08/24/16 08/24/16 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! pres. obama: as i think anybody can see, the streets, much less the inside of the homes, people's lives have been offended by this blood. amy: as president obama tours the flood devastation in baton rouge, we will look at why climate activists are protesting plans by the interior department to lease off as much as 24 million acres in the gulf of mexico for oil and gas leasing. the lease sale is taking place in the superdome -- the very building where displaced new portland's residence sought

residents your lens sought shelter during hurricane katrina. we will look at two new stunning climate studies. one suggests it may soon be too hot in most of the world's cities to host the summer olympics. another study estimates the millennial generation will lose trillion in lifetime income due to climate change. then to the campaign trail. pres. obama: african-american communities of suffered -- mr. trump: african-american communities have suffered. to those i say the following, what do you have to lose by trying something new like trump? what do you have the louisiana go amy: as donald trump has to spend his days, we go to his campaign chief created an online haven for white nationalists. all of that and more coming up.

welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. on tuesday, president obama visited louisiana for the first time since last week's devastating floods that killed 13 people and damaged 60,000 homes. the red cross has called it the worst natural disaster in the united states since hurricane sandy. it also marked louisiana's worst flooding since hurricane katrina. some neighborhoods still have up to two feet of standing water . president obama spoke in baton rouge. pres. obama: i just had a chance to see some of the damage from the historic floods here in louisiana. i come here first and foremost to say their prayers of the entire nation are with everybody who lost loved ones, as i think anybody who can see just the streets, plus the inside of the homes, people's lives have been upended by this flood. amy: while many climate scientists have tied the historic floods in louisiana to climate change, president obama

made no link during his remarks. while obama was in baton rouge, he also met with the family of alton sterling who was killed by police on july 5 and with the families of three police officers who were killed by former u.s. marine in a mass shooting in baton rouge on july 17. but while president obama was speaking in baton rouge, four environmental activists were arrested in new orleans on tuesday while occupying the headquarters of the interior department's bureau of ocean energy management in new orleans. they were protesting the interior department's decision to go ahead with a lease sale of up to 24 million acres in the gulf of mexico for oil and gas exploration and development. the sale is being held in the superdome -- the very building where thousands of displaced residents of new orleans sought refuge during hurricane katrina 11 years ago. we will have more on the protests with antonia juhasz after headlines.

in breaking news from italy, a 6.2 magnitude earthquake has killed at least people, with the 38 death toll expected to rise. the quake struck the central italy town of norcia collapsing homes and buildings as people were sleeping. rescue crews are currently pulling people out of the rubble. this comes as deadly extreme weather continues around the world. in india, at least 300 people have died in widespread flooding across eastern and central states. the flooding, caused by heavy rains, has closed schools, destroyed roads and submerged , hundreds of towns and villages. meanwhile, in philadelphia, pennsylvania, at least four people died during last week's heat wave, which broke four separate temperature records. and in washington state, governor jay inslee has declared a state of emergency in nearly two dozen counties amid raging wildfires, which he blamed on climate change saying -- "our forests and wild lands are

under attack from climate change." wildfires are also raging across parts of california. we will have more on climate change later in the broadcast with climate scientist kirk smith. in news from the campaign trail, a new associated press investigation has revealed that while hillary clinton served as secretary of state, more than half of the private citizens she met had donated to the clinton foundation. the analysis shows at least 85 of 154 people hillary clinton either had scheduled phone or in-person meetings with were foundation donors. this does not include meetings clinton held with u.s. or foreign government workers or representatives, only private citizens. these 85 donors contributed more than $150 million to the clinton foundation combined. hillary clinton has slammed the

investigation, saying it cherry-picked information and that it "relies on utterly flawed data." but the ap says it has been asking for the schedules for three years and that what has been released thus far covers only half of her four-year tenure. this comes as the clinton foundation says it would spin off its international programs if clinton wins the presidency. former president bill clinton is also said he will resign from the foundation if hillary clinton wins. repeatedlyp has attacked her over the clinton foundation, calling for it to be shut down. this is trump speaking in austin, texas. mr. trump: it is impossible to figure out where the clinton foundation ends and the state department begins. clear thatbundantly the clintons set up a business to profit from public office. they sold access and specific

actions by and really for, i guess, the making of large amounts of money. the specific crimes committed to carry out that enterprise are too numerous to cover in this speech. amy: donald trump himself has donated $100,000 to the clinton foundation in the past. a new "washington post" analysis of hillary clinton's august schedule finds that she has raised at least $32 million over the last three weeks through a series of exclusive fundraisers. the events -- held in wealthy areas such as greenwich, connecticut, nantucket, massachusetts, and beverly hills, california -- frequently cost upwards of $50,000 a ticket. in news on guantanamo bay, prisoner abu zubaydah has argued for his release at a rare hearing held via video stream tuesday. he has been held for 14 years without trial, during which time he was water boarded more than 80 times.

