right now another winter storm is wreaking havoc in parts of the northeast after sweeping across much of the midwest and it's likely that thousands of americans will be left without electricity if the snow and winds blow through this week's winter storm of the barrel up the east coast wiped out electricity for more than six hundred twenty five thousand homes according to most recent estimates our nation's aging infrastructure is partially to blame for the high number of potter power outages this time here the so are global warming and global climate change and as climate change continues to rear its ugly head we're going to see more and more storms that will wipe out power for more and more americans so to adapt to this climate crisis should we be centralizing power and energy in america and be giving communities an even neighborhoods the ability to generate their own power and thus be more resilient joining me now for more on that is john farrell director of democratic energy at the institute for local self-reliance john welcome. thanks so much for having me thanks for joining us could you first define what energy decentralization means and how is that different from the centralized systems that

are prevalent today. you know for one hundred years we've had power systems that have been centralized the power plant is out in a remote location and the power travels from there to our homes and businesses and the idea of decentralization is basically to spread it out to generate power closer to where we use it from all the sorts of different sources and the great corollary frankly is the internet decentralizing our computing power and letting everybody have a piece of the pie are there regions of the world countries look allergies that are already decentralized. you know i would say there are areas that are already decentralizing germany and denmark for example have done a tremendous amount in order to transition both to renewable energy resources but also to the inception the control of those resources from the hands of utilities and the traditional controllers into the people and cooperatives farmers individuals now providing their own energy how does decentralization fit into a broader strategy to keep carbon in the ground. well frankly decentralization is

a way to put communities in charge of their own energy future and when communities are making decisions for themselves they're not going to pick two to build a dirty coal plant to build even a natural gas fired power plant they're going to pick renewable energy resources to power their community because it's not only a source of energy it's a source of power and control over their energy future and it's a source of economic development for the community and so i see energy decentralization is really the key to addressing climate change in a way that communities really buy into but there's a fundamental paradigm shift here i mean companies that right now by iranian nukes are coal far fired power plants or whatever could in many places and in many cases simply build a giant wind farm or build one of these giant you know heat the whole sodium solar plant plants and still be centralized still have all the customers having to get one hundred percent of their electricity from them rather than for example putting . you know p.v.

panels on the roofs of every house is that really the issue is shifting the paradigm rather than shifting the source or the both. it's you know i would say it's both and what's happened is that the paradigm shift you mention is possible because of the technology shift because wind and solar are inherently decentralized resources when you have a huge wind farm it's made up of hundreds of individual wind turbines that enough to power you know five hundred to one thousand homes when you have a huge solar array out in the desert they're building them out of the same p.v. panels that you put on residential rooftops commercial bill businesses you know the roof of your ikea store and so we have this opportunity made possible by the technology but you're right unless we have the rules set up in such a way to allow for a broad participation broad ownership we may not see that paradigm shift in the control of the energy system is it cost or is it political will that's the biggest challenge here to that. it's definitely a question of politico. well because what we found you know in debates that have

just taken place in minnesota and california and colorado and other states across the united states is that there's a real cost advantage to utilities to letting people generate their own energy you know when i put solar on my rooftop it not only powers my home but if i'm not home and using energy it powers my neighbors' homes it can save the utility money on infrastructure money and delivering energy during peak times the issue really is one of control over that energy system and what about market share for the utilities and frankly they're reluctant to give up was the centrally about one hundred year monopoly over both control of the system and control of the economic resources very often the argument is framed in the terms of either one giant monopoly highly centralized system versus or every single home is an independent power station essentially what about of an intermediate step you know every city block has its own power station or every neighborhood or community has its own you know has its own internal grid that will stabilize and balance loads and things for

people within that area and is that sort of thing being done today. you're definitely seeing that kind of development especially after hurricane sandy in the northeast and other large scale climate related disasters where communities are saying you know we can't get reliable energy from our utility companies that you know they're very centralized when the lines are cut it's long distances for them to come in and to do those repairs and the power sources are far away so they're doing what are called micro-grid which is exactly what it sounds like people creating sort of miniaturize versions of the electricity system they're doing it on college campuses like university of california san diego and they're doing it in places along the northeast you know creating housing developments creating commercial districts that will have essentially have their own backup power have their own power sources like solar to allow them to operate when the larger grid goes down that's remarkable in the half a minute we have left thoughts on how this might apply to things like food waste.

