1 00:00:03,280 --> 00:00:08,039 Power concedes nothing without a demand. 2 00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:12,140 Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. 3 00:00:12,140 --> 00:00:17,560 - Frederick Douglass 4 00:00:30,080 --> 00:00:32,080 1968 5 00:00:40,160 --> 00:00:43,980 This is Apollo 8 coming to you live from the moon 6 00:00:45,880 --> 00:00:51,220 The vast loneliness up here of the moon is awe-inspiring 7 00:00:51,220 --> 00:00:54,700 And it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth 8 00:00:55,620 --> 00:01:00,560 The Earth from here is a grand oasis in the big vastness of space 9 00:01:04,060 --> 00:01:09,500 - Oh my god look at that picture over there - Wow, is that pretty 10 00:01:10,680 --> 00:01:12,960 You got a color film Jim? 11 00:01:13,500 --> 00:01:15,740 Hand me a roll of color film quick. Quick. 12 00:01:18,420 --> 00:01:20,540 Wow, that's a beautiful shot 13 00:01:26,560 --> 00:01:33,559 From the crew of Apollo 8 we close with "Good night, good luck, and God bless all of you... 14 00:01:34,580 --> 00:01:37,380 ... all of you on the good Earth" 15 00:01:40,740 --> 00:01:48,220 We no longer live on that Earth 16 00:01:58,400 --> 00:02:01,940 The world hasn't ended 17 00:02:01,980 --> 00:02:07,000 But the world as we know it has 18 00:02:08,539 --> 00:02:10,539 Can you hear me? 19 00:02:11,640 --> 00:02:13,640 I have an emergency 20 00:02:13,980 --> 00:02:15,980 The water is rising very quickly 21 00:02:16,760 --> 00:02:19,780 We're looking at about five feet of water... 22 00:02:19,960 --> 00:02:22,020 ... and there's about 17 people on the second floor right now 23 00:02:22,020 --> 00:02:23,788 We're going to need to evacuate - we need to get out of here 24 00:02:24,440 --> 00:02:25,980 We're trying to get you guys out 25 00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:31,020 Are you alright? You OK?! 26 00:02:32,080 --> 00:02:34,780 There is new and dramatic evidence of what's happening to our world 27 00:02:34,940 --> 00:02:37,080 and tonight we'll look at the impact already being felt 28 00:02:37,660 --> 00:02:40,810 The red flags about extreme weather we've all endured 29 00:02:40,810 --> 00:02:44,790 together all across the globe 30 00:02:44,790 --> 00:02:47,480 We are literally engaged in an unprecedented experiment 31 00:02:47,980 --> 00:02:51,500 with the one planet that we know of that can support life. 32 00:02:55,720 --> 00:02:59,980 We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so 33 00:03:00,069 --> 00:03:03,390 would betray our children and future generations 34 00:03:03,460 --> 00:03:08,520 The big question mark is the future, of course, and a new kind of normal 35 00:03:19,480 --> 00:03:22,940 Things are gearing up for the UN-hosted climate change summit in New York 36 00:03:23,340 --> 00:03:26,330 UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will host the summit. 37 00:03:26,330 --> 00:03:30,409 I will convene a climate summit for leaders at the highest level. 38 00:03:30,409 --> 00:03:37,589 I urge political leaders of the world to prioritize their political energy on climate change. 39 00:03:37,879 --> 00:03:44,219 We have to get serious about bringing real commitments to the table for that summit. 40 00:03:46,420 --> 00:03:53,420 If things go "business as usual" we will not live, we will die. 41 00:03:56,080 --> 00:04:05,380 DISRUPTION 42 00:04:17,420 --> 00:04:20,180 100 DAYS UNTIL THE MARCH 43 00:04:20,860 --> 00:04:22,560 [Matt Leonard - Organizer - People's Climate March] 44 00:04:22,590 --> 00:04:26,780 On September 23rd the United Nations is holding a historic climate summit where 45 00:04:26,780 --> 00:04:29,469 they've invited world leaders and heads of state from around the world 46 00:04:30,090 --> 00:04:32,800 We're trying to organize the largest-ever climate rally 47 00:04:32,810 --> 00:04:35,680 on the streets New York in response to this, hopefully turning the tide 48 00:04:35,680 --> 00:04:39,530 of what comes out of that summit, and reshaping what the entire climate movement looks like 49 00:04:39,530 --> 00:04:42,030 going forward. 50 00:04:42,030 --> 00:04:43,849 Climate tipping points are scary 51 00:04:43,849 --> 00:04:47,680 but if we stay connected to each other we can build 52 00:04:47,680 --> 00:04:53,030 the largest climate mobilization in history. We all have power to create 53 00:04:53,030 --> 00:04:56,279 the movement tipping point on climate change. 54 00:04:56,279 --> 00:04:59,380 the one that takes our leaders from this place of inaction 55 00:04:59,380 --> 00:05:03,480 and puts them on a journey towards saving the planet. 56 00:05:05,360 --> 00:05:08,450 All the big social movements 57 00:05:08,450 --> 00:05:11,750 in history have had people in the streets. 58 00:05:11,750 --> 00:05:14,669 Women's voting rights, the civil rights movement -- and even more recently 59 00:05:14,669 --> 00:05:16,049 [Keya Chatterjee Dir. of Renewable Energy, WWF] 60 00:05:16,100 --> 00:05:20,660 on climate issues, our big successes have happened when people left their homes 61 00:05:20,669 --> 00:05:23,069 and went out into the streets. 62 00:05:23,349 --> 00:05:26,430 This is a bigger fight than in fact has ever been won. 63 00:05:26,430 --> 00:05:28,930 [Naomi Klein - Author - "This Changes Everything"] It's not that we need to save the Earth. 64 00:05:28,940 --> 00:05:33,380 We need to save the systems that make the Earth compatible 65 00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:36,820 with human existence and the existence of other life forms. 66 00:05:36,820 --> 00:05:41,060 This is the fight of our time, but none of us should exactly have to be activists 67 00:05:41,060 --> 00:05:45,219 about all this. In a rational world, the fact that scientists have said 68 00:05:45,219 --> 00:05:49,539 the worst thing on Earth is happening now and here's what you can do to stop it 69 00:05:49,539 --> 00:05:51,219 [Bill McKibben - Co-Founder, 350.org] that would have been enough to push our 70 00:05:51,219 --> 00:05:54,479 systems into action. 71 00:05:56,190 --> 00:05:59,450 Of all the things that probably get me most upset, it's when people start 72 00:05:59,460 --> 00:06:01,380 presenting climate change as if it's something new. 73 00:06:01,400 --> 00:06:03,200 [Dr. Naomi Oreskes - Professor, History of Science, Harvard.] 74 00:06:03,200 --> 00:06:05,020 The science behind our understanding of man-made climate change 75 00:06:05,029 --> 00:06:08,690 is very old and very well established. So the task we've taken on 76 00:06:08,690 --> 00:06:12,620 is documenting this history to help us understand where we are 77 00:06:12,620 --> 00:06:16,280 how we got here, and how we can change course. 78 00:06:16,580 --> 00:06:20,320 Scientists have known for more than 150 years that carbon dioxide was a greenhouse gas 79 00:06:21,580 --> 00:06:25,580 Fourier came up with this notion that there were gasses in our atmosphere 80 00:06:25,580 --> 00:06:30,880 that allowed sunlight to pass through, like a window, but then when sunlight bounced off 81 00:06:30,880 --> 00:06:33,000 the Earth's surface they trap the heat in. 82 00:06:33,060 --> 00:06:35,120 [Dr. Heidi Cullen - Chief Scientist, Climate Central] 83 00:06:35,320 --> 00:06:38,520 So you had now this establishment of what we now call "the greenhouse effect." 