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Record Breaking Heat Wave Sears Europe; Biden to Announce Steps to Combat Climate Change amid Energy Shortages Worldwide and Extreme Heat; E.U.'s Energy Plan Minus Russia; Going Green. Aired 10-10:40a ET
Aired July 20, 2022 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST (voice-over): As a deadly heat wave engulfs Europe and the United States, will the U.S. President declare a national
climate emergency?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in France the temperatures reached 105 degrees. Difficult enough for Paris, which is not accustomed to such
extreme temperatures, but down in the southwest of France, the impact has been far more devastating.
ANDERSON (voice-over): In Europe, north to south, raging fire is causing death and destruction, forcing tens of thousands to evacuate their homes.
And.
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URSULA VAN DER LEYEN, PRESIDENT, EUROPEAN COMMISSION: We are asking the member states to reduce by 15 percent the gas consumption.
ANDERSON (voice-over): The European Union draws up a gas rationing plan in the event that Russia decides to cut supplies.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: It's 3 pm in London. I'm Becky Anderson. Hello and welcome to CONNECT THE WORLD. This hour, we're going to do a deep dive on how climate
crisis is fueling extreme weather and the impact that is having on our global energy system at a time of real crisis.
Why?
Well, today, much of the world, it seems, is on fire. The Northern Hemisphere is sweltering in a miserable vision of future life seared by
climate change. Heat records are outpacing cool ones by more than 10:1. This has been a week of unwelcome firsts.
On Tuesday, the U.K. roasted through its hottest day ever, setting off a surge of fires in the London area, some spreading to homes in southern and
Western Europe. Wildfires continue to rage in Spain and are finally beginning to stall somewhat in France.
Paris says 25 times more French land has burned this year than during the same period in 2021. We've got team coverage.
Nina dos Santos is about 15 miles from the central London where firefighters face one of their toughest days of her and Barbie Nadeau was
standing by for us in Rome with perspective on how Italy and the wider Europe is coping.
So listen, let's start with you, Nina, because record heat in the U.K. is more than uncomfortable. Despite the fact that the heat is somewhat reduced
today, it has been very dangerous, in a country whose infrastructure was built for what is a green and pleasant land. Just explain what sort of
impact this extreme weather is having.
NINA DOS SANTOS, CNNMONEY EUROPE EDITOR: This extreme weather was a nightmare for commuters yesterday because they were so concerned,
authorities warned that the rail tracks could actually buckle under the weight of trains, that nobody was going anywhere across much of the
country.
Parts of the tarmac at the airport near London started to buckle and had to be mended. And there was this specter of dangerous wildfires that cropped
up throughout the course of the days. The mercury continue to rise toward that record of 40.3 degrees Celsius.
The London fire brigade has now done the tally of how many calls they received. They had to deal with 2,670 calls yesterday, making it the
busiest day for the fire brigade since World War II.
The mayor of London and the fire brigade both took to the airwaves earlier on today, saying that they had managed to stamp out all of the blazes
overnight. But 40 properties have been lost and acres of land have been damaged.
One of the worst fires was here I am in Wennington, which is a small little hamlet of about 300 people, as you said, a few miles outside of the
perimeter of London. As you can see, some of the roads are still closed.
About half a mile down the road over there is where 90 acres of farmland and people's gardens started to burn after somebody's compost heap
apparently appeared to ignite. I spoke to one neighbor who spotted that fire firsthand with his son, decided to try and get on the roof, hose it
down to stop the blaze from burning further.
They were very quickly overcome and had to flee the scene. They lost their house and everything. This is what this local resident said.
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TIM STOCK, FIRE VICTIM: Once the wind picked up yesterday -- and obviously the flames are sucking the oxygen, you need to go out and control it so
quickly.
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STOCK: I said I guess I was on the (INAUDIBLE) during this. I didn't really think about. But Lane an I didn't sleep last (INAUDIBLE). I was in a
hotel room (ph) and thinking how badly it could've gone. I just thank God that everyone got out alive live everywhere later (ph).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOS SANTOS: That man, Tim Stock, a 66-year-old gravedigger, did manage to escape with his two dogs and his pet tortoise called Multi, who would've
not been able to move very fast to escape those flames.
He also tried to beat down the doors of neighboring properties, to help elderly relatives to safety. This community is having to find 90 beds for
people, who don't know where they're going to spend tonight.
