tv Global 3000 PBS December 26, 2015 12:30am-1:01am PST
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host: hello and welcome to "global 3000." today, we visit some old friends. in 2009, we first met two women in mozambique. both were pregnant and hiv positive but neither of their babies were infected. we'll see how elayna and celia have been doing. and with the u.n. climate conference underway this week in paris, we look at the global impacts of climate change. when water's your enemy -- how pakistan's trying to beat climate change. can idealism and capitalism work together? we go to costa rica to find out. and, two mothers living with hiv/aids and their healthy kids. we visit celia and elayna in mozambique. the united nations has released
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some shocking data on climate change. global warming can increasingly be blamed for the world's worst natural catastrophes -- whether it's droughts, floods, or storms. over the past 20 years, the united states and china have been hardest hit by extreme weather events, while india, the philippines, and indonesia have also suffered. but climate change is a threat to all of us, even if we live in countries that have so far been spared. it could soon look like this in many more parts of the world. global warming threatens countless people, but especially those in developing countries. the number of those who have to struggle to survive is rising worldwide. does climate change pose a security risk? more than 660 million people have no access to clean drinking water, and there will be less
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and less of it to go around. nearly 800 million people are malnourished. climate change is turning more and more regions into inhospitable wasteland. once-fertile soil is turning saline. and many areas are so arid that little grows there. food is growing scarcer and more expensive. unless we take swift action, the world bank estimates that 100 million people will face extreme poverty over the next 15 years. africa and east asia will be hardest hit. to escape hunger and thirst, people will try to flee the affected regions. the struggle for resources will intensify and conflicts will proliferate. extreme weather events will grow more common. sea levels will rise. storms and flooding will strike islands and coastal areas. large stretches of land could be
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submerged. cities and industrial centers will be affected, weakening economies all over the world. climate change threatens everyone on the planet, but its explosive potential is worst in states that are politically unstable or at war. countries with weak economies could quickly face insurmountable problems. we can only stop climate change by working together. and that's exactly what they're all trying to do at the paris climate conference. but the pressure is on. the u.n.'s refugee agency says that climate change could boost the number of refugees from today's 60 million to 350 million in the next decades. and many of those refugees could come from pakistan, where the weather is becoming increasingly unpredictable.
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while some regions suffer from extreme drought, many coastal areas are battered by violent storms and flooding. some of the country's poorest people are losing their livelihoods and can only try to find ways to adapt. reporter: the mohan people live mainly from fishing. their boats are often their workplaces, sleeping quarters and kitchens in one. mustafa gaadi has lived his entire life on the indus river and its tributaries. he'll never forget the night years ago when the floods came. >> our boat was tied up, but it broke loose. my wife tried to get it under control, but the force of the water pulled it out into the rushing waters. then the boat capsized, and we were fighting for our lives. my three boys knew how to swim, but my two daughters couldn't. they both drowned. reporter: nobody here calls it
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climate change, but the fishermen clearly sense that something has gone wrong. >> floods like that are actually unusual here. but we've had heavy flooding every year since 2010. they cause a great deal of damage. the weather has changed. the summers are much hotter. reporter: to have a safer place to sleep, mustafa recently built a hut on land. but this year's floods even reached the new shelter. he doesn't know what else he can do to protect his family. and he doesn't expect help from the authorities. not far away is kot addu, a city of about half a million. for several years, it's faced a repeated threat of flooding, even though the indus river is 20 kilometers away. the levees were no match for the
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catastrophic flood of five years ago, says environmental activist moeen akhtar. >> soon after the 2010 flood, the authorities started raising the dikes and barriers. the retention basins you see back there were rebuilt and their dikes reinforced with rocks. that was supposed to make them strong enough to withstand the water pressure. almost all the dams needed to protect kot addu and the settlements here in the region have now been refurbished. reporter: about 1000 kilometers south, in the indus delta, the effects of climate change are also being felt. ghulam khatri is inspecting a project in which the government and activists are trying to soften the impact of climate change on the delta region. mangroves are being planted to keep the sandbanks between the indus river and the arabian sea
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from eroding away. >> the frequency of the cyclones, the frequency of the sea-rise now increases. the mangroves are the shield, are the safeguard against the high waves, cyclones. these are the shields for the community. even the land -- the land and the soil is also just tied with the root. so, this is why the mangroves are more important for the marine eco-system. reporter: at first, progress was slow. but this year additional funding was provided, and now, 0,000 hectares of mangroves are in place. 10,000 people live on the sandbanks among the mangroves. the fishermen are trying to adapt to the increasing severity of the flooding. more and more houses here are being raised onto pilings.
