They all tell the same story, from fields to fisheries, our climate is in crisis. Everybody thats made their living in this bay is doing a total different trade. Over four inches of rain completely washed our coys right out of the pasteur. Its devastating effects are most easily seen by looking at the foods we love. Enjoy the coffee and the chocolate chip cookies because those are disappearing, too. Who believes in Global Warming . Wow, not much, huh . Theres tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact. Climate change affects the food we eat and altering familiar traditions not just in one place but in several places. Climate change is something we can taste. Im andrew zimm earn, story telephone, chef, world traveller. Its delicious. Im exploring our country, looking at the biggest social and political questions to have day through the lens of food. There is no one solution. Hmm. Preparing some amazing meals along the way. Hot and fresh and trying to figure out. Holy moly. Whats eating america. Theres no better place to look at the foot in a state like wisconsin and a city like milwaukee than by attending a local fish fry. Friday night event thats been at the cornerstone of midwestern culture for generations. Its polka time. Come on and dance out there with us. How great is this place, huh . Wisconsin its have dpaerd every week to fry up person, a local fish that once thrived in lakes michigan. Lovely. Lake person. Those are smelt. Slaw, tarter sauce, lemons, potato pancakes and red cabbage because we are in wisconsin, after all. I have my own system. Tarter sauce where a little lemon juice and catch up becomes my grandmothers russian dressing. Wow, is that delicious. These are bread kru78ed, which is the traditional fish fry methodology. Its a tradition being kep alive by hundreds of restaurants in the state today. Friday fish fry has some strong roots in milwaukee. I dont think it will ever leave. Yeah. Its just its who we are. One big thing is different, though. Yes. The fish. Yes. Right . Yes. So i notice theres all kinds of different fish in here and what used to be person is no longer coming out of lake michigan. No. Yeah. Its coming out of the northern side, the canadian side of lake erie. The water here just doesnt support it . Yeah. Especially in the lower basin of lower michigan, its hit it hard. When my parents were kids they went out for perch fry. Milwaukee fish fries offer imported perch along with salmon and cod. You went right for cod. I did. Im a terrible wisconsin id. Did you go to fish fridays at a girl . Every friday night. Cod, cod, cod, cod, sal mornings cod, cod, salmon. So nobody here went for the traditional perch . No. On the menu. No. The biggest seller here is the cod, which by the way, comes into the restaurant here at a little over 5 a pound. The perch fillets that come from canada numb at about 15 a pound. Even those seeking to claim a little bit of nostalgic family comfort, it comes at three time the price. All right. Carry on, enjoy your wisconsin beer and occurred and your food from everywhere else. Ok. Down to the surface, please. Im on lake plvp with dr. Russell cool and Carmen Aguilar from the university of wisconsin. Surface were looking for perch and the food they eat. This is a plankton net that we use to catch small zoo plankton and algae. Amazing. The organisms pulled up in this fine netting are a mix of allergy and zoo plankton. This is like a little magnifying glass. Oh, my god. Its like a whole little world. Its like a universe. Newly spawned perch rely on this food to survive. 70 feet below the surface rests the ship wrecked ferry, a prime habitat for perch. Were top side. Five years ago we didnt see many perch or any perch, really now nothing is around. When did you ever see a video of a shipwreck that didnt have fish swimming all over it . You always see that but were not seeing it. Plenty of food but no fish. And thats because the earth is warming and the spring thaw on the lake is happening sooner than it used to. Its getting earlier and earlier in the year. By about one day every year. Perch are very fixated on a day night cycle. So the ones that have lived in lake michigan, they spawn at the same time. Perch are born at the same time each year on a lunar cycle. An earlier thaw means the allergy and zoo plankton bloom and are eaten by the adults. Thats why the perch are gone, because the adult perch have plenty to eat. Its the baby perch right after hatching, they cant get food, and its over. It has such broader impact than just not selling perch at the market. Right. It really is something which is changing the social fabric of our region. I did not grow up with this tradition but when i eat fried fish, i think of the sauce that my grandmother served wit. I think of the sides that she put on her table, a jewish table in new york. Red cabbage potato pancakes. My point is, were all influenced by the food we grew up with in the communities that we were raised in. The loss of one regions fish fry tradition should worry you, because it isnt just one region or one lake or one fish. A landmark 2019 United Nations report predicts the potential for vast marine dieoffs in the coming years. These dieoffs will affect the lives and lively hoods. I have the fear that because of our Climate Crisis that all the things i love to eat are disappearing. These are dead. Theres nothing here. These are dead. Theres nothing here. Discomfort back there . Instead of using aloe, or baby wipes, or powders. Try the cooling, soothing relief of preparation h. Because your derriere deserves expert care. Try new soothing relief. Im a verizon engineer and im part of the Team Building 5g ultra wideband. Its already available in parts of select cities and its rolling out in cities around the country. 