when he was captured in 2002, the cia insisted he was a top al qaeda operative. the u.s. government has since admitted he was never an al qaeda leader, yet his imprisonment has continued. during tuesday's hearing zubaydah declared in a prepared , statement read by a u.s. soldier that he "has no desire or intent to harm the united states or any other country." graduate students won a significant labor victory tuesday when the national labor relations board ruled graduate student teachers and research assistants at private universities have the right to unionize. the 3-to-1 ruling stemmed from a case brought by columbia graduate students. it overturns a 2004 ruling that denied collective bargaining rights to some graduate student teachers. american federation of teachers president randi weingarten said -- "the truth is graduate workers are the glue that holds higher education institutions together -- without their labor, classes wouldn't get taught, exams wouldn't get graded and

office hours wouldn't be held." in news from afghanistan, a u.s. soldier has been killed in a bomb explosion outside lashkar gah, the capital city of helmand province. this comes only days after more than 100 u.s. soldiers were sent to lashkar gah to fight the taliban in what is believed to be the first deployment of u.s. troops to the city since 2014. the name of the u.s. soldier who died has not been released. turkey has begun a ground offensive into syria, marking a major escalation of its role in the ongoing conflict. the u.s. military is backing turkey's incursion, which began about 4:00 a.m. this morning with an aerial bombing campaign. turkey says the offensive is against isis-held areas along the border. but turkey says it's also concerned about syrian kurdish militias at the border. these militias are backed by the united states. in kashmir, another protester has died after reportedly being hit in the chest by a tear gas shell fired by police during a protest sunday.

18-year-old irfan ahmad is at least the 69th person to be killed amid the ongoing protests, which began more than a month ago after indian security forces killed a kashmiri independence leader. indian soldiers and paramilitary forces have cracked down on the protests against indian rule, opening fire during demonstrations and imposing a strict curfew. among those who have been killed is a 30-year-old professor who was beaten to death in indian army custody. many others have reported being beaten by troops in their own homes. in mexico, a journalist has survived an attempted assassination in the eastern state of veracruz. freelance journalist lucia lopez castillo was about to enter her home sunday night when she was approached by a masked man, who attacked her and then shot her. veracruz is one of the deadliest areas of mexico for journalists. at least 16 journalists have been killed in veracruz since 2010. another three have disappeared. in newark, new jersey, a story has surfaced about police

traumatizing a 10-year-old child by chasing him through the streets with guns drawn. fifth grader legend preston was standing outside his home on august 14 when police say they mistook him for a robbery suspect and began chasing him down an alley. preston says he thought the police were running after him because he'd chased a ball into the street without looking. he says neighbors then surrounded him to protect him, yelling "this is a child." this is 10-year-old legend preston. >> some police started coming from this way with guns pointing right at me. and iran into the backyard will stop -- i ran into the backyard. i threwt they thought the ball in the street on purpose. there holding guns like this. amy: in california, judge aaron persky has recused himself from another sexual crimes case, amid the ongoing controversy over his

lenient sentencing of former stanford swimmer brock turner. in june, persky gave turner a six-month jail sentence for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster, saying he was concerned a longer prison sentence would have a severe impact on the stanford university swimmer. persky has also sparked controversy over his 2015 decision to give robert chain a four-day prison sentence after he led guilty -- pled guilty to possessing child abuse images. persky has now stepped down from chain's case, which has a hearing on thursday over whether chain's charge will be reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor. more than 1 million people have signed a petition demanding persky be removed from the bench. in pennsylvania, immigrant mothers have suspended their hunger strike at the berks county residential center citing intimidation by ice officials. the women launched the hunger strike on august 8 to protest department of homeland security secretary jeh johnson's claims

