democracynow.org 11/02/21 11/02/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! mr. biden: this is a challenge of our collective lifetimes. the existential threat to human existence as we know it. and every day we delay, the cost of an action increases so let this be a moment that we answer histories call here in glasgow. amy: president biden vows to take action to address the

climate emergency but at home, his climate agendaas been dealt another setback a senator joe manchin says he is not yet ready to support glasgow's slimmed down build back better plan. we will speak to bill mckibben, cofounder of 350.org, and tom goldtooth. they are both in glasgow. then to a 23-year-old cmate activist from samoa. >> the youth have rallied behind the pride. we are not drowning, we are fighting. this is our cry to the world, we are not drowning. we are fighting. amy: we are broadcasting from glasgow and new york. then we look at monday supreme court oral arguments on the constitutionality of texas' near total ban on abortion. we will speak with the legendary lawyer kathryn "kitty" kolbert who argued the 1992 landmark supreme court case credited with

saving roe v. wade. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. more than 120 world leaders gathered in glasgow, scotland, monday for the opening of a crucial united nations climate summit whose outcome could determine the future habitability of the planet. the cop26 climate change conference, as it is officially called, open with this dire warning with the u.n. secretary-general. >> brutalizing biodiversity coming killing ourselves with carbon, treating nature like a toilet. enough of burning and drilling and mining are way deeper.

we are digging our own graves. amy: as cop26 got underway, leaders from over 100 countries pledged to end in reverse deforestation by 2030. india unveiled its plan to reduce carbon emissions to net zero but only by 27 new. the united states is announcing a new plan today to reduce methane emissions. speaking to the assembled leaders, president joe biden apologized for former president trump's decision to withdraw the united states from the paris climate accord. biden said the u.s. and other nations who have contributed the most to the climate crisis have overwhelming obligations to help poor countries contend with the climate emergency. his comments came just days after he called on opec to increase oil production to lower fuel costs. thousands of protesters have assembled outside the climate

summit demanding meaningful action to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees celsius or 2.7 degrees fahrenheit. this is a 19 euro mexican climate activist. >> my message for world leaders is they cannot have a climate negotiation because the people most affected -- if we allowed to do that, cop26 is going to be a rich people conversation and rich people are not most affected by the climate crisis, we are. amy: after the headlines, we will go to the cop26 climate summit in glasgow for the latest. president biden's domestic agenda was dealt a serious blow monday when conservative democratic senator joe manchin refused to commit to supporting the pared-down build back better act, a 10-year, $1.75 trillion program to mitigate the climate crisis wle expanding social programs.

among other things, the bill would expand clean energy programs, provide universal preschool to 3- and 4-year-olds, and expand medicaid and medicare. manchin's opposition has idled a $1 trillion infrastructure bill passed by the senate in august, with progressives refusing to approve on the bill until they have assurances that senators will pass the larger climate and spending package. on monday, senator manchin said he needed more time to weigh the build back better act's impact on the natiol debt and the u.s. economy, even as he urged house democrats to immediately vote on the infrastructure bill. >> i urge the house to vote and pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill. lding is bill hostage is not gointo work in getting my support for reconciliation bill. amy: the u.s. supreme court heard oral arguments monday on whether to uphold texas' ban on abortions after six weeks,

before most people know they are pregnant. the law known as sb 8 also allows private citizens anywhere in the united states to sue health care workers and others for facilitating an abortion in texas. it's the most serious challenge yet to the landmark 1973 supreme court ruling roe v. wade, which guaranteed the right to an abortion. the court's three liberal justices asked if allowing the texas law to stand would invite other state legislatures to pass laws invalidating other constitutional rights. this is justice elena kagan. >> we would live in a very different world from the world we live in today, essentially, we would be inviting states -- all for them with respect to their preferred constitutional rights, to try to nullify the law of -- this court has laid down as to the content of those rights.

