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Scientists Successfully Capture 2 Batfish Off Florida Keys; Research Bands May Restrict Breeding In King Penguins; Venus Traverses Sun For First Time Since 19th Century

Aired June 12, 2004 - 15:00   ET

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

COLLINS SPENCER, CNN ANCHOR, NEXT@CNN: Well the hunt is on in Saudi Arabia for those responsible for killing an American citizen. The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh confirms an American man was killed in a drive by shooting. Saudi sources say it happened in an upscale Riyadh neighborhood. The American is the third westerner killed in the Saudi capitol this week.
Insurgents ambush Iraq's deputy foreign minister in Baghdad, Bassam Salih Kubba was shot to death in front of his home. He was the second Iraqi government official attacked this week, the first escaped injury. Meanwhile, a kidnapped Lebanese national and two Iraqi co- workers were found shot dead in Ramadi.

Here in the states, Former President Ronald Reagan is now in his final resting place in Simi Valley, California. Reagan's body was entombed as his presidential library following an emotional sunset ceremony last night. No Reagan family members were present when the tomb was sealed.

President Bush has honored Reagan once again. A day after giving a eulogy at the National Cathedral in Washington, the president remembered Ronald Reagan in his weekly radio address.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This week, America mourned the passing of President Ronald Reagan. We remembered a gentle decent man and one of the greatest leaders our nation has known. He was courageous patriot whose leadership transformed the country and the world he leaves behind.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SPENCER: I'm Collins Spencer at CNN Center in Atlanta. NEXT@CNN begins right now.

SIEBERG: Hi everybody. I'm Daniel Seiberg. Today on NEXT@CNN, scientists studying penguins may have accidentally hurt the birds they are trying to protect. A new study suggests some standard research procedures need to change.

Also seeing a planetary neighbor in a new light.

And a rainforest plant could provide a healthier alternative to chocolate. UNIDENTIIFED MALE: It's just like a little diamond in the rough.

SIEBERG: All that and more on NEXT.

Well, it was a little like an underwater version of "Law and Order." The people were represented by some divers who planned their mission carefully and then set out to capture a couple of dangerous desperadoes lurking off the Florida Keys. CNN's John Zarrella has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice-over): It was like a fox hunt, but instead of horses and hounds, these hunters had scuba gear and nets. Some 20 divers took to the waters of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary off Key Largo, looking to round up two renegade fish. Called batfish, they are found in waters off Indonesia. Marine scientists say these two probably outgrew a home aquarium and were released.

Biologists say exotics released into environments that are not their own can wreak havoc on marine life if they are allowed to gain a foothold, potentially introducing disease and out competing native fish.

The capture on Molasses Reef went perfectly. The dive team unfurled barrier nets to corral the fish up against a reef ledge, then they chased the fish to small hand-held nets. As each fish was caught, it was brought to the surface and placed in a live well.

A recent study by the University of Washington and the Reef Environmental Education Foundation concluded there are at least 16 non-native species of fish living happily in the waters off southeast, Florida, all of them probably released from aquariums.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good job, good job!

ZARRELLA: Once in the protective custody of marine scientists, the batfish were transported to the Florida Aquarium in Tampa. There, they will live out their days as part of an exhibit called "Invaders: Florida's Most Unwanted Species."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIEBERG: Well humans have been tracking the moves and migration of wildlife for hundreds years, but a new study of identification bands used on king penguins is causing some scientists to take another look at some of their long accepted practices.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG, (voice over): From penguins to turtles, to Tibetan antelopes, researchers tagged wild animals to better understand their movements, their mating habits and some of the dangers they face from pollution to climate change. PROF. DEE BOERSMA, WASHINGTON BIOLIOGIST: Whenever you do science, it's really important to know individuals and that means that you have to distinguish one from another. Just like we give names to people, we have to be able to give names to penguins. And we often do that with bands.

SIEBERG: But a recent study in proceedings of the World Society for Biological Sciences raised concerns that flipper bands may be handicapping some king penguins by interfering with their breeding. Researchers from the Center for Ecology in Strasburg, France believe the bands slowed the birds down slightly on their foraging journeys over hundreds of miles.

