cookies in the cafeteria, people might be willing to pay more. if there is a shortage of workers they might pay more for the labor. host: where should we keep our eyes for those of us who are following the economy? what should we be paying attention to? guest: there is some interesting data coming out, one is the number of job openings. like i said, we have not had a knot up -- not a lot of layoffs. i am curious because job openings are at a record high in june, we will get the number from the any -- the end of july and we want to see if employers are posting jobs and i will be keeping an eye on the initial jobless benefits, and it is interesting because it would be the first -- last week where people are receiving benefits, so it would be interested to see if people are not applying preventive -- for benefits and leaving the unemployment rolls or will those numbers remain

elevated. host: once again we are talking about the release of the most recent jobs report that showed a 5.2% unemployment rate and 200 35,000 jobs added, which was far fewer than many economists had expected for the month. behind this august jobs report, we want to know what is your opinion, what is your view of the u.s. economy, are you pessimistic, optimistic or do you think things will bet get that are or worse. let us talk to renee from west chester, pennsylvania. are you pessimistic or optimistic? caller: optimistic. patience, it is going to be slow, i believe it will be a slow pace, but people are going to have to be patient. the reason, the pandemic is still on. there is not a vaccine for

children under 12. when that happens. i believe -- when that happens, i believe people will go out and back to work. these programs are helpful but temporary. they are not permanent. anyone who has any sense knows that they are temporary, not permanent. they should have extended unemployment whether they put extra money on it or no extra money, they should have extended unemployment a little bit longer at least until this vaccine, which i believe will be out sometime. host: do you think that the economy depends on us getting rid of covid-19 in -- and all of its variants? do you think it will get better if we cannot get rid of covid? caller: definitely. more people would go back to work without small children or family members that are very

sick. i lost a few family members this year to covid. all they had in common was renal fairly or -- failure or transplant people, kidney transplant. some other ones were renal failure people on dialysis. it has a lot to do with that. host: tyrone from illinois. are you pessimistic or optimistic about the economy? caller: pessimistic about the economy. i own a business in illinois and i love to be in your show. the thing i am seeing is such a backlog of containers across the united states right now to get goods and services to us. we are so dependent on china for

our goods and services. there are hundreds of containers sitting there in our reports to get our goods to us, and if we could solve this, if our government would step in, because right now it used to be $3500 to bring in containers to the united states, around 21,000 and that is causing a lot of inflate -- inflation. our government needs to do something about this to help us out. host: you said you own a business, and how is employment for you? are you finding workers or are you having a tough time getting people to come to work? caller: with the employment thing going on, we are having a tough time getting qualified people to do the jobs that we need. but the other token is that a lot of businesses are not hiring a lot of people because they cannot get goods and services from the ports yet, the merchandise for their fall and christmas to plot out.

if we could solve this, our economy would grow dramatically. you are talking about hundreds of ships with containers waiting to be unloaded and brought to the stores. host: what is blocking the containers with these goods from making it into stores? caller: its a backlog. it happens about every five years. we import so much more from china that we export, that we have a backlog of containers sitting in ports in california, florida, or major ports, so we have them sitting there and nobody wants to take them back because there is no paying or anything in them. we are importing 80% and exporting 20%. host: linda from dallas, texas. are you pessimistic or optimistic about the u.s. economy? caller: optimistic this morning

because i have faith in joe biden that he will get this infrastructure and he is doing a great job that he got out of afghanistan and i want to say to those holding up the bill, i am not praising those gentlemen because a lot of those signatures are old, they are old and their age, and my heart lies with the next generation. i am 71 years old. i am praying that god will make it better for the next generation. to the man in north carolina, the wealthy are only going to get more money and get more help through this infrastructure. host: joe from mulberry, florida. are you optimistic or pessimistic about the economy?

caller: i would say a little bit of both. if we are going on the track, slow and steady. i believe that it will not come quick. i traveled to virginia and stayed up there for a while, i saw more health warning signs in virginia than i ever had, everyplace that you stop where help-wanted signs. i think because of the unemployment will expire, that will encourage people to find a job. i can understand why if you get paid a lot of money to stay home you will stay home, that is common sense, but i believe people need an incentive to work. there is nothing wrong with unemployment. if you need it, you need it. if you need welfare, you need welfare, that is not a problem. you have people trying to take advantage of it, and i understand that too, that is human nature. host: let us see what social

media followers are saying about their view of the u.s. economy. here is a tax that says " pessimistic, biden said the rich are not paying their fair share. no company is in the infrastructure plan, they know the american people will pay for it. smoke and mirrors body d -- by the dems." "cosco in massachusetts fully stocked and full of shoppers, but all of the shelves and stores are empty, the free market seems to be rewarding the business models with loyal employees." another facebook post that says "wonder how much this has to do with employers requiring vaccinations?" another facebook post that says "the economy for the middle and lower class has been destroyed to serve corporate ceo's making eight figure bonuses, talking jobs to child labor in china." another facebook post that says,

"biden is running this country into the ground." and one last saying "why would people get a job when they can stay and get paid for the -- by the government?" let us see if nick from pennsylvania is optimistic or pessimistic about the economy? good morning. caller: good morning everybody, i am optimistic that we will go forward. and, 20 to 40% of the people -- one think i -- one thing i am concerned about is that people think we are socialist. we are not. social programs are not socialist.

i know what production is, i am a senior. we are not socialists. god bless everybody, thank you so much. host: william from st. petersburg, florida. william, are you pessimistic or optimistic about the current state of the economy? caller: good morning, i am cautiously optimistic. i believe we have the right president in the oval office and i think he is trying to do the right thing. i just wish that the democrats would be bold and do the things they need to do because they are in control and stop worrying about what else. but my caution is that is the rise of hatred and vehement meanness coming from the right and nobody is trying to stop.

