captiong sponsored by mcneil/lehrer productions >> lehrer: good evening. i'm jim lehrer. troops across the cotry received their dloyment orders foafghanistan. >> ifil and i'm gwen ifill. on the pbs newshr tonight, 1,500 marines we told they'll ship out before chrtmas. >> lehrer: the chairm of the joint chiefs of staff, airal mike mullen, briefed ldiers and marines today. 'll talk to him about what he said. >> ifill: also tonigh as the climate chae conference opened copenhagen, new rules were announced in washingon declarg greenhouse gases

dangerous to publ health. we get details from administrator lisa jason at the environmeal protection agen. >> lehrer: then ray suarez begins a weeklong crossountry seriesbout the u.s. economy. patchwk nation, tonight from philadelphia. > they were too big to fail i would say thatities are too important to fl. >> ifill: and jerey brown rerts on new york's latest cultural struggl how can they survive and tive, here at the metropolitan in n york we'll talk to thean in charge and oera star renee flemi. >> lehrer: that's all cominup, on tonig's "pbs nehour." major funding for the pbs newshour is provideby: >> what the worlneeds now is energy. the energy to get theconomy mming again. the energy ttackle challenge like climate chge.

what if that eney came from an energy company? every day, chevron invts $62 million in people, in ide-- seeking, teaching, blding. fueling growth around theorld to move us all ahead. this is the power ohuman energy. chevron. intl. and bank ofmerica. and by toyota.

and monsanto. the william and ora hewlett foundation, workg to solve social and enronmental prlems at home and around the world. and with the ongoinsupport of thesenstitutions and oundations. and.. this prograwas made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. anby contributions to your pbs station from viewersike you. thank you. >> lehrer: thousas of u.s. marines and soldiersot ready to go to afghanista at the same time, nato fense ministers discuss their contributions to the use. dy woodruff begins our repor ,000 u.s. soldiers an mares began to get their orders to join troops alreadyn the ground in afghanistan. ey account for more than half of the 3000

reinforcements beng september to t war zone by president oa. >>'m extremelyonfident we can succeed in this mission, igreat par because of you. but i don't underestima thehallenge. >>woodruff: the chairman of the joint chiefs adral mike mulen visited soldiers at fort campbell, keucky, this morning. it's home to the army's 101s airborne divisi which h orders to retn to the fight even before the president's announment. >> i am sure that will susta an increased level of casualties. i expect a tough fight in 200. >> woodru: later at camp lejee, north cara, mullen briefed some othe 8,000 marin who will be part of the rst wave of this ming surge. the lead contingent, 1500 marines will ave lejeune before chrtmas. th will be followed by 620 more from the base after the first of the year. in additio, 800 marines

from camp pendleton califora, will head overcome string. and thermy will send around 3500 troops from 10th mountin division based fortrum, new york. the 30,000 total ibound amecans will be joined by at least 600 nato troop its. in brusse today, dfense miisters from 2ofthe 44 nations in the allice confirmed the pledges the made lst wek. meantime, another u.s. ally visid the white house todafor talks with the president. the tur kiss prime minier now has nearly 2,000 troops in afghanistan, largely deployed innd around the capitol kabul. t timetable for when erican troops leave afghanistan also remained an issue. mr obama announced last week tt a dawdown would begin in july 2011. fense secretary robert

gates and secreta of state hillary clinton elaborat the sundayalkhows. this is atransition that's goingo take place. and it's not an ashtraire -- arbitra date. obiously the transition will begin in the less contested areas of t country but it ll be the sa kind of gradual-conditions based transition provce by province, distct by district that wsaw in iraq. >> woodruff: those conditions will be dermined in part by t eadiness of afghan scurity forces. training them is ainchpin of the presidt's strategy. but ere was another reminder today tha much of the fight remained bend ghanistan. synchronid bombings in a marketplace killed a least 36 people in lahore, pakist, near the indian borde a massiveireengulfed parts of the moonmarket uring its busie time of thday. and hours earlier a suicide bomber killed at least n people in the pakistani ci

of peshawar nearhe afghan border. >> lehrer: now >> lrer: now to our interview with admiral mike mullen, chairman of the joint chfs of staf i talked with him moments a, right after he camback from his meings with the troops. do admiral mull welcome. >> gooto be with you, jim. >> lehrer: whawas your major meage to the troops tod. >> well, thesewo units the one atort campbell, 11s d additional units there as well as the marin down at ca lejeune, they are the ones tat will in great art lead the 30,0 that go in. although it will be tim over manyonths. and i want to do two things. one, i wanted to be as car as i could about what our mission was, in thawe have the president having made this desion. we'reow off to exute it. and sondly, to awer any questions th might have. and ifound in all these town halls i've done for many yrs, their abity to get the quick on key uestions. and ilways learn from that as well. it was to engage them.

