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What is the American state of mind?

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Literally boundless.

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The beckoning of
the perpetual road trip.

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The shaking off of fetters.

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American freedom has been
the freedom to move

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beyond the cramping parochialism
of the Old World.

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Now, that's all come grinding to a halt.

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Americans are hurting.
Americans are hurting today.

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America has run out of infinity.

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When it comes to the global debate
on climate change,

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our country is struggling
just to stay relevant.

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Hard times have stalled
the American optimism

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that's always been the heartbeat
of its history.

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The American West has been a symbol

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of opportunity, growth,
prosperity and freedom,

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discovered as an unending Eden

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that would eternally provide
for this nation.

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The determination to move on,
to engineer a profit out of dirt,

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be it a harvest, a ranch or a city

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is the urge that's made America
the land of plenty.

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Understandably, not many people
are going to stand up and say, "Stop."

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But some Americans have been
brave enough to say, "We have limits."

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If we succumb to a dream world,

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then we will wake up to a nightmare.

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This is a much
overlooked American tradition

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that is now more relevant than ever.

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Oil may be dominating the headlines,

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but it's the stuff that makes
life on Earth possible

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that's an even bigger threat
to the American future,

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water.

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...standing up for the freedom
of my people!

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The land of plenty is running dry.

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Nowhere is it more apparent
than on the Colorado River.

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The Colorado waters the industry,
farms and homes of seven western states.

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But the reservoir of Lake Mead
shows white calcium bathtub rings

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where the water level
has dropped due to overuse

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and prolonged drought.

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It's now running at below half capacity.

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In the years ahead, we're likely to see
reduced water supplies.

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We stand warned
by serious and credible scientists

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that time is short
and the dangers are great.

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The most relevant question now

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is whether our own government
is equal to the challenge.

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The lake makes it possible
for the Imperial Valley

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to put fresh vegetables
on America's tables all year round.

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It also provides water for
one of America's fastest growing cities,

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Las Vegas.

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What's driving all of us right now
in the Colorado River watershed

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is global warming,

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and the effects of global warming
on the Colorado River.

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What we are going to be facing
is going to fundamentally alter

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everything we've ever taken for granted.

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Just when you think you've got
an answer to one problem,

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up pops another.

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Biofuels like ethanol may replace oil,

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but they're made from corn,
which needs water, which isn't there.

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This is a story of paradise lost.

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The American garden
is withering on the vine,

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drying out.

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MALE NARRATOR: Water.
Water for productive agriculture.

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Water for an increasing population.

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Water for expanding industries.

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Water to provide a full measure
of the good things of the earth

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for ourselves now, for our children,

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and for their children,
America's hope for the years ahead.

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SCHAMA: American history
has always sounded like this.

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The founding fathers believed
it was the country's mission

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to populate the continent and grow
into a strong, self-sufficient nation.

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And no one was more eager than
President Andrew Jackson in the 1820s

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to have young Americans
embrace their western destiny.

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Jackson was America's
most famous war hero,

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but he was also the president
of the fast-moving frontier.

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There was nowhere he thought
America couldn't settle.

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And if Indians happened
to be there first, well, then,

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tens of thousands of them had to go.

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Jackson had no trouble
justifying his ethnic cleansing

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if it helped promote
his vision of the frontier

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as a place of unlimited opportunity.

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In a speech to Congress in 1830,
Andrew Jackson asked,

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"What good man would prefer
a country covered by forests

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"and ranged by a few thousand savages

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"to our extensive republic,

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"studded with cities,
towns and prosperous farms,

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"embellished with all the improvements
that art can devise

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"and industry can execute?"

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The optimism of the age was obligatory.

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Trailblazers set out to establish
tracks into the wilderness

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and the riches said to lie beyond.

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The most famous and treacherous of them
reached all the way to the Pacific,

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and it was called the Oregon Trail.

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Believe it or not, this is Route 66
of the Oregon Trail

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in the 1840s and '50s.

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How do we know?
Because these gouges you see on the side

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of the little pass here
were cut by wagon wheels.

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It's quite quiet and empty now,

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but you have to imagine
a huge traffic jam

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of Conestoga wagons,
oxcarts, mules, people,

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all forging ahead
in search of that golden dream

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that Andrew Jackson had promised them.

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New towns were springing up
all along the routes

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as the frontier pushed west.

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In 1838, a family called the Powells
picked up their belongings

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and moved west from New York
into farm country.

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Pa Powell was a hard-writing,
evangelical minister,

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so of course
he called his little boy John Wesley,

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and the place they settled in
was called Jackson.

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The Powell family had gone west

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in search of their own
piece of land to farm.

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But they, along with all the others,

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were agents of Jackson's
grand vision for America.

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So, John Wesley Powell grew up
fascinated by the allure of the west.

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Only much later would he face
a painful truth about his water.

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His family eventually established
a farm in the Midwest.

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They'd try and make a go of it
in the country,

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models of just the kind Jackson sought,
settling the prairies.

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But it was not all about democratic
farming, virtuous and simple.

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For the big-money boys of the east,
there was a pile to be made in the west.

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Millions of dollars were invested
in a transcontinental railroad.

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By 1869, you could travel
the entire breadth of America by train,

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from New York to San Francisco,

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and the country had become
a truly continental nation.

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Which is what made the persistence
of areas on the map marked "unknown"

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almost an affront
to America's invincible sense

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that it could know it all,
do it all and take it all.

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Expeditions were sent out
to survey territory

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and to assess its suitability
for settlement.

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One such area that had long
remained unexplored

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was the basin of the Colorado River.

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In 1869, an expedition to navigate
the thousand-mile length of the river

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was to be led by
Major John Wesley Powell,

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now 35 and a science teacher.

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Powell joined the men of
the Colorado River Exploring Expedition

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in the railroad town of Green River.

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They'd come together to explore
the last unmapped part

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of the continental United States.

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On the trailer park at the edge of town

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is one of the great forgotten locations
in American history.

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It was here on May 24, 1869,

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that John Wesley Powell
launched his four boats.

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Now, this was a journey
so fraught with danger

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that it had defeated everybody
who'd tried it before.

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It was the last great challenge
of American geography.

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But that wasn't going to stop
John Wesley Powell.

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Powell's life had always been
linked to the history of his country.

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He'd fought in the Civil War

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and a bullet had taken
his right arm off.

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Now his trip would determine
how the nation might grow.

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At stake was the whole future
of the United States.

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His plan was to travel down the Colorado
and through the terrifying Grand Canyon.

