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Coronavirus Outbreak: Hundreds Of Americans To Evacuate Cruise Ship; U.S. Assures Afghans It Will Not Abandon Them After Peace Deal; America's Choice 2020; Lebanon's Debt Crisis; Syria's War; Jane Goodall Sounds Alarm On Climate Emergency; Fire Fight Australia. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired February 16, 2020 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[11:00:00]

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BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST (voice-over): The United States evacuates its passengers as novel coronavirus cases continue to mushroom on board the

Diamond Princess.

Also 800,000 people forced to flee. We take toll of the single largest displacement since Syria's war began.

And --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANE GOODALL, SCIENTIST AND CONSERVATIONIST: How come the most intellectual creature ever to walk the planet is destroying its only home?

ANDERSON (voice-over): I speak to the conservation queen, Jane Goodall's message for American voters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Hello, it is 1:00 am in Tokyo, 6:00 pm in Italy, it is 4:00 pm here in London. I am Becky Anderson, welcome to CONNECT THE WORLD.

New cases of the coronavirus in Mainland China dropping for the third straight day. Officials there saying that is a positive sign. The World

Health Organization warning the outbreak, though, is impossible to predict.

On board the Diamond Princess cruise ship, the largest outbreak outside China, about 12 percent of the 3,000 people on board have tested positive.

At this hour the U.S. working to get hundreds of its citizens off the ship. You see people here lining up to board buses to go to the airport.

Canada, one of the other countries also planning to evacuate its people. Well, CNN's Will Ripley is nearby the ship, where the passengers are

departing -- or at least hoping to do so. First, though, to Matt Rivers at the airport, where planes chartered by the U.S. have arrived.

But as yet, Matt, no passengers, correct?

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, no. It's really just a waiting game here at the airport. The two charter planes sent by the United States

government flew in within the last two hours or so. They flew all the way from Atlanta in Georgia, actually, to get here.

Now they're just waiting on the tarmac. This is a live picture of those two planes. We've seen people outside in hazmat suits walking around. You can

see their stairs outside of the planes. They're just waiting.

So we're not exactly sure what the holdup is at this point, why the passengers haven't left the ship or the buses with the passengers on it

haven't come here. It's only about a 20-minute drive from there to here.

But clearly we're just waiting. Now what awaits the passengers when they get here is two essentially what are retrofitted cargo planes. These are

not normally passenger planes. You can see actually there's no windows along the sides of the planes as you would normally see on a commercial

airliner.

So it's not going to be an extremely comfortable flight for these people. They are headed to Travis Air Force Base, a U.S. Air Force base in the

state of California. Some people will stay there. Others will then continue on to Lackland Air Force Base in the city of San Antonio in Texas.

But whether they're at Lackland or whether they're at Travis, these passengers are going to have to undergo another two weeks of quarantine.

That was tough news for them to hear after what has been a trying ordeal, to say the least so far.

The U.S. government is basically saying that's out of an abundance of caution, Becky. We've spoken to passengers today who say, why didn't this

happen earlier?

Why have we been kept in Japan, told as of just a few days ago that they were going to be allowed, once the quarantine period by Japanese

authorities was over, that they would be allowed to leave and get on a normal commercial flight and fly back to the U.S. just as any normal

passenger would?

All of a sudden on Saturday, boom, about-face decision by the U.S. government, saying that these people now need to go back to the United

States for a 14-day quarantine.

So what has already been a very difficult, trying experience for these people is just going to continue, unfortunately, as the U.S. says it needs

to do what it needs to do to secure public health.

ANDERSON: Yes.

[11:05:00]

ANDERSON: Will, one American couple that we've been speaking with has had quite a time. The woman, as I understand it, in hospital while the man

remains on board. This is the moment the U.S. Centers for Disease Control knocked on his cabin door.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're working to get folks off the boat.

Do you want to go back to the States?

KEN FRASURE, OREGON RESIDENT: My wife is in the hospital.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

FRASURE: I want to go back with her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's fine, understand. Good luck. Hope she does well. Other people have been doing really well with this.

FRASURE: Is there any sort of plan on how that's going to happen later?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know, I'm sorry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: A story of confusion and frustration for many, Will.

