01x01 - Our Legacy

[bunniefuu]

This was a really strange day,

the day I realized I had to choose Earth,

that was part

of the choices I needed to make.

Definitely I saw the world change.

But more than anything, I saw

the changes happening faster and faster.

I started having a form of anxiety,

of seeing what we were losing

and what I was losing.

But also what I would not

be able to share with my children,

what the next generation would not have.

We are playing God with our planet.

We are the gods

for all the other species on this planet.

We are creating this weather,

we are creating this extinction.

We needed to adapt to the Anthropocene.

Our geological era,

the one that has been created

and made and moulded by us humans.

And so once you choose Earth,

what are you going to do about it?

That's how I started

the TimeShrine project,

I was trying to channel my own anxieties

and put them into my art.

I really felt the need

to document our planet.

Create these installations

as quick as possible.

Next thing I knew,

it had been 10 years,

and it was non-stop.

Suki, Suki.

La-la, La-la, Suki, Suki

The camera!

Travelling all over,

learning as much as I could.

So many people around the planet

are on the front line of adaptation,

using what's left of their roots

to create a new foundation

for the world that's coming.

I call them Earth protectors.

They're people who have chosen Earth.

It became clear to me

we were at a crucial moment,

neither in the past nor in the future.

Everything was evolving,

faster and faster.

I started wondering about who we are

and everything we've achieved until now.

What is that going to become?

What is our legacy going to be?

We're running out of time, and we know it.

Today, 54% of the world's population

lives in urban areas,

a proportion that is expected to increase

to almost 70% by year 2050,

according to the UN.

An additional 2.5 billion people

are predicted to move to the cities,

due to climate crisis,

with 37% of the projected growth in India,

which currently

has the largest rural population.

- Oh, yeah, you like drown them.

- Yeah, drown them.

- Wow, look at this place, Tashi.

- Yes.

They're harvesting rice at the moment.

Back in the days, not until long ago,

all of the places outside the city used

to be fields, they'd grow a lot of rice.

And you'd see rice harvest all over.

- Look at this temple.

- Oh, yeah.

I just had no idea the pagoda thing

came from here, and then went to China.

How many people live in Kathmandu?

Now the population

is roughly around 3 million.

That's a lot of people

and it's growing more and more,

migrants in a way,

migrating into Kathmandu.

Most people move

in hopes of better access to health

and educational facilities and such.

You were telling me that

even people from Upper Mustang

and Mustang are coming down here

and trying to find a better life.

As climate refugees

and also other natural disasters,

people see the city

as a more secure place.

You're already seeing people

migrating from the mountains,

from the Himalayas to Kathmandu,

also for climate reasons.

Oh, yeah, but that's

posing as a huge problem because

there's a lot of unplanned urbanization

and construction of infrastructure

that's actually cutting

a lot of freshwater source springs

and aquifers and use of pesticides

and things that are polluting water.

Even though Nepal has 2.7% of the total

fresh water source in the entire planet,

one in every five households

has no access to clean drinking water,

so that's a huge problem.

These really beautiful

stone carved little fountains,

they're called stepwells

and all of these ancient cities

they had stepwells like these that used

to be the major source of drinking water.

Originally all this water came from where?

There are 3000 glaciers

that feed all the waters in Nepal.

So all this glacial melt water comes down

to thousands of rivers and streams

across the country.

But sadly, natural water sources dried up,

so they just put up

a drinking water line in there.

Rise and shine, Everest base camp.

Base camp is frozen right now.

This is the upper side

of the Everest base camp.

You can see here

the Khumbu glacier frozen in time

and all those great mountains in the mist.

This is our little camp set up.

- Hello, Anne!

- Hey, guys!

I'm like a mummy.

Anne is like a mummy,

a mummy fighting a huge yellow thing.

I got my book from my friend

and I got my water bottle.

Oh, cool!

I met Tashi the first time

I went to the Himalayas.

He was helping create a museum in Ladakh

to protect all the ancient art

hidden in the monasteries.

We started talking about Everest

and at the time I was documenting trash

and especially how trash arrived in

the most remote locations on the planet.

He offered to help me organize a trip

with some of the activist Sherpas he knew.

And a very nice kitchen.

Here's our cook,

he's cooking some macaroni, some pasta.

This is the colorful hill,

tons of tons of prayer flags

at Everest base camp.

