08/02/18 08/02/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> every single person i have talked to so far has made a mention that i don't know why it is doing what it is doing. it is burning differently. it is burning more aggressive than it has in years past. i i know we say that every year, but it is unprecedented. amy: fire tornadoes. that is the term being used to describe some of the wildfires

in california that have killed more than eight people, destroyed more than 1000 homes. 16 fires are still burning across california. 320,000 acres have already been scorched. this c comes as heat recorords e being made across the country and world. in india, more than 500 people have died as a result of flooding a and heavy rains inn recent weeks. today it is climate change for the hour. >> quite a cycle, but the predictions that i see the more warmingpredictions of and fires to occur later in the century, 2040, 2050, are now occurring in real-time and we can expect them come unfortunatate, to keep andnsifying in california throughout the southwest. amy: we'll speak with climate scientist brenda ekwurzel, rob rich, the nathaniel

author of "the new york times" magazine piece "losing earth: the decade we almost stopped climate change." in ourn the second time history then dedicated the entire magazine to a single article. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president donald trump called wednesday for his attorney general to immediately and a special counsel robert mueller's investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election, prompting critics to charge the president guilty of obstructing justice. in a wednesday morning tweet storm, trump wrote -- this is a total situation and attorney general jeff sessions should stop this rigged witch hunt right now before it continues to stay in our country any further." commerce member adam schiff, the

ranking democrat on the house intelligence committee, tweeted -- "this is an attempt to obstruct justice hiding in plain sight. america must never accept it." at the white house, senior administration officials claimed trump was merely expressing an opinion. this is the press secretary sarah huckabee sanders. >> the president is not obstructing, he is fighting back. the president is stating his opinion. he is certainly expressing the frustration he has with the level of corruptioion that we he comey,om people like jim peter strozk, andrew mccabe. amy: presents comes call for the end of the mueller probe came on the second day of his former campaign manager's trial and now attend rick, virginia. paul manafort faces 18 charges including money laundering. prosecutors said manafort hid much of the 60 main dollars he earned from lobbying as an unregistered foreign agent on behalf of per russia ukrainian officials by stashing it in

undisclosed overseas accounts. witnesses is from manafort as spending lavishly from the accounts on cars, luxury goods, home renovations, even a $15,000 ostrich skin leather jacket. president trump weighed in on the trial in a two suggesting manafort is being treated worse in gel then mention aureus -- than the notorious mobster al capone. amy: in south texas, the american immigration says you should says a migrant toddler who was separated from her family as part of president trump's zero-tolerance border policy died shortly after being released from the dilley family detention center. houston-based lawyer mana yegani tweeted -- "the child died following her stay at an ice detention center, as a result of possible negligent care and a respiratory illness she contracted from one of the other children." last year, lawyers for the a cell you and several other groups sued ice, alleging that have been violating its own policy by locking up pregnant

women atat dilley and four immigration jails. 700 children forcibly y separatd from their parents at the border have still not been reunited with them. a federal court has declared president trump's executive order withholding funds from sanctuary cities in california unconstitutional. however, wednesday's ruling by a three-judge panel on the 9th u.s. circuit courtrt of appeals willll lift a nationwidede injunctition against trump's crackdown on sanctuary cities. a lolower court is now s slatedo consider re-imposing that injunction. cities across california, and in many other states, have passed sanctuary city policies barring local police from cooperating with federal immigration agencies. "the new york times" reports the trump administration is considering a plan to sharply reduce the number of refugees allowed to settltle in the unitd states. the plan, which has the support of trump's anti-immigrant senior policy adviser stephen miller, would cap the number of refugees resettled next year to 25,000 --

a 40% drop from the current cap. the number of refugees a allowed into the u.s. by the trump administration has slowed to a near trickle, with the country already on pace to allow in the fewest number of refugees since the e federal refugee resettlemt program was created in 1980. in zimbabwe's capital harare, soldiers and police used tear gas, water cannons, and live ammunition wednesday to clear protesters who'd taken to the streets to allege that monday's presidential and parliamentary vote was rigged. at least three people were shot dead, scores more left injured, many of them filmed being beaten by soldiers. a spokesperson for the opposition party movement for democratic change called the violence an attack on democracy. fired live tanks, ammunition on civilians for no apparent reason. civilians are allowed to demand respect other allies in a lawful manner.