What does happen to those who are left on board?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's the question we don't have an answer to, Becky, and we continue to ask. You heard Ken Frasure right

there.

First of all, imagine how difficult it is to have to turn down a flight home when you've been trying to get off the ship because you know you can't

go with the person you love, with his wife, Rebecca, who is stuck in a Japanese hospital in Tokyo and doesn't know when she'll get out.

She has to test negative for coronavirus before she can get out. But she can't communicate that well with the Japanese doctors. There's a language

barrier. So she has a lot of questions that aren't getting answered.

So for Ken to ask, what's the plan for the rest of us, the more than 2 dozen Americans who tested positive and a lot of their family members who

are choosing to stay behind, to just be told, "I don't know, sorry," that's got to be frustrating.

I wonder if Ken is sitting in his cabin tonight perhaps not so envious of what his fellow passengers who have decided to get off the ship. It was

voluntary, although strongly recommended by the U.S. government to get on those buses and take that charter flight.

We're communicating with passengers inside the buses. People have been sitting there for more than two hours. People are starting to get angry.

You're talking about a lot of senior citizens, people in their 60s, 70s, even 80s, saying they need to go to the bathroom.

They're being told by CDC officials they can't go to the bathroom until they get to the airport. It's only a 20-minute drive. But the buses have

been sitting there, not moving. They put up plastic over the windows so people can't look outside. It's like they traded one cramped, windowless

cabin for another. So tempers are flaring right now.

ANDERSON: Yes, absolutely, understandably so.

Will and Matt, thank you for that.

Well, the big picture in Syria this hour, 800,000. That is the number of the biggest single displacement of people since Syria's war began.

Roughly 10,000 people per day fleeing violence now since December in a war so choked by death and carnage, these numbers can often become numbing,

can't they?

But this is one that we must not ignore. To break down this incomprehensible number and the toll of the human impact, let's bring in

CNN's senior international correspondent Arwa Damon, who is in Turkey near the Syrian border.

That is a short drive from Idlib where you have been and witnessed what is going on. Just describe what you've seen and heard, Arwa.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's devastating, Becky. It's absolutely heartbreaking. People suffering. It feels like it's

almost suffocating them. They have been displaced, many of them, time and time again, just searching for a lifeline, for any kind of safety. And they

have not been able to find it.

We would visit a village and, within 24 hours, we would hear that the people there were on the move or that it itself was getting bombed. We met

a family that had been walking for seven hours in the dead of night, in the pitch darkness, in freezing temperatures.

And the children, most of them didn't even have proper shoes. One of the little girls had her UNICEF blue backpack on. She had socks and flip flops.

I was wearing heavy winter boots and still my feet were cold. I cannot even imagine what she was feeling.

But she didn't cry and she didn't complain. And neither did any of her siblings. That's one of the more striking things there. These kids don't

cry. Parents tell them they can't take their toys when they're on the run and the children just accept that.

There's a sense that -- there's a toughness to them that almost defies just how young and innocent they are meant to be.

But this is all that life has taught them, is war and hardship and displacement. People struggle finding enough to burn to stay warm at night.

They burn whatever they can get their hands on.

[11:10:00]

DAMON: At times even cutting up rubber and burning that. The fumes bring with them additional illnesses for the children.

Speaking of illnesses for the children, so many of them are sick. So many parents tell us that their kids are sick and some are actually dying from

the cold. We met a family, a mother, who was in complete shock because, the night before we met her, her baby had died from the cold, frozen to death.

She had nursed him, changed the diaper, put him to bed, he was healthy. He was a healthy weight. She woke up in the morning and found that his body

was ice cold and the doctor said that he had frozen to death.

The tragedies that we hear about are really unparalleled when it comes to the past stories that we heard coming out of Syria that were already

horrifying to begin with. These people, Becky, are getting squeezed into a smaller and smaller space as the bombings continue and the regime advances

on the ground.

ANDERSON: I want you just to briefly describe what you understand to be going on on the ground with regard those forces that are involved.

I mean in some ways, I hate to do this because what's most important are those people, those women, men and children specifically, who are being

forced out of their homes. But it is important to understand exactly what is going on.

