announcer: big problems, big thinkers is brought to you by cisco. there has never been a better time to change the world. ♪ terre: we asked some of the best minds in the world from business, government, the arts, academia, what are the most urgent problems facing humanity, and how do we resolve them? the result is big problems, big thinkers. >> what is the number one major problem facing mankind? >> i think is the lack of education. >> politics. >> there is a balance of green spirit.

>> if we don't have a more sustainable way -- >> everybody has the capability. >> remember your humanity. terre: welcome to big problems, big thinkers. i'm terre blair. in this series, we confront the most dangerous challenges confronting our survival as a human race, climate change, economic dislocation, nuclear proliferation, social unrest, and we examine each issue by asking if there is an ethical framework that can help us face these problems and solve them. to do that, we will hear from an extraordinary group of leaders, as they search for answers and perhaps inspire us collectively to take action. in this first episode, all of these exceptional men and women agree that climate change is one of the top threats to our existence. will we be up to the challenge? will we take action? >> when i was born 70 years ago, there were just slightly over 2

billion people in the world, and now, there is almost 7 billion. the number of people on the planet has increased by three and a half times in the lifetime of one person. this has never happened before. dalai lama: i often tell my indian friends, i say, combined these two nations. [indiscernible] oil, pollution -- the existing economy system is not sustainable. >> you have to think of the fact we only have one planet, so we should treat the planet as a nonrenewable resource, and obviously the more people we have on it, the more strains we put up on it. >> our planet is getting hot, flat, and crowded. and what that means is basically, on the one hand it is getting hot, that is global warming. temperature rising, we know that is happening. but will also happen faster as

it is getting flat, that means more and more people from an american point of view can see how we live. inspired to live what we live, that means more people living in american size homes, driving cars, american business, eating american sized big macs. if we do not find a more sustainable business to satisfy all these aspirations of all of these people who want and now can have our lifestyle, that is a wonderful thing, but if we do more sustainable way we we are going to burn up, heat up, choke up this planet. and that itself will drive a myriad number of problems. ♪ >> the greatest threat facing humanity today has to be climate change, followed by the possibility of nuclear war, because those are the only two things on the horizon that could destroy all of humanity. today, people see droughts where they never happened before, floods were the never had them before, slums or they never had them before, much greater magnitude and frequency, that sort of stuff.

crops are changing, insects are killing trees where they used to be destroyed by the cold weather every year and are not. michael: i am frustrated by the fact that it isn't self-evident, that every decision we make should be working back from the concept of drinkable water. because that is the only thing we can't do without. and i don't understand why somebody can't stand up and tell the public, you know what, i have been thinking about it, you know, we are going to reverse engineer our decisions from this one point. which is, if we can't drink water, you know, we're not going to be around. >> i think the number one problem is a resource issue in the world, that whether you look at it in terms of climate change

generally, or hunger, food security, that -- and it goes again to the same issue all the time, which is the individuals that we have to worry as to whether people can survive in more and more difficult conditions. madeleine: i mean, it is just -- >> i mean it is just simple math. if you enacted the most draconian environmental laws that you can imagine, the the sheer population increase, you know, would make it a watch. -- a wash. >> as my friend rob watson has written and i have said so many times, a guy jumps off a building, he thinks he is flying. look at me, i am flying. it is a sudden stop at the end that tells you you're not. >> we are going that way, and we always will. and as soon as we run out of one thing, we learn how to live without that one thing. until it is mad max.

that is what is going to happen. >> we are not looking far enough ahead, for instance, we are real good with two, three years ahead, but we are not very good with 100 years ahead. ♪ >> we are having such a huge effect, and we're not just quite. we're about a generation or two behind the curve, on how to deal with these things. and basically, like a child with matches, we might set ourselves on fire, which, in fact we are setting ourselves on fire. we are destroying the natural, the natural world -- overfishing the oceans, over-farming the lands, and just one thing after another, and the natural world on which we depend for our survival is collapsing around us, and if we do not change our ways immediately, our children and grandchildren are not going to have much. terre: preserving that future

may well depend on political leaders in the united states and around the world taking sustained action. but what will it take to get them to act? warren: if you go out and try to talk about problems that may manifest themselves 10 or 30 years from now, and really does -- it really does not do much for a politician. they have to bring home the bacon, you know, tomorrow to the constituents. that is what they focus on because they are interested in reelection. i understand that. i have a job i love. if i had to please a constituency to keep that job next year, i might do a little pandering myself. madeleine: it is very hard not to be swayed by demagogues, because life is not simple, and people want easy answers. we see it in countries where things are not going well, and some leader gets up and says, i can fix everything for you, and it doesn't happen. steven: i think the biggest obstacle to solving our problems are just entrenched ideologies, you know? when you, when you block out

