captioning sponeored by wshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm ndy woodruff. on tshour tonight, a bleak forecast: the united nations issues a stark warning of the action that must now be taken to mitigate the climate crisis. then, the limits of power-- a new court ruling declares the president's aides must testify before coness, as the next public impeachment hearing is set. and, the bidding will start at one euro. g italian town is selling abandoned homes for the price of a cup of espresso. >> in one year, what youave done, me and my wife, it's beautiful. if you're waking up, and you see this view in the morning. >> no regrets. >> no regrets, never. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

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thanyou. >> woodruff: the united nations released a grim and alarming t assessment abo impact of climate change. even worse, it found that acountries around the wor not doing nearly enough right now to slow the damage before it becomes worse. the probability of avoiding dangerous levels of global average temperature increases is dwindling. >> so essentially, if you look at the global emissions, they are still going up. a new u.n. report.s according to it found the planet will have to reduce carbon emissions by 7.6% a year between 2020 and 2030. instead, emissions have been increasing by about one a half percent a year over the past decade. >> we had a little hope a couple of years ago that the co2 part of the emissions had basically

been stable for a few years and st hoped that that indicated a ilization, but in 2017 and again and it doesn't look too good. >> woodruff: as parte 2015 luris climate accord, nearly 200 countries, ing the u.s., had vowed to take acon to limit temperature rise to between 1.5 degrees and 2 degrees celsisus, or about 2.7 to 3.6 degrees fahrenheit. beyond those levels, ssts warn thelimate will reach a dangerous tipping point. but the goal is slipping out of reach. greenhouse gas emissio reached a record level last year, the highest since pre-industrial times. many countries are not on track to meet the goals of the paris accord. and under president trump, the u.s. is withdrawing from the paris agreement, effective next year.

w at this time, had we acted in 2010, ld have had to reduce our emissions by 3.2% a year, by 3.3% a year. now, because of climate procrastination, whihave essentially had during these ten years, we are looking at a 7.6% llduction every year. but the science us that we can do this. >> woodruff: if serious action is not taken, the u.n. warned hemperatures could rise by seven the century. by the end of ane challenge ahead is enormous, it comes amid daunting estimates over the impact of what already happened. a recent study found that ffgreenhouse gases warmingt on the planet has increased by ex% since 1990. let'ore some of these questions with a climate scientist, radlehorton. he works at the lamont doherty earth observatory at columbia dr. horton, welcome to the newshour. thank you very much for being here. i want to ask you first of all,r this soundty dire.

i mean, to say that we've got starting right now to ruce emissions by over 7.5% a year. or w face catastrophe. is it that dire? >> i believe it is that dire when we think about the fimate risks that we'ring. in order to not blow through this 1.5-degree celsius warming target, as you said, we need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions on the order of 7% or 8% per year. byha 2030 w to have 50% emissions yearby than we do today to aid the worst impacts we could see from climate change. >> woodruff: where does th fault lie here? we heard one of the scientist, it caught my ear. he said because of climate procrastination. who has been procrastinating? >> well, the shortnswer is just about everybody. really to get to where we need to be, we need to see much greater ambition, especially i

think the leadership has to lie trimarily with the large economies t historically have burned so many fossil fuels. remember, these fossil fuels stay in the atmosphere for a very long time some we're still experiencing today warming and sea level ri from emissions, for example, by the united states, eupean union, for decades past. so that's the first place that you have to look. those are also the cntries that have benefited historically msom their greenhouse gas growthful.in tf economic so those are the countries we have the look at first. we've gotten ourselves intouc a pickle by reducing our emissions that now every country in the world really has to get on board with dramatically reducing our emissions. >> woodruff: i'm asking because pheard ael discussion over the weekend where one of the experts said the.s. can't wit for china and india, for example, to gose first, becf their population. the u.s. has to go ahead and move on its yown. 're saying everybody has got to move right now?

>> everybody has to move, absolutely. here in the u.s., i think by not deing more ambitious and ind s pulling out of the protocol, other countre that as a signal that maybe they can afford to back off a little bitw need more ambition from everybody. one thing to keep in mind isen hose countries that made wayges for 2020, the only this is going to work is if they then amplified and made much more aggressive their emission pledges beginning in 2020. what we're actually seeing is many, not al countries, failing to meet the emissions reductions would get to by 2020. said the that sets the stage for usfa needin more ambitious reductions in our emissions over the coming decade. >> woodruff: do you believe it's doable, that this can be done? >> so here's the paradox. aspite all the negative things we've been talkiut so far, in some ways i think it's more

