how//ng w/nds and those g/ant surg/ng waves." "M/am/ /s a very scary p/ace to be r/ght now." "(Bob Woodruff) 2015 /s on/y s/x years away, but many experts say that /f the wor/d has not reached an agreement to mass/ve/y reduce greenhouse gases by then," "we cou/d pass the po/nt of no return." "If we're still dragging ourfeet in 2015, it really becomes almost impossible forthe world to avert a degree of climate change thatwe simply will not be able to manage." "The Iongerwe waitwithout addressing these challenges in an aggressive way, the more likely it is we're going to end up with really bad outcomes." "(Repoter) Th/s morn/ng, /n the aftermath of Hurr/cane L/nda, we are see/ng the f/rst /mages of what rema/ns of M/am/." "(Reporter) Ne/ghbor/ng commun/t/es have been overwhe/med by hundreds of thousands of evacuees seek/ng refuge." "(Lucy) The evacuat/on center was as b/g as an a/rp/ane hangar." "Maybe /t was an a/rp/ane hangar." "And sojammed w/th peop/e, /t was hard to move." "t was hot." "t was no/sy." "We were there three weeks." "There was nowhere for us to go." "Nowhere for anybody to go." "We watched the news on TV." " was on/y s/x, but /t /ooked to me //ke the who/e wor/d was /n troub/e." "(Repoter,) Some 250,000 Bang/adesh/ refugees f/ee/ng from /ast month's devastat/ng cyc/one are mass/ng on the /nd/an border." "(Reporter, Ma/e) Thousands r/ot as Ch/na faces /ts worst wheat shortages /n a decade, the resu/t of seem/ng/y end/ess drought." "(Reporter, Fema/e) Wor/d /eaders are gather/ng /n Wash/ngton, DC to attend an emergency g/oba/ summ/t meet/ng." "(Reporter) Hopes are h/gh that the wor/d m/ght f/na//y reach an h/stor/c c//mate agreement." "This is the first time the whole planet is in that kind of a crisis and the whole planet has tojoin in meeting a crisis of epicaI proportions." "(Bob Woodruff) /n 2008, the Center for the New Amer/can Secur/ty, a Wash/ngton th/nk tank, staged an e/aborate game." "The goa/ was to s/mu/ate a g/oba/ summ/t on c//mate change." "The year /s 2015." "The context for the game /s Lucy's context." "M/am/ has been devastated by a hurr/cane, and Bang/adesh ravaged by a cyc/one." "The peop/e who are p/ay/ng the ro/es of g/oba/ /eaders are /n fact h/gh /eve/ po//cymakers from around the wor/d." "(John Podesta) Let me be very clear, ourtime is running out." "(Bob Woodruff) John Podesta, Pres/dent Obama's trans/t/on ch/ef," "s p/ay/ng the ro/e of UN Secretary Genera/." "Indeed today, in October of 2015, no country, no city is exempt from the ravages of climate change as we saw so tragically with the Category 5 hurricane that hit Miami." "(Bob Woodruff) /n the game, the Secretary Genera/ has asked for a 30% reduct/on" "n em/ss/ons by 2025." "The US team ho/ds a c/osed-door strategy sess/on." "It's very important for us to strike that very positive leadership tone right out of the box." "We have to be much faster and more serious about emission reductions." "We need to do 30% ." " By 2025?" " By 2025." "(Woodruff) But there's a strong d/sagreement about whether the Amer/can pub//c wou/d be w////ng to make that k/nd of sacr/f/ce." "basically, the odds of a 30% reduction in the United States in 10 years is zero." "The world is going to hell in a hand basket and we're saying, gee, can we stretch this out?" "(Woodruff) Even /f the Un/ted States were w////ng to make these reduct/ons, th/s /s a g/oba/ cr/s/s that needs g/oba/ act/on." "The US ca//s a meet/ng w/th Ch/na." "We have an inherent responsibility to our people to take action." "n 2015, Ch/na and /nd/a are /n fact projected to account for more than 30% of the wor/d's carbon em/ss/ons." "But /n the s/mu/at/on, they're unw////ng to agree to a treaty they fee/ //m/ts the/r econom/c growth." "For both countr/es, the /ssue /s fa/rness." "The Western countries went through a very energy intensive development process, became rich by burning coal and burning oil." "Can countries like India and China do it without burning as much fossil fuel as the West?" "We have to go greener." "You have the technology and you have the capital and you're prepared to help us grow on a greener path." "Ch/na and /nd/a say they w/// agree to the cuts /n greenhouse gas em/ss/ons on/y /f the West hands over the techno/ogy needed to do so." "China would wish to get the technology forthe third generation of nuclear power plants." "But Europe and the US refuse." "The techno/ogy be/ongs to pr/vate compan/es." "nstead, they offer to he/p pay the costs of sw/tch/ng to c/eaner energy." "You do the emissions reduction, and we give the money for the emissions reduction that you've done." "If- somebody, you know, you have the money but you do not have the technology, and then you cannot reduce any emissions." "The who/e summ/t h/nges on whether they can come to an understand/ng." "So we're not putting any pressures." "We're just offering, and I think it's a good offer." "We do not accept the offer." "(Repoter) The p/anet summ/t broke down today when Ch/na and /nd/a refused to agree to cuts /n greenhouse gas em/ss/ons." "ultimately, all the teams fell short." "That perhaps is the, the saddest element coming out of this, which is the pace of changejust doesn't seem to be in keeping with the magnitude ofthe challenge." "(Bob Woodruff) Sc/ent/sts say that /f th/s /s how our /eaders respond /n 2015, the ent/re p/anet w/// be at r/sk." "If we continue on the business-as-usuaI trajectory, there will be a tipping point that we cannot avert." "We will indeed drive the car overthe cliff." "(Lucy) There was a story my mother once to/d me /'// never forget." "You put a frog /n a pot of co/d water and turn the heat on." "The water warms so gradua//y that the frog doesn't not/ce." "t never rea//zes the prec/se moment /t's cooked." "The frog will sit there because it's not able to detect the small changes in temperature that are making his life increasingly dangerous." "And we're in the same sort of situation." "We're so adaptable in our evolution as a species, an adaptability that's allowed us to really, in a sense, conquer nature and conquerthe world." "Butat this point, that adaptability is actually a real threat to our existence." "(Lucy) As / grew up, /t became /ncreas/ng/y c/ear that we were the frogs." "After our home was destroyed by the hurr/cane, my fam//y moved to San D/ego." "Maybe because /t was as far away from M/am/ as we cou/d get." "(Repoter, Fema/e) F/na//y, th/s even/ng, sav/ng our seas." "The federa/ government has re/eased a major assessment on the oceans." "The news /s not good." "t's go/ng to be tough to dr/ve th/s summer." "Gas pr/ces are expected to soar even h/gher." "(Reporter, Ma/e) /ncreased heat speeds up evaporat/on cyc/es." "n fact, these changes can be seen wor/dw/de..." "Sc/ent/sts report from the Arct/c the tundra /s thaw/ng faster than expected." "(Reporter, Fema/e) The Un/ted Nat/ons announced