Transcripts For KCSM Democracy Now 20151231 : comparemela.co

Now it turns out that exxon isnt alone. A new expose from inside climate news reveals nearly every major u. S. And Multinational Oil and gas company was likely aware of the impact of fossil fuels on Climate Change at the same time as exxon. Well speak to neela banerjee, the Insideclimate News reporter who broke this story. The story sparked a new york criminal investigation and calls for federal probe, like the one that brought down big tobacco. But some arent waiting for the Justice System to act. Will go to an unusual afternoon in paris during the yuan Climate Summit. Over those 25 years, exxon continue to maintain that architecture and ecosystem of denial and deception and nfnfnfdisinformation. And for that, we ask for a in favoragainst exxon of the future of this planet. Amy we broadcast highlights of mock trial of exxon for what prosecutors say our climate crimes, staged by environmentalists during the u. N. Climate summit in paris, france. The prosecutors, Bill Mckibben, cofounder of 350. Org and an environmentalist journalist naomi klein. All of that and more coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Legendary actor and Comedian Bill Cosby has been charged with sexual assault, one of the nations most powerful and wealthy entertainers, cosby has long faced allegations he drugged and raped dozens of women in cases that stretch back decades. Many doubted cosby would ever faced criminal charges. But on wednesday, authorities and Montgomery County pennsylvania announced felony charges of aggravated indecent assault against bill cosby, 2004ing from an alleged attack. The indictment alleges cosby urged Andrea Constand to take pills and drink wine until she was unable to move, after which he assaulted her. This allegedly came after she twice red the incident at the time, but the District Attorneys Office refused to bring charges, citing a lack of evidence. In the ensuing years, more than 50 women have come board to accuse cosby of sexual assault. On wednesday, Gloria Allred spoke about the charges. Today bill cosby was charged in Montgomery County, pennsylvania with aggravated indecent assault, a felony. For many of my 29 clients who alleged they are victims of bill cosby, seeing him criminally charged and having to face a trial is the best Christmas Present that they have ever received. Amy bill cosby has been released on 1 million bail. Floodwaters continue to rise in missouri, where officials warn the swollen rivers could overflow federal levees. Hundreds of families are evacuating communities around the fastrising meramec river. The Mississippi River has also surged to nearrecord levels. Its expected to reach nearly 13 feet above flood stage in st. Louis today. In the last week, flooding across missouri, illinois, arkansas, and oklahoma has killed at least 24 people. A spate of islamophobic incidents continues nationwide. In las vegas, police are investigating a possible hate crime in which a man wrapped bacon around the handles of a mosque before sunday morning prayer. In new york, in israeli man has been charged with a hate crime after he allegedly accosted four pakistaniamericans in brooklyn brandishing a pistol and screaming, i want to see the blood of muslims in the street. Meanwhile, in fresno, california, an elderly sikh man was hit by a truck and then beaten in the street by two men saturday. The attack left 68yearold Amrik Singh Bal with a broken collarbone. Police say he may have been mistaken for a muslim, as has happened in other violence against sikhs nationwide. A recent study finds hate crimes against Muslim Americans and u. S. Mosques have tripled since the attacks in paris and san bernardino. The council on americanislamic relations has reported more incidents targeting mosques this year than in any other year on record. Chicago mayor rahm emanuel says there are new Police Reforms as he fence off calls for his resignation amidst continue protest over Fatal Shootings by officers. On wednesday, the mayor said he will order additional training and double the number of tasers from 700 to 1400 to promote the idea that shooting is a last resort. The Chicago Tribune reports the Police Department already expanded the use of tasers in 2010, but that the move did not reduce Police Shootings in the ensuing five years. Meanwhile, protesters brought the call for mayor emanuels resignation to the front steps of his north side home where , they said the time to implement changes has expired. Messaged to bring our to rahm emanuel store step because i guess you didnt hear us. I guess he hasnt been listening. We were protesting for over a month and he is still in office. He doesnt understand that we are fed up. We are fed up with this leadership in chicago and he has to resign. Thats right. Doeverything he is trying to , now that the pressure is on him, should have been done 13 months ago. It should have been done for years ago. He could have done it in april when he got back in office, but instead, he waited. He waited until we were fed up. So rahm emanuel, you are too far in the hole. Youre too far in the hole and i dont think you can get back out. We need you to resign and we need you to resign now. Amy daily protests also continue in cleveland, ohio, over grand jurys decision not