captioning sponsored by acneil/lehrer pructions >> bwn: sweltering temratures blasted half the country day as a record- breaki heat wave gried states from the south to the great laks. od ening m jeffrey brown. >> woodruffani'm dy woodrf. othe newshouronight, ra suarehas the latest othe extreme weher and theefforts to coninhe mammoth wdfire blazi in arona. >> brownthen, we update th turmoil in ria,s thousands of refugees stream across the rder into turkey to flee the deadly violence. >>woruffweero on the dget challenges aheador t penton and t man tped

head it xt, onanett >> t nexseg of defense wi be ruire to juggl th compeng demand on our forces while washiton struggles th a extremely challenging fiscal environmen >> brown: we ctinuour collarationith "the economist" magazinto hhlig the t of fmmaking. tonight, saving the rainforests inhondurasrodestructive farming practices. >> you're looking at a catasophe1 blion tons of rb straight into he atmosphere annually >> odruff:nd margaret warner examinewhat disse whin the ranks oil produng nio meanfor oil presere in the u.s. >> brown: that's all eaon tonight's newshour. major funding for thebs newsho has been ovided by: >> oil companies havchged my countr >> oil companies n make a difference. >> we have e chce to bud the economy. >> .create jo, keep people healthand prove schools.

>> ... and ourcommunities. >> in angola, chevr helps traiengineers, teachers an farmers; launchealth programs. >> it's not jt good busess. >> i'm hopul about my cotry's fure. >> it's mcotry's future. >> and by the bill a melda gates foundation. dedicat tthe id that l peoe serve the chance t live a healthy proctive life. and wh the ongoing support of these institutions and uations. and.. is pgramas made possible by the rporation fo publicroadsting. and by contribions to your pbs ation fromiewers like you. thank you. >> bwn: a late-spring heat wave burned its way io he record books the easrn u.s.

oday,ausing at last even aths. and in t west, an inferno of a different kind-- an out-of- control wildfire-- raged on. ray suarezas the story. >> suarez: ain and again today, nkerlanes ooped over the mountains of eastern arizona, dropping clouds redsh-orae retardant, and hoping to mp dn thso- cald "wallow" fire. the massive blaze has burned an rea comparable in size to oeniand reens sveral smaltowns in its path. firinformion officer m wttinon. >> we're a lo ways from talkinabout contaien we're just trying to eck e spead ght w anwe're doi the bst we can on that. >> sre as the fire advced, authoriti forced a mandatory evacuation othe nearly 7,000 redents springervillend eagar. >is anybo in re? suarez: andhere was the smoke, an acriha that blanketed thregion and made breathg difficul some othose who fl sprierville tooko nearby shelters. >> and i still smellmoke. stillmell that smoke. my es are still itchy and

burny,ut not as bad. suarez: high winds full of bning embers also carried the threat of flames and smoke far fr the main body othe fire. crews woed oveime to smother flare-ups near higholtage power lines. officials said the lines werin no immia danger. andheirenfoation ficer voiced he. >> inerms of optism, today, thbest tng i can say ithat e weather goingo be a lile bitore moderated than what we've en over e li o is fe, a it'gointo give us an oortunity tget some work done on that t coer. and we're going to work really rd to pull that off today. >>uarez: ath pnt, no serious injuriesrothe wallow fire o two smaller fir have been reported, but farther east... >> 's blazing! i'm sweatg buets! >>uarez: much of the eastern

half of the country w suffering under roaing heat again today. temperatures usuay reserved foaugust-- ithe 90s, and veov 100 degrees--ere recordein many pces. >> m justbout don well done. suarez: excesve heat warnings were issuein wisconsin and minnesota, where it was shoroads buckled. and the shesf ke michigan werpacked in chico. temperatur in e wiy city were the highest in five years, just few months after winter that saw record cold ansnow. >>wier time, ian't wait for the summer. bring it on, bring on. summer get her i'm rdy for the winter again. >> suaz:ecords also fell up and do the east coast. in new yorkity,hose brave enough to ventu out endured 97-degree heat. >> it's really roh. it's really ho >it feels like it's august. itis hot and it is warm. >>uarez: and thereas not much relief underground, either. >> i was managing o tre, en i got here, thas en i staedweating. >> suarez: new york mayor chl blooerg visited onof the city's 400 olincenters