that the average time in family detention is only 20 days. by the end of this month, at least three families will have spent a full year in custody at the berks facility. on tuesday, the women suspended the strike, saying ice officials threatened them saying if their health weakens, their children could be taken away. on monday, democracy now! spoke with one hunger strikers inside berks. >> the head of ice for the center came. he can only to threaten us, to tell us if we were a danger for the facility, for the other women who were not on strike, then he was going to be obligated to take action such that they would send us to texas. simply that they would send us to adult prison, and that if we continue this way, if we continued refusing to eat, simply they would arrive a point at which we would debilitate and then he would be allocated to call the government so they would take away our children. quitek this is a threat

direct and quite strong. i think it is not fair because were only asserting our rights. amy: and in west virginia, residents are celebrating the permanent shut down of a coal mine near a state forest. the announcement by the west virginia department of environmental protection comes after a two-year organizing effort by the kanawha forest coalition, which sought to shut down over the issues of water contamination and other environmental impacts. this is daile rois of loudendale, west virginia, whose house sits less than 2000 feet from the mine. >> when i started this journey, i did not understand the apathy that you cannot fight coal attitude. i do. it is not apathy. it is weariness. it is survivor mode. i would love a victory. that can only happen if people will hear this. we can fight for our personal rights. we can fight for our families, our communities against these

big companies and a nonresponsive government. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. on tuesday, president obama visited louisiana for the first time since the devastating floods that killed 13 people and damaged homes. 60,000 the red cross has called it the worst natural disaster in the united states since hurricane sandy. it also marked louisiana's worst flooding since hurricane katrina. some neighborhoods still have up to two feet of standing water left. president obama spoke in baton rouge. pres. obama: i just had a chance to see some of the damage from the historic floods here in louisiana. i come here first and foremost to say the prayers of the entire nation are with everybody who lost loved ones. we are heartbroken by the loss of life. there are also people who are still desperately trying to track down friends and family.

we're going to keep on helping them every way that we can. as i think anybody who can see just the streets, much less the inside of the homes here, people's lives have been upended by this flood. amy: while many climate scientists have tied the historic floods in louisiana to climate change, president obama made no link during his remarks. but while obama was speaking in baton rouge, four environmental activists were arrested in new orleans while occupying the headquarters of the interior department's bureau of ocean energy management headquarters . they were protesting the interior department's decision to go ahead with a lease sale of up to 24 million acres in the gulf of mexico for oil and gas exploration and development. the sale is being held in the superdome -- the very building where thousands of displaced residents of new orleans sought refuge during hurricane katrina 11 years ago. one of the four arrested tuesday was john clark, a professor at

loyola university. >> in a sense i'm doing this for my ancestors, my children, my grandchildren. and in my lifetime, i have watched an area of the coastline the size of the state of that it disappear and is very painful to me to think about the fact that my grandchildren and their children will not even be able to live here in the future because we're going to lose southwest louisiana. amy: to talk more about the flooding of baton rouge and today's oil and gas lease sale at the superdome, we are joined by antonia juhasz, an oil and energy analyst and author of "black tide: the devastating , impact of the gulf oil spill." welcome to democracy now! talk about the connections we are seeing today from the in new orleans to

the flooding of baton rouge. having me.u for the timing of all of these events could not be more devastating, really. you have the this torque flood, the president there to offer assistance from fema and hopefully try to assist those on the ground while at the same time the interior department is continuing the problems that help excel the storm in the first place, help make it more for osha's, make the storms more for white and that is the burning of fossil fuels leading to climate change. president obama has been very outspoken and in some ways, aggressive and the needs to tackle climate change. at the same time as expanding offshore oil drilling, expanding the production of oil and gas to new record heights across the united states, but in particular, right now most expansion ofhe

gulf of mexico. the sale taking place in about two hours at the superdome for 24 million new acres in the gulf of mexico, this sale will complete, if all of the leases are sold, all unsold leases in the western part of the gulf. that is basically federal waters offshore of texas. ahese include some ultr deepwater leases. leases that would be at twice the depth of that which bp was drilling when the deepwater horizon disaster happened. it is a big sale, a sizable sale. amy: for those who don't remember when you talk about the bp deepwater horizon, talk about how many people died and how extensive the pollution and the damage was. >> well, that would take many hours. it was one of -- the most -- the largest offshore journaling oil spill in history.

