captioning sponsored by newshour proedions, llc >> nawaz: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. judy woodruff is away. on t newshour tonight: "urgent concern." a whistleblower sounds the alarm, lding to warnings fro the intelligence community watchdog a sparking a fight between congress and the white house. then: >> i shouldn't have hat. i should've known better, but i didn't, and i'm really sorry. >> nawaz: cism and regret. canadian prime minister justin trudeau apologizes after revelations that he wore blackface on mtiple occasions. plus, between the lines. a conversation with joy harjo, the new poet laureate of the united states, and the first nave american to fill the role. >> you can time travel in a poem. you can get to know people in a poem. and poetry is a place you can come to when you have no words. >> nawaz: all that and more, on

tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ >> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin? >> advice for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. >> bnsf railway. >> consumer cellular. >> and by the alfredoan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial peliteracy in the 21st century.

>> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations i education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of internationaleace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions:di and duals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank u. >> nawaz: president trump is insisting he has not made any p impropmises to any foreign leader. that followed reports of a whistleblower questioning actions by mr. trump, including communicions with a foreign leader. the intelligence community's inspector general called it an "urgent concern," but the

administration has refused to share it with congress.us we'll diall of this, after the news summary. iran today threatened an "all-out war" if attacked by the u.s. or saudi arabia. foreign minister mohammad zarif issued that warning, after rising tensions over a drone- and-ssile attack on saudi oi facilities. u.s. and saudi officials have dismissed iran's denial of responsibility, and yesterday, secretary of state mike pompeo called the attack an "act of war." today, pompeo was in the united arab emirates for talks with gulf leaders, d he responded to zarif. >> i was here in an act of diasomacy, while t foreign nister of iran is threatening all-out war, to fight to the last american. we're here to build out a coalition aimed at achieving peace and a peaceful resolution of this. that's my mission set. that's what president trump certainly wants me to work t achieve. >> nawaz: pompeo left the region today to return to washington. united nation whspectors, mee, arrived in saudi arabia to investigate the attacks. also today, iran announced that president hassan rouhani and

foreign minister zarif have now received u.s. visas to attend the u.n. general assembly in new york, next week. in afghanistan, the taliban have struck again, this time in the southern province of zabul. a truck bomb killed 20 people outside a hospital. ambulances rushed through the chaos, and doctors t nearly 100 wounded, includingch dren. separately, officials in eastern afghanistan said a u.s. droneat ck, aimed at islamic state fighters, misfired, and killed 30 civilians. a court in japan today cleared three former utility executives of negligence, in the fukushima nuclear plant disaster.pl inearch of 2011, an earthqu triggered a tsunami that all but destroyed the plant, sending radiation spewing across the countryside. thousands of people were left homeless, and some protested today tside the court today. >> ( translated ): how could they rule th way? we cannot understand, and cannot accept it. for the past 8.5 years, there

are many people who were forced to evacuate from their home and inmetownand are still lo for a place to live. >> nawaz: the court ruled today at, at the time of the tsunami, the japanese government did not require nuclear plant executives to ensurebsolute safety. this was the only criminal trial related to fukushimala back in this country, remnants of tropical storm imelda have led to heavy rains and flooding in the houston, texas area. officials today reported more than 1,000 people rescued or evacuated so far. forecasters said some places could end up getting 40 inches of rain. hurricane humberto, meanwhile, brushed past bermuda, with winds of 125 miles an hour. there were reports of some damage on e island, but no deaths. the white house today withdrew are nomination of jeffrey to lead fema, the federal emergency management agency.as the nominationulled over what the administration called an unspecified personal issue. h fe not had a full-time administrator since brock longas resignedfebruary, over questions about his use of

government vehicles.ap onol hill, eugene scalia, the nominee for secretary of labor, defended his pro-business record today scalia has spent most of his career representing corporate in.rests on employment issu democrats argued, that makes him the wrong choice to defend american workers. scalia saihe has acted as any good lawyer should. >> i am not ce clients. i will seek to defend em, to vindicate their rights, but that doesn't mean that i necessaril was proper.they did >> nawaz: scalia is the son of ictonin scalia, the conservative supreme court juwho died in 2016. the u.s. house has passea enop-gap spending bill to pra vernment shutdown at month's end. it sailed through today, and went to thsenate, which is also expected to approve it. the bill funds federal operations throughovember 21. president trump won a round in federal court today, on keeping