Upper Mustang used to be an isolated

kingdom in the north of the Himalayas.

Because it was very treacherous

to come here, it was very cut-off,

but being cut-off in a way preserved a

lot of the things as a part of tradition,

people were dependent on animals,

used animal products

and depended on glacial melt water

to grow food in the fields.

Only has around 5000 people living there.

Look at those guys, we used to ride

horses and cows, they're riding bicycles.

I think the first time I saw a foreigner

was when I was eight years old.

As a kid we grew up

playing in the rivers, riding horses,

trying to ride cows and all that.

We saw a foreigner travelling with

a Polaroid camera, he took photos of us

and he gave it to us.

Me and my friends were already blown away

to see the Polaroid photos

of ourselves and things like this.

New set of prayer wheels,

look, they're so shiny and bling bling.

Wow, they are, they're so bling bling.

Oh, no, it's like this Anne, now

you have minus on your good karma points.

I'd love to make electricity out of them,

put a little turbine and then

- You can make electricity.

- That would be amazing.

It would be streetlamps, see.

My family is super religious, prayer

flags, monasteries, monks everywhere.

There's something horrible

happening within the art world here.

That's one of your projects, there's

a big black market for Buddhist art.

We all know there's

a lot of trafficking of art.

Art trafficking is considered

the third most deadliest crime

after human and drug trafficking.

So, on my last project

I tried to film monasteries, stupas

and religious places

of worship that have been looted.

It's a multi-billion dollar

industry annually.

In this new generation,

there's quite a mix of young people

who want to come back and advocate for

their areas, the villages they live in,

and be able to carry out

development projects

to bring more awareness

on art trafficking.

These are all remains

that were found in the caves nearby.

Look at this skeleton.

It's a sign that the village

has been around for a thousand years.

It's a very, very ancient civilization.

They found some kind of mask here.

Can you open it so we can see it?

It looks very, very fragile.

Oh, my goodness, look at that.

There are such artifact leftovers

around here,

which is a sign of how ancient

these civilizations were.

- These things need to be protected.

- Oh, yeah, totally, totally.

- It hasn't snowed yet?

- No, it hasn't snowed yet.

Things will get messy.

I'm here because we want to document

the evolution of the climate here

and climate change

and climate breakdown in a way.

Himalayas, home to the famous peaks

of Everest and K2,

is melting at an unprecedented rate.

Himalayan ice fields could lose

up to 80% of their volume this century

if greenhouse gas emissions

aren't sharply reduced.

There is no denying

the planet is getting warmer.

In Alaska, the effects

of climate change are clear to see.

Glaciers in the State

melting at record rates

and climate scientists say this is

bad news for all of us, not just Alaska.

Swiss glaciers are melting

at an alarming rate this year.

European glaciers have experienced

a 40% reduction in volume since 2000.

In 2024,

Venezuela became the first country

in modern history

to lose all its glaciers.

Greenland's glaciers aren't just melting,

they're reshaping global power.

By 2050 up to 5% of global shipping could

flow through these new Arctic routes.

An alarming new report is out,

it says that the Arctic will have

its first ice-free day in 2027.

Nobody really believes

that is happening in the Himalayas.

The glacial sources

of water are drying up,

and if not drying up, are getting reduced

so much they have not enough water

to irrigate their fields,

which is their main source of food.

It's just a desert everywhere.

Two of these villages we're going to,

the only option is to move

where there's abundant sources of water.

So they're moving right now.

When you go down, you lean backwards

and when you go up, you lean forward.

And you never pull the reins,

like too strong.

Just press your knees on the horse

and it's much easier for them.

Okay, both.

I never really thought

about filming at the beginning.

It's just that what happened

is that when I did my first exhibition,

people started doubting the art, they were

like, oh, well, that's all photoshopped,

that's not possible that you went to this

location and created this and did this.

And I was quite astonished

because I never thought about that.

Everything's been photographed and done on

location, most of this art I'm creating,

these installations, they're a story,

both about the place and about how I

I got there and I was able

to make it, to create it,

so that's when I started thinking about

filming, because people didn't believe me.

It was very challenging

and a little dangerous too,

especially if you're not

a good horseback rider like me.

We travelled for three days, we camped.

You've got these really deep ditches

and your horse

is going on this really thin path.

You shouldn't look down and you just have

to trust your horse and keep on going.

- Tashi!

