Return to Transcripts main page
Next@CNN
Interview With Sam Nunn; Bush Administration Looks for Whitman's Successor; Dr. Beach Previews America's Best Beaches
Aired May 24, 2003 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: NEXT@CNN begins right now. It is Saturday, may 24. Here at NEXT@CNN, coming up this hour, imagine a nuclear blast one-third the size of the Hiroshima bomb. The U.S. could resume research into building such a weapon. We'll get former Senator Sam Nunn to take on that.
The Bush administration is shopping for a new environmental protection chief. We'll host a debate over the policies that may have contributed to the departure of the current head.
And as vacation season gears up, we'll tell you where you might want to take your flip-flops and sunscreen. The man known as Dr. Beach gives us this year's list of America's best beaches.
With nuclear weapons at the top of the everyone's minds here -- here we go, the U.S. may soon be at least looking into a return to the bomb building business. In the wake of a Senate vote this week, Congress is poised to lift the longstanding ban on research into low- yield nuclear weapons. And here to talk with us about these so-called mini nukes and other nuclear weapons issues is former Senator Sam Nunn, and he was the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee and is now co-chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a group that works to reduce the global threat of weapons of mass destruction.
And in the spirit of full disclosure, we should say that the other co-chairman is CNN founder Ted Turner. And thanks very much, Senator Nunn, for joining us.
SAM NUNN, NUCLEAR THREAT INITIATIVE: Thank you, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. So this initiative, appropriations bill is now making its way through Congress, in which to restart research for these mini nukes, low-yield. What does this mean?
NUNN: Well, I think the signal we're sending to the world is probably not one we intend to send. The signal is that the greatest conventional military power on the face of the Earth, most accuracy, the most highly trained military forces, all of that needs to have further nuclear -- possibly have further nuclear tests. I think that's an unfortunate symbol. I've never tried to prohibit anyone from studying something, and that's what the administration says they want to do, but the world has a different perception. And the thing we have to keep in mind is that the cooperation we must have in terms of world partnerships is the most essential cooperation that would prevent the most likely threat, and that is, keeping weapons and materials out of the hands of terrorist groups. And for that, we need world cooperation.
WHITFIELD: But isn't a message being sent that if you're going to continue with research, and you're not necessarily encouraging, there will be a further development, doesn't research usually precede development?
NUNN: It does. It does. But the good news is, though, the Congress made it clear that any -- going beyond research, going to development would require a specific congressional authorization and perhaps even a repeal of the law, depending on the House version and the Senate version.
So I think clearly we're going to have a lot of debate, and we're not about to move into development of a new nuclear weapon. We've tested more than anyone on the face of the Earth and we have more nuclear weapons than anyone on the face of the Earth. And most people that I've talked to believe that we have a better chance of using conventional weapons with our high accuracy and putting one weapon on top of another to penetrate to get down to a possible storage facility than we do to develop a nuclear weapon that we could blast it out without having the kind of collateral yield that would be unacceptable to any president of the United States.
WHITFIELD: Is there concern that you have, however, that while the U.S. continues its search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, that perhaps now a mixed message is being sent to the world's community as the U.S. now tries to push for the restarting of any research of mini nukes, if they will be called?
NUNN: I am concerned about that symbol. The administration is very good at symbolism in this country, but the administration hasn't yet, in my view, gotten its balance in terms of the signals we send abroad. And the thing that we have to keep in mind, there are three mega dangers to the American people today. And one is keeping weapons of mass destruction and materials, nuclear materials, biological and chemical, out of the hands of terrorist groups. That's number one. Number two is doing something about tactical nuclear weapons, which can be stolen, they are small, or which could be sold. And number three is dealing with the question of accidental war, which requires U.S./Russia cooperation. The danger of an all-out war has gone down dramatically, but the danger of an accidental war has gone up.
WHITFIELD: And why is that? There is some very significant concern between U.S. and Russian relations, as we talk about this accidental going off of any kind of nuclear weapon.
NUNN: Three quick reasons. The Russians have had tremendous economic and social problems. They have continued to have a hair trigger -- we have also -- readiness to launch in a very short period of time, nuclear weapons that could basically change the whole world.
The second is the economic pressures on Russia have caused their satellites and their radars to go down, their early warning system has gone down, while their hair trigger remains.
And third, they have less survivable forces now, meaning that if they think they might be under attack or if a radar gives a wrong signal, or if they get no signal and they think they may be under attack, they are likely to launch very promptly, because they may not have anything left if they haven't attacked by the United States.
Now, we're not going to attack them and they know that. So I don't want to overdramatize this, but we've all heard about the perfect storm. If you combine all of those ingredients, the chances of an accidental war have gone up since the Cold War, even though the chances of a deliberate war have gone down.
WHITFIELD: You said they know that, but do they really know that? Is it still expected that this is going to be a focal point of discussion between Bush and Putin next week at the G-8 summit in France?
NUNN: Well, there are two great opportunities to deal with this. President Bush and President Putin should talk about this accidental possibility. And as the Rand report that we released this week points out, there are lots of ways the U.S. and Russia could deal with that.
The second big opportunity of dealing with this overall material problem with nuclear materials equivalent of 60,000 weapons still not being properly safeguarded in the former Soviet Union is to get the G- 8, the prosperous, industrial countries that will be meeting right after the Bush/Putin summit to come up with the money that they pledged last year. They all pledged to match the United States. We're doing a lot in this regard. We call it 10 plus 10 over 10. That's $20 billion over 10 years. A billion from the U.S. each year, a billion from our European allies. But we've got to make sure the Europeans and the United States fulfill the pledge, because that money is absolutely the minimum amount to deal with this problem of keeping the most dangerous materials out of the most dangerous hands.
WHITFIELD: All right, former Senator Sam Nunn, always good to see you. Thanks very much.
Well, still ahead on NEXT@CNN, a new kind of moose that is helping to protect New York's harbor this Memorial Day weekend. And these shoes were made for floating, apparently. Some of the darnedest things wash up on coastlines these days. We'll talk with the guy whose mission is to keep track of them.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: This week, a moose was spotted in New York harbor. Sort of. This moose has no antlers and it isn't paired up with a flying squirrel. It's a boat that can make this busy tourist destination a safer place. Jamie Colby is joining us now from the choppy waters of the New York harbor. Hi, Jamie.
JAMIE COLBY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, this high-speed, high-tech vessel is the newest member of the U.S. Park Police counter- terrorism fleet. This weekend, it's keeping an eye on national monuments like Lady Liberty and Ellis Island, behind me.
And right now, Officer Pete Culver is here to tell us what makes the Moose so special. What does make it so special?
OFFICER PETE CULVER, U.S. PARK POLICE: Jamie, this vessel is really special because of its maneuverability capabilities. We're powered by twin turbo diesels, Cummings (ph), 370 horse powers a piece, which are linked to 292 Hamilton jet drives, which make this vessel maneuver like a giant jet ski.
COLBY: So it's water propelled? It doesn't have a propeller, essentially, like you said a jet ski?
CULVER: Exactly, it is water-propelled, it has no conventional propeller like a conventional boat. And we're working on a catamaran style hull, which gives us a nice, stable platform.
COLBY: And Fredricka, the reason that that's important is on search and recovery missions, they can get with the Moose into areas that other boats can't. If you go in as little as one foot of water, and it also has maneuverability that lets it move from side to side and the catamaran base keeps it pretty steady even if the water is rough.
CULVER: Absolutely. This vessel has the capability of almost walking sideways, which you could never obtain with a single propeller, or even double propeller. You can maneuver a vessel, but not as well as the jet-driven vessel here that we can actually walk sideways and spin on an axis, much tighter radius than any other.
COLBY: I'm hanging on. Maybe we can see a little spinning action.
CULVER: Go ahead.
COLBY: And also it has some other toys too. It's got...
CULVER: We have a thermal imaging camera, which assists us to take a look at things at night, we have a 958 Northstar navigation system, which is an integrated radar, GPS and charting system.
COLBY: And, Fredricka, they're keeping a really close watch on bridges this weekend, also around the monuments, looking for any suspicious boats. Just basically, minding the waters because of the fleet week, there are extra large crowds in the city. Have you had any incidents yet this weekend, or things have been pretty calm?
CULVER: Things have been pretty calm. And maybe due to the weather helping us out in that situation, but this week, everything's been fine.
