(lively music) - Coming up next on NewsDepth, we're celebrating Earth Day by taking action.

Natalia takes us to a solar farm to learn about renewable energy.

A biochemist answers your questions about their job.

A public library in Texas is on the brink of closing.

NewsDepth is now.

(lively music) It's Earth Day!

Hello everybody, I'm Rick Jackson.

Thank you for joining us.

Earth Day is celebrated on April 22nd every year.

It's dedicated to raising awareness about environmental issues that our planet is facing.

The very first Earth Day was held in 1970.

Since then, it's become a global event that is celebrated by millions of people in more than 190 countries around the world.

Earth Day is meant to promote environmental protection, conservation, and sustainability.

Sustainability is the ability to maintain natural resources so they remain available for a long time.

April 22nd is also a day to reflect on our impact on the planet and to take action toward creating a more sustainable future for all living beings.

Taking action is what federal officials are doing to minimize water usage from the Colorado River.

40 million Americans in eight states rely on this river for their drinking water, one of the nation's most important sources of fresh water.

But years of drought have officials floating some tough options to slash water usage as water levels from major reservoirs continue to plummet.

Lucy Kafanov has more.

- [Lucy] As water levels for the Colorado River's major reservoirs remain at alarmingly low levels, exacerbated by more than two decades of drought and chronic overuse, the federal government releasing a dire assessment of the painful choices facing the American West.

- We cannot kick the can on finding solutions and the women and men responsible for managing the system for the benefit of 40 million Americans in countless ecosystems.

- [Lucy] Snaking across the Southwest and into Mexico, the Colorado River is the lifeblood of the region.

(water gushing) It waters booming cities while nourishing some of the nation's most fertile fields and generates hydroelectricity for the Southwest.

But without massive changes to how the water is used and distributed, all that could soon be at risk.

- We have a lot of hard work and difficult decisions ahead of us in this basin, but those paths have dire consequences in some cases and may spur opposition or even litigation.

- [Lucy] The options presented by the Interior Department to cut 2 million acre feet in water usage in 2024 are grim.

One prioritizes the needs of thirsty farming regions in California, which along with native tribes, have a higher water priority claim.

But that could devastate major western cities like Las Vegas which gets 90% of its water from the Colorado River, as well as Los Angeles and Phoenix.

(metallic piping clanging) Option two, spread the pain evenly among all the users which could lead to lengthy court battles.

A third option, doing nothing at all, might have the highest cost if the river continues to dwindle.

- This no action alternative, we will see the most impacts to the system.

We can expect water levels to continue to decline, threatening the operations of the system and the water supply of 40 million people.

(animals mooing) - [Lucy] For some communities in Arizona, the dire future is a present reality.

- I think everybody thinks the government or somebody is gonna take care of it.

And unfortunately, I think that's what most of the US is thinking and they need to wake up and people need to start conserving the water now before it's too late.

- Thank you, Lucy.

Nature has resurrected the previously dried out Tulare Lake in California.

This winter's historic atmospheric rivers and several feet of snow have brought with them snowmelt, turning the dry lakebed back into an inland ocean.

But this also comes with some bad news as the water started to flood the land which farmers have been working on for generations.

Bill Weir has that.

- In California's Central Valley, farmers have spent much of the last 20 years praying for rain.

But then came this winter of relentless rivers in the sky, enough to bring a long dead lake back to life and drown over 150 square miles of farmland and counting.

So now, they pray for the water to stop.

(water lapping) It is mind-blowing to realize that if you'd stood here for the last couple of generations, you'd be watching the sunset over dusty fields of cotton or alfalfa or pistachio trees.

And now it is waterfront property.

I had no idea.

Tulare Lake was once the biggest freshwater body west of the Mississippi, but it was dammed and diked and drained to build a $2 billion agriculture industry.

And now it's back.

It's proof that water never forgets.

And this may just be the beginning because behind those clouds over there, the Sierra Nevadas are so packed with snow, 260% above normal.

And sooner or later that's gonna melt, which is only gonna make this flooding worse and last longer.