his tax returns private. a federal judge blocked a california law that says presidential candidates must release their returns to qualify for the state's presidential imary ballot next march. the president also filed a federal lawsuit today to block a subpna for his tax returns, that from prosecutors in new york. and on wall street today, the dow jones industrial averageo lost 52 pointsose at 27,094. the nasdaq rose five points, lland the s&p 500 was virt unchanged. rid there is word that bird numbers in north a have plunged by nearly three billion since 1970. that's a 29% decrease, according to a study based at cornell university. it w publishedoday in the journal "science." now, the study estimat the u.s. and canada now have about 7.2 billion birds. rr says the common house s and eastern meadowlarks have suffered some of the biggest losses. and, the washingn monument reopened to visitors today, for the first time in three years. the stone obelisk had been

closed to replace its aging elevator and to enhance security systems. first lady melania trump was on hand for today's ribbon-cutting, as students looked on. the monument is the tallest building in washingtonat 555 feet, and officially opened in 1888. still to come on the newshour: a whistleblower comes forward,tl sparking "urgent concern" from the intelligence community watchdog. canadian prime minister justin trudeau is mired in scandal, after admitting to wearing blackface. hofar along are lawmakers in taking action to curb gun violence? and much more. >> nawaz: we return now toy, our top sthe escalating stand-off between congress and the trump administration over a whistleblower's complaint, that was deemed an "urgent

concern" by the intelligence community's inspector general, michael atkion. atkinson met with the house intelligence committee this morning behind closed doors about the complaint. the chairman of that committee, representative adam schiff, joins us now from capitol hill. congressman, welcome back to the "newshour". you spent almost four hours with mr. atkinsonind closed doors today. what did you learn today that led you to believe yotou urgenty need more information about that complaint? >> there doesn't seem to be any dispute over the fact that this complaint is urgentd credible. that is apparently notba theis it's been withheld from us. rather than the departmentin of justice weiin with the office of director of national intelligence, that director is depriving us of the complaint because he says it's beyond his jurisdiction. that means that this urgent ddressed. going un it also means that someone is giving these marching orders to the director. we want to find out is the white house involved that? we nee know, frankly, whether the white house is also

a subject of the complaint cause the idea that someone could weigh in who's the subject ofhe complaint d essentially quash it would cause, i think, the whistleblower statute to be meaningless. there are two imperatives here, one is hoto find outin rmation necessary to protect the country, and the second is we need to protect both the istleblower and the whole process of being able to blow the whisting on impropriety. rly fourindow was nea hours with mr. atkinson. you got answers to none of the questions laid out for us? >> no, we got answers to a great many questions. he got answers to this is first time a director of national intelligence has everth ld a complaint from congress. whether credible or not, the practice has always been to provide it to congress. here it was found to be t credible, urgent and unprecedented to be deprived this way. it was also clear from e testimony that the department of justice has weighed in in a way

that it never has before in a whistleblower complaint. it's also clear, i think, that the issue is not the classification of the intelligence. many people have said, well, other presiden have asserted at they have the right to declassify intelligence or provide classified information to the congress. that's apparently nothe issue either. and, so, the question is why is this being wthheld from congress? is this an effort to cover up impropriety? who does the complaint invve? and st seriously, if this is urgent and they're not allngowig ss to deal with it andng they're not allowing the inspector general to deal with it, it's going unaddressed and we're at risk. i >> nawaz: 's not related to declassification, some reports i'm sure you've seenay ated to aaint is rel series of actions, not any single discussion as was earlier reported. hat your understanding? >> you know, i don't know what the complaint has to say in terms of its spcifics, so i can't answer that question, but i can tell youthat, you know,

there's speculation about whether th involves a presidential communication. even if it involved a presidential communin'tion, and i know at this point, that doesn't mean that the privilege covers it if thatommunication is about a crime or fraud. the present doesn't have the ege to be corrupt. no one in the administration has the privilege to be corrupt, and the ivilege always gies way if it is about eviutde corruption. so it is not as simple as saying, well, if it involves a communication, then they have a right to withhold it. in have seen time and time aga on the issue of privilege, the administration makes claims of privege merely to y congress information where no privilege could apply. so, at the end of the day, we're going to teed to gethis complaint and we are going to get this complaint, and we will, i think, expose those who are trying to stand in the wayi. >> nawaz: but, sir, aft the briefing today you said you knew other institutions were involved in keeping you from getting that complaint. do you know that the white house is involved? >> we know that the department

of justice is involved in trying from geting this complaint and we know bill barr's history at the justice department as reviewing his role as essentially a defense lawyer for the president. h in terms e the white house frvolvement, we don't have that confirmed, i thinkm the inspector general, who isn't able to speak to that, isn't authorized to speak to that, but we do know from th communication we've received from the director of national intelligen that they're claiming some privilege may apply. well there's a narrow catego of people, the president and people around him, that would even hold the prospect of poa ntial privilege. so i thinke th d.n.i. has printed where the problem lies even if thass not hi intention. >> nawaz: it's been reported mr. atkinson didn't disclosem whether the cplaint involves the president. do you believe it does? i certainly seems it involv someone higher than the pay grade of the d.n.i..n if the .i. says it's beyond

