| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
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What the name of the person is, his antics are just distractions, and we need to pay attention to what really is going on in America. | |
| I mean, if it's a spiritual warfare or the oligarchies or whatever, if we stop focusing on his antics, which is like, oh, don't look behind the curtain type of antics, I think we could get back on the right road. | ||
| That's Sheena in Heidesville, Maryland, our last caller in today's Washington Journal. | ||
| But we will, of course, be back here tomorrow morning. | ||
| It is 7 a.m. Eastern. | ||
| It is 4 a.m. Pacific. | ||
| In the meantime, hope you have a great Earth Day. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, coming up shortly here on C-SPAN, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hear oral argument on whether parents have the right to opt out their kids from classroom lessons involving storybooks that feature LGBTQ themes or characters in public schools. | |
| As we wait for that to get underway, we'll show you a portion of our Washington Journal program from earlier this morning. | ||
| And a very good Tuesday morning to you. | ||
| You can go ahead and start calling in now. | ||
| As you're calling in, we dip into the C-SPAN archives, taking you back to 1990, an interview with Senator Gaylord Nelson, Democrat of Wisconsin, about his efforts to found Earth Day in the year 1970. | ||
| This is what he had to say to C-SPAN at the time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Various articles on the environmental movement say that you're the father of Earth Day. | |
| How's your offspring doing at age 20? | ||
| Well, we've come quite a distance since 1970. | ||
| That is to say, there's a great deal more awareness, concern, understanding about the issue now than there was then. | ||
| There is finally a recognition, an important recognition on the part in general, that the activities of man on the planet are actually dangerously degrading the ecosystem that sustains all of us, the oceans, lakes, air, forests, soil. | ||
| So we've come quite some distance. | ||
| We have a long, long way to go, but at least there's a much better public understanding and much better understanding by the legislators, governors, members of legislature, Congress, that this is a vital issue. | ||
| In fact, my own view is that the status of our resources are air, water, soil, rivers, oceans, so forth, minerals. | ||
| That is the most important issue facing mankind on the planet because it determines, quite precisely, our standard of living and the quality of our lives. | ||
| And we have been dangerously degrading all of these resources for many, many years. | ||
| And it's time we undertake a very major, serious effort to stop the degradation and help give nature a chance to do some restoration, at least restoration where the damage hasn't been irreparable. | ||
| Senator Gaylord Nelson, again, an interview with C-SPAN back in 1990. | ||
| We aired it this weekend on C-SPAN's American History TV. | ||
| It's about a half an hour long. | ||
| If you want to watch it in its entirety, you can do so at c-span.org. | ||
| But asking you this morning on the Washington Journal, how important are climate and environmental issues to you? | ||
| Again, Republicans, 202-748-8001, to call in in this first hour today. | ||
| Democrats, 202-748-8000. | ||
| Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| And we'll begin on that line for Independence. | ||
| Sue is in Traverse City, Michigan. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| The most critical issue we face is holding our governments accountable, both parties. | ||
| And so I look at chemtrails as a distinct injury to our environment, and it's an ongoing problem. | ||
| And it is releasing things up there in our skies that are, I believe, poisoning the earth. | ||
| And I encourage everybody to keep an eye on the skies. | ||
| You can see them form the blankets in the sky. | ||
| Do you travel much by air, Sue? | ||
| No, I don't have to. | ||
| I can take photographs of the skies being gritted by jet in an open sky area of maybe 180, almost 360 views in some areas here. | ||
| So thank you. | ||
| It's a huge concern and poisoning us all, I believe. | ||
| It's Sue in Michigan. | ||
| This is William in Ohio, Independent. | ||
| William, good morning. | ||
| How important are climate and environmental issues to you? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I think right now it's pretty, you know, it's pretty terrible with the big orange monster out there. | ||
| He's making his own hurricanes and thunderstorms. | ||
| I mean, weather's really going true over the last few years. | ||
| And now he's getting rid of all the stuff that takes care of it. | ||
| I mean, Donald Truly Johnson Trump is really messing this country up bad. | ||
| Everything that he does is just, it's against the poor people, and he doesn't want to spend no money to help the country out. | ||
| All he wants to do is pay his rich friends off. | ||
| And the way he's treating the environment is just, it's crazy. | ||
