11/11/21 11/11/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york and glasgow, this is democracy now! >> the situaon, wel it is ite diffult to descbe. we are facinthe greest chlenge,he greest cris manityas evonfrted, whh is theossible collapse of our life support systems. amy: as negotiations continue at the u.n. climate summit in glasgow, we speak with british

journalist george monbiot and british climate scientist kevin anderson about how world leaders, and even some climate scientists, are downplaying the climate emergency. >> the wealthy countries need to do a lot more come away head of the poor countries, they need be zero emissions by 2030 to 2035. just a little over 10 years from now needs to be zero emissions from planes, trains, ships, industry, everything. we should have started this earlier. amy: but first, we get an update on the trial of kyle rittenhouse, the white teenager who fatally shot two anti-police brutality protesters in kenosha, wisconsin. his lawyers are now asking the judge to declare a mistrial. we will get the latest on the trial as well of the killers of ahmaud arbery. all that and more, coming up.

welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the united states and china on wednesday pledged to work together to slow greenuse gas emissions in the 2020's. u.s. climate envoy john kerry made the surprise announcement at the cop26 united nations climate summit in glasgow, scotland. >> the united states and china have no shortage of differences, but on climate, cooperation is the only way to get this job done. amy: climate justice groups cautiously welcomed the pledge but said far more action is needed to avert the most castrophic effects of global heating. meanwhile, six major automakers and 30 governments pledged wednesday to phase out gasoline and diesel powered cars and trucks by 2040, but toyota,

volkswagen, nissan, and hyundai a refused to sign the pledge as did the u.s., china, and japan. later in the broadcast, we'll go to glasgow, scotland, as the cop26 climate summit begins to wrap up. we will speak with scientist kevin anderson and writer george monbiot. defense lawyers called kyle rittenhouse to the witness stand wednesday as the teenage them and faces homicide and weapons charges for bailey shooting two people and wounding a third during protests over the police shooting of jacob blake in 2020. rittenhouse broke down in tears while on the stand. he admitted to using deadly force by claimed self-defense and denied intending to kill his victims during cross-examination. meanwhile, the trial judge continued to make headlines after he repeatedly sided with the defense while excoriating prosecutors for asking questions he said were out of bounds.

at another point, the trial was interrupted when judge schroeder's cell phone began ringing. >> the actions i talked about -- [phone rings] >> were done in bad faith. >> the judges ringtone was "god bless the usa" by lee greenwood which was the song played at opening of tom's rallies. -- trump's rallies. much more on the trial after headlines. the number of daily u.s. coronavirus cases is once again on the rise after nearly two months of declines from september's peak. states reported nearly 100,000 new infections on wednesday and over 1600 new deaths. in texas, a federal judge has ruled that republican governor greg abbott's ban on mask mandates in schools violates the rights of disabled students, who are at increased risk of hospitalization and death from

covid-19. a lawyer for disabity rits texas said in a statement -- "no student should be forced to make the choice of forfeiting their education or risking their health, and now they won't have to." meanwhile, republican attorneys general from 10 states filed a lawsuit wednesday seeking to block the biden administration's covid-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers. this comes just days after a federal appeals court temporarily blocked president biden's vaccine mandate for large businesses. in international news in ethiopia, the u.n. says 72 drivers who work for the world food program have been detained in the country's northern afar region one day after the u.n. reported a group of staffers had been arrested in addis ababa. rights groups are warning detentions are targeting ethnic tigrayans, with prominent community members, including a bank ceo and religious figures, being rounded up by authorities.

this comes after the government declared a state of emergency and amid a mounting humanitarian crisis and threat of all-out war. in sudan, a court has ordered internet providers to restore service that has been down since the october 25 military coup. this comes as sudan's main political coalition has rejected negotiations with the military coup leaders. this is a spokesperson for the group forces of freedom and change, which formed in 2019 during the popular uprising that led to the ouster of longtime president omar al-bashir. >> internet services are being cut in order to hide the immense amount of legal humanitarian violations taking place. -- illegal humanitarian violations taking place. our position is unequivocally clear, there will be no negotiations and no compromise