our jurisdiction and the inspector general told us this is squarely within the responsibility to have the d.n.i., it means there are a a highthority, and there aren't many people in position to give orders of direction to the leader of the intelligence community. so, you know, there are certainly a lot of indications but we don't hairve conftion of that. we also don't know whether this is a suation where the subject of the complaint has actually been given the complaint and, of course, that heightens the concern that evidence may be destroyed or covered up.aw >>: sir, very briefly, that d.n.i. joseph mcguire will be testifying before you next week. that is it yous hope to -- what it you hope to learn from him? >> we want to call on him to explain to the american people why he is the first director of national intelligence withhold a whistleblower complaint from members of congress and how the whistleblower statute can work if that case anif they are

vetoing congress' access to that information. we hopthe d.n.i. will reconsider and provide the information to congress, but if not he's going toowe the american people an explanation and at the end of the day the only thing will be sat with is the provision of the complaint and if the d.n.i. tyets his other responsibi which is to tell the whistleblower how they can come directly to congress, that's what the statute provides and thus far he has been unwilling to follow the statute. >> naw: congressman adam schiff, chairman of the house intelligence committee. thank you, sir. >> thank you. >> nawaz: canadian prime minister justin trudeau is embroiled in scandal, after three separate instances have emerged showing trudeau in blackface. the first image surfaced ovnight, and was quickly followed by the others. it's become the new focus of next month's canadian elections. william brangham has the latest. >> this is something that i deeply, deeply regret.

>> brangham: the prime minister spent the day trying to contain the damage from images of him in brown- and blackface makeup. the controversy erupted after "time"agazine published a photo of trudeau at an "arabian nights"-themed gala in 2001. he was 29 at the time, and teaching at a private school. his initial response came last night, on his campaign plane. >> it was something that i didn't think was racist at the time, but now i recognize that it was something racist to do, and i am deeply sorry. >> brangham: trudeau also admitted to wearing blackface when he sang the jamaican song "day o" at a high school talent iaow in the 1990s. and toy, the cannews site "global news" released video of a third instance of trudeau in dark makeup, also from the '90s. hours later, the prime minister addressed the scandal again, in winnipeg, manitoba. >> it was something that

minimizes and takes advantage of a reality that i have not hato live with, of beingve discriminated against, of being marginalized, judged for the color of my skin. >> brangham: all of this comes just five weeks before a general election, with the prime minister and his ruly g liberal pacing a tough fight to hold their parliamentary majority. his main rival, and lef the opposition conseatives, ripped into trudeau last night. >> what canadians saw this evening is someone with a complete lack of judgment and integrity, and someone who's not fit to govern this country. >> brangham: today, jagmeet singh-- son of sikh immigrants from india and leader of the c new democratsled theth images of trudeau "troubling." >> how do you-- how do you look somee in the eye that's, that's mocked the lived reality that i've lived? but more importantly, that soad many cns have lived. >> brangham: in the past,

trudeau has often ca himself as a champion of multiculturalism, welcoming syrian refugees arriving into canada, and surrounding himself with a diverse cabinet. today, a number of his liberal party followers said they are sticking with him, buthe scandal has cast new doubt on his political future. also in winnipeg today, trudeau said he would not rule out the existence of additional photos, given the fact that he did not remember these instances. joining me now to talk about the fallout is elamin abdelmmoud. he is an editor at buzzfeed, and the cohost of "party lines," a podcast about canadian politics. amin, welcome to the newshour. this obviously comes at a, frankly, terrible time for the prime minister, right as this election campaign is gearing up. what is your sense of thell fallout fromf this? >> right, so we are fortuhtte in pais country to have a much shorter cn period, while the u.s. is still somehow ereliving th 2016 campaign, we have a 40-day campaign period.

