>> today, on "earth focus," thrising ct of a changing climate. coming up, on "earth focus." we have never confronted a crisis like this. in its early stages it's producing record- breaking heat, coastal flooding, and extreme precipitation. and the cost is way too high in lives lost, in damage to prorty, and livihood. and it may get worse. unless addressed, climate change stands to affect the security of the nation, the stability of

the u.s. economy, and ultimately our ality to suive. >> in this cris, no one escapes. >> as far as climate change, how does it aually affect the military? there are really 3 things. one is it affects our bases. so those impacts could be rising seas, they can be roughtsthey cabe floods. for example, if you have a drought and you dry up the ranges, you cannot use live ammunition anymore because it sets too many fires. second is the arctic is opening up, the ice is melting, and that's opening up a whole new theater that the united states navy and our coast guard partners are gonna have to work

in. and finally, when we have the national guard responding to natural disasters in the united states, those are less forces that potentially the president could call on to go overseas. and where we already see the kind of threats that we're gonna see from national security, is just look no further than north africa. look at the arab spring. one of the contributing causes was a very rapid run-up in the price of wheat. now, why did wheat almost double right as the arab spring got going? it doubled because there were terrific droughts in australia, and if erybody remembers the fires of a few years ago, and the russian summer. there were big droughts there. worldwide wheat harvest really contracted. so, you couple the drought with really bad governance with alreadexisting strife, it's sort of like dumpingasoline on and then just throwing matches. even though our budgets are very, very constrained in the department of defense and the department of the navy, the climate doesn't care about our

budgets. it doesn't care about our politics. it's just going to change according to the laws of physics. >> it's not only the military that is increasingly concerned. so are many financial and business experts. "risky business" is a nonpartisan analysis of the economic risk of climate change in the united states. it was led by michael bloomberg, henry paulson, and tom steyer. among the findings, if we continue on the same path, by the year 2100, the country could see $701 billion of coastal property underwater. $108 billion in average annual losses from hurricanes and coastal storms on the eastern seaboard and gulf of mexico. and in some states, a loss of up to 70% in average annual crop yields. extreme heat and humidity would also threaten human health, reduce labor productivity, and strain electricity grids. >> global climate change over

time poses severe threats to li on eartas we kn it today. ands time gs on, those sere threa become greer and gater, an uimately think ha the tentialf becomi atastroic. even if you're skeptal aut clima change,here's no denng that it prests major rks that no compa, city, countryan afforto ignor >> i belie the amecan busiss commuty can a must leadhe way ihelping to reducthese ris. toise to the challens of clate chan, they mt do snow. ts is not problem for anotr day. t investmts e'rmaking tay will determi our ecomic futu. >> according to the u.s. government's 2014 national climate assessment, average temperatures have increased by as much as 1.9 degrees fahrenheit in t u.s. since 1895, with most of the increase occurring since 1970. temperatures are projected to rise another 2 to 4 degrees in

most areas of the country in the next few decades. people are already feeling the impact, these early effects of climate change a harbinger of what the future may hold. >> if you're on the coast, most likely it's sea level rise. if you're in the midwest, extreme heat-wave events. extreme flooding and precipitation in the miest. the heaviest rain events are getting 30% heavier. the folks in the rocky mountain west, they're not gonna recognize the forest even 60 years hence. we're losing most of the pine trees in the southern part of the rocky mountain forests in future projections 'cause it's getting too hot and too dry. >> it's very clear to us that the climate is changing, changing rapidly,nd changing primarily because of human aivities. the science tells us that.

extreme events are one of the most important parts of our changing climate and having very erious rificatio on our societyin partular, w're seeing more large heat events, less cold events, and a significant increase in precipitation happening as larger events. ne of ththings 're sing isthat theet are gting wetr and thdry are tting drier. you kn what? ias--i wa borhere in lainviewi was rsed in pinview.'ve aays been iplainvie and it st-- itseems li it is dng noing but tting hoer and dri and lesrain yeay.

