Transcripts For WMPT Moyers Company 20130929

And when our activists are going to take action, like, last year when i was involved, we would go in through an inflatable boat. But, you see, ill tell you the way we do it. The moment an inflatable leaves the ship to enter the zone towards the rig, our captain contacts the captain of the rig because the rig is actually considered to be a ship at sea, right . And says, captain of the platform, this is greenpeace. We are engaged in a peaceful protest. This is why we are doing it, because the arctic is the refrigerator and the air conditioner of the planet, and what happens in the arctic has impact globally, and this is crazy what is happening, and for these reasons, we are taking this action. Please be assured that we are peaceful and theres no threat to property or to people. We communicate that very quickly so its always very clear. I myself participated in an action a year ago protesting against that very same rig. We need to understand that drilling in the arctic has not yet started and this could be the first place. And therefore, we have done everything to actually try to stop the production there. And i make no apologies, by the way, the fact that we are morally and ethically having to break the law because history teaches us, whether it was slavery, whether it was civil rights in the United States, a womans right to choose, apartheid, all of these major challenges and injustice that humanity has faced over history, those struggles only move forward when decent men and women said enough is enough and no more. Were prepared to put our lives on the line if necessary. Were prepared to go to prison if necessary. Do you think many people know that greenpeace owes some of its heritage and dna to the quakers . I think some people know, but thats a very, very important legacy of greenpeace because what people dont know is that the founders of greenpeace were largely american and canadian. It was quakers from the United States who left the u. S. To go to canada during the vietnam war. These were people who had the kids, mainly boys, who would be eligible for draft for the vietnam war. And they were peace oriented activists. It was out of vancouver where it was actually started. And the most important thing that we take from quakers and quakerism is the commitment to peace, the commitment to justice, and a notion that quakers call bearing witness. And the bearing witness is a very simple but very powerful idea. It says that if theres an injustice in the world, those of us that have the ability to witness it and to record it, document it and tell the world what is happening have a moral responsibility to do that. Then, of course, its left up to those that are receiving that knowledge to make the moral choice about whether they want to stand up against the injustice or observe it. Well, when you made that choice a year ago when you actually put yourself in that inflatable and went toward that ship and started climbing up the rig, did you realize that your life was in danger, that they would respond violently if they wanted to . Yes. You know, one of the things we have to do is, before we execute the action, we have a legal briefing, right . Where the lawyers will say, as you prepare to take this action, you need to understand what the risks are. We wouldve had earlier briefings, but theres, like, two or three days before the actual action theres a final conversation where they will tell you the worst case scenario, the best case scenario. And they always say, so many things can go wrong. I mean, especially in the arctic. I mean, the arctic and that is why drilling in the arctic is such a crazy idea. And, to be honest, im not a great climber. I did a one day crash course in the capetown climbing center before i jumped on the ship, and on five days of sailing from norway to the rig, every day i was in the hull of the ship, you know, practicing so practicing . Yeah. So, to be honest with you, i was and im not a good swimmer. I brought some video of you participating in a civil disobedience act in greenland in 2011. Here it is. All of us who care about the future of our children and grandchildren, we have to draw a line somewhere, and i say that we draw that line here today in the arctic. Leif ericson, this is esperanza. Greenpeace International Executive director, kumi naidoo, is boarding the leif ericson as part of a peaceful protest. Hes seeking a meeting with the captain of the rig, where he will present a petition signed by 50,000 supporters who demand to see cairns Oil Spill Response plan. Tell me why you decided to board a rig and put yourself in harms way. I feel that on a daily basis greenpeace activists and other environmental and social activists standing up for a more just, equitable and Sustainable World are putting their lives on the line on a regular basis. I mean, at any given time greenpeace is taking some action to protect the environment somewhere in the world, and i believe that one of the important things about leadership is that if you are leading a movement or an Organization Leaders must periodically lead from the front. Its not as if, given the complexity of my job, i can be taking part in actions every other month or week, but from time to time its important for leaders to say, i am no more important than you are. My life is no more important than yours, and if you, as a young person, are taking risks, then im also prepared to take that risk. And just to be clear, what happens if you fall into the ocean, if you fall into the arctic ocean with normal clothes or even if you had a decent swimsuit or even a bodysuit, which was not specifically prepared, you will be dead in about three or four minutes. Thats how cold the water is. We have some protective gear, which will allow you to survive for maybe about two hours. So last year, when we were