i am cautious for what will happen and it will not get worse than it already is. host: joe from covington, georgia. are you pessimistic or optimistic? caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. i am extremely pessimistic about the economy. just this past week a story came out about three hedge fund managers getting paid a -- getting paid $7 billion settlement with the irs, nobody went to jail, they just totally paid the money and that was it, $7 billion settlement with the irs. this has been going on for years. they are not the only people. we have heard stories already about the billionaires who are

not paying any income taxes, all they are doing is printing more money, backed by nothing to raise the prices of everything in court. this is how we are being taxed to death. only the poor pay taxes that is why are prices are so much higher than anywhere else in the world, because we are paying all of the money that is taken by these people who have learned how to game the system and stealing billions of dollars while they have us over here fighting with each other over crumbs. host: "the wall street journal" in its story about the august jobs report has experts that say that things might be getting better as schools reopen for the fall school season, and i will

read a couple of paragraphs. "economists expect that school re-openings august and september would pull mothers back into the labor force as childcare responsibilities. there will still be hurdles as the pandemic continues. employment at child day care services fell from a month earlier, offering one indication of continued disruption. a sign of a slowing recovery includes a decline in the number of diners and restaurants which fell 9% in the week ending september 2 when compared with the same week in 2019 according to opentable the number of people eating out has slowed from earlier this summer. the number of employees logging on -- logging hours fell from july according to home base, a scheduling software companies with mainly smaller business clients. a steady decline in employment

throughout the month was driven by industries that saw the sharpest job growth in recent months amidst debris -- state reopening. the number of hospitality workers working dropped 30% while those employed in entertainment fell 20% according to home base." so we are seeing both up and down when it comes to the august jobs report. coming up, they are to talk to medal of honor recipient staff sergeant leroy petrie about -- petri about mental health. and then later, national geographic environmental writer sarah gibbons will examine the nexus between climate change and the rising cost of national disasters. ♪

host: as we get ready for our next guest we want to show you a portion of sergeant petry's medal of honor ceremony as we get ready to talk to him about the issues of veteran's mental health. here's the ceremony. [video clip] >> the president of the united states of america authorized by an act of congress march 3, 1863 has awarded in the name of congress medal of honor to staff sergeant leroy a. petry. he distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.

this was in may 26, 2000 and eight. the weapon squad leader with deck -- delta squad company 75th ranger argument, -- he cleared the p -- he cleared the courtyard of combatants. he and another ranger were engaged and wounded by automatic weapons fire from enemy fighters. still under enemy fire and wounded in both legs, the staff sergeant led the ranger to cover. he then reported the situation and engage the enemy with a hand grenade, providing suppression as another ranger moved. the enemy responded by maneuvering closer and throwing grenades. the first grenade explosion knocked his two fellow rangers to the ground and wounded both. a second grenade landed a few feet away from them. instantly realizing the danger,

he unhesitatingly and with complete disregard for his safely deliberately and selflessly move forward, picked up the grenade and in the effort to clear the threat through the grenade away from his fellow rangers. as he was releasing the grenade it detonated, amputating his right hand at the wrist and further injuring him with multiple shrapnel wounds. although picking up and throwing the live grenade previously wounded him, his gallant act undeniably saved his fellow rangers from being severely wounded or killed. despite the severity of his wounds, staff sergeant petrie -- petry placed a tourniquet on his right wrist before communicating the situation in order to coordinate support for himself and his fellow wounded rangers. his extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself and

the 75th ranger regiment and the united states army. [end video clip] host: we are back with retired army master sergeant leroy petry who is with us today to discuss veterans mental health and the efforts to get americans to reach out to veterans in need. good morning. guest: good morning and thank you for having me. host: we were watching your medal of honor ceremony back in 2011. you are a veteran of afghanistan. tell us a little bit about your experience in afghanistan and what you think about how that war ended. guest: my first trip over to afghanistan was in 2002. i made five other trips over there throughout the years, and then i started going with taking

wounded veterans back from afghanistan, so my last time over there was in 2018 and 19, somewhere in there, and i got to see the country transform the stuff we were doing was not a lot of times on the news, the fact that we had a civilian population, ones that would come up and say thank you for being here and all that you have dedicated. we have -- we do not ever want you to leave. we built infrastructure, women went to school, all the changes throughout the number of years, that is what kept me going back. and to see how it ended was a little disappointing. i feel like we just up and abandoned a lot of our allies, the ones that were supporting us and working with us on the ground. it was not the best strategy

exit, the way we did. and it was very unfortunate that we lost some more american soldiers over there. during our exit. host: we are here to talk this morning about warrior call, which you are the co-chair of national warrior call day. tell us exactly what warrior call is? guest: it is a pledge that we came up with. we went to the past two dod suicide prevention conventions and really what we found out was that we have every resource to help just about anybody with anything out there, veterans and active-duty, the ones that we are losing are the ones that are isolating themselves and feeling so alone that they get to the point where they think the only answer is to take their own

life, and we said how do we find those people, the ones that are not calling into a facility or not walking in, how do we find those ones that are isolated before they make that ultimate decision that they cannot come back from. and we came up from this idea to just make a pledge to call one person a week to check on their welfare, to have honest dialogue and conversation to make that call that could save their life, and find out where they are at before they get to that point, and also to have honesty with yourself and others to take that call. and, if somebody is calling you who needs help, and to do that once a week is too simple. if you are someone who is served or has served and reach out to

those folks that we have not heard from for my a while and say how are you doing? because i will tell you, i had physical courage my entire life, but what i lacked was emotional courage. i was afraid to call out and i realize that i had a great support network and i was struggling with some things, and i am glad i reached out before it got too late, and i was seeing three psychologists at one point because if one was not available i went to the next one and i did not stop until i got what i needed. so my wife and i went through marriage counseling. we all face adversity at some point in our lives, something that will be tough and i will tell you what, people out there are just waiting for us to reach out to them. from the day you are born to the day you die, you are not alone.