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He'd been asked to see
if it was possible for Americans to live

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in that part of the country.

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To answer the question,
Powell needed to experience

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the perils of the river firsthand.

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Powell rode in the lead boat,

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sitting on a wooden armchair
strapped to the timbers,

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gesticulating with his one arm.

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At the beginning,
it was all geological fascination.

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But as they went on,
the river became more threatening,

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and Powell realised he'd underestimated
what he was getting into.

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But what he was about to experience
in the Grand Canyon

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would be a lesson in humility.

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POWELL: We are three-quarters
of a mile in the depths of the earth.

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And the great river
shrinks into insignificance

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as it dashes its angry waves
against the walls and cliffs

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that rise to the world above.

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We are but pygmies,

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running up and down the sands
or lost among the boulders.

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SCHAMA: Terrified by their experiences,
three of the crew deserted.

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They were later found dead,
killed by Indians,

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on the plateau above the chasm.

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One of the boats had been smashed.

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But with the explorers near starvation,
the rest made it out of the canyon.

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Powell's journey through terror
changed his sunny view

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of the American west.

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Somehow, Powell had made it
down the Colorado.

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But if he'd won the battle
with the river, he'd lost the war,

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because the Colorado had shaken him
out of the naive assumption

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that its waters could be used to turn
the whole of the arid west into a garden

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that could provide for
an infinite number of Americans.

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Instead of conquering the Colorado,
America was going to have to respect it.

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Follow-up expeditions did
nothing to change that cautious view.

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As head of the United States
Geological Survey,

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Powell never resorted to
the booming rhetoric

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of the "America is unstoppable" lobby.

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He thought the waters of the Colorado
could support towns and farms,

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but on a small scale.

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His one great principle was
bring the farmers to the water,

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not the other way around.

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This town on the upper Colorado River

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still represents Powell's vision
of the American West.

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Hello. How are you this evening?

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In the early 20th century,

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the damming of a local
Colorado tributary

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gave the town a limited supply of water.

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Ditches for the water were dug.

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And plots were portioned out
to settlers from the east.

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So-called ditch riders
maintained the irrigation systems.

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The local farmers
still can't do without them.

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00:19:00,040 --> 00:19:02,554
I've been a ditch rider for 23 years.

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00:19:05,440 --> 00:19:11,117
I started in...
I think it was '86, '85 or '86.

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And I've been riding ever since then.

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This town is everything
John Wesley Powell

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wanted America to be.

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Water wouldn't just be
what you fed to the corn or alfalfa.

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It would be an educator
of local democracy,

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a tutor in how to get along.

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00:19:36,360 --> 00:19:40,399
The farmers,
they think a lot of ditch riders.

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00:19:43,720 --> 00:19:47,156
Sometimes it's not good,
but they think of us, anyhow.

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00:19:52,160 --> 00:19:55,118
Oh, there are some disagreements
at times.

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00:19:57,040 --> 00:19:59,156
Some of them get kind of vocal.

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00:19:59,240 --> 00:20:02,437
Very seldom ever get violent,
physical but...

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00:20:02,520 --> 00:20:05,751
This is a card box,
this is where I pick up

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00:20:05,840 --> 00:20:09,355
what the farmers want.

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00:20:09,440 --> 00:20:11,749
The cards are water order cards.

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00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:17,831
Now, if it's within reason,
that's usually what he gets.

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00:20:28,640 --> 00:20:30,471
A few miles outside town,

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00:20:30,560 --> 00:20:33,597
Don lives on a small farm
with his wife Jeanie.

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00:20:36,600 --> 00:20:38,477
Come on, Buddy, Buddy, Buddy, Buddy.

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00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:44,032
Oh, where is he? Buddy!
Come on. Come on, girls.

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00:20:44,120 --> 00:20:46,588
(MOOING)

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There's a certain time that you've
got to get certain things watered.

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00:20:49,880 --> 00:20:54,317
Like the sugar beets coming up now
all need to be watered.

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00:20:54,400 --> 00:20:58,871
And we try to have them all watered
before the 1st of May, if possible.

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And then after that,
we water all the barley.

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Makes it very hard if you've got
to water and irrigate everything.

225
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It used to be we'd get a lot of rain
around this time,

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00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:20,114
but the weather pattern changed
so much now that it's really hard to...

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00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:26,556
to get any rain.
It seems like it quit raining on us.

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00:21:35,240 --> 00:21:39,756
John Wesley Powell believed
a small irrigation community like this,

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if run properly, could survive drought.

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But he foresaw disaster
if the region was over-settled.

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Everything he'd grown up believing,

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dreams of expansion,
of the mass settlement of the west,

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00:21:57,440 --> 00:22:00,830
he realised now
might lead to catastrophe.

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00:22:06,080 --> 00:22:10,392
But the second wave of migrants
were already on their way west.

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00:22:12,400 --> 00:22:16,678
During the 1890s, government lands
were opened up to settlement

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00:22:16,760 --> 00:22:19,399
on a first-come-first-serve basis.

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00:22:21,160 --> 00:22:24,869
What you're seeing is literally
a race for the best land.

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00:22:31,520 --> 00:22:33,272
Trains were carrying people

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00:22:33,360 --> 00:22:37,990
escaping from the depressed towns
and unemployment lines of the east,

240
00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:41,311
towards the ever-growing cities
of the west.

241
00:22:44,360 --> 00:22:48,672
The year 1893 marked a turning point
in the nation's history.

242
00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:51,274
The entire country had been mapped now,

243
00:22:51,360 --> 00:22:55,672
and the western frontier officially
no longer existed.

244
00:22:55,760 --> 00:22:59,116
Exit geography, enter technology.

245
00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:03,079
The showcase was the electrically lit
Chicago World's Fair,

246
00:23:03,160 --> 00:23:06,789
where every marvel of the machine age
was on display.

247
00:23:11,080 --> 00:23:16,074
New technology would enable prospectors
to go in search of the mineral bonanza

248
00:23:16,160 --> 00:23:18,720
lying beneath the western soil.

249
00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:23,555
Most people thought that meant gold,
until something else came along.

250
00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:31,716
Investors in the west
had long drilled for water

251
00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:34,633
in the hope of bringing
arid areas to life.

252
00:23:36,360 --> 00:23:39,033
Often they'd come across crude oil

253
00:23:39,120 --> 00:23:41,588
that they thought
was a polluting nuisance.

254
00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:49,119
But as the cities grew,
so did the demand for oil.

