( intro music )
( Aarti chanting )
Pete McBride: Mother Ganges.
( Aarti chanting )
Pete McBride: This river
 supports 400 million people.
 The river is believed to have
 curative powers,
 it can wash you of your sins,
 bring you closer to God,
 but of course,
 there's a great paradox.
 They don't think
 they can actually hurt it,
 because it is their God.
 They said 'The river is sick
 but it is still God'.
( Aarti chanting )
( applause )
Pete McBride: I wonder
what would happen
if we took a river
that was actually believed
to be sacred. It could...
it was actually believed
to be a goddess or part of
a living entity
that was part of religion.
 The Ganges River
 is 1550 miles.
 It supports 400 million people
 and is believed to be
 sacred by one billion Hindus.
 So, we decided
 to follow the river,
 start all the way at the top,
 as far as we could go.
 This is basically
 the epicenter,
 21,000 foot Shivling peak,
 which is believed to be
 the center of universe
 in the Hindu world,
 where Lord Shiva came down
 and slowed the river
 from the heavens to the Earth
 through the locks of his hair.
 We decided
 to go past Shivling,
 which is in the back.
 All the way to the top of
 Gangotri glacier,
 into the Garhwal region
 of the Himalaya,
 up near the China and
 Pakistani border.
We weren't even allowed
to bring satellite phones,
they were afraid
they are using them
for terrorism activity.
So, three of us came up to
this very remote region
in an attempt to climb
this peak...
 right there, Chaukhamba IV.
 Never climbed before,
 22,500 feet high.
 This is a little out of
 my climbing range
 to be honest.
( laughter )
 Well these two guys,
 Jake Norton, he found
 Mallory's body on Everest.
 Dave Morton, he has guided
 all seven summits.
 Combined they've stood
 on the top of Mount Everest
 nine times.
 Seemed like
 pretty good company.
I was actually a little nervous,
they were just going to
drag me into anything.
And we got up to the top,
 18,000 feet
 of the Gangotri glacier
 and we were getting prepared
 to climb this unclimbed peak.
 We were gonna do
 water samples up at the top
 and... an unpredictable
 monsoon pattern rolled in.
Jake could detect it hours
before it happened.
'What are you talking about?
The weather is great.'
Sure enough this weather
started rolling in.
 At 4 pm, it started snowing.
 It snowed three feet
 in 12 hours.
 Did count 36 avalanches
 counting through the night
 which...
a mix between thunder,
artillery, distant drones,
and someone banging a drum
over my head.
So, we packed up our tents.
We had to leave much of
our stuff and basically fled.
Hiking out with
no trail down the glacier,
with heavy packs,
is challenging,
especially when you have to
fight it through three feet.
 In retrospect,
 we left our ropes,
 which maybe wasn't
 the smartest thing
 as we were crossing
 a lot of crevasses.
 But we were challenged,
 it was either tent or ropes.
 'What are we gonna do here?'
 So, we came down
 and negotiated safely
 through some of these
 crevasses
 and made it back to the safety
 of this little tiny ashram,
 this place where a guy named
 Silent Baba lives.
 It is at 14,000 feet.
 Silent Baba is a really
 interesting guy.
 Many believe that
 further up the Ganges you go,
 it is more sacred.
The river is believed to have
curative powers,
it can wash you of your sins,
they can-- it can bring you
closer to God.
Well, Silent Baba decided,
he is going to go all the way
to the top and live up there,
at 14,000 feet
and in addition
to prove that
he is that devoted,
he is not going to speak
anymore.
So, he doesn't talk.
 And if you look at his
 front yard,
 basically below Shivling,
 you can see the wild ibex
 leaping about
 and jumping across.
 This is one of the spots
 that I took a water sample.
 I will show you
 some of the water sample data
 as we move downstream.
 So, unfortunately these guys
 are big... sponsored,
 Eddie Bauer athletes.
 They were bummed
 we didn't climb,
 I was somewhat
 secretly relieved
 that I didn't have to go
 up that mountain.
( laughter )
 And we found...
 negotiated our way
back down the Gangotri glacier,
 it took us four days.
And to give you an idea of
how powerful
this Ganges River is...
 There was a glacial outburst
 from another one of its
 tributaries
 that literally tore through
 this area called Uttarkashi
 and you can see
 how populated it is
 once you descend out of
 the Upper Garhwal region.
 It killed 6000 people.
 And then once you leave
 the very upper highlands
 of the Ganges
 you come down to this
 remarkable dam, the Tehri Dam.
 The largest dam in Asia.
 Very controversial!
