Transcripts For KCSM Democracy Now 20151002

Killing nine people. He died as well. We will speak with Jennifer Lynch, spokesperson for the Oregon Alliance for gun safety. Then, reimagining the challenge of Climate Change. I spent six years wondering through the wreckage caused by the carbon in the air in the Economic System that put it there. The old paradigm will be forced to change either by the environment around us, or us. Amy author and journalist naomi klein and filmmaker avi lewis team up for a new documentary based on the bestseller, this changes everything, profiling communities on the front lines of the Climate Justice movement. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Vigils were held in oregon last night after a gunman opened fire at a Community College thursday morning killing nine people , before he was shot to death. The shooting at umpqua Community College in roseburg has been described as the deadliest shooting in oregons history and one of the worst Mass School Shootings in recent years. Press reports have identified the gunman as 26yearold chris harpermercer. According to one count, this is the 294th mass shooting in the United States so far this year and the 45th shooting on a school or college campus. Well have more on the oregon shooting after headlines. In california, a planned parenthood facility has been firebombed. Authorities say arsonists threw a container with flammable liquid through the window of the Thousand Oaks facility on wednesday night. This follows an attack on the same facility in august in which windows were smashed. Wednesdays attack came one day after the Republican House hearings on planned parenthood. In afghanistan, 11 americans have died after u. S. Transport plane crashed at the jalalabad airport, killing six u. S. Soldiers and five civilian contractors. Three afghan civilians also died in the crash. Meanwhile, fierce fighting between the taliban and Afghan Security forces backed by u. S. Airstrikes and u. S. Special operations troops continues to rage in the Northern City of kunduz. The taliban have reportedly also seized control of the nearby warduj district. The pentagon has confirmed u. S. Special forces have engaged in gunfire in kunduz, although it says the troops were acting in selfdefense. The obama declared an official end to the u. S. Combat mission in afghanistan last year. In washington, the house has passed a 612 billion military spending bill that allows the pentagon to sidestep mandatory sequestration budget cuts for the pentagon while the cuts , remain in effect for domestic programs. The bill would also make it more difficult to close guantanamo. President obama has said he would veto the measure because of the irresponsible way it boosts military spending. Israel has deployed four battalions to the west Bank Following a shooting thursday that killed a jewish israeli couple as the family drove between two jewish settlements. Israeli military is describing the shooter as a palestinian gunman. The additional israeli troops are slated to arrive in the west bank this morning. This comes one day after israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the Iran Nuclear Deal in an address to the u. N. General assembly. Netanyahu compared iran to a dog saying, unleashed and unmuzzled, iran will go on the prowl, devouring more and more prey. He also said he was prepared to resume peace talks with the palestinians without any preconditions whatsoever an assertion the Palestinian Liberation Organization immediately contested. In a sense on his statement put it has nothing to do with reality. Actually, the opposite. He is the one who walked out of the peace talks. Israel is the country that reneges on all its commitments and signed agreements. Israel is refusing to abide by international law, then it turns around and blames the palestinians who are its victims. Power holdingary a whole nation captive and at the same time blaming its victim for its own belligerence. Amy in britain, Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn is clashing with members of his party after he told the bbc in an interview if he were Prime Minister, he would not order to the military to use nuclear weapons, regardless of the circumstances. Would you ever push the Nuclear Button if you are Prime Minister . I am opposed to nuclear weapons. I am opposed to the holding and usage of nuclear weapons. In ultimate weapon of mass distraction that can only kill millions of civilians of ever used. I am totally and morally opposed to nuclear weapons. I do not see the mess defense. I do not see the use of them as a credible you would never push the Nuclear Button. It is immoral to have or use nuclear weapons. I have made that clear all of my life. Amy he has also said that the would oppose the renewal of britains 150 billion submarinebased Nuclear Program trident, calling the program a waste of money. Russia has launched a third day of airstrikes in syria as the United States calls on russia to stop the strikes, saying they only fuel more extremism. Russia became the 10th foreign power to begin bombing syria this year. The u. S. Says russia is targeting u. S. Backed rebels fighting