Inches and welcome back to cnns Climate Crisis townhall. The top kpts are with us ton on the heels of the deadly Hurricane Dorian which is leaves neighborhoods under water in the bahamas, utter devastation now heading north along the United States coast. For the latest on dorian lets go to the weather center, our meteorologist jennifer gray. Jennifer. Hi, erin, thats right. This storm strengthened a bit in the 5 00 advisory just shy of the category three. Still category 2. 10mileperhour winds. Gusts of 130 paralleling the florida coast the last couple much days moving north, northwest at 8mileperhour. Currently 150 miles south of charleston. Thats one of the main areas we will watch the next day or so as conditions continue to deteriorate there all along the georgia coast, South Carolina coast, charleston could see a big push of water as we go through the day tomorrow with the storm surge. As it races up the North Carolina coast, possible landfall somewhere in the carolinas well keep you posted. All right thank you very much, jennifer. You know, the storm comes as we are facing a catastrophe of unprecedented proportions. You know Hurricane Dorian is just one thing right, one sign of the dangerous world that scientisting say we are entering if humans do not cut Carbon Pollution and cut it in half over the next 11 years to net zero by 2050. Seven candidates are standing by to answer voter questions about the crisis including Joe Biden Bernie sanders and elizabeth warren. Please welcome now minnesota senator, Amy Klobuchar. [ applause ] great to see you. Hi, everyone. Wow woman anchor, william president ial candidate. We have arrived this is all good and what a great crowd. Senator klobuchar, great to have with you us. When think about the climate situation how big of a crisis is it if. It is a monumental crisis. I think what we have to dispel is the idea that its happening 100 years from now. Its happening right now. And it is happening as you heard that Weather Report about the hurricane which we know was a level 5 hurricane when it hit the bahamas in a way that we have never seen before on the islands. We have seen the rising sea levels. We have seen the melting Greenland Ice sheet. In minnesota two of mu good friends who are arctic explorers ann bancroft and will seeger reported what they have seen in the arctic. But its important to bring it home when we talk about this. And by home i mean for me to the middle of the country. Because it also if we are doing something about this we need to make the case of whats happening right now. We see it economically with Homeowners Insurance up 50 in the last few years. Its going to cost us like 500 billion every year. We need to make that economic case. But in the midwest and thats where we have not gotten as many votes for moving on this. What do we see, fires . We saw the firefighters lost in arizona. Raging fires in colorado. We saw the california video in Northern California of the dad driving his little girl over the lapping flames with the neighborhood burning behind them. And in iowa a woman named fran who showed mo me her binoculars and said look this is my house. I bought it with i my husband we lived with our 4yearold i wanted to retire in this house. I love the way the lights comes in the kitchen but i dont know if im sitting in it again. I said where is the river . Bows the house was half submerged in water. She said it stood nearly a century this house. Is this the river. She said no the river is two and a half miles away. Its never come this close to our neighborhood before. Thats Climate Change. Thats the crisis thats happening right now. And thats the case we need to make to the american people. As well as the opportunities that were going to have for new jobs and new technologies and take this on as a mission for our country just like the greatest generation won world war ii and just like the Civil Rights Movements in our challenge. Because you mention world war ii, which i know is central to your question, testifyny dova retired new volunteer was the sierra club in new york state. Stephanie your question. Thank you, senator. I recently visited a museum devoted to home front during world war ii. It was very inspiring. In just a few years america achieved a massive industrial mobilization that was key to the allies winning the war. It gave me hope that we could do the same thing now. But instead of building tanks, ships and planes, we need to rapidly build a new clean energy infrastructure. What will you do to make this mobilization happen, and how will you persuade the American Public to get onboard . Thats a great question. And the president has a unique role here. And right now you all know we have a guy in the white house thats pretending this isnt happening. And in fact when i announced my candidacy in the middle of a blizzard in minnesota with four inches of snow on my head i talked about Climate Change immediately. And he tweeted out making fun of me for doing that and called me snow woman. I wrote back, donald trump, the science is on my side when it comes to Climate Change and id like to see how your hair would fair in a blizzard. What do we need to do . Let me tell you in my first 100 days you can see oh it on my website at Amy Klobuchar. Com. I put out a front just like Franklin Dell know roosevelt when you talk about what the past did whis first 100 days. We can change the tone and talk about things we can do without