 |
HOME |  |
SCHEDULE | |
PROGRAMS | |
KIDS & FAMILY | |
LOCAL | |
SUPPORT KCET | |
ABOUT US | |
SHOP KCET |  |
| About Us | Contact Us | |
 |
|
 |
          |
|
|
 |
 |
||
|
|
Life & Times Transcript
6/12/07 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- It's something we take for granted in southern California, but does it hold the key to easing global warming? Bruce Osborn>> The electricity that's generated can power more than one million southern California homes. It's massive in scale. We offset more than four million tons of CO2 greenhouse gases per year. Val Zavala>> And then, we visit a place where turning art into a paycheck is part of the curriculum. It's all straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times. Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. With additional support for Life and Times from the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation. Val Zavala>> California is taking a giant leap forward when it comes to solar power. The world's two largest solar energy plants are being built here in southern California and they're using a technology that you've never seen before. As Roger Cooper tells us, with climate change on the horizon, we can use all the solar power we can get. Roger Cooper>> It will be like ten thousand eyes following the sun across the sky, ten thousand giant mirrors tracking the sun's course, then concentrating its rays into a white-hot focal point, harnessing the power of a star ninety-three million miles away, all to make electricity on earth. It will be the largest solar power plant in the world and it will be built here in California seventy miles northeast of Los Angeles on seven thousand acres near Barstow. Bruce Osborn>> Well, first of all, it's sustainable so you don't have to worry about depleting the resource. We get free fuel from the sky, the sun basically. Roger Cooper>> It will be built by a company called Stirling Energy Systems and come on line in about a year and a half in an era of disturbing climate change and concern about our dependence on fossil fuels. Bruce Osborn is Stirling's CEO. Bruce Osborn>> There are no emissions. There is no pollution, no CO2 greenhouse gases that people worry about for global warming and those types of things, and no contaminants of any sort, so it's very friendly from an environmental standpoint. Roger Cooper>> It also comes at just the right time for one of southern California's major utilities, Southern California Edison. Edison and all California utilities are under a state mandate. By 2010, they must be getting twenty percent of their energy from renewable sources, so Edison has agreed to buy all the power generated by this solar plant for the next two decades. Pedro Pizarro is Edison's Senior Vice President for Power Procurement. Pedro Pizarro>> We've agreed to buy the power for twenty years. We've agreed to buy the full output of the plant for twenty years. Roger Cooper>> The guarantee makes it possible for Stirling to get the loans needed to build the plant, and the solar power source will help Edison reach its twenty percent goal. Pedro Pizarro>> In 2005, we had over seventeen percent of our portfolio from renewables. That is more than any other utility in the country. In fact, Southern California Edison buys more renewable power than any other state in the country. We buy about a sixth of the renewable energy that is produced in the United States. Roger Cooper>> Still, solar power has been tried before and has proven to be too expensive or didn't produce enough power. So what's different about this project? Enter the Stirling Engine, a technology that could revolutionize the industry. Bruce Osborn>> It's a nearly two century old concept that is now ready for prime time. Back in the late 1800s, a Scottish minister, Dr. Robert Stirling, originally came up with the concept as an alternative for steam engines. Roger Cooper>> Here's how it works. Each of Osborn's parabolic dishes focuses the sun on a Stirling Engine. Bruce Osborn>> The heart of the power conversion unit is a Stirling Engine and the Stirling Engine is a very simple, elegant and efficient system that takes this intense heat from the sun, it heats the gas. In this case, we use hydrogen as the working gas. We heat the gas, it expands and pushes the piston down that turns the crankshaft to turn a generator. Roger Cooper>> By alternately heating and then cooling gas, the Stirling Engine generates electricity with great efficiency. Bruce Osborn>> The Solar Dish Stirling System, as we call it, or SunCatcher for short, is the world's most efficient solar electric system out there. It's nearly two to three times more efficient than the conventional photovoltaic cell or other concentrating solar power. Roger Cooper>> Actually, turning to renewables is nothing new. As Edison prepares for this solar plant, it is still using the state's oldest power plant. This is Mill Creek One, an Edison hydroelectric plant. It's been pumping electricity to Californians since 1893 and it's still in service more than a hundred years later. Marty Weinberg>> Yeah, the plant's about a hundred thirteen years old and, hopefully, we can get another hundred years out of it. Roger Cooper>> The original hydroelectric generator is still on display on the plant floor alongside the turbine that replaced it in 1933. All those years, all that electricity, and all of it renewable. Bruce Osborn>> At the focal point, it's seven hundred twenty degrees Celsius which is about thirteen hundred fifty degrees Fahrenheit. So it's white-hot when it's going. Roger Cooper>> The Edison plant in the Mojave Desert won't be the only one. A twin solar plant is planned for the Imperial Valley and its energy will be sold to San Diego Gas and Electric. Bruce Osborn>> These are the world's largest solar projects each one by themselves. Combined, they're nearly two gigawatts. That's comparable in size to Hoover Dam which is more than four billion kilowatt hours per year of electrical generation. The total electricity that's