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NEXT@CNN
NEXT@CNN Takes A Look At Big Stories Of 2003
Aired December 27, 2003 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN ANCHOR, NEXT@CNN: Hi, everybody, I'm Daniel Sieberg. Today on a special year-end edition of NEXT@CNN has the Bush administration been gutting environmental laws or coming up with a more reasonable way of protecting the country's air, water and land.
Miles O'Brien reflects on the day the space shuttle "Columbia" died.
And 2003 brought big changes in the way we make phone calls. We'll update you on the revolution. All that and more on "next."
Welcome to the final "NEXT@CNN" for 2003. We thought we'd use this show to update you on some of the biggest stories on our beat and bring you some of our favorite segments from this past year, as well as tell you about big things you may have missed because of even bigger events.
Well you may not realize it, but the Bush administration this year initiated several changes to environmental law. Changes that critics say are gutting 30 years of progress, protecting our air, water and land. But supporters say the changes give industry much- needed flexibility. Michael Shoulder has more.
MICHAEL SHOULDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Introducing the environmentalist of the year. Well, nobody's actually nominated Richard Nixon, but before she resigned this year as President Bush's top environmental official, Christi Todd Whitman pointed to how much cleaner America's air and water have become due to the laws signed by President Nixon. Has President Bush continued along that path or has he taken a u-turn? Elizabeth Shogren covers the environment for the "Los Angeles Times." What would you say is the most important environmental decision of the year?
ELIZABETH SHOGREN, "LOS ANGELES TIMES": Well, the most important one that's kind of already in action is the one that has to do with power plants. And what they decided to do is that they rolled back a clean air act provision called new source review. And they weakened that rule so much, so that power plants, which are responsible for a huge percentage of the emissions of pollutants in the air over the United States, basically will never have to put on these modern air pollution control devices, at least not as a result of that regulation.
SHOULDER: In its place the Bush administration has proposed a cap and trade approach, capping and limiting the amount of pollutants the power industry an can emit. Plants that cut their pollution fast would be able to sell credits to those that that don't. SHOGREN: The Bush administration says we can count on this, we know how much pollution will be reduced and how much time. And it's basically 70 percent of the emissions from power plants by 2018. But environmentalist says that the reductions would have come much more quickly under the old, more classic regulations of the clean air act.
SHOULDER: This year, President Bush lost its long campaign to open part of the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration. Congress voted against it, but this tension between protecting unspoiled land and producing more energy is playing out in much of the American wilderness. Where has the Bush administration come down on the year 2003?
SHOGREN: Well, I think you'd have to say that they've come down squarely on the side of allowing more access and more development on public lands. There are some key decisions that they've made that have changed things quite dramatically, particularly in the state of Utah.
SHOULDER: Specifically, two and a half million acres of Utah's red rock region, land that the Clinton administration put on track to protect, undeveloped forever.
SHOGREN: The Bush administration decided differently and they said because congress has never officially designated those areas as wilderness, they should be open again for oil drilling.
SHOULDER: There are more than 250 million acres of wilderness throughout the U.S., more than twice the size of California. So expect more battles on this front and expect to see more of this man, President Bush's new head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Mike Leavitt. He says he's committed to helping create a faster tempo of improving the environment. In the final days of December, though, a federal court blocked the key Bush policy we told you about earlier, the one allowing power plants to expand without new pollution control measures. That policy will now get a full court hearing in 2004.
SIEBERG: Sticking with environment news, an update on another story we brought you this year. In July, we told you about citizens of a city in Anaston, Alabama were protesting the launch of a new chemical weapon incinerator in their community. The facility charged with burning thousands of pounds of decommissioned chemical Asian. Began destroying the stockpile in August, as of now, the plant has processed more than 15,000 rockets and more than 16,000 gallons of nerve agent GB. But the job is just beginning, here's an excerpt from an earlier report filed by David Mattingly.
ALICIA GOODWIN, ANASTON, ALABAMA RESIDENT: Every night, I pray, lord, please don't let them start this.
