Before the Flood Page #4

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unwittingly changing the world's

climate through the waste

products of this civilization.

Due to our release through

factories and automobiles

every year of more than 6

billion tons of carbon dioxide.

Our atmosphere seems

to be getting warmer.

This is bad?

Well it's been calculated a few

degrees rise in the earth's

temperature would melt

the polar ice caps.

Fact is, we've known

about this problem for decades

and decades, for

over half a century.

Every day I send

you a thousand times more power

than you use in a year.

Anybody working on getting power

direct from old glow hard here?

Oh yes but not nearly enough,

roll 6b! The solar battery.

Imagine the world right now,

if we had taken the science of

climate change seriously

back then.

But our engineers

will have to build efficient

generators that spread out

over acres, even square miles.

To compete with the cheap coal

and oil still available to us.

Since then, our

population has increased

by almost 5 billion

people and counting.

And China has recently surpassed

the United States as the world's

number one polluter.

The problem has become even

more difficult to solve.

Oh now we're on the

opposite side of the street

again. Ok.

Now we're in a bike lane.

Air-pocalypse,

schools have been shut down,

the toxicity has reached

that worst level.

It's absolutely brilliant,

you don't allow these companies

to operate in the dark.

Chinese media

talks about climate change

on a regular basis.

Is there a giant push

towards solar and wind here,

is that the next step?

China's got some of the

biggest wind and solar companies

in the world now.

Even though China has some

of the largest challenges,

like huge population, China's

gonna prioritize wind and solar

rather than coal.

If China can do it, then I think

the rest of the world can.

China is still heavily

relying on fossil fuels,

but they seem to be

transitioning to renewables

much faster than

anyone anticipated.

The question is, can less

developed countries with rapidly

growing populations make

the same transition?

India is the

world's third largest emitter

yet the country is struggling

with massive power shortages

and rolling blackouts.

India has consistently said

that its biggest priority

is development and bringing

people out of poverty.

We care about climate change.

But the fact is we are a country

where energy access is as much

a challenge as climate change.

We need to make sure that every

Indian has access to energy.

From what I understood

there are 300 million people

without power, without

light here in India.

Yes, yes.

That's equivalent to

the entire population here

of the United States.

Today in villages,

Indian villages you will find

people take cow dung and

they make what is known,

called cow dung cakes

or uples in Hindi,

and they burn those.

And that's their only

source of cooking energy.

So they will make

food now over this.

Coal is cheap whether

you and I like it or not,

coal is cheap.

You have to think about this

from this point of view.

If you created the

problem in the past,

we will create it in the future.

We have 700 million households

who cook using biomass today,

700 million households.

If those households move to coal

you have that much more use

of fossil fuels, then the

entire world is fried.

If anyone gives you this very

cute stuff and tells you,

Oh the world's poor

should move to solar, and,

Why do they have to make the

mistakes that we have made?

I hear this all the time

from American engineers.

And I'm like, wow!

You know, I mean, if it was that

easy I would have really liked

the U.S. to move towards solar,

but you haven't.

Let's put our money

where our mouth is.

We have to

practice what we preach.

Absolutely.

I am sorry to say this,

I know you're an American,

and please don't

take this amiss,

but your consumption is going to

really put a hole in the planet.

And I think that's the

conversation we need to have.

I'll show you charts

from this perspective,

electricity consumed by one

American at home is equivalent

to 1.5 citizens of France,

2.2 citizens of Japan,

and 10 citizens of China,

34 of India, 61 of Nigeria.

Why?

Because you're building

bigger, you're building more

and using much more than before.

The fact is that we need to

put the issue of lifestyle

and consumption at the center

of climate negotiations.

Look I, there is no

way I don't agree with you,

how can you argue that?

You're absolutely

correct and I think yes,

it's a very difficult argument

to present to Americans

that we need to change our

lifestyle and I would also

argue that it's probably

not going to happen.

So we are dependent, if we want

to solve the climate crisis,

on the fact that hopefully

renewables like solar and wind

will become cheaper and cheaper

and cheaper the more money

we funnel into them, the more we

invest into them and ultimately

it will solve that problem.

But I, you're shaking

your head obviously.

I'm shaking my head

Indian style which means no.

Right.

Who will invest, Leo?

Let's be real about this,

who will invest and how

will you invest in it?

We are doing more

investment in solar today,

China is doing much more

investment in solar today

than the U.S. is.

What is the U.S. doing

which the rest of the world

can learn from?

You're a fossil-addicted

country,

but if you are seriously

disengaging it's something

for us to learn from.

And it will be leadership

that we can all hold up

to our government and say

listen if the U.S. can do it

and the U.S. is doing it,

in spite of all their pressures,

we can do it as well.

The sad part of it is,

it's just not happening.

And people like me, we are

rich enough to withstand

the first hit of climate change

but it's the poor of India,

it's the poor of Africa,

it's the poor of Bangladesh,

who are impacted today by what

I believe is the first signs

of climate change.

So February and March,

which is when the crops

are standing, they got

half the year's rainfall

in just five hours.

Half the year's

rainfall in five hours?

So these crops

are all destroyed?

Yeah destroyed.

Your back is breaking doing this

and then you get one unseasonal

rainfall, it's absolutely

like the last straw

on the camel's back.

And we need countries to believe

that climate change is real

and urgent.

It's not a figment

of their imagination.

The U.S. has been the

biggest emitter of greenhouse

gases in history, and there's no

doubt that we've all benefited

from fossil fuels.

I know I have.

My footprint is probably a lot

bigger than most people's,

and there are times

when I question,

what is the right thing to do?

What actions should

we be taking?

There are over a billion people

out there without electricity,

and they want lights,

they want heat,

they want the lifestyle that

we've had in the United States

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