narrator: today on "earth focus," religion and developmpment in asia. filmmakers kalyanee mam and gary marcuse on how cultural traditions intersect with economic growth in cambodia and china. coming up on "earth focus." kalyanee: as an immigrant, as a refugee, you know, from cambodia, my family and i, you know, fled cambodia when i was four years old. and what i realized was what happening in areng valley was

that the people were also being threatened by the sameme kind of displacement and uprootedness. and what i've seen with the chong people is that they live a very beautiful lifif cocompletely c connected t to n, and i was inspired to make this film to help people understand, you u know, how important that connection is. [b[baby fusses]

kalyanee: so the chong people have been living in areng valley, you know, for over 600 years. and we went back to o cambodia to film and i discovered, you know, two of the most amazing people i've ever met in my life. and what i discovered was that they are prorobably one of the most rooted and grounded people i've ever met,t, and the reason is becausese of their connnnectn to the lanand. you knknow, they f feel so gratl for r nature bececause everyrytg they have comemes from nature.

the cambodian government has contracted a chinese company to build this dam, and the company's name is sino hydro, and, you know, we've all been asking questions. why is sino hydro ininterested in proceeding with this dam when two other companies have already, you know, previouslyy pulllled out of f the project? because they discovered through environmental impact assessment reports that they had conducted themselves that the dam was not economically viable. and i think onone of t the reass is that they will make money from the conontract from constructing this dam, andnd alo the dam will be built on a build transfer agreement. and according to the agreement, the dam will be transferred to the cambodian government after

40 years time. during that transfer, the dam will alreadydy have built upup so much sediment and silt, the cambodian government would actually inherit a dam that's no longer functioning in its proper placace. so i think that the answer for me is they want to access this place for the logging, for the mining, you know, for the minerals that they can find. so most of the money will be made during this period d before the construction of the dam even takes place. when your land is threatened and your home is threatened, i dodon't think there's any choice, you know. there's no choice in the matter about, oh, do i fight for my land or do i just stay silent? [chanting]

kalyanee: buddhihism came frfrom the land, came from the trees and d the land a and the watate. and actually, ththe buddhist monks have been really active, you knknow, for the last few years in areng valley and also

with othther proteststs that hae been happening all across the country. they feel that they are not just there to be religious figures, but they are there to actively be involved in fighting and helping the communities fight and presest for what they think is right and just.

kalyanee: the wrapping of the trees, it's both symbolic and also practical. it's symbolic because, you know, the saffron robe is a symbol of the monkhood and is also a symbol of this affinity and connection with the trees. but it's also practical because if loggers come and they see the saffron robe, you know, wrapped around the tree, they might think twice, you know, about cutting that tree down.

kalyanee: : this iababout, you know, what we want to pass on to our granandchildrn and d to the fututure. do we want to pass on a desolate desert oror do we wat to pass s on a heritage that i s loving o of the eartrth, you kn, loving of the land, loving of nature, and is giving,g, you know, to one another?

fred de sam lazaro: in downtown beijing on the 20th floor of a high-rise, one of china's senior environmental reporters is becoming a buddhist. [doorbell rings] liu jianqiang: hi. fred: hi. liu: fred? hi. fred: good to meet you. liu: nice to see you. fred: likewise. liu jianqiang is an investigative journalist. his first story about the environment was an exposé about illegal dam construction on the upper yangtze river. it made national headlines. his hard-hitting stories eventually got him fired, so he continued his work as the beijing editor of china dialogue, an online international journal. [liu speaking chinese] fred: but t after 10 y years of reporting, he was feeling

burned out.. [liu speaking chinese] translator: i think that our environmental activists and those who work for public welfare need more powerfulul spiritual supppport. why? every day what we do mamay be gooood deeds which h give us positive energrgy, but meanwnwhe what we are facing is thee darkest side of the world. every day what we see is polluted air, polluted rivers, and the slaughter of wild animals. this kind of n negative energy attacks usus all the time. we've been working on environmental protection for a long time, but the situation in china is getting worse every day. where do w we draw our strtrengh from? fred: liu jianqiang is one of mimillions of chininese who are returning to buddhist, taoist, and confucian temples that were once condemned by the government. a little more than four decades ago duriring china's cultltural

rerevolution, many buddhist temples like this one in central beijing were destroyed or defaced. today these temples are alive with worshipers. by some accounts, one out of every five chinese, 240 million people call themselves buddhist. some scholars say this search for faith is linked to china's massive environmnmental probobl. gary marcuse: i had d been filming in china since 2008, when i first statarted to memeet some o of the kind of leadingg environmentatal activists and journalilists in china. when my friend liu jianqiang said he's becoming a buddhist, particularly a tibetan buddhist, i was very curious about why.y. we'd d already decided we would make a litittle documentary that would sort of show people what it is that has attracted himim, but when i asksked him just in shshorthand, you know, what is t that you're looking for in a religion, in a faith, in a culture? and he said, well, you know, for 15 yeaears, he saiaid, i'ven reporting on the environment, and in that time, everything

is still getting worse. so you begin to feel like what's the point? yoyou know, we're exhauausted, we're burned out. and he said d i needed something momore enduring, something f for the longerer term, somethihing t would allow me to have a littlee bit more faith in my own work. well, i asked liu jianqiang, how would we show people what it is about the tibetans that really appeal t to you? and he said, well, you should just go talk to o one of the tibetan monknks, the kind of peperson that i memet alththe te up there. so, , you know, go intththe mountatains and meet s some ofoe people and listen to the way that they talk about nature, and you'll see what it wasas that really, you knonow, appeald to m me. fred: today this lake e is the scene e of annual gatherings of buddhdhist monks. it's also the site of a special meeting between buddhists and scientists.