The last time it flooded this dramatically here was 1983 and it took two years to dry out.

And this time, in addition to the dripping time bomb in the mountains, Corcoran is many feet lower in elevation.

After years of over-pumping groundwater to grow thirstier crops, made this one of the fastest sinking areas in the nation.

- So the ground has literally sunk in some places by 10 or 15 feet over the past decade.

That has literally changed the topography of the historical lakebed.

Some places are lower even than they were the last time there was a big flood event.

So there's quite a few unknowns.

- [Bill] That is UCLA scientist, Daniel Swain.

And last summer, he published a paper that found weather whiplash will become only more extreme on an overheating planet.

At worst case, Tulare Lake could grow into a vast inland sea.

- That as disruptive and as damaging as this year's flooding has been, it's still nowhere near close to what we foresee as the plausible worst case scenario.

- All of the crops are completely flooded and ruined.

So that's, it takes a lot of jobs for people.

That's a lot of food that provide, we provide for up and down California and all around the nation.

It's pretty scary.

(chuckling) - And unfortunately, this is just the beginning, right?

- Because- - Very beginning.

- The big melt hasn't even really begun.

- Yes, this is just from the rain.

The snow melts, there's nowhere for it to go besides here.

- Thanks, Bill.

We must all be mindful of our consumption and take steps to reduce our impact on the environment so we can help ensure that earth's natural resources are available for future generations.

Now solar panels are devices that are designed to capture sunlight and convert it into electricity.

Solar panels are an increasingly popular form of renewable energy as they offer a clean and sustainable source of electricity without emitting greenhouse gases or other harmful pollutants.

They're installed in a variety of locations from residential and commercial rooftops to large scale solar farms.

In this brand new spot on science, Natalia takes us to a solar farm in Sunbury, Ohio, to learn how solar panels work.

- Did you know that the sun gives us 173,000 terawatts?

That's almost 10 times the amount of energy the whole world uses in a year.

Solar power is a renewable energy.

Renewable energy means that it comes from a natural source and that it's replenished faster than it's consumed.

So how can we take solar energy and turn it into electric energy?

Solar panels.

Today I'm at a solar farm in Sunbury, near Columbus, Ohio, and I'm ready to roll up my sleeves and get a little dirty to harvest some sunlight.

- That's not how it works!

- Wait, what?

(lively music) - Hi, my name is Jake Kuss, I'm the executive director of Shared Power Network.

When the sun comes down and hits the ground here, there's a portion of sunlight called a photon.

That photon will hit the solar cell here.

There's a negative side and a positive side within the solar cell, and the photon comes out and knocks out an electron.

Those electrons when they pass from that negative to positive side, these little filaments in here collect the electrons and funnel them all down into larger roads.

So the smallest filaments on here goes to the larger, to the larger.

And then all, at the end, there's a collection system on the back here, the solar panel, and that's where it's all collected in that one point, and it flows out from that point.

(fan whirring) (jaunty music) This is an off-grid system.

So the battery backup here collects all of the electricity that's being made.

If you aren't storing it or you aren't using it on this system, that electricity is lost in that moment.

But if you connect it on your house or a building nearby, those are usually connected to the grid.

So that's all the big transmission wires that you see up on the telephone poles.

But on a system on your home or your building, that electricity will get used there first.

And if there's any excess, it'll then go out onto the grid.

(jaunty music) So most solar panels are made mostly out of glass and aluminum, which is good.

That's a lot of recyclable materials, a lot of relatively easy-to-find material.

So there's a glass coating on all solar panels.

But the cells themselves, the black part here, is made of silica, which is basically sand.

And then the housing is mostly aluminum.

There are some metals in here that are a little bit more expensive and that's kind of where the cost comes from with solar panels.

Most panels last for, you know, 30-plus years and so it's something you don't have to worry about for a while.

(jaunty music) Solar panels continue to become more and more efficient and cheaper along the way.

Panels now are anywhere from kind of 25 to 35% efficient.

(jaunty music) A lot of things that you can do to kind of think about the electricity that you use.

Little things like unplugging, you know, appliances that you're not using; always turning off the light switch when you leave a room.

