just ten years on the project there is still yes a long way to go but supporters are determined this grand green dream will work because unlike walls made of stone and concrete this wall is made with love and light which is the only walls truly worth building when you're watching the hawks. wonder what. the playing field with this would. be the bottom. line what they like you know what i got. was that we. would. be. welcome or when watching the hawks i am a robot or sometimes have a thought. this is the kind of well i love to see yes this is also a fun show to have just not have miserable things to talk about i'm really excited

about it and i think this is one of the coolest things that we've seen as far as ecology and a whole continent involving numerous countries coming together and so the result is that this plan was to plan this great wall of trees it was going to be ten miles wide and ultimately forty three hundred fifty miles long and what it does have bisects about a dozen countries but it runs about senegal in the west and then just to djibouti in the east but the biggest problem with growing something of this size and this scope is desertification so where places were. places where. it's much harder now. no one's going to cultivate. things like that but plans change and they realized it's not just about the individual trees it's about how to.

change. bringing in. one story about an australian visitor you could change the land up a little bit like this and then that would have. been carried on like. two decades in. the lead environmental special global environment. quote it is not necessarily a physical wall but rather a mosaic of land use practices that ultimately will meet the expectations of it has been transformed into this kind of metaphorical thing they're changing the land for the better in order to create. a metaphor. and so that's where that's interesting so it's the african union and the united nations food and agriculture organization. to this sort of africa flagship initiative. and aggregation certification and we use that as these things are.

learning how to row in these areas where they haven't. because what they've they've talked about such an issue is twelve million acres of the great. projects in nigeria about thirty million acres of drought resistant trees were planted across. and a whopping thirty seven million acres of land have been restored in ethiopia and for those of us who are in our age group. saying we remember what ethiopia was there was drought there was famine. here we are to a point where they're bringing that back they're bringing not just bring them food as it was through our generation but we've gotten past the we can just bring them. making it able to grow food and being able to be affordable for everyone not just themselves and that's the thing is like you can't just rely on philanthropy all the time you can't just rely. because i think the upper one percent of this world kind

of feels like well if i just given enough money and throw enough money at a problem that doesn't there's much more beyond that and there's a hundred different things that this kind of idea of this wall improves but i here's a couple of them that they list on their website that goes along with what the u.n. wanted to list in terms of like how they want to change and better make the environment i think is by like twenty thirty twenty fifty. one of them as they are growing improve water security and it's also improvement for women too because now when you have these trees growing you have these new practice being done there when the girls don't have to spend hours a day fetching water because the trees will naturally kind of keep the water in the region. growing fertile land that's obviously one. land is one of the many humanities most precious resource this project does that it also creates jobs it creates green jobs giving incomes to families across the aisle i mean that's a huge thing right there when you're building and creating jobs up this that's

monstrously. and then finally. it's also starting to it's creating sustainable consumption patterns basically. people can grow enough to be there so you don't have to rely so much. imports of. exactly incredible it truly is i wish we were building that kind of a wall along the southern border that. earthquakes tsunamis and other natural disasters can be incredibly devastating nature's fury even in today's age of technology and human ingenuity is still unmatched even fire owns. standards of destruction while witnessing nature's wrath in the moment is truly frightening oftentimes the aftermath of such an event can be just a scary in face of the loss of infrastructure and life and it's those nervous moments in which goodness most often shines through and march the state of nebraska here in the united states had a bomb dropped on it in the form of

a bomb cyclon the cause more than one billion dollars in damages to states from the to the state from a very rapid rainfall and heavy snow melt this included over four hundred million and last crops for a state known for its farm and livestock dependence but thankfully nebraska has friends willing to help friends troxel lost a lot of hay farmers from my home state of wisconsin drove to pen to all the way to farmers in pennsylvania were seen driving caravans across america's highways and byways delivering food supplies and lots and lots of hay to nebraskans to help them in the time of need kevin and kendra schmidt organized a supply trip to nebraska from stratfor wisconsin after a trip they told the media quote we started off with only two trucks and trailers and at the end of the day we ended up with a truck full of hay personal goods and feed for farmers it feels good to help somebody that is that most definitely does to those farmers we salute

wow that's a really neat story i think this is something that it sounds sort of cheesy being that i'm from wisconsin but it's true if you grew up there and you know this about the midwest and you know this there's just something very cultural that when things happen we don't think twice about you know when something happens you say what do you need we're going to go find out if we have it or someone else says it will bring it we sort of don't wait especially in terms of farmers and we don't wait for these things to happen it's a community effort nobody's competing with each other and this sort of capitalist world you know agribusiness beyond that there are these people who've got. their livelihood and everybody works together and what you see here is literally people are taking their own trucks their own things and saying look i have a little extra why don't we. and i think this is one of those things that really is what we do need to see more of i think the media doesn't show this stuff but i know it happens all the time and that's one of the stories about these is that this