The banded birds were less likely to breed and produced fewer chicks when they did. While this study was small, just 100 birds, other scientists it's an important wake-up call.

PROF. JAMES CAHILL: Once people realized they could tag and that could follow organisms. It just became a standard method. And once anything becomes standard, people forget that it is an invasive treatment and it might have implications on the animals being tagged.

BOERSMA: All bands are not created equal. We've known for a long time that if you put bad bands on birds you can really affect their survival. Certainly, this is a call for people to pay a lot of attention to what kinds of bands they're going to use and how they're going to use them.

SIEBERG: Boersma who has studied Megellanic penguins for two decades, says field researchers have an obligation to make sure that bands fit well and do no harm. And it is not just wild animals, even scientists who study plants need to be aware that work has an impact, says biologists James Cahill (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what we found is that simply tagging a plant and measuring it weekly over the course of a growing season, has profound implications on the size of the plant at the end, they tend to be smaller.

SIEBERG: The other scientific concern, if something humans do has an impact on the wildlife they are studying, any results from those studies could be flawed. Better and smaller technology is helping identification become less intrusive. Satellite and GPS locators have replaced bulkier transmitters

BOERSMA: Ten years ago, we couldn't follow penguins at sea. Now we can use small satellite tags and be able to learn where those birds are going to forage. Do those penguins want to carry a satellite tag? I think, if they had a vote, they'd vote not to, but it's telling us a tremendous amount and how we need to worry about where the conflicts between people and penguins are.

SIEBERG: So whether tracking the travels of a polar bear, or the sleek swimming style of penguins in the Indian Ocean, keeping track of wildlife movement is a balancing act. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And there's probably not going to be a single answer of what we should do, because every species is different, every method of studying every species is different. So instead, I it think falls upon the researchers to understand what we're doing in the systems we are and not to forget the big picture of what we're trying to do out there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: While wildlife researchers in Africa say the big picture for chimpanzees is looking grim. They say at the rate we're going, chimps could be extinct in the wild with in fifty years. Scientists from California State University Fullerton studied the number of orphaned baby chimps being brought to sanctuaries and found it's increasing dramatically.

They estimate that for every baby chimp that makes it to a sanctuary, ten adult chimps died in the wild. They are being wiped out by hunting, disease and loss of their habitat.

Well there is better news from the world of gorillas, even it is on a small scale, a mountain gorilla gave birth to twins last month in Volcanoes National Park in Central Africa. Wildlife researchers say the babies keep hope alive that mountain gorillas can make a come back if protected they're from people.

And China's pandas are apparently making a comeback. Chinese officials says the latest census shows the number of Pandas in the wild has increased nearly 50 percent from the late 1980s, from 1,100 to almost 1,600. China says the increase is due to its conservation programs, but the World Wildlife Fund, which paid for half the cost of the census says it, may be partly the result of better surveying methods. And the WWF says wild panda habitat is fragmented, so small groups of pandas can't get together.

All right, biotechnology brings out strong feelings in some people. And that's what happened this week in San Francisco. More than 150 people were arrested on Tuesday after protests at a major biotech convention. Police said the demonstrators blocked traffic and refused to disperse. Most of the protests were against genetically modified food.

Another issue where emotion and science collide is stem cell research. The debate heated up this week following the death of Former President Ronald Reagan after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. Joe Johns has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Nancy Reagan is reenergizing the debate over expanding embronic stem cell research. Fifty-eight Senators have joined her call to free up more stem cell lines for research and to cures for conditions such as Alzheimer's.

NANCY REAGAN, FRM. FIRST LADY: We've lost so much time already. And I just really can't bear to lose anymore JOHNS: In 2001, the White House set strict limits on stem cell research because it calls for the destruction of human embryos. Research advocates say those embryos would be thrown away anyway and want the White House to soften its position. But leading conservatives in Congress say they will not relent.

SEN. RICK SANTORUM, (R) PENNSYLVANIA: If he would authorize, or any future administration would authorize the deliberate killing of a human being for the purposes of research, they would not have my support.

JOHNS: Not all conservatives agree. Abortion opponent Orrin Hatch of Utah and 13 other Republican Senators have signed on in support of expanded research.