255
00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:59,315
On January 10, 1901,
on a Texas hill named Spindletop,

256
00:23:59,400 --> 00:24:03,678
prospectors struck the largest
oil field yet discovered.

257
00:24:03,760 --> 00:24:07,878
This single strike tripled
American oil production overnight.

258
00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:13,517
Oil-boom towns sprung up
throughout the west.

259
00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:23,311
Wells were left deliberately uncapped
to demonstrate abundance

260
00:24:23,400 --> 00:24:25,391
and encourage investment.

261
00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:30,598
Many believe this second wave
of western migration

262
00:24:30,680 --> 00:24:33,877
would complete America's
unfinished republic.

263
00:24:35,080 --> 00:24:38,914
But there was still a big question
hanging over all this growth.

264
00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:42,913
Was there enough water to support it,

265
00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:47,198
to feed the cities,
to run industry and farming?

266
00:24:52,680 --> 00:24:56,673
It was a journalist
who best captured the spirit of the age

267
00:24:56,760 --> 00:25:02,039
at an international irrigation congress
held in a Los Angeles opera house.

268
00:25:04,200 --> 00:25:06,270
William Ellsworth Smythe,

269
00:25:06,360 --> 00:25:11,150
newspaper editor,
founder of the journal Irrigation Age,

270
00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:14,232
was promising to use
the waters of the Colorado

271
00:25:14,320 --> 00:25:16,788
to turn the arid American desert

272
00:25:16,880 --> 00:25:19,997
into the next great pump
of American plenty.

273
00:25:24,440 --> 00:25:27,637
For Smythe, mass irrigation
was the great hope

274
00:25:27,720 --> 00:25:29,631
for the American future.

275
00:25:29,720 --> 00:25:33,872
He believed in it with an enthusiasm
that bordered on religion.

276
00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:43,558
Smythe wrote a book called
The Conquest of Arid America,

277
00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:47,872
in which he prophesied a new era
that was dawning for the west,

278
00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:51,191
free from the rough edges
of pioneer life.

279
00:25:53,960 --> 00:25:59,239
Smythe's vision was far more than
ditches and small river communities.

280
00:25:59,320 --> 00:26:04,917
When he got going, 90% of Americans
were still living east of the Rockies.

281
00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:08,709
His kind of irrigation
was going to change all that.

282
00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:12,352
He'd every reason to assume

283
00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:15,193
that John Wesley Powell,
the patriarch of the river,

284
00:26:15,280 --> 00:26:18,431
would be one of the biggest
cheerleaders of the plan.

285
00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:22,195
But Powell had come to deliver
a quite different message.

286
00:26:23,600 --> 00:26:29,516
POWELL: Gentlemen, it may be unpleasant
for me to give you these facts.

287
00:26:29,600 --> 00:26:33,115
I hesitated a good deal,
but finally concluded to do so.

288
00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:39,271
I tell you, gentlemen,
you are piling up a heritage of conflict

289
00:26:39,360 --> 00:26:41,635
and litigation of water rights,

290
00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:47,993
for there is not sufficient water
to supply the land.

291
00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:55,037
This was not what the audience
had come to hear.

292
00:26:55,120 --> 00:27:00,399
Limits, can't do this, can't do that,
not the American way.

293
00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:03,517
Powell was booed off stage.

294
00:27:03,600 --> 00:27:06,160
Smythe shot back.

295
00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:09,277
SMYTHE: When Uncle Sam
puts his hand to a task,

296
00:27:09,360 --> 00:27:11,555
we know it will be done.

297
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:17,078
Not even the hysteria of hard times
can frighten him away from the work.

298
00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:19,799
When he waves his hand
towards the desert

299
00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:23,236
and says, "Let there be water,"

300
00:27:23,320 --> 00:27:27,313
we know that the stream
will obey his command.

301
00:27:30,520 --> 00:27:33,830
SCHAMA: It was Smythe's
optimistic vision of modernity

302
00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:36,229
that seemed to have won the day.

303
00:27:40,120 --> 00:27:45,319
In 1902, a Bureau of Reclamation
was established

304
00:27:45,400 --> 00:27:49,791
to finance the damming and irrigation
of the biggest rivers in the west.

305
00:27:50,880 --> 00:27:52,438
One of its first acts

306
00:27:52,520 --> 00:27:56,149
was to propose a project
to irrigate the Colorado basin.

307
00:28:01,240 --> 00:28:03,071
But it wouldn't be until 1928

308
00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:08,757
that Congress actually passed the bill
authorising its construction.

309
00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:16,275
It was one of the most
ambitious projects

310
00:28:16,360 --> 00:28:18,874
undertaken in the 20th century,

311
00:28:20,080 --> 00:28:22,548
a monument to Smythe's belief

312
00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:27,316
that American plenty could be
engineered on a heroic scale.

313
00:28:35,960 --> 00:28:38,633
Construction began in 1931,

314
00:28:38,720 --> 00:28:44,556
two years after the Wall Street crash
and at a time of mass unemployment.

315
00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:52,880
Once again, it was a time of trouble
that triggered American ingenuity.

316
00:29:05,920 --> 00:29:10,391
In a climate of panic and despair,
this incredible engineering phenomenon,

317
00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:16,669
all 726 feet high of it, went up
in the remoteness of Black Canyon

318
00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:19,752
on the border between
Nevada and Arizona.

319
00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:30,030
It was a beacon of hope at an absolutely
awful time in American history,

320
00:29:30,120 --> 00:29:33,351
when American plenty seemed
out of the question.

321
00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:35,032
People hard hit by the Depression

322
00:29:35,120 --> 00:29:38,430
came from all over the country
to try and find work.

323
00:29:38,520 --> 00:29:41,717
Building the American future,
that's what they were part of.

324
00:29:41,800 --> 00:29:44,872
And they were doing it
in shocking circumstances.

325
00:29:44,960 --> 00:29:48,396
I'm incredibly hot now
and it's springtime.

326
00:29:48,480 --> 00:29:50,118
In the summer, when these people worked,

327
00:29:50,200 --> 00:29:54,557
the temperatures never fell
below 100 Fahrenheit at night

328
00:29:54,640 --> 00:29:57,029
and sometimes went up to 140.

329
00:29:57,120 --> 00:30:00,635
Seven people died of heatstroke
early on in the work.

330
00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:04,793
112 people died all together
during construction,

331
00:30:04,880 --> 00:30:06,438
from everything you can imagine.

332
00:30:06,520 --> 00:30:11,071
Drowning, electrocution, being crushed
by rock, pieces of concrete.

333
00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:15,233
Yet, amidst all this, the work went on.

