“When we look at the parks and we look at the United States and we examine the whole idea of democracy, I think that the park experience is an exploration of the idea of freedom.”

-Shelton Johnson, Park Ranger

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The special premieres August 1 and airs throughout the month on most PBS stations. Check local listings for dates and times in your area at PBS.org.

“Through music we can get enlightenment.“

Editor’s Note: This post is a guest contribution by Frank Sesno, Emmy-award winning journalist and former CNN Bureau Chief. ”Planet Forward” is an innovative, viewer-driven program driven by the power of ideas, as citizens make their case for what they think about the nation’s energy future. The show debuts TONIGHT (8pm), in a primetime PBS special. See Frank Sesno’s last post for CleanTechnica here.

What we’re hearing at Planet Forward is rumbles of a revolution.

Some expressions are serious, some are humorous. There are essays and poems and songs. But in almost all cases, if we take this stuff at face value, we’re hearing calls for an overthrow of the old ways we drive, work, travel, get around.  

A revolution in technology and green jobs to reduce carbon emissions, deal with climate change and improve our security.  A revolution in the energy marketplace to knock the oil-igarchs around the world down a notch.  Coincidentally, this is the bottom line of Barack Obama’s hugely ambitious energy program.  And it’s what citizens and experts alike weigh in on here at Planet Forward.  

This is a place where everyone has the chance to make their case about how we use energy, where our future energy should be, and how we should think about the issue.  We’ve heard from scientists and students, CEO’s and cab drivers, defenders of coal and oil as well as advocates of wind and solar.   We’ve even got a few politicians making their case!  It’s an orchestra of voices.

What makes Planet Forward different is that we connect some of the best ideas  – rated by the online community and reviewed by our Planet Forward editorial staff –directly to decision-makers.  Some go straight to the White House.  We do all this in a prime-time television special on PBS and through follow-on webisodes here at planetforward.org.  What’s most striking is how seriously the experts take the ideas and experiences of people out in the ‘real world.’  As they should.  

This isn’t the usual television fare – which is either policy wonks talking to themselves or high-decibel hosts shouting at the rest of us.  We wanted to do it differently.  So we invited President Obama’s top adviser on energy and climate change, Carol Browner, literally to sit down with some Planet Forward contributors who submitted particularly provocative or creative ideas.  She tells them what she thinks about their proposals, takes their questions, and considers what she’d take back to the White House as a result of the conversation.

And we’re going to keep the discussion going.  We’ve got a web sequel in the works.  Submit your video or written essay by May 15th and it’ll be in the running for review and comment by another top White House adviser, Van Jones, the highly acclaimed author of The Green Collar Economy and now Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.  We’ll put the exchange online – where you can see it, comment on it and share it with your social network.  

We invite you to comment on the videos already posted.  Raise questions, debate the merits.

This energy haul isn’t going to be easy.  There is a lot new under the sun (and in the wind) but it’s still very expensive, diffuse and in its infancy.   We’re going to be living with coal and oil and gas and nuclear power for a long time.  Some of them may have a rebirth as we develop new technologies for them.  Which are the winners and which are the losers – and at what cost — are among the questions we confront and must now try to answer.

Planet Forward is a chance for you to tell the world, and maybe the White House, what you’d do.  

Editors Note: This is a guest contribution from the Lieutenant Governor of California, John Garamendi. See his last post on CleanTechnica.com.

California’s coastline has a hold on most of us, but if we don’t stop trashing our beaches and seas, it could begin to repel us.

These days, most of us accept the importance of environmental protection. We understand that recycling reduces our need to extract new resources, and we agree that businesses should not be allowed to put toxic sludge in our drinking water. And yet, in this age of convenience, it’s easy to think our individual actions don’t have an impact, and without clear public will, it’s easy for good bills to get lost in the shuffle of governance.

Recognizing this problem, with a diverse coalition of environmentalists, scientists, students, and community activists, I founded the Clean Seas Coalition last year to present a more unified voice in favor of legislation important to California’s coastlines.