generated can power more than one million southern California homes. It's massive in scale. Roger Cooper>> And Osborn says that the reduction of greenhouse gases will be equally large. Bruce Osborn>> We offset more than four million tons of CO2 greenhouse gases per year. Roger Cooper>> You've probably already wondered what about nighttime when no electricity can be produced? Edison says that it won't really be a problem. Pedro Pizarro>> In California, our peak load is in the summer and it's in the afternoons in the summer when a lot of your viewers are starting to turn on the air conditioners and the like. So solar in California has a very nice correlation with when our peak needs occur. Bruce Osborn>> So this is time-lapse photography where we compress about twelve hours into about eight or ten seconds. So the systems wake up in the morning, they collect the sun, they track throughout the day into early afternoon into sunset, and then they retract and reset for the next day and they continue again. Roger Cooper>> Bruce Osborn believes southern California's new solar plants could be just the start. Bruce Osborn>> But we have and can think about a larger scale. If you take a hundred miles square which is a big chunk of land out in the desert, but still a fraction of the total percentage there, we can offset or eliminate all dependency on fossil fuels whether it be gas, oil or coal. Roger Cooper>> For the time being, Edison is still getting over eighty percent of its energy from traditional sources, generators fired by natural gas, nuclear power from San Onofre, hydroelectric plants like Mill Creek One, and coal-powered plants. But the future will look very different. Edison is behind a major expansion of wind farms and soon, with the completion of the world's largest solar power plant, with ten thousand mirrored dishes, we will finally be harnessing the most plentiful source of power we have, our own sun. I'm Roger Cooper for Life and Times. Val Zavala>> And now this Life and Times story update. Three years ago, we visited the city of Whittier. At that time, citizens were excited that, after more than a hundred years, a juvenile prison in the heart of town was being closed. The Nelles School for Boys was being shut down to save money and city leaders were looking forward to buying the land and building shops, offices and housing. Ron Calderon>> The only way they could bring in revenues is jobs so people spend money here, and the only way you're going to have jobs is if you can develop the area. Val Zavala>> But a year or so ago, California's prison population was on the rise. Prison officials started eying the old juvenile facility for possible re-opening, but local politicians fought back, and for three years, the sale of the property was stalled. But now after prolonged talks, an agreement was announced. Governor Schwarzenegger has promised not to re-open the prison without the support of the people of Whittier, and since the City Council and citizens are firmly against the idea, it's virtually assured that this ninety acres will eventually be developed. Rudy Bermudez>> Obviously, best case scenario, the city will be able to purchase the land, develop the land, sell it for a profit to a developer and reap the benefits of the sales tax revenues and the permit process. Val Zavala>> It seems that best case scenario will happen, promising to permanently change the character of the city of Whittier. Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, plus transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org, scroll down the page and click on "Life and Times". Toni Guinyard>> Imagine being able to find out the cost of a medical service or procedure before you go to the doctor's office. We're so used to just paying the price. No matter what the price is, we don't tend to ask. But now you don't have to ask. That information is being provided to you. All you have to do is go online. We're talking to Dr. Robert Blackman who is one of the founding partners of Healthcare Partners Medical Group. The reason we are interesting in talking to you was because of the pricing plan. Dr. Robert Blackman>> This is just a basic fee for medical services list. It is a list of the more routine, common procedures and medical services that we can offer. For example, vaccinations, certain basic lab tests, certain physical examinations, both Well Care services as well as health maintenance services. The purpose of it, of course, is simply to give the patient some idea of what it's going to cost so they can plan accordingly. The reason why we did it was there was a demand for it. Our patients were calling us, saying, "We're trying to find out what things cost so we can plan and we can't find it anywhere, whether it's on your website or any medical group's website. Where do we get it?" We thought about it and said, "Well, let's just give it to them. They should know. They need to know." Again, an informed patient is an empowered patient. That was so important because that gives them the choice. It gives them the control which is where the control ought to be. Toni Guinyard>> This, in some ways, has really shaken up the industry because you're doing something that doctors have shied away from doing. They don't want to post their prices. Why? Dr. Robert Blackman>> Well, I think there's always this emotional feeling about medicine and pricing as if one should not exist with the other. Some people might say it seems to cheapen it. It seems to make it seem it's above and beyond pricing. But in point of fact, that's just word game playing. The reality is that medicine costs and that medical care is a kind of a business. If a physician and his or her staff make no profit at all, they will go out of business and not be there to serve patients, so it is a business. And by putting up your pricing and posting what the charges are going to be, patients get information. For me, an informed patient is an empowered patient. They're now empowered to get the care that they need for them and their