Future Conditional

Investigates the link between environmental change and the future health of our planet, a future conditional on how we cope with the spread of toxic pollution.

The Arctic:  A pristine wilderness with very few sources of industrial pollution, yet animals and humans are suddenly plagued with rising levels of the world's most hazardous chemicals; DDT, PCBs, dioxins, and mercury. 

Mexico:  Along the border with the United States, tariff-free factories have been poisoning the soil and the air for more than a decade.  Local communities in Tijuana struggle with contaminated water while their backyards have become  toxic playgrounds for children.

Uzbekistan:  The world's fourth largest inland body of water, the Aral Sea, has become the site of what the United Nations calls man's greatest ecological disaster.  What does this tell us about the future health of people living near other large inland seas and lakes, such as California’s Salton Sea?

United States:  A Latino neighborhood in San Diego celebrates an environmental victory, while only 150 miles away, the people of Palm Springs may be living in the path of a toxic storm of dust.

Topics covered: polluted waters, changing climates, uncontrolled development, air pollution and unsustainable development.

Learn more about this episode of Journey to Planet Earth on PBS.org/journeytoplanetearth.