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U.N. Sends 300 Observers; Zimmerman Takes the Stand; 33 Year Cold Case Turns Hot; Green Solutions in Focus

Aired April 21, 2012 - 16:00   ET

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

ROB MARCIANO, CNN ANCHOR: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Rob Marciano in today for Fredricka Whitfield.

Happening right now, we are getting pictures and new details about a passenger train that has collided in Amsterdam. Take a look at this. You can see people taken from the scene.

A CNN affiliate reports that 56 people were injured when two passenger trains collided in Amsterdam. Reuters reports that the two trains hit head on and the train crash is also affecting service to nearby international airport, a major European hub. We're following the story and as soon as we get more information or video, we'll bring it to you live here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

The United Nations is sending people into Syria, not peace keepers but unarmed military monitors. Earlier today, the U.N. security counsel unanimously approved a 300-member observer mission to spread across Syria and make sure the military and rebel fighters stick to the ceasefire agreement. The American ambassador to the United Nations says so far, Syria is not holding up its end of the bargain.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN RICE, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: The regime has unleashed yet another wave of horrific violation against its own people. Resulting in the deaths of scores of Syrians daily.

The government's use of shelling and heavy weaponry in particular in Homs has reached levels that surpass those before the ceasefire. Syrian government troops in armor have not been withdrawn from cities and return to barracks. Protesters are still being intimidated and murdered by government forces. The status of thousands of detainees remains unclear.

And pressures little progress has been made on the issue of humanitarian access with an estimated one million civilians still in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. The United Nations security counsel has called upon the government to take concrete action. The Syrian government has ignored this counsel. In the United States, our patience is exhausted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARCIANO: U.S. media has had little coverage because we can't get in there. So joining me now live is Ahmad El Khalaf. He is an opposition activist in (INAUDIBLE) Syria. Ahmad, via Skype, I know you can't hear me to well, but tell me what your reaction is to the 300 strong U.N. monitoring mission that is going to be now implemented.

AHMAD EL KHALAF, SYRIA ACTIVIST: OK. Basically, as you know, this revolution have been going on for about a year and two months. Through that year and two months, all we have been hearing is plans, plans, plans. Whether from the EU or whether from the Arab league or whether from the U.N. itself. All we have are plans and we keep (INAUDIBLE), we keep on getting killed by the active forces under instructions from Bashar Al Assad. So for instance the ceasefire was supposed to take place. What happened?

MARCIANO:: Tell me, Ahmad -

KHALAF: Over 250 people, over 250 people who have been killed after the ceasefire. 250 people were killed after the ceasefire was supposed to have taken place and President Bashar al-Assad (INAUDIBLE) actually accepted that. We keep getting killed and they keep making plans and plans and plans. We watch for it clearly. We want military intervention. The people need military intervention. We are being killed here every single day. There are over 13,000 protesters have been killed throughout this revolution, throughout this one year and two months revolution. We have been killed every day. All we ask for is for military intervention.

MARCIANO: I understand that, Ahmad and there are certain hoops to jump through in order for that to happen. But what you have seen and we have been showing you this video of tank movement between provinces. The military is supposed to pull out of populated areas. Are you telling me that they have not pulled out of populated areas?

KHALAF: No, they have not pulled out from populated areas. Even if they did, it would just be playing a game in front of the monitors itself. We are seeing what is happening inside Syria. I myself, I'm a British citizen. I came here just to pass over the message to the western media. What is happening in Syria, there are explosions everywhere. We are being shelled, our homes are being shelled, innocent people who have nothing to do with the revolution, that just want to work and go home and feed their families, their homes are shelled at the same time. Whatever you're from, whatever religion you are, you're being killed inside Syria.

MARCIANO: Ahmad, we got to leave it there. We appreciate your detailed reports from an area of the world that is difficult to get any sort of information out of. And our heart goes out to you. We certainly hope the situation improves. Hopefully this next step that the U.N. is taking will do just that. We appreciate you and stay safe.

