captioning sponsored by wnet >> hill: on this edition for sunday, december 26th: tributes for archbishop desmond tutu, south africa's hero of the anti-apartheid movement, who died today. a look back at why cleveland is making a big investment in trees. and a walk through maine's acadia national park to see and hear the birds. next on pbs newsur weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the anderson family fund. the estate of worthington mayo-smith. leonard and norma klorfine.

the rosalind p. walter foundation. koo and patria yuen, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. barbara hope zuckerberg. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group: retirement services and investments. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been to provide wireless service that lps people communicate and connect. we offer a variety of no-contract plans, and our u.s.-based customer service team can help find one that fits you. to learn more, visit www.consumercellular.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> hill: good evening and thank you for joining us. i'm michael hill, in for hari sreenivasan. we will be bringing you more of our favorite stories today. the weekd newshour team has selected some of their best nature and environmental reporting from the past year and hari will have those stories coming up. but we begin with the ne that archbishop desmond tutu has died at the age of 90. tutu's passionate voice helped end south africa's brutal apartheid regime that oppressed its black majority for decades. >> we raise r hands and we say, "we will be free, all of us, black and white together, for we are marching to freedom. >> hill: archbishop desmond tutu was an anglican bishop and a leader of the anti-apartheid movement in south africa. born in 19, he followed in his

father's footsteps, becoming a high school teacher. he then switched paths to become an anglican priest. tutu was on the frontline fighting for freedom and equality in south africa, where racially segregated apartheid began in 1948. >> we know, we know, we shall overco the evil. >> hill: in 1984, tutu won the nobel peace prize for his role in advocating for non-violent protest to end the brutal practice of white-minority rule. >> welcome our brand new state president, out of the box, nelson mandela! >> hill: in 1994, south africa elected its first black president nelson mandela. tutu said voting in that democratic election was “like falling in love.” the two were counterparts in the struggle for freedom. after mandela's election, the archbishop chaired the truth and reconciliation commission, investigating crimes of the apartheid era.

he delivered the final report to mandela in 1998. ( applause ) tutu advocated for racial justice and l.g.b.t.q. rights globally. tutu died from complications from prostate cancer, which he was first diagnosed with in 1997. when asked how he would like to be remembered, tutu answered: >> he loved, he laughed, he cried, he was forgiven, he forgave. >> hill: for more on the life of archbishop tutu, i spoke with newshour special correspondent charlayne hunter-gault. thank you so much for joining us. i have to ask u this where would the end of apartheid be if it had not been for desmond tutu? >> well, we may still be involved in it, but actually, i

think that one of the things that desmond tutu, and i am so sorry to hear he has transitioned, as the south africans say, they never used the term dead or death, but i think that so much changed as a result of his work. and yet, like in america, we go around in circles, sometimes trying to get a more perfect union. and so i think that at the time that archbishop tutu was very active, especially with the truth and reconciliation commission, it was the time to set south africa on a new path. and sometimes, as you would know, the paths have rubbish on them. but his principles were those that enabled those who cared about the things that he did to sweep away that rubbish in the past. so it never goes away. south africa is having a rough

time today as we are here in america, but there are people who have given us lessons to survive even the worst of times. and he was one of those. >> hill: you know, he chaired this truth and reconciliation commission in south africa on behalf of the president at the time, nelson mandela. and he wrote in one of his reports, tutu did, not to judge the morality of people's actions, but to act as an incubation chamber for national healing, reconciliation and forgiveness. but that didn't sit well with a lot of south africans, though. >> well, it didn't, but it didn't dissuade him from, you know, as a preacher's kid, a p.k., which i am, i always understood what moved archbishop tutu. d it was his faith. and his faith taught him to have faith in people. and those could be people whom

he wanted to help have support him, but others who he knew it was going to be a challenge to achieve. and so as we have here in america today, we have a younger generation that wantthings to happen a lot faster, the equality that we've been promised in our constitution. and the same is true in south africa. so you had people on all sides of the, shall we say, the freedom equation. but he understood all of that and he never crized them. he always said he understood their impatience. and yet he continued on his path toward reconciliation because he thought that that was probably the most important thing that could happen in the country, reconciliation. and although not everybody bought into it, he did help prepare the country for one of the greatest presidents who ever lived, nelson mandela.

