thank you for staying with us. more than 2,000 additional flight cancellations for southwest airlines today as the company's reset in response to a

disastrous holiday weekend continues to come at the expense of their customers. also this hour we'll check on the next storm system as buffalo residents begin to dig out and get back on the road and hopefully avoid tlooding in their communities. and an update from officials as doctors continue around the clock supervision of pope benedict from his bedside in a vatican city monastery. some new developments in the southwest airlines debacle just in the last few minutes. southwest is now announcing plans to, quote, return to normal operations with minimal disruptions by tomorrow. but still today thousands more flights have been cancelled. thousands of fliers still struggling to figure out how they are going to make it to their final destinations. other airlines like american, delta, united have offered to try to help putting a cap on flight prices between certain cities to give customers more options. it's unclear whether that's work ing. let's bring in nala charles. what's the latest from los

angeles? what you have been seeing there and fliers trying to dwet to their final destination, what's their strategy there from lax? >> reporter: usually lax during the holiday season is one of the most busiest airports in the country we're at the southwest terminal here. there's hardly anyone here. it's rapidly deserted. over the past couple days, southwest has cancelled a majority of its flights only operating a third of its scheduled flights. that's why there aren't that many people here in that new announcement now from southwest that they will be resuming normal operations tomorrow. there's a relief for people. however, there's many people in the meantime that are still dealing with what has been a chaotic travel holiday season because of the southwest fiasco. you can see a sea of baggage and although southwest has flown baggage to the final

destinations, in many cases, the people themselves have not made it. so now it's that stressful process of people trying to get their bags, whether or not they are able to get to their destinations. southwest now in the process of trying to reunite baggage with people. they have a form online that people can fill out. so that people can get their luggage delivered to them, but we have seen many people who have been stranded the last several days have been left to live without the essential items in their bags because in many cases, their flights have been cancelled or delayed after they have checked in their bags. so we have seen a the lot of people having to buy new clothes because they have clothing in here. a lot of people didn't expect this to happen. so they have important medication in these bags a they haven't been able to get to as well. we have seen car seats checked in here that have been waiting here for days. we have seen motorized chairs. that gives you an idea of how important the things here have been to many people.

and at this point, southwest is releasing a statement saying that they will be refunding people for their cancelled flights, but also giving money back for reasonable accommodations that have had to be made because of the unexpected extend in the travel. that could be hotel fees, transportation fees, and also food. some people we have seen spent thousands of dollars because of these delays in kansslations. although it seems southwest is making an attempt to give people some money back here, we spoke to family who is say is that frankly just isn't enough. these holiday times that they expected to spend with their family have been priceless and now they have been ruined. >> the ripple effects that will come out of this will not be known for months. thank you. for more on the travelers

can do or at least try to do, let's bring in managing editor of the points guide chief clint henderson. welcome in. thank you for being here. my first question is what options do travelers have now to try to get to their final destination and what about their lost luggage? >> so what we're telling people is go ahead and rebook yourself, if the at all possible, on a competing airline. we have one family friend in montana whose flight was cancelled for tomorrow, even though operations are supposed to be resuming. so i told her to go ahead and rebook herself on delta. save every receipt. save receipts for rental cars, housing, hotels, food, whatever you spend and sauf those receipts. and do request refunds from southwest. i have a feeling their feet are going to be so in the fire in the wake of this they are going to make right to try to restore some of the reputation. but how long is that going to take? that's going to be thousands upon thousands of customers asking for reimbursements.

