01/23/18 01/23/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from park city, utah, at the sundance film festival, this is democracy now! >> they wanted to believe it was just people in factory that were affected by all of this. but unfortunately, they had clear information that the levels of exposure for people outside the factory were actually higher than the people in the factory. determined the measure would tell people outside the factory? they did not. they kept it a secret. the unscientific come again and

again, their own lawyers said, no, we should tell people about this because they urge ranking it in their water. ," a newe devil we know documentary looking at how residents in west virginia five dupont to expose the dangers of c8, the chemical in teflon, nonstick hands and other household items. today, c8 is now in the bloodstream of 99% of americans, even newborn babies will stop then to "anote's ark." >> the issue of climate change remains the most challenge for us. what is going to happen was? ofis going to be the fate the world. in ago we talked to the pacific ocean island nation of kiribati in fighting to save his country from rising waters.

all of that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. on capitol hill, the senate has voted to end the government shut down after democratic lawmakers capitulated on the demand that any spending deal include a resolution on daca -- that's the deferred action for childhood arrivals program. instead, a slew of centrist democrats abandoned their promise to the nearly 800,000 young undocumented immigrants whose protections president trump ended last fall, and joined republicans in voting to pass a short-term spending deal to fund the government through to fund the government through february 8. on daca recipients slammed the monday, move. >> today, a continued resolution was passed without it clean dream act attached to it.

i am very disappointed by the fact our politicians did not continue to support us. some of the american people, some of the politicians blame the dreamers for the government shutdown. however, we are not responsible for the shutdown. the republicans of the democrats who do not have the background to support a clean dream act are the ones to blame for government shutdown. amy: vice president mike pence has announced the new u.s. embassy in jerusalem will open by the end of 19. he announced this while speaking during his visit to israel. working with ambassador freeman to complete the transition of moving our embassy here to jerusalem by the end of next year. amy: palestinian leaders have boycotted pence's visit, and palestinian residents have launched a general strike across the israeli-occupied west bank. this is hebron resident jihad naseer-aldeen.

>> today there is a general strike in all of our organizations and shops. even today, 99% of transportation is out of the strike. the schools are part of the strike as well. amy: germany says its halting weapons sales to saudi arabia and other parties involved in devastating ongoing war in yemen. human rights groups are calling on the united states, britain, and france to also stop selling arms to saudi arabia, which has been accused of committing war crimes in yemen. president trump has imposed steep tariffs on imports of solar panels and energy cells. the 30% tariff is a major blow to the renewable energy industry and comes as trump has taken steps to try to incentivize the fossil fuel industry, listening environmental restrictions and opening up millions of new acres of public waters for offshore drilling. on monday, trump also announced tariffs on imports of washing machines. the moves will likely further escalate tensions with china and other nations over trade.

in mexico, new data shows violence rose sharply in 2017, making last year the deadliest year since record keeping began more than 20 years ago. the escalating violence comes in the lead up to mexico's presidential election in july. meanwhile, mexico's national indigenous congress says armed men attacked the caravan of presidential candidate maria de jesus patricio martinez, better known as marichuy. on sunday night in the state. the gunmen reportedly attacked the final vehicle in the caravan, which contained three journalists covering the campaign. in haiti, thousands of protesters took to the streets of the capital port-au-prince to protest against president trump for reportedly describing haiti, as well as some african nations, and el salvador, as "s-hole" countries. this is haitian professor josue merilien. >> donald trump is a piece of

