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Oil Collected by Riser Cap; Inside the Oil 'Nerve Center'; 49 Tricks That Teach
Aired June 09, 2010 - 13:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Let me bring you up to speed with what we have on this. A new hour, a new "Rundown."
It's day 51 of the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. We're going to show you the pain that it's inflicting on humans and on animals. We'll hear from survivors of the oil rig blast, and we've got a spoonbill pelican and a gator in the studio right now.
Plus, CNN has got some incredible access in the frontlines in the fight to end this disaster. Kyra Phillips is back from her tour of the Gulf. She took a tour of the command center, she's going to tell us all about it.
And a deadly cross-border shooting along the U.S.-Mexico line. On one end, U.S. agents, on the other a 14-year-old boy. I'll bring you that shortly.
First, let's tell you about what's going on with the oil spill and the efforts to contain it right now. That top cap, top hat that is trying to capture that oil, siphon it up to a ship on the surface, that is still working. Let me give you a sense of -- these are some pictures that we've got now.
I'm going to in a moment talk to Josh Levs. He's going to explain to us how the pictures have changed. You're going to be seeing different pictures because now we have high-definition footage. But it's not live because you can't actually stream that.
Let me tell you about what we do know about how much oil has been collected, notwithstanding the fact that a lot of it seems to be going out into the ocean right now.
That was day one, June 4th, when they put the top hat on for the first time. They collected about 6,000 barrels.
There were vents that were open. They didn't want to close them for fear that the hood would just be blown off by the pressure of the oil.
They then closed one vent. Every day, the amount of oil collected has been increasing.
Take a look. On day two, 10,495 barrels; day three, June 6th, 11,100 barrels; day four, 14,840; and finally, now, yesterday, June 8th, 15,006 barrels. There are some congressional panels today. Actually, there are five congressional hearings on various aspects of the spill, but I want you to listen to one particular statement from an environmental law professor at LSU, Louisiana State University, who is urging the lifting of the 750 -- I'm sorry, the $75 million liability cap that an oil company faces if they're responsible for a spill.
I should tell you, BP has already said that it will pay all legitimate claims, so the cap may not apply to them. But there is this cap under law, and this is one professor's response to that cap. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PROF. KENNETH MURCHISON, ENVIRONMENTAL LAW, LSU: My comments to this point reflect my views as an environmental law professor whose career is near its end and its beginning. But I'm also a citizen of Louisiana with deep roots in the state.
I think I'm like most Louisianans in my reaction to the catastrophe unfolding in the Gulf. We are dismayed by the horrific damages, one of the richest ecosystems in the world, but we are now primarily concerned with fixing blame, and we are emphatically not looking for handouts. We are interested in receiving fair compensation for the tremendous losses we have suffered, and seeing meaningful reforms that will lessen the likelihood of a similar disaster and provide and improve response when the next oil spill occurs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: The White House does support the lifting of that cap. Critics say it would shut small oil companies out of exploring in the Gulf because any spill would put them out of business.
Let's go to Josh Levs to talk about this high-definition imagery.
Josh, Dan and I were just talking about this. Dan is the guy whose camera you're seeing me on right now. And he was saying as far as he knows, you can stream high-definition video.
So, what's the issue here? And, by the way, tell me what the improvement is that we've got high-definition video from under the sea now.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sure, yes. I'll talk to you about all of this.
And you're right, we're in our eighth week now. We've completed seven weeks of this crisis. We're in our eighth week.
And, folks, what you've been seeing so many times is like what we've got for you live, right here, right? It's these black clouds when you look under water.
We were showing you live under water, where that leak is taking place, and you might think that we could look at this and get some sense of how much oil is leaking out. But here's what the problem's been all along -- when oil and natural gas come out, they instantly start mixing with water, with other chemicals in the water. And for the experts out there watching this, there's never been a way to really know how much oil we're seeing coming out and how much of it is the other stuff that mixes.
Let's go to the new video we have now. That's the high- resolution video, and it's from a few days ago. As Ali was saying, it's not live.
The difference with this, what's so important about this, obviously it's a completely different look. And when scientists who are experts in this look at this in high resolution, they're able to look at the particles and get a much -- it's incomparable -- a much better sense of how much of this is actually oil or natural gas, as opposed to the other stuff that's mixing. They now are taking a look at this.
And I have something else for you. Let's go to the next one which splits the two so you can see them next to each other.
This is the new high-resolution video. This is the kind of video we've been seeing, and you can see how different they are.
Let's do this -- let's take this full, which means I'm not going to be in the picture, there's no studio lights. What you're seeing straight up right there is such a clearer picture on your left, and that is the key, this new high-resolution video that is allowing people who are experts at this to take a look at the particles and try to get a sense of how much oil really is leaking out.
Very few people are putting all of their faith in what BP says. A lot of people want their own independent analyses, and they're using this high res.