amy: we will get the latest on the supreme court and the texas abortion ban later in the broadcast. today is election day in the united states. in virginia, a record number of registered voters cast early ballots ahead of today's highly-watched governor's race between democrat terry mcauliffe and republican glenn youngkin, a former ceo of a private equity firm who's backed by former president donald trump. terry mcauliffe is close to bill and hillary clinton and is one of the democratic party's most prolific fundraisers. he previously served one term as virginia's governor and was chair of the democratic national committee from 2001-2005. advisers to the centers for disease control meet today to discuss the pfizer covid vaccine -19 for children as young as five. the fda has already approved shots for five- to 11-year-olds, saying the benefits of vaccinations far outweigh the risks to kids. the biden administration says millions of pediatric vaccine doses have already begun

shipping around the country and that inoculations could begin later this week once cdc director dr. rochelle walensky gives the final green light. new york city has placed about 9000 municipal workers who defied a vaccine mandate on unpaid leave. mayor bill de blasio says 91% of new york employees got at least one shot ahead of monday's deadline. in illinois, a cook county judge has blocked the city of chicago's mandate that for police officers to get vaccinated against covid-19 by december 31, saying the issue should be settled in arbitration. some 1700 chicago police officers report they are not vaccinated and a further 3000 have refused to report their vaccination status to the -- to chicago. the u.n. security council has extended the u.n. peacekeeping mission in moroccan-occupied western sahara for another year. the resolution approved friday

calls for a resumption of u.n.-brokered talks between morocco, which has occupied the northwest african territory since 1975, and the polisario front -- the sahrawi liberation movement seeking independence. morocco's invasion set off decades of torture, disappearances, killings, and repression against pro-independence sahrawis living in occupied western sahara. last november, morocco violated a 29-year ceasefire with the polisario front and war returned to the territory for the first time since 1991. to see our documentary, "four days in western sahara: africa's last colony," visit our website democracynow.org. in burma, local media is reporting military forces shelled a restive town in northwestern chin state, destroying some 160 structures, including at least two churches. the u.n. and rights recently warned the military junta, which overthrew the civilian government in february, is planning attacks in the region. meanwhile, a new report from the

associated press finds the burmese military has been guilty of torturing prisoners since the february takeover. over 1200 have been killed and thousands arrested in the aftermath of the coup. and afghanistan, at least 15 people were doesn't test were injured and dozens more injured after major military hospital were attacked. there was no immediate claim of responsibility butitnses described fighters with the islamic state clashing with taliban forces. the latest violence comes after the united nations warned without urgent action, afghanistan is poised to become the world worst humanitarian crisis. families displaced by fighting have been living in tents at the winter cold sets in with food remaining scarce. this is a displaced woman in kabul. >> so far around for to five babies were born here and they died due to the cold. yesterday an older man and a child when on the streets to earn money to buy food were in

an accident and both died. amy: back in the united states, some 10,000 john deere workers vote today on a tentative contract that could end the strike they began on october 14. if approved, the agreement would bring the unionized workers an immediate 10% raise, plus 5% raises in the contract's third and fifth years. the deal would also improve on employee pension plans and would pay workers an $8500 signing bonus. it's a significant improvement from john deere's final offer before workers went out on strike. in wisconsin, opening arguments begin today in the trial of kyle rittenhouse, a white teenager who faces seven charges, including homicide, for fatally shooting two men and wounding a third amid anti-police brutality protests in kenosha last year. there is only one person of color on the jury. rittenhouse was just 17 years old in august 2020 when he bought any legally some automatic assault rifle across state lines and join other white vigilantes in the streets of

kenosha during protests over police shooting of jacob blake stop the judge overseeing the trial has ruled the three protesters shot by rittenhouse cannot be labeled "victims" during the trial but can be called "rioters," "looters," or "arsonists" if the defense can provide evidence to justify such terms. the senate voted monday to confirm beth robinson to the second u.s. circuit court of appeals, representing connecticut, new york, and vermont. robinson is a long-time lgbtq leader, who in 1999, argued a landmark case in vermont that won broad legal protections for same-sex couples. she becomes the first out lgbtq+ person ever to serve on a federal circuit court. just two republican senators voted to confirm robinson, lisa murkowski of alaska and susan collins of maine. and in washington, d.c., civil rights leader rev. jesse jackson was hospitalized monday after he fell and hit his head while