[beep] president. in outlook that contributes to a p] situation. the support of the enslaved politicianwho don't make considerations with their country of mine, but defending their own interest. they are all corrupt politicians. amy: in a major labor victory, a global clothing brand has been forced to pay $2.3 million to improve workplace safety in 150 factories in bangladesh. the brand is not named in the settlement. it was sued by workers unions in the permanent court of arbitration in the hague. the committee to protect journalists is demanding justice for the murder two brazilian journalists killed within the last week -- reporter ueliton brizon and radio

journalist jefferson pureza lpes. back in the united states, the chairman of usa gymnastics and several board members have resigned amidst the high profile trial of the team doctor larry nassar, who has admitted to sexually assaulting and abusing girls and young women for decades. this is gymnast kamerin moore. toinitially i was not going come here and say anything to you. not because i did not have anything to say, but because i did not want this child i am carrying to be in the same room with a child molester. even unborn life should not be subjected to that. that is how deeply i hate you for what you did to me. amy: pennsylvania's state supreme court has ruled pennsylvania's congressional district map is unconstitutional, unfairly benefiting the republican party. the court banned the map from being used in this year's midterm elections and demanded a new map be created by february

15. pennsylvania republican lawmakers have vowed to appeal the ruling. puerto rico's governor says he is moving to privatize puerto rico's electric power authority known as prepa. it faced widespread criticism after hurricane maria destroyed the island's power grid, and the the director signed a $300 million contract with a tiny montana company linked to interior secretary ryan zinke. many activists have feared -- warned politicians would use hurricane maria as an excuse to privatize the power authority, which is the largest public power utility in the united states. evacuation sirens blared in kodiak, alaska, early this morning after a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck about 175 coast,ck off alaska's prompting a tsunami warning. the national weather service's tsunami warning center advised that widespread hazardous tsunami waves are possible. and legendary south african jazz

musician hugh masekela has died at the age of 78. masekela was also an anti-apartheid activist whose widely popular song, "bring him back home," demanding freedom for nelson mandela, became the anthem of the anti-apartheid movement. he died in johannesburg after a long battle with prostate cancer. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from the sundance film festival in park city, utah. nearly 70 years ago, the dupont chemical giant introduced a product that would transform how people around the world cooked -- nonstick teflon pans. >> oakville welcome good thing it is teflon. -- oh, well, good thing it is teflon. won't sticked food to teflon, so it is always easy to clean.

cookware never needs scouring. if it has dupont teflon. amy: the chemical in the product, c8, went on to be used in countless household products from stain and water resistant apparel to microwave popcorn bags to dental floss. but dupont had a secret it never told the american public or many of its own workers. c-8 is highly toxic. stop themot discharge the from discharging it into the waterways. it has now been linked to six diseases, including testicular and kidney cancers. it has been used so widely, it is now in the bloodstream of 99% of americans, even newborn babies. the chemical is bile resistant, meaning it does not break down. the struggle to discover the truth about c8 and hold dupont

accountable is the subject of a stunning new documentary that premiered here at sundance called "the devil we know." the film is based in parkersburg, west virginia. >> everybody in this area in one way or another is connected to dupont. you go dealing with someone's livelihood, which is their job, which is there insurance and their protection, and you go messing with that, you're going to have problems. amy: the documentary "the devil we know" looks at how former dupont employees, residents, and lawyers took on the chemical giant. >> they wanted to believe it was just people in the factory that were affected by all of this. but unfortunately, they had clear information that the levels of exposure for people outside the factory were actually higher than the people who work in the factory. determined,ey should we tell people outside the factory?

they did not. they kept it a secret. the own scientists again and again, their own lawyers in fact said, no, we should tell people about this because they are drinking it in their water. >> dupont became aware that the chemical had seeped beyond its plant. they wanted to figure out how far it had gotten, so a team plastic with some jugs, jars, and went to general stores and went miles down river to collect samples. they did not say why they were collecting samples or that they were from the company, but in testing the samples, found that, in fact, the chemical had gone quite far from the plant. amy: today we are joined by three guests who personally battled with dupont and are featured in the film "the devil we know."