there is family, friends, peers, leaders, even strangers that will help you if you just reach out. host: now, can -- is this only for people who already know those who have retired from the military? or can anyone participate in a warrior call? how do you do that? guest: anyone can. it does not have to be over the phone, it can be someone who lives down the street, a neighbor, friend, or relative. all you have to do is recognize that they served in the military and say, how are you doing? and, have an honest conversation. it works better if you are friends or if you know the person. the great part is that anybody can do this, you do not have to have served to be open to someone and say i want -- to say is there anything i can help you with? i think we cannot help everyone,

but everyone can help someone. this is something small that we can all do, and you might not have the answers, we might come and say i am struggling with this or that, and understand, i do not have all the answers. someone came to me with a difficult situation and i did not have the answers to it, i would say honestly, i do not know what we can do, but i will not helps -- i will not stop helping you search until we find the answer. host: one of these things we see a lot of people say to veterans in public is thank you for your service, should we include thank you for your service? we see a lot of people saying thank you for your service should we add how are you doing onto the end of that? guest: it never hurts to ask. you never know the answer until you ask a question.

also, that being said, be that person worth saving. be that person worth service members risking their lives for and return that thanks by just checking on their welfare. host: let me remind their view -- our viewers that they can take part in this conversation about veterans mental health. we will open up special lines, meaning that for those of you who are veterans of the conflict in afghanistan we want to hear from you. your line will be 202-748-8000. if you are a veteran of other wars or the family member of a veteran we want to hear from you and how your veteran is doing. your number will be 202-748-8001 . if you do not fit in either one of those categories but you want to join the conversation, your number will be 202-748-8002 for

everyone else. now, leroy, tell us what should and should not be said when we are making a warrior call? are there things that we should say and things that we should not say? guest: i would stay away from promising anyone anything because once you say ok, i am going to do this, it is a promise and it hurts more to have that promise broken, so stay away from promising things, say i will try my best and that is all anyone can expect from you, but no guarantees and, get though them a little bit, if you can, even if it takes a few more minutes, ask a few questions like where you from?

what are you doing now that you are out of the service? what has been the hardest thing for you during your service the first thing i would start off with is saying it is ok if you do not want to share, if you do not want to answer any of these questions, but here's what i am curious about. no questions off the bat, it is up to them to answer or not. they might take offense and that is when you know you are headed in the wrong direction. but, usually the way they react, tone of voice, if you see them get more physical reactions, you are probably asking the wrong question. and, just look out to someone. if you cannot help them, look to link them up with someone who

can. host: these calls can be important, because as we have seen and i will show you data that shows the suicide weight -- rate for veterans has been consistently higher than from civilians and this comes from the rand corporation when they point out for the past 12 years, suicide rates have been consistently higher among veterans and nonveterans. furthermore, the suicide rate has risen faster among veterans than it has for nonveteran adults. you can see the chart where that number is clearly going up faster for veterans than nonveterans, and i want to point out that there is a veteran's crisis line that you can call -- i will give you the number which is 1-800-273-8355. so, let some of our viewers take

part in this conversation, let us start with joe, west plains, missouri. good morning. caller: good morning. i am a vietnam veteran. i want to thank this man for his organization, but i'm going to tell you -- once you are back from these crop holes, i don't know why you would be committing suicide. you are back to the world. you are safe now. i don't understand why you would be committing suicide now, or thoughts of it. you are safe now, ok? second of all, i am pissed the way we left afghanistan, with all of weapons. how dare we -- how dare he leave all of those weapons. we lost that war. we haven't won a war since world war ii, and i am pissed about it.

should have pulled us out in the first eight years. all of the weapons that are left for our enemies, thank you for your organization, and i am pissed. host: go ahead and respond, leroy. guest: first of all, thank you for your service. a lot of people don't talk about it. when they talk about 22 a day, it is actually higher depending on who you ask, but those suicides, for the longest time the highest percentage has always been the vietnam veterans. just like this war, their war -- we are trying to stay ahead of it so that our generation does not become the higher percentage. i will tell you, a lot of times people have a hard time dealing with the way things are going, the way they left that country, because they saw the good over there, and now they saw what it is going to become, and it is

going to fall apart. i'm got to remind myself as well that i did my best well i was over there. that was not my decision, how we left. that was not my decision that we left at all. but i've got to be content. i did what i could while i was over there, and that is all anyone can expect. i can't cry over spilled milk, i cannot look at the past. i look to effect the things i can change, and that is reaching out to people around me that i can save their lives. host: leroy, is there any help from the v.a. on this standpoint, or are there any discharge procedures that people go through before they leave the armed services that help look out for some of these issues? guest: i get out seven years ago, so things have changed.

i just recently came back from a week at twentynine palms. we took some veterans out there and we talked about suicide prevention and building resiliency. i will tell you, the command out there really cared about their troops. for three days in a row they just kept filling the theater with troops in the morning and in the evening. it was mandatory. a lot of these young kids were trying to expand to them, hey, this might not help you right now, but down the road we want to be able to save your life or you save the life of somebody else listening to their problems and taking care of one another. i will tell you, to see the command team that knew how important it was, it reminded me that marines do the best to take care of their troops, and it really shows the amount of time they gave us to talk about such

a serious issue going on right now in our military. and our veterans. host: one of our social media followers has a question for you. they want to know, as far as mental health of afghanistan veterans, is it the case that combat ptsd accounts for the mental health issues, or did these people have problems before volunteering for service? guest: i think no matter if you had a before or had it afterwards, the ptsd is adding to the fact it is a depressing situation. if you give blood and sweat and tears to build something, and it is all of a sudden knocked down right before your face, it is destroying what was beautifully

created. host: let's talk to floyd, who is calling from tall branch, tennessee. floyd, good morning. caller: yes, i've got four sisters, and an abortion is something that, i just think it is wrong because if a woman don't want to have a baby today, there is a whole slew of ways to prevent it. host: let me stop you there. we are talking about veterans' mental health right now. do you have a question about veterans' mental health? i guess not. let's go to michael, who is calling from maryland. michael, good morning. caller: good morning. i am a disabled veteran dealing with ptsd.

