(energetic alternative music) - Coming up next on NewsDepth, India's electric vehicle revolution is having an impact on the environment.

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

Mary tells us about Ohio's prehistoric creatures and New Zealand ramps up efforts to save their national bird, the kiwi.

NewsDepth is now.

(energetic alternative music continues) India is trying to radically change its environmental footprint, and it's doing it two wheels at a time.

Hello, everybody.

I'm Gabriel Kramer.

Thank you for joining us.

India experiences some of the worst air pollution in the world, but an electric vehicle movement could have a wide-ranging impact on the environment.

A combination of government grants and local production have seen electric scooters quickly become more and more popular in the country.

And some analysts say it could do wonders to help India move away from fossil fuels.

Ivan Watson reports from New Delhi.

(car horns honking) - [Ivan] Even on a good day, the traffic in New Delhi can be pretty overwhelming, (car horn honking) but here in the capital of the world's most populous country, (people chatting) dramatic change is in the air and on busy streets.

(rickshaw engine sputtering) Seemingly overnight, iconic Indian vehicles, like the humble rickshaw have suddenly gone electric.

India is in the midst of a revolution, a transition towards adopting electric vehicles.

This transformation is being led by small vehicles, scooters, motorcycles, (roof clanging) and vehicles like this.

Two-wheel vehicles vastly outnumber cars on India's roads.

With more than 15 million units sold last year, experts say this country is home to one of the biggest two-wheel vehicle markets in the world.

- In Indian context, the largest use of petrol is two-wheelers in India.

The largest emissions are two-wheelers in India.

(scooter engine whirring) - [Ivan] Tarun Mehta is the CEO of Ather Energy.

He and Swapnil Jain launched this startup in 2013.

At this factory outside Bangalore, they manufacture electric scooters.

- One scooter rolls out every 90 seconds.

- This is just one of at least 10 companies producing two-wheel electric vehicles in India today.

The management here say they're not selling any of their scooters overseas for export yet 'cause they just don't need to.

(power tool whirring) Ather says its sales have skyrocketed from just 200 scooters a month in 2020 to more than 15,000 a month today.

"Electric scooters can cost 30% more than traditional gas-powered scooters," says Ather Energy.

And yet, it looks like Indian consumers are flocking to this new technology.

- We predict that the total two-wheeler market by the year 2030 would be around 25 million units.

And out of that, close to 60 to 70% of units sold would be electric.

- [Ivan] India is home to many of the world's most polluted cities, but experts agree that the mass electrification of India's vehicles could be a game changer for the environment.

- If we can marry the two, combine the EV transition and decarbonization of electricity, then it's really a win-win, and we are going to have enormous environmental and health benefits.

- [Ivan] India is on the road to monumental change in its transport industry, a process that will hopefully take pressure off of our planet's embattled climate.

- Thank you, Ivan.

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

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 are installed in a variety of locations from residential and commercial rooftops to large-scale solar farms.

In today's new "Spot on Science," Natalia takes us to a solar farm in Sunbury, Ohio, to learn how solar panels work.

- Do 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, New Columbus, Ohio, and I'm ready to roll up my sleeves and get a little dirty to harbor some sunlight.

- That's not how it works.

- Wait, what?

(upbeat game console 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 go 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.

(engine whirring) (plug clicks) (fan whirring) This is an off-grid system.

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're connected 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.

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

That's a lot of recyclable material.

It's 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 30 plus years and so, it's something you don't have to worry about for a while.

(bird chirping) (calm vibraphone music) (crickets chirping) 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.

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

Little things like unplugging 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.

- Thank you, Natalia.

Using renewable sources of energy is important for sustainability.

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

People in the country of Ecuador have voted to stop oil drilling in one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, The Yasuni National Park.

The Yasuni National Park encompasses about 2.5 million acres at the meeting point of the Amazon, the Andes, and the equator.

In 2016, the Ecuadorian state oil company began drilling in block 43, about 0.01% of the national park, which today produces more than 55,000 barrels a day amounting to about 12% of Ecuador's oil production.

But a continuous crusade of relentless campaigning and a successful petition eventually made its mark.

Almost 60% of the voters elected to stop the drilling in the Amazon.

We wanna know what you think.

Should we stop all oil drilling?

This is a nuanced issue, so we encourage you to do your own research on oil drilling to learn more.

And after that, you can send us an email to newsdepth@ideastream.org that tell us what you learned and where you stand.

Another renewable energy source is water, but that doesn't mean we should be careless in how we use it every day.

Researchers at the University of California Berkeley are perfecting a technology they believe could help drought-ravaged populations around the globe.