doable than ever, because think we're starting to see some early signs of a mass mobilization. it's still a small aim of dwrows gas emissions averted, but when we look at powerful levers in society, they're showing some signs of activating around this issue. i'm thinking, for example, about youth movements, people who are oiying that they're not g to accept the way things were done in theast wh they think about the colleges they're going to go to, the jobs they want to have in the future, where they're going the make their investment, they are going to be picking induries that are focused on reducing emissions and focused on thinking about how they're going to be anvulnerable to climate e. that could i think lead the a whole shift of revenu ithe future. that's one example. we could also talk about what we've seen in terms of renewable energy prices dropping faster than pdicted, battery technology starting to reach a price parody. we've already hit the point whereab renings are outcompeting fossil fuels such as coal just about everywhere,

the question is: is it happening fast enough? >> woodruff: and just quickry, what are some examples of the tough trade-offs that are going to have to be mad? >> so a few of the sectors that are really, really challenging, we think about aviaonelated emissions, aviation emissions are growing roughly 6% per year as people fly more. we do not have a viable substitute right now for fossil fuels for aviation. similarly in heavy industry, think abouthings like mining and steel melting, those require fossil fuels. we don't have solutions today. so there are no easy fixes there. trade-off, even where we see renewables reaching parody, there are going to be some existing entrenched interests that could suffer in the short term, but for society, as a net gain, we see new jobs, we see new areas of economic growth going forward, and critically,

if we quickly reduce our emission, we avoid or avert some of these catastrophic damages if we fail to adapt. if we don't, for example, get emissions down, get sea level rise to slow, thinktsf the c we're going to be look at in terms of trying the adapt, trying to buildha seawallng to retreat from vulnerable areas. those costs exceed anything that greenhouse gas emissions reductions could look like. >> woodruff: and finally, much of the tough choices that have to be made are really political choices? >> i think fundamentally this is a political problem, you're absolutely right. the technology already exists to get us quicky toward where we need to be, those seconders i mentioned that are there. if we quickly get the electric gid off fossil fuels. if we get the transportation off of fossil fuels, the land-based transportation, those are things we could do today. if we this that aggressively, we buy ourselves time for currently

pie in the sky technology to maybe become viable. i'm talking about things like orectly pulling carbon of the atmosphere. we don't have an ability to do that few. but can we buy ourselves enough time with the right invenlts and maybe in ten or 20 years something likeilhat wbe feasible allowing us to lower carbon concentrations. to be clear, we're not thereto y, hence the need for greater ambition across the board in society now. >> woodruff: it's important to end with at least a piece of an uplifting notes here. dr. radley horton, thank you very much, columbia university. thank you. >> thank you. se woodruff: in the day's other news, the u.s. hf representatives set december 4th to open hearings on whether to impeach president trum lawmakers must consider possible articles of impeachment basethon allegation mr. trump held up military aid to ukraine for

his persal, political benefit. fresh violence gripp iraq today. three bombings across baghdad e killed at least five peod wounded more than a dozen. there was no immediate claim of responsibility. those attacks followed clashes with security forces that left three more demonstrators dead. meanwhile, smoke filled the air across parts of southern iraq, protesters burned tires and occupied roads. the protesters are demanding an end to corruption, poor services and high unemployment. es the west bank, several thousand pnians staged a "day of rage" against the changed u.s.tance on israeli settlements. the trump administration announced last week it no longer

nsiders the settlements illegal, reversing 40 years of u.s. polic in bethlehem today, otesters who fired back with tear gas.rs, and in ramallah, palestinian leaders condemned washington. >> this decision makes the american administration a participant with israel in violating the internatiol law. israeli settlements are illegal by international law, by the decision of the international court of justice and we are here to declare that we will struggle for our rights, for our freedom. >> woodruff: israel has steadily expanded the settlemen, and says their fate should be determined by negotiations. charges of anti-semitism are roiling the election campaign in britain. the nation's chief rabbi claimed in a newspaper column that anti- jewish racism is "sanctioned from the top" of the opposition labour party. labour leader jeremy corbyn has

faced repeated criticism on the issue. today, he condemned anti- semitism as vile and wrong. a powerful earthquake in albania killed at least 21 people today, and injured more than 600. the tremor was centered just northwest of tirana, the country's capital city. rescue crews used excavators to ch for survivors amid th rubble. the quake shattered hotels and ciher buildings in the por of durres. back in this country, a sweeping new sty finds death rates for younger americans, 25 to 34, have jumpenearly 30% this cade. the report, in the "journal of the american medical association," cites everything that, in turn, has helped cut the nation's overall lif expectancy for three straight years. from opioidssto obesity to cted driving from cell- phones. a winter storm is wreaking havoc on holiday travel from the