orst times about the for the prime minister to have this come out because we'rec about eight days into it and it will wrap up october 21. so, as you can imagine, we have a saying that's constant that mpaigns matter and the reason they do is, when an event like this happens, can totally, completely shift the course of the campaign. for the past few days, the liberals, trudeau's party, has been harming this mesosage abut affordability, about how they're going to help the middle class, no one's taing about that today and everyone's talking about all of the comments he's made about racism, his history with beinga vy woke prime minister as compared to these photos that just came out. >> reporter: and my understanding is this dovetails with what the conservatives have been trying to attack him on. >> right, the conservatives have been trying to deliver e message that justin trudeau is not as advertised. mot of that argument has been been about his taxation

policies, they say he's going do one thing but actually is doing another, but when it comet s case, justin trudeau is probably most well known outside of this country for all of the sort of like performances of being a pretty woke sort of understanding of social justice kind of prime nister. so when you have a situation ke this that is just coming to lightgh now, it kind of gives a bit more credibility to their notion that justin trudeau is hot as advertised. it's frank layck that trudeau himself wouldn't have addressed is in the intervening years, whenever he beca a member of parliament, when he became the leader of his party, when he became prime minister, he's had plenty of time and opportunities to educe people on this. the way it's coming out now does not look good for him. >> reporter: given the concentrated nature of campaigns which you describe -- which frankly in america we would love a 40-day campaign -- is your sense that, given that,t tha this is going to move the needle

in a substantial way against him? >> i mean, listen, it's the only conversation there is in ercanadian politics yesy that wasn't there yesterday. before the election and up until the first few ys of the campaign period, the polls have been reflectinea relative sort of tie between the liberals and the conrvatives, with the mvp being a long distant third. this kind of upsendt because in th next few days we'll see justin trudeauap ogize and apologize again. pu made a second apology today. i don't think he'it to bed, a lot of questions to answer. so when we say campaigns matter, what we really mean is, over just a couple of days, how you handle a situation like this can either give you momentum or make you stuck in a rut that these are the only questions you take. you can imagine in a 40-day period, if he ends up tain questions about this for five, six days in a row, that's a significant fraction of that campaign period and, so, inked really shift the momentumef

campaign, but happened yesterday, last night, hasn't been 24 hours, so it's a little bit too early to tell on that front. >> reporter: here in the u.s., blackface imagery, pretty muchde everyone utands that's racist icons. do the canadians have a similar appreciation for blackface in history and seeing it as racist clark cay chiewrs? >> i have to tell u, this country, being canada, we've skated with this international reputation of not being an especially racist country, not having that deep history of racism. but we really have struggled with having quality conversations about racism, the multiculturalism in this country. this is a moment to have those convsations because, yeah, like every single year we see stories about college students or somewhat famous people in canada who end up dressg up in blackface and brownface and

being criticized publicly for it, so we struggle with it the same way the u.s. does. i think we don't have the reputation they do, and that's kind of fortunate, but we have that sort of long story here, too. >> reporter: te prime minister today said he had a hard time seeing how racist this was through his laers of privilege. is that going to work as anor excusepeople? are people gog to say, okay, i nan understand that, you ae the son of a prime ter, you maybe didn't appreciate this, or is that not going to fly? >> look, the fact of the matter is when the photo of him in the aladdin costume came out, what happened, he was 29 years old, and you pull any 29-year-old oum he street and hopefully you would think they know better, even as the conversation of a blackface and brownface has evolved from 2001 as they are now. we've come a long way in society in terms kiof tal about these issues more, but it's not like it was lesracist n.

so when he said he's had layers of privilege that held him not see that that was the case, i believe him. i think he takes that serusly. but, at the same time, i think he has a bit of a history of talking about words lie discrimination or privilege, words that are very popular on the progressive left, but not really a lot of history being probed on whether he reaunlly rstands what those mean. so i think this is maybe anit opportto have a more fuome conversation about that and see what that looks like. >> reporter: elamin abdelmahmoud, thank you very, very much for being here. >> my pleasure, thank you for having me. >> nawaz: stay uith us. comion the newshour: nearly two decades after 9/11, why ishe cosof running guantanamo bay rising? the climate crisis, d the price of inaction. plus, the first native american u.s. poet laureate on art and

history. h now, whise officials have been meeting with republicans iu congress about a potential plan for a gun bill. sile president trump has not weighed in on wht of proposal he would back, republican senators are feeling pressure to take some action on the issue. to help us understand where things stand, i'm joined by our own lisa desjardins.