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>> we normally build our huts right on the silt. but in recent years, storm tides have been washing over everything. and when the water recedes, it takes the silt with it. we were constantly repairing the foundations. pilings are much better. reporter: mohammad ismail says his house survived the last flood. he hopes his children will also have a future here on the indus delta. host: costa rica has been running a successful reforestation program for years now, which has benefitting -- has been benefitting humans and animals alike. the osa peninsula is home to hundreds of plant and animal species -- including monkeys, jaguars, and reptiles. it's all thanks to an interesting mix of government, conservationists, and private investors who are working to preserve this paradise.
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"global 3000" reporter manuel öczerkes has the story. manuel: it's been pouring for days in the lowland rainforest of costa rica's osa peninsula. biologist juan carlos cruz is here looking for rare animal species. juan carlos: normally at this time of the day, they are very active. a lot of animals normally are in the forest. but after a big rain, they stop. or during the rain they stop doing and moving. manuel: soon a poison-dart frog flashes its bright warning stripes. juan carlos: it is an endemic species. it means it doesn't only live in costa rica. but in costa rica, it only lives here on the osa peninsula. manuel: and another one with yellow markings. nearby we find frog's eggs. monkeys like to eat them, so they're probably close by, too. for cruz and his co-workers,
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this is tangible evidence that investing in conservation pays off. juan carlos: in order to protect land sometimes we have to buy these areas. also doing research is very expensive. having the highest technology for monitoring these animals is also very expensive. having cameras, having radars is also very expensive. so, we unfortunately need the money to do conservation. manuel: the downpour can turn babbling brooks into raging torrents and bring expeditions through the forest to a soggy halt. we decide to return to camp, where juan carlos cruz shows us photos from the week before. the scientists have set up cameras with motion detectors
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around the rain forest. they caught peccaries foraging and a jaguar. now that the area's under protection, the big cats have regained a foothold. we fly to the capital, san jose. costa rica has been planting trees for decades. about half the country is once again covered with rainforest. but the government has to keep searching for new sources of funding. >> the total of the forest in the country -- manuel: some government officials tell us how they hope to convince private investors to help finance their conservation programs. companies and investors may not realize it, but they also have a vested interest in protecting the environment. patricia: well, today at the newspaper, there is an article about how national parks benefit the people around the national parks. so, we see that conservation is also a part of a strategy for
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reduction of poverty. and now we are realizing that really conservation and development are just a part of the same equation. this is something that is easy to say, but hard to do it really in national policies. manuel: to get things moving in the right direction, costa rica signed on to the international biofin project. it brings finance experts, politicians, and investors together to find ways to fund long-term environmental protection projects. we take a look at one of the showcase projects. rancher hugo camacho receives a few hundred euros each year to plant new trees on a part of his pastureland. costa rica's biofin coordinator guillermo zuniga regularly brings visitors by to see the results. hugo: this isn't really my main
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line of business. i've got cattle and timber and a small pension from the government. manuel: without support from the project, he might have sold his trees off to a sawmill long ago. he tells us that, recently, a buyer offered him a lot of money for them. but he's not allowed to sell his timber. that's the agreement. guillermo zuniga knows that for a small farmer like camacho, passing up an offer to sell his timber is a real sacrifice. he tells camacho they're trying to get more funding. to protect areas like this, costa rica needs private investors. the government says it takes over 470 million euros a year to compensate the farmers.
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that is almost 1% of the country's gdp. guillermo: it is not such a big effort. and we have to keep in mind that most of the money will come out of market financial instruments, where people will realize that it is important to invest in biodiversity. reporter: but they want money back, i mean, this is an investment. guillermo. yes, it is. manuel: for the local wildlife, the rare squirrel monkey, for example, the investment pays off. their habitat on costa rica's osa peninsula has been preserved. host: hiv/aids may not be making headlines anymore, but we haven't beaten it yet, as world aids day on december 1 reminds us. last year in europe, for instance, there was a record number of new infections.
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there are currently 37 million people living with hiv worldwide. more than 15 million of them are now getting treatment and medication, which is helping them to live with the virus. célia and elayna live in mozambique. they are hiv positive, as are 10% of adults in the country. in some urban areas, the number is even higher. we first met celia and elayna six years ago. here's a look back. reporter: célia and elayna live in maputo. the two women are hiv-positive. but so far, they haven't infected their children. that's a real success! elayna's son nikolaus was born in february, 2010. we accompanied her during her pregnancy. as we did célia's. both women are receiving care from a program for mothers infected with hiv.
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célia and elayna have their share of trouble -- money problems, social taboos, and a lack of support from the children's fathers. but they're both fighters. host: they were fighters then and they still are fighters now. we recently returned to mozambique to visit celia and elayna to see how they are getting on. living with hiv is just one of many challenges they face every day. reporter: since our last visit, elayna has had another baby. and her son nikolaus has turned five. she hadn't really wanted any more children. >> in the hospital, they said they couldn't give me an abortion. they said, you've had two, a third would be too dangerous. you might not survive it this time.