isil. Facing questioning during a News Conference at the United Nations over the targets of the airstrikes, Russian Foreign minister sergey v. Lavrov said thursday, if it looks like a terrorist, walks like a terrorist, acts like a terrorist, fights like a terrorist, its a terrorist, right . In news from the campaign trail, democratic president ial candidate Bernie Sanders has raised nearly as much money as contender Hillary Clinton over the last three months, even as sanders continues to refuse to accept donations from super pacs or corporations. Sanders has raised 26 million since july, compared to clintons 28 million. Sanders has received small contributions from more than 1 Million People so far, at a rate even faster than president obama did in 2008. House speaker contender california congressman Kevin Mccarthy is facing criticism after he suggested the benghazi Oversight House Committee had been set up to discredit former secretary of state and democratic president ial candidate Hillary Clinton. Mccarthy made the comments in an interview with sean hannity of fox news tuesday. Everybody thought hill or clinton was unbeatable, right . We put together a Benghazi Special committee, a select committee post up what are her numbers today . Her numbers are dropping. Why . An trustable. And no one would have known that it happened had we not amy Kevin Mccarthy has been vying to become the next speaker of the house, following John Boehners announcement he would resign, but House Republicans are questioning mccarthys abilities following these statements. For genia has executed deathrow prisoner alfredo prieto, following a federal judges decision thursday to reject his lawyers concerns that the drugs used to put him to death were unsafe. Prieto was executed at 9 17 pm local Time Thursday after being injected by a three drug cocktail that included the chemical pentobarbital, which was obtained not from a pharmacy but from the texas prison , system. And in madison, wisconsin, Community Members are holding a Memorial Service today to commemorate the life of 16yearold skylar lee, a transgender teenager and lgbt activist who took his own life on monday. In a video he recorded before his death, lee discussed the need for more resources to support youth of marginalized identities. 40 of change under ruth have reported us in transgender youth have reported attended suicide. People say it will get better, but what would happen if we invested our resources into the development and wellbeing of our youth . If i had 1 trillion, i would spend money to create Education Programs designed to combat the system produced of marginalized identities of from failure. Amy according to the National Center for Transgender Equality and the lgbtq task force, more than 40 of trans people attempt suicide in their lifetime nearly 10 times the national average. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Juan welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. Vigils were held in oregon last night after a gunman opened fire at a Community College thursday morning, killing nine people before he was shot to death. The shooting at umpqua Community College in roseburg has been described as the deadliest shooting in oregons history and one of the worst Mass School Shootings in recent years. Roseburg is a town of 22,000, located about 180 miles south of portland. Press reports have identified the gunman as 26yearold chris harpermercer. Cnn reported the suspect was armed with three handguns, a long gun and body armor. , according to survivors, the gunman at one point ordered cowering students to stand up and state their religion before shooting them one by one. Cassie welding, a student at umpqua Community College, described what happened. It was around 10 30 am and i heard a really big, like, pow noise, almost like a balloon popping. Heard, within five seconds, heard about four more. My teacher left before this happened, so i dont know at this point if she is ok or not. I heard crying. I heard the much nonstop breathing and cant catch your breath. I was doing the same. Everyone was shaking. I just heard i love yous. I did not see the gunman, but eyewitness targeting shot. Everyone is more panicked as it get herdy, and so we inside because the door was slightly open. We still heard gunshots, even when this was going on. We pulled her in, doing cpr on her. Amy according to one count this is the 294th mass shooting in the United States so far this year, and the 45th shooting on a school or college campus. The tally is from the website mass shooting tracker which records every incident where four or more people are killed or injured by gunfire. On president obama spoke out thursday, about the school shooting. Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends upeing routine being routine. The conversation in the aftermath of it we have become numb to it. We talked about this after newtown, and tucson, aurora, after charleston. It cannot be this easy for somebody who wants to inflict harm on other people to get his or her hands on a gun. And what has become routine, of course, is the response of those who oppose any kind of common sense gun legislation. Right now i can imagine the press release is being cranked need more guns they will argue. Fewer gun safety laws. Does anybody really believe that . There are scores of responsible gun owners in this country. They know that is not true. We know because of the polling that says the majority of americans understand we should be changing these laws, including the majority of responsible lawabiding gun owners. Everyis a gun for roughly man, woman, and child in america so how can you with a straight face make the argument that more guns will make us safer . Juan president obama went on to make an appeal to news organizations to publish statistics comparing deaths in the u. S. From terrorist attacks to deaths resulting from gun violence. Trillion andver 1 pass countless laws and devote entire agencies to preventing terrorist attacks on our soil, and rightfully so. And yet we have a congress that explicitly blocks us from even collecting data on how we could potentially reduce gun deaths. How can that be . This is a Political Choice that we make. To allow this to happen every few months in america. We collectively are answerable to those families who lose their loved ones because of our inaction. Inn americans are killed mine disasters, we work to make mines safer. When their killed in floods and hurricanes, we make communities safer. When roads are unsafe, we fix them. To reduce auto fatalities. We have seatbelt laws because we know it saves lives. Violencetion that gun is somehow different . That our freedom and our anytitution prohibits of how we useion a Deadly Weapon . When there are lawabiding gun owners all across the country who could hunt and protect their families and do everything they do under such regulations . It doesnt make sense. Portland, now to oregon where we are joined by , Jennifer Lynch from the Oregon Alliance for gun safety. The group inudes more than 50 organizations that pushed for the passage of oregons new firearms safety act, which expands background checks in gun sales in oregon. It was signed into law in may. Jennifer lynch, welcome to democracy now first of all, talk about the reaction in the community to this massacre that took place yesterday at umpqua Community College. Well, of course, the reaction is always horror, but frankly, never surprised. These things happen entirely too often. It always feels like they could happen close to home. And this time, it was our turn. Juan it was especially ironic this occurs only a couple of months after you had new laws for background checks in oregon. Could you talk about your campaign there . Thats right, so for the third time in three years, the Oregon Legislature considered a bill expanding background check on the sale of firearms to include every firearms sale. That includes private sales between two individuals, including two individuals who met online. This is a bill that gun violence prevention organizations in oregon have been campaigning for since 2013, and we were met with resistance in 2013 and 2014 state legislator sessions. So as such, we worked to change the state legislature. This year, the bill was rent reduced and was able to pass both chambers at sign and devote law and signed into law by the governor this may. Amy can you talk about the chief sponsor, his significant . Senator floyd of eugene, oregon is the chief sponsor of that bill and has carried it for the last three legislative sessions will stop the senator himself has been touched by gun violence. He is a longtime gun owner and a hunter and protective of Second Amended rights. It also believes this is one small thing that we can do to make organs committed safer and it simply is no excuse for an action at this point. I want to ask about john hanlin, the sheriff of Douglas County, who i believe was leading the investigation. I want to turn to a clip. He is the lead in the investigation into the shooting committed to college, but in april as there were hearings for new legislation to ask and background checks, to private gun sales, he testified against the measure. This law is not going to andect citizens of oregon that it is going to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. It will not do that. We have laws that prohibit the possession of other things like methamphetamine, and it doesnt stop it. What i fear most is that we are going to create criminals, specifically felon is criminals, out of some of our most ordinary, normal lawabiding citizens. Irthermore, i dont know how can, at least in my county, begin to try to enforce this law. Being a timber harvest depended county such as we are, our budget is continuously shrinking to the point that there are times when we have a difficult time simply responding to domestic disturbances, vehicle crashes, the ordinary calls for service that happen every day. And to expect local Law Enforcement to run down and do an investigation into whether or not an individual a private individual has conducted a background check is nearly impossible. This bill to consider closely and to not pass it. It simply isnt going to work for us. Juan that was sheriff john hanlin earlier this year. In 2013, remember, he is the one investigating the shooting at