and urged caution. >> it's a good time to sp in a neighbor, particularly someoneho is old and livingy themselvesand say,i just want to maksureou' cool enough. and you can go aall, you can go to the movies, you can go to a cooling center." >> suarez:thers to time off and swaed beaches in ne jersey. rdings were on track to break 1 in philadelphia this ek, where sticky air eared the skies with haze. some schools in e rtheast plaedo closearly for cond day so students wouldn't have to suffer. >> it's really, reallyot. it's, like, 100 degreeand the classrooms are baking. >> suarezfor others, like ese consuction worrs in virgia, tre was no reprve from the heat. >> today, weot a little brze, but it's sti hot. it real hot. >> srez: still, forecasters saidhere was some relief was on thway. a cold front was expected to ove into the midwestonig, and then hd east. >> we take a closeroonow at the hat wave a what reefs in sre for t ountrynd the fire-raged

uthst with evan myers of acceather. an, welcome. what's goi onoverhead t eate such hig temperatures in such a big chunk of t country? >> wl, ray, there's a couple differenteasons wht's going on. numbeo, we can just tell n thshort term the's ust massive aa of high pressure, a big ridge in he upper aosphe th exten from the east coast all e way back into t sthwestern states. and it's jt beenumpi hot and dry air outf mexo. so we ow that tt's t rean why this is occurring. something else is going o we ctainlyn that mething greater is hapning. there areater percentage of warm year hat have ourd recently than wldehe norma strition. so wther that is human induced or whether it's part of a natura cycle i don't think it really matters. i tnk we need to be prudent in w we move forward in the future and reayhink about th things wedo atight affect the climatement but certainly this h weather acrs heouthn part t country is going to stick around for a wile. >> suaz: is it ely in the year, unually earlyin

the year forlaces, ev places that pect ver hot da and very hotummers to see temratus likehis? well, it is rtainly we've been baking recds. tperatures the mid 90s and per 90s from bton t neyork to iladelphia t altimorendashington is txtraordinary this time of year. we've gotn close to the records and weeroken recos inome cties like philadelphiaand baltimore. baltimore o days in a row of 99 degree heat. in washingt, d.c. 102 degrees day. that tiethe all-me rord for this datehat was set bck wh ulysses s. ant sresiden bk in 1874. so you have to go bk 137 years e ything like what we' seen the st couplof daysn th eastern part of theountry andack into the midwest. >> suarez: is that hot weater sll going to hang on in parts of the east and the noreast? >>ell, looksike is going to hold on from n yk cy onouthward to the phadphia, baltimore

area into friday but it is going to turn somewhat coolern those areasver theeekend. but from the colinaown to atlaa an back west throu texas and even into arizona,t certainly looks li t he is going to hold r the foreeable ture. suarez: the officl first day of summer still a couple of weeks ay. budoes it look like it's ing to be a tough smer forhe uited states? well, really all dends on whe yoare. across t carolinasdown into the southeast a across the gulfcoast and then back in the southwtern states and up throughhe inne mount takewe it lks like a hot andry suer but it looks moister an oler ross thepper midwest and ntral mississippi valley >>suarez: the sohwest he those wdfires he en sard to cntain has been labori uer a drought for some ti. in the nearerm is there any good news on the way the fm of moister air, camer winds, maybe even a littleai >> well, there's couplef

this. for at leasthrough the weekend it look like the wis will bealmer and that is cerinly good news. the monsoon season which is the seasonal rain that set in uly and augu and sometimes ely as the rly part or middle part of jue, theoisture that com out of the gulof mecoup the rio grand valley to the sthwest there ino sign tha that is gng toappen any time soon phoenix, arizona, has only ad 1 in of rain so far this year. they d't get lot. normally they hveup to 3 incs buyou can s how dry it is an tres no sign at is going to ange ny tioon? >> suarezand how long h been since ey've had a rular yr of rain? is there a persisting year--year to yar cycle that the sthst is laborinunde >> well, the southsthe deep southwest towardsthe mexan borde, placeslike phoenix and tuon have been laboring undervery dry conditions for a wle. it's kind iterestg. if you get fuhe north into e central and rthern roies actually this sring and wint were very moist and theya some worries abt flooding as it startso heat up

