captioning sponsored by wnet >> thompson: on this edition for sunday, february 3. growing calls for virginia governor ralph northam to resign. with the u.s. out of the climate agreement, china takes the lead. and the world's largest organism: once growing steadily it's now dying fast. next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. seton melvin. eie cheryl and philip mils family. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of ameri-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by:

corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at nlincoln center iyork, megan thompson. >> thompson: good evening and ank you for joining us. uo days before he delivers his state of ton address, and less than two weeks before another deadline to come up with a way to fund federal agencies, the president is not ruling out another governmetdown. >> well, we're going to have to see what happens on february 15th and i-- i think-- >> you'r table?king it off the >> i don't take ything off the table. i don't like to take things off the table. >> thompson: in a wide ranging interview on cbs, mr. trump also said he is still prering to withdraw u.s. troops from syria despite opposition from congressional republicans, b

said he wants to keep u.s. troops in iraq to monitor iran. >> i wan iran. able to watch all i want to do is be able to watch. we have an unbelievable and expensive military base built in iraq. it's perfectly situated for looking at all over different parts of the troubled middle east. >> thompson: on this superbowl sundaythe president also weighed in on football, calling it "a dangerous sport" that he would not encourage his son barron to play. >> i hate to say it because i love to watch football. i think the n.f.l. is a great >> tmpson: the interview was taped on friday, before virginia's governor ralph northa conflicting statements about whether he is one of two men, one in bla aface and one u klux klan costume, in a photo on his personal page in his 1984me

cal school yearbook. northam refused to resig yesterday despite calls from u.mocrats, including both senators from virginia and many state officials, that he step down. for perspective and analysis about virginia's governor, his comments and the issues there, we turn now to judith browne dianis, in washington, d.c. she's executive diref advancement project, a national civil rights organization and roben farzad, host of the radio program and npr podcast "full disclosure." he joins us from richmond, virginia. robben, can you justs up to speed? you're down in the virginia state capital. what areeople saying? >> it's just been such a surreal three days here in richmond. you start, friday morning, this is the beloved pop democratic governor of virginia, and the news drops that a right-had wing website gets their mitts on these photos of him in either blackface or a

klan outfilo what you'ring at right now is a person in the course of 36 hours his career is self-immulate immulated anpeople are waiting for the final resolution.>> udith, i wanted to get your take on the press conference.yo saw it. what were you thinking? >> i was appalled. first, we had the apology on friday, and the next day, for an hour, he talked abut it wasn't him. then he said he didn't recal whether or not it was him. he called college friends, and they said they don't remember him ever doing that.so an it wasn't a full-out denial, and while he was apologizing, it just did not seem real. and so i think that the call for his resignation is real, that heple do not believe that can lead the state of virginia, and that he can build an inclusive democracy in virginia for the new virginia that were

seeing has moved into over the past few years. >> stewartyears. >> you are t one people calling for him to step down. he says he wants the chance make amends. what do you say? >> when you do racial justice and civil rights work, that is part of what our mission is, to bring this country along. but i don't think that means that he should be the governor of t state of virginia opinion we are talking about the capital of the confederacy. we are talking about a state where a majority of black voters voted for him, and now, they are feeling betrayed. so he needso step down. >>imented to ask you a little bit more about that. this did come as a surprise. he did enjoy support in the african american community. you can talk a littlebout what you're hearing from the community today. >> virginia still remains one of

three states that disenfranchises people with felony convictions for a lifeme, and that is a vestage of slavery. it was passed in the late 1800s. and so african americans in the state of virginia understand what racism looks like and that it's not just about the blackfacis the blackfac a symbol of white supremacy that plays out in all of our structures and systems and institutions, and so black voters in black communities, for example, the new virginia majority found that 90% of black women in predominantly black communities voted forortham. 81% of black men voted for him. so people are feeling b they don't think that he can stand with them, and they don't think that he can lead them into the future that they want to see in virginia. >> roben, the scandal comes amidst really a changing political landscape in virginia. ran you just describe that fo us?