today that there are now e/ght b////on peop/e //v/ng on Earth." "(Lucy) /t's amaz/ng what you can come to take for norma/." "By the t/me / was /n my 20s, shortages and h/gher pr/ces were just a fact of everyday //fe." "After h/gh schoo/, / dec/ded to tra/n as an EMT." " wanted to be usefu/, and th/s seemed the perfect k/nd of work." "So what else will be normal in 2030?" "One thing, itwiII be warmer, about one and a half degrees Fahrenheitwarmer." "Enough to dramatically aIterthe planet's weatherand rainfall." "Canada and Siberia, for example, will be wetter and hotter." "Butfor much of the world, rain will be scarce." "And so will its most basic need, water." "By 2030, two-thirds of the world's population will be underwater stress." "(Bob Woodruff) /n As/a, for examp/e, g/ac/ers on the T/betan P/ateau act as a g/ant reservo/r for b////ons of peop/e." "AII overthe world, as the climate warms, mountain glaciers are melting at faster and faster rates." "By 2030, 80% of those g/ac/ers may be gone." "f the g/ac/ers d/sappear, much of the food supp/y w/// d/sappear, as we//." "These glaciers provide stream flow in the summer during the dry months that you can use to irrigate your crops." "When those glaciers are gone, you've got a massive drought situation." "n 2030, Afr/ca cou/d be fac/ng extreme and w/despread drought." "rainfall levels are gonna continue to drop over time in Africa, especially in these fragile regions, Iike the sahel." "When the rains fall and people don't have enough to eat, they often turn to desperate means to survive." "(Bob Woodruff) And /n the US /n 2030, many of the mass/ve reservo/rs fed by the Co/orado R/ver w/// be dry/ng up." "We talk about the Southwest moving into drought as, as a way to, to describe what's gonna happen." "ButtechnicaIIy, the Southwest, it's not gonna be in drought, it's gonna become a desert." "(Lucy) /n San D/ego, they were ahead of the game." "n 2009, they had started bu//d/ng huge desa//nat/on p/ants." "t took 20 years and cost b////ons of do//ars, but /t worked." "The mass/ve p/ants on the ocean turned sa/twater /nto fresh, and the c/ty's water supp/y was restored." "400 m//es /n/and, though, they were runn/ng out." "And no one had enough money to bu//d a p/pe that /ong." "So now, we're here rationing water" "I mean, people who are in Las vegas are starting to totally panic." "people in Phoenix are starting to panic, too." "When I turn on my tap this morning, this is what I get out of my tap." "Something thatwiII catch people's attention is the first city, rich city in the world, thatjust runs out of water." "(Repoter, Fema/e) Three days after Tucson's taps ran dry," "ts parched res/dents f/na//y got re//ef when a convoy of Nat/ona/ Guard tanker trucks carry/ng one m////on ga//ons of water f/na//y arr/ved." "Anx/ous res/dents //ned up to get the/r a//otment." "(Lucy) What happened there scared the who/e country." "n San D/ego, when the pr/vate compan/es who desa//nated our water used Tucson as an excuse and jacked up our water pr/ces," " dec/ded enough was enough." " went to a ra//y." "A man stand/ng next to me saw me ye///ng and sa/d," ""/'m g/ad you're on our s/de."" "To make a short story even shorter, we fe// /n /ove on the spot." "Two months /ater, Josh and / were marr/ed." "A year /ater, our daughter, Mo//y, was born, w/th a head fu// of red ha/r." "And the desa//nat/on compan/es, they backed down." "We had won." "Josh and / had fr/ends who, //ke us, were determ/ned to re/mag/ne the future." "We were a// of us opt/m/sts." "Some of us worked on so/ar p/ants /n the desert." "Others t/nkered w/th super eff/c/ent cars /n the/r garages." "St///, others des/gned fantast/ca/ c/t/es on the/r computers." "t was an exc/t/ng t/me to be young." "But /t was becom/ng c/ear that the prob/ems of the wor/d knew no borders." "(Reporter, Ma/e) G/oba/ popu/at/on /s now approach/ng n/ne b////on." "Seems unlikely to me that we here in America can sit happily with all of our resources while the rest of the world simply goes quietly into that good night." "very few people lay down and die." "When they recognize that their lives are threatened, they do whatever it takes." "(Reporter, Ma/e) Hundreds of thousands of env/ronmenta/ refugees f/ee/ng drought and fam/ne are stream/ng toward Europe." "They will move across borders by the droves, by the millions." "And thatwiII be something we've never seen before." "And that might be the thing thatwe would find the most difficult to cope with." "(Reporter, Fema/e) From Laredo to T/juana, m////ons of Lat/n Amer/cans are mass/ng a/ong the US border." "You'II see intense pressure for people to move and be on the move from the Caribbean, from Latin America, from Mexico in particular, into the United States." "And that'II put huge stress, I think, on, on the systems in the United States to try to cope with that." "I can't imagine the horrors that will take place on the border as millions of refugees try to get into the United States." "(Lucy) / was work/ng the m/dn/ght sh/ft when a ca// came from the border po//ce." "'Be carefu/, " Josh sa/d." ""Th/s doesn't sound good."" "Thousands of refugees had been arr/v/ng at the border desperate for water and food." "Someone had b/own a ho/e through the wa//, and thousands of peop/e were stream/ng through." "They had ca//ed /n the border po//ce." " don't know how /t started, who f/red f/rst." "But sudden/y, the po//ce were shoot/ng /nto the crowd." "There were peop/e fa///ng, pan/c everywhere." "Josh heard /t on the news." "And how he found me /n the m/dst of a// that chaos /'// never know." "n San D/ego, Josh and Mo//y and / took /ong wa/ks on the beach to /ook for b/rds." "Over the years, our favor/tes started to d/sappear." "The worst was the end of the a/batross." "These marve/ous b/rds had f/na//y been done /n by f/shermen's /ong //nes." "t was a bad omen for the rest of us." "probably a third of all species will be on an inexorable path to extinction by 2015." "They will include familiar species, Iike Iions and tigers and bears, but there will also be huge areas of the planet, which presently are really lovely and beautiful and diverse." "Those places will have essentially disappeared." "(Bob Woodruff) /n the h/story of the Earth, there have been f/ve mass ext/nct/ons," "n wh/ch at /east ha/f the spec/es on Earth d/sappeared." "They were caused by natura/ d/sasters, mass/ve vo/can/c erupt/ons, rap/d c//mate change, meteors h/tt/ng the Earth." "Today, /n the 21st century, we are /n the m/dst of what sc/ent/sts are calling the s/xth ext/nct/on." "And for the f/rst t/me, /t /s be/ng caused by a s/ng/e spec/es, us." "When one species proIiferates beyond any other, ultimately, it sort of knocks out its own life supportsystems and it collapses." "And in a way, that's what we're doing at every level around the world." "(Bob Woodruff) Today /n 2009, the /dea that we cou/d do so much damage to our natura/ env/ronment that /t cou/d cause our g/oba/ c/v///zat/on to co//apse," "may seem farfetched." "Think of all the signs of normalcy." "Water is still coming out of the faucet in my kitchen." "The electricity still turns on." "I buy food at the supermarket." "It seems inconceivable that our modern world could collapse." "Every society that collapsed thought it couldn't happen to them." "The Roman Empire thought it couldn't happen." "The Maya civilization thought it couldn't happen." "The Byzantine Empire thought itcouIdn't happen, but it did." "And it usually creeps up on you unforeseen." "(Bob Woodruff) At /ts peak, the Maya c/v///zat/on numbered more than 10 m////on." "They had astronomy." "They had the only writing in the new world." "They had great art." "They were the biggest game in town." "They are the equivalent of us in their, in their era." "These city centers were supporting 25,000 to 50,000 people." "So, they were very well adapted to their, their surroundings they were able to grow." "But they grew too much and exhausted the/r resources." "Growing population, meaning growing the demands on the land, deforestation and soil erosion, which tied into warfare." "There was chronic warfare among the Maya city states." "(Bob Woodruff) And then, the c//mate sudden/y changed." "There were these series of extended droughts." "And those droughtsjust kept hammering away and hammering away." "You lose yourforest." "You lose your soil." "If you lose your soil, you can'tgrow anything." "And if it stops raining, then forget about it." "The endgame for the Maya must have been horrible indeed." "It's highly likely there were also periods of starvation." "It's a truly hideous and ugly way to die." "(Woodruff) The Roman Emp/re faced many of the same prob/ems that we face today." "Itwas kind of a precursor of our globalized economy." "n just a few short centur/es, Rome bu//t an emp/re that stretched across three cont/nents." "As it expanded, the requirements for simply feeding its cities and feeding its army, it became so large that the empire couldn'tgenerate enough food energy, enough grain, to adequately meet all its obligations." "So, there was a constant fiscal crisis and financial crisis." "(Bob Woodruff) As resources ran out, the/r emp/re co//apsed." "The city of Rome itself went from a million people down to perhaps 30,000, and thatwas the largest city in Western Europe at the time." "civilizations in the past have lost the fight." "I mean, they, they have collapsed as a result of the inability to deal with several different events going on at once." "And so, you know, I think the takeaway is that, honestly, we're not that special." "(Bob Woodruff) Easter /s/and, one of the most remote p/aces /n the wor/d." "t's hard to /mag/ne that a c/v///zat/on once thr/ved on such a barren /s/and, but /t d/dn't a/ways /ook //ke th/s." "Easter island used to be covered by a forest of dozens of tree species, including the biggest palm tree in the world." "(Woodruff) But as the/r popu/at/on grew, so too d/d the/r demand for wood." "As they gradually cut down more and more trees, the trees didn't grow back rapidly enough to replace the trees thatwere being cut down." "So, some time in the 1600s, the Iast tree was cut down." "You saw all of the classic signatures of collapse." "The population plummeted." "There was starvation." "And essentially, they turned to cannibalism." "The question is, whatwas that person on Easter island thinking when they chopped down the Iast tree?" "The pattern /s c/ear." "(Bob Woodruff) C/v///zat/ons that grow too /arge and consume too much damage the/r own //fe support systems." "As resources run out, they beg/n to f/ght each other over what //tt/e /s /eft." "Then, they e/ther starve or /eave." "But /n our case, where can we go?" "I think Easter island is the perfect metaphor because it's this small, fragile island sitting within the Pacific Ocean, it's very remote, and, and it no Iongerwas able to sustain the population that lived there." "It's no different than Earth being this small planet in a vast galaxy." "Think about that cartoon movie that was made about the beatles music," "'YeIIow Submarine."" "There was a creature in it." ""YELLOW SUBMARINE" Hey, look who's back." "full speed ahead." "Its head is a funnel that functions as a vacuum cleaner." "suddenly, it's run outofthings to pointat, there's nothing left." "So, it's looking around for something." "And finally, it looks down, sucks itself up." "And then, we have a blank screen." "Here we are." "The moral of that story, by grabbing everything in sight, we'II end up destroying ourselves." "And by 2050, the population is exploding, the rainforests are disappearing, and nine billion of us competing for ever scarcer resources." "A bad situation made worse by widespread drought and huge migrations of people." "Life is changing for everyone, including Lucy." "(Lucy) My parents both got s/ck the w/nter of 2050." "t was a horr/b/e f/u that year." "t seemed the v/ruses were gett/ng worse each pass/ng season." " kept them comfortab/e." "And /'m g/ad they were at home and together when they d/ed." "After that, there was noth/ng to keep us /n San D/ego." "Josh and / dec/ded /t was t/me to /eave." "We were exc/ted." "Josh had been offered an amaz/ng job /n New York work/ng on the sea barr/ers des/gned to protect the c/t/es from the r/s/ng seas." "There wasn't much room /n the truck." "We took c/othes, a few books, and 50 ga//ons of water." "Everyth/ng e/se we /eft beh/nd." "(VO) GPS 2100." "P/ease se/ect your dest/nat/on." "New York C/ty." "Ca/cu/at/ng safest route." "(Lucy) We headed north across the Mojave Desert." "By dusk, we were on the outsk/rts of Las Vegas and greeted by m//e after m//e of abandoned suburbs, and acres of go/f courses turned to dust." "The s//ence was eer/e." "well, by 2050, Lake Mead, one of the great reservoirs of the Southwest on the colorado River has finally gone dry." "There's not enough water to meet human needs." "(Lucy) Peop/e /n Las Vegas had depended on Lake Mead for a/most all the/r water and power." "Las vegas, I would imagine, is gone." "With a drought like that, you've got a city in - in the desert." "And it's gonna be really difficult to live there." "(Lucy) When we got c/oser to the Str/p, we were /ucky to hook up w/th a convoy headed east." "Las Vegas was a strange s/ght." "Most of the hote/s dark." "A// those neon //ghts gone dead." "S/n C/ty had pretty much fo/ded." "From there, we drove through Ar/zona." "Daybreak." "R/s/ng out of the desert, we saw someth/ng wonderfu/." "These huge, new so/ar p/ants." "50 square m//es of ref/ectors." "They hadn't been bu//t soon enough to he/p Las Vegas, but one day, they were supposed to power the who/e West Coast." "t was comfort/ng to know." "There's tremendous possibility