there's some very strict censorship which doesn't let us understand the true future and that's more hoping for accidents in japan and assurances over radiation safety that are proving inaccurate. and disasters like this begs the question how can this be prevented but we're going to take it one step further where's the heat for alternative energy plans that would prevent these issues from happening in the first place. or asians don't want to ever be held accountable for their actions and especially in other countries all of the way for chevron a new york judge has saved them from their nine point five billion dollar fall in the amazon for now but that is pocket change so when corporations look after

profits who looks after the public. it's wednesday march sixteenth eight pm in washington d.c. i'm christine frizz out watching r.t. . we start this evening with the worsening crisis in japan where throughout the day smoke could be seen building out of one of the nuclear reactors reactor number four at the fukushima new nuclear power plant after a fire there this in addition to an earlier fire and explosion and high levels of radiation seeping into the air for days there is a bubbling undercurrent of anxiety and fear of the japanese people knowing what to possibly expect next artie's ive or bennett has more. this queue of people is a kilometer long they're trying to stockpile what food is left in sendai most

shelves are empty now the people here are getting ready to hide fearing an invisible killer radiation explosions at the fukushima daiichi power plant the country on the cusp of nuclear meltdown one damaged reactors outer casing and the final two reactors have now lost cooling capability to radiation levels near the plant at four hundred times the announced normally of salt in a year there are fears it will spread across the country. it's the same information and footage being broadcast on every channel you have just a guess many things for them and other places you can get them in the japanese sources there's some very strict censorship which doesn't let isn't to stand the true picture and that's not helping. residents prepared to go to ground for news crews a fleeing this team from new zealand is heading finegan said. the flights from that sucker in tokyo are already fully booked for the next two days the exodus has begun

here on the west coast. has already closed. already turning up trying to get on the next flight out of the country such desperation to escape. we have to wait until morning to get the next why to harm our roads we have to wait outside but we will because we want these paid the radiation sun though have nowhere to run to this was once a village those who lived here are returning to find there's simply nothing left the devastation just goes on and on. more than half a million people have been left homeless their belongings swallowed up and spat out by the tsunami relief workers are searching for survivors all along japan's ravaged coast was now let's see if they vary fifteen thousand they're already been rescued but over seven thousand the still missing and some parts haven't even been reached yet over two and a half thousand relief centers are still packed and will be for several weeks it's

cold and uncomfortable but this is one of the few places these people can get food and shelter huge parts of the country have been completely wiped out at the threat of nuclear meltdown means they could still be more to come other than it artsy the cartridge of. so here we have this country this devastated country still reeling from the earthquake from the tsunami and there is so much sadness and so much confusion as the people continue to search for friends and relatives their government is telling them to stay inside to shelter in place to tape up their windows did you see what i just saw some of the pictures that have been coming from japan for days so that many of these people don't know how windows to tape and they certainly don't have shelters to shelter in place there are no homes for so many you know i think back to friday when this all happened you turn on most of the news stations here in this country or in japan and you hear this word over and over

containment maybe we'll evacuate a few thousand people just to be safe there's a slight problem but it's being contained at first almost no one was saying the other seaward chair noble now i can assure you i am not a rocket scientist or a scientist of any sort but we knew on friday at least three of these reactors were under stress we knew at one of them radiation levels were a thousand times what they normally are and yet we heard it's not that serious no need to be concerned it's being contained. come on people this is an area where there are one hundred million people living in an area the size of california of course there is reason to be concerned why were the owners of this power plant or the government for that matter letting the people know it's because they weren't telling the truth so can we ever trust corporations to look after public interest turns out not usually and certainly not in this case so now two hundred thousand

people have been evacuated and the risks of health issues have not gotten better they've gotten worse don't these people don't all people deserve better. just saying. i want to take a look now at the issue of trust within japan and how it's affecting the people there are two correspondent arena reports. with reactors at the fukushima nuclear power plants having gone up in smoke fears about a possible meltdown loom large japanese authorities give assurances there is no in the thread to tokyo residents but past evidence suggests they are not to be trusted completely over many years the nuclear industry and the regulators in japan but also in every society every country that operates nuclear power you find consistently that there's a lack of transparency a lack of openness maybe they just think i think arrogantly but that's too much

information why should we provide that information so i think the situation in japan is absolutely critical in fact just five years ago the plant operator talk your local power company or tepco admitted to pull supplying temperature readings for cooling materials at fukushima as early as in one thousand nine hundred five and with the country now facing a major disaster the government will be careful in choosing its words. i don't want things going to happen if the judge is going. or what they're trying to change here are. also the accountable to other countries and other nations which in two thousand and two the government disclosed that at least twenty nine cases of damage to the reactor had been swept under the carpet that incident because presidents and some senior officials to quit in scandal in two thousand and three seventeen tepco operated plants ordered to be shut down again because the operator lied about what

