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[MUSIC - TIM BESAMUSCA, "FLYING HIGH"]
CARL AZUZ: It makes sense that, around the time of spring
break, we would have stories of sun, sand,
and squid on today's show.
That's coming up in just a couple minutes.
I'm Carl Azuz, and we begin with a warning sign.
A major international bank is predicting
that a recession could be on the horizon for the United States.
What, when, and why is how we'll break this down.
The what is a potential recession itself.
It's defined as a period of decreased
economic activity when a nation's gross domestic product
contracts or shrinks.
The effects of a recession might include fewer retail sales,
less manufacturing, lower income, and more people
without jobs.
The organization predicting this is Deutsche Bank.
It's a corporation based in Germany
that has a network in 58 countries from Europe
to America to Asia.
It's the first major financial institution
that's predicting a recession in the US,
though some other economic groups have said
chances are growing for one.
When would this hit?
Deutsche Bank says probably between late next year
and early 2024, though it adds there's, quote,
"considerable uncertainty about the timing
and how bad the recession might be."
So, is this doom and gloom?
Not necessarily.
The bank thinks the potential recession will be mild, lasting
a relatively short time.
It may be a matter of months, with an unemployment rate of
more than 5% hitting in 2024.
For perspective, the current rate,
the percentage of American workers who don't have jobs,
is 3.6%.
Why would any of this happen?
Inflation, the rapid rise in prices for the things we buy,
has grown by its fastest pace in 40 years.
Economic experts think prices will probably stay high
for the foreseeable future.
There is a tool that America's central bank
has to try to reduce inflation.
The Federal Reserve can raise interest rates, which makes it
more expensive to borrow money.
And that can help lead to price decreases.
But there are side effects to that.
Deutsche Bank says, because inflation is so high,
it thinks the Fed will raise interest rates so quickly
that it'll slam the brakes on economic growth
and put the US into recession.
Again, none of this is certain.
But the bank thinks all of these events will align in the years
ahead.
[swoosh]
CHRISTINE ROMANS: So, what's the difference between a recession
and a depression?
It comes down to how long the economy contracts.
A recession is typically defined as two negative quarters
of economic growth, and it's part
of the normal business cycle.
The US economy has fallen into recession
more than 30 times since 1854.
A depression is something vastly different.
It happens when the economic decline is sustained and might
potentially go on for years.
Now, that's only occurred once in American history, in 1929.
And it lasted 10 years.
Because it lasts so long, a depression is more severe.
A decade ago, unemployment hit 10% during the worst
of the Great Recession.
But, during the Great Depression,
the jobless rate peaked at nearly 25%.
[swoosh]
CARL AZUZ: 10-second trivia.
Which word can describe a threadlike object or a plasma
extension on the sun?
Firmament, fragment, filament, or figment?
[countdown clock beeping]
[swoosh]
Filament is the answer, and it factors
into a recent solar storm.
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[swoosh]
Regardless of what the weather outside is like where you're
watching, we are all being hit by a solar storm,
a coronal mass ejection from a filament
lifted off the sun on March 3, according to the US government.
And the effects of this were predicted to hit the Earth
on Wednesday and Thursday.
So, what does that mean?
Hopefully, not much.
Even though solar storms can cause problems on Earth
by disrupting GPS, satellites, and the power grid,
the one hitting now is relatively minor.
It's classified as a G1 on a scale from G1 to G5,
with the G standing for geomagnetic and the 1
being the weakest classification on the NOAA
Geomagnetic Storm Scale.
So why and how are scientists keeping up with these events?
[swoosh]
[suspenseful music]
RACHEL CRANE: Solar storms have been known
to cause all kinds of trouble, disrupting
flights and power grids.
Sounds kind of scary.
So, how worried should we actually be?
[suspenseful music]
The weather on the sun is a little different
than the weather here on Earth.
It consists of solar wind, solar flares,
and coronal mass ejections, which are these giant bubbles
of plasma and magnetic fields from the sun
that send high speed particles into space.
These storms can last a few minutes or several hours.
And, even though they're happening over 90 million miles
away, they're so powerful that their effects
can linger in our magnetosphere and atmosphere
for days or weeks.
If directed at Earth, these flares and CMEs
create geomagnetic storms that then dazzle
us with spectacular auroras.