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and who'll take care of the other children? it's better if you keep the baby and take your medication regularly. reporter: elayna's here for a follow-up check in the program for hiv infected mothers. the baby will be tested again for the virus. the first test, just after birth, came up negative. elayna has been receiving care in the dream program for nine years. >> keep distracting the little one. reporter: the program aims to keep the children healthy and the virus in the mothers at bay. the success rate is high. without this care, the babies have a more-than a 20% chance of catching hiv from their mothers. >> elayna's examination was very good. the virus is almost undetectable. the cd-4 count is an indicator of how well the immune system is
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working, and it's higher. that's good, because with a viral load that's barely detectable, there's no chance elayna will infect her child. reporter: that's because she keeps a strict regimen of anti-retroviral medications. she's reminded again and again to take one a day, punctually to the minute. any deviation could have negative consequences. how is célia doing? we catch up with her at her parents' house. she says the orchard here needs more attention. célia's been taking the medication for nine years, ever since she was pregnant with her daughter luisa. that's when she found out she was hiv positive. back then, her condition was critical. her son marito is now five. célia is thankful that both her children are healthy.
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but now she's worried about her father. célia's mother, the heart of the entire family, died two years ago. >> it came as a huge shock for us. i never thought it could happen this way. she wasn't even sick. it happened so suddenly. >> do you miss her? >> yes, a lot. very much. the house is empty without her. i have a house of my own, but it'll never be like here. this is my mother's house.
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reporter: sometimes, célia does the shopping for her father. she works as a sales clerk in a shop much like this one, earning 3000 meticais, or about 65 euros a month, below minimum wage in mozambique. she says that, earlier this year, her boss suddenly let her go with no pay after 15 years. she ended up taking him to court. >> what he did wasn't legal. if he can't give mo pay. he could've said, "i can't keep the shop going, here's your severance pay." but he beat around the bush and he tried to get around the law. reporter: elayna's circumstances have gone downhill. she has another baby and, once
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again, there's no father around. she'd stayed with nikolaus' father simao for some time. she felt close to him, even if he did not support her financially. >> we were a couple, but he was always drinking. then we separated, and he went to live in his parents' house. simao kept on drinking. one day he got in a fight and he was really beat up. he had internal bleeding, but he didn't make it to the hospital. i had wanted to live a normal life with him. i tried hard and struggled, but it didn't work out.
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reporter: the part of maputo where elayna lives is densely populated. hardly any of the houses have running water. carrying heavy canisters from the well is a daily chore. elayna earns a few centavos hauling water for others. she inherited the house from her mother, so at least she doesn't have to pay rent. her 16-year-old daughter lina helps out, usually. and nine-year-old mathilde helps where she can. with four children to feed, money is always tight. elayna: once i find work again, i know i'll have money at the end of the month, and i'll be able to support my children. i can do any kind of domestic
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work. cleaning, laundry, cooking -- that's all no problem. but i can't do office work, because i don't know how to write. and i have to have my days off to go for my check-ups. i'll have to figure that out. reporter: but célia has finally installed running water on her property. every time we see her, she's managed some improvement to her standard of living. but with love, she's not so lucky, she says. the fathers of all her children are absent. she keeps her new boyfriend at a distance. he doesn't know she's hiv positive, and she insists he use condoms. celia: sometimes he pretends to forget, and i just tell him i don't want any problems. that's all i say, i don't want any problems.
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most men don't want to use condoms. the women have to make them do it. but luckily, there are also condoms for women. reporter: célia is well aware how closely she has to watch her health. the medications she was taking were losing their effectiveness against the virus. but the opportunities for switching medications are limited here. celia: i had to switch to the second regimen, because my counts went down too much. the second regimen is stronger than the first one. it's strong medication, very strong. reporter: she says they make her very tired. even so, she's determined to
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follow the regimen, three in the morning, two in the evening, no exceptions. host: if you've missed any of our stories on celia and elayna's progress, they are all available on our website. we'll be checking in on the two families again soon. we'll also have much more on the climate change conference in paris, so make sure you join us again next week. but for now, that's all from me and from the entire team at "global 3000." bye now. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]
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announcer: this program is made possible in part by... historic marion, virginia, home of song of the mountains, a main street community in the heart of the virginia highlands. the ellis family foundation-- encouraging economic revitalization through the restoration of historic buildings in downtown marion, virginia, including the general francis marion hotel. teds-- dedicated to providing strategic talent management solutions. the bank of marion-- your community, your vision, your bank. morehead state university's kentucky center for traditional music is a proud supporter of song of the mountains. emory and henry college-- transforming lives since 1836. bryant label, a proud supporter of our region's musical heritage.
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