WEBVTT 00:00:03.280 --> 00:00:08.039 Power concedes nothing without a demand. 00:00:08.039 --> 00:00:12.140 Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. 00:00:12.140 --> 00:00:17.560 - Frederick Douglass 00:00:30.080 --> 00:00:32.080 1968 00:00:40.160 --> 00:00:43.980 This is Apollo 8 coming to you live from the moon 00:00:45.880 --> 00:00:51.220 The vast loneliness up here of the moon is awe-inspiring 00:00:51.220 --> 00:00:54.700 And it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth 00:00:55.620 --> 00:01:00.560 The Earth from here is a grand oasis in the big vastness of space 00:01:04.060 --> 00:01:09.500 - Oh my god look at that picture over there - Wow, is that pretty 00:01:10.680 --> 00:01:12.960 You got a color film Jim? 00:01:13.500 --> 00:01:15.740 Hand me a roll of color film quick. Quick. 00:01:18.420 --> 00:01:20.540 Wow, that's a beautiful shot 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... 00:01:34.580 --> 00:01:37.380 ... all of you on the good Earth" 00:01:40.740 --> 00:01:48.220 We no longer live on that Earth 00:01:58.400 --> 00:02:01.940 The world hasn't ended 00:02:01.980 --> 00:02:07.000 But the world as we know it has 00:02:08.539 --> 00:02:10.539 Can you hear me? 00:02:11.640 --> 00:02:13.640 I have an emergency 00:02:13.980 --> 00:02:15.980 The water is rising very quickly 00:02:16.760 --> 00:02:19.780 We're looking at about five feet of water... 00:02:19.960 --> 00:02:22.020 ... and there's about 17 people on the second floor right now 00:02:22.020 --> 00:02:23.788 We're going to need to evacuate - we need to get out of here 00:02:24.440 --> 00:02:25.980 We're trying to get you guys out 00:02:28.480 --> 00:02:31.020 Are you alright? You OK?! 00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:34.780 There is new and dramatic evidence of what's happening to our world 00:02:34.940 --> 00:02:37.080 and tonight we'll look at the impact already being felt 00:02:37.660 --> 00:02:40.810 The red flags about extreme weather we've all endured 00:02:40.810 --> 00:02:44.790 together all across the globe 00:02:44.790 --> 00:02:47.480 We are literally engaged in an unprecedented experiment 00:02:47.980 --> 00:02:51.500 with the one planet that we know of that can support life. 00:02:55.720 --> 00:02:59.980 We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so 00:03:00.069 --> 00:03:03.390 would betray our children and future generations 00:03:03.460 --> 00:03:08.520 The big question mark is the future, of course, and a new kind of normal 00:03:19.480 --> 00:03:22.940 Things are gearing up for the UN-hosted climate change summit in New York 00:03:23.340 --> 00:03:26.330 UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will host the summit. 00:03:26.330 --> 00:03:30.409 I will convene a climate summit for leaders at the highest level. 00:03:30.409 --> 00:03:37.589 I urge political leaders of the world to prioritize their political energy on climate change. 00:03:37.879 --> 00:03:44.219 We have to get serious about bringing real commitments to the table for that summit. 00:03:46.420 --> 00:03:53.420 If things go "business as usual" we will not live, we will die. 00:03:56.080 --> 00:04:05.380 DISRUPTION 00:04:17.420 --> 00:04:20.180 100 DAYS UNTIL THE MARCH 00:04:20.860 --> 00:04:22.560 [Matt Leonard - Organizer - People's Climate March] 00:04:22.590 --> 00:04:26.780 On September 23rd the United Nations is holding a historic climate summit where 00:04:26.780 --> 00:04:29.469 they've invited world leaders and heads of state from around the world 00:04:30.090 --> 00:04:32.800 We're trying to organize the largest-ever climate rally 00:04:32.810 --> 00:04:35.680 on the streets New York in response to this, hopefully turning the tide 00:04:35.680 --> 00:04:39.530 of what comes out of that summit, and reshaping what the entire climate movement looks like 00:04:39.530 --> 00:04:42.030 going forward. 00:04:42.030 --> 00:04:43.849 Climate tipping points are scary 00:04:43.849 --> 00:04:47.680 but if we stay connected to each other we can build 00:04:47.680 --> 00:04:53.030 the largest climate mobilization in history. We all have power to create 00:04:53.030 --> 00:04:56.279 the movement tipping point on climate change. 00:04:56.279 --> 00:04:59.380 the one that takes our leaders from this place of inaction 00:04:59.380 --> 00:05:03.480 and puts them on a journey towards saving the planet. 00:05:05.360 --> 00:05:08.450 All the big social movements 00:05:08.450 --> 00:05:11.750 in history have had people in the streets. 00:05:11.750 --> 00:05:14.669 Women's voting rights, the civil rights movement -- and even more recently 00:05:14.669 --> 00:05:16.049 [Keya Chatterjee Dir. of Renewable Energy, WWF] 00:05:16.100 --> 00:05:20.660 on climate issues, our big successes have happened when people left their homes 00:05:20.669 --> 00:05:23.069 and went out into the streets. 00:05:23.349 --> 00:05:26.430 This is a bigger fight than in fact has ever been won. 00:05:26.430 --> 00:05:28.930 [Naomi Klein - Author - "This Changes Everything"] It's not that we need to save the Earth. 00:05:28.940 --> 00:05:33.380 We need to save the systems that make the Earth compatible 00:05:33.600 --> 00:05:36.820 with human existence and the existence of other life forms. 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 00:05:41.060 --> 00:05:45.219 about all this. In a rational world, the fact that scientists have said 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 00:05:49.539 --> 00:05:51.219 [Bill McKibben - Co-Founder, 350.org] that would have been enough to push our 00:05:51.219 --> 00:05:54.479 systems into action. 00:05:56.190 --> 00:05:59.450 Of all the things that probably get me most upset, it's when people start 00:05:59.460 --> 00:06:01.380 presenting climate change as if it's something new. 00:06:01.400 --> 00:06:03.200 [Dr. Naomi Oreskes - Professor, History of Science, Harvard.] 00:06:03.200 --> 00:06:05.020 The science behind our understanding of man-made climate change 00:06:05.029 --> 00:06:08.690 is very old and very well established. So the task we've taken on 00:06:08.690 --> 00:06:12.620 is documenting this history to help us understand where we are 00:06:12.620 --> 00:06:16.280 how we got here, and how we can change course. 00:06:16.580 --> 00:06:20.320 Scientists have known for more than 150 years that carbon dioxide was a greenhouse gas 00:06:21.580 --> 00:06:25.580 Fourier came up with this notion that there were gasses in our atmosphere 00:06:25.580 --> 00:06:30.880 that allowed sunlight to pass through, like a window, but then when sunlight bounced off 00:06:30.880 --> 00:06:33.000 the Earth's surface they trap the heat in. 00:06:33.060 --> 00:06:35.120 [Dr. Heidi Cullen - Chief Scientist, Climate Central] 00:06:35.320 --> 00:06:38.520 So you had now this establishment of what we now call "the greenhouse effect." 