And to test it, they went, where else?

To one of the hottest spots in California.

Dan Ashley has a story.

- [Dan] If you ever find yourself searching for water in the middle of Death Valley, you are probably in a lot of trouble.

But for Zach Zheng and his colleagues from UC Berkeley, it was just part of the challenge.

- So then we decided to take the biggest challenge, which is go to the center of the park, the Furnace Creek, you know, the most challenging part.

And then, so, we were very lucky.

- [Dan] Lucky, in part, because they didn't arrive empty handed.

The team set up an experimental device on the valley floor that you could describe as a portable water harvester.

It looks something like a small telescope tilted and an angle, but it's designed to pull water right out of the air, in this case, the hottest, driest air they could find.

- You know, I was very excited, so I just stayed there even though it's super hot.

So I just want to watch it.

- [Dan] To understand his excitement, it helps to take a quick detour from the desert to the lab.

That's where UC Berkeley Professor, Omar Yaghi, pioneered the water-capturing ingredient at the heart of the device.

A lab-created material known as a moth for metal organic framework.

While it looks like a powder to the naked eye, put it under a sophisticated microscope and you'll see a chain of molecules.

- The metal ion and the organic are linked together to make the framework that is the moth.

- [Dan] He explains that the moths are extremely porous with the surface area, roughly the size of a football field in just a small amount.

- So that's the space into which one combined gases, like hydrogen for hydrogen storage, carbon dioxide, carbon from the air, or in this case, water.

- [Dan] But the question for Zach and his colleagues was whether the portable device would be efficient enough to condense water molecules from the hyper dry desert air.

So in the baking sun, they watched and waited for the first tiny drops to appear.

- Until it finally just dropped out.

And then it took about the next about 60 seconds or so.

And then, so I saw the droplets out and I was like, "Oh, it works."

- [Dan] With the latest results, the Berkeley team hopes the water harvester can impact populations in the most drought-stricken corners of the planet, providing safe, clean, and potentially life-saving drinking water pulled from thin air.

- Thank you, Dan.

Attention, dinosaur fans, paleontologists say they have discovered a bone bed in Laurel, Maryland.

A bone bed is a term used when one or more species are concentrated near each other.

At Prince George's County, the attraction is aptly named Dinosaur Park.

Officials say the discovery is the first of its kind in the state since 1887.

And as Mindy Basara explains, it was the result of a mistake.

- [Mindy] A worker using heavy machinery accidentally chipped a large iron stone rock in 2014.

That mistake led to a major discovery at the appropriately named Dinosaur Park in Laurel.

- What they knocked off was a small piece of rock that exposed a large bone.

- [Mindy] It took years to realize that large bone is believed to belong to a massive dinosaur.

- It appears that it might be this dinosaur or something very closely related to this.

This is called Acrocanthosaurus.

It's a large predatory dinosaur.

- [Mindy] Paleontologists say this is an extraordinary milestone in the field.

- It opens a window into our ancient world and to the species that once roamed this land.

- [Mindy] A window into a world that you can experience as well.

A couple times a month, the park allows people to search for fossils on their own, and there's a lot to find.

- There's small, young sharks, tiny little mammals, crocodiles, turtles, our own very tiny, little relative of triceratops, and swift raptors.

A spiky, plant-eating dinosaur, a giant, meat-eating dinosaur that, in my opinion, probably give Tyrannosaurus rex nightmares.

And of course, our own special Maryland state dinosaur, and the largest dinosaur on this side of North America, Astrodon johnstoni.

- [Mindy] Some of these discoveries found by some very young, budding paleontologists.

- In fact, some of the best dinosaur teeth that I've ever seen since I've been working here have been made by children 'cause they have the sharper eyes and are closer to the ground.

- Thank you, Mindy.

Did you know that Ohio used to be home to amazing prehistoric creatures?

We're talking about the giant beaver and the Dunkleosteus.

In this week's "Know Ohio," Mary shares the history of the animals that used to roam our state.

(upbeat country music) (upbeat country music ends) - I don't know about you, but I've got some pretty fierce predators in my neighborhood.

Like once, I saw a squirrel that was like this big, terrifying.

Oh, and there was a spider in my basement that was huge, like sort of hairy and don't get me started about this ferocious beast I found in my living room.

(beast roaring) I mean, I really have to watch myself around here, but okay, I will admit that the animals that live among us today are probably not as big or bad as the creatures that roamed Ohio in prehistoric times.

Take for instance, the Castoroides, also known as the giant beaver.

It looked a lot like today's cute little beaver that we all know and love.

But as the name suggests, the giant beaver was much, much larger.

