[clock ticking]
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CARL AZUZ: Great to have you aboard as we launch
into a new edition of our show.
My name is Carl Azuz.
We begin today in the Caribbean nation of Haiti.
Still don't have an update for you on the fate of 17
American missionaries who were kidnapped there on October 16.
The gang responsible has demanded $17 million
for their release.
American and Haitian authorities have
been assisting in negotiations to get the Christians freed.
An extreme increase in kidnappings like this
is only one of the problems the island nation faces.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
The US government says almost 60%
of Haitians, that's most of the country's 11-plus million
people, live below their nation's poverty line,
and more than 40% of Haiti's workforce is out of a job.
Decades of political corruption, a series
of recent natural disasters, the assassination
of Haiti's president earlier this year--
it's all taken a toll.
And an ongoing shortage of gasoline
is one of the problems.
Haiti's government has a gas law that's
contributing to this crisis.
It limits the price that fuel can legally be sold at.
And if international oil prices go higher, which they have,
the government is supposed to make up the difference.
But oftentimes, it can't.
In the recent financial year that ended in September,
the fuel subsidy cost Haiti's government about $300 million
and sometimes it just doesn't have the cash to buy enough gas
for Haiti's population.
The hardships this causes are hitting hospitals.
One of the largest medical care facilities
in the Haitian capital doesn't have enough electricity
to properly treat its patients.
And it doesn't have enough gas to run
its backup power generators.
Businesses and factories, they're
having the same problem.
And even if Haiti's government has the revenue
to subsidize fuel, it might not have the manpower to safely
get it to gas stations.
Spot protests across Port Au Prince,
burning tires below sending black smoke into the sky.
The country is in crisis once again,
in part fueled by a lack of fuel.
A crushing shortage of gasoline has crippled the capital city.
Here, taxi drivers protesting arguing with police outside
of a gas station with no gas.
MAKINSON LOUIS: [non-english speech]
MATT RIVERS: We don't have a government, this man says.
If we don't demand change, who will?
Tires set on fire and debris thrown into the street
are desperate attempts to cause enough chaos
that the government tries to fix the problem.
But it won't be easy.
Not only is the government so broke it often
can't buy enough fuel, but when some arrives,
it can't get delivered.
The vast majority of fuel is imported at these two
locations, but gangs in Port Au Prince
are so powerful they have near-complete control
over this crucial stretch of highway,
which means they control the flow of fuel into the capitol.
A gas retailer, identity hidden due to security concerns,
told us what happens if you try and drive a tanker
truck in to pick up fuel.
So I might get kidnapped.
- Yeah.
MATT RIVERS: I might get shot.
- Yes, if you don't stop.
MATT RIVERS: I might get killed?
- Yes.
MATT RIVERS: Or at the very least,
I'm going to have to pay an exorbitant bribe to get past.
- Of course.
MATT RIVERS: Haiti's government and law enforcement
are either unwilling or unable to secure a flow of fuel
from the ports.
But not having enough fuel doesn't just mean
you can't use your motorbike.
Consider this-- here in Port Au Prince,
the electricity grid is not reliable.
So let's say you own a small store and you sell cold drinks.
In order to keep that refrigerator running,
you need to use a generator.
And if the fuel going into that generator
is way more expensive than it was before,
that means you need to charge your customers
more for those cold drinks.
Not having enough fuel makes all kinds of things more expensive,
and that's brutal in a country already
dealing with so much poverty.
CARL AZUZ: 10-second trivia.
What percentage of the ocean floor
has never been mapped or explored by humans?
5%, 10%, 50%, or 80%?
[clock ticking]
According to the US government, people haven't mapped or even
seen 80% of the world's oceans.
An eye-opening fact considering they cover more than 70%
of the Earth's surface and contain about 97%
of Earth's water.
But the US government spends a lot more on space exploration
than ocean exploration.
NASA receives more than $20 billion in federal funding
each year.
NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
receives less than $6 billion.
Several hundred people have traveled to space.
Fewer than 30 have ever been to the deepest part of the sea.
Why is this?
One reason is technology.
People have been able to build orbiting stations in space,
but we don't yet have the ability
to build a station that can withstand the crushing
pressures of the deep ocean.
