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CARL AZUZ: A dip in the drought describes
the dynamic duo of developments we detail first today.
I'm Carl Azuz.
It's always good to see you.
By dip, we mean a decline or contraction in the US economy.
The nation's gross domestic product,
a measure of all the goods and services America produced
in the first quarter of this year,
decreased at a pace of 1.4%.
Economists had predicted the economy
would grow at a pace of 1.1%.
So this drop was unexpected.
OK.
So America's economy produced significantly less
between January and March than it
did between October and December when it grew at a pace of 6.9%.
Why does that matter?
For one thing, the decrease was the economy's worst performance
since the COVID pandemic hit in 2020.
For 2022, we've now seen one quarter, a three-month period,
of shrinking economic growth.
If there are two of those in a row,
it meets a commonly used definition of a recession.
To be clear, the American economy is not officially
in a recession at this point.
And it might not see one in the months ahead.
But this has raised concerns about it.
Why did the economy shrink?
There are a number of explanations.
Some private investments decreased.
America's exports fell, while its imports rose.
That can hurt a country's gross domestic product.
Spending across different levels of government decreased.
And inflation, the historic rise in prices
the US has seen since last year, continues to cause problems.
But while some analysts call this
a warning sign for the economy, there is a silver lining.
Consumer spending increased.
People kept buying stuff.
That's a major driver of economic growth.
And the unemployment, rate the percentage of American workers
who don't have a job, that's been steadily
decreasing since the country reopened
after the COVID lockdowns.
It's another good sign for the economy because in a recession,
unemployment typically goes up.
One thing that's not going up are water levels at Lake Mead.
This is America's largest manmade reservoir.
It's located in Nevada and Arizona.
And it's a source of water for millions of people.
Lake Mead is at its lowest level ever.
And about 250 miles southwest of there,
millions of Southern Californians
have been told to stop watering their lawns and gardens
more than one day per week.
Officials are afraid there won't be enough water
to meet the demands of many residents and businesses
in the region.
All of this is part of a historic drought
in the American West.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI: So often in recent days
we've talked about the fire weather concerns
around the Southwestern US.
But across the state of California,
the big concern for years now has been the drought situation,
where upwards of 90% of the state
was dealing with extreme drought.
This was just last October.
We had an incredible run of wet weather
in November and December, historic amounts of rainfall.
That actually brought our extreme drought situation
in the state down to just 1%.
And then what followed was a very dry January, February,
March, essentially going right back to our historic drought
situation, which brought the extreme drought
numbers from that 1% up to 40%.
And the entirety of the state dealing with at least
some level of drought.
So really concerning set up.
And mind you, this was in the heart of the wet season that
is now beginning to taper off.
In fact, look at the reservoirs across the state.
A lot of these areas running 10%,
20% below where they should be for this time of year.
Say, Lake Orville, 53% current capacity.
That should be closer to 70%.
Work your way towards Pine Flat, sitting about 48%
of current capacity.
That number should be closer to 81%.
So very dry situation.
And there has been wet weather.
But unfortunately a lot of it locked in
across the Pacific Northwest.
With that said, an incredibly dry start to the year.
Look at these areas, very densely populated regions--
San Jose, San Francisco, on into Santa Rosa, Monterey, only 8-,
9-, up to 16-inch rainfall deficits again in the wet
season, so a concerning start here as we
head on into the dry season.
CARL AZUZ: 10-second trivia--
which of these objects represents the largest number,
asteroid belt asteroids, species of fish, trees on Earth,
or Milky Way stars?
Scientists estimate there are hundreds of billions
of stars in the Milky Way but trillions of trees on Earth.
I couldn't believe that Either.
But it seems those trees and other natural wonders
can have a healing effect on people.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control,
40% of American adults have at least two chronic diseases.
They might include high blood pressure, mood disorders,
heart problems, diabetes.
According to the American Psychological Association,
lower stress, better moods, better brain activity
and possibly even overall happiness
can all be linked to spending time in the great outdoors.
That's why there are dozens of programs that prescribe nature
as a potential form of healing.
MELISSA LEM: Nature is everywhere.
We can find it in the most unexpected places.
And nature is health.
Park Prescription, PaRx, is Canada's national nature
prescription program.
What the physician or nurse does is they sit down
with the patient, and they figure out
what kind of nearby nature is in their community.
And then they work with them together to come up with a plan
where they can incorporate nature time
into their everyday lifestyle.
- Some cherry tomatoes.
So this is the prescription.
And it just gives my name.
And it says my outdoor activity plan.
MELISSA LEM: In 2022, we announced a new collaboration
with Parks Canada, where licensed health professionals
can now prescribe national Discovery Passes that give
you entry to national parks.
There are only two national nature prescription
programs in the world.
And the first one was actually founded right in the US.
Cost can be a barrier where there are day use fees.
So we're hoping that by prescribing these parks
candidates discovery passes that that
will reduce that barrier to nature
access in a significant way.
Well, there are two major theories as to why nature
is so good for our brains.
And the first one is called attention restoration theory.
When we spend time in busy urban environments,
all the hard edges and traffic and lights and people
everywhere really make us have to constantly
focus our attention to kind of navigate
around those obstacles.
Whereas when you spend time in nature,
it's really this source of soft fascination.
So what that does is it restores your powers of attention,
and it reduces that fatigue and irritability.
The second major theory is called stress reduction theory.
So basically when we spend time in nature
after stressful events, it helps us be more resilient
and recover faster.
When I recommended nature for the first time
to a patient of mine, I thought, he's going to look at me funny,
and he's going to laugh at me.
But he actually just nodded his head and said,
you're absolutely right.
When I spend more time in nature, I feel better.
And so I think health care providers sort of
have to get over our own mental biases against new sort
of lifestyle interventions and prescribe
something evidence-based like nature time more often.
- 50 days from seed to vegetable.
I think the prescription helps in that it says,
this is a good thing to do.
This is worth the effort to do.
You need to get out of doors and just be surrounded
by the greenery and by nature.
MELISSA LEM: I want people to know that nature
should be a non-negotiable.
The thing about heading outside is that you tend to start
to naturally be more active.
You'll feel calmer.
You'll feel less depressed, less anxious.
I think it's just a great way to deal with the stresses
of modern life.
CARL AZUZ: (SINGING) Old MacDonald's in the wall, E-I,
E-I-- what?
While renovating a home built in 1959, a man in Illinois
found a bag from McDonald's possibly
dating back to 1959 that had been hidden in his bathroom.
It featured the original restaurant logo, which predates
Ronald McDonald, along with burger wrappers and some,
shall we say, stale leftover fries.
Don't know if he tried one.
He said they didn't have any smell.
We'd guess they were "petri-fried."
There's something "filet-o-fishy"
about why the meat was missing.
It's a real "McRiddle," griddle maybe the work of a hamburglar.
He is an arche's enemy.
And if the thought of that makes you grimace,
it is the mayor of McCheesy stories
that has enough flavorful nuggets
to make for a happy meal.
Fridays are awesome.
Horseshoe Bend High School is in New Site, Alabama.
Shout out to you.
Thank you for watching.
I'm Carl Azuz, wishing all of you an amazing weekend.
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