with the undertakers of the coup. amy: polish forces have detained hundreds more migrants and refugees on the belarus border and sent another 3000 soldiers the area as the crisis there intensifies. at least seven people have died in recent days as some 4000 migrants and refugees face freezing temperatures and lack access to food and medical attention. most of the refugees are from the middle east, afghanistan, and african countries. european leaders threatened to increase sanctions on belarus over the violent crackdown. this is a syrian migrant describing an attack by a belarusian soldier. >> he kicked me in the face with his foot, so i passed out for about a couple of minutes. broke my nose and broke a bone here and my eyes are swollen. amy: polish officials have accused belarusian president the cushing co. of weaponizing the

refugee crisis in retaliation for european union sanctions against the larissa. chile's lower house of congress has voted to impeach president sebastián piñera for violating chile's tax and bribery laws. lawmakers cited irregularities in the 2010 sale of a mining company partially owned by piñera's children. the revelations emerged in the pandora papers leak. chile's senate will now take up the impeachment motion, which would require two-thirds of senators to pass. f.w. de klerk, south africa's last apartheid-era president, has died at the age of 85. as a government minister de , klerk defended segregation and white-minority rule. but in 1990, facing intense pressure both within south africa and from the international anti-apartheid movement, then-president de klerk ordered the release of nelson mandela from prison. mandela became the nation's

first black president in 1994. de klerk serving as his vice president. the pair were jointly awarded the nobel peace prize in 1993. a federal judge has approved a landmark $626 million settlement for residents of flint, michigan, who were poisoned by lead in their drinking water. in 2014, flint's unelected emergency manager, appointed by then-governor rick snyder, switched the city's water supply to the flint river as a cost-saving measure. the move was linked to at least 12 deaths and widespread lead poisoning in residents, including children, in the majority-black city. the settlement makes money available to all of flint's children, as well as adults who can show an injury, some business owners, and anyone who paid for polluted water. plaintiffs' attorney trachelle young hailed the settlement. >> today is a day where there is

actual accountability for the flint residence. this iseally a result because we as a community stood up. we as community activists, wes pastors and ministers of justice, we as residents, concerned citizens, parents -- we came together and said we are not going to sit here and allow them to treat us as if we don't matter. amy: to see our documentary " thirsty for democracy: the poisoning of an american city," go to democracynow.org. in aviation news, boeing has admitted responsibility for the 2019 crash of its 737 max ethiopian airlines jet and has agreed to compensate the victims' families. the crash killed all 157 passengers and crew on board and cameust monthsfter another 737 max crashed in indonesia, lling all 9 people oboard. the crashes led to the jets

being grounded for 20 months. boeing acknowledged that there were safety issues in the 737 max and said it was accepting full liability. the justice department announced a lawsuit charging ride-hailing app uber with violating the americans with disabilities act for charging fees to passengers who need more time to enter a car due to a disability. uber's software automatically adds an additional fee for people who take more than two minutes to enter a vehicle after a driver arrives for a pickup. and new york has announced it will close six prisons next year as the state's prisoner population dropped to its lowest level since 1984. in related news, the advocacy group release aging people in prison, held multiple rallies tuesday to urge governor kathy hochul to dramatically increase the number of prisoners granted clemency.

the group says that 16,000 clemency applications have been filed since 2011, yet former governor andrew cuomo commuted just 41 sentences. this is an advocate reading the words of kim brown, a prisoner at the bedford hills correctional facility. she has been behind bars for half of her life. >> [indiscernible] until the governor does something to change that, just as will never be served. the last women received -- 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, we get an update on trial of kyle rittenhouse,e, the white teenagr who fatally shot two anti-police brutality protesters in kenosha,

wisconsin. his lawyers are asking the judge to declare a mistrial. we will speak with bree newsome and elie mystal. his piece is headlined "i hope everyone is prepared for kyle rittenhouse to go free." and we will go to glasgow. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "give us justice" by thee sacred souls. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. kyle rittenhouse's defense team continued to make its case in

court wednesday, calling rittenhouse himself to testify. now 18 years old, rittenhouse was 17 when he went to kenosha, wisconsin, during last summer's racial justice protests with his ar-15 style rifle. he fatally shot two people and wounded a third in 2020. he has pleaded not guilty. at one point, kyle rittenhouse broke down in tears while on the stand. he admitted to using deadly force but claimed self-defense and denied intending to kill his victims during cross-examination from prosecutor thomas binger. >> i don't understand. he said you're bringing the gun to protect yourself, so you thought you're going to be in danger, right? >> i did not think it would be put into a situation where i would have to defend myself. amy: meanwhile, the trial judge bruce schroeder continue to make