SEN. ORRIN HATCH, (R) UTAH: There's no question it's a human cell, but it doesn't have a chance of becoming a human being unless implanted in a womb.

JOHNS: More than 200 house members have also signed a letter supporting wider research. While the death of Ronald Reagan has clearly put the issue in the spotlight, advocates are weary about using his death to push the agenda. One senior congressional aide asks, at what point does it become tacky?

(on camear): Will the president compromise? The White House as it still wants to explore the promise of stem cell research, but not by crossing what it calls a fundamental moral line.

ANNOUNCER: Coming up, what's that dot on the sun? We'll tell you about the celestial event of the week.

And later in the show what you can do to protect your collection from the dreaded CD rot.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: NASA's Mars Rovers are still rolling around the red planet. Yes, they are still going. And they sent back some new images this week. Spirit has traveled over two miles now to the foot of Columbia Hills. On the way the Rover dug this trench and found the high salt content in the soil. Scientists say this is evidence there was once water percolating up to the surface of Mars that evaporated and left behind a salty brine.

On the opposite side of the planet, Opportunity discovered evidence of an ancient sea weeks ago. Now, Opportunity is inching its way down a steep slope into Endurance Crater. Scientist are hoping the Rover will be able to take a look back in Martian time by getting a closer look at an outcropping 20 feet into the crater.

Turning now to our other planetary next-door neighbor, here is what Venus looks like in radar images from the Magellan Spacecraft put together buy animators at NASA. And you've probably seen it many times looking like an oversized star at dusk or dawn. But this week, people got to see Venus in a much different way. Miles O'Brien has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Our sun maybe a natural born star, but for at least six hours on Tuesday it shared top billing with the number two rock in our celestial hit parade, Venus. The pictures are spectacular. And sky watchers turned out in force from Europe, to Africa, to Asia, the heavens put on a show.

We caught the tail end of it here in the U.S. and we even know what it looked like from space, thanks to solar observing satellites, like trace. You can bet astronomers will spend some time taking a good hard look at images like these.

After months of Mars mania, a lot of scientists will be happy to focus on our neighbor on the other side of the street, the reclusive one we don't know so well. Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system, the victim of a run away greenhouse effect. Many astrobiologies believe when the sun was young and cooler, Venus was a lot like Earth. But when the sun cranked up the thermostat, literally all hell broke loose here, the oceans boiled away and acid clouds enshrouded the planet, sending temperatures past 900 Fahrenheit, not the kind of place you would find life, right?

Well, Venus may still be kicking with active volcanoes and earthquakes. If NASA is from Mars, planetarium scientist David Grinspoon is from Venus.

DAVID GRINSPOON: Mars is mostly long dead, and Mercury, the moon they are all dead. Earth is the living planet in terms of geology. Venus we think might still also be a living planet. And it would be really neat to have another one so close by that is still geologically active with volcanoes and Venus quakes, and other kinds, where you're not studying just the past but you're studying ongoing geology.

O'BRIEN: Studying Venus is frout with peril. The Soviets put four plucking Landers named Venera on the red-hot rocks beginning in the mid '70s. Before their kamakazi mission ended with a meltdown, they sent back a few postcards. Greetings from Venus be glad you're not here.

GRINSPOON: And at night, the rocks would actually glow faintly because it is so hot. It's red hot on the surface, and it would be a very bizarre alien place, not a very comfortable place for you and I to be unless we had a really well designed suit to wear.

O'BRIEN: Alien indeed: Grinspoon thinks there could be acid loving micro living inside those clouds. Maybe NASA is looking in the wrong direction as it searches for signs of alien life. And if you miss the show this time, you're in luck, Venus will walk across the sun again in the year 2012. Talk about a transitory event.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Coming up, some hot new cars on display in a city that can't get enough of them. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: Those high gas prices we're all familiar with have given rise to a rather dangerous scam, gasoline bought with stolen credit cards, pumped in especially modified vehicles then resold at a relatively low price on the street. Police made an arrest in the scam in Florida this week. Leana Vahela reports from CNN affiliate WFOR.

