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Malibu Wildfires Continue to Burn; Advice on Going Green; U.S. Urges Turkey to Keep Cool after Northern Iraq Attack

Aired October 21, 2007 - 17:00   ET

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

VINCE GONZALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We've had a bad drought here, most of it was brown, but now it's black. This is the footprint of the fire. This is what is left behind as the fire hop-scotched its well ahead of the main body of the fire thanks to those flying embers and burned up the hillsides, burned up some homes and even a church. And at the top of one of these hills, I think you can see it, is the home we've been referring to all day, the castle that was used for charity events. It is burning still at this point.
Just a few moments ago, we saw flames shooting out of the windows of that building and we've seen fire crews moving to that area hoping to get a handle on that because what they don't want is a house fire to turn into a small blaze that can throw more embers out into this dry area and cause an even bigger fire to occur.

And the big problem right now, the big focus of attention is what you see here, this large smoke cloud burning in the ridges above Malibu. This is directly east of the main part of Malibu and right now it's up in there, the winds have not been blowing as hard, so the smoke is actually rising up into the sky which believe it or not is a good thing. It means the embers are not being pushed directly towards downtown Malibu.

The fear is that when these Santa Anas start strengthening later tonight at dusk, they will begin pushing those embers again toward the homes and some people may remember when a famous actress lost her home, Suzanne Summers in January. That was from an ember thrown actually by a very small fire by California standards, went all the way down almost to the water and burned her home to the ground. We've seen that happen this morning with another house and they're worried those Santa Anas pick up, and those fires in the canyons above Malibu, we could see the same situation develop.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah. Pretty remarkable stuff. And Vince, we spoke to one of the residents of that castle that you mentioned a while ago, which is still burning and seems like it is destroyed altogether. And he says the homeowner, Lily Lawrence and he were actually in the house at the time of the fire. The good thing is firefighters came just in the nick of time, were able to rescue them. Really incredible story and we hope that of all the other structures, folks were not in those homes and businesses when they burned. Vince Gonzalez, we'll check back with you. Thank you.

Meantime, let's check in with Bonnie Schneider and talk a little bit more about the wind, the potential for it to get worse actually and then Josh Levs is there as well keeping a close watch on all the developments.

Hello to both of you.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hello, Fredricka. Josh, one of the things we're looking at is Google Earth. I'm going to show folks where those fires are. And then we're going to come to you and talk about some of the I-Reports.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. We've got some really hot pictures coming in. Some hot video. I want you all to see the photos from the scene. But first, we want you to see exactly where it's taking place. Bonnie, you take us through that.

SCHNEIDER: Absolutely.

Well, Josh, you are looking at an area of Google Earth zoomed into Malibu. I wanted to show you the fires are burning almost in a u shape around Malibu and we've been talking a lot about the Malibu Colony where the celebrities have homes. That's down through here. You can see this are here. This area in green highlighted. That's the Malibu colony. Pepperdine University is over here and the fires are burning in and around Malibu Canyon Road which is this curvy road you see through here and of course Malibu Road is right on the coastline, the Pacific Coast Highway is the area where we have had shutdowns and evacuations, in and around this region because the fires have jumped ahead and kind of come down the mountain and popped up in and around this region between Pepperdine University and areas in and around Malibu.

So that's an idea of what it looks like right now from Google Earth, from the perspective there. I want to show you some of the wind threat areas that we're looking at for this region as we go into the next couple of days. Because the high wind warnings we are expecting to continue straight through Monday and it may actually get worse before it gets better.

We won't see a reduction in humidity in terms of a little bit more moisture in the air until Tuesday. So this was going to be a prolonged event. Currently sustained winds are coming in out of the northeast at about 37 miles per hour. When you have these strong Santa Ana winds coming down the mountain, what happens is a couple different things. They pick up speed and they also dry the air out and warm and compress as they come down the mountain. A very strong ridge of high pressure in the great basin contrasting with low pressure along the coast.

And when you have such a contrast of high pressure here, actually over colder temperatures in the desert, and the air comes down the mountain, it actually heats at a rate of 29 degrees per mile. So it rapidly heats. The winds rush down, almost at hurricane force at times. We've had reports of wind gusts of 80 miles per hour around 3:00 this morning.

So the winds increase and they become very, very warm and dry and we're also looking at the heat building for this region. In fact, Josh, if you join me now, you can see that Los Angeles will actually climb up to 90 degrees on Monday. So heat is another factor.