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Editor’s Note: This post is a guest contribution by Frank Sesno, Emmy-award winning journalist and former CNN Washington Bureau Chief. ”Planet Forward” is an innovative, viewer-driven program driven by the power of ideas, as citizens make their case for what they think about the nation’s energy future. The show debuts on the web first and then moves to television, in a primetime PBS special on April 15th.

I’ve been in the media for a long time. I know the power we have to reach and to teach.  We can take people places they’ve never been, show them wonders – and horrors – to inform or motivate. Good, important stuff. Of course we also drive people crazy. Critics shout that too many in the media are too removed, too insular, too quick to talk and too slow to listen. Too much is dumbed down or shouted out.

So when we created Planet Forward, we wanted to do something different. We wanted to take this huge issue facing us — how we move to a sustainable, 21st century approach to the energy we use – and explore it in a way that is open, inclusive, creative and smart. We wanted to combine the power of the internet and the reach of television to bring together citizens, experts and decision-makers in a place where imagination and ideas would prevail. Sure, serious business — but also spontaneous and fun and unexpected.

Planet Forward starts online and works its way over to television. We invite people to submit a video, an essay, a photo spread, whatever works.  We say show us your ideas, your invention or what your community’s working on. Share your research. Talk technology. Tell us how attitudes are changing.

We’re getting a great response and a lot of different approaches to the challenge. Some people talk straight to the camera, others have produced highly polished videos. Some people have composed original music or produced animations. We’re getting some really creative submissions from young people. But the voices come from all over the place – and belong to governors and students, taxi drivers and scientists, advocates and engineers, artists and architects.

We like to say that Planet Forward is a virtual public square where people can come together and have their own platform to make their case, share their expertise or their opinion.

Why have we done it this way?  Because it’s decision time, and we’re about to spend billions of dollars as we rewire America — and the world — so we can have the energy we need without destroying the planet or writing more blank checks to nasty folks who, by accident of birth, sit on top of an ocean of oil and hold the world hostage to what they pump.

The unique part of Planet Forward is the way we go from web to television. The online submissions will be the basis for the television show. Citizen and expert voices unfiltered. The ratings from the online community (rate the video one to five stars) will help us select the range of views and topics to be featured on our  PBS prime-time special on April 15th. Yes, tax day. It’s also one week before earth day.

On TV, we’ll have a few experts who’ll discuss and debate the online submissions they’ll see. It is the kind of exchange you could have with your smart neighbor over the back fence where you debate the price of oil or prospects for electric cars, or the future of coal.

The experts bring a mix of experience, expertise, and opinion to the table. Shai Agassi is an entrepreneur who has become a leading voice in new energy plug-in cars. L. Hunter Lovins is an outspoken advocate of green business practices. James Connaughton shaped the country’s climate and energy policy for the last eight years in the Bush White House.

Then Carol Browner, President Obama’s top advisor on energy and climate, will look at the submissions and speak directly with some of the people who put them together. We’ll see what she has to say – and what she’ll take back to the White House.

Almost everyone says they are for green energy; the debate comes in how we get there.

Planet Forward can make a difference. The public is the driver of the conversation. People who don’t normally sit in front of the camera shape the debate. Decision-makers and experts listen to what they have to say and then respond, not the other way around. We think this is what makes Planet Forward such a ground-breaking form of new media.

>> For more information on this project, see PlanetFoward.org

Well now PBS is participating in an entertaining, educational, and free Earth Day campaign! This is even better news for an eco conscious parent.

The online content and programming are ADORABLE – and all free – and help instill a love of the environment and eco-conscious values in children and their families.  Joining in the campaign is a great way for kids and families to start a dialogue about the importance of preserving the earth, while learning and having fun.

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Warren Buffett, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway says that President Obama’s #1 job is to fix is the economy but even though we have “got the right person in the operating room, but it doesn’t mean the patient is going to leave the hospital tomorrow.”

In an exclusive interview with PBS’s Nightly Business Report, Warren Buffett tells anchor Susie Gharib, that America was in an “economic Pearl harbor” last September, that went for a nosedive after October 1st  2008.

