07/22/21 07/22/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> i want to thank every amazon employee and every amazon customer, because you guys paid for all of this. seriously, forvery aman customer out there and every amazon employee, thank you from the bottom of my heart. amy: as the world's richest man flies his blue origin rocket into suborbital space come here

on earth calls grow to tax the rich and let amazon unionize. we will speak with paris marx, whose article is headlined "leave the billionaires in space." >> on tuesday morning, jeff bezos launched into space and promised his trip was the beginning of an opening to space for everybody, but we should understand it as an important public relations move to try to win puic contrts that will allow him to control the infrastructure of space within ford. " we will look at the privatization of space with journalist peter ward, author of "the consequential frontier." jeff bezos' space trip got nearly as much coverage in one day as climate change did for all of 2020. this comes as white men overwhelmingly dominated the airwaves on climate coverage for at least the fourth year in a row. we will speak with the coeditors of "all we can save anthology."

60 women at the forefront of the climate movement. >> "all we can save anthology." it is the collective, the all, the we, the possibility, the imperative of the save. the subtitle is the how - truth, courage, and solutions. not cry and give up. amy: we will speak with marine biologists ayana elizabeth johnson and katharine wilkinson. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the world health organization says the number of new covid cases jumped 12% across the globe last week as the highly contagious delta variant continues to spread. indonesia recorded 350,000 new cases er the past week, a 44%

increase and the highest total in the world. britain, which just lifted all covid restrictions, reported almost 300,000 cases. earlier today, thailand and south korea both set new daily records for covid infections. the who says the delta variant is now in 124 countries and will soon become the dominant coronavirus strain worldwide. this comes as china has rejected calls by the who to open another -- a new investigation into the origins of the pandemic. an earlier probe found it was extremely unlikely that the coronavirus escaped from a lab in wuhan where the first cases were detected. but many public health experts say key questions remain unanswered over the virus's origins. meanwhile, the united states has announced its borders with

mexico and canada will remain closed until at least august 21. canada recently announced vaccinated america will be alwed to eer the cntry beginning august 9. house speaker nancy pelosi has rejected the appointment of republican lawmakers jim jordan of ohio and jim banks of indiana to the select committee investigating the january 6 insurrection at the capitol. pelosi said -- "the unprecedented nature of january 6 demands this unprecedented decision." both jordan and banks had voted to overturn the 2020 election and have opposed investigating what happened on january 6, when trump supporters violently tried to stop the counting of electoral votes. earlier this week, banks said pelosi had created the committee "solely to malign conservatives and to justify the left's authoritarian agenda." house minority leader kevin mccarthy responded to pelosi's

decision by pulling the republicans he had recommended for the committee. on wednesday night, during a cnn town hall, president biden criticized those who downplay what happened on january 6. pres. biden: i don't care if you think i am satan reincarnate that television and say "nothing happened on the 6th." you can't listen to people who say this was a peaceful march. amy: in related news, federal authorities have arrested a special agent at the drug enforcement agency for participating in the january 6 insurrection and for entering a restricted area outside the capitol with his government-issued gun. authorities also accused the dea agent mark ibrahim of flashing his badge and gun outside the capitol. senate republicans have blocked

a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill from moving ahead, but democrats say the bill is not yet dead. all 50 republicans voted against the measure after accusing senate majority leader chuck schumer of rushing the process. the legislation includes almost $600 billion in new spending on public works projects including for roads and broadband. the nation's three largest drug distributors and pharmaceutical giant johnson & johnson have agreed to pay states $26 billion to settle thousands of lawsuits over their role in the opioid crisis. a bipartisan group of state attorneys general announced the agreement wednesday. at least two states, washington and west virginia, have already signaled they will not sign on to the settlement. as part of the agreement, the companies do not have to acknowledge wrongdoing for their

role in the crisis, which has killed over 500,000 people since 1999. the pentagon has confirmed four of the colombian mercenaries accused of assassinating haitian president jovenel moïse once received u.s. military training at fort benning in georgia while they were members of the colombian armed forces. formerly known as the school of the americas, the western hemisphere institute for security cooperation at fort benning has been used for decades to train latin american soldiers in combat, counterinsurgency, and counternarcotics. critics have long described the training center as the school of the assassins. the u.s. military bombed somalia tuesday in the first drone strike in the east african nation since president biden took power. the airstrike targeted militants with al-shabab who were fighting a u.s.-trained somali commando force.