LEVS: Right. It's another factor. And I'm hearing you say a lot of what we're also hearing from the authorities in California, which is that you have got these really powerful winds, which we want to remind people it means it can carry embers, right not just fan the flames. Those winds can carry embers to one area and start a whole new fire where there wasn't even a fire before, right?

SCHNEIDER: That's right and it's been such a dry season, so the area is ripe for that to occur.

LEVS: All right. Well, we're getting some photos today. I wanted to show you all right now what kind of photos that we're getting in that really show you the power of this fire.

Let me start of with this one. As you can imagine, students at Pepperdine University have some of the most powerful photos that we're seeing today. Take a look at this. It is a wall of fire.

And I just want to jump out of the way for a second so you all can absorb what we're seeing here. This was taken by a student named Kevin Park. He sent it in through our I-Report system at cnn.com. You can feel when you see a photo like that, it is a wall of fire with fireballs, which is what you hear, that kind of image when a fire is spreading quickly.

Let's move on to the next one now. This was taken by Jordan Pang inside a dorm room looking out the window of a dorm room. Jordan was able to see this. So you can imagine how it felt for a lot of the students that were right there.

Now I'll tell you, throughout the day, we have been able to show you a lot of photos of the fire. Here's what we haven't really seen a lot of yet. That's what people are doing during the fire. There are individuals that need to go somewhere, do something about that.

I am going to step away again so you can see what we've been seeing. Now, from Thor Anderson, another student who was there and this apparently was at the on campus cafe. What happened to day was authorities went to every single dorm room and made sure it was empty. They went to every building, they looked throughout the buildings. They sent all the students -- we've got one more. All the students to gather in one area. They gave them these.

I want to emphasize, we are being told by authorities there they do not believe the students are in any kind of danger right now. But they are really concerned about that and they are really concerned about making sure the students are in a safe place. So what we have got right now are lots of photos coming in. Fred, I'm going to be joining you again in about half hour. What we're going to do then is take a look at some pictures that actually are not from Pepperdine but are from other areas in this Malibu fire as it scorches now more than a thousand acres, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Wow, It is remarkable. And as if the Malibu area fires is not enough, we told you about the San Diego area dealing with wildfires. And now I've got another location, this north of Malibu. Still in Los Angeles County.

But this is in Castaic and we understand 1,500 acres have been charred. We don't know anything about structures now or exactly what the makeup of this area on fire is. Just looking at the pictures, it looks fairly rural. It looks like perhaps it's mostly just brush, but nonetheless dangerous and we don't know if these embers from Malibu could have been carried this far north to Castaic, California. But we wanted to bring you the latest pictures there that Southern California is in trouble. It's very, very dry and we're dealing with these nasty fires now too.

Captain Henry Rodriguez kept us pretty up to date a little while ago in the last hour. He's joining us again now. And so, captain, give me an idea what your biggest obstacle is, now that we're looking at all these fires that have been sparked in various parts of Southern California, I wonder how concerned you are about what's next.

CAPTAIN HENRY RODRIGUEZ, LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE: Well, obviously we're concerned about all the fires we are getting. We have a lot of land out there and obviously you see a lot of fires that are starting throughout the L.A. county area. So one of the big concerns is make sure we get enough resources to handle these fires. Obviously, the main ones that we're going to concentrate our efforts on are going to be where structures are being threatened. So that's where we're going to be working.

WHITFIELD: And tell me how you do that. I know earlier you explained how you try and prepare or address certain structures that look like they're probably in the line of fire. But how do you do that? And at the same time keep your own folks safe?

RODRIDGUEZ: Well, it's a process. It's all part of our training. Our firemen go out there, we look at the area stuff and then we systematically look at the way everything is laid out, the properties, the land.

WHITFIELD: How do you make the decision as to what houses are even worth to save because of the impeding risk to your own firefighters?

RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely. We definitely don't want anybody getting injured or killed, so we're going to go out there and we're going to do the best we can to take care of every building we can. And we also look at the fire behaviors so we can look at the way the fire is, what it's doing now, how it's behaving and kind of get an idea of the path it's taking. And that's things that we look at.

WHITFIELD: I think some of the recent numbers you gave me last hour, what, more than 20 structures have been damaged or destroyed. Is the number higher since last we spoke now?

RODRIGUEZ: It's still about right around 23 buildings. So I haven't had anymore updates. So I don't have anymore information for you on that. But we get it as quick as we can.

