cang sponsored by wnet >> sreeniv for sunday, september 2nd: tonator john mccain is lai rest at the u.s. naval academy. an update for our "peril & promise"s: how big businesses are investing in renewable energy. and, a new report on how climate change and the growth of wildfires are unovrmining imprents to air pollution. next on "pbs newshour weekend." >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. the cher family.lip milstein the sue and edgafowachenheim dation. the cheryl and philip milstein family. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. rosalind p. walter. ebarbara hope zucke designing customized individual

and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers likeyoou. than from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thank you for joining us. this afternoon, the body of r john mccain made its final stop after a long journey from his home in arizona where he died last weekend at age 81. the academy'sraduating class 1958, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, both of whom were academy alumni and admirals in the navy. those attending today's ceremonies included mcc cn's family ase friends.

at his request, senator john mccain is buried next to his lifelong friend and naval academy classmate, admir chuck larson >> sreenivasan: senatite confir hearings on supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh are set to begin this tuesday. this weekend, many democrats protested a white house decision to withhold more than a 100,000 pages of recovards from ugh's time as a lawyer in the george w. bush administration. on nbc's "meet the press" today, n mocratic senator amy klobuchar expressed frustrat the white house's recent decision and her inability to declassify information included in other documents. >> they've exerted their executive power.8, a 0 documents that i've seen that you cannot see, because they won't allow us to make them public, so i can't emeven tell you about ight now on this show. uh, you've got a-- >> do you think any of these documents could make unqualified for the job? >> i think that you could ask some very interesting questions about these documents that i'm unable to even say, because i'm not able to make them public. >> sreenivasan: republican

senator lindsey graham predicted judge kavanaugh will receive the votes needed for confirmation. >> i think there are a handful of demrats who will vote for judge kavanaugh if he does well and maybe even more. a lot of people should vote for judge kavanau. if you're looking to a republican president to pick a qualified conservative, he would be on the p of anyone's list. >> sreenivasan: thousands rallied throughout russia today to protest the government's plan to raise the age workers will receive state pensions. the protestors are demanding that the pension age for women remain at age 55 and for meat age 60. under the new plan, women would not be eligible until age 63 and n at age 65. russian president vladimir putin's approval ratings have fallen since the proposed changes were announced. in a televised speech last week, putin promised to make the retirement age for wootn sixty, but ts continue. russian unis say that most rkers will not live long enough to receive their pensions under the new legislation. >> sreenivasan: germany's foreign minister heiko maas today called on his fellow

citizens to "get off "he couch" and stand up to right-wing extremists. yesterday, more than 4,000 far- right denstrators marched in the city of chemnitz, after allegations that a german man was killed by two migrants from iraq and syria.ou nds of counter-protesters were also in the streets and authorities say opthat 18 pe, including three police officers, were injured during fights between the groups. a concert and rally against far- right nationalism and anti- migrant prejudice is planned for tomorrow in chemnit hear from some of the authors who gathered in washington, onc. for the na book festival at: pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: we've been reporting on the challenges of climate change often on this program and also somniof the oppores for dealing with it. that includes looking at some of the new fronti resilience and clean energy. we wanted to update a story we brought you last september. "newshour weekend's" special correspondent stephanie sy explored how the biggest retailer in the world is tackling the problem and hopes other big business follows suit.

the story is part of our ongoing series "peril & promise: the challenge of climate change." >> reporter: with sprawling supercenters and close to 12,000 stores worldwide, walmart best known for low prices that local stores can't match. now, the planet's number one company, by revenue, wants to be known as a leader in the fight against climate change. >> at walmart, sustainability reallisy is core to ouron. >> reporter: kathleen mclaughlin is walmart's chief sustainability officer, she'sar d with selling walmart's climate vision to sh ieholders. >>s critical for business. it's important for customers and for com we're seeing effects already in things like supply security of different food commodities. >>'s reporter: walmartesponse to climate change began more than a decade ago. in 2005, then c.e.o. lee scott pledged to curb walmart's emissions of greenhouse gases apke carbon dioxide, which cause

the atmosphere to eat and warm the earth. scott started moving the company toward clean power sources like wind and eventually getting 100% of its energy from renewables. >> it was a realization about capability and about scale and how we can use that for good. t has unique assets as a retailer, just given the reach that we have across categories, thh e re have across countries and across suppliers, and the recognition that we could bring those capabilities to bear on the most pressing social and environmental issues that our customers face in ways that are really relevant for business. >> reporter: walmart has saved energy and money in its store operations by demanding more efficient equipment from vendors that p refrigeration, and heating andco