i would like to make a comment on the veterans administration. they seem to hurt veterans more than help, to me. i have been dealing with a claim for compensation going on seven years now. and all they do is deny, deny, deny, go to appeals, and i've got some things approved, but it just seems they push it along and along, and, to me, it would help a veteran to speed things up or just, you know, try to, you know, get it faster than they do. host: go ahead and respond, leroy. guest: i talked to a lot of those providers constantly. and it is difficult. i have had my issues with the v.a. as well. nobody is perfect, and you are

going to run into some of those employees that are not the best employees, but you will run into some great ones. it is a big organization, just like our military or law enforcement. it is like an apple orchard. you might find a couple of rotten apples, but don't burn the whole orchard because you found a couple of rotten apples. the other thing is, i don't know if you are going up alone or had support, but what i talked about earlier, nothing is easy on your own. it gets easier if you have support, and it is a strange place to navigate, the v.a., if you are new to it and you don't understand fully what it has or who does what and what you are supposed to be doing, exactly like we do when we join the military. we reach out to the people who are senior to us, the veterans who have been there before. i will tell you, not going at it

alone, reaching out to veterans service organizations such as the american legion, the vfw, and those type that have people that have already been down that road. maybe they worked at the v.a. they have so much great intel, and people that are willing to help you with those claims or situations, that all you have to do is go in there and ask. that is the hardest part for some folks, is asking for help. if you can get past that, there is people out there who want to help you. host: and i want to remind you that there is a veterans crisis line that you can call. once again, that number is

1-800-273-8255. let's talk to elaine, who is calling from north carolina. good morning. caller: good morning. hope you both are doing well. host: thank you. caller: first of all, leroy, thank you for your service. i am a military spouse of a veteran that serves -- served 22 years combat. and also a military brat originally. my father was 30 years. he was vietnam and never got any help. leroy, i appreciate what you just mentioned to the gentleman from maryland. for years when my husband retired in 2006 we never really asked for any help. as soon as we did the v.a. is really out there to assist. i got in the caregiver program.

he got into all of the groups that you mentioned, and he is a part of all those groups. american legion, vfw. he is able to give back now, which is fulfilling to him. he helped another veteran recently, and i really appreciate the programs now, being a military child and not seeing those programs for my father when he came home from vietnam. guest: thank you. a lot of times we tell folks that it is our families that serve more than we do and sacrifice more than we do. a lot of times we are having time with our friends training, and even if we have to go to war we feel like we are with our family. and even if we don't go out on missions, our families back home don't realize that. they constantly worry that we're are going to come home safe, if

we are going to come home alive, or if we are going to come home at all. the baggage with ptsd, with the amputations, the burns, if we are going to be physically able to continue our life. so, the sacrifice of our families is greater than what we have. we know what we signed up for. sometimes we bring our family along for the ride, and they didn't get a vote a lot of times. so thank you for what you do. host: leroy, can you tell us exactly when national warrior called a is and when exactly -- what exactly will be going on on national warrior called a? guest: we are looking at november -- i had it here somewhere, i'm sorry. i got up late this money. it is mid, and i think it is the 23rd.

it is a call to awareness. we are looking to push a bipartisan bill that would make national warrior called day, and we are doing all we can to -- like i said, we are visiting different basis, we are talking with different folks about it, you're doing everything we can, but having the support of our government and then recognizing it would push that out there even more and have people say, hey, veterans, there is all of these other different organizations out there that want their national day of heritage or national day of whatever, national month of whatever. veterans usually only have one day, and that is veterans day. we can give back more than one day, and even though it is a one-day thing, it is one day of

remembrance. will you make one for the next 52 weeks out of the year? that sounds simple. once a week, just make that call, take that call, and be honest. host: this year national warrior called day will come up on november 21. we want to make sure everyone goes to warriorcall.org. let's see if we can talk to glenn, who is talking from pennsylvania. good morning. caller: yes, good morning. give a shout out to the v.a. and shout out to the veterans and a shout out to the ones serving right now in the army. i want to give a shout out to them right now, and i'm also going to touch on afghanistan. we need to get out.

biden did the right thing. the prime minister for afghanistan got up and left the country. we need to get out. we need to get out. look at all of this afghanistan. they are on the sideline. the prime minister get up and leave. his own country. we should stay there and fight and sacrifice money and blood? no way. host: go ahead and respond there, leroy. guest: if we get out, who is there to fight for the ones who can't fight for themselves? that was my take on it. there is a lot of people there that have less than a second grade level education when i first arrived, and that was because the taliban had control and they kept them -- like korea, they shut them down from educating themselves. it is easy for them to be controlled like cattle and sheep

. we came in and gave them that opportunity to think for themselves, to say, hey, i want a better life, there is a better life out there for me i never knew about. i understand a lot of people were upset over the number of years, but if you have already invested 20 years, why not stay a lifetime? the other thing i look at is, the kids, the ones that were starting to move up and change things when we first got there 20 years ago. were the 10-year-olds, and now they are the 30-year-olds that were wanting to see that change and support it, and unfortunately when we left them they were not as confident in themselves to continue moving forward. we started too late creating their army and helping them transition, and left too soon. they were crawling, but they

were not walking on their own, so we left him and said hey, good luck. so everyone that could was trying to flee the country that said, you know, america is leaving us, there is too much danger, i'm not staying. host: we would like to thank leroy petrie, who is the cochair of national warrior call day for talking with us about veterans' mental health. we will remind everyone there is a veterans crisis line, 1-800-273-8255. lee and his group can be found at warriorcall.com. thank you for being with us. guest: thank you for the opportunity. i'm very grateful to my -- april. to my fellow veterans, may cap, great memories so hopefully those are the ones that recur and you have those memories. host: coming up after the break,

we will take a closer look at natural disasters, the rising costs, and who pays. that conversation with national geographic environmental writer sarah gibbens will be up next. stick with us. we will be right back. ♪ ♪ >> weekends on c-span2 are an intellectual feast. every saturday you will find events from people that explore our nation's past on american history tv. on sunday book tv brings you

