- [Announcer] This program is supported by grants from, The Solon and Martha Dixon Foundation.

"Discovering Alabama" is a production of the Alabama Museum of Natural History.

(crowd cheering) (explosions) - In 2019, Alabama partied.

A year of bicentennial bash, (fireworks exploding) with fireworks and special events across the state celebrating Alabama's growth in the 200 years since becoming a state, and rejoicing in the promise that Alabama today is poised for an era of unprecedented new growth.

Alabama today can proudly proclaim its progress, from a once primitive territory, to a modernized region with impressive cities, highways, and airports throughout the state, with centers of science and technology important to the world, with major industries that invite the envy of the world, with a fine port and state docks connecting Alabama to ports of commerce around the world.

Alabama today is on the brink of a new era of continued growth and change.

The Alabama Bicentennial, certainly an apt occasion to reflect on how the state has changed in its first 200 years, from a sparsely populated territory to now a well-inhabited region with a population of around five million, and ever-growing.

Our bicentennial is also an apt occasion to think about how the state might change over its next 200 years, especially how the nature of Alabama might change.

(soft music) (water flowing) For almost 40 years now, "Discovering Alabama" has been celebrating Alabama's remarkable richness of nature, our abundant rural lands, and great forests, rivers and wildlife, an exceptional realm of nature, and a unique part of the creation.

But we Alabamians would be wise to recognize that we could someday lose our natural abundance as the world of accelerating change comes our way.

I'm Doug Phillips.

Join me as we look at some troubling environmental realities in the world today, and how these could eventually bring dramatic consequences for Alabama's environmental future.

(soft piano music) This program is about a land unknown to many people, a land that in many ways has maintained its native natural wonders, a place of bountiful back country, forests, streams and wildlife more diverse than can be found in much of the inhabited world.

Come along with me as we explore the wild wonders of this land.

Come along as we discover Alabama.

Welcome to "Discovering Alabama," and welcome aboard for a bit of time travel.

Looking down on the very essence of this land, Alabama, our beautiful, natural environment.

The bicentennial took us back 200 years from the time of statehood up to present times.

Now let's peer head into the future, over the next 200 years, say, up to the time of the Quadricentennial.

Of course, in any discussion of where the nature of Alabama might be headed, it can be helpful to begin with where we are today.

Yes, Alabama today, land of lovely natural landscapes.

Landscapes, now enlisted as a prominent welcome, as a means of inviting people, and attracting development and new growth for our state.

It seems we've discovered Alabama's natural environment can be a useful marketing tool.

However, Alabama's plentiful, rural lands and waters should also be understood for their environmental and ecological significance, for their exceptional natural values that today truly do distinguish Alabama from other parts of the nation.

But you don't have to take just my word for it, and speaking environmentally, few voices carry the respect of my longtime friend and world renowned biologist, the late Dr. EO Wilson.

- When we come to the environment, I would say to our political friends, we got a whole lot to be proud of.

And if that just seems like ordinary pep talk, well then let me take it down one more level and tell you things that you should know.

One, Alabama has the largest number of species of plants and animals in North America.

You can find the largest number of plant species, for example, and vertebrates, mammal, birds, reptiles, amphibians, freshwater fish.

You can find the largest number of species, native to a state in Alabama.

- As science underscores the increasing urgency for understanding and protecting the environment, those who study the natural world are finding Alabama is number one.

- We brought 12 students down here from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

All the students are part of a course that I teach up there called, Natural History of Vertebrates.

The reason why we come to Alabama is it is an amazing hotspot of biodiversity down here.

The invertebrate fauna, the vertebrate fauna, and the plants are just amazing.

And I think that the value of that, is just irreplaceable.

- Actually, there are many respected experts who readily confirmed the significance of Alabama's unique plenitude of nature.

- Being from Alabama, I'm very proud of Alabama, and always will be.