visiting howard university in support of student protesters. jackson had been visiting with students at howard, one of the nation's preeminent historically black universities, who began a sit-in last month to protest terrible housing conditions including toxic mold, rodents, and roaches in campus dormitories. students took over howard's blackburn university center and have been camping out in tents since october 12. before his accident, jesse jackson reportedly secured a promise from howard administrators that students would not be expelled or suspended over their nonviolent protests. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. we are broadcasting from glasgow and new york. i am any given joined by co-host juan gonzález in new brunswick, new jersey. hi, juan. juan: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: we begin today in glasgow at the united nations climate summit.

at the opening ceremony on monday, united nations secretary general antonio guterres urged world leaders to do more to address the climate emergency. >> the six years since the paris climate agreements have been the six hottest years on record. our addiction to fossil fuels is pushing humanity to the brink. we face a stark choice -- either we stop in or it stops us. and it is ti to say enough. enough of utilizing about diversity. enou of kilng ourlves with caon. enough of treating nature like a toilet. enough of burning and mining our way deeper. we are digging our own graves.

amy: over 120 world leaders are attending a two-day world leaders summit as part of the climate summit. this is the barbados prime minister mia mottley. >> the loss and damage is measured, my friends, and li ves livelihoods. this is immoral and unjust. if glasgow is to deliver on the promises of paris, it must close these three gaps. i ask you, what must we save our people living on the front lines in the caribbean and africa and latin america and in the pacific -- not present in what excuse should we give for the failure. in the rights of eddie grant,

when will we as world leaders across the world address the present issues that are truly causing out people angst and worry, whether it is climate or whether it is vaccines? amy: a number of countries have made new pledges to address the climate crisis. india has vowed to reduce its carbon emissions to net-zero by 2070. over 100 leaders have agreed to end deforestation by 2030. and the united states is announcing a new plan today to reduce methane emissions. on monday, president biden addressed the u.n. climate summit. pres. biden: climate change is already ravaging the world. we have heard from many speakers. it is not hypothetical. it is destroying people's lives and livelihoods. and doing it every single day. it is costing our nation's trillions of dollars was record

heat and drought, feeling more widespread and intense wildfires in some places crop failures and others. record flooding in what used to be a once in a century storms are now happening every few years will stop in the past few months, the united states has experienced all of this and every region of the world can tell similar stories. in an age where this pandemic is made so painfully clear that no nation can wall itself off from borderless threats, we know none of us can escapehe worst that is yet to come if we fail to seize this moment. amy: on monday, yes, president biden addressed the u.n. climate summit. he later apologized for the united states pulling out of the paris climate agreement when president trump was in office. while biden repeatedly vowed to address the climate crisis, his climate agenda was dealt a major

setback back in washington, d.c., when democratic senator joe manchin of west virginia criticized the slimmed down $1.75 trillion build back plan to address the climate crisis and to expand the nation's social safety net. the plan will only pass the senate if manchin and arizona senator kyrsten sinema come around to support it. senator manchin bank used biden 's moment in glasgow to hold his own news conference in washington, d.c., is that he is weighing whether to support the build back plan act. to talk more about the u.n. climate summit and biden's climate agenda, we are joined by two guests in glasgow. tom goldtooth is the executive director of the indigenous environmental network. member of the dine and dakota nations and lives in minnesota. bill mckibben is an author, educator, environmentalist, and co-founder of 350.org.

his latest book, "falter: has the human game begun to play itself out?" he writes a weekly climate newsletter for "the new yorker." we welcome you botto democracy now! we are going to begin with mckibben. both of our guests are in glasgow. bill, if you can respond to president biden yesterday, the speech -- but what is happening with the world leaders in glasgow, over 120 gathered, far different than any other time, and what is happening back in washington, d.c., senator manchin bank ying to steal the headlines. quotes -- >> what a pleasure to be with you. it is strange to not have you here, i'm going to say. yesterday, the air went out of this conference i think the much right at the start. the hope was that joe biden was going to arrive, legislative victories, and at least point us in the right direction.

