This is the Environment Show. It's about our stewardship of the Earth and the beauty
and mystery of life in all its forms. I'm Peter Burley.
Coming up, Tim Worreth, the man who was directing the Foundation that administers Ted Turner's
$1 billion grant to the United Nations, sums up his first year of operation.
Biodeiversity comes alive when New York City schoolkids find the gorilla in the forest.
But there are no trees on the green islands of Alaska.
Author Nancy Lourd takes us to them as she reminisces about bygone times.
And on the Earth calendar, alligators are nesting in Louisiana.
You might like to eat alligator eggs, but mama may eat you.
These stories and more coming up on the Environment Show.
You're listening to the Environment Show, and I'm Peter Burley.
Timothy Worreth, former United States Senator from Colorado, resigned from his position
as Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs to take the post of President of the United
Nations Foundation just over a year ago. That's the foundation that Ted Turner set up
to disperse the $1 billion commitment that he made to support the United Nations.
Tim Worreth reflects about the work of the Foundation to date and his latest round of grants.
We have three central priorities at the United Nations Foundation, population environment
and children's health. And we're pleased that we're beginning to see the leverage point
for our private money to go with public money related to the environment, with a special
focus on biological diversity. For example, we were very interested in the issue of world
heritage. How can the great places of the world get saved? And we're very hopeful of an
alliance that we are in the process of building with all of the major international
non-governmental organizations with UNEPD United Nations Environment Program, UNESCO
and the United Nations Development Program to see if we can create an overlay or an alliance
that will have everybody putting their shoulders in a coordinated way behind saving these
great places. Worreth says the Galapagos are a first priority.
We have made a significant grant to the Charles Darwin station there to help them with the
very important issue of invasive species. As you know, every one of these small islands
like the Galapagos, like Hawaii, are a victim of species that come, you know, whether they're
deliberately or come by chance and shipboard. And they spread very quickly because the natural
balance of nature in those places isn't enough to battle back. So it's been very interesting
and exciting and this is we think a real pathfinder grant. Another foundation priority is to provide
support for the members of the new team that UN Secretary General Kulfiyanan has created.
One of those persons is the head of the World Health Organization, Groob Bruntland.
She's a physician and former Prime Minister of Norway. Worreth says with other foundations,
he's working with her to strengthen health, delivery and surveillance systems around the world.
We have a grant going just starting this week in Central Africa and in the Democratic Republic
of Congo, Nigeria and in that region where we're working on polio eradication. The Secretary General
has called for a ceasefire there called Days of Tranquility. So the fighting has stopped in
those areas while major national immunization days go on. And together with Bill Gates' fund,
we are funding these, you know, the most difficult immunizations in the world in DR Congo and
areas of Nigeria and so on. So those are some of the public health items that are absolutely
fascinating and we think enormously promising. Other new UN leaders who have received grants to
reform modernize and streamline their agencies include Klaus Tuffer of the United Nations Environment
Program and Mark Malik Brown just named to head the United Nations Development Program.
Livening the growth of world population is a major objective of the UN Foundation as well
and Worreth thinks they're on the right track. If you look at the greatest reason for population
growth in the world, it's what's called population momentum. It's the young women and men already
born were about to enter their childbearing years and they're about two billion more than two
billion people in the world who are just entering their childbearing years. In the future,
the globe's population, Peter, is really going to be determined by when those children have
children, how many children they have, do they space their children, what kind of choices do
particularly the women have. So the focus on young women, adolescent girls and girls just
entering their adolescents is enormously important to keep them in school, to work to make sure
that governments understand that the most effective population program really deals with economic
development and education and providing family planning information as part of that education
program but even more important in many ways is keeping girls in school. Worreth says this requires
better coordination between health ministries and education ministries around the world.