So describe if you will what is happening and why now?

DAMON: Well, from a military standpoint, what the regime seems like it's trying to do initially, backed by the Russians and Iranians, is gain

control of two strategic highways which they have, by and large, accomplished to do at this stage, more or less.

In the bigger picture, they want to take control over the entire province but gaining control of these two highways is vital for the regime's ability

to connect the entire country to itself once again, something that they have not really been able to properly do over the last nine years.

We have seen cease-fires that were established in Syria between the Russians and the Turks set up and then collapse, set up and collapse.

We've seen waves upon waves of bombings that, even though the regime and the Russians say they're targeting terrorist organizations, more often than

not end up targeting the civilian population, whether it's in their homes, when they're on the run trying to flee and, of course, hospitals and

clinics.

This is something the regime and the Russians have been doing since the onset of this war.

You now also have Turkey changing its position inside Syria to a certain degree after 14 of its soldiers were killed, taking a more offensive

posture and issuing a warning to Bashar al-Assad, saying that if his forces do not pull back to those demarcation lines, that they will force the

Syrian regime to push back.

They themselves will somehow prevent them from targeting the civilian population, although we don't know how Turkey will end up trying to control

the airspace. But the dynamics on the ground are shifting and shifting very rapidly.

ANDERSON: Arwa Damon is in Turkey, your work incredibly important. Thank you, Arwa.

Before we move on, I want to read you something that the Norwegian writer, Arnulf Overland wrote in 1937.

"You must not sit tucked up at home and say, 'So sad, poor them,' and turn your face away. You must not tolerate without a care injustice that you

never had to bear. This is a crisis which we can't look away from."

His poetry back then served to inspire the Norwegian resistance movement during the German occupation of Norway during World War II. But his words

so prescient today.

Coming up on CONNECT THE WORLD, early voting underway in Nevada but things got off to a rough start, as people lined up to cast a vote for the 2020

U.S. Democratic presidential nominee. Details ahead.

Plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOODALL: They have been stealing it actually but still a window of time. I don't know how big it is and it's closing.

ANDERSON (voice-over): Legendary scientist and conservationist Jane Goodall tells me why at 85 years old, her activism is more important than ever

before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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ANDERSON: Right now, voters are heading to precincts across Nevada in the States for early voting caused by the big caucus day on Saturday. Nearly

every Democratic candidate is campaigning throughout the state today.

However, early voting got off to a rocky start there Saturday. Caucusgoers at one precinct in Vegas stood in line for more than three hours. The

problems stemmed from a large voter turnout, not enough volunteers to process them.

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg is now trying to attract support from a more diverse field of voters in Nevada. So far he narrowly

leads with the most delegates after the Iowa and New Hampshire primary. He talked to CNN's Dana Bash about this earlier and about his focus as the

race moves forward.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not focused on poll numbers right now. We're having conversations with voters, many of whom, by the

way, have been very busy in their lives and last year were saying, you know, come back to me when there are more than 20 of you and are taking a

different and new look at the candidates now that we've demonstrated that we've been able to gain support in states like Iowa and New Hampshire, as

we come to more racially diverse states like here in Nevada and South Carolina.

Many of the voters of color that I'm talking to are focused in particular on one thing: defeating Donald Trump. Nobody is experiencing the pain of

living under this administration more than voters of color.

And I'm talking to a lot of highly pragmatic voters who want to know, more than anything else, that you can put together the organization and the

message that will decisively defeat this president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: CNN's Political Analyst, Julian Zelizer is joining me from New York.

I thought that was really interesting because, at the beginning of all of this before Buttigieg did relatively well in the first two states, we used

to talk about Joe Biden as being the candidate who could beat Donald Trump. He was the electable candidate. Since then, of course, he's had a nightmare

in both Iowa and in New Hampshire.

So where do things stand at present?

Just explain to us why there are those who say, oh, well, these first two states weren't representative. This is now where the race begins, Julian.

JULIAN ZELIZER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, the first two states are not representative of what the Democratic Party looks like, that's certainly

true.