Now, what took so long? That's the question of the day, and it's going around.
I'm going to start off with a quote from a lawmaker who spoke to CNN, saying it does not make sense that it took this long to get high resolution.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ED MARKEY (D), ENERGY & COMMERCE COMMITTEE: It makes no sense at all, which is why I demanded that BP release the high- definition video. It's almost as though they think we're still living in an analog world, not a digital world. And the clarity of the picture obviously is key to determining how big this spill is and, as a result, how big the response has to be in terms of the protections which are put in place for the people who live in the Gulf.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: Now, we had a response to that today actually from Admiral Thad Allen, and I want you to hear this. He was asked about this at a news conference, what took so long, and he gave an explanation. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADM. THAD ALLEN, NATIONAL INCIDENT COMMANDER: It wasn't really earlier because it has to be put on hard drives and brought off the ships out there. You can't transmit it over Internet or via RF frequencies.
Marcia McNutt, who is head of the flow rate team, has been working with BP for the type of information and the high-quality video. And the only way to get the high-quality video is to physically remove it from the ships that are moving the ROVs around and bringing it to shore. We've made a request, they provided it to us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: So, he's giving a relatively benign explanation.
Now, there are lawmakers who aren't buying it, there are some experts not buying it, saying they could have gotten it sooner. But this is what we're looking into right now.
So, Ali, this is the significance of that video. This is why it's so important and why the experts want to see it.
And you are holding an alligator.
VELSHI: I didn't know if you'd notice. Thanks for noticing.
LEVS: Oh, my goodness.
VELSHI: I like that I ask you questions and you give me great answers. You're over my shoulder, you can see that.
LEVS: Wow.
VELSHI: This is my alligator.
I was going to tease that Kyra Phillips is coming up next to talk about her tour of the Gulf, but this is not Kyra Phillips.
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: Kyra Phillips, she can be a lot of things, but not an alligator.
Kyra, come here.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm coming in to see this. Now that you're putting me on the spot --
VELSHI: You have stayed late to talk to us about your trip into the Gulf of Mexico. So we're going to just put off the alligator for a couple of minutes because we're going to talk about your thing.
But when we come back, we're going to come back and talk to Kyra and the alligator.
PHILLIPS: Can I pet it?
VELSHI: Go ahead.
PHILLIPS: Wow.
VELSHI: And Kyra, who's an alligator.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: All right. A lot of aspects to what's going on in the Gulf. We're going to talk about the animals in a second, but there's this multifaceted approach to trying to solve both the spill and the damage that it's doing.
Different command centers along the Gulf Coast are battling this disaster. In the Houston center, it oversees the work to cap the wellhead. In Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, they have centers that manage local shoreline responses. But the biggest team by far is in Louisiana, which is the hardest hit by the spill.
Now, this is a huge operation. Every single hotel room for miles and miles booked indefinitely to accommodate the emergency staff.
Kyra Phillips, you saw, was there behind the scenes. She was on a rig. Then she was there watching everything going on.
You were with the national incident commander, Thad Allen, a remarkable guy. We see him on TV all the time. You would think he just does press conferences, but this guy is busy all the time running this operation.
PHILLIPS: Well, and that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to go to the places where no one has gone before.
Obviously, we got out on the rigs. We got to see firsthand what the Transocean workers are trying to do to cap that well. You talked about the command center in Houston, Texas, where they're watching all of that. We got to see that and how that operated.
But the command center in Houma, Louisiana -- and the admiral even said to me, "Wait until you see this" -- I mean, it is overwhelming, it's unbelievable what's going on there. And it's not until you go in there -- they call it the fish bowl, and you see National Guard, BP, fish and wildlife, OSHA, NOAA, you name the agency.
VELSHI: Yes.
PHILLIPS: Plus, all these other experts in the world. You see that no one's sitting around just waiting for this thing to be solved.
VELSHI: Right.
PHILLIPS: Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS (voice-over): A BP training center in Houma, Louisiana, hastily converted into the headquarters of the massive effort to battle an environmental disaster.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's got a lot of amenities including the ability to feed people 24 hours a day and so forth. I think there's an unbelievable amount of activity going on in this place.
PHILLIPS (on camera): OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going to be astounded when you go in here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: West, east.
PHILLIPS (voice-over): This is where all the government agencies involved in the oil disaster response come together, along with subcontractors, Louisiana state officials and BP. The invoice will follow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep track of the hours everybody is working here for billing BP.
PHILLIPS: And this is the nerve center of the operation. Screens track the spread of the spill, maps crowd the walls.
(on camera): All the workers here refer to this as the fishbowl. Along this wall you've got organizational charts. You've got weather forecasts. You've got various sit reps situation reports, forecasted movement of the oil. Right now, members of the Coast Guard are looking at the booming operations that are taking place in the state and the skimming operations as well. Wildlife, response progress, they're going over what has worked so far this morning with regard to operations in Louisiana, safety, medical plans, everything you could possibly want to know about the operations in the state of Louisiana, it's happening right here.