rockies to the great lakes. parts of colorado got two feet of snow overnight. hundreds of flights were canceled at denver international airport, stranding more than 1,100 travelers. this morning, in denver, it was still snowing, fouling the morning commute. and, as the storm headed east, thnnesota and others braced for blow. >> so we're looking at eight to 12 inches of snow. winds maybe gusting to 30, 40 gles an hour. itng to be bad. the snow is going to come down hard. it's going to come down fast. visibility will be very, very poor during the height of the snow storm. >> woodruff: the storm will , rive in the northeast by thursdd officials in new n rk say it might ground the giant balloonse macy's thanksgiving day parade. a separate storm is hitting northern california and oregon tonight, with high winds and atves and heavy snow. torm could help contain a wildfire burning out of control in southern californ nearly 5,500 people were ordered

out ot its path today, but most were being allowed back later. the fire erupted monday, fanned by strong winds, in a a mountainous arve santa barbara. but by late today,eno homes had estroyed. an outbrk of e-coli from romaine lettuce is getting worse. the centers for disease control and prevention reports there are now 67 cases in 19 stes. the outbreak has been linked to romaine grown in the salinas, california aa. e. coli can cause severe gastrointestinal illness and even death. and, on wall street, stocks edged higher, taking three major indexes to new highs. the dow jones industrial average gained 55 points to close at e ,121. sdaq rose 15 points, and, the s&p 500 added almost seven. still to come on the newshour: how the courts can shape the

road ahead for impeachment. the rise and fall of wework-- why the startup's value dropped by $40 billion in a matter of weeks. own your own home in italy for a single euro, with a few strings attached, and much more. >> woodruff: impeachment is the ultimate test of twe balance of in our government. now the courts are weigh wg in on how tte house must comply with congress. the rulings could change what evidence and witnessear in the next phase of the impeachment inquiry. we also have new details on the next public hearing. here to unpack the latest, our white house correspondent,

yamiche alcindor. hello, yamiche. a lot to catch up with here. just in the last house transcripts released, these are the last witnesses to appear before the house intelligence committee. tell us who thesei indivduals were and what are we learning from their testimony. >> well, our was combing through hundreds of pages of transcripts in the last hour. the's so much to unp. the first person whose transcript was released was ambassador philip reeker. secretary for european and your asian affairs. and republican admrations.ratic he did not appear many public hearings. what's important acted him is he e sentially confirms a lot of the thingsow were happening when it comes to gordon sondland, the e.u. ambassador being seen an irregular actor when it came to pressuring ukraine to joe biden and hunter biden in exchange for military aid. he also talks aboutin ag chief of staff mick mulvaney possibly being involved. he also says that rudy giuliani,

the president's personal ertorney was politician a role but i also want to know that he talks about four big themes that e officials were looking at. vie first is a tax on yovah, attacks on ambassador marie yovanovitch, who testified publicly. the 2016 election interference to aid hillary clinton, burisma, the company hunter biden was on and the ngo. and george soros he was confirming a lot of things. flags there.t a lot of big red the other person who testified is mark sandy. i want to tell you about him. he'sar seniorr official in the office of management and budget. he served under bothemocratic and republican administrations. mb is important because he is fromhat's what we call the office of manage. and budget.th cting chief of staff mick mulvaney and the current head of ssb, neither one of them have come to congo talk about anything going on in that office. go this is a career official who said, i'g to come to

congress and talk about this, and the maybe thing we learned from him is that somene might have actually resigned in part because there was this hold on military aid. so that was something completely atw we had not heard anything about so the other thing to note is he talked about the process of which how the money was held up. so he didn't say anything new about what we knew,he does say that people were concerned that this hold might have been king the law. >> woodruff: as we said, so much to follow there, and i know thatonur team willinue to pour through these transcripts, as are you, butte yesterday in the day we had a federal district judge rule that don mcgahn, formally president trump's legal counsel, must testify before congress. today it's not a surprise, but today the white house went ahead and said we are appealing. righe does all that stand now? >> this is a major ruling that really caught a lot of people by rprise, because don mcgahn, the white house, the former white house counsel, y was essentiaing told, you have to go up to congress and tef. you have to comply with this

system. i want the read to you a little with it about what the said in her ruling. she said, "the primary take away fromhe past 250 years of recorded american history is that presidents are not kings." what the judge was saying was that the president can't require people to have loyalty and that either current officials or former officials, they have the same constitutional rights to have free speech. now, this has been appealed and it might be moving ptty quickly. or we might have to waionths to figure out what's going on here. what we do know is the president of 2 united states has been tweeting. he's very angr about this here's what he said on twitter, "i am fighting for future presidents and the office of the other than that i would actually like people to testify." he went on the list a number of people he wod want the testify, secretary of state mike pompeo, the former national security advisor john bolton, and he is saying, i would love them to come anday this is all a hoax and i did everything very right, but the president says this would compromise future