i spen a lot of te in washington tely, particularly wh this decision and debate that we had. and i've alys found it important to be as close to them as i can been be, and particully for the ones that are going to hav to go carry out this mission. >> lehrer: s it difficult for you to stand up in fro of these young men d women and talk about the possibility of casualties andhat the varis vulnerabilities and all that as you did today? >>ell, it is -- it is very difficult. but it's something i fel very songly about. i think that we in america need to face the real ssibilities here. i felt that way throughout two conflicts, that we need to b very realtic and very transpart about it. it is a tou fight right ow. t's going to be tough over the next year. and we are goi to lose people. i've also found that engaging soldie and rines, that they derstand that. they have friendshat are losing now. and so they clearly do know

whathe possibilitiesre. and ye all of us work hard to make sure there isn't one, if that's possible. >>ehrer: one of the fort campbelloliers asked you, straightforwa what is the most the bigge vulnebility that the troops, u.s. roops are going to have when the get on the grnd. >> yeah, i think i answered there were two. >> lehrer: yeah. >> one is the ieds, these improvised elosive devices. >lehrer: those are scary. they are. and they are -hey're local. they're essenal all the maerials that are -- that are being used by the taliba are in afghanistan and they are big. a we've had me real allenges with them. we're working hardo get ahead of them. that being one. and e then the other one i talked about, and is goes back to civian csualties. what chrystal chand when he went there. focusing on at. focusingn the people. and that tactally we might

win a fight but ife lose civians who riff there it doesn't make sense they would be for us. >> lehrer: youmphasized to both grou, to the troops, that they need to study the culture ofafghanistan. they nd to know who these people e and care about them and all of that. that was a big point to you. >>ell, i learned that actuallthroughout my naval career i've been in man countries. and learned that it is jt lot easier to undersnd othepeople's problems and othe people's views iyou are listeni to them and you understand little bit about their culture. and in these wars, iraqnd fghanistan, it is been absolutely critical. and that's a lesson we learned in iraq he identical requirement exists in afghanistan. obvusly it's a diferent culture. and so studying the language, understanding their background and wh they carebout, and real connecting withhem in that regard is reay going to be important. >> lehr: you, a young marine aske you, admiral you honestly believe 30,000roops will do -- 30,000 more troops wi do

the job. and you sid i honestlyo. >> right. >> lehrer: why did you s that. >> well, because i do. we have been through a lon debate here over theast manweeks. and the requirements are laid out there, wat is really imrtant about those 3000 is the vast majority them will get therey the middle of 200. and we willget some troops here quicker then even general mcchryst had asked for orinally. and that in combination with expectations coming fm our nato allies, again 42 other countries are in this fight with us. that we'll have some 36, 37, 38,000 additional troops. a we believe that that is enough to turn this around, to reverse themomentum of this surgency. >> lehrer: you to the tros quite candidly th right now we're no wing the insurgency, right >> we haven't. this has been, and i've said

this publiclyor some time. the insurgey has gotten better d betterince 2006. and byhat -- and so for us, it's gotn worse and worse. the level of vience was up in 2009. almost0% from 2008. and nothing's goingo changthere unless we turn, spefically turn that around. that's reallyhe effort. >> and you said more than on that 18 months, it's not necessarily withdrawal date t is a date we either do it or we don't is tt ght? >>ell, july 2011, obviously that's been a de thatas been badly scussed since the president rolledt out in his speech. and my view of that is thas really critical. its a target date for us. it's a date, it's very clear we will art to transiton t security responsibility to thefghan security fors. and thin out and sta to aw down some of our forces. but we've not set a withdwal date. there is no specific number of forces.

it could be very small number or -- and it could be a lar number. and actually,the date while some have seen i as rbitrary t wasn't arbitrary at all. it was a date that we the military focused onecause we thinke need to tu this thing in abo two years. and july of 201the marines that wnt into hell does man pro vince will have ben there for three summers. we'll know whether this thing will be successful or not by that te. >> lehrer: it will be at definitive youhink, between 18 nths to 4 months. >> in july of 20 --. >> lehrer: youl know. >>e believe we'll know. e can't beperfectly predictive. everody wants to be. we can't be. but those of in the military believe we he to turn thisround in the 18 to 24 months andwe think we have the right strateg, the rit leadership andow the right force lels. >> lrer: and that's what promed this marine to say will 30,000roop does that -- 3000 mre troop does that, tt is what he wa responding to.