WHITFIELD: And all day long we've been talking about how the winds, how these hurricane-force like wind gusts are really causing a big problem. Not just because they're fanning the flames but also because it's putting the choppers and the fixed wing aircraft in peril too, right?

RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. The wind-driven fires are the ones that are very difficult for us.

A lot of obstacles that we have to overcome, especially with our aircraft. My hat's off to every one of our pilots. We look at the risks they have to take and they do the best they can to try to stop this fire and keep anymore structures from burning. So that's a coordinated attack. We've got ground crews, helicopters, we've got the fixed winged aircraft that are working. There's a lot of effort being put into these fires right now.

WHITFIELD: We believe that and we can see that. It's very apparent indeed. Captain Henry Rodriguez, thanks so much, of L.A. County Fire. Be safe.

We're going to continue to update you on these wildfires taking place in southern California. This the latest images out of Malibu. But now we here in Castaic, California, just north of Malibu and even in the San Diego area, too. We're gong to keep tabs on all of that.

Meantime, when we come back, we're going to talk politics and politics on the state level. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Beaten in 2003, Congressman Bobby Jindal handily wins the Louisiana governorship this time around.

And battered and bruised but alive. Thanks to some passing Boy Scouts. A hiker's rescue straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We want to keep you updated on this situation. This is the scene in Malibu, California. Homes, barns, structures of all kinds, and cars all burning there. And it doesn't matter what part of Malibu because you see the Santa Ana winds are shifting the winds and they're shifting the flying embers in so many different directions that just about any structure, anything in the line of site of these embers is in danger of actually catching fire and that's exactly what is happening there in Malibu.

So far more than a thousand acres are burning and we understand at least 23 structures have been damaged or destroyed. You look at that picture right there and see how fast-moving these flames are. We're gong to keep you posted on what's happening there in Southern California. A very dry Southern California.

And now to the storm of politics. Republican presidential hopefuls face off in Orlando, Florida tonight. Eight candidates are still in the running, including former Tennessee senator and actor Fred Thompson. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. And former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Ahead of tonight's debates, some of the candidates met today with Florida GOP activists and the Florida Governor Charlie Crist. And so- called values voters want to make sure they're a force in this year's Republican race. In a weekend straw poll of those mostly Christian conservatives, Mitt Romney won nearly 28 percent of the vote. But Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee was just a smidge behind with 27 percent and Ron Paul was third with 15 percent and Fred Thompson came in fourth with 10 percent.

And in Louisiana, the second time is the charm for Bobby Jindal. Four years after losing the Louisiana governor's race to Kathleen Blanco, the 36-year-old son of Indian immigrants won this time and it wasn't even close. Jindal got 53 percent of the vote. His next closest competitor only came up with 18 percent. And when he's sworn in next January, he'll become the youngest governor in America.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOBBY JINDAL, LOUISIANA GOVERNOR ELECTED: My mom and dad came to this country in pursuit of the American dream. And guess what happened? They found the American dream to be alive and well right here in Louisiana.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Well, Bobby Jindal is now joining me now by phone. Congratulations on a big win. Governor elect, how does it sound, how does it feel?

JINDAL: Thank you very much. It's incredibly humbling as well as gratifying. Let me tell you, Fred, this is a new day in Louisiana. We've got a history we're putting behind us. The new business climate, we've declared war on corruption. We're not just going to rebuild after the storms, we're going to come back better than we were before. It's an exciting time for the entire state.

WHITFIELD: Wow, so you mentioned the storms. Do you feel like this was in part kind of a post Katrina message that voters were sending?

JINDAL: I think voters are tired, even before the storms, Louisiana has had a history of challenges. We lose 30,000 people a year out of our state because of a lack of economic opportunity. We were ranked one of the most corrupt states among our elected leaders this past week. I think what the voters are saying is we're a better state than that. We're not a poor state, we've had poor leadership. They're ready for change, they're ready for accountability, they're ready for excellence and leadership.

And so I think that just rebuilding to what we had before the storm is not enough. Even before Katrina and Rita, we had problems with housing and crime and education and health care. This is a great state. We've got five of the nation's busiest ports, 30 percent are fisheries, 30 percent are oil and gas revenues and resources.

