amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> the movement, the work that i am doing and this movement is really about survivors. really about using empathy to drive how shame. amy: #metoo -- that's the rally cry that has spurred women across the country andhe world to speak out about their experiences of sexual harassment and abuse in the wake of the fall of harvey weinstein. we speak with tarana burke, a sexual assault survivor who launched the me too hashtag more than a decade ago. then, thousands of people marched for puerto rico in washington, d.c. this past

weekend. we'll look at the lack of progress in puerto rico, where hurricane maria devastated the island two months ago. >> this slow pace, getting relief to people. people?t we get to it's unthinkable. amy: we speak with san juan mayor carmen yulin cruz. then, from hurricane maria in puerto rico to hurricane harvey in texas, we go to dr. robert bullard, the father of the environmental justice movement. what is environmental racism? all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman on this democracy now! special. over the last two months, the political, media and entertainment worlds have been rocked as thousands of women and some men have come forward

to share their stories of sexual harassment and abuse. the catalyst was the historic disgracing of hollywood mogul harvey weinstein, who is being criminally investigated after dozens of women came forward to accuse weinstein of rape, assault and sexual harassment. following the investigations by the new york times and the new yorker, women across the country and the world are now coming forward with their own stories, involving many different men, under the hashtag me too. well, we want to go back to the beginning of this historic moment. in the days after the harvey weinstein revelations, we interviewed tarana burke, an activist and sexual assault survivor who started the hashtag me too a decade ago. she's now a program director at girls for gender equity. we also spoke with soraya chemaly, a journalist who covers the intersection of gender a politics, and alicia garza, co-founder of black lives matter.

democracy now's juan gonzalez and i began by asking tarana burke about how she started the me too hashtag ten years ago. >> i have been working with young people for more than 25 years. and i worked in the south in 2007. and as a survivor of sexual violence myself, as a person who was struggling trying to figure out what healing looked like for me, i also saw young people, and particularly young women of color, in the community i worked with, struggling with the same issues and trying to find a succinct way to show empathy. right? we use a term called "empowerment through empathy." and "me too" is so powerful, because somebody had said it to me, right? and it changed the trajectory of my healing process once i heard that. and so, because the rape crisis centers in the community i was working didn't go out to the schools, they didn't do outreach, and i'm an organizer

by training, it made sense to me that you have to bring -- you know, you have to bring it to people. people are not going to seek it out. and so, "me too" was about reaching the places that other people wouldn't go, bringing messages and words and encouragement to survivors of sexual violence where other people wouldn't be talking about it. juan gonzalez: and your response now that we've had -- it's almost a succession of one big name after another being accused of sexual assault -- bill cosby, roger ailes, bill o'reilly, donald trump and now harvey weinstein? tarana burke: r. kelly, yeah. no, it's not a surprise, right? and i think that -- you know, i say all the time, i'm never surprised at these allegations. for every r. kelly or bill cosby or harvey weinstein, there's, you know, the owner of the grocery store, the coach, the teacher, the neighbor, who are doing the same things. but we don't pay attention until it's a big name. and we don't pay attention 'til

it's a big celebrity. but this work is ongoing, because this is pervasive. amy goodman: i wanted to bring soraya chemaly into this conversation, of the women's media center speech project. talk about this latest -- these revelations, these rolling revelations, against harvey weinstein, because of the new york times expose, followed by the new yorker expose. the new yorker expose is only there because the author went to nbc, ronan farrow, and he worked on it with them for months, and then they killed it, which is leading to, to say the least, enormous questions within nbc -- what was their connections to weinstein? putting a lot of pressure on the president of nbc. talk about this, when this will even be reported, and the level of the women who have to make the charges for this to get this kind of attention, these a-list stars. soraya chemaly: i think this is a very good example of the way

overlapping systems of fraternity work to silence stories like these. we know that it takes a tremendous outpouring of, really, trauma from women, working together in a campaign like "me too," to make people sit up and pay attention. but what we're really talking about is making people believe what women are talking about, because we have a very deep-seated distrust of what women say. and when women say it, it's very easy to dismiss and trivialize. and part of that process of stereotypes and myth making comes directly from media. and media frames questions, decides which questions to ask, how to report, what language to use, and also whose voice matters and whose experience matters. so, in an instance like this, we see very clearly that a person with extreme power and status in one industry was probably