so i think the decentralized decentralizing principle really is very is the key to all of these solutions. putting communities in control of their own future whether that's energy food or waste is really the answer to waste we go from shipping out waste to landfills to having communities look at waste as a resource that they can use for recycling and economic development the same can be true with local food and the same is definitely true with with energy both in terms of the economics and the technology john farrell brilliant thank you so much for joining us tonight is a pleasure thanks so much. in other news secretary of state john kerry spoke to a group of students and government officials in indonesia on sunday about the dangers and realities of global climate change take a look when i think about the already of global climate threats i think about this . epidemics. poverty

the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. challenges that know no borders the reality is the climate change ranks right up there with every single one of them while kerry's strong words on climate change are encouraging we need to start thinking about how we can become more resilient in the face of global warming and climate change more importantly how can we get to a world where climate change and global warming aren't massive threats and where renewable energy is a powering one hundred percent of the planet and we now for more on that is dr mark zaid jacobsen professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the atmosphere and energy program at stanford university dr jacobson welcome. thank you very much for having me thanks for joining us the science is in carbon releases are leading to a warming of the planet causing climate change what's our best strategy moving forward to keep that carbon in the ground. well i think we need to start

transitioning rapidly to a state of clean and renewable energy for all purposes that's electricity transportation heating and cooling industrial processes so this means that even starting now but at least by two thousand and twenty we every new source of electricity every new transportation should be clean so when we think clean is the wind water and solar power so for electricity it's a wind turbines solar photovoltaic switch going rooftops or in power plants concentrated solar plants some even titled wave offshore which is really minor at this point even geothermal thermal power some hydro electricity existing hydro electricity for transportation electric vehicles some hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for heating and cooling we need air heat pumps that just extract heat out of the air and run on electricity and run in reverse for air conditioning and also for industry high temperature processes reduce electricity or some hydrogen in your

mind word is deef. fit into the strategy. yeah so we think that decentralization is important but it will be a combination of decentralized power plus large scale power plants because i mean you could cover all the rooftops in the united states or the world with solar and you still would need a lot more energy than you. and from the from the from the rooftops so it's really going to be a combination it's more efficient to generate electricity in centralized power plants particularly wind solar it's more arguable that you can have distributed energy and get high efficiencies the nice thing about distributed energy is lower transmission if you have power plants that are in the desert for example or in the great plains in the u.s. you have to have long distance transmission so there's a tradeoff between transmission and efficiency of these large power plants but i think you need both. and i'm assuming that the reason why solar rising every

building wouldn't be enough is because of the industry is that we're all that the power is gone well we're because we're going to be powering our in our plans to power repair the world in the u.s. individual states and countries we're converting everything not only are you going to be powering normal electricity like we do today but vehicles will be powered by electricity even if it's hydrogen will be hydrogen produced from electricity and heating and cooling and transportation so we'll need more electricity than we have today and yes so that you can if you actually add up the numbers you would still you would wouldn't have enough rooftops for example to power all the say the united states on solar p.v. on the roof so she would have enough rooftops to do that how do we get to the point where we're doing one hundred percent or you know. well it requires it's not rocket science actually we think it's actually technologically and economically feasible in fact you will save money over time by doing this but there are social and

political barricades but we do need stop to. now doing this conversion is such that least by two thousand and twenty all new sources of energy are clean and the reason this woods would save money in the long run and for two reasons one for a lot in terms of electricity when water solar have zero fuel costs are once you put up these devices or a wind turbine or solar p.v. the fuel cost is zero and so you stabilize the price over time whereas fossil fuel prices are going up over time so if we look at the ten states in the united states with the highest fraction of electricity from wind in the last ten years the price of electricity in those states went up only three cents a kilowatt hour all the other states went up four cents in a kilowatt hour and why you went up seventeen cents a kilowatt hour so this is evidence that you stabilize prices when you put up these renewable energy sources in transportation it's even better because electric vehicles are four to five times more efficient than gasoline vehicle so if you you

have collectively pay eighty cents a gallon equivalent to drive an electric car so over fifteen years if you drive fifteen thousand miles per year you will save twenty thousand dollars in fuel costs the price of electricity and gasoline both double you'll save forty thousand dollars per markable mark jacobson thanks so much for being with us. you're welcome thanks for having me on the sure thing. coming up it's time to start reading those terms and conditions it's unless you want banks in your bedroom and credit card companies hunting you down at work more on that and it's fairly take.

