- If all the world's a stage, then our stage is burning.

(upbeat music) We're often told that technology will save us from the climate crisis.

But that's kind of a cop out.

In theatre, there's that plot device called "Deus ex machina," god out of a machine.

Instead of solving story problems, the playwright just drops in a god (hand cranking) who magically fixes everything.

That's just lazy writing.

Deus ex machina doesn't work.

Not in bad plays, and not in real life.

- Right, Jeremy?

- I know.

(hand flopping) (whimsical music) - And technology is useful, but it can't solve everything.

So how should we approach technology when it comes to climate change?

My name's Charles Loi.

I'm a filmmaker who began to see that the California we grew up in is disappearing.

(upbeat music) Climate change demands new solutions and new stories.

My friends and I set out to find those narratives.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] "Climate California" is brought to you in part by Crankstart, a San Francisco-based family foundation that works with others on critical issues concerning economic mobility, education, democracy, housing security, the environment, and medical science and innovation.

And by the Community Foundation of Sonoma County.

(upbeat music) Additional support provided by donors to The Center for Environmental Reporting at NorCal Public Media.

A complete list is available.

And by the following: (upbeat music) "Climate California" is made possible by contributions to your public television station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(peaceful music) I want to tell the story of two Californias.

One is California machina.

The California of machinery, the techno-optimism that inspires ambition and disruption.

The other is California dei, the California of deity.

The sacredness and beauty of not just the land, but the life here.

How do we reconcile these two worlds?

The sacred and the mechanized?

How do we build a future that we actually want to live in?

Well, here's one idea.

This is an experimental hybrid electric airplane.

(upbeat music) This is Elliot, a pilot with Ampaire.

- Okay EPS warnings, we got none.

- [Charles] And this is me.

Trying to be chill.

(words dinging) - Clear, two!

(upbeat music) Good there, all up.

PS, we're going.

(plane buzzing) It all works.

Checking out our temps... Are good.

(upbeat music) - [Charles] What's your favorite part about flying?

- [Elliot] It constantly feels like I'm playing with time and space.

See that mountain over there?

We pull pitch, and in 25 minutes we can be sitting on top of that mountain having a snack.

(upbeat music) And we're airborne.

(upbeat music) So that's the electric off, got good power.

(upbeat music) - [Charles] For you as a pilot, is there... Like you feel a difference?

- [Elliot] It's just mostly much, much simpler.

It's like you're commanding thrust directly.

Rather than commanding power generation through a complicated series of levers.

A right turn...

I'm going to take you over those mountains and we'll get a couple pretty pictures, then we'll come back in.

- [Charles] Up to you.

You're the pilot.

- I'm not carrying that big camera.

(Charles chuckling) As soon as you're on the ground, it starts fading away.

I mean, come on, this is incredible.

We can look at the freeway, we can look at the crops, we can look at the mountains, we can look at the ocean.

We can look at the way humans separate, spread themselves around across the land.

We can look at the way critters run around through those fields.

- [Charles] A really magical part of California.

That should be a good shot.

That's great, the only problem is the cameraman.

- [Elliot] Oh yeah, I heard things about that guy.

- [Charles] You're very good at explaining things.

- [Cameraman] Oh, thanks.

I'm also good-looking, you didn't mention that.

(all chuckling) - [Charles] So what does it take to get new tech like this off the ground?

We asked Ampaire CEO, Kevin Noertker.

- The role of the entrepreneurial entity is to move more quickly in discovering the right paths and the wrong paths than the rest of the world.

These goals that we set for 2030, 2050, they need to be earth-changing.

But the pathway to get there is not about jumping to the future.

It's about setting incremental thoughtful steps on how to get there.

You test iteratively, you move rapidly.

You 3-D print the part and fit check it before you go to your supply chain for that long lead item.

There are little things that you can do to burn down risk, remove uncertainty by little failures to move very, very fast.

Hybrid electric enables you to have both the combustion and the electric pieces.

And while we are certain that the electric systems are going to be safer and more reliable, and lower cost, trust is so critical.

When you look at why people fly these planes, they're saying, "My grandfather flew that engine, "my uncle flew that engine, my dad flew that engine, "I fly on that engine, my kids fly it today.

"And you better believe my grandkids are going to fly it."

Trust does not come through a spreadsheet or a fancy model, or great graphics.

