Driven up Global Temperatures and extreme weather. While threatening sources of food and water. We will speak with two climate scientists who helped write the report. Then, dragnet nation. The equivalento of the freedom of information act request, few files. I look at them and they were handwritten, dozens of pages. In totality, they were not really as robust as an average facebook profile, certainly, not as revealing as my Google Search result. Julia angwin all of that and more coming up. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The head of General Motors appeared before Congress Tuesday to answer for the auto giants safety defect linked to at least 13 and possibly hundreds of deaths. Gm has recalled millions of cars after acknowledging fault ignition switches shut down engines and disabled airbags. Speaking before house panel, gm chair mary barra apologized to the victims families. More than a decade ago, gm embarked on a small car program. Sitting youre today, i cannot tell you why it took so long for safety defect to be announced for this program. And i can tell you we will find out. Todays gm will do the right thing. That begins with my sincere apologies to everyone who has been affected i this recall. Especially, the families and friends who lost their lives or were injured. I am deeply sorry. It has recently emerged General Motors misled the victims families, despite knowing of the vehicles flaws. In her testimony, graybar set for the first time gm is ready to pay compensation and has hired an attorney to handle claims. The lawyer, kenneth feinberg, previously oversaw the compensation funds for 9 11 victims and gulf residents impacted by the dp oil spill. But despite admitting fault, barra had almost no new information to explain how gm repeatedly failed to fix its cars, despite knowing of the defective ignitions. Her testimony continues before the senate today. Outside of the hearing, family members who lost loved ones to crashes and effective gm car spoke out against the companys actions. With the people left behind when a loved one got into what was opposed to be a safe car, the gm car, a car that gm knew for years was dangerous and effective. Our daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, wives, and husbands are gone because they were a cost of doing business gmstyle. Gm engineers were aware of her problem with the ignition switch design for years earlier, which could cause them to turn into the excessive position with just the weight of a keychain or road bump. Rather than fixing the problem, they chose to keep producing the cobalt with the ignition switch and selling it to an unsuspecting public. We are the problem and discovered would it have saved these girls lives in the lives of many others . Yes. Should gm be able to hide behind her bankruptcy and not accept responsibility and liability of these young lives . O the scandal has also brought scrutiny on federal regulators who took no action despite knowing of problems as early as 2007. Testifying on tuesday, David Friedman told lawmakers he has ordered an internal review. President obama celebrating the milestone achievement of the Signature Health care law after enrollment in insurance plans beat expectations. Speaking the white house, obama said over 7. 1 Million People have signed up for insurance before this weeks deadline for open enrollment. And after years of republicanled repeal efforts and a disastrous rollout last year, obama said the law is here to stay. Despite several lost weeks out of the gate because of problems with the website, 7. 1 million americans have now signed up for private insurance plans through these marketplaces. I will always work with anyone who is willing to make this law work even better, or the debate over. The Affordable Care act is here to stay. The Obamacare Program marks the nations largest expansion of Health Coverage since the creation of medicare and medicaid in 1965. But it still leaves millions uninsured while keeping the forprofit Insurance Industry intact. In his comments, president obama acknowledged the loss hasnt fixed the nations healthcare care woes, the criticized those seeking to undermine its gains. The Affordable Care act has a completely fixed hourlong broken Health Care System, but this law has made our Health Care System a lot better. A lot better. I dont get it. Hardre folks working so for people not to have Health Insurance . Are they so mad about the idea of folks having Health Insurance . Many of the tall tales that have been told about this law have been debunked. There are still no death panels. [laughter] armageddon has not arrived. Instead, this law is helping millions of americans. The Obama Administration confirm the nsa has used a secret backdoor allowing you to search for the emails and phone calls of u. S. Citizens without a war and. Citing documents leaked by edward snowden, the guardian revealed an undisclosed rule change that allows nsa operatives to hunt for individual Americans Communications using their names or other identifying information. In a new letter to senator ron wyden, obtained i the guardian, James Clapper confirms the back door loopholes used. Clapper does not specify how many backdoor searches have been carried out. In a statement, ron wyden called the wordless searches unacceptable