Now back here at home, we just learned that Utah Senator Orrin Hatch will face a primary to get the nomination for his seventh term. Hatch was just shy of the 60 percent of delegates he needs at today's state Republican convention in order to bolt him director to November's general election. He will go up against former state Senator Dan Liljenquist in the June primary. Hatch is the longest serving politician in Utah.

Queen Elizabeth may me making her 86th birthday privately at Windsor Castle. A, but publicly, the 41-gun salute definitely took place. The queen also has an official birthday which is celebrated in June as when her majesty and members of the royal family attend the trooping, the color military parade.

Now to Florida where George Zimmerman may be released from jail anytime now. A judge set a $150,000 bond during a hearing that took an unexpected turn when Zimmerman took the stand and said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE ZIMMERMAN: I wanted to say I am sorry for the loss of your son. I did not know how old he was. I thought he was a little bit younger than I am. And I did not know if he was armed or not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARCIANO: CNN's David Mattingly is following the developments from Sanford, Florida. David, you just got some new information from Zimmerman's attorney on the state of his mind. What do you know?

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Attorney Mark O'Mara emerged from the jail here without his high profile client to tell us that he's not - has any solid indication of exactly when George Zimmerman will be getting out of jail. He said there's a lot here that needs to be done. Not the least of which being security here, not just for Zimmerman, but for Zimmerman's family as well. Zimmerman has to somehow be able to get away from the scrutiny that he's under here at the county jail and slip back into hiding, possibly going out of state where he was living before he turned himself in to authorities here.

But right now, his attorney is saying that his state of mind is such that where he's focusing on getting out and working on his defense and he's very mindful that he's facing a second degree murder charge which could carry life in prison if he's found guilty.

MARCIANO: You know, yesterday, watching that hearing, David, it looked more like a trial to me than an actual hearing. Zimmerman took the stand. Kind of a risky move. He spoke publicly about - of the case. What's been the reaction there on the ground in Sanford?

MATTINGLY: Well, there was an immediate reaction from the family of Trayvon Martin. I was looking right at his parents when George Zimmerman was speaking directly to them. They seemed to be completely unmoved by it all. After the hearing was over, they immediately got up, left the courtroom without answering any questions or talking to anyone. Instead they let their attorney do the talking. He said that they were very upset about this. They felt that his apology was self-serving, and for the purposes of him getting bond. They question the timing of it, saying that they felt like he had plenty of opportunities before now to offer an apology.

So again, no sign of either side coming together on any facet of this. George Zimmerman is facing charges of second degree murder for the murder of Trayvon Martin.

MARCIANO: David Mattingly live for us in Sanford, Florida. Good stuff, David. Let us know when you have more.

Right now, searchers are digging through a basement, trying to solve a 30-year-old mystery. What happened to this six-year-old boy who disappeared on his way to the school bus stop? We'll take you live to the search scene.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARCIANO: A cold case is suddenly hot again in New York City. Police and the FBI are trying to find out if this Soho apartment building is now a crime scene. It's a missing person's mystery in a landmark case that investigators have been trying to figure out since the 1970s.

CNN national correspondent Susan Candiotti is live on the scene. Susan, tell us what is happening exactly there today.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Rob, it's almost surreal standing here this day on a Saturday afternoon because as you can see over my shoulder, we're in the middle of an area of Manhattan called Soho, very upscale, trendy area with a lot of shops. And so you have a lot of tourists walking by here today and a lot of shoppers walking by, and some of them know, some of them don't know what's going on behind those barricades where you see all the photographers lined up.

Because beyond there is where the FBI has set up their crime scene investigation. And just beyond that, for days now, they have been inside a basement downstairs, and at this time, they are sifting through all kinds of dirt, where they have dug up a cement floor and going six feet into the ground to see whether they can determine any signs whether little Etan Patz might have been buried there more than 33 years ago. That's how long it's been since he's disappeared. Any evidence they find, and they had to obtain a search warrant to look for him there, after re-examining old and new information, they're trying to see whether they have evidence of any blood, of his remains, of any clothing, anything they can find to determine whether this might be his final resting place. Rob?