>> understood, undstood. and we beeve in the military that absolutely will. and that's the mission that the president has gven us and general chrystal, gener petraeus, mysf and others believe that we can executehat and succeed >> lehr: you also mention several times, in both groups about pakistan. in fac, youncludeded pakistan in the overall mission. explain wha you mean. >> well, pakistan, when the preside rolled out his strategy on -- in rch of this year one bi difference from the previs strategies was this is a regionaltrategy. so it's not focusing onoof beg stand alone or paktan. but the rion. and in fact, we shoun't forgethat the main goal there isto eliminatehe safehavens for al qaeda and make issue they ca't return to afghantan or pakistan in the ture. pakistan's a soveign country. they've taken sigficant steps in the last year. they'vetaken significant casualties a recentlygain

as today where there was another bombing in lahore. they're taking this teat to themsees very seriously so the long-te view i we would look for a panership with pakista and afghanistan ine astable region and to have that long-tm relationship be o similar to what w have with othercountries. >> lehrerbut not put u.s. troops pakistan. >> no, no. there's no -- absolutely no provion nor no discuson of putting any u.s. troops in pakistan. save the support troops that we have. thre we've got toops small number of troops training at the paktani governmt and pakistani military request as they address this fight. but outside that kind of trning support no other troo. >> lehrer: that bord area betweenakistan and afghanistan cane handled without u.s. tros going over to the other side? >> well, it actually hato be. i ok at this strategically over the long run that it's the pressure brought from

theast, if you will, on the wester border of pakistan and the preure in afghanistan that wil eventually allow us to get at and iminate those safe havs. i also belie that pakistan's futu will in great partbe driven by what kind of cotry afghanistan is, stable or unstable and that a stable supporve overnmentin afghanistan will be very helpful to how pakistan looks at its futu and e decisions it mkes. >> finally, admiral, you'r comfortable -- we we asked a lot questions today by pfcs, byorporals, among others, about ovview licy. politics and all that. you are comfortable doing that. >> always, and actuly i fi as you obviously sawin looking the questions, they ways ask great quesons. and it'-- there are oftentimes much broad than just specifi focus area that i mig be interested in. >> lrer: okay. admir, thank you very

much. >> anks, jim. >> lehrer: gwen. ifill: still to come on >> ifill: still to come othe pbs newshour, the obma administration formally decres grnhouse gases a threat to public healt we interview e.p.a. administrator lisjackson. ray suarez begins "pahwork nation," our weeklongeries on thetate of the nation's conomy, tonight from philadelphia. nd jeffrey brown looks at whether grand opera s a grand future. >> lehrer: that's all aad. bu now, the day's other news, areported by the newest membe of our team, ri sreenivasan. he comes to us from cbsews, among otr journalistic places. 's in our newsroom now. welce, hari. >> tnks, jim. it's good to be here. ousands of anti-government ptesters clashed with secuty fors in iran's capital today. prests erupted in other cities as well. there was no word arrests, but web sites repoed at least one person s wounded. we have a repo narrated by jonhan rugman of independent television news.

>> rorter: they burned a piure of the republic founde its supreme leader, and th the president. iran's protest movement back on the streets today, its anger at the regime aarently as fierst as eve. death to the dictator the students in tean shouted as the waved irian flags with symbol of the revolution, t word allah missing from the center. at one university they knocked down the gates. and at another, they sat in the street, calling iran's supreme leader eyea khamenei a criminal an murderer. internaonal news agencies have been told to st inside for hours. and in the past few days iran's iernetonnection has swed to arickle. but that hasn't stopped ptestors from exporting pictures fm their mobile phones to the outside world.

this was in nrtheast iran. the fact that the protestors have no sgle leader or manifestis making it that much harder to stop them. >> the people werearned t to come out but they've overcome their fear. peop feel theyando something andhey don't want to give uphat they've started. >> rerter: in tehran the revutionary guards much-feared militia were filmedatroling on waves motorbikes andye witnesses said they ued ectrical truncnonnd stun guns to breaup t crowds. the state media coving thispro-government mch appeared short onetail on the das events. >> anwhile a number of anti-governmen protestors atempted to hijackthe occasion to hold rallies in tehran. their efforts wer foiled by the presence of security forces which were deployed in seral parts of the capitol. >> porter: there was no sign today of leading opposition figre hussein

mosai but he issued a atement yesterday. they are asking us to forget about he election rests, he said. butven if you silence al the universies, what are you going do aboutthe ciety itself. >> suaz: hundreds o >>ehrer: hundreds of students also marched through somal's capital today. thrally in mogadishu was the first known demonstraon against iamic militants who control muchf the country. it me four days after a suicide bomber attack a university graation ceremony. that explosion kled 24 people, including three governmt ministers. the somali govement warned today suicide bombers plan disguise themselves as arm generals and target the psidential palace, airport, and seaport. elections in iraq may be shed back a month or more. the votwas originally sceduled for mid-january. but today, t country's electoral commison recommended a 45-day delay to bruary 27 at the rliest. t is subject to approval by e iraqi presideial council. the iraqi parliament finally adopted e law authorizing the