COLBY: So the Moose just hit the water this week. Are you pretty excited about it? It's a first, isn't it?
CULVER: That's right. We just took delivery on this vessel this week, and we feel that this is going to be the forefront of future vessels that we're going to obtain. A nice catamaran, jet-driven boat that we think is going to be very durable. COLBY: And really, the goal, Fred, would be for prevention, keeping an eye on things. It's very fast, it can get to one of the sites if you get a report. The navigation system, I thought, is very high tech.
CULVER: Right.
COLBY: But also, in the event of a disaster, particularly a plane crash, this vessel keeps an eye on the JFK Waterway as well?
CULVER: Absolutely, the U.S. Park Police patrols the waters in Jamaica Bay, off of JFK Airport, and we do have the capability of getting into a foot of water and operating this vessel with the jet drives. We wouldn't be able to do it with a propeller. And we can beach this vessel, and still the jet drives can be reversed and we could be off and running.
COLBY: And so we are, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Well, that's some ride, indeed. I'm feeling seasick about now. Thanks a lot, Jamie.
Well, as beach season kicks off this weekend, some will head for the coast to swim, surf, or soak up the sun, of course. But serious beach combers go to the shore to treasure hunt and do some serious scientific research as well. Joining us now from Seattle, oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer is joining us, perhaps better known as the Big Kahuna of Beachcombers. How are you doing out there?
CURTIS EBBESMEYER, OCEANOGRAPHER: Fine, hi, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Well, hello. Well, how did you begin tracking spilled ocean cargo out there? We're not talking about just the stuff that washes up on the shores, but the big stuff.
EBBESMEYER: Well, the big stuff, you should listen to what your mom asked you. And as an oceanographer, she always asked me what I do, and it's hard to explain. And then these Nike shoes started washing up, this is not the exact one, but a shoe like this in 1990, and she says, well, isn't that what you do? And I said, well, not exactly, but I'll look into it. And I started tracking all kinds of things that floated in the ocean, including shoes, and ...
WHITFIELD: So shoes were just really the start of it? I mean, when you see beachcombers out there, sometimes you know they're looking for people who have lost their jewelry or interesting trinkets like that. But you've found an incredible variety of stuff, not just shoes. What else have you found?
EBBESMEYER: Well, right now, we have the event of the century going on, the Pacific Ocean currents are rearranging themselves, and we have the jewels of the Pacific, these glass fishing floats that are washing up. And we have floats from 50 years ago washing up on the beach.
WHITFIELD: So how do you explain a lot of this stuff ending up in our oceans there? Are people intentionally dumping them, or is this accidental?
EBBESMEYER: Well, it's mostly accidental. Like this glass fishing float was lost from a fishing net, probably 20, 30 years ago. The fisherman just lost the net probably in a storm. This Nike shoe fell overboard from a container ship. There were 33,000 of these, and they just float along. This shoe is -- if you put your finger it in, it has it, and it's still wearable after three months in the ocean.
WHITFIELD:: Wow. What kind of danger do some of these items present to the marine life?
EBBESMEYER: Well, that's a good question. Nobody really knows. People study oil spills, but the danger of it that the shoe poses to marine life is not really known. So that's something I'm always trying to figure out.
WHITFIELD: Well, most of us have been led to believe that oil spills have got to be among the most dangerous types of contaminants to the ocean, to the marine life. But, in fact, plastics are just as serious. Why is that?
EBBESMEYER: Well, that's a really good question. You have oil, which is basically biodegradable, bacteria will eventually eat it and it will go away, whereas plastic, it disintegrates, but the plastic molecules never go away. So you can take a piece of plastic and break it down and break it down and break it down, but the plastic molecules will never go away. And what I'm afraid of is they're getting into the food chain and coming back up into the food we eat from the ocean. So oil goes away, but plastic does not.
WHITFIELD: Now, part of the science of studying the types of contaminants that end up in the ocean also involves studying the currents. Why is this so impactful, so important when you try to understand the science of all the stuff that ends up in the ocean?
EBBESMEYER: Well, it's a really good question. Where the ocean currents carry flotsam is carrying contaminants is very poorly known. And what we have going on right now is pollutants from 50 years ago washing up. Well, that goes back to World War II, and what we do find is that medical supplies from World War II are still washing up. And so it's -- there are some dangerous things on the beach, and the idea that you can have contaminants from 50 years ago affecting us now is a new idea, and we need to understand the currents a lot better and how they store up contaminants offshore, and then when the winds are right, the winds blow the contaminants on shore.
WHITFIELD: So you're the big kahuna when it comes to this beachcombing, but you're not alone in this scientific search, are you?
EBBESMEYER: No, I'm really kind of the little gnome in the basement that collects all the stories. I have a little network of 1,000 beachcombers around the world that send in stories. And I go out on the beach too, but they're the -- the beachcombers are really the eyes and the ears of the ocean.
WHITFIELD: All right. Oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer, thanks very much for -- boy, that's a mouthful -- thanks for joining us.
EBBESMEYER: Thanks, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Look forward to seeing you again.
Well, still to come on NEXT@CNN, would the skies be safer if you had an airbag for a seat mate? Some airlines seem to think so.
And could something this cute little thing right there have possibly started the SARS epidemic? Well, those stories and more when NEXT@CNN returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Taking a look now at some stories on our beat. Researchers in Hong Kong say they've found evidence of the SARS virus in some small mammals, including the civet cat. The (UNINTELLIGIBLE) civet, related to a mongoose or some know it as the Himalayan, is eaten by some Chinese, but the World Health Organization is not sure there's a connection between the animals, tested at the outdoor market, and the human version of the disease. They say it's also possible the animals got the disease from humans, or from other animals.
The plan by the Pentagon to examine financial records, medical information and other databases to predict terror plots has a new name. Once known as the Total Information Awareness, the acronym TIA, now stands for Terrorism Information Awareness. The data mining effort is being developed to pick up suspicious patterns of behavior, but critics from both the right and the left want to keep a tight reign on the surveillance system, saying too much information in the wrong hands can easily lead to false alarms and ruined reputations.
There's a new Napster in the works. Software maker Roxio, the company that owns the currently defunct Napster brand has bought the online music service Pressplay. Pressplay was an early subscription online music service, and a huge disappointment to its owners, music giants Universal and Sony. It's believed the new incarnation of Napster will be a Windows-based alternative to Apple's new pay-per- download music service.
Are those frequent flyer miles piling up with no vacation in sight? Well, online auction giant Ebay has a new way to cash in on those miles, and other points issued by hotels and phone companies. Bidders can now enroll in a program called "Ebay anything points" to convert them to cash to make auction purchases. Sprint, Hilton Hotels, McAfee Security, American Airlines and Points.com are now part of that program.
We've heard how airbags save lives in car crashes. Right? Well, now some airlines say airbags could also be lifesavers in plane crashes. But as CNN's Patty Davis reports, the price tag may be too high for the financially troubled industry.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It looked unsurvivable. But nearly two-thirds of the people on this United Flight did survive when it crash landed in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1989. Some say even more might have lived if the plane had passenger airbags.
LARRY WILLIAMS, AMSAFE AVIATION: It would help prevent some of those head and neck injuries and increase the probability of people being able to get themselves off of the airplane.
DAVIS: Nearly 96 percent of passengers survive commercial airline accidents. The key, staying conscious and getting out, especially if there's a post-crash fire. Airbags could help passengers stay conscious.
WILLIAMS: So when you're wearing the system, the air bag comes out this way and deploys in front of you.
DAVIS: They're meant to increase the odds that passengers can walk away from survivable crashes, not catastrophic once.
Safety experts say the air bags are a good idea, but question whether they're a prudent investment at $1,000 per seat.
PETER GOELZ, FMR. NTSB MANAGING DIR.: If every seat had them in a crash on landing it probably would be helpful. But the question is should you expend you know what would be $100,000-plus per aircraft? Is that the wisest expense of your safety dollar? Probably it isn't.
DAVIS: Federal crash investigator do not consider airplane airbags a top priority for needed safety improvements. So far, 10 mostly overseas carriers including a few Virgin Atlantic planes have air bags, but only in bulkhead seats where there's a wall passengers could hit.
Although studies show the airbags cut head injuries, there hasn't yet been an actual accident putting them to the test.
(on camera): No major U.S. carriers have them, but the U.S. military is so convinced airbags are lifesavers, it's putting them in their Black Hawk helicopters to protect the pilots.