 Mostly controversial because
 if this river is God
and you dam a river
that is God, you dam God.
What becomes of God,
is it still sacred?
So many ask that
on a spiritual level.
It also submerged 40 villages
and displaced 100,000 people.
But it does produce
200,000 megawatts of electricity
which is very important in...
in a developing nation,
of course.
 Just downstream is Devprayag,
 a very spiritual place.
 Officially on the map,
 this is where the Ganges
 starts.
 The river on the left
 is the Bhagirathi,
 that's the source river,
 that's the river we went up.
 The river on the right
 is the Alaknanda.
 You can see
 the difference between
 what a dam does
 and what a dam doesn't do.
 On the right
 is the natural hue,
 the sediment carrying
 loads, etc.
 That emerald green again,
 clear water coming down
 on the left
 because of the dam.
 When you get below Devprayag,
 down into some of
 the more populated foothills,
 this is around
 Rishikesh and Haridwar.
 You start to see the real
 love and adornment
 of the river.
 This is called Aarti,
 it's a daily ritual
 in the Hindu culture
 where they come to do
 offerings and sing songs
 and offer flame.
 Flame which equals light,
 which equals humility
 in front of your gods.
 And they basically come out
 every single day at 5 o'clock
 and give this river
 a group hug.
 And it's beautiful.
 It's really beautiful.
 But of course,
 there's a great paradox.
 They don't think
 they can actually hurt it,
 because it is a God.
Well, they may do offerings
and are unaware that
they are putting plastic
in the river, that's bad.
So, the people that adore it
are also partially killing it.
Now, just to give you a flavor,
some sights and
sounds of Aarti,
I'm going to play you
a short video.
( Aarti chanting )
( Aarti chanting )
( Aarti chanting )
I'm gonna keep moving
you downstream,
try to get us
to the end of this river...
 Remarkable river
 when you get up in the air.
 But to give you an idea
 how hard that is in India,
 helicopters and aircrafts are
 used for the military only.
 This took me
 two years to get this flight.
 But you are able to see
 from the air,
 kind of the beauty,
 the marvel of the Himalaya
 and as this river descends,
 and through the terraced
 and populated areas.
 I mean to think this river
 supports 400 million people.
And we wanted to do
something different too.
We didn't--
I wanted to document it
and try to raise awareness,
but I also wanted to...
to do some testing to prove
'Is this-- people claim
it's the most contaminated
river in the world and
what is this situation with
this water. How bad is it?'
 So, we brought some
 water testing devices.
 This is actually
 in front of Agra,
 the Taj-- in Agra
 in front of the Taj Mahal.
 Many people...
 maybe some of you have been
 to the Taj Mahal,
 but nobody goes out here.
 This is the most putrid river
 I've ever stepped my foot
 in my life.
 I mean, it was garbage
 and crap everywhere
 and there was a half-eaten
 dead monkey floating by me.
Nasty, nasty water.
And, they do say that
the Gangajal,
the Ganges water is powerful,
it is curative,
there is something
special about it.
I'm like 'Really?
We need to figure this out'.
As early as 1896,
the British were actually
putting
cholera bacteria into
Ganges water and it was dying.
So, the Ganges had
a power to it, a curative power
that was in fact... unusual.
 But here in the Yamuna River,
 this is what our data showed.
 This is the oxygen,
 dissolved oxygen content.
 If you are above 8, on a river
 with dissolved oxygen,
 which all the species and
 plant and flora need,
 you're a healthy river.
 Well, right there at Yamuna
 in front of Agra, it was zero.
 Basically, a dead river,
 and just to give you an idea
 of what happens
 on the inverse,
 we tested for 21 heavy metals,
 this was one of the,
 just the higher ranges.
 The yellow line
 is the safety line
 for human interactions,
 of course, I was standing
 knee deep in the river
 that is just laden with zinc,
 just one of the many
 heavy metals it was high.
So, not a healthy river,
but what's interesting is
 the oxygen level came back,
 you saw that dip,
 it came back up.
 So, somehow this river,
 on some level
 is restoring itself.
We jump back over to Kanpur,
 where you see people,
 of course, treating the river
 much like a laundromat.
 Nobody was swimming here
 in Kanpur,
 they said ''The river is sick,
 but it is still God'.
 First signs of fishing we saw.
 This is in part
 because we started coming
 into the Muslim religion
 that is mixed
 in the section of Ganges here.
 The Hindu religion,
 they are all vegetarian
 and won't fish or allow it.
 but in this area
 we saw some fishing.
 And then we also wanted to see
 some of the industry.