>> yeah, i mean, it is fascinating. it was historically a red state. here in richmond was the capital of the confederacy. the studio in a swawg of town burned down by confederate troops as the union troops advanced in 1865 and richmond fell. but right now, what you ha is a place where, obviously, certain things like blackface, like the "n" word remain forbidden and not tolerated in the entire discourse, for example, things that happened in charlottesville last year. but other kind of coded racial micro-aggression. you see monment avenue with all the confidence statues. you see justin fairfax, the lieutenant govereer, who ak before black history month, overseeing the virginia state senatehave to step up and walk away as robert e. lee and stonewall jackson were honored by the virginia senate. there is still a battle f the soul of the state. there are three or four virginias in one virinia. you go to northern virginia, it is soled blue. y

come here to rich mon, they elected their first democrat congress person in 45 years. if you g to inteft virginia, it resembles other states in dixie. i think this is indicative of some of the tensions over time that people who wanted to keep the uncobrmfortable equim together. don't rock the boat. but when things like this happen, it reallyse expos howlv unrere all this is. >> if northam steps down, who will take over? >> justin fairfax. he has been st kind of subdued in calling for his resignation. there is an element ohim want be to be magnanimous. but because of virginia's peculiar secular term limits for governor, hepooulntially be governor. he could serve out rest of northam's three-year r rm and run his own four years. and that has many people in the party eye know it snds nersinary-- really excited. joe biden, kamala hris, a.o.c.

want to come into town ahead of 2020 and this is a brutally important swing district in a swing state, want to make sure there isn't an albatross they have to deal with, a lame duck, a rson radioactive you don't want to be seen with. >> roben farzard, host of "full judith browned dianis, executive director of advancement project. thank you very much for joining us. > thank you. hank you, megan. t mpson: four-term member of congress, democrat tulsi gabbard of hawaii officially launched a d for president yesterda afternoon. she joins a growing field of candidates who have officially announced they aren the race. gabbard said her inspiration for running comes in part from her service in the army national guard since 2003. >> it is in this spirit that today i announce my candidacy for president of the united states of america. >> thompson: u.s. envoy stephen biegun arrived in south korea today ahead of tomorrow'sne pld meeting with north

korean officials. diplomats from all three nations are expected to work on arrangements for a second summit between president donald trump anjonorth korean leader kim ng u.n. officials say there willuce discussionlearization and what progress has been made since the singapore summit last june president trump said last week e that he may reveal the dd location for the second summit during his state of the union speech on tuesday. pope francis made history tod, becoming the first pontiff to visit the arabian peninsula, the birthplace of islam. the pope will address an interfaith conference during his two-day visit to the united arab emirates and meet with members of the country's christian community. he's also scheduled to preside over an outdoor mass where more than 100,000eople are expected to attend. tensions between the regime of

venezuelan president nicolas maduro and the united states continued to rise today. president donald trump said in the cbs interview broadcast this morning that the use of military force against maduro is not off the table. his comment camewo days after national security advisor john bolton said that military intervention in venezuela is not imminent. but in a tweet last night, malton called on the venezuelan military to supporro's opponent juan guaido, writing:" to the venezuelan military higho and, now is the time to stand on the side of theel vene people." holarge number of nations have called on maduro t new elections but today russia's foreign ministry warned the international community should not mele in venezuelan politics. egypt's ministry of antiquities announced a new discovery of at least 40 mummies in four burial chambers south of cairo. archaeologists say the well- preserved remains are likely family members who belonged to the elite middle class. so of the mummies were discovered wrapped in linen and others were placed in stone and wooden coffins, or sarcophagi. e remains date from the ptolemaic dynasty that ruled

egypt between 305 to 30 b.c. for more reaction to the virginia governor's statements this weekend visho pbs.org/ne. >> thompson: in october, the u.n.'s intergovernmental panel on climate change issued a dire warning: the catastrophic effects of climate change have begun, and the international community must take drastic steps immediately to ruce greenhouse gas emissions. but president trump withdrawing paris climate th accord in 2017 has left many asking who will now lead this work. it may end up being china, sayso barbara fina, in her new book, "will china save the planet." she's an attorney d founder of the natural resources defense council's china program, and she recently joined me from boston.