meanwhile, the biden administration is urging a federal court to sentence drone whistleblower daniel hale to at least nine years in prison for leaking classified information about the u.s. targeted assassination program. this according to a report in the dissent newsletter. in march, daniel hale pleaded guilty to leaking documents about the u.s. drone program, which participated in while in the air force. he will be sentenced on july 27. argentina has become the first country in latin america to allow gender nonconforming citizens to use the gender-neutral "x" marker on their passports and national id documents. argentine president alberto fernandez spoke at a ceremony wednesday where the first non-binary id cards were issued. >> we have the need to open our

heads to realize there are other ways to love and be loved, and there are other identities apart from the identitof man or man and they should be respected. the always existed, only in other times they were hidden. amy: in the united states, federal courts have temporarily blocked in arkansas law banning gender confirming health care for transgender youth as well as a west virginia law banning trans student athletes. the ruling in the west virginia case came after an 11-year-old trans student named becky pepper-jackson sued the state after she was barred from trying out for the girls cross country team at her middle school. in a statement on wednesday, becky said -- "it hurt that the state of west virginia would try to block me from pursuing my dreams. i just want to play." the israeli government is launching a legal attack against

ben & jerry's over its plan to stop selling ice cream in illegal israeli settlements in the occupied west bank as well as in occupied east jerusalem. israel's ambassador to the united states has asked 35 u.s. governors to enforce state laws which make it a crime to support the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement, or bds. meanwhile, republican senator james langford of oklahoma has called on his state to block the sale of ben & jerry's, claiming the company's new policy violates oklahoma's anti-bds law. ben & jerry's has said continuing to sell ice cream in the settlements would be "inconsistent with our values." buzzfeed has revealed confidential government informants played a critical role in the foiled plot to kidnap and take hostage michigan's democratic governor gretchen whitmer last year. authorities have arrested 14 men in what prosecutors described as a deeply disrbing ot. the gornment's caseelied on thwork of least 1

confidtial infmants, cluding ny underhe direion of t fbi. zzfeed rorts t informas had "hand inearly evy aspect othe alleged ot, arti with s inceptn. e extentf their volvemt raisesuestionss to wheer therwould ha evebeen a conspira without tm." all ofhe 14 mewho haveeen arrestedave plded no guty. the ate of tas hasegun jailinimmigran who cro the u.s.order by charging them with state crimes such as trespassing as part of a new anti-immigrant push by republican governor greg abbott. on wednesday, texas authorities announced three immigrants have been jailed so far in the town of dilley, but the number of arrests are expected to soar in coming weeks. president biden has announced plans to nominate one of the nation's leading antitrust attorneys, jonathan kanter, to lead the justice department's antitrust division.

senator elizabeth warren praised the decision saying it was "tremendous news for workers and consumers." since taking office, biden has tapped three leading critics of big tech to top positions -- kanter at the doj, lina khan to head the federal trade commission, and tim wu at the national economic council. the president of the upcoming u.n. climate talks in the united kingdom has urged nations to ban the burning of coal as part of an effort to reduce carbon emissions. alok sharma spoke to the journalism collaboration covering climate now. i want cup 26 tbe the cop -- if i talk out the youth's own joney when it comes to coal power, in 2012, less than 10 years ago, 40% of electricity was ming frocold.