he doesn't. he arrives having approved more or less line 3 and with nothing to show on the other side so far. you know, the build back plan plan had already been stried of its most important elements come enforcement provisions under this clean energy plan, and now it is not even clear it is going to pass. the half trillion dollars in subsidies for renewable energy are being held up by joe manchin's latest history that, mark my words come every single delegate, every nation heard manchin's quote yesterday about how he was not sure who is going to vote for this. it makes it extremely difficult to proceed when the world's carbon champion, country that is poured more carbon into the atmosphere by far than any other , won't provide leadership most of yeah, it is better than trump pulling out but i think, basically, it is a good thing

that people like tom goldtooth are here because this summit is not going to solve our problems. we are going to be back in the streets in a serious way. juan: bill, first of all, i want to ask about the manchin new roadblock once again. manchin is basically a stand in or a puppet for the fossil fuel industry. what does it tell us about the ability of the corporate powers to stymie the majority of the democrat or democratic action just by being able to capture a few key senators? what does that tell us about the future of action i democratic vote in congress? also, what you make of biden on the one hand making a strong statement in glasgow, but a couple of days earlier at the g20 summit, he was urging the industrialized nations to increase oil and gas production temporarily? >> manchin is the perfect

example of how big oil works. he has taken more money than any other senator from the fossil fuel industry. there was that sting videotape released a couple of weeks ago where exxon's chief lobbyist reportedly talking to every week and calling him "our kingmaker." there is a report yesterday that manchin spent part of september huddled with the leading coal barons at a golf resort someplace where they played a civil war themed golf tournament in between speeches. that sounds like a good deal, i've got to say. amy: senator manchin bank has to decide whether he wants to be a senator or a lobbyist or maybe a republican. >> clearly come our system allows you to do both at the same time, and that is the problem. credit to biden for getting the 48 senators on board with a serious progressive commitment

around climate and other things. and that is because we have built movements and ready show there is a real appetite for this. of 40 is it quite enough. i think one way to say it is movements have gotten big enough and strong enough to force the question comes a call the question in congress, but not quite big enough to carry the question. that is what i think coming out of this cop, those of us, including this new group the third act, are going to be heavily focused on banks and the financial system. working 15 years ago trying to interrupt and financing. you're going to have to go back there. there is the sensor the political system and the u.n. system are beginning to reach limits.

they are not moving fast enough. they're not coming close to keeping up with the pace of the devastation. and so greta pretty much capture it. there's a lot of blah blah blah. some of it is noble and powerful and the people saying it are magnificent, but it is not adding up to enough. there is a sense, as with manchin, we spent a lot of time talking to the big cashier the front of the store when our problems with the guy in the back room counting the money. i know i'm coming out of glasgow determined to be taking on the chases and blackrocks of the world as hard as we can. juan: i would like to bring in tom goldtooth, executive director of the indigenous environmental network. welcome to democracy now! tom, your reaction to the opening of co6? what do you see? is it a failure already at the

start? your perspective and point of view of what the indigenous folks want out of this summit? >> bill said something about a lot of the team players at the corporate and country level having their working plans. this is what we have seen as indigenous peoples for these 26 years. i have been coming to the cops since cop number four. it is a continuing war against mother earth, against father sky. the violence perpetuated with a continuation of the dumping of toxic chemicals into the atmosphere, greenhouse gases, carbon -- it is insane.

the bathtub is overflowing. it has to stop. our indigenous delegation is here. the ones that are still coming here we're saying, hey, this has got to stop stop frack community , communities from the united states, you know, president biden is here. some are his presentation on the screen. he is continuing a u.s. legacy of broken treaties. in his run for presidency, he said he's going to uphold the treaties of our indigenous nations and stop fleecing lands to the fossil fuel. instead, he has failed to stop the dakota access pipeline, failed to stop the line 3 pipeline. an agenda supercharging oil and gas, fleecing pipeline and

