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CNN 10
Concerns About Drug Overdoses In America; Concerns About 5G Antennas Near U.S. Airports; Concerns About Carbon Dioxide. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired January 20, 2022 - 04:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: It`s time for CNN 10 on this January 20th, 2022. My name is Carl Azuz. It`s good to see you and we hope you`re doing well.
A new and bleak record has been set concerning drug overdoses in America. This month the U.S. Centers for Disease Control released estimates on drug
overdoses recorded between June of 2020 and June of 2021.
During that year long period, the health agency believes that more than 101,000 Americans died of a drug overdose. If our reporting on this sounds
familiar, it wasn`t that long ago we covered the previous record for U.S. overdose deaths. That had been set between the Spring of 2020 and the
Spring of 2021, and that was the first year long period when the number of estimated deaths exceeded 100,000.
So, the record we`re reporting on today accounts for almost 100,000 more deaths than the last one, and they amounted to a 21 percent increase over
the year before. Most of these fatalities came from synthetic or manmade painkillers like fentanyl. It`s an extremely potent opioid that`s many
times stronger than other painkillers. Fentanyl was intended to be used for cancer patients or injured people in severe pain, but it`s also been
blended illegally with other drugs and sold to people who abuse them and its strength can cause an unintended overdose.
The U.S. government says illegal fentanyl has been seized in every state, but it`s not the only drug problem the country has. Illegal cocaine and
methamphetamine accounted for about 30 percent of the overdoses in the CDC`s latest report, and the deaths caused from those drugs had increased
as well.
So why is all this happening? Drug abuse was a problem in America long before the COVID pandemic hit, but health officials say the pandemic likely
made things worse as an increase in deaths occurred during the lockdowns in the Spring of 2020. Up next tensions involving airlines, wireless carriers
and the U.S. government. Here`s what`s going on.
Fifth generation wireless technology, better known as 5G is being rolled out nationwide. It promises faster internet connection speeds for
Smartphones and other computers. The Federal Aviation Administration has been concerned that 5G antennas near some U.S. airports could potentially
interfere with certain planes altimeters which show how high they are off the ground.
Airline carriers in the U.S. and beyond are also worried about this. Wireless companies have said their technology is safe and that it`s been
deployed in other countries without problems. But the president of Emirates Airlines says U.S. antennas have twice the power of those in other
country, and that they`re positioned in a way that could affect flight control systems. Several international carriers have changed or canceled
flight plans to some U.S. airports. The FAA says 62 percent of U.S. commercial airliners have been cleared for low visibility landings near 5G
antennas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Major airlines call it the latest issue affecting your safety in the sky. They say new high speed 5G cell service could cause
errors in crucial information that pilots need to land. In a new letter to the Biden Administration, 10 airlines including Delta, American, and United
insist that could lead to as many as 1,000 flights diverted, delayed or cancelled each day. A situation, they call, economic calamity. Airlines
say that 5G signals can disrupt radar altimeters, instruments that bounce a radio beam at the ground to give a hyperaccurate reading of height.
Pilots like Captain Dennis Tajer of the Allied Pilots Association called the system essential when they need it most, in poor weather when it`s hard
to see the runway.
CAPTAIN DENNIS TAJER, ALLIED PILOTS ASSOCIATION: This one instrument if it gets bad data sends it to a collection of other systems, flight controls,
auto throttles, windsheer protection, snake shake, I could go on and there`s 17 items. Each of those if they get bad information in, they`re
going to do bad things.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In this simulator of a regional airliner, I saw what happened when a radar altimeter fails. Automatic warnings could stop and
flight displays give confusing, mismatched readings.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just go around it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And figure it out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Verizon and AT&T have now agreed to delay their rollout near certain airports. AT&T which owns CNN`s parent company, says airlines
and the FAA have not utilized the two years they`ve had to responsibly plan for this deployment. Verizon says officials figured out how to make 5G
safe and fully operational in more than 40 other countries. Even still, United Airlines feels interference would impact operations at some of it`s
busiest destinations, Houston, Newark, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago.
