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(gentle music)
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- Functionally, coral reefs
will disappear in our lifetime
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if we don't take drastic measures.
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That is a fact, a tragic fact.
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- Finding Philippe Cousteau
Jr. is no easy task.
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Although typically he's deep underwater,
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I was finally able to
find him above ground,
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being a bit of a land mammal this time.
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He is in the Sierra Mountain Range
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and he's on a camping trip,
which was windy, remote,
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and very true to form
for an explorer like him.
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But thanks to technology,
we're able to talk.
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Philippe is the grandson
of Jacques Cousteau,
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the man who invented scuba diving
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and brought the ocean into
living rooms around the world.
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Philippe grew up at sea
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and he's made the ocean
his life's work also.
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He founded Earth Echo
International, which is dedicated
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to building the next
generation of ocean advocates.
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And over the last several years,
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he's turned his attention to what he calls
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the most under-reported
environmental crisis on the planet,
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which is the collapse of coral reefs.
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(dramatic music)
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Welcome to "Back from the Brink"
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from Mutual of Omaha's "Wild Kingdom."
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I'm Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant.
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- [Peter] Each episode,
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we're going deep on a variety of species
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and those that went to the
very edge of disappearing
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and the people that
fought to bring them back.
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Coral reefs cover less than
1% of the ocean's floor,
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yet they support a quarter
of all marine life.
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Since the 1950s, we've lost half of them.
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Before we get to what's being
done, we need to understand
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what we're losing and why almost
no one is talking about it.
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- For the folks who are watching this
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but may not have spent time underwater,
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can you just describe, first
of all, what is a coral reef,
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what are corals,
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and then what roles do
reefs play in the oceans?
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- Coral reefs are critical ecosystems,
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and oftentimes, people forget
just how important they are.
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They are arguably the most
biodiverse ecosystem on Earth,
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land or sea,
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and they're much more than
pretty fish and snorkeling.
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Coral reefs are, of course,
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critical to biodiversity and fish.
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Tourism, they provide about
two and a half trillion dollars
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of goods and services a year.
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They contribute tens
of billions of dollars
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to the global tourism industry,
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tens of billions to fisheries.
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Hard to estimate, but
three quarters of a billion
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to one billion people rely on coral reefs
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for their livelihoods every
year around the world.
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And so when I think of coral reefs,
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I think of them as infrastructure.
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Now, the really sad part,
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oftentimes when I'm
giving talks or lectures,
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I'll ask people how much
of the world's rainforests
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have disappeared in our lifetime?
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And the answer is usually 60, 70%.
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And I understand there's
a lot of press and media
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around the rainforests and
the decline of the Amazon,
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and it is terrible, but the
answer is about 17 to 20%.
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Yet in our lifetimes, we've
lost 50% of the world's reefs.
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And it's very possible
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that reefs become functionally
extinct in our lifetime
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because of climate change
and local pollution
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and development and overfishing.
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So coral reefs are in
a much greater crisis
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than land terrestrial forests
and rainforests by far,
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and yet most people give
it a collective shrug
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and the global community largely
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gives it a collective shrug.
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And that's a really big problem.
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- I just have to jump in here
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because these are statistics
that folks really need to hear.
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A global shrug, I mean,
do you think it's...
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I know that there's a lot of reasons why,
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one is that there are a lot of
barriers to going underwater.
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So most people haven't seen
a reef, touched a reef,
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swam in one, looked at
it with their own eyes.
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But I think also the average person
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isn't really familiar with coral.
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So can you even describe
to us what are corals
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and what do they do and why
do we need them to stay alive?
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- A lot of people do look at coral reefs
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and think of them as painted
rocks, colored rocks.
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In fact, coral reefs are living organisms.
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Coral polyps are part plant, part animal,
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a little bacteria thrown
in for good measure.
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They're fascinating creatures.
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They build like the apartment
buildings of reefs systems.
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They construct little calcium
carbonate homes around them.
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And over millennia, they build new layer
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upon layer upon layer upon layer.
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So the outer layer of a
reef is the only layer
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that has living tissue.
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Everything underneath is essentially
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calcium carbonate limestone.
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And in fact, it is coral
reefs that have built
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the Parthenon and the Washington Monument.
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Old limestone predominantly
comes from the ocean.
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They are the critical structure builders
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of coastal ecosystems,
tropical coastal ecosystems,
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and they are, as I said, one of the most,
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if not the most biodiverse
ecosystem on the planet.
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25% of the world's seafood
spends part of its life in
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or around or dependent upon a coral reef.
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So they are absolutely critical
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to the global ocean ecosystem
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and affect, as I said,
hundreds of millions
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up to a billion people's
lives very directly,
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from economic development and growth
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and jobs to protecting
coastlines from storm surge
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that's getting increasingly worse.
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So they look pretty,
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but they provide a structural function,
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almost like infrastructure
that is critical
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for coastal health of the ocean.
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- I know that you and
I believe coral reefs
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are inherently valuable.
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They should just exist whether
they're providing services
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or not, but they also
do protect coastlines
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where humans live from
storm surges and flooding.
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- Yeah, they do, and that's something,
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we think about coral reefs
as shields, coastal shields.
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Now, coral reefs can absorb
up to 97% of storm surge.
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They can reduce wave height up to 84%,
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and so in a world with
increasingly catastrophic cyclones,
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hurricanes, typhoons, coral
reefs play a very important role
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along tropical coastlines
to reduce the storm surge.
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In coastal communities, it's
the storm surge, not the wind,
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that can be so damaging and
so destructive and deadly,
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and so both to land-based infrastructure,
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homes, businesses, and
also people's lives,
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thousands of people can die
from these massive storms,
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and just the storm surge
may cost the global economy
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tens of billions, up to over
a hundred billion a year
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in mitigation costs and
construction and repair costs
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when these storms come through
and coral reefs collapse.
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And as I said, warming ocean temperatures
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are causing corals to die,
but going back a hundred years
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in a lot of these
communities, overfishing,
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dynamite fishing, a lot of places in Asia
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throw literally dynamite in the water.
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It explodes and stuns the fish.
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They float to the surface, they
scoop them up with the net,
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but that dynamite just happens
to destroy everything else,
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to cyanide fishing that they'll also do,
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to squirt cyanide on these
reefs to get the fish stunned
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and they scoop them up
and it kills everything,
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to development and human waste
causing too much nutrients
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in the water that causes algal blooms.
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That's a big problem
in places like Florida
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and the Caribbean,
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or to outright just
destruction for ports, piers.
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So reefs have been under
onslaught for over a century,
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and now with climate change,
warming ocean temperatures,
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it's just really another
nail in the coffin
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that's terrifying.
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- [Peter] Philippe hasn't
just studied decline
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from a distance.
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He's watched it happen
underwater over decades,
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returning to the same reefs
and seeing what remains.
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He has a term for why
the disappearing reef
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has gone unnoticed by much of the world.
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He calls it shifting baselines.
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- To your point, it's been
relatively invisible, right?
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We haven't had huge
campaigns dating back decades
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and decades to protect the reefs.
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This is something that has been coming up
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after we as a society have realized
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we've kind of gone past
these critical points.
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But before we get to solutions,
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I want to talk about your lifetime
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because I am anticipating
that you got in the water
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when you were a kid,
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and I imagine you still get
in the water as an adult.
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So what kinds of declines
in coral reef health
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and existence have you
seen in your own lifetime
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and what has that actually looked like?
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- I actually did a piece for
Discovery several years ago
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down in the Florida Keys, and
I knew one of the filmmakers
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that had filmed there for decades,
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and so we got him to give us some footage
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that he had shot in the 1980s.
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And then this was probably,
I want to say 2008 maybe,
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so it's quite a bit ago,
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so about 20 years later, 25 years later.
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And we went back to the exact
same spot that he filmed
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and we played the footage side by side.
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Having grown up diving and snorkeling
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and seeing these places,
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one of the challenges
we faced is this idea
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of shifting baselines,
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that every successive
generation's baseline
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for the health of the
ecosystem and the environment
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is what they were first exposed to.
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As I said earlier, even my
grandfather saw a massive decline
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from the '40s to the '60s that
raised alarm bells for him.
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Nowadays, we'd look at the
'60s and go, "Paradise."
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So our context changes.
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My context certainly from the
'80s to now is terrifying,
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but seeing it side by
side, the same exact places
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with the same cameramen filming them,
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seeing what in the '80s
were these abundant,
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beautiful elkhorn reefs,
huge schools of fish
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and all of this life, clear,
clean, beautiful blue water,
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and then the late 2000s,
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all of that coral was dead
rubble covered in algae
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and a few fish poking around.
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And we've seen the Great Barrier Reef.
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First time I visited the Great
Barrier Reef was in the '90s,
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going back just a few years
ago for a syndicated show
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that I hosted for several years,
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it was bleached and
covered in algae again,
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the same places that I'd
been that were abundant.
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So it really is, you think of it on land,
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like seeing an abundant,
beautiful rainforest
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and going back a few years
later and it's been clear cut
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and there's some shrubs left.
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That's essentially what
we're doing in the ocean,
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but at a much larger scale.
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Again, half the world's
coral reefs have disappeared,
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about 17% of the Amazon is gone.
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So we're doing it much
more rapidly in the ocean.
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I guarantee you if half
the Amazon disappeared,
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people would be losing their minds.
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But because it's in the ocean,
people are kind of like,
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"Meh, it's still blue,
what's the problem?"
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- Just as an opinion question,
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if we were to continue
with business as usual,
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how close do you think we
are to losing reefs entirely
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if there weren't interventions?
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- Functionally, coral reefs
will disappear in our lifetime
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if we don't take drastic measures.
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That is a fact, a tragic fact.
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And the reality is that while
there will be pockets of reefs
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that no doubt survive, we've
identified areas of reefs
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that are still being resilient,
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at scale as a functioning
ecosystem around the world,
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it doesn't help the Caribbean very much
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to have reefs in Indonesia,
few smattering of reefs survive
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when the reefs in the
Caribbean have disappeared.
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And actually in most places,
up to 95% of the reefs
249
00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:21,660
in the Caribbean have already disappeared.
250
00:11:21,660 --> 00:11:23,610
Massive alarm bells, huge problems.
251
00:11:23,610 --> 00:11:25,290
- I think that's so poignant
252
00:11:25,290 --> 00:11:27,360
that we essentially are creating
253
00:11:27,360 --> 00:11:29,490
this negative feedback loop,
254
00:11:29,490 --> 00:11:34,230
like destroying coral reefs is
impacting human communities,
255
00:11:34,230 --> 00:11:37,140
which impacts ecosystems
larger and larger,
256
00:11:37,140 --> 00:11:40,230
and we could turn it into
a positive feedback loop,
257
00:11:40,230 --> 00:11:44,070
where healthy ecosystems
enhance the ability
258
00:11:44,070 --> 00:11:45,900
for healthy human communities
259
00:11:45,900 --> 00:11:47,850
and healthy human communities
protect the reefs.
260
00:11:47,850 --> 00:11:49,380
And that's where we're at.