As young women have more education, they are more interested in making and capable of making
decisions for themselves about the size of their families and the spacing of their children
and we want to help young people to do that. We think that's the greatest point of leverage and
if we're lucky and do everything right, maybe we can stabilize the world's population in around
8 billion rather than going to 10, 11 or 12. We're now, as you know, at almost 6 billion people in the
world and still growing very rapidly. Since the United States has not paid its assessment or
do's to the United Nations for years, I asked Worreth whether the $100 million annual grants
from the Turner Foundation were a substitute for America's obligations. One of the United States
goes around the world preaching contracts and preaching law and order and so on and yet we're
the biggest scofflaw in the world as your question points out. We owe the United Nations $1.6 billion
of commitments that we have made but have not paid and this is through for various political
reasons on Capitol Hill and various skirmishes internal to US politics but it has robbed the United
States of a tremendous amount of leverage. People just don't take us seriously if we're not going
to pay our bills. You know why should they take us seriously if we're talking about conflict
resolution or rule of law? Why would they take our leadership seriously if we're trying to put
together the legal mechanism for example the climate change negotiations? I mean just one example
after another it's a disgrace that the US does not pay. Worreth says that through a Turner
Companion Fund the Better World Foundation efforts will be made to build political support around
the country and in the US Congress for appropriations to pay our UN debt. We've been speaking with
Timothy Worreth, former senator from Colorado under Secretary of State and now president of the
United Nations Foundation founded by Ted Turner. He reflected about the United Nations Foundations
first year of operation.
Once known for dated dioramas and dusty artifacts behind thick walls of glass
the 130 year old American Museum of Natural History in New York City is now home to an exhibit
modern in both style and substance. The Hall of Biodiversity which opened just a year ago is an
exciting multimedia installation committed to the idea of natural interdependence and as Susan
Arbetter reports the Hall was designed without glass walls to bring children in rather than keep them out.
The room is huge about the size of half a football field and it is packed. It's a Thursday morning
around 10 o'clock and kids from about 20 different classes are huddled in groups from one end of the
room to another. One class gays a skyward at the monstrous giant squid hanging from the ceiling.
Another watches a movie about the natural world. Still another group of kids takes turns
touching the esophagus of an oversized bronze tapeworm. It's a typical weekday in the Hall of
Biodiversity. As director Dr. Francesca Griffo puts it the exhibit is accessible and immersive
but getting people to dive headlong into the topic of biodiversity was a struggle at first.
Last year there was a multifaceted ad campaign to promote the Hall and what we did was use the
definition of the word biodiversity to do that. I mean you can see it behind me one of the ads
that appeared in New York magazine actually this one it says biodiversity this spectacular
variety of life on earth and the essential interdependence of all living things. See the new
Hall of Biodiversity now open. I mean it was extraordinary and I think a lot of people learn the word.
Griffo wants the exhibit to answer four key questions. What is biodiversity? Why is it important?
Where are its threats and what can be done to stop them? In order to answer these questions the Hall
is divided up into several sections. There are banks of computers, a wall of life, educational movies,
timeline, but the room's focal point is the rainforest exhibit. It is a magnificent full-scale
recreation of a slice of the Zanga Nudo ki rainforest in the Central African Republic.
It's not behind any glass wall. It's an exhibit you can touch and become a part of.
The idea behind this diorama is to show what threatens the world's tropical rainforests.
As you first enter you see a pristine healthy forest but as you wind your way through the exhibit
you witness the devastation and see firsthand the different elements which can threaten a rainforest.
The vegetation dies, species become extinct. It's a powerful lesson. The exhibit is wonderful for
kids because they can spot all kinds of wildlife within the forest like a lowland gorilla hidden
among the thick vegetation and birds in the rainforest canopy. But Griffo says you don't have to
travel to a rainforest in Africa to see threats to biodiversity. I mean open space is open space
and biodiversity is everywhere. The biodiversity that's right here in New York City is very important to
us. One example of that is Central Park. I mean right now Central Park is swarming with wood warblers.
Griffo's passion is explaining how warblers in New York City and lowland gorillas in Africa are
all part of the same story. To explain their connection the museum's literature quotes an old
Chinese saying the fluttering of a single butterfly's wings can be felt around the world. It can
also be felt when the fluttering stops. Most scientists agree a recent Harris poll shows that seven out
of ten scientists rank biodiversity loss as the single most important issue of the 21st century.
If we do nothing to check the erosion of biodiversity in ten years Griffo says we'll see some slight
changes to our world. We might go back to our hometowns and see a mall rather than a cornfield.
