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Earth Marks Grim Milestone With 12 Straight Months Of Record Heat; Italian Court Upholds Amanda Knox's Slander Conviction; Boeing's Starliner Lifts Off On First-Ever Crewed Voyage. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired June 05, 2024 - 13:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[13:30:12]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Scientists say our planet has reached a devastating new milestone, 12 consecutive months of unprecedented heat.

It's a dangerous trend that could lead to catastrophic weather events, like life-threatening heatwaves, severe droughts, extreme flooding, and out-of-control wildfires.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Today, the U.N. secretary-general made an impassioned plea to world leaders to take drastic action within the next 18 months or risk a bleak future.

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ANTONIO GUTIERRES, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: We are playing Russian Roulette with our planet. And we need an exit ramp off the highway to climate hell. Meanwhile, the godfathers of climate chaos, the fossil fuel industry, is breaking record profits, and trillions in taxpayer funded subsidies.

We must secure the safest possible future for people and planet. That means taking urgent action, particularly over the next 18 months to slash emissions, to protect people and nature from climate extremes, to boost climate finance, and to clamp down on the fossil fuel industry.

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KEILAR: And joining us now to talk about this point that we're at, we have Bill Nye, The Science Guy.

And, Bill, today happens to be World Environment Day, but really, we're here on this highway to climate hell. Just put this into perspective for us. How bad is it?

BILL NYE, THE SCIENCE GUY: Well, it's only getting worse and worse, everybody. It's -- the latest research is that there is not going to be this mythic tipping point or turning point or point of no return. Instead, things are just going to get hotter and hotter and worse and worse. And while this is easy to say, what are we going to do about it? Well,

I, as you know was born in the U.S. I grew up in the U.S. and so my perspective may be strongly influenced by that.

But I claim the United States has to be in the lead. The United States has to lead the world in addressing global climate change. In order to do that, we have to reduce our emissions and come up with new ways to provide electricity to more and more people around the world.

These are easy things to say but difficult things to do. The longest journey begins with but a single-step. So let's go.

SANCHEZ: Bill, to that point, and this isn't really a question about politics, but it does involve politics when you are talking about the U.S. leading when there's so much disagreement among leaders on Capitol Hill about whether climate change is something that needs to be addressed as urgently as some scientists are calling for it to be addressed.

I'm wondering what your message is to those folks that are still skeptical?

NYE: Well, I would say, of course, listen to the scientists. But also listen to your constituents. The same states that are being -- being affected today by very, very hot temperatures and very unpleasant living conditions when it's hot and humid are the people that are going to vote.

And so this will -- sooner or later, they're going to vote for people that are going to address climate change. It's especially true in the U.S. south, in the Sunbelt and in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, where you have these ocean states dealing with rising sea levels and -- and increasing hot -- increasingly hot and humid conditions.

And big storms and, of course, now fires on top of all that. These are all things that have been predicted by scientists, you know, with today's climate -- environment.

The United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has made these predictions. The predictions are coming true. So let's get to work, people.

And as you point out, you wouldn't think it would be a political issue. You wouldn't think it would be a red or a blue thing. You think, right, like let's face this problem, people, and get to work.

And so I think this election, this coming election is really going to be a turning point. We're going to have to decide what we're going to do as a nation to address climate change.

KEILAR: Bill, the secretary-general was talking a lot about that Paris climate threshold of a 1.5 degree Celsius increase. And he says the difference between 1.5 and two could really be the difference between extinction and survival for some parts of the world.

I wonder what you say when there's this sense, I think, among some people of there's an inevitability, maybe -- you know, we can do everything that we want to try to fix this but some country, China, India, someone over there isn't going to get on board. And this is just going to happen.

[13:35:14]

I mean, what is -- what is your message to that kind of mindset?

NYE: Well right now, the term of part is doomist. The doomists. Got no time for it, people. Cut the hand-wringing. Let's go. Let's have the U.S. lead.

You know, ironically, or a point of remarkable interest, China, the Chinese industries are leading the world and producing renewable electricity sources, solar panels, solar hot water systems, electric vehicles, and so on.

And the reason everybody -- the reason we're advocating for electric vehicles is because we've created all these roads. We have all this vehicle infrastructure. So we got to use it.