| We're going to die if he don't take care of it. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| That's William in Ohio. | ||
| Aaron is in Alexandria, Virginia. | ||
| Democrat, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, and happy Earth Day to you. | |
| I would like to say that the environment and the climate issues are very important. | ||
| And I also tie that into how we create our infrastructure. | ||
| Of course, we know things are getting hotter, which the trees are then creating more pollen because they get confused as far as which season it is, which affects the bees, which affects our food supply as well. | ||
| So all these things are related. | ||
| I saw a horrible scene yesterday where mother ducks were trying to cross Ford 95 with their ducklings. | ||
| The mother or parent ducks flew off because they were almost hit, but we know the ducklings did not make it. | ||
| So if we can build our infrastructure and things like that to sort of incorporate the natural paths of nature and create areas to beautify, but also create homes for all the other earthlings, like the animals that live here, it would be great. | ||
| Erin, how long have you lived in, how long have you lived in Alexandria, Virginia? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I've lived in Alexandria, Virginia for 20 years. | |
| I got here and started working at the Washington Post, and then 9-11 happened. | ||
| So more than 20 years. | ||
| But a lot of buildup across the river in 20 years in Alexandria. | ||
| Do you see the city doing that? | ||
| Is it something that's happening on the city level? | ||
| Is it something that's happening on the state level in Virginia? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I wouldn't say on the state level because as we know, there's a difference between Northern Virginia and Southern Virginia. | |
| But what I do see on the city level, and I live in the Fairfax County part of Alexandria, but I do frequent Alexandria City. | ||
| I see that there are efforts to ensure that there are ways to beautify and create green spaces in Alexandria. | ||
| If we look at Old Town and how the erosion that's happening at the waterfront is affecting The roads that lead up further into Alexandria has become a major issue. | ||
| And I think that there's awareness of that. | ||
| But if we look at, you know, think locally and act globally, the things that we can do locally, if we have more people that care or don't see it as an inconvenience, like this heat going back and forth, don't just see it as an inconvenience, but see it as a pattern or a sign of things to come, then perhaps we can invest more into that and, like I said, create spaces where we can maintain our staying power on this planet and not suffer it. | ||
| You talk about awareness. | ||
| This was a recent Gallup poll that came out and it polled Americans on a variety of topics on the environment. | ||
| But your thoughts on this finding? | ||
| This poll found that the highest percentage of Americans in decades say that the seriousness of global warming is generally exaggerated in the news. | ||
| 41% now take that position, up from 37% last March, and it's the highest number since 2015. | ||
| Nearly as many, though, 38%, believe that the news underestimates the gravity of the environmental issues and global warming in this world, while 20% say that news coverage is generally correct. | ||
| But a full nearly 80% either say the coverage of this is either overly exaggerated or under-exaggerated. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, my thoughts on that is simply this: you have those who are fighting to protect and those who don't believe it's an issue. | |
| If those who stopped fighting to protect it, then everyone would see it as an issue eventually, because we do have people who are actively trying to stop these things, and those who don't believe it aren't seeing the work that's being done. | ||
| If the levy is broken, you have people holding the water back, and some people say, Well, my streets aren't that wet, it's because you have people who are holding the water back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
They could use your help, but if you're not going to give it, and if they decide to stop it, which hurts everyone, and why do that? | |
| Then everyone would suffer. | ||
| So it's a very tricky situation. | ||
| I believe that it is not overly exaggerated. | ||
| If we look at the state of our bees here, not everyone's checking out to see if the bees are good, but we've lost a lot of the population of the bees. | ||
| If people don't believe it, Google it and figure out how your food, you know, your food is going to get pollinated. | ||
| You know, that's a true fact. | ||
| But it's good hearing from you. | ||
| Aaron, thanks for the call from Alexandria across the river. | ||
| This is Russ in the Keystone State Republican. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, can we both agree that plants take in carbon monoxide to create this here as the U.S. Supreme Court this morning hears oral argument on a parent's right to opt their children out of LGBTQ-themed storybooks in schools? | |
| Live coverage here on C-Space. | ||
| Already at significant personal expense. |