Patty Davis, CNN, at Reagan National Airport.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, coming up in the next half hour of NEXT@CNN, EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman is packing her bags. We'll hear two different opinions on the Bush administration policies that may have contributed to her departure.
And we'll get the lowdown on the best places to park your beach umbrella. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: Hello, I'm Fredricka Whitfield at the CNN center in Atlanta. More of NEXT@CNN straight ahead. But first, here's what's happening at this hour.
(NEWSBREAK)
WHITFIELD: When she was governor of New Jersey, Christy Whitman sued the environmental protection agency, calling for stronger enforcement of air pollution laws. When Whitman was later named the head of the EPA she became the defendant in the very same lawsuit. For an administration poised to rollback some environmental legislation, nobody said it would be easy and this week Whitman announced her resignation. Jerry Taylor of the Cato Institute and Phil Clapp of the National Environmental Trust join to us look at how the Bush administration is dealing with the environment.
Good to see both of you. Phil, let's begin with you. When you heard the announcement you said, quote, "No EPA administrator has never been so humiliated by the White House." What do you mean by that?
PHIL CLAPP, NATL. ENVIRONMENTAL TRUST: Well, from the very first day that administrator Whitman walked in the door, she merely restated the president's position on cleaning up air pollution and the air pollution that causes global warming and the White House just completely left her -- hung her out to dry and walked away from its campaign promise. And then on the very day that she announced her resignation, she had said that the Department of Defense really didn't need to be exempted from environmental laws, that there was no impact on military readiness or training, and that very day, the Defense Department and the administration were up on the Hill getting environmental laws rolled back for the Defense Department. So, from beginning to end, she was in conflict with the White House.
WHITFIELD: Now, Jerry, Whitman says in her resignation letter, that she is, quote, "Leaving America's air cleaner, its water purer, and land better protected." You agree with that?
JERRY TAYLOR, CATO INSTITUTE: Well, it's factually true for the most part. If you look at air quality trends or water quality trends, you'll find that they've been improving under the Bush administration, as they improved in the -- during the Clinton administration, as they improved during the first Bush administration, as they improved the Reagan administration. Air quality, water quality, environmental quality across the board in the United States does continue to improve.
WHITFIELD: So, should a replacement be an exact replica of Whitman?
TAYLOR: Well, I don't think so. Christy Todd Whitman was very -- was a reasonably capable manager of the regulatory in-box. For every decision she made that environmentalists can complain about, she also made decisions that environmentalists probably would cheer. For instance, she issued a rule to control the pollution from diesel vehicles, which the NRDC, a major environmental group here in Washington, called the biggest regulatory improvement in the environment in over a decade. She announced a cleanup of Hudson -- of the Hudson River, went -- very expensive, multibillion dollar project. She did a lot of things that I think would be characterized as balanced.
But, my complaint is that Christy Todd Whitman was not a particularly visionary person. Michael Powell is the kind of model, I think, that we need to look at for these regulatory agencies. He knows what he wants to do in his agency. He's trying to pursue an agenda, he's a spokesman, he's a thinker. EPA is mired in 1970's and 1980's command and control regulation that few academics support and I think what we need is a breath of fresh air and somebody who can provide vision for the republican party about how best to protect the environment in a manner that is distinct from democrats and that's what George Bush ought to look for in his next administrator.
WHITFIELD: Well, Phil who and what do you want to see in a successor of Whitman?
CLAPP: Well, the next administrator of the EPA, you know, ought to be someone who's a little more independent of the regulated industries than this White House seems to be. The big danger, of course, I can't see that this administration is going to appoint anybody to EPA that really intends to make any policy there. What they're going to be looking for is a campaign spokesperson to put a happy face on things like rolling back air pollution regulations, rolling back clean water protections, and stopping the cleanup of toxic waste sites all over the country. Which...
(CROSSTALK)
WHITFIELD: But, already, are you seeing a black eye for the Bush administration that Whitman would step down?
CLAPP: Well, I think Christie Whitman took the first off ramp she could take without publicly saying I disagree with this administration and I really can't stand by with their environmental policies. She stepped down at the time when the White House started telling senior administration officials, look, if you stay past July, we plan for you to stay until after the 2004 election, because the president has to have a team in place throughout the election period. So she took that opportunity to say, okay, I've had enough of this. I can't take it anymore. I'm out of here.
WHITFIELD: But, had she not already said she didn't have conflicts with the Bush administration?
CLAPP: Yes and she's said that repeatedly and she's a very loyal soldier for the president, she's very close to him and she is very loyal to him. And you can't fault her for that, but the other side of the coin is that the record is that on issue after issue after issue, she was publicly at odds with the administration. I mean, to give you one example, the Superfund program, cleaning up toxic waste sites all over the country, as governor of New Jersey, she was a very strong supporter of that program, many sites were cleaned up. When she became administrator of EPA, the president walked away from the program, ended the tax on the polluting companies that created the toxic waste in the first place.
WHITFIELD: Jerry, let me bring you in on this one. Do you see a real contradiction here? She had no conflict with the Bush administration, then isn't there a major contradiction that she's stepping down? What's the problem, really?
TAYLOR: Well, maybe she just wants to spend more time with her family, who knows? I mean, I can't read her mind.
WHITFIELD: Well, that seems to be the safe excuse. But, it really has to be deeper than that. It's a huge responsibility, a huge undertaking. Her criticism, from the very start, was very severe. And yet, now she's a part of what was supposed to be part of the solution and now it's part of, now, a new problem, finding the right replacement.
TAYLOR: Well, again, I am not an insider, have no idea what the dynamic was and why she made the decision she made. But I don't think that's quite as important as the fact that this administration, I agree with Phil Clapp, needs a better spokesman on the environment. Let me give you two examples.
The environmentalists have been arguing that Bush is trying to rollback clean air regulations, yet he's proposed legislation. The "Clear Skies Plan," to reduce emissions by three quarters, 75%, for three major pollutants -- nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, and mercury. That is a huge tightening of clean air rules and somehow it's been characterized as a rollback bill that -- that's a mystery to me how that's happened. And on the Superfund program, again, Phil mentions that the administration walked away from it. No, it didn't, the Superfund program's still in place, it's still cleaning up hazardous waste sites, it hasn't gone away, nobody abolished it. And this administration has done, I think, a very poor job defending itself against these mischaracterizations. So yes, I agree with Phil, they need a better spokesperson.
WHITFIELD: All right, thanks very much. Phil Clapp of the National Environmental Trust and Jerry Taylor, of the Cato Institute. Thanks very much to both of you.
CLAPP: Thank you.
TAYLOR: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: Well, coming up, as NEXT@CNN continues, space station crewmen talk about their rough ride as they returned to earth in the Soyuz spacecraft earlier this month. And, we'll tell you about a celestial neighbor we never knew he had until now. Those stories and more, stay with us
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD (voice-over): Every fall, millions of monarch butterflies leave North America and travel 2,000 miles to winter on specific mountain ridges in central Mexico. Since the 1970s, scientists have known about these amazingly precise migrations. What they haven't known is how the monarchs find the very same destination year after year. A study in the journal "Science" finds monarchs rely on the combination of sun and their own internal clocks. Researchers are fairly certain monarchs use the sun as a compass to navigate.
But as the sun shifts slightly in the sky everyday, monarchs use their circadian or internal clocks to adjust to the shift and stay on course. Studying monarchs, researchers found when they changed the daily life cycle, for example making the dark during the day and light at night, it disrupted the monarch's natural clock and they got lost, they couldn't orient to Mexico. Understanding this relationship will help scientists better understand patterns of other migrating animals like songbirds that make even longer journeys every year.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, checking some NEXT news headlines, as the world caviar trade shifts away from the Caspian Sea, which has been in a decline for nearly a decade now, fisheries in the U.S. and Canada can't keep up with the demand. According to a new report from the World Wildlife Fund, the situation is leading to increased poaching of paddle fish and sturgeon in North America. The study says poaching could have significant impact on several species, including some on the endangered list.
Mother Nature may be stepping up the storms this hurricane season. Government forecasters say there is a high likelihood the season will be busier than usual this year. They're predicting 11 to 15 tropical storms, 6 to 9 of them expecting to become hurricanes. Wind conditions, warmer waters in the Atlantic and the likely La Nina conditions, this year, are factored into the predictions. Hurricane season is June 1 through November 30.
