Ryan Kellman

So, yeah, that's the period we were really interested in when we traveled to Cambodia for a reporting trip recently.

And we spent a couple days with a group of people who lived through that time after the Khmer Rouge fell, when the Cambodian economy was in tatters.

And we wanted to learn from them how their experiences led to them becoming global leaders in addressing climate change.

They are just trying to survive.

Like anyone, they just need basics, food and fuel.

Both are in short supply.

When we visited, we actually spent a day with Keo Sat.

He was in his 20s when the Khmer Rouge fell.

He was living in a small fishing village.

Wow.

called Koh Kresna.

And so people in town cut down local mangrove trees to burn and make into charcoal, he says, to cook with.

Yeah, so all trees trap some carbon.

You know, trees take in carbon dioxide to grow.

They lock that CO2 away in their trunks and their leaves, and it's released when the tree dies and decomposes.

I know.

So cool.

Trees, amazing.

But mangrove forests trap way more carbon than other forests.

They can store up to four times as much carbon as other types of forests, one study found.