bilal: the drugs are more dangerous than the terrorists. you can see and fight i.s., but the drugs come out of nowhere, they're completely invisible. in iraq, more and more people are using drugs, with often fatal consequences. more babies despite a shrinking population? the japanese city of akashi proves it's possible. and, less is more -- can we save our planet by pulling the brakes on economic growth?

drug use is on the rise worldwide. according to the u.n., the number of people consuming narcotics has risen by a quarter over the past decade to around 300 million. chemical drugs in particular have seen a sharp rise in appeal. among them, methamphetamine, aka, crystal meth. it started with five hits, and then he wanted more. more crystal methamphetamine, a dangerously addictive drug. samy: talking about it makes me disgusted with myself. it's a completely different world to yours. reporter: this man, who we'll call “samy,” used to be a bodyguard in bagdad.

now, he earns a living by selling crystal meth. samy: if i have 50 grams, i'll only sell 30, and keep the rest for myself. i roll it up like this, so that on the street it looks like twice the actual amount. the complaints don't bother me. they're sick and they need their hit, and once they've had it, they forget everything. his clientele is growing, and this poverty-stricken area of baghdad is where some of them live. for security reasons, we have to film from inside the car. the future for young people here is a bleak one. war and conflict were followed by economic collapse and inflation. for many, the only escape is drugs. experts estimate that 40% of the population take them, with crystal meth particularly widespread. bilal: the drugs are more dangerous than the terrorists. you can see and fight i.s., but the drugs come out of nowhere. they're completely invisible.

reporter: narcotics agent sopi shows us videos of raids by the authorities. last year alone, he says, there were 16,800 arrests. and the police seized some 3.5 tons of narcotics. iraq has severe punishments for any drug-related offenses, including long prison sentences, even for addicts. with prisons full to bursting, the interior ministry has resorted to promising exemptions for those who agree to treatment in a clinic. doctors, on the other hand, insist there aren't enough beds for the large numbers involved, and some are needed for female addicts. the patient who this doctor is seeing today is 25 and a crystal meth addict. she was introduced to the drug by her husband, who is a dealer. when he was arrested three days ago, she decided to try rehab. the next step, she says, will

be to leave him. esra: after two or three days on drugs, he'd turn aggressive and beat me up, really often. i wanted to leave him, but being an addict meant i couldn't go back to my family. reporter: why not? esra: my family would kill me if they knew. it's not allowed to happen to a woman. in our culture, it's already tough if you're a man. but for women, they'd cut my head off. reporter: actually kill you? esra: yes, kill me. reporter: the treatment will take 14 days. once that's over, esra plans to get a new start to life. we're on our way out of the iraqi capital and headed for iran, the source of the crystal meth.

the port city of basra and the surrounding region are controlled by conservative shia militias. we're told there's more crystal changing hands here than anywhere else in the country, and more addicts. one reason for the dramatic increase in activity is the official ban on alcohol introduced in the spring, says narcotics agent ali shaya. he recently joined a youth task force. ali: the spread of drugs on this scale is also because they banned alcohol, and because the kids had really easy access. reporter: and crystal cuts through class divisions. shaya introduces us to mustafa, who's been an addict since he left high school. he comes from a respected family and is married with children himself, which is why he wants to remain anonymous. mustafa:

i kept on taking it, and met a lot of people doing the same, even government officials. it seemed to me like a choice between death and jail. reporter: mustafa found ali shaya via social media. he helped him to break the addiction, something that only a small percentage achieve. the agent takes us along on a visit to the local jail. it is terribly overcrowded, primarily with addicts and dealers. we see shockingly cramped conditions, which we are not allowed to film. hussein went to college. he's been here for two years now, sharing a cell with hundreds of other inmates. and, he insists, he's innocent. hussein: i was a cab driver, and a customer asked me to drive him to meet a friend who gave him some drugs. when we set off again, we were arrested. reporter: hussein was promised the equivalent of $200 for the ride. instead, he was given five years and one month in jail for