and he also helped to ease the transition in so many ways. >> hill: charlayne, tell us, what was it like when you first met him in his youngerays and you were in south africa? >> i think he was about six or seven years old at the time and had a very young spirit. in fact, when he was running the truth and reconciliation commission, we learned from him that he had prostate cancer. and he said that probably the best kind of healer is a wounded healer. and what surprised me more than anything was as challenging as the country was at the time and as serious as the position that he had to determe what south africans could do going forward, he was always positive and he had a great sense of humor. i mean, you can find pictures of

him just laughing. and that's what struck me often in the meetings of the truth and reconciliation commiion, which i attended. although it was all very serious, he would find humor in some things, and i think that helped in many ways to ease the tension. so he was a man of many different attitudes and positions, and i think all of that made him a very successful person in the efforts that he was trying to achieve. and we'll always remember him for what he contributed to a new south africa. >> hill: we've been speaking with charlayne hunter-gault on the passing of desmond tutu. charlayne, thank you. >> thank you for having me. it's a real easure to talk about such a great man. >> hill: in other news today, covid infections, hospitalizations and deaths are onhe rise in the u.s., as the highly contagious omicron variant spreads. the average number of new

coronavirus cases has risen 69% to more than 201,000 per day over the past 14 days, according to the "new york times." but dr. ashish jha, the dean of brown university's school of public health said today that the most important numbers now are hospitalizations, mostly among the unvaccinated, and not necessarily new cases. >> obviously we can continue to track infections among unvaccinated people because those people will end up in the hospital at the same rate. but we really need to focus on hospitalizations and deaths now. >> hill: hospitalizations are up nine percent and deaths four percent over the past two weeks; both are rising much more slowly than new cases across the country according to the new york times tracking project. for more national and international news, visit pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: we reported several stories where the impact of climate change took center stage.

in our first report tonight, we look at a city investing in a solution. trees have been shown to cool the air by as much as 10 degrees, and newshour weekend special correspondent karla murthy went to cleveland last summer to see how that city is working to increase its tree canopy. >> we do want to talk about the importance of trees, how to maintain them, just give you some tips and tricks and a few pointers. >> reporte on a late summer day in august, residents in the old brooklyn neighborhood of cleveland have come out to learn about trees. >> most people like to plant them and forget them. you have to really baby them over the first three or four year mark then they start to take off. >> reporter: their neighborhood community organization will be planting 100 trees this fall after receiving a grant from the county. to get a free tree in their yard, homeowners have to attend one of these workshops. >> ultimately these trees need to get into the ground. >> reporter: it's all part of a citywide effort to dramatically increase the tree canopy. cleveland was once proudly known

as the forest city. but since the 1950s, it's lost about half its tree canopy. today, it coinues to lose nearly 100 acres of tree cover every year. >> so we don't have a lot of trees to begin with and we're losing them faster than we're planting them currently. >> reporter: sandra albro is the director of community partnerships at holden forest and gardens, one of the founding organizations of the cleveland tree coalition, which has grown to over 40 public, private and community groups since it was formed in 2015. >> currently we are at about 18% tree cover for the city. so that means that slightly under one fifth of the city is shaded by trees. >> reporter: and what is the ideal number to hit in ter of percentage? >> in urban areas, benefits really start to hit a tipping point at around 30% tree cover. >> reporter: those benefits include keeping neighborhoods cooler, lowering energy bills and absorbing heat-trapping carbon-dioxide from the air.

trees also capture storm water runoff, improve air quality and increase property values. to reap those benefits, the coalition developed a plan to reach 30% tree cover across the city by the year 2040. but reaching that goal is more compcated than just planting more trees and will take a massive city wide effort. >> so this is an aerial shot of cleveland. >> reporter: albro says the city should first focus on areas that need trees the most. >> here you can see a map of cleveland with, in terms of urban heattress. in the central area where you don't have as many trees, a lighter green here, we also see that those areas tend to be the hottest already and are at most risk for deadly temperatures with climate change. >> reporter: that central area is where samira malone lives and works. >> i actually lived right over here. >> reporter: malone is a neighborhood planning manager at midtown cleveland, a member of the tree coalition. the midtown neighborod near

downtown has a 6.5% tree canopy, much lower than the city's average of 18%. that lack of tree cover contributes to what's called the heat island effect. >> repter: we're standing in a heat island. >> we are. >> reporter: it is only like 10:00 in the morning. i mean, what does this feel like right now? >> it feels very hot. it feels very soupy to be in my business casual. but, yeah, this is the reality of so many residents. this area, folks use a lot of public transportation. so people are walking up and down the street to get to the bus. people are walking to work up and down these areas that leave very few refuge for actual shade. >> reporter: in fact, heat islands in downtown cleveland can be up to 20 degreehotter than in suburban areas with more trees just outside the city limits. malone says the lack of trees also correlates to many health issues. residents in this area have some of the highest rates of asthma and heart disease. she says these disparities

