Well, I want to see
this beautiful city
Yes, I want to see
that beautiful city
Well, I, I want to see
that beautiful city
I'd like to see
that beautiful city
One of these days,
one of these days
And I, I want to sit
at the welcome table
Yeah, I want to sit
at the welcome table
Well, I want to sit
at the welcome table
I want to sit
at the welcome table
See that beautiful city
one of these days
Oh, one of these days and I
I like to sing
and never get tired
Well, I want to sing
and never get tired
Yes, I want to sing
and never get tired
I'd like to sing
and never get tired
Sit at the welcome table
See that beautiful city
one of these days
One of these days
[pensive music playing]
Josh Fox: People have
always migrated.
Always looking for that
elusive home on the horizon.
What tells us we're welcome?
John Boutt:
What tells us we're home?
[Purity Gakuo speaking English]
[Chris Obehi speaking English]
[Francesco Creazzo
speaking English]
[Boutt speaking English]
[Obehi speaking]
[Camille McKayle
speaking English]
[Boutt speaking]
[Fox speaking English]
[Obehi speaking]
[Boutt speaking]
[Fox speaking]
[Boutt speaking]
[fire roaring, crackling]
[Gakuo speaking]
[Paul Bassis speaking English]
[Creazzo speaking]
[Obehi speaking]
[Gakuo speaking]
[Fox speaking]
[rumbling, crashing]
[Obehi speaking]
[Fox speaking]
[Bassis speaking]
[Gakuo speaking]
[Ricardo Perez speaking English]
[Creazzo speaking]
[Fox speaking]
[McKayle speaking]
[Gakuo speaking]
[Creazzo speaking]
[MAGA protester
speaking English]
[Donald Trump speaking]
[crowd laughing]
[Perez speaking]
[Boutt speaking]
[Fox speaking]
[Gakuo speaking]
[Boutt speaking]
[Obehi speaking]
[Bassis speaking]
[Fox speaking]
Boutt: We invite you
to our table on the levee.
Fox:
There's no tablecloth.
But each thread of our stories
weaves a tapestry.
Boutt:
The people at this table
crossed many rivers to get here.
Fox:
People from every continent
who have been displaced
by climate change...
meeting here for the first time
to ask, where is home now?
Boutt: Sit with us
and hear our stories.
We begin with a family
whose paradise burned
all around them.
Hello, I'm Allie.
My life was beautiful
and blessed.
Our home was
such a special place.
During the fire
when we got gridlocked,
we were all stuck.
The firefighters were
stuck up there, too.
And there's this song,
I think a Bee Gees song,
on the radio.
There's propane tanks
blowing up.
It's like... Staying alive
staying alive
Ah, ah, ah
And then firefighters told us
to abandon our vehicles
and run to the nearest
parking lot,
because the fire was coming.
["Stayin' Alive"
by Bee Gees playing]
- ["Stayin' Alive" pauses]
- [fire crackling]
["Stayin' Alive" resumes]
["Stayin' Alive" pauses]
["Stayin' Alive" resumes]
Stayin' alive
stayin' alive
[fire roaring]
["Stayin' Alive" pauses
and resumes]
[child crying]
Jason Harbor:
This is... This was it.
[child babbling]
Yeah, this used to be my JBL
PRX Dual 15
professional loudspeaker.
I do sound reinforcement
DJ and stuff.
[Allie coughs]
We hadn't had
any official warning.
- Fox: There was no warning?
- Harbor: No.
There was no public warning
or anything.
You just heard explosions.
Just constant explosions.
Could hear the propane tanks
starting to blow up,
and that's when I knew
that this fire
is within a mile of us.
- Allie: We're at... All gone.
- [explosions booming]
Right over there
is where you could see the fire.
It was orange.
What did they say
was the number?
Like, 800 football fields
in a minute?
Harbor:
Eighty football fields a minute.
Allie:
It's big. It's fast.
Harbor: This right here
would have been our bedroom.
She was born right there.
Allie: The home was
her first thing she knew.
And I just looked around
and I'm like, what do I grab?
Harbor: Hmm.
And I had the baby, you know,
who's crying
'cause she's hungry.
And then I'm also trying to pack
for all of us at the same time.
The road we were trapped on
is basically
just right through
the trees here.
We got on the road
and just instantly
got caught in gridlock.
I don't think we made it
two miles from our house.
Allie:
I was sitting in the car,
and I was just thinking, like,
"This is not how I go.
"This is not how I go.
"Just brought a baby
into this world.
"This is not how we go.
"I got all these kids with me.
This is not how we go."
Fox:
Allie, Jason, and their family
were the lucky ones.
Boutt:
Eighty-five people died,
and everything
in Paradise burned away.
Fox: In our new
climate-changed planet,
it's hotter and drier
than ever before.
Boutt: A common wildfire
is now a climate inferno.
[dramatic music playing]
Fox:
A glimpse of the apocalypse.
Burned-up and then
liquefied baby bottles.
- Boutt: Tires.
- Fox: Dashboards.
Boutt:
Formica counters, microwaves.
Fox: Liquid crystal display
televisions.
- Boutt: Satellite dishes.
- Fox: Sneakers.
Boutt: Plastic containers
for organic baby arugula.
Fox:
Cameras, clothes.
Boutt: The only place
that didn't burn
were parking lots.
Fox: You can return
the shopping cart
to its little shopping cart pen.
But the supermarket
isn't there anymore.
Harbor:
Eventually, a police officer
was getting everyone
out of their vehicles
and said that we
were now on foot.
So, everyone on the road
just took off running.
They had told us to go
to this parking lot.
This whole parking lot here
was full of evacuees, yeah.
At first, it was really,
really scary.
With fire all around us,
there was nowhere to go.
It was just raining embers.
Later, they said, okay,
we have a path cleared.
If you have a car still,
get in it.
Keep going. Don't veer off.
You'll risk everyone else.
Just go.
[Allie coughing]
Fox: Did you have a lot
of smoke inhalation?
Harbor: Oh, yeah,
they didn't have masks.
My boys had this piece of cloth
that they each used
that later when I washed 'em,
they were so dirty, just black.
You'd see RVs everywhere,
or in people's yards everywhere.
They just...
You can tell
they're set up for living.
The number I've been hearing
about displaced people
is something like 22,000.
Fox: These are
modern-day refugees.
Climate refugees,
living just 30 miles
down the road
in a van in Chico.
Boutt:
Is this the future?
The American dream
collapsing all around us.
From sea to shining sea,
there is no security.
Fox:
Where will we be safe?
There is no geographical answer.
[playing Radiohead's
"No Surprises"]
Fox: From coast to coast,
fires, floods,
extreme weather of all kinds.
Boutt: The fabric of
American stability has frayed,
the threads unraveling.
American cities being destroyed
faster than they can be rebuilt.
A heart that's
Filled up like a landfill
A job that slowly kills you
Bruises that won't heal
You look so tired
unhappy...
Colorado resident: None of us
would have ever suspected
that a fire like that
would come through
a neighborhood like this.
Picture perfect.
Kids playing in the yard.
It could happen to anybody.
It's a matter of when,
not if, at this point.
Boutt [singing]:
I'll take a quiet life
A handshake
of carbon monoxide
And no alarms
and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
No alarms
and no surprises
Silent
Silent
[floodwater rumbling]
[person screaming]
[wind gusting]
Yeah, so this was actually
the main part of the house.
Fox: Right.
Bathroom for the master bedroom.
This was our son's room.
Living, dining, eating area,
and then kitchen.
Most of it was Irma,
and then Maria took the rest.
We had glass doors here
and glass doors there.