261
00:11:49,380 --> 00:11:52,500
We're trying to shift the feedback loop
262
00:11:52,500 --> 00:11:54,630
from negative to positive,
263
00:11:54,630 --> 00:11:57,540
and people like you are doing that.
264
00:11:57,540 --> 00:11:58,373
- [Peter] The technology to grow
265
00:11:58,373 --> 00:12:01,410
and restore coral reefs already exist.
266
00:12:01,410 --> 00:12:04,740
The problem isn't science, it's the scale.
267
00:12:04,740 --> 00:12:07,710
Philippe has spent decades
working on that problem,
268
00:12:07,710 --> 00:12:11,580
starting with a chance meeting
with one scientist in Florida
269
00:12:11,580 --> 00:12:12,873
that changed everything.
270
00:12:14,220 --> 00:12:15,390
- I want you to talk to us
271
00:12:15,390 --> 00:12:18,450
about the efforts to restore coral reefs,
272
00:12:18,450 --> 00:12:23,450
kind of the conventional style
versus some more innovative,
273
00:12:24,420 --> 00:12:28,173
more scalable approaches that
you've been spearheading.
274
00:12:28,173 --> 00:12:30,840
- I was 19 years old and I met a scientist
275
00:12:30,840 --> 00:12:32,490
named Dr. David Vaughan,
276
00:12:32,490 --> 00:12:35,460
who was based out of Harbor
Branch Oceanographic Institution
277
00:12:35,460 --> 00:12:37,200
in Fort Pierce, Florida.
278
00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:41,040
He had pioneered multiple
different kinds of aquacultures
279
00:12:41,040 --> 00:12:42,960
over the decades of his career,
280
00:12:42,960 --> 00:12:45,960
things like clams and oysters, shrimp,
281
00:12:45,960 --> 00:12:49,050
and he turned his attention to coral.
282
00:12:49,050 --> 00:12:52,620
So he started growing corals
in land-based nurseries,
283
00:12:52,620 --> 00:12:57,620
farms essentially, and found
that they would grow faster
284
00:12:58,530 --> 00:12:59,910
in land-based farms.
285
00:12:59,910 --> 00:13:03,420
And he did that initially
for selling those corals
286
00:13:03,420 --> 00:13:05,733
into the ornamental aquarium industry.
287
00:13:06,600 --> 00:13:09,960
Now, because most corals, even today,
288
00:13:09,960 --> 00:13:13,470
in that industry are caught
and harvested from the wild
289
00:13:13,470 --> 00:13:18,470
and sold into wild reefs, into aquariums.
290
00:13:18,540 --> 00:13:21,390
- This kind of sounds
like poaching kind of.
291
00:13:21,390 --> 00:13:23,670
- Yeah, in a way, I mean,
a lot of it's illegal,
292
00:13:23,670 --> 00:13:27,660
some of it is legal, but
we're essentially degrading
293
00:13:27,660 --> 00:13:30,423
these already degraded systems
to sell into aquariums.
294
00:13:31,260 --> 00:13:33,577
- It doesn't make any sense,
and so Dr. Vaughan said,
295
00:13:33,577 --> 00:13:35,970
"Could I farm these, like
you would farm saplings
296
00:13:35,970 --> 00:13:37,920
in a greenhouse, and sell those?"
297
00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:40,980
So we're reducing pressure
on the ornamental business
298
00:13:40,980 --> 00:13:43,650
off of wild reefs.
299
00:13:43,650 --> 00:13:44,940
So when I met him, I said, "Wow, Dave,
300
00:13:44,940 --> 00:13:46,290
this is pretty amazing technology.
301
00:13:46,290 --> 00:13:49,380
Do you think we could
actually grow these corals
302
00:13:49,380 --> 00:13:53,700
in captivity for restoring wild reefs,
303
00:13:53,700 --> 00:13:56,040
not just to sell into
the ornamental industry?"
304
00:13:56,040 --> 00:13:58,230
And Dave said, "I don't
know, but I think so."
305
00:13:58,230 --> 00:13:59,760
He started a lab at Moates,
306
00:13:59,760 --> 00:14:01,800
Marine Laboratory down in the Keys,
307
00:14:01,800 --> 00:14:06,180
and pioneered all the technology
that everybody uses today
308
00:14:06,180 --> 00:14:09,840
for aquaculturing corals
in land-based nurseries,
309
00:14:09,840 --> 00:14:11,640
things like microfragmentation,
310
00:14:11,640 --> 00:14:14,040
where he proved you could
grow corals 20 times faster
311
00:14:14,040 --> 00:14:16,860
on land than they can grow in the ocean.
312
00:14:16,860 --> 00:14:19,440
And we can harvest heat-tolerant corals
313
00:14:19,440 --> 00:14:23,640
that would eventually, more
resilient corals will take over,
314
00:14:23,640 --> 00:14:26,910
but on a geological timeframe,
we don't have that timeframe.
315
00:14:26,910 --> 00:14:29,957
We're operating in a human
time, destructive timeframe.
316
00:14:29,957 --> 00:14:32,457
And so we can grow
heat-tolerant corals much faster
317
00:14:32,457 --> 00:14:35,490
and outplant them back into the wild.
318
00:14:35,490 --> 00:14:38,490
So 22 years or so goes by,
319
00:14:38,490 --> 00:14:40,770
Dave made all this technology
available to the world
320
00:14:40,770 --> 00:14:44,340
and many NGOs and
nonprofits are utilizing it,
321
00:14:44,340 --> 00:14:46,500
but at a very, very small scale.
322
00:14:46,500 --> 00:14:49,350
So in 20 years, we've restored
about one square kilometer
323
00:14:49,350 --> 00:14:51,570
of corals and lost thousands.
324
00:14:51,570 --> 00:14:53,880
And so we were both very frustrated that,
325
00:14:53,880 --> 00:14:57,360
my goodness, we have a big problem,
326
00:14:57,360 --> 00:14:59,430
this technology isn't scaling.
327
00:14:59,430 --> 00:15:02,490
So it's not scaling in scope
and size the way it needs to
328
00:15:02,490 --> 00:15:04,740
to outpace ecological decline.
329
00:15:04,740 --> 00:15:07,710
We're losing thousands. We've built one.
330
00:15:07,710 --> 00:15:10,680
I did history at uni, I'm
not really good at math,
331
00:15:10,680 --> 00:15:13,320
but I know those numbers
don't work out so well.
332
00:15:13,320 --> 00:15:17,640
And so the question then
is, what's holding us back?
333
00:15:17,640 --> 00:15:18,473
We have the technology,
334
00:15:18,473 --> 00:15:20,400
we know how to grow these corals quickly,
335
00:15:20,400 --> 00:15:22,500
and a lot of NGOs are
doing really laudable work
336
00:15:22,500 --> 00:15:26,130
and it's lovely and really
important and I support it,
337
00:15:26,130 --> 00:15:29,220
but replanting a few meters
of reef is irrelevant
338
00:15:29,220 --> 00:15:31,770
to actually preventing these
systems from collapsing.
339
00:15:31,770 --> 00:15:34,200
So we realize we need to stop
thinking about coral reefs
340
00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:38,100
as these biodiverse ecosystems
and restore corals by hand,
341
00:15:38,100 --> 00:15:40,623
planting them onto some
rubble in the ground.
342
00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:44,760
We need to actually think
of reefs as what they are,
343
00:15:44,760 --> 00:15:47,340
which is infrastructure,
and the good news is, again,
344
00:15:47,340 --> 00:15:52,050
I think that so many instances
from marine-protected areas
345
00:15:52,050 --> 00:15:54,180
to technology and tracking fisheries
346
00:15:54,180 --> 00:15:57,000
to regenerative farming on land
347
00:15:57,000 --> 00:15:59,700
and rebuilding the carbon
sequestration potential of soil,
348
00:15:59,700 --> 00:16:04,050
we know there are extraordinary
solutions that exist.
349
00:16:04,050 --> 00:16:07,650
Now, the question is not
to keep researching them,
350
00:16:07,650 --> 00:16:12,150
not to keep testing them,
but to deploy them at scale.
351
00:16:12,150 --> 00:16:14,310
That's the challenge, I believe,
352
00:16:14,310 --> 00:16:17,580
for the next iteration of
the environmental movement.
353
00:16:17,580 --> 00:16:20,580
- This has been just a
tremendous education for me,
354
00:16:20,580 --> 00:16:23,640
and what keeps coming up for me
355
00:16:23,640 --> 00:16:27,210
is how incredibly
intersectional this approach is.
356
00:16:27,210 --> 00:16:31,230
So in the past, we've had
conservation biologists,
357
00:16:31,230 --> 00:16:34,050
like myself, I am a trained biologist
358
00:16:34,050 --> 00:16:36,570
working on these issues and
coming up with solutions.
359
00:16:36,570 --> 00:16:40,170
But it sounds like with the
company that you've created
360
00:16:40,170 --> 00:16:42,810
focused on solutions for reefs,
361
00:16:42,810 --> 00:16:47,810
you have people with skills
in biology and ecology,
362
00:16:48,060 --> 00:16:50,070
but also urban planning
363
00:16:50,070 --> 00:16:53,100
and business, certainly finance.
364
00:16:53,100 --> 00:16:55,830
I mean, tell me about all
of the different skill sets
365
00:16:55,830 --> 00:16:59,070
that come to play to make this successful.
366
00:16:59,070 --> 00:17:00,840
- Well, it's what's so
fascinating about this work.
367
00:17:00,840 --> 00:17:04,200
Fundamentally, the team
that we've brought together
368
00:17:04,200 --> 00:17:06,450
is just what you're saying,
it's multidisciplinary.
369
00:17:06,450 --> 00:17:10,653
We have 3D construction
printers, engineers, biologists,
370
00:17:11,490 --> 00:17:14,070
farmers that are farming the coral
371
00:17:14,070 --> 00:17:16,020
the way you would farm anything,
372
00:17:16,020 --> 00:17:18,360
technologists using AI
and machine learning.
373
00:17:18,360 --> 00:17:22,080
We have engineers that
are just building tanks
374
00:17:22,080 --> 00:17:24,030
and maintaining these systems,
375
00:17:24,030 --> 00:17:26,400
divers and marine biologists
that are going out
376
00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:28,200
and planting these corals
and restoring these reefs
377
00:17:28,200 --> 00:17:29,310
and monitoring and tracking them.
378
00:17:29,310 --> 00:17:31,500
People building underwater
drones that we're testing
379
00:17:31,500 --> 00:17:33,930
and training the AI models to monitor
380
00:17:33,930 --> 00:17:35,490
and maintain these reefs over time.
381
00:17:35,490 --> 00:17:36,450
Because when you think about them
382
00:17:36,450 --> 00:17:37,770
as critical infrastructure,
383
00:17:37,770 --> 00:17:40,650
you build a port, a road,
a rail and it breaks down,
384
00:17:40,650 --> 00:17:42,210
you don't just say, "Oh, good luck."
385
00:17:42,210 --> 00:17:44,100
You maintain it over time.
