area moving forward finding moving forward. finding solutions. this is abc7 news. ♪ kristen: hi there. i'm kristen sze. you are watching "getting answers" on abc7. every day, we talk with experts about issues important to the bay area and we get answers for you in real time. today a san francisco startup says it is a waste to let human waste drift into our oceans and landfills. that wants to use its innovative technology to redirect poop back into soils as fertilizer. we will talk about humanure with the ceo of epic cleantech. tomorrow is earth day. a san jose state university professor has created his green ninja cartoon series to help kids understand climate change. we will show you how it works.

but first -- the athletics committing to purchasing land in las vegas, seemingly saying goodbye for real this time to oakland. while fans and city officials here are decidedly angry, what is the reaction on the other end in las vegas? joining us life now --live now is a columnist with the las vegas review journal. thank you so much for your time. >> great to be here. kristen: you are from northern california, are not you? [laughter] >> i've lived in las vegas since 1996 but i moved down from -- i was working in chico and redding when i was hired in las vegas pressure. i have some northern california roots for sure. kristen: the raiders are another pro team that left the oakland area for vegas. what is owner mark davis' reaction? >> it is multi fold. the first thing i will tell you

is, he is still angry with the office management group for the lease agreement that they signed when the raiders were still in oakland at the coliseum. mark davis is making it very certain that he is unhappy with that and he is not willing to partner in any way with the incoming athletics front office staff. he said that that moved by the athletics prevented the raiders from developing their own plan either to improve the coliseum or build anew on that kind of created the environment for them to move to las vegas which has turned out very well for the team. but he is still holding a grudge, because he's got a lot of personal animosity, as he put it. aside from that, he said he doesn't want to be completely negative. he has nothing against the players for the a's. he says the construction of the stadium will create a lot of

jobs which is true. and it will further set las vegas as a major league city the same way the raters already have. kristen: so there's personal beef with the ownership, but he's not saying, the a's shouldn't come here. i want to know, though, because people are saying, mark davis, is not it ironic for me but not for thee? [laughter] >> i've understood that very sentiment. is happening here in las vegas, too. you stick a stake in the ground -- i can tell you that it wasn't in mark davis' mind this is a related move to las vegas and sharing the city with the athletics. but i think that when it is all flushed out, the raters are in a strong enough position here in las vegas and the nfl is such a

strong brand that they will have the super bowl here next year that they can weather the competition. this is very much a specific problem they have with the individual runoff. it doesn't have anything to do with the tradition of the athletics or the lineup. he did say, too, but will probably have more of an impact on the possibly of an nba team -- possibility of an nba team coming to las vegas. games, that could cut into their support that we. the raters are going to play eight regular-season games on sunday -- raiders are going to play eight regular-season games on sunday. view of this and pplreenc it. kriss rk these teams?n as you alluded to, there's a

limited number of bodies to fill the seats in given night but the idea that moore attracts more, is that taking is -- attracts more, is that taking hold in vegas? >> we got a verdict through trial and error. they test the market under real conditions by adding to it. if it doesn't work, then the tide rose back. this has been true with the entertainment industry las vegas. all i can tell you is the answer is usually yes. in las vegas. they figure out how to get to the yes. at times that can backfire any overreach. but right now we are talking about 30,000 seats and a retractable roof facility just off the strip in a city that seems to set records for tourism year after year. it's going to depend a lot on visiting teams, no question about that. that's been true with the

raiders. they are going to have to have the yankee fans and dodger fans, red sox fans coming to las vegas and populate that stadium, and also spend money outside elsewhere in las vegas for this to make sense. kristen: that's an interesting point. is the las vegas entity starting to grow its own identity and fan base? >> yeah, i think we are saying that more and more. i will tell you, obviously, it would help for that team to improve his product. they need to be better on the field. we've had instances where it looks like the raiders are going to be a contender and people are excited about jimmy garoppolo's credibility and heritage, coming in from the 49ers. and i think now it's going to be more typical of a regular nfl team if you have success on the field and create a dynamic

product that can contend for the super bowl, yes, they will draw their fan base. kristen: i also asked because it can potentially a's, if they succeed in moving there. i wonder how easy you might -- you think it might be for the a's to secure funding for this reality. they certainly ran into that problem here. what do you think about the chances in vegas? >> we are just now getting the details of that. they are going to need about $500 million in public money in the form of a toxic strict around that stadium -- tax district around that stadium. going toward the construction costs of the a's ballpark. we will see what the appetite is. again, i don't have a feel for that and we don't have the widespread community support for the a's that i feel as we did for the raiders or the golden

nights -- the golden nights. they have huge local support. we will see at the athletics. as mark davis one time said to me, we were talking about the a's when this all started, i said, "what do you think about the a's coming to las vegas?" he said, "are a lot of a's fa down there? not around my condo" it is going to be the biggest challenge for the athletics to clear this hurdle. kristen: what about the aviator s? will they move out no? will they stay put? >> they are going to stay in las vegas and continue to run that franchise with the a's here. this is similar to how the silver -- the golden knights affiliate has a facility. they will continue to run both