congress, legally. Legally. And there are a number of things we can do. On day one i will bring us back into the international Climate Change agreement. On tai do you, bring back the clean power rules that president obama had worked on for so many years. You can do that without congress. On day three, bring back the gas mileage standards which we know Car Companies in the u. S. Are ready to meet anyway. On day four, five and six i will work on sweeping legislation with the mayors and with congress and get that introduced and on day 7 youre supposed to rest but i dont think i will. So thats the first seven days. And from there you make this a top priority to get this passed. And then individual efforts like governor inslee talks about so well. Things like even using cold water for the clothes saves 5 times the a energy. And you dont shrink the clothes. The light bulbs. You name it. People when you have a president taking it on as a mission you have to do the big things and transfer and get out of fossil fuels and move to clean energy. But you also have to talk the talk to make this a submission so people do the little things. Senator sanders says this is costing a lot. His plan he put a price tag on it of 16 trillion. I know you havent talked about the overall price tag. But you talked about Infrastructure Improvements saying thats about a trillion dollars. Are these made up numbers . Is 16 trillion too much . Is that . For context our economy is 20 trillion. 16 trillion is redoing the whole thing is that right. I do have a price on the plan. What i would do injury this is similar to a number of other of the candidates have suggested in the range. First of all putting a price on carbon. Which is really really important. And you can do this with cap and trade, something we tried and got close to getting it done. You can do it with simply carbon tax or with a combination with the renewable electricity standard. I want to see who we have in congress and how far we can move. So that alone will bring in trillions of dollars. And some of that can be used, of course, to help communities that are going to be affected by this. And by the transition. And make sure people have jobs coming out of this. Im someone, my grandpa was an iron ore miner. And i saw things change. This is something close to mo my heart you have to have funding so people will be employed. The other part about it is Environmental Justice and making sure that the communities that are most affected get the help they need. And then of course the Science Research development, all the investment that we have to do. So once you do something with the carbon tax, once you repeal parts of that republican tax bill that were so recongressive with hundreds of billions going to corporations and going overseas. Using that money for infrastructure which i propose right off the top, you get the funding you need to for me a 2 trillion to 3 trillion range, part of it is with matching funds. I want to be honest what i think we can bring in. And you have been very direct. One of the things people like you are specific. And blunt. Lets 2 trillion. Which you are. Senator sanders says 16 trillion. That sounds like thats way above. You have ask him about this. I only now i get the funding. I think you have to be honest with people about how you get the money and what youre going to spend it on or its going to be really hard to bring along those people that we need to win in the middle of the country. We have to went the senate. If you really want to move this we need a different majority leader than mitch mcconnell. He has been stopping it from the beginning. I want to go to lizza cohen youre a student at ford Ham University majoring in communications in the environment. Very good. She currently supports senator sanders go ahead with your question lizza. Thank you. You answered a Washington Post questionnaire on fracking by saying you dont want to ban the method of extracting oil and gas but would like to regulate it better. You said that Safe Nuclear Power along with cleaner Coal Technologies should continue to be developed. What defines Safe Nuclear Power and clean coal . Dont they sound like oxymorons. Thats a great question. And i want to be clear. My plan is definite that we have to go to Carbon Neutral by no later than 2050. Im a cosponsor of the green new deal. Id like to see it sooner, right. But at the outset when i look at the numbers, i think we should at least get in dunn we have to by 2050. And we have to limit this to 2. 7 degrees warming fahrenheit or we are going to be in a whole lot more trouble than we are already in today. So when it comes to those technologies, i think storage is an issue. I know senator harris was talking about this with nuclear. But i would look at all the plants we have right now. It is about 20 of our energy and as you know it doesnt emit carbon. So i would look at those plants and make sure theyre safe and figure out what upgrades we have to playbook to the plants. But i wouldnt expand numbering unless we can find safe storage and figure this out. And Yucca Mountain is not the answer. The seconds piece about this you asked about coal, no i wouldnt allow for building of new coal plants. What we are talking about here as he phase out the coal plants is how we can, while they are still existing how we can make them better for the environment. And one other thing wasnt noted is natural gas of course is a transitional fuel