09/13/18 09/13/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from san francisco, this is democracy now! hricane florence isast approaching. it wl be herovover t nexext hours. and ey say i is ouout asig as they ve seen cominto this couny,y, andertainlyo the st coastas they ve ever enen. we will handle it. we are r ready. amy: up to 40 inches of f rain e feared in n parts of the carolis as hurricacane florence move

closer to o land. while the storm is beginning to weaken, fefear is growing thee storm could result in catastrophic waste spills from pig fafarms and coal ash ponds. we will go to north carolina for the latest. then the gbabal clate e acon summit offiaially ens s toy here in san ananciscjustst ds after thevevent's s ornizer,r, californ g goverr jejerry brown, sign a bill shift california to 100% carbon-free electricity by 2045. >> california is committed to tong g whatever is necessary meet the existential threat of climate change. yes, it is an existential threat, no matter what the naysayers may say. it is a real, present danger to california and the people of the world. amy: while jerry brown is often described as a climate hero, climate justice activists are preparing to protest the opening of today's conference. we will speak to bill mckibben, co-founder of 350.org.

his latest piece, "jerry brown's climate legacy is still being decided." all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from san francisco. in north carolina, south carolina, virginia, and georgia, millions of residents are bracing for today's arrival of hurricane florence, which memeteorologists a are warni cod unleasash life-teatetening stotm surg a and htotoric flooding acroross a wide swatath of t eat coasast. while florence has now been downgraded to a category 2 hurricane, experts are still warning its impact could be catastrophic. this is north h carolina governr roy cooper. , notis momonster of a storm one to ride out.

when you're lookingng at storm surge of t this magnitude where the national weather service has said that the damage is going to and that theye cannot emphasize it enough, we know that is a messagege that we should listen to. amy: hurricane florence is also expepected to cause widespread damage, including waste spills. in north carolina, the billion-dollar pork industry is clustered in the eastern part of the state, directly in the line of the storm. many of these factory hog farms store their waste by spraying it on nearby fields and neighborhoods or by depositing it in lagoons that can overflow during hurricanes, causing the toxic pig maneuver to pour into nearby waterways. at least nine nuclear facilities also line the storm's path, including duke energy's brunswick nuclear plant in north carolina.

the water reactors are similar to ones that melted down at the fukushima nuclear plant in japan after a massive tsunami. meanwhile, evacuations are underway in the philippines were ther typhoon has reached strength of a a category 5 hurricane. the storm already caused power outages and flooding on guam or the governor has asked president trump for federal aid. the typhoon is expected to make landfall in the philippines saturday before barreling toward china, vietnam, and laos. we will have more on hurricane florence after headlines. president is facing widespread backlash after he tried to claim tuesday that his administration's response to hurricane maria in puerto rico last year was "an incredible unsung success," in response to questions about what we could learn from hurricane maria as florenence approaches the carolinas coast. pres. trump: the job that fema and law enforcement and everybybody did, working along with the governor in puerto

rico, i think was tremendous. i think puerto rico was an incredible unsung success. amy: hurricane maria killed up to 3000 people, ifif not more,e, makiking it the deadliesststormn u.s. histoto. this is s san juan mayor carmen yulin cruz responding to trump's -- responding to trump. >> the world has seen in the majority of the mac and people have seen how neglectful he was for the people of puerto rico. if he calls a success or an unsung success, 3000 people dying on his watch? deftly, he does not know what success is. amy: trump once again attacked the san juan mayor met tweeting -- "we got a pluses for our recent hurricane work in texas and florida. we did a great job even though and -- but it wasn't only the mayor who

criticized trump. his own ally puerto o rico's , governor r ricardo roselello o attacked trump saying -- "no relationship between a colony and the federal government can ever be called 'successful' because puerto ricans lack certain inalienable rights enjoyed by our fellow americans in the states." memeanwhile, the t trump administration's response to hurricane maria faced even more criticism wednesday after the publication of new photos showing millions of bottles of water meant for hurricane victims still sitting unused on a tarmac nearly a year after the hurricane made landfall. in immigration news, "the new york times" reports more migrant children are currently detained than at any other time in recordrded u.s. histstory. "the times" says at least 12,800 migrant children are currently imprisoned inside over federally 100 contracted facililities acas the country, a five fold increase o over this time last year. most of the children arrived in

