♪ oh yeah ♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, summer of extremes. global flooding claiming hundreds of lives. massive wildfires fueled by record-breaking heat. >> we are headed for persistent drought. droughts at a level that we haven't seen before. >> america's family farms struggling to keep their dreams alive. >> we should be looking at, you know, growing certain things and in certain ways that require less water. plus beautifully inclusive. >> i think somebody's ready for her closeup. >> entrepreneurs of color redefining an industry. >> i did not often get to see representations of beauty that look like myself or my mom. >> overcoming incredible

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good evening. thank you for joining us. the headlines this summer tell much of the story. months of long droughts mixed with oppressive heat leading to exploding wildfires, forcing hard-hit farmers to find ways to adjust and survive. abc's will carr with our report. >> reporter: apricot lane farms is more than a farm. it's a place of dreams. a stunning world where dozens of different animals, both big and small, make their home in the shade of peach and avocado trees. >> good boy, corey. >> reporter: for all its beauty, life on this renewable farm is filled with daunting challenges. this microcosm of the planet facing a relentless assault. >> what kind of impact has this drought had on the farm? >> this last year, we got 4 inches of water. >> how does 4 inches compare to other years? >> our average is 10 to 12. so it's less than half.

>> reporter: a decade ago, john and molly chester quit their jobs in los angeles, bought 200 acres north of the city, set out on an adventure of a lifetime with their rescue dog, todd. >> molly and john are very happy about this. what do you think of this, todd? >> reporter: the journey becoming a beloved documentary, "the biggest little farm." >> we had our plan. and nature had hers. >> reporter: when they arrived, the farm was a wasteland. the soil depleted. >> it was only over time that we really began to realize just how incredibly sick the farm was. we had our work cut out for us. for us, that was really clear that we had to start with rebuilding the soil of the entire farm. >> reporter: slowly they brought the land back to life. a painstaking process that married farming with nature. now this paradise they created is threatened by drought. this pond, a crucial part of the farm's ecosystem. >> water used to come all the

way up to here. kind of even bury the base of these trees. there used to be four feet higher. >> we're not just in a drought temporarily, we are headed for persistent droughts. droughts at a level that we haven't seen before. and that's going to be, i think, an all hands on deck kind of thing. >> reporter: one study says the mega drought could persist for caree career years, possibly centuries. the drought plaguing the west is forcing john and other farmers to make hard choices. >> we've been growing things in southern california that require a lot of water. and i think the drought is the opportunity to remind us that we should be looking at growing certain things in certain ways that require less water. >> reporter: it's been a brutal summer for much of the united states, with drought, unrelenting heat, and wildfires. >> the dixie fire has scorched over 61,000 acres. >> the tamarac fire began on the

fourth of july due to a lightning strike. but it exploded in size. >> reporter: extreme weather exacerbated by climate change. >> this is a climate crisis that scientists have been predicting, have been warning us about, and have been telling us, we've got to take action. we are inncy.ter: for john ches wildfires pose almost as dire a threat as the drought. in recent years, fires have come dangerously close to apricot lane farms. as seen in the film, a lucky change of wind saved them. >> i think we're surrounded by three fires. these winds definitely aren't helping. >> reporter: with fires getting worse by the year, they worry they won't be so lucky next time, so they got this. >> it's been increasingly more difficult to get fire insurance for this area. coupled with the fact that the fire department's completely overwhelmed in these fast-moving fires. so we kind of need something that, you know, we can kind of rely on, that sometimes incan

suppress a spot fire that the fire department's not going to come out with when they're dealing with a massive line of fire that's passed beyond us. >> reporter: right now there are nearly 80 wildfires burning in 13 states. >> it's a busy wildfire season. we're at the highest preparedness level that we can be at, 5. it's the earliest we've gone to pl-5 since 1990. >> reporter: the haze frommed the spreading fires impacting the skies thousands of miles away, in new york city. the biggest uncontained fire right now, the bootleg in oregon. it's scorched anner larger than the size of los angeles. >> one of the largest in oregon's history, over 300,000 acres. any fire that gets that large is quite substantial. in any part of the u.s. or any part of the world. >> reporter: more than 2,000 oregonians have been evacuated so far due to the fire. >> there's absolutely no question that climate change is playing out before our eyes. we saw the heat dome event a few