In fact, it could grow as large as seven feet tall and weigh up to 276 pounds, about the size of a black bear, making it the largest rodent in North America during the Ice Age.

We know about this animal because its fossils were first discovered in a swamp about 50 miles west of Columbus.

By looking closely at the fossils, scientists have figured out that these beavers had much larger teeth.

And since they're shaped differently, some scientists say they may not have built dams like today's beavers.

Another thing scientists discovered, giant beavers did not have giant brains.

Their brains were proportionally smaller than modern beavers.

So giant beavers were not only big, they were big and kind of dumb.

These big dumb beavers shared Ohio with some hairy elephants.

You've likely heard of wooly mammoths, and we found a few mammoth fossils.

But even more common in Ohio is a very close relative, the Mastodon.

Mastodons called Ohio Home 20,000 years ago, and they're known for their shaggy haircuts and long tusks that could extend to over 16 feet long.

They were also on the menu of Ohio's first native tribes, and one of these guys could feed a lot of people.

Mastodon bones have been found all over the state, including a number of complete skeletons, like the Conway Mastodon found in 1887 and the Johnstown Mastodon found in 1926 and displayed at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

But these are far from the oldest fossils that have been found in Ohio.

In fact, we've uncovered animal fossils that are hundreds of millions of years old.

And there's something interesting about these old fossils.

They're all of aquatic animals.

That's because Ohio was once covered in a shallow sea.

Some of the oldest are these guys, Trilobites.

They lived at the bottom of Ohio Sea and had segmented bodies and exoskeletons like crabs and lobsters.

We found so many trilobytes here that it's Ohio's official state fossil, but many animals that shared Ohio Sea were not nearly as friendly.

I'm thinking about the Dunkleosteus.

Doesn't exactly look warm and cuddly, does he?

Well, he wasn't.

You're looking at likely the meanest, scariest predator to ever swim in the ocean.

Their heads were covered in thick bony armor, which extended into sharpened fangs in the front of the mouth.

These fangs, combined with an amazingly powerful jaw, made them the most feared predator in the ancient ocean, capable of chomping nearly every other species in their habitat.

If you're getting freaked out, let me remind you, the Dunkleosteus has been gone a long time.

They went extinct about 360 million years ago and left no true descendants.

So let's all go ahead and breathe a sigh of relief.

(Mary exhales) - Thank you, Mary.

Hey, would you rather live in present-day Ohio or prehistoric Ohio?

Discuss it with your peers and see which of your friends would agree or disagree with you.

Why do you think it would be cool to live in prehistoric Ohio?

Or why do you think it might be too dangerous?

Okay, let's head back to the news.

New Zealand is ramping up efforts to save the kiwi, its flightless National Bird.

Before we head into the story, let's take a spin around the globe to visit New Zealand.

New Zealand is a country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean consisting of two main islands, the north island and the south island, along with numerous smaller islands.

New Zealand's capital is Wellington, and its currency is the New Zealand dollar.

They have a parliamentary system of government.

Its population is about 5 million people, and its significant industries include dairy products, meat, and tourism services.

In a nation that celebrates the kiwi, the population of the flightless bird has plummeted from more than 10 million to about 70,000 today.

But there are now efforts to keep the species alive in New Zealand.

Michael Holmes reports.

- [Michael] The fight to save the kiwi, the iconic flightless bird is taking off in New New Zealand.

Conservationists say most people have never seen a kiwi in the wild and estimate there are only about 70,000 of them left in the country.

But those numbers could soon be on the rise.

- Ever since people came here, we've had a special connection with the animal known as the kiwi, central to Maori myth.

Our sports teams, our rugby league team, our defense force, you know, even when we go overseas, we're known as Kiwis.

So it's our duty really to look after the animal that's gifted us its name.

- [Michael] There are about 90 initiatives to save the kiwis in New Zealand.

Many of them focusing on removing threats which have reduced the population by educating dog owners and culling predator species like stoats.

- Kiwi is surprisingly tough and resilient.

They've got these big fighting claws.

So an an adult kiwi can fight off a whole heap of pests from possums and stoats.

The really, the only issue for adult kiwi is roaming dogs.

Where they get hammered is stoats eating the chicks before they get up to their fighting weight.

- [Michael] A group of kiwis raised in a breeding program was released near Wellington last November.

Experts say that could be the first time while kiwis lived in the area in about a century and so far, they seem to be thriving.

- We did the first health check a couple months later, and we were expecting them to kind of, you know, hold weight or lose a bit of weight.

But the really pleasing result was that half of those birds had put on weight, including one bird put on a whopping 400 grams.

So it's like there's, yeah, plenty of food in the ladder out on these hills.