on the gazprom rig, the same rig where my colleagues who have been arrested now have faced, there there were people who were spraying us directly. And i was in a little sort of whats called a portal ledge, which is a little tent on the outside with a 25yearold amazing american young man called basil and with a 64yearold canadian. The three of us were in this, and for close to 20 hours we were being sprayed. And i have to say that was extremely scary because if we fell, we wouldve hit fallen about 50 meters down, and we wouldve hit the concrete that is at the bottom of the rig. And, in fact, the captain of our ship is saying to the captain of the rig, please stop. Their lives are in danger. Theyre going to fall. This will be the consequences, and so on. And then the captain of the rig is saying, weve stopped the hoses. Theyd better get off in five minutes, otherwise we are going to start spraying. And yes, we expect they will fall and its going to be very dangerous for them. What wasnt recorded was what you were thinking, what was going through your head at that time. You know, to be honest, i was extremely scared. I was thinking a lot actually of my little daughter. You know, my daughter was i say little, but she just turned 21. You know, im with greenpeace partly because of her, because when greenpeace approached me to consider this position i was in the middle of a hunger strike. Actually, i was 19 days only on water. It was a campaign to put pressure on my government in south africa not to protect the dictatorship of Robert Mugabe in zimbabwe and to stand up against the Human Rights Violations that were happening to the zimbabwe people. And greenpeace calls me on the 19th day to say, you know, would you consider being a candidate . And i said, you know, thank you very much, but i cant make such a big decision in the state that im in at the moment, having been out here for fasting, hungry . Yeah, just on water for 19 days, and then my daughter said, what did greenpeace want . I told her, and then she said, dad, i wont talk to you if you dont seriously consider this position when you finish your stupid hunger strike. And i said, why . And then she said, greenpeace is about my future. This planet is being destroyed, and greenpeace is not like some other organizations that talk too much and dont act. At least greenpeace is prepared to put their lives on the line. And so that was a major, major motivation. And im sitting there, im thinking, well, my darling, if i fall and break my neck and die here, i hope you remember you told me to do it. Interesting because i brought with me a very recent report from unicef just out. The studys titled Climate Change childrens challenge, and the report argues that children bear the brunt of Climate Change, even though they are the least responsible for it, and that they are passionate and vocal, as your daughter was, about the need for action. Absolutely right. Everywhere in the world i go, from the United States to china, young people get it, theyre concerned. They understand that we are running out of time, and they believe more and more that the current adult leadership of the world is betraying their future. But i want to believe that there is enough humanity in all of us, that even the ceo of a coal company, an oil company or a gas company can actually fossil fuel companies, have children and grandchildren. And im constantly in my conversations with the leaders of the fossil fuel companies, as well as other polluting companies, saying to them, listen, put your children and your grandchildrens future in the middle of this conversation. And i think history is going to judge this generation of adult leaders extremely harshly because, you know, maybe 30 years ago you could say we didnt know, the Climate Science was not so clear and so on. Today there is no excuse for not taking bold, urgent action and to do it in a creative way that gives us a win for the climate but also gives us a win, for example, on jobs and on addressing things like economic development. In that context, take the arctic. You have said that its insane to drill in the arctic. Why . Well, the very fact that drilling in the arctic is even a possibility today in the parts where theyre drilling is precisely as a result of the burning of fossil fuels, of burning coal, oil and gas, right . You know, it wouldnt have been possible the arctic is melting in the summer months, and last year when i was there in the arctic, the day that the world record for the lowest minimum ice levels ever recorded in Human History was last year, august. Now, you know, i say to my american friends always you know how americans have this saying which says what happens in vegas stays in vegas . I say, unfortunately, what happens in the arctic does not stay in the arctic. How so . Because the arctic serves as a refrigerator and air conditioner for the planet. It helps regulate global temperature and the climate, and by reflecting the harsh rays of the sunlight away. So the whole climate system in the world is related to the level of the arctic sea ice. Thats one. Secondly, when we look at the melting of glaciers in places like greenland, for example, that melting has already contributed to Sea Level Rise around the world, and there are glaciers that are at risk, massive glaciers the size of countries, that could easily, with further melting, move off the land and end up in the sea again causing, you know, further Sea Level Rise. If we continue as we are, right . If we continue as we are, essentially many people we are signing a death warrant for the future generations. Many people think were doing that, as you know, from just reading the press. Yeah, yeah, no they say its too late. Yes. Well, you know, this is a good question because i got asked recently, there are some people who say its too late. What is your view . And they