According to Buffett, America’s credit system must be partially fixed in order for the economy to have a chance of starting to turn around. But whether a fiscal stimulus is going to do this, or whether tax cuts will provide the answer, nobody seems to really know.  Certainly not the economists! Buffett believes that when it comes to economics you can’t just do one thing and where the balance is struck on that will be a political question.

PBS airs a fascinating interview with America’s economic guru, Warren Buffett tonight to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Nightly Business Report.  Buffett shares his views on the newly inaugurated President Obama, the recession, his company Berkshire Hathaway, the Madoff scandal and his investing principles vis-a-vis a gloomy and uncertain economic outlook.

Make sure you tune into Nightly Business Report tonight – January 22nd 2008 at your local PBS station. Check here for local listings.

If you miss the interview for some reason, then check back here tomorrow for a link to the interview online.

Image credit: Fickr (Peter Duhon)

We’re getting a great response and a lot of different approaches to the challenge. Some people talk straight to the camera, others have produced highly polished videos. Some people have composed original music or produced animations. We’re getting some really creative submissions from young people. But the voices come from all over the place – and belong to governors and students, taxi drivers and scientists, advocates and engineers, artists and architects.

We like to say that Planet Forward is a virtual public square where people can come together and have their own platform to make their case, share their expertise or their opinion.

Why have we done it this way?  Because it’s decision time, and we’re about to spend billions of dollars as we rewire America — and the world — so we can have the energy we need without destroying the planet or writing more blank checks to nasty folks who, by accident of birth, sit on top of an ocean of oil and hold the world hostage to what they pump.

The unique part of Planet Forward is the way we go from web to television. The online submissions will be the basis for the television show. Citizen and expert voices unfiltered. The ratings from the online community (rate the video one to five stars) will help us select the range of views and topics to be featured on our  PBS prime-time special on April 15th. Yes, tax day. It’s also one week before earth day.

On TV, we’ll have a few experts who’ll discuss and debate the online submissions they’ll see. It is the kind of exchange you could have with your smart neighbor over the back fence where you debate the price of oil or prospects for electric cars, or the future of coal.

The experts bring a mix of experience, expertise, and opinion to the table. Shai Agassi is an entrepreneur who has become a leading voice in new energy plug-in cars. L. Hunter Lovins is an outspoken advocate of green business practices. James Connaughton shaped the country’s climate and energy policy for the last eight years in the Bush White House.

Then Carol Browner, President Obama’s top advisor on energy and climate, will look at the submissions and speak directly with some of the people who put them together. We’ll see what she has to say – and what she’ll take back to the White House.

Almost everyone says they are for green energy; the debate comes in how we get there.

Planet Forward can make a difference. The public is the driver of the conversation. People who don’t normally sit in front of the camera shape the debate. Decision-makers and experts listen to what they have to say and then respond, not the other way around. We think this is what makes Planet Forward such a ground-breaking form of new media.

>> For more information on this project, see PlanetFoward.org

Author, critic and food writer John Mariani, (Esquire magazine, Diversion magazine, Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Radio and The Italian-American Cookbook among other books) published an article in the August 2008 Esquire magazine, The Worst (and Best) Cooking Shows on Television.

Mr. Mariani writes,

As someone who writes about food and restaurants for a living, I have near-zero interest in watching most of the food shows on TV, where hijinks, hair, and cleavage have replaced the authoritative, careful instructiveness of Julia Child, David Rosengarten, and Sara Moulton — most of whom are either off the air, dead, toiling in obscurity, or relegated to reruns.

The Food Network, which once had all those people on, is now home to a bunch of screaming, loutish characters who read from cue cards with about as much as contrivance as Jerry Springer sympathizing with a 400-pound transsexual. Still, there are some good shows out there that teach you as much about how to cook something as about the culture or reasons behind it.

Here, here! Let me expound on his insight and give you my opinion of the Bad, the Ugly and the Good.