because they have a trendous snow pack upin th area. ju a ltlebit furth noh fromarizona. >> suar: evan mrs from acceaer, thanks for joining us. >>ure, ray. glad to be here rts of dotown dtrit we heawhere blkouts. cityall, county courthouse and other mjo sitesere in the dark. >> wdruff: still to come on the newshour: refugees eeing the crackdown in syri confirmati hearings r the next defense secrary; savinthe rainfore in honduras; and theivide among oil producing nation but first, the other news of the day. here's hari eenivasan. >> sreenivasan: republican presidenal cotender newt gigrich has lost his eire nior campaign staff. the campaigmanager, other top staffersand key aides in early primary ates all resigned today. one said th doubted gingrich's abilityo win, and his commment. he candidate answered with a posting his facebook ge tt sad: "i am committed to rning the

ssttive, solutions-ornted campai i set out to ru earlr this spring. the campaign begins anew sunday in los angeles." theormer house speaker one of seven decled candidates fo the republican nomination. a chicago sinessman was convicted on charges one terror plot and acquitted in another. he wa found guilty in a conspiracy to attack a nish newspaper that printed cartoons of mohammed prophet. and was acquitted in the deay attackin mum buy in 2008. citigroup is the test high- profe company to fall prey to a cyber tack. the bank reported today hacke accessed cred cd information for 200,000 accounts in north america. e information included names, account numbers and contact inrmation. citigroup has more than 21 million cdicard customers aoss north amera. lib's main opposition group won pledges toy of more than $1 billion in financial assistance. western and arab ntions promised the funds at a

conference in abu dhabi. austlian foreign mister evin rudd said ty also fousedn what lieahea for lib once the ghting es. thoning umanitarian crisis on the ground rl. anthefore we ha two chleng rig no tkeep ople alive til this csis concles and be fuly preparfr the ext dy whichshow ou oduce suicntupport andtructure for ntim vernnt tperformts function on qaafi goe qaddafi by the way, if he has any sense of his own self-interest wouldo now. >> sreenivasan: ru andthers said there've been a number of overtures from people close to ddaf he said a transition in libya may ce oner tn anyo thinks. the goverr oflabamaoday sied what may be the nation's toughest l oillegal migraon. it lets police arre anyone suspected of being an illel iigra, en if th're spped f any othereason. it al requires that public schools checkhe iigration

statusf students, and it makes it a crime to knowingly give an illegal immigrant a ride. in addition, alabama business will have to veri that new eloyees are legal. microsoft will have tpay $2 million for infringing on anoth comny's patent. the u.s. supreme court unanimouy upld tt judgment today. the software giant was ordere to compensate a small canadian firm forsing some of its chnology in microsoft wod. the case has beeworking its way rough the federal urts since 2007. wall street has brok a week- long slump. stocks moved higher today on news that u.s. exports hit a record in april. the markeshrugged off ns at neclaims f jobless beefitwere on the gh side again last week. the dow jones instrial ara ined 75 poin tclose at ,124. the nasdaqose nine pnts to close above 284. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back jeff.

>> brown: now, the big challenges facing the man poised to become head of the defense deparent. for leopanetta, the traition from running t ciao presiding over the pentan wou come the midst of a war in afghanistan, a nato missi in libya, and a looming battle of very different kind-- over iending budget cuts. at his confirmation hearing todaysetors split over how ould handle the challenges, starting with the mitary budget. michigan democrat carl levin chairs e armed services committee. >> the next secretary ofefense will be qued to juggle the competing demas our forces while whiton struggles with an extremely challenging fiscal environment. the fense budg wilnot and should not be exempt from cuts. >> brow those cuts in the psident's bget add up to $400 billion in nional secury spendingver the next dozeyears. but izona republan john mccain warned ainsmaking the military be most ofhat bden. >> defense sndings not what is sinkinthis country into

fiscal crisis, and if the core and the psintct on that fwed assumption, they wl create a situati that is truly unaffordable-- the decline of u.s. mitary power. >> brown: lawmakers aeed at panetta's past role as budg direct back in the clinton administration makehim well suited to deal with ugh fiscal decisions. tho cou include new weapons systemlike the jnt strike fighter. panetta agreed day that some progms may simply pre to osy in a time of austerity. >> in t befings that i have had, it's obvus that is a area that wee got to pay a lot of tention to. we've seen ese apons system grow icost it takes an extraordinary amount of time to the time its finally developed and deplod.