>> 's ben a tough dught. in 10, we h like 29nches of rain, ani didn't thin the'd er be anher poor day. in011, we d 5 inch ofain. wst droug i'ever see and 11 was t first te we' ev had to andon ou crop. d wead to pi and chose whiccrop we re gonna save, whh crop we wereonna aband. and, man, at was-- thawas likehoosing ich chd we wergonna lo, or ave behindand we ner had to thatefore. walways h ough wat to makehat oice. this by far e worst i'vever see it's by f the rst a buch of pple have ever se it. wel the oth day i w

blding fee and ju driving slw with t windowsown, and thehermomet was reang 120-plusyou' cook at20. >> we wr two ha. we useur farmi hato ise the feesource, d th we use r cowboyr our calemen's hat raise t cattle our pasture nd. co does nodo well the at. so tt's problem ght the. corn es not plinate wellthat's one oour feed sorces. cttle do t do wel abo 9degree just li you. you do't le to stand oside when 's 95 drees. there'no difrence bween a c and y. catle mbers a down. cow herdare goindown dai.

th we' losing rgill's, paing plants. uhjust-- here's not eugh catt to ep them en. these communies are ying u the t base isrying up when t cargilplant cled welost,200 jobs instany, so tt was % of our pulati. when irive by at ant and i sethatmpty parki lot, just remis me of homany jobwere los ho many pele were fected, w it fected o busins. >>ounow, sompeople s this the newormal, tt this is at we're gonnatart ing all e time. we get rain, i'll lucky. but we n adapt.her's no uestion out it. may not getur firsthoice, b we can adt. we're gonnaeed the brighte of the ight to et th challenes. it's gonnbe tougher do thisn the ne

20 ars an it wato get t the on. >> anther daof rain,nother y of worng insid another ay that can't takeare of e crops. whei'm the mide of a rainsrm or inhe middlof the conditio where 's ha r us to able too anythi out in t field, 's o mud, too we or sothing going n, you ow. and en you have at next ent thatou

see mingnd youonder, h are youonna getll your rk donehow are u gonna ke care othe crophe way i ould be ken caref? 've bn here iiowa abo 35 yrs now.'ve bn farmin nce i s 15. sthis is 46throp thate'reutting out. and just ems that we' having re extre event the lasseveral ars, the volatily has ju been exem you kw, we ha those rainvents at are 34, 5 inchesn an ho, or 6r 8 or 10 ches in 24-hour riod. and the are st not nmal. a it'those ki of even th it'very harto plan r and to ally tryo mitiga. whew. m! tha's wiy. ith thiexcess msture, 're oing to ve somdisease roblem iour corn and our soybean becausef the exss wet, bause othe exce

humity. seevery sho. it' uh, bro-looking don'have tooany root and it's justufferingrom too much isture. ll, younow, andefore th lt 3 or 4ears, clate chge--i gus my vion of t rld of clate chan was about few peoe tryingo me money the dea to tr to sre enougpeoplento insting inyou know technoly and nethingshat would use le fuel, tt would miigate so of the fects thathey cim was gng to happe and parcularly e he. but as farmer the last seral yea, we are tually eing tho changes happen here on e farm. ' haing morend more treme events, u know, ether i's heat or coldr too mu rain or not eugh rain.

in the last 10 years, our costs to gw a cropave gonep almt almost times. uh, y know, we've added equipment so we can plant and harvest ia much srter tim wind. we've beenore mindl of theoil cor that whave because the serus rain events. those blessings tt we havto be out with mher natu and adjust the cnging asons that weave e real natural r us. wh is unnatural ishe fast ce that 're hing to aust to. >> there is not debate that climate change will exacerbate forest fires. because of the

heat and the precipitation changes, drought, those sorts of factors. scientists are projecting a 50- 100% increase in area burned in the next 40 years or so. >> it was like a nightmare, the whole evening. my only thought was, if we get through this day and everybody's alive, it'll be as good as it gets. there it is, right here, right here. >> oh, my gosh. >> ok. we're out, we're out. >> it was definitely the worst night of my life. >> on the day of the lower north fork fire, it was a red flag breezy day. we were dispatched initially to a grass fire. >> we had sent assistant chief page up onto a ridge, , to get

