Return to Transcripts main page
CNN 10
The World Health Organization Warns About Global Air Pollution; A Teachers` Strike Ends in Arizona; An Israeli Company Promotes Drones for Business
Aired May 04, 2018 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: If you live on Earth, here are two things to keep in mind: one, Fridays are awesome! And two, and this is not awesome,
there`s a good chance that the air you breathe is too polluted to be healthy.
That`s according to a new study just released this week by the World Health Organization, which is part of the United Nations. It says the vast
majority of the global population is breathing air that has high levels of pollutants. Asia and Africa are the worst continents for this.
But in cities across North and South America, Europe and the eastern Mediterranean, pollution levels are still too high to be what the WHO calls
healthy.
The cities in America with the most polluted air included Los Angeles, California, as well as Bakersfield, Fresno and Napa. They also included
Indianapolis, Indiana, Louisville, Kentucky, and St. Louis, Missouri. But one of these places have anywhere near the level of pollution that`s seen
in Peshawar, Pakistan, Cairo, Egypt, and Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia.
The report says pollution isn`t just a city air problem. It`s bad in people`s homes and poor areas of the world, where wood and charcoal power
stoves and open fires are used to cook and heat. The upside of the study is that many cities are keeping track of pollution and that can lead to
steps to clean it up.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LYNDA KINKADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Seven million people die each year from a manmade cause, air pollution. That`s according to a new study by the
World Health Organization.
They also found that nine out of every 10 people on the planet breathes air that contains high level of pollutants.
The WHO says it`s the world`s most comprehensive database on pollution. The organization collected data from more than 4,300 cities and 108
countries. Although air pollution affects people worldwide, low and middle income countries experience far worse.
Many of the top cities on the list are in India. While attention is usually paid to Delhi and Mumbai, the WHO founded the cities Kanpur,
Faridabad, and Varanasi are the top of the list.
Environmentalists warn that India is sitting on a toxic time bomb. The U.S. based Health Effects Institute found that over 1 million people die
every year in India alone from the impacts of air pollution.
This pollution is created mostly by car and truck emissions, manufacturing, power plants and farming. The particles in the air are a mix of solid and
liquid droplets that get embedded into the lungs when we breathe. It leads to multiple health conditions including asthma, lung cancer and heart
disease.
Lynda Kinkade, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: It looks like the demilitarized zone, the heavily armed border that separates North Korea and South Korea may be the place where North Korean
dictator Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump will hold their historic meeting. That could take place late this month. It would be the
first time that sitting leaders from these two countries ever held a face- to-face meeting.
President Trump says he likes the location because if things work out there, a celebration could be held on the site instead of in a third party
country.
But some U.S. officials reportedly think the meeting should be held somewhere else like Singapore, because skeptics are concerned that holding
it at the DMZ would put North Korea`s leader at an advantage.
The U.S. is an ally of South Korea. It has been since the Korean War. There have been several signs of better relations between those two allies
and their rival North Korea. For instance, the North and South had promised to silence the loud speakers they have at the DMZ. Both sides
have used those to blast propaganda and music across the border. South Korea has taken theirs down.
Also, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who`s now a member of President Trump`s legal team, says North Korea agreed to release three American
prisoners yesterday. One of them had been held in North Korea since 2015. The other two were arrested last year.
But when we produced this show, the U.S. government had not confirmed that the prisoners were being released and their families said they hadn`t heard
anything yet either. But the Trump administration said releasing the prisoners would be a sign of goodwill by North Korea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ (voice-over): Ten-second trivia:
Which U.S. state is known as the Copper State?
Arizona, Nevada, New Hampshire, or West Virginia?
Also known as the Grand Canyon State, which would have made it too easy -- Arizona is the Copper State because it has lots of copper.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: Classes across Arizona are scheduled to be back in session Friday following a six-day walkout by many of the state`s public school teachers.
They were protesting for better pay and more funding for new textbooks, school support staff and upgraded technology.
And that`s what was in the bill that Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed on Thursday morning. It included a 20 percent increase in teacher pay over
the next three years and additional funding to make up for some of the cuts to education that took place back in a recession. It didn`t include
everything teachers wanted, like an amendment that would reduce class sizes in Arizona.
Still, the National Education Association says Arizona`s public school teachers are returning to class. They teach 1.1 million public school
students across the state.
One of the reasons why we`ve reported on drones so much over the years is because new applications for them are continually popping up. They`re used
in the military. They`re proposed use in delivery services are well-known. Farmers have been using drones to make sure their crops are healthy and
emergency crews use them in Puerto Rico and Nepal after natural disasters struck.
An Israeli startup hopes drone technology will help businesses that have a lot of ground to observe, but the downside is, they could replace jobs done
by people.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAMUEL BURKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What is Airobotics?
RAN KRAUSS, CEO & CO-FOUNDER, AIROBOTICS: Airobotics involved the first completely automated drone system. There`s no person in the loop
whatsoever. We started this company not be a drone company, but our mission is to be a data company.
Most people think about drones, they think about, you know, flying it recreationally or for selfies or even creating commercials or
cinematography. We`re looking at it from a tools perspective. We`re using drones to gather and analyze information that is relevant for our clients.
BURKE: Like what?
KRAUSS: Like mapping, surveying, volumetric measurements, security, emergency response. So, there`s a variety of different data types that we
collect and then we take that information an we analyze it and we turn it into insights.
BURKE: Mining companies are one of your big customers. What do they use it for and how they use it?
KRAUSS: You have these big stockpiles, right? And you want to know how much stock is in that file. So, instead of sending someone, or drone does
that automatically, from A to Z.
We`re actually now assisting in the construction of a new seaport in Haifa.
BURKE: Uh-huh.
KRAUSS: So, we`re able to help them build the port with daily images of how they`re progressing and we also --
BURKE: So, it`s purely the construction of it right now.
KRAUSS: Yes, but the idea is to get to the second stage where the port is becoming operational and we stay as a system that supports the actual
operation. So, when a big tanker comes in to duct in a seaport, there`s a small ship leading the way. It`s making sure that it follows the right
path, right? We`re even thinking about a situation where a drone do that.
BURKE: And emergency services, how would they use your drone?
KRAUSS: So, imagine the city where you have 10, 15, 20 of our units scattered around the city like cell towers. And then suddenly there`s an
emergency situation, let`s say there`s a fire in a building. The closest drone flies there and shots video of what`s going on, sends it to the fire
truck before it even gets there. That could be life saving.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: I don`t mean to drone on about drones, but this is pretty amazing. This is what happens when more than 1,300 of them are lit up and sent up in
the sky.
It`s part of China`s Labor Day celebrations. And though a Hong Kong-based newspaper called this an epic fail because some drones didn`t light up,
enough of them were in the air at once to challenge the world record of 1,100-plus drones that flew over the winter Olympics opening ceremony.
Drones, you`ve got to give them props. It`s always a fun story to hover when you`re on the air and ready to deliver a battery of puns. Oh, I know
of few people would like to shoot them down, but haters and drones get pretty sore.
But when we`re ready to take off for the weekend, it`s tough to bring down a flight of fancy.
I`m Carl Azuz for CNN 10.
END