we are n less than 2%. 2024 by which we will be coal-free. amy: the u.k. will host the next u.n. climate conference in november in glasgow, scotland. in other climate news, in southwestern iran at least three people have died in protests sparked by a massive water shorge. protesrs have tan to the streets fothe past sen days. iran is facing its worst drought in 50 years amid soaring summer mperatures in cana, policin toron arrested6 peopleednesdays authorities forcibly evict unhoed residts ling in a campmentear mport stium. accoing to the encament suppornetwork, seval peopl who we trying to sp the evicons were hospitazed with injuries anthtokyo olpic orgazing commtee has fid the dictor of friday'opening remony f onceoking out the locaust. thdecisionas made ter a

videemerged om 1998 en the direor kenta kobayas was workinon a comy show. meanwhe, spani olympic swimr ona caonell s iticizedhelympic cmittee for impong ruleshat madet nearly iossiblforer to ntue breaseeding h child ile at t olympic onednesdayshe releed a video pressing h isappoinent d disillusnmt" afterhe decidee could't brg her eastfeedinson to tyo while e competed. >> so i had to take a very tough decision together with my team, who has been helping me a lot, with my family, because the japanese government's impositions are not compatible with my athletic performance and being with my family at the same time. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. when we come back, the world's richest man place is blue origin rocket into suborbital space,

here on earth, calls grow to tax the rich, let amazon unionize, and leave the billionaires in space. coming up. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "stuck in the middle with you" by stealers wheel. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman in new york, joined by my co-host nermeen shaikh. hi, nermeen. nermeen: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: we begin today's show with a look at how the world's richest man completed a 10-minute suborbital flight aboard his blue origin spacecraft tuesday. jeff bezos spoke at a news conference after his crew landed. >> i want to thank every amazon

employee and every amazon customer because you guys paid for all of this. seriously, for every amazon customer out there and every amazon employee, thank you from the bottom of my heart. amy: the billionaire amazon founder bezos' remarks drew sharp rebuke. washington congressmember pramila jayapal tweeted -- "if amazon paid its workers fairly and did not fight unionization, workers would not be funding the expensive hobbies of billionaires. they would be taking care of their families and living dignified and fulfilling lives." she also noted that the 11-minute joyride cost over $2.5 million a minute. "yes, it's time to tax the rich," she said. stuart appelbaum, president of the retail, wholesale, and department store union that tried to unionize amazon's warehouse in bessemer, alabama, also responded to bezos' comments thanking amazon

customers and employees for paying for his space flight. >> these are people who put their lives on the line during the pandemic and did not receive adequate support from jeff bezos. in the middle of the pandemic, he even cut people's wages when he did not need to. people are being forced to work in conditions where their health and safety is not being adequately protected. there is so much more jeff bezos should be doing for his employees. amy: bezos rocketed into suborbital space with his brother and 82-year-old aviation pioneer named wally funk, and

18-year-old oliver daemen of the netherlands who was the first paying customer. he is the son of joes daemen, the ceo and founder of hedgefund somerset capitol partner. it's unclear just how much daemen paid for the seat. for more, we're joined by two guests. in st. john, canada, paris marx is the host of the podcast tech won't save us and a writer whose article in jacobin is headlined "leave the billionaires in space." and joining us from the u.k. is journalist peter ward, author of the book "the consequential frontier: challenging the privatization of space." we welcome you both to democracy now! paris marx, as you watched the richest man on earth rocket away from it for just a few minutes, talk about your thouts. >> yeah, first of all, it is great to join you. it was wild to watch that,

right? for so long people have been cricizing this, have been saying it is not something we should do. but to watch the richest man in the world, a man who admitted after his flight that all of his wealth comes from the workers who work for amazon who have been underpaid, mistreatefor so long, and then to compare that with the stories we have been seeing in recenweeks about the fires in british columbia burning a whole ground, the flooding in europe, it is just wild to put these stories next to one another and see at a moment when we have so many crises even beyond the climate crisis we need to be dealing with, the richest a most powerful people in the world are turning their eyes away from the planet and to the stars. nermeen: peter ward, you have written a book on the privatization of space.