a good, you know, overview of the fire. >> when that fire made that turn and went through that gully, it started running up towards where i was. when it took off, it took off fast. >> one couple died at their home and then one woman also died at her hom it just kt happening andappeninall summer long. traditionally, march was the snowiesmonth of the year around here. this past march we had no snow at all. basically summer type conditions. and that lengthening season is causing changes in the fuel, so we're seeing the fuels start to grow earlier in the season, and so they dry out earlier. climate change is very real. it's chaed my entire life. this year was our most destructive fire season. the two most destructive fires in colorado's history occurring at the same time. it's different. it's a different world.

the fire season is now longer. in most cases, we didn't have to worry about fires in the rocky mountains or the northwest until usually june or july. now, you know, the fires are getting earlier and earlier. the first season's getting longer. w're starting to get to be like california where fire season is year-round. >> the ft pace of climat chan is cleay seen o arica's coast hard hiby rising s levels, flooding, and severe storm surges. >> what we see is the united states, the eastern part of the united states from the gulf of mexico all the way up to new england is among the highest local sea level rise rates in the world. >> more people live on the coasts than ever before. and now that we have more people har's w, obviouy when a srm doestrike, e

csequenceare evemore dire. >> there is a ton of coastline in america. we have something like 94,000 miles of coastline, 60,000 miles of coastal roads. half of america lives within a coastal watershed county, very close to the coast. so, we are a cotal cntry, iyou will what climate change is gonna do, the most important impact to coastal areas is gonna come through sea level rise. and that means that coastal flooding gets worse, coastal erosion gets woe, we'reonna see astal ars inundad. d in fa, the imrtant thing is, th is not mething out the fure. it's alrey ppeningow. virgia beach miami, new orleans, they're already dealing with those types of impact. one trilln dollar worth of structures and property sitting right at the shoreline. so flooding will get more extensive, it will happen more frequely, and at sort

tng is wh puts miions of americans at risk every year. >> by 2045, we could see as little as 5 inches of extra sea level rise or 11 inches of extra sea level rise. now, to put that in concrete terms, let's look at the u.s. naval academy in annapolis, maryland. now, annapolis right now experiences about 50 nuisance floods a year. unr the best- case scenario, in 30 years hence it could be as high as over 240, about, high tides a year. if we have a highest-emission scenario, it could be as high as 380 tides a year, many of those twice a day. we think, there's only 365 days in the year. pretty much, that's almost... you know, it's inundation at that point. >> and in this country, we have encouraged people to build on coastal areas, barrier islands, and other high-risk areas that

inevitably raise the risk level and the exposure, not only by propey values, high-valued properties, but the cost of pair anrecoveryboth for the homeners as ll as th publ infraructure that supportthem. sohink roa and brids and that kinof thing.o it--thcost of climate ange haso be factored in both in public and private insurance and public and private financial support for the structures that support people's homes and where they live. >> when floods and hurricanes happen, a lot of people assume that insurance will cover everything, and what isn't covered, the federal government will then come in and make them whole. unfortunately, that's rarely the case. if i live in my own home, the federal government is not responsible for coming in and taking care of me. people need to continue to make sure they've done everything to protect themselves and can't rely wholly on the federal government. >> we are looking at some communities that are putting in climate action plans that are on the scale of millions

of dollars. for example, new york city is thinking about over $350 million to try to make new york city more resilient to sea level rise. >> we need billions of dollars to shore up our coastlines and make america safe for people to live in the face of this extreme weather. >> nive alasns are othe fronine of climatehange. ovethe last 50 ars, alaa has ward twicas ft as the nation average melting peafrost a coast a ice, well asncreasin erosionre visib changin people' lives. >> we ta alaan nativ counities that arelmost solely-n order r ansportion, it's eith very traditnal meths, so eier ocean-ing, coe or foot, in swshoes, in someases, snowbiles. a it'difficul maintaithat substence

