Mankind The Story of All of Us Episode 12/12 New Frontiers

Narrator: We rise above nature

tame the frontier's of our planet

now, we harness the force of the universe

claiming powers that could destroy us

but, still we fight for freedom

truth, new beginings

as mankind turns towards the frontier's of the future

amidst the chaos of a unforgiving planet

most species will fail

but for one all the pieces

will fall into place

and a set of keys will unlock a path

for mankind to triumph

This is our story

the story of all of us

Today over 7 billion humans on planet earth

in just four generations our Population

has grown by 5 billion

faster in the first 50 years of the 20th century

than the previous 50 thousand

and as mankind expands

in a ever more crowded world

we face the ultimate challange

abusing the power of the planet

to propel us into the future

The Midwest, 1935

giant dust storm's

ravage American farm land

the worst drought in U.S. history

two and half million people

abandoned the great plains

families driven off their farms

heading in hope for California

Russell: Life in rural America was

absolutely horrendous

dust storms could happen

that could obliterate everything

it was nearly impossible to grow food

in that soil

Narrator: One man plans to revive

this barren land

Rosewell Garst

born and breed farmer

instinctive entrepreneur

he sells his cattle

mortgages his farm

and bet's everything on a wonder

crop that will become a key

to mankind's future

hybrid corn

its cross breed

to resist drought and disease

so it can still grow

in the scorched earth of the Midwest

he drives two thousand miles a

week promoting his hybrid seeds

his slogan

''An astonishing product

produces astonishing results''

Narrator: But the seed cost 50 times more

than ordinary corn

Garst: [Trying to sell his seeds to other farmers]

Narrator: One of Garst colleagues notes

" You would say, 6 or 7 dollars a bushel

and you could almost see them

reaching around to their hip pocket to get the gun"

["Garst- come on sir']

[farmer- listen, I'm not interested get, get off my land"]

['Garst- I just wanted to give you the chance of your lifetime']

["Farmer- get off my land']

Narrator: Its a hard sell

when a third of U.S. farms

are being abandoned

[Garst: We had to sell the corn

if I didn't trade the corn for money

we wouldn't eat or sleep]

Narrator: Garst gambles everthing

he gives farmer's the seed for free

in return for a share of their profit's

Across 50 counties in two states

in the worst drought ever

miraculous growth

but Garst isn't finished

he sell's another revolutionary product

taken from natures chemistry set

nitrogen fertilizer

spewed from volcano's

during the birth of our planet

nitrogen makes up

78 percent of earth's atmosphere

its invisible odorless, inert

but when scientist learn

to isolate nitrogen and turn the gas

into nitrate a nutrient essential

for the growth of plants

they uncover the key

to feeding the world's growing population

Garst, markets the new product

with a salesmen flare

sewn into a field

in a distinct pattern

"N" for nitrogen

Written into the grass of the Midwest

a clear message for the future

today almost every industrial farm

uses nitrogen fertilizer

Garst becomes a

international farming consultant

and one of the largest seed suppliers in the world

Russell: We found out that

the food supply is not

finite, that we can actually continue to increase it

to match the increasing population

Narrator: In 30 years

the worlds population grows

from 2 billion to 3 billion

15 years later

4 billion and rising

but with new crops and fertilizer's

we've grown more in the last

100 years than in the previous ten thousand

Bourdain: Fertilizer allowed us

to grow more, faster

and more productively

it could increased the food supply

Narrator: But as our numbers

explode so does the

scale and reach of human conflict

1942, mankind's first

truly global war

In Europe,Nazi Germany dominates

in the pacific imperial Japan

the largest state

in the U.S. Alaska

dangerously close to Asia

and isolated

[testing bombs]

Now 11,000 American soldiers

blaze an impossible trail

the out can highway

to link Alaska to west coast Canada

and the rest of the United States

an engineering challenge

that will connect a continent

In command General William Hoge

decorated war hero

engineering genius

battling some of the most

rugged terrain on the planet

he'll unlock a building boom

Meigs: What the out can highway

shows is it modern civilization

can project itself

into the wilderness

with incredible speed

Narrator: The challenge ahead

1,500 miles of forest in tundra

200 rivers

and the highest mountains

in North America

Hoge's greatest obstacle

time

just 8 months

to complete the highway

before the Alaska winter

In Hoge's command

Corporal Refines Sims

from Philadelphia

one of nearly 4,000

African Americans soldier's in Alaska

a third of the workforce

[we were in wilderness, we saw nothing but trees upon trees]