umpqua committed to college, he wrote a letter to Vice President joe biden. In the letter, he asked the Vice President not to tamper with the Second Amendment, writing gun control is not the answer to preventing heinous crimes like school shootings. Any actions against, or in disregard for our u. S. Constitution and 2nd amendment rights by the Current Administration would be irresponsible and an indisputable insult to the american people. He goes on to say i will not violate my constitutional oath. Therefore, the second purpose of this letter is to make notification that any federal regulation enacted by congress or by executive order of the president offending the Constitutional Rights of my citizenshall not be enforced by me or by my deputies, nor will i permit the enforcement of any unconstitutional regulations or orders by federal officers within the borders of Douglas County oregon. Your response to the sheriff and his stance and the past on this issue of more expanded gun control . Sheriff hanlin forgets that common sense and reasonable, moderate gun safety regulations have in fact then held up as constitutional, first of all, repeatedly, and secondly, he forgets that as a lawenforcement enforcement officer, his first duty is to protect the people of Douglas County, not to advance his own political agenda or his own interpretation of what the Second Amendment does and does not go out for. Peoplee insult to the of Douglas County, they were victims of a her rent us mass shooting her rent is mass shooting on the campus of a public institution. And that truly is where his attention should be focused today. How did a young man accumulate so many weapons and so much ammunition . How was he able to carry it unnoticed into classrooms and opened fire, taking the lives of classmates, innocent bystanders . Truly, this is the insult that has been forced upon us. In this is where i would ask that his attention lie in the days and weeks ahead. Do younnifer lynch, what know about the young man in the weapons he used and where they he got them . Very little. It is all very early. Had thes as though he sorts of guns that any american can purchase legally. And i think what is probably more interesting is that there were, presumably, people who knew how many guns he had in his house. And it is sounding as though there were people who knew he may have had ill intent. One of the members of our organization is sandy hook promise. Theyre launching Say Something week and they are encouraging parents, teachers, students, and everybody to speak out when there is a situation that looks like it might result in this kind of violence. And i would hope everyone would hookpromise. Org to check out the campaign. When you understand there could be a danger like this in your community, get in front of it. Juan next year will mark the 50th anniversary of the first mass killings in modern american history. It was Richard Speck who shot and killed eight nurses in 1966, then a few weeks later, Charles Whitmore climbed to the tower of the university of texas at austin and killed, i think it was, about 12 or 13 people, wounded 32. But now were seeing in the last Mass Shootings every day on average. We losing the battle to be able to contain the proliferation of guns in america and continued violence against our own citizens . Is hard to say were losing the battle because the battle is just starting. After the shooting at sandy hook elementary, an Organization Called moms demand action was created to help organize mothers in the same way that mothers against driving organized in the 1980s. That organization has grown into a larger grassroots organization. They are our partners along with others. We are starting to fight back. Poll after poll after poll Shows Americans in a great majority want common sense gun safety regulations to be passed at the state and federal level. And we just have not been organized in a way to ask for them. And the longer we go without demanding action on gun violence prevention, the more of these battles we are losing. Amy Jennifer Lynch, finally, this isnt the first time there has been a mass killing in the neighborhood, is that right . Oregon has had its fair share. In 1998 at Thurston High School in springfield, oregon, just outside eugene . Thats right. Yes, theres a High School Student who brought a gun to school after killing his parents, then killed classmates. One of our state legislators was a principal in a nearby School District when at happened, and that shooting still resonates here a decade later. Decades. Amy we will continue to follow this. Jennifer lynch, thank you for being with us, spokesperson for the Oregon Alliance for gun safety, including more than 50 organizations that pushed for the passage of oregons new firearms safety act which expands background checks in gun sales in the state, signed into law in may. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. When we come back, were joined by naomi klein and avi lewis on their new film, this changes everything. It had its u. S. Premiere last night in new york. Stay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Juan the east coast of the United States may have dodged a bullet this time, as forecasters say Hurricane Joaquin may not make landfall due to a northerly turn. The category 4 storm is however, hammering the bahamas, and heavy rains have already caused massive flooding in charleston. But as we mark the third anniversary of superstorm sandy, one of the most destructive storms in the nations history, are we prepared for another extreme weather event, which researchers say are becoming more frequent with the effects of Climate Change. 2015 is on track to be the hottest year in recorded history. Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently released a report showing that july was the single warmest month on in history. And nine of the 10 hottest months since Record Keeping began in 1880 have occurred since 2005. Amy well, we spend the remainder of the hour looking at a remarkable new film that reimagines the vast challenge of Climate Change. The film is called this changes everything. Its directed by avi lewis, and inspired by naomi kleins International Bestselling Book by the same title. Over the course of four years, the filmmakers traveled to Nine Countries on five continents to profile communities on the front lines of the Climate Justice movement from montanas powder river basin to the alberta tar sands, from the coast of south india to beijing and beyond. This is the films trailer. The majority of the human race does not see Global Warming is a serious threat. Celebrate. Legislation is dead. With in the global north less than 20 of the population are responsible for over 70 of global emissions. Quite we are drilling all over the place. On the other side of the world, scores of people most affected by Climate Change, more infected by environment will injustice, have the least responsibility for creating this prices in the first place crisis in the first place. This is our livelihood. This is the water we drink. The amount of fossil fuels we are combusting every year is growing and growing. We are going in completely the wrong direction. Ive spent six years wandering through the wreckage caused by the carbon in the air in the Economic System that put it there. The old paradigm will be forced to change. Either by the environment around us, or us. Wetland. S our we see communities were thrown into the front lines. We see the incredible transformations. They become stronger. So heres the big question what if Global Warming isnt only a crisis . What if it is the best chance were ever been a get to build were ever going to get to build a better world . Change or be changed. There are limits. Lets celebrate the limits because we can reinvent a different future. Amy the trailer for the epic new documentary, this changes everything. The film opens tonight at the ifc center in new york city. Last month, it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in canada. Well, for more, were joined now by avi lewis, the films director and producer. He was previously a host for al jazeeras show faultlines. And were also joined by the films narrator, naomi klein. Shes a journalist and bestselling author of the book, this changes everything capitalism vs. The climate. Her past books include, no logo and the shock doctrine the rise of disaster capitalism. Avi lewis and naomi klein, it is great to have you with us today together on the u. S. Premiere of the film. So talk about this film. You have been on this journey, naomi, writing the book, and now to have the cameras following you and him places you had not even gone, but you had extensively written about and analyzed. Talk about what youre going to do with the film . The idea was to do things differently. Usually what happens, you write a book and the film is made maybe after, which is what happened with the shock doctrine. Theres something kind of inherently flawed about that process because you are retracing your steps. Youre going back to places. In a way, you are him of being mimicking this process of discovery. As anyone who has read the book, you have already come to those conclusions. We started working on this together while avi was still working at al jazeera. We cover the bp disaster together, went to bolivia together to cover the peoples conference on Climate Change. Ton when he left al jazeera work in this fulltime. People who read the book or skimmed the book are familiar and will see things that are very recognizable. Theres a chapter in the book about my trip to the heartland conference on the Climate Change denier kind of ground zero. Avi and his group were filming on that trip. But it is very different to be in the room to see the people who are quoted to see a whole new dimension, same with reporting on that at the hearing. But i think a film can do so much better than a book, frankly, is really bring us into the heart of the social movements that are the final section of the book. It is one thing to read about, oh, these movements are rising up, but it is something very different to be immersed in the energy of social movement that are fighting and winning these epic struggles against fossil fuel companies. I am so grateful to avi and the whole crew for having stuck with this project for now five years. And