leveraging that power and status across industries, able to tap people possibly in the criminal justice system, people in the media system. and again, this, i think, is really common. it's not rare. it's just that we're seeing it at a very high level. juan gonzalez: and could you talk about this in the context of a president, in a presidency which itself, donald trump, has been repeatedly accused of sexual harassment? soraya chemaly: so, i think that what was most interesting in the wake of the trump tape that was released a year ago was the difference in responses between men and women to what happened. and we saw a huge gap in understanding and empathy, honestly, during the debate that followed immediately after that tape was released. the tape was released, and millions of women were traumatized and shared stories

with the #notok hashtag, very much like they did now. but when the debate happened, in the immediate wake of that, there was a large-scale analysis done by facebook of what people were talking about, what was important to them, and it involved looking at millions of comments and posts from around the world, but especially, i believe, in the united states. and it showed that, for women, what trump was saying and what it represented was a priority. it was either number one or two on the list of top five. but, for men, it didn't make the list at all. and i think that's important, because our media systems and our legal systems and our political systems are still overwhelmingly dominated by men, overwhelmingly white men. so we're talking about 80 -- 80% plus in almost all of those arenas, certainly of senior management. and that experiential difference, which is transformative in terms of

producing knowledge, like really understanding what's going on, is missing in these institutions. and so it takes this immense amount of energy to just try and get institutions to recognize the harm that's being done by dismissing and trivializing experiences of sexual harassment. sexual harassment, if you even think about the term, is a term that reflects the perspective of harassers. women who are being harassed, men who are being harassed, this isn't a sexual experience for them. it's an experience of fear and threat and violence. it's very intimidating. there's always retaliation involved. so, even the perspective of the framing of the language reflects the problems that we face. amy goodman: i want to bring alicia garza into the conversation, co-founder of black lives matter, special projects director for national domestic workers alliance, speaking to us from los angeles. your response that every --

about everything that has just been unfolding, now going from the charges, the allegations against harvey weinstein to, you know, both scotland yard and the new york police department investigating him criminally, and then the massive response to tarana's "me to" movement, that started really 10 years ago but now picking up steam like we've never seen before? alicia garza: well, i first have to just say a deep thank you to tarana for creating this space for survivors like myself. without that space, i wouldn't be able to tell my story, and thousands and thousands of other people that i know would not be able to tell their stories. and you and i share someone in common, who you are a mentor to, and when she reached out to me yesterday and said, you know, "my mentor tarana started this, and i want to make sure that black women's work is not erased," i had to -- i had to agree.

my thoughts about this are that -- exactly what tarana said earlier, that this kind of violence is as american as apple pie. i am both heartbroken by all of the stories that i have seen being shared -- there's more stories being shared every day. and lots of people that i know, that i'm in community with, and people that i don't know, are asking themselves, "what do we do about this epidemic of violence -- violence against women, violence against women color, violence against black women, clear people, trans people, and even, what do we do about violence against men?" right? cis men, trans men. this kind of patriarchal violence really functions off of shame and silence. and it's not lost on me that every single person who told their story about harvey weinstein talked about how they

were silenced, how they were encouraged not to speak up, how they were embarrassed or ashamed to speak up. and so the power of this movement of "me too," this power of empathy, this power of connection, is really about empowering people to be survivors, to be resilient, and also to make really visible that sexual violence is not about people's individual actions, that this is a systemic problem that then requires different types of responses to deal with how systemic this problem actually is. juan gonzalez: i'd like to ask tarana, as the founder of this movement, where do you think it needs to go, from here on? tarana burke: so, the movement, the work that i'm doing and this movement is really about survivors talking to survivors, right? "me too" is about letting -- using the power of empathy to stomp out shame. and so, we need to keep talking about it, right?

it doesn't need to be -- i mean, i appreciate the hashtag, and i appreciate the hashtag elevating the conversation, but it's not a hashtag, right? it's not a moment. this is a movement. the reason why people didn't know my name is because people don't think about this unless there is something big happening. so what needs to happen is that we need to stop just, you know, popping up when somebody famous does something. and we need to really look at the numbers, look at the people, look at the survivors and think strategically. i think like an organizer. this is an epidemic, pandemic even, right? if you applied the numbers around sexual violence to any communicable disease, the world health organization would shut it down. there would be all kind of, you know, experiment and research around it. amy goodman: do you think a vaccine could be developed against it? tarana burke: oh, god, imagine, right? if we could stomp it out with just "get your polio vaccine, and stop sexual violence." but in actuality, it is that pervasive. and so, we need to stop thinking about it in spurts, and think about it as something that we need to constantly work on.