the united states without their parents and are now in the custody of the health and human services department's office of refugee resettlement, as the trump administration has resisted releasing them to live with their families or sponsors in the u.s. for migrantsctory forcibly separated by immigration officials at the border, up to 1000 of these asylum-seekers will receive a new chance to have their claims heard. the settlement comes after asylum-seekers filed multiple lawsuits singer forced to fight for seven while traumatized by the fact their children had just been torn away from them. "the new york times" is reporting former environmental protection agency administrator scott pruitt is in talks to work as a consultant for the kentucky coal tycoon joseph craft iii. pruitt was forced to resign from

the epa amid an onslaught of corruption scandals and widespread opposition to his campaign to roll back key environmental protections, including regulations around coal mining. he has been replaced by an x coal lobbyist andrew wheeler. in news on the u.s.-backed war on yemen, secretary of state mike pompeo has certified that the governments of saudi arabia and united arab emirates are taking sufficient steps to protect yemeni civilians, meaning the u.s. will continue providing crucial mid-air refueling and other military support for saudi arabia's war on yemen. in a memo, pompeo cited the u.s. training of the saudi royal air force to justify the decision, which flies in the face of widespread evidence that the coalalition is indiscriminately killing yemeni civilians, including children. in august, a coalition airstrike hit a school bus, killing 51 people -- 40 of them children. in response, oxfam said -- "this administration is doubling down on its failed policy of literally fueling the world's largest humanitarian crisis."

in guatemala, the government deployed thousands of police and soldiers to the streets of guatemala city wednesday amid growing mass protests against guatemalan president jimmy morales to shut down the united nations-backed anti-corruption commission investigating high-level politicians and elites. president morales has defied guatemala's highest consnstitutional courtrt by barg the head of the commission, ivan velasquez gomez, from entering guatemala. the commission had been investigating morales for illegal campaign financing. the commission's investigations also helped oust morales' predecessor, former president otto perez molina, in 2015. trumpent trump's son eric is facing backlash after he used anti-semitic language to criticize longtime investigative journalist bob w woodward's explosive new book about the trump white hohouse. this is eric trurump speaking on fox and d friends on wednesday.

write some sensational nonsense book, cnn will definitely have you on because they love to trash the president, it will mean you sell three extra books, make three extra shekels of to be has of ththe american peoeople, at the behest of our country. amy: the longtime executive producer of cbs's "60 minutes" jeff fager has been fired, after being accused of sexually harassing women employees, fostering a culture of sexual harassment at "60 minutes," and bullying one of cbs's own reporters when she reached out to him for comment for a story about the sexual harassment scandals rocking cbs. at least six former women employees told "the new yorker" fager had groped or touched them without their consent. he also sent a threatening text message to cbs correspondent jericka duncan who was reporting on these sexual harassment accusations, texting her -- "be careful. there are people who lost their jobs trying to harm me and if

you pass on these damaging claims without your own reporting to back them up that will become a serious problem." fager's firing comes only days after cbs head les moonves was ousted after being accused of sexual assault and harassment, and less than a year after cbs's star anchor charlie rose was also ousted after being accused of sexual assault and harassment. in germany, a new report reveals over 3600 children have been sexually abused by clergy of the catholic church, and that at least 1670 clergy members have been involved in the abuse over the past seven decades. the report was commissioned by the german roman catholic church bishops' conference. it comes in the wake of a larger child sexual abuse scandal rocking the catholic church worldwide. on wednesday, pope francis called for a conference at the vatican in february with international heads of the church to discuss the crisis. in russia, pyotr verzilov, a