It comes through hundreds and thousands, and millions of miles flown.

- [Charles] Air travel is accountable for 2.5% of greenhouse gas emissions.

But is growing as the world becomes more affluent.

So to reduce those emissions, we need sustainable fuels, fuel efficiency and innovations.

And it's not just aviation.

To move away from fossil fuels, we need more electrification and more electricity.

But there will always be trade offs.

You need to extract materials, which is still dirty.

You need a lot of energy and water for AI data centers.

You affect communities who might not get a say.

And you need time to scale, which you might not have.

But none of this is new.

Trade offs have always been part of a story of California.

(upbeat music) To dig into this history, we met up with Gray Brechin.

Author of "Imperial San Francisco."

The book shows how much American expansion depended on American extraction.

That is the Matson Steamship Company.

And the one next to it was PG&E.

And that was Bank of America!

Everything's in the past tense now.

(reflective music) San Francisco was established as a place of exploitation.

The people within San Francisco were going to exploit the Sierra Nevada where the gold was.

The fish, the animals, everything they could get their hands on to sustain and grow the city.

I see cities as being like organisms.

They sustain themselves and grow by consuming vast amounts of natural resources and energy.

Mining is the basis of the way we operate our whole economy.

- Something Gray mentioned in his books stuck with me.

A city is like an inverted mine-scape.

All the dark tunnels and shafts underground produce the gleaming skyscrapers above ground.

Once you see it...

It's hard to un-see.

But extraction is not just something that humans do.

Other living beings do it, too.

It's part of what scientists call niche construction.

When a species modifies their environment to suit their needs.

Beavers build dams.

Trees promote certain weather patterns.

Humans build cities, spaceships, digital worlds.

Every piece of technology you have, including the screen you're watching this on, came from the earth.

(upbeat music) We used technology to turn the world into our niche.

The problem with niches is that there's not a lot of room for everyone else.

- We are still paying for the environmental crimes that were committed during the California Gold Rush.

We passed the overhead downwind, downstream, and down time.

- Some of the legacy of the Gold Rush appears in more subtle ways.

I mean, check out San Francisco's streets.

That are so ridiculously steep because they cut across the hills instead of winding around them.

(old-timey music) Why (huffy breathing), in God's green earth (huffy breathing), would you build a city like this?

Turns out, there's a reason.

- It wasn't the topography.

What was important to them was speculative real estate.

The whole purpose was to make money for the people who owned the land.

Who got in on the ground floor, and they did.

The grid was laid out kind of like a Monopoly board or a chess board.

- [Charles] Okay, so we imposed a mechanistic logic onto the landscape.

And that logic lives on.

Even in today's approach to tech.

You can call it "Machina ex deo."

Building machines out of the sacred.

Extract value for investors, ignore the costs.

You know?

Move fast, break things.

Climate change isn't a bug.

It's a feature of our approach to tech.

But the human instinct to invent is part of who we are.

So how do we re-direct it towards social and environmental good?

- I think that there are not enough spaces where folks in tech can take a step back and ask themselves, "Why am I doing the thing that I'm doing?

"What do I believe about "what this industry should look like?"

- [Charles] We met Jasmine Sun.

Co-Founder of Reboot.

A collective that's re-imagining our approach to tech.

(chill music) We went to the launch of the magazine, "Kernel."

(people laughing) - [Representative] Don't you want to know?

Don't you want to how hot it is?

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sure, why not?

(coin jingling) - Oh, oh, okay.

Well, here's your consolation prize.

- [Woman] You're sure you can give?

- It's a good magazine.

(chuckling) (upbeat music) - [Charles] And we think this is really important.

How to measure if a group is bringing people together or doing the opposite?

- You guys.

- We talked about atoms versus bits.

Part of it really is like being known.

Like how many people in the city have places where they can go to and they're regulars.

Is necessarily the software that'll be the right approach.

And are we just trying to avoid dealing with the physical world?

- We think like a platform should be a means towards engaging that physicality rather than being the end in of itself.

- The future is uncertain.

We witness in each moment enough predictive evidence to make the case for impending utopia and unavoidable collapse.

- We, as technologists, have an obligation to use these skills, and use these capacities towards important missions and goals.

Our conversations around technology are basically constrained by the products that the biggest companies put out.

The capital issue is such a big issue.

Government philanthropy is like going to have to hand you a track to replace a VC.

