The 11th Hour (19 of 49)

The 11th Hour

Living systems are coral reefs, they' re our climatic stability...
forest cover, the oceans themselves, aquifers...
water, the conditions of the soil, biodiversity....
They go on and on as they get more specific.
But the fact is there isn't one living system that is stable or is improving.
And those living systems provide the basis for all life.
I sat on a United Nations group called the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment...
a four-year study, biggest study ever done of ecosystems around the world.
It involved over 1300 scientists from 71 countries in the world.
At the end of that, in March of 2005, the final reports came in...
and they documented this staggering destruction of ecosystems...

and the services they perform for us around the world.
We better acknowledge that the planet is seamless.
For instance, the fertilizer and the pesticides...
that are applied in the fields of the upper Midwest...
go down the Mississippi, and 1100 miles away, there's a deadzone.
The reality with air pollution is there's no away.
Impacts can range from headaches, drowsiness, lethargy...
to much more serious impacts, not only aggravating asthma, but causing it.
People didn't talk about asthma decades ago.
I can walk into a classroom in an elementary school...
and ask the kids, "How many of you have asthma? " Thirty percent of the kids in the room will have their hands raised.
At least 30.