So, once the roof went,
that, that really
couldn't stay up.
Fox:
Where did the roof go?
I'm not sure. [chuckles]
I even say today
that it was months
before I realized
I was homeless.
At the time, I remember thinking
that we were forgotten.
We're not
a very wealthy community,
and people are living simply,
but then you get thrust
into a situation
where it becomes poverty.
- [electricity zaps]
- speaker: Oh, my God!
Bassis: I don't know
where I'm going next,
but we are climate refugees now.
Boutt [singing]:
Such a pretty house
And such a pretty garden
No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no...
Bassis: Nobody expected,
nobody had ever seen fires
like that in the suburbs.
It's not like there's
a thousand available
houses in the neighborhood
for people to just go move into.
They have kids in schools,
they have jobs.
It's not like
anybody's got a plan.
Oh, I guess if my entire
neighborhood burns down,
where do we go next?
Boutt [singing]:
Silent
Silent
[snapping fingers]
[upbeat guitar music playing]
Let it go just like
the ones that came before
Stones rolling back
into the ocean
Shake it off
it was only just a cost
Money, money, money
Can't buy the ocean
[vocalizing]
[speaking English]
Fox: Lo Farah,
a famous firefighter in Brazil,
founded HUMUS,
a first response organization
that goes from one disaster
to the next.
There are so many,
he can't respond fast enough.
Fox:
Oh, man. Holy sh*t.
Fox: Oh, my God.
So, these were houses here?
Boutt: And Lo says, this
is one of the smaller ones.
In Rio de Janeiro,
these landslides
have taken out thousands.
[discordant strings playing]
[Lo Farah speaking English]
Fox: Rain bombs
coming out of the sky.
The Earth's atmosphere
is five percent wetter
than the dawn
of industrial times.
That's because warm air holds
more water vapor than cold.
The warm air
from the warmed climate
can gather all of that vapor up,
and what goes up must come down.
[floodwater roaring]
[children chattering]
[solemn music playing]
Fox: There's no justice
in any of this.
No way to say everything
happens for a reason.
But there is a strange
and mysterious thread
that connects us all.
In times of disaster,
you can see
the frayed ends of it.
And if you respond
to that disaster,
you can tug at that thread,
and you can pull at it
and see where it weaves us all.
["O Peso do Meu Corao"
by Castello Branco playing]
Boutt: Into every life,
a little rain must fall.
You know the expression.
But our world was only built
for a certain amount of rain.
More than that, and everything
starts coming down.
The land slides.
[engine rumbling]
Fox: I went to go pick up
Karina Lapenta, my translator.
Good morning.
We could barely make it
through to her neighborhood.
No one in this region
was unaffected.
[speaking English]
Fox: Karina is
a high-strung, tatted punk
with a heart of gold.
We're gonna be friends for life.
So, you had water
all the way inside here?
[Karina Lapenta
speaking English]
Fox: This apartment complex,
barely even finished,
was being waited for
by other poor people
who these
displaced people displaced.
It's stark, Orwellian,
naked, isolating,
oppressive, like a prison.
A temporary shelter,
it has nothing of the vibrancy
of the favelas.
[speaking Portuguese]
Fox: And into this
bleak landscape
marches the blue-haired angel,
Gabriel.
[Gabriel de Paulo Contato
speaking Portuguese]
Fox: A victim
of the landslides himself,
he lost his apartment,
but he decided
to pick himself up
and volunteer
with the relief effort,
where he was immediately
recognized as a leader.
[speaking Portuguese]
[speaking Portuguese]
[Contato speaking Portuguese]
[Farah speaking English]
Fox: People need
to tell you their yarn.
Spin their part of the thread.
Listening is helping,
including you listening now.
Gabriel was one
of those expert listeners
who exuded compassion
and patience and love.
Because listening
was helping him, too.
[Contato speaking Portuguese]
[speaking Portuguese]
[somber music playing]
Fox:
Often, in disaster,
there's a local organization
that just steps up.
In this case, Verdescola,
an after-school program
for local kids.
Every town should have
a Verdescola,
a place to teach and care
for the next generation.
Maria Antonia runs it.
She's kind of like your
favorite kindergarten teacher
of all time.
[speaking English]
Fox:
When the landslides occurred,
classes were stopped
and the place was turned
into an impromptu shelter
slash hospital
slash aid station.
[speaking English]
Fox: But Maria Antonia
is not just a thought leader
and a moral bastion
of this town.
She was also a victim
of the landslide.
I go with her to her house
for the very first time
after the landslide.
Oh, my God!
[Fox chuckles]
- Fox: Sure!
- [Antonia chuckles]
Fox:
Oh, man, this is insane.
Fox:
It's really strong...
Fox: Go ahead.
Fox: Oh, wow.
[Antonia laughs]
[people speaking Portuguese]
[speaking English]
Fox:
She wanted the simplest
and smallest thing.
Fox:
The little mosquito net
for her cup of tea
that she drank every morning
- in her kitchen.
- Yes!
Fox:
It had somehow survived.
The little things,
the little things
that remind you
that you're a human being.
[Maria Antonia speaking English]
Fox:
The little things that tell you
this is where you live,
this is who you are.
[indistinct chatter]
Fox:
Looks like a crime scene.
[tense music playing]
Fox: So, this is normally
where the children
would be sleeping
and hanging out.
[Antonia speaking English]
[speaking Portuguese]
[indistinct conversation]
[tense music continues]
[Antonia speaking English]
Fox: The next day,
Karina and I went
and toured a favela
to see the damage.
And then that thread
began to pull.
That weird moment where you know
something is about to occur
that there's no way you could
have possibly planned for
or anticipated.
A family passes right behind.
Two people and a child.
["O Peso do Meu Corao"
by Castello Branco playing]
They lean over and say, "Hey,
"you know,
if you're doing videotaping
"of the landslides,
the view is much better
from up at the top."
It was a welcome.
Hello.
And so we followed it.
[speaking Portuguese]
Fox: The steps are
probably ten stories.
They told me they felt
the house tremble
and got out just before
it slid down the hill.
[speaking Portuguese]
[Lapenta speaking English]
[speaking Portuguese]
Fox: Our host introduces
themselves as Jessica.
[speaking Portuguese]
[Lapenta speaking Portuguese]
[Jessica speaking Portuguese]
Lapenta:
...because of the kids.
[Lapenta speaking]
[Jessica sniffles]
Fox:
Jessica tells us of the bias
they suffered as a child.
[Lapenta speaking English]
[speaking Portuguese]
[translating in English]
[sobbing]
[speaking Portuguese]
Fox: Somehow, Jessica's family
had been left behind
with no help,
but Karina knew
how to show up and listen.
[speaking Portuguese]
[both laughing]
Fox: We have a choice
at the moment of disaster
to connect or not.
[Lapenta speaking English]
[Jessica speaking Portuguese]
Fox: We immediately
run down to Lo
to find help for Jessica.
And to our shock and dismay,
Lo turned to us and screamed.
"What the f*ck
is wrong with you?
"Don't you know that
if you walk up
"into that territory,
"the drug cartels that run
that entire village
"could mistake you for police
and k*ll you instantly?
"You can't walk into one
of those neighborhoods
"with a camera.
You're lucky to be alive!"
But then Lo took a breath,
calmed down,
and he said,
"Look, I can help you."
"I know the interim councilwoman
"in that neighborhood.
"Her name is Pauleteh,
"and you have to get
Pauleteh's cooperation
"to get back
into that neighborhood.
You need her protection."
Now, I've met a lot of
city council people in my day.