happens all the time this is what we do when one community needs something. other and i often wonder why the media is so. negative. you know they kind of leave it up to local media every now and again but they don't they don't feel good they're only allowed to go there. but the local but we're never going to care about basil which is one of the reasons i like doing these shows like this i mean when you look at the damage that the brass were talking point three billion. that includes. four hundred forty nine million in damages to roads levees infrastructure four million crop losses four hundred million lost. what these people are doing i mean just. lost one hundred percent of their hey hey one of them my mom and dad had

a horse farm went to high school one of the bass crops running a farm industry dealing with animals and farming you need. a new. goes. animal treatment whatever you say and whether it's. one of these cattle are there for. these kinds of things literally animals starve and one of the things you talk to any real farmer not a corporate. farmer. seeing their animals starve no matter what those animals are going to. that's not what they want to do and so this is the kind of thing that this is food for those animals you know it's not you know it's not just about your pork chops and your cheeseburgers you know they're saving their lives also i'd like it's pointed out that tyrell really doesn't like cows of course you go to their little bit of stamkos but. it was just somebody still really is

that they had to say. you know look i mean i love saying this because you know you mentioned it earlier tab farmers know farmers there they know that they're all you know their lives are dependent made sure and when nature turns around and bites you like it has been through quite a change they're going to be there for support they're going to say hey you know what we have to bring it to nebraska that's what twenty six thirty hours they had to leave their homes to go boo this incredible story and a lot of people to you would see because they were they caught it like a. viral video shows up it just happened that you know somebody somebody was driving and saw and that's the only reason i saw it and because there isn't anything aside from a few local news reports they don't do have they just yeah i mean we try to even things out on here certain days can be worse than others but to me and most times why wasn't even the need of these farmers i brassica should have been brought out

but that's the thing it's not just about your fun whether graphics and will or will not whether cause a huge huge issue for my commute to work but really understand how it affects everybody and i understand i think this is another one of those things that you can understand where your food comes from if you understand how things work you know to back up what you were saying. loretta meyers a lycoming county pennsylvania one of the farmers bringing food there from pennsylvania she actually said if it's not this what they want to bring down with them if it's not monetary it's cleaning supplies that it's not cleaning supplies. it could be food supplies we're getting a little bit of everything from a little bit of everybody we are farmers farmers help farmers everyone should be taking that lee yeah we are a community and the community of support one of those things called the wall before one of the sixteen volunteers who made the trip to nebraska said we had some flooding issues here in wisconsin but it wasn't as bad as what we saw in nebraska

was ten times worse than we got on that the other thing you can have your badly yeah you have flooding yes these things can affect you but when you look and say look i made it through this you have it harder i can help you you know it's a simple idea of paying it forward that's the pay it forward let's help each other at the end of the day is not the most important thing to go to see good examples already as we go to break off watchers don't forget to let us know what you think of the topics we've covered on facebook twitter and you tube and see our poll shows that are. coming up with the walls brings us the good news world literacy in artie's turn of the chavez brings us some extraordinary news that in new york the state government yes is actually fighting back against traffic congestion some plastic trash actually pass something it's incredible all right stay tuned to watch it go hawks.

join me every thursday on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see that. what politicians do something to. put themselves on the line they get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president. some want to be rich. that's why. this is what the three of them deeply. i'm interested always in the waters of our. friendship. after the previous stage of my career was over everyone wondered what i was going to do next the ball different clubs on one hand it is logical to sort of go from

fields where everything is familiar on the other i want to the new challenge and the fresh perspective and i'm used to surprising. or not if you think. i'm going to talk about football not for you or else you think i was going to do it . by the way what is it that sliding here. social security accounts should have a mandatory one percent of all stocks bonds for x. transactions should go into social security so that every individual will say when they become eighteen they've got fifty sixty seventy thousand dollars and there that they can go spend on college if they want to that's a that is a that is an extra analogy of this economy that's being recycled repurposed regenerated into an ecosystem an economy that is like more mimics that of nature.