00:06:38.529 --> 00:06:45.529 In the 1850's, John Tyndall made laboratory measurements of the absorption of heat radiation 00:06:45.660 --> 00:06:47.980 by carbon dioxide 00:06:47.980 --> 00:06:49.980 [Dr. James Hansen - Former Director, NASA (GISS)] 00:06:49.980 --> 00:06:52.180 And he concluded that if you change the CO₂ in the atmosphere 00:06:52.419 --> 00:06:55.750 it's going to affect the planetary energy balance 00:06:55.750 --> 00:07:00.770 Tyndall was the one who really came along and proved that carbon dioxide 00:07:00.770 --> 00:07:03.760 was a natural thermostat that helped set our planet's temperature 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 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" 00:07:14.800 --> 00:07:18.800 But people didn't pay much attention to that in the 20th century 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:21.950 because we were too busy figuring out cool new ways to burn fossil fuel 00:07:21.950 --> 00:07:25.800 It was only in the late 1950's that we even bothered to measure 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:28.000 to see if it was accumulating in the atmosphere 00:07:28.659 --> 00:07:32.310 That instrument, which one up on the side of Mauna Loa in Hawaii 00:07:32.310 --> 00:07:34.300 is the most important scientific instrument in the world 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 00:07:40.520 --> 00:07:43.279 the so-called "Keeling Curve" 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 00:07:47.550 --> 00:07:52.709 that shows us that carbon dioxide has been rising continuously 00:07:52.709 --> 00:07:55.620 and systematically since the industrial revolution 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 00:08:02.120 --> 00:08:07.660 And what Keeling showed so incredibly was that roughly one out of 00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:13.600 every four CO₂ molecules in our atmosphere today was put there by us 00:08:18.640 --> 00:08:24.450 Just a year ago, we passed 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere 00:08:24.450 --> 00:08:29.779 Now the pre-industrial level was about 280 parts per million 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%, 00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:37.900 [Justin Gillis - Journalist, The New York Times] 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 00:08:42.640 --> 00:08:45.860 We're pumping CO₂ into the atmosphere 00:08:46.320 --> 00:08:50.170 at a speed which we have never seen before in modern human history 00:08:50.500 --> 00:08:53.640 We're absolutely racing into unchartered territory 00:08:54.010 --> 00:08:59.030 In our lifetimes, human beings left behind the Holocene, this 10,000-year period 00:08:59.300 --> 00:09:05.100 of benign climatic stability that coincides with the rise of human civilization 00:09:06.020 --> 00:09:12.480 We have crossed a great threshold, and we stand on the edge of others 00:09:14.280 --> 00:09:16.280 [Van Jones - Host, CNN Crossfire] 00:09:16.420 --> 00:09:19.840 I remember when The Weather Channel was this kind of nice, sleepy little station 00:09:20.120 --> 00:09:23.709 Now it's like a horror show where the climate is being disrupted 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. 00:09:29.120 --> 00:09:31.189 What all climate scientists will agree on is that 00:09:31.189 --> 00:09:35.149 the entire atmosphere has changed -- all the atmospheric dynamics have changed 00:09:35.149 --> 00:09:38.620 So every event that happens now is in the context of climate change 00:09:38.620 --> 00:09:40.600 is different from how it would have been 00:09:56.100 --> 00:09:59.760 A typhoon slammed into the Philippines with winds of 195 miles per hour 00:09:59.900 --> 00:10:03.740 That's higher than the winds from Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina combined 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 00:10:10.829 --> 00:10:13.540 has reached the victims of Typhoon Haiyan 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 00:10:18.500 --> 00:10:22.720 Hundreds of thousands are thronging relief centers, desperate for life's necessities 00:10:22.720 --> 00:10:27.550 Many residents have covered their faces to mask the smell of the dead, while they searched 00:10:27.550 --> 00:10:30.990 for relatives in some of the hardest hit areas 00:10:31.060 --> 00:10:34.520 This is one of the top storms ever seen on this planet 00:10:39.660 --> 00:10:41.600 Mister President, your excellency 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:47.820 What my country is going through as a result of this extreme climate event is madness 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:50.000 [Yeb Saño - Climate Negotiator, Philippines] 00:10:51.940 --> 00:10:57.620 Super Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in my own family's hometown 00:11:02.020 --> 00:11:07.140 And the devastation . . . is staggering 00:11:09.860 --> 00:11:16.860 I struggle to find words to describe how I feel about the losses 00:11:17.720 --> 00:11:22.400 To anyone outside who continues to deny and ignore the reality that this climate change 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 00:11:29.780 --> 00:11:33.279 I dare them to go to the islands of the Pacific 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 00:11:38.459 --> 00:11:43.480 We refuse to accept that running away from storms, evacuating our families, 00:11:43.480 --> 00:11:49.200 counting our dead become a way of life. We simply refuse to. 00:11:52.026 --> 00:11:55.606 We can fix this. We can stop this madness. 00:12:08.920 --> 00:12:11.560 80 DAYS UNTIL THE MARCH 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:14.000 People's Climate March Coordinating Committee Organizing Meeting 00:12:14.520 --> 00:12:17.980 Hello, hello. Alright folks we know why we're here 00:12:17.980 --> 00:12:19.900 [Eddie Bautista - Executive Director, NYC-EJA] 00:12:20.100 --> 00:12:23.520 We have 80 days starting tomorrow to pull off the largest climate march in history 00:12:23.780 --> 00:12:27.759 It's really important for folks to remember that although climate change affects everyone 00:12:27.999 --> 00:12:30.519 the impacts are not evenly distributed 00:12:30.519 --> 00:12:35.159 We're asking each one of these breakout groups, prioritize people of color, folks 00:12:35.519 --> 00:12:39.419 because this is real, it's disproportionate, and it's time to bring it 00:12:40.680 --> 00:12:44.600 They need to act on a binding global agreement to reduce greenhouse gases 00:12:44.600 --> 00:12:46.600 [Tomas Gardaño - Organizer, People's Climate March] 00:12:46.850 --> 00:12:48.920 We can do that and create jobs at the same time 00:12:49.540 --> 00:12:53.060 Part of what we're doing is moving people from fossil fuels to the solutions 00:12:53.560 --> 00:12:55.500 [Lee Ziesche - Grassroots Coordinator] 00:12:55.500 --> 00:12:58.680 and also presenting them with economic opportunities around the solutions 00:12:58.680 --> 00:13:01.160 [Armando Chapelliquen - Project Coordinator, NYPIRG] The idea of who's going to be leading this march... 00:13:01.540 --> 00:13:02.769 ...are the people in this room 00:13:03.339 --> 00:13:07.959 [Rev. Clinton Miller - Brown Memorial, Baptist Church] This environmental issue is the singular issue 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. 