LEANA VAHELA, WFOR (voice-over): After being seized by police these stolen gasoline is pumped out of an old Astro van and a Ram pickup truck both converted into rolling mini pumping stations, an illegal business whose popularity police say goes up in direct proportion to gasoline prices.

SGT. ROBERT BARHAS: We see them all the time. Last year we made approximately 35 arrests with our task force on these types of crimes.

VAHELA: The latest arrest came when a Miami police officer on the Turnpike tried to pull over this van. But police say driver Padro Varonco (ph) didn't want to stop, running the toll and throwing what looked like credit cards out the window. When he finally pulled over, this is what police found inside, a gas tank modified to hold up to 400 gallons of gasoline plus a handful of blank plastic cards which police say are encoded with stolen credit card numbers Varonco (ph) used to buy the gas.

LUPO JIMENEZ: In this case, what you see here is an individual that is purchasing gasoline with stolen credit card information and then is turning around and selling the same gasoline for maybe 50 cents on the dollar. He's actually not paying for the gas out of his pocket so it's all profit.

VAHELA: The driver of this pickup was busted when the owner of a Sweetwater gas station got suspicious. You see the man was pumping $400 worth of gas into a truck that normally holds only 35 gallons.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is an environmental problem, it is hazardous problem. If the truck were to get in an accident. These tanks in here are illegally made, don't meet federal regulation for code, rolling time bomb.

VAHELA: Beside the obvious danger these operations cost the public and the credit card industry millions of dollars each year. And whoever thinks their getting a bargain on gas may be in for a costly surprise.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not worth saving a buck or two. First of all that the gasoline sometimes is cut with other liquids, so you might get an octane that's 63, we've come across that before, so obviously you are going to have vehicle problems and cost you more in the long run.

VAHELA (on camera): Police call these drivers mules who work for bigger operators who then sell the gasoline, usually to truckers of haulers who because they have to buy large quantities of gasoline, can save a lot of money by buying the stolen stuff. SIEBERG: A man in Illinois has come up with a device to make road construction sites safer; it is a remote controlled flagger. To warn traffic of up coming roadwork. The human flagger Rick Hines developed the device after a car almost hit him in a work zone. The device can be operated from up to 25 feet away keeping the operator out of traffic and harm's way. Illinois has ordered 20 units; more are being built for Texas and other states are interested as well.

And carmakers are courting China as the countries biggest auto show, which is going on right now in Beijing. Jaime FlorCruz reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAIME FLORCRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Beijing's Imperial Palace, the grandest setting, perhaps to unveil a dream car and capture the imagination of the most discriminating consumers. But it's not just GM's Cadillac trying to attract the Chinese to buy their models. More than 40 automakers are showing their wears at the 8th car show in Beijing, where participants spend millions of dollars coming up with fancy booths and rolling out new car designs.

MARK SCHULZ: This one is the global day view. Happening right here in Beijing, which is also symbolic of where the Beijing auto show has gotten elevated to and how important the market is. If you think of China as a global auto market, it's really just beginning.

FLORCRUZ: Car executives gush with optimism about the growth potential in spite of analyst concerns of over capacity. Even with increased competition, Volkswagen kept the biggest share of the market last year. As people make more money and car prices come down, more Chinese are trading their bicycles for cars. Still for most Chinese, car ownership remains pie in the sky

Less than 1 percent of China's 1.3 billion populations can afford to get behind the wheel of cars like this. Even so, two of the biggest automakers in China say they can't build enough cars to meet the growing demand.

Almost all the multi-national car companies are now operating joint venture plants in China. Some observers fear car sales could stall now that the Chinese government is trying to slow down the overheated economy, which is growing by more than 9 percent. Carmakers hope China's leaders will not slam on the brakes too hard and that even more Chinese will join the four-wheel revolution.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Coming up in our next half hour, a plant that makes fuel from meet processing waste and reduces more energy than it uses. So why aren't there more of these?

And a baby lion gets some training wheels. Those stories and a lot more coming up after the break. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SIEBERG: Welcome back to NEXT@CNN. Well, Mexican trucking companies will soon be free to send their trucks over U.S. highways after a Supreme Court ruling issued this week. But, critics say the decision not only threatens U.S. jobs, it threatens the air as well. Lisa Sylvester reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Four and half million Mexican trucks cross the border every year. Up until now, the trucks have been forced to stay within 20 miles of the border. The Supreme Courts decision paves the way for Mexican trucks to hit U.S. highways almost immediately. But critics say the Mexican trucks will bring in more than their cargo. They will also haul in toxic pollution.