presidenci and essentially ople who work for me should be able to not tell congress what we talked about. >> woodruff: so yamiche, quickly, separately from all this, a supreme court order fofecting the accounting firm that does worpresident trump. tell us quickly about that. >> quickly, the supreme court is essentially saying they're blocking temporarily the house for president trump.ial records he has not released his tax return, so this goes down to his personal attorney michael cohen telling congress the president at sometimes inflated his earnings. so the househeants to get to bottom of that. so we'll have to see, it might go all the way to the supreme court, but there will be appeals ving through the court. >> woodruff: in terms of what's next, the judiciary committee has now announced what it's doing. >> the big news today is tat the house judiciary committee announced its first formalpu ic hearing in the impeachment inquiry on december 4th, so everyone should mar their calendars. w's not going to be as newsy or as surprising t we saw

wi fiona hill and others who notified, because we will have officials saying what they heard the president was doing, but they will have constitutional experts and legaw impeachment works, talking about l what high crimes and misdemeanors are. it's not the same as igence come president can now bring his attorneys and cross-examine witnesses. theykould start to l at other public hearings and say, this person said this, what do you think about that? there could be dr. marks t much different than what we slaws week. >> woodruff: next sten the impeachment process. yamiche alcindor, thank you. >> thank. >> woodruff: this has been a sobering year for some of silicon valley's highest-flying start-up companies, some of which have been brought down to earth. the "wall street journal" estimated today that some ofhe most prominent start-ups have lost $100 billn in market value.

g e of the biggest: we work. john yoks at what went wrong. >> yang: judy, wework set out to revolutionize the workplace-- leasing offices, fixing them up and then subletting them as shared spaces. in the beginning of this year, it was thee biggest private office tenant in london, but since january,k'son. $luation has plunged from $47 billion to7 billion. 2st week, the company said it was laying o0 employees-- that's nearly a fifth of its global workforce. w the announceme delayed until the company raised the cash for severance payments. that was after co-founder adam neumann was bought out for more than $1 billion and given a four-year, $185 million consulting contract. peter eaviof the "new york times" has been covering this story. he joins us from the paper's newsroom in new york peter, thanks much for being fundamentally, wha the problem?

what happened? why did $40 billin go away? >> that $47 billion valuation was the result of wework's biggest backerou soft banking in billions into the company. that then set offn enormous expansion across the globe tat le company with huge lossesm when wework to do its it p.o. and everybody saw how much it was losing, how was draining cash so quickly, they balked and the i.p.o. had to be called off. >> yang: tell us quickly, who is sof bank and who was running it and why is it important? >> soft bank is a japanese conglomerate. it's headed by a legendary investor. and he gained his reputation for making a very successful bet on the chinese e-commerce company ali baba.

he's made other successful investment, as well. he's used his reputation and the gains he's made ov the years to invest in a lot of young companies recently. one of which waswework. but he's also put a lot of money into others.l not them are doing particularly well. >> yang: and s decision to invest in wework, his initial investment was $4.4 billion, came after a very brief meeting with the co-founder, adam neann. correct. that investment scaled up to as much as $10.5 billioan. hes enthralled by mr. newm mr. newman -- mr. "new moon's" moon's" -- mr. neumann's vision. revolutionize thewace and could was happy to put in the billions and apparently even said that imr. neumann should be cr than he thought he should. th yang: you say he was ld by mr. neumann. let's give the viewers an idea of mr. neumann. we'll ay a bite of him selling

wework to a group of u. mayors. f you bring us in for ten location, we will create 200,000 jobs other the next ten years. br can go bigger and bigger. we want tg you jobs. we'll brung you a place to live. we'll bring education, and this es important, we'll bring corpor americ >> yang: so we get a sense of arisma, his energy, the zeal he brought to these things. till us more about adam neumann. >> he wan raised o a kibbutz. he apparently came from an unhappy home. he talks about that. he served time in the israeli military. he went to baruch. he teamed up with a guy who grew up on a commune i thk in oregon, and they founded wework. they wanted to creation, you know, a company that they said ultimately would elevate the world's consciousness. i don't know to theegree i was sincere, but they said they wanted to create a place that would revolutionize the workplace and bring people

together andpark creativity and create entrepreneurship. >> yang: what he wass doing subletting office space, but he sold it as you say as aay to build a community that changed the nature of communities? >> correct. and you'll sll find a loof people who are in wework spaces, particully those early on, who still believe in this vision. it's a catchy one. i can see how it caught o especially in the dark days dfter the financial crisis when wework was form. there were people looking for work. they went to these shared spaces. they dreamt up ideas for new sinesses, start-ups,nd that was the pitch. j course, you know, we ultimately st how hallow it was, but you can see how it had some attraction. great crashes in americanhe business. is there a moral to this story? >> i think there is. i think that there's a good moral anthere's a bad moral. i think bad moral is the one that made one somewhat

pessimistic is that so many people fell for this. there were people on wall street thted to sell this company $ over $47 billion, maybe as much 0 billion. but on the other hand, there was, as soon as these numbers went out into the public, nobody wanted to buy this company. it waseeto be a risky proposition, andhe i.p.onfailed. i, you know, people were wise to they saw through it. >> yang: peter eavis of "thee new york t," thanks so much for being with us. >> thank you. >> woodruff: ever dream of owning your own vacation getaway in italy? the cost usually makes people think twice. but now, in some parts of e cily, you can buy your own home for just ro, or little more than a dollar. that's becauselehe homes for ave been abandoned, and the towns there risk vanishing if new owners don'somove in