the daunting task that the airline has of not only getting their operations back, but giving people money back and then other monetary compensation on top of that. how long could that take? what else do customers need to be made whole? >> i think it's going to take weeks or months to refund everyone all their charges. southwest has given itself a lot of wiggle room with the word reasonable. we don't know what that means, but it's going to be up to congress, the media and all of of us to hold them accountable and make sure customers are paud back. now even in the best of times, it takes weeks, months to get repaid. hopefully because of so much political pressure, southwest is going to make that a quicker process. that remains to be seen. >> anything else people can do in the future to avoid getting caught up in something like this? >> we have so many great tips. use a credit card that has travel insurance built in. so these cards come with trip

interruption, trip cancellation insurance. so even if it's a weather thing, which normally they don't have to pay you back for, even if it's a weather issue, these credit cards will reimburse you. don't try to build in stops. don't check luggage. that's really tough for families during the holidays, but if you can avoid checked luggage, that's going to save you so much. you see southwest is not even beginning to resume the process of restoring baggage services to people. so those are just a couple tips there's a lot more at the points guy. >> you have said that the airline needs to invest in better technology and needs to have more better trained employees. would those things need to be in place before consumers can trust booking another ticket on southwest. >> i think that's the most important thing southwest has to do right now.

they have to pay their customers back, first of all, and then they need to invest in the technology that was so sorely lacking. basically, all their systems failed because of some storms. that shouldn't happen. their scheduling software, it was a mess from place to place to place. they have to invest the resources to get their employees properly trained they have a lot of new employees, but also in that technology sorks that the software is not failing when a flight attendant needs to find out where she's supposed to go next for the next flight. >> managing editor at the point guy, we appreciate all that. as crews keep working to clear the roads in buffalo in that area, after the record-setting snowstorm, concerns are shifting to potential flooding. temperatures expected to jump into the 50s on friday causing all that snow to melt. and over the weekend, the forecast is calling for rain, which could make tlooding issues even worse. joining me is marisa in buffalo. what's the plan? >> reporter: what i can say is

that the plan does look different today than it was yesterday. in every way, there's such a stark contrast between the conditions today and what we saw when we were reporting on the same story. they are seeing the black of asphalt for the first time in almost a week. temperatures are creating that snow melt that you mentioned that there were some flooding concerns. i'll get to that in a minute. but even though the travel ban has been lifted, now a travel advisory instead. the highways back open, airport is back open. even though in many ways buffalo is moving forward and reopening, i will say that there's still a lot of cleanup to be done in a lot of ways. they have 600 pieces of snow removal on the roads in some capacity in the greater buffalo area. and so we have been hearing from officials asking for people to take it easy and be cautious on the roads because the equipment is still out there. but when we talk about the plan to try to mitigate that accelerated snow felt, we spoke

to the city mayor. they also saw a lot of snow. the mayor was describing how they use a tactic when it comes to pushing the snow into areas to try to mitigate flooding concerns. take a listen. >> this is what they are pulling off the streets and trying to get it opened up so people can move around again. we dump it here because there's nothing here. when it melts, it's not going to damage anything. >> reporter: the idea is not just to move the snow off of the roads, but to pull it into areas that aren't going to create flooding havoc. so another thing that we were understanding from officials that removal crews are working really hard now not to remove snows from fire hydrants, but also outside of drains so that as the snow starts to melt, it has a place to go down.

generators, pumps, thousand the weather is warming up pup we mentioned it's in the 40s, approaching the 50s later this weekend. things are looking up. we got this stat from erie county officials. national guard was helping out make dialysis runs, they did 80 yesterday. today they only got two calls. so in many ways, things are improving. back to you. >> a silver lining. thank you. the supreme court decision to keep title 42 in place while legal challenges move through the courts is a frustrating and painful reality for thousands of migrants seeking asylum along the southern borderer. sam brock has been speaking with those migrants in el paso throughout the week and filed this report. >> reporter: the streets of el paso continue to be a representation of human heart ache playing out before our very eyes. el paso has been a parking lot of the immigration crisis for a

long time, but this is a level of that represents the city that they have never seen before. all these folks here, host of them were sleeping overnight in encampments. that's been cleaned up. you see the blankets, but they are in limbo status. so what are your options? they really only have a couple at this point. one of them would be to duoto another city, get on a bus and try to get out of here. i spoke with a gentleman who showed me their tukt. they are scared to do that because there are check points that could still be stopped and sent back to mexico. or they could present themselves to border protection, but the problem with that is unless there's an exception for them where they meet an exception, they are likely going to get expelled under that scenario, which leaves them in limbo in the streets trying to survive and figure out their next move. the bus behind me over there, that's for warmth. these folks come overnight and as they are sleeping on the streets, they are able to go

