06.21.12 06.21.12 >> from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> we are all aware that time is ticking, and we are quickly running out. you have 72 hours to decide the fate of your children. my children. my children's children. and i start the clock now. >> a warning to world leaders from the next generation. we will speak with 17-year-old environmentalist brittany trilford of new zealand at the rio + 20 earth summit in brazil.

then, 20 years ago, and the 12- year-old canadian addressed the earth summit. she became known as the girl that silenced the world for six minutes. >> you do not know how to fix the ozone layer, you do not know how to bring the salmon back up from the stream. you cannot know how to bring back an animal now extinct and you cannot bring back the forest where there is now a desert. if you do not know how to fix it, please stop breaking it. >> we will also speak with her father, david suzuki, the environmentalist. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. wikileaks founder julian assange could learn as early as today whether his request for

asylum in ecuador has been approved. he spent a second night at the ecuadorean embassy in london after seeking refuge in a last- ditch bid to avoid extradition in sweden. the foreign minister says that a decision is expected within 24 hours. in an interview with the news company telesur, they say that he has every right to seek asylum in a foreign country and rejected concerns that this would harm the relationship with the united states. >> the relationship between the united states and latin america should be very affected because on the corrupt ecuadorian, bankers to becker to our country, asked for asylum in the u.s. journalists who defame go to the u.s. to ask for asylum. it is established in international law.

every country has the right within its sovereignty to give asylum. >> assange could face arrest citing breaking his bail. >> the big worry is extradition to the united states, we all know what happened to bradley manning. he was held in a situation that is equal to torture. that is a true warrior. >> in afghanistan, six civilians and three have been killed in a suicide bombing in the eastern province of khost. "the new york times" is reporting cia operatives -- officers are aiding the struggle

against the syrian president by helping to decide which government fighters will receive arms. a small number of officers are operating in southern turkey, where weapons are being funneled into syria. the obama administration has denied giving weapons to the ripples and officials say that the cia is there to prevent the wrong people from getting their hands on weapons. one officer told a local paper that the cia officers were there to protect and recruit new people. officials for the international committee of the red cross and the syrian red crescent are willing to enter the city after this hearing government and rebel troops agree to stop clashes. an agreement had been reached on wednesday. >> we have received an official

agreement from the syrian government to allow people to enter the city. this is what we want to carry out in our red crescent effort, so we can evacuate tens that are wounded or ill, as well as the elderly, women, and children. >> "the guardian" is reporting the u.s. and british leaders received encouragement at the g 20 and private talks with russian president vladimir putin brown the possibility of negotiating a searing transition. under the deal, assad could receive safe passage to attend a conference in the future. both candidates, muhammed

mercy, the results could be announced as early as this weekend. the results have been on the cyber operations of iran. the washington post reports the u.s. and israel have used a virus that secretly mapped iran's's internal computer networks and sent back intelligence to be used for disrupting nuclear activities. the virus was developed with the national security agency, cia, an israeli military. cyberama administration's campaign in iran is believed to be the first sustained effort by one country to destroy another's infrastructure through computer attacks. u.s. troops who burned korans in afghanistan earlier this year

are likely to avoid charges. military leaders are recommending punishment for at least seven of the troops, the lowest possible reprimand for their actions. the incident sparked violence that killed at least six u.s. soldiers and dozens of afghans. three protesters arrested at the nato summit in chicago last month have been indicted on 11 counts, including four terrorism charges. the so-called nato three were arrested for an alleged plot to attack president obama's campaign headquarters. police say they recovered materials to make molotov cocktails but defense attorneys say that they were set up by government in fort -- informants who planted the explosives. the three were arrested under a sweeping anti-terrorism law in illinois that had never