Critics of ocean exploration say some
of the remote seafloor that has been observed
is like a desert--
it doesn't have a lot of features,
except for the strange animals that sometimes appear.
But different companies are developing
new technologies to map it.
- This electric submarine roams the ocean using
sonars, cameras, and lasers to navigate
and map the bottom of the sea.
That's according to Anthony DiMare.
He co-founded US space startup Bedrock Ocean Exploration
in 2020 to develop the robotic vehicle
and give marine industries a better understanding
of their environment.
ANTHONY DIMARE: It seems strange even today
that we don't actually have a full ocean map,
let alone understand the complex geology of any given area.
- In fact, we know more about the surface of Mars
than we do about the ocean floor.
Just over 20% of the ocean floor is mapped today.
Getting a fuller picture can help
build critical infrastructure on the seabed,
from offshore wind farms, to telecom
cables, and better predict the effects of climate change.
But gathering this information requires a lot of resources.
ANTHONY DIMARE: Right now, most of ocean mapping
happens through ships that require
30 to 60 people to operate.
And then there's a whole data analysis problem on top
of that-- understanding exibits of geospatial data
about the ocean and then being able to pick out
the important things within it.
And that process just takes six to 12 months.
- Bedrock can create seabed surveys up to 10 times
faster than traditional methods.
The submarine is also safe for the marine environment,
according to DiMare.
ANTHONY DIMARE: It moves at a little over 2 miles an hour.
This is the equivalent of like a human swimming through
the water at very low speeds.
And the sonars on board are all above a 200 kilohertz limits.
So we don't have any auditory effect on marine mammals.
- But Bedrock's battery-powered submarine can venture less than
60 miles before it needs to return to shore and recharge,
DiMare says, which means it can't reach
more remote parts of the sea.
Limited battery life is a problem
facing autonomous mapping vehicles around the world.
One California-based oceanographer, Yi Chao,
is trying to solve.
While working at NASA, Chao developed technology
to power data-gathering robots by the very depths
they are exploring.
YI CHAO: We can harvest energy from the sea,
from the natural-occurring temperature difference.
So the robot, where it's swimming in the ocean,
they get charged by the sea so they can extend the lifetime
almost indefinitely.
- Chao founded sitrick in 2016 to commercialize
the technology.
He says each power unit costs around $25,000,
but the ability to stay in the water longer
makes data gathering up to five times cheaper,
according to Chao.
Even with cost-cutting technologies,
completing the seabed map will be expensive, experts say.
JAMIE MCMICHAEL-PHILLIPS: The estimate
is somewhere between $3 and $5 billion,
which is a huge amount.
But actually, it's pretty much the same order
of magnitude as the cost of sending a mission to Mars.
- Both Chao and DiMare are working toward the goal set
by the Nippon Foundation GEPCO Seabed 2030 Project
to complete the ocean map within this decade.
So while there is still a way to go, for these explorers,
it's about time we started investing in our own planet.
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CARL AZUZ: CNN reporter Anna Stewart has an awesome rapport
with turkeys.
They were simply starstruck surrounding her
as she gave an update on a worker shortage
in England's turkey industry.
Now, Anna didn't say if she had any food in her pockets
to attract such attention, but she did do a trick for CNNI
anchor Julia Chatterley.
ANNA STEWART: If you clap--
[turkeys gobble]
- Wow.
ANNA STEWART: In some ways, they're a great audience.
CARL AZUZ: Now, you can't do something like that
and not be asked to do it again.
So Anna did.
[anna claps]
[turkeys gobble]
- Fabulous.
Anna Stewart at a turkey farm in Essex.
CARL AZUZ: Well, that about gobbles up our time.
Maybe you smelled that one cooking.
But if we're about to trot out some turkey puns,
you know I'm not going to be snooty about it.
I will waddle them out one by one like your goofy car uncle,
giving thanks to have listeners to my rec tricks of the trade.
I'm uncle Carl Azuz.
Today's shoutout takes us to Arimo, Idaho, where
we would like to recognize the students
of Marsh Valley High School.
They did the only thing you can do to get mentioned
on our show-- they subscribed and left
a comment at youtube.com/cnn10.
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