PBS DVDs About Our Planet to Celebrate Earth Day – April 22
Earth Days – Visually stunning, vastly entertaining and awe-inspiring, “Earth Days” looks back to the dawn and development of the modern environmental movement – from its post-war rustlings in the 1950s and the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson’s incendiary bestseller “Silent Spring,” to the first wildly successful 1970 Earth Day celebration and the subsequent firestorm of political action. “Earth Days’” secret weapon is a one-two punch of personal testimony and rare archival media. “Earth Days” is both a poetic meditation on man’s complex relationship with nature and an engaging history of the revolutionary achievements – and missed opportunities – of groundbreaking eco-activism. To watch a preview of this film, click here.
Becoming Green: This set contains four outstanding programs related to environmental awareness.
Car of the Future – What will the car of the future be like? Will it run on hydrogen, batteries, or some as-yet undiscovered technology? Find out as NOVA looks at what’s to come for our transportation.
Solar Energy: Saved by the Sun – In the face of rising oil prices and political turmoil in the Middle East, there’s new urgency to find ways to make solar power more efficient and affordable.
Global Warming: What’s Up With the Weather? – The weather is different now – but why? Find out when NOVA and FRONTLINE join forces to determine what’s up with the weather.
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring – Rachel Carson’s great love of the natural world drove her to write about the chemical industry and its unregulated use of DDT. Though she was viciously attacked,
Silent Spring became an instant bestseller and changed the way we think about the natural world.
Secrets Beneath the Ice: Does Antarctica’s climate past offer clues to what may happen to our warming planet? To gather crucial evidence, NOVA follows an ambitious Antarctic investigation utilizing a state-of-the-art drilling probe known as ANDRILL. Drilling deep beneath the Antarctic ice, down through the sea and three-fourths of a mile into the seafloor, ANDRILL recovers rock cores that reveal intimate details of climate and fauna from a time in the distant past when the Earth was just a few degrees warmer than it is today. As researchers grapple with the harshest conditions on the planet, they discover astonishing new clues — not only about Antarctica’s past, but also Earth’s future. Streets 3/22/11
Word Girl: Earth Day Girl: When the Birthday Girl learns that the Earth is having a special celebration (on her birthday!) she decides to teach the Earth a lesson. Will WordGirl find a way to stop the Birthday Girl and save Earth Day?
The Big Energy Gamble: A vast majority of Americans believe we are facing a global climate crisis, but we don’t know how the various energy solutions we hear about can help. NOVA looks at everything California – an oasis of energy conservation – is doing, from conservation and efficiency to the development of new sources of carbon-free power, to find out how the rest of the country can join in their aggressive pursuit of a sustainable energy future.
