brent: this is "dw news" life from berlin. this week, the united states began withdrawing from the paris climate agreement. france and china say they are

united in the fight against what scientists have declared a climate emergency. 11,000 scientists warned of untold suffering if we don't change the way we live. also coming up tonight, anorak, protesters say security forces are shooting at them with live bullets. it's a brutal crackdown as the battle of the bridges in baghdad continues. and in special coverage marking the 30th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall, we look back at the historic football match that took place just after the border reopen. fans from east berlin were able to travel to the west for the first time in three decades. i'm brent goff. to our viewers on pbs in the united states and all around the

world, welcome. we begin with taking sides over the paris climate accord. chinese president xi jinping and his french counterpart emmanuel macron have issued a joint statement reaffirming their support for the paris climate deal. speaking in beijing today, president macron said cooperation between europe and china while reducing emissions will be decisive. this follows the trump administration beginning the formal process to withdraw the united states from that agreement. presidents xi and macron, describing t the deal as now beg irreversible. >> over the past two years in the fightht against climate change, we have consistently acted together with great effectiveness and commitment. i regret the choices made by a few other countries, but i want to see them as marginal choices. when china, the european union,

and russia ratified the paris agreement, the isolated choice made by one or another country will not change the course of the world. brent: "the course of the world." scientists around the world so worried they have issued a joint call for change describing it as a climate emergency. they say too well and without taking note of what it is doing to the planet. they warned that we risk untold suffering if things do not change. >> to mitigate an impending climate emergency, say the 11,000 scientists, research in six areas is critical. first and foremost, how we get our energy. they recommended higher taxes for carbon emissions, dramatically curtailing the use of fossil fuels and massively exextending g renewable fufuels.

reducing hydrofluorocarbons could reduce the warming trend by 50%, they say. when itt comomes to nature, they want to see forests, reeeefs, ad grasslands restored as well as a halt to habitat and biodiversity laws. in our food supply, animal products are a major problem. not only do livestock contribute directly to emissions, but growing food for them also takes lu belin that could be used for crops to feed the growing population. the scientists also take issue with economic growth. the pursuit of affluence and wealth, they say, is a major factor driving climate change. finally, they also bring up the controversial issue of human population growth, which is currently exploding at a rate of 80 million people a year. scientists say it needs to be stabilized. if possible, reduce. those are the most urgent steps that need taking, says the

statement, but far from the only ones. brent: for more, i'm joined tonight by an authority on climate change who has written multiple books. it's good to have you on the program. these 11,000 scientists are warning us we will suffer if we don't change, and they say we have to change the way we think about growth when it comes to population, when it comes to our economies. how realistic do you think it is ? can that paradigm chanange take place? >> yes, absolutel ththiss not really a new message. we have known for s several dedecade that if we continue on thatat path, if we producee m me and more greenenhouse gases and ememit them into ththe atmospsp, that the planet t will warm to a level att which marinine and

teterrestrial ecosystemsms are n dang.. itserfectlyossible at multle coraleefs wil d b 2030 iwe do nout c co2 emissionimmediaty. brent:ou and oer clima scientists have been saying this for many years. the first time i talk with you was 10 years ago. you've done your work. would you say it is now time for political leaders and for citizens to take the next step if we really want too stop or mimitigate clite change? >> yes, , absolutely. because we are o on the wrong coursese. instead of cutting co2 emissionons, the co2 e emissio e still rising, a and this is exexactly the o opposite o of we paparis agreement actually says. ththe paris agreemenent says wet

to limit globabal warming, but e aree following a business asas usual path, ignoring the scientific knowledge, and we e e doing this now for decades, for approximately 40 years, and i think it is important to let the public know that there is a very grgrt consensus among g scientis worldwidide that global w warmig andd unlimited glolobal warmings a mamajor threaeat to the biospe in general. brent: a study published this week finds that even if we manage to cut carbon emissions to zero by the year 2030, sea levels will continue to rise for at least a century. we were hearing the data and the science is being revised

constantly, and it is usually revised to look worse than it did before. do we reaeally know how badly te situatation is? can we b baware of howow bad it is? >> well, i t think thaththe climate prproblem is to abstract for most people to realize what global warming really means. therefore, it is important that we enhance our ways of communication. i think we find -- w we need to find new ways of climate communication to translate the scientific knowledge into something which a large sreff thth publipopulati can unrstand. if theres no pressur fm the vil sociy, i do't thk that there wille politil acti taken.

brt: it's good t see y again. we appciate yr timtonight. thk you. anging weath patternsave alread plued southn africa to sever droug. ns of miions of pple are facing food shortages, and wildlife is in great danger. >> a once majestic animal reduced to this. this elephant was trying to get to an area known as the manor pools, a waterhole for wildlife in northern zimbabwe. instead, it got stuck in the drying mud and later died of exhaustion. severe drought has turned the clay soil here into a death trap. this park officer says he prays every morning for rain, but it simply does not come.