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisha Goodwin of Anaston, Alabama, worries about the unthinkable, that she and thousands of others could one day fall victim to some of the deadliest chemical and nerve agent weapons ever created.
MICHAEL ABRAMS, PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICES: Nerve agent VX, nerve agent GB and mustard agent filled weapons. At Aniston, we have all three types of agent; we also have artillery shells, land mines, and rockets.
MATTINGLTY: They are dangerous cold war relics, from a time before International Treaties banned chemical weapons and ordered their destruction. Manufactured in the '40s, '50s and '60s, the nation's chemical weapons stockpile, all 64 million pounds of it, has since been restored to the Aniston Army Depot and eight other locations. Some of it is now so old, that the army reports some of the liquid chemicals have turned to custard like gel. In Anaston, 850 of the shells are said to be leaking.
TIM GARRETT, PROJECT MANAGER: That's an indication of the condition of the stockpile. They're not getting better with age. They were not designed to sit there, necessarily, for 40 years.
MATTINGLTY: Too old to remain in storage, too dangerous to move. So the Army's solution, at five locations, is to burn them and to do that, the Army is building huge incinerators, like this one in Aniston. A $770 million, seven-year long project to destroy the Aniston weapons then dismantle the plant piece by piece. But while there is general agreement that the chemical weapons have to go, the plan to incinerate them has divided the city.
SIEBERG: Well despite the public outcry, Army officials say the burn has caused no major problems; all though they do say there have been minor mechanical problems in a small lab fire. The residents there remain on edge. They say they will continue to call for the plant's closure.
Well, 2003 was a record-breaking year for world weather from floods to killer heat waves to drought-induced wildfires. Femi Okey has more.
FEMI OKEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Arctic ice package shrinking and --
(AUDIO GAP)
OKEY: (ph) Are receding, as we are all getting warmer. And that's just the tip of our melting icebergs. 2003 was a weather disaster. Rewind 11 months to start the year in Australia, with bush fires caused by extreme drought. Deadly mud slides and floods hit Rio and Brazil, while in northern India and Bangladesh, a frigid blast of cold weather caused thousands of deaths. That was just the first month.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got to be kidding me!
OKEY: The most expensive natural disasters of 2003 all happened in North America. May's spring storms are the norm in the Midwest. But when over 500 tornadoes struck, according to a Swiss insurance company, it was a billion dollar anomaly. Isabelle led to about $2 billion worth of claims. It was a relatively small storm when it made landfall. But size doesn't matter when it comes to costly flood and wind damage. Just a month after Isabelle, severe weather again made headlines this time it was wildfires in Southern California. Firefighters struggled to get the fires under control, but high winds and drought not helping. Climatologists had the world meter logical organization believe the severe droughts; floods and storms could be caused by our rising global temperature. Europeans experienced it firsthand as a searing summer heat wave caused the deaths of 21,000 people. To find the silver lining in this rather grim outlook, we turn to Afghanistan, where snow and rain finally eased years of drought. Remarkable amounts of rainfall also watered a Salhall (ph) region of Africa, infamous in the past for its terrible famines. 2003 is likely to be the third warmest year on record. As our climate heats up, the world meteorological organization says more extreme weather events are expected. The long-term forecast doesn't look good.
SIEBERG: The forecast for the rest of our show certainly does look good. Still to come, it's almost game over for 2003. Later, we'll show you how the video game industry fared over the past 12 months.
Next, do lemmings really commit mass suicide? We'll show you some of our favorite "cool science" reports from the past year when NEXT@CNN continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A myth is shattered. That lemmings periodically commit mass suicide by leaping over cliffs just isn't true. According to a study released in the "Journal Science." A researcher (ph) who spent 15 years tracking lemmings in Greenland found that lemming populations die off simply because they're tasty treats to predators, like arctic foxes and snowy owls. And because the area is barren with few places for lemmings to hide, predators get their fill, so much so every two or three years, lemming populations are nearly wiped out. Predator's leave and then the population slowly rebuild. Their sudden disappearance, according to the study, isn't really as sudden as you might think.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They reach the final precipice. This is the last chance to turn back.