- It reminds me of something that you said.

"You can't criticize tech unless you love tech."

- Yeah I mean, it's kind of a controversial statement I feel like.

You can critique the direction it's currently going.

But you're not going to be able to imagine an alternative path forward unless you also like, love and are excited about like the things that it can do, you know?

Technology ought to be a tool for us to do the things that we actually want to do.

Which is to connect with each other.

Like another iNaturalist.

- I think I got it!

- [Charles] Oh, that looks good.

- [Friend] Nice, Toni, you got a good- - A decent a photo of it.

- [Friend] I mean, it's- - [Charles] Oh yes, a really good photo.

- Ah, there he goes!

I got a good one!

I don't want to eat you, I promise.

I just want to take your photo and put you on the internet.

- The Louisiana Swamp Crayfish.

- Whoa!

That's huge!

- [Friend] Is it Avery or- - [Charles] Scientists need a lot of data, but they can't be everywhere.

Well, there's an app for that, iNaturalist.

Which enlists the public to help them collect data.

- You know often times naturalists are sort of Luddites.

They're sort of skeptical of technology.

And it's fun being between those two worlds.

This is obviously unusual for us.

Because we're a remote team.

And most of our work is behind computer screens.

But like what we are doing, is we're testing the app and trying to figure out what works, what doesn't work?

- It would be cool if everyone can find something.

At least one thing new to them.

(all chuckling) It would be harder for some of you than others.

(all laughing) - You got it?

Okay.

I think I had a better angle before it moved.

But that's okay.

- What is it?

- California Bay I think.

- Oh!

The one you can cook with?

- [Team Member] I got it!

[All] Yeah.

- So it looks like a fruit, or a seed, or part of the thing.

But it's on the leaf.

So that's not part of the plant.

That's a little wasp will lay its eggs on there.

And the wasp larvae induces the plant to create this little structure there.

So it's called a gall.

It's kind of a cool thing.

And these are species that is totally overlooked.

So much of the biodiversity data is focused on birds or large charismatic mammals.

You think about birds, you know that's only .5% of all the species of the world.

And this is one of the things with climate change.

It is, these species aren't all shifting together.

So this rose might be going in that direction.

And the wasp might be going in that direction for temperature reasons or something like that.

And if this wasp doesn't have a rose, it's not going to survive.

So that's what I think is so interesting, is that to understand the impacts of climate change on species, we actually have to track the whole communities.

And that means we actually, we can't just focus on birds or plants.

We have to focus on all of them.

And we're getting that with iNaturalist.

All of a sudden the species like this that are actually pretty incredible, really come into focus.

- There's these insects that have this, I guess you call it a lifestyle.

They essentially eat between the two layers of a leaf.

Leaf miners are cool because they tend to be very species-specific.

So the leaf miner you see on this gallium plant would be totally different, than a leaf miner that you'd find on an oak or something like that.

(crow calling) (gentle music) - Yeah.

- No, yeah.

- Cool.

- Meet the community.

- Yeah.

- People power the whole thing.

Even our AI is all originally people who uploaded photos, and we're using that data to train AI models.

- [Friend] This is good.

- Cool!

It's also a reason to come back.

- Yeah.

(chuckling) - Yeah.

What's the hardest part about developing this app?

Do... - (chuckling) We are trying to make a product that we want to work for our port, and actually it's user-based.

And we also want it to work for people who are newer to iNaturalist.

- [Charles] What's the most fun part about working on the app?

- It's just amazing to work on tech for good.

- [Charles] What did you work on before?

- Before I was in finance.

(chuckling) - [Charles] Oh.

- At least for me, I also kind of get out of my head.

Just think about something that's not involved with me, and my friends, my family, and my work, and just... Really appreciate what's around us.

Sometimes we only think about nature in like, what does it do for us?

Or what's the purpose of that thing?

And sometimes I think that it's cool that, that's just a weird bug.

And (chuckling) that it's kind of amazing that it exists.

And it's okay to just appreciate it for what it is.

And now it's like, it's a really important like, key part of some people's lives.

You know, we've actually had some people, I think one meetup where they actually met up and got married and have a kid now (chuckling), which is really- - Which is really cool.

(all laughing) We're all active in our forums with our users.

We all use the app at least just as much as they do.

I've had jobs where you like, you get pushed to have no work-life balance.