previously been used a house panel has voted to hold attorney general eric holder in contempt for failing to meet republican demands in a congressional probe into the controversial gun sting operation known as fast and furious. the operation saw u.s. agents encouraging the sale of thousands of guns to middlemen of mexican drug cartels in an attempt to gain access to senior levels within the criminal organizations. on thursday, republicans voted to reprimand holder over his failure to hand over documents about his program. the committee chair, darrell isi, says that his refusal to cooperate led to the vote. >> we have not received a credible reason for them not being supplied, and in fact, no constitutional assertion has occurred rather, it is the duty of the executive branch and its

agencies to represent itself honestly before congress and to make available such transparency as necessary for us to fund and authorized now and in the future the request of this and future presidents. >> in a bid to circumvent the effort, president obama asserted executive privilege over the documents hours before the vote was held. it was obama's first use of executive privilege. democrats have called the reprimand of holder a political stunt. the ranking democrat said republicans are not cooperative and are seeking a resolution. >> it did not have to be this way. it really did not. we could have postponed a vote, accepted the attorney general's offer, and work to get different documents. instead, the prestige of this

committee has been diminished, and the result should concern all. >> house speaker john boehner says the vote to hold eric holder in contempt of now go before the house. republican congress member peter king is holding the latest in his series of homeland security hearings into the radicalization of muslim americans. critics have described the hearing as a modern-day mccarthyism meeting to stoke fear against muslims in the u.s. >> i do not oppose hearings on radicalization. i do oppose hearings that do not focus on the entirety of radicalization.

and if you agree that we have questions, as has been mentioned by more than one member, who become radicalized, become a part of it is long and they become radicalized as is being said, why not have a hearing on the radicalization of christians? >> in florida, the sanford city commission has fired the police chief after months of controversy surrounding his handling over the killing of trayvon martin. lee had previously submitted his resignation in april but the city council refused to accept it. on wednesday, they switched course, allowing him to leave his job. a group of new are immense public school employees fired in the aftermath of hurricane katrina have won a lawsuit

citing wrongful dismissal. a louisiana judge awarded seven plaintiffs $1 million in damages after ruling 7000 school employees probably lost their jobs. ruling clears the way for more damages although the decision will likely be appealed. two iranian americans in georgia have revealed they were barred from making purchases at local apple stores after employees heard them speaking farsi. sahar sabet was prevented from buying an ipad after an employer overheard her speaking to her uncle, zack jafarzadeh, another customer, had a similar experience. employees cited export laws on iran in justifying their actions. a group of iranian americans plan to hold a flash mob protest at an apple store in new york today. epidemiologist rose bertell has died at the age of 83.

she won the 1986 right livelihood award for her work on the threat to the planet posed by radiation. known as the anti-nuclear nun, she investigated the disasters in chernobyl and worked extensively with their victims. those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. >> i'm juan gonzalez. leaders from more than 100 countries gathered in brazil for the rio + 20 earth summit, the largest united nations conference ever. the gathering comes 20 years after the 1992 u.n. earth summit in rio de janeiro, when leaders pledged to protect the planet by endorsing treaties on biodiversity and climate change. since then, few of the development goals have been reached in areas like food security, water, global warming, and energy. on wednesday, the brazilian

president welcomed world leaders under a cloud of criticism that the summit will fall far short of its promise to establish new goals. >> we know the cost of not acting will be greater than taking necessary actions, even though they may face assistance and may be politically complicated. >> a new report by friends of the earth international warns of multinational corporations having an undue influence over the summit. negotiators had agreed on the draft before the heads of state arrived on wednesday. many groups working on environmental and poverty issues have criticized the agreement for being too weak. this is the greenpeace political director daniel mittler. >> this is about progress to water down the text, to have commitment, and in reality, governments are here to do nothing, and to commit to doing nothing. >> 20 years ago, a 12 year-old

give you a plea to world bigger to save the planet. her name was severn suzuki. she is back in rio. first, we turn to another young environmentalist, 17-year-old in brittany trilford. she addressed more than 100 heads of state at the opening of the rio + 20 summit. listen carefully. the audio has some imperfections. >> thank you for a opportunity to address this plenary. my name is brittany trilford, i am 17 years old. i am a child. today, in this moment, i am all the children. your children. the world cost 3 billion children. think of me as half the world.