dealing drugs. according to the inmates, 230 of them share a cell that has two toilets and one shower. >> i was caught with six kilos of crystal. it wasn't my dope. it belonged to a friend. i was just holding on to it. reporter: the punishment for the 52-year-old father -- life imprisonment. back to drug dealer samy. why did he always feel so safe? wasn't he afraid of getting caught? samy: the government is completely broken. and that's where most of the drug dealers come from. they're high-ranking officers, and if they tell you to carry on and keep dealing, you know you're ok. reporter: we're unable to verify his claims. but what we can say, and where dealers, doctors, and addicts agree, is that the country has a new devastating

battle on its hands. japan's birthrate continues to fall. last year the population shrank substantially, by 800,000 out of a total of 125 million people. that is the biggest drop ever recorded in the country. on top of that, japan has an aging population. so what's the answer? boost the birthrate. we headed to akashi to find out more. reporter: it might not be music to everyone's ears, but they sure know how to liven up a place.

it's another day of happy mayhem in this multistory office building. the local authorities in akashi decided to keep one floor for themselves, and then gave free rein to the younger generation. juliane and takaaki satani are big fans of the centrally located family facility. they moved west to the modestly sized city from tokyo, and have since had two children. but they don't miss the capital. juliane: it's really easy to get talking to people and swap information. akashi is a place that makes you feel totally at home. reporter: akashi made a concerted effort to attract more families. the architect of those plans was former mayor fusaho izumi, who clearly likes a bit of tomfoolery himself. what was originally planned as

office space is now also a big play-zone. fusaho: we turned it into a no-fuss environment for families to spend time. there's a nursing room and stroller parking. akashi is now a city for children, with this being the most visible example. the entire city has changed. reporter: a cornerstone of the new policy is daycare. nursery school and kindergarten are free after the second child. plus, the city covers all health-care costs for the youngsters, and there's no shortage of them in akashi. takaaki: compared to tokyo and other cities in japan, children here have a lot more time and opportunity for playing with kids the same age. and they really love it. reporter: three-year-old lyon is in his element. and to ensure that he and his little pals are in safe hands,

the city provides a sufficient number of qualified carers. in japan, like in many other places, it is not the best-paid profession. but here, they're given assistance with finding an apartment and an advance for the rent. and staff who commit to staying in the city for longer are paid more. for parents, there's the added bonus that diapers are delivered free to their door. akashi's birth-rate is rising again. but in general, japan faces a growing crisis. there are fewer babies and, in the meantime, fewer young women, too. researchers aren't sure that things can be turned around. one major reason for the dramatic population decline is the cost of child care, which is why the akashi authorities decided to take action.

it was only here that starting a family became financially viable for the satanis. that dream, they say, would not have been an option in tokyo. juliane satanis and her husband are both working parents. their two incomes together with the low cost of living are a winning combination. here, they can afford to rent an entire house. all of these attractive conditions played a part in their starting a family. having kids would have been practically unthinkable in the big city where everything costs a lot of money. akashi's family-friendly policies are a game-changer for many young couples. juliane: perhaps we'll even have a third child. it's possible here. we're also under less emotional pressure to think about it. reporter: akashi is now home to children who might not have been born in other parts of the country. the initiator of the program, fusaho izumi, enjoys

mini-celebrity status, not just because of his family policies. fusaho: as a result of our actions, families are spending more money locally. that means a boost for the regional economy, and the revival of shopping streets. so there's an increase in tax revenues, too. investing in children has helped to improve the economy here. reporter: local parents, and residents in general, appreciate akashi's forward-thinking vision, while elsewhere in japan, children are becoming rarer. takaaki: i think if the whole country were to move in the same direction as our city, it would benefit greatly. reporter: a growing number of cities are following akashi's lead. they might not all have such a lively mayor, but there is a growing desire to see japan

assume a more family-friendly tune. host: this week, our global teen comes from south africa. siya: my name is siya and i live in soweto, a township in johannesburg. soweto is mostly known for a lot of historic people.

