too thin. they have leaky valves. and they are missing heat shields and bumpers. 20 years ago, mann demanded that the industry overhaul their tank car fleet and the safety features -- to no avail. >> well, the industry says $1 billion. that is peanuts compared to the profits made by the whole petroleum industry. >> after this accident in 2009, the u.s. federal railroad administration concluded that the rail cars ought to be updated. but the transportation department in washington had the final say. it said the proposed billion dollar investment was simply too costly. >> it's the dollar sign. the industry is not going to put money into safety issues unless they have to.

>> and so the unattended train with its unsafe cars raced along these tracks that night. it careened into the town of lac-megantic and derailed. oil gushed out. six cars exploded. gaetan's father raymond lafontaine calls the disaster negligent manslaughter. >> the train brought hell here. it killed our children. and today no one's taking responsibility. it has devastated a part of quebec. it has robbed so many young people of the chance to live their life. >> the explosion was powerful. but what caused it? normally, oil can catch on fire. but it doesn't explode. workers here have to don gas masks. it smells of chemicals. benzene has been discovered on- site. canadian pyrotechnicians say the train's cargo, crude oil, couldn't have caused the huge

explosion. it's possible the search for answers lies here. the oil came from north dakota. it was extracted using fracking. that involves forcing oil out of the ground by injecting chemicals and water into it. the shale oil is then loaded onto trains in bakken in north dakota. they then travel to refineries on the east coast. they are like a pipeline on wheels. so, did the by-products of fracking produce the explosion on that train? residents are suing the oil companies. >> many companies have added chemicals to the salt water, like benzene, butane, lead and heavy metals. all toxic chemicals. that leaves traces in the oil and when they are present in such train cars, they can make them far more volatile. and that would explain such a high yield explosion and intense fire, which crude oil would not.

>> raymond lafontaine received many calls. telling him to keep quiet, accusing him of hurting industry. lafontaine has made himself powerful enemies. >> i don't want revenge. i know that i've upset a lot of people. that i've angered a lot of oil companies. but i want to speak up. that's my job, that's my goal. i say to people, do something! >> is this a ticking time bomb? trains carrying shale oil continue to roll across canada. but they don't pass through lac- mégantic anymore. >> saving lives in an emergency -- that's at the core of a business model that isn't interested in conventional profit. "hatzalah" is hebrew for "rescue". an initiative with this name fi quarters in the 1960's where volunteers got together to organize emergency assistance. the social entrepreneur, eli beer, has taken this model to a

new level. he founded united hatzalah of israel, a network of trained volunteers who often beat the official emergency services to the scene. >> sit down. >> it can happen anywhere and to anyone. this man has trouble breathing. his life could be in danger. and every second counts. the paramedics from united hatzalah of israel are pretty quick. it takes them just 90 seconds to respond to an emergency. they provide first aid in a jiffy. and there are normally two of them to help. eli beer is the founder of the unique emergency service.

his goal is to save people's lives. this emergency in a jerusalem park has been recreated for the cameras. there's a similar incident 500 times every day in israel. >> i am really proud of you, and i am happy you're alive. >> muhammad assaly works as a volunteer at hatzalah. and so does gavy friedson and many others. >> saving lives, that's why you can have muhammad, who is a muslim, and you can have gavi, who is jewish, and they can treat together a victim, not knowing if he's jewish or not jewish. they don't care. he could be jewish, he could be christian, he could be anything. they don't look at anyone's religion or color or anything. they care, these people unite together, all of us, in one organization, because they want to save lives. >> saving lives has been eli beer's aim since he was a child. he grew up in jerusalem. beer was six when he witnessed a bus bombing.

>> i remember an old man, who was on the bus and who flew out of the bus, he was on the floor bleeding, he needed help to get up, and he was yelling to us to help him to get up, to my brother and i. but we just ran away from there, because we were so scared. and when i grew up, i decided i want to become a doctor and save lives. >> beer started off his career in an ambulance. but he often arrived on the scene too late. because of traffic jams. >> can you imagine superman is jumping into the ambulance and getting stuck in traffic and meanwhile he has to save the world but he is going through the traffic and he is going with the sirens and he is telling everyone, move, move, i want to get through and he can't get through? no, superman was successful because he was able to go above traffic, he was able to fly. so, we are not superman, but we are getting close. >> beer's paramedics ride motorbikes. they are on the scene before you know it, kind of like superman. everyone who works for beer is a

volunteer. muhammad assaly's day job is at a hospital, but for two years, he has also worked as a trained paramedic for hatzalah. >> whenever i do something right, i feel so happy inside, that i don't know how to explain it. but we have a saying, that says whenever you save one life, it is as if you save the whole world. >> i am only 24 and i already treated over 7000 people. so you can say, it is definitely something that is in my blood. >> the most important room at hatzalah -- where people field emergency calls. this office then informs the nearest paramedic using gps. the system logs every incident. it's easy to track what's happening where. >> right here in a kindergarten a little girl fainted, a little girl is unconscious. they don't know why. and we have a motorcycle here and he is going to leave right now and goes to save that kid.