But that's the fun part.
Beyond a light show, these solar storms
can harm most modern-day technology,
like satellites, communication systems,
power grids, and airplanes.
They can make airplanes disappear from radar detection
and cause major blackouts.
In 1989, a solar storm caused a blackout
in Canada that left 6 million without power for 12 hours.
While our technology is at the mercy of these solar storms,
our bodies are not.
That's because the Earth's atmosphere shields
us from harmful radiation.
But astronauts who are traveling through space
won't be as lucky.
Shielding astronauts from the space weather
is something NASA is working on right now,
to make sure our astronauts are safe and shielded
on future deep space missions.
But, back here on Earth, there's a facility in Boulder, Colorado
that monitors the sun's forecast.
It's called the Space Weather Prediction Center.
So, by getting ahead of the space weather,
we can better protect our technology.
[swoosh]
CARL AZUZ: The second of two reports from CNN's Rachel Crane
today takes us out to sea.
Tidal energy is a relatively new form of power production.
The publication "NS Energy" says it's
possible it could damage marine life or change shorelines.
And it has to be built close to land
because it relies on powerful currents to generate energy.
Also, not everyone supports using
taxpayer dollars to subsidize or support green energy.
But the technology is moving forward.
[swoosh]
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RACHEL CRANE: For decades, wind and solar
have been the centerpieces of green energy.
But the oceans ever-constant waves and tides
are also rich with renewable power that
has remained largely untapped.
Off the coast of Scotland, Orbital Marine Power
is one of the companies trying to change that.
Its jumbo-jet-sized floating platform
called the O2 has two giant rotors that
sit 60 feet below the surface of the water
and could harness the energy of the ocean's tides.
RACHEL CRANE: But unlike wind turbines
that have to accommodate for wind coming
from all directions, the O2 only needs
to capture energy from two.
RACHEL CRANE: And tides are far more reliable than wind.
RACHEL CRANE: This is Orbital's third tidal turbine
system to be connected to the UK national grid
for testing since 2012.
This latest design features rotors
that can lift out of the water for easier access for repairs.
The company says one O2 unit generates up
to 2 megawatts, which it says is enough to power
around 2,000 homes a year.
TREY TAYLOR: Think of what Verdant Power is doing
at Roosevelt Island in New York City as what the Wright
brothers did at Kitty Hawk.
RACHEL CRANE: In the US, Verdant Powers's TriFrame system
operates at the bottom of the East River, which
is actually a tidal strait.
It's in a precommercial phase but actively delivers power to
New York City's electric grid.
TREY TAYLOR: The potential for re-energy
is something like 250 gigawatts around the world.
And that's just tidal.
Doesn't include rivers or large canals.
So you can see the potential for the applications--
not only our technology but our competitors as well.
I mean, there's lots of room.
And we really hope our competitors succeed, too,
for the sake of the industry.
But we've got to get our costs down.
RACHEL CRANE: Right now, the high cost of building,
operating, and maintaining tidal power
technology means that tidal energy comes at a premium.
But government investment could play a vital role
in driving the price tag down.
TREY TAYLOR: In the UK, there are economic incentives.
We're counting on those for our first commercial projects.
As we start mass producing the technology,
we're going to pivot from the UK and head
right back in North America.
Alaska, New York, Canada--
tremendous water currents everywhere to harvest.
[music playing]
CARL AZUZ: Squid have been known to change color in the wild,
likely to avoid being seen and eaten.
But could they be observed doing this in captivity?
The answer, as you can see, is yes.
Scientists at a lab in Japan noticed
that, while they were cleaning out the squid tank,
the cephalopods appeared to be different colors
depending on whether they were near the algae.
One experiment later, a climactic chameleon color
conversion was quickly confirmed.
Some of you might be hoping I'll just squid while I'm ahead.
You know, squidaddle before I start squidding around.
Just because I love puns doesn't mean I'm cala-married to them.
But, whether you're streaming the show
or watching the cephalo-podcast, you
know I like to drop a few or a plank-ton of them
because they're totally tubular and tasteful
to a wide array of palates.
Staples High School in Westport, Connecticut,
shout out to you for subscribing and leaving a comment
on our YouTube channel.
I'm Carl Azuz for CNN.
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