84 00:06:38,529 --> 00:06:45,529 In the 1850's, John Tyndall made laboratory measurements of the absorption of heat radiation 85 00:06:45,660 --> 00:06:47,980 by carbon dioxide 86 00:06:47,980 --> 00:06:49,980 [Dr. James Hansen - Former Director, NASA (GISS)] 87 00:06:49,980 --> 00:06:52,180 And he concluded that if you change the CO₂ in the atmosphere 88 00:06:52,419 --> 00:06:55,750 it's going to affect the planetary energy balance 89 00:06:55,750 --> 00:07:00,770 Tyndall was the one who really came along and proved that carbon dioxide 90 00:07:00,770 --> 00:07:03,760 was a natural thermostat that helped set our planet's temperature 91 00:07:03,760 --> 00:07:08,909 In the late 1800's, it was the great Swedish chemist Arrhenius who first did the calculations 92 00:07:08,909 --> 00:07:13,409 about what would happen as we, as he put it, "evaporated our coal mines into the air" 93 00:07:14,800 --> 00:07:18,800 But people didn't pay much attention to that in the 20th century 94 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:21,950 because we were too busy figuring out cool new ways to burn fossil fuel 95 00:07:21,950 --> 00:07:25,800 It was only in the late 1950's that we even bothered to measure 96 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:28,000 to see if it was accumulating in the atmosphere 97 00:07:28,659 --> 00:07:32,310 That instrument, which one up on the side of Mauna Loa in Hawaii 98 00:07:32,310 --> 00:07:34,300 is the most important scientific instrument in the world 99 00:07:34,300 --> 00:07:40,300 Beginning in 1959, it found that there was a steadily accumulating amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere 100 00:07:40,520 --> 00:07:43,279 the so-called "Keeling Curve" 101 00:07:43,279 --> 00:07:47,550 The Keeling Curve is one of the most important pieces of scientific work of the 20th century 102 00:07:47,550 --> 00:07:52,709 that shows us that carbon dioxide has been rising continuously 103 00:07:52,709 --> 00:07:55,620 and systematically since the industrial revolution 104 00:07:55,620 --> 00:08:01,800 Keeling didn't just show that there was an increase in carbon dioxide, he also pinpointed the source 105 00:08:02,120 --> 00:08:07,660 And what Keeling showed so incredibly was that roughly one out of 106 00:08:07,680 --> 00:08:13,600 every four CO₂ molecules in our atmosphere today was put there by us 107 00:08:18,640 --> 00:08:24,450 Just a year ago, we passed 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere 108 00:08:24,450 --> 00:08:29,779 Now the pre-industrial level was about 280 parts per million 109 00:08:29,779 --> 00:08:35,919 So human society in the industrial era has raised the level of CO₂ in the atmosphere by about 40%, 110 00:08:35,919 --> 00:08:37,900 [Justin Gillis - Journalist, The New York Times] 111 00:08:38,100 --> 00:08:42,100 and many people fear that before we're done we're gonna double it or even triple it 112 00:08:42,640 --> 00:08:45,860 We're pumping CO₂ into the atmosphere 113 00:08:46,320 --> 00:08:50,170 at a speed which we have never seen before in modern human history 114 00:08:50,500 --> 00:08:53,640 We're absolutely racing into unchartered territory 115 00:08:54,010 --> 00:08:59,030 In our lifetimes, human beings left behind the Holocene, this 10,000-year period 116 00:08:59,300 --> 00:09:05,100 of benign climatic stability that coincides with the rise of human civilization 117 00:09:06,020 --> 00:09:12,480 We have crossed a great threshold, and we stand on the edge of others 118 00:09:14,280 --> 00:09:16,280 [Van Jones - Host, CNN Crossfire] 119 00:09:16,420 --> 00:09:19,840 I remember when The Weather Channel was this kind of nice, sleepy little station 120 00:09:20,120 --> 00:09:23,709 Now it's like a horror show where the climate is being disrupted 121 00:09:23,709 --> 00:09:29,120 That's not for next year or a thousand years from now. That's happening right now. 122 00:09:29,120 --> 00:09:31,189 What all climate scientists will agree on is that 123 00:09:31,189 --> 00:09:35,149 the entire atmosphere has changed -- all the atmospheric dynamics have changed 124 00:09:35,149 --> 00:09:38,620 So every event that happens now is in the context of climate change 125 00:09:38,620 --> 00:09:40,600 is different from how it would have been 126 00:09:56,100 --> 00:09:59,760 A typhoon slammed into the Philippines with winds of 195 miles per hour 127 00:09:59,900 --> 00:10:03,740 That's higher than the winds from Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina combined 128 00:10:04,250 --> 00:10:10,829 The world is mobilizing to help the Philippines, but just a trickle of food and water and medicine 129 00:10:10,829 --> 00:10:13,540 has reached the victims of Typhoon Haiyan 130 00:10:13,540 --> 00:10:18,320 A million people were forced to flee their homes. They're now trying to salvage what's left 131 00:10:18,500 --> 00:10:22,720 Hundreds of thousands are thronging relief centers, desperate for life's necessities 132 00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:27,550 Many residents have covered their faces to mask the smell of the dead, while they searched 133 00:10:27,550 --> 00:10:30,990 for relatives in some of the hardest hit areas 134 00:10:31,060 --> 00:10:34,520 This is one of the top storms ever seen on this planet 135 00:10:39,660 --> 00:10:41,600 Mister President, your excellency 136 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:47,820 What my country is going through as a result of this extreme climate event is madness 137 00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:50,000 [Yeb Saño - Climate Negotiator, Philippines] 138 00:10:51,940 --> 00:10:57,620 Super Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in my own family's hometown 139 00:11:02,020 --> 00:11:07,140 And the devastation . . . is staggering 140 00:11:09,860 --> 00:11:16,860 I struggle to find words to describe how I feel about the losses 141 00:11:17,720 --> 00:11:22,400 To anyone outside who continues to deny and ignore the reality that this climate change 142 00:11:22,819 --> 00:11:29,019 I dare them -- I dare them to get off their ivory towers and away from the comfort of their arm chairs 143 00:11:29,780 --> 00:11:33,279 I dare them to go to the islands of the Pacific 144 00:11:33,279 --> 00:11:38,459 We refuse as a nation to accept a future where super typhoons like Haiyan become a way of life 145 00:11:38,459 --> 00:11:43,480 We refuse to accept that running away from storms, evacuating our families, 146 00:11:43,480 --> 00:11:49,200 counting our dead become a way of life. We simply refuse to. 147 00:11:52,026 --> 00:11:55,606 We can fix this. We can stop this madness. 148 00:12:08,920 --> 00:12:11,560 80 DAYS UNTIL THE MARCH 149 00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:14,000 People's Climate March Coordinating Committee Organizing Meeting 150 00:12:14,520 --> 00:12:17,980 Hello, hello. Alright folks we know why we're here 151 00:12:17,980 --> 00:12:19,900 [Eddie Bautista - Executive Director, NYC-EJA] 152 00:12:20,100 --> 00:12:23,520 We have 80 days starting tomorrow to pull off the largest climate march in history 153 00:12:23,780 --> 00:12:27,759 It's really important for folks to remember that although climate change affects everyone 154 00:12:27,999 --> 00:12:30,519 the impacts are not evenly distributed 155 00:12:30,519 --> 00:12:35,159 We're asking each one of these breakout groups, prioritize people of color, folks 156 00:12:35,519 --> 00:12:39,419 because this is real, it's disproportionate, and it's time to bring it 157 00:12:40,680 --> 00:12:44,600 They need to act on a binding global agreement to reduce greenhouse gases 158 00:12:44,600 --> 00:12:46,600 [Tomas Gardaño - Organizer, People's Climate March] 159 00:12:46,850 --> 00:12:48,920 We can do that and create jobs at the same time 160 00:12:49,540 --> 00:12:53,060 Part of what we're doing is moving people from fossil fuels to the solutions 161 00:12:53,560 --> 00:12:55,500 [Lee Ziesche - Grassroots Coordinator] 162 00:12:55,500 --> 00:12:58,680 and also presenting them with economic opportunities around the solutions 163 00:12:58,680 --> 00:13:01,160 [Armando Chapelliquen - Project Coordinator, NYPIRG] The idea of who's going to be leading this march... 164 00:13:01,540 --> 00:13:02,769 ...are the people in this room 165 00:13:03,339 --> 00:13:07,959 [Rev. Clinton Miller - Brown Memorial, Baptist Church] This environmental issue is the singular issue 166 00:13:08,240 --> 00:13:13,380 of our time, of our day, that will determine how we live, where we live, and if we live. 167 00:13:13,829 --> 00:13:20,829 The most important tool that we have is our people power. There are already 325 groups, 168 00:13:21,949 --> 00:13:25,999 and that list is going to grow every single day. Whatever you're thinking about doing 169 00:13:25,999 --> 00:13:32,999 to help build this mobilization, rethink it. And make it bigger. Make it bolder. 170 00:13:33,540 --> 00:13:39,560 Our job is to make sure everybody hears about it. And then they'll get there. They'll get there. 