i would rather as questions to people in positions of power instead of speaking on their behalf and that's why you can find my show larry king now right here on r.t. question or. as a rule when i close my eyes i see people. sometimes i think in itself is a face covered by most. people in most from both sides of the barricades we can well. listen to those sometimes it feels as if all of ukraine is no.

pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today i'm sure.

in the us the rest of the news if you turn it all of a sochi winter olympics you've seen the role the corporations play in sponsoring the games during the two weeks of the games television ads are phil winter olympic athletes but you know all sorts of products from cereal to hand so but then something funny happens so as the games are over most of those athletes disappear and many of their names and faces slide back into obscurity so why is that the olympics are a huge moneymaker for corporations and the wealthy elite for two weeks olympic athletes are treated more like stocks and commodities. and he would beings and no one knows more about that and samantha were tros would proceed a contributor to the nation magazine competitor in the two thousand and six whatever one thinks is true in italy some of the walter thanks for having me thanks for joining us your title of your piece was why the olympics are a lot like the hunger games but i think that the subtitle really nails it i saw the dehumanization and corporate domination in the olympic ideal you were an olympic

athlete what did you see what are what are you trying to make you. well there's a very strong. a very large difference between the illusion of the games what's presented to the public and what they're actually about for me and i came into direct contact with this experience and my comparison of the games the olympic games the hunger games is really a lot about how a commentary and how the agenda of the games is obscured and the athletes themselves have a very strategic political and economic purpose and i see the role that they are that they play in the olympic games as similar to the people from the different districts and the hunger games you know. i was watching the ice skating i think it was you know early on and one of the leads. they were talking about how he had taken two or three years off and his country had supported him and he was able to

practice all that kind of thing. is that how it works here in the united states now actually here in the united states our system is entirely privatized you have corporations that are funding individual athletes. in my case for rising fund of the entire u.s. literacy asian so essentially you have athletes that are economically very vulnerable contracts that really stipulate what it is that they can and can't say on camera the relationship between the national governing body is the also the u.s. olympic committee the international olympic committee. between those organizations and the sponsors is one that must be preserved and so athletes not only are economically vulnerable and really lacking any other source of support outside of corporate sponsorship but they're also their hands are relatively tied when it comes to you know what what autonomy they have economically politically socially as as an athlete within this privatized system which is more the norm. those countries

where the elites are supported by their country and they're representing their country or even as amateurs or those countries where the elites are basically a commodity that a corporation. treats like you know cereal well i think the global reality of the games basically makes it so that every athlete no matter what country you're from you become a commodity however in the united states it's particularly extreme because of the fact that it's an entirely privatized system there is no government support for athletes and the norm is actually that there is a significant amount of government support for athletes so that only one is totally we actually are the only the only country competing in the olympic games that's entirely your head. again. it's incredible so what does what what does it as a as a as an olympian what does this or whatever the proper word is or is it a little bit of a little what how do you respond how do how do people respond to this what's the. what happens to people. well i mean it's

a culture that has developed within and within these organizations within the sports world in general and so as an athlete immersed in these conditions it's difficult to even be critical of that when really it's all you know a lot of these these athletes are starting at a very very young age and start of that age eleven so it's almost as though while you're at it it's difficult to get critically it's difficult to see what your actual economic systemic position is. living outside of it took me it took it took quite a while for me to kind of come to terms with what role i had taken on and not part of my life. and that's that's remarkable thank you so much samantha for coming out thanks for having me here a nice to meet you and thanks for representing our country thank you.

it's the good the bad or the very very ugly the good governor pat quinn illinois governor has made getting all of his state's residents access to paid sick leave one of his top priorities his budget team is currently putting together a bill that would allow both full and part time workers in the state of illinois to accrue to paid sick days every year according to how many hours they work on his expansive as the paid sick leave laws in other developed countries governor quinn's bill is a good start no american matter where they work should have to choose between keeping a job or going to work sick the bad bill o'reilly very monday's episode of the factor the fox news host went on an epochal rant about what he called the raw fear of america. we are a country in decline primarily because three hundred twenty million american citizens are paying attention they do not seem to be interested in the welfare of their country they are primarily interested in their own welfare once again i'm

