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Impeachment Managers Names, Articles Sent To Senate; U.S. And China Sings First Phase Of Trade Agreement; Russian Government Resigns As Putin Signals Major Shift; NOAA & NASA: 2019 Second Hottest Year on Record; Building the "Sussex Royal" Brand. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired January 16, 2020 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:00]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: -- on the eve of his impeachment trial. Rain is falling across Australia's southeast bringing hope of easing the bushfire emergency, but also fears of another potential disaster. And the future is now. The planet heating faster than most scientists ever predicted. And apparently ignoring the problem will not make it go away.

A solemn and grim moment in the history of the U.S. Congress on Wednesday seen only twice before. Speaker of the House, Democrat Nancy Pelosi signed the Articles of Impeachment and named managers who will act as prosecutors and set in motion the Senate trial of President Donald J. Trump.

But Pelosi refused to send the impeachment articles to the Senate for 28 days, a move which infuriated Donald Trump and frustrated Republican leaders in the upper house. She was demanding clear guidelines to how the Republicans plan to conduct the trial. What she got was a boatload of explosive new evidence against the president and renewed pressure on Republicans to allow witnesses to testify.

Donald Trump has been charged with abuse of power for allegedly pressuring Ukraine to investigate his political rival Joe Biden, and obstruction of Congress for blocking testimony and refusing to hand over documents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): May it very clear that this President will be held accountable, that no one is above the law, and that no future president should ever entertain the idea that article one -- excuse me, article two says that he can do whatever he wants.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And this was a solid moment marked with tradition and ceremony, the seven impeachment managers walk the articles across the Capitol to the Senate. CNN's Phil Mattingly explains what happens next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN U.S. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: After months of closed-door depositions, of public hearings, of House votes, of House Democrats deciding to hold on to the two articles of impeachment for a number of weeks, here's the bottom line. This is now in the Senate's court. The Senate is now responsible for two articles of impeachment and for deciding whether or not to remove the President of the United States. We'll walk through what you're going to see over the course of today.

Now, obviously yesterday, you saw the procession. Historic, somewhat dramatic, the seven impeachment managers named by speaker Nancy Pelosi, walking from the House floor physically to the United States Senate, two articles of impeachment in hand, presenting those articles and letting the Senate know that it's time for the Senate to start the impeachment trial.

What happens on Thursday is this. At noon, you're going to see a very similar procession, all seven House managers bringing those articles back over again, at which point when they reach the Senate floor, they will go to the Senate floor and start to read those two articles of impeachment.

After they're completed, right around 2:00 p.m., the Supreme Court -- the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts will come from the Supreme Court, be sworn in to preside over the Senate impeachment trial. After that, all 100 U.S. Senators will be sworn in for the trial as well.

Here's some kind of interesting tidbits to keep in mind here. These senators over the course of however many weeks this trial takes are not allowed to speak during the trial. They are not allowed to have electronics inside the Senate chamber during the -- during the trial, they are not allowed to have any type of reading material outside of the scope of the trial itself.

They are locked in and they are going to be watching the presentations from the House managers, from the President's defense team, questions from any senator that wants after that point in time. It is going to be a lengthy process. Many senators have told me they believe is going to be an arduous process, but it is a historic process nonetheless.

One of the big questions, of course, going forward is will there be enough votes to subpoena documents or to subpoena witnesses? Those questions remain unanswered. And they will likely remain unanswered until after the initial presentations and Senator questions. That is how the initial stage of the trial is going to be structured. The big question right now is how do you get to 51? A simple majority of the 100 members of Senate is all it will take to essentially dictate any which way this trial wants to go.

Democrats have made clear, they want to hear from witnesses, they want documents subpoenaed. They only control 47 seats in the chamber. That means they need at least for Republicans to join them in that effort. At this point, none have said they're there. However, four Republicans at least have opened the door to the idea of witnesses. Will they follow through with votes and who would they actually vote for to come testify? That remains an open question.

