cuddle a koala koala named pearl. she was burned and scarred, survived those fires. and these forest fires and floods are being exacerbated by climate change. and that's part of our special all right. >> we'll be watching ivan wants and thanks so much for that reporting and just a reminder that all new episode of the whole story with anderson cooper, it's one whole hour or one whole story. is next, only here on cnn more than 1 fans came out for a free madonna concert in brazil last night, the queen of pop, wrapping up for celebration world tour in rio de janeiro, where fans waited for hours if not days, to secure a good spot and you're copacabana beach the 65-year-old artists performing for more than two hours is madonna's biggest live concert crowd ever and i want to thank you so much for joining me this evening. i'm

jessica gene. have a great night and a great week. >> we'll see you back here next weekend welcome. to the whole story. i, managers and cooper, australia's great barrier reef is the world's largest marine habitat and one of the natural wonders the world but it's now in its seventh mass bleaching events in 1998, which means the warming waters around australia are killing the coral, turning this vibrant ecosystem into an underwater graveyard this is just one of several climate crisis that's plagued australian recent years. there are been devastating wildfires and massive floods that are made parts of the country uninhabitable. and has decimated the population of native species like koalas cnn's i've been watson has been reporting on the climate disaster in australia for years, and he recently traveled back to see the evolving threats it's firsthand and how people are both contributing to the crisis. and trying to find ways to fix it a once in a

lifetime experience a chance to walk alone on a desert island in the middle, the great barrier reef all around me, turquoise blue water as far as the eye in see i'm on the edge of one of the most beautiful marine habitats on the planet. >> a natural wonder of the world and underwater jungle teeming with colors movement life but on this journey off

the coast of australia, i learned about the death and destruction being caused by human activity, both on land and under the water the reef's now it's not fine unhealthy, it's definitely feeling a lot of stress. >> the temperature of this water is rising. the result coral is bleaching and dying what is happening now in our oceans is like wildfires underwater. we're going to have so much warming that we're going to get to a tipping point and we won't be able to come back growing up. i could never imagine one day visiting australia. >> it was an exotic place on the other side of the planet, a land of koalas and kangaroos boasting natural treasures.

unlike any other place in the world decades later, i'm here enjoying this vibrant place. but also facing a frightening reality. >> it's ratcheting up and more and more painful i being affected in normal lives, my jia, destructive events files storms, floods an unprecedented level i'm scale. >> humanity is being threatened at a rate, which i'm not sure we really understand. australia is a country, a continent on the front lines of climate change ndds threatening communities. and it's most iconic species to get to australia's kangaroo island

drive straight south from adelaide until you hit the ocean and then board a ferry. >> it brings me to this remote place that's rugged, sparsely populated, and wild and it does feel a little bit like the end of the world. and that's partially true because from here for the next several thousand miles, it's open ocean until you hit antarctica surprisingly, for an island named after kangaroos, my team and i initially had a hard time finding the animals. >> that's shape after a de with no luck, we learned kangaroos prefer to come out at sunset when it's cooler but that's also a dangerous time for these animals. got his mom was probably hit by a car. guy, goes mama satan killed barkai yeah the small team at this wildlife center helps raise some of these orphaned animals by hand, either already,

including pearl, who seems pretty fun if humans is this a little bit like holding a child, but pretty fuzzy cheer and the other part about this is the for really saw there are few things sweeter than cuddling a koala my teammates couldn't wait for their turn but then we learn the real reason parolees here. >> she had some burns through her. is she still has lingering scar tissue there. we can't see obviously the pads of your hands and fate, but the leather was pretty badly burned on there as well four years ago as a tiny joey pearl survived apocalyptic forest fires, which raged across australia australians now call it the black summer i cannot over the severity on the style and

intensity and the duration of the 2024 hours there's nothing else like it in any recorded history in australia australia is extreme climate makes it more vulnerable to bush fires and floods, and climate change is exacerbating these natural disasters. >> barry trail, a volunteer firefighter, and environmental mentalist, is seeing this for firsthand gonna get northern more often i'm gonna get more floods more often if it's a wet year, it's going to flood more if the dry you're going to get how to five. that's that's just the physics of it. >> the fires destroyed thousands of homes and wiped out billions of animals we had