00:13:13.829 --> 00:13:20.829 The most important tool that we have is our people power. There are already 325 groups, 00:13:21.949 --> 00:13:25.999 and that list is going to grow every single day. Whatever you're thinking about doing 00:13:25.999 --> 00:13:32.999 to help build this mobilization, rethink it. And make it bigger. Make it bolder. 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. 00:13:39.820 --> 00:13:41.760 That's our job 00:13:49.960 --> 00:13:52.600 [Nuclear Disarmament Movement - New York City] 00:13:53.560 --> 00:14:00.860 In 1982, the UN convened a first special section on nuclear disarmament 00:14:01.279 --> 00:14:05.499 and we came together and said when the representatives 00:14:05.499 --> 00:14:09.670 of governments all around the world gather in New York City at the UN 00:14:09.670 --> 00:14:12.779 we need to be on the streets making our voice heard 00:14:12.779 --> 00:14:16.639 New York City's anti-nuclear demonstration turned out to be the biggest 00:14:16.639 --> 00:14:19.009 political demonstration in US history 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 00:14:27.160 --> 00:14:32.779 I think there was one computer in the office. Everything else was by phone 00:14:32.779 --> 00:14:36.430 And this thing we called "the mail" -- we now call it "snail mail" 00:14:36.430 --> 00:14:39.699 But there was something about that reality that we didn't have the 00:14:39.699 --> 00:14:43.110 technology that we now have that actually forced people 00:14:43.110 --> 00:14:44.969 to talk directly to each other. 00:14:44.969 --> 00:14:50.138 Until we have real peace, with real justice 00:14:50.138 --> 00:14:54.809 we will not go home and be quiet, we will go home and organize! 00:14:54.809 --> 00:14:59.970 One of the really interesting things about that demonstration is that some 600 local groups 00:15:01.059 --> 00:15:05.220 were formed, and many of those groups lasted for years afterwards 00:15:05.639 --> 00:15:11.189 To me, the real power of that day was the organizing experience that led 00:15:11.189 --> 00:15:15.209 up to it and then the organizing that came out of it 00:15:19.619 --> 00:15:23.779 Some experts are now saying that the whole world is heating up 00:15:24.060 --> 00:15:26.120 because of a "global greenhouse effect" 00:15:26.300 --> 00:15:28.300 [Dr. Naomi Oreskes - Professor, History of Science, Harvard] 00:15:28.400 --> 00:15:32.400 Scientists had been saying for a long time that climate change might occur 00:15:32.600 --> 00:15:36.279 but 1988 is the year when Jim Hansen and his team at NASA 00:15:36.579 --> 00:15:39.299 say both in the scientific peer-reviewed literature, and in public, that it's actually happening 00:15:39.580 --> 00:15:42.320 [Dr. James Hansen - Former Director, NASA (GISS)] The changes in atmospheric composition 00:15:42.500 --> 00:15:46.660 that humans were making was going to have a big impact on the Earth's climate 00:15:46.660 --> 00:15:51.420 The greenhouse effect has been detected, and it is changing our climate now 00:15:51.420 --> 00:15:54.499 Hansen's testimony was reported on the front page of The New York Times 00:15:54.499 --> 00:15:58.639 and there was actually a bill introduced into Congress -- the National Energy Policy Act 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 00:16:03.980 --> 00:16:06.360 And of course that was supported by the creation of the IPCC -- 00:16:06.369 --> 00:16:09.969 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- that year 00:16:10.220 --> 00:16:12.280 So there was political momentum, there was some scientific momentum 00:16:12.490 --> 00:16:16.400 there was strong scientific evidence, there was media attention 00:16:16.509 --> 00:16:18.500 and then the whole thing kinda fell apart 00:16:20.309 --> 00:16:24.499 The Earth Summit, a 12-day, 178-nation conference on the environment 00:16:24.499 --> 00:16:26.369 began today in Rio de Janeiro 00:16:26.369 --> 00:16:30.209 Battle lines are already drawn between the haves and the have-nots 00:16:30.209 --> 00:16:35.749 So far, all the agreements are non-binding -- requiring no specific action on the environment 00:16:36.120 --> 00:16:40.511 As time has gone on, the scientific warnings keep intensifying 00:16:40.920 --> 00:16:44.460 and yet there has been no effective political response 00:16:44.600 --> 00:16:46.500 All political efforts to get a handle on this issue 00:16:46.519 --> 00:16:49.159 have essentially failed 00:16:49.159 --> 00:16:50.999 I am the one that is burdened with finding the balance between 00:16:51.110 --> 00:16:54.189 sound environmental practice on the one hand 00:16:54.189 --> 00:16:56.500 and jobs for American families on the other 00:16:59.490 --> 00:17:03.090 The agreement hammered out in Kyoto, Japan requires industrialized nations 00:17:03.480 --> 00:17:06.380 to make substantial cuts in greenhouse gas emissions 00:17:07.500 --> 00:17:09.400 [Justin Gillis - Journalist, The New York Times] 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 00:17:13.010 --> 00:17:16.290 President Bush ignited a storm of controversy 00:17:16.290 --> 00:17:17.609 when he decided to abandon the Kyoto Protocol 00:17:17.609 --> 00:17:21.619 which sets caps on the emissions of greenhouse gases in developed nations 00:17:21.619 --> 00:17:25.910 For nearly two weeks, the US delegation had blocked proposal after proposal 00:17:25.910 --> 00:17:27.099 draft after draft 00:17:27.099 --> 00:17:31.950 refusing to even discuss mandatory cuts in greenhouse emissions 00:17:31.950 --> 00:17:35.960 Now we switch to the big climate conference going on in Copenhagen 00:17:35.960 --> 00:17:40.270 Today developing countries made themselves heard 00:17:40.270 --> 00:17:44.290 Led by Africa, 135 nations, including India and China 00:17:44.290 --> 00:17:46.000 staged a five-hour boycott 00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:52.470 angry over what they say are insufficient carbon cuts proposed by the world's rich countries 00:17:52.470 --> 00:17:55.610 If Hollywood had been writing a story, it all would have come right in the end 00:17:55.610 --> 00:17:59.540 and all the nations would have pledged their best effort 00:17:59.540 --> 00:18:02.320 And nothing like that happened -- the thing was a fiasco, a failure 00:18:02.860 --> 00:18:08.360 The frustrations of the last 10 days explode on the streets of Copenhagen 00:18:08.360 --> 00:18:11.900 Outside the Bella Center where negotiators still haven't reached a climate agreement 00:18:12.260 --> 00:18:16.630 2500 protesters tried to storm the hall to make an impact 00:18:16.630 --> 00:18:19.990 [Bill McKibben - Co-founder, 350.org] Nothing happened because 00:18:19.990 --> 00:18:23.620 the fossil fuel industry was still strong enough to scare nations into avoiding the issue 00:18:23.840 --> 00:18:27.800 [Naomi Klein - Author, "The Shock Doctrine"] What happened in Copenhagen, for a lot of people 00:18:27.800 --> 00:18:29.800 was this realization "no leader was going to save us" 00:18:31.470 --> 00:18:35.140 