member of russian punk protest band pussy riot, has been hospitalized for what is suspected to be a poisoning. fellow pussy riot member veronika nikulshina told russian press that verzilov lost "first his sight, then his ability to speak, then even his ability to walk." in july, verzilov rushed the field with other members of the band during a world cup match to protest russian police brutality. and in new york, voters are heading to the polls today for a democratic primary in which several candidates hope to continue the progressive insurgency to unseat powerful democratic incumbents. actress-turned-activist cynthia nixon is challenging governor andrew cuomo. new york city councilman jumaane williams is taking on lt. gov. kathy hochul. and anti-corruption activist zephyr teachout is running to replace attorney general eric schneiderman, who was forced to

resign in may after being accused of physically assaulting at least four women. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i am amy goodman. we are broadcasting from san francisco, the site of the global climate action summit. in north carolina, south cacarolina, virginia, millions f residents are bracing for the arrival of hurricane florence, which meteorologists are warning andd unleash storm surge widespread flooding. this is north h carolina governr roy cooper. >> this monster of a storm is not one to ride out. whwhen you're looking at a storm surge of ts magnitude where the national weather service has said the damage is going to be unbelievable and that they cannot emphasize it enough, we know that is a message that we

should listen to. amy: north carololina's prepepag fofor thehe climate-e-change-superchcharged storm siyeyears teter passing legislatation prohibitining stae and local agencies from making planning decisions based on the latest climate science about sealevel rise. now the state is facing the threat of a life-threatening storm surge, which could cause billions of dollars in damages. even if the storm weakens. experts warn hurricane florence could kill thousands of farm animals and trigger catastrophic waste spills from sewage treatment plants, hog waste lagoons, and chicken farms. the state's billion-dollar pork industry is primarily clustered in the easternrn part of the state, d directly in the line of e storm. many of the e factory hog farmsn nonorth carolina store their wae by spraying it on nearby fields and neighborhoods or by depositing it in lagoons that can overflow during hurricanes, causing the toxic pig manure to

pour into nearby w waterways. in 1999, hurricane floyd dropped nearly two feet of rain on north carolina, flooding the waste lagoons and sending the waste downstream to coastal estuaries, where it boosted nitrogen and phosphorous levels and caused algae blooms and fish kills. meanwhile, inside climate news has published a map showing 24 toxic coal ash containment ponds in the path of hurricane florence that may flood in the extreme rainfall. for more, we are going to north carolina where we are joined by two guests. will hendrick is a staff attorney with the water keeper alliance and manager of the organization's north carolina pure farms, pure waters campaign. and frank holleman, senior attorney at the southern environmental law center, where he works on protecting rivers, streams, groundwater, and drinking water sources from coal ash, including after a north carolina facility owned by duke

energy spilled 39,000 tons of coal ash into the dan river in 2014. we welcome you both to democracy now! i want to begin with will. will, if you could start off by talking about exactly what is happening with all of these animal corporate factory farms and what is being threatened. >> right now this ststorm is hurtling toward the epepicenterf agriculture in north carolina. as you mentiononed, the vast majority of these factory hog farms utilize what is called a lagoon spray field system to manage their waste. in reality, even on the best day, the surrounding communities live under constant threat of an environment of catastrophe. but that threat is significantly exacerbated with the level of

rainfall in the height of winds we are expecting as a result of this storm. and currently, although the industry is feverishly working to remove animals from the coastal plain, a waste is remaining. many of the operators are furiously drawing down those lagoons by spraying, even in violation of the permit, after the national weather service has issued warnings prohibiting it. and we know based on past experience, most recently with matthew, that as these rainfall events result in floodining -- which may day days to manifest -- that the facilities are inherently threatened, especially those that are in the 100 year floodplain. ththere are still 62 of the factory swine operations storing more than 200 million gallons of animal waste generate each year in the 100 year floodplain.

so the threat is significant. it won't solely manifest as a result of these initial impacts, but could worsen as floodwaters rise. amy: i want to turn now to naeema muhammad, organizing co-director for the north carolina envnvironmental justice network. she appeared on democracy now! last year talking about how hog waste impacts the residents of eastern north carolina. spray is the animal waste the logss out of -- are kept in 10 metal housing. they have slats in the floor where whatever -- whenever they go to the bathroom or abort baby piglets or whatever happens wiwh ththem, it falls thrhrough the s in the floor and piped out -- there are pipes running underneath the ground.

the waste is piped down into the open-air lagoon and there are all kinds of chemicals. and fecal matter pruces methahane, ammoniaa gase. so you can smell it. people say it smells like run next. sometimes rotten collard greens. it is just a terrible smell. they have been forced outut of their wells becausesehey were seeing remnants of the waste in theieir well water's by the coloring and the odors coming out of their well water. naeema muhammad, now joins us on the phone. we spoke last year when we were in north carolina. welcome to democracy now! if you can describe the youation right now and what are most concerned about. are you in greenville right now?