BILL BECKER, LOCAL AIR POLLUTION CONTROL OFFICIALS ASSN.: The Mexican trucks are dirtier. They emit nitrogen oxides and fine particulate. Fine particulate leads to literally 10s of thousands premature mortality in this country.

SYLVESTER: The North American Free Trade Agreement allow for opened cross-border trade. But safety and environmental lawsuits kept Mexican trucks from carrying goods into the United States. Instead cargo had to be transferred between U.S. and Mexican carriers at the border. The trucking industry applauded the high court's decision, saying it will mean more efficiency, which will translate to lower prices for consumers.

MARTIN ROJAS, AMERICAN TRUCKING ASSOCIATIONS: As much as we have with the Canadian operation, you know, it's an issue of who's more competitive. Let the market decide. And we're willing to take that challenge.

SYLVESTER: But safety watchdog groups worry trucking companies will try to skirt the rules. Allowing drivers to work a full shift in Mexico, cross the border and start the clock all over again in the United States.

JOAN CLAYBROOK, PUBLIC CITIZEN: It may be more efficient for the trucking industry and for those who ship goods. It's going to be a lot more dangerous for the U.S.

SYLVESTER: Then there's the issue of jobs. Critics say allowing Mexican truck drivers to carry cargo in means shipping American jobs out.

(on camera): States including California, Arizona and Illinois have been fighting to keep Mexican trucks out of the country for yet another reason.

They say it will make it more difficult to comply with the Clean Air Act.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SIEBERG: Wouldn't it be great if you could produce something from garbage? The stuff of Science fiction you say? Well, it's fact, a company who's actually doing it in Missouri. Bill Tucker has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What do butchered turkey parts have to do with this oil truck? Everything. The turkeys are where the oil comes from. And that's not all.

P.J. SAMSON, PRESIDENT, RENEWABLE ENVIRONMENTAL SOLUTIONS: We get oil, fuel oil, which is a split between a gas and a diesel fuel, about a No. 2 diesel fuel. We generate a mineral, a fertilizer screen, both in a solid and a liquid stage, and we generate gas that we use in the process to heat.

TUCKER: Sound too good to be true? Well, the plant is real. The products are tangible. From 200 tons of turkey waste this plant can produce roughly 450 barrels of oil a day, which is being sold commercially. Perhaps it's no wonder that the plant is in the show- me state of Missouri. You do have to see it to believe it. As for the plant, it looks a lot like a refinery.

DON SANDERS, PLANT MANAGER: The fuels we make are a lot cleaner. Refinery, basically, they get their crude from the ground, which has a lot more sulfur content and other contaminates in it that we don't have. So we don't have to go through as much clean-up as the refinery would.

TUCKER: The plant also produces more energy than it uses. It puts out 40,000 gallons of clean water while only using 10,000 gallons. The mineral stream it produces can be used in animal feed or as a fertilizer.

The whole process is environmentally clean. And it is not limited to agricultural waste, the technology can process tires as well as plastics as well as other waste into oil.

(on camera): As amazing as this technology is perhaps, even more amazing is that the fuel it produces is not recognized as a bio diesel under the rules written by Congress.

And that means it doesn't qualify for subsidies and it is a technology that is not officially encouraged.

(voice-over): So there are no tax credits, no tax breaks, those are resolved for ethanol producers.

BRIAN APPEL, CEO, CHANGING WORLD TECHNOLOGIES: We like to see some incentives so we can deploy more of the plants quickly and make more meaningful amounts of oil, impacting how we produce our energy.

TUCKER: But as of now, there appear to be no incentives on the horizon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: When we come back, the case of the disappearing lake? Can Arizona's Lake Powell survive the drought?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: OK, it's that time in our program when we dip into our viewer e-mail box and answer one of your questions.