there for a brief period of respite. it's so heartbreaking and so hard to see this. there's no signs that status quo is going to change because we're talking about another six months to find out any sort of resolution on title 42. the hardest part is many of these folks don't understand that the specifics, the complexities of title 42. so the local congresswoman is trying to set up a forum to have conversations with all these folks about what their options are. but again, it's pretty limited as this crisis continues, there are a thousand encounters a day in the el paso area. that's with title 42 in place. >> our thanks to sam brock for that reporting. coming up, a new wave of russian airstrikes has knocked out power to residents in ukraine including to almost half of all houses in kyiv. how people are coping with the temperatures dropping there. plus benjamin netanyahu's new government officially sworn in in israel. how his far right coalition came together and the new push for

more west bank settlements. but first, hospitals are bracing for a new wave of covid cases after the holidays i'll speak with the head pediatrician about what they are expecting. n about what they are expecting. ♪ what will you do? ♪ what will you change? ♪ will you make something better? ♪ will you create something entirely new? ♪

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hospitals across the country are feeling the strain amid a rise in respiratory virus, including covid, rsv and the flu. public health officials are preparing for yet another potential covid surge as the u.s. records 100 million covid cases. joining me now is a pathologist at texas children's hospital. welcome in. what could the so-called tripledemic look like come january? >> well, we need to continue to stay vigilant. i know we have been saying this every winter. this is the third consecutive winter here in the united states we're dealing with covid-19 in addition to influenza,

restaurant sv and other viruss. these are airborne viruses that are contagious among children and adults we continue to see children hospitalized. hospitalized children have doubled in the past two weeks. there's a double digit in the last several days. we have seen this still increasing here. we just need to continue to use common sense and masking and distance and staying home and avoiding ohs when ill and continuing to promote vaccination. >> how can parents prepare as they send their children back to school next week? >> first and foremost,

vaccination, both for flu or through flu or covid. we know vaccines work. they have been approved six months and above. both the annual flu shot and vaccine is an effective match this year for the flu strains that we're seeing nationally. and additionally for covid, which includes omicron coverage. six months and above, it's very important to promote vaccines and continue to think about children with underlying risk factors. down syndrome that could put children still at risk for severe covid even though at whole omicron has been milder overall. we see severe disease in those children with underlying risk factors so parents need to talk with their pediatricians that are concerned as kids go back to school in the new year. and masking, common sense around

masking, larcenily in crowded settings indoors, outdoors, pst important for parents to keep in mind ways to protect their child and keep in mind opinions maybe out there about vaccines and covid still misinformation, but we need to be careful. parents have opinions, but we need to ask ourselves are we doing the right thing to protect our children this winter. >> a big reason we keep seeing these surges, especially in pediatric cases is due to a drop in vaccination rates. a "new york times" piece found within the first year of the pandemic, the children missed 9 million vaccine doses for diseases like polio and measles. how troubling are these numbers? >> they are troubling. we're nearly 70 years in since the introduction of the vaccine to prevent ongoing disease of polio across the united states.

and now nearly 70 years later, we're still grappling with the importance of communicating disease prevention through vaccination, it's so important. these are fundamental principles of nance are well known for decades. we're seeing disturbing outbreaks in stauts such as ohio, minnesota, here in 2022. we have seen that also with a drop in vaccination rates nationally. for measles, influenza, covid, we still have a long ways to go in terms of getting boosters to many children. so we have work to do. and it never ends. it's important. every year we have new flu vaccines to keep up with the evoling strains of influenza. viruses continue to evolve we have seen this in the year of omicron with new sub variants and the need to continue to refine vaccines and get these

vaccines to children. ask to not protect the tried and true lessons of prevention of other infectious diseases through vaccination. it's troubling, but we need to continue to do our job in communicating to the public and sharing all the information about these viruses. they continue to evolve rapidly. we need to stay ahead of the game. we're doing that and trying to do our best, but it's a team effort. >> doctor, we really appreciate your time today. thank you very is muff. coming up, benjamin netanyahu is back. a year and a of half after he was pushed out of the office, the long-time prime minister's new cabinet was sworn in again today. we'll take a look at what's likely shaping up to be the most right wing government in israel's history. first, new missile strikes targeting ukraine. the push to evacuate dangerous parts of the east, next. o evacus parts of the east, next. analysis