But 50 years from now more dramatic changes will take place. 50 years oh boy you know it's hard.
The further it's like a business plan or any kind of a strategic plan the further out you go the more
gray area there is. But truly in 50 years I would think that we would have much greater orders of
magnitude of extinction if we continue the way that we are. People often say oh yeah but you
know you guys were nagging about the environment in the 60s and but look at the massive amount of
legislation that was passed you know as a result of that quote nagging or whatever you want to call it.
I mean the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act, all of those things were passed
and we saw massive changes. If we do nothing in a hundred years I think we will have a massively
transformed world. Griffo and the research scientists at the museum are committed to making sure that
will never happen. To that end the Hall of Bio diversity devotes an entire section to education.
A resource center with about 10 computers helps to put visitors in touch with their local zoning
boards so they can fight to preserve open space. There is information on transportation, food,
consumerism. Griffo herself faces those choices every day. I think very hard before I make decisions
about what car to buy. I don't own a sports utility vehicle I wouldn't. I think very hard before
I decide what kind of transportation to take. I buy you know whenever I can find it and mostly I
can organic produce. I don't own 50 pairs of shoes. I mean you can see what I've got. I'm embarrassed.
Good thing this is radio. But you know I don't think things like that are important and I think that
it doesn't mean that we have to go back to living in you know grass huts or or give up our standard
of living. I think it's a matter of choosing what's important to us so step lightly on this planet.
Please please do.
The hall is truly filled with wonders. The array of habitat exhibits allow students to explore
coral reefs deserts grasslands. The spectrum of life is dotted with beetles and huge magnified
plankton that kids can play with. The resource center provides a place for visitors to learn
about the local national and international organizations involved in conservation plus the center
of biodiversity and conservation at the museum publishes a series of guides for green consumers
so you can bring your experiences home with you. Every year 30,000 of the earth's estimated 13
million species go extinct. Dr. Griffo wondered aloud if her daughter might only see tigers and
some other animals and pictures in never in real life. In his song of the open road, Ogden Nash
wrote, I think that I shall never see a billboard lovely as a tree. Indeed unless the billboards
fall, I'll never see a tree at all. The American Museum of Natural Histories Hall of Biodiversity
is testament to an optimism Nash never had. For the Environment Show, I'm Susan Arbett.
The
Environment Show is a national production. It's made possible by the W. Walton Jones Foundation,
the William Bingham Foundation, the Turner Foundation, the J.M. Kaplan Fund, and Heming's Motor
News, the monthly Bible of the collector Car Hobby, www.hemmings.com
Do you have the interesting biodiversity in your neighborhood or perhaps in a dark damp corner
of your refrigerator? Tell us about it. Our number is 1-888-49-Green. That's 1-888-49-Green.
Email is green at wamc.org
We all have places that are special to us for Somerset City Street, for others it's deep in the wilderness.
For author Nancy Lorde is the Green Islands of Alaska where the possibilities are endless
for flocks, herds, and rural homes. In this portrait of place, Lorde reads a passage from her book
Green Alaska, Dreams from the Far Coast. The volcanic shumigens part and interlock around the sea
like odd shaped pieces of a puzzle. They rise at their edges with vertical abruptness,
then slope more gently uphill and along clean cut ridges. Their topography is everywhere as plain
and uncludded as a relief map made from clay. What you see is what you get. These 15 main islands
mixed with the many more smaller ones like stepping stones among them. And what I see in the
lowering light is more fiery Irish green spilling like liquid down the slopes, colors seeming to
drip from rock to catch and concentrate on every level surface. It is that same green about
which burrows waxed all the way from Kodiak, this way and beyond. He adored this country for its,
as he saw it, pastoral splendor, all the smooth rounded hills as green and tender to the eye as
well kept lawns, all the sweep of green skirts, green carpet, vast meadows, for suggesting endless
possibilities of flocks and herds and rural homes. Green is a lawn, he says again and again, five times,
I find burrows comparing this treeless green country to tender lawns.