certain possible solutions, when your ideology prevents you from even entertaining certain possible solutions to problems, you've then got stasis. ♪ kwame: this is a democracy. everything that is done is done by us. we, the people, authorize everything. our constitution is authorized by the people. you voted for the guys who voted for this, and if you did not vote, shame on you, because you should be attending to the task of voting in our society, because that is the most important political job you have as a citizen. it is so noisy out there. politics has been getting dumber and dumber. >> we keep hearing that 2014 has been the warmest year on record. james: i asked the chair, you know what this is? it is a snowball.

thomas: partisanship is part of democratic politics, you want contending parties, but there is such a thing as too much. interest groups are a vital part of democracy. lobbying is in our constitution, and there is such a thing as too much. we have been in the land of too much the last decade, where it became partisanship for its own sake. and in that sense, we are responsible. we elected these knuckleheads. and so if that is who we elected and then reelected them, then shame on us. terre: if we do not do something about climate change, what is the consequence? michael: the ultimate consequence is we are all dead. a more short-term consequence is higher medical costs, costs for companies and building owners, that sort of thing. so you will see much more severe consequences of our impact on the environment. not good ones, but bad ones. but that will give more

encouragement to do something or we are all going to be dead. terre: let's do something. but can we agree on what? there have been recent signs that are, well, hopeful. that is next, on big problems, big thinkers. ♪

♪ al gore: the crisis we now face is not simply climate change, or

ozone depletion, or the loss of living species at a rate 1000 times greater than the natural rate of extinction. it is, in my opinion, a spiritual crisis which has to do with the relationship between human civilization and the ecological system of the earth. terre: welcome back to big problems, big thinkers. i'm terre blair. the 1992 earth summit was the largest meeting of leaders in history. 117 heads of state, 178 nations in total, gathered to discuss how to balance economic development with protecting the earth. despite the disagreements between industrialized and developing nations, the summit made sustainable development a more pressing item on the world's agenda.

fernando: from that point on, i believed the brazilian people became more and more aware of the importance of environment. in 20 years, change was like that. 2002, it was already clear that the brazilians had much more awareness of the problems of environment than other people. on the other hand, we were burning our rainforests. it took 10 years to realize this is not acceptable. so, government's response to the citizens demands, you don't think so all the time, there is some friction in it. but fundamentally, governments only exist with the consent of the governed. and so, if the public demands cleaner air and cleaner water, less traffic and whatever, the government will deliver it. and if you say you do not believe that, just take a look at china.

the 10 biggest cities, all of which are well over 10 million people, you cannot see across the street. you are breathing that air. it is disastrous to your health. everybody knows it. and the communist party that runs the country is very sensitive to the demands of the middle class that they have created, the 150 million people they have brought out of poverty, and those people say fix it, or we are to change the government. and if they are doing that. they are closing steel plants, they are closing power plants, banning smoking in beijing even though the chinese government owns the tobacco companies. it really does work. thomas: china is the deferred gratification, and we are the united states of get it now, instant gratification, and we have got to change that equation. terre: that can get a little painful. thomas: it will get painful. the only question is if market or mother nature or political leaders, but the change is coming. terre: do you think we have time to change?

tarja: i hope so. we kind of know that whether it is already too late, but if we postpone until tomorrow, it does not help the situation. it is time to act now. ♪ tarja: i think that our children and grandchildren will say mommy, granny, did you really think you did not see this? it cannot be solved at your desk. it has to be also taking at -- a risk to try, try to make an effort in this. and learn by doing. be ready to say that we tried enough, but now perhaps it is a new way. so i mean take a risk to make a new action. >> we have to think of ways of incentivizing people to do the things that would be good to do. we have to give tax bonuses to green businesses so that the

technologies developed, that will mean that industries are on the side of making money, now are making the world's carbon neutral technology and so on. so i think these are manageable things. we need time and we need to transition out of the old things. as you take some of the old harmful practices out, people's jobs disappear, communities get affected. you need to make sure that the benefits of the new which are shared among everybody aren't bought at the experience of destroying a particular community. >> it is true you lose jobs, for example, coal mining, although that is pretty automated in the u.s. every single job you lose is tragic to the person losing the job. but we are creating a lot more jobs in clean energy than we're losing in coal. the real conundrum for us is we have got to find some ways to