this was april 2010. 5 million barrels of oil spilled into the gulf of mexico released over a three month period of time. extensive damage, which i would not -- witnessed firsthand from a submarine and the bottom of the gulf of mexico, to the shores to the air to the animals to the people, and the devastation continues. one of the outcomes of this oil spill was, obviously, a tremendous amount of oil within thegulf and it is estimated that 30 million gallons of oil remain and the gulf ecosystem to this day of oil's from the bp disaster. that was april 2010. with the oil has had -- cost all caps of problems. one of the problems it contributed to was the destruction of marsh and the further erosion of the gulf shore. that destruction of the marshland is a continuation of

harm caused by the oil and gas industry over decades that has contributed to coastal erosion, the elimination of wetlands in louisiana which makes storms much more ferocious. the wetlands, the marshes, should be there to suck in the water as natural sponges, if you will, when water floods onto land without that marsh that was the away by oil, without that coastline that was even away by salt that was allowed to incur on the coastline because of canals built for pipelines another oil and gas infrastructure, the coast is not there and the flights just come in and decimate communities, which received more and more of. in addition, there's the ongoing economic harm suffered by fisherfolk and people -- oil workers, people who live off of the gulf of mexico that were harmed by this oil spill.

that makes dealing with catastrophes even more difficult because they don't have the back spending to deal with this catastrophe. and a lot of people whose lives ended because this for the last six years organizing to stop offshore oil gelling the gulf of mexico and their lives are focused on doing that and their hit by these storms. it makes it even more difficult to do that type of organizing. so the chain of events roll on and on. one of the biggest problems is that we have not -- while lessons have you learned from the bp deepwater horizon's bill, meaning numerous studies, incredible analysis, the policies that are -- should be the expected outcome of those lessons have not been implemented. so the chemical safety board, the most important independent

investigative body looking at disasters like these, most conference of analysis of the disaster said, basically, the chance of another deepwater horizon like disaster is still very likely and the lessons have not been learned. regulatory environment that invites companies to essentially say they can do the right thing, but not have to prove they can do it, still perpetuates offshore oil julian in the united states. amy: in march, hundreds of protesters disrupted another government auction of oil and gas filling right of the gulf of mexico. the government was attempting to auction off 43 million acres of off-shore drilling rights at an event held at the superdome in new orleans. cherri foytlin of idle no more gulf coast spoke out during the protest. >> i am here with 200 saying no to the fossil fuel industry and yes to our people.

it is the most amazing thing to see all of these people stand and say it is time for a new day and the gulf of mexico. you areuel industry, done. it is over. bye-bye. amy: cherri foytlin of idle no more gulf coast saying it is over. but is it over? what is the difference between a public option and what is happening today? >> that was quite a historic event. againstrganizing offshore oil drilling is something that is fairly this size and skill in the gulf of mexico. ,t is in a process over decades communities experiencing the harms of the industry, the up and downs of the market for the workers as well, and the impact of the deepwater horizon disaster have led to this evolution of increased opposition to journaling among

gulf coast communities. that protest in march against the previous lease sale was really historic and nearly shut the the sale in response bureau of ocean energy management, which is part of the interior department, for this sale taking place this morning, for the first time, closed the sale to the public. the superdome, which is this enormous facility, is going to have a room with 50 oil comedy representatives and -- company representatives and maybe 10 or 20 journalists sitting in a room and it will be close to public participation because they do not want to see this type of public opposition to the lease sale that they saw in march. it will be viewable online. people can watch it online if they want, but that means all you can do is watch what unfolds, not try to participate

in the process. the protest you mentioned at the opening at the office in new orleans, 15 or so gulf residents and others who showed up to deliver 180,000 signatures on a petition calling for this lease sale today to be canceled, as you said, four of them were arrested because they said they would not leave until the lease sale was canceled. they were hoping the obama administration would start doing in the gulf coast what it has done in the atlantic, which in its new proposal for the next five years, finalizing their new proposal for offshore oil drilling, new julian in the atlantic was taken off the table in that proposal. offshore -- offshore drilling in the gulf of mexico was expanded. what the gulf residents are doing, saying we no longer want to be the sacrifice for the u.s. if it is good enough for the atlantic, it is good enough for us. lease saleoping this