>> know, i am not. i am en route to greenville. amy: tell us about what is happening in your concerns this year. today. >> our concerns right now with the upcoming hurricane is number of lagoons and the number of hog houses that are located in the community where people are living and unable to get out of the way of harm. if this storm comes as bad as they are predicting, we learn from hurricane floyd in 1999 what happens with these animals and these lagoons when we get a

lot of rain. everything is toppled over and dumped out into the environment and into the rivers and streams and just running through the community. so you have all of this -- nothing but feces and urine in the waterways, and dead animals. if anyone could pull up the pictures from hurricane floyd, used to the number of dead animals that wound up in our waterways. i have beenday, listening and wondering and looking and trying to hear what do they do with all of those animals and how did they clean up our waterways after all of that much urine and feces was dumped into it asas a result of the storm? so that is a concern that we

would experience that again. but the biggest concern is that people in harms way and unable to get out of the way. even in the counties they're located, there is no real infrastructure in place for moving people in disastrous situations. the local government really don't have the whereabouts or the means to assist and accocommodate people at this point. and that is a real disaster in itself. waiting to talk to you this morning, i thought about my friend rick, how he has said so many times, you know, they don't have to fix this because mother nature will take care of it. and that is what we are seeing. he was saying that long before hurricane floyd came. and we saw it then.

we saw it at matthew. we will probably see it again if this storm does anything near what they said it would do. it doesn't take a whole lot of rain around those lagoons to create p problems. the sad part about having to deal with this stuff is it doesn't have to be this way. it does not have to be this way. if somebody in this state would have the backbone to make smithville put superior technology on the ground instead of bailing them out by inc. urging them to attack the people that are suffering. amy: naeema muhammad, you are in environmental leader in north carolina with the north carolina environmental justice network. has the state gotten in touch with you because you reach out to so many people? have they prepared appropriately? >> know.

nobody has reached out to us at any level. not the state, local, or federal do.l, to ask what can they or here is what we have in this is how you can use it. we have had none of that take place. amy: i also think people when they hear this, i mean, this is outside the storm, what you're been telling with in your communities, particularly communities of color, where you have this waste, fecal matter, sprayed into your community. many people will not be able to believe this. explain how that happens and what you have been subjected to. >> ok. so what happens is you have these lagoons -- iowa's tell people, we're not talking about the blue lagoon that brooke shields was hanging in. nothing but a hole that was

dug in the ground and their housing all of the urine and feces from the hogs they keep in the houses to grow the animals. so the waste is sitting out in these open-air lagoons. they have a certain level they can reach before they sustain the possibility of overflowing out of the lagoons. if that happens, that is a violation. so in order to prevent those violations, when the lagoons begin to fill up, the contract waste outen spray the onto the crops around the areas as fertilizer to prevent the lagoons from overflowing. the problem with that is that is nothing but pure feces and urine

they are irrigating into the air, and it is making people sick. you hear people talk about how nauseated they get, throwing up, the air smells so bad you can barely breathe. you can't go out. you don't want to be outside. you can go outside, but you don't want to be out there. so it is a real problem. , the thinking this morning shame of this all is that the contract grower is in a fix as well because smithfield, who is pocketing all of the money from these operations, won't do the that thing by the people live around these animals. they don't do the right thing by the contract growers. .o they are in a fix

the catch 20 two, smithfield owns everything -- the hogs, the trucks, the feed, everything except the waste. the waste belongs to the grower to is not being paid enough do anything different from what they are doing. but smithville is pocketing billions of dollars in profit every year and can do something about it, but they won't because -- just like in a capitalist your goal is profit over people. you don't care about what happens to anybody else as long as you get your dollar bill. and that is what they're doing. nobody is making them do it different. amy: you are referring to smithfield foods. i think it was -- it has something like 973,000 square foot meat processing plant in

