The Clean Water and Clean Air Acts are federal laws that rely upon citizen participation for their successful implementation. This lesson chapter explains how model ordinances can be put into place to assist municipalities in becoming more sustainable, and the role that students, teachers and citizen activists can play in that process. This section explores how citizens’ willingness to pay, through state and local bond issues, for parks, public...

Focusing on endangered species, Part Five in the Saving My Tomorrow series highlights stories about animals in danger of becoming extinct, alongside scenes with kids who are working to protect the natural world around them – from the planting of oysters and banding birds to recycling. Also featured are readings and performances by Laura Dern, Stephin Merritt and They Might Be Giants, along with a behind-the-scenes look at the American Museum of...

At ground level, shallow seas, broad beaches, dunes, and waterlogged hollows seem to comprise a chaotic environment. In fact, there is order and form, produced by the interaction of wind, vegetation, and moving sand. Because sand dunes develop rapidly, the development of a landform can be observed. Measuring wind velocity demonstrates how saltation, sand movement, and erosion happen. The program demonstrates the morphology of dune development and...

All people are equal but, as Human Diversity explores, all groups of people are not the same -- a fascinating investigation of the genetics and neuroscience of human differences. The thesis of Human Diversity is that advances in genetics and neuroscience are overthrowing an intellectual orthodoxy that has ruled the social sciences for decades. The core of the orthodoxy consists of three dogmas: - Gender is a social construct. - Race is a social construct....

The way that you live, work, travel, eat, drink and dress affects the earth and the environment. Learn to live a "green" lifestyle.

Ever heard the phrase you are what you eat? Well, if you're one of the world's committed carnivores, it could be said that your eating habits are a significant contributor to the pressing problem of global warming. The impact of raising animals for meat includes deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions. This video explores food alternatives aimed at reducing meat consumption, including cultured meat and pea protein burgers.

This program shows the process of sedimentation, which has preserved those life forms extant at the time the rock was formed and-most strikingly where the Colorado River has cut through the Grand Canyon-exposes a veritable history of life on earth; presents the stratified evidence that simple organisms populated the earth first, followed by increasingly complex forms; demonstrates modern techniques for dating rock samples; and explains why fossils...

From the creators of You Are Stardust and Wild Ideas comes a new picture book that explores how humans are inextricably connected to nature. This book draws examples from the clouds and the cosmos, the seafloor and the surface of our skin, to show how we are never alone: we are always surrounded and supported by nature. Whether it's gravity holding us tight; our lungs breathing oxygen synthesized by plants; the countless microorganisms that build...

By 2050 there could be 10 billion people living on the planet. For Chris Packham, who’s dedicate his life to protecting the natural world, that may simply be too many people for the Earth to sustain. Travelling around the world in search of answers to difficult and controversial questions, Chris investigates what he believes may be the most important challenge of our time. Can we reduce the impact of our growing human population, and could humans...

With dreams of one day colonizing space, eight people sealed themselves inside a giant glass biosphere in the Arizona desert in 1991. By the time they emerged two years later, they had "suffocated, starved and went mad."