Arielle: Hey guys, I am here in California with some of my thirsty friends. I am Arielle Hixson, and Channel One News starts right now.
Azia: We will check back in with Arielle and her friends in just a bit.I am Azia Celestino with a look at headlines, and first up, weare starting in Houston, Texas, where it is raining so hard that officials had to shut down schools and government offices and tell people to stay home.
More than a foot of rain pounded Texas, flooding roadways in a matter of minutes and bringing the city of Houston to a standstill yesterday. Check out this video of a man trying to swim away from his flooded car. Emergency crews said they were called to more than 600 water rescues.
The powerful storm that lit up the Lone Star State swept down from the northwest and dropped buckets of snow over Colorado on its way. The rain turned normally slow-moving creeks into raging rivers, flooded thousands of homes and knocked out power for more than 80,000 residents. The rain is expected to ease up later today.
The Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday over President Obama's immigration actions.The plan, called DAPA, would allow illegal immigrants with American children to live and work in the U.S. But 26 states have sued, saying that only Congress has the power to implement such a plan.
Hundreds of undocumented immigrants protested outside the Supreme Court yesterday. They say the fear of deportation is overwhelming.
Woman: I'm afraid every day. It's not a normal life.
Azia: President Obama's executive action would stop the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants whose children are U.S. citizens. The lawsuit by Texas and 25 states claims the president overstepped his legal authority. But the federal government questions whether the states have the right to sue.
It is a decision that could affect millions, and if the Supreme Court gives a 4-4 split decision, then likely nothing will happen until the November elections, when Congress would likely take up the issue.
All right, after the break, a woman's place is on the money.
Azia: All right, our paper money could be getting a facelift, with a notable female gracing the green. Tom, what are you hearing about this?
Tom: Well,Azia, plans were in place to have a woman featured on the front of the $10 bill, but now the treasury secretary is saying forget the 10; he has his eyes set on the 20.
Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew: It's time for a woman to be back on our paper currency.
Tom: Last June, when Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced a woman would be joining Alexander Hamilton on a newly redesigned $10 bill, he couldn't have predicted one hurdle:The smashing success of the Broadway hit "Hamilton" turned the first treasury secretaryinto a pop icon, leaving lots of fans pushing back.
So now Lew is expected to announce Hamilton will remain on the front of the $10 note, and a scene of women throughout history will be added to the back.
Lew: Alexander Hamilton is one of my heroes; he's not leaving our money.
Tom: And he is expected to announce a woman will eventually be on the front of the $20 bill, replacing Andrew Jackson — a more prestigious spot that he hinted at last month in an interview with Charlie Rose.
Lew: We're going to put a woman on the face of our currency, and this is not just about the $10 bill. This is about a whole series of bills.
Tom: That was good news to many. But there had been negative feedback on social media and input from groups like Women on 20s, which wrote an open letter to Lew last week saying, "Relegating women to the back of the bill is akin to sending them to the back of the bus. The Rosa Parks analogies are inevitable."
The civil rights activist is one of many candidates for the face of the new currency.Other possibilities include the African-American abolitionist Harriet Tubman and former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
While any decision is bound to be controversial, “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, who visited Lew last month, tweeted that he was told, "You're going to be very happy."
And you know, Azia, it will be the first time in over a century that a female portrait has been featured on our paper money.
Azia: Thanks, Tom.
Okay, after the break: how the changing climate is changing the food on our plate.
Azia: Today, as we continue our series on climate change, we are taking a look at food and how warmer weather turns up the heat on farming. Arielle Hixson is in California to tally up what it takes to produce the food we eat.
Arielle: Keep an eye on your dinner plate. It may look different in the future because of climate change. As droughts last longerand temperatures continue to increase, America's food supply could be in trouble.
Jason Smerdon: Water is fundamental to agricultural production, and,as many parts of the United States, the West has been in drought over different areas for the last 10 to
15 years.
Arielle: Let's go back to your plate. You have your broccoli, some potatoesand a hamburger. Now look at how much water it takes to produce each part of this meal:
2.2 gallons for the broccoli, 25 gallons for these potatoes and a whopping 450 gallons of water for this quarter-pound burger.
Steve Tellam: If he’s jumping, there’s a reason I need to jump.
Arielle: Steve Tellam is a cattle rancher in San Diego, California. He raises his cows on an open range. Each cow drinks 10 gallons of water a day, or 3,650 gallons of water a year.
Tellam: Over the last 15 years here, we've only had basically two good, wet, rainy years since 2000.
Arielle: Today California is facing one of the severest droughts on record. This has complicated farming so much that many ranchers have had to sell off their cattle just to keep their businesses going.
Smerdon: About 15 to 20 percent of the severity of the California drought over the last three years is a consequence of global warming.
Tellam: Here, in the last four years, we have basically cut our cow herd down by over
50 percent. This is the smallest number of animals that I've had in almost my lifetime.
Arielle: Water for these cows to drink, water to help grow their food and also water to clean their pens — in fact, add that all up, and that is more water than the people ofCalifornia consume each year: a lot of water for a small slice of beef. Higher water costs means cows are more expensive to raise, making beef more expensive to buy.
Tellam: Most people when they walk into the supermarket,all they see is that package of meat right there. You’ve gotta look back.“Where did that meat come from? Who supplied it? Who grew it?”
Arielle: Growing and caring for livestock is also an expense for the environment. Cows naturally release methane gas into the air, a greenhouse gas similar to carbon dioxide but 23 times more hazardous. So farming cows leaves a pretty heavy carbon footprint on the Earth.
Smerdon: Eating one hamburger is equivalent to driving your car around for three days straight.
Arielle: Many environmentalists are pushing for us to eat less beef, which would cut back on the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. But beef isn't the only food causing concern; other forms of agriculture like grains, fruits and vegetables are using a lot of water, especially in the Golden State.
California produces more than a third of the nation's vegetables and two-thirds of the nation’s fruits and nuts. To grow that food, farmers use about 80 percent of all water used in the state. So nationwidethe average American consumes more than
300 gallons of California water each week.
What is this?
Enrico Ferraro: This is my main shutoff for the water.
Arielle: Enrico Ferraro is a California farmer in the San Diego area. He produces about 10,000 pounds of avocados a season but has had to cut back due to the rising cost of water.
Ferraro: Some of the neighbors out here have been dealing with higher water costsand higher labor costs. At some point it no longer pencils out to keep the property going, and so they've shut off their water at this point.
Arielle: On top of this hill, you can see what is left ofthe neighboring farms, and it is pretty deserted. Rising temperatures have made avocados much more expensive to sell, so many farms are shutting down.
Ferraro: Avocados are a high value crop, and they are important for the agricultural economy of California.
Arielle: A recent study estimates climate change could kill more than a half a million people around the world by 2050 by making their diets less healthy.
Smerdon: The expectation is as temperatures increase, yields will decrease in specific areas. We have 7 billion people on the planet currently. We are expecting at least
9 billion over the course of this century, so that's a lot more mouths to feed.
Arielle: Arielle Hixson, Channel One News.
Azia: Definitely food for thought. And to check out new ways of farming that use fewer resources, just head to ChannelOne.com.
All right, guys, that is all for now. Have a great day, and we will see you right back here tomorrow.
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