Narrator: Seven teams

hundred of miles apart

racing to meet in the middle

but with a third of the road unfinished, disaster

permafrost

a layer of frozen ground

up to 2,000 feet deep

exposed by bulldozer's

it melts into sinking mud

[we only found out about the

permafrost when it was to late]

trucks and caterpillars sink

into the muck til

they were out of sight]

Narrator: The army is loosing

battle against nature

at stake the security

of the united states

and time is running out

Alaska, army engineers

racing to build the out can highway

a supply route that will

help launch the greatest

road building boom

in mankind's history

but the project was

stuck in the mud

McNichol: This was a extraordinary

effort for the Alaskan road

became mired in mud

vehicles couldn't move

Narrator: General Hoge has a radical idea

ditch the bulldozers

engineers become ax men

[the only thing to do was make a matter, timber and branches]

Narrator: Corporal Refines Sims

leads a team laying a solid foundation

corduroying, an old roman technique reinvented

but progress plummet's

from 14 miles a day to just 1

for thousand's of years

the key to mankind's ambition engineering

No longer prisoner's of geography

we re-write nature

we overcome each new obstacle

by force of will

Gates jr: This ability has shaped

not just our existence

but, the fact that we are the

prodominate life form on the planet

Narrator: With winter closing in

two teams, one black one white

battle the weather to complete the final strectch

Wunderlich: Bitter cold, permafrost

wild animals completely untamed wilderness

men sat on the side of

the road and wept in pain

Narrator: October 29, 1942

temperature heading for minus 50

[cheering]

but today, the two ends of the road meet

Corporal Refines Sims

becomes a national hero

Wunderlich: It was a shining symbol

of the fact these men are equal

to the task their equal to their

white counter parts, their equal men

Narrator: Within six years

the U.S. army

is racially integrated

The out can highway complete

part of a 16,000 miles road

The world's longest drivable route

running the length of the America's

Meigs: It was huge step forward

and it lead to such a demand

for more roads, that we see roads now

literally circling the planet

Narrator: Within half a century

the world is racked

in a network of roads

long enough to stretch

to the moon and back, 20 times

But while warfare

on a global scale

push's us to connect the world and reshape

it also unleashes a new

and and terrifying source of power

that could support human life

on earth for million of years

or obliterate it

[ sound's of explosions]

August 6th, 1945

two miles above the pacific ocean

bomber pilot Colonel Paul Tibbets

30 years old

a military prodigy

on a secret mission to end

world war II

In Tibbet's pocket

12 cyanide tablets

one for each man on board

capture is not a option

they know to much

over 5 thousand years

and 14,500 wars

up to 3.5 billion have died

battling to exert maximum force

at maximum distance

with each new generation

a new weapon

Wunderlich: We talk about arms races

and this has been going on

since the beginning of time

um you hit me with a stick I

hit you with a bigger stick

Narrator: But mankind has never

know a weapon like this

the ultimate projection of power

the atom bomb

code name, little boy

target Hiroshima, Japan

first the bomb need's to be armed

Captain William Parson's

one of its designers

bomb comander

he removed the detonator before take off

to make it safe to fly

now he must refit it

The core of the bomb uranium

born in a cosmic explosion

six billion years ago

before the birth of our planet

dormant until scientist split its atoms

unleashing a apocalyptic power

to annihilate our species

or fuel our future

Dawn 850 miles from Japan

an American B-29 bomber

the anola gay

carries the most destructive

weapon in the history of mankind

"Tibbets, I'd been intrusted with the most

frightful weapon ever devised

I thought yes, were going to kill

a lot of people but, by god were

going to save a lot of lives"

Wunderlich: We have the power

that we have always reserved

only for God, we know have it

to end everything its in human power

that pervades every single

part of our lives today

Machowicz: The men aboard the anola gay

knew what they had to do

and they focused on the details

of that mission in order to execute it

no one really knows what's

going to happen once this

bomb leaves that aircraft

Narrator: 9:14 a.m.

a 60 second warning tone

below them a city of 350,000 people

Tibbits has 43 seconds to escape the blast zone

[sound of bomb exploding]