franchises here. the aviators are successful. one thing the a's do very well is a have a great minor league system, great scouting and a great subliminal program. the aviators do great. it is a beautiful ballpark. right next to the golden night'' headquarters out there. it will continue to draw on that community while the a's are getting ready to play here. and playing in las vegas of all things work out. kristen: john, thank you so much for joining us today. fun chat. coming up next -- a bay area start ups says it wants to use its innovative technology to redirect human waste into soils as fertilizer. we will tell you about the humanure with the ceo of (bell dinging) how's john? oh, much better. that was quite a scare. got us thinking about a lot of things.

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kristen: abc news may take a special report any minute now, this is over the long-awaited -- anxiously awaited supreme court decision on a lower court ruling that could drastically limit access to an abortion pill that's been around for over two decades. mifepristone. the deadline is coming up, and we do expect a ruling and abc news to take that special report when that does happen. in the meantime we move on with "getting answers." you've heard of manure, but what about half moon bay -- but what about humanure? one company says, white flush it when you can use it -- why flush it when you can use it? with us as -- with us is aaron tartakovsky,

the ceo of epic cleantec. what's the big idea behind epic cleantec and what you want to do here? >> we are a water recycling company. we are going into large real estate projects and turning all of this wastewater into products. we are turning it into clean water and renewable energy and turning it as you mentioned into high-quality soil products or humanure. taking all of this waste and actually turning it into high value resources. kristen: is this happening in san francisco now? or a small trial scale bases and places? >> san francisco's one of the leading cities in the world of what we call on-site water reuse. all new buildings over 100,000 square feet actually have to have on-site water recycling systems. it is a relatively new ordinance. but actually we as a company are operating several systems in san francisco and throughout the west coast. kristen: can you tell us where our poop generally goes now?

the way it is mainly done now is quite the waste? >> for all of human history, we have done something with our waste. typically we eat food, that food leaves, returns to the soil. in the modern world, we shifted to more of a linear approach where that waste goes into wastewater and off into our sewer networks and the central wastewater treatment plant. what we are doing instead is decentralizing wastewater treatment. what soler did for energy -- solar different energy, moving to smaller distributed facilities. by doing that we will create these more resilient systems i decentralized and centralized working together. a lot of times this ends up in a landfill, where it sits giving off emissions like co2 and methane. we believe we can take those solids, "waste," and put it] in the ground where it

belongs. kristen: why is it so good for fertilizer? >> it is good for carbon, the organics we need to feed the organisms in the soil, and nutrients, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, all these things that serve as multivitamins for the soil. we are taking something that's been done in human history for thousands of years and we are just giving it a more modern technology driven twist. kristen: you said it's been done for thousands of years? is it still in use in some cultures right now or some places where you see really good results from that? >> absolutely. we as a company got our start with the bill and melinda gates foundation, focused more on developing world. -- on the developing world. many have heard of terms like neck soil. these are all practices that have been frankly pretty prevalent in history. but in modern days, we have developed a flush and forget

mentality, we don't think about what happens after we flush the toilet. when we turn on the tap, we assume water comes out. because of that system, all this infrastructure is out of sight and out of mind. all 50 states in this country have programs to deal with these wastewater solids, sometimes called sludge. we are taking it into the individual building and turning each of these buildings into a resource recovery center. repurpose and water, energy, and as you are seeing, soil as well. kristen: got it. do you think for some people there could be a bit of a gross factor to overcome? >> yeah, so there's an industry term, "the yuck factor," it's a real and we understand that. we do a lot of education. we really meaning to that yuck factor. with may have one of the many golden toilets. what we are trying to do is deyuckify this whole

this whole notion of a circular economy of moving away from using products and using things ones and discarding them to actually reusing all of our resources, this is a relatively new world that we are focusing on, this notion of up cycling wastewater organics. we see it is the next frontier of recycling. kristen: does it make sense financially? is the process very expensive? >> the good news is, any good sustainability technology, it's not just about being good for the planet but also has to be good for economics and for-profit. that is what makes a true technology scalable. all of our systems are saving these buildings a huge amount of their water and sewer bills. in most cases we are able to have a return on their investment in under seven years. kristen: this is one strategy in climate change -- fighting climate change? >> yeah. there is no one single silver bullet solution to the climate challenges.

but with a combination of aging infrastructure and urban population growth and a changing climate, the status quo is no longer sustainable and we have to do things differently and that is true in energy and in the water industry. we feel pretty strongly that this is a really exciting solution. by the end of this year, we will be operating at least five systems just here in san francisco along with a lot more in the works. it's what we call the epic water reuse evolution. kristen: to keep -- do keep us posted. aaron tartakovsky, appreciate your time. coming up next -- a curriculum created to help kids understand climate change. we will hear about the program being taught and 20 california school districts.