And I was speaking to the head of the local council and he said, we recognize that the country now has to deal with more extreme weather events
like this.
For this reason that this small local council has decided to nominate a climate change expert themselves and put it on its cabinet to plan for
future events like this one, not just fires but also flooding. Becky.
ANDERSON: Nina's in Wennington.
Let's bring you in, Barbie. Firefighters battling raging wildfires in Tuscany and in -- further north in Italy.
Any sign of a respite of this point?
BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, we've been in this heat wave for almost a week now. And so this land is on fire right now, has just been the
subject of a drought and this extreme temperature. It's just going up in flames.
Stopping a train, stopping the highway traffic in the north of Italy. We've got a lot of tourists in Rome that are trying to find any way they can to
keep cool. But the police have barricaded the fountains behind me so they can't jump in the water.
There is a lot of desperation here because people are tired of being so hot. It's not cooling down at night. A lot of people don't have air
conditioning in Italy. It's not the norm. And it's very expensive, electricity is extremely expensive.
So you've got all the sort of factors in play and you've got a lot of elderly people, who are just having a hard time keeping cool. A lot of the
swimming pools in the south of Italy have offered free admission to elderly people so that they have an opportunity if they don't have air conditioning
in their house to somehow cool off.
But there is no end in sight. We're looking at these high temperatures to persist until at least next week. And even then, if it goes back to normal,
it's still hot. Italian summers are hot by nature. But they're never quite this hot, Becky.
ANDERSON: Barbie is in Italy for you. I want to get you to Greece as well, where Elinda Labropoulou is reporting from in Western Greece.
What's the situation where you are, Lynda?
ELINDA LABROPOULOU, JOURNALIST: There has been a very large fire burning in Athens for over 24 hours. Luckily, we have good news now. The fire is
subsiding. There are no live fronts of firefighters have been telling us. But the fire has brought memories in the minds of many Greeks.
Those large fires that we had last year in Greece, that burned thousands of hectares of land. And what we saw in the last 24 hours, we saw fires, we
saw houses burning. We had one man actually dead. It seems that he's committed suicide just by seeing his house burned for what the neighbors
and his wife said was the third time.
Along with that, we had 34 people being injured and taken to hospital. There are gale force winds in many parts of Greece and particularly in
Athens. It's very fortunate now that, finally, the fire is subsiding.
But there are a lot of fears of other fires breaking out across the country. It seems that this heat wave is now moving toward the east of
Europe. So Greece is expecting temperatures of 40 degrees by Friday and over the weekend.
Of course, strong winds are also expected to continue. It means that Greece is really approaching tinderbox conditions in the days ahead. And that
really worries authorities here.
ANDERSON: Let me bring back Nina.
Thank you, Elinda.
Questions being asked quite frankly across the continent and in the U.K. about whether policymakers were prepared for these sort of images that we
have seen, for the deadly heat wave and its destruction. And whether authorities have the sort of response in place that is needed.
What are you hearing where you are?
DOS SANTOS: Well, anecdotally, I can tell you that I have been speaking to residents, who saw this fire breaking out. In fact, ironically enough, it
happened in the garden right behind the local fire brigade.
So one of the neighbors said, we saw the flames start to burn, we thought we might be able to tackle it. This type of thing had happened a couple
years ago during a heat wave in 2019-2020 they said.
But we couldn't get hold of firefighters because they were out on various other jobs. And we realized it was just too quick. As you said there, this
is a question that people across the U.K. are starting to ask, because never before has this country faced heat that is over 40 degrees Celsius.
But you've got to remember also we're at a time when this is a very political issue.
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DOS SANTOS: Because inflation, as per today, is running at 9.4 percent. And there is real pressure on authorities to raise people's salaries. And
this is where I come to the issue of the fire brigade.
We've had a statement earlier today by the fire brigade union count pointing out that the fire brigade now with these type of heat waves is
having to deal with unprecedentedly difficult conditions and also a high level of callouts.
They're using this opportunity to point out that it's time to reverse cuts to the public sector. But we also taking advantage of some political
machinations that are happening at the moment with the Tory leadership contest currently in the running.
They are obviously advocating for larger pay rises. And that's the type of thing you're seeing right across the public sector -- policing, ambulances,
public services and firefighters saying, we're on the front line. This is an unprecedentedly difficult situation, economically but also climactically
as well. Becky.