help the people who lose their jobs get the jobs that we are creating, and the difficulty is the different skill sets, going they may be in different parts of the country and there are different compensation systems, so you just cannot net that out. there are no easy answers. there is disruption that takes place as the world changes. that is always going to happen. and it is not going to be easy for everybody. and sadly, there will be people suffering. there will be plenty of people that benefit, but it is also true you are not going to slow it down. wishing that the tide does not come in does not work. >> prosperity can work to solve the population problem. the data show that prosperous countries tend to hit replacement value, replacement rates slightly below, when people do not think of children as being their social security.

you think that you need seven kids because five of them are going to die, and you need the remaining two to take care of you later on, you will keep having kids as fast as you can. but as countries have become more prosperous, the fertility rate has gone down drastically. >> our only hope is that great leadership will rise to the occasion, and that the majority of people will be persuaded that it is worth -- that the world and the future is worth making a few sacrifices for today, so that our great-grandchildren will have the kind of life that we have had. president obama: the growing threat of climate change could define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other. and what should give us hope, that this is a turning point, that this is the moment we finally determine we would save

our planet. the fact that our nations share a sense of urgency about this challenge, and a growing realization that it is within our power to do something about it. terre: the cop21 nations conference in paris in 2015 produced a landmark agreement. 195 nations committed for the first time to lowering greenhouse gas emissions. later generations may well look back and say this was the turning point, the moment when rising carbon emissions that began with the industrial revolution finally began to slow and then fall. michael: what came out of cop21, i think 40 something cities -- i think 440 cities or something signed the compact of mayors, where they agreed to annually provide economic data for their city on economic basis. and the idea is, if you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it. if you think about it, most of the climate change causes come from cities.

why? because that is where people are. so we may have a power plant outside the city that pollutes the air, but people in the city -- if people in the city reduce their energy consumption, you can reduce the pollution there. so, the cities are the problem -- are where the problem is and are. the solution and in fact, it is cities that are leading the charge, far and away, compared to federal governments and state governments around the world. cities and individuals. individuals are really making a big difference here. they are buying cars that are more fuel-efficient. a lot of places, they paint their roofs white which reflects the sun and reduces the cost of air conditioning. if you think about it, the united states is the only country -- the only major developed country -- that has reduced greenhouse gases the last couple of years dramatically. why? because we have closed 200 out

of the 500 coal power plants. why did we do that? said, i am public going to stand outside your door and i do not want to truck passing through here, and polluting the air that we breathe. and in fact, because of the public, pulled together by the sierra club, funded by bloomberg philanthropies and others, they really have closed or announced the closing of over 200 of 500 power plants. that is the only big change. terre: so you are saying individuals can make a difference. michael: individuals have shown they are the only ones willing to make a difference. in the united states, closing 200 power plants literally saves about 7000 lives a year because the modeling says 13,000 people were dying from the effects of the pollutants in the air, so now down 6000 or 7000 instead of of 13,000. going the right direction.

>> i believe that the key question for human beings is the capacity to take decisions. so, you have to to have trust. what makes a man a man compared to other mammals, animals? the fact is, a man can make a choice. and the man have awareness, the choosing. of course a dog can make a choice. he choose also, but not awareness. it can make the future and it can make choices. >> 95% more on this planet with this richness of flora, fauna, clean water and clean air, that is a huge part of what i need to realize. god says, -- god save us if we do not pass that on to our kids either. >> let's say the human condition right now is like a baseball

game. and if it was a baseball game, it would be the seventh inning, and we are down by two runs with two innings to go. it does not mean that we are beaten. we are way behind. we are behind the eighth ball. but we have not lost yet. we have time, if we hold the other team right where they are. if we all of a sudden wake up tomorrow and decide that we are going to do everything right instead of half the things right and half the things wrong, we used to be doing everything wrong. basically. now doing about half the things right and half the things wrong, but the conditions call for us to survive, we have to do everything right. terre: the urgency of global climate change is now recognized by almost every nation. what is needed, as we have heard, is global action for our ailing planet and from our leaders, to inspire the wisdom that looks beyond today's headlines. and we need to help those human beings who are displaced as the

paradigm shifts. we have the knowledge to succeed and the ethical markers as well. now, do we have the will to act? that's a question for all of us. i am terre blair. and thank you for watching. ♪