could you give us broader context? when did this begin? who is the founder of -- what is that? and where do you see this going? it has only been 20 years or so since this idea began, correct? >> yeah, yeah, that is correct. it goes back to the first example in space tourism in russia, the russians tried to do things when they are thinking of decommissioning the mir space station. i looked into the history o that while writing the book and saw it was surprisingly russians [indiscernible] peter diamandis launched to try to get essentially in these are way to get space, touted space

tourism. one of the entries was the vehicle which branson used to get into space. i think in terms of the future where this is going,bviously, there will be more flights to space taking extremely wealthy people on 11 minute journeys into space. it will not slow down. this was the proof. they believe it is safe. i cannot see the price ever going down to the point where, like jeff bezos had, everyone will have access to space. that does not seem realistic. this will always be the wealthy. it is kind of sad. if you compare yesterday's event to say the moon landing, that was a source of great pride for the whole world. yesterday we just kind of saw a man having a midlife crisis on possibly theost eensive

midlife isis ever. nermeen: i also want to ask peter about the potential militarization of space, not just commercialization. a comment made by peter diamandis, he said bezos does not need to compete -- beat elon musk, he needs to beat lockheed martin and boeing. having the number one and number three wealthiest people on the planet using their money to open space is extraordinary. can you explain wt exactly does he mean by that? he needs to beat lockheed martin and boeing? >> i think whahe's ferring to is the majoty of the money in space his military contracts. so you see spacex and blue origin [indiscernible] they're going after the military

contracts for a long time. that is where the money is. essentially taking the public money and using it to fund their own space tourism. amy: after his suborbital flight on tuesday, jeff bezos told msnbc the trip reinforced his commitment to addressing the climate crisis by moving polluting industries to space. >> we need to take all heavy industry, all polluting industries and move it into space and keep earth is this beautiful gem of a planet that it is. that will take decades to achieve, but you have to start and big things start with small steps. amy: paris marx, if you could respond to, "just send the polluting industries, not deal with polluting industries, stop them from polluting, but we will just pollute space." what does that mean? >> it is a wild statement. especial his admitting he will

take decades to do. in this moment we are seeg the climate crisis accelerating. climate change is not something coming in decades down the road, it is here right now and getting worse with every single passing year. i think we should see that statement as the climate denial it is. if we're serious about addressing the climate crisis, by the time movie industries to space becomes realistic -- and i don't think that will be in decades, i think that is wildly optimistic -- then we will already have transformed the production system, the transportation system, the other systems we rely on to make them sustainable so we can live on this planet. why would we even need to move them to space in the first place? it is a statement that makes no sense. as jeff bezos is saying these things, it is important to understand he is personally still living the life of a billionaire, has massive personal carbon emissions, but the company that built his $200

billion of wealth amazon, increased its emissions by 19% last year alone. i think we can see this as a way to distract from the real problems we face in the here and now with solutions that are never really going to come. amy: during his news conference on tuesday -- again, to point out, the amount of coverage this got, seeing and i thought move their entire operation down to west texas to cover this. minute by minute so you did not miss anything. let's compare that to the climate crisis. the coverage of the shows on broadcast television, for those few minutes got more coverage, the hours leading up to and after it, then a year of coverage of the climate crisis.

but let's go back to another clip of jeff bezos. this is jeff bezos talking about infrastructure. i want to turn to the news conference where he called the flight a small step toward building a road to space. >> you can tell when you're on to something. this is an important -- we are going to build a road to space so our kids and their kids can build a future. we need to do that. we need to do that to solve the problems here on earth. this is not about escaping earth. we are going to build an infrastructure -- when i started amazon, i did not have to build the postal service or royal mail, there were people -- already gigantic road infrastructure to deliver packages. that infrastructe today is way too expensive and doesn't work

for space. amy: peter ward, to say he's been to this money -- he is making the point he built amazon on the roads that existed, the mail system that existed and yet what taxes does he pay? this is really a public-funded flight, the amount of millions that he saved in not paying taxes. >> it is pretty outrageous. when he is talking about the road to space, a lot of these people think of themselves as the kind of railroad industry in america with america was being colonized. obviously, they put the railroads down and you had the industry and economy blossomed around it. not many people mentioned the destruction of indigenous population and the effects it had on the environment. luckily, you don't have that in space. but the really scary thing is if

someone like jeff bezos were to lay down the infrastructure, what would that be just him conducting the monopolization of the space economy if there was one? and if he wants to move the entire industry off planet and he controls the entire structure, he has had antitrust issues with amazon, what is to stop them from controlling space? nermeen: paris marx, can you talk about what the defenders of the spaceflight, people who have come out in defense of bezos and richard branson presumably also elon musk, saying their efforts could set the stage for an expansion of space travel that could -- and technology that could eventual affect everyone, assumedly, favorably? >> certainly. there are a lot of people who say the very same things that jeff bezos did in that clip you just played. that this is about the future,