and a real threat to the privacy rights of lawabiding americans. Nato has suspended all practical cooperation with russia in the aftermath of the annexation of crimea will stop the nato secretarygeneral announced the move at a meeting in brussels. We are suspending all practical cooperation with insia, military and civilian the nato russia council, the euro Atlantic Partnership council, and the partnership for peace. At the same time, we keep our diplomatic lines of communication open and we are ready for ambassador for mr. Go meetings ministerial meetings. But russia began withdrawing a small number of forces from its eastern border with through crane, a move john kerry called a welcome gesture. The Palestinian Authority has defied u. S. And israeli demands by submitting declarations to join a number of international conventions. The u. S. And israel have sought to thwart palestinian membership and global bodies as part of a bid to undermine recognition of Palestinian Statehood at the United Nations. Mahmoud abbas acted after israel broke its pledge to free the last group of palestinian prisoners due for release under the agreement that established u. S. Brokered peace talks. On tuesday, secretary of state john kerry canceled a trip to israel and the occupied territories in response to the move by a boss. But kerry said he believes the u. S. Backed negotiations can still be saved. As i said at the outside of my remarks, completely premature to draw any judgments about this at this point in time. At this point in time, no agreement has been reached with respect to any prisoner, not are the ones at this moment at issue in terms of the transfer. Let me make it absolutely clear. None of the agencies the president abbas signed tonight involve the u. N. None of them. President abbas has given his word he intends to negotiate through the end of the month of april. In an effort to convince israel to follow through on its pledge, the Obama Administration is reportedly considering an Early Release for the jailed spy Jonathan Pollard. Pollard is a former u. S. Intelligence officer convicted of passing u. S. Secrets on to israel. He is eligible for parole next year, but could be freed under rumored agreement to salvage the peace talks. At the white house, jay carney said the decision has been reached. First of all, the president has not made a decision to release Jonathan Pollard was convicted of espionage and is serving his sentence. As i said yesterday, i dont have any other update to provide to you on mr. Pollards status. There obviously are a lot of things happening in that arena, and im not going to get ahead of discussions that are underway. Jonathan pollard has been in prison for about a quarter of a century. The londonbased syrian group has upped its estimate for the death toll of serious threeyear civil war to at least one hundred 50,000. The syrian observatory for human rights has 150,000 is the minimum figure, with an actual toll likely approaching 200 20,000 deaths. The United Nations has stopped updating its most recent toll of 100,000 from july 2013 saying conditions on the ground are too violent to allow for an accurate count. The republicancontrolled house has approved a measure that would effectively force u. S. Government agencies to stop studying Climate Change. The measure calls on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and related bodies to focus on forecasting Severe Weather am a but not explore one of its likely causes. The vote comes as the u. N. s top, panel issued a report this week calling on governments to prepare for Global Warmings worsening impact and cut emissions in order to prevent it from getting worse. We will have more on the u. N. , report after the headlines. The Tennessee Senate has approved a measure that would ban new mass transit projects across the state. The bill was introduced to undermine the proposed rapid bus system in nashville called the amp, but would apply statewide. According to the website thinkprogress, received critical backing from the billionaire republican donors charles and david koch. The Koch Brothers pushed lawmakers to vote for the bill and may have even sparked its introduction. Chile has declared a state of emergency after a powerful earthquake triggered tsunami off its northern coast. The death toll stands at 5 so far. Thousands of people have been evacuated from coastal areas. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. Welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. The United Nations top climate body has warned a human driven Climate Change has impacted every corner of the globe, with the poorest suffering the worst effects. In his latest report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says Greenhouse Gases have driven up Global Temperatures and extreme weather, while threatening sources of food and water. In the worst is yet to come. The report declared throughout the 21st century, Climate Change impacts are projected to slow down economic growth, make Poverty Reduction were difficult, further erode food security, and prolong existing and create new poverty traps. There is a reason for the world not really neglecting the findings of this report, because they are profound. Let me repeat once again, we have said categorically in this report the implications