♪ narrator: the challenges facing our world are growing all the time. how do we build stronger economies with equal opportunities for all? how do we build a sustainable world for generations to come? how do we protect our cities and harness the power of technology for our common benefit? in this series, using the latest bloomberg research and analysis, we will make sense of the problems of tomorrow. inequality, sustainability, artificial intelligence, the gender gap, and the demographic time bomb.

and in this film, how we manage our megacities. millions of people every year swell the planet's cities. can we harness economic potential of these hubs, or are we creating centers of poverty, inequality, and violence? ♪ narrator: this is the age of the city. for the first time in human history, more people live in urban than rural settlements. the world's urban population is growing by 70 million people each year. 301 cities account for 50% of global gdp. this will rise to 66% by 2025. so if we don't get things right

in our cities than the consequences for humanity are profound. james hertling: cities are critically important to the global economy and to progress in the global economy. cities can be sources of chaos, as well as development. narrator: this makes them so alluring and so vital. they can be dangerous places. but cities are where fortunes can be made. >> one of the primary factors driving urbanization is opportunity. you live on a farm, and you are growing crops -- you don't have a lot of opportunity. you see a growing, bustling city, your friends are moving there, they are getting jobs in offices, maybe jobs in a manufacturing center, there are restaurants, culture, life. this is attractive, something you want to be a part of.

james hertling: everything is relative. they will have greater access to schools, greater access to employment, greater access to health care and a less vulnerable economic life. ♪ narrator: in 1900, 12 of the world's biggest cities were in north america or europe. 100 years later, this number had fallen to just 2. most of the biggest cities in the future will be in the developing economies of asia and africa. >> most of the growth in cities will be in china, india, and nigeria. those three countries alone will account for 37% of the world's population. staggering numbers. here is an example -- lagos, the biggest city in nigeria. its population every year it is adding the equivalent of boston.

>> the urbanization rate in the u.s., japan is over 70%. in china, it is 50%. so china may have a lot megacities, they may have larger cities, but they are going to get bigger or there is going to be more of them. that is going to be a trend. a lot of emerging markets are going to experience trends like that in the next 50 years, especially with a large population. narrator: this incredible rate of growth makes the challenges of managing a large city more difficult. james hertling: the biggest risks facing cities are the same risks that challenge all of us, politically governing, climate change, economic inequality, productivity, economic growth, employment, education, transportation. those issues that face cities are the same that face everyone, except in a much more

concentrated way. narrator: one city battling with these problems is rio de janeiro in brazil. alessandra orofino is on the front lines, trying to solve them. she believes the world's biggest cities are in danger of sinking under a tide of poverty, decrepit infrastructure, and citizen apathy. and unless we do something about it, billions will suffer the consequences. alessandra orofino: the kind of urbanization we have today can only go so far. if we do not change the way we design our cities and make cities change with us, we will have serious limits to urbanization. they will become impossible to manage, impossible to live in, miserable places to be. if we change that process, those limits could change and possibly be nonexistent.

we have to think about the environment and how we can better build them together. ♪

narrator: managing megacities is one of the great challenges facing the world. this is rio de janeiro, brazil. nearly 12 million people crowd into its metro area. it is beautiful and vibrant. but it also has its problems. crime, inequality, and poverty. alessandra orofino is an urban activist and thinker who has lived and worked in megacities on three different continents. she has worked with united nations on sustainable developing goals and founded, meu rio, an ngo that uses data gathered from citizens to raise campaigns and solve issues posed by the rapid growth of the cities. meu rio has 170,000 activists. alessandra hopes it can be a model for other rapidly growing cities around the globe. alessandra orofino: we build on

a rich tradition of activists and try to bring it to the world that make sense to people. i was born in this city. in rio de janeiro. my family has a mixed background. my father comes from a neighborhood in rio that was quite dangerous in the 1990's, quite poor, or lower middle class. and my mom comes from a wealthy background, one of the best neighborhoods in rio. it taught me the city can be amazing, but it can be very rough and unequal. that is not just a characteristic of this city. it is something we are increasingly seeing in cities around the world. narrator: rio de janeiro is similar to many emerging megacities. some neighborhoods are as wealthy as any other on the planet. others remain impoverished and cut off. bridging this gap will, alessandra believes, have