lifestylehen the anges are imacting t food reurces, likmarine mmals, umor peafrost ithawed, d so aess ttraditiol homelas for carou or fomoose ar impact by vaing seass. you're stting to e earlie thws, so t timingsf hunts and gatheringsre impted. and soconsequtly, whamay have ppened ts month years pa now haso be bumd up, in me cases month earer. anso we're startg to s a changin how w intpret thenvironme around us. kipnukit'a small counity. aillage t's t reallyonnectedo the ide wod. but ias always ierested in what's going oall arou us. i wascuriousabout clate chan and howt was afcting us. didn't alize hobad it

was.hen i filly undetood what climate change was, i thought, what could i do to help? thought at wouldelp a t tell story ohow we're beingffected climatehange on thiside of e world. it's mostlybout theinter cong lat the snowould usually me arounseptember or octer. but r the pa yes, it'been coming arou novber. decembe2008, itas the wot flood at i rember. you could e all ofhis wate ju flowinswiftly to the ville that w, and athe me time,here werthese hu ice eets thawere juscoming inast, andeard the loud umps anbumps onhe side the hoe. ani figur out that wasrobably e ice shts that broke art fromhe river hat are tting thhouse. and aer the wer went ck to the ver, the was jus brownsticky m all ovethe

grounwhereverhe water uched.hatud was otop of hese ste--1, 2, and 4. flos in decber are common. e riversre usual frozen all the y till sing. and ao the erion that we' facinghere. thwarm teeraturesre causi the permafro to meltand the permafro to melt affects the lanthrough osion. s the erosn cuts o some la that fas into t river, d we lose ite a bieach yea is sprin my dad d i, we meared how r it was his yeare lost out 8 fe, and eh year wlost anoer 5eet. and whave anoer 40 or s feet lt untilthe bankf the ri reach the hou. ifit kps movinat the se rate, th in the xt few

years,hen we mht have move t house tanother locaon it es scarme, becae we don' know ifhere'll be icepa or not in t future. but there's not,hen it ould be ch hardeto harve seafor r substence waof lifesle, espeally forhe sealil that heavildepend onand it's parof our everyy lives. e warmetemperates could aect our y of lifout he. d if didn't geto ce out he and dony of th with piing berrs or anyf that, it would beard on o family, a not onlmy famil butll the famies in thcommunit asell, becse about0% or so of ou diet year-rounis from thtundra othe ocea and it wil be hareconomally. yeah, 'rreally dendent o all th food th we get,nd i'm veryhankful r it.

>> [lahing] > i thinthat morand moref theublic unrstands e truth about cmate chae, and tt ife do noteal withhis prlem, itill bear worse >>ne thinghat we wt to alsosk is nojust wha climatchange cts, but at foss fuel dendency cts us. >> there a many ways tcover e costsssociatewith xtreme wther. so things need feral fundg for, and, yes, tt comes om the taayers, a there oy is so much moy to go ound. e undersnd that.ut there re crtive solions, to >better lanuse planng, better blding cos so tha homeare lessusceptib to dage. andetter dister preparness so at we n't realljust connue to ruild in ese areaand thenund the recory throu taxpar dolrs for isaster sistance >> ming investnts in nural denses,reen irastructe, and cmunity rilience,s a trendous befit to t nation

and 's sothinwe shouldo imediately >> to creata climat resilience fundo be sma aboutrotecting our cotal comnities a protectg our pocketoks as tpayers. >> failing step upo the hallengef our ti ando eate mo resiliee for r counities uld be tsit and wch rome rn. >>the long we wa, the mo expenve it isecause t more seere the nsequenc, on a scalehat we m not evewant to se

05/31/21 05/31/21 [captioning made possible amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> there is something we need to talk about. three words that summarize the whole history of humanity -- civilizationcolonization, extermination. this is the origin of the ideology of white supremacy. amy: "exterminate all the brutes." that's the title of an epic sweeping new series by raoul peck about colonialism, white supremacy, and genocide. "time magazine" said it "may well be the most politically radical