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Burns says he was fascinated by the idea of telling the story of how Yellowstone and other national parks were created: “in a culture so dedicated to the almighty dollar, so dedicated to a kind of extractive and acquisitive mentality. It’s phenomenal. So how did this happen? Who were these people?” The documentary will be broadcast on PBS in six parts of two hours each. It is scheduled to debut in the Fall of 2009.

Via Los Angeles Times

Image: backpackphotography on Flickr under a Creative Commons license

We’re getting a great response and a lot of different approaches to the challenge. Some people talk straight to the camera, others have produced highly polished videos. Some people have composed original music or produced animations. We’re getting some really creative submissions from young people. But the voices come from all over the place – and belong to governors and students, taxi drivers and scientists, advocates and engineers, artists and architects.

We like to say that Planet Forward is a virtual public square where people can come together and have their own platform to make their case, share their expertise or their opinion.

Why have we done it this way?  Because it’s decision time, and we’re about to spend billions of dollars as we rewire America — and the world — so we can have the energy we need without destroying the planet or writing more blank checks to nasty folks who, by accident of birth, sit on top of an ocean of oil and hold the world hostage to what they pump.

The unique part of Planet Forward is the way we go from web to television. The online submissions will be the basis for the television show. Citizen and expert voices unfiltered. The ratings from the online community (rate the video one to five stars) will help us select the range of views and topics to be featured on our  PBS prime-time special on April 15th. Yes, tax day. It’s also one week before earth day.

On TV, we’ll have a few experts who’ll discuss and debate the online submissions they’ll see. It is the kind of exchange you could have with your smart neighbor over the back fence where you debate the price of oil or prospects for electric cars, or the future of coal.

The experts bring a mix of experience, expertise, and opinion to the table. Shai Agassi is an entrepreneur who has become a leading voice in new energy plug-in cars. L. Hunter Lovins is an outspoken advocate of green business practices. James Connaughton shaped the country’s climate and energy policy for the last eight years in the Bush White House.

Then Carol Browner, President Obama’s top advisor on energy and climate, will look at the submissions and speak directly with some of the people who put them together. We’ll see what she has to say – and what she’ll take back to the White House.

Almost everyone says they are for green energy; the debate comes in how we get there.

Planet Forward can make a difference. The public is the driver of the conversation. People who don’t normally sit in front of the camera shape the debate. Decision-makers and experts listen to what they have to say and then respond, not the other way around. We think this is what makes Planet Forward such a ground-breaking form of new media.

>> For more information on this project, see PlanetFoward.org

Two weeks ago Eylon Israely conducted an interview with King Corn’s Director and Producer, Aaron Woolf . Today we’ve got interesting updates on the film and its creators.

Firstly, If you haven’t seen this documentary yet, here’s your chance - King Corn airs on PBS on April 15! So mark it down in your calender.

And there’s also a new film from the creators of King Corn - The Greening of Southie. The film will have its world premiere on the Sundance Channel on Earth Day, April 22 at 9:40PM. This time, the filmmakers explore green building, and they’re focusing on the first green residential project in one of the favorite neighborhoods: South Boston, or Southie as everyone calls it. Here’s a little bit more about it:

Read more of this story »

We’re getting a great response and a lot of different approaches to the challenge. Some people talk straight to the camera, others have produced highly polished videos. Some people have composed original music or produced animations. We’re getting some really creative submissions from young people. But the voices come from all over the place – and belong to governors and students, taxi drivers and scientists, advocates and engineers, artists and architects.

We like to say that Planet Forward is a virtual public square where people can come together and have their own platform to make their case, share their expertise or their opinion.

Why have we done it this way?  Because it’s decision time, and we’re about to spend billions of dollars as we rewire America — and the world — so we can have the energy we need without destroying the planet or writing more blank checks to nasty folks who, by accident of birth, sit on top of an ocean of oil and hold the world hostage to what they pump.

The unique part of Planet Forward is the way we go from web to television. The online submissions will be the basis for the television show. Citizen and expert voices unfiltered. The ratings from the online community (rate the video one to five stars) will help us select the range of views and topics to be featured on our  PBS prime-time special on April 15th. Yes, tax day. It’s also one week before earth day.