(voice-over): And you could forgive the BP workers here for feeling under siege.
BRIAN BAUER, BP: We arrive here about 4:30 in the morning. We're the day team.
PHILLIPS: Brian Bauer is BP's point man.
BAUER: We have had people working literally 20-hour days, 18- hour days. I personally have been here nearly a month. We know that we're doing a good job. Every day it's a new response that we have to mount. And it's challenging.
PHILLIPS: And the challenge grows by the day. BAUER: Once oil reaches the surface, we're responsible for doing everything we can to skim it, to control burn it, to make sure that that oil gets contained and controlled out in the ocean near the source and then whatever we can't control there as it moves closer, we have near shore skimming operations.
PHILLIPS: Bauer helps coordinate some 200 vessels over an already huge and still growing area, working side by side with the U.S. Coast Guard.
(on camera): I want to ask you --
(voice-over): Captain Meredith Austin is trying to predict where the oil will move.
(on camera): You were looking at this earlier with some other members of the Coast Guard. Tell me what you're trying to figure out today.
CAPT. MEREDITH AUSTIN, U.S. COAST GUARD: Right. This is using aerial images where the slick is right now. The important thing to notice though is that even though it looks like it's one homogenous blob of oil, that's not the case. A lot of this area is -- this is the source right here. So as you move away from the source, it ends up being sheen and streamers of oil.
PHILLIPS (voice-over): BP's Brian Bauer hopes the dark cloud seeping through the gulf will one day have a silver lining.
BAUER: My son asked me this, he's 13 years old. He goes, "Dad, tell me about this, this oil. This is bad, isn't it?" And I said, "What's happened is very bad."
But what we're doing here as a company and as an industry and as a country is crucial to really to our way of life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Admiral.
ALLEN: How are you doing, guys?
PHILLIPS: And what happens here will in no small way influence that way of life.
ALLEN: Thanks for your service, guys.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: See how we -- I thought that was for security. I said, "Oh, wow, they've got really tight security here." And that's when the admiral turned to me and said, "Oh, no, we have to keep track of everybody's hours, because we're billing BP."
VELSHI: BP for it.
PHILLIPS: There's been a controversy, right, about the relationship between the government and BP? VELSHI: Right. And BP is there in the room with all these folks.
PHILLIPS: Right. And the admiral has made it perfectly clear, you heard him right there -- he's very transparent about everything -- it's a marriage of necessity. It's the only option right now.
VELSHI: Yes. Right. BP has got the scientists, they've got those people. And then you need all these other guys.
When the documentaries are done about this years from now, we look back at this, Thad Allen will be the face of this thing, one way or the other.
PHILLIPS: Correct.
VELSHI: Do you get the sense from him -- and you've known him before this -- he seems to exude a calm over this in something that seems more panicky every day.
PHILLIPS: I have to tell you, he obviously is a remarkable human being on many levels. And I said to him -- I asked him this a lot, because he's getting so much criticism. I said, "How do you handle all of that? Because this is the worst disaster you've ever dealt with."
VELSHI: Yes. Sure.
PHILLIPS: And then handle all the pressure to service all these entities. And he said, "I'm very careful who rents space in my head."
VELSHI: Right. Right. And he has been -- he hasn't gotten too ruffled so far.
PHILLIPS: No. And I've watched him for days on end. I watched him through Katrina. I've watched him through this. And he's very measured, he's very thoughtful, he thinks about everything before he speaks. And if he doesn't know, he made that very clear --
VELSHI: Say you don't know.
PHILLIPS: -- he doesn't take any risk.
VELSHI: Here's the issue, though, because the frustration that grows out there amongst our viewers and amongst Americans is that they want people to get mad. They want people to be frustrated. A lot of reporters have asked the president, "Why aren't you mad?"
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIPS: Oh, he gets mad. Can I tell you, he gets mad. And even though he's got to have an amicable relationship with the head of BP --
VELSHI: Yes. Right. PHILLIPS: -- he has no problem calling him up and saying, "This is what I need. Why aren't you handling this?" We've got to -- right now the big thing is the claims process.
VELSHI: Yes.
PHILLIPS: You know?
VELSHI: He said today, he said, "We want transparency. We want to know who has applied for claims, where the process is."
PHILLIPS: Exactly. And "I need this done." He has no problem speaking up, speaking his mind.
VELSHI: Yes. And BP tends to respond when he says something.
PHILLIPS: Same with the White House.
VELSHI: Yes.
PHILLIPS: He's very clear where he stands with the White House as well.
VELSHI: All right. Very good, Kyra. Thanks very much.
PHILLIPS: You bet.
VELSHI: OK.
We'll continue to cover this from every angle, as you know, everything to do with the rescue, the oil, and the efforts to clean up the mess made in the Gulf of Mexico.