171 00:13:39,820 --> 00:13:41,760 That's our job 172 00:13:49,960 --> 00:13:52,600 [Nuclear Disarmament Movement - New York City] 173 00:13:53,560 --> 00:14:00,860 In 1982, the UN convened a first special section on nuclear disarmament 174 00:14:01,279 --> 00:14:05,499 and we came together and said when the representatives 175 00:14:05,499 --> 00:14:09,670 of governments all around the world gather in New York City at the UN 176 00:14:09,670 --> 00:14:12,779 we need to be on the streets making our voice heard 177 00:14:12,779 --> 00:14:16,639 New York City's anti-nuclear demonstration turned out to be the biggest 178 00:14:16,639 --> 00:14:19,009 political demonstration in US history 179 00:14:19,009 --> 00:14:25,189 It was, and still to this day, is the largest single gathering, if you will, of people in this country 180 00:14:27,160 --> 00:14:32,779 I think there was one computer in the office. Everything else was by phone 181 00:14:32,779 --> 00:14:36,430 And this thing we called "the mail" -- we now call it "snail mail" 182 00:14:36,430 --> 00:14:39,699 But there was something about that reality that we didn't have the 183 00:14:39,699 --> 00:14:43,110 technology that we now have that actually forced people 184 00:14:43,110 --> 00:14:44,969 to talk directly to each other. 185 00:14:44,969 --> 00:14:50,138 Until we have real peace, with real justice 186 00:14:50,138 --> 00:14:54,809 we will not go home and be quiet, we will go home and organize! 187 00:14:54,809 --> 00:14:59,970 One of the really interesting things about that demonstration is that some 600 local groups 188 00:15:01,059 --> 00:15:05,220 were formed, and many of those groups lasted for years afterwards 189 00:15:05,639 --> 00:15:11,189 To me, the real power of that day was the organizing experience that led 190 00:15:11,189 --> 00:15:15,209 up to it and then the organizing that came out of it 191 00:15:19,619 --> 00:15:23,779 Some experts are now saying that the whole world is heating up 192 00:15:24,060 --> 00:15:26,120 because of a "global greenhouse effect" 193 00:15:26,300 --> 00:15:28,300 [Dr. Naomi Oreskes - Professor, History of Science, Harvard] 194 00:15:28,400 --> 00:15:32,400 Scientists had been saying for a long time that climate change might occur 195 00:15:32,600 --> 00:15:36,279 but 1988 is the year when Jim Hansen and his team at NASA 196 00:15:36,579 --> 00:15:39,299 say both in the scientific peer-reviewed literature, and in public, that it's actually happening 197 00:15:39,580 --> 00:15:42,320 [Dr. James Hansen - Former Director, NASA (GISS)] The changes in atmospheric composition 198 00:15:42,500 --> 00:15:46,660 that humans were making was going to have a big impact on the Earth's climate 199 00:15:46,660 --> 00:15:51,420 The greenhouse effect has been detected, and it is changing our climate now 200 00:15:51,420 --> 00:15:54,499 Hansen's testimony was reported on the front page of The New York Times 201 00:15:54,499 --> 00:15:58,639 and there was actually a bill introduced into Congress -- the National Energy Policy Act 202 00:15:58,850 --> 00:16:03,610 to immediately begin to phase out the use of fossil fuels in order to prevent disruptive climate change 203 00:16:03,980 --> 00:16:06,360 And of course that was supported by the creation of the IPCC -- 204 00:16:06,369 --> 00:16:09,969 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- that year 205 00:16:10,220 --> 00:16:12,280 So there was political momentum, there was some scientific momentum 206 00:16:12,490 --> 00:16:16,400 there was strong scientific evidence, there was media attention 207 00:16:16,509 --> 00:16:18,500 and then the whole thing kinda fell apart 208 00:16:20,309 --> 00:16:24,499 The Earth Summit, a 12-day, 178-nation conference on the environment 209 00:16:24,499 --> 00:16:26,369 began today in Rio de Janeiro 210 00:16:26,369 --> 00:16:30,209 Battle lines are already drawn between the haves and the have-nots 211 00:16:30,209 --> 00:16:35,749 So far, all the agreements are non-binding -- requiring no specific action on the environment 212 00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:40,511 As time has gone on, the scientific warnings keep intensifying 213 00:16:40,920 --> 00:16:44,460 and yet there has been no effective political response 214 00:16:44,600 --> 00:16:46,500 All political efforts to get a handle on this issue 215 00:16:46,519 --> 00:16:49,159 have essentially failed 216 00:16:49,159 --> 00:16:50,999 I am the one that is burdened with finding the balance between 217 00:16:51,110 --> 00:16:54,189 sound environmental practice on the one hand 218 00:16:54,189 --> 00:16:56,500 and jobs for American families on the other 219 00:16:59,490 --> 00:17:03,090 The agreement hammered out in Kyoto, Japan requires industrialized nations 220 00:17:03,480 --> 00:17:06,380 to make substantial cuts in greenhouse gas emissions 221 00:17:07,500 --> 00:17:09,400 [Justin Gillis - Journalist, The New York Times] 222 00:17:09,420 --> 00:17:12,880 The United States actually never ratified the Kyoto Protocol which is one reason it didn't work 223 00:17:13,010 --> 00:17:16,290 President Bush ignited a storm of controversy 224 00:17:16,290 --> 00:17:17,609 when he decided to abandon the Kyoto Protocol 225 00:17:17,609 --> 00:17:21,619 which sets caps on the emissions of greenhouse gases in developed nations 226 00:17:21,619 --> 00:17:25,910 For nearly two weeks, the US delegation had blocked proposal after proposal 227 00:17:25,910 --> 00:17:27,099 draft after draft 228 00:17:27,099 --> 00:17:31,950 refusing to even discuss mandatory cuts in greenhouse emissions 229 00:17:31,950 --> 00:17:35,960 Now we switch to the big climate conference going on in Copenhagen 230 00:17:35,960 --> 00:17:40,270 Today developing countries made themselves heard 231 00:17:40,270 --> 00:17:44,290 Led by Africa, 135 nations, including India and China 232 00:17:44,290 --> 00:17:46,000 staged a five-hour boycott 233 00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:52,470 angry over what they say are insufficient carbon cuts proposed by the world's rich countries 234 00:17:52,470 --> 00:17:55,610 If Hollywood had been writing a story, it all would have come right in the end 235 00:17:55,610 --> 00:17:59,540 and all the nations would have pledged their best effort 236 00:17:59,540 --> 00:18:02,320 And nothing like that happened -- the thing was a fiasco, a failure 237 00:18:02,860 --> 00:18:08,360 The frustrations of the last 10 days explode on the streets of Copenhagen 238 00:18:08,360 --> 00:18:11,900 Outside the Bella Center where negotiators still haven't reached a climate agreement 239 00:18:12,260 --> 00:18:16,630 2500 protesters tried to storm the hall to make an impact 240 00:18:16,630 --> 00:18:19,990 [Bill McKibben - Co-founder, 350.org] Nothing happened because 241 00:18:19,990 --> 00:18:23,620 the fossil fuel industry was still strong enough to scare nations into avoiding the issue 242 00:18:23,840 --> 00:18:27,800 [Naomi Klein - Author, "The Shock Doctrine"] What happened in Copenhagen, for a lot of people 243 00:18:27,800 --> 00:18:29,800 was this realization "no leader was going to save us" 244 00:18:31,470 --> 00:18:35,140 We have to be strong enough to scare our national leaders 245 00:18:35,140 --> 00:18:38,160 into doing the right thing in New York City in September 246 00:18:38,160 --> 00:18:40,000 If we can demonstrate that 247 00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:44,460 then better things will happen in Paris than happened in Copenhagen 248 00:18:45,500 --> 00:18:48,840 These things are not separate moments in time 249 00:18:48,850 --> 00:18:53,600 This is a all part of one string, and what we're fighting towards in Paris 250 00:18:53,600 --> 00:18:57,600 is highly dependent on what happens in September 251 00:18:57,600 --> 00:19:00,600 This is going to have to be the fight our lives 252 00:19:01,600 --> 00:19:05,600 [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - Berlin, Germany] 253 00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:12,360 Welcome to this press conference to present the report of IPCC Working Group 3 254 00:19:12,620 --> 00:19:14,700 on mitigation of climate change 255 00:19:14,700 --> 00:19:16,700 [Dr. Rajendra Pachauri - Chairman, IPCC] If we really want to bring about a limitation 256 00:19:17,890 --> 00:19:22,730 of temperature increase to no more than 2 degrees Celsius 257 00:19:22,820 --> 00:19:28,080 there is then the need for an unprecedented level of international cooperation 258 00:19:28,080 --> 00:19:29,870 The way we've approached climate change 259 00:19:29,870 --> 00:19:33,550 is the scientific community builds the case, it synthesizes the evidence, 260 00:19:33,550 --> 00:19:35,500 it presents that evidence then to the policymakers 261 00:19:35,500 --> 00:19:38,710 We've proven beyond a doubt that