We have to be strong enough to scare our national leaders 00:18:35.140 --> 00:18:38.160 into doing the right thing in New York City in September 00:18:38.160 --> 00:18:40.000 If we can demonstrate that 00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:44.460 then better things will happen in Paris than happened in Copenhagen 00:18:45.500 --> 00:18:48.840 These things are not separate moments in time 00:18:48.850 --> 00:18:53.600 This is a all part of one string, and what we're fighting towards in Paris 00:18:53.600 --> 00:18:57.600 is highly dependent on what happens in September 00:18:57.600 --> 00:19:00.600 This is going to have to be the fight our lives 00:19:01.600 --> 00:19:05.600 [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - Berlin, Germany] 00:19:05.680 --> 00:19:12.360 Welcome to this press conference to present the report of IPCC Working Group 3 00:19:12.620 --> 00:19:14.700 on mitigation of climate change 00:19:14.700 --> 00:19:16.700 [Dr. Rajendra Pachauri - Chairman, IPCC] If we really want to bring about a limitation 00:19:17.890 --> 00:19:22.730 of temperature increase to no more than 2 degrees Celsius 00:19:22.820 --> 00:19:28.080 there is then the need for an unprecedented level of international cooperation 00:19:28.080 --> 00:19:29.870 The way we've approached climate change 00:19:29.870 --> 00:19:33.550 is the scientific community builds the case, it synthesizes the evidence, 00:19:33.550 --> 00:19:35.500 it presents that evidence then to the policymakers 00:19:35.500 --> 00:19:38.710 We've proven beyond a doubt that climate change is real 00:19:38.710 --> 00:19:40.700 that the Earth's temperature is warming 00:19:40.840 --> 00:19:46.280 [Dr. Heidi Cullen - Author, "Weather of the Future"] that that warming is predominantly caused by 00:19:46.280 --> 00:19:50.240 the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities, and that that additional warming poses 00:19:50.240 --> 00:19:53.400 a significant threat 00:19:53.400 --> 00:19:56.920 What the policy-making community did was they came up with the definition 00:19:56.920 --> 00:19:59.440 of what they called "dangerous human interference" 00:20:00.520 --> 00:20:04.500 In 2009, the nations in the world agreed on 00:20:04.510 --> 00:20:10.540 a target of 2 degrees Centigrade or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit of maximum warming 00:20:10.540 --> 00:20:13.000 above the pre-industrial level 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:17.780 That would require emissions worldwide almost entirely stopping 00:20:17.780 --> 00:20:19.700 within a matter of decades 00:20:19.820 --> 00:20:21.800 [Dr. John Sterman - Director, MIT System Dynamics Group] 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 00:20:25.250 --> 00:20:29.980 two degrees is a round number that would be safer 00:20:29.980 --> 00:20:34.410 but we'll still have substantial climate impacts 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 00:20:38.490 --> 00:20:40.970 but we're probably going to find out 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 00:20:45.450 --> 00:20:46.690 we can hope for 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 00:20:53.680 --> 00:20:57.930 to the amount of fossil fuels that we can actually burn 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 00:21:05.800 --> 00:21:08.140 The problem is we're already more than halfway there 00:21:08.140 --> 00:21:09.620 We're approaching 600 million tons already 00:21:09.660 --> 00:21:12.580 and at the rate things are going 00:21:12.590 --> 00:21:16.500 we will have completely exhausted that carbon budget within thirty years 00:21:17.720 --> 00:21:19.720 The same leaders who say they 00:21:19.760 --> 00:21:23.700 want the temperature to go up no more than 2 degrees have put forward 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 00:21:28.830 --> 00:21:33.060 the point past which most sane scientists think 00:21:33.060 --> 00:21:38.640 civilization on the scale that we now know it will not be possible 00:21:38.640 --> 00:21:43.320 It's almost a kind of refusal to come to grips with reality 00:21:43.320 --> 00:21:46.630 There's just this enormous gap between what country say they want to do and what 00:21:46.630 --> 00:21:48.150 they're actually on track to do 00:21:48.150 --> 00:21:51.890 People call this the emissions gap 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 00:21:57.390 --> 00:21:59.460 the ground 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 00:22:04.070 --> 00:22:06.000 six degrees 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 00:22:17.020 --> 00:22:19.020 58 DAYS UNTIL THE MARCH 00:22:19.020 --> 00:22:20.960 [People's Climate March - Host Committee Meeting, NYC] 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 00:22:26.320 --> 00:22:31.650 of work has happened, is happening every day, getting the word out, mobilizing people 00:22:31.650 --> 00:22:35.520 [Leslie Cagan - Peace & Justice Organizer] At this point, every day counts. Every day when 00:22:35.520 --> 00:22:37.270 we miss an opportunity, it's gone. 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 00:22:42.610 --> 00:22:45.080 that we need to invest in 00:22:45.080 --> 00:22:49.120 [Ananda Lee Tan - Climate Justice Alliance] So being inclusive to us is really about multiple things 00:22:49.120 --> 00:22:53.350 but recognizing that we live in a society with there is privilege, there are inequities 00:22:53.350 --> 00:22:57.390 and in order to address the climate crisis, we have to first address those inequities 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 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 00:23:09.680 --> 00:23:11.650 Got put their in a specific time in 00:23:11.650 --> 00:23:12.790 a specific way 00:23:12.790 --> 00:23:15.800 and it just captured millennia of solar energy 00:23:16.060 --> 00:23:20.000 [Chris Hayes - Host, All in with Chris Hayes | MSNBC] And we just happened upon it 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.000 It's like if you were just walking around, and then put something in the ground 00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:27.710 and there's just millions of dollar bills down there, just pulling them out 00:23:27.710 --> 00:23:30.290 Everything about what we do and who we are and how we live 00:23:30.290 --> 00:23:35.060 is dependent upon the fact that we just found the stuff sitting there 00:23:35.060 --> 00:23:38.420 and that stuff said "Oh, you don't have to 00:23:38.420 --> 00:23:42.580 have everyone working in the fields all the time -- you can have cities, you can have 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 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 00:23:57.560 --> 00:24:02.840 The classic market failure is "negative environmental externalities" 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" 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 00:24:16.170 --> 00:24:18.100 export them to the public 00:24:18.840 --> 00:24:20.860 [Keya Chatterjee - Director of Renewable Energy, WWF] 00:24:20.920 --> 00:24:24.400 Think about the litany of impacts: from sea level rise, ocean acidification, the collapse 00:24:24.400 --> 00:24:30.970 of ecosystems that we rely on for food, water availability. These things are really expensive 00:24:31.020 --> 00:24:35.850 -- when you have huge wildfires, it costs a lot of money 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 00:24:39.530 --> 00:24:42.680 These big massive polluters 00:24:42.680 --> 00:24:46.350 get to dump megatons of carbon in the atmosphere, for free 00:24:46.350 --> 00:24:50.170 You can't pollute for free. If you litter you get a fine. 00:24:50.170 --> 00:24:54.140 That makes coal and oil and other fossil fuels more competitive 00:24:54.140 --> 00:24:57.520 against solar and wind and other sources 00:24:57.520 --> 00:24:59.500 than they deserve to be 00:24:59.500 --> 00:25:02.000 [Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D - RI) Co-Chair, Task Force on Climate Change] 00:25:02.010 --> 00:25:05.360 Behind the environmental problems that carbon pollution causes 00:25:05.360 --> 00:25:09.220 and behind the economic problems is a political problem 00:25:09.220 --> 00:25:12.650 that a very small group of very powerful special interests 00:25:13.150 --> 00:25:17.640 have exerted very rough control over the political establishment 00:25:17.640 --> 00:25:22.170 We're up against the fossil fuel lobby that has complete access to the 00:25:22.170 --> 00:25:23.880 political class and the ability 00:25:23.880 --> 00:25:25.800 to bribe through legal means 00:25:25.920 --> 00:25:29.900 and blackmail through the use of attack ads and so on 00:25:30.060 --> 00:25:34.060 even people who oppose them have trouble opposing them too strongly 00:25:34.240 --> 00:25:37.980 because they are in some ways economically dependent on them 00:25:37.980 --> 00:25:40.900 Right now we have a monopoly controlled by the big carbon polluters 00:25:40.900 --> 00:25:43.660 They grant themselves subsidy after subsidy 00:25:44.420 --> 00:25:48.630 Think about this: how much money does the Pentagon spend 00:25:48.630 --> 00:25:53.610 helping big private oil companies get their for-profit products in the Middle East here? 00:25:53.610 --> 00:25:56.230 About half of the Pentagon's budget is just 00:25:56.230 --> 00:26:01.240 helping Chevron and Shell and Exxon get their for-profit product here 00:26:01.240 --> 00:26:04.980 What if they had to pay for that service -- how how much would gas cost then? 00:26:04.980 --> 00:26:09.070 Plus, they also get all kinds of tax breaks and other kinds of loopholes 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 00:26:13.290 --> 00:26:13.650 by scaling back 00:26:13.650 --> 00:26:17.900 they're doubling down through fracking, through tar sands oil 00:26:17.900 --> 00:26:23.180 through coal exports, mountain top removal. They have become more brazen. 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 00:26:32.430 --> 00:26:37.070 Once you know that, then you know that these are now illegitimate business plans 00:26:37.860 --> 00:26:42.120 We have to figure out how to disassociate ourselves with them 00:26:42.380 --> 00:26:46.460 And that is beginning to happen all over the world 00:26:59.280 --> 00:27:00.230 On the Great Lawn of Central Park 00:27:00.230 --> 00:27:05.880 I was up on a stage probably 70 feet in the air looking out 00:27:05.880 --> 00:27:09.220 at that sea of people stretching out farther than the eye could see 00:27:09.220 --> 00:27:12.760 [Denis Hayes - Founder, Earth Day Network] The crowd estimates were larger than a million people 00:27:13.360 --> 00:27:18.080 April 22 1970: the grassroots mobilization which we 00:27:18.400 --> 00:27:23.320 recalled as the first Earth Day, 20 million Americans called away from their jobs and 00:27:23.330 --> 00:27:27.510 their classes into the streets in their communities 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 00:27:32.580 --> 00:27:36.480 he apparently muttered to Ehrlichman, "A lot of those people have got to be Republican" 00:27:36.720 --> 00:27:41.470 And Republicans needed him to do something for them on this issue, he felt 00:27:41.720 --> 00:27:46.600 And it was Nixon, arguably one of the most anti-environmental presidents in American history 00:27:46.600 --> 00:27:50.740 who felt compelled to sign the Clean Air Act 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 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 00:27:58.060 --> 00:28:01.780 part of the House of Representatives and on the part of the US Senate 00:28:02.120 --> 00:28:06.100 In a matter of three years, we passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act 00:28:06.100 --> 00:28:10.000 the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act 00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:17.230 the National Environmental Policy Act, the Environmental Education Act, Superfund 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 00:28:22.250 --> 00:28:24.200 the most fundamental restructuring 00:28:24.200 --> 00:28:27.180 of the ground rules of the American economic system 00:28:27.180 --> 00:28:29.100 the nation has experienced 00:28:36.160 --> 00:28:38.160 50 DAYS UNTIL THE MARCH 00:28:38.160 --> 00:28:42.100 We are 50 days away from the largest climate march in history. Are you all ready? 00:28:42.100 --> 00:28:44.100 [People's Climate March Press Conference - Times Square, NYC] 00:28:44.100 --> 00:28:48.100 This is not just about the environment. It's about the community 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 00:28:53.840 --> 00:28:55.840 [LaTonya Crisp-Sauray - TWU Local 100 Recording Secretary] 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 00:29:00.440 --> 00:29:02.980 We are the community. Are we not the community? 00:29:05.660 --> 00:29:09.420 Our people, our people who have been at the front line, not being able to breathe 00:29:09.560 --> 00:29:13.120 [Elizabeth Yeampierre - Executive Director, Uprose] suffering from asthma, upper respiratory 00:29:13.140 --> 00:29:16.340 pulmonary diseases, cancer clusters, because of environmental racism 00:29:16.500 --> 00:29:20.520 Climate change exacerbates every kind of social injustice 00:29:20.920 --> 00:29:24.740 [Rev. Fletcher Harper - Executive Director, Greenfaith] that faith communities have fought against 00:29:24.920 --> 00:29:26.340 for thousands of years 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 00:29:32.560 --> 00:29:37.010 We've got a movement, brothers and sisters, and we've got to stay together 00:29:37.010 --> 00:29:42.030 So join us on the 21st to march and send that signal to the United Nations 00:29:43.060 --> 00:29:46.980 [Crowd chants, "The people united will never be defeated"] 00:29:52.540 --> 00:29:55.040 [Bill McKibben - Author, "Eaarth"] It's only by accident that we even think 00:29:55.220 --> 00:29:57.600 of climate change as an environmental issue 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 00:30:04.560 --> 00:30:10.120 The people who have contributed the least to climate change, and who have benefited the least 00:30:10.260 --> 00:30:14.080 from the use of fossil fuel, are the first people to feel the effects 00:30:14.220 --> 00:30:18.140 People in the poorest parts of the world suffer enormously already 00:30:18.140 --> 00:30:22.000 and will suffer enormously more as the century wears on 00:30:22.260 --> 00:30:25.420 Climate disruption is a social justice issue 00:30:25.430 --> 00:30:29.310 [Van Jones - Co-Founder, Rebuild the Dream] Who gets hit first and worst every time 00:30:29.310 --> 00:30:30.890 there's one of these weather disasters? 