tar heel, north carolina, reported in 2000 to be the world's largest processing them as sometething like 32,000 picka day. drive carefully, naeema muhammad , as you make your way to greenville. we will be in touch with you again. thank you so much for being with us north carolina environmental justice network leader. we will continue to talk about what is happening there after this break. ♪ [music break]k]

amy: the world premiere of anti-flag's cover of buffalo springfield's "for what it's worth" here on democracy now! we will post the full video at democracynow.org. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from san francisco from the global , action summit. we continued to talk about what is happening, millions of brace in for the arrival of hurricane florence. experts warn hurricanane florene could kill thousands of fararm animals, trigger catastrophic posted meanwhile,

inside climate news has published a map showing 24 toxic coal ash containment ponds in the path of hurricane florence that may flood in the extreme rainfall. we're continuing our discussion in north carolina whwhere wewe e joinin in charlotte by frank holleman, senior attorney at the southern environmental law center. a north carolina the silly d due energy spilled 39,000 tons of coal ash into the dan river in 2014. ,till with us, will hendrick staff attorney with the water keeper alliance, and manager of the organization's north carolina pure farms, pure waters campaign. frank m a talk about what you are most concerned about stop people evacuating. >> thank you for having me. we're hoping and praying we

don't have a coal ash to test her fee -- catastrophe in the next few days. here is what we face. the coal ash utilities in the southeast, and in this instance principally duke energy and also dominion and virginia, have stored millions of tons up coal ash in unlined pits sitting directly adjacent to our rivers, lakes, and drinking water reservoirs. they are held back only by dikes made up earth that leak. in the past 10 years, we have had two major coal ash disasters. one at tva in the kingston facility in tennessee, and one i duke energy itself on the dan river in north carolina near the virginia line. but those catastrophes happened on a good day when the sun was shining. each of these sites, we have

been warning and it is obvious, is a tremendous risk to our communities, particularly in we have a major hurricane, a flood, or storm. we're sitting here with more than 20 disasters waiting to happen. we hope none of them do happen, but this is a risk we don't have to tolerate. safe,sh can be moved to dry line storage away from the rivers. somewhat good news story about this storm, and that is the coastal utilities in south carolina, instead of lobbying and litigating, have actually been removing ash the last several years so the risk on the south carolina coast is much reduced from coal ash. but in north carolina and virginia, our coastal residents have to fear the consequences of decades of bad practices an

recent years of recalcitrance by duke energy and dominion. amy: can you explain where the coal ash comes from, frank? >> sure. historically, a lot of electricity in the carolinas and virginia and georgia has been generated by burning coal. you need two things to generate electricity from coal. you need coal to burn and water to generate steam. so they have located these coal fire plants near water bodies will stop that is rivers and lakes and drinking water reservoirs. when they burn the cold, they're left with ash. doesn't have to go into a pit. it simply could have been moved uphill and stored try and a lined landfill, or even recycled in the concrete. ,ut instead, to save some money

and for their convenience, the betweens dug big kits their plans and the river simply because water runs downhill. so they would suck water out of the river, mix it and create a polluted mess with this ash -- they call that slurry -- and then just flush it downhill into these unlined pits. it is obviously a foolish way to store this stuff. it is obviously risky and dangerous. and it obviously police on a good day. but on a bad day when we have a serious hurricane, this unnecessary choice puts communities and waterways and clean drinking water at risk. amy: frank, can you talk about the law that north carolina past six years ago prohibiting state and local agencies from making planning decisions based on the latest, science about sealevel rise? >> well, it is just another

chapter in the sad story we have seen in america, and that is sometimes people with money at stake seek to deny the truth and prevent our agencies and communities from using good science because of those people's financial self-interest. the science has shown us that see rebel doesn't sealevel rise is accelerating. there was a proposal to prevent state agencies from considering that evidence at all when they make decisions about what can happen at the coast in light of ongoing sealevel rise. and theat cost a furor legislator involved became the colbertof ridicule by and other comedians across the