there in the desert Southwest." "There's a capacity to produce solar power and, and move it to where the great population centers of the United States are." "(VO) The safest route headed east today /s Route 40." "I think itwouId be almost impossible to do thisjourney unless you had some form of intelligence as to what areas are lawless or dangerous." "I don't think strangers are gonna be very friendly." "(Lucy) By the t/me we got on to Route 15, we were gr/my and t/red." "The scene /n front of us had jo/ted us out of our daze." "Hundreds of peop/e packed the road." "A// of them stream/ng out of the Southwest head/ng north." "t fe/t //ke the Dust Bow/ a// over aga/n." "Think what it wouId be like if we had millions of neighbors to the south heading north because of, they don't have food and they don't have water." "They shouted at us as we drove past." "Mo//y was ha/f out of the w/ndow, catch/ng everyth/ng w/th her camera." "Sudden/y, a man grabbed her arm." "He had a gun and po/nted /t at Mo//y's face." "'Get out of the truck r/ght now, " he ye//ed." "'d never been so terr/f/ed." "But w/th/n seconds, two men from the convoy pu//ed the/r own guns and the man me/ted back /nto the crowd." "We knew now just how dangerous the border reg/ons had become and how /ucky we were to be headed east." "Just as peop/e were m/grat/ng, so too were the bugs." "n Ok/ahoma, acres and acres of corn were threatened." "To the degree that all ecosystems are extremely stressed by 2050, pests will flourish." "There's an arms race between breeding crops that are resistant to various pests and the pests themselves, because to the degree that we simplified ourfood system, we've also made it massively vulnerable." "For decades, th/s had been pred/cted." "These g/ant farms, wh/ch supp//ed so much of the wor/d's food, were easy prey." "people get their seeds from single orjust a few manufacturers, and they're genetically very, very similar." "So, if in fact an agent were to come onto the scene thatwas capable of infecting one, itwouId rapidly spread." "Ha/fway through Kansas, we sp//t off from the convoy." "They were headed north to Canada." "We went east to Greensburg, Kansas, /eav/ng the devastat/on beh/nd." "(VO) We/come to the Greensburg V/s/tor Center." "n 2007, a tornado destroyed our town." "Out of the rubb/e came a dream." "(Barack Obama) A town that was comp/ete/y destroyed by a tornado" "s be/ng rebu//t as a g/oba/ examp/e of how c/ean energy can power an ent/re commun/ty, how /t can br/ng jobs and bus/nesses..." "(Lucy) Th/s was a wonderfu/ p/ace, comp/ete/y se/f-susta/n/ng." "They had been one of the f/rst, and they knew what they were do/ng." "They got the/r power from the w/nd and sun, the/r water from the ra/n, and they grew everyth/ng they ate." "Fee//ng a /ot better, we hot seated /t the rest of the way." "Compared to the Southwest, the f/e/ds were green and fert//e." "We saw some commun/t/es //ke Greensburg." "We w/shed there were more." "The c/oser we get to the end of ourjourney, the better we fe/t." "The next day, we h/t the outsk/rts of New York C/ty." "(VO) New York C/ty /s engaged /n the greatest urban exper/ment of our t/me." "Skyscrapers that grow the/r own food, to an a//-e/ectr/c veh/c/e f/eet, to c/ean and tranqu// parks." "nsp/red /eaders and creat/ve m/nds are work/ng together to create an urban parad/se." "(Lucy) / /ooked across the George Wash/ngton Br/dge at the sky//ne and fe/t a surge of hope, but underneath ran a tr/ck/e of worry." "W/th a// we had seen, maybe we had seen noth/ng yet." "(Lucy) By the m/dd/e of the century, / thought /'d seen /t a//." "Storms, m/grat/ons, and droughts that had destroyed who/e c/t/es." "But / had a/so seen so much more." "Br////ant peop/e everywhere were work/ng fur/ous/y to change our future." " had a fam//y, and together, / thought we m/ght be equa/ to whatever came out way, but / had no /dea of what the future wou/d ho/d." "It's a new world." "And not a better one, as we catch up with Lucy, ourfictionaI storyteller." "The year is 2060, past mid-century and into middle age for Lucy." "At 51, she has grown up in a world of soaring population, dwindling resources and intense climate change." "The worst case scenario imagined by some experts is playing out." "But there are signs of hope." "A growing global movement led by cities like New York." "New York is probably the most geographically favored city in America." "Great port." "Rich fisheries around it." "This wonderful riverthat allows transport and access to great farmland." "It's a center of the arts." "It's been a center of finance." "I think itwiII continue to be so." "(Lucy) After what we had been through, New York was a fresh start." "The c/ty was fu// of hope and energy and prom/se." "You'd wa/k down the streets and meet each other's eyes and see a sense of purpose." "t was a great p/ace to be a part of back then." "The f/rst years we were there were the best of our //ves." "Josh was work/ng as an eng/neer on the Great Barr/er Project." " was at Be//evue Hosp/ta/, a h/stor/c /nst/tut/on a/ready more than 300 years o/d." "The bu//d/ng we //ved /n was green /n every sense of the word." "And Mo//y worked /n the gardens that grew our food." "They were a part of the bu//d/ng /tse/f." "You're going to see greenhouses, muItistory greenhouses." "And each floor will be growing, you know, carrots and potatoes, etcetera." "And thatwiII be justconsidered normal." "The bu//d/ng supp//ed not just our food, but most of our own energy." "Instead of having solar panels, big heavy bulky things, we can just put this thin film on rooftops, on window panes and generate electricity thatway." " rode my b/ke to work every day, a mere 30 b/ocks." "We had des/gnated b/cyc/e /anes." "The traff/c was manageab/e, and you cou/d breathe the a/r." "A// the veh/c/es were e/ectr/c." "You hook your car up to a mega transport system." "ItwiII move you a good bit of the distance to yourfinaI destination." "Kind of a train of cars." "And then you get disconnected from the mass combination transit and drive the Iast little bit yourself." "(Lucy) Mo//y fe// /n /ove as qu/ck/y as her parents had." "She marr/ed George, who was study/ng to become a botan/st." "A year /ater, my grandson Dan/e/ was born." "And a /ove//er ch//d / had never seen." "t was a happy t/me." "And when Mo//y to/d me they were mov/ng upstate to work on a rea/ farm," "Josh and / understood." "t had a/ways been the/r dream." "The c/ty was gett/ng a /ot of attent/on." "And money f/owed /n, both pr/vate and pub//c." "The b/ggest and maybe the most /mportant project was my husband Josh's." "S/nce w/thout the barr/ers, the c/ty was at r/sk." "t wou/d be the b/ggest c/v// eng/neer/ng project /n US h/story." "Be comparab/e to putt/ng man on the moon." "(Lucy) The project had been under way for years, and those who worked on /t had a