>> a conservative web page why would it be leaked to them? well, this idea was to expand universal background. someone in the white house were bushing this by putting this out on a gconservative web pae before it really had any legs, it undermined it. it essentially killed that planw sohat you have here is forces behind the scenes really trying to influence the president against working on universal gun background checks or an ckan expansion of background checks which is something many in the nate are talking about. >> reporter: every time there's a high profile mass shooting, we have thison conversagain. where is the public on this? g to doytressure go ng? >> i think you can see that public pressure is building and

that goes back to senator mcconnell, he made one of his strongest statements yet thisy week abilere he is on this issue and what he wants to seean happen. listen. >> we need some guidance from the president about what kind ol proposal that make a difference, he would actually sign into law. i think, given the multiple horrendoootings in august, we owe it to the rican people to act. >> reporter: that is the strongest statement that he says he wants to do something. i have not heard thahit from m before, and it's no secret why on our poll with npr and marist, poles from abc, nbc al show 89, 90% of americans support expanding universalackground checks or going to a more universal background check. here's thpolitical thing, though, am na, when you ask women, women, almost two thirds of women, want a ban on assault-ste weapons.

so republicans need those female votes. isey're nervous about thisue with women next year and so are manufactures, amna. today colt, e to have the manufactures of the ar-15, one of the semi-automatic assault style weapons, say they won't sell the weapon anymore commercially, only proding it tsr military contr they say there is too much supply and no longer demand that consumers have stoppeduying the gun. >> nawaz: with all the talks, with some of the high profile people on the hill continuing the talks briefly, is there a time line for the acions? >> not a strict time line. congress will be in session this time next year, but there's a one,it's difficult to pass any legislation in a presidential year and that's closer than anyone thinks becse this month congress is only in session another week and a half, then they take two weeks off, three weeks in october, november is thanksgiving, so it's really this month and next month, everyone realizes is a tical window on this issue. >> nawaz: critical window. we've got to stay o top of

this. our lisa desjardins, thank you very much. >> you're welcome:.co >> nawaz: the cost of running guantanamo bay's prison and court system jumped by nearly $90 million from 201018, eren as the number of pris there has decreased. that is accoaling to a new is from carol rosenberg at the "new york times." and she joins us on the phoneom uantanamo bay, cuba. carol, welcome back to the "newshour". help us understand thathe number of prisoners have gone down but somehow the cost has gone up.ho is that possible? >> there are a number of things going on. the prison buildings were setpm as teporary, expeditionary war on terror sites, and they opened, you know, in 2002, and many of the buildings and structures that they have been using are that mdech oland have needed repairs and replacement andce mainten

the price of keeping a soldier, most national guard, in uniform has also gone upcross the years, and this detention center of 40 prisonershas 1800 soldiers, that's 45 troops for every prisoner. 1800 soldiers plus a staff of probably around 0 or more civilian contractors. in addition,anuao is just plain expensive. it's down here in cuba. everything comes in byirplane or barge. everything has a markup. construction has a markup. this is an extremely isolated, expensive place to run this nd of operation. >> nawaz: the prisoners left there now, i imagine as thee y stay there longer, and we don't knha exactly what lppen next, you outlined in your report that it costs more to care for older prisoners. explain that part of the equation to me. we've had a number of

instances in recent years of healthcare conditionsthat have required the military, the navy medical unit to call in experts. they have been doing them for a while, but, you know, as people age, they get, for exaample, colonoscopies, they get basic heart conditiotreatment and care. there's one prisoner here who had a degenerative disc disease that ended up with him being paralyzed in hisra cell, incontinent, and the u.s. military mounted a surgical suite of a neurosurgeon to fix his back, or at least to start working on his spine, andt afer that one surgery, he needed four more across the span of eight or nine moth every complicated medical procedure that takes place down oure relies on people coming in to carry itt. >> nawaz: tell me about the 40 minute you mentioned. why are they still there?

how many are facing charges? what about the rest who haven't been charged? >> the first thing to understand unis that guananamo strted off in substance kind of like a p.o.w. site, a isoner of war site. this is not a presumption all of them are guilty o war crimes. the u.s. brought them here as o.w.s of this unusual war, saying they wanted to take them off the battlefields. then, among them, they found certain number or they brought a certain number that they wanted to charge with war crimes. best known arprobably the five men accused of conspiring in the 9/11 attacks. but the majority of them are men who i have come to call the "forever prisoners they're indefinite detainees on this war in terror. people have called this the forever tr becaure is nobody on the other side to surrender, how do u end the war on terror? onso these m many of them, may e here the resof their lives,

and what's happened under president trump is that the military recognized that this is no longer expeditionary or temporary detention, there planning for enduring detention, they're planning for another 20 years of holding these men. as you probably recall,pr ident obama said he wants to close it, he wanted to move some of the men to the united ates and hold them in either military or federal detention sites, depending on how they would be charged, and congress blocked it. the political will in the united states is tokeep them here, so, under the trump administration, the pentagon is planning to hold them, if not forever, for the next 20 or so years. >> nawaz: carol rosenberg, covering guantanamo bay as deeply and extensively as you have, do you see anyuturin which guantanamo bay is actually closel? >> certainly not because, first of all, this is a