When this going to follow obviously, the ceremony, the pomp and circumstance we saw on Wednesday, we're going to see again today, and those presentations and Senator questions which should start off in earnest on Tuesday.

Obviously, a lot to watch going forward, a lot on the plate of 100 senators, but here's the key thing. It is now on their plate. It is no longer the House's ballgame. It is firmly in the camp of the United States Senate to decide whether or not to remove a president of the United States for only the third time and History of the country. Phil Mattingly, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[01:05:05]

VAUSE: Democrats say new evidence could still be presented during the trial. The House Intelligence Committee released more testimony from Lev Parnas, an indicted associated of the -- of the President's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. And it's Giuliani's efforts to meet with the Ukrainian president which seems to stand out in this new evidence as well as handwritten notes by Giuliani that he was acting with Trump's knowledge and consent.

Well, text messages suggests that Giuliani's associates had Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch under surveillance in the days and weeks before she was ousted from her position. To New Orleans now and CNN Legal Analyst Ross Garber who teaches political investigations and impeachment law at Tulane Law School. Ross, thanks for being with us.

So this apparent surveillance of the U.S. Ambassador by what a private group of wannabe spies linked to the U.S. president, it's brought a lot of criticism and condemnation. Here's an example. Democrat Elliot Engle, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, among those calling for a full investigation. So to Ambassador Yovanovitch's lawyer telling NBC News. "Needless to say, the notion that American citizens and others were monitoring Ambassador Yovanovitch's movements for unknown purposes is disturbing. We trust that the appropriate authorities will conduct an investigation to determine what happened."

That trust seems to be misplaced because the appropriate authorities, in this case, what, that's the Justice Department, William Barr, and the State Department Mike Pompeo, they're up to the next in this, which may explain why there's been a lack of action by the FBI -- FBI rather, and any other agency, right?

ROSS GARBER, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes. And it's unclear whether these folks have vetted any of this or whether they're going to vet any of it. And as you noted in the package coming into this, both Mr. Parnas and the guy who actually wrote the messages disclaim that they are real. It is a very, very bizarre -- it's a bizarre exchange. It seems like there may be something there. And one would hope that at least congressional investigators would follow up on it.

VAUSE: (AUDIO GAP) seems to be sort of the center of all of this. He clarified a few issues during an interview in a few hours ago on MSNBC like this. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RACHEL MADDOW, HOST, MSNBC: What do you think is the main inaccuracy or the main lie that's being told that you feel like you can correct?

LEV PARNAS, ASSOCIATE OF RUDY GIULIANI: That the President didn't know what was going on. President Trump knows exactly what was going on. He was aware of all my movements. He -- I wouldn't do anything without the consent of Rudy Giuliani or the president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: You know, the allegations or the statements which are coming from Parnas, that they are stunning, they are shocking, but they're not essentially new. They're sort of new points of light or stars which have been discovered in an existing constellation you know, adding to the story but not writing new chapters.

GARBER: Yes. And, and so far, a lot of the allegations are quite broad, which isn't surprising. I mean, there was a trove of documents that has, you know, just been released over the past couple of days. We expect we're going to see more document dumps related to Mr. Parnas. And I think we're going to see this part of the story developed.

We haven't heard this much from Mr. Parnas before. He had a lot that he's sort of, you know, (INAUDIBLE) to say in that interview. A lot of it was quite general. A lot of it was how he felt, what he thought. And now the question is, are there going to be specifics to back that up? Can he identify other potential witnesses? Can he identify other documents? But he did make some, you know, quite bold allegations.