KELLAN: Or, as Disney portrayed in the 1958 movie "White Wilderness."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Over they go, casting themselves bodily out into space.
KELLAN: That movie staged this scene, built on a Scandinavian myth that lemmings were suicidal and leapt to their deaths. Instead, there's a four or five-year cycle, where predators eat almost all the lemmings and lemmings slowly bounce back. Ann Kellan, CNN, Atlanta.
SIEBERG: Well, that's one of the coolest cool sciences we brought you this year. We'll bring you more later in the program.
Now, though a look back at one of the most disturbing health stories of the year, the SARS epidemic that killed more than 800 people worldwide. There have only been two cases of the respiratory disease diagnosed since the outbreak was declared over in July. And both were the results of laboratory accidents. But some authorities are concerned that conditions may be ripe for a resurgence of SARS. In a report we first showed you in November, Mike Chinoy has more from one of the China animal markets where the virus my may have jumped to humans. A warning though some of the video is disturbing. And some viewers may not want to watch.
MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's mid-morning and the cage is packed with dogs and cats, rabbits and badgers are unloaded at the Jung Chi Road (ph) animal markets in Gaung Jo. It's a smelly and depressing place and there are lots of them in southern China. The kind of places where experts believe the SARS virus may have jumped from animals to humans. A place where we found an astonishing variety of creatures all destined for the dinner tables in this part of China. Last spring at the height of the SARS epidemic, the Chinese government banned the sale of wild animals in markets like this. But in August the ban was lifted. A move, which drew criticism both here in China and abroad. We came in search of the animal researchers believe was the source of the SARS virus, the masked palm civet. The traders didn't want us to get too close a look, hiding the animals away. Market officials ordered us to stop taping and leave. Obviously, they are very sensitive about the fact that civets are on sale here and they don't want the publicity. Here's why, the sale of farm-raised civets is legal here, but selling those captured in the wild is not. This civet is one of many we saw missing a limb, making it likely the animals were caught illegally in leg hold traps. Animal rights activist Jill Robinson has been monitoring conditions in markets like this for years.
JILL ROBINSON, (ph): Clearly, they know they're in an illegal industry. They don't want us to have evidence in too show the government. Hygiene in this market is nonexistent. This is a melting pot of misery and disease.
CHINOY: But the traders seem utterly unconcerned. SARS doesn't come from animals, says this woman. People say it comes from a foreign country's germ warfare program. Ignorance, filth, official regulations that appear not to be enforced, all ingredients for what medical experts in several countries fears what could be a possible return of SARS.
SIEBERG: SARS was not the only disease linked to animals this year. In June, the United States banned the sale of prairie dogs in the imprecation of African rodent; the stem is spread of monkey pox. Dozens of people in the Midwest and Southwest came down with the element, which is a kin to small pos. Was the first...
(INTERRUPTED BY LIVE EVENT)
DANIEL SIEBERG, HOST: Well, welcome back to our special yearend edition of "NEXT@CNN." Back on the morning of Saturday, February 1, the NEXT@CNN team was preparing that day's program when word came that something was going wrong with the space shuttle Columbia. That news started 16 hour marathon of coverage for CNN space correspondent, Miles O'Brien.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Throughout the morning, I had been telling viewers that they had an excellent opportunity to see the space shuttle as it streaked back to earth.
(voice-over): Take a look at RX 9 if we can.
Good morning Texas, take a look outside at the space shuttle Columbia coming back. We're watching it landing about 15 minutes away.
(on camera): I had heard right around the top of the hour, 9:00, that they'd lost communication with the shuttle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Columbia, Houston we see your tire pressure messages and did not copy your last.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): Obviously some troubling news here about the space shuttle Columbia, as we haven't heard from it, yet. The time of landing was supposed to be right about at this moment.
(on camera): At 9:16, the expected landing time, when it should have been on the ground, it didn't arrive. And the thing about that is that there's no the real middle ground on that. It's not like they diverted to Dallas. I knew, in an instant, that it was a very ominous thing. And that the crew was most likely lost.