amy that's tarana burke, who : started the me too movement 10 years ago, soraya chemaly , independent journalist covering the interesection of gender and politics, and alicia garza, cofounder of black lives matter. to see all of our coverage about #metoo and this historic outpouring of stories about sexual harassment and assault, go to democracynow.org. this is democracy now. we will be back in a minute. ♪ i've been a lonely girl, i've been a lonely girl, but i'm ready for the world, oh, i'm ready for the world ♪ re,'ve been a heart for high

e,ve been a heart for hir and my love is on the funeral pyre, my love is on the funeral pyre ♪ when will you, when will ?ou help me out ♪ you can't even pick me out of the crowd. ♪ o h oh, oh, oh. amy: "the body electric" by alynda segarra of hurray for the riff raff singing here in our democracy now! studio. to see our full interview and her full performance go to democracynow.org. democracy now the war

, and peace report. i'm amy goodman on this democracy now! special. last sunday, thousands of people rallied on the national mall in washington, d.c., calling for justice for puerto rico two months after hurricane maria made landfall. the protesters called on fema to act quickly to restore services and for the the cancellation of where to rico's debt. rico's debt. they also demanded congress permanently waive shipping restrictions under the jones act. half of puerto rico remains without power and hundreds of thousands of residents still have no access to clean drinking water. this comes as the head of the puerto rico public power company, prepa, resigned, after facing widespread outrage and controversy for signing a $300 million contract with the tiny montana-based company whitefish, named after the hometown of interior secretary ryan zinke. last month, under enormous pressure, puerto rico's governor, ricardo rosello, instructed puerto rico's power company to cancel the

controversl contract with whitefish energy. well, we were in puerto rico a month ago, and just a few days -- just as the cancellation of the contract was being announced, but a few days before, we went to the roberto clemente coliseum, where the san juan mayor, carmen yulin cruz, and her vice mayor, rafael jaume, had just gotten their hands on the contracts and were analyzing the details -- yes, the $300 million deal with whitefish and another $200 million contract between the power company and cobra, which is an oklahoma-based company. amy goodman: so you just got a hold of the -- both the -- efish contract >> both of them this morning. contract,0 million

$200 million with cobra, an oklahoma-based company, and this is fema's statement. whitefish wasn on made exclusively by puerto rico. fema was not involved in the selection. questions regarding the awarding of this contract should redirected to prep a. femaanguage that states pushed the contract is inaccurate. strong words. i will tell you this. amy: this is a part of it. >> this is article 59. in the whitefish contract.

it says, "in the event shall -- amy goodman: "in no event." vice mayor rafael jaume: "in no event shall prepa, the commonwealth of puerto rico, the fema administrator, the comptroller general of the united states or any other authorized representatives have the right to audit or review the cost and profit elements of the labor rates specified herein." that is -- you can read about it yourself. that's it. there's no other thing that -- that's black and white. amy goodman: and this? vice mayor rafael jaume: and this one says -- this is article 68, penalties, fines and disallowed costs. amy goodman: disallowed costs. vice mayor rafael jaume: disallowed costs. "by executing this contract, prepa hereby represents and warrants that fema has reviewed and approved of this contract and confirmed that the contract is an acceptable form to qualify for funding from fema and other u.s. government agencies." totally the opposite in contrast to what fema is saying. amy goodman: of what fema is saying. mayor carmen yulin cruz: you know what that means? that means that, right there, that contract is null and void. vice mayor rafael jaume: yes. mayor carmen yulin cruz: it contradicts the laws of the united states of america, and it should be voided right now by the puerto rican government. and if the puerto rican government does not have the nerve to do what they have to do

in order to do things right, then the u.s. government should do it, because what this means is that we will not get reimbursed for a $300 million contract awarded to a two-employee company that did not have the expertise nor business getting into this business. amy goodman: fema says prepa wholly approved this. mayor carmen yulin cruz: yes. vice mayor rafael jaume: yes. amy goodman: prepa, of course, is the puerto rico electric power authority. did prepa approve this? mayor carmen yulin cruz: prepa approved it. i have asked for -- actually, the director of prepa signed it. i have asked for prepa to release the minutes of the meeting where this was discussed. but certainly, fema did not approve this. that means we are not going to get reimbursed by this. and by declaring that in fact fema approved it, they were lying when they signed the contract. amy goodman: the head of prepa was lying.