was happening at these sites so when the japanese officials put on a somber face but give assurances everything's fine not everyone's convinced particularly when the country's already got enough other problems to deal with if you don't have the emergency resources if your employees grow. it has been destroyed and the further you go away from the react for the more difficult the more they push the population settlements are the more difficult it is to evacuate you don't want to panic the probably to get them to soap of r q eight a maybe unwittingly put themselves in harm's way but when thousands of lives are on the line such a policy can easily be counterproductive there's a growing distrust among people in japan that the information they're receiving is not informing us to the extent that we would like it to when it doesn't reduce anik it just makes people all the more uncertain when he can't trust for the information

they're being given as it stands japan appears to be balancing on the brink of a nuclear meltdown and though the official version of events implores everyone to stay calm history shows not all their words could be taken at face value in tokyo it goes r.t. so when catastrophes like this happen there are a few questions that inevitably seem to come up first how could this have been prevented and second what can we do moving forward to make sure it doesn't happen again and some of the proposed solutions are impulsive others very specific but what's largely missing is a bigger idea some forward thinking that will make it so people don't need to rely on power plants like the ones in japan having so many issues save in cali is a professor and a physicist from oxfordshire in the u.k. and he does have one of these big ideas it's called fusion earlier i talked to stephen it's only why this process quit and the world's reliance on resources such as all the oil coal and natural gas. well you can use an energy is

probably the perfect way to make energy except when it's very hard floor. it's perfect to lose thirty million years worth of fuel in the sea water there's. almost no waste products so that it's very environmentally friendly it doesn't produce any c o two. has a very low accident potential. it essentially has no dangerous accidents but it's very hard to do because you have to reproduce the conditions in the center of a star you have to be at about one hundred fifty million degrees that's kind of hard to do well i mean you say this is hard to do but think about you know thirty forty years ago when the idea of going to the moon seems not only hard but impossible i mean these are things that the science is starting to develop i know there's

a project going on right now called i to her or the international thermonuclear experimental reactor i know this is being developed by several countries in the south of france but it it's not all the most advanced nuclear fusion reactor is this a first step at least yes yeah absolutely so in my book archery here is not switch it is the european experiment which will be superceded by eater. or eiter or. the in my the birch tree we managed to produce sixteen major what's a fusion power from our machine it's called jets and inside the machine the temperature in the middle was one hundred seventy million degrees and we hold it stable e. steady and the fusion reactions took place inside there this is a remarkable achievement and it ever since we did that in one nine hundred ninety seven we've known that we can do fusion. and so after those results ninety ninety

seven of the wards come together. seven partners to this big machine. and russia will show us exactly what is needed to make a fusion power plant it will be a fusion plot but introduces not gender geas though it were not outlawed i want to talk more than just about the science and knowledge aspect of this concept you know it seems to me if you take a look back you know in the forty's and fifty's we saw the best and the brightest working in the nuclear sector now many people devoting their lives that some of this seemingly you know my new concepts that actually have helps technology move forward now fast forward to today the best and the brightest where are they i know in this country in the united states they're either on wall street or they're developing i phones which are very lovely these i phones but they don't necessarily increase our chance of survival talk about this concept of life people are not getting more into music. i think there was

a perception you know that this was going to be almost impossible to do maybe children or wills election to be able to do it but i think we're getting closer and in the last ten years since we've done it we've seen young people start to flock to the field because they realize we're almost there at some point the world will be parabolic fusion there's no question absolutely no question it will be by fusion we question is will it be powered by twenty years or two hundred years won't we have to make it assumes possible that we need it now i was stephen callow professor and physicist. i want to turn back the clock now just for a few days and take a deeper look into what was known and what was not known about the severity of the nuclear crisis crisis of course there's still a lot that's not known but there were some simple dots that should have been connected that were not i'm not just talking about some of the media outlets in

japan here in the united states the mainstream media it turns out has many vested interests in the way it reports what's happening and it may come at the safety of the people in japan earlier i spoke to our to contributor and investigative journalist wayne madsen as to why the american mainstream media is downplaying the disaster. what's going on here is we've got general electric even after the comcast merger still has a significant a stake in n.b.c. we see the nuclear lobby through the nuclear energy institute and all the other page filled in his town putting a full court press on every possible media outlet in addition to members of congress to make sure that nothing happens to affect the growth of nuclear power plants in this country and president obama i would add not only has jeffrey immelt as it is jobs and competitiveness is advisor on white house panel but he took a lot of money from exelon