i stand here with fire in my heart. i am confused and angry at the state of the world, and i want us to work together now to change this. we are here today to solve the problem that we have cost as a collective, to ensure we have a future. you and your governments have promised to reduce poverty and sustain our environment. you have already promised to, that climate change. to ensure clean water and food security. multinational corporations have already pledged to respect the environment, bringing their production, compensate for their pollution. these promises have been made, and yet still, our future is in

danger. we are all aware that time is ticking and we are quickly running out. you have 72 hours to decide the fate of your children, my children, my children's children, and i start the clock now. tick, tick, tick. let us think back 20 years ago, well before i was even an inkling. think back here to rio, where people met at the first earth summit in 1992. the people at the summit nuke it needed to be changed.

all of our systems were failing, coalescing around us. and these people came together to acknowledge these challenges, to work for something better, to commit to something better. they made great promises, promises, that when i read them, still the feeling hopeful. these promises are left, not broken, but empty. how can that be? when all around us there is knowledge that offers us solutions. nature as a design tool offers insight into system that our whole, complete, that give life, create value, and our progress, transformation, and change.

we, the next generation, demand change, demand action, so that we can have a future. we trust you in the next 72 hours to put our interests before all other interests and boldly do the right thing. i am here to fight for my future. that is why i'm here. and i would like to end today by asking you to consider why you are here and what you can do. are you here to save face?

or are you here to save us? thank you. >> that was 17-year-old of brittany trilford, a young environmentalist from wellington, new zealand and just more than 100 world leaders, business representatives, ngo's during the rio + 20 earth summit. she is with us now from rio de janeiro, where the rio + 20 summit is taking place. welcome to democracy now!. what was it like to be up there? you are addressing the majority of the world's leaders. what do you expect to come from your speech and this summit? >> well, it felt amazing. it was very nerve wracking but very exciting. i hope the world leaders can listen to my speech, that they feel what i was trying to say,

that they understand the atmosphere and ideas i was tried to portray their, and that they are driven to fulfill the promises that i asked of them, to act now, boldly. >> could you tell us about how you first became involved in environmental activism, what prompted you, and how you ended up to be chosen to make this presentation? >> i have always been really into youth affairs and giving youth a voice. i received an e-mail from one of the next i'm a part of about this competition. it is run by a collaboration of over 300 ngo's. they asked me to give a speech to the world leaders about the future that i want. i have a lot to say, so i jumped at it. i have a lot of demands. i thought this was perfect.

this is the audience that needs to hear this. >> how did you make your way from new zealand to rio? were you a group of high-school students? who paid your way? >> it was just me and then went with the competition. i join the team in rio here. i came along with my dad as well. he is here in rio with me. >> in terms of what you hope to see take place, the issue of climate change, how does climate change affect new zealand, where you are from, wellington, new zealand? >> climate change affects everywhere in the world dramatically and will continue to progress and more of our systems will fail and collapse. in terms of how it affects wellington, it affects

wellington just as much as other places around the world. every day pass see the effects of climate change. it is snowing in wellington. it has not snowed for the past 50 years. it is thing but that that will build and build to something really big and irreversible, something really awful. >> after your presentation, did any of the delegates talk to you directly, comment on your presentation and its impact, if any, on their work? >> lots of the delegates and lots of the people watching on tv responded really well. what i said, because it was so simplistic, because it was a 17-year-old's and view of the moral truth of what was happening, they could see what i was saying. the delegates that commented to

me, because it was so simple, they understood what i was trying to say. they tell the passion of all the youth that i was trying to share. >> you only got five minutes, but that was five minutes where you were addressing the world. is there anything that you did not get to say in the address that you had to edit out for time, especially as you address young people in the world, many of whom feel that whether they do does one make a difference. >> something that i have said in other speeches which i could not particularly portrayed in the u.n. plenary is the power of youth. it is such a powerful force. i think sometimes they a step -- under estimate themselves. we have tools and technology available to us where we can share ideas, communicate,

