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CNN Live Today

Water World

Aired December 05, 2003 - 11:23   ET

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

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


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Water is his life. Ocean explorer, environmentalist and film producer Jean Michel-Costeau is coming up for air today. He has several new projects to talk about, and we fill privileged because we found him on land. One of those projects, a beautiful new book of essays and photographs of the critical states of the world's water supply.
Jean-Michel Costeau is Dry and inside our bureau in New York this morning.

Good morning.

JEAN-MICHEL COSTEAU, OCEAN EXPLORER: Good morning, very good to see you.

KAGAN: A pleasure to see you, as I said, on dry land, not rocking on a boat.

COSTEAU: On dry land, but it's snowing.

KAGAN: But it's snowing. See, you bring the moisture with you, Jean-Michel, wherever you go.

Let's take hey look inside of this book. It is called "Water Culture," and some very interesting company that has put together this book. You participate, also Jimmy Carter and the Carter Center. Former Russian President Igor Gorbachev also participating. The basic idea is showing how important clean water is to each who lives on this planet.

COSTEAU: I think the whole idea is in a nutshell in this book was formidable, beautiful pictures, and great essays from great people is to make the public realize how dependent we are from the quality of water. And if we can have a water culture by looking at these images and reading those essays I think we can have a change of attitude and take better care of our water system, which literally determine the quality our lives.

KAGAN: Some beautiful photographs. Some just accompanied by some simple captions and headlines. Do you think doing it so simply is the best way to have this discussion? Or does that oversimplify the discussion?

COSTEAU: No, I don't think it's oversimplified, because you have beautiful pictures, but you also have very dramatic pictures, which shows they try some (ph) people, and the fact that when water is not available, or mismanaged, that people are suffering. And I think that shows in the pictures, some of the pictures, as well as in the essays.

KAGAN: Now the last time we caught up with you, you were on the other side of the world, the little atoll Cureaye (ph), and you were trying to show, when you go to this tiny little island, so far away from anywhere else, you still find pollution that travels thousands and thousands of miles.

COSTEAU: That's correct. We were in the northwestern Hawaiian islands which spans 1,200 miles from the main Hawaiian islands, and we were dumbfounded to find a lot of debris, and we've made some progress with the industries which are responsible for manufacturing many of these products. They were as surprised as we are, and we are working together to provide educational material, to provide better information, eventually to work on new technologies and ultimately to perhaps clean one of the islands to have it as a base to work from.

KAGAN: For instance, what did you find lost ashore there that you would never expect to find so far away?

COSTEAU: Well, we found thousands of tons of fishing nets. We found tens of thousands of bottles. We found a lot of plastic. We found pieces of airplane wings. We found a live bomb, which was reported of course. And so you know, these islands where nobody live, literally trashed, and it's coming from all over the world. We can identify at least 50 countries by just their stamp on the material that we found.

KAGAN: It sounds like you're also trying to target some very young audiences. I was surprised to be watching the "Finding Nemo" DVD over the Thanksgiving holiday. And there you were Jean-Michel.

COSTEAU: Well, I'm a very strong believer if we can change the behavior of our children, we will be the one to make it happen. Today they teach and educate their parents on not to smoke, recycle, not trash the planet, and this opportunity on the "Nemo" DVD was a great opportunity for us to communicate and have a very serious presentation. The characters of Nemo come into the picture, and his father Marlin, and Lori also was there. And it was a great experience for me, and I think children love it.

KAGAN: Well, they do. I can give you the feedback from my nephew, they were intrigued with your portion as the actual movie. So that was a good activity for us to do. Thanks for participating in that.

What's next up for you?

COSTEAU: Well, one next stop is we are working with PBS to produce six hours, which the voyage to Curry Park (ph) will become one of them, and we look forward to our next expedition, which I call it the obstacle cross of the gray whales, which goes along the West Coast of the United States, all the way to the Arctic Circle, and along the way, they have to put up with an enormous amount of noise in the water, increasing amount, with debris, with nets, abandoned with nets of all kinds. And of course all kinds of pollution that comes out of the land, since one of the major issues these days, and that is part of what connects us with the voyage to Curry expedition in the northwest and in the Hawaiian Islands.

KAGAN: Absolutely.

COSTEAU: So the gray whales are really having a hard time during the migration with their babies.

KAGAN: Well, feel free to check in with us from the high seas. We always enjoy hearing from you from the wet places, as well as on dry land.

COSTEAU: I remember being in touch with you from the high seas. We were not able to see each other, but it was a great experience.

KAGAN: It was a good conversation, as always. Jean-Michel, thank you.

COSTEAU: We'll be back.

KAGAN: We will have you back, Jean-Michel Costeau, good to have you with us.