mayor carmen yulin cruz: both parties. vice mayor rafael jaume: both parties. mayor carmen yulin cruz: both parties, because if i was getting a $300 million contract based on the fact that i would get reimbursed by fema, i would have liked that in writing. amounts much less than that and decisions much less than that, i've said, "no, until i have it in writing." so that is null and void right there. right there. there is nothing. you cannot tell a governmental entity that you cannot audit a contract, that you have no right to request a time frame, and you cannot represent things that are not true in contracts. that is just basics of contract law. so this right here, it's null and void. amy goodman: so, you want this -- do you want the whitefish contract nullified? mayor carmen yulin cruz: it should be nullified. it is scandalous. it is an affront on our people.

and frankly, again, when i called for this two days ago, their response, from the whitefish twitter, was threatening to take away the 44 men and women -- i don't know if they have women working, they said men -- and 40 more that were coming that day. so they have 84 people working in san juan, which is the largest city in puerto rico. not only that, now i want -- i would want to know: what is the work plan? well, they don't have to have a work plan. you know why? because in the contract it states that they don't have to finish anytime soon. so this is a gift of $300 million to two people. that's what this amounts to. amy goodman: do think the head of prepa should be fired? mayor carmen yulin cruz:yes. he should have been fired a long time ago. a long time ago. what is beyond me is why the governor continues to say that this man has his support.

amy goodman: and the head of prepa is? mayor carmen yulin cruz: ricardo ramos. very, very, very, very, very ineffective. very inappropriate. and frankly, somebody that doesn't even know what he's signing. amy goodman: and the other contract? this is a $300 million contract. then there's a $200 million -- mayor carmen yulin cruz: with cobra. that 1 -- amy: what's called cobra contract? mayor carmen yulin cruz: that one, i haven't had a chance to look at it. we got it this morning. vice mayor rafael jaume: here's the paperwork. mayor carmen yulin cruz: we went to the controller's office. amy goodman: this also signed be the head of prepa? vice mayor rafael jaume: yes. mayor carmen yulin cruz: yes, also signed by the head of prepa. so, it's very interesting, because when you look at these contracts, they're already, some of them i don't know if it's -- i think it's this one, already has addendums to it. there have already been changes. vice mayor rafael jaume: this has addendums, yes. mayor carmen yulin cruz: there

have already been changes. you haven't even started. vice mayor rafael jaume: these are the rates -- these are the rates per hours, $400, $500 per hour. amy goodman: now, cobra is an oklahoma-based contract. vice mayor rafael jaume: yes, in oklahoma. amy goodman: i don't know if there's any relationship between scott pruitt, who's the former oklahoma attorney general and now the head of the environmental protection agency. mayor carmen yulin cruz: i don't know, either. but what i do know is that two and three is five, and there's $500 million in here, one of which is utterly null and void. and it's, you know, very difficult to understand that in the united states contract law would allow one of the parties to be taken for a ride, because this is -- this prepa contract is so odious and so not good for the puerto rican people. amy goodman: you're holding the

whitefish contract. mayor carmen yulin cruz: yes, yes. and not only that, look, it was signed october 17th. this, i had the page this morning. october 17th. this is a $300 million contract. i hope to god that it has a lot more than these little tiny pages that we have here, because it's -- it's unnerving. it truly is unnerving, you know, that people can just swindle, swindle an entire population when they are at its most vulnerable. that was san juan mayor, carmen yulin cruz. i interviewed her last month in the city's roberto clemente coliseum, where her entire mayoral staff was living after hurricane maria devastated puerto rico on september 20th. i began by asking her how hurricane maria changed puerto rico.

mayor carmen yulin cruz: i think september 20th changed the puerto rican reality forever. in a different san juan and a different puerto rico, not because of what we're lacking. the majority of the island is still without any power. only about 40%-60% of the population has water. that doesn't mean that it's good water. we still have to boil it or put chlorine in it to be able to drink it. medical services are really, really bad because of the lack of electricity. the supplies in the supermarkets are not there yet, so people are having a lot of trouble getting the supplies that they need. but still, the fierce determination of people has not dwindled. and to me, that's been a very -- i would say, a big lesson to learn.

amy goodman: can you talk about this public power company, the largest in the united states? do you think there's an effort in this time, in the aftermath of the hurricane of -- an effort to just privatize it? mayor carmen yulin cruz: yes. amy goodman: for it totally to fail? mayor carmen yulin cruz: yes, yes. amy goodman: and what do you think has to be done about that? mayor carmen yulin cruz: it cannot be privatized. i am -- and a lot of people -- totally against, because we are a hundred miles long by 35 miles wide. that's a monopoly. it doesn't matter how you want to disguise it. it's a monopoly. and what we're doing is we're putting in private hands the decision as to where our economic development is spread, where the sense of equality or inequality will happen. so, power isn't just about the power grid. it's also about the ability that the puerto rican people may have in the years to come to ensure that there is appropriate economic development and equally divided amongst all the 78 municipalities in puerto rico. amy goodman: disaster capitalism, what does that term mean to you? and do you think that's