country, so they backed off but they still said -- in making projections out to 30 years, you can't use that information. more than anything, though, it whostrates how politicians are responding to special interests can restrict and even intimidate state agencies and policy makers from using the best science to make the best decisions for the most people. billfrank, i want to bring mckibben end of this conversation. we are here in san francisco broadcasting through the week for all of the events around the global climate action summit. he'll mckibben is one of those who was in the streets on saturday, tens of thousands of people marched in san francisco and marched in hundreds of cities all over the world. but this issue of this law north carolina, bill, if you could talk more about it. >> the first thingng to be said, everything is connected. how many stories have you done

about gerrymandering and voting suppression and things in north carolina? north carolina has and word what amounts to a kind of corporate takeover of its politics in recent years. the fee -- the people are fighting back hard. one of the ministrations was in literally an insane law, hold back the rising seas law that we weren't going to pay attention to the latest, science. just imagine passing a law saying in essence we cover our eyes and cover our ears. amy: so they can do with climate science when it comes to sealevel rise, and that is precisely what -- with hurricane florence, they're terrified at the moment. >> it stopped people, from among other things, thinking as hard as they should be about coastal development. an increase of several orders of magnitude in the number of structureses along the north carolina coast in the last few decades.

i am afraid we may find out just how flimsy a lot of that is in the next 48 hours. as you know, the category strength of florence has dropped, but it is an enormous storm now that is bringing not only storm surge probably on a record level, but once the water reaches inland and falls in the mountains, it is going to be coming back down as rivers and streams, which are plugged by the higher sealevel -- the potential for flooding catastrophe is like nothing we have almost ever s seen. amy: i want to go back right now to will hendrick and ask you about the effects of what we're talking about right now, particularly on community's of color in the most vulnerable populations. everyone is going to be affected, but talk about why this is a particular concern right now.

>> certainly. sadly, while our leaders have their heads in the sand, many north carolinians are filling sandbags in preparing for the impact of this storm. some one more thing that among us have to worry about. every north carolinians in the coastal plain is making preparations to ensure their family and property are safe, but unfortunately, some north carolinians have industrial operations situated right next to them. and that means while they're worrying about the storm, they are also worrying about the flooding, the runoff, the potential structural failure of the empowerment storing terminus volumes of animal waste in a two there homes -- next to their homes. that, sadly, is a plight that is disproportionately felt and experienced are communities of color. they are more likely to live

next to one of these industrial hog operations. that is the point we have made to our leaders and our environmental division, water resources, and that is the division that permits the continued operation of this outdated lagoon spray field system. so along with naeema muhammad , some of the local environmental justice -- we pointed out the fundamental problems with discriminating in that fasashion and making some among us more required to and more vulnerable to living near these inherently threatening industrial waste sources. many of them are concerned about what they have seen in the past and what they expect to repeat thee lagoons overflowing,

dikes that keep the waste collected failing and spewing millions of gallons into their drinking water sources come into the recreational waters. been seen andve experienced cocountless times in nortrth carolina. as a result of climate change, the storms are going increasingly frequent and severe. it is past time for our leaders to demand better waste management. as projected, the storm if it causes this damage that it might, i h hope our leaders, whn asked to rebuild this industry, will rebuild it with better technologies so that it stands on better footing and north carolinians a better live their lives without f fear of interference by industrial operations next door. amy: will hendrick, thanks for being with us, waterkeeper

alliance, speaking to us from raleigh, north carolina. i also want to thank frank holloman with southern environmental law center. safe. you are all we will contntinue to follow ths storm that people e are talkinig about as o one of the worst possibly that the east coast has faced in a very long time. i also want to thank bill mckibben. he is staying with us. cofounder of 350.org. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "rise: from one island to another" poetry by kathy jetñil-kijiner and aka niviana.

