He could see around corners. Not just one corner, many corners. It started with an idea so audacious, so unthinkable. Nobody believed he could pull it off. Absolutely crazy, absolutely crazy. Except once in a lifetime, a guy like him comes along, ted turner. He wanted to save the world. Save everything. Save everything. Its all part of saving everything. There you go. I think im getting it. Were fast approaching the tipping point. Now the question is do we rise up . That is pretty dang cool. Wow. Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam and the deer and the antelope play where seldom is heard a discouraging word and the skies are not cloudy all day it is quiet. You thought it would be louder, but its not. No, its not. Its pretty quiet. That sounded pretty much like mm, didnt it . Yeah, thats exactly that sound. This is all for you part of the protecting the planet, having these bison here like this, doing what youve done, right . Yeah. Honestly, when i first heard the bison idea, i wasnt quite sure what to make of it. How did this 80yearold billionaire end up on a ranch in montana, and how exactly were bison going to help save the planet anyway . The story starts a long, long time ago, long before the world first came to know ted turner. Driving, trip it, lower the pole he sailed on the scenes in the 1970s as captain courageous a bare chested businessman who won americas cup. By that point, a young ted had already leveraged his familys business to buy a struggling tv station, turning it into the first satellite super station. And with his signature arrogance, he bought a losing baseball game and branded it americas team. Come see the big league team, and hey, were in atlanta. Reporter he liked to win, take risks, and he could convince you of anything. A lot of times, people give up just when theyre on the verge of succeeding, you know. I just never quit. Reporter ted was born Robert Edward turner, iii, in cincinnati, ohio, 1938. If youve heard anything about his childhood, youve heard it was difficult. Teds father was known to treat him harshly both physically and emotionally. Then came the loss, teds sister developed lupus and died at the age of 17. Thats what i would say was the great tragedy that occurred in my family, and had a big influence on all of us. My mother survived it, but she was never the same. My father didnt last too much longer after that, just a few years. What he means is that his father, the man ted turner most wanted to please, killed hims f himself. Everything with ted started back when he was a little boy. He spent his childhood outdoors. He became a fisherman. He became a hunter. Ted found solace in nature. When you live on the land and you develop an appreciation and a love for nature, and you realize its value. What motivates ted is that hes so devoted to saving nature because its a way of saving himself. Hes able to help himself heal from the trauma. Tragedy that occurs in your life can either wreck you or make you stronger, but i determined to be stronger. I knew thats what my sister and father would have wanted me to do. So, yeah, i heard you want me to call you mr. Turner, is that right . No, call me ted. Did you grow up watching western movies . Did that appeal to you, the western movie . Was that part of it . The cowboy, the rustic sort of character in those movies . Im not really a cowboy. Youre not a cowboy . I dont have any cows. So youre a bison boy . Thats right. Bison boy. When did you first start thinking about bison . When i was a little boy about 10 years old. I Read National geographic magazine, and it had an article about bison and it said how close they came to extinction. I decided then that if i could, that i would do what i could to help bring the bison back. Its hard to separate the image of the bison from america. Its a national symbol. The u. S. Government estimates 30 to 60 million roamed north america in the 1500s. By the ended of the 1800s, just a few hundred wild bison remained. So what happened to all the bison . They were killed. This has been a long, a long standing thing for you. Lifetime. A lifetime. And so starting with just three bison, ted began quietly pursuing that childhood dream. Watch out, youre about to step in the poop. But back to my original question. How do these biasson help save e planet . When you were thinking about saving the bison, was the larger picture that this could help save the planet . Save everything. Its all tied together. You have to save the environment if youre going to save the species. Save everything . Its on my bumper sticker. Its an audacious task. How do you approach that . I had to make a lot of money first because ranches are not cheap. Owning a baseball team, basketball, starting this media empire, that was your mindset, even back then . Im going to earn this to immediately give it away and help save the planet . I thought it was the right thing to do. Ive always wanted to do what the right thing was. To do the right thing would be an uphill fight with everything at stake. Something could go wrong. There could be an accident, miscalculation, and we might end up destroying the world. Our 18 s in an accident. Usaa took care of her car rental, and getting her car towed. All i had to take care of was making sure that my daughter was ok. If i met another veteran, and they were with another insurance company, i would tell them, you need to join usaa because they have better rates, and better service. Were the gomez family. Were the rivera family. Were the kirby family, and we are usaa members for life. Get your Auto Insurance quote today. Full of flavor. Color. Full of. Woo full of good. So you can be too. Try our new warm grain bowls today. Order now on grubhub. Try our new warm grain bowls today. Plants capture co2. 