VAUSE: What's interesting is if you listen to that interview he did on MSNBC and read some of the testimony, it does cut through a lot of the smoke and the haze, which was created by the Republican lawmakers during the impeachment hearings in December. Again, listen to Parnas in that interview with Rachel Maddow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PARNAS: It was all about Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and also Rudy had a personal thing with the Manafort stuff, the black ledger. That was another thing that they were looking into. But it was never about corruption, it was never -- it was strictly about Burisma which included Hunter Biden and Joe Biden.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And I guess there may be some questions about credibility, character, that kind of stuff. But you know, when you listen to that sort of statement where it's just lay it all out there, a man with direct knowledge, directly involved, how much harder will it be for Republicans now not to allow witnesses like Parnas to appear before the impeachment trial? GARBER: Yes, I think we're going to have to see how this plays out over the next few days. Just that interview, I don't think that moves the ball very much. I'm not sure that's going to change any Republican lawmaker's minds about witnesses.

I think it's going to be sort of the overall picture about whether after everything we already know, whether witnesses who are Republicans -- and remember we're talking about a small group of moderate Republicans in states that have Republicans and Democrats voters, whether that small group think that there's enough additional information that it might actually sway some people or that their constituents, the people who live in their states will say that a fair trial hasn't happened unless you start hearing from some of those witnesses.

And we're talking about, for example, the National Security Advisor, John Bolton, and somebody like Lev Parnas. And as the impeachment managers, the prosecutors from the House noted today, there are a lot of documents that still haven't been turned over to Congress.

[01:10:36]

VAUSE: And Congress already has a lot of documents if Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is accurate. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): There's a tremendous volume of documents and materials that Mr. Parnas has turned over to us. We are still going through them all because there's such a great volume.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: You know, There has been this mount of evidence which has been uncovered in recent days. He made that point. 28 days since Trump was impeached, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi delayed sending the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate, at the time, no one knew it could play out like this but, boy, this was a high stakes gamble which paid off for Democrats, right?

GARBER: Yes. So you know, the Speaker, what she said she was trying to get was an agreement from the Senate Leader, the Senate Republican Leader on what the rules for the trial would be, and specifically allowing witnesses. She said she was holding the articles to try to get that agreement.

She didn't succeed in that, their stated goal. But you're exactly right, there's been this benefit. And you know, it's possible -- it's possible that the Speaker knew this might happen all along, because what was happening was Lev Parnas and a couple of other guys had been indicted. The government has seized his cell phone and other records. And what the House was waiting on was permission by the by -- the prosecutors to give this information to the House which just came in the past few days.

So whether it was intentional or not, it did turn out that that delay, in some ways did help the Speaker and the House Democrats.

VAUSE: Ross, we'll leave it there. Ross Garber, thank you very much for being with us. We appreciate it.

GARBER: Good to be with you.

VAUSE: After almost two years of at times bitter negotiations, Washington and Beijing have signed phase one of a new trade deal. This is effectively a ceasefire in a trade war which has been felt around the world hitting global GDP as well as stock markets while much of the cost of terrorist has been paid for by American consumers, businesses, and farmers.

While both sides have agreed to a number of concessions, the real hot difficult issues have been left for stage two. Here's Clare Sebastian.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it took more than 18 months tariffs on more than $360 billion worth of Chinese imports and a $28 billion taxpayer bailout of U.S. farmers. But the U.S. and China have now reached a truce in their trade war. President Trump is speaking just as impeachment proceedings continued on Capitol Hill, was it pays to present this as a watershed moment?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I actually think I more than kept my promise. Now our efforts have yielded a transformative deal that will bring tremendous benefits to both countries.

SEBASTIAN: Well, this doesn't actually end the trade war. Tariffs remain in place on hundreds of billions dollars' worth of goods on both sides. And that isn't set to change anytime soon. The U.S. has though cut in half the tariff rate on the latest round from September, and it's holding off on any more tariffs for now.

Now in return, there are some concrete steps from China. Beijing has agreed to buy $200 billion worth of additional U.S. goods over the next two years, including more than $30 billion worth of agricultural goods, something the president of the U.S. Farm Bureau called an important step.