Our closest star is the sun, but what about others in the stellar neighborhood? If you're riding a beam of light you could get to Alpha Centauri in about four years, two more, and you arrive at Barnard's star. But, NASA researchers have discovered they were wrong about the third closest stellar neighbor. The astronomers were looking for distant starts last fall, when the just happened upon a dim red dwarf star, only about 7.8 light years away. They never noticed it before because it shines 300,000 times more faintly than the sun.
Finally, what if there were little green men on mars looking at us through their telescopes? Well, we now know what the view is like, thanks to NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, currently in orbit around the red planet. It's the first time ever snapshot of earth from mars.
The Russian space agency is expected to release a report soon on why the capsule that brought space station crewmembers to earth, earlier this month, missed its landing target by about 300 miles. CNN space correspondent Miles O'Brien has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a rough ride for the crew and for those who were waiting for them on the ground.
KENNETH BOWERSOX, EXPEDITION SIX COMMANDER: The -- coming home on a space shuttle is a lot like taking an hour and a half flight on an airliner, whereas the Soyuz is a little more like coming in in a meteor and ended up with a parachute drop, but it was a lot of fun.
O'BRIEN: Astronaut, Ken Bowersox and his space station crew mates, Don Pettit and Nikolai Budarin, got more fun than they bargained for when their Soyuz spacecraft plummeted to earth at a steeper angle than desired. A so-called ballistic reentry.
ANATOLY ZAK, RUSSIANSPACEWEB.COM: While, when you have a ballistic reentry, you essentially reentry like -- pretty much like a stone falling down to the ground. So, you obviously have much higher loads, which we what is it -- call G-loads.
DON PETTIT, EXPEDITION SIX CREW: We were around 8.2g, so you wake quite a bit during that phase, however, you're in this couch, it's form fit to your body.
O'BRIEN: That's eight times the earth's normal gravity. They landed safe and sound about 300 miles short of the bull's eye. For two and a half excruciating hours, no one knew where the crew and capsule were, reminding many of the day Columbia crashed.
SEAN O'KEEFE, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: It was just no communication at all. We lost communication about 16 minutes before the Soyuz capsule reentered and was ready to land.
O'BRIEN (on camera): So what happened? The Russian space agency first blamed the crew, but an on-board voice recorder exonerated them. Engineers now believe a crucial computer that determines the capsule's position and commands thrusters to insure it stays on course, inexplicably, reverted to a backup mode, but so far they've been unable to recreate the problem on the ground.
ZAK: It is possible in technology like that, but we'll never know the exact cause.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): Which begs a question? An identical Soyuz is docked at the space station and with the shuttle fleet grounded; it is the only way home for the two-man crew. Will the Russians and NASA be feel safe allowing them to take such a precipitous ride without knowing what caused the Soyuz to drop like a speeding bullet on May 4.
O'KEEFE: We'll see what the investigation comes up with and the fixes that are going to be suggested in order to make sure that hits the landing zone next time around without this kind of vaguely around what the landing mode will be.
O'BRIEN: Soyuz spacecraft have been flying to orbit for more than three decades. They have dropped ballistically at least three times before, including the first flight in 1967. The cosmonaut on that problem plagued flight was killed when his parachute failed to deploy. In 1971, three cosmonauts died during a Soyuz reentry, an open valve drained the cabin of air. There have been lots of other close calls, off-course landings, tumbling capsules, a dunk in an icy lake, and launch pad aborts, but through it all, statistically, the Soyuz has been safer than the space shuttle.
BOWERSOX: The Soyuz landing was tremendous experience. I'm so glad that I had a chance to do it.
O'BRIEN: And everyone is glad they're here to tell the tale. Miles O'Brien, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, it is Memorial Day weekend and we know you know that. Time for the annual rush to the chore -- shore, that is. We'll tell you what's at the top of this year's list of America's best beaches when we come right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: That should put you in the mood. Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start -- or the unofficial start of summer and beach season for many Americans. Another annual event is the list by Stephen Leatherman, also known as "Dr. Beach," ranking the top ten beaches in the country. He a professor at Florida International University in Miami and he joins us now from beach No. 9 on his list, Cape Florida State Park.
Well, good to see you, Dr. Beach, too bad you couldn't make it to the No. 1 -- your No. 1 beach pick Kaanapali in Maui.
STEPHEN LEATHERMAN, "DR. BEACH": Well, that's right. Kaanapali, a great beach, but I just didn't have a ticket today for Hawaii, so here we are on a great beach anyway.
WHITFIELD: Okay, so let's go through your list. We know that your No. 1 beach is in Maui. And, why is that?
LEATHERMAN: Well, this is a beautiful beach with emerald green water, white coral sand, palm trees, overlooking the Isle of Lanai, where the mountains meet the sea. What can I tell you? Fantastic.
WHITFIELD: All right, your numbers two, three, four and five are?
LEATHERMAN: OK. Ft. DeSoto Park in the St. Petersburg area, a park with five beaches and an old fort. Lovely area and sort of the on mouth of Tampa Bay. And then
No. 3 is Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, part of the famous Outer Banks. Where Black Beard use to stomp around. 15 mile long beach, beautiful place to go to.
And then No. 4, Hanalei Bay this in the Isle of Kauai, Hawaii, where they shot Blue Pacific -- "South Pacific," rather, so you know what that looks like. A beautiful, white crescent sand beach, emerald green water. What can I tell you? The beach is anchored by mountain ranges. What a place. So, No. 5, Caladesi Island State Park and that's in Clearwater. White sand beach, crystal clear water. Don't go there for surfing, classy, but great for swimming.
WHITFIELD: Wow. And then your bottom five, finding your way back to Hawaii again, and then in Florida, and even in North Carolina, I believe, right?
LEATHERMAN: That's correct. We have East Hampton on the east end of Long Island No. 6, another beach on Hawaii called Makalawena Beach which is on the big island, and then Hanauma Bay in Awahu, No. 8, that's where you swim with the fish. This is beach inside a volcanic crater, if you can imagine that. And, No. 9, we're here right now, Cape Florida, and No. 10, Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, fantastic area for -- for where the famous lighthouse is located.
WHITFIELD: Now, I think it's hard to believe that one of the top beaches would be right there on Long Island, of course, the folks in Long Island or who frequent the Hamptons would say "rah-rah" to all that. But, do you usually look for beaches that have kind of this with powdery white sand, you're looking for certain qualities about the water. What was it about the Hamptons or at least this one Hampton beach that appealed to you?
LEATHERMAN: Well, the Hamptons, yes. It's the finer the sand the better, the whiter the sand the better, but East Hampton, if you go there to the east end, 300 foot wide beaches, sand is 30, 40 feet high. It's magical., I mean, okay, it doesn't have the finer sand, but it's got all these other qualities that you have to see it to believe it, really. It's a world famous beach, the Hamptons.
WHITFIELD: Wow. Now, any real repeats you're seeing on this year's top ten, compared to last year's top ten? You always seem to have Hawaii in there somehow.
LEATHERMAN: Well, yeah, Hawaii and Florida do very well. But, this year, for the first time, we have two beaches from North Carolina. So I guess they got something to be really pleased about and, of course, otherwise, Hawaii is sort of at the top of the list. Florida does very well, include this beach we're here at in Cape Florida, today.
WHITFIELD: All right, Dr. Beach, you've got the gig. Stephen Leatherman, thanks very much. And of course, there's a new survival guide out, now, on book stands, your "Dr. Beach's Survival Guide." You got a copy of it, I got a copy of it. A must have, good beach read this summer. Thanks very much.
LEATHERMAN: My pleasure.
WHITFIELD: Now, I can't wait to get to the beach, at least one of those top ten, any one will do for me.
Well, that's all we have time for today. But, we'll be back tomorrow at 5:00 Eastern time, 2:00 p.m. Pacific with another edition of NEXT@CNN. Among our stories, will scientists ever be able to predict devastating earth quakes like this week's in Algeria? We'll talk with one researcher who's working on it. Hope you'll be watching.