MARCIANO: Susan, you know, this is so old. How common is it for a 33-year-old missing persons case to get this much police attention? I mean this kid was on the milk carton campaign back in the '70s. Does that have anything to do with it, that notoriety?

CANDIOTTI: Well, certainly that notoriety is how we all know about this case. But then the case lie dormant for a lot of years. Occasionally, we understand, that the police are always working on this case to one degree or another as things come up, but as of late, a couple years ago, the district attorney reopened up and they started to re-examine the old files with a fresh look. And the FBI while looking at some old and new information, leads that included the following.

They talked again to a man, a carpenter who used to work in that basement and who had spent the day before Etan disappeared with the little boy in that basement. They were longtime friends. They questioned this man and they gathered enough information after talking to him and others to get a search warrant. They sent a cadaver dog into that basement and they got a positive sign that they should be looking in there. And so that's what led them to get permission to go inside that building and start to look anew to see whether Etan might have been buried there.

MARCIANO: So I think I heard you right. You say the carpenter, a potential suspect there, was friends with him. So there was a family connection there. They were friends?

CANDIOTTI: That's right, that's right, and the family hasn't said exactly. The family hasn't been saying anything about this because they want privacy at the present time. And apparently, the two did know each other. The family isn't talking about that with us, but they did discuss this with an author who has been in touch with them.

MARCIANO: All right.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are being very close-mouthed about recent developments because the FBI has asked them not to talk to anybody about it. They knew him. The family knew him, and Etan knew him. They were pals. And they actually would spend some time together. He was a carpenter and a handyman, and sometimes Etan would help him do some of his jobs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: Now this man is not being called a suspect by the FBI. He has not been charged in this case. And a lawyer representing him says that he has no information about the disappearance of Etan Patz. Rob.

MARCIANO: Susan Candiotti live for us in lower Manhattan. Obviously, a lot of activity behind you. We'll look for your next update.

Updating our top story now, a train collision in the Netherlands. Take a look at this. You see that there are injured people being taken from the scene. A CNN affiliate reports that 56 people have been injured. Reuters reports that the two trains actually hit head- on. Obviously not a good thing. We do have a passenger on the phone that is going to shed light on this. Giovanni Laisina. Giovanni, what can you tell me about your experience?

GIOVANNI LAISINA, TRAIN CRASH SURVIVOR(ON THE PHONE): What actually happened was the train left from Central Station, Amsterdam Central Station and after like three minutes, it was like somebody pulled like emergency brake. But, yes, then there was a crash. It was - it was going like in a second, it was a big crash, and everybody in the train was in panic.

MARCIANO: Were you up to full speed? Were you up to full speed? How fast was the train going when the emergency brake was pulled and the crash happened? LAISINA: Yes, I don't think it was full speed because we were only away for like a couple of minutes. But before the train stopped, the crash already - yes, there already was a crash before the train stopped. So yes, it didn't have enough time to stop.

MARCIANO: Were you thrown from your seat? Were you thrown from the seats were you standing? What happened physically to the people who were in the cars?

LAISINA: What happened to me is that all of a sudden, my head hit against the window. Because I was, like, yes using my BBM, I was talking to somebody, and all of a sudden the crash came and you know, my head was against the window, but it was hard, but it was like then I stood up and everybody was in panic. Everybody was screaming. And a lot of people were injured. There was a lot of blood and stuff. Yes.

MARCIANO: And so you were evacuated from the train via the normal doors and - looking at actually pictures that you tweeted. So one is what appears to be the two trains kissing or you know after coming to a stop. The head-on collision there which doesn't look to be a terrible amount of damage, but when you get two trains of that size going at any speed and passengers who may not be strapped in, you're likely going to have injuries. Tell me about the scene when you got out of the train and you snapped that picture.

