We speak with naomi klein, author of this changes everything capitalism vs. The climate. She recently spoke at a vatican Climate Conference organized by pope francis. Naomi you cannot call yourself a climate leader while opening up coal mining. We have to lead it from the ground. Amy then to mexico, where human Rights Groups are calling for a probe into the murder of photojournalist Ruben Espinosa and four others in mexico city. In his final interview, espinosa talked about why he had recently fleeing veracruz for his safety. Leave for common sense. There was an attack on students. We could not in the situation do less with any threat or intimidation. We do not know what will happen. In veracruz, there is no rule of law. Amy all that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. President obama has unveiled his longawaited Climate Change plan to slash Carbon Emissions from u. S. Power plants. Speaking at the white house, obama unveiled a plan which includes a 32 percent reduction of carbondioxide emissions from 2005 levels by 2030. President obama i am convinced that no challenge poses a greater threat to our future and future generations than a changing climate. That is what brings us here today. Amy president obamas announcement comes as scientists warn 2015 is on pace to become the hottest year on record. Well have more on his climate plan with naomi klein after headlines. In news from yemen, soldiers from the United Arab Emirates have become the first foreign has arrived in the southern port. The rate becomes the first foreign Ground Troops to enter the ongoing conflict. The uae troops are fighting with the u. S. Backed, saudiled coalition, which has been battling the Houthi Rebels in rebels. A report by the independent Monitoring Group airwars estimates that u. S. Led airstrikes targeting isil in iraq and syria have killed at least 459 civilians since the bombings began approximately one year ago. The u. S. Led coalition has launched nearly 6,000 airstrikes in the two countries. Thus far, the u. S. Has acknowledged its airstrikes have killed only two civilians. Fourteen republican president ial candidates participated in a town hall monday ahead of the first debate this thursday. Republican frontrunner donald trump refused to attend after the events cosponsor, the New Hampshire union leader, published a column critical of him. Trump continues to lead in polls, despite recent reports he once erupted at a female attorney who requested a break in a deposition to pump breast milk. Trump reportedly told her quote, youre disgusting, before storming out of the room. Meanwhile polling organizations are protesting fox newss decision to use an average of recent polls to select the top ten candidates for this thursdays debate. The Marist Institute for Public Opinion temporarily suspended its polling, saying foxs debate criteria ignores the margin of error. Another top pollster, monmouth university, said quote based on current polling, theres no good rationale for arbitrarily selecting a top ten. A republican bid to end federal funding for planned parenthood has failed in the senate. The vote was 53 to 46, seven votes short of the 60 needed to advance the defunding bill. The bid came after an antichoice Group Released secret, edited videos of planned parenthood employees discussing how they share fetal tissue with researchers, a practice planned parenthood says is performed legally and never for profit. Hawaii senator mazie hirono was among those to defend planned parenthood. Hirono indiana band planned parenthood, and that clinic performs most std examinations. They are in a health crisis. They had to put up a popup clinic to deal with that crisis and provide services that had previously been performed by the planned parenthood entity. Amy louisiana governor bobby jindal has ended the states medicaid contract with planned parenthood, citing the undercover videos. This comes despite the fact the only two planned parenthood clinics in louisiana do not actually provide abortions. A third clinic under construction in new orleans will provide abortions, but planned parenthood says it will not participate in tissue donation. Over the weekend, an unidentified vandal poured gasoline on the newly laid foundation at the new orleans planned parenthood site, and set fire to a security guards car. A federal judge has overturned a ban on undercover filming at idaho factory farms, ruling the socalled ag gag law violates the right to free speech. The Agricultural Industry had successfully lobbied for the law in 2012 after Animal Rights activists had filmed animal cruelty inside idahos dairy farms, including workers kicking cows and dragging them with chains attached to their necks. Activists say they hope the ruling will lead to similar laws being overturned in states like iowa, utah and north carolina. A jury has ruled that james holmes, the gunman in the colorado movie massacre, could face the Death Penalty. The jurors decided monday that the shooting, which killed 12 people, was carried out in a particularly cruel, depraved or heinous manner. To the jury, this counted more than mitigating factors like holmes mental illness, which could have kept the Death Penalty off the table. In news from ohio, the coroner for Hamilton County has determined that the bottle in the car of sam dubose, who was fatally shot by university of cincinnati officer ray tensing, contained air freshener, not gin. Tensing, who is white, stopped dubose, who is african american, on july 19 for not having a front license plate. Police body cam video showed tensing asked to see the unopened bottle during the traffic stop, which was labeled gin but which dubose said contained air freshener. Minutes later, tensing fatally shot dubose