(voice-over): Here's what we're seeing that is a very significant and what you should look at. Multiple trails, multiple indications of multiple targets there, as the space shuttle streaked over Dallas, Texas.
(on camera): I remember sitting here -- you know, watching the feed from NASA, listening to what they were talking about, about sealing their records and closing up their computers in such a way to preserve evidence, very ominous stuff. It just kind of -- there was a moment there where it almost just hit me in the gut and I just had to stop, take a deep breath and consciously tell myself, "You can't go here now. This is the time to do your job. Step back for a moment and just think about telling this story." And, it was -- it was from that moment on I stayed in that mindset and stayed in this position for, I think, I don't know, 15 hours or so. Right here in this spot, and just watched this story unfold.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: Miles went on to report that a piece of insulation foam had hit the wing of the shuttle during liftoff. Then later, tests showed such an accident could cause significant damage. Investigators determined the damage caused the shuttle to break up upon reentry to the earth's atmosphere, killing the seven astronauts on board.
You can see more of recollection recollections from Miles O'Brien about that disastrous day on a special year-end edition of "Anderson Cooper 360," that airs at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time, on New Year's Eve.
Well, some happier space news for China, this year. As, that nation became the third to launch a man into orbit. In October, Yang Liwei spent 21 hours in orbit before landing safely and becoming national hero. Now, China says it will probably send up two more astronauts, China calls them taikonaut, within the next two years. China's top space official says the nation plans to put a man on the moon by 2020.
And coincidentally or not, White House sources say that President Bush is considering whether to send Americans back to the moon.
Well, Mars was a big star this year. Well, it's really a planet, but you know what we mean. In addition to several probes being launched to explore Mars, amateur astronomers around the world got out their telescopes as the red planet made a close encounter with earth. It came within 35 million miles in August. It hasn't been that close in 60,000 years. While Mars got closer though, Voyager got farther away. NASA announced in November, that Voyager 1 spacecraft may have reached the edge of our solar system.
It was launched 26 years ago to explore the outer planets and beyond. It carries recorded greetings in several languages just in case anyone is out there.
Well, speaking of "out there," an out of this world wedding took place in August between an astronaut in the International Space Station and his earthbound bride. Yuri Malenchenko married Ekaterina Dmitriev through a live video hookup from the ISS. A cardboard cutout stood in for the groom. Malenchenko returned to earth and his new wife in October.
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, big developments this year in the way we make phone calls now and in the future.
And, major skirmishes in the war against spam and telemarketers. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Do you think birds get divorced, or are they monogamous.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Actually, I don't think marriage in birds is legal.
KELLAN (voice-over): Legalities aside, Oyster Catchers, are evidence that birds, just like humans, get dumped. Researchers from the University of Bern in Switzerland spent eight years studying the Swiss version of these American Oyster Catcher. They reveal the journal, "Nature" that the bird that flies the coop first, usually the female, ends up better off with a nest closer to food and 20 percent more chicks, the one that's dumped ends up in the bad part of town and has to travel for food, leaving its chicks vulnerable to predators. Oyster catchers aren't the only birds that, quote, "divorce". How does their divorce rate compare to other birds.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, actually I'm on the fence on this.
KELLAN: Which birds have the highest divorce rate?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Pigeon. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Robin.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Sparrow.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pigeons.
KELLAN: Not Pigeons. Flamingos.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Flamingos?
KELLAN: Yes, Flamingos. According to Cornell University Ornithologist, Andre Dhondt. Flamingos have a 100 percent divorce rate. They find new partners every breeding season.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why do they bother getting married?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I guess birds are just like people. Some are colorful and flighty and move on and some are stable and stick together.
KELLAN: Flighty perhaps, but if the study is right, when a bird leaves its mate, it's moving on to greener pastures and a better life.
Ann Kellan, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: The names are maybe familiar to you, but for all the wrong reasons. Several computer worms and viruses became well known in 2003 because of the chaos they created for businesses and individuals alike. According to CERT, the Federal Center for Internet Research, the year's malicious code hall of fame includes "Slammer," also known as "SQL Slammer," "W32 Blaster," "Welchia," also know as, "Naci," and two e-mail viruses, "SoBig" and "MyMail."