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The skies over baghdad have been illuminated. The rescuers are making progress literally by inches. Liftoff of the Space Shuttle mission. Obviously a major malfunction. Ted turners been at the cutting edge of every Major Movement of our time. I dedicate the news channel for america, the cable news network. At 6 00 p. M. On june 1st, 1980, ted turner changed the face of television. Good evening, im david walker. And im lois hart. Now heres the news. Starting the worlds first 24hour cable news network, cnn. Ted was a huge risk taker. He upset the rules of the cable tv business. We dont watch an hour of news a day and its painful and youre going to put it on 24 hours, nobody is going to watch that. I felt that america needed an indepth voice in whats going on in the news. Heres whats happening at this moment. It was being called the chicken noodle network. It was such a bold idea, and nobody believed he could pull it off. So far everything weve done has been right, and this is going to be right, too. Everybody wrote him off about cnn, but he was right, and everybody else was wrong. Im willing and have been willing all along to risk everything that i have to provide that service. Were going to provide it come heck or high water. For ted, cnn was a platform to show the world what was happening in every corner of the globe. In is a cnn special report. But there was always a larger message as well, a message to look around, care about the environment, dont sit it out. My good friend and a man who needs very little introduction, captain kustow. Teds own captain planet was a captain himself, jacque cousteau. What kind of guy was jacque couste cousteau . Wonderful, he believed in saving everything. We hit it off from the very beginning. Ted of course had seen cousteaus documentary and seen him profiled on a number of tv specials. Ted agrees to start green lighting some original episodes, environmental documentaries. Theres a story, youre on the amazon on his boat calypso. This is in the early 1980s. Cousteau invites ted down to the delta of the amazon, and they go down there and ted takes his sons. I was about 13 or 14, and that was a really great experience to be in peru and brazil on the calypso. From piranas to these beautiful porpoise that inhabit the amazon, it was a spectacular trip, and the boys go to sleep and ted and cousteau are out on board the deck. And hes telling you,reefs a, bell weather species are being lost. Icecaps are melting, there are fresh water droughts. What did you think at that time . I was concerned and resolved to do whatever i could to help it. He basically was saying enjoy the time that you have because its already too late. We passed the threshold, the beginning of the end has started when youre having that conversation with him, he also says, ted, you worry too much because i dont feel that i worry too much . He said ted, you worry too much. He worried more than me. He was a fulltime worrier. Mankind can expect from exploiting the amazon maybe very little, maybe a lot. I dont know. Ted said, captain, i came down here to be inspired, and this is all bumming me out. And being myself very ecologically minded. What do you want me to do . And he said you need to use your reach through cnn to affect peoples lives and to educate them. Have we passed the threshold . No, i dont think so. Im very hopeful. Im a human being, and i like being a human being, and i like the other human beings that i know. But we have to work hard. But how to get people to care, how to get people to realize that the environment could and would become our greatest and most pressing crisis . Sure, ted turner could convince just about anyone of anything, but to save everything . He started by surrounding himself with likeminded people. Im al gore, and ive known ted turner for 45 years. He certainly does have an ability to see beyond the horizon. He shares the passion that i feel for solving the climate crisis. Ted and al gore met in the 1970s, long before gores oscar winning documentary on Climate Change. Temperature increases are taking place all over the world. He also has used his resources and passions to conserve land and save the bison, all of those concerns are connected to the cry mlimate cr. Dr. Drew harlem brutla in, was also one of those people. Norways first female Prime Minister and the chair of a report called our Common Future delivered in april 1987. When we started on this climate issues were not on the agenda at er term, this can only result in disaster. It was the first true global document that really stealed the focus of the world. Cousteau issue add dire warning, brotlands report had backed it up, and ted he was more resolved than ever. Ill be remembered what im remembered for. If we dont straighten up the environment, nobodys going to be remembering anything. Make the money to buy the land, to save the bison and restore the earth as it was, as it should be. By the end of the decade, ted was set to make another move that would change the game completely. Tmobiles newest signal reaches farther than ever before. With more engineers. More towers. More coverage its a network that gives you freedom from big cities, to small towns, were with you. Because life can take you almost anywhere, tmobile is with you. No signal goes farther or is more reliable in keeping you connected. man hey. N banjo . Go home. woman banjo sorry, it wont happen again. Come on, lets go home. After 10 years, weve covered a lot of miles. Good thing i got a subaru. man looks like you got out again, huh, banjo. avo love is out there. Find it in a subaru crosstrek. Its like going back in time, i think, isnt it . Well, it is. Thats true. Standing here on snow crest ranch in the american west. Its hard to imagine what these wide open landscapes might have become without ted turner. Just looks like this is just the way it should be, but a lot of this wouldnt be here without you. Pretty close to being extinct these bison. Theyre certainly a lot safer now that theres more of them. Teds bison herd is now the largest private herd in the world, 50,000 strong and spread out over 15 of his ranches. Getting to this point, though, took a steep learning curve. What youre looking at