election overhe weekend. in shington, the chairman of the federal reser cautioned it's too soon to te if the recovery will take ld. n bernanke said in a speech the economy isstill struggling with a weak jobarket and tight credit. >> though we have beg to see improvent in economic activity we sti have some way to go befo we can be assured that the revery will be self-sustaining. also at sue is whether the recoverwill be strong enough to createhe large numbers of bs that will be needed materially bring down theunemployment rate. ecomic forecasters suect to great uertainty, but my best guesat this point is that weill continue toee modest growth next year, sufficient to bng down the unemplment rate but at a pace slowe than we uld like. >>n wall street bnanke's words helped dampen enthusiasm for another rally. the dow jones industrial average gainedust one pont to close at0,390. the nasda fell more than 4 points to close at 2189.

>> president oa confirmed president obama confirmed e overnment's bank rescue program, t tarp, will cost muchess than expected. it was widely repoed the obama administration ans to slash the $700 billion price tagby $200 billion. but the president opped short of saying whher he'll direct the unused fundto stimulate job owth. he plans to addss that issue ina speech tomorrow. the u.s. supme court today sctinized a major law on corporate fraud. thsarbanes-oxley statute was enacted in 2002, after the enron, world-com another accountingcandals. thessue before the court today was wheer an oversight board crted by the law violates the constitution's paration of pows. u.s. cancer rates arealling. the naonal institutes of health, the cters for disease control and others repted the findin today. diagnosefor all kinds of cancer fell an average onearly 1% a year om 1999 to 2006. the overall deathate fell 1.6%

a yer. the decline was driven mainlby decreases in lung, prostat brast and colo-rectal cancs. this was pearl harboday, marking 68 years since e japanese attack thatrought the u.s. io world war ii. it came as researchers have confirmed findi wreckage from a long lost japanese midget submarine ed in the raid. digitize from tape e discovery was rt of an underwater expediti led by the pbs scienceeries nova. it found three secons of debris sou of pearl harbor, 1000 feet below the surce. the documentary airs janry 5. thosere some of the day's headlines. i'll beack at the end of the broadcast with a look at wt you'll find on thbrand-new pbs nehour website. but for no back to gwen. > ifill: thanks, hari, and welcom now ray suarez begins apecial look athe economy we're calling pahwork nation, a speciaonline collaboration between the pbs newshournd the christian scnce monitor that we're now takng on air. the project amines 24 counties and tns.

we' be taking you to a number of them: boom townthat are growi and diversifying; campus career centers dominateby college life; agricuural communities expiencing tough times on the farm; and servce workerenters, small towns in search of prosperity. the proct finds that across the uted states, recession or revery very much depends on where you happen to live. ray suarez begins in wh the patchwo nation project classifies as an industrial metropolis, e city of philalphia, pennsylvania. >> suarez: america's fifth lgest city is waiting for the economic recery with four centuries worth assets it has a rich inheritance of some of the most revered and visited landmarks of th country's earliest days as a nation. a lively fine arts ene. encouraged and develoed for decades as an economic engine. andreatesearch

universities. like temle, drexell and the university of pennsylvia. but just a few blocks away, e neighborho surrounding tell a different story. vacant derect homes dot t landscape. much of the cityis filled th abandoned manufacturing plants. 22 percent of a durlts are functionally iliterate, not surprisi giving a 50% high school drout rate. and thes neighborhoods are not uque. a ful quarter of philadelph's residents live in poverty. >> people an come in and use the computers in order to write resumes. >> suarezand it's only gotten worse since the recession says a labor advocate who sitsn the board of the city's job bas. >> you are told ou have to be retooled and reilled to enter the job fce. th is a big delima so not only do we have young african-americanales out

of e but we have middle-aged people out of work. >> suarez: the city shed 80,000 jobs sin last fall. unemploent is at 11% and in some fiel like the construction trades, the rate is clos to 50%. let'be clear. philadelphia problems din't begin with the rrent recession. it's been losingindustry and populaon for cades. and has in comn with many big, older cities, problems withcrime and failng pubc schools. what the current recession ha done has gi the city a loer walkack to where it widelyagreed it needs to go. one attempt is th the redevelopment of the city's thsand acre decommissioned navy yard. at its height thsite employed 40,000 people. todayhe navy us the area to store thballed warships. but over theast several years, many corrations like the cothing company urban outfitters have moved in.