family and, at the same time, plan accordingly so it financially isn't hurting them. So the traditional roles are definitely changing and I think this has been driven by the fact that now there is this cost-shifting from what used to be a fairly low co-pay with the balance being paid by insurance plans, and employers now shift it over to the patient as a way of mitigating the sky-rocketing costs of medical care. Toni Guinyard>> One of my colleagues recently did a story on retail clinics. Is this in response to those? Dr. Robert Blackman>> By retail clinics, I think you're referring to the either mid-level practitioners such as physician assistants, nurse practitioners and in certain cases even doctors going into pharmacy chains or supermarkets and setting up these little quick care or mini clinics. Now they may not have been able to see their doctor that day, which is why it's helpful not to have to wait several days for when the doctor is available to them, but it's important that they do follow up to make sure that everything is okay as was prescribed at that quick or mini clinic. So I don't have any problem with that concept. But to answer your question, no. Our posting of prices was not at all reactive to this business model. It is very proactive and I would say respectfully proactive to give the patient the information they need to make wise medical choices. We have always operated under the principle that, yes, medicine is a business, but it is a business in the context of certain ethical and moral principles, and that's driven by this one fact. When you come to me for the first time as a patient. I'm a complete stranger and yet you basically say to me, "Stranger, I trust you. Here's my health. Here's my life." That's a great honor. That's a great privilege. I'm in your clinical life at your behest. You're doing me the favor. I'm not doing you the favor by being your doctor. When you approach it with that mindset and that attitude, that drives everything that you do, including what today we have done by posting the prices. I am just very proud of this medical group because it has always put the patient first. The bottom line, we have found, takes care of itself if you look at what the patient needs. If you do right for the patient, the business end takes care of itself. Toni Guinyard>> How did you come up with those prices? Dr. Robert Blackman>> The list itself, there's about fifty-eight things on that list and it was our patients calling us and asking for those who didn't have medical care or patients who now had high deductibles that were going to have to come out of pocket. They were calling, and these were the fifty-eight most commonly asked for health maintenance products. We look at what the insurance plans will pay us for certain vaccines and we also know what the general marketplace is and we try to come in somewhere in between. So we're by no means at the high end of the market and yet, knowing what our expenses are, give us something so we can pay a little Christmas bonus to our MAs. Toni Guinyard>> Are you concerned that people who do not have access to the internet will be shut out of this process? Dr. Robert Blackman>> Well, the good news is that, besides having posted our prices on the internet, we have a toll-free number which is available to anyone, so all you need is a telephone. If you can get past this thought that posting prices somehow looks cheap and chintzy, when in point of fact, to me it's the opposite, you're empowering patients. I think it's very respectfully proactive and will actually serve the patient in a much better way than if you created this black box of pricing. Toni Guinyard>> Dr. Robert Blackman, thank you for all of the information and thank you for spending a little time with Life and Times. Dr. Robert Blackman>> Oh, it's a great pleasure. On behalf of Healthcare Partners, thanks for the opportunity. Announcer>> To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address: Life and Times 4401 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90027 You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org. Val Zavala>> Parents often wince when they hear this coming from their son or daughter: "Mom, Dad, I want to be an artist." Well, take heart, Mom and Dad. Having artistic ambitions doesn't necessarily mean eating tuna casserole every night. In fact, I visited a prominent art school in Los Angeles where the message is quite the opposite. This is Otis College of Art & Design just a stone's throw away from LAX. It's a four-year private college where students hone their talents in fine arts, fashion, toy design, graphics and writing, illustration and animation. Gee, this sure beats chemistry. And the man in charge of this arts factory? Hong Kong-born, Sammy Hoi. His father was in the Chinese furniture business and his family came to the United States when Sammy was seventeen. He went on to Columbia University and graduated from the prestigious Parsons School of Design in New York. Sammy Hoi>> Otis is the most ethnically diverse private art school in the entire country. Over fifty-five percent of our students are students of color, so we encourage them. . . Val Zavala>> Five years ago, Sammy Hoi left the Corcoran in Washington, D.C. to become the President of Otis College of Art & Design. Their philosophy? Sammy Hoi>> At Otis, we don't believe in the concept of starving artists and designers, so we want to make sure that our education prepares our students for the real world and for career success. Val Zavala>> My visit coincided with the exhibit of senior projects, the culmination of years of study and hard work. First stop? Fashion. Sammy Hoi>> This is a project where we worked with a well-known New York-based designer, Yo Li Tang. She wants a project look at recycling and responsibility to sustainability in the world, so the students really have to use either recycled materials, organic materials. They cannot make this dress with any power tools, so no sewing machines. Everything is hand-dyed, hand-sewn