generalizing and i have a comedy i'm not pandering here those of you watching this broadcast right now are most likely not in the ignorant category you are taking the time to watch a news program to get information and analysis but actually news viewers are not well informed in fact a recent study found that people who watch fox news i love sin form and people who don't watch any news at all bill o'reilly were really concerned about ignorant americans take his own show off the. and the very very ugly michael dunn fresh off his miss trial on charges of the first degree murder of seventeen year old jordan davis the so-called loud music killer is already embroiled in a fresh controversy for the state attorney's office has released dunn's jailhouse calls to his fiance and one of those calls he can be heard saying that he's the real victim. i know you're in that dating i know you get something that you

wish you hadn't had you say you get what you had given and. now i know you think i'm like i'm like i'm here. with no one picked up by. i don't know. like the attack i'm the victim my and the think that i would make them do. michael dunn is alive and jordan davis is dead but done things people should feel sorry for that is for sure.

let's talk about those pesky terms and conditions last month i had a chance to talk with john mcafee the founder the popular back of the computer security programs we talked about how people don't usually read the terms and conditions that come along with the smartphone apps that they download on their phones they just kind of click that button and say yes i read it but mcafee didn't read the terms and conditions of the bank of america smartphone application and what he told us he saw was pretty shocking check this out. it was amazing and bank of america if you would think you know what what do they need. you give the bank of america application which is the remote banking application their permission to turn on your phone and make phone calls at your expense and without telling to turn on your camera and your microphone without telling you at any time and to transmit pictures and sound files. while you may not exactly be signing your life away to a bank of america you're giving the big bank

a great deal of access to your private life whenever it wants and that it's pretty weird and bank of america isn't the only big banker corporation using terms and conditions to barge in on your private life fellow big bank capital one just send out a new contract update with new terms and conditions to its credit cardholders as the los angeles times puts it the company makes clear it can drop by any time it pleases you terms and conditions. the bank may contact you in any matter we'd choose and that includes emails calls texts and faxes ok that's not terrible but then comes the part where capital one says it might make personal visits which can be at your home or your place of employment so say your capital one credit card holder and you forgot to make a monthly payment or they just want to talk to you according to the terms and conditions that you just agreed to capital one entend they want can just show up at

your office arrested to make that payment or whatever conversation they want to have and if you've left work for the day back representatives could even come to your home and if you're lucky enough to avoid a personal visit from capital one the bank can still call you at all hours of the night without revealing its identity that's because the new terms and conditions reported by the los angeles times also according to l.a. times say that the bank may modify or suppress caller id and similar services and identify ourselves on these services in any manner we choose. many people want interpret this to mean the capital one could trick you into thinking you're getting a call from your doctor's office or your mother in law and it's all perfectly legal invasive nature of bank of america and capital one's terms and conditions are another example of how corporations are running amok in america and there's not much to stop they're also symptoms of a larger problem. fascism in the twenty first century historically when you talk

about fascism you think about mussolini as a replacement of the elected parliament with corporate representatives back in the one nine hundred thirty s. after all he invented the term fascism to describe the merger of corporate and state interests and today we're in talk about fascism one typically talk about corporations buying off politicians in washington and taking control of our democracy. but what about fascism that doesn't even involve governments other than to inforce contractors we're went to see in a new era of fascism or corporations are creating intrusive and overbearing terms and conditions that customers click to and agree to without even read. as a result corporations in america have acquired kinglike powers while we're the poor serfs with must abide by their every rule or else. but enough is enough. it's time for us all to start saying hey wait a minute we need to have

a national conversation and establish clear guidelines on what corporations can and can't do in those neverending lists of terms and conditions and we need to put those guidelines into law so bank of america can't spy on you in your bed in capital one can't come running into your workplace sometimes a big government is needed to help americans take back their lives and this is definitely one of those types. and that's the way it is night tuesday feb eighteenth twenty fourteen and don't forget democracy begins with you get out there get active take your.

cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want. i've got a quote for you. it's pretty tough. as they wait sob story. because

this guy like you would smear that guy instead of working for the people most issues in the mainstream media are working for each other right right was leisure to fight. the good rather.

larry king the biggest name in college stan lee what makes a good superhero they have stepped floors because even if i hate to say this but even i am flawed everybody is you and stan i know it's hard to believe joanie said to me if you want to quit before you do write one book the way you'd like to do with the worst that can happen is he'll fire you when you want to quit anyway and that's what i did the fantastic four plus all of our superheroes mostly have been american to want to get a chinese one we're also working on an indian one shock right i'm working on i can't announce it yet but i'm working on a latino superhero all next on larry king now.