happening here, using a crisis to accomplish something that couldn't be accomplished otherwise? mayor carmen yulin cruz: you know, i wish i had never been introduced to that term. also the shock, shock treatment, right? using the chaos to strip employees of their bargaining rights, rights that took 40, 50 years for the unions to be able to determine. that is something very important. and it just means taking advantage of people when they are in a life-or-death situation. it is the most -- an absolute mistreatment of human rights. it means that the strongest really feed off the weakest, until everything that's left is the carcass. and what we cannot understand is why, because that is so against the american spirit that we see.

we have had in san juan more than 500 volunteers in a span of four weeks, coming here, leaving their homes, taking their vacation -- nurses, teamsters, afl-cio, ufcw, liuna workers, just leaving their homes. i met a person from california that sold their harley-davidson -- i mean, sold their harley-davidson to come to san juan and help for two weeks. you have -- you know, the united states has a big heart. you know what it is to help those in need. and then the central government, the federal government in the united states, seems to be just playing a totally different tune. this slowness, this turtle pace of just getting relief to people, life-and-death relief to people, it's unthinkable.

amy goodman: you mentioned death. as we flew in here, we heard about bodies being incinerated at morgues that are not counted. do you actually know the death toll right now? mayor carmen yulin cruz: no. amy goodman: and is that happening? mayor carmen yulin cruz: no, we don't know. it has been reported that 911 deaths have been -- or bodies have been cremated since maria. why is that happening? amy goodman: nine hundred eleven? mayor carmen yulin cruz: nine hundred and eleven. why is that happening? we have no idea. you know, usually when you cremate people at that rate, it's because you're trying to ensure that an outbreak of whatever disease doesn't come out. but whatever it is, we should know about it. and again, i don't understand why these things are not being openly talked about. amy goodman: let's go back to when president trump attacked you. i think it shocked many people, because, by then, people had heard of you.

you were a familiar image across our tv screens, as you were, what, waist, chest high in water with your bullhorn, helping to save people and evacuate people. so that's the mayor of san juan that we became familiar with. and then you have the president of the united states attacking you. what was the quote? first, you had the acting head of the department of homeland security talking about this being a "good news story." mayor carmen yulin cruz: saying that this was a "good news story." no, that really -- that really -- that really -- i don't know if i can say the word on tv. but it really upset me, because this was not -- this has never been a good news story. when devastation hits and people are dying because they don't have dialysis, appropriate medical care or food and water,

whose mind and whose heart would call this a good news story? so, i hadn't actually heard her say that. and i've actually met her twice after that, and we've had good meetings. good things have come from those meetings. but to me, at that moment, it was like a total lack of connection with reality. maybe in trumpville or in mar-a-lago. amy goodman: so, president trump says, "the mayor of san juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the democrats that y he tweeted this from his bedminster golf resort in new jersey and went on to say, "such poor leadership ability by the mayor of san juan, and others in puerto rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. they want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort." mayor carmen yulin cruz: you know what, what i thought? poor guy. poor guy. you know, it must be very difficult to live in a world where reality is very different to what you want it to be.

and it's very easy to try to change the dialogue when you're failing. it's like when he gave himself a 10. well, if it's a 10 out of 100, i agree, because it's still a failing grade. amy goodman: can you tell us what your meeting with him was like, when president trump came here? what we saw is the president hurling rolls of paper towels at hurricane survivors. mayor carmen yulin cruz: yeah. what i heard was a president disconnected with reality and not representing the real values of the american people, a man that said, "this is not a real catastrophe. now, katrina, that was a real catastrophe." he has then rescinded what he says. you know, he says one thing one day, he says another thing another day. it's very hard to keep up with the man. and who wants to, anyway? but it was -- he tried to avoid me. you know, i'm small, so it's easy for him. amy goodman: where were you? mayor carmen yulin cruz: i was

sitting in a corner. amy goodman: where? where in -- mayor carmen yulin cruz: this was at the muñoz marin air force base. and, you know, i went because you have to respect the presidency. and i went because i represent 350,000 people in san juan. if it would have been him and me, i would have not wasted my time. but in a democracy, you have to respect the leadership, even though you don't see eye to eye with the person. so, he finally -- you can see in the picture he had to very -- lean over, because he was so far away from me, so he had to reach out. and i said, "it's not about -- it's about saving lives, mr. president. it's not about politics." and he looked over me and said, "well, thank you, everybody." and i kind of chuckled, because if that didn't bother him, he