And thanks for joining us today. Straight ahead, right here on CNN, join me for "CNN Live Saturday" coming up at the top of the hour with a look at the just approved tax cut and what it means for you. That's followed by "People in the News" with profiles of Melissa Etheridge and Margaret Cho at 5:00 Eastern time.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Whitman's Successor; Dr. Beach Previews America's Best Beaches>
Aired May 24, 2003 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: NEXT@CNN begins right now. It is Saturday, may 24. Here at NEXT@CNN, coming up this hour, imagine a nuclear blast one-third the size of the Hiroshima bomb. The U.S. could resume research into building such a weapon. We'll get former Senator Sam Nunn to take on that.
The Bush administration is shopping for a new environmental protection chief. We'll host a debate over the policies that may have contributed to the departure of the current head.
And as vacation season gears up, we'll tell you where you might want to take your flip-flops and sunscreen. The man known as Dr. Beach gives us this year's list of America's best beaches.
With nuclear weapons at the top of the everyone's minds here -- here we go, the U.S. may soon be at least looking into a return to the bomb building business. In the wake of a Senate vote this week, Congress is poised to lift the longstanding ban on research into low- yield nuclear weapons. And here to talk with us about these so-called mini nukes and other nuclear weapons issues is former Senator Sam Nunn, and he was the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee and is now co-chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a group that works to reduce the global threat of weapons of mass destruction.
And in the spirit of full disclosure, we should say that the other co-chairman is CNN founder Ted Turner. And thanks very much, Senator Nunn, for joining us.
SAM NUNN, NUCLEAR THREAT INITIATIVE: Thank you, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. So this initiative, appropriations bill is now making its way through Congress, in which to restart research for these mini nukes, low-yield. What does this mean?
NUNN: Well, I think the signal we're sending to the world is probably not one we intend to send. The signal is that the greatest conventional military power on the face of the Earth, most accuracy, the most highly trained military forces, all of that needs to have further nuclear -- possibly have further nuclear tests. I think that's an unfortunate symbol. I've never tried to prohibit anyone from studying something, and that's what the administration says they want to do, but the world has a different perception. And the thing we have to keep in mind is that the cooperation we must have in terms of world partnerships is the most essential cooperation that would prevent the most likely threat, and that is, keeping weapons and materials out of the hands of terrorist groups. And for that, we need world cooperation.
WHITFIELD: But isn't a message being sent that if you're going to continue with research, and you're not necessarily encouraging, there will be a further development, doesn't research usually precede development?
NUNN: It does. It does. But the good news is, though, the Congress made it clear that any -- going beyond research, going to development would require a specific congressional authorization and perhaps even a repeal of the law, depending on the House version and the Senate version.
So I think clearly we're going to have a lot of debate, and we're not about to move into development of a new nuclear weapon. We've tested more than anyone on the face of the Earth and we have more nuclear weapons than anyone on the face of the Earth. And most people that I've talked to believe that we have a better chance of using conventional weapons with our high accuracy and putting one weapon on top of another to penetrate to get down to a possible storage facility than we do to develop a nuclear weapon that we could blast it out without having the kind of collateral yield that would be unacceptable to any president of the United States.
WHITFIELD: Is there concern that you have, however, that while the U.S. continues its search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, that perhaps now a mixed message is being sent to the world's community as the U.S. now tries to push for the restarting of any research of mini nukes, if they will be called?
NUNN: I am concerned about that symbol. The administration is very good at symbolism in this country, but the administration hasn't yet, in my view, gotten its balance in terms of the signals we send abroad. And the thing that we have to keep in mind, there are three mega dangers to the American people today. And one is keeping weapons of mass destruction and materials, nuclear materials, biological and chemical, out of the hands of terrorist groups. That's number one. Number two is doing something about tactical nuclear weapons, which can be stolen, they are small, or which could be sold. And number three is dealing with the question of accidental war, which requires U.S./Russia cooperation. The danger of an all-out war has gone down dramatically, but the danger of an accidental war has gone up.
WHITFIELD: And why is that? There is some very significant concern between U.S. and Russian relations, as we talk about this accidental going off of any kind of nuclear weapon.
NUNN: Three quick reasons. The Russians have had tremendous economic and social problems. They have continued to have a hair trigger -- we have also -- readiness to launch in a very short period of time, nuclear weapons that could basically change the whole world.
The second is the economic pressures on Russia have caused their satellites and their radars to go down, their early warning system has gone down, while their hair trigger remains.
And third, they have less survivable forces now, meaning that if they think they might be under attack or if a radar gives a wrong signal, or if they get no signal and they think they may be under attack, they are likely to launch very promptly, because they may not have anything left if they haven't attacked by the United States.
Now, we're not going to attack them and they know that. So I don't want to overdramatize this, but we've all heard about the perfect storm. If you combine all of those ingredients, the chances of an accidental war have gone up since the Cold War, even though the chances of a deliberate war have gone down.
WHITFIELD: You said they know that, but do they really know that? Is it still expected that this is going to be a focal point of discussion between Bush and Putin next week at the G-8 summit in France?
NUNN: Well, there are two great opportunities to deal with this. President Bush and President Putin should talk about this accidental possibility. And as the Rand report that we released this week points out, there are lots of ways the U.S. and Russia could deal with that.
The second big opportunity of dealing with this overall material problem with nuclear materials equivalent of 60,000 weapons still not being properly safeguarded in the former Soviet Union is to get the G- 8, the prosperous, industrial countries that will be meeting right after the Bush/Putin summit to come up with the money that they pledged last year. They all pledged to match the United States. We're doing a lot in this regard. We call it 10 plus 10 over 10. That's $20 billion over 10 years. A billion from the U.S. each year, a billion from our European allies. But we've got to make sure the Europeans and the United States fulfill the pledge, because that money is absolutely the minimum amount to deal with this problem of keeping the most dangerous materials out of the most dangerous hands.
WHITFIELD: All right, former Senator Sam Nunn, always good to see you. Thanks very much.
Well, still ahead on NEXT@CNN, a new kind of moose that is helping to protect New York's harbor this Memorial Day weekend. And these shoes were made for floating, apparently. Some of the darnedest things wash up on coastlines these days. We'll talk with the guy whose mission is to keep track of them.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: This week, a moose was spotted in New York harbor. Sort of. This moose has no antlers and it isn't paired up with a flying squirrel. It's a boat that can make this busy tourist destination a safer place. Jamie Colby is joining us now from the choppy waters of the New York harbor. Hi, Jamie.
JAMIE COLBY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, this high-speed, high-tech vessel is the newest member of the U.S. Park Police counter- terrorism fleet. This weekend, it's keeping an eye on national monuments like Lady Liberty and Ellis Island, behind me.
And right now, Officer Pete Culver is here to tell us what makes the Moose so special. What does make it so special?
OFFICER PETE CULVER, U.S. PARK POLICE: Jamie, this vessel is really special because of its maneuverability capabilities. We're powered by twin turbo diesels, Cummings (ph), 370 horse powers a piece, which are linked to 292 Hamilton jet drives, which make this vessel maneuver like a giant jet ski.
COLBY: So it's water propelled? It doesn't have a propeller, essentially, like you said a jet ski?
CULVER: Exactly, it is water-propelled, it has no conventional propeller like a conventional boat. And we're working on a catamaran style hull, which gives us a nice, stable platform.
COLBY: And Fredricka, the reason that that's important is on search and recovery missions, they can get with the Moose into areas that other boats can't. If you go in as little as one foot of water, and it also has maneuverability that lets it move from side to side and the catamaran base keeps it pretty steady even if the water is rough.
CULVER: Absolutely. This vessel has the capability of almost walking sideways, which you could never obtain with a single propeller, or even double propeller. You can maneuver a vessel, but not as well as the jet-driven vessel here that we can actually walk sideways and spin on an axis, much tighter radius than any other.
COLBY: I'm hanging on. Maybe we can see a little spinning action.
CULVER: Go ahead.
COLBY: And also it has some other toys too. It's got...
CULVER: We have a thermal imaging camera, which assists us to take a look at things at night, we have a 958 Northstar navigation system, which is an integrated radar, GPS and charting system.
COLBY: And, Fredricka, they're keeping a really close watch on bridges this weekend, also around the monuments, looking for any suspicious boats. Just basically, minding the waters because of the fleet week, there are extra large crowds in the city. Have you had any incidents yet this weekend, or things have been pretty calm?
CULVER: Things have been pretty calm. And maybe due to the weather helping us out in that situation, but this week, everything's been fine.
COLBY: So the Moose just hit the water this week. Are you pretty excited about it? It's a first, isn't it?