last weekhiladelphia's mayor michael nutter with pennsylvia governor ed rendell at hi side announced t opening of a solar panel plant at t navy yard. >> in years to come wh people think about clean energy and sola power ey're going to be thinking bout philadelphia and the philadelphia region. >> the mayor sunds like urban executives across the country wn he talks about 2009'sost politically stylish color green. >>s we look to the navy yard increasingly as a clean energy campus, this is a placehere whether yo have a gedor a ph.d or anything in between there is a jo opportunity foryou as a pat of our larger effort as greenworks, philadphia. >> suarez: hear that? everything between a ged a a ph.d. highly desirable, and tough to do. wh the emphasis on high te, the phs are in good shape. at the university city scnce center. >> it's getting reay cold tomorrow. >> suarez: morrow's inventis are taking form

like carboneutral air onditioning. and a hydrogen gas generator. >> this is an it of comerce. you can b the cans. these will go into the two side the tworeactors. and wh these o cans, generate 100 litres of hydrogen in minutes and launch a five-foot weather balloon. >>suarez: david kaid brought his business to phadelphia from its original we coast home. he says high ncentration of top universities allows him todraw on technical experse and the institutional suort he needs to grow here. >> weave some very, very goodspeakers. >> arez: just one floor below, jeremiah white is trying touild a bridge between philadelia's toughest neighrhoods and the world-class research institutions nearby. >> how can weet more rican-americans, hispanics, native americans people in coloin general involvedn commercializing technology. >> suarez: white created ipraxis to help a ung generation of minority

ientists turn their research intoinventions and business its. >> the other difference that i am not quite underandg is coright vsus licensing. >> suarez: for white, this is step one in creang new jobs for philadelphia. if you can get some of these you people african-americans, involve in the process,hey will form companies in that space hopefully locate ose coanies here in philadelph and hire people in neighborhoods. >> suarez: b it couldake awhilebefore relief is felt in distressed neighborhoods like mancuhau in west hiladelphia. >> is supposed to be really, rlly nice. >> suarez: 25 years ago jane lden started the murr all arts program as a wayto combat grhityi, but now it is beng used as a mor ol for urban rewal and community activism. >> we have a murr all tour program insteadf the police coming i they see tour buses coming in. if tre are restaurants in

t neighborhood, people will eat at the restrants so can further suprt economi development. >> suarez: golden says he can draw a straight line from the hard workocal people do onthe murr all to a neiborhood worth investing in again. >> th is an area of the city tt had been decimated by years of poverty and neglect and drugs. and i have seenhis ighborhoodhange in remarkableays. >> arez: the improvements promed a local developer to build new houses on the block but they were completed just as the ral estate meltdown took hold and none have soldet. >> but even this. >> i m up with the director ofthe patchwk nation project at place that peectly lustrates urban transition. redding terminal mark was part of a big train station the heart of town,ow it's a food loverselight. he says not all cities ffered in the same way over the last two years. but as a group, they took the brunt of the downturn. >> new york has do better

th phillie. phllie has done better than detroit. on t whole, though, when you take the numbers and average them out, you kow, these places have done worse. their umployment rate say little higher. in fact our unemploymen rate is among the hhest in t community types we look . their foreosure is among the hhest if not the highest of the 12 types of place we look at. so they've felt a lot of pai i mean theselaces have really exrienced a lot of the deh of the receion. >> suarez: whi in a weird ways a win for iladelphia. >>ess bad is the new good for us. we're notas bad as las vegas, we're not as bad a phnix or miami. >> suarez: levis ceo of a nonprofit economic develoent corporation harged with revitizing center city where most of the jobs are located. >> this was originally e curtis publishg where ladiesome swrournl was published. >> suar: one reason philadelphia is doingokay, +h3v it's dustrial base left long ago. today the onomy is diveified. >> we useto have 52% of

our workforce at e benning of the 20th ntury in manufacturing. today it's 4%. those were the jbs we were alws losing at a faster ra than the national economy. a great strength in health ca and education has buoyed us and carried us through this economy. >> suarez: and by the w, thhealth of thed> country is tied to the healthof the cities says mayor nutter. >> yo can't have a recovery without cities inetro areas recovering as wl. they talked about somthe industries that were o big to fail. i wld say that cities are too portant to fai >> suar: nutter asked the obama admistration to free up more stimulus fund is so cities like pladelphia can avoid evedeeper layoffs. ty revenue is way down. federal moneyan fill a gap f philadelphiaans as they wait for a bett year in 2010. >> . >> lehrer: tomorrow nig ray reports fm annrbor, michigan, a collegeown prospering in an econoic depressed state

>> ifill: jimwe turn our attention now to ts week's big meeting in copenhageon climate chang and a new decision from the obama administrion. newshour coespondent kwame lman begins with more about the meeting in denmark. . >> reporter: diplomats fr 192 nati its gatheredin copenhagen today for the largest and potentially most important u.n. clate change conferce ever their goal tohift away from fossil fuels and get ch countries to send biions of dollars to oorer ones to help them adapt. organizers warned is could b the citical last chance to curb glal warming. >> the science h never been learer. the solutions have never been more abundant. politic will has never been stronger. and let me warn you, political will will never be stronger. is is o chance.