LAISINA: Yes, when I snapped the picture, it was like after half an hour. When people were not injured had the ability to leave the train. And that's when I made the picture. And yes, a lot of paramedics were coming, police, the fire department, stuff. A lot of firemen. They got to the place of the accident to help the injured people.

MARCIANO: Tell me about the train. Is this a commuter train that people take from the city the suburbs? Is it more of a train that goes from one big city to the next? And how crowded was it?

LAISINA: The train is called a Sprinter. It's like not a very big train like Intercity, a train that goes to the airport and to all of the big cities. This is a train that goes to the smaller cities around Amsterdam and in the north of Holland. It wasn't like a big train.

MARCIANO: How do you feel physically right now? A little shaken up?

LAISINA: Well, I was shocked in the beginning. But because I don't have any injuries at all, like, yes, for me, it's OK. It's like a little bit surreal. Did this thing really happen to me?

MARCIANO: I bet.

LAISINA: Yes.

MARCIANO: The pictures we're seeing are surreal indeed. We're glad you made it out of there pretty much uninjured. And good luck in your travels. We appreciate your support. Giovanni Laisina helping us out on that train collision in Amsterdam.

Well, a critical shortage. It's leaving America vulnerable to terror attacks. We'll show you what is being done to fix that.

And tomorrow, Dr. Sanjay Gupta is exploring architecture on his show, "the Next List." He talks to people making pie in the sky dreams a reality.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Modern buildings have regenerated into these big boring boxes and all of the quality that makes the space inhabitable is this like onslaught of machinery that pumps air and life into the building. So what we're interested in is what you would call engineering without engines. That essentially, we use contemporary technology, our capacity to simulate and calculate the performance of the building to put the attributes into the actual design of the building.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARCIANO: Tune in tomorrow to watch "The Next List" or set your DVR. It's a good show, 2:00 p.m. Eastern time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARCIANO: Well it's not an understatement that the job market is still pretty brutal, but there is at least one sector where jobs are routinely going unfilled. Renee Marsh explain why things are different in cyber security and why there could be some serious consequences.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RENEE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They're on the front lines defending America from cyber attacks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: just looking for signs that the attackers are trying to gain access.

MARSH: government and industry insiders say you're practically guaranteed a job in cyber security if you got the right stuff.

JANET NAPOLITANO, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: There is a lack of expertise, and there's a lot of people clamoring for people who know the internet world, can work in this area.

MARSH: Last year, the Department of Homeland Security's cyber unit responded to more than 106,000 cyber attacks. DHS secretary Janet Napolitano says "Unless we train more cyber experts, our economy could be the biggest casualty." She adds "Thousands of cyber experts already work in the federal government, but there's a desperate need for more."

NAPOLITANO: We need people who are analysts. We need people who are engineers. We need people who are experienced in intelligence as it relates to the cyber universe.

MARSH: George Washington University is on a short list of institutions answering that need. The university will launch a master's program in cyber security this fall?

LANCE J. HOFFMAN, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: We get calls all the time from industry and government wanting to hire students and to find students who have this expertise and training. There are not enough people. We're educating them as fast as we can.

MARSH: And design systems hackers can't easily penetrate. Logic in a solid mass tech, and science backgrounds are pluses. Kevin Mandia's security firm responds to corporate breaches but with only 220 people on staff, their response is mostly reactive. They can't match the current demand, and he says "stopping attacks before they happen is impossible without more qualified people in place."

KEVIN MANDIA, MANDIANT CORPORATION: It takes a long time to learn how to be a cyber security expert.

MARSH: He believes that six to eight year grooming process in a challenging field may be keeping people away.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO: Renee, those in the industry are saying that the U.S. is definitely vulnerable. But what are lawmakers' biggest concerns? What do they see as the worst case scenario?

You know, one cyber security expert that I spoke to, Rob, he put it to me like this. He said "the U.S. economy could suffer a devastating blow. A huge blow, we're talking about in the billions here. And one worst case scenario, he says is another country stealing our intellectual property, meaning like our technology, our research secrets, our trade secrets. And essentially the U.S. just wouldn't have that advantage anymore, so economically, we could really be dealt a devastating blow. And that's the major concern, Rob.