OK. When we come back, students learning math by singing, snapping and clapping. One former teacher says he's got 49 tricks, 49 different tricks, to make kids learn.
You're going to meet him coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Improving public education, something that's very important to us here on this show, by making good teachers into great teachers. It's one man's mission to help build up America.
Here's CNN's Randi Kaye.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLY REAGAN, FIFTH-GRADE MATH TEACHER, ROCHESTER PREP CHARTER SCHOOL: What is the measurement of the second angle?
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Take a good look inside this classroom. Notice what isn't happening. Not a single student daydreaming or doodling. Each one alert, focused, engaged.
REAGAN: What is the greatest of the three angles? Anthony C.?
KAYE: This fifth-grade math teacher at Rochester Prep Charter School uses a dozen techniques that she says make hers students want to learn.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENTS (singing: And put in the bottom number! Seven. It's tiki time, eight, nine, 10, 11,12. How many do I got? Five, and keep it lined up!
REAGAN: Instead of doing a regular subtraction problem, it can get a little boring after a while. You hit them with a song, and it's so much more interesting to them.
REAGAN: What type of triangle is it?
KAYE: That's just one of 49 techniques Kelly Reagan learned from this former teacher and principal. Doug LaMov says he's figured out how to take good teachers and make them great.
KAYE (on camera): You do not believe that a good teacher is born. You believe a good teacher is made.
DOUG LEMOV, SCHOOL PRINCIPAL: Yes. I believe great teachers are made.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I double dog dare you to use the word adjacent later on.
KAYE: What do you think makes a successful teacher?
LEMOV: I think the first thing that has to happen is the teacher has to have control of the classroom environment.
KAYE: Doug has been at this for five years. He seeks out schools with high poverty and high performance, then asks himself, what's in the water? Why does this work? he sits in the classroom, takes notes and records the teachers to perfect his techniques. He already has more than 600 hours of videotape.
(voice-over): Doug shares his favorite techniques with his teachers, sort of like paying it forward. In this video, the teacher asks a question. And then calls on a student at random, even calls on the same girl twice in a row.
LEMOV: The kids really have to be on their toes.
KAYE: And in this seventh grade math class, students snap if the classmate's answer is right and stomp if it's wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two snaps or two stomps on two. One, two.
(STUDENTS SNAP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nicely done. Number four --
KAYE (voice-over): It forces the whole class to engage in the answer. Eighty percent of the students here come from poverty. This may be their only shot at a future.
(on camera): Here at Rochester Prep, some students arrive only able to read at a third grade level. Some don't even know their letters. But after just two years here, Doug says those same student are twice as proficient as the rest of the district and ten times more prepared for college.
LEMOV: One hundred percent of the kids were proficient in seventh grade in math and English.
KAYE: One hundred percent?
LEMOV: Every single kid.
KAYE (voice-over): Good odds for improving public education.
Randi Kaye, CNN, Rochester, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: All right. This might be my next career.
This is Panini, a Roseate Spoonbill, one of the birds that you see in the wetlands around the Gulf Coast. I've also got a pelican, Ginger, in the studio, and an alligator.
We're going to talk about how the animals in the Gulf Coast disaster are affected by the oil spill. We'll be back with Panini in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: There's so many parts to this disaster in the Gulf that are so important -- stopping that oil from getting out there, the environmental damage, the damage to the wetlands, the damage to people, the damage to the environment. One of the things we want to talk to you about today is the animals that are there.
If we bring them in to you, you can get a sense of how they're affected by the oil. So, SeaWorld has kindly brought in a pelican you're looking at right now, Ginger, the pelican.
You just saw Panini, the Spoonbill. And there's an alligator.
We want to show you all of these animals. We talked to you about them last hour.
Chris Dold is a veterinarian at SeaWorld.
DR. CHRIS DOLD, SEAWORLD, ORLANDO: SeaWorld, yes.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Welcome, sir.
DOLD: Thanks.
VELSHI: I want to ask you what people who are watching this can do. I mean, it's so hopeless to watch these animals logged with oil, being cleaned.
DOLD: Absolutely.
VELSHI: What can we do when you see a picture of a pelican? The pelican really has become the image of wildlife affected.
DOLD: It seems too, absolutely. There are a lot of ways that people can help. Everyone wants to be up on the beach cleaning up oil, right? That takes some steps. You have to be trained so that you can handle the hazardous waste and that sort of thing.
VELSHI: So it's not useful --
(CROSSTALK)
DOLD: And it's not going to apply to everybody.
But there are some great groups out there who do this sort of work every day. SeaWorld is one of those groups, but there are a lot of other institutions that are taking care of the animals.
Tristate Birds, International Bird Rescue and Rehab are part of this oil response. You can donate to those organizations.