local people showing up here with 30, 40 animals in their car that i'd picked up on the way here or that they've gone back out to check their farm and i'd found it kangaroo with its legs melted off essentially it's doing the staff here have to euthanized jagan hundred koalas. yeah. yeah yeah, that was those leaves a lasting scar for sure those scars still raw for many survivors and for the families of the 33 people who died that summer i'm ivan. how are you doing? >> justin lang meets me at the stretch of highway with a fire killed his father, dick, and his brother clayton the fire. caught them as they were driving home after helping protect a friend's farm from the blades and his glass from their vehicle? >> yeah. sorry. that's the best window. >> we find pieces of their truck still hear four years later, who thinks you could get burned to death and driving on

a road? yeah. exactly. i pulled it off the rides either out of the way but yeah, the car combusted the whole cow was on fire with fire with jumped from trees and the vegetation into the middle of a highway, ember tech it's hard to imagine a bushfire engulfing a moving vehicle on a highway until you see footage like this nigel done again through these the smoke. >> so thick, it turns de into night we're asking through the front, but we still got zero visibility the fires even created their own weather system, fired tornadoes, ripping across open farmland. >> a frightening example of the sheer power of the blaze for the island, small population. it meant all hands on deck i was lot on between jumping on a truck and doing fall gram work and and being here and doing while luck works. so they were

dies during that far where there was nothing anyone could do. the weather was too severe and the far was was too hot this shows the area that was burned in 2019 and 2020 that far been 49% of the islands total land area, 49%, and kangaroo island is the biggest islands. >> it is shed, third largest island in australia burned? >> yeah the inferno destroyed almost all of kangaroo islands, flinders chase national park. >> and yet today, i find evidence of some remarkable rebirth four years ago, this was a burned-out moonscape that all of the greenery was destroyed. and you can still see the remnants of bushes and trees that are still charred from the 2020 fires. it's hard to imagine how any of the wildlife could have survived that inferno but look four

years later at the regrowth greenery. as far as the eye can see but the same cannot be said of the islands wildlife. and that includes kangaroos and koalas we estimated that there were probably 50,000 animals before the fire on kangaroo kangaroo island, which has a population of about 5,000 people. that's right. so a lot more quality and people after the fires, it was probably more like five to 10,000. so it had a major impact on as we head into the forest, the scientists are tracking what's left of the islands, koala population using satellite radio collars to pinpoint their location oh, yeah, there it is. >> our first discovery was unfortunately pretty bleak pull

little guy but a few miles down the road, we have more luck. >> so there's one here one there. wow. and one here. and then there's another one in the tree just over here hi, yeah. hi there. yeah. let's they weigh and check a female named sunny before setting her free. we're very grateful to sunny and she's free to go i'd like to introduce you to sunny. >> this is a female koala she has been captured three times by the team here. and just had her satellite track are removed. take a look over here part of the tree. she standing on still bears scorch marks from the previous fires here, which are believed to have killed off more than half of the population of the wild koala wallace on kangaroo island this animal is a symbol

of this country. >> it's an iconic species. >> is it in trouble? >> it's very much in trouble. highly endangered. it may. well, we're seeing it going locally extinct in different populations on the east coast populations decimated by disease and habitat loss from logging and wildfires that are ravaging australia all of those catastrophic climate change impacts are directly affecting koala populations in australia. >> do you think this fire was a product of client climate change? >> i think ultimately it was and. australian government report concluded the same harder to measure the impact on people like justin leg still mourning after the black summer fires killed his father and brother in journey expected from you, brother, he was only