>> the technology is simple but effective. people in brazil and denmark are interested in adopting it. eli beer's 9-to-5 job is in real estate. at hatzalah, he spends a lot of time raising money. his organization relies on donations. it doesn't charge for saving people's lives. >> so, i need to raise every year $6 million and i want to get to $7 million, that's only for israel. raising $7 million is a very hard job and i do this as a volunteer, so it's very hard for me. >> israel's hazalah will soon have 3000 volunteers. it has to train them. and provide them with motorbikes. so, beer often goes door knocking. he has already fundraised here. >> there is nothing greater in judaism than saving lives. all the provisions that we have in keeping the mitzvah and keeping the torah, when it comes

to saving lives, everything falls. that takes precedence. >> and then, right after that, there's an emergency. eli beer is nearby. he quickly heads to the scene. later, other emergency services turn up. but, by then, everything's already under control. gavi friedson is a communications student. he's always ready to respond to an emergency. even when he's in class. his professors don't mind the interruptions either. at hatzalah, he works with mohammad assaly. the two have become friends off the job, too. >> the friendship that we have when we get to see each other and meet each other is something that people automatically think, wow, it's not possible. a jew and an arab, what is that? just in itself it's a great feeling.

>> founder eli beer likes spending his evenings relaxing with wife gitti and their five children. still, his radio set is never far away. any moment, beer could receive a call. >> whenever he goes i think, this is what he's doing. he is going to save someone's life. i mean, if i would see someone die in the streets, would i continue eating? never. i would try to run and save him. >> but tonight, the beer family is in luck. no one needs help. sometimes all is well in the world. >> and now i'd like to take you to a global living room. here in berlin it is perfectly possible to enjoy tea in a tajik tea house. but we now take you to an original tajik living room high in the pamir mountains close to the border with afghanistan.

>> hello! welcome to my living room. i live in khorugh. it's a town in tajikistan. i'd like to show you my living room. it's decorated in traditional style. my house is typical of homes in this region, the pamir mountains. for instance, each of the pillars here has a meaning and a

name. this pillar is named after mohammed. and this one after ali. this spade was once wielded by aga khan iv. we isma'ili shi'ites worship him as a living god. he used the spade at the groundbreaking ceremony for our botanic garden in khorugh. ♪

i also store my flute here in the living room. it's typical of the pamir region, too. it has a lot of history. the flute has a name, too -- nay.♪ thanks for visiting! feel free to stop by anytime in pamir. >> thanks for having us. climate change is happening and it is here to stay. that's the result of one of the latest climate studies conducted by an international team of scientists in copenhagen. for us all, this means that exceptionally strong storms and hurricanes will become less of an exception. in the caribbean island of st. lucia, banana farmers already know what this means -- total devastation of their crops. a new insurance scheme promises

to make it a little less painful to start from scratch every time. >> last time, the storm broke a few branches. nothing more. they are now being cleared out. >> still, elisia marquis is worried about his banana plants. he fears next time around, a storm could wash them away. marquis has always made enough from his plantations. but he's been earning less and less lately. due to storms and heavy rain. this banana plant was swamped by rain and eventually rotted. it's the rainy season on st. lucia right now. the storms are getting more and more frequent here. >> it's real rain up the hill there. and i'm happy that's where it is, not here. because i don't want it here. let it go up the hill.

but it looks like real rain. heavy shower, too. heavy shower, too. heavy. it's going to be heavy, quite heavy. >> just in case, marquis retreats to a shelter nearby. his laborers all used to be banana farmers, too. and then hurricane thomas wiped out their crops three years ago. >> when i grew up, i never knew anything of the kind of tornados you have in the united states. i'm here and i'm hearing of tornados in the united states, hearing in other places. two or three miles wide, yes, i've heard of that. but this is happening now. and it is happening even though it is not supposed to be happening. the world is a strange place. -- the world has changed. >> marquis wants to introduce us to a couple of his friends in town. on our way in, he points out the damage left behind by hurricane thomas three years ago.