any disorder may be dealt with by the police who are trained for public order. soldiers are trained to kill during war. we have seriously must wonder what this means. are we in war? our civilians the enemy of the state? amy: the deadly crackdown on protests came after election returns showed president emmerson mnangagwa's ruling zanu-pf party is heading for a large parliamentary majority. there's been no announcement of a winner in the presidential race, prompting international elelection observevers to questn the credibility of the vote. in the democratic republic of congo, a new investigation by vice news bolsters evidence of ethnic cleansing of the hema ethnic minority in the eastern ituri province. the violence began last december, as hundreds of machete-wielding militiamen swept through areas west of lake albert on congo's border with uganda. about 120 communities were attacked, with hundreds killed,

thousands of homes destroyed, and some 350,000 people displaced. investigative journalist nick turse reports the violence came after the u.s. abruptly cut support for peacekeeping efforts last year as part of president trump's america first policicie. prpresident trump doububled down his growing trade war with china on wednesday, threatening to increase tariffs on a range of chinese products from 10% to 25%. the tatariffs woululd target soe $200 billion of chinese goods. trump p launched a tit-f-for-t series o of tariffs after talks with beijing broroke down in m , prompting what chinese officials have called the largest trade war in economic history. google is preparing to launch a service in china that will allow chinese censors to block search terms about human rights, democracy, religion, and peaceful protest. that's according to the intercept, which reports that the project, code-named dragonfly, was launched in the spring of last year and

accelerated after google's ceo met with a top chinese government official in december. in response, patrick poon of amnesty international told the intercept -- "the biggest search engine in the world obeying the censorship in china is a victory for the chinese government. it sends a signal that nobody will bother to challenge the censorship any more." amnesty international says hackers recently targeted one its staffers in a sophisticated surveillance effort by a hostile government t to spy y on the g's work. the staffer,r, who was working n a campaigngn calling for the release of jailed women's rights activists in saudi arabia, received an anonymous message in arabic in the whatsapp smartphone application. the message was found to contain a link that would install the malware program pegasus -- developed by an israeli cyber-intelligence firm -- which allows a third party to spy extensively on an encrypted phone's calls, photos, and messages. amnesty warns the attack was likely part of a much broader effort to spy on activists in several countries across asia,

africa, , and europe. the trump administration has cleared the way for insurance companies to expand their sales of inexpensive health care plans that circumvent many of the protections of the affordable care act. under the new rules, health insurers can sell plans originally designed for short-term use for up to 12 months, with an option to renew each year. the plans don't have to cover pre-existing conditions and often exclude coverage for prescriptionon drugs, mentalal health, and maternity care. pope francis has said there will be death penalty in all instances, calling it an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person. the popes declaration reverses long-standing church doctrine which previously a loud of the rare penaltyy in circumstances. and the philippines, labor unions and press freedom groups are condemning a violent crackdown on striking workers at a major feud continent producer. july 30, please join with security guards to attack a get ofe outside a plant north

manila. at least 10 people were injured, 20 others arrested, one journalist injured during the strike and five looking at journalists arrested, propped condemnation from the committee to protect j journalists. all five were later released without charge. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. nermeen: and i'm nermeen shaikh. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. we begin in california, where tens of thousands of residents have been forced to evacuate as deadly wildfires continue to rage across the state. the worst wildfire, the carr fire, has engulfed more than 100,000 acres and destroyed more than 1000 homes in and around around redding, california, making it the sixth most destructive fire in the state's history. authorities said wednesday that 16 of the largest wildfires burnrning in california have scorched 3 320,000 acres, an ara larger than the entire city of los angeles.