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keep you informed which means you'll help us stay on track. >> yes. is it fiduciary? we always put your interests first because we do better when you do better if fisher investments were clearly different i'm standing on a tiny part of the great barrier reef is the world's largest marine habitat and to see, it's true beauty you have to go underneath the waves this isn't my first visit to the great barrier reef six years ago, i came here to film a cnn report about this natural wonder of the world. >> armed with only a mask and a snorkel that was pretty spectacular. >> this time, i'm scuba certified guide is professor jody romer, a reef scientist at

james cook university how many species did we see of marine life just now? >> well i'm a phish person. there's over 1,500 species of fish here on the great barrier reef. >> how many do you think we saw? >> you can see them all today, but how pay 100 species, hundred an underwater rainforest it's the most diversity sudden on the planet above or underwater. >> i would argue and it's been my inspiration for my entire

career we're diving in february peak of the australian summer this is like bathwater, i clear right? >> yeah. where where? hello, sort of lowered mid 90s fahrenheit jodie, repeatedly shows me coral that's turned bone white the reef's not fine a lot of girls that were at

various stages of bleaching at something already been overrun with algae plos it's a pretty depressing site coral basically being cooked and killed by unusually warm water what we see beneath the surface confirmed several weeks later by the australian government as scientists told us that we're facing a mass bleaching event. this is the seventh mass bleaching event since 1998 experts once argued this habitat was too big to fail and the great barrier reef is the

largest continuous us reef system on the planet 2,300 kilometers long and it is literally mind boggling when you think that many, hundreds of thousands of spaces are there on this, this ecosystem this is huge. >> i mean, the size of it'll if you want a repair this ecosystem once you've damaged it, it's going to take 1,000 years australia is experiencing a global record marine heatwave this extreme heat is causing what some scientists are falling the worst coral bleaching the state has ever seen we've come here to determine how the coral reefs off florida peninsula are coping with unprecedented ocean keith in 2023, this weather

pattern caused a massive die off. >> of course oral off the coast of florida what happened in florida or the eastern caribbean in the last couple of months sort of shocking. >> and we're seeing similar thing happening at the moment on the great barrier reef ove hoegh-guldberg basically predicted this a quarter century ago in this 1999 article, he wrote thermally triggered coral bleaching events will increase in frequency and severity in the next few decades corals are not keeping up with the rate of warming and they may be the single largest casualty of business as usual, greenhouse policies the article sparked a

nasty backlash did you anticipate death threats and response to an academic research paper? >> no, not at all. i sort of. okay. what what what's going on here? >> you put it in front of. you. how ridiculous have your predictions from 1999 followed that model? we are pretty close to what we predicted would happen has happened as carbon emissions drive climate change the warming temperatures of the world's oceans keep breaking records not more than about five to 10% at this rate, over predicts only a fraction of the world's coral we'll still be alive 25 years from now you're talking about a mass die off

yeah. as this moved past coral reefs, bleaching so this is what's fascinating i think, and quite terrifying is that the number of disasters that are happening is increasing on a decade by decade spaces, be that a huge forest fires in many parts of the world or massive floods some of australia's most recent floods the port city of cans, a main gateway to the great barrier reef on december 18, 2023, the

worst reigns in decades, flood parts of the city. >> the whole strip was the river, including the home of thomas herridge and trini hustle lead you water up to here when we left by girls, we had one age record hide floods, a growing threat across australia we're, here to, get your side of the store. a bribery, prostitution. >> why do we keep ending up here you can't write this stuff united states of scandal with jake tapper. >> now streaming on macs farm how do you sleep at night

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a loved one have mesothelial, will send you a free book to answer questions you may have call now and we'll come to you 808 to one 4,000 and the most expensive natural disaster in australia's history, if we weren't looking at it with everyone we actually hot on the power lines that's how high the water is. that's what we're dealing with. and luring kali. so excuse me, if i keep watching my head, which is done just didn't see possible that it was going to get to this stage february 2022 liz, more the worst flood in its history turns this small city into a lake in a region already prone to flooding. the scale of this disaster catches authorities by prize, at least four people die