But, companies around the world say the worms and viruses that clogged their systems cost them millions in lost productivity, lost sales, and extra bandwidth costs.
All right, from a can of worms to the canned spam bill. President Bush signed the bill this month, creating the first federal law regulating junk e-mail. It outlaws some of the most annoying forms of spam and sets fines and even jail time for violators. It also authorizes the Federal Trade Commission to set up a list of e- mail addresses, as it did for its "Do Not Call List," another anti- annoyance innovation of 2003.
Now, the "Do Not Call List" consists of 50 million phone numbers of people who do not want to be called by telemarketers, and you might be one of them. Earlier this month, the FTC issued its first warning to a violator of the list, a California mortgage company.
Some more consumer news now, with big changes in telephone service this year. It became possible to switch cell phone companies and keep your old number or change your landline number to a mobile phone. Basically you weren't tied to your digits anymore. And the mother of all phone companies joined a throng of smaller companies in making plans for long distance service over the internet.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG (voice-over): It's called Voice over Internet Protocol, Voice over IP or VoIP for short.
MIRABEL DOLINOV, TELECOM ANALYST FORRESTER RESEARCH: Well, basically Voice over IP is just taking voice and putting it over your data line. Why would someone want it right now?
The compelling reason for both consumers and business is cost. It's just frankly cheaper than getting a traditional phone line.
SIEBERG: Some cable TV companies, including CNN's sister company, Time Warner Cable, have already announced plans for Voice over IP service. And, AT&T already offers VoIP for some business customers. But now, by the end of March, AT&T plans to expand that service to residential customers in the top 100 markets in the United States. AT&T hasn't said how much it will charge, but you can already find the technology cheap even free over the internet. Through small companies, such as Skype.
NIKLAS ZENNSTROM, CEO, SKYPE: There are several hundred millions of users on the broadband internet and I believe that in the next few years, as the broadband penetration continues to double every one and a half years, something like that, more and more people will be starting to use the internet to make phone calls.
SIEBERG: Analysts say VoIP reliability is comparable to cell phone technology. You might get some dropped calls and sound may not be as good as with a landline, and if your home loses power, so does your phone. And it's not necessarily easy to install.
DOLINOV: One of the most difficult things is going to be trying to figure out exactly how do you connect to it. So, will the cable operator give you a box to do that? And, right now, there is additional hardware for a majority of these services. In some cases it's software, but then you have to download the software or load a disk. So, really it's going to be a bit of an installation challenge for those that aren't tech savvy at the moment.
SIEBERG: But, AT&T's initiative could mark the beginning of a wide scale shift in the way we make phone calls.
DOLINOV: AT&T saying they're going to do Voice over IP is a big validation of VoIP in the marketplace.
SIEBERG: as of now, only 20 percent of U.S. Homes have broadband internet access. Without that, you can't use VoIP.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: Still, the revolution of Voice over internet is probably years away. As of now, only 20 percent of U.S. homes have broadband internet access, and without that, you can't use VoIP.
Well, the revolution of music sharing over the internet took a dramatic turn this year with the Recording Industry of America filing nearly 400 lawsuits and reaching more than 200 settlements since September. However, earlier this month, a federal appeals court made it more difficult for the recording industry to identify online music swappers. That stifles the industry's main method of targeting people to sue. Meanwhile, several companies launched legal paid online music services in 2003 with Apples iTunes, the industry leader. Among the competitors, Napster, the once illegal service that started the file sharing revolution.
ANNOUNCER: Just ahead, a quick look at some of the most memorable images from the past year.
Also coming up, will 2003 be a smash or a bust for the video game industry?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: Well, we seem to discover new surprises every week on this show, and that was a quick look at some of our most memorable images from the past year.
And now, Jen Rogers has a look at how memorable the video game industry was in 2003.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEN ROGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Premiere parties, celebrities, flashy ad campaigns. The video game industry has certainly come a long way since Pac Man.