would be canceled and if not canceled, i would imagine hoping to have the opportunity to be there and be present and show their opposition. that is not going to be able to be the case. amy: antonia juhasz, thank you for being with us, oil and energy analyst, author of "black , tide: the devastating impact of the gulf oil spill." this is democracy now! when we come back, we look at two stunning the reports on climate change. one, will your lithic summer games be able to be held in the coming decades because it is simply too hot? and another about the cost to the millennial generation nearing $9 chilean, the cost of climate change. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the 2016 summer olympics may have just ended, but might we be seeing the end of the summer olympics for good? a new article in the prestigious medical journal the lancet, by -- has concluded much of the northern hemisphere will be too hot by 2085 to host the summer olympics. researchers are protecting only eight cities in the hemisphere outside of western europe would be cool enough to host the games. this includes just three cities in north america -- calgary, vancouver, and san francisco. a list of cities where it could be too hot is staggering. rome, tokyo,adrid, new york, chicago, los angeles, and the list goes on. extreme high temperatures have impacted the athletic world. in 2007, high heat forced the cancellation of the chicago

marathon. at the trials in los angeles, 30% of the runners dropped out of the race due to the heat. and this has implications well beyond athletic events. for more we are joined by kirk smith, lead author of the article, and professor of global environmental health at the university of california, berkeley. welcome to democracy now! professor smith, talk about what you have found. >> thank you for inviting me today. and sitting in berkeley, which is part of the san francisco bay area and we often repeat what mark twain is often reported to say which is, the coldest winter i ever spent was a summer in san francisco. people who have been her know it is cool in the summer. this is going to be an advantage in the future as climate change proceeds. as you say, those three cities in north america, including san francisco, san francisco is likely to be the last place that a summer olympics could be held as their held today. why is that?

why does heat make it hard to have the olympics? it doesn't make any difference force bring board diving, but it does make a difference for outdoor endurance events like the marathon, but others. although temperature is part of the picture, one of the things people don't realize is an impact of climate change is as temperature rises, and increases the evaporation of water from the oceans and other bodies of water, therefore, humidity goes up as well. and your ability to do outdoor work is a function not only of temperature, but also the humidity. if it is 100% humidity, even a not low temperature will allow you to work heavily because you need to sweat in order to give off the extra heat that your body produces when you are doing work. at the a look olympics because we know how they are run and workout of exercise is done. and we took regular climate

models that other people were using. we assume the same projection of greenhouse gases in the intergovernmental panel on climate change, which of both the conservative model and a more liberal model, if you like, and averaged them. so we would not be accused of cherry picking. we were surprised to find how few cities in the world were left in 2085. just ate outside of western europe, only three in north america. we are not really all that concerned about our most elite athletes. they are very well conditioned, very well managed by the positions on their teams. but it is the tip of the iceberg , the last line in our paper is, if we have to worry about our most newly athletes, what about the rest of us? because it is the rest of us that are most at risk from th e rising heat and unity.

some think it is the largest impact of climate change in the next 50 or 60 years, the change in the ability to do what we have always done, doing for too many years, is work with heavy exertion outdoors. probably very few people listening to this program work outdoors, but 50% of the planet works outdoors all the times. mainly in agriculture and construction. so those professions are more and more challenged, if you like , as certain times of year as climate change proceeds. the areas of the planet that will be dangerous to conduct that kind of work will grow and grow with climate change. and the olympics illustrates this. we of course published this paper at the time of the real olympics to call attention to the water problem of climate change changing how we do things. amy: you talk about the report

is on the summer olympics, your study. what about the winter olympics? basedre was a paper also on a report done in canada that was published in 2014 just before the sochi winter olympics. they did a somewhat similar analysis. they took the 19 sites where there had been winter olympics before and examined how many of them would still be liable for the winter olympics and about 2085. they found that only six of them would still be viable. there it was that the risk to athletes from exertion and heat, it was whether there would be enough snow. they used the 30 centimeters of snow -- 10 inches or 15 inches of snow is the minimum required for the winter olympics. issue.e of course, you could get around these things a bit. you can do everything indoors. in fact, more and more, both summer and winter olympic event

seven moved indoor. it would be hard to do downhill skiing indoors. running a marathon indoors would be a pretty boring event. .ut you could do it you could do the marathon in january if you like, and that would not be the same winter olympics, but there would be ways to adapt your way out of it. the point is, what we have been doing for many years is no longer possible. we of healthy olympics for 2500 years. more than 100 years and the modern olympics. we have come to expect certain ways of doing things that are not going to be possible. of people doa lot exertion outdoor for sports. there are hundreds of marathons every year around the world in cities. as you mentioned, those are starting to be constricted as well. the chicago marathon had to be stopped in the middle. hundreds of athletes had gone to the emergency rooms around chicago because of the temperature and humidity had