reflect a broader pattern of racial discrimination and decades of disinvestment. >> specifically in our neighborhood, these census tracks that have the lowest level of tree canopy also have the highest percentage of black residents. and that's not something that's just a coincidence. >> reporter: malone has been developing a tree planhich will be implemented this f her organization was recently awarded a grant from the county to plant 175 trees per year for the next two years. >> the thing that's beautiful about this project is that we're not just hhazardly throwing trees in the ground right now. like i mentioned before, there's been an economic disinvestment and tree infrastructure in black and brown neighborhoods. so this is really an act of racial restorative justice. >> reporter: just east of midtown, a tree planting event is being held by the famicos foundation, a community non- profit. today, four trees are being planted in a vacant lot to create an outdoor learning center for the school across the street. over the last two years, famicos and its partners have planted

over 250 trees throughout the three neighborhoods it serves. >> so the students will be able to come out and help watch them grow. >> reporter: erica burnett is the director of community building and engagement. she says getting trees in the ground is the easy part. taking care of them afterwards is a lot more challenging, especially during the first year when trees have to be watered regularly. burnett says part of their efforts to increase e city's tree canopy is to encourage residents to plant trees in their own yards, but all that work and the costs for watering and pruning trees are a big concern, especially for the many low-income families that live in the area. >> it's about basic needs and basic survival. i have to choose between food on my table versus a tree. i'm going to choose food on my tabl so that's one of the biggest struggles, is to get people to take on new trees. >> when people think about trees, you think about tree planting and how gratifying that is to plant a new tree.

but what we've learned is that it's just as important to preserve the existing canopy, the mature tree canopy. >> reporter: jenny spencer is a city councilperson on the west side of cleveland. a variety of factors contribute to tree loss. there's disease and weather- related losses. utility and infrastructure projects also contribute to the loss of trees. >> really, any time you hear concrete work, sidewalks, curbs, kind of the alarm bells should go off. when you damage a tree root in a certain way it can lead to decline that that can't be reveed and ultimately the tree needs to be removed. >> reporter: but she says there are simple measures the city has done with very few resources to mitigate that damage. in 2018, the city passed an ordinance to put tree protections in place during development projects. sidewalks had to be replaced during a gas line replacement in spencer's wardand were re- poured six inches narrower to protect the trees. >> everyone realized this is

this is so easy. why hadn't we thought of it before? >> reporter: since the tree coalition began, the city of cleveland has committed one million dollars each year for the next ten years towards maintaing existing trees and planting new trees. but according to the cleveland tree plan, achieving 30% tree cover will require not only preserving the existing canopy, but planting over 300,000 new trees in the next decade. it just seems like a huge undertaking and a monumental goal to reach. i mean, how feasible is it? >> the number is daunting for sure. but having a number has forced us to have very realistic conversations about what it will really take. i think it's important to confront that, but not let it stop us from continuing to work on the problem.

>> sreenivasan: in november, our team returned to maine, a state we visited a year earlier when the pandemic lockdowns were lifting. there were hopeful signs of recovery and tourism and travelers werencreasing. maine is known as vacationland. the nickname is even on the state's license plates. few places in the state attract more visitors than scenic acadia national park on maine's coast. by late autumn, many of the seasonal businesses have closed and the tourists have thinned out. but there was still a lot to see, including some stunning backdrops and plenty of birds, if you have the right guide an know where to look and listen. how many species of birds do you think you've seen in this area? >> it's probably in the high 60s in just this area, just this area, like on a four hour walk on a two mile loop. so we're going at like half a mile an hour. >> wow. >> sreenivasan: on a seasonably wet and chilly day earlier this week, field biologist rich

macdald took us on a tour of some of his favorite places to look for birds in acadia national park. so when you listen, you can hear different birds. are you hearing any right now? >> yeah. so i would say most of my bird watching is actually bird listening. and so i hearing the chirping of a black chickadee. he was over here doing this little ditty. let's just listen for a moment. see if i hear anything else. there's a really, really faint, high pitched. and it's like it's hard to hear with the rain pattering on the ground and in our jackets, but that's a golden-crowned kinglet. it's a little bird. >> sreenivasan: macdonald has been birding for most of his life, and leads tours in acadia, and before the pandemic, all over the world. he's also a big proponent of birding locally. >> anywhere you go, you'll find birds. >> sreenivasan: to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the migratory bird treaty act, which protected birds migrating in the united states, macdonald spent 2018 cataloging as many birds as