334
00:30:15,320 --> 00:30:20,314
It was a triumph of American
resourcefulness, American skill,

335
00:30:20,400 --> 00:30:23,039
and above all, American determination.

336
00:30:29,920 --> 00:30:32,275
As the Hoover Dam was being planned,

337
00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:36,319
agricultural capitalism
had come west on a grand scale.

338
00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:43,237
The belt of flatlands
across the middle of America,

339
00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:47,757
that's now seeing a huge boom in corn
to produce biofuels,

340
00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:52,630
were transformed into
industrial farming country in the 1920s.

341
00:30:53,880 --> 00:30:58,795
Sod-busting machinery tore up
the tough roots of the prairie grass.

342
00:30:58,880 --> 00:31:04,671
Oklahoma, Kansas and north Texas
saw a great plough-up.

343
00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:07,274
Now the soft earth could grow something

344
00:31:07,360 --> 00:31:10,636
that was going to make
a lot of money, wheat.

345
00:31:20,280 --> 00:31:23,716
The temptation to make a killing
from industrial-scale farming

346
00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:25,631
was so irresistible

347
00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:29,599
that it brought the most unlikely
people to the Great Plains.

348
00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:33,150
The biggest of all
was film producer Hickman Price,

349
00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:38,394
who cashed in his Hollywood fortune
to buy 54 square miles of land

350
00:31:38,480 --> 00:31:41,836
to show the little people
how it was really done.

351
00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:51,119
Price used 25 combines,
all painted glittering silver.

352
00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:52,997
Fifty tractors did the heavy hauling

353
00:31:53,080 --> 00:31:58,552
and a crew of 250 kept his
mechanical army moving by day

354
00:31:58,640 --> 00:32:00,551
and servicing by night.

355
00:32:03,600 --> 00:32:07,149
Five motorcycles carried
special messengers back and forth

356
00:32:07,240 --> 00:32:09,515
across the miles of wheat land

357
00:32:09,600 --> 00:32:13,388
with reports to Mr Price
on the progress of the harvest.

358
00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:21,352
But was there going to be a price paid
for this apparent victory of man,

359
00:32:21,440 --> 00:32:25,558
machine and money
over the ecology of the grasslands?

360
00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:31,475
Hugh Bennett thought there was.

361
00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:34,757
He was a civil servant from
the Department of Agriculture,

362
00:32:34,840 --> 00:32:38,719
and he'd grown up on a 1200-acre
plantation in North Carolina.

363
00:32:41,440 --> 00:32:44,989
Bennett was worried
that without the grassroots system

364
00:32:45,080 --> 00:32:48,868
that had bonded the soil
of the Midwest plains,

365
00:32:48,960 --> 00:32:54,398
topsoil was going to be vulnerable
to being washed or blown away.

366
00:32:54,480 --> 00:32:59,190
He railed against the short-sightedness
of the industrial farmers.

367
00:32:59,280 --> 00:33:03,956
For him, the very earth of America
was being destroyed.

368
00:33:04,040 --> 00:33:08,511
Hugh Bennett was someone for whom
the soil of America, the dirt,

369
00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:13,594
wasn't just an agricultural statistic,
it was America.

370
00:33:13,680 --> 00:33:17,878
And he knew that sod-busting
was asking for trouble.

371
00:33:23,560 --> 00:33:27,951
Bennett, like Powell,
proved to be a prophet.

372
00:33:28,040 --> 00:33:31,999
In the early 1930s, scorching
drought hit the Midwest.

373
00:33:34,120 --> 00:33:37,396
Then the windstorms began to blow.

374
00:33:40,880 --> 00:33:45,078
Bennett knew he was witnessing
a man-made disaster.

375
00:33:57,440 --> 00:34:00,273
He was determined
to do something about it.

376
00:34:02,280 --> 00:34:05,477
But it was too late to stop
the catastrophe

377
00:34:05,560 --> 00:34:08,472
that now fell on the dried-out prairie.

378
00:34:18,720 --> 00:34:23,999
On the 14th of April, 1935,
Bennett's worst nightmares came true.

379
00:34:26,120 --> 00:34:29,237
It was a day that would
become known as Black Sunday.

380
00:34:29,320 --> 00:34:34,110
A storm hit the plains,
sucked up dirt 30,000 feet high,

381
00:34:34,200 --> 00:34:40,036
a monstrous genie of a storm that buried
west Oklahoma and east Kansas alive,

382
00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:43,351
then rolled towards the cities
of the east.

383
00:34:43,440 --> 00:34:47,479
Five days later, as it turned the skies
over Washington brown,

384
00:34:47,560 --> 00:34:50,677
Bennett stood before
a Congressional committee.

385
00:34:50,760 --> 00:34:54,719
"This, gentlemen,Ħħ he said,
"is what I'm talking about.

386
00:34:54,800 --> 00:34:56,916
"There goes Oklahoma."

387
00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:02,879
Just a few years before,
this had been America's breadbasket.

388
00:35:04,280 --> 00:35:06,316
Now it was the Dust Bowl.

389
00:35:38,800 --> 00:35:42,588
This is what happened
to the little house on the prairie.

390
00:35:42,680 --> 00:35:44,875
It's a ruin,
not just of a physical structure,

391
00:35:44,960 --> 00:35:50,592
but the ruin of a particular idea,
Andrew Jackson's idea

392
00:35:50,680 --> 00:35:54,798
that if you just had the gumption,
you could get up and go west.

393
00:35:54,880 --> 00:35:57,110
You could have a piece of American land,

394
00:35:57,200 --> 00:36:00,590
you could homestead with 100, 160 acres,

395
00:36:00,680 --> 00:36:03,877
and you make a go of it
as a virtuous democratic citizen

396
00:36:03,960 --> 00:36:06,952
on the land of America.

397
00:36:07,040 --> 00:36:12,910
And then it all came horrifically
undone in 1933, '4, '5.

398
00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:16,959
Huge, filthy, great storms
that blew in from the horizon,

399
00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:18,519
no escaping it.

400
00:36:18,600 --> 00:36:23,754
So dense that they blinded cattle,
choked everyone who got in their way.

401
00:36:23,840 --> 00:36:25,717
You can only imagine the terror,

402
00:36:25,800 --> 00:36:27,438
mums and dads trying
to get their children

403
00:36:27,520 --> 00:36:30,318
out of the way of this nightmare,

404
00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:34,678
this huge kind of cloud of horror
coming their way.

405
00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:37,638
And when it was done,
maybe after a couple of hours,

406
00:36:37,720 --> 00:36:39,995
maybe after a couple of days,
there was nothing left, really.