 Kanpur was basically built
 as a textile town,
 by the British.
 Great access
 because of the Ganges river.
 So this is a leather tannery.
 There are 400
 running tanneries in Kanpur
 and they produce 8%
 of the world's leather supply.
 Much of us are probably
 wearing their leather.
 It goes to our fine shoes.
Most of it it's buffalo,
some cow.
Yes, the cow and buffalo
are sacred,
but if you are not Hindu,
you can work in this industry.
 When you are in the tannery,
 this is one of the
 cleaner ones.
 They are actually following
 protocol.
 They have to recycle
 the water now...
 by government.
 70 tanneries were
 shuttered down
 by the government, but it is
 one of the most toxic places
 I've ever been in my life.
 This was like walking into
 a bottle of ammonia.
 My nose almost exploded
 when I walked in here.
 I mean,
 they are basically bathing
 in this heavy metal
 called chromium,
which is a very toxic,
very nasty, uh, heavy metal.
It creates lung cancer,
liver failure,
kidney damage
premature dementia.
And in 2013,
they did a study...
that they are basically
pumping out 79 million gallons
of contaminated water
into the Ganges around Kanpur.
And they only have a capacity
to process 45 million gallons,
so only half of the water
is getting cleaned.
 This is a worker
 outside of a tannery
 trying to bathe himself off
 and he is kneeling on
 basically a pancake of
 dried chromium.
 Outside, the kids are playing
 a gleeful game of cricket,
 the national sport,
 and they are playing
 on a field of
 chromium laden leather scraps.
( sound of water pumps
and motors )
( sound of industrial dryer )
( children shouting )
( sound of flowing water )
( sound of machines )
Pete McBride: It makes me
think about my leather shoes
in a whole new way.
 Like I said we tested
 21 heavy metals,
 I just want to give you
an idea what it's like in Kanpur
 where the tanneries are,
 that's chromium.
 It spikes right off the roof
 even with
 all the new recycling
 that the government
 is trying to do.
 We move downstream,
 Indian traffic jam.
 Very typical.
 India is a spectacular place.
 It is so rich in humanity.
 Practicality sometimes
 and functionality,
 doesn't always work,
 but it is overcome with
 humanity,
 it's really wonderful.
 We moved into Varanasi.
 It is one of the oldest
 inhabited cities in the world.
 People have been living here
 for 5000 years.
 Again, one of these
 Aarti ceremonies.
 Varanasi is considered sacred,
 they perform Aarti
 in sacred cities.
 Again fire equals
 light equals humility,
 people coming from the banks
 to watch it.
 And then just downstream,
 you can come here to pray
 and round the corner,
 people come to die.
 All this work
 and a bunch of essays I wrote
 were published on
the National Geographic magazine
 'Proof' blog recently.
 I'm just going to read you
 the opening sentence
 of the blog that went
 with the Varanasi story.
 "When you step off
 a wooden boat
 onto the banks
 of the burning ghat
in the oldest of India's cities
 and you weave through a maze
 of funeral pyres hissing,
 steaming and
 spitting orange embers
 into the inky night
 and you feel
 the metronome clang of bells
 vibrating inside your chest
and a wave of furnace-like heat
 consuming everything
 in its reach,
 you realize
 how removed you truly are
 from the ritual of death."
That was the most
run-on sentence
I've ever written in my life,
but I liked it.
( laughter )
That was in the evening
in the burning ghat.
 This is in the morning,
 back here
 at 4:30 in the morning.
Very challenging to get access.
 You are not supposed to
 photograph here.
 It took me three days
 to get access.
 Very powerful place to be,
 you see...
 the goats eating flowers,
 the dogs,
 that's a femur bone.
 These are all the ashes and
 bodies that have been burned.
And the belief is that if...
you are burned
on the bank of the Ganges,
and in Varanasi specifically,
and your ashes are thrown
 into the Ganges river,
 which you are seeing
 right here that is human ash,
 that you will achieve
 a level of Moksha
 in the Hindu religion.
 And Moksha means,
 you will break
 the cycle of
 birth and rebirth.
 You'll not come back
 into this world,
 you'll not come back
 as a cricket or cow or
 another human, whatever.
 You will actually
 go to heaven.
So, many people actually
will come to die in Varanasi,
it is that important to them
to reach heaven this way.
And one challenge though,
of course is
burning all these bodies uses
a tremendous amount of wood.
It can take 1100 pounds of
logs to burn one large body.
50-60 million trees
from the Himalaya
are getting cut down.
You see them getting barged up
to the burning ghat here,
very complicated situation.