eight people have died in the fires so far. this is calfire operations chief steve crawford describing the aggressive nature of this year's wildfires. >> every single person i have talked to so far has made the mention that, i don't know why it is doing what it is doing. it is burning differently. it is burning more aggressive than it has in years past. i know we say that every year, but it is unprecedented. it is burning in every direction all at the same time. even the with multiple resources, the way it is burning, the intensity, uphill, downhill, even if it does not have a strong wind on it, it is burning as if it has a santa ana wind or a strong 60 mile per 70 mile-per-hour wind. nermeen: wildfires are also surging across other parts of the west. in colorado, the third-largest fire in the state's recorded history continues to grow near garland, in the southern part of the state. the spring fire has so far consumed more than 100 homes and led to the evacuation of more

than 2000 people. in washington, a wildfire dubbed the "milestone 90 fire," had grown to some 11,000 acres byy wednesday. fires also rage in arizona, idaho, and oregon. amy: the fires in the u.s. come amid a month of deadly climate-fueled weather across the world. seven fires remained active in the forests of northeastern ontario, canada, as of after wednesday days of efforts by the local firefighters to put out the raging fire. more than 50 fires burned across sweden, including in swedish laplpland, inside the arctic circle. and in greece, at least 90 people have died as uncontrollable wildfires swept through neighborhoods outside the capital of athens. the blazes were the worst fires in more than a decade. christos zerefos, a climate scientist at the academy of athens, explained that a combination of environmental factors created a perfect storm for the blaze to spread quickly in what was a lush, densely populated area. >> well, it was definitely a high risk zone.

but ascalled paradise, we all have seen, paradise to be lost. frequente b be more extreme weatherr phenomenon because the climate globally is being destabilized. ort we have added a cushion an additional source of heat that is produced by humans. amy: climate scientists have linked increasingly scorching temperatures and deadly wildfires to climate change. for more, we are joined by brenda ekwurzel, senior climate scientist, director of climate science for the climate & energy program at the union of concerned scientists. welcome back to democracy now! >> good to be here. amy: talk about what is happening in california, what people are calling fire tornadoes, and this link to

climate change. know with climate change, one of the clearest signals is heat. what we see is more occurrences of extreme heat. when that happens during periods that are normally a dryer time of season in a location or in places that are semiarid, such as california has multi-years of drought, this is the kind of toxic, nation that can create very dangerous conditions so that the wildfires are hotter, more severe, and more dangerous for people living nearby am a dealing with the smoke. also if you're in the area such as greece or in areas that are fueled by santa ana winds that are much fiercer, stronger, blowing these fires at speeds that are very hard for people to escapepe. amy: let''s go to california governor jerry brown speaking at a news conference wednesday about the fires raging across california. >> this is serious.

the fires are more part of our ordinary experience. the predictions that things would get writer and hotter are occurring. that will continue. we're in quite a a cycle. at the predictions that i see, the more serious predictions of laterg and fires to occur in thehe century, 2040 or 2050, they are now occurring in real-time. you can expect them, and for, to keep intensifying in california and throughout the southwest. amy: this has even become an issue in the governor's race it is so major as it sweeps through california with republblican candidate john cox, changed and i are, saying it is a waste of time to discuss these issues. we just have to discuss rereadiness. gavin nenewsom who has and championing the issue of dealing with climate change. what doesurzel

climate change mean when you see through this lens, when it comes to dealing with these massive crises, the term "fire tornadoes" that is now being used? >> what we know is without a doubt, if you have hotter temperatures, it is just basic physics. you evaporate more water from your lakes and rivers and your drying out the soil. and the vegetation needs more water in these conditions, and it is losing more water to the atmosphere. you can create a tinderbox condition if you happen have a natural lightning strike or a careless spark by human activity for causing a fire. what we see in the western u.s. that large wildfires are lasting longer, more severe, and they are burning more acres. the other consequence is that, as you said, the threat to the dangerous situation for people

living on the front lines of a wildfire situation is putting more wildfire high shots, as they're called, bravely fighting these fires, their lives on the line as well as people and property in the way of the fire. that is why we need very advance signs to warn people about the conditions over the long-term of whwhat we can do, and also in te nearar term, in the fast warning system to get people out of the way and keep these warnings. these fires are much faster and stronger than we have ever seen before. that is in part because of burning coal, oil, and gas. nermeen: we just heard the california governor saying himself these fires are likely to keep intensifying and increasing in the coming decades. what steps do you thihi can be taken now? are there any preventative steps that the state can take to prevent this from happening -- or at least, mitigate it from happening? >> luckily, governor brown has been a leader in taking the