386
00:17:44,100 --> 00:17:48,060
So it is bringing together
a multidisciplinary approach
387
00:17:48,060 --> 00:17:49,770
to solving this kind of a problem
388
00:17:49,770 --> 00:17:53,340
that is the only way we're
going to be able to do it.
389
00:17:53,340 --> 00:17:55,050
- Can I just back you up for a moment,
390
00:17:55,050 --> 00:17:58,620
because did you say 3D printing coral?
391
00:17:58,620 --> 00:18:00,360
- So we're not 3D printing coral.
392
00:18:00,360 --> 00:18:02,550
We're 3D printing the
underlying structure.
393
00:18:02,550 --> 00:18:04,740
So think about it as the foundation.
394
00:18:04,740 --> 00:18:07,680
So coral reefs, as I said, over millennia,
395
00:18:07,680 --> 00:18:10,530
each generation of coral
will build its little home,
396
00:18:10,530 --> 00:18:12,390
and then the next generation
will build a little home
397
00:18:12,390 --> 00:18:14,970
on that and millions of them all together,
398
00:18:14,970 --> 00:18:16,470
they layer upon layer upon layer,
399
00:18:16,470 --> 00:18:17,940
and that's how a reef is built.
400
00:18:17,940 --> 00:18:19,230
We don't have that time.
401
00:18:19,230 --> 00:18:21,180
When coral dies, surprisingly,
402
00:18:21,180 --> 00:18:24,600
that structure degrades
relatively quickly,
403
00:18:24,600 --> 00:18:26,910
and so hence, Caribbean islands
404
00:18:26,910 --> 00:18:29,370
that not only don't have
coral, they don't have reefs,
405
00:18:29,370 --> 00:18:31,050
so there's no protection
from this storm surgery,
406
00:18:31,050 --> 00:18:34,230
or Vietnam and the Philippines
and Indonesia, et cetera.
407
00:18:34,230 --> 00:18:37,470
So what we do is use 3D
construction printers
408
00:18:37,470 --> 00:18:42,470
to actually mimic what that
coral structure would be,
409
00:18:43,140 --> 00:18:46,380
the nooks and crannies, the
hydrological nature of that
410
00:18:46,380 --> 00:18:49,470
in order to diffuse and
distribute the energy
411
00:18:49,470 --> 00:18:52,560
from storm surge, which is
what regular coral reefs do.
412
00:18:52,560 --> 00:18:55,680
Currently, sea walls, which
is usually the solution,
413
00:18:55,680 --> 00:18:56,910
they're designed literally as that,
414
00:18:56,910 --> 00:18:59,700
a wall to stop the energy of the ocean,
415
00:18:59,700 --> 00:19:04,700
and that energy then is
diverted up or down the coast,
416
00:19:04,980 --> 00:19:08,130
digging out beaches, destroying currents,
417
00:19:08,130 --> 00:19:10,620
destroying the hydrology of those areas.
418
00:19:10,620 --> 00:19:12,270
So seawalls can eventually break down
419
00:19:12,270 --> 00:19:14,700
because you can't beat the ocean.
420
00:19:14,700 --> 00:19:17,760
Reefs evolved over millions
of years with the ocean
421
00:19:17,760 --> 00:19:20,550
to diffuse and disperse
that energy with all, again,
422
00:19:20,550 --> 00:19:22,410
the little pillars and nooks
and crannies and cracks
423
00:19:22,410 --> 00:19:24,060
and caves, et cetera.
424
00:19:24,060 --> 00:19:26,160
So we can reprint that kind of structure
425
00:19:26,160 --> 00:19:31,160
with 3D construction printers
to high fidelity, high detail,
426
00:19:31,230 --> 00:19:32,940
place that in the water,
427
00:19:32,940 --> 00:19:35,400
and then you plant the
corals on top of that
428
00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:37,113
and then let them do their thing.
429
00:19:38,100 --> 00:19:39,990
- [Peter] The commercial
model in the 3D printing
430
00:19:39,990 --> 00:19:41,880
solved the infrastructure problem,
431
00:19:41,880 --> 00:19:45,840
but the coral itself still has
to survive in warming water.
432
00:19:45,840 --> 00:19:48,180
That's where nature has quietly been doing
433
00:19:48,180 --> 00:19:49,710
something remarkable,
434
00:19:49,710 --> 00:19:52,010
and Philippe has found
a way to accelerate it.
435
00:19:53,010 --> 00:19:57,720
- So I also heard you talk
about when the King of Jordan,
436
00:19:57,720 --> 00:19:59,670
when you got that person's attention
437
00:19:59,670 --> 00:20:03,360
and they were so jazzed
by these solutions,
438
00:20:03,360 --> 00:20:05,760
you mentioned that that part of the world
439
00:20:05,760 --> 00:20:08,340
has some heat-tolerant corals,
440
00:20:08,340 --> 00:20:11,490
and considering we have a warming climate,
441
00:20:11,490 --> 00:20:13,860
is this something to get excited about?
442
00:20:13,860 --> 00:20:16,410
- It's actually the resilience of nature.
443
00:20:16,410 --> 00:20:19,200
So we see heat-tolerant
corals around the world,
444
00:20:19,200 --> 00:20:20,100
which is the good news.
445
00:20:20,100 --> 00:20:22,680
Those corals over, again,
a geological timeframe
446
00:20:22,680 --> 00:20:26,160
will no doubt take over that ecosystem,
447
00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:28,200
but we don't have that time.
448
00:20:28,200 --> 00:20:31,447
So we instead, right, so
for example, a stony coral,
449
00:20:31,447 --> 00:20:34,183
like a porites, like a brain coral,
450
00:20:34,183 --> 00:20:37,950
maybe think of like a kind
of half dome lump of coral,
451
00:20:37,950 --> 00:20:40,320
the size of a dinner plate
can take up to 75 years
452
00:20:40,320 --> 00:20:42,000
from one polyp to grow that big.
453
00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:44,880
In the farm, we can
engineer those in two years.
454
00:20:44,880 --> 00:20:45,713
- Wow.
455
00:20:45,713 --> 00:20:47,820
- So we can harvest a small
amount of donor corals,
456
00:20:47,820 --> 00:20:51,240
grow them out exponentially
faster in our farms
457
00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:56,100
and create heat-tolerant
and sexually mature corals
458
00:20:56,100 --> 00:20:58,950
and replace those in the
water that would take 75 years
459
00:20:58,950 --> 00:21:02,400
for one dinner plate size, then
one larvae out of a million
460
00:21:02,400 --> 00:21:03,870
would survive and it would land
461
00:21:03,870 --> 00:21:06,087
and then another 75 years for that,
462
00:21:06,087 --> 00:21:08,490
and that's the timescale
we're talking about.
463
00:21:08,490 --> 00:21:09,380
We don't have that time.
464
00:21:09,380 --> 00:21:11,520
So we can accelerate that dramatically.
465
00:21:11,520 --> 00:21:13,500
And the good news is there
are heat-tolerant corals
466
00:21:13,500 --> 00:21:14,880
all over the world.
467
00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:16,473
We don't exactly know why.
468
00:21:17,550 --> 00:21:21,210
The underlying process is that
when the water gets warmer,
469
00:21:21,210 --> 00:21:24,120
corals have a symbiotic
relationship with the algae
470
00:21:24,120 --> 00:21:25,740
that we call zooxanthella.
471
00:21:25,740 --> 00:21:28,710
And as the water temperature increases,
472
00:21:28,710 --> 00:21:31,140
zooxanthella metabolism increases,
473
00:21:31,140 --> 00:21:33,810
and therefore, they create more
free radicals that are toxic
474
00:21:33,810 --> 00:21:36,270
to the coral and the coral
ejects that zooxanthella.
475
00:21:36,270 --> 00:21:38,580
Problem is that algae
also photosynthesizes
476
00:21:38,580 --> 00:21:40,380
and creates some food for the coral.
477
00:21:40,380 --> 00:21:42,240
So when coral bleaches, it's not dead,
478
00:21:42,240 --> 00:21:45,270
it's just evicted the algae
that gives it its color.
479
00:21:45,270 --> 00:21:47,250
It's when the coral,
after three or four weeks,
480
00:21:47,250 --> 00:21:49,620
it actually slowly starves to death.
481
00:21:49,620 --> 00:21:51,870
And when it turns green
and mucky full of algae,
482
00:21:51,870 --> 00:21:53,130
then it's dead.
483
00:21:53,130 --> 00:21:57,090
And so when corals bleach, if
the temperature gets better,
484
00:21:57,090 --> 00:21:59,820
they'll re-invite that algae
back and they'll recover.
485
00:21:59,820 --> 00:22:02,001
But there are corals out
there that, for some reason,
486
00:22:02,001 --> 00:22:04,830
aren't as fussed by those free radicals
487
00:22:04,830 --> 00:22:07,800
that the zooxanthella create
in higher water temperatures.
488
00:22:07,800 --> 00:22:10,830
Lots of research into the
underlying reasons for that.
489
00:22:10,830 --> 00:22:12,810
We don't know necessarily,
490
00:22:12,810 --> 00:22:15,000
but there's a lot of
research that's happening.
491
00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:17,490
But what we do know is that
practically and functionally,
492
00:22:17,490 --> 00:22:18,570
we can pull stuff out of the water,
493
00:22:18,570 --> 00:22:21,783
grow it, and replant it, and
we are running out of time.
494
00:22:22,620 --> 00:22:25,830
The challenge, the trap
we can find ourselves in
495
00:22:25,830 --> 00:22:28,710
is researching forever.
496
00:22:28,710 --> 00:22:30,600
Research, research, research,
research, research, research,
497
00:22:30,600 --> 00:22:31,855
research, research, research,
498
00:22:31,855 --> 00:22:32,850
and then we're going to
do a little more research.
499
00:22:32,850 --> 00:22:34,473
Meanwhile, the corals are dying.
500
00:22:35,610 --> 00:22:39,390
And there's a point where we
need to continue the research,
501
00:22:39,390 --> 00:22:41,370
but we also need to say enough is enough,
502
00:22:41,370 --> 00:22:44,973
good is good enough, and it's triage time.
503
00:22:46,320 --> 00:22:49,000
We need to start putting
stuff back in the water
504
00:22:50,348 --> 00:22:53,670
and rebuilding these systems,
and that's what we're doing.
505
00:22:53,670 --> 00:22:55,980
And the good news is it
works anywhere in the world,
506
00:22:55,980 --> 00:22:58,620
and again, the good news
is the technologies exist.
507
00:22:58,620 --> 00:23:00,630
It's just finding a way to make these
508
00:23:00,630 --> 00:23:03,390
investible, profitable investments
509
00:23:03,390 --> 00:23:06,720
that protect land-based
infrastructure and people's lives
510
00:23:06,720 --> 00:23:09,090
and rebuild fisheries
and tourist amenities
511
00:23:09,090 --> 00:23:12,360
to unlock the scale of
capital needed to do the work.
512
00:23:12,360 --> 00:23:14,430
It's doable. It's doable.