bucky bailey's mother worked in the teflon division of a dupont plant in west virginia while she was pregnant. bucky was born with only nostril and a deformed eye. he has undergone more than 30 surgeries to fix the birth defects. joe kiger was lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against dupont. he was a school teacher parkersburg, west virginia, who suffered from liver disease. and rob bilott is the attorney who brought dupont the court. in 2016, "the new york times magazine" ran a profile of him headlined "the lawyer who became , dupont's worst nightmare." in 2017, he was awarded the right livelihood award. bucky bailey, joe kiger, and rob here inre joining us park city, utah. welcome all to democracy now! joe, i would like to begin with

you. why don't you tell us your story. when you start to realize something was wrong in your town. >> i was sitting out of my courtyard and my wife is watering the flowers. she went out and got the mail. open it up and there was a bill from the public service district, which supplies are water. she said, honey, there's a service.om public she handed it to me and i read it. it was a form letter. it stated that there was a chemical in our water and it was called c8. but according to dupont standards, it was not harmful. i did not think anything about it. within the next month or so, i started noticing more things. with tumors, people with tumors, people getting sick and everything. the one that really got me was a little girl that have black teeth. her teeth started turning black. amy: totally black.

>> they could not figure out what was going on. i said, we got a letter from dupont, something about our water, some chemical. i just have a gut feeling and i want to look at that. the more i read it and went over it, the more red flag started popping up. i said, something isn't right. i started calling the local agencies. first of all, i call dupont and talked to a lady down there. did not really give me any answers, so i started calling the department of natural resources. i thought, surely -- they blew me off. the health department was almost rude. did not really give me any i called several agencies to make a long story short. could not get any answer. i called gerald kennedy, the head toxicologist from dupont. he and i talked for probably 45 minutes to an hour. i hung up the phone and the wife said, what did you find out? i said, i was just fed the biggest line of bs i've ever

been fed. i had been out this for about nine months. hold of and got general and who sent me some papers. he said, read them over and you may want to contact a lawyer. that is when i got hold of mr. bilott. we put things together and it started from there. amy: bucky bailey, tell us your story. . >> my mother worked with the c8 chemical directly on the line of production. amy: of teflon in particular. >> yes, ma'am. she was removed when she was pregnant with me, from the line, stating safety reasons. after that, she had no inclinations or had no reports from the doctor i was going to have deformities. she was taken aback by that. began to question as things begin to come together with

different things. amy: when you were born, what were the challenges you faced? >> many. i was not given a day to live. doctors told my parents brutally, don't get your hopes up, he may not make it through the night. amy: what was wrong? >> i was not breathing properly. my mother was devastated. she was having to sit me up so i could breathe. no one wanted to touch me. amy: can you describe your nose and eye when you are born? >> i was born with one nostril. i have a serrated eyelid and keyhole people. amy: which means? >> by pupil is off to the right. i have like conception and some image visibility, but i cannot read out of it. amy: at the time, did she immediately link it to her work at dupont? >> at the time, she was be

wilderness. she did receive a phone call that gave her suspicion. .ondering about my status not about how she was or anything moving forward. which at the time, caught her be dupont was such a great company. it was the status quo to be a part of dupont. amy: would you say it is for an assay was a company town? >> absolutely. unequivocally. amy: i want to go to a video that the west virginia cattle farmer wilbur tennant shot on his property in the 1990's after he sold part of his land to dupont for what the company had assured him would be a non-hazardous landfill. this is tennant filming a stream. that water should not look like that. there's something wrong with this water.

what effect will this solution have on the livestock? dead deer andwo two dead cattle. it was hammering disease, all right, the blood run out of dnrr nose and mouth, but has never checked into it. they need the epa or the state of west virginia, to try to cover this up. but it is not going to be covered up because i'm going to bring it out in the open for people to see. amy: that video shot by the farmer wilbur tennant on his property in parkersburg, west virginia, after he sold part of the land to dupont for a landfill. a year later, he felt what happened to his cows. >> you can see she has hemorrhaged out the nose.

disease this hemmoring are what everyone a collar, but this cow died with an extremely high fever. you see the discoloration in the hair on her neck. this is 153 of these animals that i have lost on this farm. dr.he state but nearing thomas won't come up you to do anything about it. every vet mary and i have called in parkersburg will not by phone calls are don't want to get involved. since they don't to get involved, i'll have to dissect this thing myself. the head.to start at one of the things i noticed right off is the desk -- this coloration of the jaw teeth. here is his tongue. i don't know with those little red spots are on the bottom part of that things tongue. i don't know. this is very unusual here. it looks like milk coming up on tissues.