tremendous sense of pr/de." "There was three barr/ers go/ng up." "One at the Verrazano-Narrows Br/dge, one at the top of the East R/ver." "And one /n Staten /s/and at Baton H///s." "You cou/d see them r/s/ng a //tt/e every day." "Sea /eve/ was r/s/ng." "And w/thout the barr/ers, b/g storms wou/d f/ood the c/ty." "I think it wouId be like in medieval times, people building a beautiful huge cathedral." "Took generations to build." "And there was a great sense of purpose, and gave purpose and meaning to life." "(Lucy) The project drew thousands of peop/e /nto the c/ty /ook/ng for work." "New York C/ty was then, as /t had a/ways been, a beacon of hope." "New York, it will be a magnet as any viable city will be a magnet." "These cities where people come to flee become petri dishes for diseases and new diseases and resistant forms of disease." "There are a number of infectious diseases that are currently confined to tropical and subtropical areas." "They're likely to spread into temperate zones." "And this is something that I'm very concerned about." "(Lucy) Keep/ng New York safe from d/sease was cruc/a/." "And Be//evue was busy." " d/dn't fee/ as t/red at end of the day as / m/ght have." "We were do/ng /mportant work." "Keep/ng a c/ose eye on any new d/seases." " remember the n/ght / was ca//ed to the worker's camps /n F/ush/ng." "A young Ecuador/an fam//y had just arr/ved /n New York." "And they a// had h/gh fevers." "And b//sters on the/r hands and feet." "We sprung /nto act/on /mmed/ate/y, c/osed off the ne/ghborhood, and ca//ed /n the CDC." "They knew r/ght away they were /ook/ng at a new v/rus." "We set up a mob//e c//n/c at the camps, where we treated dozens of workers and the/r fam///es." "Everyone recovered." "And the d/sease was conta/ned." "Imagine now the year 2070." "Things are in danger of unraveling." "Sea levels have risen nearly three feet, redrawing the map of the world." "island nations have disappeared." "Much of bangladesh reclaimed by the sea." "Some of california's famous beaches gone." "The florida everglades, underwater." "Now, the richest countries are being forced to come up with innovative and expensive solutions." "Lucy's husband, Josh, is one of the leaders." "(Lucy) Josh was an eng/neer on the Great Barr/er Project." "After 30 years /n the mak/ng, /t was near/ng comp/et/on." "W/th/n a few months, they wou/d be test/ng the mass/ve gates." "If I was the engineer in charge, I would be very nervous." "But you would have practice runs." "And during nice weather, you would say, all right, Iet's close the gates today and make sure everything's working right, it's not going tojam up." "(Lucy) Josh was worr/ed about someth/ng e/se, too." "New York C/ty's barr/ers, //ke others around the wor/d, had been bu//t on the assumpt/on that sea /eve/ r/se wou/d be gradua/." "But /t was becom/ng c/ear that m/ght not be the case." "(Reporter) Sc/ent/sts say they are detect/ng a mass/ve sp/ke" "n the /eve/ of methane /n the atmosphere." "climate in general doesn't change smoothly the way, you know, we're used to seeing projections from climate models." "We find that the transitions from warm to cold or cold to warm, some of those transitions can be really, really abrupt." "Abrupt meaning within the time scale of a decade, or sometimes even less than a decade." "(Lucy) We knew there were certa/n th/ngs that cou/d rap/d/y turn up the heat." "But we d/dn't know what that t/pp/ng po/nt wou/d be unt// /t happened." "Maybe the tipping point is you heat up the tundra and the permafrost so much thatthere's a huge burp of methane and carbon dioxide out of those northern soils." "Methane is a big worry in my mind because it's some 20 to 30 times more potent than CO2." "(Bob Woodruff) An enormous reservo/r of methane, produced by decompos/ng p/ants and an/ma/s," "es bur/ed beneath the frozen arct/c tundra." "t has been there s/nce the /ce Age." "f the tundra thaws and a /arge quant/ty of the gas /s re/eased, g/oba/ temperatures wou/d soar." "This is a bit like a light switch." "You push the light switch a little bit and nothing happens." "You push a little bit more and nothing happens." "Then you push it a little more and it flips completely to a new state." "(Reporter) The methane emanat/ng from the arct/c cou/d ra/se temperatures wor/dw/de." "(Reporter, Fema/e) A pane/ of experts /s conven/ng to reca/cu/ate how warm the p/anet... (Reporter, Ma/e) ...drast/ca//y ra/se g/oba/ temperatures..." "This is what specialists call a nonIinearfIip or nonIinearchange." "When that happens, we don't know whatthe consequences will be." "(Reporter, Fema/e) Sp/k/ng g/oba/ temperatures are wreak/ng havoc w/th the Green/and /ce sheet." "(Reporter, Ma/e) Some fear that the co/ossa/ sheet /s on the verge of co//apse." "Un/ess drast/c measures are taken, /ow /y/ng coasta/ c/t/es around the wor/d cou/d expect to see d/sastrous f/ood/ng." "(Reporter, Fema/e) C/t/zens are demand/ng the/r governments respond to the /mpend/ng temperature..." "The Pentagon today he/d c/osed door meet/ngs to d/scuss c//mate change." "(Reporter, Ma/e) Our top story ton/ght, the Pres/dent /s announc/ng the cosm/c sh/e/d project wh/ch a/ms to ha/t the d/s/ntegrat/on of the Green/and /ce sheet." "Imagine that you are the president of the United States, and you have word that GreenIand is going to collapse in the next ten years, adding seven meters to sea level." "I'm not saying that is happening today." "I'm saying imagine thatwere to happen, and you were told that technology exists to stop it." "WouIdn'tyou be tempted to use it?" "(Lucy) /t d/dn't take /ong for the wor/d to agree." "A techno/ogy ex/sted that cou/d stop the /ce sheets from me/t/ng." "t shou/d be used." "Hundreds of jets from a// around the wor/d were spray/ng a m/st of su/fur d/ox/de" "nto the atmosphere." "The gas wou/d form part/c/es wh/ch wou/d shade the Earth and temporar//y coo/ /t." "This is your solution of last resort." "You say all belts are off, we arejust going to intervene in this system with reckless abandon." "For a year, there were these spectacu/ar sunsets." "But what are the other consequences of those things?" "Maybe it wouId cool the Earth, maybe itwouId cool it too much." "That might be a disaster in the opposite direction." "Maybe itwouId cause some other environmental problem thatwe don't foresee today." "(Lucy) The Earth coo/ed." "But that was the /east of /t." "(Reporter) Ton/ght /n Wash/ngton, there's debate on whether to fo//ow Ch/na and Great Br/ta/n and cease f/y/ng cosm/c sh/e/d m/ss/ons." "We've learned that in all aspects of engineering, there are unintended consequences." "(Reporter, Fema/e) The Surgeon Genera/ test/f/ed before Congress today on the hea/th effects of further... (Lucy) The c/oud was burn/ng off the ozone /ayer." "Once that was gone, every //v/ng creature wou/d be exposed to a mass/ve dose of