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This week on Focus Earth, Bob Woodruff and his crew of eco-reporters bring you the big stories about everything from how athletes are dealing with air pollution in the Olympic Games to how rock stars are going green in their dressing rooms.
From Washington, Yungi DeNies reports the latest news about the Bush Administration's recent efforts to change the Endangered Species act. The new rules would shift decision-making power away from U.S. Wildlife experts, and into the hands of federal agencies. Check out an in-depth look at this Endangered Species Act story online at ABC News.
An international news update comes to viewers from the oil-rich country of Georgia, where fighting with Russia has subsided after a week of conflict. Although the tension wasn?t directly related to energy or fuel, the force of Russia?s attack has sparked fears that Moscow may be reluctant to give up control of the region and its pipelines. Reporter Clarissa Ward looks at how the violence will impact Georgia?s role in the oil industry.
At the Olympic Games in Beijing, Stephanie Sy has the story on how air quality is impacting the events. Extreme measures taking to clear the city's smog, (including removing nearly half the area's cars from the road to reduce exhaust, and seeding clouds to induce cleansing rains), have left some visiting teams relieved to find breathing easier than they expected. However, after a third of the competitors in the men's cycling event last Saturday failed to finish the race due to heat and pollution, Olympic air quality remains a concern. Sy will take a look at what's in store for other athletes in upcoming long-distance events.
The Focus Earth team will bring you stories from around the United States about how Americans are trying to bounce back at sites of environmental devastation. After already spending nearly its entire annual $1.2 billion fire-fighting budget for this year, we'll see how the U.S. Forest Service is now being forced to plunder funding from its other programs in order to repair the roads and campsites scorched by raging blazes. Meanwhile, in the Midwest, we'll visit farmers who are looking forward to harvesting some of the nation's biggest corn and soybean crops, despite the onslaught of massive floods which threatened to destroy their livelihood.
From the planet's seas, we'll meet one species on the rebound from extinction, and another that may be slipping into danger. Once hunted to the brink of non-existence, humpback whales are now said to be "on the road to recovery," and are no longer at high risk, thanks to successful bans on commercial hunting. However, things are not as peaceful for the Artic-dwelling narwhal, a real-life sea unicorn, who faces danger as the ocean currents warm from climate change.
Back on land, some rock stars demand that their dressing rooms be extravagantly stocked with goodies like Kentucky whiskey, French champagne, and M&M?s sorted by color, but singer/songwriter Jack Johnson just wants a full set of recycling bins. Bill Weir sits down with the popular folksinger/surfer about his efforts to be eco-friendly, and what it?s like to go green in the rock world.
Don?t miss the exclusive Planet Green online sneak preview of the Jack Johnson story.