we have got to improve tha process. brow athe sa tim panetta uld herit a military sained tenears of nearly continus combat across seral theater some of the strain might be lessened by a draw-down of troopsn afghanistan exct begin next moh and be completed by the endf 20. with a bate now underway over possly speeding up that draw down, outgoing denseecreta robert gates-- speaking at a nato meetg in brussels emphasized agaitoy th the pull-o will no be lowed to jeoparzthe missi. > even as the unitedtates bins dw down next month, i assured my fellow ministers there ll beo rush to the exits on oupart, and eect the same from our allies. >> brown: back the confirmationearingsetor mccain tried to g panta to ell o his stance. >> soould you agree with seretary gat' repeat statements that widrawals in july shoulde "mest" i agree at they should be

conditions-based. and i'm going tleave it up to secretary gates and general etraeuanthe president to decide what at number should . >>ell, if yoare e seety defense when that decisn mad obviously, you ill ve significa infence. y just camerom a positi where you have ve goo assessment of the military situation. i think it's not inappropriate for you to ansr when ask if u agree with secretary ges' assessmt that theithdrawal should be modt. >> senator, if i'm confirmed, i'll havto, obviously, arrive at a decision myself that i' he to ultimately prest to the president. bui'm not in that sition n. and that dision really does reswith general petraeus and secretary ges and the president. > own: robert gates leaves thpentagon for goolar this onth. leon netta is expected to have anasy roado confirmation in the next few ek today, he promised that, if

confirmed, he uld engage in strong fiscal dcipline while maintaining a stng dense but al stresseone of his most important js would be as an advocate for the troops and their families. la night, we debated the state of pl on the u.s. engagement in ahanistan. tonight, we cus the other majochallengfor the new denssecrety-- thmilitary budget, whi is $730 billion for this year,ore thanouble what it was in 21. r that we get two views: rdon ams pervised national security budgets at office f manament andudget in the clinton administration. heow teaes at american unersitynd is author of the boo "bung natnal security." mackeie eaglen was a congreional staffer on defen sues a served at the pentagon. she's now research felloat the heritagfountion. he welcome to both of you. godon adams i will strt with you. frame the datehat leone panetta is stping into. is everyone agreed th some steps are necessary so i's w much and hoto do it. >> thin almo everydy now beeves weret t

edge of a builddown in defense. andhe question is gng to e how fasto youo, what thingdo y chooo make a priority. what period ofime do you cover with it. i don'think ano at thipoint is really argung weeith can or ogh to increase the defense budge and fnkly with e end of the ws ad withtttion definite ft-- deficits and ings lke that th general publ, looking at defense as part o the eqti we have to de with to solve the dbt and ficit probleis early where much of the congress isat, wherthe miniraon is at, and whe themericeople ar >> brown: can we get an agreeme on isart? and how wou you fra whe things e at? well, i would sayhou that w're alsthere. present ama when he ld out hi defitreduction goalin his speec inpl id 400 llion fro security spending whic we eect the militarto ear thmajority o that. t he knew thathe had t ha cnges inoign pocy to justi any fundament cu, beyond sort of the ti e with theefen budget tate have seenunrsecretary

gate herend there. because fundamental this prede ha rged in afanta sentrops to lia, held jap and hti forumitarn rief ssion. so what war aualy aski the military to do h grown ery single year nce 11. and so you cnnot precipously start cutting without justifyg or changig someting in o foreign policyev president obamacknowledges that. >> bwn: and just again helpeopl understan tis udget. ar those things you just named, that the reason why the bge s ne up? why h t budt goneup so much i ten years? well partly becae we took budget holiday in t 1990s inerms of buyng uient thathe troops needed. for exale, we sawhis manifested in iraq wh servceembers fami's were sendi body armou theehicles wer uarmoured ombat improvised explosive dicesfor example. so have seen the buet grow gnificanly since 11utlargel on what w ll coumables, mostly related to crent operions as posed to invting in the future.

>>rown: would you agree with that? becau this is important in ter of thinking about where we go in the future. >> it's very portant. in fact i don't fullygree with tha maenzie isight we took a pocurement holidayn t 19s it was rightimeo take it cause we d good equipment, air tanks and sps bght bck during the reaga admintration t '80s. the reas the defense budget has doubled a is higher in constant dollars ich meanetting inftion aside than at y pot in our history sce the end of e secnd world war, the realeason is we we to wa wefund tla war through extra buet appropriations calle supplentals to t defense budget but bause we were a w, congress waquite unpreparedo take har look at thebac defense budgetside from wt we wereayg for war. and so those cos also nt up at theame te as w rspending money on the ar. inact we've mre than doled the defenseudget ovr th last tenears. we'veone ititho rious sutiny at this point it isime for scrutiny and mh of that