educate. it is such a valuable, a powerful tool. the voice of youth is so strong and clear and truthful. i think that they can not only speak truth to power that i did -- like i did at the plenary, but they can take power. that is important to look at, something that you should get involved with, get engaged with. it is really something that i wanted to share at the u.n. plenary, for sure. i will continue to share and that message through media like yourself. >> brittany, trilford, i want to thank you for being with us. she was the winner of the date with history competition which is how she ended up giving the address with the world leaders. the competition asked young people to tell world leaders what they want for the future. i want to end with a clip of those voices.

>> our future is in danger. >> we should be acting urgently as if there was no tomorrow peter and the earth is the most treasured possessions we have. there is nothing more precious ore worth caring for. >> we must do right by the environment and the people. >> technology today has presented us an opportunity to action. >> not see the relationships as humans and nature or humans or nature, but just nature. >> a world of biodiversity and that is respected and protected. >> i see a world where the environment is on the mind of everyone. >> where green jobs and grain production are available for human consumption.

>> where no one goes hungry at night, where there is access to education, where there is no first world or third-world, just a world. >> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. we are broadcasting to you from rio de janeiro, where the rio + 20 earth summit is taking place.

>> "big yellow taxi" by joni mitchell. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. we are broadcasting of over 1000 stations. pbs and public access tv stations, and on both satellite tv networks.

i'm amy goodman. our broadcast is special, bringing you voices from the rio summit. >> we continue our coverage of the rio + 20 earth summit. thousands of soldiers and police are guarding about 130 heads of state and government as well as ministers and diplomats from over 180 countries, and 150,000 others. with me now is nnimmo bassey, director of environmental rights action in nigeria, chair of friends of the earth international. welcome to democracy now! >> thank you very much. >> can you tell us first your preliminary assessment of the

gathering, what the rest of the world can expect from what ever the world leaders agree on? >> the leaders came to rio with very low ambitions, probably with a desire to block action on any issue that would not be of particular benefit to them or their country's. coming to rio to talk about the future that we want, also looking at sustainability on the basis of a green economy, it is difficult to discuss a concept over which there is no agreement. many leaders do not have an understanding of what a green economy is. they have come out with an agreement which the presidents are looking at agree it --

currently, which is shallow, hollow, and does not deal with the root causes of the multiple crises the world is faced with right now. at the end of the day, it does appear that the real outcome of this rio + 20 would be in what has not been said, what has been expressed rather than what was said. we expected them to come here to present their score card to what they have done with the agreements of 1992, but rather, what we have seen is a very strong desire to review what was decided already. even to agree to mention the real principles such as differentiated responsibilities, precautionary principles, requirements of youth and women and the rest,

this was very difficult. at the end, the leaders struggled to include just a couple of these positions. this was already presenting a lot of reasons for us to worry that the united nations system has been captured by corporations who are driving policy from the background. this is a very worrisome trend. >> you talk about the scorecard but the u.s. environmental program tracked 90 goals that were developed daughter rio 20 years ago and by other international conferences, and it found significant progress has been made on only four of them, reducing ozone depletion, removing lead from gasoline, improving access to water supplies, and boosting research for marine pollution. four out of 96. that would be a failure on any score card. your assessment on whether or

not that will improve at all as a result of this summit? >> i agree with you completely. there has been a total failure by government and policy makers over the decision that were reached in 1992. the pillars of justice have been supplanted by the emphasis on the economy. the green economy is opening up the space for the whole sale of nature. troubling is the concept of payment for environmental services. the whole thing is opening up for speculation, which is the

very reason why we have the financial crisis, food crisis, and why the climate crisis is not being tackled. i will give you an example. the paper produced by the united nations environmental program. they have case studies and show that a green economy can work. the background to all of this is, if financial value is not placed on anything, then people do not value such things. this is fundamentally flawed. to start with that kind of premise. in the report, they say pollinators provided $190 billion. we challenged this. how can you estimate this? how can you put a monetary value to that? with this kind of platform, we