It also agreed to step up legal protection of intellectual property rights and stop forcing U.S. companies to transfer their technology to Chinese companies. That has been a big concern to U.S. tech companies. And there's a commitment from China to open Its market to U.S. financial services companies.

Now, none of this matters, of course, if the agreements can't be enforced. As part of this deal, they will set up a bilateral dispute resolution system. And experts have pointed out that could raise questions, because it means the two sides will adjudicate disputes with no neutral third party.

And then, of course, what's missing from here, any substantive discussion of China's industrial policy, specifically its subsidies for state-owned companies which prevent a level playing field for foreign companies. That, of course, is at the heart of this trade dispute. Now, this is phase one, the big question is what comes next?

TRUMP: We're going to be starting phase two. As soon as this kicks in, we'll be starting phase two. We're leaving tariffs on which people are shocked but this is great, but I will agree to take those tariffs off if we are able to do phase two.

SEBASTIAN: Well, there's no timeline to phase two, but this does at least for the moment, lift some of the uncertainty for U.S. businesses. Clare Sebastian, CNN, New York.

[01:15:06]

VAUSE: Let's go to Beijing now live. David Culver joins us. OK, so some of the uncertainties out but there is still a lot of uncertainty still to be resolved. And that's the interesting part. This stage two which may not be looked at until after the 2020 election in the U.S. And that's going to be the hard part.

DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's going to be incredibly difficult, John. And the reality is, folks here realize that. These are the deeper structural issues. Namely, the one that comes up is the subsidies that go to state-owned businesses here in China.

So as of now, there's simply breathing a sigh of relief that phase one has been inked. This is the 80-plus pages. I can tell you, it's also been translated now into Chinese and so it's been published and put out publicly here as well. It was also interesting to see how this was handled from a media perspective because this is not being portrayed necessarily as a U.S. win.

Certainly, China does not want to give the impression as though they had to cave in and give more concessions than the U.S. did. It's not being portrayed as a China win here, but they're saying this is a win, win, win. That is to say, it's a win for the U.S., a win for China, and a win for the global community. That's how its portrayed.

Vice-Premier, Liu He when he was in Washington for that signing, he invoked the words of President Xi Jinping, write a letter that said, essentially, this is a good thing for everyone in the world. But it was also interesting in that letter, John, that the president here in China made mention of his intention for U.S. entities to treat Chinese businesses fairly.

He also went on saying that China will open its doors wider in the future. And he stressed that he hopes that the U.S. will foster exchanges when it comes to education, and research institutions. A lot of that seems to be a knock at recent restrictions and tighter controls when it comes to visas for Chinese nationals in the U.S. So this was an opportunity for the President here in China to deliver those remarks via his vice-premier.

Going forward, of course, their structural issues are going to be the bigger problems. But it's also going to be remained to be seen as to how the economy here in China is going to fare with phase one. Because it seems like the downturn that they have been experiencing over the past year or so, in particular, has been mostly blamed on the issues with the ongoing trade war.

Now that phase one has been signed and this has been settled somewhat, China is going to have to look at other ways to remedy their economic woes. And so that's something that President Xi and the leadership here in China knows very well but they're going to have to move forward with because many eyes are going to be watching and quite frankly, the Chinese people, consumer confidence has seemed seemingly weekend here. They're going to be watching closely to see how their country handles this moving forward.

But also worth noting, it may have been that more people here in China, John, watch that signing live because they broke into state broadcasting CCTV with a special report, while many of the U.S. networks were focused on the impeachment process and the hearing going on there. Here they were watching the signing live as it was happening.

VAUSE: And that's something they don't like to do that often because of the unpredictability of it. So yes, it's how important this was to the --

CULVER: Absolutely.

VAUSE: David, thanks so much. I appreciate you being with us. Still ahead here, Russia's Prime Minister and his cabinet have resigned, triggered by Vladimir Putin's announcement of constitutional reforms. And for that, re-cementing his hold on power.