about making it so everybody can go to space and also about laying the infrastructure so we can start to develop whether it is colonies or companies that exist in space. we need to see this as the grand vision for space that are not really realistic, not something we're going to see in our lifetimes. we need to question whether we shoulde dedicating so much resources to ts kind of grand vision of a future that may never arrive when we are dealing with so many crises in the here and now, whether it is climate crises, housing crises, the rices of letty we're dealing with, and whether we should b refocung on the. the rlier cl you playe beginning just bez sing's weal comes fm the amazon rkers. aginef thatealth hadot en tak from thworkers d was still contrled by tm or by reprentative governme thatould tn deoy those

resources address the serio cris instead of building a tentia spaceconomy ospace colony in decades for centuries to come. amy: is now the world's richest man but jeff bezos but much of his life focused on going into space. in 1982, "the miami herald" summarized part of his valedictorian speech writing -- "bezos wants to build space hotels, amusement parks, yachts and colonies for two or three million people orbiting around the earth., saying 'the whole idea is to preserve the earth.'" his "final objective is to get all people off the earth and see it turned into a huge national park." that was from a summary of valedictorian addresses that year in high school. paris marx, your response? >> that is the same thing he

says tod these decadesater. we should realize those ideas come from his college professor gerard o'neill who developed the space colonies he things we should be living in. jeff bezos partially plan is not to colonize mars-like elon musk would have us do, but live in the space colonies that would be orbiting in the vicinity of earth and we would leave the earth and return to it sometime for vacations, to see the wonderful world where we live. it is important when jeff bezos talks about the future that we could happen in space, he imagines the reason we need to go to spaces because economic growth needs to continue. in order to achieve that, we have visually are going to run out of energy and resources on earth so we need to leave the planet. he says it is a choice between rationing or growth and i think that is a false choice. nermeen: peter, can you talk

about that, this idea that bezos has of colonizing space versus elon musk's plan to make mars self-sustaining part of the justification for which he says if there is a third world war, went to make sure there's enough of human civilization somewhere else to bring it back and shorten the length of the dark ages? >> so the padigm has differing views, bezos has this ideae need to preserve the earth and musk is more of the plan b option, he thinks we ould go to mars and have some kind of human presence on mars just in case we destroy the entire planet, civilization, species here on earth. i have to say i agree with what paris said in terms of the climate crisis, there is no time

to execute these plans. there is no time. it will beoo late. while i do see there is -- i believe there is merit in space exploration, not done with billionaires having their way, not with what wsaw yesterday. it is just not what we need to save the planet. like parasite, it is a false twice. amy: paris marx come how is the u.s. federal government enabling this? you have musk's spacex, $149 million contract from the pentagon to build missile tracking systems come so private companies that are heavily relying on government funding you write "this is the real face of the private space industry, billions of dollars of contracts from nasa, military, increasingly for telecommunications that are helping companies like spacex

and blue origin control the infrastructure of space." talk more about this. >> absolutely. i would start by agreeing with what peter said. i think there is good reason to want to explore space but the way it is happening is not an we should want to see. i think what we have incommon especially in the past few years, the u.s. government has kind of embraced these visions from people like elon musand jeff bezos. under donald trump, there was talk about going to mars, how he adopted that idea from elon musk and from the private space industry, and joe biden has said similar things about wanting to embrace the private space industry. i think we need to be concerned about the direction this is heading us down because there is worry in the united states about the rise of china. one of the ways the u.s. aims to be wanting to push back on that through militarization and

showing its technological power is by doing more in space. instead of in the past whe it would have done that through nasa -- nasa still give contracts to companies like lockheed and other defense contractors -- but in this period, we are looking at more of a privatization of space where companies like spacex and blue origin are trying to be the face of that mission. and they are, as you said, heavily reliant on public contracts even as they claim they are private companies and this is entrepreneurial and these narratives we are used to hearing. i think we need to be concerned and watching as this happens because, really, this private space industry that is being built is being built on public dollars and billions of public dollars. nermeen: peter ward, could you explain both you and paris have said there are many benefits to space exploration, could you explain what some of those