waters. this has to stop. the front line to washington, to glasgow, we're telling biden to reject big oil lies, stop the federal climate catastrophe. this has to stop. one of the issues we are bringing to hear as part of a national build back better fossil for campaign, a movement in the united states between our indigenous nations, our black and people of color communities, and green groups is to push biden -- not only biden, but the northern industrialized countries to declare a climate emergency and keep fossil fuels in the ground and end the subsidies of fossil fuels globally, that backup domestically. we have got to do that. in the -- end the fossil fuel

leasing program. we're here to lift up the full solutions around net zero agenda. there is no problem about us pushing for a zero agenda emissions, but when they put in the word "net" it is problematic. it is a process and what we see of not really cutting emissions at the source. it is the main buzzword here "net zero emissions" "nature-based solutions." "net" has nothing to do with reducing emissions to zero. it has nothing to do about cutting emissions at the level we need to restrict the warming about 1.5 celsius. it is very critical. it is in issue of life and death for many of our indigenous peoples to the north to the south, so that is why we are here to amplify that voice.

we are asking their be attention to this from the world leaders. but we're not here alone. we are here with allies saying the concept of net zero emissions does not reduce pollution and the oil giant like shell, bp, exxon mobil all i mean to move toward -- all claiming to move toward zero. it is a mechanism of green wash. it allows to increase drilling and burning fossil fuels and washing their hands of the responsibility for the climate crisis. they are climate criminals and we are concerned the conference of the parties continueso be conference at the polluters. amy: conference of the parties or polluters is represented by cop, c.o.p.. let's turn to the bolivian

president monday most of -- monday. >> we must be aware of the fact the developed countries are promoting a new rule, recolonization process which you could call the new carbon colonialism. they are attempting to impose the rules of the game, their own rules of the game to continue to fuel the new green capitalistic system and to force these rules of the game upon us with us having no options. we will not solve the climate crisis with mark green capitalism and more global carbon markets. we need to change the civilization model we have and head toward alternative model, which is the concept of living properly together in harmony

with mother earth. amy: that is the bolivian president luis arce. if you could address the issue of climate capitalism, bill kevin, and what it -- go mckibben come and what it would truly mean to lay out the framework for sustainable planet. >> let me say first, one of the things i'm doing today is addressing memorial service for the 247 environment activists that were killed around the world last year. many of them in latin america. in almost every case, standing up to defend something -- a forest, a place about to be mined -- from some large corporation or another. the corporation did not come out and kill them, but orders trickle down to whoever was there on the ground and whoever pulled the trigger. and all of that is still underway. there is a kind of ongoing

coloalism, indigenous people suffer probably hardest from it than anybody else and a great percentage of those 247 bodies come from indigenous communities. let's always remember those lights are on the line. and so are the lives -- we know reading the combustion products, fossil fuels from a big study released a few weeks ago kills 8.7 million people a year on this planet. that is one death in five, bigger than hiv/aids, tuberculosis combined, malaria combined. and it is also necessary because were now able to produce power by pointing a sheet of glass at the. the reason it is not ruling out fast enough is precisely because there is still this huge industry that is tryi to make moneoff the end of the world.

the news is not all bad. we are making some progress. we announced last week global divestment campaign has passed $40 trillion in endowments and portfolios sold their shares in coal, oil, gas and become the largest anticorporate campaign in history. and it continues. just yesterday, universities divested, the fifth biggest pension fund, going to keep that pressure on because, well, because money is the oxygen on which the fires of global warming keep burning. we can snuff off the supply of capital finance, we can at least slow this down some -- which we desperately have to do. juan: speaking of the fires of global warming, i want to ask tom goldtooth, there's a recent united nations report that warns at least 10 forest designated as world heritage sites have become

net emitters of greenhouse gases and no longer absorbing more carbon than the mitt. could you talk about that in your reaction and what must be done and why governments need to react much more weakly to the crisis we are facing? >> here in the hallways of the conference of the party, our dishes caucus from all of -- our indigenous caucus from all over the world, we have been involved with our process of establishing -- sharing our traditional knowledge, our indigenous traditional knowledge with the nationstates. and that is a very important and critical part of the history of this u.n. ccc meeting because it will be an application of our indigenous traditional knowledge that we feel is a solution, a