dr. lu zhi is a conservation biologist at peking university. she's been working with tibetans in this area for many years. translator: during the 1990s, when i went to the tibetan area for the first time, i saw something g that really surprised me. there e was a lot of loggiging going on, but in some areas, the wiwild animals were not afraid of people. and there were verery old trees, 600 oror 700 years old. the ancient forerest was preserved. i asked ththe local people how is this possiblele? people said d this is our sacred mountain. this was a big shock to me. just the concept of sacred mountain was g good enough to preserve the resources. it's more powerful than the law or the preaching of scientists.

todaday the system is still functioning. in the core area, nothing should be touched. then in a broader area, killing g is not allowed. no liviving beings should be harmed. we d d a survey y on birds, and we discovered that wherever the belief in sacred mountains is strong, there is greater biodiversity. so this shshows scientificalally the environmenental value of sacacred mountatains. fred: then foror two years, dr. lu and her students used gps to map the sacred mountains in the ganzi district of western sichuan province. they found an average of three sacred mountains near each monastery in the district. in the united states, the protected area would be about the size of vermont and new hampshire combined. nearly one third of the land

is in sacred areas. translator: who will protect the environment in thehe west and in china? it is s governmentnt reresponsibilities. but the tibetans don't think of it that way. if you think of it that way, you are not buddhist. you are the protector. no matter if you are a newborn or 80 years old, you are all protector. you u have r responsibilities. all lives should be protected. fred: in some distriricts, local governments are rerecognizing te sacred mountains, and d some are even hiring tibetatans to take care of the national nature reserves. translator: the e cultural valus ofof buddhism are very comfortig to the scholars of conservation. i felt at last we found a way, and i bebegan to gain confidence in humanity.

these tiben people are not wealthy, yet they y can still think of other creatures. not just other people, other creatures. this is altruistic behavior. if they can do it, there's hope that other people can do it as w well. [bells ring] gary: i've made a whole series of films about the beginning of environmentatal movementnts in different parts of the world at difffferent times, and i in eacf the films, i found myself quitee drawn to trying to understand what you might call the native religions or the hunter/gatherer religions, or some of the kind of peripheral cultures that you find in the united states, in russia, in china. some of those older cultures of hunter/gatherers who live close to the land often have the similar kinds of beliefs about the sacredness of the

environment and the need to protect and preserve it for all future generations, because their very livelihood always depended on maintaining the quality of the environment that they lived in. tibetan buddhism, like m many of the original sort of hunter/gatherers who lived in europe, in asia, in north america had a veryry powerful relationshship to the land. they have a a deep respect and a kind of a sacredness to the environment because that was the means of ensuring livelihood for the next generations and seven generations to come. and so the tibetan buddhists come from that kind of tradition. so i think that's underlying a bit of their immediaiate sense of respect for all life. so it has a very practical sidede, i guess frfrom our poinf view. from their point of view, it's just part of the way that they look at ththe world, whichch is lilife is sacred and you m must preseserve it and you actually must even protect areas from human intervention in ordeder to ensure a a healthy f future for the environment.t.

fred: liu jianqiang is one of millions of chinese who are taking a fresh look at traditional culture. here under the guidance of chakme rinpoche, tibetan buddhism has changed the way he sees the world. translator: before, i only wrote from a legal point of view. it's wrong, for t ts is a national p park and how can yu destroy it? now when i read a story about fish that wewere killed by a da, what i have in mind is there are millions of liveves here. i strongly believe that i should write about it this way. i'm sure i shohould speak on their behalf. i i shouldn't just think of what is good for us, what's good fofor humans. i can clearly see my change. [chanting]g] fred: obobserving this new interest i in religion and conserervation, china's communit party isis now cautiously

supporting i it. translator: former state counselor mr. dai bibingguo spoke at the a annual foforum on ecological cicivilization and buddstst culture.. translatator: traditional cultle promotes harmony between man and nature and encourages limiteted consumption and a simple way of life. we support t this. wewe don't oppopose takining from naturure. we do popose overerexploitatati. we want gold mountain, but we also want clear water and green mountain. gary: my chinese friends weree very quickck to point out that when you see the government, as we did,d, making some very st of friendly noises towards organized religions, it's a bit of a surprise often for people from outside china, like h how is it that this government that used to be all about atheism is now sort of very friendly towards at least a schedule of religions, particularly the traditional cultural religions like buddhism and taoismsm and confucianism? and the fact is that the

communist party is observing that tens of millions of people are becocoming more religious, and they're realizing that this might actually be an opportununity for them to kind o encourage these religions to be environmentally conscious and to support that side of the religigions, because that wl help people become maybe a little bit less materialistic, a little less oriented towards consumption. i think the government realizes that the era of kind of, you know, 13% growth every year is coming to an end. pollution is going to be an issue that's going to take 10 or 20 years to sort out. so they rereally need to kind of encourage a culture, or at least to be supportive of a culture that is less oriented toward consumption, placing less value than always on material gain, because t those material g gains aren't going go be as easy to get in the future as they have been in the past. martin palmer: i think one of the things that i've seen over the last few years, and increasingly so, is a sense

that if there is going to be some kind of chinese sololution to these issues, it is going to come out of chinese traditional culture. so my sense is that this partnership between religion and the government around environment is only going to get stronger and stronger. fred: there's hope these handshakes signal real support for ancient traditions of respect for nature in a society that has paid a heavy environmental price for progress in recent decades.

04/01/19 04/01/19 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york this is , democracy now! >> united kingdom is due to leave the european union on thee 12th of april, in just 14 days time, but that is not enough time to agree, legislate, and ratify a deal and yet the house has been clear it will not permit leaving without the deal. so we will have to agree on an alternative way forward. amy: with a deadline for the u.k. to leave the european union

fast approaching, today y the british parliament will vote on