headlines after repeatedly siding with the defense while excoriating prosecutors. at one point while the prosecutor question rittenhouse, the judge chastised binger crafting -- asking about testimony he said was out of bounds. >> your honor, mr. binger is either forgetting the courts rulings or attempting to provoke a mistrial in this manner. he knows and he's asking the questions. i asked the court to strongly admonish him and the next time it happens, i will be asking for mistrial with which it is. he is an experienced attorney and he knows better. >> mr. binger, first of all, this was the subject of emotion. i am well aware of that most of the court left the door open. >> for me, not for you. amy: in the prosecution tried to show video evidence of rittenhouse fatally shooting his first victim, the judge appeared to support the defense's attempt

to stop him using a "pinch and zoom" function, claiming it could insert additional pixels. >> this is high risk, to me, if you insert more data into an area of space -- you are wagging her head no. tell me where i am wrong. >> there is no proof i'm doing that, your honor. >> i said you have the burden of proof, the proponent of the exhibit, and you need to tell me it is reliable. >> the exhibits are in evidence. >> that i know. amy: the judge would not allow the pinch and zoom function of the ipad and an expert testified the pixels were not being added. meanwhile, the judge's cellphone went off while the court was in session and played a ringtone for the song "god bless the usa" by lee greenwood, which is the opening song played at donald trump's rallies. >> the court makes a finding

that the actions that i talk -- >> ♪ >> were done in bad faith. amy: rittenhouse's defense team has now asked for a mistrial with prejudice in the case, and if one is granted, rittenhouse cannot be retried. but the judge did not immediately rule on the request and said jury deliberations could begin on monday. one other key point that came up this week during the trial, pathologist testified that kyle rittenhouse's victim joseph rosenbaum was shot four times five someone who was within four feet of him. he also testified rosenbaum was first wounded in the groin and then hand and thigh as he paced rittenhouse and then shot in the head and back. for more, we're joined by two guests. bree newsome bass, artist, anti-racist activist. in 2015 after the massacre of eight african-american parishioners and their pastor by

a white supremacist at the emanuel ame church in charleston she scaled the 30-foot flagpole at the south carolina state capitol and removed the confederate flag. yesterday she was tweeting the trial nonstop. with this in new york elie , mystal is the nation's justice correspondent and author of the magazine's monthly column "objection!" he wrote about this case in peace headlined "i hope everyone is prepared for kyle rittenhouse to go free." you wrote that before the trial, elie. talk about why you think this is going to be e case. i don't have a crystal ball, all right? what i know is a law and what i know is what white people are willing to do to defend white supremacist. if you look at this judgend his pretrial motion, look at his pretrial decisions in this case, rittenhouse has been in and around the jail since he shot those people last summer.

if you look at all the decisions bruce schrader have made, that been helpfully balanced and weighted toward rittenhouse, towards his defense. i see very neutral -- very few util decisions. what we have is a judge who from my perspective has pre -judge the trout and decided to use every bit of his power to put his them on the scale toward rittenhouse's side. that was obvious bore the trial started. i think now that the trial is going on, even more obvious to people how hostile he is to the prosecution, how much he is taking rittenhouse's side, and slating the case. he's basically not allowing the prosecution to put on its case against rittenhouse. it is almost like he was the prosecution put on a different case against rittenhouse and already has determined the boy

is not guilty. that is why i was able to say two weeks ago the boys going to walk and nothing that is happened in the trial so far has changed my opinion. amy: and the issue of not being able to refer to the men who were killed in the other one who was repeatedly shot as victims, though they could be referred to as looters or arsonists if the defense proved that? >> here's the thing. anyone his decisions you could dissent. any one of his decisions if you take it in isolation makes sense. one of the things that race is due, one of the fights we always have trying to explain what racism is to people, if you look at the individual decisions you can say, oh, that was racially biased or that was cially biased. when you look at them altogether, the totality -- it is not just saying these people

can't be called victims. legally speaking, they were victims of homicide. that is a fact. you want to say that cap he called victims because of the nature of self-defense? all right, you can kind of defend that. but they can be called looters, writers, and arsonists, which is ridiculous. the surviving victim has not been charged with looting, rioting, or in arsonists. when you put the one and one together, you end up with two. when you put one plus one plus one plus one together, you end up with five. that is what schrader is, he has made a serious -- series of decisions. into tally, it leads to the impression of the biased, racist judge with his trump rally cell phone that is trying to get