solution to the world crisis. and we have been saying that all along with our delegation for years is that we have to look for solutions that are real solutions, real reductions that cut emissions at the source. that is one reason why we have been looking at ways to build mechanisms in different countries, especially those countries that are rich in trees , especially the amazon in the tropical regions. but that also means our force did regions of the north -- forested regions of the north. we need to have healthy nature. one thing we also have to lift up as part of our spiritual knowledge, our traditional knowledge is that we cannot sell father sky, mother earth, or the

trees. climate capitalism is something that is going to affect our people, so we are for these conservation protections projects, but outside of a carbon market system. traditional knowledge means the government is going to have to wake up and cut emissions at the source, keep fossil fuels in the ground, and restore and maintain our healthy ecosystems of biodiversity. amy: we want to thank you both for being with us. we will continue this conversation. tom goldtooth, executive director of the indigenous environmental network. member of the dine and dakota nations, usually is in minnesota, today in glasgow. and bill mckibben, cofounder of 350.org. his latest book is "falter: has the human game begun to play itself out?" we will link to his pieces in

"the new yorker." he's weekly climate newsletter. coming up, we speak with a 23-year-old climate activist from samoa. she addressed the u.n. climate summit yesterday. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. i am with juan gonzalez, broadcasting from new york, new

jersey, glasgow, scotland, as we continue our coverage of the u.n. climate summit, we turn to brianna fruean, 23-year-old climate justice actist from samoa. >> i don't need to remind you the reality of honorable communities. if you're here today, you know what climate change is doing to us. you don't needy pain or my fears to know we are in a crisis. the real question iwhether you have the political will to do the right thing, to wield the right, and to follow it up long-overdue action. if you're looking for inspiration on this, look no further than the climate leadership of young pacific people. you're not just victims to this crisis, we have been resilient beacons of hope. pacic youth have rallied behind the cry "we are not

drowningwe are fhting." this is our warrior cry to e world, "we a not drownin we are fighting." this is mmessagerom earth to cop. i hope you member my words today and look closely at your words as you go throughout cop because -- thank you. [applause] , because that is brianna fruean , the 23-year-old climate activist from samoa, speaking at the u.n. climate summit monday, youth representative of the pacific climate warriors council of builders, joining us from glasgow inside the cop summit. that was an incredibly powerful speech you gave yesterday addressing your elders with youth wisdom. can you talk about where samoa is, the distinct in between samoa where you live in american

samoa and what it is, what the climate emergency means for your island nation? >> yes. i am from western -- there is an side of samoa. we were split cologne elite. one with america and one with the other colonial powers that we get our independence. i am from the independent state of samoa. it is a beautiful island in the pacific ocean that is unfortunately feeling the impacts of climate change every day. it is at our front steps. it is an everyday reality. amy: let me ask you to talk about what you demand and if you think what is being proposed at cop26 is sufficient?

>> for a long time pacific islands have known this is a problem. it is not new to us that climate change is real. we have noted for decades because we experience it firsthand. our call has always been to keep fossil fuels in the ground. we need to be drastically lowering emissions and make sure we can stay below the 1.5 threshold. so that has always been our call to action, to end all fossil fuels, to move toward renewable energy as well as another call we are asking is for climate damage to be financed. there is no such thing as climate aid, it is climate debt. bigger countries that make money from extracting oh as debt because we are experiencing the consequences of their inaction. juan: could you talk about what the consequences would be for pacific island nations like samoa, global warming going about 1.5 degrees celsius, what

the projections are? >> yes. so the recent ipc report, the projections of the low-lying have around a decade. a decade if we are lucky at the current trajectory we are on. so far smaller islands, means the end. that is the sentence that world leaders if we are no longer making those ambitious actions, they're givinus the end. even though we're the ones who will be experiencing that first, we won't be t ones experiencing it last because whatever happens to the pacific will happen to the rest of the world. the call from the pacific islands is if we can save the islands, we can save the world. juan: could you talk about your own development as a climate justice activist? you started at the age of 11.