407
00:36:40,080 --> 00:36:43,436
Your soil had gone, your farm had gone,
your money had gone.

408
00:36:43,520 --> 00:36:46,956
Your hope in the Great Plains
pretty much had gone.

409
00:36:51,040 --> 00:36:52,712
There was only one thing left to do,
wasn't there?

410
00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:54,597
Just get up and go.

411
00:36:55,400 --> 00:36:57,834
(I AIN'T GOTNO HOME PLAYING)

412
00:36:57,920 --> 00:37:00,388
They became known as Okies.

413
00:37:00,480 --> 00:37:04,519
Dispossessed and destitute,
a people to be pitied.

414
00:37:10,760 --> 00:37:14,070
Hugh Bennett wrote a report for
President Franklin Roosevelt

415
00:37:14,160 --> 00:37:17,152
into the devastation left behind.

416
00:37:17,240 --> 00:37:20,391
He concluded that the situation
was so serious

417
00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:23,995
that the nation couldn't possibly
let its farmers fail.

418
00:37:24,400 --> 00:37:26,994
(I AIN'T GOTNO HOME
BY WOODY GUTHRIE PLAYING)

419
00:37:29,560 --> 00:37:33,553
# I ain't got no home
I'm just a-roamin' round

420
00:37:33,640 --> 00:37:37,394
#Just a wanderin' worker,
I go from town to town

421
00:37:37,480 --> 00:37:41,155
#And the police make it hard
wherever I may go

422
00:37:41,240 --> 00:37:45,916
#And I ain't got no home
in this world any more... #

423
00:37:47,360 --> 00:37:51,797
HENRY: My dad couldn't find work,
and one of my uncles

424
00:37:51,880 --> 00:37:57,000
by my mother's side of the family
had already came out,

425
00:37:57,080 --> 00:37:59,196
and he said,
"There's work out here in California."

426
00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:08,119
SCHAMA: Car after car
full of Dust Bowl migrants

427
00:38:08,200 --> 00:38:13,877
drove west along Route 66 towards
the fertile valleys of California.

428
00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:22,908
HENRY: My mother, who was paralysed,
and my oldest brother, who had polio,

429
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:26,276
they rode in the front,
and my brother and I rode in the back,

430
00:38:26,360 --> 00:38:30,069
back there with all our furniture
and whatever we had.

431
00:38:31,720 --> 00:38:35,633
# My brothers and my sisters
are stranded on this road

432
00:38:35,720 --> 00:38:40,794
#A hot and dusty road
that a million feet have trod

433
00:38:40,880 --> 00:38:44,555
# Rich man took my home
and drove me from my door

434
00:38:44,640 --> 00:38:50,112
#And I ain't got no home
in this world any more

435
00:39:08,840 --> 00:39:13,072
# Was a-farmin' on the shares
and always I was poor

436
00:39:13,160 --> 00:39:18,837
# My crops I lay into the banker's store

437
00:39:18,920 --> 00:39:22,993
# My wife took down
and died upon the cabin floor

438
00:39:23,080 --> 00:39:27,676
#And I ain't got no home
in this world any more #

439
00:39:34,040 --> 00:39:35,632
SCHAMA: Babe Henry's family settled

440
00:39:35,720 --> 00:39:38,757
in the Imperial Valley
in Southern California.

441
00:39:47,040 --> 00:39:49,952
We lived in what we call a tent house.

442
00:39:50,040 --> 00:39:55,239
The floor was wood
and about four feet up,

443
00:39:55,320 --> 00:39:57,914
it was all wood,
and on the rest of that from the...

444
00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:02,312
up to the top, and it was sort of
into a tent. It was canvas.

445
00:40:13,360 --> 00:40:17,069
My dad went to work for a rich farmer
in the Mount Signal area.

446
00:40:22,040 --> 00:40:28,752
Dad started at a dollar a day.
Then he got up to two dollars a day,

447
00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:32,549
and we got to move a mile
from that house to a regular house.

448
00:40:39,400 --> 00:40:43,712
When we went to the elementary school
in El Centro,

449
00:40:43,800 --> 00:40:47,998
me and my brother got in quite a few
fights because we wore bib overalls,

450
00:40:48,080 --> 00:40:49,638
which kids didn't wear.

451
00:40:49,720 --> 00:40:53,110
City kids didn't wear bib overalls,
just the country boys.

452
00:40:53,200 --> 00:40:56,317
And of course
they knew we were from Oklahoma.

453
00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:08,151
And we were called names,
called the Okies, which is fine.

454
00:41:08,240 --> 00:41:11,550
I still tell people,
I'm not ashamed of it.

455
00:41:18,440 --> 00:41:21,079
We always had clothes
and never went hungry.

456
00:41:21,160 --> 00:41:25,278
We just didn't have
the finer things in life,

457
00:41:25,360 --> 00:41:27,920
but which, if you don't have them,
you don't miss them.

458
00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:32,593
But one thing that's
good about Imperial Valley,

459
00:41:32,680 --> 00:41:36,070
we have the sun and we have water.

460
00:41:37,240 --> 00:41:39,879
We can grow crops the year round here.

461
00:41:41,680 --> 00:41:44,274
SCHAMA: The Imperial Valley
is one of the biggest producers

462
00:41:44,360 --> 00:41:46,954
of fruit and vegetables in the world.

463
00:41:49,440 --> 00:41:52,955
But it's in the middle
of a scorching desert.

464
00:42:05,880 --> 00:42:11,159
This is what industrial irrigation
on a grand scale can do,

465
00:42:11,240 --> 00:42:17,031
an American miracle made possible by
the opening of the Hoover Dam in 1936.

466
00:42:17,120 --> 00:42:21,830
So in that year, migrants from the
dust storms got themselves to the valley

467
00:42:21,920 --> 00:42:27,358
to work as farm labourers in the fields
of the latest American bonanza,

468
00:42:27,440 --> 00:42:29,192
the Imperial Valley.

469
00:42:31,440 --> 00:42:38,391
The Hoover Dam created Lake Mead,
almost 30 million acre-feet of water,

470
00:42:39,200 --> 00:42:43,113
a share of which would be channeled
to the farms of the valley.

471
00:43:08,120 --> 00:43:11,669
It seemed a foolproof system.

472
00:43:11,760 --> 00:43:17,357
Dam the river, hold the water,
feed the farms,

473
00:43:17,440 --> 00:43:20,238
power a city or two.