i never sign a thing like this in my life. amy: again, that is video shot by the farmer wilbur tennant on his property in parkersburg, west virginia, after he sold part of his land to dupont for what he thought was going to be a non-hazardous landfill. rob bilott, that brings you into the picture. how did you get involved? >> well, i got a call from mr. tennant in 1998 out of the blue. did not recognize the voice on the other end. he mentioned my grandmother, who actually had grown up in the area -- amy: your grandmother. was fromy mom's family parkersburg. he was having trouble getting any lawyer to talk to him post of this was a company town. he had to reach outside of the local area to find someone who would talk to him. he called me and was explaining that he was having all of these troubles with his cows. and could he come to our offices and bring videotapes and

photographs and show us what he was seeing. so when i heard this was coming to my grandmother i said, sure, come on up and bring your materials. he came to our offices. amy: just to be clear, they heard your some kind of environmental lawyer. you had worked with dupont lawyers. >> right. our law firm had typically done a lot of work for big chemical companies. in fact, i is rent the prior eight years of my career working for big chemical companies, doing environmental law, helping with permitting issues and missing like something we could help him with. what was happening was these cows were drinking white foaming water being discharged from a landfill. we assumed with the permits, we could find out what was happening. he brought his videotapes and photographs of to us. we took a look at it and realized something that was happening. you could see the white foaming

water coming out of a discharge height marked "dupont company." the case intake on 1999. at that point we started looking through everything that was regulated and listed and permitted in the landfill and really could not figure out what was causing this problem. it was about a year later after digging through lots and lots of documents that we found a document that mention something called pfoa. it was something i never heard of. i went to our standard environmental libraries to try to research this chemical, and we could not really find any information. it was at that point we started asking the dupont company for information about this pfoa chemical. they had indicated a have put it in the landfill. that begin the fight. we got a lot of pushback from the company about this information.

after a lot of battling back and forth, we started getting these internal documents from dupont. then we started putting the story together about what the company had known about this chemical, how widely it had been used for over 50 years, that 7000 tons of it had been put into the landfill that was then discharging into mr. tennant's creek. we learned not only had a chemical been disposed of in this landfill, it was going up the river for decades. and what we saw was dupont had known since the early 1980's this was in the drinking water of the entire community surrounding the plant. we eventually are able to settle the farmer's case. at that point we knew the entire was drinking this and had not been told. so i put together a letter in march 2001, putting a lot of these internal documents together, and send it to the

united states epa to alert them and to the state of west virginia. there's a chemical in the water that people are drinking and it is even above standards that even other federal agencies had not regulated, dupont scientists had said, you should not have it above one part per billion in the water and it was way above that in the local water. we alerted the agencies in 2001. please, comment and start regulating this -- come in and start regulating this. the community started learning. that is how joe learned about it. what we saw on the documents were the studies dupont was doing internally, including looking at pregnancy outcome, including with bucky's mother and the results of the blood testing and break to take desperate to affect study that have been done. amy: this is amazing. they are following you but you don't realize that and your mom doesn't realize that they are not giving you information,

they're just taking information but not giving it to the public. >> correct. they denied it to my mom face-to-face over the phone many times. there was nothing wrong. they were not monitoring. it was standard practice for them. amy: we're going to go to break and come back to hear what the dupont lawyers were saying, how they helped to really lead a cover-up that would end up polluting the bodies of 99%, not only of the people of parkersburg, but of the united states. ring a bell?tex teflon? we're going to find out the list of products that use c8 and what ultimately happened to c8 and chemicals that are being used today to replace it. this is democracy now! "the devil we know." stay with us.