MARCIANO: It's, you know, something we have been following and only seems to be ramping up. And your report certainly highlights that. Renee Marsh live for us from D.C.. Thanks, Renee.

Well, the last thing you want when you go on vacation is to have someone steal your wallet, right? An expert pick pocketer gives us tips on how to help you think like a thief.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARCIANO: Well, the best way to protect your wallet and credit cards when you go on vacation may be to think like a thief. An expert in pick pocketing gives us tips on the go.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO (voice-over): Pickpockets are everywhere tourists are. And Bob Arno should know. He calls himself a pick pocket artist. Arno travels the world watching pick pockets and studying their techniques.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The least thing in my mind is who is going to grab my purse.

BOB ARNO, PICKPOCKET ARTIST: Never leave sight of your bag.

MARCIANO: As a stage pick pocket artist, Arno said the principle is simple.

ARNO: Pick pocketing is about distraction. Get the victim to be having their guard down one way or the other.

MARCIANO: Women's handbags are an easy target.

ARNO: Have it as high up into the armpit as possible. If you have a strap, it should go across the body.

MARCIANO: There are also travel wallets you can wear under your clothing and out of reach.

ARNO: They are not interested in the cash any longer. They simply want the credit cards.

MARCIANO: Be aware in crowds like on trains.

ARNO: It's not an issue of being paranoid. It's simply reduce the options for the thief.

MARCIANO: Don't let the pick pocket steal the fun when you're on the go.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO: That will do it for me. Up next, a CNN special, "Going Green." "CNN NEWSROOM" continues at the top of the hour with Don Lemon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOREMAN: It looks just like a normal house, it lives like a normal house, and yet this house just outside of Washington, D.C., in Arlington, Virginia, offers the very latest in green living. Welcome to GREEN SOLUTIONS IN FOCUS.

I'm Tom Foreman, and we have chosen this place to host our show because it underscores how people all over the country are finding ways to make their daily lives more environmentally friendly.

Once again, the fine photo journalists at CNN have spread out to capture stories that shed light on that subject. And light itself is the subject for our first one, from photojournalist Jeremy Moorhead about the rapidly changing business of bulbs.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) RICKY SILVERSTEIN, FRAGER'S HARDWARE: We are Frager's Hardware, established in 1920, 11 blocks from there U.S. Capitol. I would call this "energy efficient land."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much.

SILVERSTEIN: We have your traditional incandescent.

Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm looking for one of these light bulbs.

SILVERSTEIN: Light bulbs are a big factor in the store's success. Nine, like 10 (INAUDIBLE), put up to 100 or you could use a compact fluorescent in there too.

It's using gases to illuminate the glass. You're using roughly 20 or 21 percent of the wattage on a compact fluorescent than you are in a 60-watt soft white incandescent bulb.

My house converted to all compact fluorescents. I have seen energy savings. It lowers your air conditioning bill because you're emitting less heat. An LED bulb where you get two-and-a-half to three times longer life than you do with a CFL.

Bulb like this is in the $50 range. That's the Cadillac. This should last 46 years. That's longer than I'm going to be around.

A $1.81 to operate this light bulb, 65-watt is going to cost you five to six times more. So we're trying to reduce the consumption in the entire country. It's going to benefit us and, you know, in the long run.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN: This house by Arlington Designer Homes has many green features in it, even if you can't see them. There's geothermal heat and cooling to keep the temperature balanced at all times, a special spray foam insulation to keep down energy bills. It's filled with fixtures and appliances that are energy-saving.

Cutting down on energy consumption is a passion for many green advocates, and it's driven a lot of interest in home solar panels. The problem is they're just too expensive for many people.

However, photojournalist Floyd Yarmuth (ph) found a company willing to rent those panels and let the homeowners keep the savings.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VADIM POLIKOV, ASTRUM SOLAR: Solar power is making power from the sun. It is creating electricity that the sun shines down, converts into electricity here in the home, and it's going to power this home.