I see the same green splendor, the same openness that burrows saw and I adore it too, for entirely
different associations and near-oposite reasons. I look upon these achingly green islands and see
not lawns and farms, nothing tame or domesticated but wildness. What I see is seamlessly green and
tirelessly unrolling, untracked by man or woman or domestic beast, not tended, not moan, not made
useful. Burrows spend his life trying to recreate a rural past, both on his small farm and in his books.
According to his biographers, he felt a tremendous painful nostalgia for the rural life he had known
as a boy and for what he thought was his country's enviable and irretrievable agrarian history.
But his was an overboard nostalgia, romanticized to the point of being depressive. When burrows'
son was born, he wrote in sadness, I look upon this baby of mine and think how late he has come into
this world, how much he has missed, what a faded and dilapidated inheritance he has come into possession
of. Which is, something that comes to me with a shock of recognition so similar to what I've always
felt, not belonging for a rural or farm past but for an even older and rarer time. Growing up,
I always felt that I had missed out by being born much too late to have known real wilderness,
I dreamed of canoeing on lakes before they were surrounded by summer homes and zoomed over by speedboats,
of standing on mountain tops and seeing nothing but trees and more mountains, of walking through
hidden valleys to discover canyons, cliffs, hot springs that I had never known could exist.
Wild pigeons, buffalo herds, big cats, tall waving prairie grasses, I wandered at all, I wanted to be
Lewis and Clark and Sacagewaya. Burrows and I are so different in this or maybe not, maybe only in
the particulars. He in his age had his romanticized lost world, I in my age have mine.
That was author Nancy Lorde, reading from her book titled Green Alaska Dreams of the Far Coast.
It's published by Counterpoint.
And now it's time for the Earth calendar. Female alligators are nesting in Louisiana.
They can be found in great abundance along coastal marshes in the southern quarter of the state.
Richard Martin, director of conservation programs for the Louisiana Field Office of the Nature
Conservancy, says Mama Alligator begins by building the nest with vegetation she finds
along a river bank. Once the mound is completed she will excavate a small chamber inside that mound,
and lay a fairly large number of eggs on average about 40 or so. She will then cover that
nesting chamber up and the natural decomposition of the vegetation
stabilizes the temperature within the nesting chamber and also it's a little bit warmer than
the ambient outside temperature. And if all goes well in about 60 to 65 days or so, the eggs will hatch.
Hatchlings are about six to eight inches long and remain in groups called pods through the first
winter. They stay near the nesting area for the first few years. Reproduction begins in May,
when male alligators court females by making a loud, bellowing sound.
Richard Martin says mating can get a little rough at times.
It's a fairly violent mating and courtship activity with the male actually grabbing the female
around the neck and holding on with some force that actually can cause some damage to the female.
Once mating is completed then they separate and then the female goes on to some other location
to construct a nest and lay eggs. American alligators are about six feet long and 11 years old when
they become sexually mature. Richard says older alligators, like many found in the swamps and
by use of Louisiana, can grow much larger. Alligators typically are in the eight to ten foot
range, although some of the largest ones have recorded approach 18 feet and I would say that
at the present time there are very few animals out there that are much more than 13, 14 feet in length.
Alligators are carnivores, consuming birds, turtles, small fish, and even larger mammals such as deer
and dogs. The word alligator comes from the Spanish word el lagarto, meaning the lizard,
which was given to it by Spanish explorers who were the first Europeans to see the reptile.
As you probably know, alligators are similar in appearance to crocodiles,
but there are a few noticeable differences. Again, Richard Martin.
The difference between alligators and crocodiles is purely superficial. They're very closely
related animals, but visually crocodiles have narrower heads with a large number of teeth exposed,
whereas alligators have relatively short snouts, broad heads, and only a few teeth are readily visible.
American alligators have made a dramatic comeback from the middle part of the century when their
numbers were decimated by hunters. Richard Martin says that while alligators have a reputation for
being fierce predators, they're generally shy and try to avoid contact with humans.
But if you do find yourself near one of these large beasts, particularly one that is hungry,
you can always tell them, see you later. You know the rest. You're listening to the Environment Show,
and I'm Peter Burley.
You're listening to the Environment Show, and I'm Peter Burley. Still ahead. We talk green about water
in the Middle East. Former US Senator Paul Simon thinks new technology can alleviate water shortages
that have shaped the political landscape for three millennia. A water specialist takes us to the
dry spots. A green tip on green conduct. Does it make a difference if you use paper or plastic bags?