> and she recently joined me from boston. >> beginning in 2001, the year that china joined, that first decade saw its g.d..p quadruple. all this was powered by coal, which is the leading source of china'air pollution, and its c.o.2 emissions. and as time wentn, cna's leaders began to recognize that this was not all of this was powered in cole, the lesource of china. as time went on, china's leaders began pay in ter of environmental degradation, and this came to a head in 2013, the year of the so-calle in the year of the so-called air pop lips, when it was as

polluted in cities and 4,000 people every day from air pollution. >> a turning point that. year that china launched a massive air pollution control program targeting call, that was the year that china became the world's largest invest tore in global energy and that'the year china began its historic climate cooperation withathe united s. >> writing a book how china is determined to be the world leader when it comes to green technology. what are we seeing? >> china recognizes that clean oergy technology is the leading market opportunithe 21 it's century. and just in the past decade it has become the largest user and largest producer and invest or

in renewable energy. by 2020 china will have nor solar power, as much as five mes the united states, and it has one of every three winter in the wld and it has become the largest market for electric vehicle >> when it comes to the invasion and technology, we here in the united states think we're usually th leaders in tha realm. are we preceding our position here? have we missed this opportunity >> the u.s. invented the solar cell, the u.s. buil the first practical electric vehicle, we're still leaders in innovation, but china is catching up fast, because we are not investing in rnd like we used to and china is taking over but it's not too late. it's huge opportunity for the countries to collaborate, to really ramp up an accelerate the

growth of these clean energy ch nologies world wide. >> but the reality is that china is still highly dependant on coal and the biggt emitter of greenhouse gases how can china be a leader onlimate change when that's the reality >> is first of all, china's massive investments in renewal energy brought cost of solar and wi power down 70% in the last decade. and the cost of electric vehicle batteries two third in just five years. so this is one form of leadership. ina's investments are gotten able these clean energy technologies to compete with without subsidies with the internal coal fire perlants in the future. but r a broadescale, china recognizes switching away from

its economic mol based on heavy industry and coal is essential to its own prosperity >> the natural resources defense council, thank you so much for being here. >> my >> thompson: as far as science knows, the largest animal that bus ever lived is the blue whale. if you think that means it's the largest living thing in the world, well, think again. there's something a lot bigger,n but its life ianger. newshour weekend's chris booker reports from uta >> reporter: whether you're sittg under its canopy, or looking at it from above, it's difficult to comprehend that all of these leaves, the bnches and the unks that support them, are one single organism. what looks like a forest is actuallyne single tree. located in utah's fishlake national forest, the tree spans 106 acres, the equivalent of 80 football fields. but what's up top, covers what's

happening below: an intricate root system that supports the most massive living thing known exist on earth. it's called pando. the nickname is latin for "" spread but the tree is what's known as a quaking aspen clone. that means each leaf, branch and trunk are genetically identical. some leaves may be lger, some trunks taller, but if you look.n at the., there is no difference. aspen clones of various sizes can be found all over the ourthern hemisphere. there is debate just how old this tree is. some scientists estimate that i isted for thousands of years, but its' remarkable longevity is at risk. s pando rting to die. professor paul rogers is theah director of tate university's western aspen alliance. he compares pando to a human community. >> imagine a town. bu this case the pando clone of 47,000 peoplthey're all kind of the same age. they're all 90, 100, 115 years of age and that's no way to sustain a community bet an ecological one or a human one.

>> reporter: for theast 10 years, he and his colleagues ouve been working to raise the alarm pando's impending demise.bi >> we have no , we have no teenagers, we have no young adults we have only senior cigzens and those are start to die very rapidly at this time. >> reporter: in october, rogs and co-author darren mcavoy published a study documenting pando's dramatic change. using over 70 years of aerial gephotographs as a guide, ' and his team spled and studied ree different plots within pando to try to understand what may be happendng. they fou that pando is suffering a complex ecological rtions of itself.s the dying is a quaking aspen clone like pando grows not from a seed, but from small saplings that sprout from the expanding root structure. the saplings growing into the white trunks that n stand for ll over 100 years. and as older ones die, they are replaced by new greesaplings.

