NOVA: Weathering The Future

The film focuses on five stories, taking viewers to several locations across the country to explore how Americans are fighting back against extreme weather:

PLANTING DROUGHT-TOLERANT TREES AND RECOATING ROADS

Atlanta is facing blistering hot summers. Scientists such as Na’Taki Osborne Jelks are demonstrating that the rising heat caused by climate change is often made more extreme in places like Atlanta because of the infrastructure and design of many urban landscapes. The removal of trees and plants, which absorb heat from the environment, also deprives some neighborhoods of much-needed shade. And the asphalt and concrete that often replace greenery exacerbates the problem by re-radiating the sun’s energy as heat, creating unbearably warm summer days and nights. Meteorologist Bernadette Woods Placky explains that even slight upward shifts in temperature over time can result in extreme heat, calling on a major lifestyle adjustment for Americans living in these areas.

To combat these issues, cities are investing in innovative solutions that are already making an impact. Phoenix is leading the way for other cities struggling with extreme heat, with a multi-million dollar commitment toward planting drought-tolerant trees throughout the city, and an innovative pilot program to recoat roads with a special sealant designed to reflect the sun’s energy. David Hondula, Director at the Office of Heat Response and Mitigation for the City of Phoenix, feels optimistic these solutions will create a positive impact within the community.

RECYCLING WASTEWATER

Rising temperatures carry another dramatic effect on areas with naturally drier climates, like California. Meteorologists have been closely following California’s descent into a mega drought: a drought that lasts two decades or longer, leading to major concerns around water shortage throughout the state, despite sudden downpours. "Weathering The Future" explores how one county's approach may help alleviate the crisis: recycling wastewater. The film introduces viewers to Mehul Patel, the Executive Director of Operations at the Orange County Water District. Patel oversees Orange County’s wastewater recycling operation, the largest of its kind in the world. At the water treatment plant, the water undergoes multiple purification processes to filter out impurities, such as raw sewage and bacteria, making it safe enough to drink. Patel believes this process can serve as a model for other states facing extreme drought.

PRESCRIBED BURNING

In the Klamath River region of Northern California, the community is turning to fire control methods that have existed for thousands of years. The film features members of the Karuk, a local Indigenous tribe, who have watched their land be ravaged by large wildfires with increasing frequency. To protect their land, the Karuk and other Indigenous peoples are bringing back an ancient practice: fighting fire with fire. Bill Tripp, Karuk Tribe Director of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy, shows viewers how setting controlled, low-intensity fires across dry patches of land near inhabited areas clears out brush that would otherwise spread fires into the community. Although the federal government once criminalized intentional burning in the West, the US Forest Service is starting to recognize the wisdom behind this historic approach and is now applying the technique to protect more than 50 million acres of land.

NO-TILL FARMING

"Weathering The Future" also explores climate change’s effects from the other side of the spectrum: areas experiencing epic storms and historic floods. In the farmlands of Iowa, aggressive rains pelt the earth, resulting in soil erosion that harms crops and threatens the future of America’s agriculture. Viewers meet sixth-generation farmer Elyssa McFarland, who offers an ancient solution to crop management with a modern twist: state-of-the-art technology that eliminates the need to till the land with a steel plow. Elyssa’s precision planter leaves dead crop residue from the prior season in place, offering a layer of protection for the soil to withstand hard rains, and also building up the soil’s own capacity to absorb excess water.

BUILDING OYSTER REEFS TO PROTECT THE COAST

The impact of increasingly intense rainstorms across the Midwest is hard to ignore, but on the coasts, intense storms are also taking a steep toll. On the coast of Louisiana, the sea is swallowing the land where some Indigenous communities have lived for over 400 years. While more intense storms and rising seas have left the wetlands all the more vulnerable, tribal elders like Rosina Philippe and Elder Chief Shirell Parfait-Dardar recount the critical losses that have affected the lands they call home — both at the hands of extreme weather, and from the toll that more than a century of human interference has taken on the lands. While Louisiana is undertaking several megaprojects to protect its coast — from releasing sediment into endangered wetlands, upgrading levees and seawalls, and installing new floodgates — locals have taken matters into their own hands with innovative, lower-cost solutions. The film highlights one approach that involves recycling millions of pounds of oyster shells to build breakwater reefs that slow down erosion.