ask, do you agree . I say, i agree and i disagree. I agree because for some people in the world, its already too late. For those people who are losing their lives from climate impacts now, lets be very clear, its too late for them. For parts of africa, its too late. Let me give you an example. And, you know, one of the problems is our leaders dont connect the different issues and challenges that we face. Because if you take the genocide in darfur in darfur. In sudan. The media largely reported it as an ethnic quasireligious sort of conflict and so on. But that is your first major resource war brought about by climate impacts because darfur neighbors lake chad. Lake chad used to be one of the largest inland seas in the world. And the Climate Science warned us decades ago that, as a result of a warming planet, lake chad was under risk. As the current secretarygeneral of the United Nations ban kimoon puts it, lake chad has now shrunk to a size of a pond, right . So water scarcity, land scarcity and food scarcity as a result of an absence of water and land was the toxic mix that created conditions for identity manipulation by opportunistic politicians that saw the so for some people its going to be too late. However, we are still in a small window of opportunity, and thats where i disagree with people that say give it up, its all over. There is a small window of opportunity in terms of time. I would say no more than five to ten years, and that actually is being optimistic, that if we can take the courageous, bold steps that we need to take to shift our planet in an Energy Revolution that takes us to bringing down Carbon Pollution but doing it in a way that also generates millions of new jobs in an inclusive Green Economy of the future, if we were to do that, still the majority of people on this planet can be secure. So, yes, for some people its too late, but for the majority of the planet there is still time. But that time is shrinking very, very fast. And, based on Current Practice of governments, if we continue like that over the next coming years, then, sadly, i think it will be too late. You know what youre up against. What you see as potential destruction happening faster and faster in the arctic the Oil Companies see as opportunity for drilling even deeper because there is reportedly a great deal of fossil fuel down there. Well, let me give you a picture, all right . Think about the gulf of mexico oil spill. Bp. The bp oil spill. That oil spill required 6,000 vessels and thousands of people to actually clean up. You know how long it took. You know the consequences that the people of those coastlines faced in terms of their restaurant business, their fishing business and so on. Now imagine theres an oil spill in the arctic and the oil spill happens towards the end of the arctic summer, right . Just as the ice in the ocean is beginning to form again, the oil will be locked into the ocean for at least six months until the season changes again. So the consequences here are far too devastating, and, you know, people might think greenpeace is being a bit romantic because we are calling for the upper arctic to be declared a sanctuary. No trespassing. Yeah. About 20 years plus ago greenpeace and other organizations lobbied for the antarctic to be declared a Global Public good. All countries in the world have sort of almost a sense of shared ownership, and we succeeded. The antarctic is protected and is treated as a place for no industrial activity because of the environmental sensitivity. So, you know, for people like myself and many people around the world, when president obama was running for election, there were three phrases that resonated with us which he used multiple times in all his regular stump speeches, right . Yes, we can, the fierce urgency of now, which is a phrase from Martin Luther king, and a planet in peril. In peril. Yeah. We understood a planet in peril was our understanding that Climate Change was actually threatening this life on this planet as we know it. Now, if you take Something Like hurricane sandy, right . Hurricane sandy wouldve happened. Hurricanes happen. But you have to look at the intensity, the height of the waves and so on, which is compounded by the impacts of Climate Change, with regard to already the Sea Level Rise that weve seen, a warming ocean and so on. So we must be very clear. We are playing political poker and commercial poker with the future of the planet, and when you say, future of the planet, were talking about the future of children. You know, the one thing i jokingly say, you know, sometimes people say, save the planet, save the climate and so on. I say, the planet actually does not need any saving. The planets going to be here, and actually, the reality is if all of us warm this planet and destroy it and we all cannot survive here anymore, the planet will replenish. It will come back. What is at stake is humanitys ability to live in coexistence with nature for centuries to come. And there can be no more important ethical imperative for any political or Business Leader than saying, i have a responsibility to act in a way that does not imperil my children and grandchildrens future. I remember very well the speeches that president obama made during the campaign. They still resonate with you. You just quoted three memorable phrases. But i also brought with me an excerpt from another speech that president obama, not candidate obama, made. Here it is. For the first time in 18 years, americas poised to produce more of our own oil than we buy from other nations. And today we produce more natural gas than anybody else. So were producing energy, and these advances have grown our economy, theyve created new jobs that cant be shipped overseas. And, by the way, theyve also helped drive our Carbon Pollution to its lowest levels in nearly 20 years. Since 2006, no country