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as vladimir putin rejects ukraine's most recent peace plan a series of massive russian missile attacks is targeting civilian i want fra structure

across the country. in kherson, people are forced to flee while huge parts of major cities like kyiv are in the dark. let's bring in matt bradley live in kyiv for us. give us an idea of the situation on the eastern front with the donbas region. >> reporter: we heard from the government that actually the ukrainians defense is quite successful. they had taken down 54 of the 69 missiles that the russians launched across this country. now that sounds like a remarkable rate. that's like 75 to 80% of those missiles shot down. that's consistent with what ukrainians have been doing for the past several months. but you mentioned that eastern donbas region. that's a critical and important part of this. the russians have not been making any advances on the battlefield. ukrainians haven't made many advances for the past several weeks burks the russians haven't made any victories since about june. and that's one of the reasons

why when we hear from the government, they say the missile barrages coming regular ri up until now, they are really attributed to the fact that the russians are frustrated on the front lines. and that's another thing we're seeing nearby in crimea. that's another city that's just north. the russians have been making some advances. if you remember, that's where volodymyr zelenskyy just visited right before he went to washington just last week. so that is the heart of the fighting in eastern donbas region. the ukrainians have been losing a little bit of ground, but it looks like they are making up for that just north in the city. and that means they are in striking distance. they had withdrawn their central base to another nearby town. so it looks as though after some very, very fierce fugting over the last several weeks and months, we could start to see a

gradual shift in the front lines in the eastern part of the country. if they fall, ukrainians say that means they are within striking distance of taking several other towns nearby. they say ukrainians that if the russians lose, that their whole frontline could fall. that sounds a little bit like hyperbole, but at a the end of the day, it looks like the russians could lose major ground once again. >> matt bradley reporting out of kyiv, a city that has 40% knocked out of power right now with the strikes happening on the nation's power grid. thank you. just moments ago, president biden releasing a statement saying he's looking forward to working with benjamin netanyahu following his return to power in israel. the prime minister's new political allies will be expecting policies that push their agendas and may frustrate world leaders. ralph sanchez filed this report.

>> benjamin netanyahu is back as israel's prime minister. he was already the longest serving leader in israeli history, and he will now build on his 15 previous years in office. the government he formed today is the most right wing and the most religious in israeli history. it includes several figures from far right and we saw large protests as this new government was formed in the parliament. the most controversial figure here is a man who is the new national security minister. this is a man from the far right. he has a string of criminal convictions, including inciting racism and supporting a jewish terrorist organization and yet he is going to be in charge of the israeli police under this new government. now benjamin netanyahu says he has changed since those

convictions, which were several years ago, but we're hearing a lot of fear from palestinianss both inside iz are real and the west bank about what this new government is going to mean for them. we're also hearing concern from the lgbtq community. some of these more religious ministers in the new government have is a long history of homophobic behavior. this government will represent all israelis, whether they voted for him or thot. one of the top priorities will be the expansion of settlements in the west bnk. that puts them on a collision course with the biden administration that says settlements are an on sta kl to peace. they are a detriment to a two-state solution between israel and the palestinians. we're also likely to see disagreements between the new israeli government and the white house about the way forward on iran. president biden would like to see a diplomatic solution to

curb iran's nuclear ambitions. this new government likely to take a much more hawkish line. president biden, prime minister benjamin netanyahu, they disagree on a number of policy areas. they have known each other for decades. they are personally friendly and we are likely to see the president call the new prm in the coming days. >> pope francis renewing his call for prayers for pope emeritus benedict. the vatican says the pope's can be remains serious but stable. joining he now is catholic reporter christopher white. what information do you have about pope benedict's condition at this hour? >> the news out of rome seems to be slight shift from yesterday when there was quite a bit of mystery surrounding his condition. we're hearing that he's still in serious condition, but stable.