[11:20:00]

ZELIZER: And in the next round of voting, especially in what's called Super Tuesday, we're going to have states that have larger African American

populations, more working Americans and much more of the kind of constituency that will matter in the long run.

That said, Biden performed very poorly in these first two contests, poorly enough that it's shaking the confidence of fundraisers and also some of his

organizers.

And also, in polling down the road, he no longer looks as strong. Senator Sanders is doing very well; Buttigieg is doing very well and even in South

Carolina, where Joe Biden is counting on a victory, some of his poll numbers have slipped with key constituencies, including African Americans.

So basically, as the air has been let out of the electability bubble, the whole race is opened up and each of these candidates is scrambling to see

who could put together the coalition in the next round.

ANDERSON: I think it's interesting that his shaky performance -- and I'm talking Joe Biden here -- seems to be shaking the party itself, the

Democratic Party.

There will be those who say isn't this whole process supposed to be a fair race?

Shouldn't the most electable candidate at the end of the day be the candidate who is supported by the party machine, not the party machine

choosing to have a candidate at the outset, as it were?

ZELIZER: That's exactly right. That was a criticism of some of the euphoria over Biden at the beginning. And ultimately to be elected in the general

election, you need to win the nomination in the primaries. That's the first challenge.

And so now we're seeing that he's struggling more than people thought and senator Sanders and Buttigieg are performing very well.

So it is a kind of problem in how this process works, not so much with the primaries and caucuses but the overinflated stature of one candidate going

into this that might have squeezed some other people out from running. It might have taken space and energy away from some of the existing

candidates. But now it will sort itself.

ANDERSON: Yes, fascinating. I know our colleague, Christiane Amanpour, spoke to Nancy Pelosi this weekend in Munich.

She said, and I quote here, "I can't even envision a situation where he," being Trump, "would be re-elected but we don't take anything for granted.

We have to have our own vision for the future.

"But everybody knows that we must be unified in making sure that he doesn't have a second term."

The question is, how does a party ensure that that is the case?

At this point it doesn't look like a unified party that has a plan.

ZELIZER: That's true. Many Democrats thought if there was any -- ever an election where the party would pretty much have who their person was and

rally around them soon, this would be it, given the animosity that exists toward President Trump.

But that's not the case. The good news is that, sometimes in divisive primaries, these things are settled; they're brutal. People's feelings are

hurt, tensions emerge.

But in the end people do rally around a candidate. That's what happened in 2008, when Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama had a really fierce competition

but, in the end, Obama won the nomination and won the election. So Democrats are hoping that's the case.

But I can tell you, many Democrats are unsettled right now and that re- election of President Trump seems more viable than in a long time.

ANDERSON: We are headed for November. I know it's only February but the clock is ticking on this one. Julian, it's always a pleasure. Thank you,

sir.

ZELIZER: Thank you.

ANDERSON: It's crunch time for Lebanon as a March 9th deadline to pay off a billion-dollar euro bond approaches. Just days ago, Lebanon's government

asked the International Monetary Fund to help shore up its economy with a rescue plan.

Lebanon is one of the world's most indebted nations. Let's bring in John Defterios.

You've been speaking to the managing director of the IMF.

What did she tell you, John?

JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Well, she's pretty frank, Becky. When it comes to this region right now, Lebanon is at the eye of the

storm. Last week it asked for technical support. What it needs is economic support. One source said actually an economic lifeline right now. It's only

a $53 billion economy.

Becky, it's saddled with $87 billion of debt. So Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the IMF said in Beirut they're acting like there's no

crisis. Listen to her candor here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTALINA GEORGIEVA, MANAGING DIRECTOR, IMF: It is very important to recognize two things.

[11:25:00]

GEORGIEVA: One, that the economy of Lebanon does need very deep structural reforms. And the sooner they're done, the better for Lebanon.

Two, Lebanon has received an unfair share of troubles elsewhere and that is also something that we need to be mindful of. We are sending a small team

to Lebanon upon the request of the authorities. We will do our best to give a diagnostics and recommendations on measures they can take.

But the taking is in the hands of Lebanon. And let's hope that we would see the courage to move toward changing the trajectory for the economy.