513
00:23:14,430 --> 00:23:17,520
- For all intents and purposes,
we have reason to believe
514
00:23:17,520 --> 00:23:21,960
that this could make
a huge positive impact
515
00:23:21,960 --> 00:23:23,430
for coral reefs worldwide.
516
00:23:23,430 --> 00:23:25,620
There are obviously still, unfortunately,
517
00:23:25,620 --> 00:23:28,500
huge threats, right?
518
00:23:28,500 --> 00:23:30,150
There's a lot working against reefs,
519
00:23:30,150 --> 00:23:31,590
but there's some pushback.
520
00:23:31,590 --> 00:23:33,840
You're creating ways to push back
521
00:23:33,840 --> 00:23:36,960
and to keep the reefs
thriving and building
522
00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:38,250
and coming back stronger.
523
00:23:38,250 --> 00:23:42,090
So let's say that in
places we can fast-forward
524
00:23:42,090 --> 00:23:44,190
to a certain amount of
time and see it working.
525
00:23:44,190 --> 00:23:47,220
What does a restored reef look like
526
00:23:47,220 --> 00:23:49,320
and what does it bring along with it?
527
00:23:49,320 --> 00:23:52,920
What other biodiversity
gets kind of pulled back in
528
00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:54,780
to that restored ecosystem?
529
00:23:54,780 --> 00:23:59,780
- I dream every day of a world
where we rebuild abundance
530
00:23:59,880 --> 00:24:01,920
in the ocean, and it's possible,
531
00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:03,300
where people can feed themselves,
532
00:24:03,300 --> 00:24:07,680
where shorelines and coastal
ecosystems are healthy
533
00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:11,400
from mangroves and wetlands
and seagrass and coral reefs,
534
00:24:11,400 --> 00:24:13,140
where my daughters can live in a world
535
00:24:13,140 --> 00:24:15,300
that was as rich as the
one that I was born into,
536
00:24:15,300 --> 00:24:19,050
reefs teeming with life,
microorganisms and crustaceans
537
00:24:19,050 --> 00:24:20,430
and mollusks and fish.
538
00:24:20,430 --> 00:24:23,730
And I dream of a world where
coral reefs will continue
539
00:24:23,730 --> 00:24:26,220
to provide the foundation
for a healthy, abundant ocean
540
00:24:26,220 --> 00:24:27,810
for generations to come.
541
00:24:27,810 --> 00:24:30,030
And that's what we are dedicated to doing,
542
00:24:30,030 --> 00:24:33,600
and we do not accept that there's no hope.
543
00:24:33,600 --> 00:24:35,280
- Yeah. Yeah.
- There's always hope.
544
00:24:35,280 --> 00:24:37,140
- And then, Philippe, a
challenging question I'm asking
545
00:24:37,140 --> 00:24:39,960
for you is what can the
average everyday person do
546
00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:42,390
to help support coral reefs?
547
00:24:42,390 --> 00:24:44,670
- Conservation in nature
shouldn't be a partisan issue.
548
00:24:44,670 --> 00:24:46,170
It should be a bipartisan one.
549
00:24:47,100 --> 00:24:49,350
Also, when we think about
where we go on vacation,
550
00:24:49,350 --> 00:24:51,180
looking for resorts and developments
551
00:24:51,180 --> 00:24:52,740
that are protecting their coastlines
552
00:24:52,740 --> 00:24:55,240
and investing in restoration projects
553
00:24:56,280 --> 00:24:58,410
and supporting their communities.
554
00:24:58,410 --> 00:24:59,940
Shopping is politics as Bono said,
555
00:24:59,940 --> 00:25:02,040
and we have a lot of
power with our wallets.
556
00:25:02,040 --> 00:25:04,860
And just recognizing the
superpower that each of us have
557
00:25:04,860 --> 00:25:07,410
as storytellers, be it to an audience
558
00:25:07,410 --> 00:25:11,340
in a television program
like "Wild Kingdom"
559
00:25:11,340 --> 00:25:14,850
or around the dinner table,
that we are storytellers
560
00:25:14,850 --> 00:25:16,230
and we need to help people understand
561
00:25:16,230 --> 00:25:18,060
that humanity cannot thrive on this planet
562
00:25:18,060 --> 00:25:19,473
if the ocean cannot thrive.
563
00:25:20,490 --> 00:25:22,530
- [Peter] Half the world's coral reef gone
564
00:25:22,530 --> 00:25:24,360
in a single lifetime.
565
00:25:24,360 --> 00:25:28,170
95% of the Caribbean
reefs are already lost,
566
00:25:28,170 --> 00:25:31,470
and yet, brain corals
that would take 75 years
567
00:25:31,470 --> 00:25:35,220
to grow in the wild, farmed in only two.
568
00:25:35,220 --> 00:25:37,650
Reefs rebuilt kilometer by kilometer
569
00:25:37,650 --> 00:25:39,750
from the ocean floor up.
570
00:25:39,750 --> 00:25:41,070
The science works.
571
00:25:41,070 --> 00:25:44,790
The question now is whether
we can move fast enough.
572
00:25:44,790 --> 00:25:46,710
This is "Back from the Brink"
573
00:25:46,710 --> 00:25:48,927
from Mutual of Omaha's "Wild Kingdom."
574
00:25:49,870 --> 00:25:52,453
(gentle music)
575
00:25:53,460 --> 00:25:56,160
- If this episode was
super intriguing for you,
576
00:25:56,160 --> 00:25:58,530
follow or subscribe, leave a review,
577
00:25:58,530 --> 00:26:01,170
and send it to the ocean
lover, the snorkeler,
578
00:26:01,170 --> 00:26:02,670
or the person in your life
579
00:26:02,670 --> 00:26:05,910
who had no idea coral
reefs were even in crisis.
580
00:26:05,910 --> 00:26:08,523
I'm Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant,
and I'll see you next time.
581
00:26:09,570 --> 00:26:11,160
- [Narrator] The "Back
from the Brink" podcast
582
00:26:11,160 --> 00:26:14,340
is sponsored by Mutual of
Omaha's "Wild Kingdom,"
583
00:26:14,340 --> 00:26:17,010
hosted by Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant,
584
00:26:17,010 --> 00:26:19,020
narrated by Peter Gros.
585
00:26:19,020 --> 00:26:21,060
Executive producers are Jen Wulf
586
00:26:21,060 --> 00:26:22,650
and Jenny Van Soelen.
587
00:26:22,650 --> 00:26:25,853
Podcast production by Lower Street Media.
588
00:26:25,853 --> 00:26:28,603
(dramatic music)
00:00:00,323 --> 00:00:02,010
(gentle music)
2
00:00:02,010 --> 00:00:04,320
- Functionally, coral reefs
will disappear in our lifetime
3
00:00:04,320 --> 00:00:06,060
if we don't take drastic measures.
4
00:00:06,060 --> 00:00:09,150
That is a fact, a tragic fact.
5
00:00:09,150 --> 00:00:13,110
- Finding Philippe Cousteau
Jr. is no easy task.
6
00:00:13,110 --> 00:00:16,380
Although typically he's deep underwater,
7
00:00:16,380 --> 00:00:19,530
I was finally able to
find him above ground,
8
00:00:19,530 --> 00:00:22,200
being a bit of a land mammal this time.
9
00:00:22,200 --> 00:00:24,600
He is in the Sierra Mountain Range
10
00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:28,020
and he's on a camping trip,
which was windy, remote,
11
00:00:28,020 --> 00:00:31,620
and very true to form
for an explorer like him.
12
00:00:31,620 --> 00:00:35,040
But thanks to technology,
we're able to talk.
13
00:00:35,040 --> 00:00:37,710
Philippe is the grandson
of Jacques Cousteau,
14
00:00:37,710 --> 00:00:39,270
the man who invented scuba diving
15
00:00:39,270 --> 00:00:42,780
and brought the ocean into
living rooms around the world.
16
00:00:42,780 --> 00:00:44,520
Philippe grew up at sea
17
00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:47,610
and he's made the ocean
his life's work also.
18
00:00:47,610 --> 00:00:50,790
He founded Earth Echo
International, which is dedicated
19
00:00:50,790 --> 00:00:54,030
to building the next
generation of ocean advocates.
20
00:00:54,030 --> 00:00:55,950
And over the last several years,
21
00:00:55,950 --> 00:00:58,170
he's turned his attention to what he calls
22
00:00:58,170 --> 00:01:02,700
the most under-reported
environmental crisis on the planet,
23
00:01:02,700 --> 00:01:05,223
which is the collapse of coral reefs.
24
00:01:07,398 --> 00:01:10,148
(dramatic music)
25
00:01:13,980 --> 00:01:15,960
Welcome to "Back from the Brink"
26
00:01:15,960 --> 00:01:18,180
from Mutual of Omaha's "Wild Kingdom."
27
00:01:18,180 --> 00:01:20,430
I'm Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant.
28
00:01:20,430 --> 00:01:21,263
- [Peter] Each episode,
29
00:01:21,263 --> 00:01:23,550
we're going deep on a variety of species
30
00:01:23,550 --> 00:01:26,430
and those that went to the
very edge of disappearing
31
00:01:26,430 --> 00:01:29,790
and the people that
fought to bring them back.
32
00:01:29,790 --> 00:01:33,510
Coral reefs cover less than
1% of the ocean's floor,
33
00:01:33,510 --> 00:01:37,110
yet they support a quarter
of all marine life.
34
00:01:37,110 --> 00:01:40,200
Since the 1950s, we've lost half of them.
35
00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:43,650
Before we get to what's being
done, we need to understand
36
00:01:43,650 --> 00:01:46,893
what we're losing and why almost
no one is talking about it.
37
00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:50,400
- For the folks who are watching this
38
00:01:50,400 --> 00:01:52,410
but may not have spent time underwater,
39
00:01:52,410 --> 00:01:56,310
can you just describe, first
of all, what is a coral reef,
40
00:01:56,310 --> 00:01:57,510
what are corals,
41
00:01:57,510 --> 00:02:02,250
and then what roles do
reefs play in the oceans?
42
00:02:02,250 --> 00:02:04,440
- Coral reefs are critical ecosystems,
43
00:02:04,440 --> 00:02:08,190
and oftentimes, people forget
just how important they are.
44
00:02:08,190 --> 00:02:11,280
They are arguably the most
biodiverse ecosystem on Earth,
45
00:02:11,280 --> 00:02:12,930
land or sea,
46
00:02:12,930 --> 00:02:16,320
and they're much more than
pretty fish and snorkeling.
47
00:02:16,320 --> 00:02:18,360
Coral reefs are, of course,
48
00:02:18,360 --> 00:02:20,610
critical to biodiversity and fish.
49
00:02:20,610 --> 00:02:23,730
Tourism, they provide about
two and a half trillion dollars
50
00:02:23,730 --> 00:02:25,380
of goods and services a year.
51
00:02:25,380 --> 00:02:27,810
They contribute tens
of billions of dollars
52
00:02:27,810 --> 00:02:30,330
to the global tourism industry,
53
00:02:30,330 --> 00:02:32,190
tens of billions to fisheries.