functioning naval station, it's a navy base. 6,000 people live here. sailors and theifamilie contractors ofhe 6,000, 2,000 are associated with the prison of 4eprisoners, and there h been no will will any of the administrations to want to get out of the base. it's got an airstrip and a crt and the pentagon considers it a strategic asset. but if you're asking whether or not i perceive them closinonthe prand getting rid of the last prisoner, to me 'sun imaginable. >> nawaz: carol rosenberg of the "new york times" joining us on the phone from gutanamo y, cuba.ba thank you, carol. >> my pleasure. >> nawaz: the united nations has called climate change thee "defining is our time." neu.n. panel has estimated that it is likely the ps temperature will rise by at

least by 2.7 degrees farenheit betwn 2030 and 2052. at can lead to more extreme weatr and harsher coitions but those estimates may be on the more conservative side.st there were newates this week-- from french scientists--s ting the temperature rise between now and 2100 could be much higher. business and economics correspondent paul solman focuses on thextreme risks from some of the worst case scenarios. his story is part of our "making sense" series, andart of our contribution to "covering climate now," a global collaboration of more than 300 news olets to enhance coverage of the climate story. >> so look, you can start to see erosion along here... >> reporter: economist martin weitzman, four-plus years ago, on the homestead he built on the north shore of massachusetts. >> the water has risen a couple of inches at least, in the tims in the 40 yehave been living here. >> reporter: a usually understated, math and data driven theorist, weitzman, who

died in the past few weeks, began as a climate catastrophe skeptic. >> i was wondering, how could it be possible that mere human beings could change the climaten serious way? >> reporter: b geologic samples of carn dioxide going ck millennia began to scare him. >> we were way outside the historical range for at least 800,000 years, and we're climbing very strongly. at the current trajectory that we're on, we're gointo blow right past the doubling of carbon dioxide. >> reporter: andhat might that mean for hes like weitzman's? his former student, gernot wagner. >> last time concentrations of co-2 were as high as they are today, we did in fact have sea levels up to 20 mers, 66 feet higher than today. well, 66 feet and this house is gone. >> reporter: what really shocked weitzman, though, and led to hia book witer, "climate shock," was probability math. >> what scared me was how much probability there s out there

in extreme events. e and it's worrisome how little we know and how high the obability is of some catastrophic temperature. >> reporter: how much hotter? >> six degrees centigrade, 11 degrees fahrenheit, that's a planet nobody would recognize. >> reporter: wagner is now a professor at n.y.u. >> marty's insight on this was, he looked back to the consensus science, hundreds of climateun scientists analyzing the most likely developments. >> reporter: now this is the famous bell curve. estimated future temperatures increasing from left to right; the likelihood of any given temperature indicated by how high the line is at that point. here's the hump of the curve. that's where it's likely to fall.wi temperatur be between here and here. but then, if you keep going... >> there is this tail. and ere is a small probabili

of being a the way out there. we can't exclude that. >> reporter: weitzman's rigorous estimate of what's callethe ail risk" is what transformed environmental economics. >> there's about almost a 10% chance of an increase of 4.5 degrees centigrade. >> reporter: but 10%? i mean, that is just one chance in ten. i have been at the racetrackho long enough tow rarely a 10-1 shot comes in. >> it's not that rare. oryou buy fire insurance f probabilities that are much lower than 10%. you buy car insurance, the probabity has a much lower than one in 10 over a lifetime. so this is well withhi the range ofs that we like to insure against. >> reporter: soon after our me with wagner and weitzman, though, things seemed to beg. improv >> in that we sort of had a handle of growing the global economy while not growing co-2 emissions. >> reporter: because we wouldns be usingch coal, for example.

alternative energy was replacing fooril fuels. >>xample, yes. well, turns out that happened about three years ago or so. last year, we again had more emissions than the year prior. this year, we have more emissions than the year before. so, yes, temperatures are rising, sea levels are rising, but what frightening, puts the shock into clima shock, if you will, is, year after year we add more co-2. and that increase in the increase is increasing. >> reporter: one reason the rate is increasing? the hotter it gets, the more energy we use to keep cool. >> if the world used as much electricity for air conditioning as the u.s. currently does, then we would use as much electricity for air conditioning as we do for everything right now. n >> reporter: just look at southern asia, says economist catherine wolfram. >> if you look at the hottest places in the u.s., miami, it's