how you first got involved and what drove you? >> yes. i first heard about climate change when i was 11 years old and a primary school classroom. i remember turning to my classmates saying, "we need to do something." we started the 350 samoa chapter in our island and the youngest ever. i truly believe in the power of our young people in the thoughts we have can be really powerful in this space. amy: i want to get your response to a remarkable u.n. ad that was put out last week. we're going to play the ad. it was a dinosaur addressing the united nations. it was released by the united nations development program showing a computer-generated dinosaur addressing the u.n. general assembly. the dinours voi is by jk

blac >> listen , pele. i kn ahingr two out exnction. let me tl you, you thk this would be obvio, going extin is aad thg. and iving yoselvesxtin in a0 millio yea, that i the moidiculouthing i've ever hea. at leaste had astero. what is yourxcuse? you're headed r a clime dister andet everyyear gornments spend hdreds billio on publds of al fuel ssidies. imagine we hpenthat onack meteors? at is at yo're dng right now. thk of a of the her things you couldo with that money. around the worldeopl are livingn povert don'you thk helpinthem would ma more sense an, i n'know, fothe dese of ur entire specs? let me real for second. you ha a he opportity rit nows yorebuild yur

econies and unce bacfrom thandemic, this is humani's g chance o here i my ld idea. don'choo extinctn. sa youspecies fore it too la. it is timeor you hans to start makg cnges. thk you. [applause] amy: especially for our radio listeners, that was a dinosaur addressing the u.n. general assembly. don't confuse them with jack black, who voiced it. brianna, your final comment? >> was a powerful statement. i think it is a real thought in our minds right now that in humanity, we have made mistakes. we have had war, famine, a lot of instances where we have put humans in danger. never come ever in the history of this and have we been ablew

to save a country underwater. if we could say that islands come i think that could be our first step as humidity. we need to look out for each other. this is an issue for the rest of the world. amy: thank you for being with us, brianna fruean, climate justice activist from samoa. member of the pacific climate warriors delegation at cop26 and the youth representative of the pacific climate warriors council of elders. speaking to us from glasgow. when we come back, we come back to the united states to look at monday supreme court oral arguments on the constitutionality of texas' near total ban on abortions. we will speak with the legendary lawyer kitty kolbert, who argued the landmark supreme court case credited with saving roe v. wade several decades ago. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. the supreme court heard oral arguments monday on whether to uphold the most restrictive abortion law since it decided roe v. wade in 1973. justices heard arguments on a pair of lawsuits that challenge the texas law known as sb 8, which bans abortions after six

weeks -- before most people know they are pregnant -- and allows private citizens anywhere in the united states to sue health care workers and others for facilitating an abortion in texas. the lawsuits challenging the ban were brought by president biden's department of justice, and a coalition of abortion providers. during nearly three hours of oral arguments, texas argued before the court that neither case can proceed because the state is not the proper defendant since sb 8 bars state officials from enforcing the law. but a majority of the justices raised concerns about how texas designed the abortion ban to protect it from judicial review. this included two of president trump's appointees expressing concern, justices brett kavanaugh and amy coney barrett, who voted in september to allow the law to take effect. the court's three liberal justices asked if allowing the texas law to stand would invite other state legislatures to pass laws invalidating other constitutional rights. this is justice elena kagan.

>> that's right. you know, and we say that -- we would live in very different world from the world we live in today, essentially, we would be inviting states, all 50 of them, with respect to their emperor preferred constitutional rights to try and nullify the law that this court has laid down as to the content of those rights. i mean, that is something that until this law came along, no state dreamed of doing. essentially, we would be -- your open for business. there is nothing the supreme court can do with it. guns, same-sex marriage, religious rights. whatever you don't like, go hit. amy: supporters and opponents of abortion rights protested outside the supreme court.