if we miss this one, it could take years before we get a new and bter one, if we ever dd. reporter:.n. climate leers are seeking a obal ledge to cut emiions worldwide5 to 40% by 2020. they called o the conferees not to be put of. >>he time for formal statements isver. the time forrestating well-knwn positionsis past. reporter: president obama has cald for a 17% reducon in u.s. emissions by 2020, from 2005 lels. and an 83% cut by 2050. china and india also talk of cutting carbondioxide emission rates by 25 to 45%. >> it's hot in here. >> rorter: climate activists such as these stents outside the

coerence also were trying o raise awareness. a woman from fiji chely handed in a pition signed by 10 mlion people asking gotiators to help countries like hers. >> we need a deal thatis air to the poest peop and nations, nations that have had litt or nothing to do with the issue, b that will affectedhe most. >> repoer: in washington the environmentalrotection agency formay declared greenhouse gases a dangering public health, paving the way to regulate them. later president obama met privately wit former vice prident al gore whose lead the dri for climate actn. the preside will attend he conclusion of the copenhagen conference on decemr 18th. ifill: just before she left for conhagen i >> ifill: just before shleft for cophagen, i sat down with e.p.a. administratolisa jackson thiafternoon to discuss the eenhouse gas desion. adminisator jackson, thnks for joining us.

>> thanks for having me. >> ifill: in your announcement todaybout the dangers greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide were you trying to get a jump on what youxpect to be cllenges in copengen later this week? >> well, i think we wanted i am proud of the facthat this was released in advance of the majoty of the discussions at copengen. and so ceainly what i thought wasmportant in the announcement was to tk about the sciee to the american peoe. to talk abouthe ct tt e scienceeads you real to only o conclusion. and that nothing wve heard, and epa's duty was to assess tt science rigorsly, changes, i belie, that the science ans that grown hou gases are polluton, and in danger of plic health and welfare. >> ifl: senator kerry said f the epa had to act it would be a blunt instrument and it was prefeble for congress to dothis inead butince the senatehasn't acted would you prefethat th senate had acted. >> i absolutely pref that the senate take action and i hopeful that they will. i in the president in alling for cleanenergy and climate legislati. and tat's because i think

having economy-wide legislati sends an unequivocal signal to the private sectorhat we really mean i thate're mving wards grn energy. >> ifi: you say you really mean it. what is the practical impact of this kind of nouncement today are sanions imposed, a limitsow putn. carbon-oducing industries? >> nonof that but let me talkbout a few things. first today's announcement is really about a da in time n009, when the u.s. government finally joed the world in acknowledgi clime change and acknowledging clime poution and what it can do to us as a people and to the world. but epa has tan a lot of steps in anticipation ths kind of authority. this authority, this finding gives us auority. we'veproposed and no finalized an emissios ventory. so large emitter of greenhoe gases, starting janua of 2010 w have to report that informatiowill be outhere for the erican people to se. much has been talked abo

the new clean car rules. epa has proposed rules. the psident actually announcedhem in the rose garden with automakers and th labor and environmentalists to mp-start our move towards cleaner automobiles. and were working hardn that. and much has been made about what this -- what impact this might hav on big sources li power plants and epa has propoed a rule at talks about tailoring the clean airct in ways to use it to enableegulation and movg forward inthe industry. >> ifill: let's talabout the skepti. e business community,ome segments of business community are very concned about this. they say it's goi to make it mo difficult for the economy to contie to recover. wt do you say to em? >> i say nothing we've done so far, when i tick off this lisof actions from reporting it t car rules and even the actionhat talks abo stationer source reductions none of that has been the doomsday scenario that we've heard from, from people who wnt

o stop all progress on climat. >> ifillthe other skeptics, we've sn this debate this week about these e-mails which surfaced which seem t cast questis about whether ta was being manipulated to make the case for global warming. r the argumt that you are attpting to mak howo you speak to peole who look this and still question the essenal science behind it? >> i hope thell look at our action today as beng fossil on in light of all the qstions we her not just in the lasteaks about ome e-mails. butrankly overyears, about what t science really say and what consensus we should draw as policymakers from . o thing i ke toemind people is that the e-mails talkabout one set of data and how it i interpreted out of dzens of sets of ata and those sets of data havbeen used by hundreds, maybe thousands o scientists around the wor to reachall kinds of cclusions. so there's nothing in that,