Narrator: An explosion 10,000

times hotter than the surface of the sun

the bomb kills more than 60,000 instantly

3 days later a second atom bomb

Japan surrenders

Williams: Its the most fearsome thing

this world can unleash

that's why we've only seen

two in the history of the world

Narrator: Since 1945 mankind has

been living in the atomic age

today there are over 19,000

nuclear war heads

able to destroy our species 20 times over

Meigs: With atomic weapons

we finally hit that point

of sort of a spiritual crisis

have we gone to far

and what does it mean

that we can can control

this most elemental of forces

with such awesome destructive power

Narrator: But with a terrible weapon

also comes a revolutionary source of energy

nuclear power, now the

third largest generator of electricity

with the potential to power

our planet for billions of years

In the 20th century

technology and science

are the key to

enhancing our world

human life takes a giant

leap forward in a

hospital in South Africa

1967, Capetown

Christiaan Barnard

a medical pioneer with

20 years experience

preparing to re-engineer

the human body

the patient Louie Washkansky

former boxer, an athlete

he'll die without Barnard's ground breaking surgery

the worlds first heart transplant

Oz: It was the sentinel moment

that showed everybody that

technology and science married together

could accomplish the unimaginable

in improving human life

Narrator: Key to the operation

a new technology the life support machine

the apex of human ingenuity

technology has always improved

our lives enabling us to by past

the limits of our bodies

and advance farther, faster

than any other species

now man and machine unite

to re-engineer life itself

Barnard, has done 50 heart transplants on dogs

but never on a human

"Barnard, I'm not ready for this

the dogs didn't survive for long enough

what right do I have to experiment on human"

Narrator: Washkansky had 3 previous heart attacks

he's critically ill

a fist sized muscle

vital to the life every person on the planet

the human heart beats two and a half

billion times in a average life

one missed beat can be fatal

first step, remove the dying heart

and hook up Washkansky

to a life support machine

it will do the work of the heart

"Barnard, I've never seen

a chest like this before

a human without a heart

kept alive by a machine"

Oz: Something so sacred as

the human heart

the organ of our poets

the internal metronome of

our bodies the thought that

it could be removed and replaced

and the patient still live , unimaginable

Narrator: Three hours into

the operation with the

patients blood mechanically

pumped through his body

Barnard must attach the

donor heart before it dies

Barnard jump start's the new heart

[clear the table, go ahead and shock it, shock]

[intense music]

the hear beat's but, it is

still powered by a machine

it has to beat on it's own

or Washkansky will die

the first ever heart transplant

an operation that could

revolutionize modern medicine

at a critical stage

after 3 heart attacks

Louie Washkansky has a new heart

still powered by a life support machine

but when Christiian Barnard

turns the machine off

the new heart falters

blood pressure drops

it's failing

[sound of machine beeping]

Washkansky's heart is spent

his life hangs in the balance

with it the future of medicine

Oz: Christiian Barnard's risk was not

just with his career he, was also risking

the dreams of many who believed we could

do organ transplantation successfully

that it wasn't just a gimmick

Narrator: To save Washkansky's life

Barnard put's him back on life support

and tries again

the new heart beat's

and keeps beating without the machine

the most complex operation in history

a success

Oz: Mechanical heart's transplanting

other organs, the thought that we

regenerate tissue, all this

came about because one brave man

was able accomplish one unimaginable feat

and show it was all possible

Narrator: Barnard's procedure has

saved over 75,000 lives in the United States alone

surgeons perform over 2,500 heart transplant's a year

our organ's replaceable and re-engineered

new body parts, new technology

a new mankind

but as science and technology

free us from the limit's of our bodies

across the world they are

also key to a new victory

in the struggle for individual rights and justice

Selma Alabama, 1965

600 African American's demand change

inspiring a global fight for freedom

Amelia Boynton

53 years old, a civil rights activist

since high school

Camarillo: Risk taker absolutely

committed to chance absolutely

hero absolutely

Narrator: Marching for the right to vote

blocking her way

centuries of discrimination

racism rules in the south

but only 25 percent of blacks and southern states

are registered voters

volunteer Boynton, helps them sign up

[next, is this your full name?]

[yes sir]

[you haven't filled this section in, can you right?]