DEFTERIOS: But earlier indications are that the budget structure looks very much like the year before and there's also a political squeeze on the

ruling party.

What would you suggest to them, don't go to business as usual and get on with it?

GEORGIEVA: Where would business as usual take us?

To basically the same place that we are today.

And why are the Lebanese people on the street?

They do not want business as usual. So it doesn't matter so much what we say, listen to your people.

DEFTERIOS: Terrific.

GEORGIEVA: What they say.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Suggesting that things are tough. And Lebanon at a critical juncture at this point. John, you also touched on another vitally important

issue, that of gender equality.

DEFTERIOS: Yes. This was the Global Women's Forum here in Dubai and it's a central pillar for the UAE, because they moved up, get this, 23 places in

the U.N. report to 26th in the world.

But the managing director saying, look, we have one out of four youth in this region without a job. It's time to unleash the power of women. Listen

how blunt she was with her assessment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGIEVA: If we are just to bring the Middle East to par with the more advanced economies, if we only do that step over the next years, there

would be $1 trillion more in output for everybody to share.

So we are talking about very significant improvements. David Malpass also flagged the increasing GDP. But beyond the economic impact, what we do is

we create more diverse workplace, more diverse board room and, in the end, we make better decisions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEFTERIOS: Once again, she was referring to David Malpass, her counterpart at the World Bank.

But what's the context of $1 trillion?

As you know, this region has a $3 trillion economy, so she's saying, if you deregulate the market, get gender equality, it will add another $1 trillion

over 10 years. It's extraordinary the power, that it does have if you unleash it.

ANDERSON: Absolutely. Good stuff, John. Thank you very much for that.

John Defterios is in Dubai, I'm in London today. Both of us based out of Abu Dhabi in the UAE on a regular basis.

Coming up on CONNECT THE WORLD, we'll hear from one of the United Nations' top officials, who is helping getting humanitarian assistance to displaced

Syrians. This is an incredibly important story, do please stay with us.

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[11:30:00]

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ANDERSON: Well, let's circle back to one of our big stories this hour, it's just after half past 4:00 here in London.

The story that is at the top of our agenda today is the mass exodus inside Syria, more than 800,000 Syrians, that is 800,000, about 14 times the

population of Greenland, are this hour outside of their homes, displaced by an offensive from their own government that started in December.

And all of this happening in unbearable conditions, under freezing temperatures. This is something that we've never seen before in this

country's near decade-long conflict.

My next guest, Mark Lowcock, is entrusted with overseeing all emergencies requiring humanitarian assistance. He's at the U.N., of course, and he has

been warning the international community of Syria's humanitarian disaster for months and says that the carnage that we are now witnessing should not

come as a surprise to anyone.

He joins me now live from New York.

Good to have you with us. The situation in Idlib in northwest Syria right now is unprecedented. Witnesses have described it as it feeling like

Judgment Day. The scenes are almost biblical. And yet you say we shouldn't be surprised.

Why?

MARK LOWCOCK, U.N. AID CHIEF: Well, this is what we've been warning about, Becky. I think the analogies you give there are the right ones. This is

what Armageddon feels like to those people, who you're showing on your pictures and who are where your correspondent has been talking about.

It's been building up since December. There is, of course, a huge relief operation, where we are bringing tents and food and shelter and sleeping

bags and stoves and warm clothes across the border from Turkey with the cooperation of the Turkish authorities.

But it's completely overwhelmed by this onslaught. If this goes on, what we're going to see is Idlib, that part of northwestern Syria, turned into

the world's biggest pile of rubble, strewn with the corpses of a million children.

ANDERSON: This is just -- it's unacceptable. And that is such a weak word for this. In a recent op-ed, you described the displacement of Syrians in

Idlib as, quote, "As they move, they look to the sky and wonder if they are about to be bombed.

"They head north and west into the ever smaller space considered safe near the Turkish border. Most camps are full," you said, "many sleep in the open

fields."

This is what Arwa, our correspondent, has witnessed. You say, Mark, that you have briefed the Security Council month after month on the consequences

of inaction and yet we are seeing inaction.