to indict the officers involved in the Fatal Shooting of 12yearold tamir rice. On tuesday, protesters blocked traffic by lying in the street outside the Justice Center in downtown cleveland. A coalition of Community Groups is urging residents to vote against Cuyahoga County prosecutor tim mcginty in the upcoming 2016 election. Puerto rico governor alejandro garciapadilla has confirmed the commonwealth will default on some of its scheduled Debt Repayment on january 1. Congress could have prevented a default, but passed on their opportunity earlier this month. A garciapadilla told reporters wednesday, we know that our creditors have spent a fortune lobbying against the people of puerto rico. Hedge funds have spent the last year aggressively lobbying against legislation granting puerto rico limited bankruptcy protection similar to what is available for cities and municipalities inside the United States. To hear democracy now cohost juan gonzalezs recent speech about how puerto ricos debt crisis is tied to the commonwealths legacy of u. S. Colonialism, you can go to our website, democracynow. Org. In bangladesh, two students have been sentenced to death for the murder of a secular blogger. In february 2013, Ahmed Rajib Haider was hacked to death by people wielding machetes. His death was the first in a string of targeted killings of secular bloggers. Prosecutors say the students were radicalized by extremist islamic clerics. On thursday, a judge sentenced the two students and five others in connection with the murder. In turkey, residents of the southeastern town of cizre are protesting the lack of water, food, and electricity as a twoweek government crackdown continues. Cizre is one of more than a dozen towns under mandatory curfew for more than two weeks. The turkish government says it is carrying out a massive military operation to target members of the kurdistan workers party, known as the pkk. At least 10,000 turkish troops, backed by tanks, have been deployed, but local residents say the military offensive has led to repression of kurds at large, displacing an estimated resulting in civilian 200,000, casualties, including the recent death of a 5yearold boy and a 3monthold girl. In cizre, shopkeeper Ramazan Simsek spoke out. The country is in a bad place right now, as a treatment and a citizen, we suffer from electricity being cut off, the water being cut off, everyone, especially kids, are mentally not healthy. They cant go to school. Theyre spending so much time without education. The community is miserable right now. Amy in michigan, the head of the department of Environmental Quality has resigned amid continued fallout over the dangerously high levels of lead in flints Drinking Water. Last year, the citys unelected emergency manager, who was appointed by governor rick snyder, switched the citys water source from the detroit system to the longpolluted flint river in an attempt to save money. Two weeks ago, flints mayor declared a state of emergency after a study found the proportion of children under five in flint with elevated lead levels in their blood nearly doubled following the switch. On tuesday, Environmental Quality Department Head dan wyant resigned amid the revelations that Michigan State officials were aware the water had dangerously high levels of lead, but continued to tell residents the water was safe. Governor snyder also issued an apology to flint residents. But many residents say the apology doesnt go far enough. Thousands have taken to social media calling for snyders arrest. Michigan activists are planning to hold a tribunal on flint water poisoning and the continued shutoffs of Drinking Water in detroit in the coming weeks. And on the lakota pine ridge indian reservation, hundreds of lakotas and supporters arrived on horseback at the gravesite at wounded knee to honor the 125year anniversary of the massacre on december 29, 1890, u. S. Army killed as many as 300 oglala latoka indians, including many women and children. The commemorative chief big foot band memorial ride began more than a week ago when riders set out from bridger, south dakota. They traveled more than 150 miles on horseback until reaching wounded knee. The site is remembered as not only for the 1890 massacre, but also for the historic 1973 occupation, in which members of the American Indian movement occupied wounded knee to demand their treaty rights. In this clip from the 71 day occupation Oglala Lakota , activist Russell Means spoke to reporters about u. S. Governments continuous disregard for their treaty rights. The United States government and its people have effectively isolated indian people and filed away our treaties for over a century and more. Consequently, the United States government neither has any explanation of the massacres based on the treaty rights and they havent any answers for us negotiating over treaty rights. Right now i imagine them washington, d. C. , theres a heck of a lot of bureaucrats and white house personnel researching indian treaties. Until those treaty questions are resolved, youll have much more, many more wounded knees. Amy and those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. On this last day of the year, 2015 will be remembered as a pivotal one for the environment, the warmest year on record. In order the last few days, we