. opecial correspondent chrir livesay went to see just what kind of home you can buy for less than the pr ce of a cup offee. f i, iseemliken the sicilian attle has changed since the midds. throngs have turned out on this day to celebrate the annual festival of st. francis. but manyn the crowd are only tourists or actors. and on the festivities finish, and everyone leaves, the town looks like this. empty. at least down many stree. and it's been getting worse for decades. >> consider that in 1951, gang had 13,000 inhabitants. today, there are fewer than 7,000. >> reporter: francesco migliazzo is the mayor of gangi. he tells me that the same things that make his town so picturesque, from its narrow streets to its isolation from noisy cities, have also made it

inconvenient for locals, who've been steadily leaving in search of work in those noisy cities since after world war ii. sicily and across italy, there are thousands of towns like it,isking extinction in the coming decades. the mayor says gangi was desperate. >> ( translated ): homes were being abandoned, and left to we needed a way toncentivize people to live in the historic center in order to save our wn. so we started selling homes for only one euro. >> reporter: so hold on. you can buy a house in this town for onlyne euro? >> absolutely. for the price of a cup of >> reporter: sound good to to see for myself, meet ignazio tuzzolo, a retired banker who bought a vaon home for less money than he'll spend repainting hisirrors. >> i've got to get a smaller car. >> repter: so this is it? wow. this is amazing. bellissimo. of course, he didn't find it this way. part oone-euro deal quires that buyers renovate hegisi tme within three years of

puha.se you just cleaned it up and made it habitable? >> ( translated ): exactly. r:th some slight modifications. >> reporkay. so you took the shutters off the old window and it became a >> (otranslated we managed to save that sink too. it's at least one century old. >> reporter: you can tell. they don't make theme.his way anym tuzzolino says he spent 200,000 euros, about $220,000 right now, to makeover all 3200 square feet, inside and out. >> ( translated ): that's money that went into the local economy, to pay for materials, and wages for workers. now multiply that by all the other homes like me. so far there's been roughly 120 homes sold as a part of this program. >> reporter: perched in the eeadow of mt. etna, gangi's tslure has bn contagious. so hasarketing strategy. it's been 10 years since it began selling homes for one euro, and now other in sicily have caught on. towns like mussomeli. th a population of 10,00 it's currently selling nearly 400 homes for just over a dollar

each. houses are cheap, come with sunshine a year.and 300 days of t buyer beware: there ar hidden costs. and a lot of assembly required. some more than others. to start the house hunt, i book a visit with a realtor. cinzia sorce shows me just what you can get for one euro. >> ( translated ): as you can see, this floor is divided een the living room and bedroom, which is very big. you've got to be careful about the floors, which are ry fragile. >> reporter: wait, so you can't walk over here? >> no, avoid it. >> reporter: it could collapse? b yes, it's unsafe. >> reporter: fter or worse, one euro also gets you whatever you find inside these dusty 2,000 square feet. >> ( translated ): whoever buys the house then has to empty it out in order to rebuild it. that means getting rid of furniture, getting rid of rubble and debris. >> reporter: a lot of surprises.

d yes. >> reporter: b't be surprised by the extent of the overhaul. in this house and most others, ere's little you won't have to fix. so we're talking new plumbing. new electricity. >> reporter: so how much would i have to invest in this house if i wanted to make it livable again? >> you'll have to in lot. absolutely. it's impossible to say00 at least 2euros. >> reporter: still n a bad deal for idyllic views in your own sicilian hideaway. td hidden it is, not to mention haget to. the nearest major airport is more than two hours away by r, on highways that have seen outterays. if trists are going to move here, they're going to have to put up with roads, which range tom the good, to the bad, the utterly non-existent and most of these home buyers are, after all, tourists, here for just a few months out of the year.