CULVER: That's right. We just took delivery on this vessel this week, and we feel that this is going to be the forefront of future vessels that we're going to obtain. A nice catamaran, jet-driven boat that we think is going to be very durable. COLBY: And really, the goal, Fred, would be for prevention, keeping an eye on things. It's very fast, it can get to one of the sites if you get a report. The navigation system, I thought, is very high tech.
CULVER: Right.
COLBY: But also, in the event of a disaster, particularly a plane crash, this vessel keeps an eye on the JFK Waterway as well?
CULVER: Absolutely, the U.S. Park Police patrols the waters in Jamaica Bay, off of JFK Airport, and we do have the capability of getting into a foot of water and operating this vessel with the jet drives. We wouldn't be able to do it with a propeller. And we can beach this vessel, and still the jet drives can be reversed and we could be off and running.
COLBY: And so we are, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Well, that's some ride, indeed. I'm feeling seasick about now. Thanks a lot, Jamie.
Well, as beach season kicks off this weekend, some will head for the coast to swim, surf, or soak up the sun, of course. But serious beach combers go to the shore to treasure hunt and do some serious scientific research as well. Joining us now from Seattle, oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer is joining us, perhaps better known as the Big Kahuna of Beachcombers. How are you doing out there?
CURTIS EBBESMEYER, OCEANOGRAPHER: Fine, hi, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Well, hello. Well, how did you begin tracking spilled ocean cargo out there? We're not talking about just the stuff that washes up on the shores, but the big stuff.
EBBESMEYER: Well, the big stuff, you should listen to what your mom asked you. And as an oceanographer, she always asked me what I do, and it's hard to explain. And then these Nike shoes started washing up, this is not the exact one, but a shoe like this in 1990, and she says, well, isn't that what you do? And I said, well, not exactly, but I'll look into it. And I started tracking all kinds of things that floated in the ocean, including shoes, and ...
WHITFIELD: So shoes were just really the start of it? I mean, when you see beachcombers out there, sometimes you know they're looking for people who have lost their jewelry or interesting trinkets like that. But you've found an incredible variety of stuff, not just shoes. What else have you found?
EBBESMEYER: Well, right now, we have the event of the century going on, the Pacific Ocean currents are rearranging themselves, and we have the jewels of the Pacific, these glass fishing floats that are washing up. And we have floats from 50 years ago washing up on the beach.
WHITFIELD: So how do you explain a lot of this stuff ending up in our oceans there? Are people intentionally dumping them, or is this accidental?
EBBESMEYER: Well, it's mostly accidental. Like this glass fishing float was lost from a fishing net, probably 20, 30 years ago. The fisherman just lost the net probably in a storm. This Nike shoe fell overboard from a container ship. There were 33,000 of these, and they just float along. This shoe is -- if you put your finger it in, it has it, and it's still wearable after three months in the ocean.
WHITFIELD:: Wow. What kind of danger do some of these items present to the marine life?
EBBESMEYER: Well, that's a good question. Nobody really knows. People study oil spills, but the danger of it that the shoe poses to marine life is not really known. So that's something I'm always trying to figure out.
WHITFIELD: Well, most of us have been led to believe that oil spills have got to be among the most dangerous types of contaminants to the ocean, to the marine life. But, in fact, plastics are just as serious. Why is that?
EBBESMEYER: Well, that's a really good question. You have oil, which is basically biodegradable, bacteria will eventually eat it and it will go away, whereas plastic, it disintegrates, but the plastic molecules never go away. So you can take a piece of plastic and break it down and break it down and break it down, but the plastic molecules will never go away. And what I'm afraid of is they're getting into the food chain and coming back up into the food we eat from the ocean. So oil goes away, but plastic does not.
WHITFIELD: Now, part of the science of studying the types of contaminants that end up in the ocean also involves studying the currents. Why is this so impactful, so important when you try to understand the science of all the stuff that ends up in the ocean?
EBBESMEYER: Well, it's a really good question. Where the ocean currents carry flotsam is carrying contaminants is very poorly known. And what we have going on right now is pollutants from 50 years ago washing up. Well, that goes back to World War II, and what we do find is that medical supplies from World War II are still washing up. And so it's -- there are some dangerous things on the beach, and the idea that you can have contaminants from 50 years ago affecting us now is a new idea, and we need to understand the currents a lot better and how they store up contaminants offshore, and then when the winds are right, the winds blow the contaminants on shore.
WHITFIELD: So you're the big kahuna when it comes to this beachcombing, but you're not alone in this scientific search, are you?
EBBESMEYER: No, I'm really kind of the little gnome in the basement that collects all the stories. I have a little network of 1,000 beachcombers around the world that send in stories. And I go out on the beach too, but they're the -- the beachcombers are really the eyes and the ears of the ocean.
WHITFIELD: All right. Oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer, thanks very much for -- boy, that's a mouthful -- thanks for joining us.
EBBESMEYER: Thanks, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Look forward to seeing you again.
Well, still to come on NEXT@CNN, would the skies be safer if you had an airbag for a seat mate? Some airlines seem to think so.
And could something this cute little thing right there have possibly started the SARS epidemic? Well, those stories and more when NEXT@CNN returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Taking a look now at some stories on our beat. Researchers in Hong Kong say they've found evidence of the SARS virus in some small mammals, including the civet cat. The (UNINTELLIGIBLE) civet, related to a mongoose or some know it as the Himalayan, is eaten by some Chinese, but the World Health Organization is not sure there's a connection between the animals, tested at the outdoor market, and the human version of the disease. They say it's also possible the animals got the disease from humans, or from other animals.
The plan by the Pentagon to examine financial records, medical information and other databases to predict terror plots has a new name. Once known as the Total Information Awareness, the acronym TIA, now stands for Terrorism Information Awareness. The data mining effort is being developed to pick up suspicious patterns of behavior, but critics from both the right and the left want to keep a tight reign on the surveillance system, saying too much information in the wrong hands can easily lead to false alarms and ruined reputations.
There's a new Napster in the works. Software maker Roxio, the company that owns the currently defunct Napster brand has bought the online music service Pressplay. Pressplay was an early subscription online music service, and a huge disappointment to its owners, music giants Universal and Sony. It's believed the new incarnation of Napster will be a Windows-based alternative to Apple's new pay-per- download music service.
Are those frequent flyer miles piling up with no vacation in sight? Well, online auction giant Ebay has a new way to cash in on those miles, and other points issued by hotels and phone companies. Bidders can now enroll in a program called "Ebay anything points" to convert them to cash to make auction purchases. Sprint, Hilton Hotels, McAfee Security, American Airlines and Points.com are now part of that program.
We've heard how airbags save lives in car crashes. Right? Well, now some airlines say airbags could also be lifesavers in plane crashes. But as CNN's Patty Davis reports, the price tag may be too high for the financially troubled industry.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It looked unsurvivable. But nearly two-thirds of the people on this United Flight did survive when it crash landed in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1989. Some say even more might have lived if the plane had passenger airbags.
LARRY WILLIAMS, AMSAFE AVIATION: It would help prevent some of those head and neck injuries and increase the probability of people being able to get themselves off of the airplane.
DAVIS: Nearly 96 percent of passengers survive commercial airline accidents. The key, staying conscious and getting out, especially if there's a post-crash fire. Airbags could help passengers stay conscious.
WILLIAMS: So when you're wearing the system, the air bag comes out this way and deploys in front of you.
DAVIS: They're meant to increase the odds that passengers can walk away from survivable crashes, not catastrophic once.
Safety experts say the air bags are a good idea, but question whether they're a prudent investment at $1,000 per seat.
PETER GOELZ, FMR. NTSB MANAGING DIR.: If every seat had them in a crash on landing it probably would be helpful. But the question is should you expend you know what would be $100,000-plus per aircraft? Is that the wisest expense of your safety dollar? Probably it isn't.
DAVIS: Federal crash investigator do not consider airplane airbags a top priority for needed safety improvements. So far, 10 mostly overseas carriers including a few Virgin Atlantic planes have air bags, but only in bulkhead seats where there's a wall passengers could hit.
Although studies show the airbags cut head injuries, there hasn't yet been an actual accident putting them to the test.
(on camera): No major U.S. carriers have them, but the U.S. military is so convinced airbags are lifesavers, it's putting them in their Black Hawk helicopters to protect the pilots.