rittenhouse a walk. amy: let me bring bree newsome bass into this conversation. you were tweeting up a storm yesterday. on wednesday, you tweeted about nothing says safety and security in the usa like a teenage whiteboard roaming around with assault rifle. i cannot imagine why folks in the street might react to that." talk about this broader context of why rittenhouse was in kenosha -- work he does not live. he lives in another state in illinois -- and carrying this ar-15 at the age of 17. >> this goes back to who gets to a certain victimhood and self-defense. you know -- even apart from the long history of collaboration between police forces, white supremacist organizations and white militias, we have our recent history of this as well. we have situations where police

killed someone, there is protesting, and in addition to the police presence in the street, which is a problem, we have white militia groups showing up, white supremacist organizations showing up. we saw that in ferguson, minneapolis, and in kenosha. one of the things that is being kind of glossed over here is the fact that is exactly the element that ke rittenhouse belongs to . i know it can't be introduced as evidencen the court, but we all know he was at a bar during the time he was on release from jail with proud boys buying him drinks as an underaged person. that is a larger reality. the other thing i think that is important is the history of judges who are sympathetic to white supremacists has a very long history as well. one of the moments that struck me yesterday was when the prosecutor was questioning rittenhouse on his knowledge of a munition and brought up the

issue of hollowpoint bullets. the judge actually interrupted and testified. i mean, correct me if i am inrrect, butt seemed to me like the judge was testifying in rittenhouse's place and tried to make it seem might the prosecutor was incorrect in the way he was discussing ammunition. the judge seemed to be trying to downplay the hollowpoint bullets. that is a larger context. i also think we cannot separate, even though the jury has to do so, we as the public, the larger society, cannot separate what is happening in wisconsin and from what is happening in georgia with the ahmaud arbery case, what is happening in charlottesville where residents of virginia are suing the nazis and white supremacists who descended on their city in 2017 and doing sucker a civil because they feel like the larger legal system is not done enough to

address what happened. this is also happening as people storm school board meetings tried to strip black text in black history from the school curriculum. there is the attack on voting rights. all of it is a context of what is happening. amy: "conservatives quickly raise much of the $2 million for rittenhouse's bail after he was released, rittenhouse went to a bark wearing a t-shirt that said 'free as f'for he pose for pictures flashing a white power sign and serenading with the anthem of the proud boys." bree, this is not being raised in the trial. >> i'm not a legal expert, i will acknowledge that, but i agree for my observation that judge is entirely vice. i don't see how that is not relevant. if the issue is his state of mind at the time heis shooting

at these people, that i feel like all of these things point tois state of mind. i think if the jury is aware, that will certainly place them breaking down on the stand -- i don't know if they were actual tears, but that places him in a separate context. wearing a t-shirt like that, drinking at a bar with white supremacists doesn't really reflect someone who is remorseful or maybe even feeling trauma from these events. i think all of that is relevant. amy: let's talk about not only the rittenhouse trial, but the trial of the three white men who are accused of murdering ahmaud arbery, father and son -- the father in the case was a former police officer and investigator. this happening in georgia. elie mystal, if you can talk about both trials? >> that trial is going a little better in part because the judge is not so clearly biased toward the white murderers and a debt

case. i don't think the judge has done everything he could to instill justice in that case. there is a jury -- 12 active members, four alternates, 16 people, only one of those jurors is black. that is weird because in brunswick, georgia, where the trial is taking place, that county is 26% black. the defense attorneys, while excling usinthe peremptory challenges to exclude black jurors, says that jury -- what he needed to defend his client, the people who lynched ahmaud arbery, history needed more bubbas. he defined bubbas as white men over 40. racial discrimination in the jury selection, but denied the plaintiff's motion to -- the

prosecution's motions to receive the jury which was in his power because he says he was bound to accept the disingenuous answers offered by the defense. he was not bound to do that. you could have resat the jury. the judge decided 15 to one jury in a 26% black county, that is ok and let the trunk of forward. amy: your final take, bree newsome bass, on the ahmaud arbery case? you have the father in the case admitting that he saw ahmaud arbery, did not see him commit a crime how he i think he called it a trapped rat. >> i think the overall question here is is entitled to justice? what does justice even mean in a system that was used to strip like people of their humanity