right now. And one of the things among many that the Trump Administration has done that is so bad for our environment that i would reverse is their changes to the methane rules and methane emission thats very dangerous. You and scientisting have aid said. They talked about the urgency with which people need to act. They said we need to end the fossil fuel era as soon as possible or well have the effects that cant be reversed up number. In a recent interview you said it doesnt make sense i want to quote you to quote get rid of all of of the industries or do in a few years. Umhum. Are the scientists wrong . Are you getting rid of them in 11 years . Talk about the timing here. Right. So the timing is to make this our mission, like landing on the moon, or the Civil Rights Movement where our country came together and said were going to solve something. And when do you that you get the new technology and the new results. So what i think we need to do i was being honest i dont think we can face it out in a few years. To me thats two or three or four years. You have to do it over a period of time. You have to be aware of where people are working and how you are doing this in a way that keeps our economy going and keeps our economy strong. So thats how i think about it. But right now we have a lettered that doesnt even think at all in the longtime and there is an old ojibway saying important to me we have a lot of tribes in our states. Saying great leaders should make decisions not for this generation but for seven generations from now. [ applause ] we have we have a president that cant make decisions 7 minutes from now. So a lot of in is looking at you say, erin and adjusting. If we can put that money into r d and work with the private sector which is a big part of what i think we need to to do going forward, if we can get the technology going, perfect the stog storage for energy, the sooner we can do it the better. Lets go to david shimony go ahead with your question for the senator. Thank you. Do you support a jobs guarantee as parts of a climate plan . Or do you think we risk losing support for a climate plan by mixing the issues of Climate Change and full employment . Okay. So i think that we have to make jobs and employment a major part of this. First of all, lets look at the facts even in todays economy, that wind and solar are some of the growing areas for new jobs. All right. Lets look at the fact in todays economy, 99 of the wind is going to be rural. It is right now. And we have a lot of issues not just with urban poverty about rural. So there is a lot of exciting things that can happen in Rural America out of this. There is a lot of new jobs. So for me and i touched this on this before is that youve got to make sure the areas, as you are transitioning out of coal, as you are replacing this oil with electric cars and other new technologies, that you make sure that people that are working in those fossil fuel industries have jobs. And under my plan which is somewhat unique compared to the other ones and i appreciate the strong support for my plan from the League Conservation Voters and the statement they made yesterday, you can have incentives for investment in the areas that isnt just about green energy jobs, right . It can be about different kinds of manufacturing jobs as well. But the key is forever etched in my mind is when a duluth, minnesota and northern minnesota where my family is from on my dads side they had hard times during a period of time that literally they put up a billboard saying the last one to leave town turn off the lights, okay. Thats how bad it was. But they came back. They came back because of investment in new businesses, because of tourism and they figured out Lake Superior what were their attributes and they came back . Northern minnesota, iron ore mines and for come of the car batteries we need the iron ore and steel to build the grid. They came back as well when we went after steel dumping. I have seen the changes. But when we do draining its not just kids that were ready to train adults as well. And that were ready to make sure we find jobs that are suiting the skills that theyve had that they have built over the years. All right. We are going to take a brief break, senator and well be back on the other side with much more from senator Amy Klobuchar and of course next up joe biden and Bernie Sanders. All right. Thank you. [ applause ] this is the nimble chevy trax. The versatile chevy equinox. The stylish allnew chevy blazer. And the roomy Chevy Traverse with seating for up to eight. The chevy family of suvs. No matter what youre looking for in an suv, chevys got you covered. Get zero percent financing for sixty months plus seven hundred and fifty dollars on most 2019 equinox models. Find new roads at your local chevy dealer. So bob, what do you take for back pain . Before i take anything, i apply topical pain relievers first. Salonpas lidocaine patch blocks pain receptors for effective, nonaddictive relief. Salonpas lidocaine. Patch, rollon or cream. Hisamitsu. Would shakespeare have chosen just some pens . S. Methinks tul pens would serve mlady well. Thanks. And a unicorn notebook get everything on your list. This weeks doorbuster 300sheet paper ream for 1; 1 in store or online from the advisors at office depot officemax. Hey. You must be stevens phone. Now you can know whos on your network and control who shouldnt be, only with xfinity xfi. Simple. Easy. Awesome. And