It's not that electric vehicles are some sort of panacea to the problem, but we have all these roads, we're going to use them. Let's use them as efficiently as possible. That's the whole electric vehicle idea.

So the United States has to lead. And so let's get started. This -- with respect, whining about what other countries are or not doing is important, but it is not what will motivate global change.

When it gets too hot, you can't live. You can't -- a human can't get rid of enough heat to survive. So we're going to have to make changes. And what we want to do is make changes as quickly as possible.

So that as few people as possible have to move because we're going to have these displaced populations. Where are they going to go? What are they going to do? We've been talking about this for a long time.

So everybody, two things you can do about climate change, talk about it, and I'm not kidding. We were talking about climate change. We were talking about these other important issues. We'd be getting to work.

And the second thing, everybody, is vote. Vote with the climate in mind, with the environment in mind. This is true for people in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, people in North America. We can make these changes. Let's go.

KEILAR: All right. And with respect, no whining, says Bill Nye.

Always great to get your perspective, Bill.

Thank you so much for being with us.

NYE: (INAUDIBLE)

KEILAR: All right. Still to come, nearly a decade after being acquitted of killing her roommate, Amanda Knox returns to Italy for another court hearing. This time it's for a slander conviction. What the court ruled and what it means for her.

And safari scare. A giraffe snatches a toddler during a drive through a wildlife excursion. We have details next on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[13:42:49]

KEILAR: In Italy this morning, Amanda Knox tried and failed to wipe away one last charge stemming from the infamous murder case that thrust her into the international spotlight back in 2007.

The now 36-year-old returned to court in Florence to ask that a slander conviction be removed from her records. But the court refused.

SANCHEZ: CNN's Paula Newton has covered this legal saga extensively over the years.

So, Paula, walk us through this slander conviction.

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It's been really interesting ,through more than 15 years, can you believe it, of legal ups and downs here. And Amanda Knox really went into that courtroom in Florence today believing that she would be vindicated.

She was not. And in fact, was far too distraught even to speak to media, according to her lawyer.

What did this entail? A reminder here, she was found innocent after being found guilty after spending four years in prison in Italy. She was found innocent in 2011 and then completely exonerated by an Italian court in 2015. That was in relation to the murder of Meredith Kercher.

But there was that charge of slander against her former boss, Patrick Lumba. That charge of slander stood.

And in 2019, a European Court of Human Rights said that, in fact, when she implicated this man, a man who was proven to be completely innocent, he was day in custody, but had nothing to do with this crime, when she implicated him, the European court ruled that, look, she did it under duress, under hours of questioning from police without a lawyer, without a translator.

And for that reason, they reverted it back to Italian courts. Well, unfortunately, the Italian courts had their say today, that is for Amanda Knox.

I want to point out here that many innocents were ensnared in this entire thing, but none more so than the family of Meredith Kercher, right? The exchange student, who was murdered.

And every time this comes up again, her family really does not have any piece of justice. One man was convicted of crime, he was set free in 2021 - Brianna, Boris?

KEILAR: All right. Paula Newton, thank you so much for following that for us.

SANCHEZ: We want to look now at some of the other headlines we're watching this hour.

A new look at national wastewater data suggests that the H5N1 bird flu outbreak in dairy cattle is largely contained to states that have already been reporting affected herds.

[13:45:08]

Most detections were found in Texas and Michigan. However, some detections also appeared in Minnesota and Iowa where no known dairy herds are infected.

And a Texas toddler is recovering after a giraffe picks her up out of her parent's car during a drive through safari.

Watch this.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, huh.

JASON TUTAN, PAISLEY'S FATHER: Paisley was holding the bag like this. And the giraffe went to get the bag, not get her, but ended up getting her shirt, too, and picked her up. My heart stopped. My stomach dropped.

It was -- it scared me.

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SANCHEZ: Yes, a frightening moment for sure.

Thankfully, as soon as her mom yelled, the giraffe drops Paisley, as you saw there in the video. She's doing just fine.

Our affiliate, KWTX, reports that she even got her own toy giraffe out of the whole ordeal, another trip to the gift shop, successful.

KEILAR: Oh, that scared me.