It's a great state to call home. I was born and raised here. All my kids have been born here. All my grandchildren have been born here. My message to everybody across America is that it's a new day in Louisiana. Come and visit, come and visit, come and do business there. Think about opening a business, think about moving down there. It's just - it's an exciting time. People know that we've got a great, great future ahead of us.

WHITFIELD: Well, you convinced me. Definitely sounds like it's a new day. You have made history on quite a few levels here. You're not a white male and you're just 36. So what does this mean for you personally?

JINDAL: Well, you played that little clip. My dad is one of nine kids, the only one that went to high school. My parents came to Louisiana when my mom was pregnant with me so that she could go to school, so that he could get a job. They were pursuing the American dream.

To me they're the greatest example in my life of working hard, playing by the rules, getting an education and just knowing that if you do those things, there's no limit on what you can accomplish. They caught the American dream right here in Louisiana.

I want to make sure my kids and all of our kids can do the same thing. To me they're my heroes, a great example of the opportunities we're blessed with in this country every day. I want to make sure all of our kids have that opportunity to realize their potential. It's the greatest gift we can give, it's greater than an inheritance or fancy tie or a famous last game, the greatest gift is that hope and opportunity.

If you work hard, you get an education, play by the rules, there's no limit on what you can accomplish in Louisiana and America. We've got to make that dream a reality for all of our children.

WHITFIELD: All right. Governor elect of Louisiana Bobby Jindal, thanks so much, swearing in, in January. You have got a few months to get used to that title, governor. It must feel good.

JINDAL: Thank you very much. All right everybody. Give Louisiana a second chance.

WHITFIELD: All right. And thanks so much for being with us.

Meantime, we're going to talk about a little overseas news too. Now more on that mystery in Syria. Today the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Congressman Peter Hoekstra, called on the White House to come clean about last month's Israeli air strikes into northern Syria. More now from White House correspondent Elaine Quijano.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was the one topic President Bush would not discuss in his latest news conference.

GEORGE W. BUSH, U.S. PRESIDENT: I'm not going to comment on the subject that you're trying to get me to comment on.

QUIJANO: But the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee says the Bush administration's silence about an Israeli air strike against Syria last month is deafening.

PETER HOEKSTRA, (R) NY: I think the American people should know what is going on.

QUIJANO: On September 6, an Israeli air strike hit a military target inside Syria. Published reports have indicated that target was a nuclear facility being built with the help of North Korea. CNN has not independently verified those reports.

Congressman Pete Hoekstra and fellow Republican Representative Ileana Ross-Leitenen have been briefed. But they say the administration has ignored numerous letters from congress asking that all members be briefed. In a weekend "Wall Street Journal" piece, they accuse the administration of selectively leaking parts of the story, saying that, "failing to disclose the details of this incident to the legislative branch, preventing due diligence and oversight, but talking to the press about it is not the way to win support for complex and difficult diplomatic efforts to combat proliferation by rogue nations."

HOEKSTRA: A number of countries that may be on our radar screen, Iran, North Korea, other countries, we should know what their role in this activity or what was going on in Syria.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUIJANO (on camera): Now, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino tells CNN the White House did not authorize any leaks and insists nothing could make that more clear than the president twice declining to comment on the issue when asked by the media. Based on that, Perino said the White House would also decline to comment on Congressman Hoekstra's remarks. Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: All right, White House correspondent Elaine Quijano. Thanks so much from Washington. Meantime, we want you to still pay attention to what's taking place out west where these fires are burning in Southern California.

But first in a moment, the vice president talking tough on Iran. During a speech today in Virginia, Cheney accused Iran of blatantly pursuing a nuclear weapons program and said the regime is "practicing delay and deceit in an obvious effort to buy time." Then he delivered this warning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD CHENEY, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: The Iranian regime needs to know that if it stays on its present course, the international community is prepared to impose serious consequences. The United States joins other nations in sending a clear message, we will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. WHITFIELD: The vice president didn't specify what those consequences would be and he did not make any reference to military action against Iran.

And now a look at these pictures coming in. Yes, those are horses on the run because the fires are threatening them and everything else. Southern California, this blaze in Malibu already more than a thousand acres burned. Much more is being threatened. We'll have much more from Southern California right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: In other news across America now, a charter fishing boat helped rescue one of two survivors of a deadly collision in New York Harbor. Two people were killed when a barge ran over their yacht. The yacht apparently tried to pass between the barge and the tugboat that it was towing.

