CBCN - Sunday, May 26, 2024 - 12:00 a.m. (ET) - Segment #41

taking her fight directly to Ottawa and the Economic Club of Canada. What's missing on Ottawa's side is an openness to the facts and a willingness to dismiss radical ideology in favour of reason. [Susan] She's lobbying federal cabinet ministers, but going around Guilbeault. The two have never formally met one on one. After all, she wants him gone. I continue to have the support of the Prime Minister of Canada, of cabinet. But I think that-- that Premier Smith and Pierre Poilievre have decided to side with-- with big oil companies that are making historic, record-level profits instead of siding with-- with Canadians on this issue. [Susan] On the day she visited Ottawa, Premier Smith celebrated. Alberta produced more oil in 2023 than ever before... and 2024 is projected to be higher. [siren blaring] When we come back... [man] The whole hillside's gone. [Jane] This is my sister, Tracey McKinley, and she passed away last year. [Susan] Those fed up with the politics won't wait. We need to do things differently or more Traceys will die. [mysterious music playing] Michael J. Fox:When doubt started to chase Andre, he decided to leave doubt in the dust. [inspirational] - -[crowd cheers] ( ) Ever wonder what's around the next corner? ( ) ( ) Past the trees. ( ) Over the mountains? ( ) That's where adventure lives... ( ) Take a Nissan SUV and go find it. ( ) Okay, and root beer to drink? No. [gasping] What? He didn't get root beer? I'm getting frozen root beer. Oh! Try frozen A&W root beer with sweet cream. I I was standing ( ) You were there Two worlds collided And they could never tear us apart ( ) I I was standing You were there Two worlds collided Welcome to the Wayborhood. With Wayfair, finding your style is fun. [ music playing ] Yes! When the music stops grab any chair, it doesn't matter if it's your outdoor style or not. [ music stops ] I'm sorry, Carl. This is me in chair form. I don't see you. -Oh, come on. This one's perfect for you. But you. Love it. I told you we should have done a piñata. I explained it so many times. Um-hum. They're not sitting. -And it rocks... You need to sit down. Wayfair. Every style. Every home. Nutty...and sweet. Latte macchiato. ( ) This one is for the prize? Intenso. No, cool. Definitely iced. ( ) Sweet. Bye. Nespresso, what else? ( ) (Wincing) Get started for free on eharmony. Must be 18 or older to join. Get who gets you. eharmony. Dry skin needs a little extra care. And it's natural. Treat it that way. With Aveeno Daily Moisturizing Lotion. Formulated with nourishing prebiotic oat. Proven to moisturize dry skin. All-day. Also, try our face formula. Aveeno. A new arrival alarms the brotherhood of muscle. Muscular features signal power and performance. Attributes they've never seen in this build. ( ) Behold a new breed. Ready to swarm, ready to sting, ready to electrify. ( ) The defiant power packed hybrid electric Dodge Hornet R/T. Performance electrified. >> Announcer: Breaking news that shapes your world. With localCBC Radio Onelive to connect us closer to home. It's news you can trust, delivered when you want, where you want, on theCBC Newsapp. Download for free. [CBC Newstheme]