rad/at/on." "The exper/ment was ha/ted." "Once they stopped spray/ng the gas, the /ce sheets cont/nued to me/t, but now at a qu/cker pace." "Sea /eve/ r/se wou/d soon be measured /n feet, not /nches." "If you end up with several meters of sea level rise, you change life as we know it." "(Reporter) /n New York, watchdog groups are now suggest/ng storm surge barr/ers may be too /ow." "(Lucy) Josh and the other eng/neers were work/ng around the c/ock to try to bu//d the barr/ers even h/gher." "But we a// knew we were /n a race aga/nst t/me." "Society is not set up to deal with rapid sea level rise." "It would be a catastrophe of - a magnitude we've never experienced." "One of our political leaders said not too long ago that the American way of Iife is non-negotiabIe." "We're going to discoverthe hard way thatwhen you don't negotiate the circumstances that are sent to you by the universe, you automatically get assigned a new negotiating partner named reality, and then itwiII negotiate for you." "You don't even have to be in the room." "(Reporter) A v/c/ous nor'easter /s headed up the East Coast." "t /s expected to h/t New York on the h/gh t/de th/s afternoon." "Storm surge cou/d be over 20 feet." "(Lucy) As the storm approached, the eng/neers started c/os/ng the ent/re bay wa//." "t abso/ute/y had to work or the c/ty wou/d be devastated." "t was terr/fy/ng." "Then the w/nds p/cked up and a gate got stuck." "That's a nightmare scenario, getting stuck halfway shut." "Because the waterwiII pour in and flood the city." "(Lucy) A team was assemb/ed to manua//y c/ose the gate." "They wou/d have to go out /nto the harbor by boat." " asked Josh not to go." " begged h/m to stay safe w/th me." "But th/s was h/s project." "He had to see /t through." "(Bob Woodruff) Earth 2100." "C/t/es abandoned." "Large parts of Amer/ca suffer/ng from drought." "The poss/b/e co//apse of c/v///zat/on." "The worst case scenar/o /n ton/ght's spec/a/ broadcast sounds //ke someth/ng out a sc/ence f/ct/on mov/e, but /t /s based on the work of some of the wor/d's foremost sc/ent/sts and th/nkers." "f you want to /earn more about how we deve/oped our /deas," "There you'// f/nd an annotated scr/pt of the ent/re program." "For each scenar/o portrayed /n our broadcast, we have /nc/uded the expert quotes and facts on wh/ch we base th/s v/s/on of the future." "AII ecosystems are extremely stressed by 2050." "You w/// a/so be ab/e to v/ew expanded sect/ons of se/ected /nterv/ews." "(Reporter, Fema/e) Pre//m/nary reports that one of the gates /n the Great Barr/er has fa//ed to c/ose." "(Reporter) We're awa/t/ng conf/rmat/on from the mayor's off/ce." "(Lucy) /t was h/gh t/de when the storm h/t." "(Reporter) F/ood/ng /n subway tunne/s throughout... (Reporter, Fema/e) Four, f/ve, and s/x tra/ns are affected." "(Lucy) The streets were f////ng w/th water." "(Reporter) The mayor has made the dec/s/on to evacuate C/ty Ha//." "(Lucy) Someth/ng had gone terr/b/y wrong." "(Reporter, Fema/e) See/ng tru/y catastroph/c f/ood/ng." "The tide comes in and on top of that, the surge." "(Reporter) The Ho//and and L/nco/n Tunne/s are f////ng w/th seawater..." "When New York began to flood, itwouId be total chaos." "(Reporter, Fema/e) There's an evacuat/on order /n effect for..." "The Office of Emergency Management says we have to evacuate." "We've got a problem." "The subway is full of seawater and itwill shut down." "What do people do?" "(Reporter) Author/t/es are now te///ng anyone st/// /n the c/ty to rema/n ca/m and stay /ns/de." "(Lucy) Outs/de, the storm raged." "A// / cou/d do was wa/t for Josh to come home." "When / heard the knock on my door, / knew." "He d/ed a hero, they sa/d." "But that was no comfort." " ca//ed Mo//y and she wept." "She wanted me to come //ve w/th her." "But / cou/dn't /eave." " just cou/dn't /eave." "(Reporter) .../ook/ng at four or f/ve feet of water." "We cou/d see the worst of th/s storm by 3.00 AM." "(Reporter, Fema/e) New Yorkers are go/ng to wake up /n a very d/fferent c/ty tomorrow." "(Lucy) As the sun rose the next day," "t was c/ear that both my c/ty and my //fe had been destroyed." "Battery Park fills up with seawater." "Lower west side" " lower east side." "brooklyn, Queens is flooded." "Kennedy Airport's flooded." "Newark Airport's flooded." "It's all gonna be underwater." "(Lucy) /n the com/ng days, when the waters receded, the c/ty was f//thy and everyth/ng that cou/d rot was rott/ng." "Peop/e wanted to /eave." "But for many of them, there was nowhere to go." "How welcoming will people be when New York or Boston sink under water and all those people, in their millions, come to New england or to pennsylvania?" "How welcoming will people be?" "(Lucy) / packed my th/ngs and set them at the door." "But / d/dn't /eave." " suppose you cou/d say / was stubborn." "And / was needed at Be//evue more than ever." "There were m////ons who needed someone to care for them." "As the seas rose, the wea/thy moved uptown to h/gher ground and h/red pr/vate compan/es to p/ck up the trash." "But /n the /ow-/y/ng s/ums, tap water was contam/nated." "Peop/e were so poor they ate on/y once a day, /f they ate at a//." "When people are hungry and people are malnourished, as you continue to have dispIacementwith floods, there's no doubt that's a perfect setup for certain types of infections." "(Lucy) / was work/ng the /ate sh/ft when the f/rst case came /n." "A young man w/th a cough and a h/gh fever." "And then / not/ced the b//sters a// over h/s body." "Was th/s the v/rus / had seen years ago?" "(Reporter) Another case of Casp/an fever... (Reporter, Fema/e) Hea/th off/c/a/s have /ssued a statement, ask/ng peop/e to avo/d pub//c..." "A// New York C/ty schoo/s have been shut down." "Representat/ves from the CDC... (Reporter) Th/s v/rus /s cause for concern." "(Lucy) W/th/n a week, over 20 were dead." "Peop/e on the streets wore masks, avo/ded each other." "The a/r was r/pe w/th pan/c." "(Reporter, Fema/e) ...rem/nd/ng c/t/zens to wash the/r hands and cover the/r mouths." "You would shut down factories." "You would shut down trade." "You would shut down commerce." "Everything would shut down." "(Reporter) Death to// from Casp/an Fever has now reached 107." "(Lucy) The v/rus cont/nued to mutate and spread." "So some long incubating virus that kills very fast, that's the kind ofthing that's going to get us." "(Lucy) /t on/y took an few peop/e on a few p/anes to spread /t around the wor/d." "(Reporter, Fema/e) Cases of the fever have been conf/rmed /n over 100 countr/es... (Reporter) Now est/mated that 10,000 have d/ed /n Mex/co..." "(Reporter, Fema/e) Temporary morgues have been set up /n the streets of Shangha/." "(Reporter) The Vat/can conducted a nat/ona/ funera/ mass today." "(Lucy) From S/ngapore to Sydney, the g/obe shut down." "Farmers wou/dn't br/ng food /nto c/t/es." "Cargo sh/ps wou/dn't dock, /et a/one