- [Michael] That's hopefully room to grow for New Zealand's national treasure and the national effort to save it.

- Thank you, Michael.

Wild beavers have been reintroduced to a parkland in London after they were hunted into extinction in the UK more than 400 years ago.

Their release is part of a wider movement to rewild cities.

Anna Stewart has the report.

- [Anna] This is the moment that a family of five Eurasian beavers happily settled in to their new home.

- They did fantastically.

I was absolutely thrilled they came out.

They showboated in front of the world's media.

It's only, you know, a few generations ago that they were exterminated and yeah, it was a real proud moment to see them swimming around here in its main pond of Paradise Fields again, like they had never been absent.

- [Anna] Hunted to extinction over 400 years ago, Britain's largest rodent was welcomed back to a wetland haven on the outskirts of the capital adjacent to a retail park and a busy highway.

The project has been done with the support of Mayor Sadiq Khan's Rewild London Fund.

- One of the reasons why we in city hall have invested millions of pounds in this project is it's good for humans, it's good for nature, it's good for our city.

It's really important to create environments like this where we as Londoners can appreciate nature.

- 84% of people now in the UK live in towns or cities.

So we can't think of nature and thriving ecosystems as being a countryside issue.

Actually, we need to embrace nature and nature-based solutions on our doorstep in cities as well.

- [Anna] Sean McCormack from Ealing Wildlife Group believes that nature has the answer.

- So here is their magnificent creation, their first dam.

So absolutely incredible.

This started as just a couple of twigs across the the stream bed.

And as you can see now, you know we've got almost a meter difference in height between the water upstream, the water downstream.

- [Anna] Beavers create dams under the cover of darkness.

They have an instinct to create pools of deep water to hide in.

The happy consequence for us is that their refuge systems actually slow down the flow of water.

- Even if you're not interested in wildlife or nature, it's a win for the urban community in Greenford to not have so much flooding.

So they build resilience in the landscape, especially in times of climate change.

- Thank you, Anna.

We know you love animal stories just as much as we do.

So let's check out this week's petting zoo.

I hope Newshound found something good for us.

(upbeat bongo drums music) (dog barks) - [Reporter] What's up, Newshound?

Oh, did you find something?

That nose can find a good story from miles away.

What do you have for us this week?

Oh, you found a story about a red-tailed hawk with a rare condition that's changing the way scientists think, particularly in Tennessee - [Connor] Having no camouflage, it would be very rare for them to survive, but Angel somehow has been able to thrive.

She has been able to figure out how to hunt, even though it's a bit easier for prey to see her coming.

- [Reporter] To see what scientists have learned from Angel, the hawk, clip The Petting Zoo thumbnail at the bottom of this episode page.

Thank you as always, Newshound.

Great story.

Now, it's time for my favorite part of every episode.

I get to talk about all the great stuff you all do.

This week's A+ award winners are a group of motivated sixth graders from Cincinnati.

This group of students wanted to get more out of their sixth grade experience than just learning about science, math, and social studies.

So they started to brainstorm about how they could help their community and decided to raise money for their local dog shelter.

The sixth grade class then got to work.

Morgan told us that they were motivated by their teacher, Mrs. Walker, because she recently fostered a dog from the local shelter.

Anna added that they really wanted to help the dogs that were in that shelter and felt that the best way to do that was to raise money to help provide the dogs with food and toys.

Carly explained that they decided to host a bake sale and donate all of the money they made to the shelter.

They wrote announcements to be read over the intercom.

They wrote emails to the teachers, had a meeting with the principal, had a discussion with the head custodian, and they even wrote an article for the parent newsletter.

These are some truly organized and determined students.

Kenzie told us they decided to hold the bake sale during the school's annual Fine Arts and Book Fair Night because they knew there would be a lot of people who would buy the muffins, cupcakes, brownies, and cookies.

Oh, now, I'm in the mood for that dessert.

The bake sale was a huge success, and they raised nearly $1,500.

They're hoping future Fine Arts Nights will also have a community service component.

Emme told us that she was amazed at how much they were able to raise and said they were so successful because they worked as a team, relied on each other, and took the time to plan.

Reese added that she's very proud of their work because she believes they truly made a difference for their community.

This week's A+ award goes to this group of super sixth graders from Wilson Elementary in Cincinnati for being motivated to serve their community.

Great job.

And that's all the time we have for today, but you can keep the conversation going, 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 here is 44115.

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Plus, you can catch all of our special segments on YouTube.

Hit subscribe if you're old enough, so you don't miss out on any of our new videos.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Gabriel Kramer.

See you next time.

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