So I was expecting a politician,
middle-aged bureaucrat.
[translating in English]
Fox:
Boy, was I wrong.
[upbeat music playing]
[laughing]
- [upbeat music continues]
- [singing in Portuguese]
Hey, amigo!
Fox: As she walks down
the street, everybody waves.
Everybody loves her.
She's like a local celebrity.
[speaking Portuguese]
[laughing]
Hey, amigo.
[chuckles]
[upbeat music continues playing]
[both speaking Portuguese]
[indistinct chatter]
Boutt:
And then it happened.
Our q*eer dream team
of disaster mutual aid workers
showed up to the rescue.
You know the sun is in
Your eyes
And hurricanes and rains
And black and cloudy skies
You're running up
and down that hill
You turn it on
and off at will
There's nothing here
to thrill
Or bring you down
And if you've got
no other choice
You know you can
follow my voice
Through the dark turns
and noise
Of this wicked little town
[Contato speaking Portuguese]
[Jessica speaking Portuguese]
[speaking Portuguese]
[fire crackling]
[Contato speaking Portuguese]
[Jessica speaking Portuguese]
[crying]
[Contato speaking Portuguese]
[both speaking Portuguese]
[both laugh]
Fox: Now that trust
has been established,
Jeff can say he's a he,
and Jeff can tell us
all of his concerns.
[speaking Portuguese]
Boutt:
This is a community.
[Lapenta speaking English]
Fox:
A community that has
not just needs for food,
water, and shelter,
but a need for people
to understand.
[all laughing]
These are some of
the toughest people on Earth.
Suffering the triple catastrophe
of climate change,
bigotry, and poverty.
These are the folks that know
how to be strong in a crisis.
Jeff:
Woo! Whoppa!
- Ow!
- Woo!
[squealing]
Fox:
Take note, humanity.
The q*eer Mutual Aid Task Force
has something to teach you.
And that weird,
mysterious thread
is weaving something beautiful.
["O Peso do Meu Corao"
by Castello Branco playing]
[speaking English]
Contato: Mm.
Boutt:
Throughout South America
and Central America,
climate change has destabilized
every aspect of life.
The extremes of this new planet
exacerbating every
social crisis.
Food insecurity,
economic insecurity,
rural populations are
being forced into cities,
worsening gender-based violence
and making life difficult
and dangerous
so much that people migrate,
not only internally
in their own countries,
but north,
towards the United States,
towards the wall.
[ominous music playing]
Fox: Demagogues have
always divided us
into who was welcomed
and who was not.
And to do that,
they divide us into who is human
and who is not.
Animals. These are animals.
They're coming into our country.
They're not people.
These are animals.
They're animals.
Take a look at the death
and destruction
that's been caused by people
coming into this country.
The death and the destruction
caused by people
that shouldn't be here.
crowd [chanting]:
USA! USA! USA!
[band playing upbeat folk song
"Eh La Bas"]
Walls work.
[group clapping rhythmically]
[crowd cheering]
Donald Trump: We're going to
have strong, incredible borders.
["Eh La Bas" continues playing]
Trump: Just so you know,
we're building the wall anyway.
Whether they like it or not.
And we'll get it done.
- Eh la ba!
- Eh la ba!
- Eh la ba!
- Eh la ba!
- Eh la ba, chri!
- Eh la ba, chri!
- Komon sa va?
- Komon sa va?
Eh la ba...
[speaking English]
Fox: In 2019, the Trump
administration announced
a new policy for migrants
who were legally seeking asylum.
Families with young children
would be separated,
thrown into detention camps.
The policy was a clear
violation of international law
and considered
to be child abuse.
Progressive members of Congress
went down to Texas
to check out the facility.
Media was not allowed inside.
What we saw today
was unconscionable.
No child should
ever be separated
from their parent.
[protesters shouting]
These people are coming in
saying, f*ck your rules,
we'll do what we want to,
and you are going to pay for it.
Fox: So, you don't think
that children
are being abused
in these detention centers?
Absolutely not.
- Fox: Not at all?
- Not at all.
Fox:
Imagine you've lost your home,
been forced to move,
travel across continents,
and then at the border,
your two sisters,
aged four and 12,
are basically kidnapped.
[both speaking Spanish]
Fox:
Do you know where they are?
[translator speaking Spanish]
[speaking Spanish]
Boutt: She's an 18-year-old
migrant from Colombia,
where climate change
has intensified violence.
Extreme floods pushing migrants
into cities
where gangs prey on them.
Fox: Climate
and security are related,
compounding crises.
[speaking Spanish]
Boutt:
She came to the US border
to legally declare asylum.
And what happened?
Her two sisters were immediately
separated from her.
Fox: And she was dropped off
in Jurez, Mexico by CBP
to await her court date.
A city where thousands of women
have gone missing
or have been m*rder*d.
[translator speaking Spanish]
[speaking Spanish]
Fox: When I ask her if CPB
or ICE or INS or DHS
or any of the alphabet soup
of border agencies
have given her any way to find
where her sisters are,
she just says, no.
I mean, the postal service
will give you
a tracking number for a package,
but for two young,
vulnerable girls,
no information, no nothing.
They could be in El Paso,
or they could be New York,
or they could be
in one of the hundreds
of other detainee facilities
in America.
Nobody knows.
[speaking Spanish]
Fox: Declaring asylum
is a human right.
No one is ill*gal.
And our rights are at the basis
of all of our dreams.
You might not know this,
but you have the right to move.
Boutt:
You have the human right
to go anywhere in this world,
anywhere within your own country
or anywhere abroad.
And you have the right
to return to your country,
to your home.
And if things are so bad
in your country
that living there
threatens your life,
you have the right
to declare asylum.
Those are human rights
laid down to us.
All of us.
Fox:
In 1948,
the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights
was adopted
by the United Nations,
and a brand new kind
of human being was born.
A human being with rights.
Eleanor Roosevelt:
This Universal Declaration
of Human Rights
may well become
the international Magna Carta
of all men everywhere.
Fox: World w*r II,
which had just ended,
was based on all
the worst things
that make up humanity,
racism, militarization,
nationalism, empire.
A conflict so insane
that when it was all over,
when the smoke cleared
and the blood had soaked
into the soil,
the new world builders set out
to redefine what it meant
to be human.
Rights needed to be set down
and codified
so that violating them
was actually a crime
against humanity.
Boutt: All sorts
of rights were set down.
The right not to be persecuted
for your race or religion,
the right not to be m*rder*d
for your gender or ethnicity,
the right to self-determination,
the right to democracy,
the right to personhood,
to nationhood,
and the right to move.
Fox:
And just after, in 1951,
came a new definition
of refugee.
There'd been so many people
who'd been forced to migrate
that the convention
relating to the status
of refugees was held,
and it defined refugee
as any person
who fears being persecuted
for reasons of race, religion,
nationality,
social status, or politics.
And refugees can apply
for asylum
anywhere in the world
simply by crossing a border.
But even though you have
the right to move,
you don't have the legal status
to declare asylum
because of the climate.
The definition of refugee
set down all those decades ago
doesn't include climate change.
It simply didn't exist then.
And so our legal framework
is breaking down
in the face of the climate
that's breaking down.
Boutt: If the climate
throws you across a border,
if it destroys your home,
in spite of your right to move,
you have no legal status,
and you cannot declare asylum.
And the walls all over the world
just keep going up.
[funky upbeat music playing]
I come today to share
a truth with you
There resides a light
inside of you
I see the eye
between your brows, mm-hm...
[Creazzo speaking English]
[speaking Italian]
- interviewer: Huh.