>> the whole of the street from this point all the way to boskido bridge used to be full with bananas. this used to be a banana field, it's now a playing field. here is another banana field. and as you can see, the owner is trying to get out of it because he's planting all kinds of things. the field is in disarray. >> these are his friends, juliana and albert satenay. unlike others in the area, they replanted their banana field three years ago. to do so, the couple took out a $10,000 u.s. bank loan. today, they can again harvest bananas. their plants are yielding fruit all year round. but the couple aren't earning enough from their farm. they're barely scraping by. >> when i paback what i have

to send to the credit union, i have to pay my bills. and the little that you remain, you have to survive with it. so, it's hard. >> to prevent that from happening again after the next storm, the united nations university has come up with a hurricane insurance plan. project manager sobiah becker is working with local insurer ec global. it will sell the policy. the idea behind it is simple. a policy costs 80 east carribean dollars per year. when a hurricane hits, the insurer will pay policyholders $1,000, regardless of whether the storm has done any damage. an independent weather station measures rain and wind speed. it's an unusual idea. and, at first, it was hard for becker to win over an insurer. >> you know, any time you went >> you know, any time you went to an insurer and said, well,

you know, there doesn't have to be real proof of damage but if wind and rain speeds exceed certain threshold limits, there will be an automatic pay-out. obviously, this was a completely new concept and it was difficult for the insurer first of all to come to grips with it. >> when there are no hurricanes, we benefit. but when a disaster comes, we have to pay out a significant amount as well. so, there's a potential there to make money. there's a potential there to lose money. we never know what the extent of the catastrophe will be, how bad it will be, or severe it will be. >> proponents have to convince locals, too. here, they are selling the policy at a village fair. they're putting on a play. the village is called dennery. it's on st. lucia's atlantic coast. everyone here knows how much damage a hurricane can do. residents were badly affected by the last big storm. 30 minutes later, the show is over and the party is starting.

>> some residents are ready to sign up. >> if you give me the forms right now, so i could fill it out. $80, i'm going to fill for how many years. because i cannot get an insurance in st. lucia at this moment to insure my business on the sea front in dennery. >> not everyone on the island has 80 east caribbean dollars -- about 20 euros -- to spare. many have to take out a loan to purchase the policy. ec global offers loans to cover the policy. the insurer has its regional headquarters right on dennery's main street. here, we meet up with elisia marquis again. he's after more information about the plan. in the end, he decides to buy

ten policies for $800 each. next time there's a hurricane, he will receive 10,000 east caribbean dollars. he signs the contract. now the policy is signed and sealed. >> hey, sister, how are you? you are still good? >> so, is he still worried about the next tropical storm? >> i don't want a hurricane. but if there's a hurricane, i'd appreciate that i get something. but i don't want a hurricane. a hurricane would be a devastating thing, it causes a lot of damage. >> after the play, others in dennery decide to purchase hurricane insurance. but marquis has to get back to his banana fields. there's a lot to do there. the monsoon has just begun. marquis still has to fight the damage storms do, day after day, to his crops.

but, at least he won't lose everything next time the big one hits. >> so, what do you think -- is an insurance the way ahead or should countries at risk take other measures? you can join our global debate either on facebook oour website. until next week, bye-bye. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--

♪ ♪ in the capital city of the republic of cap next and -- khazakstan. this is perhaps the most

successful in all the countries formed in the breakup of the thist union 22 years ago is a country full of culture and very friendly people. stan is now the host country of a gathering of unofficial and religious leaders. the official name of the event is the counsel of leaders of the world and international leaders. hstan has taken a leadership role in nuclear proliferation, they are recognized as a world leader in bringing countries together searching for understanding and peace. we were invited to dissipate in the conference and visit thousands of worshipers in the capital city of astana and visit with leaders involved in the congress. it was an amazing experience to be with religious leaders from

all over the world in the palace of independence. hstan in central asia. "this is america" is brought to you by -- the national education foundation. the league of arab states, representing 300 million people in 22 countries. the rotondaro family trust. the embassy series, uniting people through musical diplomacy, representing international artists in diplomatic settings. ventana productions and distribution services. kazakhstan, with the leaders of world traditions, i was able to speak to the chairman for the agency of religious affairs.

>> it is good to see you once again. the agency for religious affairs. tell me about this. >> the agency was set up september 11, 2001. we have involved 50 specialists in our agency, and we also have centers on the organizational thet and they deal with form and the congress and the other is on research. we also study all sorts of religious material. this is for the state and the religious form. that is our primary concern. 70% of ourate -- and members are muslims.

75 celebrate orthodox christianity. and with our establishment we religious focus on activity and the secular state. that means the governor is not interfering into the affairs of the religious organization in the country. or also interfere in the work of the government. >> the idea of bringing religions together in kazakhstan, what is the idea behind bringing all these people here? after september 11 of the -- the01, in new york world has divided into two camps. some ofthe people and the world community began tag