authors. it is serious television. learn, discover, explore. weekends on c-span2. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> we are up at an important tipping point. what we do matters, and i believe that the 1776 project, that this project is an important historical moment, and we need people to get behind us, we need to make sure that our message reaches white, black, asian, hispanic, everyone. america is a great country and we need to fight for. >> sunday former professor and vice chair of president trump's 1776 commission, carol swain, as our guest on in-depth. other titles include be the people and the fading immigration. join the conversation with your

phone calls, facebook comments, texts, and tweets, on book tv. >> this monday, labor day, on c-span, a congressional hearing on workers rights at 1:00 p.m. eastern with experts testifying before the senate banking and urban housing committee on the opportunities the economy provides an government's role in those who fall behind. as we approach the anniversary of the september 11 attacks, watch as a security agency official and scholars testify before the house homeland security committee on the causes and consequences of the terrorist attack. watch monday, labor day, on c-span, online at c-span.org, or listen on the c-span radio app. >> "washington journal" continues. host: for our spotlight on

magazines segment you're going to be talking with national geographic environmental writer sarah gibbens, who is here to discuss her recent piece examining the nexus between climate change and the rising costs of natural disasters. good morning. guest: good morning, thanks for having me. host: first of all, what made you interested in this subject, and in your piece he featured lake charles, louisiana. why there? guest: i was in lake charles just a few days after hurricane laura hit on august 27 of last year. as a climate reporter i had covered hurricane seasons since 2016 or 2017, so a few years. it is always a similar pattern, where we as reporters look at a city that has been hit by a hurricane for a week, maybe two weeks, and we move on to the next story, but being in lake

charles and meeting so many of the really interesting people who lived there and who had been so badly impacted by what was just a catastrophic storm, i was really curious about what it really took to recover from a hurricane, not just the week or two after when you're waiting for electricity to be restored, but in a year, and maybe two years. how do you recover, basically? the story evolved from one about a city that was hit by one major hurricane, to a story about a city that was had by you bureau major hurricanes, then a deadly winter freeze, and a 1000-year flood event, and it became a bigger story about how the city endured so many disasters. host: iq said, lake charles was hit by hurricane laura, then by hurricane delta. hurricane -- did hurricane ida

affect lake charles? guest: luckily lake charles was pretty spared hurricane ida. there were a few days before the storm made landfall. i was talking to some of the people i know there who were really anxious about what ida would mean if they were to get hit dead on. they didn't know if they would never be able to recover. luckily for them, not so lucky for the other part of the state the storm moved east. but, of course, peak hurricane season is not over until october, so this is still a big source of anxiety for a lot of people there. host: you feature a family -- and correct me if i'm pronouncing their last name wrong -- jolevettes? guest: that is right. host: they have lived in lake charles and they have been wiped out by hurricanes. why do you focus on them, and

tell me why a family will continue to rebuild in an area that seems to get hit by hurricanes over and over. guest: the jolevettes,, john and judy, have lived in this part of the louisiana for their entire lives. i have lived in the house that was hit by laura and delta for the past 38 years. they, throughout the past year, have really struggled to rebuild. there has been such a demand for construction and housing contractors, people like that in lake charles, that finding people to work on your house was a big challenge, and i thought that they really embodied some of the struggles that homeowners had experienced in the past year. judy's brother, a man named hurricane, and his wife judy, had their homes destroyed by

laura, just as it had been impacted by hurricane rita in 2005, and another hurricane in the 90's. -- the 1990's. i asked them, why rebuild? why not move somewhere else that is more -- that is less in the path of a hurricane? but they love their home. they know their neighbors, they have churches they go to, and they feel a sense of pride in louisiana. you know, the place that has a distinct culture you can't find anywhere else. even if they were to move, where would they go? how could they re-create that kind of culture? does a really hard questions for people to grapple with. host: i am a southerner, and we grew up watching hurricane forecasts from my parents house in mississippi, but i did not know that lake charles has seen four weather events that were federally declared natural disasters.

if i understand correctly, that is the first time one city has had four federally-declared natural disasters. do people in louisiana claim climate change do they just say, lake charles is unlucky? guest: i will point out that they also had all of these disasters on top of covid-19, which only complicated all of those evacuation efforts, and that sort of thing, but to your climate change question, it really depends on who you ask. i have done some reporting through other parts of the south. i find that people in the louisiana, especially along the southern coast, tend to definitely know the weather is changing. they can see the tides rising higher, the wetlands are disappearing more quickly, they can see all of these changes happening, whether it is what

they say that climate change is a result of tends to vary, but a lot of the people i spoke to were sort of trying to factor this into their decision-making, saying, you know, if we only had to go through one hurricane laura or one hurricane rita, we could whether one big storm in our lifetime, but if climate change is going to be giving us more intense storms more often, should we rebuild? should we now take that into our decision-making? and when do we make that decision? people are definitely starting to think about that. host: let me remind our viewers they can take part in this conversation. we are going to open up regional lines for this conversation about climate and natural disasters. that means if you are in the eastern or central time zones you want to hear from you at (202) 748-8000. if you are in the mountain or pacific time zones, your numbers going to be (202) 748-8001.

and we are going to open up a special line for louisiana residents, especially we want to hear from people in lake charles. a special line for louisiana residents is going to be (202) 748-8002. you can always text at (202) 748-8003, and we are always reading on social media on twitter and on facebook. now, sarah, at what point do we say the federal government can no longer bailout places like lake charles that continually get hit by hurricanes, and yet people continue to rebuild in the same areas? the same question goes for people who live in tornado alley or people who live on beaches or people who get burned out by forest fires, seemingly every year? at what point do we say, you

can't live there anymore? guest: that is a tough question. there are already neighborhoods -- or at least one neighborhood in particular in lake charles, that is the recipient of a $30 million buyout. instead of encouraging people to rebuild in this flood-prone neighborhood they are saying, we encourage you to move elsewhere, to move out of this floodplain. that is definitely becoming a strategy that the state is looking at more and more. this article i was talking to a geographer at louisiana state university who was talking about how climate change is going to create a greater demand for this recovery aid. what that means, he thinks, is that people will be less likely to get the same amount of aid they got in the past, because you do have so many people, from fires in california, two

