Jane Fonda on climate change — FULL INTERVIEW

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Jane Fonda, welcome to Washington. I know you've been here a million times, but you're becoming one of our neighbors. You're moving. You've moved to Washington. [00:00:08] Jane Fonda: I've moved here, yes. [00:00:09] Speaker 1: When did you move here? [00:00:12] Jane Fonda: Ten days ago, something like that. Labor Day weekend, I read a book by Naomi Klein called On Fire, The Burning Case for a Green New Deal, and it talked about the Swedish student Greta Thunberg, and I knew what I had to do. I had to leave my comfort zone and disrupt my life and move here and do an action every Friday like Greta has been doing and the student strikers have been doing on behalf of climate change, to focus on climate change. You know, there's so much is happening, you know, as well as I do with the impeachment and all this stuff that's going on. We have to be sure that the crisis that is climate change remains front and center, like a ticking time bomb, while all this other stuff is going on, because we don't have very much time and it's really urgent. [00:01:08] Speaker 1: You say climate change should be front and center. I get the impression that it has been pushed to the back, that it's not where it should be in terms of our priorities. [00:01:16] Jane Fonda: Exactly. That's why the students have said, come on, adults, you know, you've taken away our future, and we're going to go on strike to force you to pay attention to this. And they've really been so inspiring and, you know, grandmas unite. I've decided grandma's going to move here and I have a new three-month-old grandson. It was hard to go and I, I just, I want to do whatever I can to keep this front and center because it's urgent. This has never happened in the history of human civilization that we, we are facing this kind of, everybody says, existential crisis. It's almost becoming trite, but, but it is. [00:01:58] Speaker 1: This is incredible. Do whatever you can. We've had student groups, young people come here and protest. They block traffic, upset a lot of local people. And the question to the students has been, why aren't you at the Capitol? Why aren't you at the White House? The people that really can affect change. You're, you're going way beyond that. You're here to demonstrate, to get the attention of who? [00:02:18] Jane Fonda: People, Americans all across the country. We're doing the action every Friday at 11 o'clock in front of the Capitol. And then the Thursday night before we're having a digital teach-in live streamed across the world, where the scientists and the experts and the celebrities that are joining me on Friday, the Thursday before they'll go deep in a teach-in and really get into the weeds on these issues. Each Friday we're going to focus on something different. The Green New Deal, women, oceans, freshwater forests, the communities that are the most impacted, which are always the poor, communities with people of color. They're the ones that get socked. You know, I was just in Lowndes County in Alabama the last two days. And, you know, that's why the Green New Deal is so important, because we have to change everything. Our, our, our economy, the American economy is based on fossil fuel and we have to change that. So if everything needs to be changed, kind of the way it was during the New Deal in the 30s, only more, why not do it better and not leave people out? African Americans, African Americans, women, and so forth, you know, indigenous people, let's, let's put it back together in a way that's good for everybody, because in order to do what needs to be done, and we only have 11 years, everybody is going to have to be part of it. Everybody has to support it. We know that the rich aren't going to do it, the fossil fuel people and the politicians they bought, they're going to fight it tooth and nail, but everybody else has to want to do it and they're not going to do it unless there's something in it for them. So we have to be sure that there's something in it for everybody. [00:04:03] Speaker 1: And, and what do you want us to see when we see you getting arrested? [00:04:06] Jane Fonda: There she is again. Well, this must be important. What can I do? And what can people do? Number one, vote. Make sure that who you vote for understands this is a crisis like nothing humankind has ever faced and support the New Deal. Whether it's president, Congress, Senate, local legislators, state legislatures, boards of supervisors, every, all the way down ticket. Everybody has to be focused on this. Join marches, put your body on the line if you can, where they're trying to dig up new fossil fuel and things like that. We have to, no new fossil fuels and then phase out the ones that are already being exploited. [00:04:45] Speaker 1: Gotcha. Jane, you know, this is a place where people come to petition their government, but this isn't a one time event for you. You're going to become, you've moved here. So you're going to be coming back again, every Friday. Yeah. You plan to get arrested. [00:04:56] Jane Fonda: Yeah. I'm going to be