those rticular e-mails thachange the underlyng daa. that was what we ask ourselves during the fiing and not just abut these e-mails but all ang. >> are you syingven if this particular body of work was manipulated or if things were leftut that could have en said about this case, that there is oher informatiowhich is broader, which counteracts that? >> ifill: tt's exactly what'm saying. i'msaying that, youknow, the knowled out there, the data th is out there, is va and it the e-ils deal with a smalsliver. thother thing the american pele should know is we are talking about u. scitists as well. the aren't -- you know, if you re some of the prss onhe e-mails, you might think thamost of the data that's out there is foeign data. therare u.s. scntists and u.s. organizations that have bn collecting data we, separate and apart and all ofthat has been analyzed by scientists the world oer. >> ill: does any of this ad us upto strier

standards now for vehicles, something that would ha a direct impact an embattled actor -- secto, the autindustry? >> yea they do, but there are no srprises there. thefinding is the fouation that allows us to then propose and finalize autobile emissions rules. those res, we worked on witthe automobi industry, withhe state of california and with othertates who are lookingor cleaner cars. with labor unions and with environmentalists. in fact, i think onof the most upstanding accompshments we've had in the clean energy and climate space haseenreaching an accord with tse four disparate groups abo what the autos of the fure should be. ey've already agreed they want to see tse rules. and the reason they want to see it is because the want a road map for ho touild cars. ey know they are covering economically, they just wanone set of rules so that they know t rules of eroad. >> ifill: and finallys the presint and as you head off t copenhag this week, what about your announcement tay about the accumulated

efort on the part ofhis administraon do you hope to takehere which convinces the rest of the world toet on board, or ay on board in a way tt they did not with kyoto? >> well, you know, i lead off a series of u.s. government officials who will be talkin about variousaspects of climate change. session is entitle taking action at he. and have so mu to talk about. here atpa we can talk about the rules wve done, about the emissions porting. about thfact that next year americans will be ae tosee what businesses e emitng. then we can talk abt the $80 billn in funding under the recover act, much of which went through the department ofnergy. or we can tlk about transptation with a newed emphasis on light-rail. all ese actions that this administration has takenin just 11months to really jump-start not ly our acknowledgment of e problembut solutions for theroblem at the sme time. >> ifill: admintrator lisa jackson, fe travels, thanks for joininus. >> thanks for havingme.

>> lehrer: finally tight, reinventi the met. jeffrey brown ports. >> reporter: and opera doesn get any grander than at new york's metropolitan opera. still, t pce for the eatest ngers and biggest speacles like the small army that filled thetage for a recent performce of aida. but behind the snes here like everywhere el in the classical music world, is the lming question. how to keep opa not only alive but thriving. >> i'm notrying to pretend that opera is a populist fair it is not. it is highart. but operaas a high a fm sti should be aessible and understandable byhe broest possible, intelligent dience.

>> reporter: tee years ago peter gell became general manager of the met with a mandate to ritalize a great institution thatn his words was in danger of becoming arstically irrelevant. for gel it was a homecoming of sorts >> i was ansher when i was 16 years old. >> repter: oh, really. >> yea >> reporter: you've come long way. >> not geograically. >>eporter: gelb a life-lonnew yorker first ade a name for himself in the class cat- clsical musicusiness with the maager working with the likesof piano vlimir horowitz butunning the met is a whole other ball game. firstays gelb, there are the die-rd fans. >> opa fans are as fanatical asorse fans it just as exciting f an pera fan knowing whetheor not the sing letter hit the high ne as it is watching a-rod coming up toat with the bes loaded in the bottom of theninth. >> report: but what of

everyone elsend where is the nt generation of diehds to come from. acrding to a new study by the national endowment for the arts, opera attendance in the us. overall is down some % just in the last sixears. ge is trying to reach out and grab people oneveral fronts. among other things, the season's opening night was bead live to times square. anfor weeknight perfoances now, organze tra -- orchestra seats are available for jt 0 to the first 10 people in line. a nice savingsfor the young and others who n't afford the rular $80 275 price tag. >> biggest of a has been the sees of live, high definion broadcasts beam mood more tan00 movie theatres around the world drang close to 2 million viewers last year.

at the same me, gelb is trying to remp the m's reper tory updating the proctions of classicfare and comssioning new operas from today's composers. >> there is no room for copromise. we have to move forwardor this art fm to stay connected to be successful it hato be makin progress all t time. >> reporter: o >> or it will rcede a it ll lose its public and people will lose interest in it. >> reporter: it'still, of course course, great music and great singingthat distinguishes opera and the met. but one its biggest sta rene phlegming is well aware thater art formis fightingor survival a very changed culture. >> it wasn't that long ag that an upwardly mobile persoin our soety felt that t road to that was through culture and education. reporter: including opera. >> exacty, music. people had meos. we have really achieved