Patty Davis, CNN, at Reagan National Airport.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, coming up in the next half hour of NEXT@CNN, EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman is packing her bags. We'll hear two different opinions on the Bush administration policies that may have contributed to her departure.
And we'll get the lowdown on the best places to park your beach umbrella. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: Hello, I'm Fredricka Whitfield at the CNN center in Atlanta. More of NEXT@CNN straight ahead. But first, here's what's happening at this hour.
(NEWSBREAK)
WHITFIELD: When she was governor of New Jersey, Christy Whitman sued the environmental protection agency, calling for stronger enforcement of air pollution laws. When Whitman was later named the head of the EPA she became the defendant in the very same lawsuit. For an administration poised to rollback some environmental legislation, nobody said it would be easy and this week Whitman announced her resignation. Jerry Taylor of the Cato Institute and Phil Clapp of the National Environmental Trust join to us look at how the Bush administration is dealing with the environment.
Good to see both of you. Phil, let's begin with you. When you heard the announcement you said, quote, "No EPA administrator has never been so humiliated by the White House." What do you mean by that?
PHIL CLAPP, NATL. ENVIRONMENTAL TRUST: Well, from the very first day that administrator Whitman walked in the door, she merely restated the president's position on cleaning up air pollution and the air pollution that causes global warming and the White House just completely left her -- hung her out to dry and walked away from its campaign promise. And then on the very day that she announced her resignation, she had said that the Department of Defense really didn't need to be exempted from environmental laws, that there was no impact on military readiness or training, and that very day, the Defense Department and the administration were up on the Hill getting environmental laws rolled back for the Defense Department. So, from beginning to end, she was in conflict with the White House.
WHITFIELD: Now, Jerry, Whitman says in her resignation letter, that she is, quote, "Leaving America's air cleaner, its water purer, and land better protected." You agree with that?
JERRY TAYLOR, CATO INSTITUTE: Well, it's factually true for the most part. If you look at air quality trends or water quality trends, you'll find that they've been improving under the Bush administration, as they improved in the -- during the Clinton administration, as they improved during the first Bush administration, as they improved the Reagan administration. Air quality, water quality, environmental quality across the board in the United States does continue to improve.
WHITFIELD: So, should a replacement be an exact replica of Whitman?
TAYLOR: Well, I don't think so. Christy Todd Whitman was very -- was a reasonably capable manager of the regulatory in-box. For every decision she made that environmentalists can complain about, she also made decisions that environmentalists probably would cheer. For instance, she issued a rule to control the pollution from diesel vehicles, which the NRDC, a major environmental group here in Washington, called the biggest regulatory improvement in the environment in over a decade. She announced a cleanup of Hudson -- of the Hudson River, went -- very expensive, multibillion dollar project. She did a lot of things that I think would be characterized as balanced.
But, my complaint is that Christy Todd Whitman was not a particularly visionary person. Michael Powell is the kind of model, I think, that we need to look at for these regulatory agencies. He knows what he wants to do in his agency. He's trying to pursue an agenda, he's a spokesman, he's a thinker. EPA is mired in 1970's and 1980's command and control regulation that few academics support and I think what we need is a breath of fresh air and somebody who can provide vision for the republican party about how best to protect the environment in a manner that is distinct from democrats and that's what George Bush ought to look for in his next administrator.
WHITFIELD: Well, Phil who and what do you want to see in a successor of Whitman?
CLAPP: Well, the next administrator of the EPA, you know, ought to be someone who's a little more independent of the regulated industries than this White House seems to be. The big danger, of course, I can't see that this administration is going to appoint anybody to EPA that really intends to make any policy there. What they're going to be looking for is a campaign spokesperson to put a happy face on things like rolling back air pollution regulations, rolling back clean water protections, and stopping the cleanup of toxic waste sites all over the country. Which...
(CROSSTALK)
WHITFIELD: But, already, are you seeing a black eye for the Bush administration that Whitman would step down?
CLAPP: Well, I think Christie Whitman took the first off ramp she could take without publicly saying I disagree with this administration and I really can't stand by with their environmental policies. She stepped down at the time when the White House started telling senior administration officials, look, if you stay past July, we plan for you to stay until after the 2004 election, because the president has to have a team in place throughout the election period. So she took that opportunity to say, okay, I've had enough of this. I can't take it anymore. I'm out of here.
WHITFIELD: But, had she not already said she didn't have conflicts with the Bush administration?
CLAPP: Yes and she's said that repeatedly and she's a very loyal soldier for the president, she's very close to him and she is very loyal to him. And you can't fault her for that, but the other side of the coin is that the record is that on issue after issue after issue, she was publicly at odds with the administration. I mean, to give you one example, the Superfund program, cleaning up toxic waste sites all over the country, as governor of New Jersey, she was a very strong supporter of that program, many sites were cleaned up. When she became administrator of EPA, the president walked away from the program, ended the tax on the polluting companies that created the toxic waste in the first place.
WHITFIELD: Jerry, let me bring you in on this one. Do you see a real contradiction here? She had no conflict with the Bush administration, then isn't there a major contradiction that she's stepping down? What's the problem, really?
TAYLOR: Well, maybe she just wants to spend more time with her family, who knows? I mean, I can't read her mind.
WHITFIELD: Well, that seems to be the safe excuse. But, it really has to be deeper than that. It's a huge responsibility, a huge undertaking. Her criticism, from the very start, was very severe. And yet, now she's a part of what was supposed to be part of the solution and now it's part of, now, a new problem, finding the right replacement.
TAYLOR: Well, again, I am not an insider, have no idea what the dynamic was and why she made the decision she made. But I don't think that's quite as important as the fact that this administration, I agree with Phil Clapp, needs a better spokesman on the environment. Let me give you two examples.
The environmentalists have been arguing that Bush is trying to rollback clean air regulations, yet he's proposed legislation. The "Clear Skies Plan," to reduce emissions by three quarters, 75%, for three major pollutants -- nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, and mercury. That is a huge tightening of clean air rules and somehow it's been characterized as a rollback bill that -- that's a mystery to me how that's happened. And on the Superfund program, again, Phil mentions that the administration walked away from it. No, it didn't, the Superfund program's still in place, it's still cleaning up hazardous waste sites, it hasn't gone away, nobody abolished it. And this administration has done, I think, a very poor job defending itself against these mischaracterizations. So yes, I agree with Phil, they need a better spokesperson.
WHITFIELD: All right, thanks very much. Phil Clapp of the National Environmental Trust and Jerry Taylor, of the Cato Institute. Thanks very much to both of you.
CLAPP: Thank you.
TAYLOR: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: Well, coming up, as NEXT@CNN continues, space station crewmen talk about their rough ride as they returned to earth in the Soyuz spacecraft earlier this month. And, we'll tell you about a celestial neighbor we never knew he had until now. Those stories and more, stay with us
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD (voice-over): Every fall, millions of monarch butterflies leave North America and travel 2,000 miles to winter on specific mountain ridges in central Mexico. Since the 1970s, scientists have known about these amazingly precise migrations. What they haven't known is how the monarchs find the very same destination year after year. A study in the journal "Science" finds monarchs rely on the combination of sun and their own internal clocks. Researchers are fairly certain monarchs use the sun as a compass to navigate.
But as the sun shifts slightly in the sky everyday, monarchs use their circadian or internal clocks to adjust to the shift and stay on course. Studying monarchs, researchers found when they changed the daily life cycle, for example making the dark during the day and light at night, it disrupted the monarch's natural clock and they got lost, they couldn't orient to Mexico. Understanding this relationship will help scientists better understand patterns of other migrating animals like songbirds that make even longer journeys every year.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, checking some NEXT news headlines, as the world caviar trade shifts away from the Caspian Sea, which has been in a decline for nearly a decade now, fisheries in the U.S. and Canada can't keep up with the demand. According to a new report from the World Wildlife Fund, the situation is leading to increased poaching of paddle fish and sturgeon in North America. The study says poaching could have significant impact on several species, including some on the endangered list.
Mother Nature may be stepping up the storms this hurricane season. Government forecasters say there is a high likelihood the season will be busier than usual this year. They're predicting 11 to 15 tropical storms, 6 to 9 of them expecting to become hurricanes. Wind conditions, warmer waters in the Atlantic and the likely La Nina conditions, this year, are factored into the predictions. Hurricane season is June 1 through November 30.