Little decisions like that can really impact overall how much electricity you're using at home or at your school.

(graphic whooshing) (graphic boings) - Thanks, Natalia.

I hope you're enjoying the sun out there today.

Also thanks to our friend, Kevin Morrisey, for editing that piece.

There's also a new push to fight climate change and lower utility bills all across Michigan.

Lawmakers introduced a plan that will help people, businesses, and utilities to cut their carbon emissions.

Cody Butler explains.

- [Cody] It's not unusual to see solar panels in yards or on roofs of houses and businesses across Michigan.

The Lansing Southside Community Coalition Center saved more than $4,000 since installing panels last year.

- Any kind of savings that we can have that's sustainable permanent savings, we can turn back into programming, which is our mission.

- [Cody] Senate Democrats want to see more of these kinds of projects across the state with proposals offering incentives for carbon neutral projects.

Under the proposals, utilities would also have until 2035 to get rid of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

- Renewable energy has become so affordable that it's allowing us the opportunity to make these changes.

- Energy companies across mid-Michigan say they're already on track to shut down their coal plants before the proposed deadline.

- That's a very aggressive timetable but we are moving in that direction and are confident that we are gonna be replacing coal and carbon-emitting generation with solar and wind.

- [Cody] But some areas aren't moving as fast.

Thursday, the Clinton County Planning Commission decided to stop accepting utility scale solar and wind development applications for a year.

The county will work on changing its ordinance before taking applications again.

It doesn't stop people from putting solar panels on their own home, something Wiener is hoping people will do.

- [Wiener] People can save up to 30% on the costs and in some cases even more of doing this kind of work for their homes.

- [Cody] As many are hoping saving money will also save the environment.

- Thank you, Cody.

That brings us to this week's Write-in Question, how do you think clean energy would change your community?

Jump on over to our inbox page to tell us how you picked your A Greener Future.

Okay, time to check in on News Hound.

He has had a few weeks now to come up with a story so I hope he has a good one for us this time.

(jaunty music) (dog barking) Hey there, News Hound.

Are you sunbathing?

Oh I get it, you're recharging after a long week at work.

Well that's one way to get energy from the sun.

So, what do you have for us today?

A story about sheep helping keep a solar farm green by helping with the lambscaping.

Oh that's cute, News Hound.

To learn how these sheep are helping reduce emissions, click the petting zoo button on our website.

Great story.

Thanks, News Hound.

(graphic whooshing) (graphic boings) Well last episode, we asked you to send us questions you might have about a career in biochemistry.

Biochemists study the chemical and physical principles of living things and their biological processes.

Biochemists have to be critical thinkers, they have to be problem-solvers, they have to have good time management and communication skills as well.

And they have to be interested in sciences like physics and biology and chemistry.

Most entry-level positions in this field require a PhD.

PhD stands for Doctor of Philosophy.

It's a high level degree earned after three or more years of studying after a Bachelor's degree.

The median salary for a biochemist in 2021, about $102,000 a year.

It has a 15% projected growth for the next 10 years.

That's almost twice the expected demand for other occupations.

So for this week's Career Callout, we meet Jack Koster.

He's answering your questions about a career in biochemistry.

(jaunty music) - Hi, I'm Jack Koster.

I am a biochemistry student at the University of Texas at Dallas, and I also work as a researcher in the Winkler Lab at the University of Texas in Dallas.

The first question here, this is from Grace from Harding Middle School in Lakewood asks, "Why did you want to be a biochemist and was there anybody that inspired you to be a biochemist?"

And I think from a young age, I was very curious about the natural world.

Somebody that inspired me to be a biochemist I think would be my mother.

She is a- She's a doctor and she's great at what she does.

She would always be there to answer those questions I would have when I was younger.

Maddox from Roxboro Elementary School in Cleveland Heights asked, "Do you ever get hurt from all the chemicals you use?"

There are some- There are definitely some chemicals in the lab that we use that are a little dangerous, aren't safe.

We try to be very careful.

Most of the things we use in the lab are totally safe.