♪ [music break]

amy: the father of south african jazz, singing about nelson mandela who was in prison for 27 years. he died at the age of 78 in johannesburg. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from park city, utah, the sundance film festival. last night, we saw an astounding film, its world premier, "the devil we know." it looks how residents in west virginia fought dupont to expose the dangers of a chemical called teflon,is used to make nonstick vice pres. pence: and other household items. our guest today came in for this

film and have been engaged in a battle for decades. bucky bailey' is mom worked in the teflon division of the dupont plant and was virginia when she was pregnant. he was born with only one nostril and a deformed i and is undergone at least every surgeries to fix his birth affects. he is now in his 40's. was a schoolteacher and parkersburg, west virginia, who suffered from liver disease. and rob bilott is the renowned attorney that brought dupont to court and to its knees. as we continue this story, rob bilott, can you talk about dupont's in-house lawyer in the depositions that you took when your client, wilbur tenet, the farmer who took the video of his dying cows, they saw they had a problem on their hands. >> one of the things that we

were able to uncover during the lawsuit and the discovery process, able to get a lot of the internal emails that dupont's lawyers were sending, including emails that one of the attorneys representing dupont earnie riley, had written some of them were to his son and some were to one of his. but they were providing insight into what the legal counsel for dupont or thinking about what was going on with the tenant case and what problems it could present for the company going forward. amy: and what did he say? and you cannot curse on the air. >> there was one female in particular where after i had alerted the company that i had started figuring this out and i was aware that pfoa was what was in the landfill and it was what the cows were drinking and it was in the public water supply, there was an email where the council made a reference to "f" him.

amy: so he is talking about the cow farmer. how long did they keep this quiet for? and tell us the products that c8 is in. >> this was a chemical the dupont company had started using as early as 1951. it was being used primarily at the parkersburg west virginia plant to manufacture products that were used in nonstick coatings like teflon. the chemical was also used for many years and making a variety of different products such as stain resistant carpeting, like stain master carpeting. it was used in making stain-resistant grease-improve coaching for fast food wrappers was microwave popcorn bags. pizza boxes. stain resistant and waterproof protectors,bric water repellent for shoes. amy: how does gore-tex use c8? >> the chemical was used in

making the coatings used in gore-tex materials. amy: word is scotchgard fix into this? >> 3m company is the company that started making c8 back in the late 1940's. they were selling pfoa were c8 to dupont. they were also, the 3m company, made a very similar, very closely related chemical called pfos. that chemical was what was made and used in making scotchgard. as some of this information started to leak out to the u.s. epa about the scotchgard chemical in 1998, 1999 timeframe, the u.s. epa was some ofatpfos, seeing this information and was getting very concerned about it. at that point, the 3m company announced it would stop making pfos used in scotchgard and pfoa

. yet at that point, the dupont company who could have also decided to stop using pfoa -- dupont made the decision to go ahead and start making pfoa itself. amy: 3m stops because it is so dangerous and dupont takes it over? where did the epa fit into the story? >> as i mentioned, i first alerted -- the epa was looking at pfos, was not really focusing on pfoa. in march of 2001 when i sent my letter to u.s. epa alerting them, you need to also look at this very closely related chemical pfoa because it is in the drinking water here in was virginia and ohio, likely in the blood of lots of people as well. that started triggering u.s. epa to first start looking at this chemical. they started having to play what i characterize as a catch-up

game. this is a chemical that had been in use and was being admitted into the environment since the 1950's, but it predated a lot of the federal laws that required testing and regulation of chemicals before they went into process. so the epa really had not looked at this chemical. one of the things they eventually did is the u.s. epa, once they started looking through all of this information, they brought a lawsuit against dupont in 2004 saying there was information about the toxicity and widespread examination of this chemical, you should have told us decades earlier and we could have begun regulating this decades ago. amy: how did he get into the bloodstream of 99% of americans? >> as we sit here today, that is still sort of an ongoing research question. but a lot of what we know now is the chemical is emitted from manufacturing plants, goes into the air from smokestacks. can get up in the water drople in the clouds and transfer over