[11:35:00]

ANDERSON: Why have your briefings failed to move the needle on this?

LOWCOCK: Well, you know, of course, the fact is that the Security Council is divided on this issue. Unfortunately, what happens, when there is a

problem like this, where veto holding powers on the Security Council disagree with each other, is they are stymied into inaction.

Now as you've been reporting earlier, some other parties are starting to look at this in a different way. We're following closely how the Turkish

authorities are seeing things. Of course, these people are right on their border. Turkey already is host to three and a half million refugees and

President Erdogan has been speaking very clearly about how unacceptable he finds this.

But unless something changes, the trajectory we're on is of the world's biggest humanitarian horror story of the 21st century. So something needs

to change.

ANDERSON: And yet this weekend in Munich, the world's top military and political brass got together to talk global security. And yet Syria seemed

to be almost completely absent from their agenda.

How do you explain that?

LOWCOCK: Well, I don't know. I don't think it should be absent from the agenda. I'm not there, of course. I would like to see this story better

covered. Thank you for the coverage you're providing.

You know, the world is going to regret not dealing better with this problem. And the rationale that's provided, that the government of Syria

are trying to deal with a terrorist problem, is not an acceptable response.

There are a hundred civilians, most of them babies and little boys and girls, for every terrorist there. So wiping out, slaughtering huge numbers

of people cannot be a proportionate or acceptable response to this problem. The world needs to wake up and do something different and stop the carnage.

ANDERSON: Well, many cease-fires have been agreed on with regard to Syria. And yet we see a lot of politics and a lot of finger pointing. And that

does those on the ground, who are literally freezing to death, absolutely no good whatsoever.

In Syria we had a U.N. process, which seemed to be superseded by what's known as the Astana process. Many people concerned that, in a similar vein,

we are seeing a similar issue happening now. For example, in Libya, a U.N. process superseded by the Russians and indeed the Turks.

How concerned are you, sir, that cease-fire after cease-fire just gets washed away and how long does this go on?

LOWCOCK: Well, I mean, firstly, if you talk to people in Idlib -- and you can call them up on the phone, you can talk to them on a video link, you

can hear their story -- they feel abandoned and terrified. They don't understand why this is happening, either.

The only solution to these kinds of problems ultimately is a political solution. So whatever the table is that people get around, they have to get

around that table and find a different way to deal with the problem.

I guess that what we've got is sort of a commentary on the state of global geopolitics, that countries are finding it harder to find these kinds of

solutions to conflicts and political problems than was the case certainly 15 years ago.

Somehow the world needs to get back on a better track of finding political solutions to these kinds of difficulties, because, you know, the loss of

life and the suffering that is being imposed on babies and women and children are the sort whose pictures we're seeing is not acceptable.

ANDERSON: We have report after report of babies and young children dying from the cold in Syria at present. We must not turn a blind eye to this.

Mark, it's a pleasure having you on, thank you very much indeed for your insight.

Still to come on CONNECT THE WORLD --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOODALL: If everybody makes these ethical choices, we start moving toward a better world. And we need a different way of thinking about how we walk

each day.

ANDERSON (voice-over): Legendary conservationist Jane Goodall says what you can do to fight against climate change. My conversation with Jane is up

next.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[11:40:00]

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ANDERSON: Massive wildfires, plagues of locusts, cities flooded for weeks on end. The impacts of climate crisis seem sometimes overwhelming and

unstoppable. But I recently spoke to legendary conservationist Jane Goodall, who told me, despite what she calls very dark times, she is still

hopeful for the future. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON (voice-over): Animal lover, scientist, wildlife hero, Jane Goodall, a woman whose pioneering work redefined mankind and helped bridge

the gap between us and the animal world.

She was the first scientist to record that chimpanzees used tools and caused a stir by saying animals have distinct personalities and emotions,

something the scientific community now widely accepts.

After observing environmental destruction of chimp habitats, she evolved from scientist to activist, making it her mission to inspire people the

world over to take better care of our planet.

In the 1990s, she founded the Roots and Shoots movement, which now counts thousands of members in 163 countries. Her contributions were recognized

when she was named a United Nations messenger of peace.