ANDERSON: To all of you, thank you.
That is the story across Europe today. China also reeling from a summer of extreme weather. Dozens of cities have issued high temperature alerts.
CNN's Selina Wang with the story from Beijing for you.
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SELINA WANG, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The heat wave continues across China, but rain showers through the south are expected to slightly
cool the weather. But only briefly, more than 30 cities have issued an orange alert meaning temperatures are expected to reach 98 degrees
Fahrenheit, only one city in Xinjiang issued a red alert meaning temperatures are expected to reach 104 degrees.
Now compare that to last week when more than 80 cities issued red alerts with some logging temperatures of more than 110 degrees Fahrenheit. But
China's Meteorological Administration says this relief will be short lived and they expect the heat to crank up again in southern China tomorrow and
then later in the north.
Now this heat wave has been ferocious. According to state media by mid- July, the heat wave in Gulf to half the country and impacted more than 900 million people, that is more than 60 percent of China's population.
This is all part of the global trend of more extreme weather driven by climate change. It is not just heat but also flooding in China. Flooding in
recent months have displaced more than a million people and destroyed crops in central and southwest China.
That crop damage threatens to push up inflation. And it is bad news for an economy already battered by the pandemic. The heat wave has also pushed up
electricity demand to extreme levels as people turn up the air conditioning.
For instance, Zhejiang province a major manufacturing powerhouse, urged it 65 million residents and businesses to save power. And all of this is
coming as COVID cases are raising in China.
The snap lock downs and mass testing continues across the country even in the scorching weather. There have also been growing reports of COVID-19
workers collapsing in the heat.
And residents across the country are still required to wait in long lines for the regular COVID tests, even under the brutal temperatures -- Selina
Wang, CNN, Beijing.
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ANDERSON: At the top of the show, I said we wanted to take an in-depth look at how climate crisis is fueling extreme weather and the impact that
is having on our global energy system, at a time of real crisis.
Talk now that the U.S. President is set to call a climate emergency. What that means in terms of a response with President Biden's energy adviser is
up, after this short break. Stay with us.
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ANDERSON: In the coming, hours U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to announce new steps to combat climate change. White House officials say that
they stopped short of declaring a national emergency even as millions of Americans face dangerous temperatures.
The extreme weather comes on the heels of Mr. Biden's trip to Saudi Arabia, where he was looking for increased oil supplies from Gulf countries. The
administration is trying to temper political pressures of high petrol and gas prices, driven by, at least in Joe Biden's mind, the war in Ukraine and
soaring inflation.
My next guest is Amos Hochstein, the presidential advisor on energy strategy, who accompanied Mr. Biden on the trip to Saudi Arabia. He joins
me now live from the White House.
I want to get that trip just momentarily for your sense of what was achieved. But we are expecting to hear from the president in a couple of
hours from now. There was talk that he would call a national private emergency.
Have you confirmed if that is the case?
And if not, what will he say and what will that mean in terms of legislation the president, the White House is struggling to get through?
AMOS HOCHSTEIN, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT: Well, first, good morning or good afternoon depending on where you are. Thank you for having me. The
president is going to be giving remarks in a couple of hours.
[10:20:00]
HOCHSTEIN: And I will let his remarks stand for themselves as he speaks in a couple of hours.
What the president has made clear it is going to make clear today is that we need to do two things at the same time. We need to make sure that we
accelerate the energy transition to the degree possible as quickly as possible, because that is a -- because we have to address the climate
crisis that we are all facing.
That, at the same time, making sure that our global economy, the U.S. economy can continue to grow. And to do that we still need to have enough
oil and gas to supply the market today.
But these are not binary. We have to act on the climate crisis. Look at these temperatures that we are seeing in Europe that I know your show is
covering so much. We need no more evidence that this is the real crisis that is facing us.
But we need the timeframe to be shortened between when we can move on from fossil fuels. There is no doubt that we still need them. And we don't have
enough, both renewable injury for the power sector and electric vehicles for the oil sector.
But we need to do those quickly. What he is going to demonstrate today is that we can take coal plants and other fossil plants and transition them in
a way that still maintains jobs for the workers that were there and to transform us into that next phase of being better stewards of our planet
and our climate.