TIKI BARBER, NFL PLAYER: This is a young teenager's or a young adult's dream, because it's a synergy of all things that are popular with young adults, right now.
ROGERS: Sports, music, movies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's get him!
ROGERS: The gaming industry even has its own awards show, now.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching Spike TV's "Video Game Awards."
JAY COHEN, VP LICENSING, UBISOFT: Video games are a part of today's life, they're part of pop culture. It's not something that is just for geeks and nerds anymore. We're all playing games, so why not talk about it and celebrate it?
ROGERS: The fourth quarter is historically a cause for celebration in the gaming industry, as the sales from the last three months of the year typically represent more than 50 percent of annual revenue. But, concerns on Wall Street this year that holiday sales will disappoint, have hit stocks hard. Shares of the major video game publishers have slumped substantially since hitting their 52-week high. Still, the weakness is a recent trend. Overall video game names have outperformed the market the last five years, finding growth even when the economy couldn't.
RICHARD OW, SR. ACCOUNT MANAGER NPD FUNWORLD: Video games could be seen as a recession-proof, but it is a form of entertainment. Americans somehow find a way to spend money on this.
ROGERS: Fans will have lots of options for spending money this season. More than 250 new games are being launched before the holidays. Still, with no must-have title, like last year's "Grand Theft Auto, Vice City," the final tally may not wow investors.
And while console sales are brisk, dramatic price cuts have trimmed total revenue.
(on camera): The result, many are predicting that 2003 will not top 2002, a banner year for the industry which brought in more than $10 billion. That's more than the total U.S. box office received for the year.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: Well, there's one game out there that won't help those 2003 sales. That's because it's free. But, the U.S. Army put a lot into making this game, which I can tell you from personal experience. I'll take you behind the scenes when "NEXT@CNN" returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLAN: It looks so random, as many as 50,000 bees in a hive, each with a job. Some guard, others build, or cool the hive, some just lounge around. Computer scientists at Georgia Tech marked the hardest workers with a color and using especially designed software, are tracking them. These bees are the foragers and when they find food, they do the waggle dance.
(MUSIC)
TUCKER BALCH, GEORGIA TECH: Oh, the waggle, that what we call it.
FRANK DELLAERT, GEORGIA TECH: A wiggle or a waggle?
BALCH: It's a waggle.
DELLAERT: I'm always confused whether we call it the waggle or a wiggle.
KELLAN: The bees shimmy and shake and point their bodies in the direction of the food and fellow bees follow along, playing close attention.
DELLAERT: If they waggle straight up, that means that the food's in the direction of the sun. If they wiggle to the right -- or waggle to the right, it's to the right of the sun.
KELLAN: And the further away the food is, the longer they waggle.
BALCH: Now, let's see. Right there, we see it's waggling we're arcing left, we're arcing right. There's another waggle.
KELLAN: Scientists are now developing software to track every bee in the hive to better understand how this complex society thrives. They're testing the new software on ants. They're more spread out and easier to follow. They tell each other where the food is by bumping into each other. The ultimate goal to all this is to develop robots that work as a team.
BALCH: We want to try to unlock the secrets of these colonies and use what we find for controlling tens of thousands of robots.
KELLAN: Who knows, someday, we'll have armies of bee bopping 'bots, thanks to wascally, waggling bees.
Ann Kellan, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: Two of the world's most famous animals died this year. In February, Dolly, the world's first cloned animal, was euthanized at age six. She had a lung infection and was showing signs of premature aging, but the firm that created her says there's no evidence her Dolly's ailments were linked to cloning.
And, Keiko the killer whale died December 12 in a Norwegian bay where trainers were trying to reintroduce him to the wild. The cause was apparently pneumonia. Now, you might remember that Keiko gained fame from his starring role in the movie "Free Willie," the film prompting a $20 million program to return the captive Orca to his native waters. But, Keiko always seemed to prefer human company over the open sea.