and the greater part of this history has never really held white people accountable for murdering black people, who is entitled to self-defense. i mean, was ahmaud entitled to self-defense? was he entitled to freedom of movement? and the fact that we have cases that people being killed on camera or in broad daylight and we are not sure if justice can be carried out because the race of the defendant, because of the dynamics in the legal system speaks to the larger issue that i think a lot of times people don't want to touch on. because whether the outcome, whether both people are convicted in these cases, rittenhouse or the mcmichaels and bryan in georgia, we have not addressed this larger issue of justice. i think that is a point that myself come the larger abolitionist movement is constantly raising that the legal system itself is the front to the notion of justice from the police into the judge to the jury process to the way the prison step is carried out.

amy: and also, elie mystal,, in both cases, you only have one person of color in both the georgia case, the ahmaud arbery case -- he is not on trial, he is the one who was murdered, and in the case of kyle rittenhouse, one person of color on the jury and the revelation in georgia that while the father and sons had they were making a so-called citizen's arrest, the police at the scene at the time said they never mentioned anything like that? >> first, partially because citizens arrest are not a thing. that is someone who has watched too many movies. that is a kidnapping. when the police showed up, they did not say, "we were trying to kidnap the boy and he ran." but the police let him go -- in both of these cases, the murderers stood over the dead bodies and the police were like,

"yeah, go home, good job." as bree is saying, the rot goes deep. it is not just these two murderers, not just these l twoynchers, not just these two judges and defense attorneys, it is the entire system that is rotted to its core. when you try to get people to lock in on that, try to get people to dial in and think about real system changes to the system to bring justice to more people in the country, they say, "oh, my god, tony morrison's 'beloved'is in school, i don't to vote for that." amy: what do you think will happen if there are t guilty verdicts? >> people will be angry for a while and black people will protest and why people will tell us we are protesting the runway

and hurting our own color. sorry. it is frustrating. what will happen is there will be protest and anger and we will be told we are doing it wrong. no laws will change. nothing will change. nothing will happen. later down the line, somebody after democrats get stumped in a mature election, someone will say, "well, it is just those black lives matter protest" and the cycle will continue. amy: let's remember in the case of kyle rittenhouse, he was there and killed the entire police brutality protesters who were protesting the police shooting of jacob blake. this final response ,elie, if you could talk about what has happened to the police officer who shot jacob blake in the fact seven times? >> absolutely nothing has happened. he was not disciplined by his

department. he was not charged by the state of wisconsin. the same prosecutors are having a little difficulty convicting kyle rittenhouse did not even try to convict the police officer. in the case was reviewed by the department of justice under merrick garland, not bill barr or jeff sessions or john ashcraft, merrick garland. he decided no civil rights of charter be pressed against the officer who shot jacob blake in the back. that man is back on the force with his gun, free to shoot other people in the back. amy: and jacob blake is paralyzed. elie mystal, thank you for being with us, writes for the nation. we will into your pieces, "i hope everyone is prepared for kyle rittenhouse to go free was quote and, bree newsome bass, artist anti-racist activist. ,coming up, we go to glasgow to

speak with george monbiot and kevin anderson. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. this is climate countdown. i am in new york. also joined by nermeen shaikh. nermeen: welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: we are going to go now to the u.n. climate summit in glasgow, scotland, where the united states and china made a surprise announcement on wednesday about plans together to cut greenhouse gas emissions. the united states is the largest historical emitter of carbon emissions, while china has been the largest emitter in recent years. the u.s. produces far more

emissions on a per capita basis than china. xie zhenhua, china's climate change envoy, spoke wednesday. >> climate is a common challenge faced by humanity and will impact the well-being of future generations. it is become increasingly urgent and severe, turning future challenge into a crisis happening now. and in the area of climate change, there is more commemorative in the u.s. and china, making it an area with huge potential for cooperation. with two days remaining until the end of the summit, we hope this joint declaration will be china and the united states contribution to its success. amy: president biden's climate envoy john kerry also spoke at the u.n. climate summit wednesday. >> the united states and china have no shortage of differences, but on climate, cooperation is the only way to get this job done.