ing systems. in its push for more renewable energy, the company has installed solar panels on the rooftops of 364 walmart and sam's clubs. that's only about 8% of all its stores in the u.s., but the e walmart the nation's second biggest commercial generator of solar power. >>n the biggest challengee in its push for more renewable energy, thepany has installed solar panels on the rooftops of 364 walmart and sam's clubs. that's only about 8% of all its stores in the u.s., but the panels make walmart the nation's cond biggest commercial generator of solar power. >> t biggest challenge in th u.s. is making it economic. we would love to see more availability of renewable energy

urces that is at price parity with other sources. >> reporter: in other words, walmart's ambitious energy goals aim also to save money. so, in its home base of arkansas, where a lack of state government incentives for renewables make conventional fossil fuel power cheaper, you won't see any solar panels on the local walmart stores. while the company has pledged to be 100% powered by renewables, it hasn't said when, and right now only 17% of walmart's domestic power comes from renewable. sourc to provide guidachnce inving its climate change goals, walmart has partnered with the environmental defense fund, or e.d.f. fred krupp is the group's president. is walmart doing enough? >> the scale of walmart is hard to wrapour head around. they have 220 million people shopping there every week. in the united statet they sell abthird of all the food that we buy at retail stores.

they can always do more. buo what they have shownr is a serious commitment, and the journey is an ongog one of imprvement. >> reporte walmart's newest initiative is called "project gigaton," which aims tppo persue ers to remove 50 times more greenhouse gases, or one billion metric tons, by 2030, abouthe same amount of pollution as germany emits in a year. walmart, known for squeezing suppliers to keep prices low, is putting a green squeeze on them now, though one that's voluntary. >> it sends a message to their 100,000 suppliers all around the rld: if you want your products on our shelves, cut your pollution. >> reporter: one of those suppfoliers was alreading its own path to sustainability. the candy makerars, inc., best known for m&m's and snickers bars, has set an aggressive target of using "zero carbon" in its operations by 2040, eliminating all greenhouse gas

emissions. >> fid is actually 18 acres, so it's pretty big... >> reporter: barry parkin, mars's chieofsustainability cer, showed us the vast solar farm in new jersey the company built eight years ago. it now provides about 5% of the power used by the mars chocolate factory in nearby hackettstown, which churns out half of the m&m's in the u.s. parkin says the falling price of thnewable energy technology, like solar, makes investments pay off. >> we've done this at cost parity or better. in some cases, our costs are now lower as a result of using renewable energy. so this is not just good for the environment. it's-- it's good r mars. it's good for consumers, and it's also good for the landowners that we're working with.

>> mars has enough electricity to use to its operaons. >> we're thinking long term. we're reducing our carbon footprint in line with our competitors. >> sreenivasan: since this report aired last year, walmart announced that it was adding solar pa bringing the total up nearly 500. that is still less than 10% of all of its stores. a28nd they saof domestic power at their stores now comes from renewable sources. more companies are also eporting on their own sustainability: 85% of companies the s&p 500 produce annual updates for investors, up from just 20% in 2011. for more on efforts by companies

ntarily be more green, i recently spoke to paula diperna, special advisor to c.d.p., an organization that helps track environmental disclosures by companies. so the big question here, as the united states pullback on its ommitments through the paris accords, the clean power plant, can corporations p and fill that gap? >> yes, the corporations of the world are stepping up and filling that gap. first of all, climate change -- addressing climate change is not a punishment. it's a pheomenal opportunity to create jobs and unleash novation and kind f try to get the maximum efficiency out of energy which is a real challenge and a very exciting challenge. so a lot of companies have understoodhat this is an opportunity, and they have begun to step up. and many, many companies at the rate of 150 a year, since the agreement of the paris accord, have -- have agreed to take on the science-based target.in

there's some like 450 companies that are now actually setting their targets inla onship to that scientific goal. woodruff: are theseargets it a form of regulations that un's voluntary? >> well, it's vry in some jurisdictions, like our own, but increasingly around the world, it is not voluntary. so if you're a major company, you need to be smoothing out yourperational costs across your geographical boundaries. >> sreenivasan: so it like companies are tackling this on two fronts, on their ow emissions is one thing, on how they do business, and then also the prodts of the business themselves. give us a couple of examples. >> yea so i think yotake, for example, l'oreal or wal-mart, i mean, walt has a goal of reding emissions by a staggering number of tonnes through -- throughout its supply chain. and i think we all know as consumers that it's increasingly difficult to go and buy something where you're not confronted with the greenhouse gas potenal or the carbon footprint. it's a little bit like when you