climate change is real 262 00:19:38,710 --> 00:19:40,700 that the Earth's temperature is warming 263 00:19:40,840 --> 00:19:46,280 [Dr. Heidi Cullen - Author, "Weather of the Future"] that that warming is predominantly caused by 264 00:19:46,280 --> 00:19:50,240 the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities, and that that additional warming poses 265 00:19:50,240 --> 00:19:53,400 a significant threat 266 00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:56,920 What the policy-making community did was they came up with the definition 267 00:19:56,920 --> 00:19:59,440 of what they called "dangerous human interference" 268 00:20:00,520 --> 00:20:04,500 In 2009, the nations in the world agreed on 269 00:20:04,510 --> 00:20:10,540 a target of 2 degrees Centigrade or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit of maximum warming 270 00:20:10,540 --> 00:20:13,000 above the pre-industrial level 271 00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:17,780 That would require emissions worldwide almost entirely stopping 272 00:20:17,780 --> 00:20:19,700 within a matter of decades 273 00:20:19,820 --> 00:20:21,800 [Dr. John Sterman - Director, MIT System Dynamics Group] 274 00:20:21,800 --> 00:20:25,250 A lot of people talk about two degrees as a safe level, well there is no safe level 275 00:20:25,250 --> 00:20:29,980 two degrees is a round number that would be safer 276 00:20:29,980 --> 00:20:34,410 but we'll still have substantial climate impacts 277 00:20:34,410 --> 00:20:38,490 One degree is melting the Arctic and Antarctic. We'd be crazy to find out what two degrees will do 278 00:20:38,490 --> 00:20:40,970 but we're probably going to find out 279 00:20:40,970 --> 00:20:45,450 Even if we do everything right at this point, that's about as good an outcome as 280 00:20:45,450 --> 00:20:46,690 we can hope for 281 00:20:47,800 --> 00:20:53,680 The other thing the IPCC did was they tied that 2 degrees Celsius, 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit threshold 282 00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:57,930 to the amount of fossil fuels that we can actually burn 283 00:20:57,930 --> 00:21:04,390 And they came up with this red line in the sand which was a trillion tons of carbon 284 00:21:05,800 --> 00:21:08,140 The problem is we're already more than halfway there 285 00:21:08,140 --> 00:21:09,620 We're approaching 600 million tons already 286 00:21:09,660 --> 00:21:12,580 and at the rate things are going 287 00:21:12,590 --> 00:21:16,500 we will have completely exhausted that carbon budget within thirty years 288 00:21:17,720 --> 00:21:19,720 The same leaders who say they 289 00:21:19,760 --> 00:21:23,700 want the temperature to go up no more than 2 degrees have put forward 290 00:21:23,700 --> 00:21:28,380 a series of proposals that when you add them up, leads to the temperature rising 6 degrees 291 00:21:28,830 --> 00:21:33,060 the point past which most sane scientists think 292 00:21:33,060 --> 00:21:38,640 civilization on the scale that we now know it will not be possible 293 00:21:38,640 --> 00:21:43,320 It's almost a kind of refusal to come to grips with reality 294 00:21:43,320 --> 00:21:46,630 There's just this enormous gap between what country say they want to do and what 295 00:21:46,630 --> 00:21:48,150 they're actually on track to do 296 00:21:48,150 --> 00:21:51,890 People call this the emissions gap 297 00:21:51,890 --> 00:21:57,390 Much of this is about mathematics. We've got to leave 80 percent of fossil fuels in 298 00:21:57,390 --> 00:21:59,460 the ground 299 00:21:59,460 --> 00:22:04,070 The fossil fuel industry wants to burn all its reserves, if they do then we get that 300 00:22:04,070 --> 00:22:06,000 six degrees 301 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:13,000 Each day of inaction, of business as usual, puts us closer and closer on this crash course 302 00:22:17,020 --> 00:22:19,020 58 DAYS UNTIL THE MARCH 303 00:22:19,020 --> 00:22:20,960 [People's Climate March - Host Committee Meeting, NYC] 304 00:22:21,080 --> 00:22:26,320 We're two months out from this demo, obviously we all know in this room, a tremendous amount 305 00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:31,650 of work has happened, is happening every day, getting the word out, mobilizing people 306 00:22:31,650 --> 00:22:35,520 [Leslie Cagan - Peace & Justice Organizer] At this point, every day counts. Every day when 307 00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:37,270 we miss an opportunity, it's gone. 308 00:22:37,270 --> 00:22:42,610 It's not just a one-day march, it's our long-term ability to build a strong climate movement 309 00:22:42,610 --> 00:22:45,080 that we need to invest in 310 00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:49,120 [Ananda Lee Tan - Climate Justice Alliance] So being inclusive to us is really about multiple things 311 00:22:49,120 --> 00:22:53,350 but recognizing that we live in a society with there is privilege, there are inequities 312 00:22:53,350 --> 00:22:57,390 and in order to address the climate crisis, we have to first address those inequities 313 00:22:57,920 --> 00:23:02,520 That will allow us to then bring a movement strong enough to address the global ecological crisis 314 00:23:05,190 --> 00:23:09,680 If you think for second about this, there is this just layer of stuff under the ground 315 00:23:09,680 --> 00:23:11,650 Got put their in a specific time in 316 00:23:11,650 --> 00:23:12,790 a specific way 317 00:23:12,790 --> 00:23:15,800 and it just captured millennia of solar energy 318 00:23:16,060 --> 00:23:20,000 [Chris Hayes - Host, All in with Chris Hayes | MSNBC] And we just happened upon it 319 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:24,000 It's like if you were just walking around, and then put something in the ground 320 00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:27,710 and there's just millions of dollar bills down there, just pulling them out 321 00:23:27,710 --> 00:23:30,290 Everything about what we do and who we are and how we live 322 00:23:30,290 --> 00:23:35,060 is dependent upon the fact that we just found the stuff sitting there 323 00:23:35,060 --> 00:23:38,420 and that stuff said "Oh, you don't have to 324 00:23:38,420 --> 00:23:42,580 have everyone working in the fields all the time -- you can have cities, you can have 325 00:23:42,580 --> 00:23:48,060 cars, you can have iPhones." And the way I view it is, as incredible as that stuff is 326 00:23:48,060 --> 00:23:55,060 we've been paying this price on it the whole time. And there's this clock running 327 00:23:57,560 --> 00:24:02,840 The classic market failure is "negative environmental externalities" 328 00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:08,610 That's just jargon for "you're not paying the full costs for the fossil fuels that you burn" 329 00:24:08,610 --> 00:24:16,170 The racket that the fossil fuel industry has run is to take costs of its products, and 330 00:24:16,170 --> 00:24:18,100 export them to the public 331 00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:20,860 [Keya Chatterjee - Director of Renewable Energy, WWF] 332 00:24:20,920 --> 00:24:24,400 Think about the litany of impacts: from sea level rise, ocean acidification, the collapse 333 00:24:24,400 --> 00:24:30,970 of ecosystems that we rely on for food, water availability. These things are really expensive 334 00:24:31,020 --> 00:24:35,850 -- when you have huge wildfires, it costs a lot of money 335 00:24:35,850 --> 00:24:39,530 All those costs are being dumped onto us as a society, and not being paid by people who are polluting 336 00:24:39,530 --> 00:24:42,680 These big massive polluters 337 00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:46,350 get to dump megatons of carbon in the atmosphere, for free 338 00:24:46,350 --> 00:24:50,170 You can't pollute for free. If you litter you get a fine. 339 00:24:50,170 --> 00:24:54,140 That makes coal and oil and other fossil fuels more competitive 340 00:24:54,140 --> 00:24:57,520 against solar and wind and other sources 341 00:24:57,520 --> 00:24:59,500 than they deserve to be 342 00:24:59,500 --> 00:25:02,000 [Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D - RI) Co-Chair, Task Force on Climate Change] 343 00:25:02,010 --> 00:25:05,360 Behind the environmental problems that carbon pollution causes 344 