i think yesterday most people thought perhaps it was the beginning of the end. but i think around rome there's a sense that perhaps not just yet. >> you reported that a mass will be held for benedict tomorrow. what can we expect from that? what other public support have we seen so far? >> this is a mass that was announced by the diocese of rome. the head of the rome diocese and this is going to be a closely watched event. it will be primarily a spiritual event, but i think we'll be watching his words closely to get a sense of what they know in terms of how the retired pope may be doing. across the world, religious leaders have echoed their prayers for the retired pope. but i thus we're all just waiting to get a bit more further information on how he's doing and it he may indeed recover. >> chris, this is the first time

we have had a pope emeritus and a current pope at the same time. now i want to be sensitive here, but we have never seen what happens if the pope emeritus happens. talk to us about this moment in time. >> we're in a bit of uncharted territory here. should benedict die, when he does die, he most likely will be buried by pope francis. it will be the first time a living pope has buried his predecessor i think in terms of what to expect, there's still some mystery there. pope benedict has not released his final wishes as to how he would like to be buried. the vatican has not commented on that either. so we suspect there will be something like a state funeral, where he will lie in state for some time, but we don't know will there be dignitaries from around the world, at what level, how long between death and the funeral of when that time comes. we just don't know. so we're all eager for more information, but so far the

vatican has remained tight lipped about this. >> a little bit of welcome news there about pope emeritus's condition being stable for the moment. thank you. coming up, most kids are home from school this week, but when they are back, lots of schools will be struggling to get teachers in the classrooms. we'll take a look at why there's such a shortage of educators across the u.s. and what can be done to fix it. across the u.s. and what can be done to fix it orlando. - [barbara] walking into the building for the first time after the shooting, it was crippling, but it had to be preserved. if you are an ally of this community, speak out. there are more of us together than apart. it is the power of love in its rawest form. (classical piano music)

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so your rate can never go up for any reason. so call now for free information and you'll also get this free beneficiary planner. and it's yours free just for calling. so call now for free information. there's good news and gad bad news. the good news is all 22 million jobs lost during the coronavirus pandemic have been fully recovered. the bad news is that those workers didn't all go back to their old jobs. one of sectors struggling to rebound the most is k-12 public education. it's more than teachers, it's bus drivers, custodians and other support staff. my next guest writes that the solution to getting them back is to pay all of them more. joining me is "washington post" economic columnist hather long.

teachers have left the profession for a slew of different reasons. is the answer really that simple? >> it would certainly help. it's economics 101 f you raise the pay, more people will apply. ask we have seen that hardest hit sector is the hospitality sec tar. that's what they have done. they keep increasing the a pay to get more aapplicants. but in public education, we have not seen that. this job used to be a pretty good job in the '70s, '80s, and '90s. when you go into education, you're helping a lot of people and you feel that great sense of pride we can talk about. but it's no longer the case that this is a great profession anymore. you have huge burnout among teachers after the pandemic and the online zoom classes. now we have the culture wars and scrutiny over how we're teaching

history and other subjects. you put all that together and teachers are now paying way worse than other college graduates are. that's why we're seeing teachers leave the profession and we're seeing a lot of young people not want to become teachers. >> among everything you just noted, i think that is -- those items are key to showing where the problems are in the sector. is there anywhere that's getting it right? >> i'm happy to say we're starting to see some pretty innovative solutions. i think one of the best is what we're seeing out of the state of hawaii. for the past several years, they have been giving a bonus to teachers, a pretty significant one, a $10,000 for special education, which is one of the hardest positions to fill across the country. they have also been giving bonuses of an extra $5,000 to teachers willing to go to the schools that are usually the

hardest to staff. that's usually higher poverty schools or schools in more rural or urban areas. these schools have tended to have teacher shortages for years. but it really went on steroids during the pandemic. and to see that kind of impact that a program even just $10,000 has made a huge impact for the state of hawaii being able to attract and retain special education teachers. >> right now, schools are sitting on a massive infusion of cash from the pandemic relief aid. that must be spent by 2024. what's stopping school districts from funneling that money into paying people more? >> it seems so obvious. i wish that's what more districts would do. we're seeing pockets of that across the country. washington state has a bill to do that next year. but unfortunately, there seems to be this demonization of

