THE WEATHER CHANNEL TO AIR “CHANGING PLANET” TOWN HALL FOCUSED ON THE FUTURE OF WATER—
Tonight, 5 PM ET and Saturday, 2 PM ET.
NEW YORK, NY— In celebration of NBC Universal’s “Green Is Universal” week, The Weather Channel announced that it will air “Changing Planet: Adapting to Our Water Future” on Thursday, Nov.17th at 5 PM/ET. NBC News Chief Environmental Affairs Correspondent Anne Thompson moderated the event, which was hosted by Arizona State University. The town hall is the last in a three-part series produced under a partnership between NBC Learn (the educational arm of NBC News), the National Science Foundation (NSF), Discover magazine and SciStarter (formerly known as ScienceForCitizens.net).
“We face great challenges now, and in the years and decades ahead when it comes to water—including its scarcity and its purity,” said Thompson. “It is important that we have these kinds of discussions about how we can work together to protect and conserve one of our world’s most important resources.”
This edition of “Changing Planet” brings together over 400 students and features four leading experts from science, academia and politics: Bill Richardson, former Governor of New Mexico; Grady Gammage Jr., senior sustainability scholar with the ASU Global Institute of Sustainability and senior research fellow with the ASU Morrison Institute for Public Policy; Pat Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority; and Heidi Cullen, former climate expert for The Weather Channel and current research scientist and correspondent with “Climate Central.”
The “Changing Planet” town hall series is intended to encourage student learning and to open a dialogue about climate change by gathering scientists, thought leaders, business people, and university students to discuss the facts of climate science, the dynamics of its impact and to brainstorm solutions.
A special print adaptation of “Changing Planet: Adapting to Our Water Future” will appear in the December 2011 issue of Discover magazine, available on November 15. The “Changing Planet” series is taped before a live audience at each university, produced by NBC Learn, and underwritten by NSF, in cooperation with Discover magazine. It is available for viewing on nsf.gov, www.nbclearn.com/climate. and discovermagazine.com.
Viewers and readers are invited to get involved through a series of citizen science projects developed to help researchers monitor ecological and environmental changes to the planet. Visit www.scistarter.com for more information.
In addition to the town halls, NBC Learn and NSF recently added five new “Changing Planet” reports to its 17 part series, which looks at the impact of climate change in various locations around the world. New titles include:
1) Disappearing Lizards
2) Survival of Trees
3) Bark Beetle Outbreaks
4) Grapevines and Drought
5) Changing Mosquito Genes
Designed for use in the classroom, each report is correlated to state standards and includes a lesson plan with activities created by the “Windows to the Universe” project team at the National Earth Science Teachers Association. The videos are available on nbclearn.com/climate, nsf.gov, and Windows2Universe.org, and are available for widespread broadcast and digital distribution.
The Future of Water: Tonight 5pm ET on The Weather Channel