thousands need to be rescued. >> among them, kate's stroud. this road, was this your escape route? >> yes. so once we were rescued from our kitchen window by the gentleman on the jet ski, we were on top of the water, which we then had to duck beneath faced power lines at its peak. >> the waters hit a level of 14 meters more than 47 feet. from here. that looks very high, but i'm gonna give you some additional context. this is part of the levy that is supposed to protect the town of liz more from the wilson river. >> look over the wall and there you see the normal heights of the wilson river so that's the level that the flood came into this building in that flood kate is an artist and longtime resident of liz more this is

your house? yeah. it was my house. was your house? i don't live here anymore. >> why don't you want to move back in because he can't move back into a place where, you know, that that can happen again in the early hours of february 28, floodwaters fill their backyard the rain doesn't stop the water, just keeps coming kate takes shelter in the attic. >> we'd saved everything we possibly could so it's no point in being in toxic water that was freezing cold and we hadn't slept for 24, 48 hours. >> a stranger on a passing jet ski rescues kate, some other surreal things that made it really feel like it was out of this world was that they were cattle we'll talk some of the shop and the care on the roof in the aftermath, a grueling

cleanup, more than 70,000 tons of debris collected from the main shopping district alone. what was the state of your home when you saw it again? completely covered in a thick sludge of rigueur, modern stilts the filth, so bad, returning residents don't know where to begin. >> two years later, liz, more streets appeared tidy and clean but look closer and you see homes and businesses boarded up, casualties of the flood steve krieg could only been less moore's mayor for a matter of weeks when the 2020 d2 flood hit it ruined his home and business. how is the community doing now? two years on all you know, it's it's still very fresh in everyone's mind it's fractured their

community somewhat. a lot of air residents that live on the floodplain i have moved due to necessity as far as finances or emotional impact more than 1,500 lives, more residents, many of whom could not afford insurance, still live in temporary government housing did you have to be rescued? >> are yes, i did. a nearly drowned 75-year-old peter roy spent hours trapped on the roof of his house. >> it was fixed up. would you want to go back to it? no why is that oh, no wouldn't want to live in a flood zone. hello. again? >> it was that terrifying. >> yeah, absolutely authorities

failed to predict the severity of the february 2022 flood in liz more it's really about the climate becoming unstable some urban planners want australia to stop building on vulnerable flood plains do societies have to consider giving up on some locations? >> i do think that that is one of a range of things that has to be in in the toolbox do you think a flood like this could happen again yes i'd be naive to seidel never happen again despite the threat, the mayor of liz moore is doubling down. he opened a new business not far from the river this is my high supplies that i know and i love it. >> i don't want to leave anywhere else and if i'm not prepared to invest in the city, how can i ask any everyone else to the one flat again, we just

start knowing when and we don't know how deep shade isn't taking any chances. she's found a new home on higher for ground outside of the city. >> there's a lot of people that are still really struggling even with the sound of rain the future of some disaster prone communities may be determined by how much trauma and hardship residents are willing to take it's sunday story, the debate over transgender athletes that i believed i needed to sacrifice being trans and ordered we can't neglect fairness and popes to be inclusive for whole story with anderson cooper next sunday at eight on cnn led to an ard bottom singular dot.

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assignment with hadi cornish. listen wherever you get your podcasts for, the next phase of my journey, i'm headed back out to the grid great barrier reef is we're gonna put you up here, ivan to a place so remote only this puddle jumper can get me there what because you get that uh 13 seat cessna caravan lying and our brisbane our out over the pacific ocean respond a tiny patch of green ringed by a halo of coral reefs over pick, get the beautiful lady elliot arm with the first

honore of a standard deep if the great barrier reef this is literally the start of this massive marine habitat right here. the world's largest barrier rate starts, right here landing here is tricky made the deal with the short route might with crops weight, and it's quite poppy the runways only 650 meters long he got it. got it. yeah. wow. >> welcome. thank you. that was incredible. my pilot is peter gash he's not just a pilot he basically owns the island leasing it from the australian government and running in