teachers across the country and that they are asking for too much or that they are teaching in the wrong ways or teefing the wrong books. we have got sidetracked from the fundamental basics that we need to be educating the next generation and we want -- we can do two things. we can either lower the standards for teachers or raise the pay. i certainly know which one of those i would choose. >> it's an eay choice. i'd like to know your thoughts on the bill introduced to raise the national behind mum salary for conclusive-12 teachers to $60,000 minimum. would it be enough? is more needed? >> it would certainly be a game changer. $60,000 is roughly the median salary for teachers. but starting teachers are often paid far less. a lot of those salaries are around the $40,000 to $45,000 mark when teachers are first starting out. many have student loans to pay off. that would be a pretty big game changer. but i would say let's start with

addressing the biggest problems. for years, the biggest problems continue to be high poverty schools and special education and foreign language. if we could raise those salaries, it would go a long way. >> heather long, thank you. coming up, the recovery from this week's massive snowstorm in western new york is just getting underway. that's just one of many weather disasters that hit the u.s. this year. how climate change contributed to snowstorms to wildfires to tornadoes in 2022. and what experts say we could see next year d see next yea ♪ what will you change? ♪ will you make something better? ♪ will you create something entirely new? ♪ our dell technologies advisors provide you with the tools and expertise you need to do incredible things.

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talk to your doctor and learn more at savedbythescan.org the eat fresh® refresh just won't stop! now, subway® is refreshing their catering with easy-order platters and lunchboxes perfect for any party. pool parties... tailgates... holiday parties... even retirement parties. man, i love parties. subway keeps refreshing and refreshing . the deadly christmas storm that has the city of wuf low still reeling was only the latest example in a year of extreme climate events here at home and across the globe. from record flooding and heat to wildfires, snowstorms and hurricanes, 2022 had it all. dylan dreyer takes a look at how climate change made a wild weather year for us. >> reporter: 2022, a violent year of climate and weather extremes. from heat waves and drought to

catastrophic flooding and hurricanes, the impacts reverberaing around the globe. so far this year, $15 billion weather events hit the u.s. the final count yet to be tallied. the first billion-dollar disaster came in the spring when warmer temperatures fuelled three deadly tornado outbreaks in as many weeks. spawning more than 200 reported tornadoes across more than a dozen states. >> it's very devastating. it's all your hard work gone up in the air. >> reporter: in the west sections of yellowstone were devastate bid destructive flash floods. roads were washed away. and the park closed to the public for the first time in three decades. climate change causing the atmosphere to be warmer and wetter. making conditions ripe for these types of events. >> it was very surprising how quickly it came. >> this summer was a story of

extremes. europe had its most intense heat wave in recorded history. london set an historic all-time high of 104 degrees. back in the u.s., six 1,000-year floods occurred in a span of weeks in july and august, st. louis, dallas, and eastern kentucky, deluged with 8 to 15 inches of rain in just 24 hours. death valley received its entire years worth of rain, in just three hours. >> the footprint of climate change leaves its mark across nearly the entire u.s. parts of the west baked in the most severe heat ever recorded in the month of september. >> i never dealt with something this hot before. >> nearly 300 weather stations hitting their hottest temperatures. in places like salt lake city, reno, and sacramento. meanwhile, already extreme drought conditions in the region worsened. lake meade's water level plunged to the lowest yet.