ANDERSON: Mr. Hochstein, there will be viewers watching, saying you just cannot have it both ways. You cannot be leaning on some of the biggest oil
producers in the world to pump more carbon-emitting dirty fuel and at the same time say that you care about a wide range of climate change
initiatives.
That is a fair argument to a certain extent, isn't it?
HOCHSTEIN: No, I actually think it is not a fair argument. I think that this is part of the problem. We are being driven toward these two binary
extremes. We have to deal with the reality of where we are in the energy transition.
That as much as I wish that we had deployment of 50 percent of our new car sales would be electric or not, we are not even manufacturing enough. So we
need to deal, actually, with what is reality.
How do we accelerate our transition?
We have to lean into the climate. We have to lean into accelerating the initiatives to bring on more renewable energy and more nuclear power and
more electric vehicles. But the reality is that we don't have that yet.
So you can't take supplies off the market if you don't have a replacement. I think that the most dangerous part for combating climate is, if we tell
people that we are going to ignore where we are today and just hope for the best, look at Europe.
Look at what is happening in countries in Europe as a result of that policy, who are now facing extreme increases in coal. We want to avoid
that.
That is why the legislation in the Senate was so important, was to be able to put more incentives, financial incentives, tax credits and tax breaks,
to include more investment in renewable energy and into charging station of batteries or electric vehicles so that we can shorten the timeframe where
we move away from fossil fuels.
(CROSSTALK)
HOCHSTEIN: -- you can't have these kinds of prices that we are seeing in Europe and the United States. It will diminish public support for actions
again climate. And it will create political havoc and economic havoc and be dangerous for people's lives in the winter.
ANDERSON: So President Biden ran on a wide range of climate change initiatives, for the most part, being torpedoed, not least by senator Joe
Manchin.
Would you say that this administration has failed on its climate promises and policies?
HOCHSTEIN: Absolutely not. Look, we have this tendency to only look at what is in front of us. So because this bill has not passed yet, we are
looking just at that. Look at the efforts that have passed.
The president has passed a infrastructure legislation that, remember, just a few years ago the joke in Washington was infrastructure week that kept
happening but nothing actually got done.
That passed over $1 trillion in the infrastructure that was going to be spent on upgrading our systems to meet the challenges of the new energy
world that is before us.
So no, we put in policies in place and we did not get everything that the president hoped for. But I would argue we are still acting. Now we hope
that Congress still passes these kinds of incentives, because it makes no sense not to have financial incentives for businesses to invest.
But at the same time, the president was clear. He is going to talk about it today. He's not going to wait for Congress to act.
[10:25:00]
HOCHSTEIN: If they don't act, he will. And part of that is going to be today.
ANDERSON: The impact of Western sanctions on Russia have certainly exacerbated this energy crisis, specifically in Europe but also throughout
the world.
Do you see any opportunity for sanctions release, ceding on any sanctions on Moscow?
I'm talking about oil and gas here; out of necessity, at this point.
HOCHSTEIN: Look, Russia invaded Ukraine and is committing atrocities in Ukraine. That is something that I cannot imagine that we're going to
entertain. In fact, Europe is set to ban all of the seaborne oil into Europe starting in December.
So there are a few months left in that. This is hardly a reminder, also, of policies in Europe that overextended its reliance on one single supplier,
Russia, which was never, ever a reliable supplier.
Remember that they cut off supplies to Europe on multiple occasions, in 2006, in 2008, in 2014. So this is not a new policy for Vladimir Putin to
use his energy resources as a weapon.
The difference now is that Europe understands today that those were mistakes that need not be repeated and therefore, we need to build
infrastructure. We need to invest into diversification away from Russia.
And that comes with a lot of difficulty. And President Biden has worked together with the G7 and the E.U. leadership and member states' leaders to
see what we can do as the United States to deliver as much LNG as possible to Europe on emergency basis. But it is going to be very difficult. And you
can see the prices today are very difficult.
ANDERSON: The Europeans today are clearly signaling that gas rationing could be necessary this winter, should Russia decide not to pump gas
through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline when it reopens.
How concerned are you that that could be Russia's intention, that they will cut these supplies?
And how difficult is that going to make things in Europe going forward?
HOCHSTEIN: Clearly a cutoff of the supplies would be very difficult. It is just a reality of the difficulty of replacing that. But we are doing
everything that we can to work with our European colleagues and allies to mitigate that.