would have said, "i agree with you," right? but because it bothered him, then he didn't say anything. so all he did was -- it was a feast of accolades to himself. "oh, we've done such a good job with the coast guard. and we've done such a good" -- and, you know, in the meantime, i have a mayor sitting next to me saying, "well, let him come to my town." the reality is -- have things gone better in san juan? yes, in the past week and a half. people have responded more equitably, and a lot of it has to do with local politics. meeting withsecond the secretary from fema and

homeland security, things got better. are they where they are supposed to be? no. can i see the light at the end of the tunnel? a week ago, i couldn't imagine, but now i can. but that is not the case for the other 77 municipalities in puerto rico. and i am not going to say as long as things are good for me, they are good for the world, because then i would become donald trump, and heaven for bid i should be like that man. amy: when we flew in from the and you were holding a news conference with bernie sanders, there were representatives from the union. among them were the electrical workers. they talked about the power company. there have been discussions about whether you could transform this public power company, the largest public in the country

that is had the biggest shortage , biggest blackout we have seen, as a test case for using solar power. do you see this as an attempt to privatize or do you see creative ways to use solar? >> there are creative ways. tesla has already come and done humanitarian work. they have energized solar panels. this is a caribbean island. we get lots and lots of sun. we should be able to reach goals that are increasing every year to move away from our addiction to fossil fuels to nonfossil fuels. we should also be able to energize communities to use solar power and perhaps wind power if appropriate. for the first time i heard today

the president of the power company saying -- of the union -- saying they are looking to transforming the system and moving toward a of regular power and solar power energy. that was very refreshing to hear. no, the unionsay just wants to keep us one step behind, that's not true. again, we have changed the to attack so as not to be able to defend. it's a lot easier to attack somebody than to say what you believe in. amy: talk about senator sanders coming here. a lot of people say if he had been the candidate against donald trump he would have won. he was here. what do you think he can do as a senator?

>> did he come here to throw paper towels at people? he came here and walked around one of the most devastated areas of san juan. he talked to the community. amy: where did he go? pladitas, on the way to the airport, a very disenfranchised community. they are starting to come into power. we reallyt because believe the communities should hold the power of their own destiny. that doesn't make it easier for , but that's what it's all about. when we talk about puerto rican power, it's not just electrical power, but true power that makes your voices heard. one of the things i think

senator sanders is going to do -- which he has done before for be therico -- is he can echo of a thousand voices clamoring for the appropriate help. andre getting $4.9 billion, we are very grateful, but it is a loan. what is a way of treating a country that is $72 billion in debt? increase the debt by $4.9 billion? that doesn't make any sense. there should be a competent entry package that includes , andtion, medical, energy the transformation of that grid, economic development, small , and homes.elopment those are the things we talked to senator sanders -- and also, not allowing this chaos to be a our universityg

and educational system by taking resources out, closing municipalities which will have to close if the $360 million that the board took away -- you , well,00 $900 million heck, give back the $350 million you took from the board. things hevery precise could talk about. the president of the local teachers union said look, they are telling us they are going to schools because the army corps of engineers has not inspected them. people toll, get more inspect them. second, the army corps of engineers didn't inspect them to begin with. if they have minor damages, let's get moving in the business of teaching our children how to become better human beings.

amy: speaking of education, whether it is hurricane harvey or hurricane irma, the media covers a 24 hours a day. puerto rico, i would say yes, but there has been significant coverage. flashing words, extreme weather, severe weather. i'm talking about nbc and cnn. almost never do they talk about global warming or climate change. >> that's because some people think it's a hoax. amy: well, we have a very proud climate change denying president. seeing the effects of this. tomorrow, we are expected to have heavy rain in san juan and the rest of puerto rico. maria didn't stop.

just like harvey, the rain didn't stop until a few days later. maria, the rain didn't stop until a few days later. you have global warming. it is happening. it is real. there is no denying it. deal with the consequences of our actions and and action to reverse that make sure we don't screw it up for the next generation more than we have already done. amy: that was san juan mayor carmen yulin cruz. i interviewed her last month in the city's roberto clemente coliseum, where her entire mayoral staff was living after hurricane maria devastated puerto rico. when we come back from break, we'll go from the aftermath of one hurricane to another. we'll go to texas, to speak with dr. robert bullard, known as the father of the environmental justice movement. what is an bar mental stay with us. there's music playing, it's

almost like praying. it's almost like praying. it's almost like praying. it's almost like praying. it's almost like [singing in spanish] ♪ it's almost like praying puerto rico it's almost like praying

puerto rico ♪ ♪ amy "almost like praying" by : acclaimed puerto rican playwright lin-manuel miranda, creator of "hamilton". that song featuring ruben blades, gilberto santa rosa and pop star jennifer lopez, among others. miranda recorded the song after trump tweeted puerto ricans quote "want everything to be done for them." in response, lin manuel miranda you are going straight to hell, at real donald trump.