I think in terms of what's special, is what is really special is the tremendous biodiversity and geological diversity of this state.

We've got so many different kinds of habitats and more, I mean, we have more turtles in Alabama, more species in any other state.

- Here in the southeastern United States, especially Alabama, we have the greatest concentration of aquatic animals anywhere in the world in an intemperate environment.

There are a whole suite of fishes, mussels, snails, plants, that are found nowhere else in the world, but in Alabama.

- I think that Alabama is a special place.

It has, you know, great natural resources.

It has the Mobile delta, it has great forest, it has mountains, it has a little bit of everything.

In a way, it's kind of like America and miniature and it's not overcrowded the way so much of the United States is today.

- We can go on and on cheering about Alabama's wealth of nature today, but in this show I want us to think way past today, to think about the future, from a long-term big picture perspective, and in context with where the larger world is headed.

- Planet wise, we have nearly eight billion people on this biosphere, adding 80 million plus every year.

The environment, our biophysical milieu has to be able to assimilate, and to absorb, and that's the big long-term concern that Alabamians, as well as Americans and citizens of the world have to all be concerned about.

- We now are coming into a stage where we are trying to see a little further into the future of what's happening to the rest of life.

So, I think there are going to be two more, at least two more major crises, in global environmental challenges.

And they are, first of all, the freshwater crisis.

Now, that's something pretty significant to say, related to the history of Alabama.

And beyond that is the collapse of ecosystems by mass extinction of species.

- The problem is the world is changing faster than ever today.

Alabama has this slogan, Alabama the Beautiful, and Alabama needs to think beyond marketing, think beyond slogans, and try to make that the reality of the place.

We also need to start paying attention to where the world is going and how the world is changing.

Alabama can prepare for the changes that are coming, or they can just ignore them and we ignore them at our risk.

- And we just had our 200th birthday, 2019, and our bicentennial commission said, "We're stepping into our third century."

So we ask ourselves, what does that mean?

And we know that if Alabama continues with its large population increase, with Huntsville, with Birmingham/Mobile, but even the rural countryside, more and more people moving in, more and more land cleared, we will see dramatic changes in our environment, and it probably won't be what most of us assume is gonna be there.

We want to keep it beautiful and lush and biodiverse as it is, but that cannot continue with unchecked growth.

- Looking at global trends and conditions in the world today, there are some obvious realities relevant for us in Alabama, not the least of these is the accelerating rate at which natural lands are already becoming developed lands.

(soft piano music) Thanks to land use data compiled over several decades, we can see an actual graphic picture of this changing landscape.

And let's be mindful that for some time now the South has been the nation's fastest growing region, and that growth is coming our way.

Makes you wonder, what will our state be like?

If the graphic colors of red and yellow represent expanding population and development replacing rural lands, what simply will we look like by the time of Alabama's Quadricentennial?

- So if we were to assume that Alabama's population that has taken a couple of hundred years to reach five million, if that population growth rate and the rate of developed land or what we call sprawl, if that were to continue for those 200 years, by the time of the Quadricentennial, something like 80% of Alabama would be developed land.

And the 20% remaining as open space, would be heavily put upon by noise, by water pollution, by air pollution, by cars running over what wildlife remains in those fragmented habitats, et cetera.

- Of course, who can know for sure about the future?

What was it Yogi Berra once said when somebody asked them to predict the series winner?

Yogi said, "Oh, I'd never make predictions, especially about the future."

Well, I'm not making any guaranteed predictions, but I would like to share my perspective on what could very well become Alabama's environmental fate.

And I'm not alone in this perspective.

It's shared by a number of scientists and others who have similar concerns.

- In Alabama alone, if that population growth rate and the rate of developed land, all of those sprawling lands are lands that were formerly farmland or not natural habitat.

You know, there is a lot of open space, there are a lot of rural lands in Alabama, but if these growth rates were to continue for another 200 years, taking the really long view here, we all hope to have this nation and this planet in good shape after a couple of hundred years.