- They're stuck with

Please stay with me!

It was like really living the nomad life

and seeing, understanding and feeling

how they how they've been living forever.

Everything's dried up and there's

no more crops and there's no more fields

and there's this trickle of water.

Moving is a very different thing here

because people are dependent

on information and skills

that have been passed down

through so many generations.

Moving an entire village location,

giving up your fields and your animals

would be the worst nightmare,

people are now going through that.

They're having to move,

forget the emotional and psychological

challenges that it brings.

I never thought it would happen as a kid.

All ancient metal statues

that had been abandoned for quite a while.

This monastery

also probably got robbed a few times

and then they cut the base

to take away the valuables inside.

Oh, what a shame, and what

is this a secret room, what's in here?

Yes, so inside,

every monastery has a protector room.

- Oh, my goodness! Oh, that's amazing.

- Yeah.

The protector gods of Chujong.

Wow! There's so strange,

they're so different, no?

Yeah, all the protective gods are made

to look as wrathful as possible.

So, to ward off all evil spirits.

- They're unique.

- Yeah, very unique.

Who takes care of this monastery?

For now, the youth club,

the LoManthang's youth club

is taking total care of this monastery.

They constructed the roof so there

wouldn't be water and snow leakages.

They archived

all the artifacts of this monastery.

So they cannot be stolen.

Artifact preservation

is starting to be ever more challenging.

This monastery

was built around 700 years ago.

In my 69 years,

I have known all this region well.

Long ago,

our elders could tell the time of the land

by looking at the sun rising

from the cliffs.

They were able to tell

when to plant and harvest.

Today, life is more difficult

for our people.

The nature gods are angry,

so we get excess rain,

floods and fierce winds.

People and their faiths go together.

All the young educated people

are migrating.

If only old people stay,

one day we will also vanish.

As a Westerner, I had this vision

of the Himalaya, snow, ice and water.

And so I really didn't realize

that there was such

a drama unfolding in the Himalayas.

There is so much ancient culture there.

And so, it's this incredible duality

because they're losing their glaciers,

but with that, there's a great risk

they're going to be losing their culture.

It was almost immediate that there was no

way I could recount the story of the loss

without integrating

the cultural loss as well.

Nice to have both views!

Yes, this is a bit shaky.

It's a very ancient monastery.

Where they used to practice black magic.

Samjhong is definitely inhabited

by the wind, by the sand, by the dust.

It just blows, moves

and twists everywhere around you.

There's also something very familiar

that you can often feel in places

that have been inhabited

for millennia by humans.

There's a deep sensation of abandonment.

But also of sadness because

there was such a human presence there.

And like the wind, it's just disappearing.

These are the fields

of the 15 houses of Samjhong.

And since this year, all the fields

you see around have been abandoned.

People are moving

because there's not enough water

and that's a result

of the glaciers drying,

which is a result of the earth that is

warming due to things that we're doing.

This is happening all over the Himalaya?

The people of Samjhong are one of the

first climate refugees in the Himalayas.

They cannot sustain

themselves here anymore.

So it's a big reality.

The 2000 Himalayan glaciers that are

feeding around 1.6 billion people on Earth

are now slowly disappearing.

So Samjhong is a reality

we're all probably headed towards

unless we tackle on it on a global level.

We all share one planet.

We share the land and the Earth.

It's all connected, so we should

all head towards finding a solution.

Every single little solution,

there's no bad solution.

We need time to find the solutions.

And the problem is

we are running out of time.

We are altering our planet's water cycles,

our ocean levels are increasing

as much as our glaciers are melting.

Faster and faster, year after year.

And there's this new urgency,

this double urgency.

Not only do we need to save our glaciers

because they are one

of our largest freshwater reserves,

but they also represent an extreme,

incredible environment

where unexplored

microorganisms and bacteria

could become key to even more solutions.

So we are starting to cover them up

with these intelligent materials.

Not to prevent them from melting,

but only to slow it down.

There is a new world

in action for solutions, no doubt.

The question is whether it'll win in time

to avoid some of these tipping points.

What can we still invent

once our glaciers are gone?

Look at this tiny mind the tiny door.

It's starting to be all empty,

except for a few houses.

It's frightening!

There's nothing,

it's just white and empty.

When we were children,

we had many fields,

water was everywhere.

This winter has been so harsh.

People who had 100 goats lost 50

and those with 300 lost about 100.