tornadoes along the gulf coast, it was a greater demand for funding. who we choose to save and who we choose to give less 82 is going to be a really hard and politically charged questions. people in lake charles have told me they sometimes feel like the ugly stepchild to new orleans. and i think whatever sort of disaster aid is given post-hurricane ida is -- could be kind of telling about where our priorities lie. host: is lake charles getting any type of federal help following the previous hurricanes we have already talked about? guest: they have gotten about $1 billion in various fema assistance, whether through reimbursements to the city government or additional fema aid, but they are specifically asking for what is called

supplemental disaster aid, which is approved through a congressional appropriations bill. the governor has asked for about $3 billion for the entire state, for disaster needs from lark, delta, and hurricane theta. but they have yet to receive that funding, which has been a big source of anger for the lake charles region. host: and when people are rebuilding their homes, are they getting funds to so-called hurricane-proof their homes, or are they building their homes back the way they were before the hurricane hit them? guest: that really kind of depends on a sort of case-by-case basis, but there is certainly an opportunity to do so with these funds. you can raise your home a few feet off of the ground to

prevent it from flooding in the future. there are hurricane clips and bolts and things that can go into your house to make it more resilient to hurricane wind. it was a lot of opportunity to do that sort of thing, but, of course, the city would say they have not gotten enough money to do that on a large-scale. host: let's let some of our viewers take part in this conversation. we will start with john, who is calling from fort dodge, iowa. good morning. caller: good morning, jesse. sarah, i have a question for you in regards to global warming. right now they say that global warming is caused by carbon, but how many other theories are out there as to what is causing global warming? guest: yeah, it is a great question. so, i would refer to -- there was a recent report by a group of united nations-endorsed

scientists called the intergovernmental panel on climate change. about every seven years or so they publish a very large, very well-researched report looking at all of the latest scientific studies that have come out in the past few years, what they have set about climate change, what they think is causing it, and why they think some of these changes are coming from. the science does tell us that it is carbon emission, greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet. some people mentioned that there are natural cycles that the years -- that the earth goes through decade by decade changes to ocean currents and temperatures and that sort of thing, and that is something that happens, but the changes in the warming that we are seeing now far surpasses those sort of natural changes to the atmosphere and ocean. we know pretty convincingly that

it is greenhouse gases that are causing climate change. host: let's talk to joel, who is calling from eagle, idaho. good morning. caller: hello, jesse. hey, the question was raised about, you know, what could be done about people living in flood zones. the real problem with the national flood insurance program is that premiums do not reflect the risk. and we pay people to rebuild and rebuild and rebuild. hurricanes are a different issue. but the national flood insurance program really needs to be reworked. and on the same vein, these people that build in the sierras and these fire-prone areas -- fire has a multiplicity of factors, 80% of which are human-caused -- the insurance premiums in california on a

mountain cabin, don't reflect the fire risk. and california legislators, in their brilliance, refused to let insurance companies raise the premium in accordance with the fire risk. people out there pay roughly $1600 for an average-sized cabin for fire insurance, and in reality the risk should be about $6,000. if you have the premium reflect the risk he wouldn't have so many people losing their homes out there. the premier article on this is in recent magazine, i think it was a month or two ago, but i would encourage you to read that for a little bit of a clarification on your views on building in flood areas and the fire risk. guest: yeah. i will say that that raises an interesting point, a lot of

people who are building in some of these regions, they don't have a clear, accurate idea of their risk. a lot of those insurance premiums are based on fema flood maps, which have gotten a lot of criticism for being outdated and not showing the true accuracy of how at risk an area is. there are independent groups that have sort of remodeled, to a greater extent, where people's homes are at risk, that is still something that homeowners don't have a great, clear picture of, just how dangerous it is to live in where they choose to live. i think that goes for buyers as well. i'm a little bit less familiar with wildfire. host: let's talk to frank, who is calling from west virginia. frank, good morning. caller: good morning. guy's, you can't take rockets

and send them up in the sky and think everything is going to be all right. you are blowing holes in the ozone layer. i understand cars and stuff like that, but when you are's -- you are sending that space shuttle, you are hurting the ozone layer. host: go ahead and respond there, sarah. guest: it sounds like you are mentioning some of the emissions from space travel or rockets and that sort of thing, to clarify him about, yeah, i think where our emissions come from is something we are going to have to really scrutinize if we want to get a handle on climate change. host: sarah, in your article you talk about lake charles being a working-class town. what type of jobs are there in lake charles, and how has all of this -- all of these natural disasters affected the economy

of lake charles? guest: lake charles, after the storm, lost 6.7% of its population. it is unclear how much of it has returned. part of that is because employers were not able to bring back everyone they wanted to bring back, because businesses were impacted. but this is a town that is the 11th busiest port in the country. hundreds of ships carrying oil and gas pass-through lake charles regularly. it is also a big casino town. there are luxury casino resorts, and that entertainment is a big source of revenue for the city. those oil and gas jobs do sort of make the city -- that will bring a lot of people back. those are jobs that cannot really be moved anywhere else. you cannot work on an oil rig in

the middle of kansas or anything like that. so the city can be resilient in that way, what i think the full impact from the past year is something the city is still sort of understanding. they have certainly taken an economic hit, what that will mean long-term is something that remains to be seen. host: we know president biden was in louisiana earlier this week, but before going down to louisiana he came out at the white house and talked about natural disasters and climate change. i want to play a little bit of what president biden said and get you to react to it. [video] pres. biden: the past few days of hurricane ida, the fires in the west, and the flash floods in new york and new jersey is another reminder of these extreme storms and the climate crisis are here.