The answer may surprise you. Tornados blasted Oklahoma in early May. Why do they occur and can we
predict them? We talk to a leading expert who is looking for the answers. Stay with us.
We're talking green and I'm Peter Burley. In recent months, we've broadcast a number of
programs on the relationship between the Environment and Political Stress and War. Today,
we continue that inquiry by looking at a particular region, the Middle East, with particular
reference to fresh water. Some observers have said that in the early part of the next century,
water shortages could be a major cause of increased conflict in the region.
We've need to discuss this issue. Our former US Senator Paul Simon from Illinois,
he's now Director of the Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University,
and he joins us from Carbondale, Illinois. Also with us is Kenley Brunsdale. He is water
resource specialist with the Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation,
and he is on our nation's capital. Kenley Brunsdale, let's start with you. Tell us first
where the major water controversies are in the Middle Eastern region, which are going to be
having an impact on how everybody gets along with each other in the future.
Well, the ones that are front and center now in the peace process between Israel,
the Palestinians, and Jordan is the conference associate with Jordan River Basin.
And the problem there, very simply, is that all of the water resources of that area are now at
full exploitation, or they're actually being overexploited. The simply is not enough water
to enable them to sit down and meet all of the people's needs in the region. So it's either
something they're struggling over and going to have to fight over, or it's something that they can
work together and look at some of the new progressive solutions that are available for them.
There's a second area, the Afraidy's River Basin, which has got Turkey and Syria and downstream
Iraq at loggerheads, again the same problem over, it's already overexploited. There isn't enough
to go around. The countries are growing in population. Demands are increasing, so it's another basin
of conflict. The river of fire, I guess, as you would say. And the same thing is happening in
the Nile River Basin. And these are the areas of the Middle East, the water conflicts that we focus
on here and try to help the parties figure out what their opportunities are for resolving those
in a peaceful way. Well, I saw recently that Israel was going to cut off about 40% of its water
shipments to Jordan because they were dealing with a drought. Senator Simon is this a matter of
great concern to us and to the region at this point? Well, it's a matter of very great concern to us
and to anyone who's interested in stability in that area of the world. And the possibilities for
volatile answers are very real. Water either is going to be a source for pulling nations to
cooperate or leading them to war. The only nation in that immediate region that is water independent
is Lebanon. Ken mentioned Egypt. 85% of the Nile comes from Ethiopia. Ethiopia is going to
double its population, believe it or not, in the next 20 years. There are going to be huge
problems unless we face up to the situation and the organization that Kenla belongs to is one of
those that is doing a constructive job in saying, let's look at the future and where we ought to go.
Aren't there really two sets of problems here? One is simply having enough water and the other
is to have the institutional mechanisms so that it can be fairly allocated in a way that is
acceptable and so people don't feel they have to settle their problems with guns. With respect to
the institutional arrangements, Kenley, are there looking first at the Israel-Jordes situation?
Are there enough mechanisms in place to be able to resolve those allocation resources without
the force of arms? Not presently. At this time, but there's a lot of work underway to develop them.
You hit on a very key thing and that's distribution equity. I'll give you some figures that communicate
that the per capita water use of an average is really, it's very close to that here in the United
States. It's about 100 cubic meters a year, household use. It is 40 to 50 cubic meters per year in
Jordan. It is 30 in most areas of the Palestinian Authority operate and in parts of the Palestinian
areas where the remote villages are, it's less than 10, one tenth, 10 cubic meters per year.
So you see a huge distribution in equity and that's the source of tremendous conflict and
trouble because the region as a whole is already short but there are certain parts of the
population there that are bearing a disproportionate share of the hardship. It is difficult enough
when you're dealing with like the Jordan River Basin and Shimon Pair as accurately said,
the Jordan River contains more history than water but when you get down to aquifers, the underground
water resources, there is a great deal of speculation as to where the water is, who it belongs to,
it gets to be very, very complex. There was a series of meetings going to take place in Madrid,
this is before Oslo, where there was some movement toward cooperation but it's going to take more
than simply cooperation. It's going to take a look at desalination for example because they're
right at the Mediterranean. There are answers and the United States has to help lead to find the
answers. Well that of course is when looks at technology, solve some of the pressure if there's
technology that can produce more water, whether it be desalination or finding it somewhere else.