00:25:05,360 --> 00:25:09,220 and behind the economic problems is a political problem 345 00:25:09,220 --> 00:25:12,650 that a very small group of very powerful special interests 346 00:25:13,150 --> 00:25:17,640 have exerted very rough control over the political establishment 347 00:25:17,640 --> 00:25:22,170 We're up against the fossil fuel lobby that has complete access to the 348 00:25:22,170 --> 00:25:23,880 political class and the ability 349 00:25:23,880 --> 00:25:25,800 to bribe through legal means 350 00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:29,900 and blackmail through the use of attack ads and so on 351 00:25:30,060 --> 00:25:34,060 even people who oppose them have trouble opposing them too strongly 352 00:25:34,240 --> 00:25:37,980 because they are in some ways economically dependent on them 353 00:25:37,980 --> 00:25:40,900 Right now we have a monopoly controlled by the big carbon polluters 354 00:25:40,900 --> 00:25:43,660 They grant themselves subsidy after subsidy 355 00:25:44,420 --> 00:25:48,630 Think about this: how much money does the Pentagon spend 356 00:25:48,630 --> 00:25:53,610 helping big private oil companies get their for-profit products in the Middle East here? 357 00:25:53,610 --> 00:25:56,230 About half of the Pentagon's budget is just 358 00:25:56,230 --> 00:26:01,240 helping Chevron and Shell and Exxon get their for-profit product here 359 00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:04,980 What if they had to pay for that service -- how how much would gas cost then? 360 00:26:04,980 --> 00:26:09,070 Plus, they also get all kinds of tax breaks and other kinds of loopholes 361 00:26:09,070 --> 00:26:13,290 They are a system based on a grow or die ethic, but rather than respond to the climate crisis 362 00:26:13,290 --> 00:26:13,650 by scaling back 363 00:26:13,650 --> 00:26:17,900 they're doubling down through fracking, through tar sands oil 364 00:26:17,900 --> 00:26:23,180 through coal exports, mountain top removal. They have become more brazen. 365 00:26:23,300 --> 00:26:30,780 It's a rogue industry, it's an industry if whose business plan is followed to the letter will wreck the planet 366 00:26:32,430 --> 00:26:37,070 Once you know that, then you know that these are now illegitimate business plans 367 00:26:37,860 --> 00:26:42,120 We have to figure out how to disassociate ourselves with them 368 00:26:42,380 --> 00:26:46,460 And that is beginning to happen all over the world 369 00:26:59,280 --> 00:27:00,230 On the Great Lawn of Central Park 370 00:27:00,230 --> 00:27:05,880 I was up on a stage probably 70 feet in the air looking out 371 00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:09,220 at that sea of people stretching out farther than the eye could see 372 00:27:09,220 --> 00:27:12,760 [Denis Hayes - Founder, Earth Day Network] The crowd estimates were larger than a million people 373 00:27:13,360 --> 00:27:18,080 April 22 1970: the grassroots mobilization which we 374 00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:23,320 recalled as the first Earth Day, 20 million Americans called away from their jobs and 375 00:27:23,330 --> 00:27:27,510 their classes into the streets in their communities 376 00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:32,580 When Nixon was looking at television at these huge crowds in city after city, across the country 377 00:27:32,580 --> 00:27:36,480 he apparently muttered to Ehrlichman, "A lot of those people have got to be Republican" 378 00:27:36,720 --> 00:27:41,470 And Republicans needed him to do something for them on this issue, he felt 379 00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:46,600 And it was Nixon, arguably one of the most anti-environmental presidents in American history 380 00:27:46,600 --> 00:27:50,740 who felt compelled to sign the Clean Air Act 381 00:27:50,740 --> 00:27:53,960 [Denis Hayes - Chairman, Earth Day April 22] I think the things we've been doing to date 382 00:27:54,330 --> 00:27:58,060 are a reason to give us a little bit of hope we've seen a degree of responsiveness on the 383 00:27:58,060 --> 00:28:01,780 part of the House of Representatives and on the part of the US Senate 384 00:28:02,120 --> 00:28:06,100 In a matter of three years, we passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act 385 00:28:06,100 --> 00:28:10,000 the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act 386 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:17,230 the National Environmental Policy Act, the Environmental Education Act, Superfund 387 00:28:17,230 --> 00:28:22,250 I'd go so far as to say that with the possible exception of the New Deal it was 388 00:28:22,250 --> 00:28:24,200 the most fundamental restructuring 389 00:28:24,200 --> 00:28:27,180 of the ground rules of the American economic system 390 00:28:27,180 --> 00:28:29,100 the nation has experienced 391 00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:38,160 50 DAYS UNTIL THE MARCH 392 00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:42,100 We are 50 days away from the largest climate march in history. Are you all ready? 393 00:28:42,100 --> 00:28:44,100 [People's Climate March Press Conference - Times Square, NYC] 394 00:28:44,100 --> 00:28:48,100 This is not just about the environment. It's about the community 395 00:28:48,100 --> 00:28:53,840 [Eddie Bautista - Executive Director, NYC - EJA] It's about public health, it's about jobs, it's about justice 396 00:28:53,840 --> 00:28:55,840 [LaTonya Crisp-Sauray - TWU Local 100 Recording Secretary] 397 00:28:55,840 --> 00:28:59,960 It was labor that got this city up and moving, and it will be labor that continues to move this city 398 00:29:00,440 --> 00:29:02,980 We are the community. Are we not the community? 399 00:29:05,660 --> 00:29:09,420 Our people, our people who have been at the front line, not being able to breathe 400 00:29:09,560 --> 00:29:13,120 [Elizabeth Yeampierre - Executive Director, Uprose] suffering from asthma, upper respiratory 401 00:29:13,140 --> 00:29:16,340 pulmonary diseases, cancer clusters, because of environmental racism 402 00:29:16,500 --> 00:29:20,520 Climate change exacerbates every kind of social injustice 403 00:29:20,920 --> 00:29:24,740 [Rev. Fletcher Harper - Executive Director, Greenfaith] that faith communities have fought against 404 00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:26,340 for thousands of years 405 00:29:26,340 --> 00:29:32,560 And we will not stop marching and praying and acting until we have a strong climate treaty 406 00:29:32,560 --> 00:29:37,010 We've got a movement, brothers and sisters, and we've got to stay together 407 00:29:37,010 --> 00:29:42,030 So join us on the 21st to march and send that signal to the United Nations 408 00:29:43,060 --> 00:29:46,980 [Crowd chants, "The people united will never be defeated"] 409 00:29:52,540 --> 00:29:55,040 [Bill McKibben - Author, "Eaarth"] It's only by accident that we even think 410 00:29:55,220 --> 00:29:57,600 of climate change as an environmental issue 411 00:29:58,620 --> 00:30:04,320 You could just as easily think about it as another example of what happens in an unequal society 412 00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:10,120 The people who have contributed the least to climate change, and who have benefited the least 413 00:30:10,260 --> 00:30:14,080 from the use of fossil fuel, are the first people to feel the effects 414 00:30:14,220 --> 00:30:18,140 People in the poorest parts of the world suffer enormously already 415 00:30:18,140 --> 00:30:22,000 and will suffer enormously more as the century wears on 416 00:30:22,260 --> 00:30:25,420 Climate disruption is a social justice issue 417 00:30:25,430 --> 00:30:29,310 [Van Jones - Co-Founder, Rebuild the Dream] Who gets hit first and worst every time 418 00:30:29,310 --> 00:30:30,890 there's one of these weather disasters? 