Ann in Sidney, Ohio asks: "During a recent bad storm, our local TV station said cell phone to cell phone use is safe, but they didn't mention that using cordless phones is also safe. Is this true? Land line cordless phones are safe in a thunderstorm?"

All right, when we have a weather related question we turn to our CNN meteorologist. Chad Myers is here to help us out.

Chad, thanks for dropping by NEXT@CNN. What about Ann's question? How safe is it to have a cordless phone in a thunderstorm or lightning storm or cell phone even?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Cell phone, really. A lot of folks have these and cell phones -- cordless phones, too. The National Weather Service says it's Ok to be on a handset that's not attached to the wall. You don't want to have this line attached to the wall.

SIEBERG: That's going to turn you into, like a human lightning rod.

MYERS: You are part of the problem, there's wires in here, wires on your house. A direct strike on your house is going to send thousands of volts in your home, through this. You don't want it to you too, so set that down, pick up your cordless phone, stay a little way away from the base set.

SIEBERG: Bay station, OK.

MYERS: You don't want to be -- you know, because that's electrical, too, that's plugged in. And then you can go ahead and talk.

SIEBERG: Now, other devices, too, people may not have thought about -- you've got one here, head phones, right?

MYERS: I know. If you're on the stereo, or, you know, you're studying whatever, you don't want -- guess what that is? That's a cord -- that's a line, right there. Computers shut them off, you don't want to be touching the keyboard, you don't want to be touching the mouse. I know they're plastic, but there's still wires going through it. SIEBERG: Something to think about if you're on the golf course, too, and you've got a cordless phone out there -- or you've got a cell phone out there? Something to be careful about?

MYERS: Well, that's the hard thing. There's a 30-30 rule that the weather service has. If you hear lightning within 30 seconds of when you see it, it's too close. Get in the golf cart and get inside, that's about six miles away, you hear it 30 seconds away or less, get inside, it's that close.

SIEBERG: Don't pull a Ben Franklin.

MYERS: You really don't want to be out there. We're talking thousands of volts -- 40,000 volts. I mean, it isn't like -- you know, it isn't like plugging in a toaster.

SIEBERG: Kind of a no-brainer.

MYERS: Pretty serious.

SIEBERG: All right, Chad Myers, thanks so much for dropping by. We appreciate it.

MYERS: You're welcome. No problem.

SIEBERG: All right, you can send your questions or comments to e-mail to NEXT@CNN.com. We might even answer your question on the air and we definitely read them all, we really do.

Well, while we're on the topic of weather, lack of ran is continuing to plague the American West, drought is slowly draining Lake Powell, and that's a critical source of water for cities throughout the southwest.

Casey Wian has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As it descends from the Rocky Mountains, the Colorado River runs through Utah widening until it reaches Lake Powell, a 185 mile long man-made reservoir formed in the late 1960s by Glen Canyon Dam.

Today, drought has left Lake Powell more than half empty. Tourism though locals are trying to stay positive.

KITTY ROBERTS, SUPERINTENDENT GLEN CANYON NAT'L RECREATION AREA: The lake level is where it was in early 1970s or in 1970. So, if someone was here in 1970, they may want to come back and see what the lake looks like, but the fishing is great.

WIAN: The National Park Service has spent $5 million moving boating facilities and chasing the receding shoreline.

(on camera): As you can see behind me, Lake Powell, is now more than 100 feet below its maximum level, in fact, it would take between 15 and 20 years of normal precipitation to refill the lake.

(voice-over): Above the lake's north end, you can see where one boat launch ramp used to be, now hundreds of yards from the water. Others are operating in a new marina, officially opened Memorial Day weekend.

GARY SCARAMAZZO, GENERAL MANAGER ANTELOPE POINT MARINA: Down here is the first 80 slips of Antelope Point Marina.

WIAN: A hotel and R.V. park were planned as part of a $75 million joint venture between the Navajo Nation and U.S. government and private developers.

SCARAMAZZO: This area around here has 45 percent unemployment, so that's one of the positive bi-products of this whole marina is providing hundreds of jobs for people.

WIAN: However, if the lake continues to disappear, so will many of those jobs. For now, there's enough water for recreational use.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As long as there's still a way out of this channel, I think you're always going to have people on the lake. It's too nice not to be there.