cahappen without jeoparding our natial seurity. so when the preside talks aut the 400 billion over 12 years, is that reasonle? or is at notven enough? >> not oly is that asonable, but iould suggesth it m be the best that t pentagons goi to do. the president sai $400 billion er 12 years. all these commission that have been sdyg the debts and decit and makin proposals about wtto do among otr things aut defense haveeen saying somhere bween 00 illion and a trillion dolarsver ten years, whic is shoerthan the esident's 12 years. noyou n do that. ifact y c probably do whathe president said a ill t t defenseudg grow wit inflatn. ut y could get those deeper cutas well as well witho jeoparding amecan national security andgin the debt ficit oncerns, givenhe endf the warsi thnk we're likely on a deeper ajectory of cuttg an the esidt has said so far? >brn: do youhink that doable and a good thing to do, t go mor than $400 billion? >> therar asoluly vings be fod inside the defens budget.

starting with, troop draw downs inraq an afghistn. that is mey thac reinvested elsewre in the feder budget or applied towards debtnd defici reuction. insidthe dense budget, yes. there are are ripe for examation a scrutiny. an ihink that's the on thg you n do with taxpay mey is th every progm should sta on its rits. the challee res that secretargates has made whathe ackwledges were the easy cuts because he said e oy ones left ar hard. he easy cutsend to be things likeeapons systems d equipmen for o forces but that isnly one sent ofhe defse budget. and usually while y kill that program, youdon' eliminate theeed for somethinto bought in slace i woul aue theeal challees her are structul and they' harr to tt. theye in thinglike oveea they'ren personne ty're in cpensation,hey'ren ency and sine processes, logiics. lot of the-- you can't just go inta li item in the budget an find . youctually have toake changes funmentally. anthesa the things

that even wil onanet may not haveime to do with ju aear and a hfin ffice. >> brown: doi ese ings while maintaining national security. >> i think it's important to keep in nd in all ofhis mohere we have doubled th defen budget a we have the only military in the entire globe tat i cabl o global operations, glal deployments, global fing, globalailing, glol commicatio, global infstructur, wee the only milarth can dothat and frkleven with a milli dollars ove en years wchs only15% of t current projeted budgets, we will still at thend of tat process have llhose same gbal dvantages. so we'retaing from a ery strong point. think mkeie irit there e lot ofhin inteally you can do in the budget. we've ot nrly a trd of the force that's never eplod becae eyre operating the bk ofce thenfrastructure in t defenseeparent. y can do anawful l to ean that up and make savings. >> brown: b do you aree at wcan maintain all thawe want do,all at we should beog, all that

politilly there will lls to do while making th ve large cut. he's talking aut-- you're lking about mh rger cuts than the presiden right that may behe area where we digree the most. i uld beorri atou would cut past the fat and scle-- and into muscle and bonat that type wit those tyes of cs. ow if it is done ratially on the overhead si. bu i'm conrned tha those core capabilities, what'basicallyade us a supeower ath ited stes a l of t invesent at was ma in the 80s, '90snechnolo and en this decade ththin that giveour miliry its global strenh and ach,hose a bih rights. ey ha toontinusly b reinvted anyou ha to continusly novate and ome up with new techloes a developments, a of tse thngs fothe fure,e stl have todohat today. and i wouldbe rried thawe would ercuon at iaid was just o sentof the budget which is basical t eqpment thout lookg athrest of t e in the budget

which agn, where w d agree. >> d justbriefly becaus you th watched the political procs, alof thesthings are extremely poiticaly charged. we see it evy time. >> this is ermously fficulto do. the svices n'tlike to give things up. the instry doe't leto give thgs u membs of congressave got things being de in their district that they d't like toive up. bomber shps, whatever ty are. bas where peoploperate. it's reay hard to do. if there is yby who c pu ts off panetta i a ry god choe because dstands budgets. > u rked wthim. >> iorked with him or ree years and fo him very wel hendetands budges. he understands security, peal after his sin at t cia. and he understands the congresse e hiel said tay 's a creature ofongrs. they love him up ere. he's very effective u there. but bef he wilrun opposition cgres >> yes, t wat we've seen undeseetarygates is that you can cut the defense budget anget by h, sicallyrom capit hill the sectary starte hi owneform forts wit a