weeks ago. we unfortunately lost a lot of oregonians to that event. >> reporter: oregon and the northwest have also faced an unprecedented heat wave this summer. >> with the heat wave, it essentially put us into peak fire season about a month or even in some places two months ahead of schedule. >> welcome to the masumoto family farm -- >> reporter: in central california, darmers like david masumoto are feeling the impact of heat and drought. >> i planted these trees with my father over 50 years ago. >> reporter: masumoto, known as mas, as third-generation farmer outside fresno. >> my grandparents emigrated from japan about 100 years ago and settled in this area of california. they came from poor, peasant farm, rural stock in japan. >> reporter: his family was sent to an internment camp during world war ii. >> 1948, my father took this big gamble. bght specificay re because thland was cheap. theha

climate is making it harder for mas to continue his family's farming legacy of growing peaches, nectarines, and grapes for raisins. >> when i was growing up, agriculture, especially in california, was in a golden era of normalcy. we had consistent rainfall, normal temperatures. it looked like this is, you know, the dream, the nirvana, of where to farm. then probably around the 1980s, things started to shift a little. >> reporter: but this year, his land is bone dry, force ing himo adapt. he's pulled up several acres of grapevines. >> i keep asking myself every year, how many harvests do i have left? and i realize, i may only have 10, maybe 20 more harvests left. i'm in my late 60s. >> reporter: his daughters hoping to carry on the family tradition, but mas worries about the challenges. >> i want to think about farming in terms of generations and long

timelines, which is exactly how i also want to think about weather, climate change, and drought. that it's not just a one-year occurrence, it's something that my daughter is going to inherit. >> reporter: the effects of climate change becoming more evident around the world, too. wildfires currently raging in siberia. to devastating floods in china. the intensity of the flooding something not seen in hundreds of years. historic flooding also raged across central europe last week. whole towns and villages cut off by the violent waters. german chancellor angela merkel, surveying the damage, called for action, saying, "we have to get faster in the fight against climate change." >> if you are awake to what's happening on this planet, you are going to feel grief. you are going to feel anger. you are going to feel anxiety. and rather than shoving those feelings to the side, i think we need to let those feelings be our fuel for action.

>> it's an opportunity to be innovative. that's what it needs to drive. it needs to drive that consciousness for innovation. it's worth it. you know? because it's not just my bottom line for my experience on this earth. it's the bottom line for my son and his children, for their existence on this planet. there's a great opportunity there. >> reporter: back on apricot lane farms, john chester has faith in the healing power of his way of farming. and in humanity. >> i don't think that we got here because we're bad as a species, i think that we were just unaware of the connection and the consequences to the way that test we engage with the natural system that we depend on. my goal is to give just enough back so that the future generation, like my son, can continue innovating and working to build something truly called sustainability. >> our thanks to will. up next, the bold entrepreneurs making the business of beauty more inclusive.

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♪ it has not always been easy to break into the beauty industry, and entrepreneurs of color often face even greater barriers. now some bold business owners are trying to level the playing field. here's my "nightline" coanchor juju chang. >> those curls are going to be so defined and juicy after we are done with our treatment. >> reporter: for lulu cordero, luscious curls are a way of life. >> this is decadent. >> reporter: the 33-year-old

afro-latina is the founder of bamba curls, a hair care line helping redefine the concept of beauty. >> i think someone's ready for her closeup. >> what does bamba curls represent to you? >> bamba curls is a celebration of curls, kinks, and melanin. for me it was important to do that. as a little girl growing up, i did not often get to see representations of beauty that look like myself or my mom or a lot of the women, really in my community. >> reporter: as an immigrant from the dominican republi, s grew up straightening her hair. now her business leans into natural curls, using a formulation of ingredients passed down from generations of afro-caribbean women. >> people started to notice the results i was getting with my own formulations. they started to ask me, you know, well, i'll buy it off of you, i'll buy it. >> reporter: lulu struggled to find outside investors to launch her business. so she dipped into her own personal credit line and savings