I think we all hope to have our descendants living in a way that we would be proud to have them live, with a quality of life and a standard of living that are both acceptable.

That's not gonna happen if these trends continue as they are right now.

- So human population growth is the biggest leading cause of environmental degradation.

A lot of people don't realize this, but freshwater aquatic systems are imperiled, because all humans need fresh water to survive.

- The warning flags are there.

The river doesn't speak, but if you study it, it'll talk to you.

And we're seeing those signs of what unchecked growth does, urbanization and sprawl, with stormwater runoff, with pollution, and just with abuse.

These critters just slowly but surely disappear.

- The biggest problem there is to wildlife conservation is over population.

There are too many people already.

We do not need to be promoting having more.

The more people you have, the less wildlife you have.

That's gonna be the way it is in Alabama, decade after decade for the next two centuries and on into the future.

- Well, obviously we're touching on matters about which people can differ.

Issues of growth and development on the one hand, and environment and ecology on the other, are often controversial and can provoke conflicting views about life, religion, and certainly politics.

- Being wedded to growth, worshiping at the altar of growth, as others have put it, that I think is, may make us think that we're going to have a healthier, wealthier society, but over the long term, will certainly produce problems that may become insurmountable or insuperable over time.

- Alabamians are harming themselves, by not taking notice of what they've got, that's not only beautiful and powerful and gratifying to the body and soul, but also has positioned them in ways that are priceless and cannot be constructed by any other means.

Namely, a state fortunate enough to have this immense variety of life and habitats to explore.

- It doesn't take a huge amount of development, to irrevocably change a a watershed and a stream and all the life in it.

So obviously that's directly tied to human population growth.

And Alabama's becoming a mecca.

You know, our water supplies a magnet for dry areas of the country and world, and our forest, the same.

You know, the beauty of natural beauty is all drawing people in.

And it's a tough issue to say, what is the good life?

- If we keep going like we're going, we're not gonna have this environment we have.

It has survived this long because Alabama is is fairly unpopulated and has been very rural.

But the way we're embracing growth and inviting sort of the Atlanta-fication of Alabama, we're gonna wreck it in no time.

If we don't do a better job, we're gonna lose what makes Alabama special before most people even know what's here.

(soft piano music) - Of course, no one is claiming that all across our beautiful state there is impending environmental doom from overwhelming growth.

In fact, there are parts of Alabama today that are struggling for growth, places where the local mayor will tell you, without new development, their community is dying.

But again, in this show, we're looking way beyond today.

We're hoping Alabama could manage for our economic needs without jeopardizing the defining essence of Alabama, the land.

And this may require some new and innovative economic strategies, some new thinking that is careful to anticipate unintended consequences to the land.

What, for example, might be the consequences of the popular false promise that we can have ever expanding growth in balance with the environment?

- But balance doesn't mean always nibbling away at the remaining rural land, is not balanced if in another 200 years at the time of the Quadricentennial, 80% of the state is consumed by industrialization or urbanized landowners, that's not balanced.

Right now, a lot of growth management means just doing everything possible to accommodate more growth.

- [Doug] Contrary to the ignorant idea that having lots of back country makes Alabama backwards, it is this rural abundance that puts Alabama ahead, that makes us an economic leader in farm and forest production, and an environmental leader in watershed protection, wildlife habitat and biodiversity.

If Alabama wishes to avoid losing our exceptional realm of nature, Alabama will need to avoid losing our abundant rural lands.

But this may ultimately prove a difficult challenge.

In fact, given the rising rates of population growth and development across the South today, looking long term, maybe we should ask if Alabama even needs to be promoting our state, trying aggressively to attract lots of growth.

Rather, it would seem our special part of the creation is a nice plump sitting duck for the rapidly crowding world.

And maybe we should be aggressively preparing to sustain our uniquely abundant rural natural heritage.