So I am concerned. I think they are right to be concerned. And they are addressing it. I think that Putin is not exactly a rational actor. And the
horrific actions that he is taking in Ukraine.
And I think this could be difficult. We are going to have to weather this crisis and see what we can do to mitigate it. But what we can't do is fall
prey to his plots and get Europe to be once again reliant.
We have to come out of this conflict much stronger as an international community, with an energy system that is diversified, that is heavily
investing on less rely not only on Russia but on fossil fuels themselves.
Demand in Europe can be cut quite significantly with the introduction of better technology that is already available and, in fact, used quite widely
in the United States and other areas to cut the demand.
So we are working with the E.U. on both of those sides. One is increasing supply into Europe so we can mitigate that concerns. And also seeing what
we can do on the introduction of and the use of better efficiency and better technology, so that there is not so much reliance on natural gas
itself. So this is a multipronged effort.
ANDERSON: You are just back from the Middle East trip. You were, as I understand it, one of the architects of this trip, not least the Saudi
Arabia led.
As you reflect on what was achieved, do you see that trip as a success in terms of energy security?
After all, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia announced on that trip, the ultimate maximum capacity that Saudi could pump is 13 billion barrels a day
and that could be between now and 2027.
He is not talking about an awful lot of spare capacity and certainly not offering the U.S. President any opportunity for more oil production anytime
soon.
HOCHSTEIN: First, I think that the trip was remarkably successful. This is one of the trips of the president has gotten an enormous amount of very
important things done. One we flew from Israel to Jeddah, the first time we could have a direct flight, that a president could take. That has never
happened before.
[10:30:00]
HOCHSTEIN: The Saudis announced the opening of their skies to flights to and from Israel. That is a huge step.
(CROSSTALK)
ANDERSON: My point was the energy security file, sir, with respect and briefly.
HOCHSTEIN: No, no; I understand. I'm just saying this was not about -- not just about oil. It was about so many other things. And mostly preventing a
vacuum that could be filled by China and Russia.
On the energy security side, before the trip, OPEC had announced an increase of 50 percent of exports into the market in July and August. We
did not meet with OPEC; we met with Saudi Arabia. We met with the other Gulf members. We are hopeful, when OPEC meets again, we will see some
additional increases.
Right now, the agreement in OPEC is that there will be zero additions of supply starting September 1st. So we are hopeful that that changes, based
on the conversations that we had leading up to the trip and during the trip.
I have every confidence that we will see some of those announcements in the coming weeks.
ANDERSON: With that, we will leave that there, sir. We thank you very much indeed for joining us.
Taking a break. Back after this.
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ANDERSON: Welcome back. I'm Becky Anderson in London. You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD.
It may seem strange to talk about keeping warm when there is a heat wave over Europe but, to be sure, winter is coming, of course, and that is why
the E.U. has proposed an energy saving plan now in case Russia decides to cut off gas to Europe.
The plan includes cutting usage by 15 percent. The European Commission president says the E.U. survived the pandemic so they can do this.
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URSULA VAN DER LEYEN, PRESIDENT, EUROPEAN COMMISSION: Assuming there is a full disruption of Russian gas, we need to save gas to fill our gas
storages faster. And to do so, we have to reduce our gas consumption. I know this is a big ask for the whole of the European Union. But it is
necessary to protect us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Clare Sebastian joining us now with the details.
A 15 percent cut in demand.
Is that attainable?
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Becky, I think we saw a level of urgency from the E.U. that we haven't previously really seen. They're
trying to get the point across that there is no choice.
So you've got your 15 percent reduction. There are various ways they're looking at trying to get countries, member states to do this. One is, of
course, before they do anything, they want them to look for substitutions for gas.
Obviously, ideally, that will be renewable energy. They want to lock in carbon for years to come but they say temporarily coal, nuclear, even oil
could be substitutes. That's the first thing.
[10:35:00]
SEBASTIAN: And then they're looking at incentivizing energy saving, getting companies to sort of commit to using less energy through things
like auction mechanisms, where they would sort of put energy back into the market and be compensated for that.
And less heating and cooling, that's an obvious one. The vice president of the E.U. talked about what he called no regret measures, things like not
leaving the lights on in office buildings overnight or bringing up the temperature of your conditioning a little bit.