state to reducing its own emissions of heat trapping gases. so that has been the first and foremost, the best situation. yet the lower the baseline conditions. hotntists call it a drought. more dangerous conditions can result such as wildfires, water resources for drinking water and agricultural system are risk. that is number one, on oror the paris agreement. try to get the globe below two dedegrees cecelsius. numberer twowo, createte a bigge perimeter of safe area around structures were cherished resources that we need to protect. make sure there's a big difference between human actitivities and what is called the wild d land urban intnterfa. that is where we see a lot of fire activity starting. we have to stop these fires from starting in the first place unless under natural conditions. thirdly, we have to protect

people's public health. amy: talking about policy, the trump administration has argued that increased fuel efficiency standards endanger the lives of drivers. documents seen by the associated press show administration officials are preparing to argue more fuel-efficient cars will cause drivers to spend more time behind the wheel, leading to more deaths on roads and highways, attacking the fuel efficiency standards of california. the significance of this? >> that is counterintuitive because every study shows when we have fuel-efficient cars, we're putting last carbon into the atmosphere is there powered by fossil fuel and not a renewable fuel source. and that means cleaner air for californians, for any city, for any area where you have ground-level ozone. there are three ingredients for , carbon, or fuel vegetation such as forest. they can create that as well.

sunlight and high temperatures. as we warm the globe, we have this climate penalty with ground-level smog because we create more of this month because we have hotter temperatures during the day that we did a century ago. nermeen: can you say little bit about the populations, the more vulnerable populations are impacted the most by these wildfires in california, andd also elsewhere, the effectct of climate change-induceced environmental disasters on phone mobile click -- vulnerable populations." >> if you look at other parts of the world, when there was a of wildfire plus extreme heat in russia, studies show that was made possible more severe because of climate change for the high mortality with accommodation of smoke from fires in the high temperatures combining to create a very dire health risk, and

there were many tens of thousands of people that died. also, a study in 2003 heatwave, what we found in studying this heatwave and my colleagues and scientists found the risk of this for earnestly tragic heatwave that lost the lives of tens of thousands of people was doubled because of climate change. what we know is a subsequent study by mitchell and colleagues that i in central paris, the he mortality from that event was 70% of that excess he mortality was due to human induced climate change and 20% of the heat mortality in london was due to human induced climate change and that 2003 tragic event. amy: we're one at a break and ask you to stay with us. brenda ekwurzel, senior climate scientist with the union of concerned scientists, speaking to us from boston. this is democracy now! speaking to back --

us from washington, d.c. when we come back, we will continue this discussion and be joined by nat rich, who is written a piece in "the new york times" magazine that is the entire magazine come only the second time in "new york times" history that one article covers the entire magazine. the issue? climate change. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: with unprecedented fires, floods, and heat waves sweeping the globe, 2018 is on track to be the fourth hottest year on record. the regions most affected by the disastrous effects of global warming are overwhelmingly not the countries that have contributed the most to climate change. according to the 2018 global ninete risk index, the leas countries most affected by

climate change in the past 20 years are developing nations, including hunter is, haiti, burma, and bangladesh. text andy reports " contribute less than 1% of the world's greenhouse gases blamed , yetausing global warming its 200 million people are among the world's most vulnerable victims of the growing consequences of climate change." the indian government says more than 500 people have died as a result of flooding and heavy rains in recent weeks. in iran, there's a chronic shortage of water. amy: meanwhile, in u.s., a report by media matters found that major broadcast networks mentioned climate change just once during the two-week global heat wave in july, despite reporting on the heatwave at least 127 times. the analysis tracked news reports by abc, cbs, and nbc. well for more, we're going to albany, new york, to speak to rob nixon professor in the

, humanities and the environment at princeton university. author of "slow violence and the environmentalism of the poor," for which he received several awards, including the american book award. welcome to democracy now! slow violence." what do mean by it and relate it to what is happening to the enviroronment anand the dedevelg world? >> by slow violence, i mean violence of effects. a valid to but we is not recognizable as violence because it is not spectacular. it may be seen in media terms as trauma deficient. just to take one example, something like agent orange or you have a 12 year war in vietnam and the casualties are framed by the public perception, but the impact comes the ongoing casualties and publilic health effects lastst for d decades and

generatis.s. so i thihink there''s someththig analogous s going on with clclie chanan that we have the postponementntf the consequences. so what we're looking at in effect is a kind of intergenerational fix of the conditions of life itself. nermeen: what do you mean in the second part of the title of your book, what is the environmentalism of the poor and how does it relate to slow violence? i think there are still a widespread public perception ist even if environmentalism an urgent cause, it is a ite one.ly elu what i was trying to do in the course of the book is to bring to the surface some of the genealogies of environmental activism by the poor whoho are e people who a are most impacted y