>> [indiscernible] >> watater sououes are a all but drdried up here and animals cant find enough food here either. authorities say they have been forced to abandonon their ususul policy onononinterventntion. >> come up with a fitting strategy now, we supupplement te feeding of animals because thehe fofood which used to be there is not there b because of rain.. >> the plight of these animals is having a knock on effect on nearby villages. earlierr this year, zimbababwe's government declared a nationanal

disaster afterer the drought damaged harvests. now, hungry wild animals have been attacacking livestockck and crops in areas wherere food wass alreadyy in dangerously shortrt supply. officials here say climate change is hitting zimbabwe hard. it has altered weatherer patter. righght now, there is little sin of respite. brent: here are some of the other stories making headlines araround the worldld -- greekeke have fnd 4 41 migrantsts alive inside the back of f a refrigigerated truck in the norh of the country.. they have e arrested the drivern suspicion of smuggling. this comes two weeks after 39 migrants were found dead in a similar truck outside london. demonstrators in beirut have gathered outside key public buildings to rally against corruption and cronyism in lebanon. it comes as politicians haggle over the makeup of a new government.

hohong kong leader carrie lam hs condemned a knife attack on a pro-beijing lawmaker. the attack left him wounded. they hong kong politician has been a target of antigovernment demonstrations before overheads alleged support -- before over his alleged support of protesters. campaigning in the u.k.'s general election next month has officially begun. voters will elect a new parliament. the outgoing government was formally dissolved this morning. before prime minister johnson headed to buckingham palace to notify the queen, opposition leader jeremy corbyn of the labour party began his campaign with speeches in a number of constituencies. britain's withdrawal from the european union is likely to dominate. 's correspondent in london

says the tone of the campaign has already been set. >> day one off the campaign and it has already gotten nasty with name-calling and a accusations from both sides. ththis election, though, iss all ababout brexit. 80% of voters say this issue will makake themem decide how wo cacast t their vote, and t theya clclear choice. johnson's conservatives want to gett b bxit done with a d deal e negotiated inn brussels. the labour p party demands a secocond referendum but will not say if they y are for leave or remain. one party to watch out for are the liberal d docrats. they a are the only party that have clearly stated that with themem, the united k kingdom wod stay in the european union. coconservatives at the moment ae ahead in thehe polls, but with five weeks to go, a lot cann change until that election day. it is already looking like a divisive campaign as british people gear up to once more have

their say at the ballot box. brent: you are watching "dw news." still to come, a place foror ide chat or a powowerful forumum for social c change. chileans returned to traditional ways of discussing politics, but is that really better than marching and protesting in the streets? we will ask in just a moment. now to the middle east, protesters in iraq are accusing security forces of firing live rounds at people who were walking a bridge in the country's capital. demonstrations against the government started only last month. since then, more than 260 people have been killed, thousands have been injured. the military has called on people to stop blocking roads, ports, and oil refineries, saying it is costing the country billions of dollars. >> gunfire ricochets around the streets of central baghdad. demonstrators try to take

shelter as bullets rain down. fired, witnesses say, by iraqi security forces. since tuesday, antigigovernment protesters have been blocking a major bridge in the capital. police want them gone. >> let the united nations see. they use live bullets. we are human beings protesting and demanding our rights. those who fell got severely beaten. look what they did to my leg and my hand. they started shooting live ammunition at us. >> protests have also broken out in other parts of iraq. in the south of the country, security forces broke up and antigovernment sit in demonstration. more than 250 iraqis have lost their lives since the unrest

began at the beginning of october. the violence has been condemned by the international community. >> the secretary-general says he is shocked by the death toll we have seen in recent days in iraq since the start of the demonstration. >> but with neither side prepared to back down, chaos has returned to the streets of iraq. brent: my colleague is here now. he has been monitoring developments in iraq. these are very graphic images circulating online now. it documents the violence we are seeing against protesters here. > that's absolutely right. i've been seeing a lot of videos that have been circulating, and they are simply too graphic to show here. to give you an idea, though, one, for instance, shows smoke billowing out other protester's head after teargas cannons

launched. human rights watch. ms the international has been monitoring this trying to verify claims. they've been talking to witnesses and medics who have been treating the wounded and based on that, amnesty says it has strong evidence iraqi security forces are using teargas canisters, basically as live rounds with the aim to kill or severely injure protesters rather than dispersing them. we are talking about military grade tennis there's about 10 times as heavy -- military grade canisters that are about 10 times as heavy as regular ones. just yesterday, the united nations issued a similar scathing indictment of the iraqi government saying that security forces have killed at least 97 people and injured thousands and just the past two weeks. at least 16 of those deaths were a direct result of teargas

canisters. doctors and iraq say the real number is much higher, but they have been forced to not talk about it -- doctors in iraq. brent: authorities in iraq are trying to limit internet access, so we really don't know what is going on, do we? >> that's right. we saw this start as a social media van. -- social media ban. i spoke to a group that confirmed the iraqi government has gone one step further, essentially shutting down the internet in much of the country. that has been going on for about two days now. this could or maybe even should be a cause for real concern. we have seen plenty of places internet access is one of the most important weapons protesters have these days and more than that, it allows for

broadcast potential violations, so by blocking internet access, they are trying to -- brent: shutdown the movement. as always, thank you. there are signs of de-escalation in chile after two weeks of demonstrations. authorities say the number of people taking to the streets has fallen. at least 18 people have been killed, thousands injured since protests began, sparked by the increases in the price for metro tickets. the mayor of santiago reporting that on tuesday only several thousand protesters were counted, but as dw reports from the chilean capapital, people ae using other ways to express their anger. >> it is another day of protests in santiago o to chile -- santio de chile.