a chicago based nuclear power plant company so we have all kinds of conflicts of interest basically what admiral said many decades ago get the corporate boardroom out of the newsroom now we see the effects of that this even three mile island in one nine hundred seventy nine and that corporate media did a fairly good job even as they were being stonewalled by people like governor dick thornburgh of pennsylvania who waited three days before telling pregnant women to get out of the area. who are they now going to and asking for his thoughts on this dick thornburgh i mean the the these you can always rent an expert you can rent a shill they come some are cheap some are more expensive but that's what's going on here right now you look at the washington post and warren buffett we know with his you know financial portfolios probably invested heavily in some of these companies the washington post running op ed after op ed pro-nuclear an industry nuclear

energy industry even in the free paper that the post prints that you pick up at the metro station they had to opinions both were pro-nuclear this is what the nuclear power in industry and lobbies doing right now they're really pushing against any bad news from japan even though everything we get from japan is bad news. right now that that's totally true it's really interesting to see all of these interests but how how do we move forward i mean there was even if i understand right i think on capitol hill today that separate straight hearings on nuclear energy we've got the corporate media certainly they've got to pay their bills how do we continue to move in this direction when anything everything seems to be connected make sure the regulators who the f.c.c. grants licenses broadcast licenses to those who broadcast over the public airwaves not cable but the public airwaves make sure there's they're meeting the common good the public interest they're not right now they should be under pressure but unfortunately these regulatory agencies like the nuclear regulatory commission are

in the hands of the corporate interests that they're supposed to regulate and govern so i wouldn't hold my breath on the f.c.c. applying pressure on these broadcasters but that's one way that they could be pressured is to threaten their broadcast licenses this is what happens on every even down to the local news level on local issues if it has any effect on the corporate interests the corporate ties we've seen stories spiked we've seen stories we've seen retractions in some cases and this is what goes on unfortunately this is not an isolated case of this happening and people like rachel maddow and edge shots on him it's n.b.c. i know they're trying to report the news but they ought to look to see what happened to keith olbermann they have a line if they cross it i think they could be gone and i was argue contributor and investigative journalist why not them. alone and stop cut coverage of the problem that japan's fukushima nuclear plant well it's causing some panic in other parts of

this country despite assurances that we face no danger or radiation are you correspondent ramona linda looks at the coverage and how the nuclear preparedness business is doing right now. she's alert japanese officials now warning of a possible meltdown one hundred seventy thousand people have been evacuated during multiple explosions this could trigger a worst case scenario be full blown meltdown meltdown meltdown i think the nuclear catastrophe in japan are being shared by people on america's west coast up and down california reports of people taking extra precautions in case a radioactive cloud is able to make it a couple thousand miles across the pacific people have been stockpiling these i intend pills in order to protect their bodies from radioactive exposure now one of those people that is taking that extra precaution we met at a health food store this is airing gonzalez now tell us why you felt that it was so

necessary to go out and buy these pills just for my own protection and i've been following several subscribers on you tube it broke the news early so i guess i was able to you. whole foods in the crowd in i was able to get a hold of several. bottles of the potassium iodine pills so i can distribute to my family and friends besides the pills have you heard of any other people taking extra precautions to prepare for possible radioactive pop coming this way yes i've heard saran wrap in their doors and windows loading up on rice and grains storing water repeatedly we've been hearing from u.s. government officials who say that america poses no problem however we also heard from the u.s. surgeon general recently who was here in california and asked about the possible teen years of radioactivity coming to california when asked if people were ok to buy plenty of these i think outlet she said that she did not think that he was overreacting and she thought he was completely fine for people to be prepared

earlier. we have to be prepared we've learned from any. prepared. up and down the street we've been getting reports from pharmacies that the pills meant to protect against radioactive exposure have been flying off store shelves the same can be said for online retailers where told customers they may have to wait weeks for the next shipment now that doesn't mean that you can still find them online e-bay selling ten dollars bottles for hundreds of dollars these days just because they know that the demand is there so there's definitely people who are profiting off of this panic in los angeles. r.t. all right well let's talk now about playing by the rules who has to end who doesn't have to well we have yet another example of a major corporation an oil giant in fact that has shown the world it intends to

play by the rules only when it suits them chalking right and it's not just in this country that lobbyists and i dare say even members of the judicial branch hold the power sometimes u.s. corporations take power abroad are dishonest our theater going to take a look at a major scandal that has dragged on for years and includes one of america's biggest oil giants. a u.s. oil giant and tribal communities in a small country in a legal death grip for almost two decades is considered to be one of the largest environmental disasters in the world on record the defendant chevron the accuser am a victim of pollution south american ecuador country tinier and the u.s. state of nevada local tribes in these amazon forests are battling for compensation for damage caused by texaco a company scooped up by chevron billions of gallons of toxic waste dump onto ecuador soil and waters causing over fourteen hundred people have got it cancer and