Solar power is green energy because it's basically using no fuel, just takes the power from the sun. It doesn't emit any gases, any carbon dioxide, any pollutants. The sun shines, it sends energy through photons. Those photons hit the solar panels, convert into electricity.

The electricity travels into your electric box. From there, it's powering all of the devices in your home. If you actually produce more solar than you use, you're going to send a little bit of that back out to the grid and your electric meter will actually spin backwards. You get a credit for that time from your electric company.

At night, when you're not producing electricity, you're pulling the electricity from the grid. So most homes are hybrids, they have a part of their electricity from the utility company and a part from solar.

One of the things that is really exciting right now for solar is the affordability of it has really gotten to be on a different level in the last several years. Leasing opens up a whole new class of consumers that just weren't available to solar.

They may want to go solar. They may want to go green. They may want to be more independent from their utility company. But they didn't want to spend the money.

LOUIS STACHOWIAK, HOME OWNER: I'd like to be able to produce my own electricity if I could. So the best thing I could do is put solar panels up. I'm hoping to save 40 to 50 percent on my electric bill.

With the lease, the maintenance on it is going to be done for the next 20 years, I don't have to worry about it, it's being done. It just made sense, economic sense.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN: When we return, you've never seen a home trash like the one we're going to visit. And it doesn't mean what you think.

And...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're looking for striped bass. That's about the only thing we're going to catch is hopefully some large striped bass.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: ... fishing for solutions on the bay...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow, that's a huge fish.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: ... when GREEN SOLUTIONS IN FOCUS continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) FOREMAN: By some estimates, the average American produces four pounds of waste a day, much of it from what we eat and drink in our kitchens. And you can imagine in a home like this, a whole family could produce a whole lot more. Or maybe, maybe a whole lot less.

For example, if you're the Johnson family in San Francisco, well, I'm going to let photojournalist Jeff King pick up the story from there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEA JOHNSON, HOME OWNER: This is our 2011 trash tally. I think it's food in general is really what creates most waste in the house. So, for example, we get our milk in milk bottles and then we take the milk bottles back to the store.

This is the shopping tote, so, for example, that's the glass jar, this is one of the clean jars, and this one will be filled with meat or fish. I have the cloth bags and for the bulk dried goods, and I also have these mesh bags for the produce.

This is where we store our veggies. In this refrigerator, we can just throw it in there loose. It stays really crisp and nice.

This lifestyle was hard to start with I think because you have so much to figure out.

SCOTT JOHNSON, HOME OWNER: For me, the initial pain I felt was I felt like, wow, Bea is going to these farmer's markets, she's going to these stores where she's getting bulk food, and she's buying organics and so forth. We must be spending a ton of money. When I finally did the comparison, I mean, it was shocking. Overall, we figured out that we were saving about 40 -- again, 40 percent.

B. JOHNSON: People think that zero waste is only about tackling the discounts, but it's not about that. It's really stopping waste from coming into the home. It's stopping -- being more careful about your consumption.

This is the compost bin.

S. JOHNSON: It's not painful to -- instead of sweeping my leftovers from a plate into the trash, we can come out here and put it into the worm bin. The worms then will basically process all the veggie scraps and create a compost.

B. JOHNSON: I think I took it perhaps a little too far at first. I took it to an extreme that was just in the end not sustainable. Once we found a really good balance, we realized that, OK, now I think we have found a way of doing this for the rest of our lives.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN: Of course, we all bring massive amounts of products into our homes, food and electronics and clothing and personal care items. That last category caught the attention of another woman out in California who saw an opportunity to go green with skin care. And photojournalist John Torigoe introduces us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELISHA REVERBY, ELIQUE ORGANICS: So we're in a garden in Santa Monica Canyon. I'm harvesting lavender that I use to infuse my oils for my skin care. Here we have some lemon and lime leaves. There's a little bit of mint and there's some rosemary as well.