well back. Former Vice President joe biden will be joining us in a few moments to answer questions about the cloimt crisis. First, though, more with senator Amy Klobuchar anning your questions. And senator lets get straight to another question from the audience. A student at columbia university. Lobbying congress for the green new deal. Youre a member of the sunrise movement, i know. Go ahead with your question ari. Like your shirt. Thank you. Thank you. The amazon rain forest is currently burning after being cleared for the cattle and dairy industry to expand. In livestock grown irresponsibly has caused accumulation of co2 in the atmosphere. As a senator from minnesota producing large amounts of cheese and beef how can climate active afts trust to you fake on the dairy and beef industries. Lets go back to the amazon which we all know is just a tragedy whats going on there. And being part of the international Climate Change agreement again, being able to have some clout and leverage with allies will make a big difference in trying to put pressure and working with nonprofits and other groups all over the world. To try to stop this. Because we are at a point between the fires and some of the decisions more deforestation that its very dangerous to our climate and just shows how everything is interrelated. There is a reason we have subsisens farmers in Subsaharan Africa migranting up as refugeesen and its a big ecosystem we have to deal with. Im hopeful we can do this in a way especially when im president we can continue to have hamburgers and cheese but at the same time understand that there are many people that choose to eat vegen and thats great too. But let me tell you about a different perspective on our farmers and what we can do to make them part of the solution. Because i have seen in Rural America many incredible farmers. And ones that are struggling right now to keep going. And my solution here and we have done some with the farm bill. Im the only candidate up here that has been on the agriculture committee. And ive done that over a decade. Been threw three farm bills. First of all, the conservation programs. And we have done good thing and have to do more. They are called crp abcsp appear equip you dont want to know what they are good for. But they stand for conservation. The thing we are do something good for climate is putting incentives out for farmers to for their land to do things that will reduce co2 in the atmosphere. Thats things like planning winter cover crops and its a Pilot Program right now. And as president i would expand it cigarettely. I think we all know planning trees is a really good thing. And no one can make fun of that because we know the difference it can make for a minimal amount of money not just in the u. S. But across the country. And i would do more and more with the tools that we have with our farm bill to work with our farmers, including farming methods that require less water, figuring out how we can do this in a way thats best for the environment but yet still being able to produce our own food supply. So we are not dependent on other countries that may not have the same Environmental Standards that we do. Senator, you know its interesting. Okay. Thank you. Andrew yang mentioned earlier, a recent u. N. Study basically if everybody stopped red meat or went vegan this problem would go away. The point wasnt that thats going to happen. But the importance of the beach and cattle industry. Senator harris said she supports adjusting dietary guidelines changing what we tell americans to eat and doing so formally would you do that. I would do what the science tells us. I think we all know there is an issue with obesity in the country. We have to do more. Im a huge supporter of putting calories on menus so people can be empowered to make decisions on their own. We have to make sure and this energies has defied science every steps of the which. This president does. And we have to lack at skroins and make sure we do everything thats healthy not just for individuals but for our environment. On the dietary guidelines issue would you adjust them for the environmental impact. Oh i think you can look at doing that, of course. But, again im hopeful as i look at all the big things we can do we havent talked about buildings, right the changes making to New Buildings, energy storage, appliance standards what i Call Building a fridge to the next century. I did that to embarrass my daughter because its like a she is out there and its a bad mom joke. But the basic things we can do with transportation and transit. I just want to make clear that if we look at this we have to move Forward Together as a country. We have to find these things that unite us and see this as our mission. Right now people are seeing the Climate Change in front of us and we have to seize on the moment because that movie the day after tomorrow, its today. Its happening today. Lets go to our chief climate correspondent bill which are with his question. Great fridge pun, senator. Thank you glad you liked it. Im lucky enough cnn occasionally sends pay around the world to check on the last amazing creatures left in the world from the leem you are the. You were in favor of taking the gray wolf off off of endangered species list. How would you deal with the question of what career creatures to protect and save. Im strongly favor in favor of the endangered species act. Always supported the endangered species