WIAN: But as a water storage facility for millions of South- western residence, and as a power generating source, Lake Powell could be useless by 2007, if the drought continues.

BENNETT RALEY: The only way to raise the lake level in the middle of a drought would be if you depopulated the West, in the Colorado River basin. That's not going to happen. So, the reality is that we manage the drought, it's serious, but not a crisis.

WIAN: At least not yet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Still ahead, your CDs can deteriorate, even when you take good care of them. We'll look at the problem and what you can do about it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: You might recall the big video game extravaganza E3 was a month ago -- has it been that long? But, you know, it takes the judges that long to sift through the thousands of new products unveiled at the show. Well, they've now decided which games were the winners in various categories. And a drum roll please -- literally.

Nintendo's Dongky Kong Jungle Beat won best original game with its platform built around a drum peripheral. What will they think up next? And Halo 2, the much anticipated game from Microsoft and Bungee Studios won best console game, best action game, and best online multi player game categories.

Ubisoft's Splinter Cell 3, the next chapter in the Tom Clancy series was awarded best PC game.

And finally, the top prize from this year's E3 went to Sony, the PSP or Playstation Portable won top honors in the best peripheral hardware category beating out Nintendo DS and went on to win best of know.

Well, one of the great things about CDs and DVDs is that they last forever, right? Theyr'e pretty durable. Well, no. Digital media can decay in their own way and experts are trying to figure out how to preserve them.

Kathleen Koch has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHELLE YOUKET, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: And you see a mirror image of where the silver paint is on the side and you can see that it's bubbled up on this side, as well.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Damage caused by paint on the CD label or a faulty seal on the edge of the disc.

YOUKET: Allowing air and moisture in so you lose the aluminum by oxidation.

KOCH: Just a few of the weaknesses the Library of Congress has turned up on accelerating aging test on music CDs. They're exposed to high heat and humidity for up to two thousands hours to replicate everyday wear and tear.

YOUKET: We're seeing discs that survive all four soaks and have virtually no errors what so ever and then we're seeing some that come out after 500 hours and can't even be read by the machine.

KOCH: Experts say the oldest CDs seem to be the most vulnerable because CD companies hadn't yet perfected the manufacturing process.

FRED BYERS, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY: Right now this looks pretty good, a PIE of seven, which is very low.

KOCH: But, the quality of new rewritable CDs various greatly, as well. The National Institute of Standards and Technology is testing them for the government, which now stores 80 percent of its data in digital form. Scientists are trying to create a rating system so buyers have a better idea what they're getting when purchasing a CD or DVD.

BYERS: A grading type system that says this disc passed a test and shows it will last at least this amount of years, X-number of years. KOCH: To preserve CDs and DVDs, experts recommend storing them vertically in a cool dry place, handle them only by the edges, don't stick labels on them and don't write on them with anything but a non- toxic marker. Archivers say it's ironic that older analog media, like vinyl records, actually have the greatest longevity.

CARL FLEISCHHAUER. OFFICE OF STRATEGIC INITIATIVES, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: And, it's the most recent additions to that mix, audiocassettes and compact discs, that seem to have the shortest lifespan.

KOCH (on camera): Experts say any data you want to save indefinitely should eventually be transferred to whatever new technology follows optical discs, because even if your CDs or DVDs lasts another 50 years, the technology to play them may not.

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ANNOUNCER: When we come back, we'll go to the Amazon and find one of the world's favorite flavors growing wild, abundant, and renewable in the rain forest.

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DAVID KIRKPATRICK, "FORTUNE" SENIOR EDITOR: We are entering an era of transparencies unlike anything we've ever seen before. With any form of digital communication, whether it's e-mail or web blogs, or instant messaging, it can be saved forever and could be potentially be used against them down the road.

E-mail is a factor in just about every single major scandal we've experienced in the last couple of years. Frank quattrone is an example. The entire case against him was based on one e-mail he wrote that encouraged employees to clear out their files.

Photos that came out of Iraq were transported digitally by e- mail. Just as e-mail led to the indictments of business leaders. The transparency coming into being is positive, it basically empowers individuals over institutions and that's a good thing. I think you are going to see a gradual opening of political processes world-wide because of digital transparency, and I applaud that.