goal to ve $1 billio the whi hose ts year ass for $78 billi over a five yea period and hee along th tt. i don't kow about ho feels outhe 400ilon nce he is leaving. butou can actually get the hill to go alg wi it when ere are smartuts. >ok, allight, mackenzie, grdon, thank you very much. > thk yo. >>oodruff:ext tonight, syria and the threat of an intensifi crackwnn ti-government demonstrato. warning to viewers-- this storcontains disturbing images. the stets jisr alhughr northern syria are deserted. its remainingesidts are braced for anmminent assault byhe sian milita. presdent bashar al-ssad's government alleges20 of its security forces were killed this week in the rebelous town, and aired amateur video on sta

tevisiopurporng tshow s deatrp w, ite units believed to be command by sad's oter appear psed to exact venance. th amate vid, sueptitiously ot from a eeinmotorist, apared show convoys of military vehicles ssed outside the town yesterd. the bbc owen beet jes i onthturkisse of e borr with syria, and says the areeports that thousands of young men remain in the town. >> reporer: i think the women and chdr have basically ther gone to oer locations, either in sya or come here. and t people who remain are probablyhe ones who want fight-- you know, that are epared to fight it out. >> woodruff: only one routo is op, antownsfolk are taking it, fleeing in droves. at ast 400 syrians, and more by the hur, have crossed into southern turkey, passing through lush groves and into temporary encampmen.

>> reporter: there's a ca-- i was just there this afternoon. there are many, many tents organized by the red crescent in coopetion wththe auhorities, d they just trie to build an tension to that because of the nbe coming in. and i'm told they're looking f a new site because they realize thamo a comg. >>woodruff: somef the new refugeehave shad rrowing stories in inrviews posted onne >> tnste ): e rces attaed us, ruined our mes, ty pooned ourater. i have 12 kids-- nwate hunge thirst. >woruff: turkish pre minister erdan saitodahis naon wulaccept all who ek sety the. b the tksre loathe to riticize their southern neighbor directly. >> reporter:he tks are in an awkward positn. they don want to embarss syria too much, and they do obviously have aimportant bilateral relationship wi syia, so they are tending to play down what is happening. at the same time, they are tting people in and they are looking out for the >>oodruff: the three-month syan uprising owno signs

of abating; th, it been galvanized again by otr gruesome vio a dead chd, alegly ttureand murder by securit forces. 15-ye-old tamerl-shar disappearefrom the soue city of rain april, on t sameayand in the same place, as 13-year-old hamza al-khatib. vio his brutalzed corpse waseleased la wee the growing terror anbloodshed have prompt new fears tt he efectsill reach yond syria'sorders secrarof state hillary ion spoke today iabu dhabi. >> sadlyunder presidenassad, it is becoming a source of inabilitin rion. i don think aonlooking at the tuation caconclu that this wl end wellnlesthere is a ange in the behavi the govnment. >> woodff: the syrian uising

and the rime'brutal resnse also ps the agendat the united natis. britn d ance sought support for security council resolution condemning thessad govnmnt. british prime minist david cameron outned the stakes yestday in a speech befo the house commons. >> the violence ing med out toeaceful otesters and demonstratoris completely unacceptable. of course, we mst not stand silent in the face these outrages, d we won't. if anyone votes againsthat sotion or tries toeto it, that oulde on their nscience. >> woodruffbut historic alances with syr led russia, chiefly, to oos the resolution. given moow's veto power in the council, that could do t are before it can be brought to a vote.

>> bro: we turn w to story about channg a-old farng practices the tpics. it's pt "e econist film proct," a nshour colloratiowi "e economis" maazine. totherwe swcase independently-oduced ocumentarieshat take us plas we don'trdinily . here's n xcerpfm "up in smoke" by lmmaker ad wakeling. he followed ecologist miael nds he troded houran fmers to the inga treehisoluti to the prblems caused by so-called slash and burn agriculte. >> ( tnslated ): lets start the fire there. okay, this is why we burn.

the weeds and trunks are thick. we can't plant amongst all tha so we burnt al i know this desoythsoils, the fertility disappear i know this. t there is no otr y to eat. o youndersnd? >> reporteryou are looking at a slowlynacted catastrophe, oneillion tons of carbon

straight upnto the atmosphere annuay. >> ( transled ): fe it now. >> reporter: in houras, talking to slash and burn farme both down in the valley and onhe mountn opes, i found things weren't very simple, because whathey want is acce to fresh forest every year-- for fresh burn to guantee fsh crop of mze, and en to ven the folling year. e rains wash away the sos, >> ( translated so we jt clear more further p. do you see? the's no other option for us. sowe burn two hectares th year, then another two the next foraize or for beans.

