Spectral Band Replication (SBR) is a novel method for compressing digital audio files making it possible for millions of people around the world to enjoy either higher quality sound or higher compression easily and affordably. SBR was conceived by the Swedish inventor Lars Liljeryd and turned into a real-world application by a team of engineers that included Kristofer Kjörling, Per Ekstrand and Fredrik Henn. Liljeryd’s ideas revolutionized an entire...

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...

Water covers most of our Earth’s surface area. In this program, we’ll discuss the characteristics of the sea and its impact on climates and coast lines. Topics include: Marine Plants, Sea Water Characteristics, Ocean Currents, Sea Water Temperature, Wave and Tide Formation, Tsunamis, The Sea Bed, and Underwater Gas and Petroleum Deposits.

While the Viking raids have come one after another in the Occident for almost a century, in November 885, hundreds of Scandinavian boats sailing towards Burgundy present themselves before the walls of Paris and besiege the city. The stubborn resistance of Count Eudes makes it possible for the besieged to resist until the arrival of Emperor Charles the Fat, who, in exchange for a large amount of money, obtains the withdrawal of the Scandinavians. To...

This program from Boneyard examines what we do with the 300 million tons of solid American waste that is produced every year. From garbage trucks to local landfills and gigantic compactors, modern technology is making major advances in garbage. We visit “murfs”—facilities that process millions of tons of resources from our trash, giving garbage surprising new lives: milk containers transform into a down jacket or blanket. Elsewhere, electricity...

In 1978, toxic chemicals leaking from an old landfill thrust an upstate New York community called Love Canal into the national headlines, and made it synonymous with “environmental disaster.”

On a cold March night in 1989, the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground off the coast of Southern Alaska, spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil into the waters of Prince William Sound, and creating one of the worst oil spills in American history.

Ten years ago Hurricane Katrina devastated the coast of Louisiana. Five years later the Deepwater Horizon exploded and spilled more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the worst ecologic disaster in North American History. Amazingly, those aren’t the worst things facing Louisiana’s coastline today. It is that the state is fast disappearing. When on Earth Day 2010, BP’s Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank, many in Louisiana...

As the world’s garbage piles grow to even greater heights, many people and industries are finding new uses for old things. In Manila, the Philippines, local women are running a thriving business repurposing old papers into fashionable accessories creating a worldwide demand. In the U.S., recycling E-Waste is big business as producers and consumers consider important ways to reduce their toxic impact on the environment. It begs the question: So,...

This award-winning film is a timely and urgent story with global implications. Filmed over 12 years, we see how residents of Southern California successfully shut down an aging nuclear power plant only to discover that tons of nuclear waste was left on a popular beach. A microcosm of a larger issue - the mismanagement of lethal, radioactive waste - the film highlights the role that ordinary citizens can play in ensuring our public safety, and demonstrates...