On TV, we’ll have a few experts who’ll discuss and debate the online submissions they’ll see. It is the kind of exchange you could have with your smart neighbor over the back fence where you debate the price of oil or prospects for electric cars, or the future of coal.

The experts bring a mix of experience, expertise, and opinion to the table. Shai Agassi is an entrepreneur who has become a leading voice in new energy plug-in cars. L. Hunter Lovins is an outspoken advocate of green business practices. James Connaughton shaped the country’s climate and energy policy for the last eight years in the Bush White House.

Then Carol Browner, President Obama’s top advisor on energy and climate, will look at the submissions and speak directly with some of the people who put them together. We’ll see what she has to say – and what she’ll take back to the White House.

Almost everyone says they are for green energy; the debate comes in how we get there.

Planet Forward can make a difference. The public is the driver of the conversation. People who don’t normally sit in front of the camera shape the debate. Decision-makers and experts listen to what they have to say and then respond, not the other way around. We think this is what makes Planet Forward such a ground-breaking form of new media.

>> For more information on this project, see PlanetFoward.org

"Was it a conscious decision or a momentary lapse of reason? How did progress take priority over humankind? Could harnessing the world’s energy that allowed our ascent now be the ledge pan of our down fall?" These are the questions addressed in the PBS ongoing series e2. The most recent episodes, narrated by Morgan Freeman, focus on energy. They look at transportation infrastructure, the auto industry, fuels and renewable fuels, alternative energy solutions and infrastructure, etc. As a result of examining such critical topics, the network was able to land a high-profile guest list for this 6-episode series including Samuel Bodman, the US secretary of energy; Brian Boldemberg, Brazil’s former secretary for the environment; Amory Lovins, founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute; and Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize winner. These began airing October 12, 2007

The next set of episodes, narrated by Brad Pitt, will focus on design and innovation. This high profile guest list features designers, architects, and other enthusiasts dedicated to changing the world though socially and environmentally conscious design. Some of the architects include Thom Mayne, architect of the new San Francisco Federal Building, and Adriaan Gueze, the lead architect of the Borneo Sporenburg development in Amsterdam. Other architects and sustainability enthusiasts include Ed Mazria, architect and founder of the Architecture 2030 organization, and William McDonough of Cradle-to-Cradle design.

These projects, among many others, are leading the way in fabricating sustainable design solutions. Whether they work with system management, future projections, or actual structures, these folks are dedicated to creating better design solutions that will last longer. It isn’t only about eliminating the bad anymore. It is about streamlining processes, and creating structures that will last and can multi-function. These architects and designers take you inside processes and reveal involved truths about good and bad design and how they leverage decisions. These episodes begin airing November 23, 2007.

As noted on the website, "The decisions in Washington affect the mountain glaciers in Peru, deforestation of the Amazon affect the heat waves of Paris, the power plants in China effect air quality in Los Angeles …" — we are faced with a lot of global issues that we collectively can have an influence on. PBS has sought out those who are leading others in aiding this progress. "It’s about facing what seem to be insurmountable challenges for what they really are — opportunities to reinvent and redesign." I have yet to see a TV series that touches on so many critical global topics and educates consumers about what is occurring in our energy and construction industries.

In its second year, digital software manufacturer AutoDesk sponsors this PBS project. e2 challenges you to live smarter, live greener, and live with the future in mind. PBS has also build a resource for you to research projects featured in the program. And just for you, they’ve made their own dictionary for the environmentally conscious, as well as a resource for additional independent research.

We’re getting a great response and a lot of different approaches to the challenge. Some people talk straight to the camera, others have produced highly polished videos. Some people have composed original music or produced animations. We’re getting some really creative submissions from young people. But the voices come from all over the place – and belong to governors and students, taxi drivers and scientists, advocates and engineers, artists and architects.

We like to say that Planet Forward is a virtual public square where people can come together and have their own platform to make their case, share their expertise or their opinion.

Why have we done it this way?  Because it’s decision time, and we’re about to spend billions of dollars as we rewire America — and the world — so we can have the energy we need without destroying the planet or writing more blank checks to nasty folks who, by accident of birth, sit on top of an ocean of oil and hold the world hostage to what they pump.