on earth has reduced its total Carbon Pollution by as much as the United States of america. Now, the irony is this was part of a speech, a larger speech, where he also laid out the plans to cut greenhouse emissions. Youve got this paradox, this contradiction, this irony at the heart. You say you were hopefully inspired by the president. Whats happened since then to make you less inspired . Well, a lot of his behavior has been acquiescence to the political logic of how money pollutes politics in the United States and elsewhere in the so if you ask yourself, why is it he would say something, if you fact checked what he said, i can guarantee you you will find, just that small clip, you will find holes. We are the country that does the most in terms of production in the last couple years, thats false, right . And so why . Why is it . Its very simple actually, which they are for every member of congress in the United States, including all the members of president obamas own party, the fossil fuel industry, the oil, coal and Gas Companies fund fulltime lobbyists to make sure that, in fact, no progressive, urgent climate legislation goes through. And if you look at how president obama used the considerable Political Capital that he had coming into office to push the Health Care Reform and how much he used to push Climate Change, which, by the way, Health Care Reform is going to be meaningless if you dont address Climate Change because Climate Change is already generating new diseases, already reintroducing old ones that we thought we had defeated and so on. So we are disappointed, deeply disappointed, about how slowly hes moved. But lets be very clear, investing today one fresh cent in new oil, coal and gas projects must be understood as an investment in the death of our children and their children. Thats the implication of it, but we are realistic. We dont think we can switch off oil, coal and gas tomorrow. We have to have a phasedout approach of how do you do that, and therefore, what we say is that we need two approaches. We need a Serious Energy efficiency approach, and we need serious investment in Clean Renewable Energy options, all of which are growing. If you look at the amount of jobs that potentially could be created if our government engaged in a serious Energy Revolution, which, if we are to prevent climate catastrophe, has to be in a similar scale like the Industrial Revolution was, where we really reconfigure our societies, where we begin to value more the importance of clean water, which is a lifesaving resource, we bear in mind, all of these industries suck up huge amounts of water but also have a polluting effect as fracking is doing to underground water, for example. You published a report this year in which you identified 14 of the biggest fossil fuel projects in the world that you say, greenpeace says, must be stopped to avoid, quoting you, catastrophic Climate Change, and you called this report the point of no return. Why . Thats very alarming. Yes. Well, you know, speaking the truth is always a good thing to do. And sometimes speaking the truth when people are suffering from a bad case of cognitive dissonance which is, you know, where all the facts are there. You know, just for people who might not understand the jargon of cognitive dissonance, i always say a good simple example is you know that moment when the u. S. Troops finally got to baghdad and saddam husseins communicationx minister was still in power, and, well, hanging on and he was Holding Press Conferences and the journalists were asking him, so, how long are you going to withstand this u. S. Military force, and how long do you think you can deal with the war . And he was saying, what war . What you talking . We are completely under control. And behind him there are bombs falling, buildings burning and so on. That is our politicians engaging with the climate question. That they are in denial about how we are running out of time. And so, see, the science says we have to keep warming below two degrees based on preindustrial levels. This is what you call the new math of global warming, right . Exactly. And then theres a thing called the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, parts per million of carbon in the atmosphere. So my good friend Bill Mckibben was the founder of 350. Org. Its called 350. Org because 350 parts per million of carbon in the atmosphere was understood 20 years ago to be something we shouldnt breach. This year weve just breached 400 parts per million, right . So, when you have a situation like that, if these projects, particularly the canadian tar sands, some of the arctic projects and so on that i envisaged, if we go after them and if we succeed to actually get those projects going, we will accelerate to 600 parts per million in a very short time because that rate of acceleration of carbon accumulation is very, very fast. And then basically its a point of no return. Thats what science is saying. Its not greenpeace that is saying that, but that is what the science is saying. But quoting that new math, you say that we must write off 80 of fossil fuel reserves completely. In other words, 80 of all the bonanza thats still out there, youre saying just cover up, walk away, forget about it . Got to leave the coal in the hole and the oil in the soil if we want to ensure that this planet exists. But you know were not going to do that. Well, this is why our struggle is so difficult. This is why when you asked me the question, how did you make that personal decision to go and risk your life by taking part in an action in a very, you know, remote place in the arctic . This is why were doing it. The stakes are very high here. We are running out of time. Many of all the things that youre saying greenpeace has said, its not just greenpeace i know. Whos saying it. No, no, im just saying, it is, you know, the