reusing existing materials. These are reused collars, reused shirts and they look fantastic on the runway. Val Zavala>> And every year, a fashion show sponsored by top designers gives students a chance to compete. [Film Clip] Val Zavala>> Just down the hall from the fashion exhibit were three students hovered over a computer screen. No voices or sound effects yet, but the imagery in this animation is impressive. [Film Clip] Val Zavala>> And then there is toy design. Otis's program is only one of two toy design programs in the country. A lot of people think, "Oh, gee, you just design toys. You just play all day." Sammy Hoi>> Yes, they do play. They have a lot of fun, but it's also very hard work. They work until midnight and sometimes the early morning because this is basically an industrial designed program with toy as a focus. So the students learn child psychology, market research, presentation, and also some engineering as well because they have to make the toy functional and safe and, of course, a lot of design. Val Zavala>> And even some of the toys are designed to bring in a little pocket money. >> This is Chomper's Lemonade Stand. The stand goes up and it rolls and kids roll it around and they're selling their lemonade. Val Zavala>> And with partners like Mattel, Disney, Hasbro, Fisher-Price and Lego, potential employers can become acquainted with potential employees. So with this one, you can move things around yourself. Sammy Hoi>> Yes, you can move things around yourself and be very creative and create your own little monster toy to your liking. Different hair, or the hair can be a beard. And the eyes can come up here if you like. Val Zavala>> Oh, that's cute. I would imagine your students get snapped up right away. Sammy Hoi>> Yes. It's a very small program. Each year, we graduate just about twenty students and we have pretty much a hundred percent placement rate right after graduation. Val Zavala>> So no starving toy designers. Sammy Hoi>> Definitely not (laughter). Val Zavala>> Next stop? Communication arts where social commentary is welcome. This comic book superhero is, well, not exactly Superman. Sammy Hoi>> We have a student who is an artist and has collaborated with his wife who's a writer in creating a new story and a new book based on a transgender superhero because, in our society today in all the comic books, there's really no role model for the transgender population. Val Zavala>> And then there's this piece. Remember FEMA chief, Michael Brown, of Hurricane Katrina fame? Well, the student behind this work says Brown was a scapegoat, that officials were "gambling" on the levies, that reforms were mere "band-aids". >> Then with so much media involvement, you'd have people shooting these people from their helicopter and not using their helicopter to get them out of the water. It's kind of ridiculous. Sammy Hoi>> And I think the whole point is that our students can know that creativity, social mission and their personal dreams can really come together in a powerful way. Val Zavala>> But between the politics, toy design, fashion and animation, is there any training in fine arts? Sammy Hoi>> This is the fine arts portion of our class of 2006 exhibition. Some of the pieces in here, for example, will illustrate the philosophy of the school, that we want our students to be fully creative, but at the same time, very smart in terms of the content of their work and smart in terms of how to relating socially relevant messages to the world, if the students choose to. For example, the works over here are about students who are very interested to examine kind of the masculine psychology of society, both about a humorous aspect, but also from the violent aspect as well. Over here, there is a student who is a little older, African-American background, who's coming to the school very interested in expressing her cultural heritage, but also interested in rectifying some of the stereotypical media images of Africans and African-Americans whose images often appear in media in impoverished or stricken circumstances. Val Zavala>> Even after four years of concentration in one area, there's no guarantee that students will end up there. Sammy Hoi>> We have had fine arts graduates who've become the visual arts supervisors of "Lord of the Rings" and has won three Oscars back to back. We also have graphic designers who end up being very successful in fine arts galleries or fine artists who end up being gallery administrators or museum administrators. Val Zavala>> Sammy Hoi is a case in point. He got in to Columbia Law School, graduated, passed the Bar, then promptly said goodbye to law and made a beeline for art school. Here he is today, head of a vibrant art college with more than a thousand students ranging in age from eighteen to sixty. What is the thing that's drawing so many students to art these days? Sammy Hoi>> Well, we live in a visual culture nowadays. We are surrounded by movies, video games, images on billboards and on video screens. So I think the younger generations nowadays are very familiar with the power of visual communication. At the same time, our economy is very driven by the so-called creative class nowadays as well. If you look at the Los Angeles industry, for example, the top half of the revenue-generating industries of Los Angeles are tourism, the movie industry, fashion, toy, furnishing. You really can group them and call them the creative economy of Los Angeles. There are jobs available. There is a cultural style that encourages engagement with the visual media. All this, I think, combines to make for a very welcoming platform for students to come and study art and design. Val Zavala>> And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. With additional support for Life and Times from the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation. Sponsored in part by:  | |
|
Home | Features | Arts | Health/Science | OC Edition | L&T Blog | Archives | About Us | Contact Us | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use |