we need to be better prepared. we need to act. when congress returns this month i'm going to press for their action on my old back better plan. that is going to make historic investments in electrical infrastructure, modernizing our roads, bridges, our water systems, sewer, and training systems. electric grids and transmission lines, and make them more resilient in these super storms and wildfires. and floods that are going to happen with increasing ferocity. we are reminded that this is not about politics. hurricane ida did not care if you were a democrat or a republican. rural or urban. it's destruction is everywhere, and it is a matter of life and death, and we are all in this together. this is one of the great challenges of our time, what i am confident we will meet it. we are the united states of

america, and there is simply nothing -- you heard me say it before -- nothing beyond our capacity when we work together. for all of those still in harms way, for all of those struggling to deal with the aftermath, i say god bless you. keep the faith. everyone working day and night to look out for their fellow americans is what this is about, and we are going to get this done. host: sarah, how confident are people in louisiana and lake charles that the federal government will eventually help them? guest: i think that depends on who you ask. i think maybe they were losing a little bit of hope there. now that hurricane ida and the level of destruction it has caused will lead to greater political will for some of this additional supplementary disaster aid i mention. lake charles is hoping to get a chunk of that, and i think

people in lake charles hope they will not be made a climate offer or a climate sacrifice as a result of too little aid. yeah, i think to respond to the clip you just played, i will go back to that you report i mentioned. -- un report. this is what we can say with a lot of confidence, is that climate change will lead to more disastrous rainfall that is more likely to cause flash flooding, it will lead to more drought, and it can lead to dangerous hurricanes. host: i will tell you, sarah, that one of the facts that caught my eye in your story was the fact that the geological survey says louisiana is losing a football-sized piece of its coastland to the ocean every hour of every day. i will tell you, that fact

really surprised me. i did not know the coastline was eroding that quickly in louisiana. guest: yes. i have been lucky enough to spend some time in the wetlands in the day that is about an hours drive south of new orleans . i went out there with some scientists from lsu who had markers in this marshland showing when we were out here just a year ago this marsh extended out a foot farther, and now it is a foot back. that is causing a really big problem for cities like lake charles and new orleans, because those wetlands really protect cities from storm surge caused by hurricanes, and with fewer wetlands available to protect them they are more at risk. host: let's go back to our phone lines and talk to john, who is calling from loving, new mexico. good morning. caller: yes.

i was listening to the young lady and she said that the climate changes are vastly different than they were in the past, and that's, may be in the recent past or -- but in the distant past alaska was a jungle , and, you know, some of these other -- like, iceland and greenland, they were jungles, and some of the other places that are now jungles were covered with ice. i don't see how she can say that things are vastly different. they may be vastly different than the recent past, but not distant past. then on the flooding and things going on now, you have to take into account that we have covered so much of our landmass with pavement and concrete and houses and stuff, and that, and you do have an extreme event,

which is normal -- you have these 100 having your floods and things, so they are normal -- because of the buildings and concrete and pavement and everything, they look worse. so there is a lot of different thoughts on climate change. guest: yeah, that is an interesting point. it sounds like he is referring to the geologic timescale of different climates, extending back to the jurassic era and times like that, which, of course, with a completely different climate on earth. scientists know about the climate change we are seeing today is it is happening at a much faster rate than it has in the past. those changes where alaska was a jungle or greenland look different or what have you, those changes happened over the house and send thousands of years.

we are seeing now as a result of greenhouse gas emissions are rapid changes on the timescale of decades, which is unprecedented, in our history. we have built an infrastructure, we have built cities and towns that were built for the environments we had 100 years ago, when the climate had not changed. now a lot of these storms, extreme weather, unprecedented heat waves in the pacific northwest, flooding in germany and new york city, these weather events are forcing us to think about how we want to build our infrastructure for the next 100 years or 200 years. host: one of our social media followers has a question for you. they want to know, when will the government augment the building code in some of these disaster prone areas? they build houses that look like

a pile of matchsticks after a hurricane or tornado, and people rebuild the exact same way. how about living with bricks or reinforced steel frames? who is in charge of those building codes, sarah? guest: that is a great question about when there might be a more uniform federal change, which i don't know, that i know a lot of these communities are now starting to take initiatives of their own. lake charles, after the past year they have had, has issued a new drainage ordinance, which may not sound that exciting, but it can have a really big impact on flooding, which is something they really, really need to address. so i think you are seeing a lot of individuals administer polities take action on their own to say that we know in our community these changes are happening and we are going to do something about it. host: let's go to our phone lines and talk to jim, who is

calling from new york. good morning. caller: hi. does she have a science background? i have a background in science. i worked as a lab instructor for , -- lab instructor. i want to say something that nobody is saying. the thing is, it is a paradox. yesterday when you had the abortion debate on, somebody called and said that they are killing the babies. one of them could essentially come up with a cure for covid. and that is the paradox. the thing is, we are at a balance now with the world. disease, pestilence, and wars cap to others and control. we can't do that. the world cannot handle this. if you think you can keep doing this, we can keep doing this

indefinitely, it is impossible. there are not enough resources. host: go ahead and respond to him there, sarah. guest: sure. my background is in journalism. i have been working as a science journalist for several years now. that has taught me how to interrogate the truth and ask people the right questions, and asked scientists the right questions and understand what is fact and fiction there. i guess, to the second part of the question, which sounds like it was about overpopulation, i mean, that is a dicey topic that gets brought up sometimes in climate change. i think it encourages us to think about how we can respond to climate change in a way that is fair and just for everyone. host: let's go to steve, who is calling from anaheim, california. good morning. caller: good morning, professor.