But even so, there has to be some mechanism by which the result, which distribution questions
do get resolved. Is there anything in place now by which those things can be done? I'm thinking
about our own history in which water cases brought by states before the US Supreme Court have taken
decades and decades to be resolved. How do you do this in the Middle East where you may not have
the time before people start shooting at each other? The answer is that there is nothing in place now
and as Kenley knows the Colorado River compact took a long time to evolve but there is one
plus and that is every weeder is railier arable over there. It can talk very knowledgeable about
water and they are very sensitive about this need. I remember visiting with Prime Minister Netanyahu
about six months after he became Prime Minister and he said Israel is facing a mess in water.
Almost any weeder over there could say almost the same thing. Now let's move around in the map a
little bit. Kenley you described the situation with respect to Turkey. Again in more detail what
is that all about and who are the parties that have to be at the table to get that situation
right now? Well it's exactly the situation that Senator Simon made reference to with the Nile where
you have two critically important rivers, huge rivers, rivers of history, the Euphrates and the
Tigris that have 95% of their headwaters in the mountainous areas of Turkey. And where I would
talk civilization began? Right exactly and then you have downstream Syria and downstream Iraq
who are totally dependent on the water supplies of those rivers and what is causing the
the turbulence is the plans that are being forwarded by Turkey to develop those headwaters,
farms, irrigation they have a project they call it the Southeast Anatola project but it contemplates
22 major dams half of which are now built and it threatens 90% of the water supply of Iraq and
as much as 60% of the water supply of Syria if it's ever fully developed. That's a tremendous
potential conflict that leaves no option. Looking at that project or those projects all those dams
clearly we know from other places that when you start doing that to a river system you have huge
ecological impacts not only in terms of the amount of water but what happens is downstream.
Was there any kind of analysis that went on or do we have any understanding of what this is
going to do in addition to perhaps leaving less water for Iraq? Well the truth is there are a
little behind in terms of attaching concern for the environment and being willing to look at
impacts and potential and how they can be mitigated or whether they should even be a
preclusive of a development activity. They don't have the Environmental Policy Act and environmental
impact statement requirements and legal obligations that force them to come up with the least
damaging approaches. They don't have any of those mechanisms working yet in the Middle East
and they have more extreme pressures than we're used to in the United States in terms of
population growth and limited resources. So part of what we do in carrying the message and
talking about policies of change is try to build in those governments a stronger environmental
ethic. It's much slower in developing than what we're what we see in Europe and what we see in
North America. This all sounds pretty theoretical particularly as we think about Iraq and the
incredible environmental devastation of the Kuwaiti adventure. Senator Simon if you are still
wearing your old hat as a member of the US Foreign Relations Committee in the Senate,
what would you be saying about what the United States needs to do with respect to our dealings
with Iraq now in anticipation of dealing with some of these environmental problems that like
other from what Kenley says are going to get worse when water begins to be diverted?
Yes, I would think water could be an avenue for some modification in policy. Our present
policy of isolation of Saddam Hussein who is certainly no hero of mine or any of your listeners,
but our present policy just isn't changing anything in the UN report on what it's doing to
children in Iraq and other and other damage really calls for some change. And I think working with
Turkey, working on desalination, this is an area where believe it or not President Eisenhower and
President Kennedy both said the United States ought to be providing leadership in desalination
research. We have gone from a fair amount of research under the Kennedy Johnson years
supported by former President Eisenhower at that point to doing almost nothing in research in
this area. So I take it that you are suggesting that really the technical side of this, the business of
producing the technology that produces more water is one of the keys to a longer term, if not
solution method of dealing with this issue. Absolutely. And the difficulty is you don't get that
research overnight. So we have to anticipate we have to look long term and the United States is
not good at looking at political problems long term. It's one of those habits we have to change.