now if there was a crack in the seas to do crack when i was a local my day he was like a bust at the so you know i got like what i needed when i was a baby but i had a big chose. there's always playing single mothers in african-american communities ever since slavery. i think it's more of these teenagers having kids in you can expect a fourteen or fifteen year old first daughter now order for him to be a father and he said check out. she lost her place and i told her my car and breaking down and i was unable to get to work on time so they let me go with my paycheck that i bring home and i have only enough to pay my car insurance and i think gas in my car. workers

are the workers. literacy the ability to read and write is one of the most important life skills needed to thrive in today's modern world according to you nasco the united nations education scientific and cultural organization people with poor literacy skills are twice as likely to be unemployed they make thirty to forty percent less than there are literate coworkers and across the world sixty sixty to eighty percent of those in prison have below average literacy skills as of twenty eight hundred nearly seven hundred fifty million people across the globe still don't have the ability to read and write on the flipside for the first time in human history literacy is no longer in the confines of the rich and powerful but accessible to the masses from

e-books to the good old fashioned library card never before have books and the skills to read them but easier to get once a amazon according to the organization for economic cooperation and development it was found that today a mere seventeen percent of the world's population is a literate while back in eight hundred twenty only twelve percent of the population were literate as they could read and write one of the most compelling and successful ways people globally have increased literacy within their families is through the shared experience of reading so hop watchers let's celebrate this upward trend in literacy and discover some of the additional ways individuals and groups are sharing the. gift of literacy. incredible joy from the eighteen hundreds to yesterday that incredible news i'm so happy about that i've also heartbroken that there's seventy percent or that any of the seven hundred seven hundred twenty million four hundred twenty million. and even two three years ago what they were estimated was that eight hundred million so we've got now about fifty million and

over the last couple of years and part of that like when you look at the numbers of you say late generation to generation we've been getting more and more literate it really is a power struggle because when you talk about twenty school all of the books we didn't have libraries it wasn't until really carnegie started coming in building these public libraries that you'll see across small towns and really building a structure and have a university is where they were public people there weren't library circle to go to so what books you had is what books you had and if you couldn't read them you couldn't read them because they weren't schools either a school system and part of that is why there was that was a twelve percent and it's literally everyone right at the top because education literacy access to books those were things that were only allowed to the very elite to the very rich to the very powerful and keeping those away from people was how you kept people working and lousy jobs that were dangerous it's knowledge is power you want to maintain power and that's the thing it's like i'm really excited to see these numbers and it's put is part of

a good show that the and that's why it's so important we have to protect that that's why it's so important that we have people out there protecting the information and keeping information to the public not just hoard it at the top. and one of those people who is. lovely and always wonderful dolly parton little did you know so earlier this year her literacy program which is called imagination library they donated it's one hundred nothing in the book to the library of congress so she started this charity back in one thousand nine hundred six as a tribute to her father is very hard working a lot if you know anything about her by. story but he never learned to read or write he didn't get to go to school couldn't because that where it was and what she said it's so important to me because if you can teach children to read they could dream and if you can dream you can be a success and i'm kind of and you can see that in the numbers and there are so obviously if not reading and not being able to read and write puts you in this in

this case and being able to is this gift and one of the things that she said that's why it's so important in julie is because you would like i mean we both know what we couldn't do the jobs we do if we couldn't read in your sleep you can't do anything you can't drive a car if you can't read read signs it's also a medical issue there are health issues if you can't read a label on a medicine if you can't read instructions if you can't communicate it's it's a problem with language and reading is the most powerful tools human beings need to truly change in their lives in the make their lives better you know best of so important and when you see i mean the fact that you even have you would not have any quality of literacy in percent of women globally were literate so around the time of it later than i was born up to eighty three per grade a very percent literacy until you walk as that literacy rates for men are still at around ninety percent across the board and only one in four countries have

a literacy rates for women above ninety percent and this is this is part of it goes back to whether it's teaching a girl to read or making getting water from your village closer these fundamental make a huge impact and literally make everything better and lower crime i mean like what else do you need to know reading is good it really looks good good for. cleaning your clothes and. there's a neat little program called suburban area that some organizations have actually tar i did up by those areas where families as you said as important can read together the long list of the more literacy coalition i love that. they created a lot of laundry in literacy kids consisting of items such as a sofa for parents told to sit together a colorful alphabet rug an open facing bookshelf an assortment of children's books and a set of four colorful puppet animals please let's get that in the water rescues anyone who's ever been in a laundromat can be one of most depressing places in the world new people can sit while their clothes are getting washed and read and learn with their kids so