another thing that the films can do that the books cant, is naomis face in the climate conference. Juan and it can capture in a way that book cant, the actual beauty of the planet that is being violated by this rampant industrialization and the haunting pictures that you have are unbelievable. I wanted to ask you about the challenge of being able to put the content of the book into a film. Luckily, i wasnt trying to take 500 pages of naomi klein and force it into a film, because those 500 pages werent written we started shooting. At the kernel of the idea was there. We talked about taking nature a character in the film. I think it is true that when you see communities who are defending their land and air and water, defining rights for committed these and challenging the economic logic 90 exploitation of nature, and enacting committed the scale alternatives at the same time, alsoee the people, but you need to know what theyre protecting. One of the reasons we shot around the world and made the decision to go epic, as amy said, is because the scope of naomis argument is vast. The scope of this challenge is global. And the scope of the resistance rising up is global ,too, and you need to get that feeling that things are happening around the world and their happening in beautiful places that people love. The film has unique way of touching the heart and mind at the same time. We tried to bring people to the places. Amy i went to get a quick question in on the stylebook change, staff memo from a few stylebook editor Sally Jacobsen and others. Our guidance is to use Climate Change doubters of those who reject mainstream Climate Science and to avoid the use of skeptics or deniers. Klein . Ponse, naomi it is good that they are not using skeptics because skeptic has a positive connotation. We should all be skeptical about science, any scientific claim. We should be rigorous about it. Indeed, it is a phrase celebrated in the scientific community. But these are Climate Change deniers. Theyre denying the overwhelming scientific evidence. They are denying the real human impact. That look on my face at the heartland conference, and i try to capture this in the book, what i found most disturbing about immersing myself in that context was the real lightheartedness. You see that in the film, sort of laughing in the face of the problem. What i took away from that aryans and the extraordinary from the experience and extraordinary scientific claims being made with noah tends to resolve them. One person is blaming sunspots, one person is saying it is not happening. The overwhelming feeling is that we are going to be fine. The most disturbing denial is the reality of the massive human cost we are already seeing. We are coming close to the end of what looks to be the hottest year on record. We saw thousands of people die and he weighs in india. This is not about people dying in the future, though, it is about that, too. It is about a massive death toll in the present where we see, change act as an accelerant for conflicts. This is true for syria, feeling the refugee crisis fueling the refugee crisis. I disagree with not calling it, change juan one of the powerful aspects of the film, when you actually chronicle the people who are benefiting from the rented industrialization, especially in the Alberta Tarsands reinterview the people making 100,000, 300,000 a year and you realize there is a constituency. Actually benefiting from this enormous providing Political Support for the continued, unbridledxpansion. It is complicated. And people who live next to the biggest Industrial Complex aware of thee been costs for a long time. The oil and gas industry is a very conformist culture. If you speak about renewable energy, you really get slapped down. It is a bit of a locker room thing happening. The number of workers who told us off camera they would rather be building Wind Turbines and putting up solar panels was remarkable. They would not say it on camera, except for this one boilermaker who started an Organization Called iron and earth were his organizing tarsands workers in support of renewable energy. He is Building Support fast. Theres a huge constituency up there, now that the oil industry is laying off thousands of people, of workers in the industry who would rather go home and tell their kids what they did that day and feel proud. A poll came out a few days showing albertans support a carbon tax, overwhelmingly support more investments in renewable energy. There is an exhaustion in alberta for just about the boom the roller coaster of that boom we chronicle. We were there during the peak of the boom and were interviewing these kids going, im making way too much money. They were saying that, kind of laughing. These are 24yearold kids, you know . Im sorry, young man. But we also interviewed a of workers who just talked about the sadness of the place. Almost nobody you meet informant murray is from their or has any mcmurray or fort has any intention of staying at fort mcmurray. They say, im on the six month plan, or a five year plan. The plan is the same, go in, work as hard as you possibly can, get as much money as you can, and get the hell out. So