buy sandwiches and it's suddenly telling you the calories. you kind of think twice, well, do i really need both of those sandwichesavr should i just h one? >> sreenivasan: there seems to be a necessary alignment here beeen three differe stakeholders. you've got the management of a company, the investors in thatmp y, and ultimately the consumer of the product, who all have to have some level of value for a company to start to make these changes. >> yeah, well, that's well put. if you think about a slot machine, you want to get erries all across. the cherries all across in a climate change is lining up science, policy and ca so verses are increasingly looking at, is a cpany organized well for this scientific imperative which means reducing emissions. reducing emissions is an operational and finan tool. it's a way of gauging is the company well managed? st the way we now are looking at whether a company has diversity on its board. blackrock, one of the largest investors in the world, the chairman has called on all of the companies in which they

invest to be addressing and come into coherence with the paris agreement. voluntary environmental disclosure which cdppioneer now increasingly is going to become mandatory arou the world through what is called the task force on climate related disclosure, which meansvehat you o tell your investors how you're managing climate change or suffer their t anger, ay may divert. they may sell their stock. just an interesting factoid, thout two years ago, 1 in $12 invested iunited states was screened for environmental or social impact or good governance. today that number is 1 in 5.an it means that investors are really looking to manage climate change so, on some level, the economy is getting a lot greener than they which. it's just that we have to do tremendous amount more. we're talking about millions of tons that have to be either stopped from rising or removed from the atmosphere one way or another. >> sreenivasan: any voluntary

disclosures, how do you trust but verify and make sure tha this isn't essentially a marketing employ to try angrd n wash and improve their image that they're actually doing what they say they're d going ? >> there's a lot of skill within the companies to look at this and management manage it. there's a big industry,gain, opportunity jobs, of consultants who help theni compa, but the thing about green washing, we may overstate the eid ya of green washing but i think there probably are a number of people who don't fully get the magnitude of the challenge in terms of the tonnage. but by the same tone, if everybody's doing a little bit,y e gradually unleashing that -- unlocking that to enge it to reveal due opportunities for efficiency, new products. you know, it's very exciting. a little thing like frost-free membrane. it doesn't sound glamorous. but a frostree membrane in a refrigerator or a freezer real reduces the energy demand of that product. somebody's out there inventing that. and somebody's out there ttoryig nvept a better one.

and you can go through almost every little unglamorous widget and it'sa combination of engineering, imagination v it's ary exciting. we have to rereto fit, redo, redesign just about everything in the world. >> sreenivasan: all right. thank you very much. >> sreenivasan: california fire officials announced that the massive carr fire, which burned for over a month this summer in and around the city of redding f has bely contained. the fires, which began in late july, claimed eight lives, destroyed more than 1,000 homes, and covered over 229,000 acres. multiple fires continue to burn throughout the western u.s., and wildfire seasons are expected to last longer and burn hotter. flames are not the only danger from fires. smoke can drift for hundds of miles. the smoke from this years

western wildfires has been observed all the way to new hampshire, swept toward the east by the jet stream. a new report by non-profit science and news organization "climate central," shows that in parts of california, as well as idaho, oregon, and washington state, progress in reducing traditional air pollution is being undermined by wildfires. senior science writer john uptot joined me re to discuss those implications. when which think about people affected by forest fires, we're usually thinking about tho we peop have homes that are too close to the fires. they evacuate. they get out of harm's way. but your report really starts to look at a group of people that can't get out of harm's way, not from the fire but from the sme. explain. >> well, it's becoming a huge public health issue across the west. it's gne all the way the east coast. it's been reaching new york, louisiana, maine. so the smoke from the wildfires

is affecting a large number of people but it becomes so thick in some places it's such a defining trait of the atmosphere the weather in the west right now. some people aren more mobile t others. they get very intensemoke, very severe health consequences. but there are also people who are living iareas that are already polluted who are already feeling unwell, who have conditions such as asthma, emphysema that are linked to breathing air pollution. this is certainly the case in california's central vley when we think of the farming reach than produces a lot of our produce. but that's a rea ball is the mountains around it and the air pollution from the farms and tte ks there, it gets stuck in the valley. they've been making great strides in cleaning ther there in recent decades through environmental regul technology improvements. but what's happening is these fires are burning and the smoke pours into the valley and has no where to go.pe and thle who are breathing that smoke now are the people who the most affected by air pollution.