benefits are and in whose hand that exploration ought to be? as you mentioned, peter, earlier it was russia that began this commercialization. what other countries are doing this, space exploration -- i'm sorry, the commercialization of space exploration? >> sure. the advantages of space exploration, number one, a greater understanding of who we are and where we come from, which i think is important. you inspire people to take up science and technology to learn more about the world and how they potentially can help it. there are more practical reasons. none of us want to get hit by an asroid anytime soon so it is good to have planes like that in place. obviously, we rely on the space industry for communications.

satellites are important. there are key reasons we should be doing space exploration. it is not the worst thing to have the private sector involved, but it cannot be where they have complete control. that is only gng to -- it starts with a huge egos was on my jeff bezos and endsith us having the issues of capitalism on earth just being sent into space. one of the competing things about space to most people is is almost like a blind compass. it is a place where potentially we could go and have thistar trek style utopia. but if we do have the private sector do what they want, it turns into a star trek nightmare. it is a scary thought, obviously. amy: peter, before we go, right about mining. there are resources in space

historically when humans find resources we must -- we almost always kill each other. talk about the minerals on the moon. >> we have not found a cost-effective way to mine. if you found water on the moon, could convert that to feel. it could fuel up a rocket. of course we have this history where we find resources we inevitably fight over it. you don't have to be a huge sci-fi fantasy the potential where this is going -- fan to see the potential of where this is going. if you had a colony on mars run by the company, would literally rely on the ceo of that company or the shareholders to provide

you oxygen. the potential some kind of horrible dystopian nightmare in space is really, really huge. amy: we will leave it there for now. we talk about jeff bezos the richest man on earth, founded amazon. he also owns "the washington post" which he bought in 2013 for $250 million. it is interesting to see how they covered his face flight. one headline read -- "jeff bezos blasts into space on own rocket: 'best day ever!'" one op-ed was headlined "the billionaires' space efforts may seem tone-deaf, but they're important milestones." another was titled "the billionaires' space race benefits the rest of us. really." i want to thank paris marx, host of the podcast tech won't save us and a writer. latest article in jacobin is headlined "leave the

billionaires in space." peter ward author of the , consequential frontier, a ok on the privatization of space. next up, as white men dominate the airwaves on climate coverage, we will speak with the coeditors of the book "all we can save anthology." an anthology of essays by 60 women at the forefront of the climate movement. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. with nermeen shaikh. an analysis by media matters found jeff bezos' trip to the edge of space for 10 minutes got nearly as much coverage in one day as climate change did for an entire year. nbc, abc, and cbs morning shows spent 212 minutes covering the short trip on and spent 267 tuesday minutes covering the climate crisis all of last year.

media matters has also found that white men overwhelmingly dominated the airwaves on climate coverage for at least the fourth year in a row. this comes as the impact of the climate crisis continues to be felt around the globe. dozens are dead in china's henan province after it was battered with a year's worth of rain in just three days. hundreds of thousands had to be evacuated. in siberia, more than 300,000 residents were told to stay indoors amid record-breaking wildfires. here in the u.s., the skies are once again thick with haze as far east as new york city as the massive bootleg fire in oregon and other fires rage in the west, burning an area larger than los angeles. this comes as a new report found the california wildfires could contain dangerous levels of

toxic metals, including lead. meanwhile, the great salt lake, the largest saltwater lake in the western hemisphere, has tied its all-time historic lowest level and is expected to break that record soon amid the ongoing drought. this all comes as deadly floods swept through western germany and parts of belgium last week we spend the rest of the hour with the co-editors of the anthology "all we can save," just out in paperback this week. it is an anthology of essays by 60 women at the forefront of the climate movement. dr. ayana elizabeth johnson is a marine biologist and co-founder of the urban ocean lab. and dr. katharine wilkinson is an author and visiting professor at sewanee, the university of the south in tennessee. we welcome you to democracy now! dr. ayana elizabeth johnson,

let's begin with you. if you can look at the globe for us -- i mean, if we took that view from space from the massive fires in the west of the united states to the massive flooding in china that we are seeing right now, that drought of the great salt lake, put this together for us. why we should care and what people are doing about it right now. >> we should care because this is the planet that we have to live on. we can't actually all leave the planet. it is interesting you open the segment by talking about the balance of coverage. we are simply not seeing very much climate coverage at all in the mainstream media. what we see is last year about 0.4% of the major news shows minutes were about climate.