the entire planet. it is now in the blood of not just 99% of americans, but the entire globe. everybody on the planet -- polar isrs, every animal species being tested. but it is coming from not only these plant emissions, it is coming from consumer product use as well. amy: what happened? how did dupont stop manufacturing c8 and turn to a new chemical called genex? it was during the course of our lawsuit, as we were providing more of this information to the u.s. epa and the u.s. epa is getting more and more concerned about it, it brought a lawsuit. they have started a criminal investigation in 2005. dupont eventually settles our case in west virginia. they also than settle the case the u.s. epa brought against them. one of the things they also

agreed to do as they announced they will have a 10 year phase out of any further manufacturing or use of pfoa in the united states. that is announced in 2006. amy: "in the united states." >> correct. announced in 2006 and the phase out -- to pot stopped using it by 2013. they had until 2015 to stop using it. some reduction possibly is now going on in china. because of the way this chemical can move around the environment, it doesn't really matter where it is made, it will still contaminate. amy: what is the company that dupont spun off to make genex? 2015, theve around dupont company spun off the division that had been making teflon-related materials. they spun it off into a new company. and that company took over a

lot of these plans, including the parkersburg plant that had been making these floral products. they also started shifting to use of a new material to replace pfoa as this phaseout was occurring. the new material they are referring to now as genex. amy: you havbecome a major force in plaintiff's law, but you started as the man who represented a chemical company. how did you shift personally when you started to realize what was happening? your colleagues, i mean, dupont lawyers, your now seeing as you bring in depositions lying to you. and you said criminal investigation. are their criminal investigations of the ceo, for example, of dupont? >> i got to take the deposition

of the ceo of dupont back in 2003, 2004 timeframe. it was indicated the u.s. department of justice has started a criminal investigation into thousand five. after the phase out was announced in 2006, the criminal investigation was dropped after that. i'm not aware of any criminal investigation that is going on. i do know one of the plants that was using this material and is now ing genex in the netherlands, there is an investigation going on in the netherlands of all of these activities. havedupont and the covered agreed to pay, as of last february, $671 million in cash to settle thousands of lawsuits involving a leak of this toxic chemical used to make teflon. and that was c8.

so does this include the two of you, bucky bailey and joe kiger? why? respect, this man has done a heckuva job. the whole entire attorney firms and all of that. i just was not at the point at this time ready to sign off on it. convictions and everything. i did not want to take a chance on if i signed off, not being know, research and do more work. i feel there is more outhere to do against dupont. and i felt by signing off, i would be gagg and i didn't want that. thei was dropped from class-action suit. like really don't have a suit filed against them because none of the linked diseases from the science panel i have. were notoint, they

willing to say the deformities are a cause. amy: now, you talk about the science panel. rob bilott, explain what that is. at the time we reached a settlement with dupont in 2004 for the class-action lawsuit that joe and i had brought, one of the things that we wanted to do was actually do a thorough, human health study. most of what had been done up to that point had been done with adult -- primarily adult, healthy male worker populations. they're typically were not big enough population sizes in this study to draw what the companies were referring to as statistically significantly valid results. you needed huge numbers in order to find rare diseases, particularly cancers or birth

defect outcomes. what we set out to negotiate with the plot is there needed to be an actual full-blown health study done of this community to find out what would drinking this company at the levels that these people are actually joint gain, what would that do? what kind of diseases could that actually result in? we decided we would pick completely independent scientists. these had to be people that both sides agreed for unbiased one where the other. believe it or not, we were able to select three good in yellow just that both sides agreed to look at all of the data -- we were able to select three epidemiologists that both sides would agree good look at all of the data. it took about seven years. 70,000 people in the community for dissipated in the study. at the end of the day, the science panel and what bucky and joe were referring to, the science panel linked only six to drinking the water.