it is part of a project that our guest bill mckibben was part of. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from san frfrancisco, or california's governor global action summit officially begins today. just days after round signed a new law to shift california to carbon free electricity by 2045. >> bill understating the importance of this measure. sb 100 sending a message to california and to the world that we are going to meet thehe cares agreement and we're going to continue down that path to transition our economy to zero emission, zero carbon omission, and to have the resiliency and sustainability that science tells us we must achieve. california is committed to doing whatever is necessary y to meet

the existential threat of climate change. yes, it is an existential threat, no matter what the nation -- naysayers may say, it is a real present danger to california and the people of the world. this bill and others i'm going to sign this week help us go in this direction. but have no illusions, california and the rest of the world have e miles to go beforee achieve zero carbon emissions. amy: while governor jerry brown has often been held a climate hero, he has also been widely criticized by many, justice activists are planning to protest outside the opening of today summit, for example. during saturday's rise for climate jobs and justice march, i spoke with doria robinson, a member of our power richmond coalition to criticizing the governor's embrace of cap and trade. >> because of some recent rules, we cannot put a cap on how much pollution that is because of what jerry brown and everyone in

the state government here did. so that means that people can buy the rights to basically pollute and injure our health, right? like, we are sacrificed for their gain. we don't get anything for it. and build their wealth their empires. amy: that is just one of the criticisms. still with us, bill mckibben, cofounder of 350.org. his latest piece is headlined "jerry brown's, legacy is still being decided." his his forthcoming book "has the human game begun to play itself out?" bill, it is great to have you with us. this road before protest outside the climate summit. many in the country in the world see governor brown as the green opposition to president trump. but the tens of thousands of

people that marched on saturday, there was a massive amount of criticism calling him a climate fraud. >> the answer lies somewhere in between. on the demand side of the climate equation, on the question of reducing the amount of energy we use in supplying it renewable he, brown has been good. no question. calilifornia, under governor for to and governor brown come has taken really strong steps and for obvious reasons. it is the heart for new technological ability and it has lots of lots of sun right -- sunlight. the systems are coming largely from what he is in done, the other side of the energy equation. the supply-side. california is a big willing gas state, though given the size of california's economy, it is a negligible part ofof thehe gdp.

it is not a negligible part of life for people who live next to ,iterally next to oil wells homes, s schools, hospitals. a coalition of 800 community groups asked brown to stop granting new permit and a take away those wells that are right next to where people obviously people of color, low income people, tend to live. so far brown has been unresponsive to that keep it in the ground demand. you will recall last year when one protester raised the question of keeping it in the ground, he turned to him with a pithy response "let's put you in the ground." had justocracy now! flown into bonn. many native americans were coming up to me and describing this. governor brown was speaking and he was disrupted by a group of native americans who were protesting fracking and they were shouting "keep it in the brown."

i got to governor brown later in the day and i said to him, when they said keep it in thehe groud and he said, keep you in the ground, he would apologize to the native americans. this is what he said. >> come on, you know in california we have the strongest native american policy of any state in the country. the most environmental and the toughest rules on oil. i don't think we should shut down oil in california and a take it from venezuela or take it from places where the rulules are even worse. we have to stop the cars. we have to get electric. we have to get public transportation. we need better land use. we have to solve the problem. i understand because we deal all the time. california, we are cutting our oil consumption, cutting our greenhouse gases. not just a slogan or a march around or talk talk, i'm talking about reality. california has the strongest oil reduction rules in america.

we are the leaders. if someone was to say, oh, get rid of well, leavingng get rid f our cars. if you got rid of cars coming at have a role pololtion and t thee were be shooting in the streets. amy: that is governor brown leaving this climate action summit today with people massively protesting outside this morning. one wants very much to be able to say jerry brown, thank you, and well done, as he leaves office. in a unique position to take leadership here, precisely because he is leaving office. he never has to run again. he doesn't need the millions of dollars in contributions from the fossil feel industry that he has taken in the past. he could be the guy, like emmanuel macron and france were prime minister jordin in new zealand, to say, we're not going to take more oil out of the ground. we don't need it. we are moving in a different direction. if you did that, his climate legacy on both fronts would be cemented.