eco-resort here with his family we made it out lots would my wife and i married. >> i went and learned to fly airplanes so i could bring people here peter wastes no time taking me out to see the islands underwater. menagerie you look as comfortable well, underwater as you are in the sky. hey, ivan, i came here 40 years ago when underwater and absolutely fell in love with the place. and how could you not? you've seen what it's like down there? >> i've never schwann next to a sea turtle before. it's incredible. they just kinda glide along and they don't really seem to care that a

human is kinda gasping flipping around next to them because humans have not bothered the animals for a long time since it's been made a protected zone because humans don't interfere with just look, but don't touch. >> we don't spear, we don't fish. >> the wildlife is coming lately comfortable with us these waters regularly visited by man great and resident dolphin named bubbles meanwhile, above the surface, the island teams with seabirds at its peak. >> it's in excess of 200 good sales in his tiny island. and this tiny little long and it's crazy to think that peter gives me a tour what are these tags,

for example, that they have water storage. okay. >> but i said we do sell night the water one store, then we keep about 20:10 and 12 days of water. >> how much of the energy? >> in used apply the resort comes from solar power. >> honore, hundred percent. i'm going to say we use all of the solar power lady elliot island didn't always look like this in the 19th century settlers mind the island for bird guano leaving the place mostly barren, hard coral you can almost count the trees that were here in 19 absolutely. there was almost nothing this is a man my cross, everything you see here, we planted i couldn't walk here at 15 or

20. it's got so rough here now, we've got natural soil, magnificence is this from your compost knowledge from the trace. >> and the bird that's bird poop dead birds and trees and march. >> this is naturally from, this is the island regrowing again all and grows about three millimeters a year peters trying to run a profitable tourist resort and sustain this remarkable little island human import pose the problem niger with a bit of help from humans, a bit a human foot is now recovering. >> that's rewarding and what it tells me is if we can recover this small place this little circle, we can recover this big vice his whole finally, we live on every single one of us can make a difference it's not hopeless peter's message of hope is inspiring, but it's

tempered by something we see underwater i made the reef sharks and sea turtles. >> there's coral bleached white enough to worry this island's greatest enthusiast what we do see is more and more bleaching normal stress on the corals hot water, the water warming, the environment, changing and bringing up the water so many that's a big risk. >> the damaged coral here, part of the mass bleaching event caused by the marine heatwave along the great barrier reef. a phenomenon that could threaten the entire ecosystem on this journey, i've seen how nature can rebound this island is an example of a place that was a barren rock 30, 40 years ago has regrown a forest. but

there's another reality that's been hammered home. so even the success story here on this tiny island is vulnerable to the much larger pattern of climate change that we're seeing being around the globe a florida man is hospitalized, infected with anthrax. next this became the bureau's number one crying to solve how it really happened with jesse l. martin. next on cnn at fisher investments, we may look like other money managers, but we are different. how so? >> we're fiduciary, obligated to act in our client's best interests. so we don't sell any commission-based products then how do you make money? we have a simple management fee structured, so we do better when our clients do better, your clients really come first then. >> yes, we make them a top priority by getting to know their finances, family, health lifestyle, and more. >> well, maybe we are different

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cnn central weekdays. that's seven eastern closed captioning brought to you by meso book.com if you or a loved one have mesothelial mac will send you a free book to answer questions you may have call now and we'll come to you 808 to one 4,000 every day, train rumble past, carrying coal to newcastle this is the last stop on my journey across australia. and industrial city with a very busy port you have a cold ship kind of steaming in behind. you

hear rather perfectly time. that's right. wait, sorry, we are the world's largest to exporting coal port el, biggest trading partners, japan and china, taiwan, and south korea we do about 165 million ton of color. you between 14 and 18 ships a day full of coal craig comedy is the ceo of the port of new castle and it's not illegal to sell coal. he says, new castle can't afford to stop selling coal. >> even though he knows it hurts the environment i would literally devastate this business, devastate this town, and people would lose their jobs. >> well, that's the australian economy writ large australia is the second largest coal exporter in the world as well as one of the largest global suppliers of natural for all gas on this trip across australia, i've been talking to