- [laughs]
[dramatic music playing]
[Delphine speaking Italian]
Boutt: Imagine getting on
what's essentially a raft
with dozens of other people
and heading straight out
towards the middle of the sea.
The sea, so terrifying at night.
Fox: That blue,
blue Mediterranean sea.
The EU is using
the Mediterranean like a wall.
Boutt: And like the wall,
it's failed as a deterrent.
Fox: Nobody knows exactly
how many migrants have drowned
in the Mediterranean trying
to reach Europe from Africa.
It could be 40,000 people
in the last decade,
four or 5,000 a year.
But there's no records of ships.
There's no way to know.
Boutt: Now imagine
that you're floating
out there, vulnerable.
Thousands of miles from home.
No one knows where you are.
You see a boat,
and it starts sh**ting at you.
[g*nsh*t]
[SOS MED Crew speaking English]
Fox:
The Italian government gave
warships to Libya,
and they're calling it
the Libyan Coast Guard.
Boutt:
And they've been seen sh**ting
at rafts full of migrants
from Africa,
deliberately trying
to swamp their boats
and drown the people.
[SOS MED Crew speaking English]
[people shouting]
[g*nsh*t]
Fox: In spite
of the heroic efforts
of non-profit organizations
like SOS MEDITERRANEE,
the governments of Europe
are allowing
or encouraging
the Mediterranean...
- [g*nf*re]
- Fox: ...to become a mass grave
for migrants.
[dramatic music playing]
Fox: Looking out at this
vast Mediterranean Sea
with these Italian bodies,
sun-tanned, floating,
swimming through
the beautiful blue currents,
and up and down the beach,
young men from Pakistan
and Bangladesh,
climate-challenged countries
with huge amounts of migrants,
selling Italians blankets
and trinkets,
sunscreen and sunglasses
and inflatable unicorn
flotation devices.
Guys with, like,
a whole Walmart on their back
walking up and down the beach,
up and down the sand.
[speaking native language]
Fox:
And just down the port,
SOS MEDITERRANEE ships
coming in,
having rescued people
from the Mediterranean.
[Creazzo speaking English]
Fox: Francesco Creazzo,
spokesman for SOS MEDITERRANEE,
an organization that plucks
migrants out of the ocean.
[Creazzo speaking English]
[refugees singing indistinctly]
Fox:
One ship with rescued migrants
who narrowly escaped drowning
and just down the beach,
other ships full
of vacationing tourists,
unworried and untroubled,
taking their disembarkation
for granted.
Boutt:
The inequality, the racism,
the inhumanity,
the injustice is so stark.
Fox: Different threads
woven in prejudice.
Whose dream is this Europe?
All of these guys
have stories to tell.
["Mama Africa"
by Chris Obehi playing]
Fox: Chris Obehi left
his home in Nigeria
to seek safer shores,
and he ended up on a small boat
across the Mediterranean.
Chris survived,
ended up in Sicily,
and became a famous musician.
["Mr. Oga"
by Chris Obehi playing]
Mr. Oga
Yo, Mr. Oga
Boutt:
Chris fled Nigeria,
a country in the throes
of unprecedented
climate-induced flooding.
Fox: Which has worsened
the grip of Boko Haram,
an Islamist t*rror1st group
committing horrifying violence
across the country.
[Obehi speaking English]
[wind whooshing]
[singing in Italian]
[speaking English]
Hayya! Hayya! Hayya! Hayya!
["Non Siamo Pesci"
by Chris Obehi playing]
[singing in Italian]
Fox:
Chris' music is shaking up
sleepy towns like Palermo.
And in the south of Italy,
there's not much
but sleepy towns.
I know, because
I'm from one of them.
[twangy banjo music playing]
In case we haven't met,
this is Josh Fox.
And for this part of the story,
I walk the streets
of the tiny Calabrian town
my family left
so many years ago.
Now, it's like a ghost town.
The ivory tower
that the Italians
and the Europeans are defending,
the reason
they're drowning people
in the Mediterranean,
is to defend empty towns.
Towns that Italians left
in droves
a hundred years ago.
My grandmother was born here
in Calabria.
When she was two years old,
her family left for New York.
There was just no work
for anybody.
Most Italians that you
might find in New York
or in America
are from the south of Italy.
The place was
so economically destitute
that its chief export
was actually its people.
Boutt:
And in the early 1900s,
there was a lot of backlash
against Italian migrants.
In fact, there were cartoons
in New York magazines
and newspapers
depicting Italians as rats
with exaggerated mustaches,
brown faces,
knives in their teeth,
hats that said, "socialism,
communism, anarchy."
Same racism, different century,
different race.
There were even cartoons
portraying the wall.
["Walaho"
by Chris Obehi playing]
Fox:
And now, in Southern Italy,
there's so many places
that are empty.
So many places,
that don't have people.
Empty houses, empty buildings,
buildings that are boarded up.
Places that could be used
by people are empty,
dilapidated, falling apart.
And yet, the migrants of today
are shut out in the same way
that Italians were
a hundred years ago.
Boutt: But there's one town
in Southern Italy
run by a mayor
with a different vision.
Mimmo. Mimmo Lucano.
A mayor of a tiny little town
in Calabria called Riace
that turned Italian
migration policy on its head.
[Domenico "Mimmo" Lucano
speaking Italian]
Boutt: The government
was going to cancel funding
to this town's schools
because there weren't
enough children.
Meanwhile, boats and migrants
arriving from Africa daily,
only to be arrested
and thrown in jail.
Mimmo Lucano said, "No,
these people are a resource.
These people are our future."
[speaking Italian]
Boutt: So he brought
people into his town
from across the world.
Refugees were welcome.
[Lucano speaking Italian]
Buongiorno.
[overlapping greetings]
[speaking Italian]
Boutt: And he created
an immigrant economy.
He found a way to integrate
people into life
in Southern Italy,
and he's shot
into worldwide popularity.
"One of the top leaders
in the world,"
said Forbes Magazine,
Mimmo Lucano took
the fear of migrants
and turned it into love.
Fox: And what did
the Italian government do
to celebrate this man's
genius rejuvenation of Riace?
They prosecuted Mimmo Lucano
on trumped-up charges.
They charged him
with criminal conspiracy
to facilitate
ill*gal immigration
and misappropriation
of public property.
This world thought
and policy leader
was facing 14 years in jail
when we first arrived.
I guess giving
empty houses and jobs
to migrants was a step too far.
But everybody knew
that Mimmo Lucano
was being prosecuted because
he was a symbol
of a new Europe.
[Lucano speaking Italian]
["Una Furtiva Lagrima"
by Enrico Caruso playing]
[operatic singing in Italian]
Fox:
Somebody shot the door.
Fox: Mafia.
[Lucano speaking Italian]
["Una Furtiva Lagrima"
continues]
Boutt: At age 65,
a 14-year sentence
is basically life in prison.
Also, the Italian government
can criminalize
welcoming people
while normalizing
letting children
drown off the coast.
But the gates are still open
and migrants
are still given houses.
One of those migrants
is Delphine
and her son, Prince.
[speaking Italian]
[laughing]
[laughing]
- [laughs]
- Fox: Prince.
[Delphine speaking Italian]
Fox: Delphine has no visa,
no legal status.
She's in limbo.
While she waits
for a work permit,
she's learning traditional
Calabrian weaving.
[Delphine speaking Italian]
Fox: I think about
the Fates of Greek mythology.
They wove threads,
they wove stories,
they wove tales.
[Delphine speaking Italian]
[Creazzo speaking English]
Fox:
Where were they all from?