noas hot as the coolest places in india. and so theotential growth in air conditioner demand in india is enormous. >> reporter: now, both wolfram and wagner stress th air conditioning is a blessing, especially given global warming. >> extreme heat simply kills >> reporter: but to the extent that a country like china or india becomes wealthier, and people start putting in air conditioners... >> which for the most part is a good thing. ofewer people dying becau heat waves. >> reporter: yes. but that then is going to contribute to the acceleration that we're talking about. >> if the energy produced is through fossil energy, yes. >> reporter: was marty more worried than when we walkedop along his prerty in gloucester? >> yes a no. scre worried because there's increasingly more nce that d lls us things may well be worse than we haeviously

thought. less worried, hopeful, bause there's a lot happening too. ds on the streets, millions of them around the world advocating for the right policies. >> reporter: t insurance policies weitzman and his student were urging in back in 2015. >> economics 101, righ price up, demand down, don't ask economists which new technology will cominto play. all we are doing is setting ther right ice and getting out of the way. >> at's right, let a thousa flowers bloom. we can't know today what that futu technology is going to bring, so let's put a price on carbon that incentivizes carbon- free technologies and the winner will take all. >> reporter: and, says wagner day, more countries, and states in the u.s. have begung doat weitzman urged. >> india has a coal tax. china is experimenting withtr emissioning.

ere in this country are experimenting with the kinds of policies that we ought to have at the federal level. we don't, yet. but the emphasis is on yet. there's only so long we can pretend nothing is happening and wa.ing in the wrong directi >> so here is a wooden walkway thaift has beend up by high tides that will come over it. >> reporter: so you mean this was flat before? yes, yes. en it was constructed, it was flat.ca ful. >> reporter: business and inonomics correspondent paul solman, steever more carefully, in massachusetts and new york. v>> nawaz: there is a frece these days leading the poetry world. joy harjo is the first native american to serve as poetur te of the united states. tonight, she will give her inaugural public reading at the library of congress.r

she is a mem the muscogee creek nation, who grew up in oklahoma. jeffrey brown recently s down with harjo in tulsa to talk about her life and career.ar it's pof our ongoing series on arts and culture, "canvas." >> brown: a recent night at thee oklahoma jazz hall of fame in tulsa. ♪ ♪ the leader of the band, blowing her saxophone, is a poet. and not just any poet. joy harjo, a member of the muskogee creek nation, is the new poet laureate of theapnited statespointed by the library of congress, to begin her term this month. >> it's quite an honor. and what is escially exciting to me is that i'm carrng this for-- it's for americans, but for indigenous peoples, in particular. >> brown: you feel that? >> yes. and it becomes a doorway. yes, we're human beings, and

yes, some of us are poets. some of us are astronauts. some of us are reangy good at fiars. but we're human beings. and some of us write poetry. and so it makes a doorway of hope. >> brown: so people were surprised you moved home, huh? >> yeah,hey were. b >>rown: harjo, now 68, grew up here in tulsa, in a mixed native and white working class neighborhood--hild of a beautiful mother of mixed cherokee and european ancestry who loved to sing, and a handsome creek father harjo adored, but whose drinking would lead to the end of the marriage. does it make sense, when you look back to that girl, then too >> well, she still has the same you know, there's still music. i never thought i'd be a poet.n if you livedis neighborhood, that wasn't a career. oiere were no poets here. >> brown: in her m "crazy brave," harjo writes of a childhood of joy and discovery,

but also great pain-- including a stepfather who abused hertu mother, and evly pushed harjo to leave home for the institute of american indian arts, then an all-native school in santa fe, n mexico. a teen-aged mother, she later attended the university of n mexico, where she was involved in the '60s and earl'70s native rights moment. art was her first love. she continues to draw and paint to this day.co poetry didn' until her 20s. >> poetry came along at thatnd timeasically put a pen in my hand. and that's how i came through it. and it had a lot to do with investigating history and finding voice, when i felt that i had no voice. >> brown: she would go on to write nine volumes of poetry, including the and new "american sunrise," often examining personal, native and national histories bound together.

she traces her ancestors to the once-thriving indigenous civilization that populated the southeastern u.s. before being forcibly removed.rj recently taught at the university of tennessee in knoxville, where she wrote the poems for her new book, includinthe line: "i returned to see what i would find, in these lands we were forced to leave behind." >> i came there, we were living up on a block that my great- great-great-great grandfather,na ee, i knew he had stood there when he used to go to knoxville to steal horses-- well, they weren't really stealing them, because the horses were on stolen property. and i looked down into those beautiful trees, toward those beautiful mountains, and asked, well, i heard my spirit ask: "what did you learn here?" and that's how it started. >> brown: in oklahoma, harjo took us to the htoric creek council house in okmulgee, what became the capital of the displaced nation in 1867. a plaque outde commemorates

another distant relative, samuel chicote, who was born in alabama and served as principal chief of the creek nation here. this is a history that most people probably don't ow. the whole removal, the trail of tears. >> no, usually i think most americans think the trail of tears is one trail, and it's cherokee, but there re many trails of tears. n even tajo people had a trail of tears. and now there's another trail of tears coming up from the south >> brown: you connect those-- what's going on now at therd , to... >> definitely. because there was noder before. it wasn't that long ago,ust a few generations. w brown: there's the continuity of history-- whichexplored inside the council house, now a cultural center... >> he was a creek journalist and poet. he's often plished in some of the anthologies.