54
00:02:32,190 --> 00:02:33,900
Hard to estimate, but
three quarters of a billion
55
00:02:33,900 --> 00:02:36,270
to one billion people rely on coral reefs
56
00:02:36,270 --> 00:02:38,700
for their livelihoods every
year around the world.
57
00:02:38,700 --> 00:02:40,980
And so when I think of coral reefs,
58
00:02:40,980 --> 00:02:43,200
I think of them as infrastructure.
59
00:02:43,200 --> 00:02:44,823
Now, the really sad part,
60
00:02:46,200 --> 00:02:48,600
oftentimes when I'm
giving talks or lectures,
61
00:02:48,600 --> 00:02:51,000
I'll ask people how much
of the world's rainforests
62
00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:53,220
have disappeared in our lifetime?
63
00:02:53,220 --> 00:02:56,070
And the answer is usually 60, 70%.
64
00:02:56,070 --> 00:02:57,810
And I understand there's
a lot of press and media
65
00:02:57,810 --> 00:02:59,970
around the rainforests and
the decline of the Amazon,
66
00:02:59,970 --> 00:03:04,770
and it is terrible, but the
answer is about 17 to 20%.
67
00:03:04,770 --> 00:03:08,550
Yet in our lifetimes, we've
lost 50% of the world's reefs.
68
00:03:08,550 --> 00:03:09,720
And it's very possible
69
00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:12,030
that reefs become functionally
extinct in our lifetime
70
00:03:12,030 --> 00:03:14,070
because of climate change
and local pollution
71
00:03:14,070 --> 00:03:15,963
and development and overfishing.
72
00:03:16,800 --> 00:03:19,860
So coral reefs are in
a much greater crisis
73
00:03:19,860 --> 00:03:24,270
than land terrestrial forests
and rainforests by far,
74
00:03:24,270 --> 00:03:26,190
and yet most people give
it a collective shrug
75
00:03:26,190 --> 00:03:27,390
and the global community largely
76
00:03:27,390 --> 00:03:28,800
gives it a collective shrug.
77
00:03:28,800 --> 00:03:30,180
And that's a really big problem.
78
00:03:30,180 --> 00:03:31,200
- I just have to jump in here
79
00:03:31,200 --> 00:03:34,560
because these are statistics
that folks really need to hear.
80
00:03:34,560 --> 00:03:37,080
A global shrug, I mean,
do you think it's...
81
00:03:37,080 --> 00:03:39,030
I know that there's a lot of reasons why,
82
00:03:39,030 --> 00:03:44,010
one is that there are a lot of
barriers to going underwater.
83
00:03:44,010 --> 00:03:46,650
So most people haven't seen
a reef, touched a reef,
84
00:03:46,650 --> 00:03:49,170
swam in one, looked at
it with their own eyes.
85
00:03:49,170 --> 00:03:52,890
But I think also the average person
86
00:03:52,890 --> 00:03:54,780
isn't really familiar with coral.
87
00:03:54,780 --> 00:03:58,080
So can you even describe
to us what are corals
88
00:03:58,080 --> 00:04:01,860
and what do they do and why
do we need them to stay alive?
89
00:04:01,860 --> 00:04:03,000
- A lot of people do look at coral reefs
90
00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:04,890
and think of them as painted
rocks, colored rocks.
91
00:04:04,890 --> 00:04:06,780
In fact, coral reefs are living organisms.
92
00:04:06,780 --> 00:04:11,460
Coral polyps are part plant, part animal,
93
00:04:11,460 --> 00:04:14,130
a little bacteria thrown
in for good measure.
94
00:04:14,130 --> 00:04:15,840
They're fascinating creatures.
95
00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:19,140
They build like the apartment
buildings of reefs systems.
96
00:04:19,140 --> 00:04:23,910
They construct little calcium
carbonate homes around them.
97
00:04:23,910 --> 00:04:26,940
And over millennia, they build new layer
98
00:04:26,940 --> 00:04:28,560
upon layer upon layer upon layer.
99
00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:31,200
So the outer layer of a
reef is the only layer
100
00:04:31,200 --> 00:04:32,100
that has living tissue.
101
00:04:32,100 --> 00:04:33,630
Everything underneath is essentially
102
00:04:33,630 --> 00:04:35,400
calcium carbonate limestone.
103
00:04:35,400 --> 00:04:37,440
And in fact, it is coral
reefs that have built
104
00:04:37,440 --> 00:04:40,650
the Parthenon and the Washington Monument.
105
00:04:40,650 --> 00:04:43,920
Old limestone predominantly
comes from the ocean.
106
00:04:43,920 --> 00:04:46,140
They are the critical structure builders
107
00:04:46,140 --> 00:04:49,860
of coastal ecosystems,
tropical coastal ecosystems,
108
00:04:49,860 --> 00:04:52,170
and they are, as I said, one of the most,
109
00:04:52,170 --> 00:04:55,323
if not the most biodiverse
ecosystem on the planet.
110
00:04:56,220 --> 00:05:00,090
25% of the world's seafood
spends part of its life in
111
00:05:00,090 --> 00:05:02,490
or around or dependent upon a coral reef.
112
00:05:02,490 --> 00:05:04,380
So they are absolutely critical
113
00:05:04,380 --> 00:05:06,450
to the global ocean ecosystem
114
00:05:06,450 --> 00:05:09,300
and affect, as I said,
hundreds of millions
115
00:05:09,300 --> 00:05:12,240
up to a billion people's
lives very directly,
116
00:05:12,240 --> 00:05:15,390
from economic development and growth
117
00:05:15,390 --> 00:05:18,750
and jobs to protecting
coastlines from storm surge
118
00:05:18,750 --> 00:05:20,460
that's getting increasingly worse.
119
00:05:20,460 --> 00:05:22,350
So they look pretty,
120
00:05:22,350 --> 00:05:25,170
but they provide a structural function,
121
00:05:25,170 --> 00:05:27,810
almost like infrastructure
that is critical
122
00:05:27,810 --> 00:05:31,230
for coastal health of the ocean.
123
00:05:31,230 --> 00:05:33,570
- I know that you and
I believe coral reefs
124
00:05:33,570 --> 00:05:34,740
are inherently valuable.
125
00:05:34,740 --> 00:05:37,050
They should just exist whether
they're providing services
126
00:05:37,050 --> 00:05:40,890
or not, but they also
do protect coastlines
127
00:05:40,890 --> 00:05:44,940
where humans live from
storm surges and flooding.
128
00:05:44,940 --> 00:05:47,070
- Yeah, they do, and that's something,
129
00:05:47,070 --> 00:05:50,310
we think about coral reefs
as shields, coastal shields.
130
00:05:50,310 --> 00:05:54,120
Now, coral reefs can absorb
up to 97% of storm surge.
131
00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:56,760
They can reduce wave height up to 84%,
132
00:05:56,760 --> 00:06:01,110
and so in a world with
increasingly catastrophic cyclones,
133
00:06:01,110 --> 00:06:04,800
hurricanes, typhoons, coral
reefs play a very important role
134
00:06:04,800 --> 00:06:08,910
along tropical coastlines
to reduce the storm surge.
135
00:06:08,910 --> 00:06:11,670
In coastal communities, it's
the storm surge, not the wind,
136
00:06:11,670 --> 00:06:14,493
that can be so damaging and
so destructive and deadly,
137
00:06:15,870 --> 00:06:19,650
and so both to land-based infrastructure,
138
00:06:19,650 --> 00:06:22,200
homes, businesses, and
also people's lives,
139
00:06:22,200 --> 00:06:25,050
thousands of people can die
from these massive storms,
140
00:06:25,050 --> 00:06:28,710
and just the storm surge
may cost the global economy
141
00:06:28,710 --> 00:06:31,530
tens of billions, up to over
a hundred billion a year
142
00:06:31,530 --> 00:06:34,830
in mitigation costs and
construction and repair costs
143
00:06:34,830 --> 00:06:37,110
when these storms come through
and coral reefs collapse.
144
00:06:37,110 --> 00:06:40,140
And as I said, warming ocean temperatures
145
00:06:40,140 --> 00:06:44,520
are causing corals to die,
but going back a hundred years
146
00:06:44,520 --> 00:06:46,500
in a lot of these
communities, overfishing,
147
00:06:46,500 --> 00:06:49,590
dynamite fishing, a lot of places in Asia
148
00:06:49,590 --> 00:06:51,480
throw literally dynamite in the water.
149
00:06:51,480 --> 00:06:53,190
It explodes and stuns the fish.
150
00:06:53,190 --> 00:06:55,440
They float to the surface, they
scoop them up with the net,
151
00:06:55,440 --> 00:06:58,140
but that dynamite just happens
to destroy everything else,
152
00:06:58,140 --> 00:07:01,320
to cyanide fishing that they'll also do,
153
00:07:01,320 --> 00:07:04,380
to squirt cyanide on these
reefs to get the fish stunned
154
00:07:04,380 --> 00:07:06,630
and they scoop them up
and it kills everything,
155
00:07:06,630 --> 00:07:09,480
to development and human waste
causing too much nutrients
156
00:07:09,480 --> 00:07:10,980
in the water that causes algal blooms.
157
00:07:10,980 --> 00:07:12,570
That's a big problem
in places like Florida
158
00:07:12,570 --> 00:07:13,680
and the Caribbean,
159
00:07:13,680 --> 00:07:16,530
or to outright just
destruction for ports, piers.
160
00:07:16,530 --> 00:07:20,730
So reefs have been under
onslaught for over a century,
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and now with climate change,
warming ocean temperatures,
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it's just really another
nail in the coffin
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that's terrifying.
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- [Peter] Philippe hasn't
just studied decline
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from a distance.
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He's watched it happen
underwater over decades,
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returning to the same reefs
and seeing what remains.
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He has a term for why
the disappearing reef
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has gone unnoticed by much of the world.
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He calls it shifting baselines.
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- To your point, it's been
relatively invisible, right?
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We haven't had huge
campaigns dating back decades
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and decades to protect the reefs.
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This is something that has been coming up
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after we as a society have realized
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we've kind of gone past
these critical points.
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But before we get to solutions,
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I want to talk about your lifetime
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because I am anticipating
that you got in the water
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when you were a kid,
181
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and I imagine you still get
in the water as an adult.
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So what kinds of declines
in coral reef health
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and existence have you
seen in your own lifetime
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and what has that actually looked like?
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- I actually did a piece for
Discovery several years ago
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down in the Florida Keys, and
I knew one of the filmmakers
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that had filmed there for decades,
188
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and so we got him to give us some footage
189
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that he had shot in the 1980s.
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And then this was probably,
I want to say 2008 maybe,
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so it's quite a bit ago,
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so about 20 years later, 25 years later.
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And we went back to the exact
same spot that he filmed
194
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and we played the footage side by side.
195
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Having grown up diving and snorkeling
196
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and seeing these places,
197
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one of the challenges
we faced is this idea
198
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of shifting baselines,
199
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that every successive
generation's baseline
200
00:08:57,810 --> 00:08:59,640
for the health of the
ecosystem and the environment
201
00:08:59,640 --> 00:09:02,490
is what they were first exposed to.