Announcer:At least seven people killed after powerful tornadoeshit north Texas overnight. Police say two childrenare among the dead and that at least 20 morepeople were hurt. Officials continue to gothrough the rubble of destroyed homes lookingfor more victims, but they say thatdowned power lines are making the jobmore difficult. Across the United States,at least 13 people have been killed this weekendalone due to tornadoes. [Susan] Earth is under stress. Raging fires... unrelenting floods... and crippling drought. In only 30 years, the Arctic Ocean has lost 95% of its oldest ice. Yet it was 30 years ago hundreds of politicians first met to tackle climate change, and they've been meeting ever since. But in the summer of 2021, the Pacific Northwest had never been hotter. [siren blaring] [man] The whole hillside's gone. [Susan] Forest fires rampaged BC. By the end of June, a heat dome moved in. [passerby] Do I stay in my apartment and pass out, or do I come out here and breathe the air and be in the heat, it's like a Catch-22, you don't really know what to do. [Susan] Temperatures climbed past 40 degrees. It's never this bad. We've never experienced anything in the 40s. [siren blaring] [Susan] The region wasn't prepared for it, and it would soon have tragic consequences. [man] Oh, my God, look at that. [Susan] In Lytton, BC, the thermometer peaked at 49 degrees... the entire town destroyed by fire. At the time, Jane Armstrong was living in New Westminster, in BC's Lower Mainland. [Jane] It got very hot. I happened to be on holiday at the time on one of the Gulf Islands, and it was pretty hot then, and we came home. This would have been maybe June 26 or 27th. We came home. It was really, really hot. [Susan] Jane remembers checking in on her older sister, Tracey McKinley, who lived alone and who had a bipolar disorder. [Jane] And her mental state of mind wasn't 100%, you know? But she was an adult living on her own and for the most part, she coped. I kept phoning her and checking on her, like, "How are you doing?" [Susan] What was she telling you on the phone? That she was fine. [Susan] But she wasn't fine. That night Tracey died alone in her apartment. [Jane] The police came up and they just told me that she was found dead in her apartment. She had died in the heat. That must've been so difficult. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Obviously, if I knew she was going to die, I would have gone to get her and grabbed her and brought her to my home and said, "Hey, you could sleep in our basement." You know? But who knew? Like, no one knew this was coming. 600 people died. Like, where did they put all the bodies? I believe there was a place out in Abbotsford. [Susan]A BC coroner's report later warned there would bemore frequent heat domes as a result of climate change and confirmed619 Canadians died in a single week. Jane had always been aware of her carbon footprint. She drives a hybrid. She has solar panels on her roof. But that summer something changed. She became a protester too. My name is Jane and this is my sister, Tracey McKinley, and she passed away last year. Sometimes I don't know what to do. This is my first public gathering. It's like, we need to do something, be proactive... I feel like I've been complacent for too long and just felt like I want to get involved as a citizen and be heard... and demand change from our governments. [Susan] It must have been hard, though, to relive the very personal and painful consequence of that heat dome. Of course. Yeah. On the one hand, you get used to telling this story, and I can hold myself together, but other times it's really hard. Yeah. [Susan] What do you think she would think about you standing out there with her picture in a public space saying, "Do something"? I think she would love it. And why do you think that the fossil fuel industry should be held accountable for this? Well, they caused it.

They caused a big chunk of it. There's a lot of money being made. And it's hard to, as a little person, to stand up against that. [Susan] Today, there's scientific consensus that burning fossil fuels is the primary cause of climate change and global warming. The battle is no longer around what causes climate change, but rather how to stop it. For 30 years, the United Nations has held annual meetings to address it. In Dubai last year, they finally mentioned the words "fossil fuels." [Peter] So there was a much-to-do about the fact that this decision document from COP28 mentioned fossil fuels for the first time in the United Nations' history, which is such a low bar. It's so insane, right? [Susan] Peter Kalmus is a climate scientist with NASA. He's speaking out, not on behalf of NASA, but as a concerned citizen. He says he refuses to attend any of those UN Climate Conferences. He works remotely from North Carolina. When he has to travel to NASA's lab in California, he takes the train, to reduce his carbon footprint. He's stopped flying. Kalmus believes we're in a climate emergency. You know, there are still people who say, "weather gets warmer, weather gets cooler over history. Yeah, well, when you see a city in Hawaii burn up overnight, or when you see these crazy heat waves in the Pacific Northwest, that we've never experienced in human history. When you see flooding all around North America and China, these crazy wildfires in Greece and Spain, coral reefs dying around the world... and you write scientific papers, you do your scientific work, and it's not helping. So, yeah, because of that, I started to turn to civil disobedience. And I guess that was probably a really major turning point when I risked arrest for the first time in April of 2022. We are doingcivil disobedience at J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, which, out of all the banksin the world, the one that has done the most to fund fossil fuel projects. So, I am here, because scientists are not being listened to. I am willing to take a risk for this gorgeous planet. [voice breaking] And-- and for my sons. We've been trying to warn you guys for so many decades, that we are heading towards a [muted] catastrophe. -[Susan] You risked a lot. -[Kalmus] Yeah. You're a scientist, you have a job at NASA, you have a family, and you chained yourself to a bank. Yeah, and when I did that, I thought there was an extremely good chance I would be fired. I just felt like I was being ignored as a scientist and sitting there, watching the planet basically get hotter and hotter. You know that other people say that that just makes you an irresponsible activist, and they dismiss those things. Well, I think the people who dismiss climate civil disobedience, I think they're in denial. [Susan]In a statement,J.P. Morgan said it provides "financingacross the energy sector," including "a targetof $1 trillion for climate action" over the next six years. [man exclaims] [Susan] When we come back, Frustrations boil over. Do you accept violence in this fight? Um, I am-- Do you accept blowing up pipelines? [protesters chanting] Announcer:Stories that make you think. -Will you lower prices? Announcer:If it matters in your home -I'm going to get in more debt. Announcer:or to this country -Affordable housing. -Climate change. Announcer:it's onCanada Tonightwith Travis Dhanraj. Watch onCBC News NetworkandCBC Gem. Summer starts... now! The NEW DQ Summer Blizzard Menu. New Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Party, New Picnic Peach Cobbler. And more delicious flavors. Start summer now! Only at DQ. Happy tastes good. Air Wick. How far would you go to set the ambiance of your space? Try the Air Wick way with Air Wick Essential Mist. Infused with natural essential oils, to fill your moment with immersive fragrance for up to 45 days. Now that's a breath of fresh Air Wick. ( ) In here... you can expect to find... crystal clear audio... expansive display space... endless entertainment... and more comfort for everyone... But even with all that... we still left room... for all the unpredictability... spontaneity.. and unexpected things... you'll find out here... Jeep. Grand Cherokee. The most awarded SUV ever. Looking for a natural health product to reduce your joint pain.