have seen historic storm hurling for the north pole, threatening to warm temperatures by more than 50 degrees above average. In south america, massive drought has fueled wildfires across colombia, which has issued a red alert for more than 80 of the country and at least 24 people have died in missouri and surrounding states amidst the worst flooding in two decades. All right or tornadoes killed 11 people in texas over the weekend. And that is only in the last five days. The year 2015 ended with the u. N. Climate treaty in paris and will also be remembered as the year exxon mobil, one of the corporations with major responsibility for Climate Change, was caught in a more than threedecade lie. Exposes by Insideclimate News and the Los Angeles Times revealed how exxon concealed its own conclusions that fossil fuels cause Global Warming, alters the climate, and melt the arctic. Exxon knew about Climate Change as early as 1977. But instead of taking action, the oil giant lied to the public and funded bogus climate denial paid for by the billions it made from practices it knew was harming the planet. Now a new investigation reveals that in the oil industry, exxon was not the only one with something to hide. Insideclimate news reports that nearly every major u. S. And Multinational Oil and gas company was likely aware of the impact of fossil fuels on Climate Change as early as the late 1970s. From 1979 to 1983, the oil and gas Industry Trade Group American Petroleum Institute ran a task force to monitor and share climate research. The groups members included senior scientists and engineers from not only exxon, but also amoco, phillips, mobil, texaco, shell, sunoco, sohio and standard oil of california and gulf oil, the predecessors to chevron. Internal documents show that as early as 1979, the task force knew Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere was rising steadily. The Task Force Even briefly considered researching how to introduce a new Energy Source into the global market, given the research about fossil fuel impact on Global Warming. But in 1983, the task force was disbanded, and by the late 1990s, the American Petroleum institute had launched a campaign to oppose the kyoto protocol, which was adopted by many countries to cut fossil fuel emissions but was never ratified by the United States. The exxon revelations prompted the opening of a criminal probe in new york over whether the oil company lied to the public and its investors. Exxons climate deception has also sparked calls for a federal probe similar to the one that led to a racketeering conviction of big tobacco for hiding the dangers of smoking. With these new revelations about exxons Oil Industry Peers, could more companies be targeted for investigation . For more we are joined by the reporter who broke this story. Neela banerjee is a washingtonbased reporter for inside climate news. Her latest expose is, exxons Oil Industry Peers knew about climate dangers in the 1970s, too. Tell us just what you found. We found that as early as 1979, the Oil Industry Oil companies through the American Petroleum institute wanted to explore the emerging science around rising Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere. And we saw this through documents that we found as part of our exxon research. And through that, we also found a former api employee who was the director of the task force for those four years. The task force was part of a broader their quality effort at api, and he filled out the picture for us, too. Wanted to follow the science, but some were probably were already doing her own modeling, though it was not as ambitious as what exxon was doing at its site. Amy you spoke with james nelson, the former director of the American Petroleum institutes task force on Climate Change, who left api in 1983. He described a shift that was taking place at the time api took the environmental unit and put it into the political department, which was primarily lobbyists. They werent focused on doing research or on improving the oil industrys impact on pollution. They were less interested in pushing the envelope of science and more interested in how to make it more advantageous politically or economically for the oil industry. Expand on that. Right. What mr. Nelson said was, that he did not have any issue with that. He thought that was the right tactic to take because at that time, even though was under the reagan administration, the power of the epa and regulators was growing. And so the industry fell that it was not been properly heard. And there were trying to introduce science, trying to get research done, trying to happen papers published in peerreviewed journals. His viewpoint, and that of the industry, was that they could not get their voices heard in or worried about overregulation. So rather than having scientists work on a task force and engage with policy makers, the best way to do this was to have lawyers and lobbyists, and that is how mr. Nelson helped fill out the picture from the documents we have. Amy i want to go to the late 1990s and look at the Oil Industries role in opposing the kyoto protocol, which was adopted by many countries to cut fossil fuel emissions but was never ratified by the United States. A draft action plan circulated by the American Petroleum institute at the