this is not a discretionary thing, frankly, this is science. it is math and physics that dictate the road that we have to travel. amy: u.s.-china joint agreement came just hours after the text was released of a draft of the glasgow agreement. it calls on nations to strengthen their climate plans and to accelerate the phasing out of coal as well as subsidies for fossil fuels, but many climate justice groups fall to the draft for not requiring nations to do more to address the climate emergency. with the u.n. climate summit scheduled to end on friday, we are joined by two of britain's leading critics of how the climate emergency is being handled at the summit. george monbiot is a journalist, author, and columnist with the guardian. he has been hosting a daily program from glasgow on cop26.tv called monbiosis. his most recent book is titled "out of the wreckage: a new politics for an age of crisis." his latest piece in the guardian "make extreme wealth extinct: , it's the only way to avoid climate breakdown."

we are also joined by kevin anderson, a professor of energy and climate change at the university of manchester and the university of uppsala in sweden. he is a former director of the tyndall center for climate change research. kevin anderson, you say science is on the side of civil society, not as you call them the climate glitteroty. can you explain? >> sorry, amy, say that again. amy: i'm just saying that you said science is on the side of civil society, not the negotiators in glasgow. >> yes, this goes back to the clip you had from joe biden when he said what matters is the physics and the math. it is clear here. if we are to deliver on the commitment of the 1.5 degrees commitment that joe biden made earlier this year, the math and physics tell us we have eight

years for a good chance of 1.5 and even for an outside chance of 1.5 degrees centigrade, only 14 years. when you listen to the calls coming out of the various civil society movements, they're more in-line line with the rate of change that fit with the science. when he heard about these big discussions between world leaders about future collaboration to make relatively small reductions can emissions in their countries, so they are not talking in any in line with the physics and the math that joe biden evokes. there protesters and the civil society movements in their work they engage more locally, all of that is much more in line with what science is calling for. nermeen: kevin anderson, can you say specifically what does the science suggest these biggest emitters, the u.s. and china, should be doing? >> we are in such a desperate situation.

30 more years is the major report on climate change and it has been going up year on year. we have little emissions space left. hearing no more also fill development in the rapid phase out of fossil fuel use, particularly within the wealthy countries. if we take our 1.5 degrees commitment and recognize developing country parties in the paris agreement and the rich and poor parts of the world, the richer parts of the world, if you're to deliver on the 1.5 degrees, zero emissions by 2030 if we want an outside chance of 1.5 by 2035. that sounds impossible. what we are in a situation because we have listened to these world leaders give us their talks for years and then go home and do absolutely nothing. biden and obama demonstrate -- obama did it before, and biden

demonstrating now and trump between, we are seeing this virtually in all the world leaders, not just the u.s.. it is the eu, u., japan, australia. there is no leadership within any of these countries. to be blunt, china is really reflecting that absence of leadership when it comes to climate change as well. nermeen:eorge monbiot, i would ke to bring you into the conversation. you have been covering the summit and what has been missing from the summit that should have been included that should be part of the talks. you said in a tweet earlier today that, "not one of the 25 climate summit has fiercely discussed the crucial issue, which is leaving fossil fuels in the ground." george monbiot, could you talk about that? >> the failure to discuss this crucial issue, not getting the

stuff out of the ground in the first place, suggest everything we have been hearing here and the previous 25 summits is basically destruction. it is handwaving. it is pleasing the crowd, but not addressing the central issue. it is much easier to leave fossil fuels under the ground and to deal with the way we burn them once we have extracted them because they are just a few thousand points around the world where we extract them, whereas there are billions of in uses of the fossil fuels. we might say, yes, we do change our light bulbs, clearly we do, but the most immediate practical way of dealing with this impending catastrophe, seeing of the greatest challenge humankind has ever faced, is to say, right, we're just going to stop no more coal, no more petroleum, no more gas is going to

come out of the ground by this date. as kevin said, it has to be full decarbonization by 2030, so that should be the date. you say, how's is that remotely possible? it is more than remotely possible. it is eminently possible as we saw the end of the second world war. within months, turned the entire economy around from civilian economy to a military post between 1942-1945, u.s. federal government spent more money and a creek dollar terms that it to between 1789-1941. so now they say, no m money, nothing we could do. that is nonsense. they can fix this in no time at all if they wanted to. we had a program on a comparable scale, we could leave all fossil fuels in the ground by 2030 and switch to an entirely new clean energy economy. nermeen: george, i want to ask you about your recent piece