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 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 00:30:39.150 --> 00:30:41.470 or the political connections 00:30:41.470 --> 00:30:43.400 Our communities are disproportionately impacted 00:30:43.400 --> 00:30:46.820 [Jeanette "Jet" E. Toomer - Community Organizer, NYC-EJA] 00:30:46.920 --> 00:30:49.480 We're all seeing that it's the indigenous people, the people of color 00:30:49.490 --> 00:30:52.880 the low-income people who have historically suffered the burden 00:30:52.880 --> 00:30:55.840 of so many other politically driven crises 00:30:55.840 --> 00:30:57.380 There are so many countries that have been 00:30:57.520 --> 00:31:01.060 systematically plundered over hundreds of years 00:31:01.220 --> 00:31:04.520 And this is often described as an ecological debt, climate debt 00:31:04.520 --> 00:31:08.820 [Naomi Klein - Author, "This Changes Everything"] The whole idea that there are disposable places 00:31:08.820 --> 00:31:10.820 was always a racist idea 00:31:10.820 --> 00:31:16.690 The idea of sacrifice zones: just treating people and places like garbage 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 00:31:24.540 --> 00:31:28.480 We're insulated against the natural world -- that's what the suburbs really are 00:31:28.480 --> 00:31:34.400 a way to make you not notice the natural world very much 00:31:34.660 --> 00:31:37.340 And we're insulated in those places by wealth 00:31:38.300 --> 00:31:40.280 At least we think we are 00:31:49.020 --> 00:31:52.640 Scientists are screaming from the rooftops about us avoiding going over 00:31:52.640 --> 00:31:55.110 a two degree rise in the temperature of the planet 00:31:55.110 --> 00:31:58.810 Why are they so worried about that? 00:31:58.810 --> 00:32:00.770 [Ricken Patel - Founder & Executive Director, Avaaz] If we go over that amount of warming 00:32:00.770 --> 00:32:04.510 there are feedback loops in our ecosystems 00:32:04.510 --> 00:32:07.210 -- tipping points that climate change could spin out of control 00:32:07.320 --> 00:32:09.300 And it happens like that 00:32:13.230 --> 00:32:17.340 There are switches that can be tripped where suddenly you are in brand new territory 00:32:17.340 --> 00:32:23.100 and you don't even begin to know what to do about it 00:32:23.100 --> 00:32:26.820 This is not a linear kind of problem that we're dealing with 00:32:26.820 --> 00:32:29.200 This is very much an exponential kind of problem 00:32:30.360 --> 00:32:34.620 Right now we're on the edge of three major tipping points 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 00:32:41.280 --> 00:32:43.500 off the Earth and keeps it from warming us up 00:32:43.500 --> 00:32:46.200 But as it melts, you get a smaller mirror 00:32:46.200 --> 00:32:50.330 which means a warmer Earth, which means more melting, which means more climate change 00:32:50.330 --> 00:32:56.130 Another example is arctic methane -- we've got a gigantic amount of methane gas 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. 00:33:03.640 --> 00:33:08.050 As it warms, and that methane gets released, it then causes global warming to 00:33:08.050 --> 00:33:12.750 get worse, which means it warms more, which means more methane released 00:33:12.750 --> 00:33:17.280 which means worse warming, and that process spins out of control 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 00:33:21.760 --> 00:33:24.560 a lot of it is actually going into our oceans 00:33:24.560 --> 00:33:30.200 And a lot of stuff, like plankton, can't live in that kind of acidified water 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 00:33:35.940 --> 00:33:41.420 These kinds of feedback loops and tipping points are what keep me up at night -- 00:33:41.420 --> 00:33:47.260 that we will hit one before we're able to turn things around 00:33:47.260 --> 00:33:52.800 Even if we went "cold turkey" today, because of the time lags in our climate system 00:33:53.000 --> 00:33:56.500 we've already signed up for things that we can't see yet 00:33:56.510 --> 00:34:00.980 We live in a razor-thin livable universe 00:34:00.980 --> 00:34:05.040 Just a few kilometres below my feet, it's too hot to live 00:34:05.040 --> 00:34:09.920 Just a few kilometres above my head, the air is too thin to breathe 00:34:09.920 --> 00:34:12.940 It's not about a few more droughts and a few more storms 00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:17.000 It's about a catastrophic shift in this fragile balance of our biosphere 00:34:17.000 --> 00:34:19.880 that threatens everything we love 00:34:24.100 --> 00:34:26.100 37 DAYS UNTIL THE MARCH 00:34:26.400 --> 00:34:28.920 What we all need to be focused on is turnout, turnout, turnout 00:34:29.760 --> 00:34:33.639 Youth, is there somebody that wants to do an update from youth. Armando? 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 00:34:37.690 --> 00:34:39.600 Obviously a lot of folks who are working on the youth stuff are working at 00:34:39.600 --> 00:34:41.300 the Climate Justice Youth Leadership Summit 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 00:34:45.050 --> 00:34:46.469 So a lot of people who may not have been plugged in already 00:34:46.469 --> 00:34:49.480 are getting informed about it, and the people who are already informed about it 00:34:49.480 --> 00:34:51.400 are getting even more people fired up about it 00:34:52.080 --> 00:34:54.580 [Climate Justice Youth Summit - New York City] 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 00:35:00.460 --> 00:35:04.500 they are short-lived, and they are not for the betterment of us 00:35:05.250 --> 00:35:08.880 We have to re-prioritize what's important to us 00:35:08.880 --> 00:35:12.560 Our environment isn't just ice caps melting in Antarctica 00:35:13.210 --> 00:35:14.660 We're the ones who face the problems day-to-day -- 00:35:14.660 --> 00:35:18.970 if you're breathing in smog or your little brother has asthma 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 00:35:22.680 --> 00:35:27.340 Imagine being the person who changes the face of climate change 00:35:27.340 --> 00:35:30.520 so that we don't have to deal with those impacts every day 00:35:32.920 --> 00:35:34.920 [Joaquin Brito Jr. - Climate Justice Organizer, Uprose] 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! 