for human security, we have reasons to believe that if the world doesnt do anything about mitigating the emissions of Greenhouse Gases and the extent of Climate Change continues to increase, then the very social stability of Human Systems could be at stake. Were joined by three guys. Michael allman hyper michael inenheimer is with us here new york. He is one of the main authors of the 32 volume report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In london, saleemul huq joins us, a Climate Summit just at the International Institute scientists at the International Institute for the environment Ad Development in london. Is head of policy for food and Climate Justice at oxfam. He was a Civil Society observer at the he said i pcc meeting in japan. Joining us by video stream from sweden. We welcome you all to [captioning made possible by democracy now ] democracy now can you talk about the significance of this report, how it differs from the Previous Report and the morning that represents in the world . Significant new findings is the last report seven year years ago and that we have strong evidence of, change happening all over the world both on land as well as in the oceans, which we did not have the last time around. Theres no question it is already happening and we live in a climatechanged world already. It goes on to make projections into the future and says if we continue to warm at the rate we are now, we are heading for 4 degrees or above by the end of the century, and that is a catastrophic scenario in terms of the impact. Even at a lower temperature of 2 degrees, we can still possibly manage, but there will be significant losses in certain. Arts of the world and the 2 , explain we have a global audience, but we have a lot of americans here in the 2 is more. Two degrees, rather. It is two degrees centigrade, which is over 3. 5 degrees fahrenheit. And that is the temperature threshold at which the Global Leaders in countries around the world have agreed we need to stay below that. Under which, we can probably manage with the impacts in most parts of the world. It will be difficult in some parts of the world. If we go to 4 degrees, which is where we are headed at the moment, then we will not only double but we increase by orders of magnitude the potential impact, in some cases, unpredictably. That is really what we want to avoid. What we need to be doing in the longer term is reduce emissions of the Greenhouse Gases that cause the problem so we can bring the temperature down to 2 degrees or below and not to 4 degrees, which is where we are headed. Michael oppenheimer, can you comment on what after saleemul huq said in the likely impact of a possible 4 degree change in temperature, which is where we are headed if present emissions are reduced . And also speak specifically about what this report says about the issue of Food Production and security. Than me, specifically on a couple of aspects of the report, which are important from the point of view of what will affect human beings. For the first time, we have evidence that Climate Changes we knew were happening are actually affecting the welfare of humans. Number one, crop yields, which for a long time have been growing at the rate of 10 to 15 per decade and managing to keep up with population changes and also dietary changes people eating up the food chain. Those gains have slowed in many areas have been reversed with crop yields actually decreasing in some areas will stop in fact, thanmore decreasing increasing. That is a worrisome trend. Unless there are major changes in technologies, for instance, producing genetically modified organisms or improved crops, were just going to have a growing shortfall between the demand and the supply of food. That will lead to increasing malnutrition and perhaps starvation in some areas as the decades progress in this century. The other interesting area is that human health is being directly affected. There are more cases now of people dying from heat related death related to Climate Change than our being saved by the warmer winters. We are having more heat related deaths tied to Climate Change that are benefiting the from the warmer winters. To prevent dust present a difficult task. Were sure the heat waves will increase as we go into the future. Those are just two examples of how as removed from a slightly warmer world of today to a two degrees celsius warmer world to a 4 degreed celsius warmer world. Officially, things spin out of control. Tim gore, youre with a nongovernmental organization, oxfam. Your head of the food and Climate Justice division of oxfam. Talk about what this means and where justice fits into the whole issue of Climate Change. They outline some of the heirs of the report were most concerned about, particularly, the impacts on food and hunger. Saleemul huq is right. What is different about this report is it isnt just an issue for the future. That is worrying enough. What is significant is the report is saying these impacts are happening now. We can already see the impact on crop yields. The report is clear we can already see the impacts of Climate Change on food prices. In the years since the last ipcc report was released in 2007, we have seen several instances of extreme food price volatility. Each of those has been connected in some way to