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kristen: earth day is one day

away and fighting climate change is in the spotlight. this professor has created a unique way to help students understand and appreciate the issue anyway. joining us live now is eugene cordero, a climate science professor. thanks for coming on the show. tell us about your cartoon series. i understand it is being used in 20 california school districts? >> it started as a research project here at san jose state where we were studying the impact education could have on student attitudes and behavior. we discovered education, if it is done well, can be as impactful in reducing carbon emissions as electric vehicles and solar panels. we decided to make the something available to all students throughout the state, and that is the curriculum cartoon series that gives students hope but also some way of doing something about climate change. kristen: let's check it out.

there is the green ninja. tell us about the green ninja. how did you come up with that is the central character? >> one of the things we find challenging in this area is it can be quite despairing, to hear about all this bad news. so we decided to flip things around and say, we are going to take a positive approach and give students agency around doing something. that's where the green ninja storyline and character came in. friends and students learn about science, good solid science, then how to apply that science to making a cleaner and healthier planet throughout a local community. we have been doing research as well as we have an organization that offers this curriculum to schools throughout the state. kristen: who is actually making this cartoons, though? >> faculty and students originally

as part of research funded by the national science foundation and nasa. tied to videos and science projects and ultimately community projects. this is the start of every green ninja unit. they watch one of these videos and learn something about science and also has questions about, how can they apply this in their own community? kristen: who is the target audience? which grades are using this? >> right now this is being used in middle school, so grades 6-8. we find elementary school teachers love green ninja films, it is youthful orientation. and this is open for anyone to use these films. we have about 50 of these on a website. all of these were made by san jose students. kristen: you talked about wanting to have something positive. because it can seem so gloomy and doomy, if you will, i think i made up in your work. [laughter]

but today a study shows the younger generation doesn't want children of their own because of their fears with regard to climate change. >> yeah. this climate grief is a real challenge for young people. in green ninja, we want them to know the real challenges but also give them hope, too. and i think that is where we need to be focusing on solutions. that orientation. in my own classes, i learned that the hard way, realizing students seem more engaged in the science and hopefully if we included a lot of focus on solutions and things we can do -- real-world solutions. kristen: any idea, to measure the impact on the students who watch the green in your cartoon series? >> yeah. we published a study a couple of years ago where we followed san jose students for many years after they had taken an

intensive climate change course that we designed using this research-based approach. what we found is those adult now drive more efficient cars and eat more lower carbon footprint foods and behaviors that emit less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, compared to the average california. we were able to document this with real numbers. that is where we can say with confidence -- why we can say with confidence that high-quality education can be as impactful as other climate change mitigation strategies. kristen: i understand your students call you "dr. burrito?" [laughter] why? >> many of the films are about food and burritos are one of my favorite things to eat. so i got cast as dr. b urrito, interrogating the carbon footprint of different types of burritos.

kind of discovering the impact that those simple food choices can have. sometimes when i give talks on campus, i mentioned dr. burrito, it is humorous and we watch a film or something, so it's not unusual to be on campus and someone says, you are dr. burrito, aren't you? kristen: which one is better for the environment? i want to know. >> it's amazing, when we did this research, the chicken burrito is almost 10 times less carbon emissions than a burrito or vegetarian burrito. kristen: i'm pretty sure i don't like the carne asada beef burrito 10 times more. >> may be for a special but for the regular everyday, our food choices can make a difference. kristen: where can people watch the cartoon series? >> greenninja.org, that is the full program. the videos are under the resource tab, free for anyone to

watch and hopefully enjoy. there's a lot of quirky silliness in there. but the artists and animation school are amazing. kristen: such talented students there. thank you so much. >> thanks for having me. happy earth day. kristen: you can get our live newscast, breaking news, weather and more with our abc7 bay area streaming tv app. available on apple tv, google tv, fire tv, and roku. just search "abc 7 bay area" and download it now. we'll be right back. here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. the three what? the three ps? what are the three ps? the three ps of life insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. a price you can afford, a price that can't increase, and a price that fits your budget.

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and you'll also get this free beneficiary planner. use this valuable guide to record your important information and give helpful direction to your loved ones with your final wishes. and it's yours free just for calling. so call now for free information. kristen: thank you so much for joining us today for "getting answers." we will be here every weekday at 3:00 p.m. answering questions with experts from around the bay area. "world news tonight" with david muir is next.

see you back here at 4:00. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> david: tonight, breaking news as we come on the air. on the supreme court decision on the fate of the abortion pill expected at any moment. the supreme court sent a weigh in on the battle of the abortion pill potentially dealing a massive blow to a motion right supporters. mifepristone used in more than half of all abortions in the u.s. if the courts action coming nearly one year after overturning roe v. wade and what this could be for millions of women across america, even in states where abortion is legal. rachel scott standing by. the deadly bridge inferno shutting down one of the busiest highways in america. a fuel tanker truck rolling over and bursting into flames. the