un/oad." "B////ons were on the verge of starvat/on." " saw hundreds of peop/e d/e every day." " was /mmune." "One of the /ucky ones." "t was hard to fee/ anyth/ng." "There was too much to fee/." "You think about the effect that this kind of disasterwouId have." "Everybody's depressed." "What do you do with all the bodies?" "people just gonna, you know, take their loved ones to the local park and leave them there?" "At that point, cities will be unbearable." "(Lucy) You cou/d see /t on peop/e's faces on the street." "They had g/ven up." "As more and more peop/e d/ed, a// serv/ces broke down." "There were frequent b/ackouts." "And now connect/ons to the /nternet were /nterm/ttent at best." "(Reporter) Around the wor/d, deaths from the Casp/an Fever show no s/gns... (Lucy) And then one day, the powerjust went out." "The phones, the /nternet, the who/e data network went down." "Some sa/d /t was a terror/st." "Others thought /t was the f/ood/ng." "Sudden/y no one knew anyth/ng for sure." "If communication breaks down, rumor becomes the communication system and a mob psychology takes over." "collapse is not something that actually happens overnight." "It's the result of an accumulation of stresses, an erosion of the internal strength of society, so that itjust becomes like an eggshell." "And one last shock breaks it." "(Lucy) Loot/ng was rampant." "Most of the po//ce force deserted." "The mayor was nowhere to be found." "We wa/ted for the Pres/dent or the Nat/ona/ Guard to appear." "But no one came." "That's when /t dawned on us that the government," "ke so much e/se, had fa//ed." "If the world breaks down, if globalization breaks down, then even the capacity of the United States to kind of manage a degraded global environment" "I think will come into question." "What we'II see is the federal government being viewed as something not to be taken seriously anymore." "(Lucy) Reports were sketchy, but here's what / know for sure." "The v/rus cont/nued to spread." "nd/a and Ch/na had gone to war over water and who knew what e/se." "M////ons were dy/ng from fam/ne." "The human race was co//aps/ng under /ts own we/ght." "By that time, I will guess thatwe will be seeing a substantial die off ofthe human population." "Most of civil society will have degenerated." "(Lucy) / was 75 when / wa/ked across that George Wash/ngton Br/dge." "There were no check po/nts anymore." " /eft w/th a coup/e of fr/ends and a dog who had adopted me." "Rosy, / ca//ed her." "She never /eft my s/de." "But where was / go/ng?" " d/dn't know /f Mo//y was st/// a//ve." "Let a/one st/// on the farm up north." " d/dn't know /f / had a grandson anymore." "But that was my hope, that / cou/d somehow f/nd them or they me." "Afew hundred years down the line, they'II look back and say the Dark Ages began in the 21st century." "Our c/ty, beaut/fu/ c/ty, was abandoned." "And nature took over qu/ck/y." "As /t a/ways has." "The breakdown would be rather rapid." "The flooding of Manhattan would have a real destabilizing effect." "The subway tunnels would flood and they would stay flooded." "The columns that hold up the streets, they're steel, they will rust, they will corrode." "The streets above them start caving in, and Iow and behold, we have surface rivers once again in Manhattan." "Nature has that momentum, you see." "Take the thing back." "practically become like ajungIe." "From the asphaItjungIe to the reaIjungIe." "Your big skyscrapers here are well anchored into Manhattan schist." "On the other hand, they weren't designed to be water logged." "Itjust takes one hurricane to hit New York." "buildings are going to start to get taken out." "(Lucy) And /t wasn't just the c/ty." "Our who/e way of //fe had crumb/ed." "But / found my daughter Mo//y, and Dan/e/, my grandson." "He was a young man now." "Mo//y's husband George had been k///ed." "Both of us were w/dows now." "t /s a hard //fe." "The Un/ted States /s fragmented /nto a m////on chards." "We're a// cut off from each other." "Each protect/ng what //tt/e we have." "ItwouId be a wrenching transition, it wouId be a catastrophic transition." "It's something we don't want to experience." "The Dark Ages were called the Dark Ages for a reason." "I fearthatwe'II see a world like medieval Europe where you have feudal states fighting forwhat remains of a source of water, a source of energy." "(Lucy) We managed to produce our own power and commun/cate over rad/o waves." "The c/t/es that have endured are now wa//ed fortresses." "Jea/ous/y guard/ng whatever rema/ns of the computer age." "I'm picturing enclaves of affluence and wealth, but surrounded by vast masses of people who will be barely surviving." "In effect, humanity could very well be in hell." "Where hell is defined as truth realized too late." "We have had to re-/earn what we had un/earned centur/es before." "How to //ve off the /and." "How to make do." "I think we'II see a world in which literature, the arts, democracy, those will disappear, largely disappear." "How much of the wonderful scientific breakthroughs of the 20th and 21st century will still be retained?" "If it's some eIectronic-based thing, itcouId all be lost." "(Lucy) My grandson Dan/e/ m/ght never hear a symphony, go to co//ege, or read the books / read." "He w/// never marve/ at a r/ght wha/e, the beauty of a cora/ reef or a spotted ow/." "You ever actually get outside and just kind of look at the wonder of the world," " it takes your breath away." "And I think to think of a world where somehow that is taken away, is really sad." "We're going to leave a planet that is so desperately beaten up that itwill probably take hundreds ofthousands of years to get it back, to restore it." "We will have lost so much of our natural heritage." "(Lucy) / can teach h/m poems and songs." " can te// h/m what / saw and what / /earned a/ong the way." " can try to te// h/m what /s prec/ous." "What /s prec/ous?" " ought to know that." "They say / am the o/dest woman on Earth." "W/th age /s supposed to come w/sdom." "What /s prec/ous?" "Th/s Earth of ours." "Th/s garden we must tend." "These peop/e we /ove." "Lucy's story is a worst case scenario of whatcouId happen if we continue on our current path." "It's a wakeup call, a challenge for us to plan a different course." "But our experts say we must act immediately." "Where did Lucy's world go wrong?" "What can we learn from their mistakes?" "We turn back the clock now to show you a vision of a future we can still create." "There's a future out there that's a much presentfuture than the present thatwe're living in right now, to be sure." "If we took the measures we should take, 2100 would be at the beginning of an era that we, today, would regard as paradise." "We have a chance to get it right, to move from a disconnected inefficientworId of fighting populations, to a sustainable planet." "The problem we face