world bank, for example, is not a particularly radical organization. The World Bank Last year came up with a report called turn down the heat, which basically was saying we have to actually, all these reports that are coming out are saying, we have to let these known fossil fuel reserves stay where they are and instead take that same amount of money, right, that you would invest in take shell, for example, just in terms of what theyre doing in alaska. Shell oil . Shell oil, right . Theyve already blown 5 billion of their investors money in risky, badly planned, incompetently executed attempts to try to go drill in the alaskan arctic, right . That 5 billion, and thats not a in Oil Companies terms, 5 billion is not a humongous amount of money, but its a significant amount of money. That 5 billion didnt deliver zero unit of energy, right . That amount of money could be put into research and development, could actually ramp up solar, ramp up geothermal wind and biomass and a range of other options. But yeah, but heres the problem, huh . Why, you say, if it is an option, we dont . Because the amount of money to be made through solar is very different from the amount of money you can make from an oil or a gas field because if youre an oil company, you get an exclusive right to a particular sort of allotment, if you want, where theres oil or gas or coal, and then you have the ability to pull it out and make huge amounts of profit because you have almost a monopoly then on that oil field or gas field or whatever. Nobody is going to get an exclusive license for the sun. You have yourself acknowledged, the head of greenpeace has acknowledged, that the environmental movement, including greenpeace, is losing the fight to save the planet. Not just in the arctic, but worldwide. So what ive said is, while greenpeace is winning some important and big battles, if we are brutally honest, we are losing the war and losing the planet. I believe that leadership, good leadership, must be about being straight with people. Its about saying, yes, we are making progress here, but that progress is just insufficient. And within greenpeace we acknowledge that we have to up our efforts and that is what we are doing right now. We are trying to campaign more with people. Like, say on the arctic, weve got 4 Million People that are campaigning with us. Secondly, were campaigning together with other organizations. So, for example, with the trade Union Movement where in the past, you know, people used to talk about red green tensions between labor and environment, now the Global Leadership of the trade Union Movement is talking about a Just Transition to a green inclusive economy where, of course, they are concerned about protecting and transitioning people jobs from dirty energy jobs to clean energy jobs, and i hope the changes that were making will enable us to win bigger battles in a faster timeframe. For the past 12 years, youve attended the World Economic forum in davos, switzerland, where the worlds most powerful leaders gather, some of the same people responsible for the very problems you are fighting against. I mean, these are not your kindred spirits. Theyre the masters of the universe. Why do you attend . You know, as a 22yearold, i fled south africa into exile. I was very lucky to have gotten a Rhodes Scholarship to oxford. In fact, i got it while i was on the run from the police. My interview was as a fugitive. And when i got to oxford, i learned a very important thing. Not from the University Per se, but suddenly i was in a context where i was with people who didnt have the same views that i had. Because being a young activist in the antiapartheid struggle, you mainly were with people who all wanted to bring down the apartheid regime. So you had tactical differences but no big philosophical differences. Suddenly, i was in a situation where, you know, there was such a diversity of opinion, and one of the things i learned is that if you just talk to people all the time who agree with you, right, you know, you feel good with yourself, you feel maybe you can delude yourself, youre winning, but activism is about, in my judgment, if you believe in the Political Correctness of what you are trying to do, you must believe that you can go into any forum, however conservative it might be, however backward in their thinking that it might be, if they are talking and making and influencing decisions that affect the future of our planet i feel i should go. So now, ill be honest with you. Its not the favorite place in the world. You know, before i went to greenpeace, i went as human rights, gender equality and that time i could never get a single business ceo to agree for a sitdown meeting, right . In fact, i used to, like, have to follow them in the corridors, and the best lobbying i did was usually in the mens toilet. And i actually lobbied president clinton about signing of the landmine treaty while we were both in the toilet alongside each other doing our business, but when i go as greenpeace, when i went as greenpeace for the first time in 2010, before when i went as greenpeace for the first time in 2010, before i even arrived there, there were so many ceos of Big Companies that wrote to me saying, we want meetings. And by the time i got there, i couldnt attend any sessions because i was, like, fully booked from one ceo to the other, and i was late getting to one ceo. And i said, im so sorry im late, but im in this new situation. In my previous roles, nobody wanted to speak to me. Now i come as greenpeace, and you folks all want to speak to me. And then the ceo tells me, well, kumi, you understand whats happening, right . I said, what . He said, well, many of the ceos of the Big Companies are desperate to get greenpeace to the table because they hope that way they wont be on your menu. You know, back to well, youve had some success