here is 30 years of letting nature take its course, and ted having the vision to make this happen. My names Danny Johnson. I manage the flying d ranch for ted turner and ive been with him for 25 years. Its about 113,000 acres, roughly 175 square miles. Ted bought the flying d ranch outside of bozeman, montana in 1989 a crown jewel he thought, where his childhood dream could finally be realized. This has always been historically a cattle ranch, and converting it to bison, people are worried about bison not staying on the property. They were worried about their own livestock. They were worried about disease transmissions. He alienated a lot of local people. It was an audacious thing to say im going to replace all the cattle with bison. Absolutely crazy. Absolutely crazy. When these cattle ranchers and other people came to you and said ted, this is cattle land, why are you doing bison here . Its bison land. The bison were here before the cattle. The cattle came over from europe. The bison were already here. Ted was battling perception on a personal front as well. His public image preceded him. Its really hard for me to face anything without offending somebody, so what ill try and do is be totally democratic and try and offend everybody. Riding into town was the sharptongued media mogul and his movie star bride. They thought he was a loud mouth. They thought he was full of himself because he was married to jane fonda, they thought he was some sort of liberal. My name is jane fonda. I met ted turner in 1989, and ive loved him ever since. Frankly, hes the kind of guy that can sweep you off your feet. The first date we had was i flew up to montana. He drove me around, got lost. He wasnt familiar enough with it, and it was breathtaking. He knew all the flora and fauna. I was just stunned. But the rookie bison rancher still did have a few things to learn. For starter, the cattle days had done a number on the flying d. It was used much, much harder, a lot more livestock on the property. Bison use the land differently. Where cattle on a hot summer day might be loafing in a rye pairon area which would compact the willow, bison would prefer to be on a hill top catching the breeze and seeing the vista up there. Theyre always on the move. Theyre a sharp hoove animal. Which allows seeds to take root. Theyre such majestic creatures, and it just feels like the way the earth should be. The Natural Environment like this actually means that the glass is going to be different, the way that they graze. The soil is going to be different because of the grass thats growing in it, and as a result its grass like this thats actually pulling Carbon Dioxide out of the air. So these bison can actually help save the planet. The whole ecosystems come back together now. Its all in balance it feels like. To see this vision now with all these bison, lush green grass, i didnt have that vision 25 years ago at all. Ted did. Ted saw it. Saw around the corner, envisioned the change. All parts of saving everything. That is pretty dang cool. Ted eventually won over some of the montana cowboys. Now it was time for the rest of the world to take note, especially the next generation. I am captain planet. A little cartoon character that does good rather than going around blasting people. Its the answer to rambo. Its mighty mouse of the 80s. He used his minds rather than guns. He got the idea that he needed to educate youth about issues of global importance, so he thought, well, why dont we have an eco superhero. Im really proud of captain planet. We cant win without the young people, and we cant lose with them. My work here is done, but yours is just beginning, plan planeteers. I was just 5 or 6 years old and watching this cartoon. It didnt just talk about fake made up problems but real problems. If it wasnt the dna in my system already for conservation, captain planet did it in a way where it was perfect. We always knew that we would be part of a quest to save the environment. The power is yours. While captain planet was reaching a new audience, teds own planeteers, his children and grandchildren were learning from the superhero himself. Hes kind of always been captain planet, you know. We would be reprimanded for not turning off the lights or the tv whenever we left the room, and i mean, it was serious business. We would go fishing, and spent time together everywhere where we could get outdoors as quickly as we could. In 1990, ted gave his plan planeteers a way to step up, starting the turner foundation. The family has since funded 400 million worth of environmental projects. Dad doesnt do anything small. He doesnt do anything frivolous, you know. Everything he does is for kind of a purpose. We all needed somebody to look up to and somebody to follow and be inspired by, and hes definitely that person. But his boldest step was yet to come, so unprecedented, it would shock the world. Ur best i. And your best is needed every single day. Amber Jaggers students that come from underserved backgrounds, they dont think ill leave you wi they think thats it for them. If we dont give them the tools that they need, theyre not going to be competitive in the workforce thats waiting for them. In the past, shawnee had no technology. With verizon innovative learning, it was like someone had been listening to my thoughts on what education should be. It gives students hardware and connectivity, and provides curriculum to train teachers. Now, we are a school that has high growth and high achievement. I see new opportunities for our students, and i see them truly hopeful for what they may achieve. Its only money, its only business. No, no, its not. Its your whole life and your reputation and everything. By 1997, ted turner was on top of the world. The little boy who had first read of bison in National Geograph geographic, he was now a billionaire. Is capitalism a fundamental barrier to being able to get some of these things done . No. Capitalism depends on how you use it. Do the right thing, figure out what it is, and then do it.