failures,t of the andal failures, to mitigate for store climate change affects. deep are long and traditions of activism among those who have contributed the least, as we have been saying, but are most precariously positioned in the front lines of the climate change crisis. amy:y: let's turn to one of thee most higigh profile protests against government inaction on climate change. for the yuan climate summit in paris in 2015, yeyeb saño, the formrmer lead climate nenegotiar for the philippines, walked more than 900 miles from rome to paris as part of a people's pilgrimage for climate action. saño was the top philippines climate negotiator in 2013, when typhoon haiyan, one of the strongest cyclones in recorded history, devastated the philippines, killing thousands of people.

the devastation coincided with the 2013 united nations climate change summit in warsaw, poland, where yeb saño made headlines with an emotional plea for action on climate change. reminder to the international community that we cacannot affod to delay climate action. the muster deliver the political will address by climate change and build that important bridge towards peru and paris. it might be said it must be poetic justice, that the typhoon was so big its diameters spanned the distance within warsaw and paris. askp president in doha, we them if not us, then whoho? if not now, then when? if not here, then where? but here in warsaw, we may very well asked the same four questions.

what my country is going through as a result of this extreme climate event is madness. madness.te crisis is mr. president, we can stop this madness right here in warsaw. amy: that was yeb saño when he was the lead climate negegotiatr for the philippines in 2013 speaking in warsaw. democracy now! was there covering the cop. the next year in lima, peru, suddenly, yeb saño was no longer a climate negotiator for the philippines. and the word was that his .utspokenness led to his ouster but it has not stopped them from being a climate environmentalist as he continues to march around the environment and for climamae action, rob nixon. think -- what we're seeing, and there was a noticeable shift around 2011 at

the durban climate summit, what froromeeing is alliances the global south -- and some of them, as you say, subsequently get ousted. but the creation of alliances people from small island nations, from mid-level innomies, from countries africa -- some of these countries that are exceedingly vulnerable getting together and trying to create some kind of coral effect in an effort to be heard were the most decisive players like the u.s. and china are draggining your feet. so i think there has been a shift in who is being heard, who is speaking out, and to a very large degree, the u.s. is an outlier, both in the history of institutionalized, change, the

funding of anti-science, and also, clearly, in terms of the consequential character of what u.s. leadership would mean or would have met. nermeen: rob nixon, i went to turn to a couple of statistics which are still remarkable that you have cited in terms of the massive disparities for countries that are responsible -- principally responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions and affects. you say california residents burn more gasoline than the 900 million inhabitants of all of africa -- that is 54 countries combined. meanwhile, a one-way flight from los angeles to new york could use more carbon emissions than the average nigerian does in a whole year. elaborate on that and to what extent you think that is being taken into account at all

in discussions of climate change? >> right. i think there is an increasing acknowledgment that we need a concerted global effort, but within that concerted global effort, we need to accommodate unequal histories of who has contributed to the greenhouse gases, historically, and to contribute in the present. that is an absolutely critical componenent of what is an existential crisis for the species. but what i would emphasize here sort of f institutionalized funding, gas lighting, of america around climate science through the funding by the right climatete skepticism,m,

denial, and effectively, the bankrolling of f an action. this is coincided with a period of neoliberal globalization. some going back to the late 1970's. whiche see is the way in the exacerbation of the climate crisis is inseparable from rising levels of inequality in society of society. just to take the u.s., we know around 1980, the disparity between the average wage of a ceo and a worker was something one-to-80. now it is in the acidity of one-to-280. been replicated in society after sysystem psyd ---- society. we need to think through simultaneoeously the crisis in ineqequality and t the climate crisis because the people who are in the front lines are the most vulnerable and typically

they have contributed the least historically to the problem. amy: we want to bring in nathaniel rich as well to this conversation, writer at large for "the new york times" magazine. his piece "losing earth: the decade we almost stopped climate change" published august 1 in a special edition of "the new york times" magazine dedicated to climate change. it is a second time in the magazine's history that a dedicated an issue to just one article. the story tracking the 10-year period from 1979 to 1989, the decade that then you're rich counterumankind first conference of understanding of climatatchange butut failed to address its extreme dangers while there are still time. the store produced with the support of the pulitzer center. welcome to democracy now! this major piece that you wrote and why you chose this time period.