The best way to find out volunteer information is to go to a great Web site, deepwaterhorizonresponse.com. It has a ton of information on the spill, and including a volunteer link, so I would recommend that people go there.
VELSHI: But if you don't know anything about this, don't go out yourself and try it.
DOLD: Certainly don't no. The oil is dangerous. And Ginger is demonstrating here, the animals can be dangerous. So, if you see an animal on the beach, don't go and try to pick it up on your own.
VELSHI: That was designed, by the way, for people who are flipping channels, and they all of a sudden get to CNN and they see this chubby bald guy, and all of a sudden they see this beautiful bird out there.
This is very indicative, though, of one of the problems, right? When these birds are logged with oil, they simply can't take flight the same way, and it affects their temperature and it affects their digestive system.
DOLD: You're exactly right. So you have immediate concerns and you have long-term concerns. You have external exposure and internal exposure.
External exposure for a bird like Panini and the other brown pelicans -- or Ginger and the other brown pelicans -- or Panini, who we'll see in a little bit here, is that the oil will bog down their feathers and prevent them from maintaining their own body temperature.
VELSHI: This is the down. DOLD: This is the down. This is the under layer of the feathers. The outside layer of feathers, and then the down, where air is trapped. Right?
MYERS: This keeps the birds --
VELSHI: This is how it's insulated, because it's puffy and it holds the air in. So you're going to show us what happens when the oil comes into contact with the down.
DOLD: Right. I'm going to put on my PPE here.
Yes, Chad, you got a question?
MYERS: Last hour I asked you the question, if this animal, this bird, becomes coated in oil, is he doomed? And you said no, if he gets cleaned up and washed off.
DOLD: That's right.
MYERS: What if he's 50 miles out to sea and doesn't get picked up?
DOLD: He's doomed.
MYERS: Really?
DOLD: Yes. Unfortunately, he is doomed.
(CROSSTALK)
DOLD: And the pictures that you guys you see everywhere and that you folks have been showing, show dramatic coatings of birds. If those birds don't get attention within minutes to hours, they can't breathe anymore, and unfortunately they are most likely to die from --
VELSHI: Well, you brought some oil and by the way as Chad points out, it's motor oil, it's not even as thick --heavier or toxic as the oil that they might be encountering in the Gulf.
DOLD:: Yes, you're absolutely right t so this is refined motor oil here, but you just watch the effects of what happens to this layer. As I just put a small amount of oil in here relative to what these birds are seeing.
MYERS: It's, like, melting.
DOLD: Melts it right down.
VELSHI: :It was (ph) full and it's gone down to this level here.
DOLD: And again not to belabor the obvious, but it's oil, so you can't wash it off with water.
VELSHI: Right because Chad said, they get wet so wouldn't the same thing happen? DOLD: Exactly, that's exactly right. You can't get it off the animal. So you need to use usually a thinner oil, like a cooking oil, to break it down and you come back with Dawn dishwasher detergent.
VELSHI: Yes you know I've seen the commercial. Is this true? They're really using Dawn?
DOLD: Yes. They are really using Dawn. Dawn is the best product that you can use to break down (INAUDBILE).
MYERS: Have you seen that commercial?
VELSHI: So I have seen it. But it does cause some stress to the birds, obviously they are not used to being rubbed down.
DOLD : Right. Right. So we have trained professionals out there working with the animals and SeaWorld has a lot of animal professionals that are ready and willing to help. The folks who are on the beach right now are trained animal handlers. And so what they'll do is they'll bring the animals in carefully.
They'll usually let the animals rest for a day or two because birds can stress out very easily as I mentioned. And then once they've assessed the animal and they know they're stable enough to be cleaned they'll come back and wash them off.
MYERS: And they are still wild whether they are in danger or not because of this oil, they are, and can still be a danger to you or kids if you try to pick one up.
DOLD: Yes. Absolutely.
VELSHI: Which is why we like the spoonbill because they can't do too much damage here.
DOLD: That's. Exactly right.
VELSHI: But let's talk about this because this introduces us, Chris, to another issue and that is --so we've talked about what happens to their plumage to their feathers and to their insulation and all that. This bird goes around and finds things to eat on the beach.
DOLD: Exactly so this is Panini, Panini lives at SeaWorld, Panini, hi Panini was born at SeaWorld, we've rehabilitated birds like Panini before. The way they forage is to walk in shallow water move their bill around until a fish swims in and they snap and they grab it. So, he's not going to get coated in oil necessarily like Ginger would who is swimming in the oil. He's going to either ingest it in the fish or the water or he's going to breathe in the effects of the oil that are -- the vapors that are coming off and the respiratory.
VELSHI: So the justice (ph) system and the respiratory system can be damaged by--.
DOLD: And you wouldn't know that just by looking at him. So he could fly a long distance and then be affected by oil still.
VELSHI: Let's bring --
MYERS: We know that animals in the Exxon Valdez were affected not only with this particular oil spill, that particular oil spill, but they were unable to regenerate other offspring.
