i'm cara santa maria with marita davison and phil torres. now marita you and phil had a chance to follow some scientists to focus in on the california drought. >> we did and they are using some really sophisticated equipment. >> now marita, you went up in that specially outfitted plane while i got to take a hike in the los padres mountains just outside of la. i think you may have gotten the better part of the deal here. >> ok maybe, it was a really fascinating way to see the forests in a way the naked eye just can't. >> this drought is so epic, it's so out of the norm that we actually don't have an answer to what we can expect long term. >> four years into california's epic drought, reservoirs are near empty, farmers hurting, and its forests are aflame or under attack by opportunistic pests. >> so we're seeing tree mortality all over the landscape. >> but in order to understand these changes to forests, scientists must first assess their health, using field observations, and airplanes. >> we have the most advanced airborne remote sensing pack

crystal dilworth and marita davison. fraking.s don -- fracking.doesn't come without controversy, potentially doesn't come without cost. >> yes, fracking is hugely controversial. humannics. >> s that range the gamut from environmental to health. and texas has been kind of at the center point of a lot of this issue. whether they're economic, environmental, political, texas is in the mix. >> when we think of texas we think big oil, not earthquakes like we're thinking of california. but they're experiencing seismic activity. >> so we got to see how one small town in texas is dealing with this big national issue. let's check it out. >> we were sitting in the living room one night watching tv and there was a tremendous explosion, it sounded like, and then the whole house shook. >> and the next day there was another one and then just kept coming. and that's whenever we realized we definitely have a problem. we should not be having earthquakes in texas. country. this is reno, texas. population 3200 and just 13 square miles long. if anypl

. >> marita davison is an environmental bioligist. >> as the waves are coming in, explain to me what's happening. >> tonight she goes inside the lab to bring the latest research that could stop the next superstorm. and i'm phil torres, i'm an entomologist. so how did katrina change the resident's attitude toward nature? now, techknow in new orleans: katrina, 10 years after. i'm here at jefferson parish at the exact spot that was submerged back in august 2005 and i'm 6 foot 2 and if i stretch my hand up to this height... triple that. that's how high some of the flood waters were in some neighborhoods here in this area. now while the waters are long gone, the issues are not. techknow's marita davison has spent a week here in new orleans - now marita, you've been piecing together what went wrong from a science and engineering perspective. >> and phil you said it, this community was devastated when hurricane katrina hit, now in the 10 years since, scientists have made significant improvements to the system, these are coming together to form multiple lines of defense that reduce the risks f

hey guys welcome to techknow we're here with cara santa maria and marita davison, because we're talking about drilling for oil in the arctic. now i got to spend twelve days aboard an arctic ice breaker - the us coast guard cutter healy. let me just say, it was complicated. >> and phil, both weather and climate change are huge parts of the story because the sea ice in the arctic is receding. >> and i actually got to see that sea ice receding in action, and the scientists up there that were monitoring this are overwhelmed by the speed that this is actually happening. >> well it seems that the more the ice recedes, the easier it would be to drill right? >> yeah but what happens is actually different because even though the sea ice is gone, the extreme weather conditions remain and that's causing big problems for big oil. >> the arctic - remote, breath-taking - and one of the world's harshest frontiers. for years it's been a front line in a battle over the future of energy and climate change. temperatures here are rising twice as fast as the rest of the world. but the arctic may hold 13 per

. >> welcome to techknow im phil torres joined by marita davison and dr. shini somara. guys there are outlaws out there working in the shadows committing horrible acts against defenseless yet majestic animals. we're talking about the ivory poachers who have decimated the populations in africa. >> it's really alarming because ivory goes for about a thousand dollars a pound, that's more valuable than illegal drugs. >> and you know what that means is that the damage has been devestating over a hundred thousand elephants have been killed in just the last three years and the question is what can we do about it? we found a team of scientists who are using some unexpected weapons- dna and radiocarbon dating- let's check it out. >> april 18th, 2015. thai customs intercepts 4 tons of ivory smuggled in bean sacks from the democratic republic of congo. it is the largest seizure in this country's history. the ivory, on the way to laos, seized in bangkok after a tip. the seizure makes headlines >> thai customs displayed over 3 tons of confiscated african ivory worth 6 million dollar

marita davison is a biologist specializing in evolution.onight, fracking. >> i looked out my front door