thousands more have got of other illnesses this year and it could dorian cork a group that chevron must pay nine and a half billion dollars in damages though it's certainly a large amount of money you're being this is actually something that could certainly be absorbed by chevron just is b.p. is going to. get twenty billion or more. practically destroying the gulf of mexico but absorbing is what one new york judge chose not to do by stepping up for chevron and blocking the ecuadorian courts ruling from being enforced in the u.s. or worldwide the judge cited harm to chevron's business. so why would a new york judge meddle in a legal battle chevron initially insisted take place in ecuador i say it's a u.s. company they have huge interests here they're capable of very severe pressure as well against those that wish in any way to harm their interests and of course they

have friends in a lot of high places while ecuador is tribal members certainly don't says great pilaster investigative journalist and filmmaker greg says chevron has been calling all the shots in the case they try the case in the united states so they sent it down to ecuador they said now we don't. like the case in ecuador because we got a bad ruling so now try it in the united states now the multinational corporation is accusing ecuadorian villagers and farmers of trying to rob the company's pockets we have been seeing this fraud go on for the last twenty years we continue to uncover it we will continue to pursue several options both internationally and here in the u.s. courts but legal experts cite double standards dumping toxic waste on american soil is a crime that no company would be allowed to get away with corporations don't want to ever be held accountable for their actions and especially in other countries

absolutely there is a double standard if ecuador won the case a legal precedent would be set chevrons and other oil giants biggest nightmare that they have to pay in ecuador they have to pay in mexico are going to pay in nigeria they're going to pay in indonesia where ever they have gone and destroyed and spoiled the environment they want to kill this right now so it never comes up again anywhere but the battle between the oil giants and ecuador looks to rejoin for many more years years some may not have doors defense team says as many as ten thousand more people could be a cancer but the damages are not taken care of immediately and place it in our hearts. this case has been looked on by other oil companies as a victory sign that money trumps well everything but so many others around the world see this as a sick joke in which people from other countries not only are worth less than people in america but also worthless and the growing mountain of profit these

companies keep making earlier i spoke with han sharp he's the coordinator of the clean up ecuador campaign amazon watch is only what's most concerning about this case involving shelf. after nearly eighteen years of litigation the case that's been. litigated more than any case in history probably i mean we're talking hundreds and thousands of pages of documents tens of thousands of samples that have been taken at sites that were operated by texaco which is chevron's predecessor company after all of this time and now a ruling from ecuador who are after all this time chevron is continuing just a scorched earth legal political. and p.r. offensive to evade accountability what people in ecuador continue to get sick people in ecuador continue to die of oil related illness cancer children they're still don't have clean drinking water eighteen years later it's just it's

a travesty and let's not forget it was several that asked for this case to be moved to ecuador perhaps they thought they could buy the people off of that in my benefit them obviously you know the case then moved to aqua door and it still ruled against them and as you mentioned they're now on a p.r. blitz against what's happening there but one of their main arguments that i want you to respond to is that chevron wasn't exactly responsible it was the oil company texaco which chevron later bought talked to me and so our viewers that doesn't hold water. it's an argument that they've made in certain contexts but they haven't made in other contexts because from a legal standpoint they they've been laughed out of court and they've tried to make this argument for chevron to say that they can take on all the assets that texaco represents but not take on the liabilities which they were very well aware of when they purchased and absorbed the company is just ridiculous my friend and colleague

tosa soltani from amazon watch was actually at the two thousand and one chevron annual shareholder meeting to basically warn the company of the kind of liability they were about to take on by absorbing texaco they knew very well and the current c.e.o. of chevron john watson was in fact the guy who really was it was the architect of the takeover of texaco so it's just a ludicrous argument what about this this judge in new york you know that's the way you are making stepping in and making this decision how can this happen. well it is kind of mind boggling and right now i think you know the case is is on appeal in ecuador and going through the proper process the verdict that came down from ecuador ecuadorian courts is one hundred eighty eight page ruling that relied mostly on chevron's own evidence on samples taken by the company over the course of

this you know very long trial and now we've got a new york judge in the same court that chevron argued ten years ago to get out of making this ruling that the judgment cannot be enforced can't be enforced here in the u.s. he's issued a preliminary injunction against that verdict or against the force and of the verdict but it's an extraordinary overreach and i think an abuse of power by a judge basically you know the job of deciding whether or not a particular company or even a sector of the economy deserves extraordinary legal protections is a matter for congress not for the courts you know i think actually increasingly we're going to see chevron shareholders telling management that it's time for them to put this horrific controversy behind them and step up to the plate take

responsibility for the devastation and door and pay up and actually provide some relief to the communities that have suffered so much to enrich the company that was hunch on coordinator of clean up ecuador campaign at amazon writes and that's going to do it for now but for more on the stories we cover go to r.t. dot com slash usa or you tube dot com slash r.t. america and christine for south connect. hamar been here broadcasting live from washington d.c. coming up today on the big picture.