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 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 00:36:03.069 --> 00:36:09.849 to happen -- heat waves, extreme weather, floods. OK, sure. But I mean, really, is that 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 00:36:17.420 --> 00:36:21.349 For someone who is engaged in a struggle for higher minimum wage 00:36:21.349 --> 00:36:23.990 or worries about health care, it's understandable that these molecules 00:36:23.990 --> 00:36:27.900 floating around the air seem invisible and abstract 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 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 00:36:42.420 --> 00:36:46.280 We respond to things that feel incredibly urgent, like a gun to the head, 00:36:46.829 --> 00:36:52.359 a stampede a wild elephants. Climate change is a completely 00:36:52.359 --> 00:36:58.410 different kind of risk. It plays out over these very long time scales, and it's 00:36:58.410 --> 00:37:02.249 really hard to perceive it as a very urgent threat 00:37:02.249 --> 00:37:06.910 The other thing that happens is that there's something called a "single action bias" 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 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 00:37:16.599 --> 00:37:21.500 because there's so many different ways that we're going to need to fix it 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 00:37:29.499 --> 00:37:33.719 [George Marshall - Author, "Don't Even Think About it"] Why has that still not compelled 00:37:33.720 --> 00:37:35.720 the majority of people to action? 00:37:39.470 --> 00:37:44.180 Cognitive psychologists have been mapping the processing systems within our brains 00:37:44.180 --> 00:37:48.839 and they have found that there are two parallel and deeply interlocked processing systems 00:37:51.180 --> 00:37:57.380 The rational side, the analytic side which deals with information, facts, data 00:37:57.380 --> 00:38:04.079 And we have another side which is a much more intuitive and emotionally driven side 00:38:04.079 --> 00:38:10.940 It is that emotional system that moves us into action 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 00:38:16.059 --> 00:38:22.419 to cross over to the side that makes us feel something 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 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 00:38:31.420 --> 00:38:36.170 They are creating the breakage 00:38:36.170 --> 00:38:41.610 Climate changes is strangely, maybe uniquely, problematic 00:38:41.880 --> 00:38:50.280 because not only are we all bystanders, we are also perpetrators actively contributing to the thing 00:38:50.340 --> 00:38:54.760 If we recognize a problem, we become morally compelled to take action on it 00:38:54.769 --> 00:38:58.789 There is a fundamental tipping point at which that has to happen 00:39:02.040 --> 00:39:04.040 25 DAYS UNTIL THE MARCH 00:39:06.460 --> 00:39:08.460 [People's Climate Tour - Boston, MA] 00:39:08.460 --> 00:39:12.360 Change doesn't happen because people decide to stay home and click "like" on Facebook 00:39:12.360 --> 00:39:16.300 [Vanessa Rule - Co-Director, Mothers Out Front] Change happens because people like you and I 00:39:16.300 --> 00:39:18.300 decide to get involved 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 00:39:25.240 --> 00:39:28.100 [Joe Uehlein - Founder, Labor Network for Sustainability] 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 00:39:35.150 --> 00:39:42.140 It's in our core self-interest as a trade union movement to help build 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 00:39:47.849 --> 00:39:51.129 sooner rather than later 00:40:01.420 --> 00:40:05.140 Normally it takes a long time to switch energy sources -- 00:40:05.140 --> 00:40:07.400 50 or 60 years to go from wood to coal, coal to oil and gas 00:40:07.400 --> 00:40:09.960 We lack 50 or 60 years 00:40:09.960 --> 00:40:15.730 The reason we want to get off of fossil fuels now is because we have to 00:40:15.730 --> 00:40:17.619 to protect our way of life 00:40:17.619 --> 00:40:24.619 We need vision for what the post-carbon economy looks like 00:40:24.619 --> 00:40:28.509 that is inspiring enough and delivers enough 00:40:28.559 --> 00:40:33.519 in terms of jobs, in terms of new opportunities 00:40:33.519 --> 00:40:35.069 in terms of better health 00:40:35.069 --> 00:40:38.519 It has to be exciting 00:40:38.519 --> 00:40:44.009 There are many more jobs available to people who are going to be building wind turbines 00:40:44.009 --> 00:40:47.220 retrofitting houses so they waste less energy 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 00:40:51.630 --> 00:40:55.799 There's no way to outsource putting that solar panel onto a roof 00:40:55.799 --> 00:41:00.500 A 100 percent renewable economy is within our grasp -- 00:41:00.539 --> 00:41:03.220 it is economically and technologically possible 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 00:41:07.079 --> 00:41:10.849 No, it's here. It's a question of political will 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 00:41:16.489 --> 00:41:20.269 the renewable sector to the market, it was about creating different incentives -- 00:41:20.269 --> 00:41:23.069 and there was an explosion of innovation and creativity 00:41:23.069 --> 00:41:26.910 Germany is now the number one solar country in the world, even though they had 00:41:26.910 --> 00:41:31.640 the same amount of solar incidence as Alaska 00:41:31.640 --> 00:41:36.839 Can we do it? Can we take the power that has been highly centralized 00:41:36.839 --> 00:41:41.589 and highly focused and controlled by very few hands 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 00:41:43.500 --> 00:41:48.700 leads to very few hands controlling power in the sense of political power 00:41:49.480 --> 00:41:52.339 We are going to try a global experiment that is going to be the most difficult 00:41:52.339 --> 00:41:55.019 thing humans have ever done which is to rip those two apart 00:41:55.019 --> 00:41:57.109 which means we are democratizing power 00:41:57.109 --> 00:41:59.539 in both senses of the word 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 00:42:06.279 --> 00:42:12.150 on Earth, to burn them too. Or can we actually show some restraint 00:42:12.150 --> 00:42:14.600 -- which we ask our children to do ("don't eat the last 17 marshmallows") 00:42:14.600 --> 00:42:20.119 could you just show some restraint and choose a wiser course? 