victims of fires and floods that were intensified by climate change but this coal and gas producing country also contributes to the fossil fuel emissions driving the problem. >> we also need to do it's something about climate change the current australian government says, it's committed to reducing greenhouse gases we've legislated a pathway to net zero by 2050 it's why we're working hard to reduce carbon emissions in australia. do our part in the global effort to reduce carbon emissions and also to and make sure that we transitioning australia two more and horrible energy to get to our target of 82% renewable energy by 2030. >> but just last year, the same government approved opening four new coal mines what i want people to know about australia is that we are one of the world's largest fossil fuel exporting nations and that's

been a position that we've helped quite some time. >> it's not one that anyone should want zack scofield is an environmentalist and resident of new castle he's activist group, rising tide has staged protests briefly stopping one of these trains in the waterborne sit in scofield was briefly arrested while blockading coal ships in the port do you want this shutdown? >> not immediately, not overnight. that's not going to help anyone in newcastle, law in australia. but what we do need is no new fossil fuel projects to be approved because that's just going to make the problem worse. as you can say, to die, we've got so much sun, got so much are wind. we've got a perfect opportunity to become a renewable superpower i'm surprised to hear both the environmentalist and the coal port executive calling for a gradual green energy transition. we have been

pursuing a strategy of diversification. so what algol is while we are strong in coal, will build all these new businesses and clean it and jane containers and whatnot. >> you're running the world's largest coal exporting port from what i'm hearing from you, you would like it to no longer be that now you're gonna get me in trouble with the coal miners i want new businesses as big as call for the di whenever that de is, that cold declines cation point would appear to be giant toothpicks bly stacked up on the grounds of the port of new castle look what's in storage here at the world's biggest coal port giant blades for wind turbines. and there is symbol of the hope that one day there'll be a transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy around 10% of australia's energy comes from renewable sources like wind farms. this is not somewhere

you climb up to if you're afraid of heights, i'm 92 meters up more than 300 feet on top of this wind turbine. and the wind is howling through here. the entire structure is actually waving in the wind. and this wind farm alone can power some 75,000 homes the wind is just ripping through here. >> is this a good day for your business? >> this is a great day. that's for sure. this is a really great i think what we've seen today as a glimpse of what the future is going to be there

appears to be consensus on the need for change. >> the question is, when in the syl, i think coal mines, which is unconscionable, milis is a dangerous substance that is having a huge impact on humanity australia is absolutely capable of shifting away from fossil fuels and emergency speed and scale, because we have an abundance of renewable energy their trajectory that we're on now is really quite scary unprecedented is almost an everyday event because the climate is changing. >> so we're fighting a losing wall with a fight for our survival and now kids in the end doesn't this all come down to our children this is a citizen science program. why did i mothering would mean

hello and welcome to now we've all read very schoolchildren welcomed by a cultural officer from gun, gun g, one of the aboriginal groups that are considered traditional owners of this stretch of the reef there's about seven, eight groups that called a burberry poem they all have stories on how the retained to be as it is today the kids are here to take photos of the great barrier reef and submit them to a growing database that's trying to better monitor this sprawling marine habitat these kids are clearly very comfortable way out in open ocean here over the reef and just seeing them diving and swimming and enjoying the scene. it's really remarkable you guys aren't nervous out here in the open ocean why is that what was the coolest

animal you saw today watch a shop or the turtles so you think you guys will be able to snorkel and dive in these reefs when you're adults but this right this shy would change. are they endanger yeah. >> definitely. rachel on the world is in danger this sobering reality makes my own visit to the great barrier reef bittersweet i just completed my first di five on the great barrier reef. it was a spectacular experience the neon colors amazing and i'm so lucky. >> i really just hope my daughter gets to see this and experience this one day, the way i just do habitats and

communities in parallel. but if there's anything this journey across australia has showed me it's that there is so much here worth fighting for the great barrier reef isn't the only reef suffering from climate change? >> the national oceanic and atmospheric association recently now it's wearing a mask, global bleaching event, which means more than half the world's coral reefs across 54 countries and territories are being affected by the woman waters. thanks for watching the whole story. i'll see you next sunday