exceeded the limits for athletes. of course, the rest of us are more vulnerable than ely athletes that train and finish -- the marathon runners finished the highly competitive ones and a little over two hours. but three hours later, there were 10,000 other athletes still out in the heat and humidity. that is why they had to stop it. amy: and of course, professor smith, it is not only the and the general population, but the kind of political and social upheaval this kind of extreme weather causes. >> well, yes. we think the biggest impact will be, as i say among the poor. climate change, i have said before, is the most regressive t ax in human history. the rich benefit from the use of fossil fuels and an economy run

by them, and the poor get the biggest impact in terms of on the health side. in terms of help, it is the poor that will suffer the most from climate change. the illustration of that is the workers who work outdoors in this case. in california, for example, we are he have a few workers who might die from acute exertion every year in the summer -- from heat exertion every year in the summer. at that will increase unless something is done. what can be done? you can change work practices. allow people to sit in the shade between 10:00 and 2:00 entering lemonade, but bosses are not known for that kind of laxity. what happens is it gets to be a very difficult trade-off between expectations on productivity, how much you're supposed to produce, and health. that is a difficult trade-off. it is a pernicious trade-off. we want labor to be more productive, of course, but we also what labor to be protected.

another sportsom example, thousands of workers are toiling in extreme heat in qatar, building the stadiums for the 2022 world cup soccer championships. the international trade union confederation estimates more than 7000 workers will die before a ball is kicked in the world cup in 2022. >> yeah, well, that is a good example. some people will respond, well, 20 85 is a long way off. i then, we could all be living in air-conditioned malls. we don't work outside, we don't care. a summit he has to build those malls or stadiums. somebody has to repair them. we are not going to turn into a space colony on the planet earth. maybe air condition gaps can be ineloped for farm machinery rich countries, but they're not when you be doing that in india even if -- in 50 years.

it is a set of issues. the stadium and qatar will probably be air-conditioned. it is the only way to protect the people who go to those games and the players. ,ut somebody has to build it including in the summer. amy: professor kirk smith, thank you for being with us. he teaches global environmental health at the university of california, berkeley. we will link to your recent article in the lancet is "the last summer olympics? climate change, health, and work outdoors." as we continue to talk about climate change, a new study is found that without action on climate change, the millennial generation as a whole will lose trillion.8 the study was produced by nextgen climate and the most. joining us now is heather mcghee president of demos and demos , action. welcome to democracy now! talk about the economic effects

of climate change. >> in some ways it is stunning this study is to have a dummy for. we know millennials, us and our children, are going to be the ones to bear the brunt of the and action to address global climate change. we know millennials are the first generation likely to be worse off economically than our parents. gen, we wantedex to combine these two issues. millennial generation as guinea pig cutting back on comics and come by the story of inequality with the story of climate change, not only in the environmental impacts, but economic impacts. we use the methodology from a stanford and berkeley study which used 166 different countries, historical data over the past 50 years, and found the

overall gdp impacts of rising temperatures. for the first time we looked at that at the household level. and separate just a generation, a college student i graduated last your come over her lifetime, she would lose $127,000 in lost income. and because we know lost income is not just lost ability to spend it today but to save for tomorrow, we wanted to look at the wealth impacts and that was daily $200,000. amy: explain how that happens. >> stanford and berkeley study showed rising temperatures, much like the lancet study them a stanford and berkeley researchers showed rising temperatures create lost productivity. there are hundreds of different ways that this happens and this was one of the first studies to look at it from a nyberg level. just say, whether it is in production, agriculture, construction, the lost because of extreme temperatures and

weather, all in all over 166 countries, we can take a step back and say when temperatures rise over a certain point, gdp falls. and we know when gdp falls, wages fall, jobs fall, and that has been the threat economically to millennials that we have not ever calculated at a household level -- although, we have known it at a gut level that there will be a price to pay for in action today. amy: it is interesting because the republican party, though their individual republican politicians and commerce who do believe climate change is an issue overall, are saying it is not an issue -- silly, donald trump says it is a hoax. and fact, i want to go to donald trump talking about the issue of climate change earlier this year. mr. trump: president obama said the biggest threat is global warming. give me a break. the biggest threat to our country is nuclear. and we cannot let iran get a nuclear weapon.