Talk about close call, after 19 hours in the water, a mile off Hawaii clinging to a container for dear life, a 49-year-old woman, this one, was spotted and rescued by a passing fishing boat. Lillian Simpson (ph) had been canoeing when strong winds simply flipped over her boat.

She suffered dehydration and sunburn during the ordeal but she's already been treated and released from the hospital. Lucky lady.

And in Pennsylvania, a Boy Scout troops jump into action when they came across a bleeding, disoriented hiker. Jane Shoal (ph) had fallen over a small cliff and she couldn't walk. So the scouts made a stretcher out of sticks and carried her three miles to a rescue chopper. Extraordinary. Shoal cut her eye and had a concussion, but she'll be OK. Pretty darn lucky there, too.

Threatening businesses and pricy real estate in and around Malibu, California. Hundreds of homes and businesses evacuated in the Malibu Hills and along the scenic Pacific Coast Highway. And look at those houses in the path of that nasty fire. We'll have the latest for you straight ahead in THE NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: We have the latest on the wildfires burning in the Malibu Hills right now, at least 1,000 acres. Several homes, businesses, a church and landmark castle, which is someone's home, have burned. Hundreds of firefighters are working to protect Pepperdine University as well. Students there had been ordered to leave their dorm rooms and move to buildings further from the flames.

The winds are expected to become even rougher as the day wears on. Some gusts are reported up to 70 miles an hour. They're hampering firefighters as well. Erratic gusts are keeping some of the water dropped by tanker planes from actually hitting the intended target, let alone making it very difficult for those in flight. Hundreds of homes have been evacuated, including some celebrity homes. Keeping a close watch on all of this from the weather front as well as getting images from what a lot of folks there are experiencing.

Josh Levs as well as Bonnie Schneider in the Weather Center.

Let's begin with you, Bonnie.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I want to talk about the wind threat because, Josh, I know you have some great I-reports coming up.

JOSH LEVS, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Right. A lot of people, in a safe way, as they avoid these flames, are taking some pictures. So she's going to show you where this is happening and I'll come back and show you some photos.

SCHNEIDER: The wind threat continues not just today, but we're expecting the Santa Ana event to go straight through Tuesday. Wednesday, the winds start to relax. So a high-wind warning is in effect for all the regions you see highlighted in orange.

And the current winds right now have not slowed down. If anything, they've intensified. Now we have winds at 36 miles per hour. Notice the direction. They're all coming from the northeast. That is bad news. Because what that means is we have the perfect, unfortunately, Santa Ana set-up, with high pressure very strong in the great basin and the winds are blowing from the high pressure to the low on the coast. So they're blowing down the mountain and coming in fast and furious, hot and dry. Imagine a giant hairdryer blowing hot and dry air. So we're getting that rush of wind, what's happening is the wind is heating the vegetation and the ground below from the drought. So that's why, Josh, we're seeing such dry conditions.

We can show you on Google Earth, this road right here, this is Malibu, and you have an I-report from a 7-year-old.

LEVS: This is great. We've got Bonnie right here. Before I showed you the first photo, I wanted to give you a general sense of where it is. It is in this area right here.

SCHNEIDER: That's right. Canyon Dune Road is right there.

LEVS: Right near Canyon Dune Road. I'm going to show you the first photo, which was taken between Malibu Canyon and Canyon Dune Road. This comes from a 7-year-old. Tim Lewis, a 7-year-old -- his mother obviously approved for us to take this picture. He said he was taking this from his own backyard and share this with us. This is how close it was coming to people's homes before they evacuated.

I want to show you another photo from Malibu. This was taken by Greg Paul. Look at this. This was taken on a cell phone as it was approaching him. As he was talking to us, his line disconnected. That's how powerful this storm was. A lot of people experiencing that kind of trouble today. A couple more photos now from Pepperdine University. We have some amazing images coming in from there. I want you to see how powerful these are. Look at this here. From Kevin Park, he -- this was not immediately on campus. What he did was is he walked outside the campus, across the street and up a hill. But look at that, you can feel the power of that smoke. You can't see anything.

One final picture right here before we go. And that is from Kelly Sayer. This was taken from on campus. And look at that wall of fire that's filling the sky.

Fred, we're getting so many photos like this. There's more on cnn.com. And we'll come back later on to show you more.

WHIT: That last image.

LEVS: Look at that.

WHIT: The flames are so close to that structure.

LEVS: It's amazing.

WHIT: You feel almost certain that whoever is taking that picture is in danger. But we're glad to hear that most of our I- reports are not putting themselves in danger.