But that clearly is part of the answer. Just as an example, the World Bank says 300 million people
today live in areas of serious or severe water shortage. 20 years from now it's going to be
three billion people. Nations go to war over oil but there are substitutes for oil. There is no
substitute for water and we're not likely to find some dramatic breakthrough on desalination but
we can we are making progress and with a little help we can make a lot more progress.
Well now let's touch on the third area that Kenley mentioned and that is the Nile and
what happens there. Kenley take us through it again in terms of where the water is, where it's
being allocated and what some of the problems are going to be. Well the Egypt with its large and
growing population is already at full exploitation of the Nile River and its limited groundwater
aquifers and as the senator was pointing out that water comes from tributaries most of which is
not in Egypt. It's upstream in Ethiopia whose population is burgeoning and as people are now
trying to develop and they want agriculture. They want the things that they see the developed
countries having so there's a tremendous tension there and what there needs to be is cooperation
between the two governments. They need to start thinking about demand management. How do we grow
less thirsty crops? How do we basically place a higher value on the water resources so that we
get the power of the economic market helping us to allocate water to highest and best use?
Is there anything today other than fear from an Egyptian military effort? It would stop the
Ethiopians from simply cutting off the Nile and deritting all the water for their own use.
Well I think they're even with their difficulties and they're realistic enough to know that
they just can't happen. It won't be allowed to happen. What really we try to do is we try to
come out from another angle. We try to educate policymakers about the win-win scenarios that can
be worked out and achieved through cooperation. The best example I can think of is really not there
but it's in the Jordan River Basin where you have a water system, the underground networks,
the rivers, the so forth. They're all interconnected. They have they pay no risk to back to the
political boundaries on the surface. They work as a single hydrologic system and it's literally
possible to through water exchanges and different mechanisms that take advantage of that interconnectedness.
You can solve a lot of problems if you can get people to cooperate. There's literally a dividend
in cooperation and once people start to understand that, see how it works and see how they can benefit,
how they're not, it doesn't cost them but rather they gain by working in cooperation with the
neighboring government then then you can start to make some progress. You have to deal with it in
terms of the win-win scenarios and there are many of them out there. This involves, of course,
sitting people around a table who have traditionally been at each other's throat since biblical times.
Senator Simon, how does one get over these historical barriers to the kind of negotiating that
Kennelly's been describing so that we can get somewhere on this one?
Well, there really is hope in that regard because of Oswald because I happen to be in the Middle East
and sat in the Kinesa at the afternoon when President Sadat addressed the Kinesa. People can come
around a table but it also takes leadership with some vision and unfortunately one of the
little-known facts about the tragic assassination of Prime Minister Rabin is the Prime Minister Rabin
was a water engineer before he entered the military. He really understood the need and he had the
dream of what could happen and we need to revive that dream.
Well, I believe you know adding to that President Arifat has an education and degree in engineering.
I think it's in civil engineering but he also understands that ultimately there has to be
a mechanism of cooperation if the aspirations of his people are to come anywhere close to fulfillment.
Well, I am encouraged that you both are optimistic on this issue because it certainly has been with
us for a long time and is going to be in the future. My guests have been former Senator Paul Simon from
Illinois and Kenley Brunsdale from the Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation.
We've been discussing water in the Middle East. I know you have views so give us a call and share
them with us. Our number is 1-888-49-Green. We've been talking green and I'm Peter Burley.
You can listen to the Environment Show anytime on your personal computer.
Go to our website www.enn.com.
You can also reach us by email green at wamc.org
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This is Green Tips. Tips on how you can save the world in your everyday life.
Environmentalists develop fetishes about how people should and should not behave to the extent that they become a real pain in the neck.
But some conventional wisdom is out of date. The just published Union of Concerned Scientists guide to effective environmental choices.
This causes the total life cycle analysis shows the environmental impact of paper bags and plastic bags is about equal.
The same goes for paper and cloth diapers. When deciding what to buy or how to behave, it says focus on things that have the biggest impact.
An energy efficient refrigerator uses 40% less electricity. If you buy one, it will have far more impact than dusting the coils and limiting the number of times you open your refrigerator door.
The little things are important because they help us keep our thinking green. But it's also important to focus on things that make a difference.