negotiating with these multinational corporations, instead of confronting them. Unilever and coca cola agreed to stop using hfc gases, which can actually do more damage than carbon dioxide. Than carbon dioxide. You got nestle to stop buying palm oil from sumatra, where clear cutting was disrupting tiger habitats and other environmental matters. Now youre pressuring facebook to unfriend coal . At the last count, 600 million of us are your friends. Together, were changing the world. But the internet youre at the center of now uses more power than entire nations combined. What powers you . Coal. The number one contributor to Climate Change. Facebook, unfriend coal and help lead an Energy Revolution. Lets keep our world a world worth changing. Whats that all about . Well, over the next decade the Cloud Computing Companies Like yahoo, facebook and so on, their Energy Electricity needs are going to increase by fourfold. Wow. Okay . Now, they have a choice. They can source their energy through traditional dirty energy through coal, oil and gas, or they can invest in Renewable Energy or insist on the people that are providing them with energy to provide it through wind, solar and other clean methods. So we ran a campaign on facebook, and im happy to say that mark zuckerberg, if you come to the Greenpeace Office now in amsterdam, the headquarters, theres a big poster where it says, facebook agrees to be a clean energy champion. We will ensure that our data centers are sourced from clean energy, and so on, and its signed by mark zuckerberg. So to all the Companies Like, you know, google and facebook and so on, we are saying, you have a responsibility to also use the innovation of your new technologies to help other Companies Think about how they source their energy for their business. And im pleased to say that most of the i. T. Companies are talking to us, we are working with them, and hopefully they will increase their commitment to reduce their footprint in terms of how they source their energy. I read that some of your allies within greenpeace are uncomfortable with your negotiating and your willingness to compromise. One of them i saw even says youre trying to move the organization in the direction of the red cross instead of greenpeace. How do you respond to that kind of internal criticism that youre going soft . Well, you know, ive never, even as a 15yearold activist against apartheid regime, ive never believed in militancy for militancy sake. I believe that a good activist is one that has a menu of different tools in their toolbox. Sometimes sitting down, having a dialogue, being persuasive can deliver the same result than, you know, doing a mass protest and so on. However, if you look at what we are doing at greenpeace, its that we are still strongly maintaining peaceful civil disobedience or nonviolent direct action, as Martin Luther king used to call it, as a key part of our strategy. However, i believe strongly that the leaders of the business community, before they are leaders of the business community, or a politician before they are politicians, they are citizens. They are human beings, and i believe that we have to the moral persuasive argument is on our side, and i believe its up to us to exercise the skill, creativity and innovation in our conversations and engagement to shift these human beings who might be in government, might be in business, might be an oil company and so on, in a direction that says that we can meet our energy needs to clean energy means. And i think ive seen positive return. Im respectful, by the way. Im respectful of the criticisms. Im totally respectful because and i know where its coming from. These are people who say, these are the people who caused the problem in the first place. Theyre the ones that are perpetuating the problems, and by you going there, you are legitimizing the World Economic forum by just being there. So thats a fair argument and capitalism. Youre legitimating capitalism, which some of your colleagues say is incompatible with sustainability. Yeah. The current nature of capitalism, you know, is completely incompatible. And, by the way, you know, the banking crisis here in this country is a very good example of political will, right . Political will, right . If the leaders of our country, the United States and other countries were able to mobilize not millions, not billions, but trillions of dollars overnight to bail out the banks, the bankers and the bonuses, surely they can mobilize even less than that would be good to get us going to bail out the planet. And our leaders really need to ask the question what is their sense of intergenerational solidarity . We cannot live on this planet as if we dont have children and grandchildren coming after us, and thats what our current leaders are doing. Are you a religious man . Im a deeply spiritual person. My mom committed suicide when i was 15. That was, you know, a catastrophic and catalytic event in my life, and when that happened i went through a very deep struggle of trying to make sense of life and so on. And my mom, though, before she died taught me i think the most important things in life. She always used to say very simple things, like it is much better to try and fail, than fail to try. And i can tell you that one line is a great source of hope and inspiration as i do the work that im currently doing. You know, its much you know, we have an option to be part of the problem and part of the solution. But on religion, she taught me the most important thing. She said, the most important thing about religion is to have this approach, and that is see god in the eyes of every human being that you meet. If you can have that as your view, dont worry about what you actually worship and where you go. Whichever gods there are in the world, they will all say thats a great thing that you did because all religion