which is headlined "make extreme wealth extinct: the only way to avoid climate crackdown." we hear about the discrepancies in terms of emissions and consumption between rich and poor countries, but what you emphasize in this piece is the staggering difference between the consumption levels of rich individuals around the world and the need, therefore, for a wealth tax. could you explain what the situation is? >> this is a fundamental issue of justice and equity. the top 1% in terms of weah arnd theorld, lst 5 of t genhouse s emissi -- 15% of the greeouse gas emissionwhich iswice as ch ashe botto50%. areooking at a ve small number o peopl grabbi the

li's are of nural weth. they claimo be weth eators. theyare actuly taking ealth from the res of s. they say "we're going to ha all th atmoseric sce for oursels." incidentallyall of ese othe resources, hug ande goldnd diamon and bluefin tunsushi, whatevlse the're consung, on massivecale. this iriven to very lge extent by the remarkable disproportionate use of aviation. one set of figures suggest the richest 1% responsible for 50% of the world aviation emissions. but also by their yachts, for example. the average yacht gets on standby for a billionaire to step onto everyone's produces 7000 tons of carbon dioxide per year. if we were to meet even the conventional accounting for

staying within 1.5 degrees of global heating, maximum omissions per person are around 2.3 tons. so one super yacht is over 3000 people's worth of emissions. this is grossly outrageously unfair and we should rebel against the habits of the very rich of taking our natural wealth from us. amy: i want to turn to executive director of were on want, lead spokesperson for cop26. he ripped up his prepared marks about the cop26 "cover decision" and instead brought a message from the climate activists on the streets to the high level session. >> i a speech prepared to deliver in relation to the decisi but frankly, i know it is going to fall on deaf ears so i won't bother. the richest have ignored every moral and political call to do their fair share. their broken

promises across 26 cops, no longer pulling anyone. ms. zero 2050 just the latest ample of jil rlly saificing the poofor profit stop by thoswhose wealth was and continues to be loed from the obal sou. once we are frustrated and angry, we are not without fault. we know it is ordinary people who change history, and we wil change history. the era of injustice -- we will uproot the systems of oppression wiout global green new deal to guartee everyone e right to live with dignity and in harmony with our planet. thank you. amy: that is the executive director of war on want addressing the assembly.

kevin anderson, if you could talk more about this issue, both you and george, asad rehman and 70 other climate activist talking about this issue of wealth. you say per capita is a flawed metric is most polluting industries have been moved to developing nations so it is not reflective of the rich nations emissions. take all of this on. >> that is a key issue. our focus here on u.k. -- in the u.k. we have closed down industry and import the manufactured goods from elsewhere in the world and then we turn around to those parts of the world and blame them for their emissions in manufacturing the goods that we are enjoying. from electronic goods to parts for our cars and clothing, u.k. has moved to a far banking culture, offshore virtually everything else.

looking at our total amount of emissions, we have to take account of the carbon footprint of our lifestyles -- and that includes the emissions we associate with things we import and export. you tend to find most wealthy countries have a much larger carbon footprint than just looking at the energy they use within their boundaries. it is key when we think about these issues of equity that we take this like consumption-based accounting methods and take that into account because it is unfair to be penalizing poor parts of the world for their making things to help us have a better quality of life over here. when we do that, that challenges get even more striking in terms of what we have to do and also brings out even further the issues of equity, the disparity between the richer parts of the world and the poor parts of the world. i also think on the equity point, it is worth bringing out it is not as if everyone in the u.k. is even. there is an just one public in the u.k., their multiple publics.

those who are the wealthy ones in our own country responsible for the lion's share emissions in the u.k., that would pertain to the u.s., japan, australia. there are large swaths of the country that the average and below-average consumers. for them, the response to climate change is very different from those of us who in their own countries are responsible for the lines share -- lion share of emissions. have to differentiate not just between countries but within our own countries. climate scientists and academics, entrepreneurs, journalists, barristers -- all the people in the very high emitting category. we frame the debate and we never, ever frame the date with equity -- regardless of our position, the math tells us if we are good to deliver on the commitment, equity has to be a key part of our responses but we never talk about that because we are in the high emitting group.