0.4%. so we are not talking about what we are supposed to do and only 30% of the coverage that does exist on climate in major news outlets talks about solution so we're just not having the deep conversatio about what we do next. so katharinend i dided to put together this cadre of climate leaders to the fore to expand the number of voices looking to in times of crisis come to share the wisdom for women climate leaders and to have this focus on solutions as the subtitle this is about truth, courage, and solutions, t doom, gloom, and give up but thinking about what is next for the climate and the need for it to be a very leader filled movement if we're going to succeed. nermeen: you focus on oceans in

your own work. could you talk about the specific impact on oceans and ocean life from climate change? you said when people talk about the amazon and rain forest as being the lungs of the world, you say oceans are as well. did you explain? >> yeah. the ocean produces about half of the oxygen we breathe and also already absorbed about one third of carbon dioxide we have emitted by burning fossil fuels, which has turned the ocean me acidic than it has been in human history. so we have an increasingly acidic and warmer ocean, that is very bad for creatures trying to live in there. some are trying to flee toward the polls when they can move like fish, others like coral profit and frying in place. we have very different ocean than we had even 100 years ago. at the same time, the ocean can be a place where we can look for

climate solutions. we know wetlands, mangroves, these cultural ecosystems can absorb maybe four or five times carbon in their soil perfecter than a forest on land. the think about trees but we don't think enough about mangroves and seagrass and marshes. there's an opportunity for regenerative farming in the ocean of shellfish, see leaves, sustainably provide jobs and the same for offshore renewable energy as a really important way the ocean can be about climate solution. when i and ocean policy folks looked at the green new deal, we realize that ocean and the solutions it is trying to offer us for how to address the climate crisis work essentially left out. when i am not working on "all we can save" in the nonprofit with katharine, i work on how to make sure we are including the ocean when it comes to climate policy

at shepherding this concept of the blue new deal we need an compliment to the green one. amy: can you talk about the recent heat dome in the west of the united states and canada that led to over one billion marine animals dying? >> yeah, i think we're seeing now what scientists have long predicted, that there would be these extreme impacts of climate . and it is just that they're all happening so quickly and at once in -- and the media is covering that and a new way, not that these extreme events are completely unprecedented, we are also seeing the predicted -- sam die i often other things. this is a chicken coming home teresa moment and i'm seeing a lot of my friends -- aware that climate change is happening that is not really get them. -- hit them.

this book, each of these essays is what people can do to be part of the climate solution, whether you're a or farmer or lawyer or activist or artist or journalist or teacher, there are so many ways that people can use their skills to contribute to climate solutions. we would hope that extreme weather would not be required to wake people up, but hopefully, we are getting that wicca call now in a w that will really motivate people to change our relationship with nature and change policy and a major way. amy: in minnesota, authorities arrested environmentalist leader winona laduke and at least six other water protectors monday during a protest at the shell river against the enbridge line 3 tar sands pipeline. last month we spoke to winona about e ongoinresistance to the pipeline. >> my 3 is a and-new corrir

st of brd-new coidor through our ime terrory of wildice, cla beds,ish, all of ourertory. we sod and tried everyrocess stop th. i alg with thesether women in our tribe, spenteven years anthe regutory pross annow whate see is even jo biden sins and a helicopter to go and start hurting her people. our pple ha little course. we have ne. thousands of people have come to join us. amy: winona laduke and others are calling a president biden to shut down the pipeline. this is indigenous leader and lawyer ta houskapeaking rlier th summer. >> whave t snd tether. there e no sacfice zon, no crificpeople all of our lives,ll of ou