no long lines for you. someone will say, right this way, sir." they will clear a path. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are just back from cop 23, the un climate change conference in bonn, germany, where the trump administration tried to derail the conference by pushing coal, nuclear and gas as solutions to climate change. well, on this democracy now! special, we're looking at the ways climate change is already affecting the united states. we turn now to houston, which was devastated by massive flooding from hurricane harvey. the storm shattered all past u.s. rainfall records, forced hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate their homes in the fourth largest city in the united states, known as the petro metro because houston is home to the country's largest refining and petrochemical complex. the storm also caused massive environmental and public health impacts. according to the environmental defense fund, more than 1 million pounds of air pollution have been released into the air as petrochemical plants were forced to shut down by the storm. over labor day weekend just as , the floodwaters were receding, democracy now! traveled to houston, where we spoke with professor robert bullard,

among others. he is a professor at texas andhern university, historically black college and university. he's considered the father of environmental justice. we spoke with professor bullard at his home, which he had just returned to after evacuating. i began by asking him about his experiences of the flood. beent bullard: i had monitoring the storm, getting very little sleep. and then we were informed that we had to -- we had a mandatory evacuation. and i heeded that call, and i tried to move as much of my belongings from downstairs upstairs. and, actually, i used muscles that i hadn't used before, in that process. and so, i evacuated on tuesday and was able to call a friend and was able to take my, you know, little bag over and stay until this morning. i came back this morning.

amy goodman: so, in fact, your home didn't flood. robert bullard: no, no, we didn't flood. the water came up to on the streets around, surrounding streets, and some water came on the street, came up to the curb. but it did not flood. and it was, you know, kind of a challenge getting out of the subdivision to get over to my friend's house, but i was able to maneuver and avoid the water and drive my car, you know, in a way that i was not driving into water. but it was a challenge, but nothing like what other people have experienced. amy goodman: you have written so much about and been so deeply involved in issues of environmental racism, environmental justice. do you see the issue of environmental racism -- and i'm going to ask you to define it first -- playing out here in houston around this storm? robert bullard: well, i think when we look at the color of vulnerability and we look at which communities are actually at greatest risk from disasters

and floods like this, historically, it's been low-income communities and communities of color, communities that live in low-lying areas that are areas that are very prone to flooding. and it's very difficult to get insurance, not just flood insurance, but regular insurance, because of redlining. so, what harvey has done is to expose those inequalitie s that existed before the storm. and, you know, disasters like this widen and exacerbate inequality. and so, the communities that are most at risk from not having, you know, the kinds of infrastructure in those areas, in terms of flood protection, in terms of trying to get out, in terms of transportation, etc., i mean, it played out, you know, up close and personal. and i think as we start to see

some of the demographics in terms of communities that will take longer to return, will take longer to get their houses back in order, longer to get their communities and infrastructure back in order, this is not rocket science. and those communities that -- and individuals, households, that don't have that cushion to ward off that kind of disruption, i t's always much more difficult for them to return. and i don't see this any different in houston. and what we have to do is guard against building and rebuilding on that inequity. amy goodman: we just did a toxic tour of houston. we were over in baytown, next to the exxonmobil refinery. i think it's something like the second-largest refinery in the country. right by it, people flooded out. and you've got two -- many different aspects of this crisis, but one is the contract

workers who work at exxonmobil. they just lose their jobs when the refinery shuts down. and they also get flooded. and the question is who will get help, and who won't? but that issue -- for example, while the republican texas congressional delegation largely voted against vast help for the northeast during superstorm sandy, clearly, texas will get billions of dollars for fema and to rebuild overall. how do -- how is it determined who gets support and who doesn't? robert bullard: well, you know, the way it works is, those individuals in those communities, those families and households that have the resources and the wherewithal to maneuver through this maze of bureaucracies, of filing information online and getting access to the different organizations that can assist