we ant erer we can. >> reporter: you have tlea from wt e forests doing. it is thmost sustainable, most productive ecosystem the planet. you he got to listen tot. >> we've cracked a problem. we've bloody cracked it. >>reporr: you ar sing a oppg system that takes place between rows of trees. the system is called "ley cropping," because the rs look ke alleyways, rows of trees plante close together in what w a grass-dinated site. and the trees have grown and ha now completely shed o all ofhe grass. at t appropriate time,hey will be prun dn tobouthe

height of one's chest, and e mulch, the green material from theeaves wille placeon the ounds a physical protectio and as swly decomposing green manure. once the light has been let in and e ground has been covere withulch, the crop can be sown. it has got enough stngth to come ufromnderneath the cover of mulc whichill largy suppressi all the growth of the weeds. during the course of the growth of the crop, the trees will regrow. there will be a little b of ght pruning of the regrowth to contl the shade. at t point of cropping, the ees are regrowing. they'll cover the canopy and they will be ailae for pruning and cropping the following yr.

wht inga appears parcularly capable of doing is to at least, retrieve, retain and rycle the key nutrients. itas to be demonstrated-- you cannot preach it, youcan describe it. people have to be able to get their hands on it, see it. secondly, you have to tesa system thahas been developed by an acadec to see if it has any meang at all for real people. >> ( translated ):whenhe fore dappears, the temperature rises and the plants suffemore. theore we weeand burn the soils, e worse thingset. >> tnslated ): one vante of this system is that y can grow organic crops, completely healthy food.

>> what dyou ink so far? >> ( trslated ): seriously surising. >> really? what do you mean? >the inga. >> the ros hold the soil,t doesn'wash awa you have seen howteep our lan is. >> the task we have, whi is capturing hearts and minds, which is crucia it's fundamental what going on in aladino mind? its going toake some time to change tha >> ( tranated ): were tryi to kp people on one plot of land annot keep moving on. farmer to rmer, it's easier to explain. that w the word spres.

all those mountains ed to grow onions and maize, bananas, even rie. but when the soils failed, people abandoned them anmoved there into fresh forest. if we had had this system,hen we wldt lack water or fost now. reporter: this isoing to be done familbyamily, peopl lie aladino, one at a time. woodruff: we have more on the making of " in smoke" on our web site. our next instalent of the onomisfilm project will feature "ate-tan," a lookat younskatoarders in war-to ghantan.

>> own:e'll bback shortly with aook at dissent within the ranksf thoil producg naons and what thames for gas prices in the u.s. bufirs this is pdgweek on pbs. this brk allows your blic telesi stati to asfor your support, anthat suppo helps keep pgrams likeurs on the air.

>>woodruff: finally toght, nflict among t world's oil proderdrives up pres. maaret warn hasoustory. >> warr:he pricef oil clbed nearly $102 a barrel today, up neay 3% in two trading ds,fter bitrly vided ganizati of petroleum exrtg untrs, or opec, faedo agreto inease o proctn. saudarab led the pusto rase proction otas yeteay, but ir andthers balked. after yesteay'seson in geva, the saudi oil nister called it "one othe worst meetgs we've evehad." weook at what was behind thi and the likely iact, with ed crooks, the u.s. iustry d

energy editor of "the fancial times." d ed crooks, welm thiss theery first time at least inecades that opec s gone to meetng lie this and fle to come out with me agreement. what happened? yeah, as you y it is a ver very dramatic eting, very unusua development pticularly in the sens th saudi arabiaas defeated saudi arabialearly went in the eting wanting an increase in production. saudi arabia said the prce of oil is too hgh, at around $100 it would like t see it come down perhaps even the $80 region a it wanted t increase production in order tomake at happe. and uslly what saudi abia wants, iet goes. 's the biggest member of opec, t mo powerl, the world biggest l exporter. a so usually tey'reable to ing the other countries behind them and get them to go along with what ty want. not ts time. as you were saying i yo introduio there was a coitioof countrieses, obably lead by iran but with a mber of very oth, a number of other countries ve prominent in there,

venezue, another notoriou opec hard-liner but also some couries thatyou might thinof rather me centrist and moderate includi angola and iraq, actuay al ti ainst thi nd geria,nother o one--lgeria, all opping th saudiroposal sayi they didn't want prices to-- they wern't going to produce more oil so it wa defeated. >> how much othis was ove dierences inhe ecomics f he world oil market and ho much was driven by politics? >> both. and the two thin i think very mucplay together. on the economic side, tre re differencesf interest terms of the way the oil mart works but a t of the countries ceainly this is true ofran and venezuela, ty're basically procing aut asuch oil ashey can at t moment already,egard ll of the opec quota so an incase in opec limiwouldn't hav held them. they uldn't be able to sell anyor oil so they didn't hav much ierest in that. where saudi arabia on the oth hd could produce