but there's a problem. h the sapline long served as snacks for the wide array of herbivoresieanimals that ists call browsers, that regularly pass through aspen forests of the norther hemisphere. for the majority of pando's ex everything from rabbit, to deer, to elk, were not able to linger very long. pt them spending too much time inside the giant aspen clone. so historically if you were an elk or a deer or one of the browser's, the threat would be you are sitting here grazing on a sapling and you could be eaten by a wolf or a mountain lion or ar? >> yeah, and that would keep things more or less in balance.t >> reporter:he number of predators has been reduced dramatically by human related activities, everything from hunting to development. with nothing to threaten them, the browsers moved in, and pando wasn't ready. >> it's really good, when it is damaged moved around, its reaction is to sprout. and it has gotten along very well for a very long period, with that mechanism.

however, when we took away tse carnivores and we threw that system off so now there's too many browsers- now we have a system spinning out of whack. >> reporter: because the forest reationa popular r destination, hunting is restricted. also, during the summe cattle from nearby ranches are allowed to graze in the area. some parts of pando have been vefenced off and saplings started to return in those areas. but rogers argues fences only address part of the problem and ignore the broader ecological breakdown that pando's struggle represents. >> now we've we've introduced some experiments and we've had at least one good response and onnot so good response in these different fenced areas. however if you multiply the situion across the whole wes and pando is a microcosm or a laborato we cannot fence all the west. it's difficult and eo ensive evennce that 106 acres that is the pando aspen clonec >> reporter:se that's the current temporary solution if you will is to get a large

enough fence that would surround this 106 acres. >> exactly so i call this aspene tr we have a real emergency here. ce can throw up fences. i consider fdumb. it's a simple solution because e more difficult solutio involves in people with eofferent interests. we've got to gete to come to the table and try to compromise. pind healthy deer populations. we have people who are recreationists.we ave people that run cattle in that area. so how do we get all these people to compromise and are we going to be able to convince them that this giant aspen clone thought to be the largest living thing on earth at this time is important? >> reporter: what happens if we lose pando? >> i think it's a reflection o us. is this going to come apart during our time and it's clearly our problem the fingers pointed direack at us. and this is a bellwether or a harbinger of perhaps a lot of other environmental or neological issues.

>> this is pbhour weekend, sunday >> thompson: tus kaphar uses his art to explore how people of color are underrepresented in the canon of western art. one of 2018's macarthur fellows, he says his work is about highlighting whose stories get told a lt.ch ones are left a use of different techniques in making paintings, sometimes the surface will be t t. something removed from the surface of the canvas in order to show something. behind. this theme or this idea of layers and multi is recurring, there's always multiple narratives, i'm asking the viewer to piece the story ge er without leaving behind the valuable narrative of in many cases, those people who

s.en in silence over year the drum project is an investigation into the criminal justice system, my father spent time in and out o prison and jail throughout my life. i googled my father and found his mug shot. but i found 97 other men with actly the same first and last name and all of them mug shots began to paint these as small devotionnal religious style painings with guilded backgrounds, i is submerged them into the tanks and tars based on the amount of time these fks spent incarcerated. until i was in my mid 20's that i found art. i feel really strongly that if i can do anything to herp oth young folks who come if the kins of communihat i come from, discover their passion, discover this thing that motivates them,

i will be the >> thompson: coming up this week, the president will deliver his delayed state ofhe union address tuesday night. stacey abrams, who lost her bid to be governor of georgia last fall, willive the democratic response. newshour will have live coverage on air and online. that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. orm megan thompson. thanksatching. have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access gup at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii.

the cheryl and philip milstein family. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individua oup 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 youn pbs statom viewers like you. thank you. was funded in part by...

♪ nouncer 2: in the hands thoset they do, something unique can be created. ♪ announcer 2: edward jones is proud to support the craftspeople who define the maker movement. ♪ announcer 1: ...and by fleischmann's yeast and abauri. ♪ cat: i'm standing in the middle of oil country but not the kind of oil you're probably thinking of. in this episode come along with me to rural georgia and get a taste of