COSTEAU: Thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired December 5, 2003 - 11:23   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Water is his life. Ocean explorer, environmentalist and film producer Jean Michel-Costeau is coming up for air today. He has several new projects to talk about, and we fill privileged because we found him on land. One of those projects, a beautiful new book of essays and photographs of the critical states of the world's water supply.
Jean-Michel Costeau is Dry and inside our bureau in New York this morning.

Good morning.

JEAN-MICHEL COSTEAU, OCEAN EXPLORER: Good morning, very good to see you.

KAGAN: A pleasure to see you, as I said, on dry land, not rocking on a boat.

COSTEAU: On dry land, but it's snowing.

KAGAN: But it's snowing. See, you bring the moisture with you, Jean-Michel, wherever you go.

Let's take hey look inside of this book. It is called "Water Culture," and some very interesting company that has put together this book. You participate, also Jimmy Carter and the Carter Center. Former Russian President Igor Gorbachev also participating. The basic idea is showing how important clean water is to each who lives on this planet.

COSTEAU: I think the whole idea is in a nutshell in this book was formidable, beautiful pictures, and great essays from great people is to make the public realize how dependent we are from the quality of water. And if we can have a water culture by looking at these images and reading those essays I think we can have a change of attitude and take better care of our water system, which literally determine the quality our lives.

KAGAN: Some beautiful photographs. Some just accompanied by some simple captions and headlines. Do you think doing it so simply is the best way to have this discussion? Or does that oversimplify the discussion?

COSTEAU: No, I don't think it's oversimplified, because you have beautiful pictures, but you also have very dramatic pictures, which shows they try some (ph) people, and the fact that when water is not available, or mismanaged, that people are suffering. And I think that shows in the pictures, some of the pictures, as well as in the essays.

KAGAN: Now the last time we caught up with you, you were on the other side of the world, the little atoll Cureaye (ph), and you were trying to show, when you go to this tiny little island, so far away from anywhere else, you still find pollution that travels thousands and thousands of miles.

COSTEAU: That's correct. We were in the northwestern Hawaiian islands which spans 1,200 miles from the main Hawaiian islands, and we were dumbfounded to find a lot of debris, and we've made some progress with the industries which are responsible for manufacturing many of these products. They were as surprised as we are, and we are working together to provide educational material, to provide better information, eventually to work on new technologies and ultimately to perhaps clean one of the islands to have it as a base to work from.

KAGAN: For instance, what did you find lost ashore there that you would never expect to find so far away?

COSTEAU: Well, we found thousands of tons of fishing nets. We found tens of thousands of bottles. We found a lot of plastic. We found pieces of airplane wings. We found a live bomb, which was reported of course. And so you know, these islands where nobody live, literally trashed, and it's coming from all over the world. We can identify at least 50 countries by just their stamp on the material that we found.

KAGAN: It sounds like you're also trying to target some very young audiences. I was surprised to be watching the "Finding Nemo" DVD over the Thanksgiving holiday. And there you were Jean-Michel.

COSTEAU: Well, I'm a very strong believer if we can change the behavior of our children, we will be the one to make it happen. Today they teach and educate their parents on not to smoke, recycle, not trash the planet, and this opportunity on the "Nemo" DVD was a great opportunity for us to communicate and have a very serious presentation. The characters of Nemo come into the picture, and his father Marlin, and Lori also was there. And it was a great experience for me, and I think children love it.

KAGAN: Well, they do. I can give you the feedback from my nephew, they were intrigued with your portion as the actual movie. So that was a good activity for us to do. Thanks for participating in that.

What's next up for you?

COSTEAU: Well, one next stop is we are working with PBS to produce six hours, which the voyage to Curry Park (ph) will become one of them, and we look forward to our next expedition, which I call it the obstacle cross of the gray whales, which goes along the West Coast of the United States, all the way to the Arctic Circle, and along the way, they have to put up with an enormous amount of noise in the water, increasing amount, with debris, with nets, abandoned with nets of all kinds. And of course all kinds of pollution that comes out of the land, since one of the major issues these days, and that is part of what connects us with the voyage to Curry expedition in the northwest and in the Hawaiian Islands.

KAGAN: Absolutely.

COSTEAU: So the gray whales are really having a hard time during the migration with their babies.

KAGAN: Well, feel free to check in with us from the high seas. We always enjoy hearing from you from the wet places, as well as on dry land.

COSTEAU: I remember being in touch with you from the high seas. We were not able to see each other, but it was a great experience.

KAGAN: It was a good conversation, as always. Jean-Michel, thank you.

COSTEAU: We'll be back.

KAGAN: We will have you back, Jean-Michel Costeau, good to have you with us.

COSTEAU: Thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com