A blessing and possibly a curse. This rain begins to fall across Australia's southeast. The bushfires have been burning out of control, but they could be trading one disaster for another.

[01:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN INTERNATIONAL METEOROLOGIST: Connected weather pattern development across the Americas. I'm Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri, CNN Weather Watch. And notice into the northern tier of the United States, the cold air has already filtered in. Quick disturbance pushing off the northeastern coastline and plenty of wet weather under muggy conditions into the southern United States.

So the pattern again for just about everyone remains interesting over the next couple of days and the mild temperatures that have been in place also begin to depart out of the forecast as well. And in fact, by say Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, potentially the coldest air of the season lines up across parts of the Midwestern U.S., the southern U.S., and into the Northeast as well. So we'll watch the forecast trend depart here very quickly.

In Minneapolis, 15 below to start off your forecast, eventually ends up right around that range by Sunday and then further still drops off into the lower mid-teens there. And notice in Chicago, minus 10. That's the forecast high by Sunday afternoon. New York City will see a drop. Record temps of course, have been experienced. In the Northeastern United States, double-digit readings were in place. All of that going to be a thing of the past here when you look at the forecast.

And snow showers now possible in New York. Flurries at best there we think on Saturday afternoon. Highs around three degrees and then notice next week staying well below average, minus one for an afternoon high there for parts and much of next week into that region. San Francisco some rain and some wind, highs there on 12.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: He's been president, prime minister, president again. So what's left for a Russian strong man who's not ready for the autocrat's retirement village. Well, in the case of Vladimir Putin, the answer might just be changed the constitution ahead of 2024 when he's prevented from running for office again. We have more now from CNN's Fred Pleitgen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Some pretty big political changes happening here in Russia as the entire government of the country has stepped down, and Vladimir Putin is in the process of naming a new one. Essentially what happened is that Vladimir Putin held his State of the Union address on Wednesday.

And in that state of the union address, he said that he is in favor of changes to the Constitution of this country, which essentially would weaken the Office of the President, but make the Office of Prime Minister and also the parliament much stronger.

Now, there are some here who are speculating that this might be Vladimir Putin, setting the stage for 2024 when he said to step down from office because he would have once again reaches term limit, and then possibly looking for a new role for himself, some saying maybe he's eyeing of becoming Prime Minister again.

That's unclear at this point in time, but essentially what Vladimir Putin said is he would like to see an amendment to Russia's constitution that would allow the parliament's to pick the prime minister and then for the prime minister to pick his own cabinet, and for the President to essentially have to sign off on all those moves but essentially not having very much power anymore.

After that announcement or after that speech by Vladimir Putin, the entire cabinet of Dmitry Medvedev and Medvedev himself resigned. Medvedev is saying that because of the constitutional changes and the shift in the balance of power, he feels that he needs to give Vladimir Putin a clean slate to pick a new government.

Vladimir Putin accepted that resignation and then very quickly came up with a successor to Medvedev who will -- who is currently the head of Russia's Federal Tax Service, someone who's not really very well known here in Russia at all. What Vladimir Putin ever did say is that he's going to speak to all current members of the cabinet who are all still in their offices in a caretaker role and see whether or not they could have a role in the future governments to come.

So big political changes happening here in Russia, and it really looks as though Vladimir Putin could be on the verge of really extending the time that he has influenced here in Russia beyond 2024. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[01:25:05]

VAUSE: Much needed rain is falling across Australia southeast bringing hope that maybe some of the fires burning out of control may be the very least contained. But with the rain comes lightning and that brings fears of new fires. The weather though has improved the air quality in Melbourne, the qualifying matches for the Australian Open are underway.