And this is a different kind of job.

Where it's like I kind of don't want to have no work-life balance.

I kind of want to like, I wake up every morning, I go, you know, I go out and I go birding.

And I record on iNat, I put bird sounds on iNat.

And like I- - [Charles] Which is pretty cool.

- That's not work time.

That's just me-time.

I do that for me.

- This is who...

This is literally the first time I am meeting most of the people around here in person.

- He's seeing everyone together.

- Thanks for letting us improve- - Oh, totally, absolutely.

- Well I mean it's, it was just it seems like a good time to try- - I feel like I could- - And make it happen.

- You need to get down.

- I don't know, if you guys weren't here it would be the arguments- - The bad vibes.

(all laughing) - Yeah, right?

The idea of The Beatles?

- The Beatles went in the vibe, like I was saying.

(all laughing) - I'm here to crush you, crush you, crush you!

- [Speaker] I can be.

- There's such a doom and gloom thing going on with the environment right now.

Where it's like you know, climate change, there's nothing you can do about it, or...

In iNaturalist, there is something we can do about it.

The more information we're getting, we're improving the AI.

And there's a very healthy co-creation thing going on with the community working together to build the shared knowledge base.

Which I think is really cool and relevant today.

Because there's not a sustainable model going on with how AIs are interacting with creators.

- Yeah, it's not just artificial intelligence, it's collective intelligence.

- Yeah.

- That's a good way of putting it.

- I think about each observation.

Like a speck of paint in a pointillist painting.

Making that connection with a species, and making that connection with other people in the community.

There's a lot of discussion about how much people need biodiversity.

The other story that I think we need to tell, is that biodiversity needs people.

But it's not without its challenges.

With iNaturalist, we essentially say anyone can be an expert.

Anyone on iNaturalist can identify anyone else's observation.

The community can learn.

There are always mistakes on iNaturalist.

But they can always be corrected.

I think that just fits well with openness and democracy.

We look a lot to Wikipedia.

It's similarly very focused on their mission and not having the sort of extractive relationship.

You know, not pivoting to selling personal information or advertising, or things like that.

- We really think there's power in bringing lots of people together.

And I think that's one of the things that we're really trying to figure out how to do.

Is how do we get the right, like I don't want to use words like regulation or governance, but the right sort of structures in this thing, so that we can make sure that we can steer iNaturalist and make sure that it's used for conserving species and not, for example, enabling poachers or something.

- [Charles] There's that old adage by sci-fi writer, Arthur C. Clarke.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology "is indistinguishable from magic."

Look, new tech always surprises us.

So at first it can feel like magic.

But what if the real magic is where it leads us?

What matters isn't how impressive the tool is.

It's whether it helps us lift better, connect in new ways, and experience new.

And as Scott and Carrie remind us, "To make tech work, it's not just the tools.

"It's the people coordinating them."

That's the hard part.

Hey!

- (giggling) What?

- What?

- What?

(upbeat music) (train humming) - [Charles] This is Ian Griffiths.

He's trying to get more people on public transit.

But he has one problem.

Or 27, actually.

- How do we get the 27 transit agencies to work as one?

I think this is, just highlights the importance of being lead by users.

And I've seen lots of systems that do that effectively.

- In the Bay Area, transit is split across 27 different agencies.

None of whom coordinate schedules or prices, or routes.

No wonder we prefer cars.

(upbeat music) But actually things are changing.

Thanks to advocates like Ian.

Transportation makes up 40% of California's greenhouse gas emissions.

So Ian and Adina Levin, co-founded Seamless Bay Area to push for the creation of a regional network manager.

Basically, a conductor for the orchestra.

So not just tech innovation, institutional innovation.

(device beeping) - I have to say I was disappointed with the lack of commitment on the next steps on regional fare integration.

You as MTC, yet you are accountable for schedule coordination.

- And it needs to be moving faster.

- We've talked about centralizing to build out this like regional function of a joint marketing department.

(upbeat music) - So at the 12th.

- Yes.

- How long do you usually wait for the bus?

- Uh...

I haven't taken this bus in awhile.

I mean it...

Okay the real time, the real time screen is not working.

So normally that would tell us, if it was functioning... Let's see...

I use this app called "Transit."

So there is a 12... Oh, it says "One minute."

- Okay.

- So this is usually pretty accurate.

So it's just around the corner.