419 00:30:30,890 --> 00:30:34,950 It's low-income people, people of color, people who can't get out of harm's way 420 00:30:34,950 --> 00:30:39,150 And people who can't bounce back easily because they don't have the money, or the social standing 421 00:30:39,150 --> 00:30:41,470 or the political connections 422 00:30:41,470 --> 00:30:43,400 Our communities are disproportionately impacted 423 00:30:43,400 --> 00:30:46,820 [Jeanette "Jet" E. Toomer - Community Organizer, NYC-EJA] 424 00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:49,480 We're all seeing that it's the indigenous people, the people of color 425 00:30:49,490 --> 00:30:52,880 the low-income people who have historically suffered the burden 426 00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:55,840 of so many other politically driven crises 427 00:30:55,840 --> 00:30:57,380 There are so many countries that have been 428 00:30:57,520 --> 00:31:01,060 systematically plundered over hundreds of years 429 00:31:01,220 --> 00:31:04,520 And this is often described as an ecological debt, climate debt 430 00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:08,820 [Naomi Klein - Author, "This Changes Everything"] The whole idea that there are disposable places 431 00:31:08,820 --> 00:31:10,820 was always a racist idea 432 00:31:10,820 --> 00:31:16,690 The idea of sacrifice zones: just treating people and places like garbage 433 00:31:19,980 --> 00:31:24,240 The place where it's hardest for it to sink in is in the suburban United States 434 00:31:24,540 --> 00:31:28,480 We're insulated against the natural world -- that's what the suburbs really are 435 00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:34,400 a way to make you not notice the natural world very much 436 00:31:34,660 --> 00:31:37,340 And we're insulated in those places by wealth 437 00:31:38,300 --> 00:31:40,280 At least we think we are 438 00:31:49,020 --> 00:31:52,640 Scientists are screaming from the rooftops about us avoiding going over 439 00:31:52,640 --> 00:31:55,110 a two degree rise in the temperature of the planet 440 00:31:55,110 --> 00:31:58,810 Why are they so worried about that? 441 00:31:58,810 --> 00:32:00,770 [Ricken Patel - Founder & Executive Director, Avaaz] If we go over that amount of warming 442 00:32:00,770 --> 00:32:04,510 there are feedback loops in our ecosystems 443 00:32:04,510 --> 00:32:07,210 -- tipping points that climate change could spin out of control 444 00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:09,300 And it happens like that 445 00:32:13,230 --> 00:32:17,340 There are switches that can be tripped where suddenly you are in brand new territory 446 00:32:17,340 --> 00:32:23,100 and you don't even begin to know what to do about it 447 00:32:23,100 --> 00:32:26,820 This is not a linear kind of problem that we're dealing with 448 00:32:26,820 --> 00:32:29,200 This is very much an exponential kind of problem 449 00:32:30,360 --> 00:32:34,620 Right now we're on the edge of three major tipping points 450 00:32:35,100 --> 00:32:41,280 The first one is the Arctic ice cap. That ice cap is like a mirror that reflects the sun's light 451 00:32:41,280 --> 00:32:43,500 off the Earth and keeps it from warming us up 452 00:32:43,500 --> 00:32:46,200 But as it melts, you get a smaller mirror 453 00:32:46,200 --> 00:32:50,330 which means a warmer Earth, which means more melting, which means more climate change 454 00:32:50,330 --> 00:32:56,130 Another example is arctic methane -- we've got a gigantic amount of methane gas 455 00:32:56,130 --> 00:33:03,130 frozen into the tundra, and it is 50 times as toxic as CO₂ is. It's CO₂ on steroids. 456 00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:08,050 As it warms, and that methane gets released, it then causes global warming to 457 00:33:08,050 --> 00:33:12,750 get worse, which means it warms more, which means more methane released 458 00:33:12,750 --> 00:33:17,280 which means worse warming, and that process spins out of control 459 00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:21,760 Another example of a tipping point is ocean acidification. As you get more CO₂ in the atmosphere 460 00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:24,560 a lot of it is actually going into our oceans 461 00:33:24,560 --> 00:33:30,200 And a lot of stuff, like plankton, can't live in that kind of acidified water 462 00:33:30,200 --> 00:33:35,940 And plankton is the basis of the food chain -- if the plankton die, we lose the whole ocean ecosystem 463 00:33:35,940 --> 00:33:41,420 These kinds of feedback loops and tipping points are what keep me up at night -- 464 00:33:41,420 --> 00:33:47,260 that we will hit one before we're able to turn things around 465 00:33:47,260 --> 00:33:52,800 Even if we went "cold turkey" today, because of the time lags in our climate system 466 00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:56,500 we've already signed up for things that we can't see yet 467 00:33:56,510 --> 00:34:00,980 We live in a razor-thin livable universe 468 00:34:00,980 --> 00:34:05,040 Just a few kilometres below my feet, it's too hot to live 469 00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:09,920 Just a few kilometres above my head, the air is too thin to breathe 470 00:34:09,920 --> 00:34:12,940 It's not about a few more droughts and a few more storms 471 00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:17,000 It's about a catastrophic shift in this fragile balance of our biosphere 472 00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:19,880 that threatens everything we love 473 00:34:24,100 --> 00:34:26,100 37 DAYS UNTIL THE MARCH 474 00:34:26,400 --> 00:34:28,920 What we all need to be focused on is turnout, turnout, turnout 475 00:34:29,760 --> 00:34:33,639 Youth, is there somebody that wants to do an update from youth. Armando? 476 00:34:33,639 --> 00:34:37,690 [Armando Chapelliquen - Project Coordinator, NYPIRG] So just a quick list of things I wanted to go over 477 00:34:37,690 --> 00:34:39,600 Obviously a lot of folks who are working on the youth stuff are working at 478 00:34:39,600 --> 00:34:41,300 the Climate Justice Youth Leadership Summit 479 00:34:41,420 --> 00:34:45,040 There's a lot of organizing going on right now there for the People's Climate March 480 00:34:45,050 --> 00:34:46,469 So a lot of people who may not have been plugged in already 481 00:34:46,469 --> 00:34:49,480 are getting informed about it, and the people who are already informed about it 482 00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:51,400 are getting even more people fired up about it 483 00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:54,580 [Climate Justice Youth Summit - New York City] 484 00:34:54,620 --> 00:34:59,640 There's a lot of things that we pay attention to, that we focus on, that are fun -- but 485 00:35:00,460 --> 00:35:04,500 they are short-lived, and they are not for the betterment of us 486 00:35:05,250 --> 00:35:08,880 We have to re-prioritize what's important to us 487 00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:12,560 Our environment isn't just ice caps melting in Antarctica 488 00:35:13,210 --> 00:35:14,660 We're the ones who face the problems day-to-day -- 489 00:35:14,660 --> 00:35:18,970 if you're breathing in smog or your little brother has asthma 490 00:35:18,970 --> 00:35:22,680 that's environmental injustice, and those are things that we have the power to push back on 491 00:35:22,680 --> 00:35:27,340 Imagine being the person who changes the face of climate change 492 00:35:27,340 --> 00:35:30,520 so that we don't have to deal with those impacts every day 493 00:35:32,920 --> 00:35:34,920 [Joaquin Brito Jr. - Climate Justice Organizer, Uprose] 494 00:35:34,920 --> 00:35:41,799 So on September 21st, we're going to march for Climate Justice -- so who's with us? Come on let's hear it! 495 00:35:52,340 --> 00:35:58,339 OK, alright, yes -- we pull the fossil fuels out of the ground, we put them in the 496 00:35:58,339 --> 00:36:03,069 incinerator, we put the carbon in the sky, it warms the Earth, lots of bad stuff is going 497 00:36:03,069 --> 00:36:09,849 to happen -- heat waves, extreme weather, floods. OK, sure. But I mean, really, is that 498 00:36:09,849 --> 00:36:16,849 the thing I care about most. There's all these other issues in my life that are more pressing 499 00:36:17,420 --> 00:36:21,349 For someone who is engaged in a struggle for higher minimum wage 500 00:36:21,349 --> 00:36:23,990 or worries about health care, it's understandable that these molecules 501 00:36:23,990 --> 00:36:27,900 floating around the air seem invisible and abstract 502 00:36:30,230 --> 00:36:35,559 Humans have this thing that we call a finite pool of worry. You've got your mortgage you've 503 00:36:35,559 --> 00:36:39,289 got to pay you've got your kids you've got to take care of -- and they tend to be more immediate 504 00:36:42,420 --> 00:36:46,280 We respond to things that feel incredibly urgent, like a gun to the head, 505 00:36:46,829 --> 00:36:52,359 a stampede a wild elephants. Climate change is a completely 506 00:36:52,359 --> 00:36:58,410 different kind of risk. It plays out over these very long time scales, and it's 507 00:36:58,410 --> 00:37:02,249 really hard to perceive it as a very urgent threat 508 00:37:02,249 --> 00:37:06,910 The other thing that happens is that there's something called a "single action bias" 509 00:37:06,910 --> 00:37:12,150 We have this tendency to see a threat, and we try to fix it with one thing 510 00:37:12,150 --> 00:37:16,599 it's like the silver bullet solution. When we look at climate change we become overwhelmed by it 511 00:37:16,599 --> 00:37:21,500 because there's so many different ways that we're going to need to fix it 512 00:37:22,600 --> 00:37:29,480 25 years we've been talking about climate change. The level of scientific reports becomes higher and higher 513 00:37:29,499 --> 00:37:33,719 [George Marshall - Author, "Don't Even Think About it"] Why has that still not compelled 514 00:37:33,720 --> 00:37:35,720 the majority of people to action? 