most aren't raising children, the only real long-term solution to the population decline, according to demograers. but among the hundreds of people who have already invested their euro in sicily, some are starting new families. >> come on in! >> reporter: so nice to meet you. one year ago, belgians bert van bellingen and nina smets became the first people to buy abandoned real-estate in mussomeli. so this is original? >> this is original. eporter: but you restored it? >> i restored it. it's about 300 years old. >> reporter: now it feels so much like home, they got married here just a few days before we met. t er here? in over there,e church. >> reporter: they moved here, more than 100 other homes people from across europe, asia, and the united states. do you ms anything? are there any regrets? >> nne. it's worth i when you see what the finish is, in one year, what you have done,

ifme and my wife, it's bea. if you're waking up, and you see this view in the morning. >> reporte n no regrets. regrets. never. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour, i'm chstopher livesay in mussomeli, sicily. >> woodruff: tomorrow night pbs will air an hour long spial report from our newshour team. "the plastic problem" examines how our global dependency on plastic has created one of the biggest environmental threats to our planet. amna nawaz hosts the hour and joins me here now. amna, hello. this is an enormous undertaking. you all spent what, a year working on this? tell use a lit bit about what's in it? >> that's right. i was parted of this reportinng team aith john yang, paul solman and jeffrey brown. we were led byur o producer. over the last year we have dug

anto more reporting from the series last , expanded that reporting across the globe, and we wanted to try to understand how this one materthat we all rely on so much every day is now irrevsibly hurting our planet in ways most of us don't even understand. most people don't know in the 70 years pltic has been around, we have made nine billion tons of that and most of th is still around in some form. in fact, we should point out, some of pee images le may see this this documentary are nate did turning. we found someplaces the plastic is ended up many places we don't expect it to. l takeook at this. >> oh, my god. >> in 2015, a marine biologist went video went viral as she lamoved the painful process of removing atic straw stuck in a sea turtle's nose. in the philippines, a whale washed ashore with nearly 90 pounds of plastic i its stomach. seals are getting caught in fishing nets mad out of

plastic. they'retcalled ghost n, abandoned by the industry. an estimated 640,000 tons of them are floating in the ocean. that's 10% of all known ocean plastic. judy, we should point out experts now believe by the year 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean. >> woodruff: that's hard to ndmprehend, so it does ss if we're just now coming to an understanding of how sious the problem is. what did you learn about that? >> woodruff: we really tried to approach this from every angle. not just looking at the historyw of how got here and why the problem is so big, but also looking at how the people who make the plastic, the people whk pae everything up to sell it to us, how they see the problem. so we went to two of the biggest producers in the world. we went to coca-cola and to unilever. we asked them what they're doing to help fix this probm they helped to create. we also looked at the role recycling plays.th a lot of peoplk they roll the blue bins out to the curb and that's it. we followed that trail of miles to see wher that plastic

is ending up. we talked to scientists looking at the fish that eat the now are human eating plastic because we eat the fish? we also talk to the innovleator, the petaking on new and creative approaches to try to judy new york some of those approaches, they would surprise a lot of people. >> woodruff: and, in fact, you talked to a lot of people. they want to know, what can be done and what can i as an invidual do about it? >> that's right. i'm sure a lot of people have heard about campaigns to end plastic straw use or bans on plastic bags. we actually went to some cities and dmiewnties where those are in place the see what has actually been the impact. doesft make a derence at all. it took every part of society to get us where we are, to make the problem as big as it is today. so despite our efforts to reuse and reduce, we're not yet making a dent. we use and make more plastic but experts say, look, if youe. want to make a difference today, start small and scale up so we actually visited with one family in canada who is trying to do just that.

take a look. >> reusable cups. >>loth coffee filter? >> yes. >> reusable bags. have silice. >> we are replacing this with beeswax. >> how on earth do you getid of plastic in your bathroom? >> we use a glass jar >> wash it out, reuse it. >> so now instad of plastic pump, we have a glass jar. >> so you make little changes everywhe y you can. >>. >> woodruff: that's what people say will make a difference. s ght now if you want to try something, l little changes. try this, testing out my own haocery shop. it's not a as it looks, but especially to keep in mind, if folks go out thanksgiving opping, you start the make little changes today. >> woodruff: it duds look challenging to remember to do those little things. program place mrs. airs -- the program "the plastic problem" airs tomorrow nightn

kbs 10:00 eastern, 9:00 central. >> tha judy. >> woodruff: viewers of the pbs newshour know karine jean pierre as a democratic strategist and one of our election night analysts.er but inook, "moving forward," karine shares her personal story about the struggles she experienced growing up as the eldest child he haitian immigrants. i sat down witrecently and i began our conversation by asking karine how her immigrant upbringing shaped her life. is that imgrant upbringing, growing up in new york, it shaped everything and anything that i'm about, the person i at t here, that sits before you, my hard work, my perseverance, the way i meet people andalk to peoe. it has made me who i am, the type of mother that i have become, partner that i've become. my parents, haitimmangrants, it's like the immigrant experience. they came here for themerican dream. that in many ways eluded them.