a couple of weeks ago, he kicked off a different kind of mobilization -- a neighborhood gathering. >> when we called the first meeting, we were a rather small group. we did not think anyone would come. we were a bit pessimistic. but the turnout exceeded all our expectations, so we sat down to analyze what had happened and what we hoped the chile of the 21st century should look like. >> the meetings soon grew too big for the park, so today, neighbors are meeting at a local hostile. some 80 people from all walks of life are united by the wish for change andnd a profound sadness regarding the country's status quo. >> we woke up and we were a at war. we were atat war, and once agai,

we had the military againsnst u. historory repeats itself. that's heartbreaking for a country like ours. >> this type of forum is not a new invention. in latin ameririca, it dates bak to colonial times as a communal gathering in response to emergencies or disasters, and anding togogether in the f facef adversity is still very much the essence o of it t today. >> if we want a better fututure, as much the cliche as thahat mit be, , we cannot just think about ourselves. we canannot fall back into individualism. >> we have to take care of each other. this is bigger than ourselves.s. >> they are emerging all across chile these days, but as grasassroots assemblies, they al have a common weakness. rex we are not seeing many results -- >> we are not seeing many results. we focused on the idea of a constituent is simply and educating ourselves, which i think is positive, but we are

not aiming for results, and i think that causes problems regarding our functionality. >> an opinion shared by this sociologist who has studied the phenomenon and fears the democratic efforts might turn out to be nothing but a cathartic exercrcise. >> the big problem is that they generate hope and ththat they ld people to think they are determining their own destiny, but, really, t they are onlyly providing a platform fofor desis that can be taken into o account but might as well l not be, and that is a problem. if they were in any way binding, they would allow us to solve and overcome the crisis. >> but here in santitiago, noboy wants to believe they are just dreaming up their own version of utopia. broken up in small taskforces, they draft a roadmap for their future work. the meeting ends late at n night with a presentatioion o of t the

group's coorordinated obctctive. he's exhausted butut pleased w h the outcome. >> it was once again an exercise of getting to know the neighbors. i had no idea there were so many people interested in this. we were able to narrow down questitions and answerr them ina criticalal analytical, and respectful manner. now it is o our goal to push foa constituent process in the new constitution. >> in order to make any of this happened, neighbors will have to get the government to listen. how they will go about that will certainly be worth a discussion during the next meeting. brent: all this week, we are marking the 30th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall, a seismic event that meant east berliners were suddenly able to travel to the west, including thousands of football fans. from east berlin, they came to see a western club in berlin in

action in november 1989, just days after the border open. >> the first weekend after the fall of the berlin wall, hundreds of thousands of people from east berlin streamed into the west, many to olympic stadium. fans using their newfound freedom to finally see the team play. on that november 11, they faced a direct rival for promotion to the bundesliga. they remember the game well. >> on the way to the stadium, you could see something was happening. back then, we usually had a crowd of 5000 or 10,000. now suddenly there were masses of people everywhere. >> we could sense the masses of people from the suburbs and east berlin coming to the games, and you could smell their cars. >> fans from the east got in free. they just had to show their id. many were here for the first time. others could hardly believe they

were about to see a game in person again. >> a dream. >> we've been waiting for this for 28 years. >> there were 45,000 to 50,000 spectators in the stadium, a once-in-a-lifetime atmosphere as fans from the west and east were together again. their friendship had outlasted the wall. players will remember this game forever. >> this was a very special day. we soaked it up and tried to bring that positive energy out on the pitch. >> at the time, we mainly wanted to win the game. it was only y after the fact tht we appreciated the historic day. >> this day was particularly special foror the playeyer who scored the goal that sealed the

1-one draw. >> people always ask me about that goal. it was not the most difficult, but it was an amazing experience. >> the two players are still involved in berlin football. those teams are in the bundesliga together for the first time ever 30 years after the fall of the wall. brent: all this week, dw is bringing your special coverage and reports on the events eating up to the fall of the berlin wall 30 years ago. we will also have live coverage of saturday's ceremonies and commemorations right here on dw. we hope you can join us. that is all for now. in a moment, i will be back to take you through "the day," but first, let's see more of the celebrations at berlin's iconic eastside gallery. the city is marking 30 years since the fall of berlin wall. eastside gallery one of the few

remaining segments of the wall. i will be back with "the day" in just a moment.

with more on that station. i was campaigning is officiallyly under way in the u. k. ahead of december's a general election at promise to boris johnson at. here is that no longer promise but just somebody at seeking reelection is everybody else is at a campaign. rally on the slogan yeah. down here because of the election