lands,ll of our water -- t here we e the mo vulnerae people at th pla who are on e frontin. blk, bro, indigeno, you, qur -- allf these ople who areypicly unrresent. yet here we a and here are al of our accomplices together. amy: that is indigenous leader and lawyer tara houska speaking at the protests in northern minnesota. you can go to democracynow.org to see our interviews with tara and winona laduke. i want to bring in dr. katharine wilkinson, coeditor of this volume "all we can save anthology." katharine, tara is one of the contributors to this volume. talk about the significance of the indigenous leadership and contribution to solutions to the climate crisis. >> tara has an absolutely

stunning as they can the collection called "sacre resistance, she talks about this work on the front lines of stoppingng additional fossil ful infrastructure and indigenous women and indigenous leaders of all genders are leading incredibly important land defense and resistance work around the world. it is absolutely vital work because we know we have a whole toolbox solutions we can move forward through things like a clean electricity standard, but at the same time, we have to be slamming the brakes on the fossil fuel economies and systems on continuing to propel itself forward. tara also talks about the fundamental value shift that really sits beneath all of this work, about coming back into lance with the livi systems of o pnet, aosition of

p. small city ratherhan -- rep.osta:he other tn tteakes was an reay reclaithis sort of ritful role tt huma can haven rationsp with ts eah, she calls it, our mother. nermeen: dr. wilkinson, could you elaborate on what you see the climate change impact being on women, why women are especially factored and poor women especially this country but also around the world in the global south? >> i think the easiest wayo think about it is anywhere we have existing injustices or inequities in our society, as climate change increases, the planet gets hotter, it essentially turns up the dial on all of those things. as we face greater risks,

greater issues around needing to cope with access to water, food production, migration -- all of these things are more diicult if you are already starting sort of on the back foot, so to speak, in society. and gender is one of those lines of inequity and imbalance around the world. just as you said, women and girls are disproportionately impacted by climate change. but it is not just a story of victimhood. we also need women and girls to be at the center of shaping solutions. and when we scan the landscape of critical climate decision-making spaces from business to government and beyond, in virtually every single one of them, women are underrepresented. and that is not just an issue of fairness. it is actually an issue of whether or not we can successfully secure a just and

global future. there's a growing body of research that is centering women's research on climate, not just something that sounds nice, it is actually a critical strategy for how we win. amy: i want to ask ayana elizabeth johnson, last month there was a series of actions and washington, d.c., demanding president biden and congress take meaningful action. over 500 groups signed a letter conference into fossil fuel subsidies and any infrastructure or economic recovery bills. this is ebony martin of greenpeace usa. >> the time is now for biden to change. the time for now is for us to call for an elimination of fossil fuel subsidies. i want youo get on the phone. i want you to call all day every day. get on theirerves. let them know they work for us. amy: this alexandria

ocasio-cortez, congressmember of new york, one of the leaders -- leading proponents of the green new deal. >> what a lot of folks here in d.c. don't understand is while this may be the hottest summer of their lives, it is going to be one of the coolest summers of our lives. and what that means is we bring the heat on them. amy: ayanna, right now we are seeing a bipartisan structure bill that is struggling its way through congress, that has already been stripped of so much dealing with the green new deal, as the west is on higher and the east is breathing it in, the drought in the middle. can you relate that to who we see on television when dealing with the climate crisis? according to media matters, how broadcast tv networks covered

climate change in 2020 say only six women of color appeared as guests to discuss, change compared to 10 in 2019. the number is going down. do you see a relationship between dealing with the climate crisis and who we could to see proposing solutions, people like you? i think your microphone is muted. go ahead you can repeat what you were saying. >> i think what we were seeing as we simply do not have the leaders that we need. that is why we are in the mess we are in. as you mentioned, it is only 20% of people speaking about climate and media are women, only 8% of people are color. -- are people of color. this is across mainstream news when it is even covering climate

at all. the climate crisis needs to transition from a fossil fuel based to a regenerative economy, is going to require a shift in all sectors. amy: that is the way we will end it. thank you. úúñññ

since i was born, life was not good. china is trying to inspire outside of china.