find a lot of space for economies, scientists, corporations, who would jump in to begin to come modify every aspect of nature, including the air. the air has been ground, the water, forests, soil. the world is now facing a crisis and this crisis is not providing a way out of the crisis. >> nnimmo bassey, speaking to us from rio de janeiro, from the largest un some of its kind ever. more than 130 world leaders are there. president obama is not there, although he was in copenhagen. the u.s. is being represented by secretary of state hillary clinton. can you comment on that, that the u.s. president is not there, and what you plan to say to ban ki moon, the secretary

general, when you meet with him tomorrow? >> it is really shocking that president obama is not in rio. this conference is set to prepare the platform for the duration of the development of the world will be overtaken in the next decade. 20 years from 1992 we have backtracked rather than making advances. this was an opportunity for leaders to come here to show leadership in the sense of taking things forward in a way that is acceptable. i am also not so surprised. these gatherings are not really about real solutions. they are about how to open up business for corporation. this is what i intend to tell the secretary general tomorrow.

i will be giving him a petition from civil organizations, that the united nations must begin to pay more attention to what the people of the world are saying, what the people most impacted by these prices are experiencing, rather than listening to what corporations are saying. yesterday, i was invited to be one of those to sit at a roundtable with the president, but it conflicted but my plan. i thought the best place to be was on my street. we must not glamorize. we have to look for real solutions. the real solution in rio is found in the people's summit, where people do not be around the bush, we have to stop corporate chapter -- capture,

but we have to stop cutting of communities from the resources they need. we should demand that they fund technology transfer. by 2015, it will expire. mainly because finance is not available, but rich nations are spending billions of dollars on a more fair and destructive activities. right now, we need to rescue the planet. >> nnimmo bassey, thank you for being with us. he is the chair of the friends of the earth international and also with environmental rights action in nigeria.

this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. we will stay in rio after the break. [♪] [♪]

>> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we continue with the largest un summit ever. >> we continue our coverage of the rio + 20 summit by turning to an amazing speech given 20 years ago at the 1992 un earth summit. 12-year old severn cullis-suzuki became the girl known as silencing the world for six minutes after she addressed the delegates at the un plenary session.

>> i am speaking for the environmental children's organization. we are a group of 12 and 13- year-old tried to make a difference. we have raised all the money to come here ourselves, to come 5,000 miles to tell you adults you must change your ways. coming up here today i have no hidden agenda. i am fighting for my future. losing my future is not like losing an election or a few points on the stock market'. i am here to speak for all generations to come. i am here to speak on behalf of the starving children around the world whose cries go unheard. i am here to speak for the countless animals dying across this planet because they have nowhere left to go. i am afraid to go out in the sun

now because of the holes in our ozone. i am afraid to breathe the air because i do not know what chemicals are in it. i used to go fishing in vancouver, my home, with my dad, until just a few years ago, we found the fish full of cancers. now we hear of animals and plants going extinct every day, vanishing forever. in my life, i have dreamt of seeing the great herds of wild animals, jungles, and rain forests full of butterflies and birds, but now i wonder if they will even exist for my children to see. did you have to worry of these things when you were my age? all of this is happening before our eyes and yet we act as if we have all the time we want and all the solutions. i am only a child and i do not

have all the solutions, but i know i want you to realize, neither do you. you do not know how to fix the whole is in our ozone layer. he do not know how to bring the salmon back up a dead stream. you do not know how to bring back an animal now extinct. and you cannot bring back the forests that once grew where there is now desert. if you do not know how to fix it, please stop breaking it. you may be delegates of your government, business people, organizers, reporters, or politicians, but really, you are mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles, and all of you are someone's child. i am only a child, yet i know we are all part of a family, 5 billion strong. in fact, 30 million species

