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CARL AZUZ: We're taking a ride in a flying car today.
So buckle up, y'all, as CNN 10 gets off the ground.
This is your captain Carl Azuz.
We're starting with a new report from the US government.
In the months ahead, the Commerce Department
says America could see more factory
shutdowns and furloughs, workers sent home without pay.
But it wouldn't be because of a new coronavirus outbreak.
It would be because of the global microchip shortage
we told you about last year.
The problem hasn't gone away.
In 2019, before the pandemic, American manufacturers
that needed computer chips to make their goods
had plenty of semiconductors on hand, about 40 days worth.
According to the new government report,
that inventory was down to less than five days worth in 2021.
That means they may soon run out of the chips they
need to make things like cars.
General Motors, for instance, had to temporarily shut down
most of its plants in North America last year
because it didn't have enough chips on hand to make vehicles.
Other electronics like smartphones,
appliances like washing machines,
there have also been shortages, and in some case
price increases, on these items as the chip problem persisted.
It was caused in the first place by concerns and closures
related to COVID outbreaks.
Then some manufacturers thought the economy would slow down.
So they pulled back on their orders.
But demand for electronics actually
went up during COVID as people at home
bought more and more devices.
So suddenly, the computer chips needed to make those devices
were in short supply.
Some chip manufacturers are planning
to invest billions of dollars into building
new plants, which could help.
Most of the chips America relies on are made in Asia.
Though the US used to manufacture more than a third
of the world's semiconductors, it only makes 12% of them
nowadays.
A bill in the US Congress would spend $52 billion
to help support chip manufacturing in America.
But it hasn't passed yet.
And critics say microchip makers should spend their own money
to do that instead of getting taxpayer funds
through the US government.
Its latest report expects the shortage to remain
through most of this year.
10 second trivia.
This is the flag of what nation, Chile, South
Africa, Kenya, or Jamaica?
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One of only two national flags with six colors, this one
represents South Africa.
Taking a chunk of land and making it how it used to be,
bringing back species that used to live there.
These are the goals of rewilding.
There are some risks to this.
If the plants and animals that are reintroduced to an area
have already adapted to another one,
it's possible they won't thrive in a place of rewilding.
If people live nearby, they could
face new dangers if the relocated animals
are aggressive.
There are also ethical concerns about trying
to re-establish different species in a place
they're no longer found.
But when things go right--
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ISABELLE TOMPKINS: The word conservation means to keep
things the way they are.
It means to prevent things from getting worse.
But rewilding has a much more ambitious remit.
And I think the planet deserves a more ambitious
remit at this point in time.
- Located in South Africa's Great Karoo region,
the Samara Private Game Reserve was
established by Isabel Tompkins parents, Sarah
and Mark Tompkins, in 1997.
ISABELLE TOMPKINS: What rewilding seeks to do
is to restore ecosystem health by reintroducing
all the component parts of that system,
essentially reintroducing all the pieces of the puzzle.
- Spanning 67,000 acres, the park
is home to five of South Africa's
nine vegetation biomes.
And the team says it has over 60 different species of mammal.
ISABELLE TOMPKINS: We're located in a global biodiversity
hotspot.
So despite being a semi-arid region,
there's actually a remarkable amount
of biodiversity, particularly endemic plants,
and also certain endangered species
like the cape mountain zebra, the cheetah,
the black rhinoceros.
- In 2019, the Tompkins family reintroduced
lions to the reserve after an absence
of almost two centuries.
ISABELLE TOMPKINS: When you think of Africa,
you think of a lion.
There's no feeling more primal than walking in the bush
knowing there are lions around.
You feel your ecological senses tingling.
It's almost like a rewilding of the self.
We are seeing our founders' pride of lions
at the moment, an incredible sighting, one of the best
sightings I've ever had actually,
seeing our new little cub for the first time, which
is really, really exciting.
And in terms of rewilding, it's not just
about bringing back a species that existed maybe
300 or 400 years ago, as wonderful
as it is to see them back in their natural habitat.
Rewilding is also about bringing back the ecosystem.
And for lions being an apex predator,
quite clearly one of the main roles is the role of predation.
And if you look around us, you will have seen a lot of skulls
from some rather unfortunate wildebeests
sort of that have been, yes, lion
food over the past few years.
But it's a key role really that they
play in controlling herbivore numbers,
in enabling the felt itself and the red grass.
Very palatable grasses to actually
regenerate themselves as well.
- From the mighty lion to each and every blade of grass,
it's all connected.
ISABELLE TOMPKINS: So human beings tend to want
to compartmentalize nature.
We want to divide it up into cells and units
that we can understand.
But nature doesn't really function like that.
Nature works as a whole system.
And various elements can impact on each other in ways
that we don't even understand yet.
One of the central principles of rewilding
is actually to manage an ecosystem less.
It's to give nature back to nature,
give nature back to itself.
So we need to take a step back and sort
of realize that we're a part of nature
rather than apart from it.
I think that if human beings can focus on their own sphere
of influence and on making a difference
in their own little backyard, our backyard
just happens to be 27,000 hectares
of great Karoo landscape.
And what a privilege for us to actually
be able to spend our time improving this landscape
and making it work for both people and planet.
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CARL AZUZ: This isn't the first time
we've reported on a flying car.
And the one you're about to see isn't
the first one to get approved by a country's government.
Last year, the US Federal Aviation
Administration certified the terrafugia transition as air
worthy.
That happened shortly before the company's
work was moved to China.
It's one challenge to develop a car that can fly.
It's another to get government approval to do it.
Then companies have to bring it to market.
These vehicles tend to be very expensive.
And you need a pilot's license and an airport runway
for takeoffs and landings.
You can't legally do that on the interstate.
But with traffic congestion on the ground
and open skies above plus an undeniable cool factor,
you can see why someone would want one of these.
ANNA STEWART: Just imagine, you're stuck in traffic,
but with a touch of a button, your car grows wings
and you can fly right out of it.
Sounds like a dream?
Well actually, this is edging ever closer to a reality.
After more than 70 hours of test flights and 200 takeoffs
and landings, the air car has received
a certificate of airworthiness from Slovakia's transport
authority.
Now during those test flights, take off and landing procedures
were actually achieved without a pilot even
touching the flight controls.
That is according to the air cars developer Cline Vision.
It's flown between two cities in Slovakia,
landing in the capital Bratislava's airport, whereupon
it transformed into a car and drove straight into the city
center, which was pretty cool.
Now there are a few flying cars around in development
around the world.
Mostly they're waiting for regulatory approval.
Some though are available already for pre-order
like Dutch company PAL-V. Now their entry level
model is priced at $400,000.
Flying cars have become a regular sight actually
at tech shows and car shows.
The air car's developer actually hoped
to have it commercially available
within the next 12 months.
But there is one small catch.
You need a pilot's license to operate it,
which means unfortunately, I won't
be flying one anytime soon.
Anna Stewart, CNN London.
CARL AZUZ: Hey, if you've got the license, the clearance,
and the money to land it, it'd be fun to say
my lane is the sky lane.
My street is the high street.
My way is the skyway.
My road is the high road.
My highway is the flyway.
You try to control traffic, I call air traffic control.
And when I fly, I don't mean to look down on you,
but I can't help it.
I'm Carl Azuz for CNN 10.
Marshfield High School is in Coos Bay, Oregon.
The Pirates are watching.
And they know how to get a shout out.
You subscribe and leave a comment at youtube.com/cnn10.
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