[speaking English]
[somber music playing]
[somber music continues]
Boutt: The sea holds
a lot of our pain and trauma,
but the sea is also our joy.
And the boats arriving
have kings
and queens and princes.
[Prince chattering indistinctly]
[gentle music playing]
Fox: I think for those
who survived,
there's a special triumph
in realizing the pure joy
of the Mediterranean.
A joy that should
be felt by all.
And I've never seen
a mother and child laugh
as much as Delphine and Prince.
[Delphine shrieks]
[Prince giggling]
[laughing]
["Nessun Dorma" playing]
Dilegua, o notte
Tramontate, stelle
Tramontate, stelle
All'alba vincer
Vincer
Vincer
[audience cheering]
[musical coda plays]
[applause]
Fox:
So, how did we get here?
Is there any way out?
And how much worse will it get?
In 2015, in Paris,
the world came together
and pledged to try to limit
global warming to 1.5 degrees.
"1.5 to stay alive"
was the slogan.
That meant
radically transforming
our energy systems
from fossil fuels
to wind and sun,
which I might add
is totally doable technically.
At that point in 2015,
the Earth had only warmed
by one degree Celsius,
and it was already
wreaking havoc.
1.5 was decided to be
the absolute limit of a sane
and safe Earth.
Why?
Because scientists
can see the future.
And the IPCC,
the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change,
which is made up of hundreds
of the best scientists
in the world,
those scientists saw
that every fraction
of a degree was dangerous.
Between 1 degree and 1.5,
every tiny excess fraction
of heat was closer
and closer to us all burning up.
They told us
of their nightmares.
They told they saw destruction.
They told that they saw
tipping points,
and they raced
to tell the world.
Every fraction
of a degree represents
a tipping point
somewhere on Earth.
The point where ice tips
to become water,
tips to become a flood.
A tree tips into fire,
a wind tips into torrent.
A rumble becomes a cataclysm,
a storm becomes a b*mb.
A town is reduced to ash.
A landslide buries
a whole neighborhood.
The tipping point, pinpointed
to a fraction of a degree,
1.1 degrees bad,
1.2 degrees worse,
1.3 degrees worst.
The tipping is where
the roof flies off
as opposed to it staying put.
And every fraction of a degree
represents a tipping point
somewhere on this Earth.
A crop that fails,
a building that falls,
a child that gets a disease,
a mind that snaps,
a species gone extinct,
a suicide,
a desperate m*rder in hunger,
a family that decides to move,
abandon their home,
a land grab, a w*r, a genocide.
Every fraction of a degree,
they said,
that we can stop
or slow is worth trying for.
As the window towards
resilient adaptation closes,
every drop of oil or puff
of gas or lump of coal
that we don't have to burn
represents a life saved.
A town still standing,
a roof holding back the rain
somewhere on Earth.
And the IPCC said
we had just 15 years
to cut emissions in half,
50% reduction by 2030
to stay at 1.5.
And what they saw
was 127 different impacts.
127 categories of despair,
127 different types
of catastrophe,
127 categories of cataclysm.
Here's a small sample:
Rise in climate extremes,
irreversible impacts as natural
and human systems
are pushed beyond our ability...
Increase in the intensity
of the climate
and weather extremes.
Heavy precipitation...
Hot extremes on land.
Drought and...
Coral bleaching and mortality...
[indistinct overlapping chatter]
Irreversible losses in...
[indistinct overlapping chatter]
...especially bad for children.
Malnutrition. Mental health.
Economic and social...
[indistinct overlapping chatter]
Health services disrupted.
Intensifying in cities.
Trauma from weather
and extreme climate events.
Increased exposure
to wildfire...
[indistinct overlapping chatter]
...economically
and socially marginalized.
Adverse effects on gender
and social equality.
Interstate violent conflicts.
w*r. Economic stress
brought on by droughts
and floods
and extreme weather crises...
[indistinct overlapping chatter]
Criminality. The collapse
of governments.
Failed states.
Climate change makes
armed conflict worse.
Weaponization of water.
Gender-based violence,
violence against women
increases with...
Civilization's vulnerabilities
get worse.
Food insecurity.
More violence.
Disruption of services...
...authoritarianism.
Complex risks
from multiple climate hazards
occurring concurrently.
Multiple risks interacting,
compounding overall risk
and resulting
in risks transmitted
through interconnected systems
and across regions.
And in all, approximately 3.3
to 3.6 billion people
currently living in contexts
that are highly vulnerable
to harm from climate change.
Somewhere between 1 degree
and 1.5 they said.
And if we go over 1.5,
all hell breaks loose.
Even though 200 nations pledged,
the pledges were not observed.
Emissions went through the roof.
We never burned
this much this fast.
"1.5 to stay alive,"
the bad news is,
had been woefully conservative
in terms of its
time-frame projection.
The nightmares were true,
but the time
to sleep much shorter.
Scientists believed
and projected then
that we would only breach
1.5 degrees by 2050.
But they were 25 years off.
Because in 2024, we breached
and smashed
the 1.5-degree threshold
and brought the world
to 1.6 degrees Celsius.
And every year, emissions
are growing, not declining.
And even if we stopped
and started declining right now,
the projections indicate
we would still warm the Earth
by two degrees Celsius,
but we're most likely
on our way to three degrees.
But even
a two-degree-warmed world
is an apocalyptic hell.
That's where we're headed.
["Too Late" by North Side
Skull and Bone g*ng playing]
We are the North Side
Oh, Skull and Bone g*ng
We come to remind you
Before you die
You better get your
Your life together
Next time you see us
it's too late to cry
[speaking English]
Boutt: There's a place
we all come from,
the original home
of all of humanity,
but now its rivers have run dry.
It doesn't support human life
because of a six-year
climate change-induced drought.
The Turkana of East Africa
are the original human beings.
150,000 years ago,
they spread out
all over the globe.
Every one of us
has our origin here.
The Turkana have lived
the same way
as pastoralists
for thousands of years.
This is humanity's past,
but it's also
our collective future
because what's happening here
will happen to us all.
[Gakuo speaking English]
[Arot speaking Turkana]
[Chris Achilo speaking Turkana]
[Arot speaking Turkana]
[Gakuo speaking English]
[Arot speaking Turkana]
[lever cranking]
[Achilo speaking English]
[Arot speaking Turkana]
Boutt: Twenty million people
in this region
are suffering
from food insecurity,
and this is perhaps
the gravest injustice
of climate change,
is that the people
who have done the least
to cause the problem
are suffering its worst impacts.
The economies
of the Global South,
Africa, South America,
and the so-called
developing world,
don't burn a lot
of coal, oil, or gas
compared to the Global North,
which has been polluting
the atmosphere
since the Industrial Revolution.
And the carbon dioxide emitted
since then is still up there.
It stays in the atmosphere
for centuries.
Fox: The Global North
has benefited enormously
from the development created
by burning fossil fuels.
And conversely, the Global South
is the least equipped to deal
with the total upheaval
that's coming
from climate change.
So, should the Global North,
that caused the problem
in the first place,
be made to pay
for this planetary destruction?
I mean, you break it,
you pay for it, right?
That's the idea behind
the Loss and Damage Fund,
born at the 2009
COP Climate Summit.
Boutt:
Rich nations pledged to donate
$100 billion a year by 2020
to compensate
for the damage and loss
to the developing world.
Sort of like
climate change reparations.
Fox: However,
the COP summit is non-binding,
exhausting, and incomplete.
And pledges were not honored.
Boutt:
And so, by 2016,
the rich nations
had only pledged to donate
about seven or eight billion
dollars a year.