PROFESSOR EDUARDO ROJAS, EMBRY-RIDDLE AERONAUTICAL UNIVERSITY: It is really important, especially to make sure that the airplane doesn`t crash
to the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Professor Eduardo Rojas is researching 5G interference with radar altimeters at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida.
ROJAS: It`s one the most really air systems in the -- in the aircraft and helicopters. Especially it helps to land.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia. Fullerenes or buck tubes are forms of what? Exhaust pipes, carbon molecules, aluminum or drainage basins. Named for
American architect R. Buckminster Fuller, these are the names of carbon molecules.
Can carbon capture technology significantly reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the air and improve the global environment? There are more than
two dozen plants around the world that pull CO2 out of the atmosphere and bury it underground. But a study and a report last year found they don`t a
meaningful impact in reducing the world`s CO2 emissions and that the technology isn`t worth the money spent on it. Still, supporters of carbon
capture say it`s one step towards reducing carbon dioxide.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Iceland prides itself on its use of renewables. The government says that about 85 percent of its total energy supply comes from
a mix of hydropower and geothermal sources. That`s the highest proportion of renewable power for any nation in the world, but it`s also using this
renewable energy to capture and store CO2.
Carbon capture and storage or CCS is one of the many technologies the IPCC says could help reduce global warming and avert climate catastrophe, and to
do that these giant fans are sucking CO2 directly from the surrounding air just like a giant vacuum cleaner.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The methods (inaudible) has developed is to minimize CO2 so essentially to turn CO2 into stone and for that we need a certain
kind of rock, volcanic rocks that (inaudible).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This geothermal power station is where (inaudible) is working on the mineralization process, and these igloos are where it
happens. The pipes here channel CO2 mixed with water, underground to a depth of around 800 meters or more than 2,600 feet.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These rocks are very permeable. So, they act, kind of, like a sponge. They have lots of pores and fractures for the CO2 to
have fluid to flow through. It has been estimated that over 100 kilos of CO2 can be stored in each cubic meter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The CO2 comes from two sources. One is the geothermal plot itself.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Geothermal is, of course, green energy (inaudible) from CO2. This plot emits about three percent of a fossil fuel plant of
similar size would (inaudible).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The second source of CO2 is the atmosphere, and this is where the fans come in. The orca plot named after the Icelandic word for
energy is run by a Swiss company called Climworks. They say it`s the world`s largest direct air capture facility. It captures around 4,000 tons
of CO2 a year, but the global energy demand for 2021 alone is predicted to emit 33 billion tons.
Also, this method of carbon capture and storage is incredibly energy intensive, especially at the capture site. And some critics argue that the
process will delay industries from making the switch away from fossil fuels. Looking beyond Iceland, carb fixes have created a worldwide data
base to show where other vessel formations could be used to store CO2, and it`s also creating a plan for a fleet of specially designed ships to
transport it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: Is it a beauty mask or is it lunchmeat? That is the question for today`s 10 out of 10 segments. Oscar Myer is famous for bologna packages
that look like this. But look closer, this here container holds a slice of skincare. The meat company says this is for your face not your sandwich.
It`s a hydrogel mask being sold online that`s intended to improve your skin and it`s advertised as beauty inspired by bologna.
If your "pore" skin is feeling a bit deprived, why not step up to a counter where "lunch and care" collide. You`ve arrived. Let`s "face" it, when you
can take some meat and place it on your "noggin" while your "hoggin" on the meal on which they base it. It`s like "food and poker"to come together in
a plan, which makes it "about face" that places "skincare" plan into a sandwich.
Can you beat it? You can`t eat it for meat. It`s just a phony. But those hungry to feed their "face" will say it`s no bologna. Never thought I`d
rap about lunchmeat. That is almost a wrap for today`s show. Want to give a shout out to Fairhope High School in Fairhope, Alabama, thank you for
watching. I`m Carl Azuz.
END