me oil. saudi arabialso has the world'slarge oil reserv. d it havery mch an terest in not putnghe prce of oil so high th it encourages alrnives to il o. saud arabia doest want the rt of t world moving to electr car, usinmore biofuels, using phaps natural gas in thei vehles anso on. saudi aria getsorried ifhe price is toohigh and alsof it los like the pri of oi is going to t the worleconomy into recession ich ceainly looks like a realisat the moment so those are all thecomic faors. then you've al got tese political visions. long rni polital tension and suspici between saudi arabia a irn, very much inflameat the momenbecause of ahrain bahrin a all isla ste in the persian gulf i sween ai/ -- saudi arabia and iran,rosts tre, protts again the goverent, violence, mass aest as and so on. and the suthere is that saudi araa bas the hraini government, sent troops to help the bahrn goverent but the mari poulation in bahrain is shiite and therefe has

ti to iran which has a minity shiite population. andhere is atrong suspicion in bahrain that iranis aually tomenting discontent, soking up the protes against th government and o on. this has been a flhpoint ithis ry sensitive area because that is where a lot of the oil is actually prou where lotof the oil travels there through the pesi gulfhat caused a greatealofolitical tension iide of opec as well. >> warne ts is the fst opec meetg sinc t arab uprising began around at rab world. how much tatas a fator maybe in anoth way. or instce sdi realy wain to pp in some l riht now? >> yeah, absolely. that is another facr r uite lotofountes. saudi a abia happy to see literal prices, a lot of other untrie want to se oiat $100 and will be concerned if it fellelow that becausehey have these very lge soal programs th they wt topend the money on. they are concerneabut political inability. as y say they look athe arab sprg around the arab

world. they see goverents bei overthro. they seerotests in very ny countes. they don want th to happen to them. ey want to spend as much money as possible on social nefi, on pensions, on hools, whater may be. >>to keep people happ >> ey nd theoil revenues to epeopl ppy an so they would ke keep all of that high level of $100 or more. >> let me ask ou finally the qstion that is ofost intest pbab to our viewers which is what is thisoing to mea fr oil prices in the short and medium term a gas pces he in the u.s.? >>ell i think there is ind a good news and bad ne. tnk possibly the good news is thawe may wellee udi a arabia justignoring what opec decided and pumping more oil they have rey be pum a little more over the past few months. we may wel them goin further dumping o on to thearket for tha rean, tt they wt lower oil pricesork we could well seoi pricecome down from whe they are, an that wld meanheaper gasolinathepumps. bu there is kd of doside, da side of that

ich is the issuefpare cas pat the amnt of leeway in t wor oil syste ecause saudi arab is essentially the only untry at has a snica amount of spareapacity that could pump more oil if it were needed if there were proems eewherein the system. so t more proction tat udi arabia has,he le spare capacty, the less margin for errorn th world oilysm. and that cld keep e makets worried. my sses that altugh we probly will see oil prices mi dn for bit from now, it may not lst very long d i ctainly think we willave to get used to eskind of levels, oil at about$100, gasoline at about for the foreseeableuture. >> ed croo ofthe financial tmes"thank you veryuch. >> brown: agai t mor devopments of the dy: heat wave blistered much of theastern u.s. with rerd reang in seral cies. and a huge wdfire raged on in izona, threatening ser small tns. republican psidential ctender nt gingrichost s entire seorampaign staff,

but he vowed to stay the rae. d hureds of syrians fled intourkey as syrian vernment troops circd a beious rthern to. d to hari sreenivasan for what's on theewshour online. hari. >> srnivasan:e've posd new satellitemage of the aron wildfire at illustres the spef thblaz and wt es thedge of o solarystem okike? a na comter mol fers sprising nedetail- nd haon our"sence" page. an jeff talks the.s. commisoner othis year's vene biennale art exhibition about using olympic atetes as part of thar l that and more on ouweb ite, nshour.pborg. je. >> own: a that'the newshour for tonight. i'm jfrey brown. >> woodruff: and i jy wdruf we'lsee you onlineand again here omorrow eveningwith mark shieldsnd did brooks, amon ther thnk you a good night. jor funding for the pbs newshr has be provided by

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