474
00:43:20,320 --> 00:43:22,550
It was going to go on like that forever.

475
00:43:27,960 --> 00:43:32,476
FEMALE NARRATOR: In the daytime, you'll
find sunning, swimming and golfing fun.

476
00:43:32,560 --> 00:43:36,519
But at night,
you'll discover the real Las Vegas.

477
00:43:36,600 --> 00:43:40,275
Enjoy the trip to beautiful Lake Mead,
only a few miles away.

478
00:43:40,360 --> 00:43:43,716
It's the largest man-made body
of water in the world,

479
00:43:43,800 --> 00:43:47,236
and one of the nation's
finest spots for water sports.

480
00:43:55,840 --> 00:44:02,598
SCHAMA: It was the age of the freeway,
the supermarket, space travel.

481
00:44:05,840 --> 00:44:08,718
MALE NARRATOR: Nothing
has been able to stop us.

482
00:44:08,800 --> 00:44:12,873
We have kept on working,
kept on building.

483
00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:16,270
SCHAMA: Mass production,
mass consumption.

484
00:44:18,920 --> 00:44:20,399
But at the heart of it all,

485
00:44:20,480 --> 00:44:24,359
auto-world America heading out west,
hitting the highway.

486
00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:29,073
Enough oil for the road trip
to happiness never to end.

487
00:44:30,680 --> 00:44:34,070
MALE NARRATOR: The pump does not know
when midnight comes.

488
00:44:34,160 --> 00:44:39,678
Days are the same to it.
Each day, every day,

489
00:44:39,760 --> 00:44:44,151
it brings us another
24 hours of progress,

490
00:44:44,240 --> 00:44:47,391
assuring the future of America.

491
00:44:57,520 --> 00:45:00,876
SCHAMA: Was this what
Andrew Jackson had meant?

492
00:45:00,960 --> 00:45:02,996
What he had really wanted?

493
00:45:06,360 --> 00:45:10,035
JACKSON: What good man would prefer
a country covered with forests

494
00:45:10,120 --> 00:45:14,989
and ranged by a few thousand savages
to our extensive republic,

495
00:45:15,080 --> 00:45:19,756
studded with cities, towns,
and prosperous farms,

496
00:45:19,840 --> 00:45:21,831
embellished with all the improvements

497
00:45:21,920 --> 00:45:26,471
which art can devise
or industry execute?

498
00:45:29,040 --> 00:45:32,271
SCHAMA: But if that sounds American,
the voices that had always said,

499
00:45:32,360 --> 00:45:35,830
"Hold on a minute,
we're just as American."

500
00:45:35,920 --> 00:45:41,472
And in the late 1970s,
at the end of 40 years of prosperity,

501
00:45:41,560 --> 00:45:44,518
the voice just happened
to be the President.

502
00:45:45,480 --> 00:45:47,471
Jimmy Carter was someone who,

503
00:45:47,560 --> 00:45:50,916
when he worried about what America
could or couldn't do,

504
00:45:51,000 --> 00:45:54,879
knew what he was talking about
because he was a farmer,

505
00:45:54,960 --> 00:45:57,155
a peanut farmer from Georgia.

506
00:46:06,360 --> 00:46:08,590
But his timing was tough.

507
00:46:08,680 --> 00:46:12,229
He came to office as America
was in deep economic trouble.

508
00:46:12,320 --> 00:46:15,471
Runaway inflation, oil shortages.

509
00:46:18,400 --> 00:46:21,119
With the exception of preventing war,

510
00:46:21,200 --> 00:46:26,513
this is the greatest challenge that our
country will face during our lifetime.

511
00:46:26,600 --> 00:46:30,388
SCHAMA: Americans were queuing
for hours to fill their cars.

512
00:46:32,200 --> 00:46:35,715
We simply must balance
our demand for energy

513
00:46:35,800 --> 00:46:38,394
with our rapidly shrinking resources.

514
00:46:42,040 --> 00:46:46,431
SCHAMA: Recklessly, Carter dared
to preach an honest realism,

515
00:46:48,800 --> 00:46:51,553
urged the nation
to recognise its limits.

516
00:46:54,840 --> 00:46:56,796
More waste has occurred

517
00:46:58,600 --> 00:47:02,195
and more time has passed by
without our planning for the future.

518
00:47:04,040 --> 00:47:05,792
SCHAMA: The dam craze in the west,
he thought,

519
00:47:05,880 --> 00:47:08,348
made people more wasteful of water.

520
00:47:08,440 --> 00:47:13,070
So he vetoed new projects,
hoping that prudence would strike.

521
00:47:16,160 --> 00:47:19,311
When people see the threat
of a future shortage,

522
00:47:19,400 --> 00:47:24,838
they tend to increase their wastefulness
to be sure they get their share of water

523
00:47:24,920 --> 00:47:28,276
that might be even scarcer in the future
that's not scarce today.

524
00:47:28,360 --> 00:47:31,397
And I know that this is the case
not only in water,

525
00:47:31,480 --> 00:47:33,436
but in many other areas.

526
00:47:35,000 --> 00:47:37,594
SCHAMA: But it proved
impossible to wean Americans

527
00:47:37,680 --> 00:47:39,989
off their entitlement to plenty.

528
00:47:41,160 --> 00:47:46,951
Still, Carter thought it was time for
the country to face some hard truths.

529
00:47:49,280 --> 00:47:56,038
In a nation that was proud
of hard work, strong families,

530
00:47:56,120 --> 00:48:01,035
close-knit communities
and our faith in God,

531
00:48:01,120 --> 00:48:07,309
too many of us now tend to worship
self-indulgence and consumption.

532
00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:14,870
Human identity is no longer
defined by what one does,

533
00:48:16,840 --> 00:48:19,354
but by what one owns.

534
00:48:21,480 --> 00:48:25,075
SCHAMA: But in the 1980 election,
Carter was up against someone

535
00:48:25,160 --> 00:48:28,197
who personified American optimism,

536
00:48:28,280 --> 00:48:33,479
and couldn't see what was so shameful
about the aspiration to plenty,

537
00:48:33,560 --> 00:48:35,118
Ronald Reagan.

538
00:48:40,000 --> 00:48:42,434
What he's done to American
agriculture is just a sample

539
00:48:42,520 --> 00:48:44,636
of what he's done
to the economy as a whole.