LEVS: And we're going to emphasize that. Do not ever put yourself in danger. We talk to people, find out what they did. We take a lot of steps to make sure people are not putting themselves in danger to get a photo on CNN.

WHIT: Thanks so much, Josh.

Vince Gonzalez is there in Malibu on the ground. He knows about that threat directly. He's felt the wind. He's had his eyes covered because of the smoke and debris flying throughout.

And are you there on the Pacific Coast highway, which has been closed as a result of the fire?

VINCE GONZALEZ, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: (Inaudible).

WHIT: Vince, can you hear me now?

GONZALEZ: I'm sorry, no. I couldn't hear you there for a second. We are on the Pacific Coast highway. We've got the fire moving really close (inaudible). Let's go right to this. Look at this sky. (Inaudible). The fire is still burning its way through the canyons and coming right down to the coast (inaudible). Just a few moments ago, a helicopter went over (inaudible), trying to get this fire out before it hits these homes and small hotels along (inaudible)... several different fires (inaudible) right above (inaudible)...

WHIT: We have to apologize, folks, because the audio is really bad and I'm straining to listen to Vince and I know you are too. We're going to try to reestablish his audio, because tremendous pictures there right on the Pacific Coast highway, which is closed. When you see how close he is to the flames, where those flames are encroaching on a lot of homes and businesses too. We'll try to reestablish that signal to keep you updated.

Meantime, let's shift gears a little bit. Quite a bit. We'll talk about the environment. Just in case you haven't noticed yet, but you see right here on the screen this green CNN logo. Well, it's something a little different that we've been doing because CNN is going green, has been going green for the past few days. We want to let you know about "Planet in Peril." That is to air Tuesday and Wednesday. It's to give you and everybody else an idea of exactly what environmentally this country and the world, as a matter of fact, are going through. Tony Harris is going to be telling us all about that, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHIT: We want to update you what's taking place in southern California. But for a moment we're going to depart. You may have noticed something different on the bottom of your screen today. The CNN logo has turned green and that's because CNN is going green over the next week. We're digging deeper on environmental issues, covering stories that affect all of us, from the air we breathe to the fuel we use.

It coincides with the premiere of "Planet in Peril." A special report from Anderson Cooper, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and "Animal Planet's" Jeff Corwin. That's next Tuesday and Wednesday, 9:00 p.m. eastern only on CNN.

And just a few days away now from that premiere, Anderson Cooper, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Jeff Corwin are teaming up to explore the world's environmental issues. One thing they learned along the way is that some of the biggest threats to the planet are coming from places you would never expect.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You're looking at one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world, the Amazon rainforest. How is that possible? How is it that a forest, covering nine countries, home to 250 indigenous tribes, holding one quarter of the world's species, can be a major contributor to climate change?

Because it is, quite simply, under assault.

The carbon naturally stored in trees is released when they're cut down. They're being cut down at a breath-taking rate.

These are the men bent on stopping that. Their agents with ABOMA (ph), the Brazilian government's environmental protection agency.

This mission, in the report corner of Brazil has been in the works for over a year. The agents are heavily armed and heavily outnumbered. Their job is daunting, something you can only appreciate from the air.

(on camera): It's amazing. You really get a sense from the air of just how enormous it is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's incredible. It's so expansive. Just in the Amazon basin alone, it's 2.7 million scare miles of habitat. And roughly 70 percent of that is right here in this extraordinary country, in the country of Brazil.

COOPER: 2.7 square miles, that's a little smaller than the continental United States.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly.

COOPER: It's huge.

(voice-over): All of that is in jeopardy.

(on camera): It's so disturbing to see.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just absolute utter devastation and destruction.

COOPER: Twenty percent of the jungle has been lost in the past 40 years.

(on camera): Once you get out to these remote areas, you can do about everything and there's very few people watching over you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These regions, when you're away from the infrastructure, can be pretty lawless. Basically, anything goes.

COOPER (voice-over): Anything goes. And the ABOMA (ph) agents know that. It doesn't take long for them to pick up one of the illegal roads made by poachers. There's no telling what's around each corner.

In the distance, the agents spot something suspicious. The truck slows and guns are drawn.

(on camera): They just found a truck with some people who struck out.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHIT: "Planet in Peril" Tuesday and Wednesday night, 9:00 p.m.