We use things on very, very small amounts.

We use very small amounts of everything for experiments.

And so, we're very careful.

We wear lab coats, we wear gloves on our hands when we're gonna pipette samples into tubes or anything like that.

And we just pay attention and make sure, you know, we're being, you know, paying attention to details, making sure we don't drop anything.

Izzy from Suffield Elementary wants to know, "What kind of stuff do you like to study?"

I like to study things that are kind of on the border of making sense and not really making sense.

Now with that being said, I like it to be applicable to life and to maybe medicine, those sorts of things.

So the research I do is disease-related research, into a disease called ALS.

And in doing this research, we work on very small cellular structures that can tell us some big things about curing diseases.

Amira from Richardson Elementary School in Cuyahoga Falls wants to know, "What is your favorite thing about being a biochemist?"

When we're working with a sample, it's often- The sample itself can be a small or smaller than a drop of water, and any of these things in the air can affect an experiment.

So, we try to be- We do everything we can.

There's many methods we use to make everything clean and to give the best results in experiments.

And so I think what I really love about biochemistry is getting better at that process and figuring out how to make something that doesn't wanna work, work at the end of the day.

Addie from Lincolnview Elementary in Van Wert asks, "What would your dream project be?"

And this is something I think about a lot and I think I want to work on curing diseases in a more personalized way using these really complex models of how the body works to help personalize medicine for each and every person.

So there's less side effects and better outcomes for individuals.

And I think that kind of work is really cool.

Thanks everyone for sending in your questions!

If you're interested in a career in biochemistry, my advice for you is that you stay curious about the world around you and about nature and about asking questions and about learning new things.

(graphics whooshing) (graphic boings) - Jack, thank you for answering our questions.

And a special thanks to our intern, Lauren Fernandez, for producing that segment.

Let's switch gears now.

There are new developments in a small Texas county's fight to keep books that some residents and lawmakers found controversial off library shelves.

Officials in Llano County threatened to entirely close down its library system after a judge ordered they must return the books back to the libraries.

The books in question were initially removed because of their LGBTQ and racial content.

Officials are trying to keep the libraries in operation for now.

Ed Lavandera tells us more.

- [Crowd] Allegiance to the flag.

- [Ed] The crowds appeared after word spread this week that Llano County commissioners were considering shutting down all of its public libraries.

Most people couldn't get into the meeting.

- Does Llano, Texas, want to be known as the town that closed the public library?

That would begin the death knell for a vibrant community.

- I am for closing the library until we get this filth off the shelves.

- [Ed] Fights over book bans have erupted all over the country but the threat of shutting down libraries over the issue catapulted this Texas Hill Country community into an unchartered political firestorm, leaving some residence tearful.

- Keep the library open at all cost.

At all cost.

The library dies, part of me dies.

- [Ed] The Llano Library saga started when a group of residents pushed to get 17 books removed from the shelves.

Suzette Baker is the former Llano librarian who was fired last year by county officials for refusing to remove the books.

- This is about taking away rights.

- [Ed] Some of the critics of these books have described them as inappropriate for children.

What do you say to that?

- I think to frame it as that, it's just wrong.

- [Ed] Last year, Leila Green Little and six other Llano residents sued county officials to get the books put back in the libraries.

Last month, they won support from a federal judge who said the books should be reinstated.

Llano County commissioners reluctantly complied but also took the unprecedented step of debating whether to close the libraries.

- These libraries are so important.

And for the county to threaten closure of three branches of a county's library system all because of a ruling on a lawsuit is absurd.

- [Ed] Most of those supporting the removal of the books are now focused on what they say are several hundred other books.

- The problem is the 250 that are still on the shelves.

We cannot have this stuff in here.

- [Ed] County commissioners walked away from closing the libraries for now.

- The library will remain open.

We will try this in the courts, not through social media or through news media.

- [Ed] But the library fight has exposed deep-rooted divides.

Many see it as a battle of good versus evil.

- Thank you, Ed.

For our poll this week, we want to know what you think.

Should certain books be banned in public libraries?

Now last episode, we asked if you thought the social media app, TikTok, should be banned In the United States.