202
00:09:02,490 --> 00:09:06,090
As I said earlier, even my
grandfather saw a massive decline
203
00:09:06,090 --> 00:09:08,880
from the '40s to the '60s that
raised alarm bells for him.
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Nowadays, we'd look at the
'60s and go, "Paradise."
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So our context changes.
206
00:09:14,370 --> 00:09:18,870
My context certainly from the
'80s to now is terrifying,
207
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but seeing it side by
side, the same exact places
208
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with the same cameramen filming them,
209
00:09:25,380 --> 00:09:27,870
seeing what in the '80s
were these abundant,
210
00:09:27,870 --> 00:09:31,380
beautiful elkhorn reefs,
huge schools of fish
211
00:09:31,380 --> 00:09:36,120
and all of this life, clear,
clean, beautiful blue water,
212
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and then the late 2000s,
213
00:09:38,340 --> 00:09:41,100
all of that coral was dead
rubble covered in algae
214
00:09:41,100 --> 00:09:42,573
and a few fish poking around.
215
00:09:43,530 --> 00:09:48,060
And we've seen the Great Barrier Reef.
216
00:09:48,060 --> 00:09:51,030
First time I visited the Great
Barrier Reef was in the '90s,
217
00:09:51,030 --> 00:09:53,160
going back just a few years
ago for a syndicated show
218
00:09:53,160 --> 00:09:54,760
that I hosted for several years,
219
00:09:56,250 --> 00:09:58,290
it was bleached and
covered in algae again,
220
00:09:58,290 --> 00:10:00,270
the same places that I'd
been that were abundant.
221
00:10:00,270 --> 00:10:04,620
So it really is, you think of it on land,
222
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like seeing an abundant,
beautiful rainforest
223
00:10:07,410 --> 00:10:09,870
and going back a few years
later and it's been clear cut
224
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and there's some shrubs left.
225
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That's essentially what
we're doing in the ocean,
226
00:10:13,260 --> 00:10:14,550
but at a much larger scale.
227
00:10:14,550 --> 00:10:16,980
Again, half the world's
coral reefs have disappeared,
228
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about 17% of the Amazon is gone.
229
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So we're doing it much
more rapidly in the ocean.
230
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I guarantee you if half
the Amazon disappeared,
231
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people would be losing their minds.
232
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But because it's in the ocean,
people are kind of like,
233
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"Meh, it's still blue,
what's the problem?"
234
00:10:35,730 --> 00:10:36,990
- Just as an opinion question,
235
00:10:36,990 --> 00:10:40,020
if we were to continue
with business as usual,
236
00:10:40,020 --> 00:10:43,380
how close do you think we
are to losing reefs entirely
237
00:10:43,380 --> 00:10:45,900
if there weren't interventions?
238
00:10:45,900 --> 00:10:48,270
- Functionally, coral reefs
will disappear in our lifetime
239
00:10:48,270 --> 00:10:50,280
if we don't take drastic measures.
240
00:10:50,280 --> 00:10:53,220
That is a fact, a tragic fact.
241
00:10:53,220 --> 00:10:55,740
And the reality is that while
there will be pockets of reefs
242
00:10:55,740 --> 00:10:59,700
that no doubt survive, we've
identified areas of reefs
243
00:10:59,700 --> 00:11:01,860
that are still being resilient,
244
00:11:01,860 --> 00:11:06,860
at scale as a functioning
ecosystem around the world,
245
00:11:07,830 --> 00:11:10,530
it doesn't help the Caribbean very much
246
00:11:10,530 --> 00:11:13,380
to have reefs in Indonesia,
few smattering of reefs survive
247
00:11:13,380 --> 00:11:15,150
when the reefs in the
Caribbean have disappeared.
248
00:11:15,150 --> 00:11:18,960
And actually in most places,
up to 95% of the reefs
249
00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:21,660
in the Caribbean have already disappeared.
250
00:11:21,660 --> 00:11:23,610
Massive alarm bells, huge problems.
251
00:11:23,610 --> 00:11:25,290
- I think that's so poignant
252
00:11:25,290 --> 00:11:27,360
that we essentially are creating
253
00:11:27,360 --> 00:11:29,490
this negative feedback loop,
254
00:11:29,490 --> 00:11:34,230
like destroying coral reefs is
impacting human communities,
255
00:11:34,230 --> 00:11:37,140
which impacts ecosystems
larger and larger,
256
00:11:37,140 --> 00:11:40,230
and we could turn it into
a positive feedback loop,
257
00:11:40,230 --> 00:11:44,070
where healthy ecosystems
enhance the ability
258
00:11:44,070 --> 00:11:45,900
for healthy human communities
259
00:11:45,900 --> 00:11:47,850
and healthy human communities
protect the reefs.
260
00:11:47,850 --> 00:11:49,380
And that's where we're at.
261
00:11:49,380 --> 00:11:52,500
We're trying to shift the feedback loop
262
00:11:52,500 --> 00:11:54,630
from negative to positive,
263
00:11:54,630 --> 00:11:57,540
and people like you are doing that.
264
00:11:57,540 --> 00:11:58,373
- [Peter] The technology to grow
265
00:11:58,373 --> 00:12:01,410
and restore coral reefs already exist.
266
00:12:01,410 --> 00:12:04,740
The problem isn't science, it's the scale.
267
00:12:04,740 --> 00:12:07,710
Philippe has spent decades
working on that problem,
268
00:12:07,710 --> 00:12:11,580
starting with a chance meeting
with one scientist in Florida
269
00:12:11,580 --> 00:12:12,873
that changed everything.
270
00:12:14,220 --> 00:12:15,390
- I want you to talk to us
271
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about the efforts to restore coral reefs,
272
00:12:18,450 --> 00:12:23,450
kind of the conventional style
versus some more innovative,
273
00:12:24,420 --> 00:12:28,173
more scalable approaches that
you've been spearheading.
274
00:12:28,173 --> 00:12:30,840
- I was 19 years old and I met a scientist
275
00:12:30,840 --> 00:12:32,490
named Dr. David Vaughan,
276
00:12:32,490 --> 00:12:35,460
who was based out of Harbor
Branch Oceanographic Institution
277
00:12:35,460 --> 00:12:37,200
in Fort Pierce, Florida.
278
00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:41,040
He had pioneered multiple
different kinds of aquacultures
279
00:12:41,040 --> 00:12:42,960
over the decades of his career,
280
00:12:42,960 --> 00:12:45,960
things like clams and oysters, shrimp,
281
00:12:45,960 --> 00:12:49,050
and he turned his attention to coral.
282
00:12:49,050 --> 00:12:52,620
So he started growing corals
in land-based nurseries,
283
00:12:52,620 --> 00:12:57,620
farms essentially, and found
that they would grow faster
284
00:12:58,530 --> 00:12:59,910
in land-based farms.
285
00:12:59,910 --> 00:13:03,420
And he did that initially
for selling those corals
286
00:13:03,420 --> 00:13:05,733
into the ornamental aquarium industry.
287
00:13:06,600 --> 00:13:09,960
Now, because most corals, even today,
288
00:13:09,960 --> 00:13:13,470
in that industry are caught
and harvested from the wild
289
00:13:13,470 --> 00:13:18,470
and sold into wild reefs, into aquariums.
290
00:13:18,540 --> 00:13:21,390
- This kind of sounds
like poaching kind of.
291
00:13:21,390 --> 00:13:23,670
- Yeah, in a way, I mean,
a lot of it's illegal,
292
00:13:23,670 --> 00:13:27,660
some of it is legal, but
we're essentially degrading
293
00:13:27,660 --> 00:13:30,423
these already degraded systems
to sell into aquariums.
294
00:13:31,260 --> 00:13:33,577
- It doesn't make any sense,
and so Dr. Vaughan said,
295
00:13:33,577 --> 00:13:35,970
"Could I farm these, like
you would farm saplings
296
00:13:35,970 --> 00:13:37,920
in a greenhouse, and sell those?"
297
00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:40,980
So we're reducing pressure
on the ornamental business
298
00:13:40,980 --> 00:13:43,650
off of wild reefs.
299
00:13:43,650 --> 00:13:44,940
So when I met him, I said, "Wow, Dave,
300
00:13:44,940 --> 00:13:46,290
this is pretty amazing technology.
301
00:13:46,290 --> 00:13:49,380
Do you think we could
actually grow these corals
302
00:13:49,380 --> 00:13:53,700
in captivity for restoring wild reefs,
303
00:13:53,700 --> 00:13:56,040
not just to sell into
the ornamental industry?"
304
00:13:56,040 --> 00:13:58,230
And Dave said, "I don't
know, but I think so."
305
00:13:58,230 --> 00:13:59,760
He started a lab at Moates,
306
00:13:59,760 --> 00:14:01,800
Marine Laboratory down in the Keys,
307
00:14:01,800 --> 00:14:06,180
and pioneered all the technology
that everybody uses today
308
00:14:06,180 --> 00:14:09,840
for aquaculturing corals
in land-based nurseries,
309
00:14:09,840 --> 00:14:11,640
things like microfragmentation,
310
00:14:11,640 --> 00:14:14,040
where he proved you could
grow corals 20 times faster
311
00:14:14,040 --> 00:14:16,860
on land than they can grow in the ocean.
312
00:14:16,860 --> 00:14:19,440
And we can harvest heat-tolerant corals
313
00:14:19,440 --> 00:14:23,640
that would eventually, more
resilient corals will take over,
314
00:14:23,640 --> 00:14:26,910
but on a geological timeframe,
we don't have that timeframe.
315
00:14:26,910 --> 00:14:29,957
We're operating in a human
time, destructive timeframe.
316
00:14:29,957 --> 00:14:32,457
And so we can grow
heat-tolerant corals much faster
317
00:14:32,457 --> 00:14:35,490
and outplant them back into the wild.
318
00:14:35,490 --> 00:14:38,490
So 22 years or so goes by,
319
00:14:38,490 --> 00:14:40,770
Dave made all this technology
available to the world
320
00:14:40,770 --> 00:14:44,340
and many NGOs and
nonprofits are utilizing it,
321
00:14:44,340 --> 00:14:46,500
but at a very, very small scale.
322
00:14:46,500 --> 00:14:49,350
So in 20 years, we've restored
about one square kilometer
323
00:14:49,350 --> 00:14:51,570
of corals and lost thousands.
324
00:14:51,570 --> 00:14:53,880
And so we were both very frustrated that,
325
00:14:53,880 --> 00:14:57,360
my goodness, we have a big problem,
326
00:14:57,360 --> 00:14:59,430
this technology isn't scaling.
327
00:14:59,430 --> 00:15:02,490
So it's not scaling in scope
and size the way it needs to
328
00:15:02,490 --> 00:15:04,740
to outpace ecological decline.
329
00:15:04,740 --> 00:15:07,710
We're losing thousands. We've built one.
330
00:15:07,710 --> 00:15:10,680
I did history at uni, I'm
not really good at math,
331
00:15:10,680 --> 00:15:13,320
but I know those numbers
don't work out so well.
332
00:15:13,320 --> 00:15:17,640
And so the question then
is, what's holding us back?
