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Meeting of A Military Alliance Experiment That Could Help Revitalize An Ecosystem; Historic Home of the Future
Aired December 04, 2019 - 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: Hear the music? You know what time it is. I`m Carl Azuz and get ready to cross the Atlantic because today`s show starts
in London, United Kingdom. This is not where you`ll find the headquarters of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but it is where you`ll
find its members meeting on this 70th anniversary of the alliance. NATO`s been called the strongest military alliance in the world. Two of its 29
members are the United States and Canada, the other 27 are European countries and NATO was created after World War II to help balance out the
influence of the Soviet Union in eastern Europe.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, NATO`s focus has changed and its members don`t always see eye to eye on its future. In the past as
a U.S. presidential candidate, Donald Trump called NATO obsolete and as president of the nation that contributes the most money to NATO he`s
criticized many of its other members for not contributing the minimum amount under NATO`s guidelines. But more recently, President Trump has
said NATO serves a great purpose and that it`s now getting stronger compare that to what French President Emmanuel Macron recently said about NATO that
the organization is experiencing brain death because there`s not enough coordination between the U.S. and Europe regarding NATO.
Some other leaders of NATO countries including Canada and the Netherlands publicly disagreed with that and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said
judgments like it aren`t necessary even if NATO`s members have problems and need to pull together. They`ll be discussing ways to do just that over
their two day summit in London.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is NATO? Why is it important? What`s its future? The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is a political and military alliance
established in 1949 that seeks to promote stability in the North Atlantic area.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is the will of the people of the world for our freedom and for our (inaudible)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Led by Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, there are 29 member countries and its HQ is in Brussels. NATO doesn`t have its own
troops but relies on contributions of forces from its member countries. But NATO`s core is Article 5 which states an attack on one member is an
attack on all NATO allies. The collective defense principle was to protect western European nations against the Soviet Union but when the Soviet Union
collapsed, NATO`s new tasks ranged from being a (inaudible) against Al- Qaida in Afghanistan to fighting human trafficking and intercepting refugees in the Mediterranean. NATO is still extremely active in some
4,000 U.S. troops in Poland and the Baltic states and tens of thousands on 48 hour standby bolstering NATO`s allies and sending a clear message to
Russia.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia. In area, which of these locations is largest? Great Barrier Reef, Lake Superior, New Zealand or the Alps. With an area
of about 135,000 square miles, the Great Barrier Reef is the largest location on this list.
A team of scientists says acoustic enrichment maybe able to help revitalize dead coral like what`s found in some parts of the Great Barrier Reef but
what is acoustic enrichment. It`s underwater loudspeakers and the music they play includes the sounds of healthy reefs. One of the authors of a
study recently published in "Natures Communications", says healthy coral reefs are noisy places. They include the grunts of fish and the snaps of
shrimp but dead coral reefs are apparently much quieter without the hustle and bustle of undersea life.
So what scientists did was put speakers on dead coral patches of the Great Barrier Reef and play the sounds of healthy reefs and they said that
attracted fish about twice as many as areas of dead coral without the sounds. Researchers say the fish could help ecosystems recover and give
the coral the chance of new life. The speakers aren`t a proven solution at least not at this point. Scientists can`t say for sure if the fish that
the noises attracted actually stuck around.
That could be key to a reefs recovery and they`re hoping to do more research on this. But they think that the loud speakers could help. There
are a number of threats to the health of coral reefs. They range from pollution and low tides to invasive species and changes in water
temperature. Next on CNN 10 we`re going to back to the future.
It`s easy to understand why a futuristic home like the "Futuro" got a lot of attention in 1969. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had just walked on
the moon. There was a lot of interest in what a space aged home of the future might look like. The "Futuro" didn`t really catch on but a
preservation architect in California hasn`t only restored one, he`s made it his vacation home high in the San Jacinto Mountains.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`ve always had an interest in space starting as a small kid. I was fascinated with sci-fi stories, Buck Rogers, even the
Flash Gordon series. Not with too much in the alien area but certainly in the space travel and living on other planets. This is the 50th year
anniversary of the "Futuro", the same time that man landed on the moon.
NEIL ARMSTRONG: One small step for man - -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: America and I think the rest of the world was fascinated with low cost housing that would provide for the masses that
would be prefabricated and be able to be shipped around. It was also fascinated with the use of plastics. Plastic provided that wonderful
avenue that was low cost, no maintenance as it was being advertised, light weight, structural strong and easy to ship. The history of the "Futuro"
was a little bit short lived but it started with Matti Suuronen who is a finish architect being asked to design a mountain cabin.
He then found that this was very popular, although not popular where the hunting cabin was that the people up there thought it was an embarrassment
on the environment, this plastic spaceship. Although around the world people really became interested in the "Futuro" and it took off in the
United States. Currently right now it`s estimated that about close to maybe 50 of these are in existence. There could be some more that haven`t
simply been found but I doubt it. We think the livability of the "Futuro" is just incredible.
We open the front door and there`s not a speck of dust in there. That`s because the windows are not operable with the door seals up pretty well but
it`s wonderful being at 520 square feet. Probably one of the forerunners of the whole tiny home movement was advertised for a family of four. But
they`re always designed to be sort of a mountain cabin, ski cabin, not so much as a permanent residence.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good evening. The Middle East war produced developments all over the world today. The oil producing countries of the
Arab world decided to use their oil as a political weapon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the oil embargo hit, it had a major impact on the cost of crude oil in which plastics are made from. This became known as
the Mercedes Benz of prefabricated housing and it pretty much then just curtailed the manufacturing of any more the "Futuro"`s. They just ceased
to exist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK Neil. We can see you coming down the ladder now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Being that we`re celebrating this 50th anniversary of both of these events. The "Futuro" 50 years old and Armstrong stepping on
the moon you have to be a custodian of these resources. It just gives you a wonderful sense of place. When you`re here that you`re really in a
special place that will never be created again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: Godzilla has taken on his share of monsters since he made his film debut in 1954, King Kong, Destroya (ph), Mothra. Here we see him taking on
mother nature and getting completely snowed under. In central New York a resident, the human kind, took this time lapse video as a recent storm blew
over and Godzilla is ultimately coated by what the resident says was a mixture of sleet, snow and freezing rain.
Total accumulation was reportedly more than 10 inches. A "monstrous" amount that "mashed" the plant eater. Burying the lizard in the blizzard,
the fury in a flurry, the villain in the "chillin`" and the "miscreation" in accumulation of precipitation that shocked a nation and gave a new
meaning to the term "monster storm". I`m Carl Azuz and that eats up another edition of CNN.
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