they did not link the breast of facts -- breast affects. because was indicating, the with a settlement was set up, only the linked disease claims can move forward at that point. amy: so as we wrap up, bucky, you wanted to have a baby. i saw that baby last that at the baby. for mayor. what was the fear you and your wife have lived with? >> recalling my childhood in the struggles i faced, it was every difficult decision. after the science panel and taking part in that, we did do some genetic testing and i was given a prognosis that there was a 50% chance my son would have the same deformities. over the course -- join amy: how heavy is the toxic load in your body? s. it was extremely high level

it was frightening for me. amy: you were defined the term "teflon man," and a porcelain, it did stick for you. but your spirit is just indomitable. in the film, the way you have lived your life, the attitude of with anents toward you endless series of operations you have grown up with. >> it was a challenge, but my carrots were my rock. -- my parents were my rock. i'm honored to share my story and partnering with another voice, showing the power of speaking out. amy: joe kiger, your thoughts as we and up this segment right now , on what you would tell people in other countries where these corporations are working, in this country, the level of toxicity that people are

experiencing that comes from your town? >> i tell people -- someone asked me a while back and said, joe, what we do? i said, you have the playbook, you just have to run the plays. the water you are dragging probably needs to be filtered. get it tested and filtered. once you get into that, get a good attorney. a man like rock, he stands out. this guy is -- the tenacity of this man, started 17 years ago, but give somebody that is knowledgeable of what is going on. they have to do that. the playbook is there. amy: i want to thank you all for being with us. bucky bailey, thank you so much, and for your valiant struggle throughout your life and how you have dealt with it. joe kiger, plaintiff in the c8 lawsuit against dupont, and rob bilott who has represented 70,000 citizens in lawsuits against dupont. he successfully won compensation for his clients whose drinking water had been contaminated by

toxic chemicals used to make teflon. this is democracy now! when we come back, the former president of kiribati, the pacific island nation and their fears about climate change. ♪ [music break]

amy: the great trumpeter, composer, anti-apartheid activist. we're broadcasting from the sundance film festival here in park city, utah. we turn to a new film on the devastating impact of climate

change, particularly on the low-lying pacific island nation of kiribati. "anote's ark" tells the story of the former president anote tong's desperate efforts to save his small island state from rising sea levels from global warming. he has compared his country's future to the sinking of the titanic. kiribati is a collection of 33 coral atolls and reef islands located over miles south of 1000 hawaii and nearly miles 4000 northeast of australia. it is home to 100,000 people. already an entire village was inundated and its residents forced to flee as the sea wall broke into a freshwater pond. president tong has predicted his country will become uninhabitable in 30 years to 60 years as rising tides displace more and more people, wash away infrastructure, degrade fragile coral reefs, and disrupt the remote island's food supply. as president of kiribati, tong promoted a policy of migration with dignity, encouraging residents with employable skills to move abroad.

his administration also took the precautionary step of purchasing acres on the neighboring island 6000 state of fiji in anticipation of the coming climate catastrophe. this is the trailer for the new film "anote's arc." >> it is rising in the middle of the pacific ocean. so far away, so isolated, we thought it would be immune from the tribulations of this world. the issue of climate change remains the most pressing challenge for us in kiribati. sea levels have already taken a village on one of your islands. do you see the possibility of all the people of kiribati one day having to leave? >> 75 people from kiribati

having granted special visas to new zealand. >> for those of us on the front line, he really does not matter what is agreed to in paris because we will continue to go underwater. a nation on the brink of despai disappearing. >> what is the point of a deal now? >> we need to survive. what is going to happen to us? what is going to be the fate of kiribati? amy: that is the trailer for the new documentary, "anote's ark."