[sir I know I don't have that piece]

[ I can't help you]

[please sir]

[go to the back of the line!]

[next]

Narrator: White authorities block their path

with red tape, and police intimidation

[confrontation between police and a man standing in line]

Narrator: the only option, protest

Camillo: People knew, like she did

that you protest in the south and you

risk life and limb

they knew it was dangerous

but they were also driven

for this struggle for equality

Williams: It's very hard to bottle up

the notion of freedom

once it's been uncorked

sadly, as long as there's been

human kind and as long

as were around, there's going to

be this tug of war between democracy and repression

Narrator: their destination the state capitol Montgomery

determined to stop them, Jim Clark

World War II, aircraft gunner

Selma Sheriff

he deputizes every white male over 21

joining 200 state troopers

but this confrontation won't go unseen

on the ground is local camera man

Lawrence Pierce

new's hungry, committed tough as nails

the journalist with the biggest story of his life

new technologies will harness the powers

of mass communication

information will travel further

and faster than ever before

a 3 minute warning

to disperse and go home

but the protestor's won't back down

90 seconds later the police attack

40 cans of tear gas

8 cans of nausea gas

on the receiving end activist Emilia Boynton

Machowicz: Imagine the courage and the fear

that they have to confront as club

and foot and hand is smashed upon them

until their driven into the ground

Narrator: Boynton, left for dead

she'll be unconscious for 2 days

but, the world is watching

Selma Alabama

police attack a non-violent protest

civil right activist Emelia Boynton

is on of 50 who are injured

but, key to any protest movement

in the modern age, television

journalist Lawrence Pierce

rush's film to New York

15 minutes of raw footage

interrupts (ABC) Sunday night movie

the birth of breaking TV news

by 1965, nine out ten

American families own a television

over 70 percent of the adult population

watch the TV new every evening

all three networks show the Selma violence

45 million viewers

Gates: Television made horror and brutality local

so local, that it was in your living room

that had never happened before

in the history of the United States

Willams: The nation couldn't look away

people were amazed , however grainy

however black and white at immediacy

of those image's, the people who

were beaten to within a inch of their lives

you didn't have to be in the movement

to believe in civil rights

but those pictures you couldn't turn off

Narrator: Within 15 days, President Lyndon Johnson

proposes the voting the rights act

outlawing voter discrimination

landmark legislation

a turning point for civil rights in America

media for the masses means repression won't go unseen

in a world for instant communication

everyone has a voice

Lindbergh: Communication, helps to grow the concept

and understanding of civilization

in the human race on the earth

equalizing the classes, equalizing the culture's

Narrator: The greater the numbers

the stronger the bonds

in a world of connections

we are the product of our history

100,000 thousand years ago

the emergence of an extraordinary species

Megis: One thing that defines humanity is skill

anything that you learn to do that

nature didn't program you to do

Narrator: A hunger to survive

fuels a power to invent

[the innovator survive, the innovator's had success ]

Narrator: Our thirst for knowledge

a quest to explore

William: This is what we do

never content with were we are

were, always looking over there and over there

may mean oceans or mountains or continents away

Narrator: We forge connections

but contact can bring conflict

Brands: One of the striking things

about humans is there never any human society

that hasn't had war, maybe its necessary to our evolution

Narrator: Mankind most enduring enemy disease

Oz: I'm confident in our life time

we experience a pandemic that is similar scope

to the bubonic plague, but now we have

and advantage, now we know its possible

we know what we can do

to stop it, we know what we

can do cure people who are infected

we will use science to beat back the

things we have feared the most

Narrator: Yet in our darkest moments

we find enlightenment

and with all we've learned

we face the future

Wunderlich: History is the road map

and with out it

there is no way to navigate the furture

its not possible

Narrator: Now a new journey

into inner space

Oz: The most important

place for us to investigate the

body now is the brain

in order to enter the

next realm of longevity

and wealth and health among humanity

Narrator: That same instinct to

discover ourselves will fuel

the exploration of our universe

will unlock the power of the sun

and reach out into space

There's a human need to investigate

to explore to see new lands I think

that drive will eventually will lead us

to other planets

Narrator: The next step a new home

Megis: There's no question

humans will be going to mars

probably within the lifetime

of people who are alive today

Narrator: The story of mankind is only just beginning