'Game of Thrones' actor talks about taking an 'optimistic' view on climate change

For years Nikolaj Coster-Waldau fought with dragons, warriors and even his own family on the HBO hit "Game of Thrones."

But now the Danish actor is going from the fantasy setting to the real-life environmental crisis.

Coster-Waldau's new show, "An Optimist's Guide to the Planet," takes viewers around the world to meet the activists and scientists working to create solutions for environmental problems.

He spoke with ABC News' Linsey Davis about the show that will air on Bloomberg TV starting Feb. 8.

ABC NEWS LIVE: So one thing that immediately got my attention was watching the show over the weekend was you said you were thinking between being a journalist or an actor. So did this check the box a little bit of being a journalist?

NIKOLAJ COSTER-WALDAU: It did. It did. And that was my dream. And I think it's also connected that way because there's an interest. I like human beings. I find us fascinating and then and trying to understand why we act the way we do and the contradictions we all carry within. But also because I do believe that there's reason to be optimistic. Listen, the challenges we face are insane, but we have one resource that is more valuable than anything else, and that's us.

We have to course correct. And I'm not trying to and I'm being an optimist not because I just like to be an optimist, but I do think traveling the world with this show and meeting these people all over the world, doing incredible work and you watch every episode, there'll be moments where it just blows your mind and it does give you hope because we have the solutions we just have to implement.

ABC NEWS LIVE: And when you say you traveled the world, you really did go to almost all seven continents. How did your perspective personally change about the peril that our planet faces?

COSTER-WALDAU: I'm not trying to diminish the challenges because they are real and we have to keep talking about them. But what I also want to address is the way we talk about them. The fear, always using fear as a motivator, I don't think that's good. I don't think it's good that 50% of 18- to 25-year-olds in our part of the world don't believe in the future, and don't have hope for the future. Because if you don't believe in [the future], why then act, right? And I think that, it's obviously, it's complex.

It's not going to be one magic pill that solves this. It's going to be so many things. But traveling this world and meeting all these people, as you said, I'm from five different continents, I was struck with, first of all, how much we have in common and how much everybody wanted the same thing. I didn't meet anyone who was like, "You know what? We'd like to destroy our planet." We're not that. I mean, everybody wants the same thing. It's how do we get there?

ABC NEWS LIVE: And let's talk about the human minds that have really risen to the occasion. I mean, some of this innovation was mind-blowing. For example, one that I really was just in awe by was the man-made clouds. I'm wondering if there was one in particular that struck you in a similar way.

COSTER-WALDAU: Oh, there were many. One was, I went to Madrid and met a lady called Federica, a biochemist. In her spare time, she was a beekeeper. One day she had to clean her beehive. And there was these worms. She put them in a plastic bag from the side. The next day she comes back, she picks up the plastic bag and she looks at it and goes, "There's holes everywhere." And she goes, "Hmm interesting. I wonder if it's the just bite their way out, eat their way out? Or is something else afoot?" And she discovered these enzymes in the saliva of these worms that break down plastic, which is incredible. Nature already had the solution.

ABC NEWS LIVE: After talking with so many, researchers, scientists, what is the one piece of advice that you would say to our viewers now that they can start doing to be a part of the solution?

COSTER-WALDAU: My mom always used to say to me, "Just use your common sense." And I do think that so many of these things we already know, we just have to just do a little better. And then I also think it's important that we stop pointing fingers at each other.