Today, on the Senate floor, Republican Senator Ted Cruz paid tribute to CNN political commentator, allice Stewart, who passed away on May 18th. Stewart served as communications director for Cruz's presidential campaign back in 2016.

Here's how he honored her memory.

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SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): I was very lucky to have her on my team. Alice fought passionately for me on the campaign trail. She was a joy to be around, always smiling, both personally and professionally. Politics can be a harsh arena. But Alice engaged with a light touch.

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KEILAR: Those are words I think many people connect with when it comes to Alice Stewart. She was just 58-years-old.

We'll be right back.

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[13:51:34]

KEILAR: The third time appears to be the charm for NASA's historic crewed test flight. After two scrubs, Boeing's Starliner mission successfully launched its maiden voyage to the International Space Station with two veteran NASA astronauts aboard.

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SANCHEZ: These launches are always so cool to look at. This marks only the sixth inaugural journey of a crewed spacecraft in U.S. history, the first time a woman, astronaut, Suni Williams, has been on a test flight of an orbital spacecraft.

Let's talk about this historic moment with retired colonel, Astronaut Chris Hadfield. He's also the author of the novel, "The Defector."

Thanks so much for being with us, Colonel.

This is coming, obviously is a tremendous moment for spaceflight in general. We're seeing a lot of competition across different types of launches and different organizations. How do you feel about what we saw today?

COL. CHRIS HADFIELD, RETIRED, FORMER ASTRONAUT: No, I think it's a great step of proven capability. And that's really important.

I mean, as you say, it's been a huge week. China landed on the other side of the moon this week, and just blasted off over of the moon with a robot, which still, bringing a sample back.

A rocket lab down in New Zealand just launched a NASA payload up into orbit to monitor the earths health. And tomorrow, SpaceX is launching Starship on its fourth test flight.

So I mean, it's a huge week for what can happen when we all put our minds together and try and do hard things. But this, specifically, getting a new human-rated vehicle with two friends of mine onboard safely into orbit and on the way to the space station, that's a whole new kind of step of capability for the United States. And I'm really pleased to see it.

KEILAR: All right. Tell us about these folks. Tell us about your friends.

HADFIELD: Suni Williams, her full first name is Sanita. And then Butch Wilmore, I think his full name is Barry, but I've never called him Barry in my whole life.

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HADFIELD: They we're both test -- they were both test pilots in the Navy. Butch flew F-18s, Suni flew helicopters. So experienced operational pilots and then they trained and worked as test pilots.

Actually, I flew with Butch at Pax River. And then they've both been astronauts for a long time. And they've been helping to invent and make this flight -- spaceflight safe today for, gosh, a better part of a decade.

So this enormous pyramid of life, of them gaining skills and competence, building their own personal lives around being the type of person that could be trusted to fly a brand-new spaceship.

And taking a huge risk. No one's ever flown this rocket before. And successfully executing it. Big kudos to the people that built the rocket. People that built the spaceship, but especially to Butch and Suni onboard.

SANCHEZ: And, Colonel, to the point of this being a new space craft, how important is it for Boeing to succeed as it tries to rival Space X?

HADFIELD: Well, you know, rival, that's a fun way to look at it. And people like competition. But there are almost no vehicles anywhere in the world that can take people to space, or almost none.

[13:55:03]

And so if you're one of the very few countries or coming companies that can build a vehicle that can safely take people to space and back, you're in the elite of the elite of technological capability.

And as we move now from living on the space station to 23 years or sending a mission to the moon late next year with four people on board, we're laying the groundwork for not just exploring the moon but settling the mountain. I mean, all that's happening right now.

And so to have another vehicle that can safely take people to orbit and back, I mean, you can stage it as a competition, but what it is, is a step function that's almost unprecedented of all of human history.

And everybody who's been working on it, tens of thousands of people, can feel a lot of satisfaction today.

KEILAR: Yes, we're in an exciting new era here.

And, Chris, thank you so much for talking with us about it. Chris Hadfield, we appreciate it. HADFIELD: Thanks Brianna. Thanks, Boris. Good to chat with you.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

KEILAR: The White House and Democrats are defending President Biden against a "Wall Street Journal" report that claims the president is slipping mentally as he gets older. We're going to speak with one of the reporters who is behind the article after a quick break.

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