amy:,, you yourself have not take a plane. you say a trait is a great way to get work done, finished reports, etc.. you also use the term "zero carbon" rather than "net zero." yesterday was transportation day. pete buttigieg, the transportation secretary, spoke from the united states. you also had that china-u.s. surprise announcement. i am wondering if you can talk about zero carbon and also whether you feel china gets a disproportionate percentage of the blame? >> this expression net zero, to me it is the most damming part of cop26. it is not just happening here. copcop the u.s. a fews ago, would never hear ms. zero. it emerged and as the challenges got harder, the policies need to be put in place to bring down emissions today because policymakers are too weak and

lack imagination to do so. we have developed "net zero" which allows us to live the burden of reducing emissions today to future generations, literally, out to 2050 and beyond. you can be a net zero oil company, saudi arabia, norway, or u.k., or u.s. -- everyone can become net zero. it is completely meaningless. all it is is kicking the can down the road, passing the burden onto the next generation. disturbing for me is a lot of the academic community swallowed this knit zero rhetoric. we're not looking at the changes we need to make, as george that earlier, we need to rapidly phase out our fossil fuel consumption. you don't have to do that if you have net zero because you can

pass on the burden to our children. that is our way of delaying the burden of mitigation. this generation onto the next generation. there are multiple ways that net zero is the most obvious. in all of our scenarios and the ipcc scenarios that what we know about climate change that rely on the technologies or so-called nature-based solutions, which are also equally dangerous, removing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in the future, so that is incredibly dangerous reliance. when it comes to china, china's very high emitter, we all know it is the largest emitter in the globe, but they do have a population of about 1.3 billion people. emissions per capita are still a little over one third of the u.s.. we put a lot of responsibility on china sayin look at high ambitions. they do burn a lot of coal but

we needed to be burned so we can smelt and make a notebook out of it. look at the equipment we are using. we blame them because they're using lots of high carbon energy to reduce the materials. it is true china has to move away from those, move away from its rich embedded fossil fuel industry and has the potential to do that -- probably more than other parts of the world -- because they're good at making rapid shifts in technology, but we must not continue to blame china these manufactured goods that we are using. we need to take a more collaborative approach. if there's anything came out of biden and china's discussions, maybe there's something in there about how to facilitate the parts of the world that are the manufacture base for the rest of us, how do you facilitate the making a rapid shiftway from fossil fuels? nermeen: george monbiot, could you comment on what kevin anderson was saying about this

catego of net zero? also, talk about what the alternatives to fossil fuels come to oil, gas, and coal are, what you think are the most likely and efficient that you propose, including nuclear. >> well, kevin is right about net zero. it is a way of delaying hard choices, passing them on to future generations of politicians. that is what has been happening for the past 30 years. we have done it with different terminology, we have not use that language, but it is always about delay and deferring and leaving the problem for somebody else to tidy up. net zero is continuing that catastrophic process. that is why we are now fed with such an incredibly tight window in which to make offensive change. but we can make that change. just as there are tipping points

and ecosystems, potentially catastrophic ones that we don't want to pass, there can be positive tipping points in society and in politics where we can very rapidly change the way we produce our energy, change the way we use our energy, change the way we live -- which is also essential. as kevin said, not just a question of how we produce this great title wave of consumer goods, but why we are producing this big title wave. let's stop. let's just stop doing it. let's find other ways of measuring quality of life other than being flooded by this great tide of plastic and metal and electronics, 99% of which we simply do not need to live a good life. so having made that decision, how do we power? absolutely we need renewables, we need the wind, the solar, that we should not discount

other forms of clean energy where they are safe and appropriate. of course, in different parts of the world and for different purposes, different kinds will be appropriate. i remain very interested in fourth-generation nuclear technologies, small modular reacto of different kinds, some of which could make a very important contribution. particularly dismayed of what is going on in germany where because of their nuclear shutdown, they are ramping up their coproduction. they're burning more this particularly fill the form of coal in order to greet the space to shut down nuclear. amy: we just have 10 seconds -- >> in the middle of a climate emergency. amy: i went to get kevin ande rson's response. are you prone nuclear? >> note. i am agnostic about nuclear. conservation first, then energy

efficiency and then renewables basically solar and wind, whatever they may be. we cannot meet the energy demand. i would prefer nuclear to carbon storage. amy: we have to leave it there, kevin anderson and george monbiot, thank you so much.

hello there and welcome to nhk "newsline." i'm catherine kobyashi in new york. pakistan's foreign minister has warned afghanistan is on the brink of economic collapse. he brought together envoys from the u.s., china and russia. they met over concerns a humanitarian disaster could fuel another refugee crisis. the group is known as the toryka plus.