something. we own a meo. that is gone that is completly gone. we have to be creative about fding other ways to develop new audiences. >> mezzo-srano plays the jealous princes >> reporter: ing her part fleming has taken on new le as host of the live opera transmissio. and she supports lb's sh r more theatricali. >> not tooong befo i strted it was accessible for people to just sta, no make eye contact, not rely interact with each otr. sometimes n even inhabit a aracter but to be the grandiva, poraying the aracter, one step removed >> reporter: but tt means some siers have to adjus or >> oh, everyone had to adjust. >>ood, good, good, kay, good. en we go into therinking song, rht. okay, so tha-- let's -- that's enough becauseit already weird enough ast is. >> reporter: t met's aching out includes looking to new hollywo and broadway tale for fre ideas. hing directorsike bart

sheer who we caug up with on the first day of hearsals for a new production of tal of hoffman. sheer has great success in the theatre, but until rectly, little expience withpera. >> when i'mn the middle of working on opera and people singing tome in very strange rhhms in another language and i'm actuall trying to work out what they are ing, i often is a toy myself this is e weirdest rt form i have ever been a part of. >> reporter: right in t middle. >> because i will stop and go what is going on, this is so sange. bus cause it is a very strange way to communicate an idea. >> reporte sheer can't ad music and doesn't know italian. but his first proction for the met, the remake of a long time favorite, the baber of sevie was filled with comedic and theatrical touches d became a big hit. but that was only after overcoming some obstacles, sheer sa, like when he wanted to build catwk to bring sings closer to the audience. >> there was a lot of

resistae to that when we first proposed it. like no --th ae. >> because the sngers should never be bow the conducter or sometimes i worked with a singer and they would well, we always do th, this is adition. d i say okay. tell me thetradition. inform me aut what the tration is and then we would take the traditioand sometimes i wouldgo well that's good. and somimes i go that is the stupist thing ev hrd of. let's push it to somewhere else. >> report: messing with barber of sevil woed. essing with tos to open this season was a different matter. peterelb decided a long-standing much loved productionf the opera need an edgier approach. a new stark seteplacing the old opojgt roman skiny drew some noticeab booing. that haselicited more letters, person letters, mail letters i have ever receiv than any other proction. ranging from angry patrons who say sten, buster, you better, there was one addressed to me that way.

>> listenuster. >listen, buster. reporter: are you messing withy toa. >> don't mess th my tsca. to others whtell me that they arehrilled that the met isctually leaving the 19th century bend and entering the 1s century in a veryhort time span. >> reporte of course the contrersy brought headnes. not necessarily a bad tng or an institutioniming to reassert itself. give grand opera a grand place in contemporary culture. the trick now witut the bong is to stay there >> lehrer: again, e major developnts of the day. thousandof u.s. marines and soldiers got ready to go t afghanistan. and nato defense minters discussed their contribuons to the cause anti-govnment protests erupted in cities across iran

secuty forces fought with thousands of demonsators. and the chairm of the federal resve, ben bernanke, cautioned it's too soon to tell ithe revery will take hold, gwen. >> ifillby now you've noticed we'vmade some changes to our nightly badcast. well, therere big changes at the newshour's wesite as well. for tails of what you'll find online, back to hari sreevasan in our newsroom. hari. >> gwen, it is indeed brand new day othe pbs newshour's web site. the address, thoh, remains the sa, newshour.pbs.org. we've introduced a new desi, better navigion, and we've launched news blog, called the runwn, which will feature regular updatesnd insights from our reporti throughout the day, all of it rooted inhe guidelines ofacneil/lehrer journalism. jim read those on-air iday, if you missed it, y can find the guidelines posted our web site. al online tonight, more on the series ray suarez is wking on,

patchwork nation. there's aideo postcard about a mural project in iladelphia, and tra interviews to help expin the data that lies at the heart of the proje. jeffrey brown's art beatlog, there'more from tonight's piece on the metropolitanpera, includingerformances at the met. also traveing this week, the newour's margaret warner. she's filing regarly as she exples european attitudes toward afghanistan. we'llee you at newshour-dot- we'll see you at newshour.pbs.org. >> lehrer: and again, t our honor roll american service personnel killed in the iraand afghanistanonflicts. we add them as their deathsre made officialnd photographs beme available. here, in silence, are nine me.

>> ifill: and that's the pb newshour for tonht. i'm gwen ifi. >> lehrer: thanksgwen, we'll see you online, anagain here tomorr evening. i'm jilehrer. thank y, and good night. major fundg for the pbs newshour is prided by:

>> what makes us an engne for the ecomy? plants acro america. neay 200,000 jobs created. we see beyo cars.

chevron, humaenergy. and monsanto. the tional science foundation. suppting education and research across l fields of scice and engineering. a with the ongoing support of these institutionand foundations. and. this program w made possible y the corporation for public brdcasting. and by contributions to youpbs staon from viewers like you. thanyou.

ctioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productio captioned by media access grouat wgbh acess.wgbh.org