Perhaps you want to take action to protect the environment. Perhaps this series helps inspires that, but you're not sure how to do it. You're not alone, which is why we've called upon the founder of treehugger.com, Graham Hill, to help us cut through it all and figure out how to go green.

Because, Graham, a lot of folks say they want to go green but they're not sure where to begin. You look at that piece and we're talking about the jungles being stripped of that and people say I'm going to go paperless or no longer demand wood furniture as a start. Be realistic with us.

GRAHAM HILL, FOUNDER, TREEHUGGER.COM: There are many, many things you can do. And certainly that could be some of the stuff you can look at. Treehugger.com, planetclean.com, both have thousands of things that you can do. If you want to get so some simple ones, look at your own home. Simple things like a sweater, a T-shirt, these are things that you have. Your thermostat has a big effect on global warming. So if you layer up or layer down accordingly, you'll have a huge effect.

WHIT: Sometimes it doesn't mean going out and spending money on energy efficient appliances, things like that, tools a lot of people are being encouraged which always have a bigger price tag but may discourage a lot of people, too.

HILL: Absolutely. There's simple stuff. I would look also at transportation. Anything that you can do to drive less is a big thing. So the bicycle is a great example. One of the most efficient ways of moving yourself around and saves you money and gets you food at the same time. You can't bike, fine, so look at doing ride sharing, car pooling, or at least plan your trips and get a number of errands in at the same time. Very simple things. Public transportation is a great way to start.

WHIT: In our series, "Planet in Peril," a lot is being focused on the repercussions of things not being done well. So as an environmentalist, do you look at anything in particular and say, OK, this is an example of what is going right? Where are you encouraged?

HILL: Well, I'm very encouraged. I think you can tell by the media that a lot of people are thinking about this stuff. It's starting to be something that matters. If you look at the back in the '70s, it was common to drive along the road and people were throwing stuff out of the windows. That was fine. Through a series of fines, PSAs, et cetera, that's changed. We look at the world in a different way. And so really it's a matter of us evolving. We shouldn't beat ourselves up. We need to learn to live on the earth in a different way and we can do that.

So it's a matter of us learning to determine what's appropriate and what's not. That's our social currency will have a big difference and something we try to do with plant green and tree hugger.

WHIT: Graham Hill, thanks so much, of treehugger.com. And that's the web site.

HILL: Thank you very much.

WHIT: Tony Harris straight ahead with much more in the "NEWSROOM". We're looking forward to "Planet in Peril."

TONY HARRIS, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: That's Tuesday, Wednesday. I am looking forward to that. WHIT: It is extraordinary.

HARRIS: Yeah. So we're going to talk about that throughout the evening here in the "NEWSROOM". But at 7:00 tonight, we're back at 7:00 tonight. I got to remember the schedule here.

A lot of political news this weekend. Let me check myself here because I've been trying to say the name of this summit -- the Value Voters summit. We're going to talk to our bloggers and try to find out whether Christian conservatives in this country have found a candidate to coalesce around. The answer so far seems to be no, but we'll take up that topic.

And also at 7:00 and again at 10:00 tonight, Fred, you and Vince Gonzalez doing a wonderful work on covering the fires out there.

WHIT: He's doing extraordinary job, yes.

HARRIS: Great questions from you. So we're going to continue to throw all kinds of resources at that story tonight and we will bring you every bit of breaking news. Every development as it pertains to that fire out there in Malibu. I've been on that hill at Pepperdine.

WHIT: Me, as well. I've been there on non-fire days and it's a beautiful campus. So to see this going on, oh, boy.

HARRIS: It's really tough. So we'll cover that story in great detail tonight at 7:00 and again at 10:00 right here.

WHIT: And at the same time, I think our folks had a little fun with you last night, didn't they, on going green. Because you really did go green. What's that all about?

HARRIS: Oh, this moment. How did I know that this moment would repeat itself again? I had a little problem, and you were great at this, in finding the green logo. I had problems. They decided to make it easy for me. And here we go.

WHIT: Oh, my goodness.

HARRIS: The big green head here. So someone told me I was the Grinch and I thought maybe I was the Hulk. No, just green.

WHIT: Green with envy. Which ever one you like. Well, glad we had a little fun. At your expense.

HARRIS: At my experience.

WHIT: Thanks so much. We'll check back with you.

HARRIS: Who's laughing now? OK.

WHIT: We know you're following the southern California fires extensively.