So CNN's Will Ripley joins us now live from Melbourne. And you know, what you had in Melbourne as a city that's obviously used to bad weather, is getting used to this bad air quality. I guess it must be a sort of palpable relief there that heavy layer of gray has been lifted.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It's wonderful to see the blue skies here today, John, obviously. I think the big question on a lot of people's minds is how long can this last given the fact that firefighters have specifically warned everybody not to get their hopes up too much about containment when the rain that fell while it was significant and it's created these nice -- these nice clear day, there's cooler temperatures, the air quality here is certainly improved from the hazardous levels that we saw just a couple of days ago and yet, it's simply not enough.

It's not enough to slow the spread of these fires. Firefighters have been able to make some progress. They went from defensive to offensive mode for the first time in months just this week. But the lightning strikes also spark more fires and rains brought down trees in areas that are burned out, making conditions and terrain very difficult for the firefighters and also raising fears that once temperatures inevitably shoot back up again, because keep in mind it is the dead of summer here that more fires could spark. And the winds that are giving us a nice break here in Melbourne right now could also blow more smoke back into this city in the coming days.

In fact, the air quality forecast is expected to deteriorate significantly over the weekend. And you're talking about two weeks of tennis play here, two weeks where the weather is going to change. You might have days like this, and you might have days like the one that we saw a few days ago with hazardous air quality, the worst air quality in the world right here in Melbourne causing flights to be canceled, including the flight just before ours when we were flying in, it was canceled. The 10:30 flight was canceled, we got on the 11th, and somehow we were able to make it in. So it really is touch and go. There are some athletes here sounding

off. They're angry that they were allowed to play outside and those conditions. One of the tennis players on Twitter said, why did the City of Melbourne tell people to keep their pets inside and yet organizers of the tournament said it was safe for us to play.

And frankly, those concerns aren't really going to be going away anytime soon given that the forecast calls for obviously more fires burning and very likely more smoke to fill the air in the skies of this city.

VAUSE: Well the Aussie Open does have a reputation for being very tough on players but yes, treating them worse than pets seems a little extreme. Will, thank you. Will Ripley live for us in Melbourne. Let's go to Pedram Javaheri, our meteorologist for more on the forecast here.

OK. So you know, we heard a little bit from Will about where the rain fell. This is where you know, where it didn't fall, weather wasn't required now. So what are we looking at?

JAVAHERI: You know, the immediate future is pretty good. This is as good as we've seen it for quite some time across parts of Melbourne, John. Air quality is in the good scale. It's in the green category. We do have an onshore influence, plenty of rainfall here, and in fact, more rainfall over the next three to five days across the region.

But you kind of take a look at what has been happening here and it really has to do with the direction of the winds. Right now, they're coming right off of the ocean. Of course, that happens you have a marine influence, temperatures drop. And of course, we've had rainfall, but there's no smoke coming in from that direction.

Once the winds shift, and they will certainly shift inside the next week or so, you'll get more of an inland influence where smoke and haze and big-time heat returns back into the forecast. So the air quality is pretty good right now. You know, studies countless times have shown when it comes to air pollutants getting into your lungs, they decrease lung function, they reduce blood flow.

This is why athletes are very much concerned about this and you think it's tougher to spectators but spectators, in fact, intake much less O2, much less oxygen in a matter of one minute than an athlete does. When you're resting, you're only in taking 12 liters of oxygen per minute. When you're exercising, you increased that by about eight times to up to 100 liters of oxygen per minute.

So that really kind of speaks to why this is such a big deal for folks there thinking about participating in the Australian Open. But the fire is still in place, rainfall though, inside the next couple of days on top of these fires, so again, good news in that sense. But John, I'll leave you with this. Look at this forecast. Look at the rain in the cooler temperatures. And look where we end up this time next week. Well above average, big-time heat, sunny skies, so it will be back. VAUSE: Yes, that's the sad part, I guess, for a while to come. Pedram,

thank you. Well, when the history of the human race is written, it might just come down to one line. They were the architects of their own demise. Will explain why in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:33:06]

VAUSE: Thank you for staying with us -- everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.