My dream was always to create a simple, pure line of skin care. This is the eucalyptus we harvested this morning. A lot I hang upside down to dry and just start to prep this for the hair and scalp oil.

It's about building the surface of the skin and maintaining that immunity and having a protective barrier. It's not a mass-produced line. Our core ingredients are our garden herbs, our ethically harvested honeys.

It's really important that whenever you apply a moisturizer to your skin that your is damp. You always want an oil and a water to work together, because oil and water do mix when it comes to skin care.

We specialize in serums, creams, and masks, things you leave on your skin because you want to nourish and feed your skin.

DENA PACITTI, CUSTOMER: I feel fantastic about using it and I don't want to use anything that has chemicals anymore and that I don't know where the ingredients came from.

REVERBY: So this is something that easily make at home, throw in a little green tea for a little texture. Clearly I have a product line and skin care is my passion, and I have been doing this for 21 years. But there are many pieces of the puzzle to be beautiful.

Beauty is a whole. So beauty isn't just an external. It's like how you live your life is beautiful. That's what radiates when you're doing things for your community or helping someone else. That's a green beauty queen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONNA MORROW, MARYLAND DEPT. OF NATURAL RESOURCES: Fuel expands when it heats up. A lot of times it's coming from a cold underground tank. It hits your warm boat and it will keep expanding.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: In a moment, taking the environmental high road on the high seas.

And a bright idea, the old-fashioned light bulb's beginning and maybe its end, when GREEN SOLUTIONS IN FOCUS continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) FOREMAN: With jobs and kids and social commitments, it's not always easy getting out to get in touch with nature in a state park or a national forest. But just outside the door of your home, you may find a great place to cultivate a green yard, in more ways that you can imagine, as William Walker discovered in Georgia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAREN MCCAUSTLAND, GEORGIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY: There's native plants all over the United States. They easily adapt to your area, your soil temperatures, your soil types. They're adapted to their region so you don't have to do extra fertilizing to keep them happy.

We never say, don't use things like the mass-produced things like pansies in the landscape. I like my pansies in the winter, too, just for the color.

For the most part, once plants are established, they don't need as much water as you think they do. A rain barrel is a good idea especially if you have a lot of potted plants that need water.

PATRICK MAGEE, BROOKHAVEN RAIN BARRELS: A thousand square foot roof will produce 600 gallons of water with one inch of rain. This is a rain barrel and what rain barrels are designed to do is capture your roof's rain water. You store it, and then you're able to water your plants on a dry day.

These rain barrels will push a 50- to 70-foot garden hose anywhere on the property so you can water any tree periodically as you please. Another way to conserve water is by capturing the condensation from your air conditioner. Drip, drip, drip, just one drip at a time.

STEVE KILBRIDE, THE KINDEST CUT: I have always used a manual mower on my own lawns, not like your grandfather's mower. It's not made out of iron. They make very lightweight versions now. There's a savings on gas but also a savings on environmental impact. Power mowers do not have to have catalytic converters as automobiles do. Pound for pound, they're much bigger polluters than automobiles.

For cleaning up afterward, we use good old rakes and brooms. It's very possible to save money and be environmentally friendly. It's in fact a win-win situation.

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FOREMAN: Many people want to carry this idea of going green far beyond their homes and their offices and their yards, into their leisure activities. You'll find no greater proponents of that than the tens of millions of recreational boaters in this country. People who like to go fishing, and diving and just sight-seeing.

The Chesapeake Bay, not terribly far from here, has been the site of many environmental challenges over the years. And now, boaters are leading the charge out there to make things a lot better. Photojournalist David Ruff takes us for a ride.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to be fabulous. It's a little chilly this morning, but it's going to heat up fast.

You ask my wife what I do now, and she'll tell you, nothing. My name is Ryan Schaefer (ph). I live in Edgewater, Maryland. I have been down here for 25 years.

We're looking for striped bass. It's about the only thing we're going to catch is hopefully are some large striped bass.

MORROW: And we have about just under 200,000 registered boats in Maryland. A lot of boats.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My kids learned to water ski right in here.