>> by 1979, therere's a strong scientific consensus about the fundamental science of climate change. by --were major reports at the highest levels of the government about the problem and there started to emerge an effort by a handful of activists and some politicians to move the issue. over the course of the decade, they developed a plan, ,ssentially a global treaty which will become the i pcc ,rocess, and they made steady with some up and downs, progrers toward the end of the decade. other things significant about that period, the issue is not a partisan issue. there were prominent republicans and covers in the administration, republican of registration, who are strongly supportive of a major climate

policy. and the fossil fuel industry had not locked arms and corrugated what we now -- coordinated what we now see is this history of propaganda, disinformation campaigns, bribing politicians in the entire republican party. there was this 10-year period where we came very close to a serious consideration of a binding emissions treaty, and we failed. i wanted to tell the story of how thatat came to be and what e did not succeed. nermeen: what happened in 1989? what changed? >> i guess the most narrow political answer is george bush took the white house. saying, he campaigned things like those were worried about the greenhouse effect, solving greenhouse effect, have not heard of the white house effect. when i'm in the white house, we will solve it. dan quell in the vice presidential campapaign also spe

about this post of the head of his epa william riley was a strong proponent of the beginning ipcc process. as they start to meet, the high-level diplomatic meeting held in the netherlands to discuss the idea of emissions reductions and hard targets for the treaty that would become at the rio earth summit. governore white house, sununu, the chief of staff, was very skeptical of the signs, has some conspiracy theories about the whole movement. essentially, single-handedly won and infighting with william riley and others in the administration and made sure there was no binding target that the u.s. would agree with. that is the beginning of the derailing. and surely thereafter, the industry gets involved. nermeen: i would like to turn to

some of the criticism that the "the new york times" magazine has received from inside climate news, which won a pulitzer prize for exposing how exxon if also feel caused global warming as early as the 1970's but hid that information from the public will step in a series of tweets wednesday inside climate news wrote -- "the tel aviv is climate in action spans 70 years and continues to this day. ms. subsequent tweet, they went on to write -- they would on to write --

so could you respond to those points? >> i don't see that as a criticism. everything you mention is in the article. i don't expect people to haven't read -- to have read the article on the day it is published, but i -- amy: explain those points. >> absolutely. as i write about it, you start to see industry american ,etroleum institute, exxon which is well-documented and a great source for mike pease and they start tom, understand us it is clearly understand the science is early as the 1950's. theytedly over the decades published the conclusions which

have been reached by government scientists and independent scientists and so on. they don't take action. through thetinues 1980's. there are couple of other details there. fromld distinguish that the coordinated disinformation campaign, the bribing of scientists and politicians, the enormous pr campaigns modeled after the tobacco industry's efforts, and it is certainly true that did not really start happening until you get -- with lead up until the to real when there's a possibility of real action. shows the white house had already checked out and there was no real desire -- amy: this was the white house of -- >> george h.w. bush.

i don't dispute any of that. my point is simply that by the time you get to the end of the 1980's, the robust effort has not started and that not only did exxon know and api, but the government knew. there were articles in "time" and "live" in the 1950's and on through. this was not a secret. there's confusion among people in the who even those who follow it closely come to start with jim hansen's testimony. he is one of the two main figures in my piece. a 1980 during the hottest summer ever and droughts and wildfires. amy: a leading climate scientist forhead of the nasa center studies on climate. follows his story going back to the late 1970's. he was testifying at hearings throughout the decade. iere's a long history that find actually more damning that

leads up even to that point. there was a failure even before industry could then essentially cement the paralysis. nermeen: i think some of the key points that people seem to have taken climate research -- researchers have taken as an issue, you read a common bogeyman today is the fossil feel industry which in recent decadedes has committed to playg the role of villain with comic bravado and you also say that the republican party cannot be blamed. could you explainbogeyman todayl feel industry which in recent decacades has why -- >> i would not say that. i would does it the republican party can be blamed for the in action -- nermeen: not recently, but the period that you covered. that is when reagan was in the white house and i it really the most anti-environmentalist administration since trump. >> right. i think there were certainly an term are mental. there's a major part in the keys