And lest anyone think the issue here is only about saving nature, no, it is also about saving some basic freedoms, freedoms that we in Alabama today enjoy as integral to that rural heritage, freedoms that will surely shrink away in a land of lots of sprawling growth.

- And it will produce a state that is overpopulated overcrowded, more polluted, with a much lower quality of life, people living cheek to jowl.

People will lose a lot of freedoms to be able to live close to country, the wild country or wild lands or open space that they can easily access.

They will see a lot less wildlife.

There will be a lot fewer opportunities for hunting and fishing that is desirable, that doesn't have someone standing 10 yards either side of you firing a gun or casting a rod.

- Now, I suppose there are those who might think this show is just a bunch of warmed over old environmental stuff, extremism they can't agree with.

But no, our concern is rather basic, and it can be pretty much summed up in two points that I think most of us can easily agree with.

One, most of us really don't want Alabama to become heavily populated and developed, losing our rural abundance, becoming crowded, environmentally diminished, and with a high cost of living like many other places.

And two, if accelerating growth continues across the South as is presently occurring, Alabama will someday end up that way.

- But, you know, no place, no place in the world today will stay special by accident, for the reason that I just said, because the world is changing faster than ever.

And so you can either let change happen to you, or you can direct it in a way that you can tolerate, and that you can like, and too oftentimes as I've said, in Alabama, we've just let whatever came along come along, and unplanned change will simply destroy everything that Alabama loves.

- Somehow, I think we just need to appreciate the biological side of our state, and listen to people that really know what our resources are saying, how they are changing, and bring that into the conversation, because right now it's largely missing.

Our policy makers and people that make the decisions are primarily thinking about human prosperity and economic development, jobs, money, but if that's the only side of the coin at the table we're gonna wake up and be missing a lot.

- And I would say of any political leader who focuses and stays focused on those properties, and gives them a golden tone, of more people, more money, more growth, I'd say you're going the wrong direction.

- But actually there's a third point I think most all of us know, given some of the political mindsets and attitudes that prevail in Alabama today.

You and I risk ridicule if we dare speak so frankly, and that's a shame.

- So if Alabama wants to preserve its rural landscape, its rural values, its special and unique character, then it's not gonna just happen by itself.

And that's why thinking about the future is so important.

And so you can reach consensus about the future, but you've gotta sit down and talk about it.

- Of course, we can't hash out, pro and con, every aspect of every issue in this 30 minute show, but I do want to thank the good folks who helped me bring you this particular discussion.

- What would happen if we're careless?

If we don't care about all these aspects, if we don't as a state, become as conscious of our population, its growth rates, what it's leading to, where the people are going, where they're filling in, how it's affecting our natural resources, including fresh water and still great forest.

If you want something to brag about, you want something to hand to your children, your grandchildren, that you're proud of and can brag about, then think about your environment, and think about what the state has already given to it, is simply a matter of preserving it, studying it, and understanding it.

- And I want to thank you for watching and listening to this presentation of my perspective on Alabama's environmental future.

And if I might add a little bit of extra perspective, I think the show comes at an opportune moment for Alabama.

Bringing concerns that are not too soon for serious consideration by Alabama leaders, and by Alabama's various economic development programs, and educational and research institutions.

The plans and policies we pursue today will be crucial in shaping the Alabama of tomorrow.

Sustaining our natural heritage should be an uppermost priority.

If we lose the land, we lose the very nature of Alabama.

(crickets chirping) (birds chirping) (inspirational piano music) (inspirational piano music continues) (inspirational piano music continues) (inspirational piano music continues) (inspirational piano music continues) (inspirational piano music continues) (inspirational piano music continues) - [Announcer] "Discovering Alabama" is produced in partnership with Alabama Public Television.

"Discovering Alabama" is a production of the Alabama Museum of Natural History.

This program is supported by grants from The Solen and Martha Dixon Foundation.