Unfortunate.

I know they're in the process of upgrading these screens.

(upbeat music) - San Francisco is like the heart of these tech companies that are- - Yes.

- Literally- - gods- - Headquarters of Uber, yeah.

- The gods of addictive habits.

- Yeah.

- Like, I can't- - Yeah- - keep away from my phone for more than like an hour.

Right?

- Yeah.

- And we can't do the same thing for our public services?

- There isn't a single staff position among the thousands and thousands of transit agency staff where the title, user experience, is in the title of an employee.

At any of the agencies, even BART.

Thinking about the full customer journey and every single thing that goes into your decision of whether or not to take transit.

And using some of these same technologies, or strategies, that are pretty common across the tech sector, so much of that does not carry over to public transit.

It's one of the things I loved about San Francisco when I first moved here.

You know, getting on BART here and getting off at Berkeley.

And being like, "Oh my gosh, I just went like 40 miles."

"In a really short amount of time."

And really dropping in the freedom that gives you to access so much of the region.

That's one of the reasons why transit resonates with young people so much.

Young people can ride transit and have access to the bay before they can get their driver's license.

- Right.

- And for them transit is freedom- - Yeah.

- You know?

And it should be freedom for everyone, not just students.

It's available for everyone.

It's not limited by your income, your ability, your age, whether you have a driver's license, whether you have a car.

- Transit is freedom.

- Transit is freedom, yeah.

- Public transportation is an important tool.

But we let it get rusty.

Why?

Well, it's not profitable.

But you know what is?

Cars.

They're sold to us on the promise of freedom.

But is this what freedom looks like?

Tech critic Neil Postman warned us that when technology overtakes culture, we enter a technopoly.

When our progress becomes the goal.

And we stop asking, "Progress towards what?"

But we have to remember that our tools are just tools.

The question is (chuckling), what are we building with them?

(plane humming) - You know someday, that plane's not going to be so loud.

(Charles laughing) We'll fix that.

The reality in life is that most of the times it's not about following a specific trail.

Orienteers are looking at a compass.

They've got an idea of the terrain that they're following and a goal that they have set.

And then, they're guiding based on their insights, their observations, and their intuition.

- So these are insights of human transformation and liberation.

But we have to understand what they're actually doing to the biosphere of the planet we're on.

- Everyone's putting their little bits of paint on the canvas.

And as you step back, this picture emerges.

And it takes millions of people all over the world to make this beautiful painting of biodiversity.

- Environmental action has to come from the bottom up.

Has to be grass roots.

And how do we do that?

By getting a bunch of kids outside.

It's counter-intuitive.

- At its core, the technology is still very human.

Because of the internet I have been connected to so many more people than I would have met.

Anyone with an idea can find millions of other people to do that with them.

- Things can be better, things can be different.

- It is only through these clouds of uncertainty that we can have hope.

The hope that the problems of the past are not preordained to recreate themselves in the future.

The hope that we can beat the odds.

At heart, I feel lucky to be here.

Lucky to have a here to be at.

And lucky to be able to share it all with you.

(plane humming) - [Charles] If this were your last flight, how would you feel?

- Well, I'd be glad we took the time to go look at the mountains.

(peaceful music) - [Charles] They say tech is like magic.

But what is magic?

Magic is standing on a ferry and feeling the breeze in your hair.

The sea salt in your breath.

It's reading a book as you travel and the light hits you just right.

And you're transported in more ways than one.

Magic is a sense that we can solve our problems.

As individuals and communities.

Magic is like love.

There's falling for the shiny new thing.

And then there's feeling grounded and secure.

In the here and the now.

Tech is not magic.

It reveals it.

It re-purposes it.

(gentle music) We don't always need new tech.

(gentle music) What we need is a new definition of magic.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) - [Announcer] You can visit our website for more information, related educational materials, and additional resources.

(upbeat music) It's all at ClimateCalifornia.org (upbeat music) "Climate California" is brought to you in part by Crankstart.

A San Francisco-based family foundation that works with others on critical issues concerning economic mobility, education, democracy, housing security, the environment, and medical science and innovation.

And by the Community Foundation of Sonoma County.

(upbeat music) Additional support provided by donors to The Center for Environmental Reporting at NorCal Public Media.

A complete list is available.

And by the following: (upbeat music) "Climate California" is made possible by contributions to your public television station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat music)