in the film amy and see if you have a family to come back to. Exactly. Amy we are going to take a break and then come back to another clip of, this changes everything. Stay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. As we go to a clip of the new film that has just premiered in the United States that is directed by avi lewis and written by naomi klein, based on her best selling book. The film, this changes everything. Can i be honest with you . I have always kind of hated films about Climate Change. What is it about those vanishing glaciers and desperate pull her bears that makes me want to click away . Possible to be board by the end of the world . It is not that i dont care what happens to polar bears, its just that we are told the cause isnt out there, it is in us. Its human nature. We are innately greedy and shortsighted. And if that is true, there is no hope. Finally stopped looking away, traveled into the heart of the crisis, met people on the front line, i discovered so much of what i thought i knew was wrong. And i began to wonder, what if human nature isnt the problem . What if even Greenhouse Gases arent the problem . Is aif the real problem story, one weve been telling ourselves for 400 years . Amy that is naomi klein in the new film, this changes everything. Now we are going to the segment in the film that looks at the smog crisis in china. Previously, the environment issues are just peanuts. We can deal with it when we become rich enough. , we had the historical disaster. Smog landscape changed the of environmental discussion in china. Have you ever seen a star in the sky . No. What about a blue sky . I have seen one that is a little blue. What about clouds . No. The dome wasnder online just one week before the Chinese Government took it down. In that week, it was viewed in china more than 200 million times. Cooks you cant walk out because people can breathe. This cannot be the way the world is supposed to be about. Air pollution has really become a big topic in china and the rising middle class people in china, you know, in many ways have improved a lot, now start to ask, when can we buy clean air . Amy from the film, this changes everything. Avi lewis is the director. China. The images are a believable. It is so striking. This is the metal of model of galloping Economic Growth and now people are literally choking on that growth. It is the number one issue of china. We like to let ourselves off the hook. China is the biggest emitter co, and all about china. Building a coal plant every week. Those figures arent entirely true anymore. China is curtailing its coal use dramatically. This last year, the last coalfired power plant will be retired. Have theyre are choking on this crisis of pollution and the environment is the number one issue per people in china. The government knows it. Theres a growing movement at the Grassroots Level of protest and activism in china. It is not easy to be an activist in china, but there are huge pushback from local communities around all sorts of pollution disasters and industrial plants. So things are happening in china and the government is responding with really tough climate policies, much more than countries like the United States. Juan the response of the government now to actually be almost in the forefront, but people make changes at the world level the price of solar panels has dropped 75 in the last six years, largely because china has supported that industry so massively. The chineseof government being able to say, well, it is our turn to pollute at you conferences, that is over. It is not because of anything that is happened at United Nations, it is what is happening inside china and the internal pressure. I think one of the things that andfilm does very very well i give avi full credit for this, because the two big shoots they did in india and china, you know, very delicately because we know not just because this is working in growth is coming, but also because his is our excuse in countries like canada and the u. S. To say, well, we cant do anything because of what is going on there. What the film does is explode any kind of claim that these are monolithic trends. In india, there is a very powerful story about the amount of resistance to building new coalfired power plants. Juan and india is on track to surpass china in population. And is surpassing china in pollution. But theres huge grassroots resistance, and we often dont hear by the resistance in china and india. The same kind of resistance we have here gains new extract russia against extractive pipelines, projects. People are rising up and rising up there, too, and those two forces are really supporting each other. There is an Indian Company that was trying has been trying to build the Worlds Largest coal mine in australia, the carmichael mine, which would be the largest if built, the largest coal mine in the world. But they are facing this resistance in india where the coal would go, and huge resistance in australia. And that looks like it will not be billed. Amy and that resistance is what you both convey so well in this this changes everything. The whole notion of blockadia. Lets go back to the film. Were