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SIEBERG: A baby lion named angel is getting around with a little help from her friends. I know, she's pretty cute and we couldn't resist. She was born premature and a fused hip socket left her unable to use her back left leg. Caretakers at the GW Exotic Animal Park near Oklahoma City rigged up a sort of walker for her to help her build muscle tone. And, when a local veterinarian heard the story he offered a more sophisticated kitty mobility system, who know they existed? Angel was born a month ago at the park to malnourished lions rescued from a private home. Park officials say she's walking better already and they're trying to raise money for surgery.

Well, logging has destroyed huge tracts of the Amazon Rain Forest, but there are other resources there that can be harvested without causing environmental damage. Harris Whitbeck reports on an ordinary looking rain forest plant that's likely to have a sweet future.

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HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It grows on trees in the Brazilian Amazon. A large, brown, hard-shelled fruit called Cupuacu. So common place, it had been used by local farmers as feed for their animals. But, about 12 years ago, a businessman from the United States took an interest in the fruit after Brazilian researchers discovered it could be used as a substitute for Cacao, the traditional source of chocolate. Jeff Moats first arrived in Brazil as a consultant for the World Bank. Hearing Cupuacu is a genetic cousin to Cacao, he had nutritional analyses done on the fruit and is now quickly turning Cupuacu into one of the hottest comities to come out of the Amazon.

JEFF MOATS, AMAZON ORIGINS INC.: The people who did the research for us in Wisconsin informed us that this was -- you have no idea what you've stumbled upon here. This is like a little diamond in the rough.

WHITBECK: He says research showed that unlike cacao, Cupuacu does not contain stimulants like caffeine or theobromites (PH), making it a healthier alternative to chocolate.

The fruit generated such an interest that it caused an international legal battle for the exclusive rights to market it. Moats says the court fight delayed his efforts to market products made from Cupuacu, but now, his company will use Brazilian Cupuacu to produce chocolate-flavored drinks for children in the U.S. public system early next year.

WHITBECK: Local farmers throughout Amazonia are now harvesting Cupuacu by the ton.

MOATS: He's now making money on seeds that he -- if he didn't have a pig or a cow to feed it to, he threw away. So now the value of this fruit has tripled to him in terms of income.

WHITBECK (on camera): Reaping the Amazon's bounties has its drawbacks. Too much agricultural activity here can put the rainforest at risk. The challenge is in trying to take advantage of everything the Amazon can offer without destroying it.

(voice-over): Because the rainforest's offerings are limitless. MOATS: You know you've got Cupuacu, you've got Camu Camu, you've got Marokusha (PH) you've got all of these fabulous fruits in this region and everyone makes juice from it or ice cream from it. Well, what else can you do with it? Can you extract oils from the skin? Can you do something with the seeds? What else can be done? And that -- with Cupuacu, we discovered you could produce chocolate.

EDUARDO BRAGO, AMAZONIAS GOVERNOR (through translator): This is about establishing a base for sustainable development so that people look at the rainforest not as an impediment to development, but as an element that contributes to it.

WHITBECK: The perception of the rainforest as an economic asset is nothing new. For decades, it has been used as a source of precious woods and has grazing land for cattle, economic practices that have contributed to the destruction of the Amazon at an alarming rate. The equivalent of about seven football fields a minute. But changes in perceptions of the Amazon's resources and ways of exploiting them might just give the Amazon a reprieve.

As for Cupuacu, the tree grows all over Amazonia and if the marketing of its fruit is as successful as its promoters say it will be the rewards from the Cupuacu harvest will be as sweet as the chocolate it produces.

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SIEBERG: All right. That's all the time we have for now. But, here's what's coming up next week: Science takes a cruise. No, it's not a scam to let scientists spend their time playing shuffleboard; it's a new collaboration between ocean researchers and on big cruise line.

That's coming up on NEXT. Until then, let's hear from you, you can send us an e-mail at NEXT@CNN.com and don't next to check out our website that's at CNN.com/NEXT.

Thanks so much for joining us this week. From all of us, I'm Daniel Sieberg, we'll see you next time.

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