for more, we go to kathryn "kitty" kolbert, longtime public interest attorney who argued the number case before the u.s. supreme court in 1992 which is credited with saving roe v. wade. she is co-founder of the center for reproductive rights and co-author of "controlling women: what we must do now to save reproductive freedom." her column in monday's "new york times" is headlined "roe is as good as gone. it's time for a new strategy." thank you so much for joining us, kitty kolbert. you listened to the oral arguments yesterday. what is your take away? >> thank you so much. great to be here. my take away is this particular case, the case is the court heard yesterday, are not about abortion at all but the rule of law and the ability of plaintiffs or people suing to get into federal court to redress the grievances. the clip you play from justice kagan showed the court was

conceed about the fact that avenue had been blocked by the texas legislature and other legislatures could do so on a whole host of issues. i think they were concerned about that. let's clear, however, these cases are not about abortion. they are not about whether or not the texas law is unconstitutional because it violates the right to choose abortion. instead, it is about who can you sue, can you get into federal court, and the very complicated question of sovereign immunity, which i won't even begin to go into but, really, it is what kept the court engaged for about three hours of oral argument yesterday. juan: kitty kolbert, you made the point of more significant abortion rights case still coming up. that will be dobbs v. jackson

women's health organization, mississippi case. that is on december 1 for oral arguments. could you talk about the difference in that case versus this one? >> so in the mississippi case, the court is confronted with the direct question about whether roe v. wade and planned parenthood versus casey remains law of the land. it is a challenge to a ban on abortion at 15 weeks of pregnancy. under the currentaw, abortions e available up until viability are 23, -- eight weeks. it is impornt for us to keep our eye on the ball. we could get a win in the texas case a lose the whole ball of lack in this one because once a supreme court as we expect opens the door to a whole range of ban on abortion before viability, they can do so -- i think as

many as 20 states will begin to ban abortions. and the women in those states will suffer irreparable harm. juan: if that were to happen, what do you see then as the strategy forhose who supported women's right to choose? >> thank you for asking that because i think the most important thing is we have to keep -- we have to make sure we don't keep hitting ouheads against he marble steelcase. -- marble stairce. we must look at three things. helping women in the states that are going to ban abortion -- and that could be as many as 20 or more states. it will range in area from

gegia, texas, north dakota all the way south to arizona. huge land areas in this country abortion may be bann, therefore we have to help those women. most importantly in my view, we have got to turn to the politics of this issue. we have returned to the political process and begin to take back the state legislators i electing people who are champions of because, lifting people who will preserve women's rights, and began to think about that is our most important tk. until we control the legislatures of all of those states that will ban abortion, we will not be safe. amy: an interesting headline today where beth robinson has been named as the first out lesbian lgbtq+ activist to the federal bench. i was wondering if you could talk about the significance of that?

her groundbreaking work is really as an activist as well as a lawye >> and that is great. i have to commit president biden for a host of a to the federal court that are terrific and which will begin to chip away at the damage that president trump did to the courts. but let's be clear here, the supreme court is what matters when it ces to the federal court system. and that court is stacked with six conservative justices who will either whittle away or totally eradicate the rights we have been relying upon for the last -- at least in the case of roe --almost five decades. amy: let me ask you got amy coney barrett and justice kavanaugh, kavanaugh and elena kagan were echoing each other sing this is not about abortion, this could be about gun rights and state legislatures going after gun rights in this

different kind of legal strategy. close yeah, i think both justice kavanaugh and justice barrett were concerned with the texas law, the fact that it really prevented people from going into federal court to sue, delegated the states authority to any individual to enforce the law. that is just a radical notion. they were very disturbed by that. but i'm going to say this over and over, this is not about abortion. and if we care about abortion, we have to keep our eyes on the prize, which is the case in mississippi that will be argued in december. and i don't see these two justices coming out the same way in that direct challenge to roe. amy: did anything shock you in what you heard yesterday? >> well, i was pleased because,

of coue, five justices had already permitted the texas law to go into effect on two occasions, so i was pleased they actually understood the draconian nature of the texas law. i don't think that came from a concern about the women who were affected by the law or the unavaibility of abortion. i think more importantly, it was their concern about access to the court for this issue and every other issue. more importantly, the other issues they care about like religious freedom and gun rights. amy: i want to thank you for being with us, kathryn "kitty" kolbert, the author who -- the who argued the landmark case of lawyer who argued the landmark case of planned parenthood v. casey before the u.s. supreme court in 1992, which is credited with saving roe v. wade. of "controlling women: what co-authorof "controlling women: what we must do now to save reproductive freedom."

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