act and do anything to reverse some of the suggestions that the president has made recently to repeal it. Or to water it down. The wolf in minnesota what you are referring to, is a situation where they actually made the numbers in a big way to get off the endangered species list. And we have tried and its still happening during the Obama Administration president Obamas Administration supported getting the wolves off of the list. And there kept being problemed with management plans and legal challenges to that. And now it is being attempted again. And so i simply think unless you follow the rules and the Wildlife Federation supports me on this if you follow the rules once you reach over the number of animals, then you should allow them to be delisted otherwise it doesnt make sense. Thats where we are on that right now. And you know well see what happens if this time the plan will make it through the courts and obviously if they go below the levels they should be delisted. I want to go to a video submission. Sure. Paul kasakp a acquatic scientist from the department of Natural Resources now a lecturer at Johns Hopkins university. Our quickest way to reduce green mouse gases is use less energy. In spite of the solution. Our energy waste is so large you can see is it from space. Given now the very apparent effects of Climate Change and the prospect for worse conditions in the future what plans do you have for getting u. S. Citizens and businesses to own their piece of the mess and change their behavior . Okay. Thats a great, great question, because actually, secretary chu, the former Energy Secretary when we had Energy Secretaries that wanted to work on this, he always referred to Energy Efficiency as the low hanging fruit. We found bipartisan support for Energy Efficiency. I would start with some of the things i talked about earlier, buildings and when we have New Buildings going up. Remember the buildings arent even like a car you get and can replace. The buildings stand for decades and decades and decades. Putting really strict building standards in place to make these buildings as Energy Efficient as possible to reduce our carbon. Transportation when it comes to Energy Efficiency. This is about finding cars and trucks moving to electric cars and trucks and to do that of course we need the dwrid. And thats why my infrastructure plan is focused on green infrastructure. We need to have the grid and we need to have storage. Looking at one size doesnt fit all. Ill use examples of small electric coops that i visited in my state. They have the big farmhouses, right. What they say is, okay if you buy a solar panel, because you know might not buy one right away if you buy one they have them outside the coop if you buy unyou get a free big water heaters why . Because the big water heaters for farmhouse us work the best because you can store the water and use it different times. There are numerous example of what we can do to make the Energy Efficiency which i agree is low hanging freiheit. You know why its popular with the public whether increasing the gas mileage standards and then moving to electric cars or the building standards or the appliance standards its popular because if people save money they like it. And one of the ways we found talking to people who are in the electricity business, paul, little coops is what really worked to get people to get energy usage down and turning off the lights, not necessarily the total when they saw what their neighbor did, they are real competitive. They dont see the names of the neighbor but they see the averages and they thinkic do better. Poric use less water if i do this. Creating the incentives for people. And then of course the ultimate way to push the Energy Efficiency ideas is by pricing carbon and doing Something Big like that, part of the sweeping legislation i suggested earlier [ applause ] when we look at the sea level changes, right we have all seen it. Well things will continue youre looking at miami, a lot of changes in the coastline. Umhum. Of in he country. Do you think people will have to literally move inland . Thats part of the solution people need to move . Well i have been through this mitigation issue from flooding in my pony state. And we have actually made sure that some of the people move their homes sometimes we find away ways to move homes off the flood willing areas that keep consistently flooding because otherwise they are paying too much money. I still remember being in austin minnesota and seeing one house and they had converted most to a park. Moved most of the houses and they go thats the guy. Thats the guy that wouldnt move last time. This is called flood mitigation. There will be some moving. Im hopeful it wont be on the whole scale that would happen if we didnt do anything. If we just sit the way we are we see whats happening. We know that eight of the ten metro areas in the country thats going to experience the most floding is in florida. The big metro thats why my first Climate Change event that i did was in tampa, because i wanted to make that point and the point that this isnt just about certain big cities in the country. Its really for our whole country. Hand what youve got to do is start accurate acting now take it as a mission. Make sure you appeal to people so they understand they can be part of the solution. And not just portray everything in a negative. Because i actually think there are real positives coming