>> brown: is he going to be in youre >> yes, of course. >> brown: ...and there's the world we live in todaye harjo has a residency in a tulsa art program.mo and, many other things, is editing a new anthology ofog hitive poets. you came of age atmoment of a very strong native political movement for civil. righ and i wonder, where are we now? >> back to the beginning. >> brown: backwards? >> yes. these times are very similar to the times of andrew jackson, the times of indian removal where, you know, hatred, the utter hatred-- not everyone. it's not everyone. in fact, i think those forces of hatred are really a relatively small part of the population. but whatever this force is, it's the same force that said natives weren't human. it's the same force that came in and said, well, you are more powerful if you have more money than anyone else.or that you're more powerful if

u have light skin, or if you're male. there's something about that that's des because we were all created by a creator who loved us. >> brown: native rights, women's rights, poetry, music-- which shdidn't take up seriously until her 40s-- and a sense of history. >> history is people. history is stories. it's poetry. and that's what i love about poetry, and that's how poetry teaches me. poetry has taught me you can time travel in a poem. you can get to know people in a poem.po and ry is a place you can come to when you have no words. >> brown: and when the performance is over, the sax-playing, history-seeking, poet laureate relaxes by shaking it all out on the dance floor. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown in tulsa, oklahoma.

>> nawaz: artist toyin ojih odutola is best known for her detailed portraits, primarily done in black pen ink. she's the subject of this week's "brief but spectacular." the nigerian-born arti recounts her family's relocation to the american south, and howd tradition entity has seeped into her work. tonight's piece is also part of our ongoing "canvas" series. >> i always like to put people inositions that look very awkward, and look like they're about to do something, or they justid something. so there's nothing to pin them down. you don't quitknow where they're going to go. that's my way of fighting that expectation that pple have about blackness, about black people and black stories as a black person, i'm trying to

play with that and, and play with our own expectations withxp our community about what we can do and how we can look and what stories we should tell. >> i was born in east bay, t geria. came to the u.s.young age and fod my way to the south, which, depending on who you ask, can be a tragedy or the best thing that ever happened to me. it was definitely a culture ock. i was a new thing in my school, d i was different and foreign. d even amongst kids that looked very similar to me, there was a difference or an otherness that they didn't want to interact with. i remember my mom was pretty worried, so she got me aoo coloringof my favorite character from the "lion king" called timon. and so i remember her, like, showing it to me just before we left, and she was like, "do what you can."

i discovered drawing, and so that became this otherldorld that i cet lost into. why i got into portraiture was simply becauseno wanted to see just myself but people like me. std then as i got older, it became more about tories, when you in particular, people tend to be very biographical. likethey like to have the biography come in front of the content, instead of acally seeing what you did. having characters kind of frees me from that obfuscation, d people can actually engage with the picture and the story that i'm trying to te. when people say "black experience," they are ofn looking outside-in. i can't change this. g so, how do people to understand what it feels like to be in something you can't control? 're yet, systematically, y being treated a certain way because of that. so the only way i could see myself fighting that was to make it a topography, to make it a landscape. and through that, people can actually traverse it and

understand. for me, drawing made my world less small. my act of drawing and creating drawings, i hopto make the world less small for other people.is my namoyin ojih odutola, and this is my "brief but spectacular" take on having a vivid imagination. >> nawaz: and you can find additional "brief but spectacular" episodes on our o website, pbs.org/newshief. on the newshour online right now, there have been 5 probable or confirmed cases of a ng illness tied to vapin e-cigarettes, according to the centers for disepre control and ention. and a new, eighth death linked toaping, tod. we recently asked our audience to share their questions about the disease,nd now we share answers from the f.d.a. and the american lung association. at's on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. join us online, and again here

tomorrow evening. for all of us the pbs newshour, thank you, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been rovided by: >> bnsf railway.ce >> conmeular. >> financial services firm raymond james. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutis >> this prram was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting.ic and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.yo than captioning sponsored by newshour productio, llc

cadiioned by access group at wgbh access.wgbh.or >> you're watching pbs.

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