We got more than 3,600 responses!

53% of you agree that TikTok should be banned while 47% think that it should not be banned because TikTok is a useful platform.

Our results are surprisingly close to the results of a national survey.

A new Pew Research survey shows half of Americans support a government ban on TikTok.

Only 22% oppose a ban, the rest are unsure.

Well here at NewsDepth, we're always very impressed with the wide range of talented students that we get to meet.

And recently, we met an entire team of students at the Birchwood School of Hawken in Cleveland, who are using their skills and talents and creativity to write a new story, literally.

Of course, I'm talking about the Power of the Penn program.

Power of the Penn is an Ohio-wide interscholastic writing program for seventh and eighth grade students.

Students who participate are able to learn and use writing skills that help them develop their own creative voices.

Joshua told us that the group meets every Wednesday after school.

During these meetings, the students practice, you guessed it, writing creatively!

Caroline added that they're given prompts that really challenge them to think, and that her and her teammates have to write a story about the prompt.

The prompts can sometimes describe a scenario, a character's dilemma, or challenge the student to explore an emotion, Saanvi explained to us.

Manya said that she really enjoyed writing about different genres and going through the creative process.

Ayat told us that the Power of the Penn really helped her grow and truly know herself as a writer.

She told us this has been a wonderful experience.

Now recently the team competed in the regional competition at Kent State University.

We're excited to share that they won the Regional Sweepstakes Award for the third year in a row!

The eighth grade team finished in first place, the seventh grade team placed fourth.

Next up for the team is the state tournament at Ashland University.

We're excited to hear how they do.

Now we at NewsDepth really admire all of the work these students put into their writing because writing is an important part of what we do every single day to make this show.

The students even taught us a few things about writing.

For example, Stefan told us that just because a piece of writing is complex, it doesn't always mean it's good.

There are times when simple is best.

Haadeya suggested that when you're writing, time management is also very important.

She told us that it's never a bad idea to plan your writing and to use your time wisely.

That's great advice.

So this week's A Plus Award goes to the Power of the Penn program at the Birchwood School of Hawken for thinking creatively and expressing themselves in writing.

Okay, I think we have time for one more story.

A legally blind man with autism illustrated a children's book.

Sebastian's family says his challenges have not slowed him down even a little bit.

It instead helped motivate him to push toward his dreams.

Alex Jergens has this story.

- [Alex] Meet Sebastian Franco.

He was diagnosed with autism when he was about a year and a half old and is legally blind.

But that's not stopping him or his creativity.

- I took some art classes and my art teachers loved my drawings.

- They were saying his point of view or his conception of art was something that they'd never seen before in an autistic person.

And so they really encouraged him to continue.

- [Alex] Opportunity hit last year when a children's author asked him to do the illustrations for his new book, an opportunity he couldn't pass up.

His mom, Jase, says she's amazed and happy that his challenges don't slow him down.

- He was able to look past some of what, you know, other people may feel as a hindrance or obstacles.

- [Alex] And it serves as motivation to move forward.

- And if not for books, it's his passion.

It's what he truly loves to do, is to draw.

- [Alex] The hope is for proceeds from book sales will go towards a trip for Sebastian and Jase to go to Alaska to see the Northern Lights, a goal they hope to accomplish before Sebastian completely loses his eyesight.

For him to put his mark on a book... - [Sebastian] I feel pretty excited and accomplished.

- Thank you, Alex.

Well, that's all the time we have for today but we'll be back next week with more for you.

Until then, we want to hear from you.

And there are plenty of ways for you to stay in touch with us.

You can write to us.

We're at 1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio.

Our zip code right here, 44115.

You can email us at newsdepth@ideastream.org, or you can tweet us.

Our handle is @NewsDepthOhio.

So thanks for joining us.

I'm Rick Jackson, we'll see you right back here next week.

(graphic whooshing) (lively music) - [Presenter] NewsDepth is made possible by grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation.

Career callouts featured in NewsDepth are funded by the Ohio Broadcast Media Commission.

(lively music) (jaunty music)