strong. borders and government will never change that. i am only child, yet i know we are all in this together and should act as one single world towards one single goal. in my anger, i am not blind, and in my fear, i am not afraid of telling the world how i feel. in my country, we make so much waste. we by and throw away, by and throw away. yet, nor the country will not share with the needy. even when we have more than enough, we are afraid to share. we are afraid to let go of some of our wealth. in canada, we live the privileged life with plenty of food, water, and shelter. we have watches, bicycles, computers, and television sets. the list could go on for two days. two days ago in brazil, we were

shocked when we spent some time with children on the streets. this is what one child told us. i wish i was rich. and if i were, i would give all the street children food, clothes, medicine, shelter, and love and affection. if a child on the street who has nothing is willing to share, what are we, who have everything, still so greedy? i cannot stop thinking that these are children in my own age, that makes a tremendous difference where you are born. i could be one of those children rio.g in the favellas of i could be in somalia or a beggar in india. i am only a child, yet i know, if all the money spent on war was spent on finding

environmental answers, ending poverty, and fighting treaties, what a wonderful place this on earth would be. at school, even in kindergarten, you teach us how to behave in the world. you teach's to not fight with others, to work things out, to respect others, to clean up our mess, not to hurt other creatures, to share, not the greedy. then why do you go out and do the things that you tell us not to do? do not forget why you are attending these conferences, who you are doing this for. we are your own children you are deciding what kind of a world we are growing up in. parents should be able to come for their children by saying, everything will be all right, is that the end of the world, and we are doing the best we can.

but i do not think you can say that to us anymore. are we even on your list of priorities? my dad always said, you are what you do, not what you say. well, what you do makes me cry at night. you grownups say you love us, but i challenge you, please, make your actions reflect your words. thank you. [applause] >> severn cullis suzuki, then at age 12, delivering her address at the first un earth summit that took place in rio de janeiro. the video of her address has more than 21 million views on youtube. now she is back in rio, this time as a veteran into a rational environmental campaigner and mother of two. we welcome you to democracy now!. that was 1992.

can you talk about what has happened in the intervening 20 years? do you feel there has been real progress at this summit? >> good afternoon. it is an honor to be on the show. 20 years have passed and everybody wants to know what have we done? how have we progressed? well, last week, scientists released a report in the academic journal "nature" that suggested we are pushing for a tipping point in the earth's biosphere. we are attacking our ecosystems and all like that sustains this earth in so many ways and levels that we are pushing for conditions that we saw 12,000 years ago at the end of the ice age. that report released on the eve ofworl this summit is clear that we have not achieve a sustainable world.

we knew we needed 20 years ago. >> the draft agreement that is being proposed at this summit, somebody did an analysis of the verbs in the agreement and found the word in courage appeared 50 times and the word support appeared 99 times, but must only three times and we will come only five times. so in the face of this looming crisis, does it give you much hope at all the world leaders are counting this agreement in such weak terms? >> they called rio +10 in johannesburg -10 because the leaders were already beginning to track back from an agreement in 1992 which now looks like an amazing vision their success. i am ashamed to hear that the

canadian negotiating team was trying their best to omit the word commit. i wonder how many times that made it through in the draft that we have today. i think this is indicative of what is happening in our world at large. there is so much shift right now. we have economic meltdown, social unrest, we have revolutions boiling up all over the planet, and now we have our national leaders that are hunkering down more and more, defending their national interests, and less and less looking for the good of humanity. i believe we have a crisis in governance. this is showing other world leaders are not able to come together and lead for the sake of humanity. what does that mean when the world elect the leaders do not represent the good of the people they're supposed to care for? >> especially for young people that are listening and watching

right now all over the world, we have a room full of in terms that we are celebrating today, the summer interns. talk about how you ended up giving this speech, at the age of 12? how did you end up addressing world leaders? >> it was an incredible grass- roots initiatives. i have started a club, really, a group of girls who wanted to do something for the planet in the broadest terms. we started by educating ourselves. we called ourselves the environmental children's organization. we did small projects like beach cleanup, support for other environmental groups, and then we heard about the earth summit and decided we wanted to go. we got support from our community, parents, teachers, friends, fun raised the money, got here, and then in a sea of 30,000 people, we started to get