DOLD: That's exactly right.
MYERS: They lost their --well go ahead.
DOLD: That's a great point. That gets to the immediate effects and then the long-term sort of unpredictable effects of oil in the environment. It stays in the environment, it stays in the animals.
And if you eat small levels of oil for a very long time in your fish meal if you're an otter or if you're a dolphin in the Gulf, it can affect a lot of your body's functioning over the long term like reproduction.
MYERS: They lost reproduction.
DOLD: Like reproduction. So The total population goes down even though the spill is essentially cleaned.
VELSHI: :And his alligator is not likely to be right where the oil is exposed to, but it's going to be eating things that as you said might be exposed.
DOLD: That's exactly right . So alligator not an endangered species, the American crocodile an endangered species., But, again, it's not directly affected by the oil right now. They're eating birds that may be affected and then flying into their environment or fish that are making the journey into their environment so, again, long term.
VELSHI: How long does this food-chain issue go on? how many --
DOLD: A very, very long time. Much longer than we would think just sitting here watching this.
VELSHI: Like, decades?
DOLD: Like decades. Exxon Valdez was 20 years ago so we're already two decades in. So, there are a lot of great folks working on this, SeaWorld and other places.
VELSHI: Well we thank you all. Thank you for coming in here and thank you to the folks SeaWorld and everybody else who is out there working on solutions to trying to help the animals affected by the Gulf oil spill.
All right, when we come back we're going "Globe Trekking". I don't know if Ali is coming with me. We'll see.
VELSHI: OK. We're going "Globe Trekking" now. We want to go to the Texas/Mexican border that you can see here. I want to just get that Juarez out of the way because that's not actually where Juarez is.
Juarez and El Paso are right next to each other. That's where a U.S. border patrol agent shot and killed a 14 year old Mexican boy on Monday night. These are picture of the scene U.S. officials say the border agent was defending himself colleagues --and colleagues after coming under a barrage of rocks.
It's the second death of a Mexican, at the hands of U.S> border patrol agent in two weeks. Here's some pictures of a wake being held for the dead Mexican teen. The Mexican government is outraged and requesting an investigation right now.
U.S. officials say the incident was triggered when suspected illegal immigrants were reportedly being smuggled into the United States.
Mexican officials say the boy was shot in the head and was not armed. We're also hearing from his family.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROSARIO HERNANDEZ, SISTER OF VICTIM(through translator) They were always here playing. They came here sometimes and went to play down there. But he was not alone. People say that they were shot at and he was hit in the head.
My nephew was with him. But we don't know what happened. We are hearing that it is because he was wanted to cross. But it's not true. He never did that.
VELSHI: Here's another look at where the shooting occurred. We're told the body in this picture is that of the victim. His body, by the way, was found on the Mexican side of the border.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
Getting tough with BP. The government now demanding more plans to keep the oil contained. We're remembering the tragedy that started this spill, the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon 51 days ago.
When we come back, you'll hear from some survivors of that explosion.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Checking top stories now. The federal government has given BP 72 hours to come up with a backup plan for containing the oil gushing into the Gulf. Coast guard admiral, Thad Allen, says BP needs to have a backup plan in case something goes on with the new containment cap. Stay with CNN for the latest news on the Gulf oil disaster.
At the White House, President Obama promised to push Israel to loosen its blockade on Gaza. That promise came during a meeting with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas today. The president reiterated his call for an investigation into last week's deadly Israeli raid on an aid flotilla. President Obama said the U.S. will provide $400 million in new housing and business aid for Gaza.
At the U.N. today the security council has approved new sanctions against Iran. The U.N. is punishing Iran for failing to suspend its nuclear program. This is the fourth set of sanctions since 2006. They include cargo inspections and more travel bans for Iranian scientists. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says they amount to nothing.
All right, we've been talking about the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded 51 days ago leading to this Gulf coast disaster. You'll remember 11 men died in that explosion. There were survivors of that explosion too, some of them were injured. But this group of survivors sat down with Anderson Cooper on "AC360".
They accused BP of taking shortcuts that led to the disaster, specifically replacing mud with saltwater as they tried to seal the exploration well which was way behind schedule and way over budget.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: What do you think was more important to BP or Transocean, time and money or safety?
DANIEL BARRON III, EXPLOSION RIG SURVIVOR: Time and money. Honestly.
I mean, they preach safety. It's, like, safety is only convenient for them when they need it. You know, you're pressured and pushed to do things, and if you say, hey, you know, because everybody has the right to call time-out for safety.
But you do it, you're going to get run off, you know? You're going to get fired. And they're not going to fire you for that. But they're going to figure out a way eventually to get rid of you.
COOPER: And you've seen that happen?
BARRON: Yes, I have, actually, yes, I have.