It's going to affect business, industry first; they want to protect households and consumers but they are also enshrining this in law, Becky.
They are invoking a mechanism, Article 122 it's called, where they can actually, if there's an emergency, force member states to comply with this.
So this is a serious situation now.
ANDERSON: So let's call it what it is. We're talking about rationing here. This has become more urgent in recent days and weeks amid fears that the
Nord Stream 1 as it's known may not come back online after scheduled maintenance.
Briefly, what more can you tell us about this?
SEBASTIAN: The Nord Stream 1 pipeline, yes, tomorrow Thursday' D-Day, Becky. This is the end of the 10-day scheduled maintenance period. It
happens every year. But this year, of course, is different.
If you look at all the pipelines in Europe, I can tell you why it's so urgent at the moment. It's not just the Nord Stream pipeline that is seeing
disruption. We know that Russia has slashed the capacity of that pipeline to about 40 percent of its original capacity.
They say because of equipment issues. We've also got the Umal (ph) pipeline that was suspended back in May temporarily. And they've cut the gas, the
E.U. now says, either fully or partially to 12 European countries.
So this is a serious situation. If the Nord Stream pipeline doesn't come back online, which there have been fears raised in Europe so that it won't,
then the fear is and the vice president of the E.U. said it today, they might not meet their gas storage targets. That will lock in issues not only
for this winter but for the winter to come.
I just want to show you this chart as well, Becky. This is gas, Russian gas flows to Europe since 2019. You can see, I'll just show you quickly. But
every year you do get dips when it comes to that July maintenance period but never quite like we're seeing right now.
This is down really about two-thirds in the last two months. This is why Europe is in such an urgent situation. This is where we're looking at these
measures.
ANDERSON: Yes, and this extreme weather hiking demand, of course, for electricity. Air conditioning units, for example. You would perhaps think
that this wasn't an issue for the summer; it is. But it is a real issue for the winter as we approach. Clare, thank you very much indeed.
You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD with me, Becky Anderson. Still to come, sprinting to success. This British athlete was pretty shocked with the
results of this race. Let me tell you, not as shocked as his dad was. Going to explain after this.
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ANDERSON: Today in our series "Going Green," featuring young environmentalists, we head to the equator to meet an Indigenous climate
advocate in the Amazon rain forest. Larry Madowo has more.
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HELENA GUALINGA, ADVOCATES FOR CLIMATE ACTION (voice-over): There is this intimate relationship with nature. And that is the most beautiful part of
living in the Amazon rain forest. More than a passion, it's a part of my upbringing.
LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Often called the lungs of planet Earth, the Amazon is home for countless animals, biodiversity and
more than 400 indigenous tribes.
GUALINGA (voice-over): For context, my community out in the rain forest is geographically isolated.
We have a very organized and articulated community. We have trust in our leaders, that they will take us in the right path because we all share the
same value in the community, which is protecting our community and protecting the Amazon rain forest.
That's also why we can see the results now of how Sarayaku has contributed.
MADOWO (voice-over): Ecuador makes up only 2 percent of the Amazon rain forest. But it has one of the highest deforestation rates relative to its
size, according to data from Global Forest Watch.
In 2012 the Inter-American Human Rights Court upheld the Sarayaku tribe's right to physical integrity. But this and other communities' way of life
here are still at risk because of the overexploitation of natural resources.
GUALINGA (voice-over): So Sarayaku's case in the Inter-American Court is actually -- it was a landmark victory for Indigenous peoples rights. It's
not something that we chose to do; it's something we just found ourselves in these circumstances of having to protect our home.
MADOWO (voice-over): Now at the age of 20, Helena Gualinga advocates for climate action around the world, giving a firsthand account of life in the
Amazon.
GUALINGA (voice-over): One essential part of this is storytelling and we need to start sharing these stories or lived experiences, what goes on in
territory, what people are living, what we're feeling, what we're facing.
Buy people should also care because it does not just affect people in the Amazon; it affects everyone. It's about the survival of the entire
population of this planet.
I am someone who has the ability to share the messages, share the stories and I think that is how I contribute to my community, by being this bridge
builder, being this bridge between the two worlds that I've lived in.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: For this and more stories about the next generation of climate environment, you can visit cnn.com/GoingGreen.
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