Series Overview | Episode Descriptions

Episode 1: Welcome to the 21st Century
Sustainability: what are the economic, scientific and social challenges? Susanne Moser on the psychology of climate change and Paul Hawken on ecology and social innovation.

Episode 2: Counting, Measuring, Mapping
The science behind climate change and the carbon cycle, environmental law and policy, and how metrics and mapping can transform our understanding — and our choices.

Episode 3: Living Cities
The history of megacities and the growing importance of the “city state,” how urban growth is impacting women and society at large, and China’s first eco-city Dongtan.

Episode 4: On the Move
The exponential increase in global car ownership, the race for new power and fuel sources and transportation alternatives: car sharing, bikes and buses.

Episode 5: Joule the Energy
The U.S. Green Building Incentive Program, energy literacy and renewable resources, the Swiss “2000 Watt Society” and Amory Lovins’ “negawatt.”

Episode 6: Building to LEED
Sustainable building in New Orleans, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, “Biomimicry” and Bob Berkebile’s Greensburg, Kansas.

Episode 7: In and Out Green
The Green way of remodeling homes, Greenhome.com’s eco-friendly products, Stuart Brand’s Whole Earth Catalog and the Maker Faire.

Episode 8: Green Grits
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA’s), organic farming, biotechnology versus biodiversity, the Edible Schoolyard and the Slow Food movement.

Episode 9: Got H2O?
India’s Barefoot College, the Global Water Policy Project, ocean desalination, the concept of the “soft path” for water and the risks of unlimited privatization of water.

Episode 10: Genuine Plastic
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the lifecycle of plastic, possible toxins fromplastic in consumer products and Beijing’s Plastic Bags Reduction Network.

Episode 11: Gone is Away
New York’s history of trash, waste management in landfills, packaging waste, “ewaste” and William McDonough’s concepts of “downcycling” and “upcycling.”

Episode 12: Do More Good
The waste generated by U.S. hospitals, the possible links between diseases and environmental factors and the Teleosis Institute’s vision of Green Health Care.

Episode 13: We’re All Participants
Eyak Rainforest Preservation Fund, Jerome Ringo and the future of “green-collar jobs,” Microlending, Google Earth and the Amazon Surui tribe, and Bill McKibben’s 350.org.