COOPER (voice over): Even before that argument on the day of the explosion, the survivors we talked to said they had had other concerns.
BARRON: There's always, like, an ominous feeling when we're on that well, you know? And a lot of people were telling everybody else, you know, on the rig, you know, there's, like, chatter, that you know, we're messing with mother nature right now.
I mean, there's always something, you know, either kick or getting stuck or we're getting large amounts of gas.
COOPER (on camera): And what is a kick?
BARRON: A kick is when we get an air bubble or a gas bubble coming up or the mud and water coming up.
COOPER: And that's a problem and that --
BARRON: Yes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: All right. I want to give you the response that we got from BP on that, spokesman Robert Wine says the company plans to, "Wait for the investigation to be completed. We can't prejudge them."
We also got a response from Transocean, the drilling company. The quote there is, "There is no scenario or circumstance under which safety will be compromised. So critical is safety at Transocean that every crew member has a stop-work authority by which all work is halted should any employee suspect an unsafe situation or operation.".
Anderson remains in the Gulf coast tonight. Be sure to watch "AC360"for his continued reporting from the area most affected by this.
All right. When we come back, we're going to Washington to our senior White House correspondent. It almost looked like-minute ago looked like night over there was so much rain coming down. But he is dry he is safe and Ed Henry is the stakeout we'll be with him in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: One thing we love about Ed Henry is that he makes it to his stakeout every day no matter what. I just saw him putting his stuff together and it was raining. It's raining cats and dogs in Washington.
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, I had to run out of the briefing to come see you as well. And, you know, thankfully we've got this little small umbrella they got me out here.
But I saw you tweeted earlier today that you wanted me to fill in for you or something because you had an alligator in the studio?
VELSHI: Yes you know I've gotten smart about this. If I'm doing things that involve risk, like that plane trip yesterday, I sort of try and get you to do it.
HENRY: Yes, because I was filling in for you on that plane and it was a little risky still. I'm not so sure if you ask me to fill in for you again--. VELSHI: Well I've handled the alligator a couple times and you were in the middle of the briefing so I guess you didn't see it. But I went mano-a-mano with the alligator.
HENRY: It's a little bit like alligator wrestling sometimes in the briefing room sometimes so.
VELSHI: What an excellent segue. What was going on in the briefing room today? Imagine the wrestling had something to do with the oil spill?
HENRY: It does. And it was interesting I was just asking Robert Gibbs about the fact that the president in the interview with NBC a couple days ago was saying that. He still has not picked under the phone to talk to Tony Hayward, the BP CEO.
And I asked him why and Robert Gibbs was basically saying that with corporate governance, it's really up to the board of directors and not up Tony Hayward to make some of these decisions. When we all know that Tony Hayward has really been the public face of this.
One of my colleagues Chip Reid of CBS was following up by saying ,well wait, whose butt was the was the president kicking when he said in this interview that part of the reason he's going to the region. Part of the reason why he's talking to so many experts is that he wants to kick some butt.
Whose butt is he kicking? And Robert Gibbs didn't really have any specifics. You have to wonder about the accountability here obviously.
VELSHI: All right so that we're talking about that and then there were a couple of other things going on outside of the oil spill.
The U.N. and its sanctions with Iran and the president met with Mahmoud Abbas. Take one that you want to talk about.
HENRY: Yes. Well, I think the Iran story is the one to real watch -- really watch long term here, because the U.S. feels real strong and the White House specifically feels that this is a vindication of the president's strategy of really taking the time.
He's faced a lot of criticism for taking months and months to work this through the United Nations, but they feel it's paid off, because now they believe they've got a tough set of sanctions to really try and stop Iran's nuclear program.
But what Gibbs was being pressed on is the fact that Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, is basically saying he had a comment saying this is like a used handkerchief that you throw in the trash.
This is now the fourth round of sanctions and the previous three have really done very little, if anything, to cripple Iran or its nuclear program.
So, obviously the question moving forward is going to be, is a fourth round just that, just the latest round? or is this one really going to have some teeth, Ali.
VELSHI:: All right, and then there was a meeting with the Palestinian president. How did that go?
HENRY: Mahmoud Abbas. You know, it's interesting, I mean, the president really focused this meeting, you know, near the end when they invited the press in briefly, he was focusing on trying to get aid into Gaza and not wanting to talk too much about the flotilla controversy.
That's with obvious reason. I mean, this meeting with President Abbas was supposed to come just a few days after a meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel with President Obama. That got canceled, you'll remember, because of this huge international controversy over the flotilla.
The investigation still ongoing about what really happened there, all the charges and countercharges. And I think the bottom line since that Netanyahu meeting got canceled there's little or no momentum here to really get the what they call these proximity talks, really going with some momentum to lead to the ultimate, actual, direct peace talks.
The peace process stalled. We've heard this for so long, it's sort of the song remains the same, but the president was hoping to get some momentum. He still hasn't gotten it, Ali.