515 00:37:39,470 --> 00:37:44,180 Cognitive psychologists have been mapping the processing systems within our brains 516 00:37:44,180 --> 00:37:48,839 and they have found that there are two parallel and deeply interlocked processing systems 517 00:37:51,180 --> 00:37:57,380 The rational side, the analytic side which deals with information, facts, data 518 00:37:57,380 --> 00:38:04,079 And we have another side which is a much more intuitive and emotionally driven side 519 00:38:04,079 --> 00:38:10,940 It is that emotional system that moves us into action 520 00:38:10,940 --> 00:38:16,059 The challenge for climate change is how do we get something that's so based in the science 521 00:38:16,059 --> 00:38:22,419 to cross over to the side that makes us feel something 522 00:38:22,540 --> 00:38:26,780 People are reluctant to stand up and take action if they don't see many other people around and taking action 523 00:38:26,789 --> 00:38:31,420 And that is why it is absolutely critical that there are people who seem to be doing something 524 00:38:31,420 --> 00:38:36,170 They are creating the breakage 525 00:38:36,170 --> 00:38:41,610 Climate changes is strangely, maybe uniquely, problematic 526 00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:50,280 because not only are we all bystanders, we are also perpetrators actively contributing to the thing 527 00:38:50,340 --> 00:38:54,760 If we recognize a problem, we become morally compelled to take action on it 528 00:38:54,769 --> 00:38:58,789 There is a fundamental tipping point at which that has to happen 529 00:39:02,040 --> 00:39:04,040 25 DAYS UNTIL THE MARCH 530 00:39:06,460 --> 00:39:08,460 [People's Climate Tour - Boston, MA] 531 00:39:08,460 --> 00:39:12,360 Change doesn't happen because people decide to stay home and click "like" on Facebook 532 00:39:12,360 --> 00:39:16,300 [Vanessa Rule - Co-Director, Mothers Out Front] Change happens because people like you and I 533 00:39:16,300 --> 00:39:18,300 decide to get involved 534 00:39:18,890 --> 00:39:25,240 We didn't want to leave it to world leaders -- their track record is not very good in dealing with this question 535 00:39:25,240 --> 00:39:28,100 [Joe Uehlein - Founder, Labor Network for Sustainability] 536 00:39:28,100 --> 00:39:34,220 I am a trade unionist and I am an environmentalist and I see no conflict whatsoever in those two things 537 00:39:35,150 --> 00:39:42,140 It's in our core self-interest as a trade union movement to help build 538 00:39:42,140 --> 00:39:47,849 the path to a sustainable future and get on the right side of the climate change issue 539 00:39:47,849 --> 00:39:51,129 sooner rather than later 540 00:40:01,420 --> 00:40:05,140 Normally it takes a long time to switch energy sources -- 541 00:40:05,140 --> 00:40:07,400 50 or 60 years to go from wood to coal, coal to oil and gas 542 00:40:07,400 --> 00:40:09,960 We lack 50 or 60 years 543 00:40:09,960 --> 00:40:15,730 The reason we want to get off of fossil fuels now is because we have to 544 00:40:15,730 --> 00:40:17,619 to protect our way of life 545 00:40:17,619 --> 00:40:24,619 We need vision for what the post-carbon economy looks like 546 00:40:24,619 --> 00:40:28,509 that is inspiring enough and delivers enough 547 00:40:28,559 --> 00:40:33,519 in terms of jobs, in terms of new opportunities 548 00:40:33,519 --> 00:40:35,069 in terms of better health 549 00:40:35,069 --> 00:40:38,519 It has to be exciting 550 00:40:38,519 --> 00:40:44,009 There are many more jobs available to people who are going to be building wind turbines 551 00:40:44,009 --> 00:40:47,220 retrofitting houses so they waste less energy 552 00:40:47,220 --> 00:40:51,630 Solar panels have to be installed by a person -- that person has to go to your home 553 00:40:51,630 --> 00:40:55,799 There's no way to outsource putting that solar panel onto a roof 554 00:40:55,799 --> 00:41:00,500 A 100 percent renewable economy is within our grasp -- 555 00:41:00,539 --> 00:41:03,220 it is economically and technologically possible 556 00:41:03,220 --> 00:41:07,079 It's not something that we need to keep researching because it's always off in the distance 557 00:41:07,079 --> 00:41:10,849 No, it's here. It's a question of political will 558 00:41:10,849 --> 00:41:16,489 If you look at the renewable revolution that's happened in Germany, it wasn't about leaving 559 00:41:16,489 --> 00:41:20,269 the renewable sector to the market, it was about creating different incentives -- 560 00:41:20,269 --> 00:41:23,069 and there was an explosion of innovation and creativity 561 00:41:23,069 --> 00:41:26,910 Germany is now the number one solar country in the world, even though they had 562 00:41:26,910 --> 00:41:31,640 the same amount of solar incidence as Alaska 563 00:41:31,640 --> 00:41:36,839 Can we do it? Can we take the power that has been highly centralized 564 00:41:36,839 --> 00:41:41,589 and highly focused and controlled by very few hands 565 00:41:41,589 --> 00:41:43,500 and it is not an accident that very few hands controlling power in the sense of electricity 566 00:41:43,500 --> 00:41:48,700 leads to very few hands controlling power in the sense of political power 567 00:41:49,480 --> 00:41:52,339 We are going to try a global experiment that is going to be the most difficult 568 00:41:52,339 --> 00:41:55,019 thing humans have ever done which is to rip those two apart 569 00:41:55,019 --> 00:41:57,109 which means we are democratizing power 570 00:41:57,109 --> 00:41:59,539 in both senses of the word 571 00:41:59,539 --> 00:42:06,279 The real question is, are we gonna scrape the bottom up the barrel for the last polycarbons 572 00:42:06,279 --> 00:42:12,150 on Earth, to burn them too. Or can we actually show some restraint 573 00:42:12,150 --> 00:42:14,600 -- which we ask our children to do ("don't eat the last 17 marshmallows") 574 00:42:14,600 --> 00:42:20,119 could you just show some restraint and choose a wiser course? 575 00:42:20,119 --> 00:42:26,640 A Canadian company called TransCanada wants to build the Keystone XL pipeline 576 00:42:26,640 --> 00:42:30,039 The $13 billion dollar system would carry crude oil 577 00:42:30,039 --> 00:42:34,740 from the so-called tar sands region in Alberta to Houston, Texas for refining 578 00:42:34,740 --> 00:42:38,950 The Keystone XL pipeline has become a huge focus of controversy 579 00:42:38,950 --> 00:42:41,160 Tar sands oil is particularly dirty, it's particularly carbon-intensive 580 00:42:41,160 --> 00:42:46,119 An estimated 2,000 environmental activists from across the continent plan to gather in 581 00:42:46,119 --> 00:42:48,890 Washington, D.C. to launch a two-week protest 582 00:42:48,890 --> 00:42:53,369 It has become a symbol to both sides in this debate where the people who want further 583 00:42:53,369 --> 00:42:58,960 development of fossil fuels see getting Keystone through as core to their strategy 584 00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:02,809 And on the other side, the climate activists see it as a symbolic fight that they have to win 585 00:43:02,809 --> 00:43:05,440 I'm here as a Nebraska citizen and landowner 586 00:43:05,440 --> 00:43:09,350 I'm on the advisory board of the Center for Health and the Global Environment 587 00:43:09,390 --> 00:43:10,900 I'm an Evangelical Christian 588 00:43:10,900 --> 00:43:13,250 I'm a proud member of the Transport Workers Union of America 589 00:43:13,720 --> 00:43:18,079 You know what's so fascinating about this whole Keystone thing is that that was supposed 590 00:43:18,079 --> 00:43:22,160 to be a wedge and instead it's been turned upside down 591 00:43:22,160 --> 00:43:24,700 Now it's actually a base that is lining up 592 00:43:24,700 --> 00:43:26,670 constituency after constituency 593 00:43:26,680 --> 00:43:32,200 Today we act. Today we send a message to them, and everybody else 594 00:43:32,220 --> 00:43:36,559 We are taking back our futures! 