540
00:48:44,720 --> 00:48:47,712
# Never saw the sun shining so bright

541
00:48:47,800 --> 00:48:50,792
# Never saw things going so right

542
00:48:50,880 --> 00:48:53,917
# Noticing the day hurrying by

543
00:48:54,000 --> 00:48:56,753
# When you're in love,
my, my, how they fly

544
00:48:56,840 --> 00:48:58,592
# Oh, blue day... #

545
00:48:58,680 --> 00:49:02,036
CARTER: If we succumb to a dream world,

546
00:49:02,120 --> 00:49:04,588
then we'll wake up to a nightmare.

547
00:49:06,040 --> 00:49:11,751
But if we start with reality
and fight to make our dreams a reality,

548
00:49:11,840 --> 00:49:14,149
then Americans will have a good life,

549
00:49:14,240 --> 00:49:18,870
a life of meaning and purpose
and a nation that's strong and secure.

550
00:49:21,280 --> 00:49:24,556
SCHAMA: Reagan went to war
on Carter's pessimism.

551
00:49:27,320 --> 00:49:31,632
And the election became a debate over
the very idea of American plenty.

552
00:49:33,240 --> 00:49:36,437
REAGAN: He has blamed the lack
of productivity of the American people.

553
00:49:36,520 --> 00:49:39,557
He has then accused the people
of living too well,

554
00:49:39,640 --> 00:49:41,710
and that we must share in scarcity,

555
00:49:41,800 --> 00:49:44,234
we must sacrifice
and get used to doing with less.

556
00:49:44,320 --> 00:49:47,039
We don't have inflation
because the people are living too well,

557
00:49:47,120 --> 00:49:50,874
we have inflation because
the government is living too well.

558
00:49:55,440 --> 00:49:58,716
SCHAMA: Reagan's triumph
was also a victory for the old truism

559
00:49:58,800 --> 00:50:01,394
that there was no crisis so bad

560
00:50:01,480 --> 00:50:05,029
it couldn't be fixed
by American know-how,

561
00:50:05,120 --> 00:50:07,793
and that the land would always provide.

562
00:50:10,240 --> 00:50:13,994
But in this election,
neither of the candidates think that.

563
00:50:14,080 --> 00:50:19,108
In the years ahead, we're likely to see
reduced water supplies.

564
00:50:19,200 --> 00:50:22,670
SCHAMA: The west is currently
in the grip of a nine-year drought

565
00:50:22,760 --> 00:50:26,036
nearly as bad as the one
that created the Dust Bowl.

566
00:50:29,600 --> 00:50:34,515
Fuel prices are through the roof
and the economy is in a deep slump.

567
00:50:34,600 --> 00:50:39,515
Our economy depends on clean and
affordable alternatives to fossil fuels.

568
00:50:39,600 --> 00:50:43,354
And so, in many ways, does our security.

569
00:51:09,480 --> 00:51:12,153
SCHAMA: America is entering a new era

570
00:51:12,240 --> 00:51:15,755
when it'll have to face up
to its limits.

571
00:51:15,840 --> 00:51:20,152
Nowhere more so than in one of the
fastest growing cities in the States,

572
00:51:20,240 --> 00:51:25,394
and an unlikely example of
American conservation,

573
00:51:25,480 --> 00:51:26,799
Las Vegas.

574
00:51:31,760 --> 00:51:34,320
What we've seen over
the last eight years

575
00:51:34,400 --> 00:51:36,436
in terms of this drought
has been devastating.

576
00:51:36,520 --> 00:51:38,556
And it was a real wake-up call.

577
00:51:41,200 --> 00:51:44,317
I mean, look at this town.
This town is virtual reality.

578
00:51:47,480 --> 00:51:51,393
And yet, I'm witnessing
an incredible metamorphosis

579
00:51:51,480 --> 00:51:58,431
from a city that was extremely wasteful
and extremely environmentally ignorant,

580
00:51:58,720 --> 00:52:03,157
to one that is catapulting
at lightning speed as it's growing,

581
00:52:03,240 --> 00:52:06,550
into probably ending up to be
one of the most sustainable cities

582
00:52:06,640 --> 00:52:10,633
because of the way it has changed
and it has embraced the change.

583
00:52:12,760 --> 00:52:15,991
SCHAMA: In the conservationist
tradition of John Wesley Powell,

584
00:52:16,080 --> 00:52:18,196
Hugh Bennett and Jimmy Carter,

585
00:52:18,280 --> 00:52:22,592
Las Vegas is having to recognise
its limits to survive.

586
00:52:23,600 --> 00:52:29,311
By 1989, which is when I took this job,
we were running out of water rapidly.

587
00:52:32,320 --> 00:52:37,599
Retirees had discovered Las Vegas
as a destination at which to retire,

588
00:52:37,680 --> 00:52:39,477
communities were popping up,

589
00:52:39,560 --> 00:52:42,358
residential development
was popping up everywhere.

590
00:52:43,600 --> 00:52:46,637
And we realised that by the mid-'90s,

591
00:52:46,720 --> 00:52:51,396
we were going to be tap-dry.
It was going to be over.

592
00:52:51,480 --> 00:52:56,031
Well, by 2002, we had nothing.
Lake Mead was dropping rapidly,

593
00:52:56,120 --> 00:52:58,873
so there were no surpluses
available any more.

594
00:52:58,960 --> 00:53:01,190
So, we had to embark on probably

595
00:53:01,280 --> 00:53:04,397
the most aggressive
water conservation programme

596
00:53:04,480 --> 00:53:06,311
that had been experienced in the west.

597
00:53:07,440 --> 00:53:12,036
SCHAMA: These days, water inspectors
patrol the streets of Las Vegas.

598
00:53:12,120 --> 00:53:13,792
(WATER SPLASHING)

599
00:53:15,360 --> 00:53:17,999
It's approximately 4:50 pm.

600
00:53:19,480 --> 00:53:26,192
This will be a fee for operating a water
feature larger than 25 square feet.

601
00:53:28,720 --> 00:53:33,077
Do you think there might be conflicts
between the town and the country?

602
00:53:33,160 --> 00:53:36,232
There has always been some friction

603
00:53:36,320 --> 00:53:41,189
between agricultural areas and urban
areas as the west has developed.

604
00:53:41,280 --> 00:53:44,192
We in the cities can't simply say,

605
00:53:44,280 --> 00:53:48,592
"Well, they use 85% of the water.
We have the money,

606
00:53:48,680 --> 00:53:51,558
"why don't we go in
and we buy out their water resources

607
00:53:51,640 --> 00:53:53,392
"and just move them to the city?"

608
00:53:53,480 --> 00:53:55,391
You tried to do that a little bit,
didn't you?