VELSHI: Do I need to worry about a truck backing into you or something? Because I keep hearing that truck reversing noise..
HENRY:I think I'm all right, Ali. So you know, so there's this huge renovation going on here and that's why there's this fence, and so now we're standing on steps so that you can actually see me.
Because they're going to be digging up the ground here for two years right in between the White House and the old executive office building next door.
They say it's because a lot of the wiring and telecommunications is outdated. There's also all kinds of conspiracy theories about whether there's a tunnel being built, what's really going on. I think it's still wiring and telecommunications, but I think I'm safe and sound. The truck is over there.
VELSHI: All right. I'm just hearing the noise. Now listen yesterday you went on the flight that I was supposed to go on and I didn't and the plane in front of you kind of toppled over and everybody was fine.
But there was an intent to this whole thing. You were going to put a story together about these classic steerman airplanes, that going to happen still right?
HENRY: You're asking me where it is, or you're bugging me about it?
VELSHI: No, I'm just saying. Is that going to show up in the next couple of days or something or was the heroics sort of took the whole work flow out of it.
HENRY: Do the anchors normally take this much of a hands-on role in where the stories are?
VELSHI: No I'm just checking, just checking how it all is. I'm very hands on today, I had a pelican a spoonbill and an alligator. So I'm just asking what you're-what heavy lifting you're doing today?
HENRY: You're playing with pelicans and you're bugging me about why I haven't turned the story in yet. There seems to be something incongruous here. What's the deal?
VELSHI: Well, you'll stick around. I know you go to go do stuff. But if you've got a TV set there, you'll stick around for the end of the show, because I'm bringing the alligator back.
HENRY: We are going to have the story on Friday, we're planning to do the story on Friday, so you can see why I really was in the steerman airplane. Thankfully mine didn't crash the other one did, but everybody was safe and sound.
VELSHI: Yes and fascinating planes nonetheless. Did you have a jacket for me or something from that from that thing? Because I saw you wearing a very cool bomber jacket
HENRY: Well here's the deal. I did get a sort of a flight jacket for flying in the steerman. And I was trying to line one up for you from the organizers and some of the old pilots who have been around for a long time who kind of think that guys like you and me are wimps frankly.
When they heard that I was angling to get you a jacket, one of them I swear said to me directly he said-you know it was sort of like football with the World Cup coming up, that basically you've got to play the game to get the shirt is how he put it.
VELSHI: I hear you.
HENRY: So I got the sense that they felt that like you-
(CROSSTALK).
VELSHI: You can't get the jacket if you didn't show up.
HENRY: I'm going to work on it for you.
VELSHI: I'm going to wrestle an alligator in a couple minutes, so you just stick around. Ed Henry, our Senior White House correspondent at stakeout in Washington. All right, it sounds like a horror story and in some ways it is. A bone chilling addition of wordplay coming to you next
VELSHI: Every day we give you a wordplay, a word that you will hear in the news, may not know exactly what it means. Today's wordplay has to do with the Gulf oil disaster. The term is dead zone. What is it?
it's an area of low oxygen in an ocean or a sea. There's long been a huge one in the Gulf off of the Louisiana/Texas coast, about the size of New Jersey, when I say huge, I mean it.
It's already been affecting important shrimping grounds. Now the main cause is often chemical runoff, especially fertilizer used on farms, there are some natural causes, too, but these days dead zones in the ocean are mostly manmade.
The effect is the suffocation of sea life. Pretty much everything gets wiped out or badly biologically stressed. Scientists worry that the undersea oil plumes that were confirmed yesterday by test results will expand and worsen the Gulf dead zone.
One small ray of hope? Dead zone's are reversible. There's a one big one in the Black Sea that largely disappeared in the '90s and fishing has actually picked back up.
OK. When we come back, my "XYZ". I want to talk about this disaster on a personal level, but a little bit different. My "XYZ" is coming up next stay with me..
Time now for the "XYZ" of it. this little guy's been my buddy for the last couple hours on air. He's a little alligator. He brought his two buddies, a pelican and a spoonbill.
It looks pretty docile. A lot of people ask me whether it's real. It's real it's breathing, it's moving. Nearly bit Sanchez a couple minutes ago. But this is sort of how this is so complex in the Gulf. There's our need for oil and our need for energy, the disaster stopping that oil from flowing into the Gulf.
Dealing with the fact that it is flowing into wetlands and marshlands and onto the coast affecting tourism, affecting fishing, affecting people's livelihoods, affecting our environment and affecting these little critters.
The bottom line is these guys are suffering. The alligator doesn't suffer as closely as the pelican does, you've seen them soaked in oil or the spoonbill that gets forages along the beach to try and get food that might be soaked with oil, but the reality is there will be an effect on us for a long, long time and this is just one of the ways we try and remember it. That's it for me over to Rick.