in the head after dubose objected to removing his seat belt. Tensing has been charged with murder and is currently free on a 1 million bail. In kentucky, a Deputy Sheriff handcuffed two Elementary School children with disabilities, according to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties union. The 8 and 9yearold children were so small the Deputy Sheriff, who was working as the schools resource officer, cuffed their biceps because the handcuffs did not fit their wrists. One of the children is black and the other is latino. In news from london, a former ubs and citigroup trader has been sentenced to 14 years in jail after becoming the first person to be convicted by a jury of rigging libor, the Interest Rate which underpins trillions in global transactions. As he delivered the sentence, british judge jeremy cooke said quote, a message needs to be sent to the world of banking. And a new report by Amnesty International finds military police in the upcoming olympic host city of rio de janeiro, brazil have killed more than 1,500 people in the past five years. Amnesty said nearly one in six homicides in rio were carried out by onduty police as part of a quote strategy of fear in favela communities. More than 75 percent of victims between 2010 and 2013 were young, black men. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Nermeen and i am nermeen shaikh. As scientists warn 2015 is on hottest year on record, pace to become the earths hottest year on record, president obama has unveiled his longawaited plan to slash Carbon Emissions from u. S. Power plants. During a speech at the white house, obama said no challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than a changing climate. President obama Climate Change is no longer about the future for our children or grandchildren, but the reality that we are living with every day. We cannot say any single weather event is entirely caused by Climate Change, we have seen stronger storms, deeper droughts, longer wildfire seasons. Floodston and miami now at high tide. Shrinking icecaps force National Geographic to make its biggest change in its atlas since the soviet union broke apart. Decades,past three nationwide asthma rates have more than doubled and Climate Change puts those americans at greater risk of landing in the hospital. As one of americas governors has said, we are the first generation to feel the impact of Climate Change and the last generation that can do something about it. Committed the United States to leading the world on this challenge because i believe there is such a thing as being too late. Under regulations, u. S. Power plants will be required to cut emissions by 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. In addition, new power plants will be required to be far cleaner, which could effectively prevent any new coal plants from opening. President obama defended the regulations which are expected to be challenged in court. President obama right now power plants are the source of about pollution,f american more than our homes and cars generate combined. It continues to Climate Change, which degrades the air that our kids breathe, but there have never been federal limits on the amount of carbon power plants can dump into the air. We limit the amount of toxic chemicals like mercury, arsenic in our air and water, and we are better off for it, but existing power plants can still unlimited amounts of harmful pollution into the air. For the sake of our kids and the health and safety of all americans, that has to change. For the sake of the planet, that has to change. Nermeen as president obama spoke the impacts of extreme weather could be seen across the globe. In california more than 9,000 firefighters are battling more than 21 active wildfires. In japan temperatures topped 95 degrees on monday for a record fourth day in a row. Heat records are also being broken across the middle east. In one iranian city the heat index reached 164 degrees last week. Temperatures have been regularly topping 120 degrees in baghdad and other iraqi cities. Meanwhile a group of scientists including, former nasa scientist james hansen, have warned that sea levels could rise as much as 10 feet before the end of the century unless Greenhouse Gas emissions are drastically reduced. The rise would make cities such as london, new york and shanghai uninhabitable. Amy to talk more about Climate Change and president obamas plan to cut emissions we are joined by naomi klein, author of the bestselling book this changes everything capitalism vs. The climate which is out in paperback today. She joins us from washington d. C. ,welcome. Your assessment first of president obamas plan that he unveiled at the white house. Naomi good morning. It is great to be with you. Fromnk what we are seeing obama is a good example of what a climate leader sounds like. Saying is he is absolutely true about the level of threat, the fact that it is not a threat for future generations, but a threat unfolding right now around the world, including in the United States. It is a threat about peoples daily health with asthma levels and about the safety of entire cities huge coastal cities. He is doing a very good job of showing us what a climate leader sounds like, but i am afraid we have a long way to go before we see what a climate leader acts like because there is a huge gap between what obama is saying about this threat, about it being the greatest threat of our time, and indeed this being our last window in which we can take action to prevent truly catastrophic Climate Change, but the measures that have been unveiled are simply inadequate. If we look at the kind of Emission Reductions this is going to deliver when you talk about emission reduction, we do not just look at one sector electricity generation. You have to look at the economy as a whole. What client that climate entists are telling us what climate scientists are telling us if we are going to stay within our budget and give us a chance of warming below 2 isrees celsius, which dangerous, but what thenegotiated under obama in copenhagen in 2009 in fact, we are still on track for more like four degrees warming. If we were to stay below two degrees, we would need to be 10 ag emissions by 8 to year. This plan would lower emissions by around 6 overall, and im not just talking about the power sector, but overall emissions by 2030. Compare what we should be doing, to 10 acent 8 by 2030. 