amy: talk specifically about what you would like to see coming out of this global climate action summit. and for people who don't even understand what has happened -- it has been coming together for a few months. we know the u.n. climate summits all over the world that take place in november and december. this is something new. >> the theory here is after donald trump withdrew america from the paris accords, one of the truly shameful pieces of diplomatic action that america has ever taken, that other people needed to show they were issue ofaged on this climate change. amy: under the bannener, we are still in. >> they are assembling representatives of state and local governments to say, here are the steps we're going to take. thing to bery good doing. we do need to try and reassembled the momentum we had after paris. but remember the goal here is

not to be terrorist-compliant, ththe goal is to be -- deal with the physics and chemistry of climate change. and one big part of doing that is s stopping the supply of thee fossil fuels -- at least not expanding their operation. all anybody asked was he stop granting new permits and start taking of those wells that are right next to people's houses. so far, no real response on that. the other thing to realize, of course, and that people are working on hard here at the summit, is around the question of money supply. money is the oxygen on which the fire that is global warming burns. we're working hard to try and staunch that supply. the good news, the best news i've heard all week, is the new totals for the divestment campaign the fossil field investment campaign, reached six dollars trillion in endowments.

amy: explain this, divestment. >> we have asked for the last five years for institutions to sell their holdings in coal and oil and gas, which was modeled on the divestment campaign after -- in the midst of south african apartheid. it is much larger than a campaign. as of august, entire countries -- ireland in this case -- were announcing they were divesting from false or fuel. new york city, london, their mayors put out a challenge on momonday to mayors o of all of e other big cities in the world. they said, we are divesting from fossil fuel, time for everyone to take this step. amy: what about san francisco? >> san francisco has not done yet, surprisingly. california, as i say, remains in the grip often of coal and oil and gas interests. that one assumes that san francisco will eventually take this step. the problem is the "eventually."

lot oft have a hell of a time to deal with the crisis we are in. showing pictures from greenland a minute ago. i was up there helping them film. i have to say, it is sobering, even for someone who is worked as long on this as i have, to stand there and all must literally in real-time watch those glaciers disappear into the sea. that doinginder anything less than all we can do is not ok at this point. so that means we need governor brown to step up. if you want to do it, we need governor newsom after him to ststep up. and the same all over the world. another piece of good news came late last week when the senator from oregon, mr. merkley, introduced a bill in the senate that would divest the federal government's funds

from fossil fuel. it obviously won't pass right now, but it is a marker kno lay down in this fight. amy: are you encouraged by the movement that has drawn strength from what president trump has done, this climate change to nine president, among other things? >> well, look. one of the problems with trump is he is done so many bad things that we have to work on so many things at once. standing up for immigrants may be the most crucial. but climimate change is the thig that will never come ever get another crack at. here are that we waste years that are tipping us into a kind of permanent climate chaos. we should stop acting surprised when that things happen as a result. it is horrifying to think of people having to somehow flee

this hurricane florence, which looks like it may kind of several along the coast for 2, 3 days, pouring record amounts o f water, probably amounts of water nothing like w we've ever seen before. we use the phrase every day like something we have never seen before. amy: as we wrap up, your new book will be called "falter: has the human game begun to play itself out?" you wrote "the end of nature" or you talk about the two pasths. talk about what gives you hope now and what this book is about. >> the book is dark. there is an awful lot we haven't done and because our politics are so messed up. the fruit of a libertarian, everyman for himself world, one of them turns out to be the

temperature goes up a few degrees. what gives me hope is the movement that has arisen. there were tens of thousands on the e streetss of san franciscon saturday, but also people in huge demonstrations, 900 or 1000 other places around the world. some of them, 50,000 people in paris. and some of them incredibly beautiful and and places that your audience might not expect. 35,000 people turned out in uganda, where they are feeling the effects so powerfully. amy: will you be outside of the protest today? >> that is why i am headed from the studio. amy: inside as well? >> they have not given me a badge to go inside. i think i may have criticized the governor just a little too harshly. amy: bill mckibben, thank you for being with us, cofounder of 350.org. we will link to his beats in the nation "jerry brown's climate legacy is still being decided."

that does it for today's show. i will be speaking bold or, colorado, and saturday night september 15. check it out at democracynow.org . democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them