00:42:20.119 --> 00:42:26.640 A Canadian company called TransCanada wants to build the Keystone XL pipeline 00:42:26.640 --> 00:42:30.039 The $13 billion dollar system would carry crude oil 00:42:30.039 --> 00:42:34.740 from the so-called tar sands region in Alberta to Houston, Texas for refining 00:42:34.740 --> 00:42:38.950 The Keystone XL pipeline has become a huge focus of controversy 00:42:38.950 --> 00:42:41.160 Tar sands oil is particularly dirty, it's particularly carbon-intensive 00:42:41.160 --> 00:42:46.119 An estimated 2,000 environmental activists from across the continent plan to gather in 00:42:46.119 --> 00:42:48.890 Washington, D.C. to launch a two-week protest 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 00:42:53.369 --> 00:42:58.960 development of fossil fuels see getting Keystone through as core to their strategy 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 00:43:02.809 --> 00:43:05.440 I'm here as a Nebraska citizen and landowner 00:43:05.440 --> 00:43:09.350 I'm on the advisory board of the Center for Health and the Global Environment 00:43:09.390 --> 00:43:10.900 I'm an Evangelical Christian 00:43:10.900 --> 00:43:13.250 I'm a proud member of the Transport Workers Union of America 00:43:13.720 --> 00:43:18.079 You know what's so fascinating about this whole Keystone thing is that that was supposed 00:43:18.079 --> 00:43:22.160 to be a wedge and instead it's been turned upside down 00:43:22.160 --> 00:43:24.700 Now it's actually a base that is lining up 00:43:24.700 --> 00:43:26.670 constituency after constituency 00:43:26.680 --> 00:43:32.200 Today we act. Today we send a message to them, and everybody else 00:43:32.220 --> 00:43:36.559 We are taking back our futures! 00:43:36.559 --> 00:43:42.710 Something extraordinary and unexpected has backfired out of the ambition of the fossil fuel companies 00:43:42.710 --> 00:43:44.609 They've built a movement by mistake 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 00:43:48.190 --> 00:43:50.309 One of the tools that came into play was 00:43:50.309 --> 00:43:55.670 peaceful civil disobedience to show the moral urgency of these problems 00:43:55.670 --> 00:43:59.330 that this was the crisis of our time 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 00:44:03.759 --> 00:44:07.480 And they said, "We're never going to get to build another pipeline in peace again" 00:44:07.940 --> 00:44:12.900 And I hope they're right 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 00:44:34.789 --> 00:44:36.200 we call "home" 00:44:36.200 --> 00:44:41.420 We are on this planet that is so perfectly built to sustain life 00:44:41.449 --> 00:44:45.390 We got so lucky. And then you begin to think 00:44:45.390 --> 00:44:52.009 what do you do with this knowledge -- this unbearable, incredibly depressing knowledge that the decision 00:44:52.009 --> 00:44:56.970 to burn fossil fuels was a decision that had tremendous downside risks 00:44:56.970 --> 00:45:01.249 that we didn't realize immediately 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 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 00:45:12.420 --> 00:45:19.359 my responsibility then to do whatever it takes to protect my child 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 00:45:24.589 --> 00:45:28.880 of joy, but I know it is definitely the secret of staving off depression 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 00:45:33.950 --> 00:45:35.900 Well one way you don't get depressed is by work 00:45:40.260 --> 00:45:43.120 Things change for lots of different reasons 00:45:43.349 --> 00:45:48.130 There's all kinds of dynamics -- but one central element is people being in the streets 00:45:49.880 --> 00:45:53.850 All of us must stand up together and say, "No more!" 00:45:55.180 --> 00:45:58.940 We live in a culture that doesn't tell us our own history 00:45:58.940 --> 00:46:01.779 that doesn't tell us the history of social movement wins 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 00:46:07.279 --> 00:46:12.579 It was only one percent of Americans that ever took part in the civil rights demonstration 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 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 00:46:25.859 --> 00:46:30.190 demonstrations for freedom and human dignity ever held in the United States 00:46:30.860 --> 00:46:35.800 Martin Luther King always said that the victories that had been won so far 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 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 00:46:47.940 --> 00:46:51.600 We as a people will get to the promised land 00:46:51.760 --> 00:46:55.260 Big victories have been won before, but nothing on the scale 00:46:55.420 --> 00:46:58.520 of the economic challenge that really responding to the climate crisis represents 00:46:59.160 --> 00:47:02.939 We have a responsibility to rise to our historical moment 00:47:03.079 --> 00:47:07.719 We are joining around the world to say the time has come 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 00:47:11.859 --> 00:47:14.950 causes needs to be the foremost principle 00:47:14.950 --> 00:47:20.079 It's this broad and powerful spectrum of allies that has the political weight 00:47:20.079 --> 00:47:21.609 to move the dialogue on this 00:47:21.609 --> 00:47:25.589 There's a tipping point coming, where the online movements are going to move offline 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 00:47:32.540 --> 00:47:34.540 We will not be stopped 00:47:34.540 --> 00:47:36.540 Take action right now 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 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 00:47:42.700 --> 00:47:45.180 That is what moves politics 00:47:45.340 --> 00:47:47.220 14 DAYS UNTIL THE MARCH 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 00:47:55.500 --> 00:47:59.480 Heads of state are gathering. They need us to say, "We demand action" 00:47:59.869 --> 00:48:03.140 This is the right thing, at the right time, in the right place 00:48:03.140 --> 00:48:06.630 The whole world will be watching 00:48:06.630 --> 00:48:12.119 Nothing moves public opinion, more than seeing large numbers of people gathered 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 00:48:18.299 --> 00:48:23.329 People's Climate March in September will serve to deepen this movement 00:48:23.329 --> 00:48:28.170 I will be there in New York, September 21st 00:48:28.170 --> 00:48:32.779 There is no replacement, even in the digital age, for human bodies, next to each other, 00:48:32.779 --> 00:48:39.779 standing as one, hearts beating as one, voices raised as one, making a political demand 00:48:40.620 --> 00:48:43.941 If you don't fight for what you want, you deserve what you get 00:48:44.700 --> 00:48:47.120 September 21st, in some ways, is the beginning 00:48:47.640 --> 00:48:51.909 There are teams around the world, organizing marches in Rio, in Delhi, in Berlin, in Paris, 00:48:51.909 --> 00:48:54.039 in London 00:48:54.039 --> 00:48:59.359 People around the world will get together in the largest climate change mobilization in history 00:48:59.370 --> 00:49:03.351 Are you ready to march? Are you ready to march? 00:49:09.754 --> 00:49:13.714 HERE IS WHAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW 00:49:14.020 --> 00:49:19.539 JOIN THE MARCH PEOPLESCLIMATE.ORG 00:49:20.479 --> 00:49:25.489 SEND A MESSAGE Text DISRUPT to 97779 00:49:26.928 --> 00:49:31.428 SHARE THIS MOVIE watchdisruption.com 00:49:32.079 --> 00:49:36.759 You can't undo the day after something like that happens 00:50:04.020 --> 00:50:10.020 There is a line that divides good from evil, and it runs down the middle 00:50:10.180 --> 00:50:11.880 of every single person 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 00:50:16.930 --> 00:50:21.710 It will be because we overcame the worst instincts and the worst fears, even within ourselves