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CBS turned to our air, our roads and our waters. Wyatt Andrews led with the Environmental Protection Agency's proposal for "the first mandatory reductions in ten years" in smog. To protect lung health, the EPA's advisory panel had proposed a reduction of current allowable levels of ground-level ozone from 80 parts per billion to as low as 60. The EPA plan was for a range of 70 to 75. Andrews pointed out that "dozens of American cities" and in southern California, worst of all, even that 80 level is not yet met.
CBS' John Blackstone followed up from a hospital in Oakland Cal that has 5,000 child asthma emergency visits each year. Smog is created when sunlight heats up emissions from automobiles and power plants. "A decade of science shows it can aggravate asthma, increase respiratory infections and harm lungs," NBC's Anne Thompson noted. Blackstone cited a study of 95 major urban centers that blamed breathing smog for 3,700 additional deaths each year.
When the Senate passed an automobile fuel efficiency plan to raise averages--from 25 mpg to 35 mpg--for the first time since 1975, CBS' Kelly Wallace used a funny soundbite from industry analyst Rebecca Lindland of Global Insight. Lindland predicted that consumers will resist economical cars and switch to heavy gas guzzlers. "Do you sacrifice the safety of your family and get a small light vehicle in order to save a tree?" she asked rhetorically. But how does improved fuel efficiency pose an obstacle to lumberjacks?
Water in Lake Superior has dropped 30 inches in the last decade to a level lower than it has been for 81 years. Recreational boaters have to move marinas and shipping freighters have to carry lighter loads. For CBS' Saving the World, Cynthia Bowers laid out two factors: an eight-year drought has produced 20% less rain than normal; warmer winters have shrunk the ice pack and allowed more evaporation. "The question is whether man is affecting nature." This could be the low end of a cycle that is about to reverse or the receding waters could have broken from their natural pattern.
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