and support, getting, you know, the fema grants and the sba loans and all those things -- it's not rocket science, but it's not easy to do that. and if you have individuals who are used to getting online and getting access to information and processing that, they have a head start. you know, there are lots of households right now that are actually hiring contractors, that have already gutted their houses and that have already signed individuals on to fix up and remodel and bring their houses back to life. and it's not any mystery as to which communities that will somehow be the last to do that. and these are the same communities that didn't have access to loans, in terms of

neighborhood loans, because of redlining. and what we ve to guard against is thirebuilding redling that somehow allows more affluent communities to access the system, get their communities back in order, and those who are left bind, somehow, those areas wl be the last to come back. so it has to be an equitable recovery, equitable development, and to make sure that those families that somehow may -- you know, who's to say that one community should be built or rebuilt, not be rebuilt? and those are policy decisions. and if money is not invested in those areas, and if infrastructure is not invested in those areas -- and many of the areas in many of the communities in houston do not have the infrastructure to protect them from man-made disasters in terms of the flooding, the lack of infrastructure in terms of the protection. you know, a lot of our neighborhoods just have open

drainage ditches, gulleys and just very minimum kinds of protection, and so it floods, you know, routinely. and so, we're talking about this biblical flood. and so, you can see how not only will they get washed out in terms of their homes, they'll get washed out in terms of their income. amy goodman: this is the 30th anniversary of the publication of your book invisible houston: the black experience in boom and bust. talk about invisible houston. robert bullard: invisible houston, that i wrote 30 years ago, there is a huge population that is still invisible. houston's demographics, you know, a lot of people like to say we are one of the most diverse, ethnically and racially, cities in the country. we're the fourth-largest city in the country. we are racially and ethnically diverse. but when it comes to economics and when it comes to power and decision-making, it stops. and so, when we talk about this whole question of how invisible -- how can we make invisible communities visible, those communities that have been

inundated -- before the storm -- by pollution, environmental degradation, living on the fenceline with very dangerous kinds of hostilities? and when a storm like this happens, it exposes those vulnerabilities. i mean, you have all this pollution, you know, all of this oil and chemical plants and that kind of pollution that's now exposed in the water. and when the floodwater recedes, it's going to leave residue. it's going to leave all kinds of stuff on the school grounds, on the playgrounds and on people's yards. and so, how are we -- how are we going to deal with that, those sediments that's left? and we need testing done. we have to make sure it is safe, all the mold. we learned from katrina that people want to get back in their homes, and that, in some cases, they are rushing to get back

without the proper protection. and with the mold in those homes and people getting sick, we have to make sure that we provide equal protection and equal access to resources to make sure that we do it right. amy goodman: how do you do that? robert bullard: well, it means that we have to have strong community-based organizations on the ground with the capacity to assist and support families and households that can get things right, that can pressure and apply the points of saying, "well, we need to make sure that just because you don't have a car, just because you don't have a big bank account doesn't mean that you should not be safe, that your community should not come back and that you should not have the same level of protection and the same level of importance as if you were a middle-class white neighborhood." that is -- that's what we have to ensure. houston is very segregated along racial and economic lines. and this flood has really shown

that. if you look at zip codes, you can map where that vulnerability is. you can also map how resources have been allocated and distributed over the last 50 years. and so, what we have to do is we have to map the resources that come to this region, come to this area. and we can show, and we can actually fight for, to make sure that the resources that flow do not somehow flow in a way that somehow leaves those invisible communities -- and, in this case, i wrote invisible houston in invisible houston, when i 1987. wrote it then, was black houston. but we're talking about a very diverse houston today. and the latino population is almost 50%. so, when you talk about the invisibility and you talk about where those -- where the population lives, you talk about not only a disaster in terms of the flooding, you talk about a disaster in terms of the environment, the pollution, the health threats, the potential

for the kinds of impacts that we will see, you know, years to come. and the most vulnerable in our society is children, and we have to make sure that we protect our children, our vulnerable population. amy: that's professor robert bullard, professor at texas southern university. other books,ong "it invisible houston." it's the 50th anniversary of that publication. he is considered the father of environmental justice. to see all of our coverage of wildfires ofs, the california, as well as our special from germany at the u.n. climate fund, go to democracynow.org. that does it for our show. that does it for our show.

- ah, sweets. we love our sweets. but as we all know, we can get carried away. i've got some healthier ways to satisfy that sweet tooth, and get you some extra nutrition to boot. with my crispy french toast fingers with blueberry maple sauce. banana bread with chocolate drizzle. mini date and nut snowballs. and three ingredient cherry chocolate haystacks. they're all coming up now, on ellie's real good food. (upbeat music) - [voiceover] funding for this series has been provided by.