333
00:15:17,640 --> 00:15:18,473
We have the technology,
334
00:15:18,473 --> 00:15:20,400
we know how to grow these corals quickly,
335
00:15:20,400 --> 00:15:22,500
and a lot of NGOs are
doing really laudable work
336
00:15:22,500 --> 00:15:26,130
and it's lovely and really
important and I support it,
337
00:15:26,130 --> 00:15:29,220
but replanting a few meters
of reef is irrelevant
338
00:15:29,220 --> 00:15:31,770
to actually preventing these
systems from collapsing.
339
00:15:31,770 --> 00:15:34,200
So we realize we need to stop
thinking about coral reefs
340
00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:38,100
as these biodiverse ecosystems
and restore corals by hand,
341
00:15:38,100 --> 00:15:40,623
planting them onto some
rubble in the ground.
342
00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:44,760
We need to actually think
of reefs as what they are,
343
00:15:44,760 --> 00:15:47,340
which is infrastructure,
and the good news is, again,
344
00:15:47,340 --> 00:15:52,050
I think that so many instances
from marine-protected areas
345
00:15:52,050 --> 00:15:54,180
to technology and tracking fisheries
346
00:15:54,180 --> 00:15:57,000
to regenerative farming on land
347
00:15:57,000 --> 00:15:59,700
and rebuilding the carbon
sequestration potential of soil,
348
00:15:59,700 --> 00:16:04,050
we know there are extraordinary
solutions that exist.
349
00:16:04,050 --> 00:16:07,650
Now, the question is not
to keep researching them,
350
00:16:07,650 --> 00:16:12,150
not to keep testing them,
but to deploy them at scale.
351
00:16:12,150 --> 00:16:14,310
That's the challenge, I believe,
352
00:16:14,310 --> 00:16:17,580
for the next iteration of
the environmental movement.
353
00:16:17,580 --> 00:16:20,580
- This has been just a
tremendous education for me,
354
00:16:20,580 --> 00:16:23,640
and what keeps coming up for me
355
00:16:23,640 --> 00:16:27,210
is how incredibly
intersectional this approach is.
356
00:16:27,210 --> 00:16:31,230
So in the past, we've had
conservation biologists,
357
00:16:31,230 --> 00:16:34,050
like myself, I am a trained biologist
358
00:16:34,050 --> 00:16:36,570
working on these issues and
coming up with solutions.
359
00:16:36,570 --> 00:16:40,170
But it sounds like with the
company that you've created
360
00:16:40,170 --> 00:16:42,810
focused on solutions for reefs,
361
00:16:42,810 --> 00:16:47,810
you have people with skills
in biology and ecology,
362
00:16:48,060 --> 00:16:50,070
but also urban planning
363
00:16:50,070 --> 00:16:53,100
and business, certainly finance.
364
00:16:53,100 --> 00:16:55,830
I mean, tell me about all
of the different skill sets
365
00:16:55,830 --> 00:16:59,070
that come to play to make this successful.
366
00:16:59,070 --> 00:17:00,840
- Well, it's what's so
fascinating about this work.
367
00:17:00,840 --> 00:17:04,200
Fundamentally, the team
that we've brought together
368
00:17:04,200 --> 00:17:06,450
is just what you're saying,
it's multidisciplinary.
369
00:17:06,450 --> 00:17:10,653
We have 3D construction
printers, engineers, biologists,
370
00:17:11,490 --> 00:17:14,070
farmers that are farming the coral
371
00:17:14,070 --> 00:17:16,020
the way you would farm anything,
372
00:17:16,020 --> 00:17:18,360
technologists using AI
and machine learning.
373
00:17:18,360 --> 00:17:22,080
We have engineers that
are just building tanks
374
00:17:22,080 --> 00:17:24,030
and maintaining these systems,
375
00:17:24,030 --> 00:17:26,400
divers and marine biologists
that are going out
376
00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:28,200
and planting these corals
and restoring these reefs
377
00:17:28,200 --> 00:17:29,310
and monitoring and tracking them.
378
00:17:29,310 --> 00:17:31,500
People building underwater
drones that we're testing
379
00:17:31,500 --> 00:17:33,930
and training the AI models to monitor
380
00:17:33,930 --> 00:17:35,490
and maintain these reefs over time.
381
00:17:35,490 --> 00:17:36,450
Because when you think about them
382
00:17:36,450 --> 00:17:37,770
as critical infrastructure,
383
00:17:37,770 --> 00:17:40,650
you build a port, a road,
a rail and it breaks down,
384
00:17:40,650 --> 00:17:42,210
you don't just say, "Oh, good luck."
385
00:17:42,210 --> 00:17:44,100
You maintain it over time.
386
00:17:44,100 --> 00:17:48,060
So it is bringing together
a multidisciplinary approach
387
00:17:48,060 --> 00:17:49,770
to solving this kind of a problem
388
00:17:49,770 --> 00:17:53,340
that is the only way we're
going to be able to do it.
389
00:17:53,340 --> 00:17:55,050
- Can I just back you up for a moment,
390
00:17:55,050 --> 00:17:58,620
because did you say 3D printing coral?
391
00:17:58,620 --> 00:18:00,360
- So we're not 3D printing coral.
392
00:18:00,360 --> 00:18:02,550
We're 3D printing the
underlying structure.
393
00:18:02,550 --> 00:18:04,740
So think about it as the foundation.
394
00:18:04,740 --> 00:18:07,680
So coral reefs, as I said, over millennia,
395
00:18:07,680 --> 00:18:10,530
each generation of coral
will build its little home,
396
00:18:10,530 --> 00:18:12,390
and then the next generation
will build a little home
397
00:18:12,390 --> 00:18:14,970
on that and millions of them all together,
398
00:18:14,970 --> 00:18:16,470
they layer upon layer upon layer,
399
00:18:16,470 --> 00:18:17,940
and that's how a reef is built.
400
00:18:17,940 --> 00:18:19,230
We don't have that time.
401
00:18:19,230 --> 00:18:21,180
When coral dies, surprisingly,
402
00:18:21,180 --> 00:18:24,600
that structure degrades
relatively quickly,
403
00:18:24,600 --> 00:18:26,910
and so hence, Caribbean islands
404
00:18:26,910 --> 00:18:29,370
that not only don't have
coral, they don't have reefs,
405
00:18:29,370 --> 00:18:31,050
so there's no protection
from this storm surgery,
406
00:18:31,050 --> 00:18:34,230
or Vietnam and the Philippines
and Indonesia, et cetera.
407
00:18:34,230 --> 00:18:37,470
So what we do is use 3D
construction printers
408
00:18:37,470 --> 00:18:42,470
to actually mimic what that
coral structure would be,
409
00:18:43,140 --> 00:18:46,380
the nooks and crannies, the
hydrological nature of that
410
00:18:46,380 --> 00:18:49,470
in order to diffuse and
distribute the energy
411
00:18:49,470 --> 00:18:52,560
from storm surge, which is
what regular coral reefs do.
412
00:18:52,560 --> 00:18:55,680
Currently, sea walls, which
is usually the solution,
413
00:18:55,680 --> 00:18:56,910
they're designed literally as that,
414
00:18:56,910 --> 00:18:59,700
a wall to stop the energy of the ocean,
415
00:18:59,700 --> 00:19:04,700
and that energy then is
diverted up or down the coast,
416
00:19:04,980 --> 00:19:08,130
digging out beaches, destroying currents,
417
00:19:08,130 --> 00:19:10,620
destroying the hydrology of those areas.
418
00:19:10,620 --> 00:19:12,270
So seawalls can eventually break down
419
00:19:12,270 --> 00:19:14,700
because you can't beat the ocean.
420
00:19:14,700 --> 00:19:17,760
Reefs evolved over millions
of years with the ocean
421
00:19:17,760 --> 00:19:20,550
to diffuse and disperse
that energy with all, again,
422
00:19:20,550 --> 00:19:22,410
the little pillars and nooks
and crannies and cracks
423
00:19:22,410 --> 00:19:24,060
and caves, et cetera.
424
00:19:24,060 --> 00:19:26,160
So we can reprint that kind of structure
425
00:19:26,160 --> 00:19:31,160
with 3D construction printers
to high fidelity, high detail,
426
00:19:31,230 --> 00:19:32,940
place that in the water,
427
00:19:32,940 --> 00:19:35,400
and then you plant the
corals on top of that
428
00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:37,113
and then let them do their thing.
429
00:19:38,100 --> 00:19:39,990
- [Peter] The commercial
model in the 3D printing
430
00:19:39,990 --> 00:19:41,880
solved the infrastructure problem,
431
00:19:41,880 --> 00:19:45,840
but the coral itself still has
to survive in warming water.
432
00:19:45,840 --> 00:19:48,180
That's where nature has quietly been doing
433
00:19:48,180 --> 00:19:49,710
something remarkable,
434
00:19:49,710 --> 00:19:52,010
and Philippe has found
a way to accelerate it.
435
00:19:53,010 --> 00:19:57,720
- So I also heard you talk
about when the King of Jordan,
436
00:19:57,720 --> 00:19:59,670
when you got that person's attention
437
00:19:59,670 --> 00:20:03,360
and they were so jazzed
by these solutions,
438
00:20:03,360 --> 00:20:05,760
you mentioned that that part of the world
439
00:20:05,760 --> 00:20:08,340
has some heat-tolerant corals,
440
00:20:08,340 --> 00:20:11,490
and considering we have a warming climate,
441
00:20:11,490 --> 00:20:13,860
is this something to get excited about?
442
00:20:13,860 --> 00:20:16,410
- It's actually the resilience of nature.
443
00:20:16,410 --> 00:20:19,200
So we see heat-tolerant
corals around the world,
444
00:20:19,200 --> 00:20:20,100
which is the good news.
445
00:20:20,100 --> 00:20:22,680
Those corals over, again,
a geological timeframe
446
00:20:22,680 --> 00:20:26,160
will no doubt take over that ecosystem,
447
00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:28,200
but we don't have that time.
448
00:20:28,200 --> 00:20:31,447
So we instead, right, so
for example, a stony coral,
449
00:20:31,447 --> 00:20:34,183
like a porites, like a brain coral,
450
00:20:34,183 --> 00:20:37,950
maybe think of like a kind
of half dome lump of coral,
451
00:20:37,950 --> 00:20:40,320
the size of a dinner plate
can take up to 75 years
452
00:20:40,320 --> 00:20:42,000
from one polyp to grow that big.
453
00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:44,880
In the farm, we can
engineer those in two years.
454
00:20:44,880 --> 00:20:45,713
- Wow.
455
00:20:45,713 --> 00:20:47,820
- So we can harvest a small
amount of donor corals,
456
00:20:47,820 --> 00:20:51,240
grow them out exponentially
faster in our farms
457
00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:56,100
and create heat-tolerant
and sexually mature corals
458
00:20:56,100 --> 00:20:58,950
and replace those in the
water that would take 75 years
459
00:20:58,950 --> 00:21:02,400
for one dinner plate size, then
one larvae out of a million
460
00:21:02,400 --> 00:21:03,870
would survive and it would land
461
00:21:03,870 --> 00:21:06,087
and then another 75 years for that,
462
00:21:06,087 --> 00:21:08,490
and that's the timescale
we're talking about.
