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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – ATLANTA – Four new episodes of the popular PBS environmental series EcoSense for Living will premiere nationwide this April for Earth Month. Topics include apex predators grizzly bears and wolves and their complicated relationship with the people of Montana and Wyoming. A second episode explores the future of food with a visit to New Orleans to learn about sustainable seafood and how crickets and other bugs are appearing on trendy New York menus. The series transports us to Donora, Penn., where disastrous events in 1948 led to America’s Clean Air Act still critical today to curb air pollution. Another new episode explores the critical need for recycling and how Orlando deals with trash generated by 72 million guests each year.
Previous episodes are now available to live stream on PBS, a new feature this year for this series that launched in 2005. The four newest episodes will be available beginning April 6. Consult local listings for specific broadcast information on local PBS stations.
The series founder, producer and host is Atlanta native Jennie Turner Garlington whose father, Ted Turner, instilled deep environmental consciousness in his entire family. Today Jennie works to raise awareness, spur discussion and offer tips for everyday ways to save the environment by producing new EcoSense for Living episodes, produced by Atlanta-based Picture Window Productions.
“We’ve had such great response nationwide to EcoSense for Living that we are launching four new episodes per year and are excited to premiere them again this year during Earth Month,” Jennie said. “These new shows had us to crisscrossing the country from Pennsylvania to New Orleans and from Florida to Montana. We continue to educate and inform everyday people about critical environmental issues affecting us today and for generations to come.”
As an environmental media champion, former CNN producer, mother and concerned citizen, Jennie has fervently embraced her father’s sustainability views. She developed a PSA series called EcoSense for Living in 2005 that received high acclaim and she quickly expanded it into a 30-minute episode of the same name. That first show, featuring Clark Howard, offered environmentally friendly ways to save money daily around the house and led to more than 20 subsequent episodes.
The newest four episodes in the series include:
EcoSense for Living: Grizzlies, Wolves & the Endangered Species Act, episode 301, asks ranchers, hunters, native Americans and environmentalists in Montana and Wyoming about their relationship with apex predators and they all agree it’s “complicated.” Of 37 grizzly bear populations recorded in 1922, only 6 were left in 1975, representing just 136 bears. Now, with the Endangered Species Act, that number has rebounded to 700+ but is that enough? Too much? A sheep rancher explains “predator friendly ranching,” the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center at Yellowstone National Park dispels myths and misconceptions about these apex predators, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition works to find common ground, and a representative from Yellowstone to Yukon speaks about that planned wildlife corridor to promote natural migration paths including highway crossings at migration hot spots.
EcoSense for Living: Future Food, episode 302, shows how some foods can be hard on the planet and Katharine Wilkinson, DrawnDown author, tells how health and climate change are affected by the foods we choose and how we handle food waste. In New Orleans, the Audubon Nature Society’s annual sustainable seafood dinner spotlights issues of buying local, wild-caught versus aquaculture, and other less familiar but plentiful seafood choices. Insects fly onto the radar as crickets and other high-in-protein bugs high hop onto menus at trendy New York City and London restaurants.
EcoSense for Living: Do We Still Need the Clean Air Act?, episode 303, takes us back in time tto Donora, Penn., the epicenter of the clean air initiative thanks to the thick yellow smog that blanketed the city for five straight days in 1948 and led to 27 deaths from that toxic air. Dr. Devra Davis, an environmental health expert and Donora native, explains how the tragic incident led to the Clean Air Act and why it’s still necessary today. Transportation options like electric cars, evolving attitudes about carpooling and rideshares spur discussion. Mothers from Mom’s Clean Air Force examine sources of air pollution, and parents take a look at how to guard children’s health from chemicals associated with fracking in Pennsylvania. An Orlando artist and engineer uses paintings to express concern about a nearby power plant.
EcoSense for Living: Talking Trash, episode 304, reports average Americans make 4.4 pounds of trash daily (the global number per person is 2.6 pounds) but, positively, Americans also compose and recycle about 1.5 pounds every day. Talking Trash visits Orlando, a city that hosts more visitors than any other spot on the planet. The 72 million guests arriving each year present unique opportunities for Orlando’s mayor including biofuels and a program recycling restaurant and residential compost into soil amendments. We profile these and other new, creative ways to reduce, reuse, upcycle and transform food, packaging and clothing trash, including programs that rebuild oyster beds.