today is how do we get from here to there?" "(Bob Woodruff) The wor/d that Lucy was born /nto /s our wor/d today." "There are p/enty of s/gns that /t's /n troub/e." "But there are hopefu/ s/gns as we//." "The problems thatwe face, water, soil, climate change, they're all problems caused by humans." "So we're capable of solving those problems." "It could be overwhelming if we let it." "I just try to take it one brick, one chunk at a time." "I think that's how you have to deal with it." "(Bob Woodruff) So what shou/d we do r/ght now to chart another course?" "How do we avo/d end/ng up /n Lucy's wor/d?" "Many experts say the f/rst step shou/d be transform/ng how we use energy." "Much of what we need to do we a/ready know." "plant a garden." "Use compactfIuorescent bulbs." "More mass transit for people." "insulate your homes." "smaller cars." "There's no simple solution, but 100% of the Earth's population doing a very small thing makes a big difference." "(Bob Woodruff) But /nd/v/dua/s a/one won't be ab/e to turn th/ngs around." "Governments and /ndustr/es are go/ng to have to change on a mass/ve sca/e." "We're going to have to come up with more solar, more wave power, more geothermal energy." "Beyond the fam///ar techno/og/es, amaz/ng new ones are a/ready /n the works." "F/e/ds of so/ar ba//oons that cou/d power thousands of homes a day." "A nuc/ear fus/on fac///ty that cou/d produce the energy of a t/ny manmade star." "We can't drill and burn our way out of our problems, but we can invent and invest ourway out." "(Bob Woodruff) Gett/ng enough of these projects up and runn/ng w/// take peop/e." "And that means jobs." "And /f we can put more peop/e back to work, then by 2015," "nstead of commun/t/es d/s/ntegrat/ng, they cou/d start to rebound." "You could fight pollution and poverty at the same time." "You can beat global warming and the economic downturn with the same dollar bill that you invested in green jobs, green energy, green technology." "(Bob Woodruff) /f we start those /nvestments today there wou/dn't be gas //nes and f/ghts as /n Lucy's wor/d." "nstead, there wou/d be e/ectr/c cars that cou/d run 300 m//es per charge." "But comp/ete/y redes/gn/ng our energy system wou/d requ/re rap/d change." "t wou/d mean both sacr/f/ce and hard work for the who/e country." "But we have done /t before." "The thing I would compare it to is world War II." "After pearl Harbor, FDR turned to Detroit, the automakers, and said, you will now make tanks." "You will now make Jeeps." "Just like that." "Thatwas like overnight almost, and they did it." "(Bob Woodruff) And we won that war." "t's go/ng to take that same /eve/ of comm/tment." "Imagine thataII of us did enough things that it made a real difference in our country." "What effect does that have on China, on India, on other nations?" "well, if we don't set an example as the strongest and most important country in the world, what do we expect them to do?" "They're not going to follow if we don't lead." "(Reporter, Fema/e) Wor/d /eaders are gather/ng /n Wash/ngton, DC, to attend an emergency g/oba/ summ/t meet/ng." "(Bob Woodruff) A turn/ng po/nt /n Lucy's wor/d was the g/oba/ summ/t of 2015." "When the wor/d /eaders fa//ed to agree on act/ons to s/ow c//mate change." "We do not accept the offer." "They set /n mot/on a// the d/sasters that wou/d fo//ow." "But what /f they had agreed?" "(Reporter, Fema/e) For the f/rst t/me ever, Ch/na, /nd/a, the US and Europe have reached an agreement that cou/d avert catastroph/c c//mate change." "By tackling climate change, you end up tackling energy, you end up tackling food, you end up tackling water resources." "You could change this vicious cycle I think into a virtuous cycle." "Then whatwe could see is actually billions of people coming into far more stable sustainable prosperous economies." "(Bob Woodruff) As we move forward /n the century, we w/// see the /nvestments and hard cho/ces we made ear/y on beg/n to pay off." "A positive scenario is fossil fuels will be disappearing." "We're growing more food with less water." "We've restored ecosystems." "(Bob Woodruff) By the m/dd/e of the century, we wou/d be us/ng water and other resources much more carefu//y." "Farmers wou/d be p/ant/ng drown res/stant crops." "Water wou/d be recyc/ed, and there wou/d be enough to support the US Southwest." "n 2050, p/aces //ke Las Vegas cou/d surv/ve." "The hope /s that once we f/gure out how to so/ve these prob/ems, we'// be /n a much better pos/t/on to he/p the rest of the wor/d." "If we can actually raise the prospects of the bottom few billion people, we actually make global stability possibility." "We reduce mass migration." "Refugee movements." "Desperation." "actually slow the population growth." "And if we do all those things, wejust bring a sustainable world prosperity cIoserto hand." "There's a very good chance by about 2050, the worst part of the crisis having passed, doesn't mean there aren't going to be big problems still to face." "But it means that we will have avoided sailing right off the cliff." "(Bob Woodruff) By 2100, our wor/d cou/d be transformed." "Just imagine a city that is not polluted, that has a great transportation infrastructure." "stackable cars or cars that are folding and then they would charge and be a shared ownership model and you wouIdjust pull out the one that's available that's fully charged." "Everything happens inside the city itself." "That means ourfood production, ourwaste and recycling, our energy." "We're going to havejoint management of water resources, of energy resources." "We're going to be living on a pIanetwhere we don't see things at a national level, but we see things at a global level." "By the time we get to 2100, the challenge of building a global green economy, where we're sharing technologies, not fighting wars overwater and oil, that's going to bring out the best in the human family." "Humanity will be relatively disease free." "children will be treated as rare treasures." "Most people don't realize not only can we change, we must change." "And I think that's how you own the future." "That's how you take control of your destiny." "I have huge faith in humanity." "We will be able to create a world thatwiII have a livable planet for our kids and their kids, that is our opportunity." "That is our obligation." "Kids born today will see us navigate past the first greatest test of humanity, which is can we actually be smart enough to live on a pIanetwithout destroying it." "In December this year, nearly 200 countries plan to meet in Copenhagen, Denmark." "Their mission, to draw up a strategy to finally come up with a global agreement to slow climate change and safeguard the planet." "If you'd Iike to Iearn more about "Earth 2100" or if you want to get involved in the solutions," "I'm Bob Woodruff." "For all of us here at ABC News, good night."