going to completely encircle the white house. [cheers] all around the world, people arent just writing to the politicians, politely asking them to do the right thing. Theyre taking direct action, demanding it. On the front lines, they call it blockadia. The idea behind it is simple. We are in a hole in before anything new can grow, we have to stop digging. As the drilling rigs and pipelines crisscross the earth, so does blockadia, connecting communities along the way. The metal pathways of dirty energy confronted by this new web of resistance. And i noticed something else. At the forefront are the people from the sacrifice zone, the very ones who have been written off for hundreds of years. The keepers of that other story. If this pipeline goes through, your government will further assist in the raping and pillaging of the lands of i ancestors. Then they will promise to give us back what was never theirs in the first place. Dont be full by their ideology of what reclamation is. Reclamation is me standing here with the 99 who are here today to say we never went anywhere and nor do we plan to. [cheers] when you see communities thrown into the front lines because of an environmental or political issue, you see the credible transformation. Become [indiscernible] isnt this incredible . Isnt this the society we want . Amy a clip from, this changes everything. Directed by avi lewis narrated and written by naomi klein, based on her book of the same name. Sacrifice zones. Explain. It is a phrase that actually used to be sort of an acceptable phrase used by the u. S. Government about how there might have to be some areas which would just be sacrificed areas, energy sacrifice areas. In fact, the powder river basin in montana. The argument we make in the film, fossil fuels since the very beginning of powering our economy on an industrial scale with coal caused required sacrificed zones because this is an inherently dirty and energy process. So the first sacrifice zones were the black ones of the coal miners. Manchesterties like and london. We told ourselves some sort of story that there is this natural cleaning up process as capitalism involves, in naturally cleans itself up, and look at the air in london and look at l. A. The argument we make in the film is, we did not move beyond pollution, we just moved the pollution and now it is in china and india, and there is way more of it. And we are all in the sacrifice so now zone now. That idea that there are some places that just have to be sacrificed in order for industrial progress to continue is an idea that just keeps growing and growing and growing until the people who thought they were safe are no longer safe. In the film, i guess we make the argument that Hurricane Sandy hitting new york city was the ultimate example of that because the sacrifice zone mentality is often about talking about the middle of nowhere. It will hit the center juan lets go to a clip about Hurricane Sandy, filmed seven days after the storm in the rockaways in new york. When the weather hit, it was a wakeup call. , holdingally like, wow on for dear life, holding onto the poles. The water pushing them out of their houses. The walls caved in. It is really, really crazy. Nobody ever told me the Flood Insurance was from the second floor up. The whole first floor went. Everything. I dont even have one penny in my pocket. Were doing everything we can, and it is not enough because the size of the problem is to huge. Were not supposed to be here. I am not supposed to be trying to rescue people that are stuck in apartment buildings dying because of lack of medication. Those hardest hit are the poorest communities, some of the poorest communities in new york city, right . There is like hundreds of hundreds of people trapped in these buildings. And there is no attention for them. There is no clinics, no care. We have a disaster where were supposed to have agencies packed with addressing these needs. So like katrina, it is a travesty. Fema useless. Red cross useless. Juan avi . You see what happened in new york. We had occupy. When the storm hit and where was the government . Just like in katrina, people were already focused on the core of Economic System and the need for system change showed up to be the best disaster of first responders. As people from occupy sandy were hourly organizing the committees, most marginalized communities that are going to be on the front line of a Climate Crisis that already are. You see people filling in the gaps for the retreat of government, this ideological project over the past three or four decades, and people naming and shaming the core logic of our Economic System. We have to change it. Amico we will do a post show and posted online at democracynow. Org. Avi lewis, director, and naomi klein, writer, the narrator of the film this changes everything. It is opening in new york tonight at the ifc theater and then all over the country. Happy birthday to becca staley. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. Email your comments to outreach democracynow. Org or mail them to democracy now p. O. Box 693 new york, new york 10013. 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