profound benefits for us all. alessandra orofino: cities bring people closer. they have the density in them. they are the places where most innovation will naturally happen. it's hard to innovate when you are always talking to the same people and hearing the same thoughts. cities are the exact contrary of that. they are natural hubs for innovation, natural hubs for economic growth, and they tend to be the engines of growth in most countries. narrator: but when the growth is rapid and unplanned, the results are gridlocked streets, poisoned air, and an infrastructure that simply cannot cope. alessandra orofino: i come from a city that expanded too rapidly for sure. how do you create sidewalks, schools, mobility systems to cater to a growing population? if that rapid urban expansion is happening in environments where inequality is paramount, the

challenges are even bigger. narrator: in a megacity, one of the biggest challenges can be simply getting from a to b. alessandra orofino: our mobility systems, in general -- very few exceptions -- suck. when you have a poor mobility system, you preclude entire segments of the city from living the city. from actually accessing the opportunity and the beautifulness and the amazingness that city has. because it is hard for them to get around. you also preclude the rich people in the city from getting to know other areas of the city, which can be exciting and fulfilling experience in itself. so you are creating a city in which everyone is living in their own territory, which is terrible. narrator: at the forefront of these infrastructure problems are the city's poor. they can become physically cut

off from the economic opportunities living in a city provides. alessandra orofino: it includes rapid expansion of cities. the fact that in the developing world, one third of the population is living in slums, something none of us should accept as we grow and think about a planet in which we want to live. narrator: slums are a result of rapid, unplanned expansion. today, an estimated 863 million people live in slums. if the slum dwellers in india were a separate nation, they would be the 13th most populous country in the world. but slums are not always hopeless places. alessandra orofino: the poor are not just sitting and waiting for the government to do something for them, they are creating their own environment. in rio, most of that infrastructure was built by them. so there is a level of do-it-yourself that you see in

more poor neighborhoods than neighborhoods precisely because the government wasn't there. narrator: this means slums must be handled delicately by urban planners. alessandra orofino: what do we do with areas that were developed by communities but lack infrastructure? even if we are assuming goodwill, in terms of how we handle them, if the only thing we want to do is provide those areas with quality public services, there are choices that have to be made. which pieces do we leave, which pieces do we change? if we don't handle that process in a way that is human and intelligent and is aimed at protecting the interest of the poorer communities, we can end up with massive rates of dislocation and destroying an urban fabric and social fabric that is so important and so vital. here in rio, we have santa

teresa, a neighborhood with a tram. it is beautiful. most trams in rio were destroyed earlier in the 20th century. this is something that the neighbors organize and kept their trams. it was a forgotten neighborhood for a while. it became a lot poorer. in the past five to six years, it has been gentrifying. the government decided to turn the tram, one of the remaining parts of the city, into a tourist attraction. but the only reason why the tram still exists is because we organized and kept it here. they created the value. narrator: alessandra believes cities often ignore creativity. the result is a democratic deficit, which erodes faith in the city government and

alienates already vulnerable communities. alessandra believes cities must take citizens with them if they are to expand successfully. alessandra orofino: what we definitely have not got right is the process by which we involve citizens. i have not seen one case of a city that has used the collective intelligence of its citizens and distributed power to make it. when we get that right, we see a lot of other issues we see. narrator: but for us to truly harness the power of our cities, we need to heal the divisions within them first. alessandra orofino: if we keep building unequal cities, these cities are not very good to live in for most of their population, i don't think we can hope to be happy in these urban spaces. the worst-case scenario would be cities that do not have a soul and become less and less attractive to entrepreneurs, for people who want to create new

economic activity, and ultimately become less wealthy. narrator: across the ocean from rio, another giant city is growing. lagos is now the most economically important city in africa, but its growing pains are excruciating. and threatening the futures of 21 million people.

♪ narrator: more people live in cities than ever before. but many of the world's biggest cities are struggling to cope. lagos, on nigeria's atlantic coast, is the largest city in the world without a citywide rail system. meaning everyone has to travel by road. for workers, like abraham cole, his daily commute takes over his life.