A trivial amount
compared to the trillions
of dollars of damage
they've done.
Fox: Even 15 years later,
at COP29,
although a Loss and Damage Fund
was addressed,
the pledges were still very low,
and they won't start until 2035,
once again,
moving the goalposts.
Of course,
a Loss and Damage Fund
won't unbreak the climate,
but it could start to address
this drastic global inequality.
[Gakuo speaking English]
[speaking Turkana]
[Gakuo speaking English]
[Lodoyo speaking Turkana]
[Gakuo speaking English]
[Lodoyo speaking Turkana]
[speaking English]
[Lodoyo speaking Turkana]
[Gakuo speaking English]
[speaking Turkana]
[Achilo and villager
speaking Turkana]
[Achilo speaking English]
Fox:
Nothing today.
[Gakuo speaking English]
Boutt: The most calamitous
effects of climate change
have been inflicted on those
who've had the least part
in creating this instability,
this global chaos.
[singing in native language]
[laughter]
[incessant thudding]
Fox: For most
of recorded human history,
the ruling political system
has been Empire.
Empires have ruled
the planet for centuries.
The British Empire,
the Ottoman Empire,
the various Muslim caliphates,
the Romans, the Greeks,
the Mongols, the Chinese.
Boutt: And those empires
colonized, brutalized,
r*ped, pillaged,
enslaved, extracted,
and stole everything they could,
everywhere they could,
all over the world.
Fox:
And people are nothing.
Normal people, we were
at the will of the empire.
And brutality
and military strength
were the principles
that ruled the Earth.
You know, everybody wants
to rule the world.
Centuries of colonialism
and two brutal world wars
of Empire
k*lled hundreds
of millions of people.
And in the wake
of fascism's defeat...
[expl*si*n booms]
...a new world system emerged.
The United Nations was born.
Boutt: Throughout
the '40s, '50s, and '60s,
former colonies threw off
the yoke of imperialism
and declared independence.
India, Jamaica,
Caribbean, Africa,
independent nations,
now 195 in total.
The formality
of Empire dissolved
and borders mutually
agreed upon or created.
A new system
of nation-states was born.
Fox: Our current era
of nation-states is young.
It's younger than blue jeans,
younger than cars, than planes.
It's younger than machine g*ns.
For all intents and purposes,
the system of nation-states
is a new creation on the planet.
But the empires never really
let go of their power.
They found a way around all
those countries' sovereignty
and independence,
and a new world
of economic domination
and military hegemony emerged.
Boutt:
That's the period we're in now.
The Global North,
the former empires,
the former colonizers
are still very much
in control of the global system.
Fox: They still control
the resources,
they still control
the militaries.
The economic hegemony
and the military dominance
make sure that those borders
of those newly established
independent sovereign countries
are now basically enclosures,
walls of confinement.
Boutt:
Visas and passports,
border stops and tariffs
and checkpoints
and border control.
That system
of global economic domination
never disappeared.
And this new world
is still defined
by radical economic inequality.
And inequality is the wall.
Fox: If you're
in the Global North
or you've got money,
you can go anywhere you want.
Sit in that chair
while people bring you drinks
and arrive anywhere
you feel like going.
Planes, trains,
and automobiles. It's so easy.
Boutt:
But in the Global South,
the former colonized world,
the borders of your nation
are your confines.
You're not free to move.
You're not free to travel.
Checkpoints are everywhere.
Everywhere has borders.
It is the colonial system
that has never left us,
which is the root cause
of climate change.
Fox:
And the forces of Empire
and their emissions
don't stay behind
their own walls.
[Benjamin Cariajano
speaking Spanish]
[solemn music playing]
Boutt: Borders and walls
don't only exist
for our countries
and our houses,
they exist inside of us.
Fox: But there's one place
that I've been
where the houses
didn't have walls.
The town was defined
only by the edge of the jungle.
Achuar territory
in the Peruvian Amazon.
[Cariajano speaking Spanish]
Fox: We're immediately
welcomed by this family
just chilling out
at the end of the day.
[speaking Spanish]
Fox: This guy's like
an Amazonian Tony Danza
with his perfect hair
and his soccer jersey.
You feel like
you could just float away.
[speaking Achuar language]
[Perez speaking English]
Fox: I'm here with Ricardo
from Amazon Watch and Benjamin,
who's the tribe's
media coordinator.
Instantly, their daughter
runs up a tree.
[indistinct chatter]
Fox: It's welcoming.
That's a real welcome.
[clicking]
[laughter]
Fox: It's the greatest
tasting fruit I've ever had.
[Cariajano speaking Spanish]
Fox:
Yeah, of course.
[Perez speaking English]
Fox:
Can't say no.
You're gonna have some,
and it's going
to mellow you out.
[Cariajano speaking Spanish]
[speaking Achuar language]
Fox:
Even the Peruvian government.
That's very funny.
[laughter]
[people conversing in Spanish]
[Perez speaking English]
- [people chattering]
- [upbeat music playing]
[upbeat music continues]
Fox:
But even this tiny,
insanely remote corner
of the Amazon
can't escape
the crisis of the world
and like so many other paradises
is under attack.
'Cause there's something
that has no respect
for the sovereignty
of this borderless society
and threatens
to displace the Achuar
from their thousands of years
in this forest.
Corporate capital, oil drilling.
Boutt: Petroper,
the state oil company,
has a disastrous drilling
record in the Amazon.
Spills, leaks, ill*gal dumping,
decades of ruin,
destruction, chemicals,
cancer, health problems,
despoiled areas.
Fox:
And Petroper is seeking
the investment of the big banks
to drill in Achuar territory
against the will of the people.
Nelton Yankur,
the current Achuar president,
has fought off
five oil companies
in his four-year tenure.
[speaking Spanish]
[Perez speaking English]
[speaking Spanish]
[speaking Spanish]
Fox:
I can't imagine a worse
or more precarious place
to drill for oil,
and yet it's been happening
for decades.
[Perez speaking English]
Fox: The big banks are
heavily invested in oil and gas.
Chase, Citibank, Wells Fargo.
If your money's
in one of those banks,
it doesn't just sit there
quietly in a vault somewhere.
As soon as you deposit it,
it starts flying
all over the world
financing destructive projects
of the oil industry.
It's hard to believe
that your savings account
could go to create a pipeline
in the farthest reaches
of the Amazon,
but that's this global system
where money travels
faster than people
and rarely respects borders.
[speaking Spanish]
[Perez speaking English]
[speaking Spanish]
[suspenseful music playing]
[ominous music playing]
Fox: Oil companies
don't respect borders.
Human rights violations
are part
of their business model.
[Lucas speaking Spanish]
Fox: Oil from a broken
pipeline has been seeping up
through the ground for years...
[Lucas speaking Spanish]
Fox: ...contaminating
the water table.
That's all oil.
He has that thousand-yard stare
of the contaminated,
the brutality
of neglect and poison
that threatens his family.
[speaking Spanish]
Boutt: So, you become
a refugee in your own village.
You become a displaced person
on your own land.
Divorced from your faith
in the planet.
That in itself is a kind
of dispossession.
Oil is the breath
of climate change.
Oil is the blood of the system
that divided the world
and set it on fire.
But there are
other valid systems.
[Cariajano speaking Spanish]
Fox: He shows us
the Sangre de Grado trees.
Dragon's Blood.
The red blood of these trees
is a medicine
the Achuar are cultivating.
[speaking English]
Fox:
Instantly, an army of ants
comes to defend the tree.
Symbiosis, partnership,
understanding, working together.
Benjamin says, let's go fishing,
but he has no poles and no nets.