MORROW: You have got your novice boaters, you've got your family boaters, sailors, power boaters, got really experienced cruiser, fishermen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow, that's a huge fish.

MORROW: Clean boating and all that we do within the watershed, be it at home or anywhere else...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's serious fish.

MORROW: It all goes downstream. And if you enjoy what comes out of the water, you need to care about what goes in the water. I think a very common thing, if you have to fuel up your boat...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About how much do you think it will take?

MORROW: ... don't top it off. Fuel expands when it heats up. A lot of times it's coming from a cold underground tank. It hits your warm boat, and it will keep expanding.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Have a good day, guys.

MORROW: And then it leaks out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very, very sad to come out here and see plastic bags.

MORROW: Plastic won't degrade in my lifetime or anybody's lifetime that's here today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is that floating?

MORROW: Try not to generate so much trash. Put stuff in reusable plastic containers or glass containers, things that you can re-use. That way you don't have trash, anyway. Boaters use what we call anti- foulant bottom paints. But there are some great new e-paints out there, environmental paints or greener paints.

PAUL PHIPPS, PHIPPS MARINE MAINTENANCE: This Pacifica Plus, and it has got Econea instead of the regular copper which controls the barnacles, (INAUDIBLE) mussels, and stuff like that.

MORROW: When you're going to go clean your boat, it's real simple, if you wouldn't put it in a fish tank, don't hose it off the side of a boat. If you hose off the boat after you come in, and you have got the wrong kind of soap on there, you could really be harming the aquatic life that you may not even be able to see.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: that's a big fish.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a nice fish.

All these things add up, and it may seem like, oh, I'm just doing one little thing with a great big bay, but just -- it's a lot of little things.

MORROW: Without clean water, there's boating, there's no marinas. And people don't want to go out and enjoy it if they can't catch a fish, if they can't swim, then that whole industry could go away. So it's really important to take care of it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAL WALLACE, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY: He was already known at the "Wizard of Menlo Park" because he was the man who could make a machine talk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: When we return, Edison's bright idea. GREEN SOLUTIONS IN FOCUS continues in a moment.

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FOREMAN: Nothing else marks the arrival of the electric age quite like the light bulb. It was revolutionary, dazzling. It became the symbol for inspiration itself. So as we contemplate all of the changes in how we use electricity and indeed all of the resources around us, we thought it would be fitting to close by looking at the origins of this bright idea. Once again, the (INAUDIBLE) of Jeremy Moorhead.

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WALLACE: We are in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Exhibition known as "Lighting a Revolution." We look at the process of invention using Edison's light bulb as a case study, and then we look at the process of inventing electric lighting 100 years after Edison to see how inventors do things differently and how some things haven't changed.

Right now, we're behind the scenes in the vaults, as it were. This is the storage room of the electricity collections. This, in a nutshell, is the history of electric lighting starting with Edison's work in 1879. This is one of the demonstration lamps. Edison, on December 31st, 1879, invited the world to Menlo Park. He lit up the lab, the office building, Sarah Jordan's boarding house across the street with about 100 of these light bulbs.

Edison won in the marketplace. And so his light bulb base still is what we work with today. That's the whole reason our electrical system here in the United States is primarily 120 volts.

The idea of producing more efficient electric lamps that would use less electricity, that very much Edison would have been in favor of.

Get some nice Edison stuff here. Now, what's nice about these trays are these are basically the first five or six years of the Edison light bulb. People when they would see these light bulbs light up, they would just stand in awe, didn't put off a lot of heat like candles or oil lamps or kerosene lamps.

You have a generation of people who have -- or generations, plural, of people who have grown up having one idea about light bulbs. And maybe this finally is the swan song, as it were, for Edison's lamp. Maybe not. We just have to stay tuned and see.

FOREMAN: And that's it. We hope maybe you got some ideas of your own about going green. For all of our excellent photojournalists and indeed everyone at CNN, I'm Tom Foreman. Thanks for watching.