turning 82 in the course of it. And I think that day I'm going to get arrested too. I like the idea of being arrested when I'm turning 82. All the students, you know, what they've been doing all over the world. I want to stand with them and raise up their voices and not let it die out. We have to keep it going. [00:05:14] Speaker 1: And what is your message to the rest of us? Okay. You're putting yourself out there. You're going to be arrested repeatedly. You're going to be taking part in all these other activities, these events, these educational experiences. What is your message to the rest of the country? [00:05:27] Jane Fonda: What I just said. People have to understand that it's, you know, as Greta Thunberg said, it's, if this studio were burning down right now, we wouldn't be sitting here talking like this, would we? We'd act appropriately like it's a crisis. And this is a crisis. And here's the thing. 30 years ago, the fossil fuel industry knew what they were doing. Their scientists told them, we are destroying the environment. They knew it. And they lied to us. They hoodwinked us. If we had known 30 years ago, the transition away from fossil fuels could have been gradual, incremental, moderate. But we've run out of time now. Our carbon budget is kind of small. And we only have 11 years, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. [00:06:16] Speaker 1: You say we've run out of time. And I have read that it's already too late. [00:06:20] Jane Fonda: No, it's, it's very, very hard to do what needs to be done, but it's not too late. The scientists tell us, you know, and we have to start believing science. The science tells us we have, well, when the report came out, it was 12 years, but that was a year ago. So we now have 11 years, but it's so fundamental and, and broad sweeping what needs to be done. Everything is going to be changed. [00:06:45] Speaker 1: You say we have to start believing science. The Trump administration, the president does not believe the science. [00:06:49] Jane Fonda: Well, that's why we have to get rid of him. We can't have somebody who's not just tearing down our democracy, but thumbs his nose at the science. What does he think? That he and the politicians that, that, that he's bought off and the fossil fuel people have bought off. Is it, is it that they think somehow because they're rich, they're going to avoid the catastrophe? And that the only people that are going to really be hurt are people that they dismiss anyway as not even human? That's it. It's going to affect health, national security, the economy, everything. Nobody is exempt from this. [00:07:25] Speaker 1: I doubt very seriously that it will ever happen, but if you got a chance, because I know you tried to talk to him before. If you had a chance to talk to Donald Trump, what language would you use? What would you say to Donald Trump to try and convince him that you do have to pay attention to the science, that this is real, that this is about posterity? Well, what, what would you say to the president? [00:07:43] Jane Fonda: I would say to him, please, President Trump, I'd give him the intergovernmental panel on climate change. I'd give him their report that came out last year. [00:07:55] Speaker 1: With all due respect, they say he doesn't read reports. [00:07:59] Jane Fonda: Maybe I'd go in with about 10 very beautiful women and we'd, we'd say, "Donald, Donald, read this. Come on now. Come on, read this." And do you know that if you pay attention to this, you're going to be a hero? [00:08:17] Speaker 1: That could, that could work. [00:08:18] Jane Fonda: You could save the world, Donald, huh? Okay. You know, I mean, I'll stop at nothing. I'll do anything to make the people in charge pay attention. But, you know, he, he, poor guy. I mean, I don't know whatever happened to him when he was a kid, but he's not going to pay attention. So we have to be sure that between now and next November, we get people in office that are going to pay attention. And that day one are going to start, are going to say, no more new fossil fuels. And let's phase out the ones that are already being taken out of the ground over 30 years. And let's make sure that the workers and communities that depend on the fossil fuel industry are taken care of. Not only that they're trained for new jobs in, in sustainable energy, but that those jobs are union jobs, with wages that support family, where you can buy a home and send your kids to college. These communities cannot be left behind. This is kind of nice though. Maybe we should stay there. [00:09:16] Speaker 1: Fine with me. I've got no comment. Let me ask you this. And we've been talking up here at this level with the president and the science and that sort of thing. But to the average person out there, to the very people that are being impacted most by, you know, what's happening to the climate. And I'm talking about people in our low income neighborhoods, you know, the poor. Always. Yes. What, if anything, can they do? What can they expect out of this? [00:09:39] Jane Fonda: What can they do or what can they expect? [00:09:41] Speaker 1: Both questions. [00:09:42] Jane