the bureau of reclamation claiming a tier two water level for the first time ever. hurricanes roared ashore southwest florida with winds 150 miles an hour, and the fifth strongest hurricane ever to strike the united states. neighborhoods in fort myers and naples left in ruins. warmer waters are acting as jet fuel, causing the storms to rapidly intensify. just as the season was coming to a close, category one nicole became the first november hurricane to make land fall in nearly 40 years. scientists attribute this to warmer sea surface temperatures in the atlantic ocean. this year, running up to 3.5 degrees above average. >> nicole is the nail in the colin for daytona beach shores. ian came in and did all of this damage and now nicole is just putting it down. >> in upstate new york, winter arrived early when a massive

november winter snowstorm re-wrote the history books, with 80 inches of snow in buffalo burying the stadium. last year, a series of deadly cool season tornadoes ripped through the south. more than 100 reported over two weeks across seven states between thanksgiving and christmas. >> this is my house. it is just gone. >> the december twister is part of a massive week-long cross-country storm that dropped four feet of know in the southwest and blinding blizzard conditions to the upper midwest and dozens of tornados to the south. then, an historic and deadly bomb cyclone crippled half the country over the holidays. bringing with it plummeting temperatures, blizzard conditions, lasting nearly 40 hours. and 50 inches of snow. the storm pushed the city of buffalo into the record books, it's the city's snowiest start to the season ever. at least 100 inches and

counting. dylan dreyer, nbc news. >> thanks for the report. and michael mahon, the direct are of university of pennsylvania center for science, sustainability and the media and the author of "the new climate war," michael, welcome in. in a year that featured so many extreme climate events what stood out to you as being the most significant? >> thanks. it's great to be with you. we saw a little bit of everything. this past year, we saw pretty much everything that climate change has to throw at us, in the form of these amplified extreme weather events, whether it's the heat and the drought and the wildfires that we've seen out west, the unprecedented flooding events that we've seen around the country, and even these winter storms, some people think that it's somehow inconsistent that we see these snowfalls as a result of climate change and global warming but it is entirely consistent with the underlying physics, when you warm up the oceans, and lakes like the great lakes, that means

that when these storms travel over them, they're able to evaporate more moisture into the atmosphere. and that moisture is available to produce those record snowfalls that we've seen with nor'easter events, along the east coast of the u.s., that impact the city of philadelphia where i live, and especially in the great lakes, where we see these massive lake effect snows that are enhance bid human-caused warming, by climate change. >> i want to point out a "time" magazine headline that struck me this week. it's lengthy. 2022 was almost a disaster for climate change. a instead, there was hope. that refers to the passage of the climate provisions contained in the inflation reduction act. which opened up billions of dollars of funding to help the country turn away from co2-emitting fossil fuels and toward renewable energies and battery-powered vehicles and heat humps and other climate-friendly technologies. even though we see a lot of these disasters is, there a reason to be hopeful in 2023?

>> yes, we see the urgency in the deadly and costly extreme weather events and the inundation of our coasts from sea level rise and melting coasts, and there is still agency, there is still time to avert the wort impacts of climate change. and we have to be able to hold to seemingly incongruous thoughts in our minds at the same time. it can be possible that we're seeing substantial progress while there isn't yet enough progress. and that's what we saw, for example, in the most recent u.n. climate conference, in sharm el-sheik a little more than a month ago, where we didn't see the sorts of commitments that we might have wanted to see, to rapidly phasing out coal and other fossil fuels, and at the same time, we saw substantial progress when it comes to dealing with the, you know, the assistance to the developing

world, and countries that don't have the sort of infrastructure that we have, in dealing with the impacts that they're already feeling. and we saw the most aggressive climate bill ever signed into law, here in the united states, you know, the climate provisions of the inflation reduction act. which are going to make a real difference in bringing the united states back to the lead when it comes to global climate action. >> michael mann with us this afternoon, the author of "the new climate war," michael, thank you. that is going to do it for me at this busy hour. yamiche alcindor picks up the coverage next. coverage next. until i finally found new downy rinse and refresh! it doesn't just cover odors, it helps remove them up to 3 times better than detergent alone! find new downy rinse & refresh in the fabric softener aisle. the virus that causes shingles is sleeping... in 99% of people over 50. and it could strike at any time. think you're not at risk? wake up.

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so boost your bottom line by switching today. comcast business. powering possibilities. good to be with you. i'm yamiche alcindor. we have a lot to get to this hour. the death toll from the historic blizzard in buffalo, new york, continues to climb, as search and rescue operations intensify. a state of emergency