[speaking Spanish]
Perez:
Forty minutes.
[Fox laughs]
[all laughing]
[panting] Okay.
Suffering... slightly.
[machete thwacking]
Fox:
There's a certain plant,
if it gets in the water,
stuns the fish.
[both speaking Spanish]
Fox:
This plant gets the fish drunk.
In fishing, nothing beats
local knowledge.
[laughter]
[speaking Achuar language]
Fox:
Ah! Look, there's one already.
Holy sh*t.
Oh, my God.
They follow the cloud
down the little river,
as each one of the fish
that it encounters
gets stunned, confused,
and starts swimming
in a funny way
that they can see it.
[water splashing]
Fox:
Sirincash. Oh, wow!
[jaw ripping]
Fox:
In the jungle, there's a flow,
a seamless,
boundless exchange of life.
Fox: Nature is
the ultimate welcome.
It welcomed our species.
[water sloshing]
Fox: sh*t!
That almost got the camera.
[laughs]
I mean, look at us. Look at us.
Look at him.
[laughter]
Look at us.
Boutt: Isn't it our job
to show each other who we are
and to do that with a great deal
of pride and humility,
that we can welcome
and share each other?
[chewing]
This planet is generous,
and we can mirror
that generosity.
[speaking Achuar language]
Fox: The oil industry wants
to build walls here,
walls of exploitation
and certain contamination.
But without the Amazon,
we all perish.
We're all interconnected,
all related.
The flow of life
cannot be walled in.
[Nelton Yankur speaking Spanish]
[gentle music playing]
I don't wanna do a thing
Without you
I know it's a dream
I'll keep dreaming
[Perez speaking English]
Boutt: So, just how
much have the empires
and the first world nations
heated up this planet?
In just the last 50 years,
burning fossil fuels
has added the heat
of 25 billion atomic bombs
to the environment.
The risk is coming at us
so much faster than we thought.
Fox: Climate emergency
is no longer
a projection into the future.
It's an emergency now.
It's happening now.
A rainstorm is no longer
a rainstorm.
It's a b*mb with
a whole year's worth of rain
falling in one or two days.
Climate infernos where
it's never been
that hot or that dry.
Huge sections of forests burning
across the world
from the Amazon to Canada
and then the bombshell...
The IPCC now says
huge swaths of the planet Earth
will become uninhabitable.
By 2070, a third of all land
no longer habitable.
A person born today will have
33% less of the Earth
to live on by the time
they're 45 years old.
And so who's a climate refugee?
What is the definition?
Boutt: A victim
of a drought? Yes.
Fire? Yes.
Flood, landslide? Yes, yes.
But also the victim of the w*r,
a victim of the g*ng,
a victim
of gender-based violence,
the victim of bias,
those pushed across borders
by these unimaginable stresses,
by all the structures
crumbling at once.
The sky, the ground,
the earth, the water.
Fox:
The very fabric of life,
the threads that weave
the tapestry of our story
has frayed,
and the loose ends
are ripping in the wind.
That's who we are now,
a loose thread unknit
from the material of the world.
[solemn music playing]
So, we're gonna need to get
really good at welcoming,
because with a third
of the planet uninhabitable,
three billion people
will be on the move.
Boutt: We will either be
on the move ourselves
or tasked with welcoming
those who are.
Fox: The farthest continent
from everything else
but not far away enough
to escape the climate.
Our last stop, Australia.
[Delta Kay speaking English]
Boutt: Some of the most
extreme climate impacts
happen here.
Apocalyptic fires,
biblical floods,
extreme heat.
It's also one of the most
brutally colonized
places on Earth.
Delta Kay, a Bundjalung leader,
teaches Aboriginal history
at Byron Bay.
[Delta speaking English]
Mm.
Fox: Wow.
[Delta speaking]
Boutt:
The brutal British invaders
committed genocide
against Delta's people
and hundreds of other
Aboriginal tribes,
k*lling between one
and two million people.
They stole the land,
pillaged timber and minerals,
k*lled and enslaved
and abducted the people,
separating families.
[Delta speaking English]
Fox: Australia had lush
and diverse rainforests
like the Amazon.
99% of it was cut down.
Cutting down the forest to make
the whole place look like
the English countryside
is like courting climate karma.
When the rains come, there's
no protection from floods.
And in 2022, one of
the oldest colonial towns,
Lismore, flooded away.
It was apocalyptic.
The entire town was sunk,
thousands were displaced,
many people k*lled.
To house all these refugees,
the Australian government
built what they call
pod villages.
Pod houses
for a pod civilization,
for a pod future.
This is your neighborhood?
[speaking English]
Fox: It's almost like you landed
on the surface of the moon.
Fox: Uh-huh.
[laughs]
Boutt: But here,
our story of climate,
migration, colonialism,
and empire takes
one more profound
and maddening turn.
Because not everyone
exiled to pods
was a victim of flooding.
Some were victims
of another kind.
The final stage
of climate displacement,
climate G*ntrification.
The powerful colonial government
using the chaos
of climate change
to seize land and dispossess
the politically disenfranchised.
Fox:
Cabbage Tree Island,
one of the few special places
owned and stewarded
by the indigenous people
for generations
with Bundjalung customs
and language,
actually survived the floods
because their houses
are built on stilts
and were above the flood line.
But residents like Auntie Faye
were forced to leave anyway.
Auntie Faye takes me
to her house for the first time
since she was forced
into the pods.
[Auntie Faye speaking English]
Fox: Wow.
[speaking English]
Fox: So, it didn't actually
touch the house.
Can I go up there?
Fox: There's a lot
of glass in here...
and a lot stuff ripped out.
speaker: Yeah.
Fox:
Wow, it's really trashed.
[speaking English]
Fox: What was the deal?
Somebody vandalized
and took the electricity
wires and stuff?
Wait a minute,
this reminds me of something,
something close to home.
["Trem Song"
by John Boutt playing]
Boutt [singing]:
Hangin' in the Trem
Watchin' people sashay
Past my steps
By my porch
In front of my door...
Boutt:
Probably the first event
in the history
of modern climate displacement
is the levee failure
after Hurricane Katrina
in New Orleans,
and it's also probably
one of the first episodes
of climate G*ntrification.
Boutt [singing]:
In a blessed tone
[singer vocalizing]
Yeah
Down in the Trem...
Boutt:
Using a storm
to deliberately displace people.
I'm John Boutt.
I no longer live in the Trem
even though I wrote
the neighborhood's
most famous song.
[car horn honking]
What's up, baby!
So, I live...
This is the street
I wrote the Trem Song on.
They were stealing
everybody's copper.
They were stealin',
uh, anything metal.
Uh, all the grates
and stuff like that, man.
It was just ridiculous.
They kept us out for a long time
saying the neighborhoods
weren't safe,
the houses weren't safe.
Uh, they didn't have water.
We had no electricity.
You know, they shut
everything down long enough
just to, uh, force people
to not come back.
Fox:
And now the Trem is overrun
with developers and Airbnbs.
Airbnb, Airbnb, Airbnb.
This neighborhood was just
so packed with musicians, man.
You could just walk
from one corner to the other.
I lived around the corner here,
but, you know,
it... it displaced a lot of us
and a lot of us
never made it back here.
The storm had passed.
It was the actions
after the storm that doomed us.
Right? Greedy people, right?
Opportunists, and people
who didn't have, uh,
poor people in mind.
But we never flooded.
Down in the Trem
Just me and my baby
We're all going crazy
Buck jumpin'
and having fun...
Boutt: So, the government
told everybody
they couldn't go back
to their homes
in Cabbage Tree Island,
and the whole community
was pushed off to a pod
just five kilometers
to the north.