they still live check to checkt, their eyes because i made it to the white house, because their daughter went to columbia, they have received it. so it's beenr inteesting watching their experience. they have been knocked down and they get back up, ando wh i'm knocked down, i get back up some that specious with them growing up has really made me so much stronr. woodruff: your family is that redded through so much of this book. your father, a taxi driver, but trained as an engineer. >> exactly. >> woodruff: and your mother had been a nanny and then a caregiver. >> caregiver. >> woodruff: both of them very involved in you life. orgh expectations you. >> high expectations, and it war elming being the oldest of three siblings. i had the take care of m siblings while my parents were working six, seven days a week. i had to feed them and i'm eight years older than my sister, ten years older than my brother, so i was pretty young when they were toddlers. , d i had the make sure their

food was cookke sure diapers were changed, because they had to provide for the family. and all of that heaviness, all of that responsibility led to some dark times, as well. i> woodruff: you write about secrets if the fy. there were things your family didn't talk about. you write, karine, about your own struggles at points in you life with emotional difficulties, your own sexuality, coming out as a gay woman, an how your parents responded to that. >> so one ofe hings, there are so many things that i bring up that you just laid out b perfectl one of them is mental health. one of the reasons i talk about it in the book is becausthere is a stigma connected to mental health. and people don't wa to talk about what they go through when they are in dark times and the don't know how to get out of it. because of the pressures of me growing up and just feeling like an outcider all through my tiowing up, my young, young day, there was when i attempted to take my life. i attempted suice. life clearly, an i put that my

in the book. want to help people., because i i want anybody who has ever felt thatay to f like there is a way out and the know there is a way out. >> woodruff: what do you thinkgo you through that? >> i think back again, even coough there was pressures from thunity, pressures from my family that i put on to myself in many ways. i think because growing up my parents alys instilled in me that i was going to survive, that i was going to be a star, that i was going to do anything that i wanted. somehow somewhere that w still there urge even though i was so down and out. >> woodruff: you kept pushing through. you went on the college and graduate school, endd up going into politics. >> yeah. >> woodruff: why do you think you did? >> i think i just persevered. i think it's like being knocked down and going back up again. i now teach at columbia, an ivy league school.

i have to mentoacr and h young people and help them get through their lives. and i have a five-year-old. my partner and i have this beautiful five-year-old daughter. and i think that helps me persevere and that helps me understand what kind of world do i want the leave for her. woodruff: you talk about advice for young people. they don't have to work at the capitol, but they can make a difference in politics and policy at the grassroots level. >> i believe they can. the way they're going to make that change is if their voice is in the fight. if they stepinto the political arena, whether it's working on that issue or deciding to rub -- run themselves or working for a candidate they realleve in and want them to decide their future. and i tell that in my book. i lay out the blueprint and the playbook for doing that. >> woosuff: in fact, there a point of the book where you not only worked fresident obama, you worked for anthony weiner, hn edwards, politics who didn't exactly end up in the

right place. > yeah. >> woodruff: it'an interesting lesson you learned. >> yeah. and i say in my book, don't put people up on a pedestal. care about the issues for sure, but don't put peop a pedestal because people are flawed. we are flawed individuals. and i also tell youngeople, if you do end up working for a flawed candidate, mak sure you take care of your career, as well. right? you have to make sure you vigate through those waters so that you can continue your career. and so it's a fine line the walk on, but you have to continue sticking wit what you believer in. >> woodruff: you are political strategist. you're a democratic political yorategist, so i'm not going to leget away without asking yohow do you believe democrats can defeat donald trump next year? ?o you think they have a good chance of winni >> i do. cause wereason why is b have been energized the past three yearcr we, the deic base, the resistance, if you want to call it that, and we have shown up in

races, in big ways and inic hist numbers. there is an energy there, when you look at the polling and it says, what do democrats want the most, they want somebody who can beth donald trump. 's the thing. whoever is the nominee has to understand, it's going to ta a movement. to beat donald trump. it's not going to be easy, but we can do you got to get young people out. you got to get people of color, black voters, black women who have been the backbone-of-the democratic party. you have to get educated white you have to get everybody. you have to get that coalition and people who don't normay vote and don't think their vote matters, you have to convince them to get them out. it's going to take a movement. >> woodruff: the book is "moving forward: a story ofrd hope, ork, and the promise of america." thank you. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: what objects give meaning to our lives? kpbs reporter maya trabulsi talked to an artist who gathered things special to san diego assidents -- and preserved them as 3-d-art. it is part of our arts and culture series, canvas. >> reporter: when you walk into the new americans museum, you may wonder where the art exhibit is. but if you look closer, you will see a peknife, a bell, a figurine. and if you look even closer, you will learn about the stories embedded in these objects. >> each one of these individual stories come together as a orus in my view. the artist-in-residence here.s >> when you start with something specific, something completely surprising can unfold. hasomething you never woul access to otherwise. >> reporter: something specific like typewriter? >> like a typewriter, yes, yes. >> reporter: for her exhib, called "a portrait of people in