Thinking we could get ground water,

we all worked hard digging,

but water never came out.

As kids, we'd stick these on our teeth.

We pretended to have goldteeth.

They speak this ancient language

that nobody really understands anymore.

And Tashi was able

to communicate with them.

There's probably just a few thousand

people left who speak Loba today.

It's really disappearing

at the same time

as everything else from that village.

Are you all leaving?

Yes, what else should we do?

Will you carry everything from the houses?

Just some clothes and stuff.

Everything else will stay here.

I saw growing up, when there was a temple,

the whole village worshipped.

When the main idol, statues or artifacts

from the temples disappear,

people's minds register subconsciously

that something in common

between them is not there anymore.

So people become more fragile in terms

of social harmony, social cohesion.

The village unity

actually becomes more fragile.

The installation I did

in Samjhong is about memory.

It's about loss.

But mainly about preserving that memory.

You see, people are having

to abandon their houses,

and then like two houses,

two families have moved completely.

Five others are split between here and

the new location, even families are split.

We basically saw only women, elderlies

and children, there's no more men left.

Because all the men

have moved to the new location

where they want to plant new fields

and they've already built houses,

they all want to move there

eventually next year.

Arriving in this new settlement

was definitely a shock.

There's no history, there are no roots,

of course the houses are new,

but you know, they have no memory.

They all stand there on line,

one after the other, the same.

Everyone is moving hereto grow apples.

In the old village

we used to have three kinds of harvests.

We only have apples here.

It's scary not knowing

how the harvest will turn out each year.

I'm not so happy living here.

- They don't grow that much.

- If you live with lack of resources.

- Yeah.

- It's desert. It takes a while.

In Nepal's Mustang region, apple

cultivation is moving to higher altitudes

due to changing environmental conditions.

In just three decades, apple orchards

have climbed from 1200 metres

to 3500 metres above sea level,

clear evidence of how a warming planet

is reshaping agriculture.

The climate change is changing

freshwater ecosystems worldwide,

k*lling plants and animals, spreading

diseases and threatening local species.

These changes threaten human livelihoods,

forcing communities to adapt

to new environmental conditions.

The apples are promising,

not the water.

The weather is unpredictable.

Everyone is at risk of flash floods.

We work hard every day to get by,

because apples need a lot of manure.

There's more wind coming.

Look, be careful.

I live with my old mother.

My wife stayed behind

to take care of our old house.

My daughter is in Kathmandu at school.

It's always difficult

to not be with your family.

It's not only just physical moving,

it's a lot of emotional

and psychological challenges

for them to feel secure.

I just also feel like somehow

we're all to share the blame.

These people are the least, they're the

least contributors, but the most affected.

But they're on the edge,

so they have to leave.

Climate change is grossly unfair.

Every year, the average American causes

16 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

That's about eight times

as much as the average Indian.

Manhattan alone matches

the entire carbon footprint of Nepal.

The Global North has caused

nearly 92% of excess CO2 emissions

since the Industrial Revolution.

Africa alone receives at least

250.000 metric tons of e-waste every year,

exposing local communities

to toxic pollution,

respiratory diseases

and contaminated soil.

People living in some of the most

fragile and conflict-affected countries

are often disproportionately

affected by the climate crisis

and the first to be displaced.

In 2025,

Donald Trump's decision to cut USAID

will also have huge impacts

on the fight against climate change.

Experts say it will make it even harder

to meet the Paris Agreement's

1.5 degree target.

Developing countries will struggle

even more with extreme weather,

leaving millions who contributed

the least to climate change defenseless,

losing homes, livelihoods and their future

to a crisis they did not create.

Climate related displacement

could be one of the gravest challenges

created by our warming planet.

We are asking if we are prepared

for a world of climate refugees.

Year after year, days pass.

We have all been living here,

hoping that the apples do well.

He says they will try their best

to see if the apples work.

He says if it works,

it's great, if it doesn't work,

they will go somewhere else,

look for something else.

Other rocks Anne, see it's a prayer wheel.

Another carved prayer stone.

It says: "Om Mani Padme Hum".

It's a combination of many, many mantras.

Praying to the precious jewels,

referring to the protector gods.

Here's your hourglass.

- Time.

- Yup, to tell the world: time is ticking.

- You want me to put this on the front?

- Yeah, perhaps over there.