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each and every one of usin this room for fools. [Susan] California, the fifth largest economy in the world, is suing five big oil companies including Exxon Mobil and Chevron, claiming they knew their emissions were harmful. Their deceit and denial going back decades has created the conditions that persist here today. [Susan] The oil companies reject the lawsuit, Chevron saying climate change is global, calling for a "policy response, not piecemeal litigation benefitting attorneys and politicians." -The resolution is adopted.-[cheering] [Susan]In Oregon,a county lawsuit blames the fossil fuel industry for thoseheat dome deaths. With this action,we seek to hold these fossil fuel companiesaccountable for the damagesthat have arisen from one of the mostdeadly and destructive human-made weather disastersin American history. You've taken millions! -Millions of dollars! -[people shouting] And you're killing us! [Susan] And youth are emboldened in this US election year. Go home to Mommy. Your mommy is waiting. Go home to Mommy. Thank you. [Susan] In Canada, young citizens seem to be leading the charge, in public and in court... suing the federal government for breaching its climate obligations and taking on Ontario over its climate plan. We have not come here to beg politicians for change. We have come here to show them that change is coming. [cheering] [Susan] Sophia Mathur was 12 years old when she and a group of kids launched that lawsuit, accusing the government of weakening its climate targets, risking people's health and lives. [photographer] Open up those eyes a little more for me. [Susan] Sophia is four years older now. So is that lawsuit. Beautiful. Chin down a bit. Well, it's been a phrase that I've been saying, but, uh, when all else fails, sue. Uh, we felt like when activism and going out and protesting, it kind of feels like we're talking to politicians and they can choose not to listen. [Susan] Today's task-- a publicity shoot, part of a campaign to capture attention and grow funding. Last year, a judge agreed with parts of their argument. Climate change will have a disproportionate impact on youth and indigenous people, but dismissed the case. What chance do you think, or why do you think it could have success at the appeals stage? Regardless if it has, like, a final win, there's a lot of people that are paying attention to this and realizing that their government is not paying attention to their future. [Susan] Today is their hearing in Ontario's Court of Appeal. [Sophia chuckles] We're walking to court! I am, like, nervous and excited at the same time [Madison] I feel like I'll just keep going. [laughs] Yeah, as long as it takes. [Susan] Madison Dyck, is focused on the endgame. [laughing] I think I just feel-- I feel really emotional. Yeah, I feel emotional that-- that I need to be in this position. And I really also hope that... the next generation doesn't have to stand on these courts, fighting for their future. [cheering] [Susan] Their case may fail on appeal, but across North America, dozens of climate lawsuits are ongoing against governments and corporations. Well, so, here in Victoria, I've been to three demonstrations, walking around with my-- Tracey and I, and the placard sign. [Susan] And in British Columbia, one woman won't stop either. Do you think in your lifetime, it will make a difference? I hope so. Yeah, I think so. [Susan]Jane Armstrongis living in Victoria now, carrying on with a campaignin honour of her sister, who diedin that heat dome. ...and obviously we miss her. But then the messageI put on the back, when I was making this,is, like, "What is the message?" The message is, like,fossil fuel dependency plus denial plus delay equals disasters and deaths. At least that's what came out of my head when I was making this poster. I don't know, I kind of like to bring her out into public and say, "This was my sister and she died and it mattered. And we need to do things differently or more Traceys will die." [Susan] Meanwhile, 2023 was declared officially the hottest year on record. Scientists say 2024 is tracking to be the same... or hotter. [somber music plays] [Steven] Next week on The Fifth Estate.The Jeep No Limits Eventis here.Which means more trailsto b More challenges to meet. And right now enjoyno payments for 90 days.

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