he could in his home county of hancock, maine, which includes the park. macdonald published a book about his year of intense birding called, “little big year, chasing acadia's birds.” >> in the course of the year, i saw 268 species of birds, and mo of them were things you would expect to see. but some were uncommon, or some were even downright rare. rare for this area, not rare on the planet. and i think maybe the biggest message was that, you don't have to get all these exotic locations, which is really fun to do. yeah, but we saw a lot of really good birds here. >> sreenivasan: but for macdonald, it doesn't have to be a rare bird. he says that he gets a lot of pleasure out of seeing common ones. most people, they look at that cluster and they say, oh, just seagulls. >> yeah. >> sreenivasan: what dyou see? >> so i look at it right off the bat. i see two particularly large gulls that have white heads and white underneath and black backs. and those are called great black-backed gulls. okay, it's the largest gull in the world. >> sreenivasan: oh wow. >> and then surrounding it are

some other pretty good sized in fact, i look at my binoculars, i can see at least three juvenile great black-back gulls. >> sreenivasan: so not even a seagull is boring. >> no, i think seagulls are fascinating. seagulls are fascinating. people talk about how chickadees are so common. oh, it's just another chickadee. but the chickadees are really cool. let me tell you about any number of stories about chickadees, but every bird is interesting and unique in their own way. if you look for it. >> sreenivasan: macdonald is in the midst of another year-long birding project right now, one inspired by the realization of just how environmentally taxing his last annual project was. >> at the end of the year, i drove 6,390 miles and i was really kind of disturbed by how much i drove locally birding in one year. so i swore that i was going to do it differently another time and i would do it as a zero carbon birding, which i'm doing th this year. so i'm only counting birds this year when i leave my house under my own power, by bike, walking, carrying my kayak the quarter mile down to northeast creek and paddling into the ocean. so you'll see a lot of different birds that way andhow you that you can see almost as many birds under your own power as you can driving.

>> sreenivasan: with a little less than two months left in the year, macdonald has already seen more than 250 specs. to go with the zero carbon theme, he's incorporating research on climate change into the project, which will also be his next book. as in almost every corner of the earth, global warming is being felt here, changing the food habitat and ranges of birds. >> people come here and always ask me, we want to see puffins. wherdo we go to see puffins? we're seeing puffins starting to struggle because we're at the southern end of their range and puffins for forever have been feedinthe young a small little kind of almost eel-like fish called a sand lance. and that's kind of a big part of their diet. and the young can swallow it down. because of the warming gulf of maine, and the gulf of maine is warming faster than almost any other saltwater body on the planet, so we're finding fewer sand lances and we're finding more fish that are similar length but are fatter called butterfish. and the puffins, adults, are feeding the young butterfish,

and we're finding the young puffins are often choking on these fat butter fish. so we're seeing reduced numbers of puffins fledging in this area. again, we're at the southern edge of our habitat range, so we expect to see some fluctuation, puffins expanding further south or further north. but this is a real problem a that's purely due to global warming. >> sreenivasan: his tour business took a big hit during the pandemic in 2020, but macdonald says that tourists have come back in force this year. acadia has had a record number of visitors, part of a pandemic- related trend of people wanting to get outdoors. >> it's kind of exciting in that we're getting more people into the park who are going to hopefully love the park and appreciate it and want to become stakeholders in and conserving natural lands. i'm taking a lot of peopleut there that are really unfamiliar with the natural world, and they're so excited to learn about it and that's great. >> hill: that's all for this

edition of pbs newshour weekend. happy first day of kwanzaa to all who celebrate starting today and throughout the week. for the latest news updates visit pbs.org/newshour. i'm michael hill. thanks for watching. stay healthy, and have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. bernard and nise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the anderson family fund. the estate of worthington mayo-smith. leonard and norma klorfine. the rosalind p. walter foundation. koo and patricia yuen, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities.

barbara hope zuckerberg. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group:etirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: consumer cellular. and by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

- [announcer] this program was made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. - the first thing i look for when i read a script is does the story move me? the only failure is if you move an audience to nothing, to boredom. if they are indifferent about what they just experienced, whether it's a painting or a recital or a singer or a dancer or a play, if they are, i feel nothing throughout then we failed. (upbeat music) - hi everyone, this is "beyond the canvas" from "pbs newshour." i'm amna nawaz. in this episode we examine how success is born from a combination of deep ambition,