Drying Up
Monday, May 18 2009
Drying Up: Two Sides of California's Water Fight
Todd Allen >>More Photos
Drought and development have brought California to another crisis over water.
Dick Gordon first speaks with Todd Allen. Todd was raised on a farm in the San Joaquin Valley and has run his own farm for 12 years. Last year, he invested in an expensive drip irrigation system to reduce his water use. In January, he was stunned to find out that for the first time, the federal government was allocating zero water to farmers in his region.
Larry Collins >> More Photos
Dick also speaks with Larry Collins. Larry, based at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, has been a commercial salmon fisherman for 28 years. He depends on salmon for up to 70 percent of his income, but salmon fishing has been banned for the second consecutive year. Numbers are down in part because of low water flows in the delta rivers where salmon spawn. The water in those rivers is in high demand by farmers like Todd.
Although Todd and Larry are on opposite sides of the fight over water allocation, they share a passion for their work, and face potentially huge losses in income.
Plastic Ocean
Captain Charles Moore
Captain Charles Moore was sailing the Pacific in 1997 when he came across a large patch of plastic trash. His discovery shocked him, and compelled him to do research on the amount of trash in the ocean.
His recent findings are alarming: much of of the world's plastic waste has ended up off the western coast of the United States and the eastern coast of the Philippines. One floating garbage heap contains 3.5 million tons of junk, 80 percent of which is plastic.
Captain Moore talks to Dick about the problems plastic waste causes for marine and plant life, and why it's crucial to change the way we use plastic now.
- See photos of the kinds of trash Capt. Moore finds in his research
- Visit the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, where Captain Moore works
- Watch a video clip explaining why plastic in the ocean is a problem
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