there's a whole lot of stuff that i would love to do. i would actually love to join the anc and be part of the african national congress. id also love to open a record label. i love to go to paris because it's the city of love. i'm a very romantic person and i hopefully dream of maybe one day proposing my future wife on the eiffel tower in paris. a lot of things make me happy. seeing my family happy makes me happy. seeing my niece and my nephew waking up, going to school in the morning and them being as privileged as other children makes me happy. i love all my family, just seeing us together because people, you know, are passing away. you don't get time to spend with your family and they say you don't realize what you have until it's gone. so i'm giving them their flowers while they're still here.

the biggest challenges to face every day will probably have to be waking up in the morning, getting ready, and getting to the bus stop on time. that would be the biggest challenge to face every day, getting to the bus stop on time, because most of the time i'm usually chasing the bus. so, my passion is fashion. i'm a designer, i make clothes. with that being said, i'm a designer. i make clothes with no sewing machine, but with only these two hands, these two hands and a needle.

climate change is a big problem in south africa, a big problem. and when it does happen, it actually ruins the lives of millions and millions of people. because millions and millions of people lose their homes. millions and millions of people get their homes flooded, with the information in their homes, such as their identification and passports. it's a tragedy, and it hurts many people around the world. host: a booming economy is typically seen as a good thing. growth creates jobs, raises the standard of living, and boosts consumption. despite current crises, the global economy continues to expand -- this year, says the oecd, by 3%. next year, by almost the same again. but our consumerism is destroying the planet. so, is it time to give it all up? reporter:

having more has given us a lot of comfort and a lot of choice, but with a pretty big price tag. like more carbon emissions, more resource depletion, more pollution. our addiction to making and consuming more stuff is exhausting the planet. everyone's talking about avoiding a climate catastrophe, but is switching to renewable energy and buying electric cars while keeping the status quo really going to help? a growing number of people say no. they want us to fundamentally change the way we run our economies, and with that, our lives. some call it degrowth. for decades, countries have been judged by the growth of their gdp. that's gross domestic product. the more goods and services produced, the higher the gdp, the cooler the country. kai: to keep having gdp growth accumulating, you also need to keep having more material stuff extracted and going through the economy. this is not sustainable on a planet with a finite amount of

resources. reporter: so this is where the idea of degrowth comes in. the term degrowth is credited to andré gorz, an austrian french social philosopher who in 1972 questioned whether it was a good idea to constantly make more stuff. shortly after, academics at the massachusetts institute of technology published a report called “the limits of growth.” this rigorous forecast concluded that unless growth was curbed, civilization would collapse by 2072. suffice to say, it didn't go down well. the academic journal nature even called it “a whiff of doomsday.” degrowth talk started to crop up again in the 2000's, once data began to show just how irreversibly we were harming the planet. a recent paper in nature -- yes, the one who poo-pooed degrowth back in the 1970's -- suggested that it be “widely and thoroughly considered.” and the term has now made its way into the most recent ipcc report on how to stay below 1.5 degrees celsius.

one degrowth approach that has been widely considered is decoupling, where you get to maintain economic growth while reducing carbon emissions. kai: where i live in the u.k., it's very proud of itself, because it claims that it's managed to successfully decarbonize its economy, while gdp -- well, it's not doing well, but gdp is growing slowly, while our emissions appear to be going down. reporter: surprisingly, especially countries with advanced economies, have been able to do it, for example, by shifting towards renewable energy sources. like denmark, which reduced its consumption-based emissions by 35% between 2000 and 2019 while growing the gdp per capita by 16%. germany reduced it carbon emissions per capita by 24% in the same time frame while growing 26%. and even the united states did the same. which sounds great, and definitely is a first step, but the problem is that decoupling is only concerned about co2. kai: we live in many ecological