>> sreenivasan: give me an example of somebody who's out i there literalthe fields all day working, picking upe. prod what are they breathing in now xtendss fire season >> what the biggest concern is these tiny particles in the smoke. whenhe wood and material burns, it produces these tiny particles called par ticklate matter it gets into our lungs and trigger asthma and other conditions. they pass into our bloodstreams and they travel through our bloodstreams into o heart and brain. and they exacerbate risk so everything from heart attack, stroke, even diabetes and depression. >> sreenivasan: you also took a look at the larger coext of how this is happening. you're saying that the worst air quality days are aually happening when the forest fires are going. that seems logical. but you're also pointing out that the are more and more days when forest fires are alrning all over the west. >> climate cen research has looked at a number of different regions in the west and compared the number of heavily days now to 1 years ago.

we're seeing more and more. at the same time we're seeinge ldfire season is extending. >> sreenivasan: give me an example. someone woinrkinhe san joaquin valley, how long ish it thay're walking into bad bad area. >> it changes from year to yeart ceainly the fire season lis 100 dager than it was in the '70s. so you would anticipate smoke impacts also being extend ited by similar amounts. >> sreenivasan: let's talk about why that's happenin how mh does climate change contribute to longer and longer forest fire seasons t re's three reasons we've been seeing really terrible fir. seas one is beyond our control. that's the weather. it will be very dry one year very wet the next year or even from one century to the next. but there's two other factors that are very much under our control. one of those factors imate change. the temperatures are increasing, and when you get warmer temperatures, the moisgets sucked out of the landscape so you have dryer conditions.

and the fires are going to burn hotter. 're going to burn over larger areas. the third thing that's also under our conol is forest conditions, forest management. we haven't been spending very muchoney igniting d managing fires along the forest floors. a lot of the these western landscapes. these fires used to occur naturally or under the contr of tries a couple of hundred years ago and they would remove fuel from the forest floor. when you have that fuel built up, it lifts the flames from the foreste loor up into thnopy. and once the flames get into the canopy, that's when you have that's when you have these big wildfires that kill people and destroy property and cause all this pollution. so we are inevitably looking at a future with more fires and more smoke. that's what the modeling shows us. we're expecting to see continued improvements in air quality from a continued shift to solar power and so forth but at the same time we are expecting to see worst impacts undrmining that progress from wildfires. >> sreenivasan: climate central senior science john upton.

t >> this is bs newshour ekend," sunday. >> sreenivasan: when addressing climate change and sea level rise, coastal residents are on the frontlines. some are trying livies shorelo protect their land from erosion. florida resident jstnifer mcpeak led one on her property. "pbs newshour weekend" went to see hoit works. >> sreenivasan: mcpeak and her husband wanted what many of their neighbors had: a seawa they even started the process of getting a permit from the state's department of environmental protection, or d.e.p. >> we had signed on the dotted line we're putting in a seawall. and the representative from the d.e.p. said, "have you ever heard of a living shoreline?" and i said, "no." she said, "well contact these folks ov at the choctawhatchee basin alliance and ask them about it, because i ouink you guys be a really good candidate." >> sreenivasan: it took almost a year to get the permits from the state and federal government to build the living shoreline. cost about $3,000, abou a quarter of what an 80 foot seawall would have. the c.b.a. subsidizes the cost

with grant labor, and oyster shells, which are collected from local restaurants. are you surprised at how fast ck's taken? >> s. shocked. towe just harotect the shoreline a little bit to give a chance for these grasses to gain a foothold and with it all this life and that been the biggest thrill for us. this isn't just grass and some reefs, this thing is teeming with life. >> sreen asan: the bags of oyster shells create a whole new habitat. research shows that living shorelines attract more marine life and plants than seawalls.ng what kind of tdo you see here? >> oh my gosh. ery kind of crab you can imagine. we've got hermit crabs, stone crabs, blue crabs, fiddler abs, marsh crabs. i sound like that guy from "forrest gump" with the shrimp, but it's me with the crabs! ( laughs )

>> sinreenivasan: s tomorrow, on labor day, when the "newshour" examines attempts by the trump administration to change the work rules for unionizedederal workers. at's all for this edition of "pbs newshour weekend."as i'm hari sreen. thanks for watching. have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made bernard and irene schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family.

sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the cheryl and philip milstein family. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana.. vagel the j.p.b. foundation. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual d and group retirement pts. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided b and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. be more. pbs.

there's a newspaper arascle, and the last quote "on lana'i, there's always a reason to smile." ed: oh, how is that? i would rock that. life on an island is all about balance, especially if you're a hula dancer and an avid hunter. food brings people together and has the power to conjure up cherished memories. jack johnson: ♪ oh, you're such a pretty thing ♪ ♪ i'll take you and i'll make you all mine ♪ ed: i was born and raised in the hawaiian islands, one of the most diverse communies in the world. johnson: ♪ we can watch it from the cloud♪ ♪ we can't stop it anyhow, it's not ours ♪ ed: in this show, we'll meet a guest from hai'i, learn about their favorite dish, trace it back tots origins, and have some fun along the way. johnson: ♪ oh, you're such a pretty thing ♪ ♪ i'll take you and i'll make you all mine ♪