Did I read somewhere that the road to environmental wasteland is paved with ordered square of paper and plastic bags?
That's our Green Tip for this week.
Hundreds of residents of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma are attempting to rebuild their lives and homes that were destroyed by a powerful tornado that ripped through the area in early May.
More than 40 people were killed and many more were injured by the massive storm that contained estimated speeds of 250 miles per hour.
It was the deadliest tornado in Oklahoma since 1947.
Tornados are not only destructive, but very complex weather systems. Stephen Westcott recently spoke with one of America's leading experts who explains why and how tornadoes occur and whether our ability to predict such natural catastrophes is improving.
Tornado Valley, a stretch of the United States that includes the great lowland areas of the Mississippi, as well as the Ohio and Lower River valleys, has more tornadoes than anywhere in the world.
Scientists say storms like the one that hit Oklahoma City occur more often than many folks believe. Most at five tornadoes, the most severe tornadoes mother nature can produce, frequently occur in open areas and away from concentrated populations.
Howard Bluestine is professor of meteorology at the University of Oklahoma and author of the new book Tornado Valley, Monster Storms of the Great Plains.
Bluestine says there are several different types of tornadoes, but the one that hit Oklahoma City came from what's called a Supercell Thunderstorm.
They have a part that rotates in a counterclockwise manner, and the source of this rotation is vertical wind shear, that is the change of wind direction and wind speed with height.
Now that we think is the source of the part of the thunderstorm that rotates. This part of the thunderstorm that rotates may be anywhere from two to five kilometers in diameter.
Scientists have general knowledge about why tornadoes form, but professor Bluestine says more information is needed about the narrow rotating mass of a Supercell Thunderstorm, the mesocyclone.
The tornadoes tend to occur somewhere within the mesocyclone, and we don't, as yet, have a good understanding of how the tornado forms within the mesocyclone.
Is the tornado the mesocyclone actually brought to the ground, or is the tornado formed in some other way that's facilitated by the mesocyclone?
Professor Bluestine says prior to the 1980s gathering information on the wind speeds of tornadoes was virtually impossible because instruments would be demolished by the intense storms.
As a result, wind speeds were estimated based on the amount of damage from a tornado.
It really wasn't until the late 1980s that we began to use portable Doppler radars, that we could carry out in cars, vans, and trucks to try to make measurements right near them, that we really began to get better wind measurements.
Professor Bluestine says today, Doppler radar enables weather forecasters to make relatively accurate short-term predictions.
What we don't know is how to make a forecast of which storms will actually go on to produce tornadoes.
Once the tornadoes are actually produced, we can track them very well.
But we can very little skill in predicting which of the many storms that form will actually produce tornadoes.
While scientists still have a lot to learn about tornadoes, humankind has gained a lot of knowledge about these severe weather systems in the past 20 years.
Professor Bluestine says the practice known as storm chasing continues to provide scientists with a lot of data.
Bluestine, one of the pioneers of storm chasing, began following tornadoes two decades ago.
In the early years, Bluestine and his fellow chasers were criticized by some who felt it was simply scientists engaging in thrill seeking and that storm chasing had no scientific purpose.
Overall, Professor Bluestine believes scientists will be learning a lot more about tornadoes in the next five to ten years.
He says mobile Doppler radar systems and other instruments will play key roles.
Based on a nice observational knowledge, I think that computer modelers, atmospheric scientists who will numerically simulate tornadoes on the storms,
will be able to perform controlled experiments. They will be able to change the vertical wind shear and so on.
Change various parameters which will allow us to determine what is it in the atmosphere that allows some thunderstorms to produce tornadoes and others not.
Tornados are common in tornado alley, but they can also happen almost anywhere in the United States.
Professor Bluestine says more Americans should take tornado warnings seriously and says it is important for people to have an emergency plan in the event one is issued.
For the Environment Show, I'm Stephen Westcott.
Thanks for being with us in this week's Environment Show. I'm Peter Burlett.
Can the United Nations Foundation stop alligators from eating the stuffed gorillas in the hall of biodiversity at the Museum of Natural History?
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Alan Sharktog is executive producer, Stephen Westcott is producer. It's made possible by the W.A. and Jones Foundation,
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