about when the reagan administration takes over and it is all hands on deck crisis within the environment of movement and anyone who cares about these issues -- no, they were certainly not happy with the idea of environmental regulations, but there was no denying the issue. and there were -- they didn't sign the ozone treaty. did sign the ozone treaty. by the end of the decade, you have republican demonstration board a regular public's -- public support for some people who think it is going to happen. william riley i spoke to at length. there was -- let's put it this way, there's a much stronger possibility than there has been ever since. i think that is important story that needs to be told. and you go yet by 1989, these corporations coming together forming the

coalition. >> in 1988, hits and testifies. head, and thethe number two of the whole company, bill o'keefe, and they told a -- they don't equivocate about what happened in the 1990's and there are proud of it. but they said after hansen's hearing, people started to perk up him and started to be concern. there were 32 bills filed in congress about, policy. they started to hold meetings, inormational meetings at api similar work was being done at exxon to try to formulate a strategy. that was the beginning of a hard turn. it progressed. originally it was, let's make sure to highlight uncertainty. let's make sure to be a participant in any conversation about regulation. and let's make sure not to

endorse any policy that hurts the bottom line. you see the formation of it. within a given to pure fantasy, the nihilism. -- denialism. by greathe story reporters. i did not feel like i could add anything to that narrative. i did feel like i could add something to the prehistory of that. amy: we're going to go to break and come back to this discussion. the guest that we're speaking to right now, nathaniel rich, has written the entire issue of "the new york times" magazine on climate change. the piece "losing earth: the decade we almost stopped climate change." when we come back, climate scientist brenda ekwurzel will also join the discussion as well as rob nixon, author of "slow violence and the environmental some of the poor." ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. this mess about crisis in the world today, the crisis of climate change. fire tornadoes in california sol stop the monsoon season strong right now in india. in the last week some well over 500 people killed. we are makining a link between e issue that meteorologists talk about, to climate change, which they rarely mention in the u.s. corporate media. ststudies have repeaeatedly been done to show no matter how many times they reference the firestorms in california, only once on nbc, abc, cbs the last few weeks did cbs mention the link to climate change. brenda ekwurzel me your senenior clamor does climate scientist director am a of climate science for the climate and energy program at the union of concerned scientists.

rob nixon, author of "slow violence and the environmentalism of the poor." his pieceiel rich, "losing earth: the decade we almost stopped climate change" brenda,, if you can respond to the new york times peace and also talk about what we were just talking about with nathaniel, talk about the issue of the power of the corporations , specifically 90 corporations having been responsible for two thirds of humanity's greenhouse gas emissions, an issue that nathaniel highlights in his piece. >> it is really important early history because the bipartisan nature of people listing to the design policyg to to solve it, and try to get the economic and policy considerations all in line and start rolling up our sleeves and working on this issue is really important. what happened? why did it change to the world

we have today were people, they're even denying the science and are sticking their heads in the sand and not rolling up their sleeves a at national levl inhe united states. what you mention was the coverage of these extreme events ththat the scienence is clearare very strong ties to climate change such as when you haveve o much water or too little wer, we cnge the cycyc. that feeds into how severe these extreme events are. in fact, we're seeing in a 1 world we have today with one degree celsius warming, that our infrastructure around the world is not able to handle the flooding that happens after a wildfire, for example, such as int happened in california the region a montecito that have these debit this -- devastating debris flows after a wildfire had scorched the hillsides and the subsequent very high

rainfall, which we know is another situation that is changing with climate change, falls on that part of the soil and unleashes very dangerous to breathe flows and destroying homes. and for sleep, people are losing their lives. you mention other events around the world such as in pakistan where there is an extreme flooding. extreme heat in india. and in japan. i could go on. what is different today is the predictions that the scientists knew in the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's and the scientist working within the fossil fuel industry new. and for sure, we are seeing them play out today. we have a different chance today to set this straight in the up our sleeves and make a difference in states such as california and texas and the northeastern states and others all around the nation in the u.s. are tryingdifference in toh the paris climate agreement.

