Human Activity — Climate Change and the Power of Human Potential
A Docuseries from Bayer
Human activity. It’s so often the culprit in the climate change story, and rightly so. Since the Industrial Revolution, atmospheric levels of harmful greenhouse gasses have increased by as much as 50%.
In the climate change debate, we tend to pit progress and prosperity against the environment, as if humanity and the planet can only flourish at each other’s expense. As if less human activity would be a good thing.
But the world doesn’t need less human ingenuity or less human creativity. Especially now, we need more.
This is the story of our greatest natural, renewable resource. Of the human capacity to innovate. Of the people who are out there right now reimagining how the world could work, making a difference in the fight against climate change. This documentary provides hope for a better farming system that can heal the soil, balance our climate, and feed people all at the same time.
Episode 1: Pulling fertilizer out of thin air
We tapped scientists, innovators and partners to explain how leaps in human ingenuity are helping them confront climate change. In the first episode, plant scientist Howard-Yana Shapiro, Ginkgo Bioworks CEO Jason Kelly, and Jessica Christiansen, Head of Sustainability at Bayer Crop Science, explain why harnessing the power of plants and microbes could help to reduce the use of nitrogen fertilizers, decrease the impact on the environment and revolutionize agriculture.
Episode 2: Beneath the Surface
In the second episode, Illinois farmers Mindy and Justin Jefferson, explain why they are not a typical conventional farm and how their practices help fight climate change and conserve their land for the next generation. CoverCress geneticist Ratan Chopra and plant scientist Mark Messmer discuss how plant science and traditional breeding are creating new crops that hold great potential for protecting soil health and generating low-carbon biofuel.