out this. There will be some flood mitigation and the infrastructure we have to do some to reduce carbon like more trins transit but some of course is going to be about mitigation and moving things and making it easier and building stronger levies we have to be honest about that or were not making it through. You talk about florida. There are other communities of course that will be impacted as well. I know naomi who willrd from new york city. A sunrise active it has a question. Thank you naomi. Im a 21yearold woman of color and im worried about the impacts of Climate Change on minority communities. Climate change disproportionately impacts people of color due to massive welt gaps between white people and people of color. When fires happen they cant move as easily. When heat waves hit they lack a c to koof op. How do you plan to help communities of colors in times of Climate Change fuel disasters. Thank you. A key question because we need to environment justice in this country, right. Because when you look at it and youre exactly right. Even think of just what happened. People with money when a flood may be coming their way op or hurricane comes their way . They get a plane, go someplace. They put their family in the car and drive off to another community, some friends or neighbors that have room in their house for them to stay in. People who are economically disadvantaged and people of color, many times theyre the ones left behind. And when those houses get ruined and you can see it in the bahamas right now, when those houses go down its often the houses of knows that can afford it the least. My husband grew up in a trailer home. So i know firsthand those trailer courts and what happens when they get ruined. We certainly saw that in the fire in paradise, right . So a lot of in is going to have to be investing in those communities when we look at the fund that were going to build, a big big fund from the Carbon Pricing then we have to make sure that money is going to help the workers who are transitioning to new jobs, number one. And number two, making sure that people are basically held harmless when they see any effects for people that cant afford it. You can put the money at 150,000 in income or less. And making sure that they are helped as we look at this transition period. And then finally and that includes of course many communities of color and investment, increasing the minimum wage. A whole host of number of things that were going to have to do outside of the Climate Change area. Because weve got to make this work for everyone. Because right now it isnt. Okay . [ applause ] senator you have not joined some of the colleagues who are calling for an all out ban on fracking. Umhum. Why . So, because again i see natural gas as a transitional fuel. It is better than oil but its not nearly as good as wind and solar, right. However, you have situations where you have dangerous fracking that shouldnt be happening. So as president in my first 100 days i will review every fracking permit there is and decide which ones should be allowed to be continued and which ones are too dangerous. Then you go from there. And as you put a a price on carbon, you will see less of this going on. Of course you will because once you put rules of the road in place its going to become less economically fees lk for that fuel. The reason im saying it in that way is again i think im being honest about what we need to do to get to where we are. I remember only a few years ago we celebrated a work of the Obama Administration for natural gas fuel buses in one of my communities. Why . It was better than the old kind of buses. You have to see this as a transition as we move ahead to a better and cleaner environment. So when Julian Castro says it was a transitional fuel and its not that we have become too reliant on it you boef its still transitional. I think it will still exist for a while. And i think the key thing is as it exists as we make it more economic for renewable and wind and solar and the kind of technology that we are going to see and electric cars that we wont immediately get rid of it. Process i just want just being honest with people. But i think that we will reduce it and they have to also get rid of it where it is very dangerous and there is a lot of areas when you see what was going on in some of our states and countries where we saw flaring appear the last thing ill mention which i said once before, we must reverse the Trump Administrations decision on methane. That is whats made it incredibly dangerous [ applause ] and if that shall did shall did if we couldnt reverse that i would ban it immediately because this thing is this is very dangerous what theyve done on meths and i. Thank you so very much. Okay. I appreciate it. We all appreciate it. And. Great group. Well have joe biden followed by Bernie Sanders and senator elizabeth warren. All right. Thanks to priceline working with top airlines to turn their unsold seats into amazing deals, Family Reunion attendance is up. Were all related yeah, i see it. And because priceline offers great deals by comparing thousands of prices in real time, sports fans are seeing more away games. Various yeahhh is that safe . Oh, y. Ahh not at all. No, maam. Nope. And more people than ever are enjoying romantic getaways. romantic music thats gross priceline. Every trip is a big deal. Classical Music playing throughout
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.