Over the past year or so, amid all the grim and depressing news about a warming planet, there has been almost one consistent trend. The climate models and predictions which scientists made years ago about the fate of our planet have been overly optimistic, which means we're much worst off now than even some of the worst case scenarios.

According to U.S. climate scientists, 2019 was the second hottest year on earth in recorded history. Global temperatures were nearly 1 degree Celsius warmer than what they were between 1951 and 1980. And that's bringing our climate horrifically (ph) to a critical threshold.

Scientists warn if we do not change our ways and continue to release heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, we are likely to suffer deadly wildfires, floods, plus food shortages and a whole lot of other stuff that we don't even want to think about at this point.

Joining me now volcanologist and geologist, Jess Phoenix in Los Angeles. Ok. It's good to see you, I guess.

(CROSSTALKING)

JESS PHOENIX, VOLCANOLOGIST AND GEOLOGIST: You, too -- John.

VAUSE: Ok. Here's a headline from CNN. It was a real attention-grabber on Monday. "Oceans are warming at the same rate as if five Hiroshima bombs were dropped in every second." You know if that doesn't indicate a global emergency then nothing does.

And if only this problem could be solved by hand-wringing and (INAUDIBLE) clutching and words of concern, we'd all be fine.

Here's part of a statement from NASA, which I found especially troubling. "We crossed over into more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit warming territory in 2015. And we are unlikely to go back. This shows that what's happening is persistent, not a fluke, due to some weather phenomenon."

The fact is they had to prove that last a bit about -- no, this is real, guys. This is a real emergency. This is not a fluke. This isn't bad weather.

Because of the climate deniers and the skeptics, it just seems so depressing at this point.

[01:34:47]

PHOENIX: Yes. It's really difficult when we've got such a global scale crisis that we knew was coming -- we've known about since the 1800s. And yet we still have people who are working to actively spread disinformation about the reality that we're seeing via all of the data that we have available.

So this isn't some giant thing that we're trying to hide or conceal. There is no conspiracy here. This is just facts, plain and simple.

VAUSE: Yes. And the facts are that if you look at all the forecast and the climate models, you know, they have just been overly optimistic about how fast the planet would warm and not in a small way.

You know "The Guardian" reported this week, you know, the future is now. Australian bush fires are harbinger of the planet's future, say scientists.

You know, I said there was at least one study. I think it was 12 years ago which was remarkably prescient. It was a danger that Australia was facing. Part of it read, "Fire seasons will start earlier and slightly later and generally will be more intense. The affect increases over time but should be directly observable by 2020."

But the point here is even if the models were 100 percent accurate, it would have made no difference to many of the politicians or the oil and fuel industry, you know, the fossil fuels -- the deniers of reality, we'd still be where we are.

PHOENIX: Yes. And that's a real shame because people are putting their personal financial interest over the greater good. And because of that a lot of people and a lot of animals around the world are going to suffer. And generations are going to feel this.

This is not something that is simply confined to when the fossil fuel lobbies finally shut their doors and go green and sustainable. This is something that is going to persist for decades and decades, and potentially even hundreds of years.

That humanity -- all of us are going to have to deal with. So it's really up to the people who understand the science, and who are listening to the science to make the change. And if we have to drag the deniers kicking and screaming with us, that's what we're going to do.

VAUSE: And politics plays such a huge role in all of this. Here's part of an op-ed from former Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull. "These fires show that the wicked, self-destructive idiocy of climate denialism must stop. The world must drastically cut its greenhouse-gas emissions. Above all we have to urgently stop burning coal and other fossil fuels."

You know, Turnbull's conservative party turned on him over his support for what were very minor, legally mandated reductions in the use of fossil fuels. His time as prime minister came to an abrupt end and the man who took his place seems to personify Turnbull's words of the wicked, self-destructive idiocy of climate denialism.