595 00:43:36,559 --> 00:43:42,710 Something extraordinary and unexpected has backfired out of the ambition of the fossil fuel companies 596 00:43:42,710 --> 00:43:44,609 They've built a movement by mistake 597 00:43:44,609 --> 00:43:48,190 If you are going to be risking arrest, you're going to be lining up over here 598 00:43:48,190 --> 00:43:50,309 One of the tools that came into play was 599 00:43:50,309 --> 00:43:55,670 peaceful civil disobedience to show the moral urgency of these problems 600 00:43:55,670 --> 00:43:59,330 that this was the crisis of our time 601 00:43:59,730 --> 00:44:03,700 I saw a story in one of the trade publications of the oil industry not long ago 602 00:44:03,759 --> 00:44:07,480 And they said, "We're never going to get to build another pipeline in peace again" 603 00:44:07,940 --> 00:44:12,900 And I hope they're right 604 00:44:27,780 --> 00:44:34,780 As scientists, we study this out of this fascination, and kind of awe -- this whole system that 605 00:44:34,789 --> 00:44:36,200 we call "home" 606 00:44:36,200 --> 00:44:41,420 We are on this planet that is so perfectly built to sustain life 607 00:44:41,449 --> 00:44:45,390 We got so lucky. And then you begin to think 608 00:44:45,390 --> 00:44:52,009 what do you do with this knowledge -- this unbearable, incredibly depressing knowledge that the decision 609 00:44:52,009 --> 00:44:56,970 to burn fossil fuels was a decision that had tremendous downside risks 610 00:44:56,970 --> 00:45:01,249 that we didn't realize immediately 611 00:45:01,249 --> 00:45:06,190 When I read a climate science article that talks about mid-century projections, what I read is what 612 00:45:06,190 --> 00:45:12,420 is going to happen when my kid is 40 -- that's what I see on the page and for me it is absolutely 613 00:45:12,420 --> 00:45:19,359 my responsibility then to do whatever it takes to protect my child 614 00:45:19,359 --> 00:45:24,589 Alice Walker says that resistance is the secret of joy -- and I don't know if it's the secret 615 00:45:24,589 --> 00:45:28,880 of joy, but I know it is definitely the secret of staving off depression 616 00:45:28,880 --> 00:45:33,950 The reality we're facing is very grave, so how do you not get depressed about it 617 00:45:33,950 --> 00:45:35,900 Well one way you don't get depressed is by work 618 00:45:40,260 --> 00:45:43,120 Things change for lots of different reasons 619 00:45:43,349 --> 00:45:48,130 There's all kinds of dynamics -- but one central element is people being in the streets 620 00:45:49,880 --> 00:45:53,850 All of us must stand up together and say, "No more!" 621 00:45:55,180 --> 00:45:58,940 We live in a culture that doesn't tell us our own history 622 00:45:58,940 --> 00:46:01,779 that doesn't tell us the history of social movement wins 623 00:46:01,779 --> 00:46:07,279 and the times in our past when masses of people have taken the wheel of history and turned it 624 00:46:07,279 --> 00:46:12,579 It was only one percent of Americans that ever took part in the civil rights demonstration 625 00:46:12,579 --> 00:46:18,700 but they were able to change our society enough to stand up to those powers that be 626 00:46:18,700 --> 00:46:25,700 I think that this march will go down as one of the greatest, if not the greatest 627 00:46:25,859 --> 00:46:30,190 demonstrations for freedom and human dignity ever held in the United States 628 00:46:30,860 --> 00:46:35,800 Martin Luther King always said that the victories that had been won so far 629 00:46:35,860 --> 00:46:41,729 were the ones that were cheapest to the status quo. Giving legal rights and giving voting rights 630 00:46:41,880 --> 00:46:47,790 doesn't cost the system nearly as much as providing good jobs and infrastructure and good schools 631 00:46:47,940 --> 00:46:51,600 We as a people will get to the promised land 632 00:46:51,760 --> 00:46:55,260 Big victories have been won before, but nothing on the scale 633 00:46:55,420 --> 00:46:58,520 of the economic challenge that really responding to the climate crisis represents 634 00:46:59,160 --> 00:47:02,939 We have a responsibility to rise to our historical moment 635 00:47:03,079 --> 00:47:07,719 We are joining around the world to say the time has come 636 00:47:07,719 --> 00:47:11,699 If we're going to have a movement worthy of the name, solidarity among all these different 637 00:47:11,859 --> 00:47:14,950 causes needs to be the foremost principle 638 00:47:14,950 --> 00:47:20,079 It's this broad and powerful spectrum of allies that has the political weight 639 00:47:20,079 --> 00:47:21,609 to move the dialogue on this 640 00:47:21,609 --> 00:47:25,589 There's a tipping point coming, where the online movements are going to move offline 641 00:47:25,589 --> 00:47:31,269 If we can push this to where there's a social tipping point, we really can move forward on this issue 642 00:47:32,540 --> 00:47:34,540 We will not be stopped 643 00:47:34,540 --> 00:47:36,540 Take action right now 644 00:47:36,540 --> 00:47:39,600 This is the issue that I will vote on, this is the issue I will bid money on 645 00:47:39,600 --> 00:47:42,480 This is the issue I will scream at the top of my lungs into a bullhorn over 646 00:47:42,700 --> 00:47:45,180 That is what moves politics 647 00:47:45,340 --> 00:47:47,220 14 DAYS UNTIL THE MARCH 648 00:47:47,500 --> 00:47:53,800 The People's Climate March is our chance to show the immense power of people in solidarity 649 00:47:55,500 --> 00:47:59,480 Heads of state are gathering. They need us to say, "We demand action" 650 00:47:59,869 --> 00:48:03,140 This is the right thing, at the right time, in the right place 651 00:48:03,140 --> 00:48:06,630 The whole world will be watching 652 00:48:06,630 --> 00:48:12,119 Nothing moves public opinion, more than seeing large numbers of people gathered 653 00:48:12,119 --> 00:48:18,299 A march is not an end in itself. It is a tool. In my heart of hearts I know that this 654 00:48:18,299 --> 00:48:23,329 People's Climate March in September will serve to deepen this movement 655 00:48:23,329 --> 00:48:28,170 I will be there in New York, September 21st 656 00:48:28,170 --> 00:48:32,779 There is no replacement, even in the digital age, for human bodies, next to each other, 657 00:48:32,779 --> 00:48:39,779 standing as one, hearts beating as one, voices raised as one, making a political demand 658 00:48:40,620 --> 00:48:43,941 If you don't fight for what you want, you deserve what you get 659 00:48:44,700 --> 00:48:47,120 September 21st, in some ways, is the beginning 660 00:48:47,640 --> 00:48:51,909 There are teams around the world, organizing marches in Rio, in Delhi, in Berlin, in Paris, 661 00:48:51,909 --> 00:48:54,039 in London 662 00:48:54,039 --> 00:48:59,359 People around the world will get together in the largest climate change mobilization in history 663 00:48:59,370 --> 00:49:03,351 Are you ready to march? Are you ready to march? 664 00:49:09,754 --> 00:49:13,714 HERE IS WHAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW 665 00:49:14,020 --> 00:49:19,539 JOIN THE MARCH PEOPLESCLIMATE.ORG 666 00:49:20,479 --> 00:49:25,489 SEND A MESSAGE Text DISRUPT to 97779 667 00:49:26,928 --> 00:49:31,428 SHARE THIS MOVIE watchdisruption.com 668 00:49:32,079 --> 00:49:36,759 You can't undo the day after something like that happens 669 00:50:04,020 --> 00:50:10,020 There is a line that divides good from evil, and it runs down the middle 670 00:50:10,180 --> 00:50:11,880 of every single person 671 00:50:11,890 --> 00:50:16,930 When we prevail, it won't just be because we defeated the worst instincts in other people 672 00:50:16,930 --> 00:50:21,710 It will be because we overcame the worst instincts and the worst fears, even within ourselves