important please keep literacy strong that's how we how we have power in this world where. i am now a bit of good because they're based on the planet of york city and they move to help the big apple's infrastructure and environment the new york state legislature just agreed to and passed a new budget deal that includes a ban get this single use plastic bags and the new tax on traffic congestion artie's america hurt the america's true chavez has more. after weeks of negotiations in new york state legislature and governor cuomo signed off on a one hundred seventy five billion dollar budget that includes a ban on single use plastic bags a manhattan mansion tax and a groundbreaking plan to charge anybody driving into manhattan honk if you hate taxes now drivers who cross into manhattan below sixty first street will be hit with the nation's first congestion pricing fees starting at the end of two thousand and twenty eight the drivers will be charged for electronic readers that are

automatically assessing tolls affecting the estimated seven hundred thirty one thousand drivers who travel into manhattan daily wow i didn't know that that would be interesting as a death through hopefully it allows less congestion because it gets pretty intense at all times. while similar initiatives have been adopted in other cities including london stockholm and singapore new york lawmakers say the plan must not enough money to support fifteen billion dollars in capital improvements over the next five years the city's m.t.a. will create a review board tasked with determining total amount depending on the time of day along with the exemption. the funds will be dedicated to upgrading the city's transit system as you know the subways. and the bridges and roads and everything and i'm sure upstate too so i think infrastructure is very important. the new provision also includes the ban of single use plastic bags that are found at grocery stores which often make their way into waterways and oceans displace

schickel over i mean even the it wasn't that way i know i sound old but when i was young there was not plastic in the ocean and now it's gotten out of hand new york will join california and hawaii as the only states in the country with such legislation the ban which is expected to go into effect march two thousand and twenty will apply to most single use plastic bags provided by supermarkets and other stores i do think that is a good thing we see too much plastic on the streets and i think it could help the environment and it could help the prices i'm out of plastic that we waste everything on the provision allows individual counties to opt into a five cent fee for paperless bags with two cents going to local governments and three cents going to the states environmental protection fund yes good save the turtles susi susie save the turtles oh my so this video and it was like like a body of water covered in trash like literally the entire service company tries to

it's disgusting please stop littering save the turtles the budget also includes two other dedicated revenue sources for the subways a mansion tax on manhattan homes that sell for twenty five million dollars or higher and a tax on internet retail sales other agreements in the budget include the closure of prisons eliminating cash bail for misdemeanor or nonviolent a rise and also a permanent annual two percent cap on local property taxes reporter going to york tonight each of us are to me. by now most of us have forgotten about the christmas or you will train as we decorated with such great care just a few short months ago. but for the wildlife the by use national wildlife refuge in louisiana your all quality decoration is their new lease on life on march twenty eighth the u.s. fish and wildlife service conducted its annual christmas tree drop in which they haue one copter dropped nearly eight thousand new used christmas trees into by huge

savage marshes the trees will act as natural breakwaters that will slow down wave and wave and water movement they trap salt and encourage the growth of marsh gases why is this so important well for one the wetlands act as protection from floods that threaten cities like new orleans during storms by functioning as natural sponges they create new marsh habitats by building structures that can support native marsh crashes it traps and hold settlements creates more land and a more stable environment for animals and it even serves as valuable training as you can see for the louisiana army national guard and curious of the new orleans office of resilience and stability sustainability for using some leftover holiday cheer to buy a savage the second largest urban wildlife refuge in the u.s. are good all right that is our how to show for you to barely remember everyone in this world we are not told that we are loved enough so i tell you all of you i am tired rovers are not out for the keep on watching all those hawks are still there and have a great. breaks

it down. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy to from day should've let it be an arms race than it is on offense very dramatic development only closely and going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time time to sit down and talk. show hosts seem wrong. when old roles just don't hold. any new role to be

yet to shape out these days to come to advocate and engagement equals betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart when she's to look for common ground. i think more do good is an outstanding person because he took on the most powerful agency in any or you leave the state if you look at it from a book. mark was the day that when he was. going to spin the most contentious critics say he is the first time i noticed something wasn't right in fleeced work pretty much when he first started the corruption in palm beach county is not something that you can smell it seems like it's. a when it wasn't what i wanted to do.

in this county then some states have had. to go in with this website began featuring. the sheriff. squash you like a book you know we should stop then you should stay on the left in the stuff i believe what i'm doing ok you know it's your funeral building. p.b.s. a critic. of the united liberal. men they know is bad wolf. financing terror hungry senior islamic state commander posing as a refugee had been issued with a prepaid debit card under an e.u.

scheme to help newcomers. the newspaper exposes alleged british special forces are fighting alongside child soldiers and young men in persian has cast a shadow over a lot of its arms sales to riyadh. but the deadline for leaving the e.u. just ten days away at the british parliament rejected all tabled options to result the break the deadlock making the prospect of. a deal more likely. prime ministers do you know that is called.