actually tells you not to go and spend thousands and thousands of hours sitting in their religious institution worshipping but then going and living a life that is ungodly and is not, you know, community oriented. The best thing you can do is live your life where you see the humanity in everybody. And thats why when i see how religion is being distorted because in hinduism one of the things we learn is when you finish praying you say, om shanti, shanti, shanti. And shanti is the word for peace, right . All religions are geared up to encouraging us to embrace a life of peace. Sadly, too many of our religious leaders have allowed our religions to be manipulated and have moved us away from the original essence of what religious teachings tells us, which is to care for the poor, care for the planet because dont forget, i mean, you know, if you believe in god, then god created the oceans, the forest, the mountains and so on, and we have an obligation to actually draw on that. And i think here in north america some of the historical traditions of spirituality from the native American People are exceptionally revealing. You know, the cree people said centuries ago, they said, only when the last tree has been cut, the last rivers been polluted, the last river has been contaminated will humanity realize that you cannot eat money. We should draw on the traditions of wisdom that exist. And, you know, our ship the Rainbow Warrior, why its called Rainbow Warrior is there was a prophesy of a cree woman called eyes of fire who said a century plus ago that there will come a time in the world when the forests will the trees will disappear, the fish will be dead in the sea, the rivers will turn black. When these things happen, a group of people from around the world, irrespective of race, color, religion or creed, will come together to try to heal and protect the planet, and they will be known as the warriors of the rainbow. And i think where we are now we need people to step forward to be peaceful warriors for our children and grandchildrens future. Kumi naidoo, thank you very much for being here today, and thank you very much for your work. Thank you very much, bill, for having me on your show. When kumi naidoos mother urged him to see god in the eyes of every human being that you meet, she was echoing a sentiment once expressed by st. Ignatius of loyola, who told the devout to seek and find god in all things. You may recall that ignatius founded the jesuits, and now there is a jesuit pope, the first in Catholic Church history. Last weekend pope francis visited sardinia, the mediterranean island known for its white sand beaches and deluxe vacation homes owned by the rich and famous. Now sardinia is blighted by closed factories and mines operating at low capacity. Thousands are out of work, including 50 of its young people. Last year, in an effort to keep their jobs, workers in sardinia barricaded themselves in front of a mine packed with almost 700 kilograms of explosives. One miner told the cameras, we cannot take it anymore. We cannot. We cannot. Is this what we have to do . And slit his wrists on live tv. The pope met with some of those unemployed workers, including francesco mattana, 45 years old, married, father of three children, unemployed now for four years after losing his job with an alternative energy company. Mattana told pope francis how unemployment oppresses you and wears you out to the depths of your soul. The pope was so moved he put aside his prepared speech and talked spontaneously of the suffering he was seeing, suffering that weakens and robs you of hope, he said. Where theres no work, theres no dignity. The consequence, the pope said, of a system that has at its center an idol called money. The crowd of 20,000 cheered, and when the pope told them you must fight for work, they cheered again and broke into a chant that the pope heard as a prayer for work, work, work. At that moment, pope francis was not just the head of the Catholic Church. Rather, he embodied the heart of a catholic cry for justice, small c catholic, a universal aspiration expressed in our country by the promise that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is the birthright of every citizen. Surely thats not hard to understand. What the richest parents want for their children is what the poorest parents want for theirs. Measure that aspiration, however, against the fact that more than 21 million americans are still in need of fulltime work, many of them running out of jobless benefits. The richest 400 americans are now worth a combined 2 trillion, while new figures from the Census Bureau show that the typical middle class family makes less, less, than it did in 1989, with roughly 46 Million People living at or below the poverty line. With the exception of romania, no developed country has a higher percentage of kids in poverty than we do, yet the house of representatives has just cut food stamps for people who dont have enough money to feed themselves. Listen. That sound you hear is the shredding of the social contract, and look at this heading above a piece in the current columbia journalism review, the line between democracy and a darker social order is thinner than you think. If that doesnt send a shiver down the spine, i dont know what it will take to wake us up. So pope francis and kumi naidoo speak the truth, in different accents and with different metaphors, but their message boils down to this capitalism is like fire, a good servant, but a bad master. If we dont dethrone our present system of financial capitalism that rewards those at the top who then use it to rig the rules against even the most reasonable check on their excesses, it will consume us, and that fragile, thin line between democracy and a darker social order will be extinguished. Coming up on Moyers Company, a Rare Television interview with