That would be great, like accompanying.

They have these prayer stones

everywhere and they're all carved

and they're really beautiful.

People have been carving them

since ever and they are quite sacred.

They told me it was okay for me

to use them for my installation.

That was something

that really blew my mind

because in my religion

you don't touch anything that's sacred

and you can't really share it and

you have to just look at it and honor it.

I think they understood why I was there

and they thought that was the most

important, they wanted to make sure

that I was able to transmit

who they were and what they are.

And what's happening to them

is so, so harsh and so unfair.

They're probably the people who are

the least linked to the Anthropocene.

They're probably the least anthropogenic

part of the population of this planet.

They're definitely leaving

the stones behind.

So, all those carved mantras

are gonna stay in Samjhong

and they're gonna leave.

Cities today are where

most of humanity is going.

More and more people are coming down

from those mountains to live there too.

They're now living in these outskirts

of the city, in these ghettos.

They have to adapt to a new environment

that's so completely different.

Their cultural references are gone.

Their roots are gone.

The wind and the dust have been replaced

by trash and by pollution.

And that story needs to be told

because it's them today,

but it will be everybody else tomorrow.

They're just on the front line.

We have 110 million people

that have fled because of conflict,

persecution, discrimination, violence,

often mixed with other motives,

in particular

the impact of climate change.

My baby!

My baby!

My baby!

The global migrant population

has doubled in just a decade

and the challenge of managing

the growing number of displaced people

is becoming increasingly urgent.

We're not criminals!

By 2050, a staggering 1.2 billion people

could be forced to flee their homes

as extreme weather events

escalate across the globe.

Thousands of people die or go missing

each year in the Mediterranean

while seeking refuge in Europe.

One in five migrants is a child

and the numbers are only expected to rise.

Hey, my baby!

- Where is he?

- My baby!

In a desert or something like that,

there is no policeman, there is no rule.

The human being and the chicken

are the same for them.

Five days in the Sahara, so bad.

So bad because I have not eaten.

It's deadly, but you don't have a choice,

you have to reach

the destination you are thinking.

The humanitarian consequences

of climate migration are mounting.

Vulnerable groups as women, children,

the elderly, and indigenous communities,

bear the brunt of these hardships.

At a certain point I met five men.

They prevented me from passing.

They r*ped me, all five of them.

I gave birth to a son.

People are suffering, everyone.

Especially women.

Women suffer a lot.

What frightens me the most

about the future

is people still denying

how fast our planet is evolving

and not realizing

how much we're going to need to adapt.

Three regions of the world

in particular: Latin America,

Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia.

Without decisive action widespread drought

and crop failures will become more common

and this would force

hundreds of millions of people

to leave home

and cross borders in search of food.

One displacement occurring per second.

It's not just due to conflict, it's due

to climate change, it's due to disasters.

I worked my whole life.

What scares me is how we're going to react

to it, what are we going to do about it?

Is our definition of human rights

still going to be the same?

I'm really afraid of us.

Global North

is no longer a passive observer,

but an active participant

in the climate crisis.

The next wave of migration will include

the middle class, the educated,

those who can no longer secure a mortgage

or insurance as jobs and stability vanish.

Hurricanes, storms and wildfires are

forcing Americans to abandon their homes.

As nature lashes out

against human-made climate change,

over three million Americans have

already moved due to a risk of flooding.

To the Spanish region of Valencia,

days after devastating floods

led to the deaths of almost 160 people

and caused widespread devastation.

I don't think anyone was really quite

prepared for just how devastating it was.

In Australia, soaring insurance costs

driven by escalating climate risks

are making coverage unaffordable

for countless families,

leaving them vulnerable and unprotected.

Firefighters in Los Angeles

are managing to hold the line.

Almost 180.000 people

have been ordered to leave their homes.

Entire neighborhoods

completely destroyed, everything gone.

What is very often difficult

to quantify in disasters

such as this is the loss of creative

neighborhoods, various artworks.

Many artists have seen

their homes and artworks destroyed.

The climate change has played a

significant role in the Los Angeles Fire.

Do we want to keep on saying that's far

away and it's never gonna happen to us?

Or do we feel that these are fellow

humans and we need to be compassionate

and we need to find solutions

where everybody on this planet is

going to be able to adapt in a fair way.

And it's that choice

that's gonna make a difference

about what

we're gonna become as a civilization.