To date, the EcoSense for Living series has aired thousands of times in top markets nationwide including New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis, Austin, Nashville, Seattle and many more. Each episode is produced by Picture Window Productions and made available to PBS stations across the United States via NETA, an internal network/satellite service. View episodes live streamed at https://www.pbs.org/show/
· EcoSense for Living, this first episode features Clark Howard and other green cleaning experts showing environmentally friendly ways to save money every day around the house.
· EcoSense for Living: Children & Nature, episode 2, profiles the importance of getting children outside and Richard Louv identifies the phenomenon of dwindling exposure as “nature deficit disorder” in his book“Last Child in the Woods.”
· EcoSense for Living: Green Jobs, episode 3, explores how corporations large and small are making a difference in America with green jobs.
· EcoSense for Living: Green Buildings, episode 4, profiles homes, a school and even Atlanta’s Phillips Arena to illustrate how energy efficient buildings reduce our carbon footprint. Jennie won a regional Emmy in 2011 for this episode.
· EcoSense for Living: Environmental Body Makeover, episode 5, looks at hidden toxins in food including how a manganese-free diet helped a young boy with autism make remarkable strides. Jennie won a regional Emmy in 2014 for this episode.
· EcoSense for Living: Environmental Home Makeover, episode 6, takes a look at common household products with potentially harmful ingredients including cell phones, water bottles, flooring, kitchen utensils and even thermal paper receipts.
· EcoSense for Living: Take Back the Farm, episode 7, takes a close look at the changing ways we think about and consume food.
· EcoSense for Living: Food Fight, episode 8, looks at genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) and ingredients as well as the rapid decline of bees, both of which are among the many pressures on the safety and security of America’s food supply.
· EcoSense for Living: Power Pioneers – Reducing Our Carbon Footprint, episode 9, profiles new, innovative transportation options.
· EcoSense for Living: Young Eco Heroes, episode 10, focuses on the next generation of environmentalists who are passionate, capable and already making a difference in wildlife preservation, climate change reversal and healthy ocean policies.
· EcoSense for Living: Ocean Voices – Tales of Recovery, episode 201, profiles Tampa Bay’s water restoration program, a cool-tech way to convert plastic into plant-filled barrier islands in the Gulf, and creative art that showcases ocean challenges and solutions.
· EcoSense for Living: Ocean Voices – Creatures Speak, episode 202, sea turtles and manatees illustrate our impact on the ocean and show how to be better stewards of our fellow creatures. Profiles a woman who’s become famous for her “zero waste” lifestyle.
· EcoSense for Living: National Park Pride – Bear & Coyote, episode 203, travels to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park where biologists manage bears and humans to keep both safe. The Atlanta Coyote Project discovers the wily ways of suburban coyotes.
· EcoSense for Living: National Parks and Natural Spaces, episode 204, with 95% percent of Florida’s Biscayne National Park under water, it’s a challenge to monitor the National Park system’s only submerged archaeological trail. Pulitzer Prize winning biologist E.O. Wilson’s thinks keeping spaces wild may be key to preserving the planet.
· EcoSense for Living: Solar Justice, episode 205, taps into solar power at a North Carolina “solar sheep farm” and also profiles congregations that feel a moral obligation to clean up the planet.
· EcoSense for Living: Environmental Justice, episode 206, looks at how people of color and low wealth communities are often hit hardest by environmental stressors.
· EcoSense for Living: What Lies Beneath, episode 207, unravels whathappens beneath the ocean’s surface. Travel to Charleston, SC where locals protect their coast from seismic blasting and oil exploration and meet the entrepreneurs of south Florida’s 4Ocean.
· EcoSense for Living: The Shape of Our Water, episode 208, examines the struggle behind clean drinking water. Residents of a low-income community in Alabama share their struggle for clean water after a coal ash spill in Tennessee and Baltimore’s Mr. Trashwheel is cleaning up the inner harbor