motion," she spent over a year gathering treasured objects from san diego residents. but more importantlyhe gathered the stories that accompany them. >> if we can feel some of that emotion about what it's like to try to figure out how to live in a new place, then maybe we can empathize with those who are experiencing the most extreme version of that discomfort. >> reporter: the item is scanned, and then 3-d printed or laser engraved to leave behind what kerianne calls a ghost, transparent with faint detail, yet still teeming with the story of how it came to san diego. >> the story is the art piece. the objects that are represented here're just a way in to those stories. and yes the objects are and that's on purpose. >> reporter: some objects are made of clear resin, others are acrylic. >> the light as it projects through the laser ened surface it creates a shadow

where the writing al becomes legible. >> reporter: at first gland , they are h see against the stark white wooden furniture designed to look like a home. but lookincloser is exactly what kerianne wants you to do. >> when they look closr and they wonat that thing is are given access to the story that is behind it. >> reporter: kerianne also recorded the oral histories of each piece. that can be played by dialing a number on your phone and then the corresponding number of e item. >> my item is a jacket when i was in korea during the korean war, this was a jacket that i in effect stole from the army. >> from 1971 to now have lived many places and the recipes have gone with me. >> my object is a tiny inuit figure that i have had since 1945. it was given to me by my first boyfriend who was stationed in the aleutians. >> and i think just seeing it

makes me feel at home because i grew up seeing it. >> the crux of what i'm trying to do here is to help people in general feel something that orght make them treat their neighb little bit better. >> reporter: and as the sound of little museum undethe santhis diego flight path, it offers a subtle reminder thate are all people in motion. >> woodruff: befordeparting the white house this afternoon for his resort home in florida, mar-a-lago, president trump handed out a pair of pridential pardons. and the recipients gobbled up the spotlight. amna nawaz is back with how this annual thanksgiving tradition began. >> i hereby grant you a full and complete pardon

>> nawaz: bread and butter won't be on the thanksgiving menu this year, thanks to president trump. the commander-in-chief spared butter in a rose garden ceremony, saving the bird from a crumby situation. his wingman also received a presidential pardon. this year's fortunate birds, who hail from north carolina, became instant celebrities this week, after checking in at the willard international hotel in washington, d.c. this is bread. he weighs in at 45 pounds, and, according to the white house, likes blueass music and college basketball. his heftier counterpart, butter, weighs 47 pounds, enjoys sweet potato fries and nascar. >> today we also come together friend, the nobel .ful feathered >> nawaz: this white house tradition has happened every november for the past quarter- century.

but there are some, let's say, ruffled feathers, about how it all got stard. >> president truman was the first president to pardon a turkey. >> nawaz: but at's not true. in fact, the truman presidential library ys: truman sometimes indicated to reporters that the turkeys he received were table.ed forhe family dinner truman was actually the first president to receive a turkey from the national turkey federation 71 years ago. so, who was the first president to pardon a turkey? lincoln, it appears, was the first on record. but it was a christmas turkey jat his son had taken a liking kennedy was the first to pardon a thanksgiving turkey. despite a sign hanging around the turkey's neck that read, "good eating, mr. president," kennedy sent the bird back to the farm. rechard nixon also gave the birds ieve, sending his n rkeys to a nearby petting zoo. ronald reas the first to use the word "pardon" when he was talking turkey i1987.

the turkey pardoning became fine tom turkey, that he will not end up on anyone's dinner uyble. not this >> this igheisi ht e hhah adve free in the rose garden. >> nawaz: in 2000, jerry the white house pass around hised a neck. four years later, the bush administration also had some fun. the names of that ye'surkeys white house weite. attsscea h tis h mo atrn his sp gravy, prevailed over the ticket of patience and fortitude. >> nawaz: when president obama that he wouldn't stop, even after leaving office. >> we are going to do this every year from now on. no cameras, just us, every year. no way i am cutting this habit

cold turkey. >> nawaz: president trump, for ics part, couldn't resist bringing polinto today's ceremony, comparing butter the >> the subpoenas to appear in adam schiff's basement on thursday. : bread and butter will now be sent to blacksburg, virginia to live out the rest of their days at virginia tech, home of the hokiebird. >> woodruff: and that'the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has beeprovided by:

>> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in e ucation, democratic engagement, and vancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. tu and with the ongoing support of these insons and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs ion from viewers like yo thank you. captioning sponsneed by hour productions, llc media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & co." re's what's coming up. >> the difference between then and now is not the difference between nixon and trump. 's the difference between that congress and this one. >> america gathers for thanksgiving as a divided nation. award-winning author doris kearns goodwin tells me how history will judge these dramatic public-- hearings. an >> are you accusing the cia of murder? >> hollywood tes on the government inquiry thatxposed torture in america. annette ben begun on being senator dianne feinstein in "the report." en -- >> in general, i think we need to all listen better and respect. >> in defen of elitism, a new book uses comedy to e