many countries all around the in theave some skin game. they're alternate help solve this problem. and the best part is nations were holding the world accountable, and that is why t e paris, the agreement has even more aggressive target than what would be if it was just a developing nation agreement. you saidrob nixon, earlier that on the question of climate change, both in its perception and the way the success of euros governments have talked about it from a particular the trump administration, the u.s. is an outlier. could you talk specifically about the way in which, as you say, anti-science has been propagated in the u.s. and the role of the media in bringing climate change to attention when they cover climate-related disasters as we have seen in the last few months? yes, i think one of the

successors of the right dissemination of anti-science has been the climate change and global warming perceived in the rest of far greater extent than in most of the world as politicizezed terms. as result, the corporate media in particular often steers clear of them.ill stop -- that has sometething to o do the ownership of the media and the advertising base and d so forth, but -- you know, one cannot overestimate the degree to which the funding of anti-science in the u.s. has been far, far greater, more than 100 times greater than in any other country in the world. and this has permeated public perception and created a kind of s around that language which is often perceived as polarizing and away the scientific language about gravity is.

not. that is the result of a very concerted campaign. what i do see shifting is generational perception of what political priorities are. , if iook at my students look at the generation, the issue of debt, clement debt, student debt, is right at the forefront of the political priorities. we're also in a better position technology than we have been to of then the shifting source of our energy to renewables, removing subsidies to fossil fuels, also increasing the ststorage popower and b bats -- which has been a long-standing obstacle. technologically, we're in a very the e position. it is a question of aligning those technological possibilitiess with internationl

governance. say, we justant to cap breaking news, reading from "the washington post company trump administration thursday announced plans to freeze fuel efficiency requirements for the nation's cars and trucks through 2026 most of a massive regulatory rollback likely to spur it legal battle with colorpoint in other states as well as create potential of people in the nation's automotive market. the proposal representing and are broke reversal of the ofdings -- abrupt reversal the fines under obama when they argued more fuel-efficient vehicles requirement would save money without compromising safety. your response to this, nathaniel rich? this is in the midst of the fire tornadoes of california. >> i don't think it is an understatement to say what the republican party is doing now and what industry has propagated for the last couple of decades will be considered in the future probably the very near future as

crimes against humanity. i think -- the conversation we're having today, one of the things that was most striking to me about reading some of these theersations being held in 1980's, it is identical. there's nothing where saying today that was not said in 1980, including the north-south issues and developing country issues. it makes me wonder if we have come about this in the right way. having these conversations is that we failed as a society to articulate adequate car more lycian of this problem, which is not to put aside the moral vision of industry, which is sociopathic. i don't think we understand exactly what is coming. and we certainly don't feel it on the level of society. and i -- my feeling is the only way to begin to get there is to

understand how we got here. and that is part of a a reason i wanted to write this article. amy: what most surprised you in your research? >> reading transcripts of a meeting in 1980 with -- there's a meeting in the piece, two dozen of the top experts, including henry shaw from exxon, policy people from congress and so on, meet together as a directive of congress to develop policy. they have a three-day meeting in which they talk about everything we could possibly talk about today. isy all agree, even -- shaw not disputing anything. at the end of the meeting, they cannot even formulate a single statatement, single sentence thy agree on most of amy: brenda ekwurzel what gives you most hope? >> what gives me the most hope is we are what we call, friend of mine and colleague in a

scientist says, we're in the luxury end of the exponential curve. so those conversations are not too different from today because we are just feeling the full brunt of climate change that we today.ready delivered however, it has a legacy of centuries that we will be unleashing sea level rise , 15%se heat trapping gases to 45% of carbon dioxide we release in the atmosphere today will be trapping heat day in and day out ovover 1000 years. amy: rob nixon, let me ask you on the issue of hope? >> i would come back to the technological changes and the generational changes. i think the priorities in terms of medication, resilience that we see from -- amy: five seconds. >> younger people today give us hope. there has to be a massive surge of considered action.

amy: rob nixon, author of "slow violence and the environmentalism of the poor." . brenda ekwurzel and nathaniel rich. we will link to your piece "losing earth: the decade we almost stopped climate change." [captioning made possiblçç??

narrator: on this episode of "earth focus," two cities-- freetown, sierra leone, and san francisco, california-- continents apart, vastly different culturally and economically, yet facing the same struggle to adapt to rapid urbanization, all set against the backdrop of a dramatically changing climate.e. [film advance clickining]