to fund her dream. >> what were the venture capitalists telling you? >> they're like, everyone wants straight hair, why would anyone want to byproducts for curls? why is it important to celebrate curls, kinks, and melanin? what's the point? literally someone told me, what's the point? >> reporter: entrepreneurs of color like lulu have historically received less money from investors than their white counterparts. more than half of all new businesses over the past decade in the country have been started by people of color, and yet black and latinx founders have received only 2.4% of all venture capital raised since 2015. >> we can't compete with these massive multimillion-dollar advertising budgets that a lot of these companies have. >> reporter: looking for a way to even the playing field, lulu connected with thirteen,n dedic

lifting up brands for people of all colors. >> we have brands from africa, from southeast asia, from china, from the dominican republic. >> reporter: nikeo greco, cofounder, as beauty business entrepreneur herself. >> i didn't recognize the barriers that i faced until i was much older. i sort of assumed that, it's supposed to be this hard. >> reporter: nikeo launching the site last summer after the racial awakening following george floyd's murder. >> people who are black and brown spent the most on beauty, so they deserve to have more representation on shelves. >> people looked at this past year of racial reckoning as an opportunity to do something. in what way is looking at theset companies, in what way is that helping the larger equation? >> you're helping to elevate a

founder of color, helping them to grow their businesses so that they can build generational wealth and they can inspire the next generation. >> reporter: here in this lab in elmwood park, new jersey, another member of the 13 lune family is working on the next big thing in beauty. >> this is the ingredient that has taken the industry by storm. >> reporter: ron robinson is a cosmetic chemist and a 31-year veteran of the beauty business. >> i fell in love with this industry that combined my science background with this art of creating cosmetics. it was love at first sight. >> reporter: but as a black man in a field that was overwhelmingly white, ron says he often felt sidelined and isolated. >> it was tough. what can i say, what can't i say? if i see a campaign that's not being diverse, can i say something? basically, i felt that i needed to stay in my lane. be quiet. just follow the mainstream. >> reporter: in 2019, he finally decided to flex his entrepreneurial muscle, creating his own skin care line.

>> we had a lot going for us. three patents. a great team of experienced cofounders. a plan. a concept that tested off the charts with consumers. there was a lot of, yes, what you're doing is interesting, it's exciting. but no checks were written. >> reporter: undaunted, ron risked it all, bringing beautyset cosmetics to life by dipping into his retirement nest egg, withdrawing $85,000. >> a big gulp, like oh my god, did i just do this? it better work! then we just saw improvement, results, growth, new retail partnerships. we're in saks, neiman marcus, nordstrom, blue mercury, macy's, bloomingdale's. super growing, super fast, and thrilled about it. >> beauty inclusivity. what does that mean to you? >> not just doing things for optics. meaning including a diverse

array of people, products, et cetera. that's what really inspires me about what 13 lune is doing, is helping to set a new standard of how all brands should look about including others and being more diverse. from inside out. from top down. >> reporter: lulu says the visibility bamba curls received on 13 lune helped pave the way for partnerships with major retailers. >> these curls are going to be bamba. we've sold out at nordstrom, we've sold out at 13 lune, hopefully selling out at bloomingdale's and macy's too. >> you literally can't keep up with demand? >> yes, we literally can't keep up with demand. >> what is it like for you, the dominican immigrant girl in you, to know that your baby, that you created, is featured in these giant american corporations?

>> i am my ancestors' wildest dreams. to know that i'm doing this for my culture, for my community, making them proud, making them be seen, that means everything. >> reporter: for entrepreneurs who put it all on the line to feed their dreams, success is about more than a return on investment. it's about investing in change. >> the future of beauty is inclusive. i want to shout that from the rooftops. people want to see that the products work for them, for their skin tone, for their particular texture of hair. they want to see humanity and the rainbow that we are. >> our thanks to juju. up next, dolly parton's birthday gift to her husband. ♪ ♪

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♪ ♪ even celebrities struggle with what to give their spouse for their birthday. but not dolly parton. >> you're probably wondering why

i'm dressed like this. it's for my husband's birthday. remember sometime back i said i was going to pose on "playboy" magazine when i was 75? well, i'm 75, and they don't have a magazine anymore. but my husband always loved the original cover of "playboy." so i was trying to think of something to do to make him happy. he still thinks i'm a hot chick after 57 years. and i'm going to try to talk him out of that. and i hope he agrees. what do you think? >> good for them down in nashville. that's "nightline" for this evening. catch our full episodes on hulu. see you right back here sam