The unique part of Planet Forward is the way we go from web to television. The online submissions will be the basis for the television show. Citizen and expert voices unfiltered. The ratings from the online community (rate the video one to five stars) will help us select the range of views and topics to be featured on our  PBS prime-time special on April 15th. Yes, tax day. It’s also one week before earth day.

On TV, we’ll have a few experts who’ll discuss and debate the online submissions they’ll see. It is the kind of exchange you could have with your smart neighbor over the back fence where you debate the price of oil or prospects for electric cars, or the future of coal.

The experts bring a mix of experience, expertise, and opinion to the table. Shai Agassi is an entrepreneur who has become a leading voice in new energy plug-in cars. L. Hunter Lovins is an outspoken advocate of green business practices. James Connaughton shaped the country’s climate and energy policy for the last eight years in the Bush White House.

Then Carol Browner, President Obama’s top advisor on energy and climate, will look at the submissions and speak directly with some of the people who put them together. We’ll see what she has to say – and what she’ll take back to the White House.

Almost everyone says they are for green energy; the debate comes in how we get there.

Planet Forward can make a difference. The public is the driver of the conversation. People who don’t normally sit in front of the camera shape the debate. Decision-makers and experts listen to what they have to say and then respond, not the other way around. We think this is what makes Planet Forward such a ground-breaking form of new media.

>> For more information on this project, see PlanetFoward.org

Well wonder no more! This past month, our country witnessed another first in the world of green when Northern California’s KQED became the first ever carbon neutral public broadcasting station. For those of you new to the world of carbon offsets, this simply means that KQED is taking significant steps to reduce its climate footprint by neutralizing its net amount of carbon emissions through purchasing carbon credits and increasing a company-wide participation in green production practices.

But this is no easy feat! As KQED recently announced in a public statement, going carbon neutral included "establishing a baseline reading of carbon emissions and determining the amount of energy used in daily operations, from production vans, to transmitter towers, to the electricity used in the building. Carbon credits of the same amount were then purchased from the Chicago Climate Exchange, to promote energy efficiencies in other companies, or to be used towards renewable energy sources like wind power and bio-gas.”

On April 21, KQED will conduct a green pledge day to help support the effort in neutralizing the net total of this year's carbon emissions(!) Tune in from April 15 to Sunday April 22 for a weeklong Earthday celebration with KQED’s latest in noncommercial green tv and radio programming. Visit www.kqed.org/earthweek for an advance schedule. Also, if you’re interested in reducing or offsetting your own (or your company’s) carbon emissions, visit www.driveneutral.org/ for more info.

Finally, for anyone outside the Bay Area who’s interested in hearing more from KQED, a live webstream is always available at www.KQED.org.

We’re getting a great response and a lot of different approaches to the challenge. Some people talk straight to the camera, others have produced highly polished videos. Some people have composed original music or produced animations. We’re getting some really creative submissions from young people. But the voices come from all over the place – and belong to governors and students, taxi drivers and scientists, advocates and engineers, artists and architects.

We like to say that Planet Forward is a virtual public square where people can come together and have their own platform to make their case, share their expertise or their opinion.

Why have we done it this way?  Because it’s decision time, and we’re about to spend billions of dollars as we rewire America — and the world — so we can have the energy we need without destroying the planet or writing more blank checks to nasty folks who, by accident of birth, sit on top of an ocean of oil and hold the world hostage to what they pump.

The unique part of Planet Forward is the way we go from web to television. The online submissions will be the basis for the television show. Citizen and expert voices unfiltered. The ratings from the online community (rate the video one to five stars) will help us select the range of views and topics to be featured on our  PBS prime-time special on April 15th. Yes, tax day. It’s also one week before earth day.

On TV, we’ll have a few experts who’ll discuss and debate the online submissions they’ll see. It is the kind of exchange you could have with your smart neighbor over the back fence where you debate the price of oil or prospects for electric cars, or the future of coal.