sarah, you are right on most of your points. to your question, jessie, you mentioned earlier that people that live in fire prone areas or flooded areas, where should they move to? well, you can't move to anywhere. you are at the stage to where, if you listen to the past they tell you there was global warming, and they told you you would see global warming. now, in 2035 you are going to feel global warming. it is not like you can pack up and move away. to finish this off, i'm tired of people from the midwest telling us about where our fires are out of control over here. california is not all forest. we are also a grassland, and we are burning from mexico to oregon right now because of the severe drought we have out here. right, jesse, that is it for me. thank you very much. host: go ahead and respond

there, sarah. guest: the fires in california that have been seen recently, places like idaho have seen populations increase as people leave california. now idaho is seeing wildfires as well. it is becoming really challenging to know where to move in a way that is safe from some of these disasters. there are really few places in this country and on earth that are not going to be increasingly at risk. host: let's talk to sheila, who is calling from orlando, florida. good morning. sheila, are you there? alright, let's go to jeff, who is calling from missouri. good morning. caller: good morning to the both of you. i just want to bring up two points that people don't talk about all the time. in studies they show that the sun grows every year and that

the solar flares have picked up in intensities, so the amount of ice and freshwater that has been dispersed through the oceans is eventually going to change the freezing point of saltwater. so, we cannot stop the sun from growing, we cannot stop the ice from melting, so at what point are we going to have a global freezing due to the disbursement of freshwater to salt water? and that is my question, and i hope the both of you have a good day. guest: thank you. that is a great question. i haven't heard too much about that freezing point changing, but i think it is a great opportunity to bring up a new field of science that is really interesting called attribution science. a sickly what this science does is take an extreme weather

event, like, say, hurricane harvey in 2017 or the pacific northwest heat wave that hit a couple of months ago, and what scientists can do is look at these storms and model what the environment they grew in would have looked like if there were not greenhouse gas emission changing the atmosphere and changing our ocean. they can sort of re-forecast storms and see how they would have developed in those conditions. these studies are increasingly showing us to what extent climate change plays a role. the one that was done for the pacific northwest heat wave showed that he wave would have been virtually impossible without emissions. so this is sort of adding to our arsenal of research that we have to show what is causing climate change and how it is affecting our weather. host: let's talk to william, who is calling from lexington,

kentucky. good morning. caller: good morning. when i was going to school some years ago i was taught that there are four things that man has no control over. that is the earth, fire, wind, and water. so if you build your house below the sea level, pretty soon somewhere in there it is going to get washed away. have a good day. guest: sure. i mean, i wish i had control over the weather myself. but i think in terms of what we can control, we can build back more resiliently, we can look at keeping our soils healthy and that sort of thing. so there are certainly things we can do easily to sort of mitigate some of the impacts of this weather. host: sarah, in cities like lake charles, who is affected the most by these natural disasters? is it the working-class people?

is it the businesses? who is bearing the brunt of these natural disasters? guest: disasters only exacerbate existing inequalities, so people who were already rent-burdened or struggling to put food on the table, those are people who are, of course, owing to be most impacted by these storms. the average cost of evacuation from a storm can reach as much as $1000 when you add up the cost of renting a hotel room and gas and food away from home and all of those costs. so you see after disaster strikes, sociologist tend to see who the people who remain -- that the people who remained in the city -- the people who tend to be there most immediately are people with high incomes who can fortify their homes against storms and rebuild quickly, and people with very low incomes who cannot afford to leave it all.

host: let's go back to our phone lines and talk to jim, who is calling from texas. morning. caller: good morning. i would like to keep the call session on rebuilding resiliency, things like that. i know it is often tempting to focus on, you know, cities along the coastal regions because we have hurricane ida, but we have quite a bit of our population lives along the coast. i want to mention something like new york city, or even washington, d.c. these are very low lying areas, extremely prone to flooding, even storm surges. nobody is suggesting that we move new york city, and yet we just watched on the news the incredible flooding in their

subway system. my question is this. it is always about, let's move these smaller communities, whether lake charles or some of these, but you have huge places like new york that have enormous damage, and yet there is never any discussion about, let's move new york somewhere on the higher ground. you can answer that, please. guest: i will point out that after superstorm sandy hit part of new york and new jersey there was a community that relocated inland, i believe to the poconos. i will have to double check that. i think disaster -- people who study disaster and how to adapt to read -- two disaster say we should increasingly look at not just moving individuals out of harm's way, but moving communities out of harm's way so that the social bonds and

structures stay intact, so that neighbors get to stay with neighbors and you don't have to go at it alone. i think typically you see some of these coastal communities lose population and sort of dwindle over time. there is some really interesting data from the louisiana showing that in the past few decades post offices have sort of migrated north away from the coast as a some of these towns lose their population. they increasingly see things like sea level rise along the east coast or worsening storms. there are researchers who say coastal cities, especially those small towns, will face existential questions. host: let's talk to ray, who is calling from rockwood, tennessee. ray, good morning. caller: yes, i would like to ask her, with the global warming that causes the 1929 dust bowl?

and was it global warming that caused the 1800 flood of new york city that destroyed it? and i think you need to get a little more experience and age on you before people take you serious. that is all i have to say. thank you and goodbye. guest: well, i will respond to the first part of that question, which is about disasters pre-sort of early in the industrial age. the dustbowl is an interesting example to use, because that is a sort of microcosm of what we are seeing now. the dustbowl exacerbated drought conditions, and it depleted soil , to the detriment of farmers and populations throughout the region. so if we continue to see that sort of irresponsible action towards how we use our environment and the way we use resources, then we will see

things like the dustbowl. but, of course, extreme weather has always happened, that our definitions of what is extreme are now changing. host: sarah, what is the state of lake charles today? and how are they planning to protect themselves and their residence in the future, with more hurricanes predicted just in this hurricane season? guest: lake charles is still very much grappling with some of the short-term recovery you see after major hurricanes. things like blue tarps over roofs, homes not been rebuilt, and debris still in the streets. this is a city that has struggled to rebuild as quickly as it might have if it had just had one hurricane, and perhaps more disaster aid. you see a lot of people who are still exposed today, that if they were to get hit another

hurricane, that could leave them in a very vulnerable position, but there are a lot of communities trying to rebuild. there are individuals taking action to do more to hurricane-proof their -- the city is looking at things like drainage to better prevent things like flooding from happening in the future. host: we would like to thank sarah givens, forgiving -- for being with us today and talking about her article, how many natural disasters can one city endure? thank you for being with us. guest: thank you for having me. host: i would like to thank all of our guests, our viewers, and social media followers for being with us for another edition of washington journal. continue to wash her hands and stay safe. have a great saturday. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2021] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪

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