Here's Scott Morrison in parliament in 2017. He was treasurer at the time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT MORRISON, PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA: This is coal. Don't be afraid. Don't be scare.

(CROSSTALKING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The treasurer -- the treasurer knows the rule on (INAUDIBLE).

MORRISON: This coal, it was dug up by men and women who work and live in the electric of those who sit opposite.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And this is a prime minister that despite the emergency which is confronting his nation is still refusing to embrace, you know, the reasons for that emergency, which is climate change.

Tell me this, for some politicians, is the lure of short term gain, the (INAUDIBLE) of defeating an opponent -- is it just too hard to resist even in the midst of a crisis like the one we're facing?

PHOENIX: I think that is a huge part of it. It's really the need to retain power at any cost. And you know, I have a little bit of a unique perspective because I've worked in coal mining in Australia. And that was a long time ago -- that was under Gillard.

But I saw firsthand how many people depend on the fossil fuel industry there. And without major government support to transition to green and renewable energy, a lot of those folks feel like they're going to be left behind.

So it's really essential that governments act to help the transition to different types of work that are going to give us fuel for years to come and not cling to dying industries like coal, and other fossil fuels.

VAUSE: Yes, it's one of those things that if the governments do not act, at the U.S. level, or you know, Australia, or other countries, you know. Then it really is a treacherous path for all of us.

But Jess -- on that heavy note, we'll leave it there but thank you for being with us.

PHOENIX: Yes. Thank you -- John.

VAUSE: Well, still to come here, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are expanding their personal brand but putting their royal name on the merchandise, so that's crossing a disrespectful (ph) line. Easier said than done, apparently. More when we come back.

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VAUSE: (INAUDIBLE) back as a senior royal may all be well and good but also comes with a price. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle say they will go out and earn their own money.

But as CNN's Anna Stewart tells us mixing that desire with the potential profits of their world famous name, could be difficult.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There are some things money can't buy -- love, happiness and a royal title. Although a royal title has the potential to rake in millions of dollars.

Helpful for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex who say they want to work towards being financially independent. Speaking engagements from Brookfield (ph) could be lucrative. So could their Instagram page. With over 10 million followers, it could be easily monetized with brand partnership.

But PR specialist Mark Borkowski (ph) expects the Sussexes to tread carefully. First strike (ph) from some form of rights deal with a tech giant, by Netflix or Apple

MARK BORKOWSKI, PR SPECIALIST: You possibly could compare them to the Kardashians. The Kardashians through their ability to use the media and use their brand efficiently with television packages and content (INAUDIBLE) -- that's worth a billion.

But to see them doing commercials for the milk marketing boards or McDonald's or Pepsi, I think we're in dangerous territory, if he goes there (ph). So I don't think we'll be seeing those sort of deals unless they are really desperate.

STEWART: Fans can buy royal merchandise online. The proceeds of which support the royal collections, the nation's art collection held in trust by the Queen. It doesn't go into her personal coffers.

There are also official shops near the palace. Or fans can head to one of the many unofficial shops down the road, where there's whole range of products. We have a Prince Harry bubble head here. Many varieties of royal cream cheese (ph). And here we actually have a tea towel that celebrates the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Now there's speculation that an special range of Sussex royal products could come on to the market since the couple applied for a global trademark days before their shock announcement.

SALLY BRITTON, PARTNER, MISCHON DE RAY: I think they set more aligned to the modern celebrities. You can see their Instagram. You can see their Web site. It's a very kind of slick campaign in a way so they distinguish themselves form other royals in the fact that they filed these applications, filed the (INAUDIBLE). They like the set that has much more of a commercial organization. STEWART: The groundwork for a commercial exercise has been laid. But

marrying that with the couple's royal status will be a delicate balancing act. The desire for financial independence on one hand, the royal family's approval and public sentiment on the other.

Anna Stewart, CNN -- London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM.

I'm John Vause.

"WORLD SPORT" is next.

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(WORLD SPORT)

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