The experts bring a mix of experience, expertise, and opinion to the table. Shai Agassi is an entrepreneur who has become a leading voice in new energy plug-in cars. L. Hunter Lovins is an outspoken advocate of green business practices. James Connaughton shaped the country’s climate and energy policy for the last eight years in the Bush White House.

Then Carol Browner, President Obama’s top advisor on energy and climate, will look at the submissions and speak directly with some of the people who put them together. We’ll see what she has to say – and what she’ll take back to the White House.

Almost everyone says they are for green energy; the debate comes in how we get there.

Planet Forward can make a difference. The public is the driver of the conversation. People who don’t normally sit in front of the camera shape the debate. Decision-makers and experts listen to what they have to say and then respond, not the other way around. We think this is what makes Planet Forward such a ground-breaking form of new media.

>> For more information on this project, see PlanetFoward.org

From late March throughout the month of April the public broadcasting system has arranged their line-up to include green themes in several of their original shows and in their childrens programs.

The line-up includes a premiere episode of the series JOURNEY TO PLANET EARTH, hosted by Matt Damon (not to be confused with The Discovery Channel's new show Planet Earth), featuring our distressed marine eco-systems, in addition to all new episodes of NATURE and NOVA.

PBS has also tailored their kids programming to include encore presentations of shows with green themes. CURIOUS GEORGE, CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG, DRAGON TALES, ARTHUR, MAYA & MIGUEL, FETCH! WITH RUFF RUFFMAN and CYBERCHASE will all focus on the environment and teach kids fun ways they can get involved. The week of April 16-20 will feature new episodes the children's show, IT'S A BIG BIG WORLD culminating with a 2-hour special called, "PBS KIDS Share the Earth Day." Additional Earth Day themed educational activities will also be available online.

This is a smart programming line-up for PBS. With Earth Day approaching more and more people might be looking to tune into these types of shows, which could garner PBS a new audience for their leading, orginal programming. Another bonus for PBS - you don't need cable to watch it.

Via Yahoo! News; PBS

We’re getting a great response and a lot of different approaches to the challenge. Some people talk straight to the camera, others have produced highly polished videos. Some people have composed original music or produced animations. We’re getting some really creative submissions from young people. But the voices come from all over the place – and belong to governors and students, taxi drivers and scientists, advocates and engineers, artists and architects.

We like to say that Planet Forward is a virtual public square where people can come together and have their own platform to make their case, share their expertise or their opinion.

Why have we done it this way?  Because it’s decision time, and we’re about to spend billions of dollars as we rewire America — and the world — so we can have the energy we need without destroying the planet or writing more blank checks to nasty folks who, by accident of birth, sit on top of an ocean of oil and hold the world hostage to what they pump.

The unique part of Planet Forward is the way we go from web to television. The online submissions will be the basis for the television show. Citizen and expert voices unfiltered. The ratings from the online community (rate the video one to five stars) will help us select the range of views and topics to be featured on our  PBS prime-time special on April 15th. Yes, tax day. It’s also one week before earth day.

On TV, we’ll have a few experts who’ll discuss and debate the online submissions they’ll see. It is the kind of exchange you could have with your smart neighbor over the back fence where you debate the price of oil or prospects for electric cars, or the future of coal.

The experts bring a mix of experience, expertise, and opinion to the table. Shai Agassi is an entrepreneur who has become a leading voice in new energy plug-in cars. L. Hunter Lovins is an outspoken advocate of green business practices. James Connaughton shaped the country’s climate and energy policy for the last eight years in the Bush White House.

Then Carol Browner, President Obama’s top advisor on energy and climate, will look at the submissions and speak directly with some of the people who put them together. We’ll see what she has to say – and what she’ll take back to the White House.

Almost everyone says they are for green energy; the debate comes in how we get there.

Planet Forward can make a difference. The public is the driver of the conversation. People who don’t normally sit in front of the camera shape the debate. Decision-makers and experts listen to what they have to say and then respond, not the other way around. We think this is what makes Planet Forward such a ground-breaking form of new media.

>> For more information on this project, see PlanetFoward.org