crises, not just one. it's not just an issue of fossil fuel emissions. so, if we just say words about decarbonization only, you're missing ecological degradation, biodiversity loss. the u.k. has some of the worst biodiversity loss of any country in the world, never mind the eu. and this doesn't solve that problem. reporter: what next? the problem is even those who support what degrowth stands for think the word itself is problematic. juliet: why i don't like the term “degrowth” is it has a negative feel to it. the key thing is shrinking material inputs into economic activity. reporter: degrowth sounds scary, like it wants people to return to the dark ages. but it actually just means scaling down the least sustainable industries, like mass-produced meat and dairy, fast fashion, car and aviation manufacturing. or ensuring that things we rely on -- refrigerators, phones, washing machines -- have a longer shelf life.

repairing instead of replacing something the moment it stops working. so it's not just about stopping growth, but about increasing growth in sectors that benefit society as a whole. like creating green jobs. training workers on installing renewable energy, insulating buildings, and regenerating ecosystems. and investing in public transportation and services. but is that just wishful thinking? might this new approach to growth actually make life worse for us? this is the crux of the degrowth debate -- would it unravel the advances humans have made? many facets of modern life, like living longer and lower rates of child mortality, are associated with high gdp, among other factors. economists that are in favor of the current system say that more immediately, degrowth could mean widespread job loss, mortgage defaults, and business closures, that it would force us all into a permanent recession. curtailing research and innovation, the things we need to develop green and more

effective technologies. the problem is that active degrowth hasn't happened anywhere yet, meaning that nobody knows whether that would happen. zeke: how do you address the creation of a world where rich countries don't effectively slam the doors behind themselves and say, we're going to diminish our growth a bit but we're not going to let you catch up to where we are. and that is a challenge, and a lot of the solutions around that involve large scale redistribution of wealth and resources between countries that might be possible in a perfect world, but in the real world, is very politically challenging. reporter: one suggestion by degrowthers is that unpayable debts held by low and middle income countries should be canceled, so that they can focus their spending on public services. the idea is to even the playing field. juliet: key things for the global south are technology transfer, to leapfrog dirty technologies, and to get the latest

generation of renewable technologies to global south countries for their energy needs. number two, finance, climate finance to make that possible and also to finance other poverty alleviation and so forth. reporter: supporters say that through economic degrowth, the needs of more people could actually be served. still, we seem to perceive increasing gdp as a sign that we are winning. that, however you frame it, giving it up for the sake of our future on this planet sounds to most people like we're asking them to start losing. so, is the answer to deliberately slow down economic growth? you won't find many governments willing to do that. zeke: moving away from gdp for example, to metrics that value human impact across a variety of dimensions. the human development index that the u.n. provides is a good example of that. there's been some experimentation with the country bhutan and its gross happiness index that they've talked a lot about. so, there might be ways to redefine these metrics of

success that would make it more palatable for politicians to embrace things that don't necessarily increase gdp but increase the average well-being of people in a way that is less resource-intensive or destructive. reporter: another example is what former new zealand prime minister jacinda ardern did in 2019, when she announced a national budget that prioritized citizen well-being and happiness over gdp and economic growth. under the budget, all new spending was required to advance government priorities like improving mental health, reducing child poverty, and addressing the inequalities faced by its indigenous population. degrowthers envision an economy driven by alternative principles. kai: the wager on degrowth is that we need to imagine a different future. a new relationship between humans and non-human nature in which humanity, but also nature, can flourish and thrive.

♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

from berlin. tonight, a major escalation in israel's war against hamas. israel's military says it is expanding its ground operations in the gaza strip and wrapping up airstrikes on hamas targets inside the territory as it gets closer to launching a full-scale ground invasion. also tonight, the u.n. looms of a looming humanitarian catastrophe for the 2 million people trapped inside gaza. hardly