amy: so his call climate change hoax, among others come it is a chinese conspiracy. but this issue, you're talking about building off the debt. and that is a concern to republicans. this is a climate debt. >> it is a climate tax, which seems to be a concern to republicans. it is a wallop to our gdp. the stanford and berkeley study said by 2100, our gdp would be 36% lower than it would be if we took action on climate change. those are supposed to be concerns of conservatives. and you are already seeing it in non-fossil feel businesses, which are starting to make the transition. they understand there's a massive economic cost to an action and on the flip side, there is a great economic opportunity by transitioning to 100% clean energy. we know the millennial generation is 91% supportive of transitioning to 100% clean energy. the only thing that is going to make a difference between crisis

and opportunity is more democracy. amy: what would that look like? >> really, a world war ii style mobilization both of our politics and our economics. of all of us saying areas actually a better way, that we can re-create our economy and put those communities fuel economy first in line in a new clean energy economy. amy: how? >> we can use technology that exists today. that is one of the things that makes people feel like it is hopeless, the idea we have to land a man on mars in order to have 100% clean energy. but through existing technologies, we can do it. we can do it building on the progress of the obama in administration has made with the clean power plant from the pa and paris, and we need to get more aggressive than those compromised steps forward. in california, they have done something that makes sure the revenue that comes from

polluters is actually targeted to the lowest wealth communities including jobs, public transit, efficiency. efficiency of buildings is going to be a massive part of how we get to clean energy, and that saves working families on their energy bills and it puts people to work in the buildings in their community. amy: heather mcghee, we will .ink to your report i would like you to stay with us as we transition to the alt right what does that mean. we're talking to heather mcghee, president of demos and demos action. we will be back in a moment. ♪ [music break] ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as we turn to look at how donald trump's new campaign chief created an online haven for white nationalists. that's the title of a new article in mother jones by investigative journalist sarah posner who has closely following -- followed the right-wing for years.

the piece looks at trump's new campaign chief stephen bannon who until last week headed the right-wing website breitbart media. in her piece, sarah posner writes -- "by bringing on stephen bannon, trump was signaling a wholehearted embrace of the 'alt-right,' a once-motley assemblage of anti-immigrant, anti-muslim, ethno-nationalistic provocateurs who have coalesced behind trump and curried the gop nominee's favor on social media." breitbart regularly spurs headlines with -- criticism of breitbart media has grown over the past year. southern poverty law center recently said -- "over the past year however, the outlet has undergone a noticeable shift toward embracing ideas on the extremist fringe of the conservative right. racist ideas.

anti-muslim and anti-immigrant ideas -- all key tenets making up an emerging racist ideology known as the "alt-right." even former breitbart employees have spoken out. the site's former editor-in-chief ben shapiro recently wrote -- "breitbart has become the alt-right go-to website, with milo yiannopoulos pushing white ethno-nationalism as a legitimate response to political correctness, and the comment section turning into a cesspool for white supremacist mememakers." well to talk more about breitbart, stephen bannon, and the trump campaign, we are joined by journalist sarah posner. and still with us in heather mcghee. sarah, welcome to democracy now! why don't you talk about what you found. >> i was covering alt-right activities at the rnc in cleveland last month. that is where and counter the couple of times the site technology editor and the principal link

between breitbart and activists on the alt right. i also met and talked to stephen bannon, who was, at the time, the head of breitbart and now the ceo of trump's campaign. in our interview, bannon told me that breitbart is the platform for the alt-right, but he denied that the alt-right is an inherently racist or anti-semitic movement that embraces white nationalism. he said breitbart is a nationalistic site. he denied it is a white nationalist excite. and he said while there are elements of anti-semitism or some people who might be racist in the alt-right, as a whole, the movement is not a racist or anti-semitic movement. i asked him specifically about ben shapiro,

who proves the was editor of breitbart, who emerged as one of the site's leading critics and has been attacked on social media by anti-semites, just tweeting horrible things at him and saying things about him and his family. and i asked bannon about that hate that has been directed at his former employee. and he dismissed it, calling shapiro a whiner. amy: explain more the term alt-right. >> as much as bannon wanted to claim breitbart as the platform for the alt-right, the alt-right existed before bannon took over breitbart when andrew breitbart, the site's founder died suddenly in 2012. the alt-right had been around before that. the alt-right term was coined by richard spencer, who is a white nationalists writer

and activist who positions the alt-right as a dissident movement that is dissatisfied with conservatism -- which they portray a term you often see people in the alt-right using for a conservative, movement conservative, is a disparaging term in putting the word cuckold in the word conservative. that is how they portray conservatives. this is why they have been cheered by trump candidacy because they see him as a candidate who has abandoned the traditional gop, who scoffed at movement conservatism, and in fact, embraces their issues -- willing to talk about building a wall, who is willing to talk about race in a way that trump talks about race, who is willing to break with gop orthodoxy on trade deals.