You could see
Cabbage Tree Island
from where they were stuck.
[speaking English]
Fox:
I mean, you're like a refugee
for just a few kilometers.
[Auntie Faye speaking]
[somber music playing]
[gentle music playing]
Hold on to the world
As it spins around
Just don't let that spin
Get you down...
Fox: That same weird thread
laced through a disaster
in Brazil that's being woven
in a Calabrian loom
by a migrant from Cote d'Ivoire
is in the hands of Auntie Faye
at an Aboriginal healing
and weaving ceremony.
Keep your self-respect
your human pride...
[speaking English]
[laughs]
Boutt:
Instead of throwing up a wall
in somebody's face
saying no, no,
doing this, saying, yeah,
come on, baby, come on, yes.
Yes, welcome,
yes to a better life.
Yes to a more loving world.
Yes to justice.
Yes to self-determination
and no to the hatred.
Boutt [singing]:
Take it from me
Someday we'll all be free
Yeah
We'll all be free
We shall overcome
Yes
Take it from me
Someday
we'll all be free...
[speaking English]
We shall overcome...
Fox:
Delta Kay shows me the plants
that the baskets are woven from.
She pulls a strand.
She weaves it together.
In between her fingertips,
a reed is converted into art.
Do you find it ironic
that these people
who colonized this land
and basically stole it
are now preventing
other people from coming here?
[speaking English]
We shall overcome
- Hmm?
- Fox: That's for sure.
Take it from me
Someday, we'll all be free
And it won't be
very long...
Fox: So, you've just been
weaving that this whole time?
Delta: Yeah.
We shall overcome
Someday
Whoa
Deep in my heart
I do believe
That we shall all be free
And we shall overcome
Someday
[gavel banging]
Fox: In 2025,
Donald Trump's administration
spent $11.4 billion
on new border walls
and militarization
of the border,
allocating $75 billion to ICE.
An unprecedented increase
in funding
for his crusade
against migrants.
Hundreds of thousands
detained or deported
and 15,000 children separated
from their families.
And yet, truth is,
everyone at this table
is a migrant.
Everyone in this picture
is also a migrant.
Everyone comes
from somewhere else...
if you go back far enough.
You usually only have to go back
one or two generations.
[speaking English]
That's serious German...
Fox: But who gets welcomed
and who doesn't?
ICE officer:
Stop! Stop, ma'am, stop.
- [woman screaming]
- Stop!
news anchor: And ICE agents
detained a mother
and her 16-year-old daughter.
They say the teen daughter
was holding
a newborn baby in her arms,
and that girl's face
slammed into the ground
as she was taken into custody.
Fox: There's an age-old
relationship between fascism
and the dehumanization
of immigrants.
Fox:
The policies of Donald Trump
evokes in many who know history
the despotic playbook
of the likes of Hitler,
Mussolini, and the colonists
of empires of old.
Use racism and xenophobia
to divide people,
strip nations of sovereignty,
convince us
that we are not all one,
and then seize power
and resources
and destroy democracy
and build a wall,
tearing up
the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights.
But what is so powerful
it can strip away compassion
and decency?
What has mobilized the forces
of hate once more?
What inflames brutality
and violence,
separating families,
demonizing immigrants,
violating human rights,
grabbing legitimate
asylum seekers
off the streets?
Boutt: The forces
of intolerance and hate
are building a climate apartheid
where only the rich
live behind the walls,
protected by corporate
militarized racism.
Our humanity cries out
that we do the opposite
because climate change
is not the weather.
[Gakuo speaking English]
[Obehi speaking English]
[Bassis speaking English]
[Lapenta speaking English]
[dramatic cello music playing]
Boutt: We sat and talked
for five days on a levee.
[Obehi speaking English]
[Gakuo speaking English]
[Bassis speaking English]
[Perez speaking English]
[speaking Portuguese]
[Contato speaking Portuguese]
[speaking English]
[speaking English]
[speaking English]
[birds chirping]
[speaking English]
[Boutt speaking English]
[speaking English]
[speaking English]
group: Aw!
[speaking English]
[speaking English]
[Obehi speaking English]
[Gakuo speaking English]
Boutt:
I believe that no matter
how high they build the wall,
it will always come down.
Fox: That love
is stronger than hate,
and sharing is stronger
than hoarding
and a wall...
on its side...
can be a table.
[dramatic music playing]
I, I want to see
that beautiful city
crowd: I, I want to see
that beautiful city
Boutt: I, I want to see
that beautiful city
crowd: I, I want to see
that beautiful city
Boutt: I, I want to see
that beautiful city
crowd: I, I want to see
that beautiful city
Boutt: I want to see
that beautiful city
crowd: I want to see
that beautiful city
- Boutt: One of these days
- all: One of these days
- Boutt: One of these days
- crowd: One of these days
I, I want to sit
at the welcome table
crowd: I, I want to sit
at the welcome table
I, I want to sit
at the welcome table
crowd: I, I want to sit
at the welcome table
Boutt: I, I want to sit
at the welcome table
crowd: I, I want to sit
at the welcome table
Boutt:
Sit at the welcome table
crowd:
Sit at the welcome table
Boutt:
See that beautiful city
crowd:
See that beautiful city
- One of these days
- One of these days
- Boutt: One of these days
- crowd: One of these days
I, I want to sing
and never get tired
crowd: I, I want to sing
and never get tired
Boutt: I, I want to sing
and never get tired
crowd: I, I want to sing
and never get tired
Want to sing
and never get tired
crowd: Want to sing
and never get tired
Boutt:
Sit at the welcome table
crowd:
Sit at the welcome table
Boutt:
See that beautiful city
crowd:
See that beautiful city
- One of these days
- One of these days
- Boutt: One of these days
- crowd: One of these days
- One of these days
- crowd: One of these days
- Boutt: One of these days
- crowd: One of these days
- One of these days
- crowd: One of these days
Boutt:
One of these days
all:
One of these days
[all cheering]
[all thumping table]
One of these days
One!
- [tambourine rattles]
- [cheering continues]
[rhythmic clapping]
["My People"
by The Rumble playing]
[trilling]
Whoo!
Rich people
living in paradise
Poor people
under the bridge at night
Oh, yeah
Most people
know what it takes to survive
My people
Know how to do it
and thrive
Oh, yeah
My people
we've been left behind before
Left behind before
My people
devil's knocking on your door
On your door
My people
sad so many had to go
Had to go
My people, we still here
And one day we gon'
all be in the same boat
[trilling]
Rich people still living
high and dry
Poor people
we watching the waters rise
We watching the waters rise
- Oh, yeah
- Oh, yeah
Most people
don't even bat an eye
But my people
know that it's real this time
Oh, yeah
My people
we've been left behind before
Behind before
My people, devil's knocking
On your door
Devil's knocking
on your door
My people
sad so many had to go
Had to go
My people, we still here
And one day we gon' all be
in the same boat
Said all be
in the same boat
Yeah
My people
we've been left behind before
Behind before
My people, devil's knocking
On your door
Devil's knocking
on your door
My people
sad so many had to go
Had to go
My people, we still here
And one day we gon' all be
In the same boat
My people
We've been left
Behind before
My people, devil's knocking
On your door now, baby
My people
sad so many had to go
Had to go
My people, we still here
And one day we gon' all be
in the same boat
My people
we've been left behind before
Behind before
My people, devil's knocking
On your door now, baby
My people,
sad so many had to go
Had to go
My people, we still here
And one day we gon' all be
in the same boat
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Welcome Table, The (2026)
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