it just had its row premier here in sundance. for more, we're joined by the star of the film, former president anote tong. he led kiribati from 2003 to 2016. also with us, the film's director, producer, and so much talk of her -- cinematographer matthieu rytz. we welcome you both. president tong, what is your island face? place it for us. it is so beautifully described in "anote's ark" as a center of the world. >> we are the center. amy: explain that. >> we're on the north and south and the east and west of the international date line there's no other country in the world with that distinction. we are really in the middle of the world. in spite of that, we are facing some serious issues with the onset of climate change. i must make it clear it is not in the event that happens

suddenly. a very slow onset event. -- but a very slow onset event. intergovernmental panel saying a rising sea level of as much as one meter. our islands are barely two meters above sea level on average. we are at the vulnerable of the most vulnerable. i must also explain to a number of other countries in the region are in exactly the same situation. the marshall islands, the maldives, and of course other smaller communities. facing.what we are amy: sometimes i think when people think climate change, they think of whole or bears. you actually went to the arctic. anyes, i remember reading article in "the national geographic." concern that was being expressed about the future of the polar bears due to the

melting of the ice. but there is never any reference to people in that part of the world and what would happen to our habitat as the consequence of climate change. i did have the opportunity to visit the arctic. i saw polar bear. of course, we share the same fate as the polar bear. amy: matthieu rytz, why did you choose to make this film and call it "anote's ark"? >> i went to kiribati as a photojournalist and i met with president tong. i was amazed by the man, but also by the mission as the head of state to save his entire nation. i started this with him to basically start a future doc. i've been following president tong for the next two years. titlee title? i think the

is not biblical, it is more metaphorical about what can a nation, what can a people keep losing their entire land? that was a concern i had for this movie. universalobal and story. a is going to happen with billion people. the question i rise with this movie, what can remain? the connection to the land, the --whatality, the culture can people take with them? amy: let's go to another clip of "anote's ark" featuring our guest anote tong. >> our islands will be gone.

build the islands or find somewhere else to live. we have to go somewhere. whether this is a good thing or not, but the reality will be, if we leave kiribati, then our ability to retain our culture longery distinct will no be very easy. amy: that is the former president of kiribati. for those wondering, kiribati is spelled and pronounced devoutly. andident anote tong matthieu rytz. we don't have much time, and i don't mean that in a sense of clock is ticking how planet earth, but if you can talk about what you are seeing in kiribati and what your unusual response has been, buying land in nearby

fiji so the people of kiribati can move? >> welcome of the challenge is something that really has escaped much of the focus of international attention. that was my concern when i started speaking at the united nations general assembly in 2004. the focus was on terrorism, which was on the issue of economic the relevant issues. nobody was talking about what was coming, which i had read from the reports of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. what they were projecting was quite serious for us. nobody else at that level at that time, political level, was too concerned about it. so i had to keep pushing to get some focus of attention to that. because i could see that given the rise, projected rise, and sea level of about one meter was really serious for us.

maybe not serious for countries with mountains, but we don't have mountains. wase had to, for me, it trying to get the attention, focus of attention on the situation that we would be facing in the future. in terms of what we are experiencing, we have been experiencing very minor storms. we're outside the hurricane-cyclone belt. and what have you over the years, i started -- you mention in your opening statement, there's a village -based to visit as a small child. it is still longer there. what is left of that village is a church sitting in the middle of the ocean you can see when the tide comes in. amy: president tong, you are here in the united states where the president of the united states, president trump, has called, change a chinese hoax. your response to him and what message do you have president to

president? i am reading the science. have no other information to indicate otherwise. for me, it is a matter of survival for our people, for future generations. even a remote possibility, even a 5% possibility that it is not a hoax, i think it has to be taken seriously. i think it is important. it is too important to speculate that it may or may not happen. if there is a 5% possibility that it might happen, then we should begin to take measures from now because we understand how vulnerable we are. and i think given what has come in -- the knowledge that has come forward on climate change, we know what is causing it. we think we know what is causing it. it has been denied by, no doubt, the interests which believe are being threatened by all of this, but here we are.

i have often been in discussions with leaders who argue before leading up to the paris agreement, they argue a two degrees rise in to pitcher was -- temperature would be damaging to the economy. amy: we will have to leave it there. final thoughts? >> fresco it is a matter of survival. amy: a matter of survival. anote tong, former president of kiribati, and matthieu rytz, director of "anote's ark." the 2010 oscar nominations has just been announced for stop among the top nominees, "three billboards outside missouri was --" democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to

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