6 your view, why did president obama choose to focus on much on the power sector and not other equally important sectors . It is an important sector, as he says, but we have to do it all and this should be groups a victory for the fighting coal in their backyard, the campaign that the sierra club has led over years now to coaldown hundreds of plants. This should be praised as a grassroots victory. Plan is less of a gift to the natural gas sector and has more supports for renewables. Forlso has more supports low income communities. It is inadequate, but better than the last draft. There are parts of the plan that are worse than the last draft because of pressure from industry and states reliant on coal, but the problem is not that this plan itself is bad. If this was announced in obamas first year in office, i would be the first to celebrate this and say lets bring on a carbon tax, prevent leasing of new oil, gas, and coal on public lands. Lets do the rest of the packets. Lets have huge investments in Public Transit and we will really be on our way. Of his two terms in office, this does not buy a climate legacy it is not enough. It is not in line with science and it is not with technology. The team at stanford under Mark Jacobson is telling us we can renewables, powering our entire economy with renewables in two decades. If the scientists are telling us we need to do it and the engineers are telling us we can do it, all that is missing is a politicians willing to interviews bold policies that can make it happen. Amy during his speech monday, president obama also talked about his visits to the arctic at the end of the month. President obama ill be the first president to visit the arctic where they have seen the rising oceans, the impact on marine life we will talk about what the world needs to do together to prevent the worst impact of Climate Change before it is too late. Amy that is president obama. Can you talk about what is happening in the arctic, and the activists activism going on from portland, oregon, to the arctic, to prevent what president obama has allowed drilling in the arctic . Naomi it is extraordinary that he would announce this now because what the world needs to starters, is to declare a moratorium on Arctic Drilling. The u. S. Could be meeting that effort, bringing together all arctic nations to agree that this is untouchable a nogo zone. Because that leadership is not there and indeed because obama is opening up the arctic to drilling for the first time we know that shell has drilling rigs there right now. They began the parliamentary stages on thursday. Because his administration has failed to provide leadership on such a basic issue. It is the definition of insanity, it would seem to me, to be drilling in the arctic for oil that is only available because arctic ice is melting and it is now passing and ships are able to go there and do this. , a few dayshell ago, talked about how they are expecting to find oil underneath is an even ice that bigger deposit then there is off of the gulf of mexico. He described it as a huge play, but long more significantly, a longterm play it is unfortunate that they described the scene language of games because it is not a game, but they call it a play and they expected not to be to production by 2030, and by 2030 we should be winding down our reliance on existing infrastructure, not opening up new fossil fuel frontiers. This is what i mean by president obama does not deserve to be called a climate leader simply because he has introduced what is a pretty good plan for cutting emissions. Im not saying that is not important. It is a step in the right direction, but simultaneously he is taking significant steps in the wrong direction with Arctic Drilling. He has overseen an explosion of fracking for gas. He is still waffling on the keystone xl pipeline. He has opened up new offshore gas leases. When you take one step in the wrong direction and five steps one step in the right direction and five steps in the wrong direction, youre going in the wrong direction. Amy this issue of the activists that have been trying to stop the drilling that the Obama Administration has provided license for what was it 40 were hanging from the bridge you had all these s outside. Can you talk about holidays he can announce as they are all being taken away, as activists are charged for doing the who ts actor lulu activism they do, he is announcing going to the arctic. If you want to look at climate leaders, climate leaders are those that repelled off of the bridge, those taking to their kayaks, 21yearolds trying to stop Arctic Drilling with their bodies. They feel so passionate about this. People stayed on the bridge to block the shell icebreaker for 40 hours and did so despite the fact that shell had gotten an injunction and they were threatened with huge fines. That is real leadership, moral action, standing up in the face of huge amounts of money, power, and might makes right logic. It is one of the ironies of the extreme energy era that we have been living in the past decade or