our message out because we were young. this is the key. 20 years later, the world is still talking about a six-minute speech. why? it is because the world is hungry to hear the truth, and it is nowhere articulated as well as from the mounds of those with everything at stake, which is you if. today's youth will spend their entire adult lives, my children will grow up in a time characterized by climate change, social unrest, refugees, and all kinds of problems, because of the ecological crisis that we now find ourselves in. everybody is talking about the economic crisis, but it is really a subsystem with an ecological crisis of this planet earth that is our home. >> i want to ask you about the canadato-texas pipeline. two months after the president

rejected the project after large protests by environmental groups, he announced his support for transcanada to build a southern leg of the pipeline from oklahoma to texas. in his remarks, he said his administration had authorized enough gas pipelines to encircle the earth. >> under my administration, america is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years. that is important to know. over the last three years, i have directed by a administration to open up millions of acres for gas and or oil exploration across 23 different states. we are opening up more than 75% of our potential oil resources offshore. we have quadrupled the number of operating rigs to a new record high. we have added enough new oil and gas pipelines to encircle the earth and then some.

>> president obama is not attending, nor is david cameron, north angela merkel. now transcanada has re applied for a segment to build from canada to nebraska. this past friday, the state department said it would conduct an environmental impact statement on the keep up -- on the keystone xl pipeline. talk about this project and the role of environmentalists to stop it. >> a british journalist yesterday said that it is quite staggering to see the president, and democrat leader obama, of backtracking on commitments that george bush to seek your made in 1992. it really points to shift politically that we have come to, in 20 years, the realm of what is politically possible is totally on the side of the

right, and it is on the side of exploiting the natural resources of the planet as fast as it possibly can, and on a budget and scale that the works its opposition. i am here in rio and there are so many young people who are going through the track that has been presented to them, to have their voices heard. they have been lobbying and following the negotiations, staying up all night, putting their heart and soul into the declaration because they have faith that this process works and matters. we have seen for the lack of interest in this global summit from our world leaders, and in the inability to decide on anything, to say anything, that this system is broken. does not work. the keystone xl, as well as the enraged no. gateway pipeline, which is proposed from alberta to coast, i think we can see

from all the opposition to this, the governments want to ram it through at all costs, even at the cost of democracy. that is what i'm interested in talking about, this crisis in democracy that we have in promoting with the people actually want and what will carry us forward into the future with dignity. >> what about the fact that prime minister harper is not there? president obama is not there. it is particularly significant, since he weighs every day what he would do it in this election year, what kind of message he wants to send. instead, he sends secretary of state hillary clinton. >> the message is loud and clear. this is a message from prime minister harper, president obama. the message is we do not care about you. we do not care that your country may be inundated and huge social

strife is imminent. i was on a panel the other day with a minister from a small island nation, new caledonia. for him, climate change is an issue for survival of his people. my country, with the american nation is saying, is we do not care. >> it is interesting, the pentagon has reports as seeing climate change as one of the most serious threats to national security because of vast migrations of people when their areas are flooded or does certified, and must move to other places. as we wrap up, can you talk about the effect of climate change. in the united states, it is not a common discussion in any way. >> it is staggering how we are to make the connection between climate change in what is already happening in the ground, not only in the horn of africa,

not only in the arctic north, but in the country of america -- i remember in march seeing reports on the news about the hurricanes, the storm that were hitting a huge portion of the continental u.s. not to make the connection with what the world's leading experts are saying is exactly what happened in a situation where climate change was unfolding. we have to really ask who is driving the ship here? when the world leaders do not listen to science, when they do not listen to the experts to study this, the one that can really tell us what is going on, using fax and data and information, and when we have games in the canadian government, tried to shut down science, this really points to a huge question of governance and where we are going. >> severn cullis suzuki, thank

you for being with us, and 20 years ago. that does it for our broadcast. that does it for our broadcast.