Our closest star is the sun, but what about others in the stellar neighborhood? If you're riding a beam of light you could get to Alpha Centauri in about four years, two more, and you arrive at Barnard's star. But, NASA researchers have discovered they were wrong about the third closest stellar neighbor. The astronomers were looking for distant starts last fall, when the just happened upon a dim red dwarf star, only about 7.8 light years away. They never noticed it before because it shines 300,000 times more faintly than the sun.
Finally, what if there were little green men on mars looking at us through their telescopes? Well, we now know what the view is like, thanks to NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, currently in orbit around the red planet. It's the first time ever snapshot of earth from mars.
The Russian space agency is expected to release a report soon on why the capsule that brought space station crewmembers to earth, earlier this month, missed its landing target by about 300 miles. CNN space correspondent Miles O'Brien has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a rough ride for the crew and for those who were waiting for them on the ground.
KENNETH BOWERSOX, EXPEDITION SIX COMMANDER: The -- coming home on a space shuttle is a lot like taking an hour and a half flight on an airliner, whereas the Soyuz is a little more like coming in in a meteor and ended up with a parachute drop, but it was a lot of fun.
O'BRIEN: Astronaut, Ken Bowersox and his space station crew mates, Don Pettit and Nikolai Budarin, got more fun than they bargained for when their Soyuz spacecraft plummeted to earth at a steeper angle than desired. A so-called ballistic reentry.
ANATOLY ZAK, RUSSIANSPACEWEB.COM: While, when you have a ballistic reentry, you essentially reentry like -- pretty much like a stone falling down to the ground. So, you obviously have much higher loads, which we what is it -- call G-loads.
DON PETTIT, EXPEDITION SIX CREW: We were around 8.2g, so you wake quite a bit during that phase, however, you're in this couch, it's form fit to your body.
O'BRIEN: That's eight times the earth's normal gravity. They landed safe and sound about 300 miles short of the bull's eye. For two and a half excruciating hours, no one knew where the crew and capsule were, reminding many of the day Columbia crashed.
SEAN O'KEEFE, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: It was just no communication at all. We lost communication about 16 minutes before the Soyuz capsule reentered and was ready to land.
O'BRIEN (on camera): So what happened? The Russian space agency first blamed the crew, but an on-board voice recorder exonerated them. Engineers now believe a crucial computer that determines the capsule's position and commands thrusters to insure it stays on course, inexplicably, reverted to a backup mode, but so far they've been unable to recreate the problem on the ground.
ZAK: It is possible in technology like that, but we'll never know the exact cause.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): Which begs a question? An identical Soyuz is docked at the space station and with the shuttle fleet grounded; it is the only way home for the two-man crew. Will the Russians and NASA be feel safe allowing them to take such a precipitous ride without knowing what caused the Soyuz to drop like a speeding bullet on May 4.
O'KEEFE: We'll see what the investigation comes up with and the fixes that are going to be suggested in order to make sure that hits the landing zone next time around without this kind of vaguely around what the landing mode will be.
O'BRIEN: Soyuz spacecraft have been flying to orbit for more than three decades. They have dropped ballistically at least three times before, including the first flight in 1967. The cosmonaut on that problem plagued flight was killed when his parachute failed to deploy. In 1971, three cosmonauts died during a Soyuz reentry, an open valve drained the cabin of air. There have been lots of other close calls, off-course landings, tumbling capsules, a dunk in an icy lake, and launch pad aborts, but through it all, statistically, the Soyuz has been safer than the space shuttle.
BOWERSOX: The Soyuz landing was tremendous experience. I'm so glad that I had a chance to do it.
O'BRIEN: And everyone is glad they're here to tell the tale. Miles O'Brien, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, it is Memorial Day weekend and we know you know that. Time for the annual rush to the chore -- shore, that is. We'll tell you what's at the top of this year's list of America's best beaches when we come right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: That should put you in the mood. Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start -- or the unofficial start of summer and beach season for many Americans. Another annual event is the list by Stephen Leatherman, also known as "Dr. Beach," ranking the top ten beaches in the country. He a professor at Florida International University in Miami and he joins us now from beach No. 9 on his list, Cape Florida State Park.
Well, good to see you, Dr. Beach, too bad you couldn't make it to the No. 1 -- your No. 1 beach pick Kaanapali in Maui.
STEPHEN LEATHERMAN, "DR. BEACH": Well, that's right. Kaanapali, a great beach, but I just didn't have a ticket today for Hawaii, so here we are on a great beach anyway.
WHITFIELD: Okay, so let's go through your list. We know that your No. 1 beach is in Maui. And, why is that?
LEATHERMAN: Well, this is a beautiful beach with emerald green water, white coral sand, palm trees, overlooking the Isle of Lanai, where the mountains meet the sea. What can I tell you? Fantastic.
WHITFIELD: All right, your numbers two, three, four and five are?
LEATHERMAN: OK. Ft. DeSoto Park in the St. Petersburg area, a park with five beaches and an old fort. Lovely area and sort of the on mouth of Tampa Bay. And then
No. 3 is Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, part of the famous Outer Banks. Where Black Beard use to stomp around. 15 mile long beach, beautiful place to go to.
And then No. 4, Hanalei Bay this in the Isle of Kauai, Hawaii, where they shot Blue Pacific -- "South Pacific," rather, so you know what that looks like. A beautiful, white crescent sand beach, emerald green water. What can I tell you? The beach is anchored by mountain ranges. What a place. So, No. 5, Caladesi Island State Park and that's in Clearwater. White sand beach, crystal clear water. Don't go there for surfing, classy, but great for swimming.
WHITFIELD: Wow. And then your bottom five, finding your way back to Hawaii again, and then in Florida, and even in North Carolina, I believe, right?
LEATHERMAN: That's correct. We have East Hampton on the east end of Long Island No. 6, another beach on Hawaii called Makalawena Beach which is on the big island, and then Hanauma Bay in Awahu, No. 8, that's where you swim with the fish. This is beach inside a volcanic crater, if you can imagine that. And, No. 9, we're here right now, Cape Florida, and No. 10, Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, fantastic area for -- for where the famous lighthouse is located.
WHITFIELD: Now, I think it's hard to believe that one of the top beaches would be right there on Long Island, of course, the folks in Long Island or who frequent the Hamptons would say "rah-rah" to all that. But, do you usually look for beaches that have kind of this with powdery white sand, you're looking for certain qualities about the water. What was it about the Hamptons or at least this one Hampton beach that appealed to you?
LEATHERMAN: Well, the Hamptons, yes. It's the finer the sand the better, the whiter the sand the better, but East Hampton, if you go there to the east end, 300 foot wide beaches, sand is 30, 40 feet high. It's magical., I mean, okay, it doesn't have the finer sand, but it's got all these other qualities that you have to see it to believe it, really. It's a world famous beach, the Hamptons.
WHITFIELD: Wow. Now, any real repeats you're seeing on this year's top ten, compared to last year's top ten? You always seem to have Hawaii in there somehow.
LEATHERMAN: Well, yeah, Hawaii and Florida do very well. But, this year, for the first time, we have two beaches from North Carolina. So I guess they got something to be really pleased about and, of course, otherwise, Hawaii is sort of at the top of the list. Florida does very well, include this beach we're here at in Cape Florida, today.
WHITFIELD: All right, Dr. Beach, you've got the gig. Stephen Leatherman, thanks very much. And of course, there's a new survival guide out, now, on book stands, your "Dr. Beach's Survival Guide." You got a copy of it, I got a copy of it. A must have, good beach read this summer. Thanks very much.
LEATHERMAN: My pleasure.
WHITFIELD: Now, I can't wait to get to the beach, at least one of those top ten, any one will do for me.
Well, that's all we have time for today. But, we'll be back tomorrow at 5:00 Eastern time, 2:00 p.m. Pacific with another edition of NEXT@CNN. Among our stories, will scientists ever be able to predict devastating earth quakes like this week's in Algeria? We'll talk with one researcher who's working on it. Hope you'll be watching.
And thanks for joining us today. Straight ahead, right here on CNN, join me for "CNN Live Saturday" coming up at the top of the hour with a look at the just approved tax cut and what it means for you. That's followed by "People in the News" with profiles of Melissa Etheridge and Margaret Cho at 5:00 Eastern time.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Whitman's Successor; Dr. Beach Previews America's Best Beaches>