the noted writer and environmental visionary wendell berry. Wendell berrys mission, in word and deed, is the defense of the earth. This quiet poet lives and works on a family farm in kentucky, far from the center of power. The urgency of his message crosses the distance. He is one of if not the great writer at work in american letters right now. He understood what was happening on this planet a long time before everybody else. Hes, you might say, a prophet of responsibility. As he nears 80 years of age, this outspoken, sometimes angry advocate of the land is moving beyond words to action. Were here to make our grievances and our petition heard. Ive been talking for a long time about leadership from the bottom, and im convinced perfectly that its happening. And that leadership consists of people who simply see something that needs to be done, and they start doing it. We dont have a right to ask whether were going to succeed or not. The only question we have a right to ask is, whats the right thing to do . At our website billmoyers. Com there are ideas from kumi naidoo and others about what you can do to help curb Climate Change and secure a future for generations to come. Thats at billmoyers. Com. Ill see you there, and ill see thats at billmoyers. Com. Ill see you there, and ill see you here next time. Captions by vitac www. Vitac. Com dont wait a week to get more moyers. Visit bill moyers. Com for exclusive blogs, essays and video features. This episode of Moyers Company is available on dvd for 19. 95. To order, call or write to the address on your screen. Funding is provided by Carnegie Corporation of new york, celebrating 100 years of philanthropy. The coalberg foundation, independent Production Fund with support from the partridge foundation, a john and holly guth fund. The Park Foundation dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. Supporting organizations Whose Mission is to provide compassion and creativity in our society. The herb alpert foundation, supporting organizations Whose Mission is to promote compassion and creativity in our society. The bernard and audre rapoport foundation. The john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. More information at macfound. Org. Anne gumowitz. The betsy and jesse fink foundation. The betsy and jesse fink foundation. The hkh foundation. Antiques roadshow is visiting washington, d. C. How did folks make out in the Nations Capital . Ive only seen guns like this in books. Really . Ive never actually seen one in person. Appraiser liquor is cheap, its plentiful, and people are drunk. toy squeaks you wont want to miss this hour from washington, so stay tuned. Captioning sponsored by liberty mutual, subaru, Franklin Templeton investments and viewers like you firecrackers exploding announcer now, the people who make antiques roadshow possible. Its not about the things we have, but the memories we make with them. Liberty mutual insurance. Proud sponsor of antiques roadshow. Versatility and safety drive all our vehicle designs. Because however big, small, new, or old your cargo may be, its all precious. Subaru. A proud sponsor of antiques roadshow. Franklin templeton investments. Gain from our perspective. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Welcome to antiques roadshow. Hi, im mark walberg, in washington, d. C. So many of our countrys treasures are expertly cared for in our Nations Capital. Well take a look at one such place, the smithsonian american art museum, later in the show. But now, lets see what our experts have to say about some washingtonians personal treasures. My grandparents were missionaries in korea from 1890 to 1908. Wow. And, uh, this is something my grandfather purchased ostensibly from a korean tiger hunter. This is just before the fall of the dynasty, around 1911. Really . When the japanese occupied the country, which was a very, very sensitive time for the korean people. Yes. Because they were under enormous pressure from the japanese. Yes. And were looking for any kind of foreign help to help them out of the situation they were involved in. I see. And things like this were coming up on the market at the time, but its an exceptional rarity. Ive only seen guns like this in books. Really . Ive never actually seen one in person. Interesting. And it is a matchlock. Is it . Yeah. And it used to have, up here, a cord that would have been soaked in saltpeter. Yes. And then lit on fire. Oh, interesting. Hardwood stock, handmade barrel, very, very early form of gun. Is that right . And the koreans just kept this model basically because it worked. Right. And in terms of it coming from a tiger hunter, highly probable. Is that right . Highly probable. Interesting. Youre not going to be picking off sparrows with Something Like this. This gun is probably 19th century, even 18th century. Okay. I would say, conservatively, at auction, the estimate would be, like, 3,000 to 5,000 on this gun. Is that right . The korean market has a tendency to fluctuate wildly. This is the kind of thing, in the end, i wouldnt be surprised if retail on a gun like this was 10,000 or 15,000. Really . Well, thank you. Ive wondered for years what kind of gun it was, and uh, when it might have been made. Woman i inherited this chest about 20 years ago. My fathers second wife was from pennsylvania and she said this came down in her mothers family and that it was a very old pennsylvania piece, but that is really all that i know about it. Did she give you any idea of how old she thought it was . She didnt say. My guess was that she was talking 1700s, but i didnt know. And have you ever had it appraised . Ive never had it appraised. She told me that she had been offered 8,000 by a dealer at one point for it. However, this was very close to the end of her life and she was rather grandiose then, so she could have been offered 800, and it sort of grew