Fonda: I mean, it will be. If we get the Green New Deal passed, a Green New Deal, they will only stand to benefit. For example, I was the last two days in Lowndes County, Alabama, where the poverty is extensive, where people, they don't have a proper sewer system. When it rains a lot, which is doing more and more, the water saturates the ground and the sewage comes right up in their backyard, that kind of thing. They would participate in figuring out the solutions in their community. Money from the government would go into those communities to help those people learn how to solve their problems and solve their problems. And that's true, whether it's in the bayous of Louisiana, where people are dying of cancer, Miami, that's going to be underwater, Kern County. I mean, it's all over the country, Flint, Michigan, Benton Harbor, Michigan, all over. People are having these terrible situations because they've just been discarded. The hierarchy of humanity is dismissed. And that's the history of this country, unfortunately, but that will end with a Green New Deal. Right. [00:10:52] Speaker 1: Will you also be meeting with local officials? They could use you. They could use meeting you and talking to you. Yeah. I'm talking to the mayor, the county executives, you know. People that are talking about jobs, you know, in the new economy that you're talking about. [00:11:08] Jane Fonda: Exactly. I'm meeting with labor people. And, you know, it's very important that we understand that a Green New Deal is a win-win for everybody but the fossil fuel industry. And they're going to fight this because we're talking about the fact that they're going to have to leave trillions of dollars of fossil fuel in the ground. Now that, you know, they're going to fight that. [00:11:31] Speaker 1: Sure. Absolutely. [00:11:33] Jane Fonda: Right? Right. So, we got to all be together to stand up against them and not let them lie to us anymore because how many people have already died and how many people are going to die if we don't do this? Right. [00:11:45] Speaker 1: Welcome to Washington. [00:11:47] Jane Fonda: Are you going to join me on Friday? [00:11:49] Speaker 1: We'll be out there. Absolutely. Okay. [00:11:52] Jane Fonda: Okay. Good. come 11 o'clock in front of the capitol building on fridays every friday for four months okay i [00:12:01] Speaker 1: want to make sure we get that out because that's important to us this isn't a one-time thing so so [00:12:05] Jane Fonda: you're calling on people to do what every friday every friday at 11 o'clock we're going to be in front of the capitol building um they're called the swamp in the area um we're going to be there starting from 11 to 12 o'clock each each friday we're going to focus on a different aspect of the climate crisis and there will be experts and scientists and celebrities and and i will moderate you will moderate yes and then we'll be arrested okay but that's voluntary everybody doesn't have to be arrested some people may not want to but i'm going to because it'll call attention to it what [00:12:42] Speaker 1: will they charge you with you're going to be arrested what do you expect to be charged with i'm sure it's a misdemeanor but what what specifically is the charge do you know uh i don't know what they call [00:12:50] Jane Fonda: it civil disobedience um protesting on the steps of the capitol how many times have you been arrested not much only i think five okay so it's no big deal five times but that was back in the 70s and i was young how do you keep the young people the youth motivated no no no they keep me motivated young people are angry it's their future that they see being taken from them by us old folks who have the power to do something about it and they're saying wake up wake up they shouldn't have to be shouldering this burden they didn't have to have anything to do with getting us there you know this this young boy who um was with me he he uh he's been protesting every friday in front of the white house jerome um he inspires me greta tunberg inspires me you know all the way back to 19 2016 when all these kids ran from standing rock all the way to washington dc to beg obama to to don't let the pipeline through their lands it's the young people that are saying wake up to us i could ask you this question those [00:13:58] Speaker 1: same young people that you talk about and i think you're absolutely right they're motivated about the climate i think it's us old folks you know they're not motivated but are those same young people that that you say need to go out and vote are they going to vote are they energized regardless of who the nominee is going to be will they go out and vote well they're not old enough okay they're even they're [00:14:14] Jane Fonda: not even old enough to vote no i had dinner with some of them the other not 14 years old 15 years old no but uh that young they're out there okay but they're going to make sure their parents vote and that their parents understand what's at stake but voting is key voting getting your friends to vote and then voting for climate and for green new deal all right okay excellent thank you