And we want to go back to our Vince Gonzalez, who is there right on the PCH, the Pacific Coast highway, which is closed. We had audio problems before.

Vince, what's happening now?

GONZALEZ: Right now, water dropping helicopters are hitting this fire. A moment ago, you couldn't see the sun. They've been hitting this fire at least five or six times in the last ten minutes. The helicopters are coming right down to the coast road. And there's a series of small apartment buildings, little hotels and some very expensive homes on the water and they're trying to protect those. The blazes now just over this ridge from the Pacific Coast highway. And right now, there's a little flare-up trying to make its way down the coastline. They've had trucks with hoses on it. We've counted probably 25 engines just along this quarter mile stretch of the PCH that have been taking part in this effort. And we have the water- dropping helicopters which have been coming in one right after the other to hit this fire.

As I'm looking out, I can see they're blocking more of the PCH, trying to get the fire crews in position. They've been cutting the locks off of properties, going into to buildings if people did not leave them unlocked, they're making their own way in to protect those structures.

Just a moment ago, I saw a man -- perhaps if we can swing around we'll show you -- saw a man who is spraying the roof of a very expensive home with fire retardant material while someone else sprays the trees with water. I believe this is an attempt to try to protect it as the fire gets closer. If you have a multimillion dollar home, I imagine you're going to take steps just like this to try and prevent the embers from setting your house ablaze.

If we turn back to the actual fire here, it's coming over the ridge and we keep hearing those helicopters coming in. We have one at the top of the live shot. They've been coming in every couple of minutes to hit this fire. The crews doing their best to make sure it doesn't get down to the water. Here comes one now, coming in and right on top of the fire. That's the kind of pin point precision we've seen with these water drops where they've been able to stop this fire at the coast highway and prevent it from getting down in the trees and landscaping people have around their houses, and hopefully from getting down into the homes. Right now the winds are working with the firefighters. They've died quite a bit.

But the fear is again that at dusk, those Santa Ana winds will kick up and with the fires so close to the Pacific Coast highway, we could easily see some of these structures in danger well into the night -- Fredricka?

WHIT: Vince, these pilots and fire crews on the ground are amazing, the kind of precision they're operating with, even with this wind kicking up and interfering with so much.

Vince Gonzalez, thanks for that report from the Pacific Coast highway, closed because of what you're seeing right behind him. We'll have more a little bit later. Also straight ahead, some international news. Kurdish rebels killed scores of Turkish troops near the border with Iraq. Will, Turkey heed Washington's call for restraint? A live report straight ahead in the "NEWSROOM".

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WHIT: So the U.S. is urging Turkey to keep its cool after an attack in northern Iraq. Kurdish rebels, called the PKK, attacked Turkish troops near the border with Iraq, killing at least 17 soldiers. The military then attacked PKK rebels in southern Turkey, killing at least 32 rebels.

Journalist Andrew Finkel is following these developments. He joins me now from Istanbul.

Andrew, a threatened incursion by Turkey into that northern Iraq border, how much will this further muddy the waters there?

ANDREW FINKEL, JOURNALIST: Turkey is under great pressure from its own public opinion to go across the border into northern Iraq. Now, the United States is very much against this. It feels it will complicate their effort there to maintain stability in Iraq. The Iraqi Kurds don't want this either. So basically America's putting pressure on them for some time to do something about the rebels operating out of northern Iraqi soil. If they were to go in, then the results would be unpredictable, Fredricka.

WHIT: It's an interesting juxtaposition. Because at the start of the Iraq war, it was the U.S. asking Turkey to use its border to cross into northern Iraq. Turkey, afraid of, I guess, bristling its Muslim brothers, was saying no we don't want that to happen. Now, here we have the flipside of that scenario. So how have they been able to remain good relations with the only Muslim NATO neighbor?

FINKEL: It's been doing a mediocre job I have to say. Condoleezza Rice did actually telephone the Turkish prime minister today. She said give us a few more days, we want to deal with this problem. What Turkey is expecting from the United States is to force the expulsion of the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers Party, from northern Iraq, and not to expel the whole, at it were, all the men under arms, at least to do something about their leadership.

Turkey, as you say, was not in favor of the war in Iraq. It balked at allows American troops to get in. And the reason of course was they feared the situation, which we have today --Fredricka.

WHIT: Andrew Finkel, thanks so much for that update out of Istanbul.

We'll have much more in the "NEWSROOM" and throughout CNN right after this.

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