463
00:21:08,490 --> 00:21:09,380
We don't have that time.
464
00:21:09,380 --> 00:21:11,520
So we can accelerate that dramatically.
465
00:21:11,520 --> 00:21:13,500
And the good news is there
are heat-tolerant corals
466
00:21:13,500 --> 00:21:14,880
all over the world.
467
00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:16,473
We don't exactly know why.
468
00:21:17,550 --> 00:21:21,210
The underlying process is that
when the water gets warmer,
469
00:21:21,210 --> 00:21:24,120
corals have a symbiotic
relationship with the algae
470
00:21:24,120 --> 00:21:25,740
that we call zooxanthella.
471
00:21:25,740 --> 00:21:28,710
And as the water temperature increases,
472
00:21:28,710 --> 00:21:31,140
zooxanthella metabolism increases,
473
00:21:31,140 --> 00:21:33,810
and therefore, they create more
free radicals that are toxic
474
00:21:33,810 --> 00:21:36,270
to the coral and the coral
ejects that zooxanthella.
475
00:21:36,270 --> 00:21:38,580
Problem is that algae
also photosynthesizes
476
00:21:38,580 --> 00:21:40,380
and creates some food for the coral.
477
00:21:40,380 --> 00:21:42,240
So when coral bleaches, it's not dead,
478
00:21:42,240 --> 00:21:45,270
it's just evicted the algae
that gives it its color.
479
00:21:45,270 --> 00:21:47,250
It's when the coral,
after three or four weeks,
480
00:21:47,250 --> 00:21:49,620
it actually slowly starves to death.
481
00:21:49,620 --> 00:21:51,870
And when it turns green
and mucky full of algae,
482
00:21:51,870 --> 00:21:53,130
then it's dead.
483
00:21:53,130 --> 00:21:57,090
And so when corals bleach, if
the temperature gets better,
484
00:21:57,090 --> 00:21:59,820
they'll re-invite that algae
back and they'll recover.
485
00:21:59,820 --> 00:22:02,001
But there are corals out
there that, for some reason,
486
00:22:02,001 --> 00:22:04,830
aren't as fussed by those free radicals
487
00:22:04,830 --> 00:22:07,800
that the zooxanthella create
in higher water temperatures.
488
00:22:07,800 --> 00:22:10,830
Lots of research into the
underlying reasons for that.
489
00:22:10,830 --> 00:22:12,810
We don't know necessarily,
490
00:22:12,810 --> 00:22:15,000
but there's a lot of
research that's happening.
491
00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:17,490
But what we do know is that
practically and functionally,
492
00:22:17,490 --> 00:22:18,570
we can pull stuff out of the water,
493
00:22:18,570 --> 00:22:21,783
grow it, and replant it, and
we are running out of time.
494
00:22:22,620 --> 00:22:25,830
The challenge, the trap
we can find ourselves in
495
00:22:25,830 --> 00:22:28,710
is researching forever.
496
00:22:28,710 --> 00:22:30,600
Research, research, research,
research, research, research,
497
00:22:30,600 --> 00:22:31,855
research, research, research,
498
00:22:31,855 --> 00:22:32,850
and then we're going to
do a little more research.
499
00:22:32,850 --> 00:22:34,473
Meanwhile, the corals are dying.
500
00:22:35,610 --> 00:22:39,390
And there's a point where we
need to continue the research,
501
00:22:39,390 --> 00:22:41,370
but we also need to say enough is enough,
502
00:22:41,370 --> 00:22:44,973
good is good enough, and it's triage time.
503
00:22:46,320 --> 00:22:49,000
We need to start putting
stuff back in the water
504
00:22:50,348 --> 00:22:53,670
and rebuilding these systems,
and that's what we're doing.
505
00:22:53,670 --> 00:22:55,980
And the good news is it
works anywhere in the world,
506
00:22:55,980 --> 00:22:58,620
and again, the good news
is the technologies exist.
507
00:22:58,620 --> 00:23:00,630
It's just finding a way to make these
508
00:23:00,630 --> 00:23:03,390
investible, profitable investments
509
00:23:03,390 --> 00:23:06,720
that protect land-based
infrastructure and people's lives
510
00:23:06,720 --> 00:23:09,090
and rebuild fisheries
and tourist amenities
511
00:23:09,090 --> 00:23:12,360
to unlock the scale of
capital needed to do the work.
512
00:23:12,360 --> 00:23:14,430
It's doable. It's doable.
513
00:23:14,430 --> 00:23:17,520
- For all intents and purposes,
we have reason to believe
514
00:23:17,520 --> 00:23:21,960
that this could make
a huge positive impact
515
00:23:21,960 --> 00:23:23,430
for coral reefs worldwide.
516
00:23:23,430 --> 00:23:25,620
There are obviously still, unfortunately,
517
00:23:25,620 --> 00:23:28,500
huge threats, right?
518
00:23:28,500 --> 00:23:30,150
There's a lot working against reefs,
519
00:23:30,150 --> 00:23:31,590
but there's some pushback.
520
00:23:31,590 --> 00:23:33,840
You're creating ways to push back
521
00:23:33,840 --> 00:23:36,960
and to keep the reefs
thriving and building
522
00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:38,250
and coming back stronger.
523
00:23:38,250 --> 00:23:42,090
So let's say that in
places we can fast-forward
524
00:23:42,090 --> 00:23:44,190
to a certain amount of
time and see it working.
525
00:23:44,190 --> 00:23:47,220
What does a restored reef look like
526
00:23:47,220 --> 00:23:49,320
and what does it bring along with it?
527
00:23:49,320 --> 00:23:52,920
What other biodiversity
gets kind of pulled back in
528
00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:54,780
to that restored ecosystem?
529
00:23:54,780 --> 00:23:59,780
- I dream every day of a world
where we rebuild abundance
530
00:23:59,880 --> 00:24:01,920
in the ocean, and it's possible,
531
00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:03,300
where people can feed themselves,
532
00:24:03,300 --> 00:24:07,680
where shorelines and coastal
ecosystems are healthy
533
00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:11,400
from mangroves and wetlands
and seagrass and coral reefs,
534
00:24:11,400 --> 00:24:13,140
where my daughters can live in a world
535
00:24:13,140 --> 00:24:15,300
that was as rich as the
one that I was born into,
536
00:24:15,300 --> 00:24:19,050
reefs teeming with life,
microorganisms and crustaceans
537
00:24:19,050 --> 00:24:20,430
and mollusks and fish.
538
00:24:20,430 --> 00:24:23,730
And I dream of a world where
coral reefs will continue
539
00:24:23,730 --> 00:24:26,220
to provide the foundation
for a healthy, abundant ocean
540
00:24:26,220 --> 00:24:27,810
for generations to come.
541
00:24:27,810 --> 00:24:30,030
And that's what we are dedicated to doing,
542
00:24:30,030 --> 00:24:33,600
and we do not accept that there's no hope.
543
00:24:33,600 --> 00:24:35,280
- Yeah. Yeah.
- There's always hope.
544
00:24:35,280 --> 00:24:37,140
- And then, Philippe, a
challenging question I'm asking
545
00:24:37,140 --> 00:24:39,960
for you is what can the
average everyday person do
546
00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:42,390
to help support coral reefs?
547
00:24:42,390 --> 00:24:44,670
- Conservation in nature
shouldn't be a partisan issue.
548
00:24:44,670 --> 00:24:46,170
It should be a bipartisan one.
549
00:24:47,100 --> 00:24:49,350
Also, when we think about
where we go on vacation,
550
00:24:49,350 --> 00:24:51,180
looking for resorts and developments
551
00:24:51,180 --> 00:24:52,740
that are protecting their coastlines
552
00:24:52,740 --> 00:24:55,240
and investing in restoration projects
553
00:24:56,280 --> 00:24:58,410
and supporting their communities.
554
00:24:58,410 --> 00:24:59,940
Shopping is politics as Bono said,
555
00:24:59,940 --> 00:25:02,040
and we have a lot of
power with our wallets.
556
00:25:02,040 --> 00:25:04,860
And just recognizing the
superpower that each of us have
557
00:25:04,860 --> 00:25:07,410
as storytellers, be it to an audience
558
00:25:07,410 --> 00:25:11,340
in a television program
like "Wild Kingdom"
559
00:25:11,340 --> 00:25:14,850
or around the dinner table,
that we are storytellers
560
00:25:14,850 --> 00:25:16,230
and we need to help people understand
561
00:25:16,230 --> 00:25:18,060
that humanity cannot thrive on this planet
562
00:25:18,060 --> 00:25:19,473
if the ocean cannot thrive.
563
00:25:20,490 --> 00:25:22,530
- [Peter] Half the world's coral reef gone
564
00:25:22,530 --> 00:25:24,360
in a single lifetime.
565
00:25:24,360 --> 00:25:28,170
95% of the Caribbean
reefs are already lost,
566
00:25:28,170 --> 00:25:31,470
and yet, brain corals
that would take 75 years
567
00:25:31,470 --> 00:25:35,220
to grow in the wild, farmed in only two.
568
00:25:35,220 --> 00:25:37,650
Reefs rebuilt kilometer by kilometer
569
00:25:37,650 --> 00:25:39,750
from the ocean floor up.
570
00:25:39,750 --> 00:25:41,070
The science works.
571
00:25:41,070 --> 00:25:44,790
The question now is whether
we can move fast enough.
572
00:25:44,790 --> 00:25:46,710
This is "Back from the Brink"
573
00:25:46,710 --> 00:25:48,927
from Mutual of Omaha's "Wild Kingdom."
574
00:25:49,870 --> 00:25:52,453
(gentle music)
575
00:25:53,460 --> 00:25:56,160
- If this episode was
super intriguing for you,
576
00:25:56,160 --> 00:25:58,530
follow or subscribe, leave a review,
577
00:25:58,530 --> 00:26:01,170
and send it to the ocean
lover, the snorkeler,
578
00:26:01,170 --> 00:26:02,670
or the person in your life
579
00:26:02,670 --> 00:26:05,910
who had no idea coral
reefs were even in crisis.
580
00:26:05,910 --> 00:26:08,523
I'm Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant,
and I'll see you next time.
581
00:26:09,570 --> 00:26:11,160
- [Narrator] The "Back
from the Brink" podcast
582
00:26:11,160 --> 00:26:14,340
is sponsored by Mutual of
Omaha's "Wild Kingdom,"
583
00:26:14,340 --> 00:26:17,010
hosted by Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant,
584
00:26:17,010 --> 00:26:19,020
narrated by Peter Gros.
585
00:26:19,020 --> 00:26:21,060
Executive producers are Jen Wulf
586
00:26:21,060 --> 00:26:22,650
and Jenny Van Soelen.
587
00:26:22,650 --> 00:26:25,853
Podcast production by Lower Street Media.
588
00:26:25,853 --> 00:26:28,603
(dramatic music)