609
00:53:55,480 --> 00:54:00,429
I think there are going to be,
on the edges, some of that happening,

610
00:54:00,520 --> 00:54:03,193
but we have to be very careful
what we buy.

611
00:54:12,280 --> 00:54:16,478
SCHAMA: The delicate balance
between farming, city and industry

612
00:54:16,560 --> 00:54:20,633
that made American progress possible
is now at risk.

613
00:54:25,760 --> 00:54:28,593
There's just not enough water
to go round.

614
00:54:35,200 --> 00:54:39,193
And even the prosperous farmers
of the Imperial Valley know that.

615
00:54:46,280 --> 00:54:49,955
The McConnell family have farmed
here for nearly a century.

616
00:54:51,320 --> 00:54:55,871
And they're fiercely protective
of their rights to Lake Mead's water.

617
00:54:57,600 --> 00:55:04,119
We're talking to people in Las Vegas
who are responsible for water there.

618
00:55:04,920 --> 00:55:08,833
And they were telling us how Vegas
and other towns in California,

619
00:55:08,920 --> 00:55:13,914
in this state, were trying to
buy water from the farmers.

620
00:55:15,320 --> 00:55:18,835
The water is not for sale,
let's put it that way.

621
00:55:18,920 --> 00:55:21,514
We wanna keep all the water we can.

622
00:55:23,920 --> 00:55:28,596
Well, the big fear for all of us,
all the farmers in Imperial valley,

623
00:55:28,680 --> 00:55:34,596
is the fact that people in Las Vegas
or Los Angeles

624
00:55:34,680 --> 00:55:38,195
will make our property so valuable,
they'll buy the land

625
00:55:38,280 --> 00:55:42,876
and take it out of production just to
utilise the water for other things.

626
00:55:42,960 --> 00:55:48,239
And that's kind of a frightening thought
because it kind of ends an era

627
00:55:48,320 --> 00:55:50,550
- in agriculture in this valley.
- SCHAMA: Mmm.

628
00:55:53,920 --> 00:55:58,675
We feel that people
in the cities and elsewhere...

629
00:55:58,760 --> 00:56:02,389
Everybody has to eat, or at least
they're going to be on a big diet

630
00:56:02,480 --> 00:56:05,631
if we don't have farmers
growing the food

631
00:56:05,720 --> 00:56:08,757
for the rest of the people in the world.

632
00:56:12,480 --> 00:56:16,917
Everybody out there wants
to live in paradise, basically,

633
00:56:17,000 --> 00:56:21,437
but it takes tilling the soil,
it takes water to make food,

634
00:56:21,520 --> 00:56:24,637
and food and water
are the basics of life.

635
00:56:24,720 --> 00:56:30,909
If the people don't start thinking about
water conservation in a bigger way,

636
00:56:31,000 --> 00:56:35,312
food's gonna become more valuable,
I think, than petroleum and oil

637
00:56:37,200 --> 00:56:39,509
and all of the luxuries of life.

638
00:56:42,680 --> 00:56:45,877
We don't need all the Tvs,

639
00:56:45,960 --> 00:56:48,872
we don't need all the electronics,
but we do need to eat.

640
00:56:48,960 --> 00:56:53,112
And we could all do with a lot less.

641
00:56:53,200 --> 00:56:55,475
JACK: There's gonna have to be
a lot of adjustments made.

642
00:56:55,560 --> 00:56:58,199
SCHAMA: Do you think Americans
are good at adjusting?

643
00:56:58,280 --> 00:57:01,192
- No, not really.
- JIM: Are you, Simon?

644
00:57:01,280 --> 00:57:02,269
(ALL LAUGHING)

645
00:57:02,360 --> 00:57:04,396
How about the Englishman?

646
00:57:04,480 --> 00:57:06,994
(ALL LAUGHING)

647
00:57:07,080 --> 00:57:08,559
SCHAMA: Bingo.

648
00:57:09,720 --> 00:57:13,030
Whether we call it climate change
or global warming,

649
00:57:13,120 --> 00:57:17,591
in the end, we're all left
with the same set of facts.

650
00:57:19,040 --> 00:57:23,591
The facts of global warming
demand our urgent attention,

651
00:57:23,680 --> 00:57:25,272
especially in Washington.

652
00:57:26,800 --> 00:57:31,920
SCHAMA: So, this is one issue on which
both the candidates are agreed,

653
00:57:32,000 --> 00:57:37,199
the need for America to come to grips
with the slow death of the planet.

654
00:57:39,520 --> 00:57:41,829
We are a land of moon-shots

655
00:57:41,920 --> 00:57:46,311
and miracles of science and technology
that have touched millions of lives

656
00:57:46,400 --> 00:57:48,470
all across the planet.

657
00:57:48,560 --> 00:57:51,711
And when that planet is challenged
or when it is threatened,

658
00:57:51,800 --> 00:57:55,475
the eyes of the world have always
turned to this nation

659
00:57:55,560 --> 00:57:59,075
as the last best hope of Earth.

660
00:58:00,440 --> 00:58:02,317
SCHAMA: This is
the moment-of-truth election,

661
00:58:02,400 --> 00:58:05,631
which is what makes it
so thrilling to witness.

662
00:58:05,720 --> 00:58:09,793
And if it's the end of one era,
maybe it's the beginning of another.

663
00:58:09,880 --> 00:58:13,236
For when American resources
are in short supply,

664
00:58:13,320 --> 00:58:16,551
its resourcefulness is not.

665
00:58:16,640 --> 00:58:19,916
That's one deep well
that's never going to run dry.

666
00:58:20,000 --> 00:58:22,719
(HA VE YOU EVER SEEN THE RAIN BY
CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVLVAL PLAYING)

667
00:58:22,800 --> 00:58:25,678
# Someone told me long ago

668
00:58:26,920 --> 00:58:29,912
# There's a calm before the storm

669
00:58:30,000 --> 00:58:31,274
# I know

670
00:58:32,520 --> 00:58:36,229
# It's been comin' for some time

671
00:58:39,240 --> 00:58:42,277
# When it's over, so they say

672
00:58:43,320 --> 00:58:46,392
# It'll rain a sunny day

673
00:58:46,480 --> 00:58:47,708
# I know

674
00:58:49,080 --> 00:58:52,038
# Shinin' down like water

675
00:58:56,320 --> 00:59:02,793
# I want to know,
have you ever seen the rain?

676
00:59:04,680 --> 00:59:11,074
# I want to know,
have you ever seen the rain

677
00:59:12,920 --> 00:59:16,799
# Comin' down on a sunny day? #