And, 2003 saw the end of a long battle over the Navy bombing range in Puerto Rico. Residents of the island of Vieques blamed 60 years of bombing and training exercises for environmental damage and high cancer rates. Well, in May, residents broke down the gates to the facility in celebration as authorities closed the range. The area is now a wildlife refuge.
And, of course, the big military story in 2003 was the war in Iraq. And, you may have noticed that NEXT took a little hiatus while CNN focused on war coverage. But, after we came back, I was sent to a war zone, of sorts.
My mission, to get the scoop on the latest version of the U.S. military's official video game, America's Army.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG (voice-over): Once the first door is blown to pieces and the bullets start flying, we quickly realized that this isn't a routine video game development session. The military invited CNN to a site another Fort McClellan Alabama to witness firsthand what went into creating the latest America's army video game.
MAJOR RANDY ZEEGERS, U.S. ARMY SPECIAL FORCES: It's very realistic, to a point where they even capture the breathing when you're shooting.
SIEBERG: The Army considers the game to be the tip of the recruiting spear -- a virtual basic training.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good job, soldier.
CHRISTOPHER CHAMBERS, DEPUTY GAME DIRECTOR: It's meant to be an awareness tool. It's meant to connect with Americans that have not been exposed to other direct interactions with the military or Army, in specific.
SIEBERG: We prepare for our direct interaction with the military by strapping on some heavy body armor and bulletproof helmets. Sergeant 1st Class John Nettles describes the weapons of choice for the training mission.
SFC. JOHN NETTLES, ARMY SPECIAL FORCES: Over here, we have a shotgun, a shotgun retainer. What this is used for, we'll use this, basically to gain entry to interior doors, destroying the locking mechanism that's holding the door shut.
SIEBERG: The mission is to enter and secure a building. We entered the simulation complex, cameras ready, bracing for what was to come and hoping that no one slips. The soldiers are using real explosives and real bullets, and there's no reset button out here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two...
(EXPLOSION)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Execute!
(SHOOTING)
SIEBERG (on camera): The newest version of America's Army includes Special Forces operations. To make it as realistic as possible, the game developers say they followed along on simulations including ones with live ammunition.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're clear.
SIEBERG (voice-over): As hard as America's Army game designers worked to immerse users in this military reality, the soldiers say, there's no way a game can re-create the reality of combat.
ZEEGERS: The thing that the game can't replicate is 104 degree temperature in the mountains -- you know, in Afghanistan. It can't replicate the dust blowing or much less the 80 pounds of equipment you have your back. Plus, the fact you haven't slept for four, five days, and there's bad guys shooting at you for real.
SIEBERG: Those involved in making America's Army are aware of concerns that a video game might glamorize and sugarcoat the dangerous nature of war.
CHAMBERS: There are consequences for actions, whether they are positive or negative, so we depict those as realistically as we can and within the confines of the teen rating that we have in the game.
SIEBERG: The Army also acknowledged that a good virtual soldier will not necessarily be able to make the transition to a real soldier. But, they still believe it's money well spent.
COL. CASEY WARDYNSKI, U.S. ARMY: We've had about two million people sign up to play the game, about 1.3 million have finished playing through the basic training part of the game. That equals about 23-million hours of game play, and a cost basis, that's pennies per hour, of exposure to young Americans as opposed to what it would cost through dollars for other media.
SIEBERG: The game itself is free whether as download or as a CD- ROM and in addition to combat drills developers have incorporated basic training, marksmanship, and life-saving techniques which, fortunately we didn't have to use on this trip.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: Well, there were no serious injuries to report. Now, incidentally, since the launch of America's Army Special Forces, last month, the game has enlisted half a million new players.
Well, that's all the time we have for this week and for this year. Here's what's coming up in our next program.
We'll take you snowboarding on a slope where it never get cold. And can a indoor treadmill really give you a better workout than a real mountain.
Well, that's coming up on NEXT. Until then, let us hear from you. You can e-mail us at NEXT@CNN.com. Thanks so much for joining us this week, for all of us, I'm Daniel Sieberg, we'll see you next year.
END
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