Goodall, now 85 years old, still travels an astonishing 300 days a year, spreading her message of hope to anyone who will listen. I recently caught

up with Goodall in Dubai, where she told me there's a renewed sense of urgency to her activism.

GOODALL: We're going through very dark times, socially, politically and especially environmentally. Lots of people are kind of losing hope because

you get this message, think globally, act locally. But if you think globally, you get really depressed.

So the message is about acting locally. The main message is each one of us makes some impact on the planet every single day.

ANDERSON: What do you think the single biggest threat to the environment is today?

GOODALL: People say it's the climate crisis, which is true. But that's because of so many things impinging, like our industrial agriculture, our

reliance on fossil fuels and this intensive animal farming that creates all this methane, all these greenhouse gases.

The destruction of the forests, apparently the equivalent of a football pitch of forests every minute around the world.

ANDERSON: And these days we have just in the past couple of months seen these incredible bush fires in Australia. We've seen these swarms of

locusts across East Africa. We are seeing the rising temperatures in the Gulf here.

GOODALL: Everywhere.

ANDERSON: Where we live and everywhere around the world. There are those who say these are, you know, the result of climate change.

[11:45:00]

ANDERSON: Or at least are exacerbated by climate change.

GOODALL: By our activities.

ANDERSON: You've seen that over your lifetime.

GOODALL: I've absolutely seen it. I go around now, I've stood in Greenland with Inuit elders and seen the ice melting on that great ice cliff. They

said, even in the summer, the ice didn't use to melt here.

Kilimanjaro, remember that, "The Snows of Kilimanjaro"?

There's hardly any snow left and the glacier is almost gone. That's the same all around the world. I've met people who've had to leave their island

homes because of high tide and rising sea levels. It's not habitable anymore.

All these refugees. Refugees aren't just fleeing violence and war, they're fleeing areas which have become uninhabitable for them and their livestock.

ANDERSON: You left the U.K. some 60 years ago. If you take us back to you as a sort of mid-20s young lady, could you have ever imagined we would have

got to where we are today in such a climatic crisis?

GOODALL: Absolutely not. Back then, Kenya, when I went through Kenya and then Tanzania, the animals were all there. There were walking on the roads.

There were virtually no paved roads in Nairobi. It was a very, very different Africa. It was the Africa I dreamed of when I was 10 and fell in

love with Tarzan. I was mad that he married the wrong Jane.

(LAUGHTER)

GOODALL: I left Gombe, my chimpanzee study in 1986, having realized that chimpanzees and forests were vanishing across Africa and realizing I needed

to do something.

The crazy thing is, the biggest difference between us, chimps and other creatures is the explosive development of the intellect.

So how come the most intellectual creature ever to walk the planet is destroying its only home?

ANDERSON: What do you put that down to, how come?

GOODALL: We are putting economic development ahead of protection of the environment. We're forgetting we are part of the natural world, we depend

on it.

We don't seem to realize that, if we go carrying on as though we can have unlimited economic development on a planet with finite natural resources,

it's going to be us extinct as well.

ANDERSON: Your activism is legendary. Talk to me about what you are doing personally and the groups that you have around you, Roots and Shoots, for

example.

GOODALL: I was meeting so many young people who seemed to have lost hope. They were either apathetic, most of them, angry, depressed. They said,

well, you've compromised our future and there's nothing we can do.

That's was where I thought that, yes, we have compromised their future, we've been stealing it actually. But there's still a window of time. I

don't know how big it is and it's closing.

But if we get together, we can start healing the harm and at least slowing down climate change and species extinction. So Roots and Shoots has its

main message, every one of us makes a difference every single day.

They're planting trees, they're cleaning streams, they're lobbying, they're writing letters to congress people or whatever government they happen to be

in. They're actually taking action.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think I know more about the environment than most people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: The most powerful country on Earth, the United States, right now has a president who has pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord. He

has rolled back so many federal environmental policies.

GOODALL: All the time.

ANDERSON: What power do people have to really change things if and when the power is in the hands of a leader who doesn't care?

GOODALL: He does care about himself and he does care about his economic development.

So what can one do?