these are all things that have led the alt-right into the trump camp. and a lot of it has to do with the ways in which he has rejected gop and movement conservatism orthodoxy. amy: i want to go to donald trump speaking in michigan, a largely white suburb of lansing. mr. trump: african-american communities have suffered under democratic control. to those i say the following. what do you have to lose by trying something new like trump? what do you have to lose? amy: donald trump has been addressing the african-american community from the largely white, overwhelmingly white community he was there in michigan, and before that when he spoke in west bend, overwhelmingly white community, a suburb of milwaukee. heather mcghee, that question, "what do you have to lose?"

>> we have been clear, i think many of us in the african-american community that donald is going to make an appeal to the black vote. he was very quick to attack mexicans, latino immigrants, muslim americans. it has been somewhat more reticent -- and we have all been anticipating this moment when he would try to divide and conquer among people of color and say to working-class black men, particularly, that immigrants are coming to take their jobs. you have to remember that donald trump -- speaking of the alt-right, donald trump was the loudest and as he has with many racist ideas, the most effective mainstreamer -- saying the first african-american president was not born here, not even a citizen, therefore not a legitimate president. that is not something the black community forgets. amy: donald trump was a leader of the birther movement.

going back years. >> we don't forget the way he burst onto the scene in new york with the slumlord who was forced to settle massive discrimination claims against african-american tenants. donald trump has very little support in the african-american community. some polls say it is 1%, some say 0%. and they understand what he is doing, even more important, then what donald is is what he is doing to reinvigorate white supremacy in this country. even if donald trump is defeated on election day -- which i don't think is a given. polls do not vote. we do not actually have election day by random dialing surveys. people do actually have to come out and vote, which is not necessarily a given right now. even if he is defeated, the unmasking of american racism,

the mainstreaming of these ideas is going to be with us the day after election day. the african-american community is very aware of that. amy: even indiana governor, the vice presidential running mate of donald trump is aware of this. he was being questioned on fox by the fox news host ainslie ehrhardt about donald trump's claim to get to something like 95% of the african-american vote by 2020. >> donald trump is telling the african-american community, i am the guy for you. and he says by 2020, he is when i have 95% of the african-american support. why are you laughing? >> well, that is donald trump. amy: so there is governor pence laughing. so talk more, sarah posner, expanding on what heather mcghee has said, on what donald trump

is doing with this alt-right. >> i think on the one hand, he has embraced the alt-right -- either explicitly by hiring bannon, obviously, but also implicitly there is a lot of wink-wink at the way trump uses his twitter account and surrogates use the twitter accounts. but i think at the same time, he is trying, and i think this is completely going to be transparent, to the african- american community and to african-american voters, he is trying to pretend that he has got a strategy for reaching out to black voters and that he has a prayer of reaching out to black voters. amy: let me interrupt and ask you something. some are saying this whole presidential election that he is involved with is actually a strategy for developing trump tv, that he is consolidating

and media leadership here with bannon, roger ailes -- who is now forced out because of sexual harassment allegations by more than 20 women from fox and now reportedly advising donald trump. housing the forget is this possibility? >> i will carry out my answer by saying i have not done any independent reporting on the prospects of this media outlet, but if this is something that trump does in fact have in mind, you know, the fact that he is asking roger ailes for advice -- and he was in regular contact with roger ailes even before ailes was forced out of fox over the sexual harassment lawsuit. and the fact that he has hired bannon and combined that with how -- throughout his campaign trump has been so disparaging of the mainstream media, the way he calls out individual reporters at his campaign events, calls on his rally attenders

to turn around and scoff at in disparate the media that is covering the rally from a press pen and also how he talks about the unfairness of the way the media covers him and almost setting the stage for blaming the media if he loses. so if you put all of this together, regardless of what trump does organizationally in terms of creating a media outlet after -- if you're to lose the presidency after the campaign, it seems pretty evident there is a lot of sowing of discontent about the mainstreaming you and the bolstering of these alternative media sites that have been supportive of trump and supportive of the alt-right. amy: we have to leave it there, sarah posner, "how donald trump's new campaign chief created an online haven for white nationalists." heather mcghee, president of demos. [captioning made possible

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