>> what time did you wake up? >> this morning, i woke up like 3:00, 3:30. i usually do not do breakfast. narrator: in three years, the population of lagos has nearly doubled from 11 million to 21 million. but this staggering expansion has overwhelmed the city's impoverished infrastructure. >> how long will it take? >> it should take me for five minutes to get to the office. >> in full rush-hour, how long does it take? >> 6, 7 hours in traffic. three hours going, three hours coming back. it is much worse coming back. coming back is something else. i don't think i want to waste seven hours of my every day time

for the rest of my life. narrator: lagos is currently ranked in the top five least livable cities in the world. but although the city's economy is bigger than kenya's, simply getting to their desks is a daily ordeal for millions of workers. >> when do you see your children? >> weekends. weekends only. sometimes i see them during the week, if they really want to see me. and they came to see me. sometimes, they miss me that much. >> it must be quite difficult. >> yes, it is. but it's that we have to do. for now. ♪ narrator: like millions of lagosian workers, abraham's

first act after getting to work in the morning is to take a nap. >> welcome to my office. >> what are you going to do now? >> i think i've -- it is 7:10. so i took a nap for 30 minutes. and get ready for work. narrator: 2000 people migrate permanently to lagos every day. straining the city's infrastructure further and expanding the city from the land to the sea. the result is slums like makoko. a floating settlement on the city's lagoon. ♪ james hertling: infrastructure

has not kept pace with the population growth. so basically of quality of life, access clean water, for example, access to electricity are limited. so before you even get to issues related to growth and developing, lagos and nigeria have to sort out more basic issues of infrastructure. narrator: makoko is the oldest slum in lagos. 80,000 people live here in buildings sitting on stilts connected by a complex system of canals. james hertling: successful cities find ways to deliver services to even the most deprived. that is the challenge, especially in the developing world, where resources are at a premium. narrator: in makoko, residents have developed their own infrastructure, including freshwater and electricity. and this three-story floating

school, which doubles at a community center, is the latest addition to this unique environment. the school was completed in 2013. it is cheap and easy to build. its designers hope it will be a template for future buildings in makoko. james hertling: makoko in nigeria raises interesting questions of government and control. it has been a long ignored area. and the local residents took charge and tried to improve their own lot with schools and their own locally initiated development projects. but also the central government has decided it wants that area for its own development reasons. narrator: only a few kilometers away lies an alternative vision of how lagos may develop. not a grassroots community vision, but a grand project of incredible scale. eko atlantic. david frame: where we are

standing, we are in the alignment of the financial district. what we call "eko boulevard." this is where all the major financial institutions will establish their headquarters and offices. narrator: eko atlantic is a multibillion-dollar residential and business district built on 10 square kilometers of reclaimed land. it is, in effect, a new city -- or it will be soon. its backers hope a quarter of a million people will one day live here, with 150,000 workers commuting from the old city across the water. david frame: when we initially thought about building eko atlantis, we looked at an area in london, we looked at dubai, and we looked at the heart of london, heart of paris, heart of new york. obviously, the vast majority are

wealthy people. i could not afford to live in the heart of london. but, in creating the residence for these people, you are also creating job opportunities. and it is the norm, here in nigeria, that if you create residential apartments, you also create orders for the domestic -- quarters for the domestic staff working for that family. you have to take into context that this is a city development. it is not a low income settlement. it is a business sanctum. primarily. this is the future. the first commercial development of lagos. there is no doubt of that. narrator: david hopes the first residential units will be open by the end of 2016, with the infrastructure of the whole site in place by 2022. >> projects like eko atlantic

raise as many questions as they answer. especially from where local residents are aware that they may be getting the short end of the stick. on the other hand, they really do lend themselves to starting from scratch and being able to build structures where there are schools, hospitals, offices, transportation facilities. and they give gigantic cities like lagos an opportunity to create a model of what can be, presuming they are planned and executed correctly. narrator: the future paths of megacities like lagos remain uncertain. organic, citizen-led growth like makoko, or large-scale planned developments like eko atlantic. what is clear is that left unchecked, growth could destroy city's immense potential. james hertling: i am an optimist when it comes to cities. i grew up in new york in the

time when we were on the edge of bankruptcy. here we are in the 21st century, and new york is booming and thriving. it is a tremendous place. you can see, with proper planning and a diverse and vibrant population, what is possible. alessandra orofino: i hope those little cities will be interconnected, in the sense they will have solidarity networks, there will be brazilian networks, and the citizens will feel like they're cities where they want to be. a project they want to build and they can move, visit each other, learn from each other. ♪

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[seagulls cawing] ashlee: this is my happy place. and it has been for a long, long time. it is the ferry that goes from parents house near manly beach to downtown sydney. there is nothing magical about the boat itself. tourists and locals ride this thing every day, but really that is what makes this this ferry so special. no commuter ride on the planet offers up more amazing cit