Well, we've got an election coming up in the U.S. People can vote. And a lot of people have become apathetic about it. But you know, people must

vote.

ANDERSON: Is there someone who you believe should lead the U.S., who would have a better grasp on the environment or conservation and climate change

than Donald Trump?

GOODALL: Almost anybody.

ANDERSON: Here at the beginning of 2020, I wonder what your New Year's resolution was and what you might ask others to do this year?

GOODALL: My resolution is always the same. I'll try and leave as light a footprint as I can each day. And I know I fly a lot. And I actually said to

Greta, you know, I have to fly.

And she said yes, you do, it's OK. And last year our Roots and Shoots groups around the world planted 5.5 million trees and saved forests and

woodlands.

[11:50:00]

GOODALL: So that doesn't make me totally satisfied but it's at least more than absorbing my bit of carbon. What I hope people will do is to think

about the consequences of the small choices they make each day.

What do you buy, where was it made, did it harm the environment, did it result in cruelty to animals, like eating meat?

Did it -- is it cheap because of child slave labor?

So if everybody makes these ethical choices, we start moving towards a better world. We need a different way of thinking about how we walk each

day.

ANDERSON: You are almost 86.

GOODALL: Yes.

ANDERSON: You've had the most remarkable life.

When all is said and done, Jane, what do you want your legacy to be?

GOODALL: Well, I think the legacy, you know, it's a double one. First of all, starting this Roots and Shoots movement, because it is changing the

world every day, as we speak, and it's giving young people hope and it's giving them a sense of empowerment.

Secondly, when I had been two years with the chimps, knew them all as individuals, saw their amazing behavior, know that they resemble us in

their genetic makeup, like 98.6 percent, and yet I get to Cambridge after two years and many of the professors told me, Jane, you've done everything

wrong.

The chimps should have numbers and not names. You can't talk about them having personalities, minds or emotions because those are unique to us.

Science had to somehow admit that we're not the only separate beings.

I was told it's a difference in kind. It's not true. So then they had to look and say, OK, it's not just the chimpanzees, it's the gorillas, the

orangutans, the baboons, it's the monkeys, it's the elephants, the lions, it's the dogs, it's the camels.

So it's changed the way science -- today a student can study animal emotion, study animal personality and there's a flurry of studies on

intellect.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Jane Goodall, who travels something like 300 days a year, spreading the message of conservation and the consequences of climate

crisis, a fascinating conversation.

This is CNN. We'll be back right after this.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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ANDERSON: This just in: it is nearly 2 o'clock Monday morning in Japan and the buses carrying American passengers from the Diamond cruise ship have

just left Yokohama and are headed to the airport in Tokyo. From there, the passengers will board planes bound for the United States.

They have been quarantined on that ship for nearly two weeks.

[11:55:00]

ANDERSON: Very frustrated about the delay in getting them off. There are, though, hundreds of people still on those ships. We'll get you more

information as, of course, we get it. These are the departing passengers from the cruise ship there that are leaving the ship on the way to the

airport.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CELESTE BARBER, COMEDIAN: They are the ones who have saved us. They are the ones who actively go out and help. They are the ones --

(APPLAUSE)

BARBER: -- they are the ones that cancel holidays to stay here and look after us.

ANDERSON (voice-over): Comedian Celeste Barber served as host of Fire Fight Australia, a 10-hour rock concert to honor the country's firefighters,

raise money for bush fire relief and celebrate Australia's resilient spirit.

Queen and Adam Lambert performed their set list from 1985's Live Aid. Aussie sweetheart Olivia Newton John mesmerized the crowd. By the end of

the show, Fire Fight Australia raised more than $9 million.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Australia experiences bush fires every year but it is the intensity of this season that shook the world. It's part of climate change

patterns shattering weather records on every continent. One of those places is Europe, which is now dealing with its own extreme weather.

Two weekends in a row of powerful winter storms striking the U.K. and mainland Europe's northern coast. This type of weather usual for this time

of year but it is the intensity, again, that goes beyond the norm. Let me tell you, it is unpleasant here this weekend in London.

I'm Becky Anderson. That was CONNECT THE WORLD. Thank you for watching.

END