 And of course this is
 a very common sight
 when you get further
 downstream.
 This is just 200 yards
 from the Ganges,
this is a very typical drainage.
Of course,
it stems much in part from
'the Ganges is God'.
I mean, the Ganges is
going to clean itself.
That isn't a big deal
if you pollute God.
God is all-powerful.
God is however we perceive it.
 We moved further downstream
 all the way to Patna,
 a place few people go.
 And of course, we left the
 crazy monsoon storm
 with three feet at the top
 and we entered into a cyclone.
 We figured, what the hell,
 we've gotta make it
 to the end though.
 It was raining so hard,
 my eyelids were peeling back.
 I felt like I had a
 sand blaster on my face.
 It didn't stop these guys.
 These guys are out
 celebrating at full tilt
 a festival called Durga Puja,
 good over evil,
 and they build big,
 big statues of
 their deities and
 they bring them down
 and of course,
 they offer them to Ma Ganga,
 mother Ganges.
 Offer these offerings
 to the God.
Of course,
the river is bigger now.
It has got a bigger current,
it is wider.
But all of these offerings
just sort of float
and collect on the banks.
And many of them have
led paint and plastic,
and what not. They are not
all biodegradable.
 Further downstream,
 we moved across
 into Bengal, the last state
 on the Ganges.
 Durga Puja continued and raged
 through the night here.
 All the villagers were
 building their statues and
 coming and giving offering,
 putting ghee on the mouths and
 then carrying them,
 and then
 throwing them in the Ganges
 as a great offering.
 In Calcutta,
 on the southern edge,
in the Indian side of the delta,
 we've now come
 about 1500 miles.
 This is one of the
 main shipping lanes
 for Calcutta and a very
 typical scene, you have
 somebody praying,
 somebody drinking water,
 somebody washing their hair,
 somebody collecting
 sacred Gangajal,
 they are going to bring back
 to their village.
Back to our water data,
this whole concept of
the river coming back to life
is interesting because
there's a thing... they are
calling it the X-factor.
They believe it is related to
bacteriophages, that...
if all these people come
into the river everyday,
and they are treating it
like a bathroom,
why are they not
getting sicker?
Well, the oxygen level
does return
and the oxygen
actually helps to...
to support
these bacteriophages,
which eat bacteria.
And that's one theory why
these epidemics, cholera
epidemics haven't occurred
with one million people
coming for certain festivals
and what not.
So, there is some element of
the curative power
to this river.
And after six weeks,
travelling 1550 miles,
roughly three vertical miles,
in theory,
we were free of sin because,
believe me, I did wade,
walk, swim, fall in
the Ganges
many times on this trip.
Yes, I was free of sin
and I was free of 35 pounds.
I lost a bit of weight.
It is a good
weight loss program.
 We reached the Bay of Bengal,
 it's Sagar Island
 where you can come,
 give an offering to Ma Ganga,
 to the river,
 to this pack of stray dogs,
 that all are related.
( laughter )
 So, there is the Ganges,
 just to give you
 a little overlay of
 the locations
 and the water testing.
 This is the
 heavy metal testing.
 You see some heavy spikes
 on the Yamuna River,
 which is basically
 flushing out
 New Delhi and all the
 industry there.
 Agra, of course,
 is the lower part of that.
 So, it somehow digests a lot
 of that heavy metal input
 and puts it at bay
 to a degree,
 but it's not gonna last.
Now, the new Prime Minster
of India, Modi,
has actually budgeted,
and this is
very new,
it is very recent,
$340 million to clean up
the Ganges.
So, there is some hope.
There are people listening
and paying attention.
 This was some of our
 other testing.
 Nitrates are very high
 at the top of the river,
 this is probably blowing
 in from China,
 from fertilizer.
 You can see the temperature
 basically steadily drop
 and this is oxygen,
 the main one.
 So you see the river
 try to come back to life,
 which is unusual,
 but it slowly,
 it turns into nearly a
 dead river at the end.
But I want you
to remember
not the river for its data
or its contamination,
I want you to remember for
its sounds, so I have
one more Indian video, it is
just a minute and half long.
( walking through snow )
( sound of pouring tea )
( sound of flowing water )
( chanting )
( music )
( sound of flowing water )
So all the rivers in our--
all the water in our rivers
and our ecosystems, our water
table is very limited.
And no matter whether you
live in Washington D.C.
or you live in Colorado,
where I do,
or you live in India,
I'd like to urge people
that I think
all these rivers and all our
water systems should be sacred
because they all are scarce.
Thank you very much.
( applause )
( outro music )