25x faster than todays 4g networks. Its the fastest 5g in the world. This is 5g built right. Be sure to listen to woys 100. 5 fm. This is the an lash collet bay on the coast of florida. The home of a oyster. People have made their living oyster fishing for generations. Wild oysters, which used to account for 90 of all of floridas oysters and 10 of all the oysters harvested in america have simply vanished. Hello. Hi. Come aboard. Lets head out and see what we can find. Ricky banks and Shannon Hartsfield have been oising on apalachicola bay since they were kids. When you were young and the oysters were plenty. How many bags would you put them in the boat . When we started, we put them in the hold of the boat and you shoveled them into a wheelbarrow. Wed catch a boat load of oysters, 15 or 16 bags of oyster. Now youre lucky to get a bag . Right. Im looking all around and were the only boat out here. If you see another boat, theyre not oystering, ill tell you that. Youve got a great accepts of humor and youre making me laugh but its a heart breaker. It is. Its terrible. There were processing plants. They were processed right here in east point than anywhere in florida. Ricky and shannon have taken me to cat point. It used to be the most productive oyster bed in the bay. Were here a half our to an hour well be lucky to catch a dozen legal oysters. This is just like a giant fork tweeters. Thats right. This is going to be funny. See if he can still do it. See, this is what were dealing with. This is just theres nothing. Right. These are all dead. Theres literally nothing here. Nothing. Same thing. The crabbing is good today, though. Once the ideal habitat for oysters, the estuary was a perfect mix of salt water from the gulf and fresh water from the rivers. In 2007, we experienced our first major drought. Before, we always got some fresh water, but in 2007, we had no fresh water. Due to that, the lack of fresh water, you have more predators. Higher sa lynnity means lots more drum, conks. Drum are large fish that crush the little conk shells before ingesting them. Both predators have decimated the oyster supply here. Its a direct result of Climate Change. The rest of the countrys flooding but were in a drought. Thats Climate Change. Climate change is some places are going to get more anded some places are going to get less. Hes a professor emeritus. Hes been studying this bay since 1970. They d models to show this area would become dryer, big storms, lot of rain and then nothing. Which is the worst thing you can do to a river bay system and thats what happened. Normally its around 15 to 17 feet on the gauge. Its at four and a half now. Up love eating oysters. So im having lunch at lynn with owner lynn martino. This place used to shuck oysters. We used to sell them by the tractor trailer. I had 40 harvesters and we worked just about round the clock. How long have you been in business . My parents, 23 years ago, they were 28. So 51 total . Uhhuh. And my parents had a bait and tackle shop on the same property. With no wild oysters left to shuck, she turned her business into a seafood store and restaurant and started selling farm raised oysters. It upset my mom because she felt like we were giving up. I said no, mom, were not giving up. Were just going to have to do it differently. Its buckling on your chinstrap. Yeah. Trying to take care of your family. Yeah. Local officials insist the economy is strong, but times have change for oyster men. Im used to oyster. Oyster and shrimp. Ive been on the bay since i was about nine years old. 800 boats, three boats left. Darren works as a mechanic. I had to do something. Had to get off the water. I miss it. I mean, everybody thats made their living in this bay now is doing a total different trades. Ricky right here, hes a guide fish now. Guiding fish. Fish giegd. I do alligator hunts. I do wild bore hunts. Youre pivoting into whats left. Im a chameleon. I changed when i had to. Is an lapalachicola dying . Its hurt a lot of people. The picture that you paint is not a pretty one. Sad thing here is thats all people know to do. Its all they want to do. Theyve done it all their life. Theyve raised their children to do it, theyre raising their grandchildren to do it. Its just not there anymore. I wanted my kids to have the advantage of being able to do it if they wanted to. The choice. Right. Its a heritage. Its a lifestyle, you know. Same thing. Nothing. And i feel absolutely nothing on the bottom but crushed shell. The bottom line essentially its not going to get better. Its going to get worse. As it gets worse, the bay will stand less and less chance of ever coming back. And at some point, the bay, even if the river started to flow again, it wouldnt come back. There we go. Shes a beauty. Our day in apalachicola bay brings in one live oyster. I have a lot of experience eating these. Thats delicious. It is. President trump got up and talked about all the environmental great things theyre doing one after another, blul [ bleep ] bull [ bleep ] bull [ bleep ]. Ul [ bleep ] bul bull [ bleep ] due to afib. Not caused by a heart valve problem. So if theres a better treatment than warfarin, im reaching for that. Eliquis. Eliquis is proven to reduce stroke risk better than warfarin. Plus has significantly less major bleeding than warfarin. Eliquis is fdaapproved and has both. Whats next . Im on board. Dont stop taking eliquis unless your doctor tells you to, as stopping increases your risk of having a stroke. Eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. Dont take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. 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They get that no two people are alike and customize your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. Almost done. What do you think . I dont see it. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Cup of our finest cold brew. Thank you very much. With an lapalachicola on my min ive come to washington, d. C. To talk to mike cox. Can i ask you a question . Yes. In all your travels, does the conversation come up Climate Change . All the time. Ever sing place where the land meets the water, i hear the same thing. The fish with swimming somewhere else. The yield on the props are lower. Where you keep going on and on and on where entire industries are having to shut down. Why the hell arent we doing anything . That was my question for you. Thank you. A good friend of mine calls it the threat thats too big to talk about. And shes right. He spent 25 years at the epa. In 2017 President Trump appointed scott fruit run the department. As Oklahoma Attorney general, pruitt had sued the epa 13 times. Do you believe its been proven that co 2 is the primary control knob for climate . Do you believe that . No. I no. I think that measuring the precision human activity on the planet is tremendously difficult to do and theres disagreement. There was a take over in my mind by people who had the interest of dismantling and they continue to do that. The way the Current Administration is handling Climate Change policy is in many ways is contradicted by the actual science. Weve heard the number, 97 of climate scientists agree that Climate Change is happening and humans are the primary cause. Having worked with scientists too get a group of scientists to agree, that is almost an impossible thing to do. The federal government isnt even willing to admit theres a problem. It makes no sense to me. It makes no sense. And what bothers me about it is that there are a lot of valid scientific questions that we need to put research and work on climate, no doubt. When we cant even get past that initial stage, i would call it criminal. Administer pruitt resigned in july 2018 but that hasnt stopped what environmentalists. He got up and talked about the great environmental things theyre doing. One after another, bull [ bleep ] bull [ bleep ] bull [ bleep ]. Weve made it a top priority to make sure america is among the cleanest air and cleanest water on the planet. Since taking office, the Trump Administration has rolled back of eliminated more than 95 rules that were protecting the environment. More than half of those impacted the fight against Climate Change. To sell this to the public, the white house hired william happer, a prominent Climate Change expert. Tell me about william happer. Hes a distinguished fist cyst at princeton. Smart. Smart. Works at a top university. Nobody disputes that. He got out of his lane a little bit. Happer joined in 2018 to the reexam Climate Change. Its clearly a benefit for plants, co 2. His main claim is Carbon Dioxide is good for the earth. Were actually in a carbon deficit, which is ridiculous. Hes right that in some cases, the agricultural yields may go up but there has to be water to make that happen and thats, as you know, a huge issue on climate because of the changing patterns of precipitation. If theres not the water, all those great carbon fertilization is not going to work. So they keep using that one little piece of information to go see, see. William happers princeton credentials gave the policies a boost in credibility in spite of statements like this. The demonization of Carbon Dioxide like the juiews. Warming. Welcome to the largest vertical farm in the world. Wow. Wow. You know, i really feel like youre in the presence of greatness. Presence of greatness. The effects of Climate Change in places like florida and wisconsin seem obvious, but apparently, not enough for everyone. Im back in manhattan, eating and getting caught up on the root source obvious climate denial. This looks great. Could i trouble you for some hot mustard as well . Yes. Thank you. Meet david. Hes reported on the influence that conservative organizations have on america. Theres a lot of money thats going, you know, from, you know, say the k och, to think tanks that they provide the academic legitimacy for the climate, right . Weve heard of the k och brothers. But here, im interested in the bradleys. They made a fortune manufacturing in 1900s. In 1982 they founded the Bradley Center and started spreading the wealth all over town. Hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars in size. Over 900 million. Over 900 million dollars. Youll see the practicedly name. Does a lot of good in city of minimum. Right. They also donate to others, some of them climate deniers. Remember william happer, he was the chief climate denier. We reached out to him several times but he declined to talk to us. In september, 2019, he resigned from the National Security council and returned from the board of the co 2 coalition. Its a group thats pushing an agenda and that agenda is theres no proof that co 2 emissions are related to Climate Change. Uhhuh. The co 2 coalitions messaging isnt just aimed at you and me. In 2016, they released two videos aimed at children. What if there was something that could make plants grow bigger . And something that could make the whole world greener. Wow, look at that. Co2. Who knew . Co2 is amazing, co2 is essential. Happers co 2 coalition received 175,000 from the Bradley Foundation of milwaukee from 2016 through 2019. The co 2 oils isnt alone. According to tax filings, the foundation gave 8 million to groups concerned with climate denial amongst other causes in 2018. The Bradley Foundation declined our repeated requests for an interview. They did send us this comment, that highlighted the foundations quotes fidelity to the constitution, end quote and their commitment to, quote, individual liberties and free markets. You want to try some of this . Thats a nice c