Summary: Over two decades ago, the original version of this program depicted the effects of wind, waves, and tides on the coastline of southeastern Massachusetts. Revised and updated for the 21st century, this edition takes a new look at the problem of erosion along America's shores, emphasizing the impact of climate change and sea level rise on our coasts. Continuing its case study of Cape Cod and the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: They are now banned worldwide-but the toxins known as PCBs are not going away. This program explains how the compounds have almost irreparably polluted the globe and still threaten future generations. The film begins in 1927, when PCBs became integral to electric power and, eventually, a vast array of agricultural and technological products. Describing the growth of scientific awareness of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: When seasonal rains sweep across South America, the Amazon River and its tributaries overflow their banks to create an ecosystem unlike any other-a place where, for six months out of each year, land-dwellers and water-dwellers mingle. This program joins an expert Amazon biologist in a journey into the flooded forests of the Amazon Basin to film dolphins navigating through treetops, a male...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: This Science Screen Report explains how biologists help endangered species. It highlights captive breeding techniques that have strengthened populations of Malayan tapirs and southern white rhinos; it also examines the artificial insemination of giant pandas and the teaching of survival skills to orphaned orangutans. Emphasizing that humans can learn and benefit from these experiences-for...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: At the current rate of resource depletion, humankind stands to lose fully half of Earth's remaining species over the next 100 years. At this crucial point in world history, a choice must be made: will coming generations inhabit a healthy planet or, quite possibly, a dying one? In this program, David Attenborough searches for solutions to this impending eco-disaster. The research of demographer...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: How long will the biosphere tolerate exploitation of the oceans? Are local fishermen a doomed species? What can be done to reverse the decline of fish stocks around the planet? This program documents the environmental and socioeconomic costs of excessive fishing. The film contrasts ancient maritime practices-like those of Mauritania's Imragen fishermen and Djibouti's pearl divers and lobster...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: The polar bear is treading on thin ice. As its frozen habitat melts away, the iconic white bear has become the standard bearer of the environmental movement. This program explores the polar bear's global appeal as a brand through the work of photographer Norbert Rosing, whose captivating images have been used by both a lobby against oil exploration and a producer of crude oil; Sarah Robertson,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Although sustainable fishing practices are a rarity in our environmentally threatened world, some can be found. This program searches out fishing industries that take steps to protect delicate ecosystems. In the Canary Islands, fishermen use hook-and-line methods for high market-value species and take only fully mature fish. In Oman, the authorities closely monitor catch sizes as well as what...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: The tropical rain forests of the world are home to nearly half the animal species on earth and contain some of the most fascinating examples of natural adaptation ever seen. This classic program takes viewers into the rain forests of Costa Rica to witness a richly varied habitat under threat from human encroachment. Here, a basilisk lizard walks on water, howler monkeys bask in the sun, and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: From the forests and coral reefs of the developing world to Yellowstone's majestic wilderness, researchers are learning more about the role predators play in the health of our natural systems. This program illustrates what happens when species that naturally prey on other species disappear. Does the general public need to rethink deep-rooted views of predators? Can we re-create missing links...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: Canal systems, ballast water from oceangoing ships, and seemingly little things such as fish stocking, bait bucket emptying, and trailering recreational boats all provide ways for non-native invasive species to infest North America's aquatic environments. Using the Great Lakes-unwilling home to the sea lamprey, zebra mussel, round goby, and Eurasian ruffe-as a case study, this program takes a...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: This program explores the grave environmental consequences and unexpected opportunities due to the melting of the Arctic sea-ice cover-a vast region heating up at twice the speed of the rest of the Earth. Balanced against the benefits of shipping shortcuts and access to new undersea oil and gas fields is the looming catastrophic effect of a warming North Pole on the entire world's climate....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Despite the extraordinary engineering of Brazil's Porto Primavera Dam, many scientists and environmentalists view its ecological effects as catastrophic. This program offers a sobering look at a nation's effort to balance its growing energy needs against the long-term benefits of preserving unique and irreplaceable ecosystems. Produced prior to the completion of Porto Primavera and the creation...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: Extinction is a natural process, and five times in the dim reaches of Earth's long history it has happened on a huge scale. Now, due to human activities, another mass extinction has been set in motion-and it is unfolding at an unprecedented speed. This program, hosted by David Attenborough, investigates the devastating effects of humankind's overpopulation and overconsumption in an attempt to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Year by year the tourist trade has dwindled in fictional Pingwah Falls, leaving the town practically bankrupt. When a plan was unveiled for a modern resort, everyone's hopes rose.until they learned the land is home to a threatened species of bird. In this Fred Friendly Seminar moderated by Harvard Law School's Arthur Miller, panelists including former county supervisor Tom Mullen; Christopher...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: This video explains the problem and its possible solutions through a compelling futuristic drama reminiscent of Hollywood science fiction and packed with solid scientific information. Viewers meet a time traveler from the eco-distressed distant future who returns to the present to find out what went wrong. Through her work with a young scientist, viewers learn how species invasions occur, about...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Why are one third of amphibian species threatened by extinction? Hosted by CBC news anchor Kelly Crowe, this program summarizes the major reasons for the near-disappearance of hundreds of types of frogs, toads, and salamanders across the world. Dr. David Green, professor of biology at McGill University, and Toronto Zoo curator Bob Johnson explain one cause for the mass destruction of frogs-the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Some scientific studies predict that as the Earth continues to warm, up to a third of all species could go extinct by the middle of the century. This ABC News program looks at the effect of global warming on non-human life-specifically two species of frogs that used to inhabit the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve, in Costa Rica; three additional vanished frog species in Madagascar; and the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The most striking feature of life on Earth is its richness and variety. But research shows that the planet's biodiversity is seriously threatened with destruction by human activities. From the depths of the oceans to the tops of rainforest canopies, from the African savannas to the soil underfoot, this program hosted by David Attenborough reveals the extent of that living bounty-and the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: By building roads, watering crops, and grazing cattle, we are constantly changing the climate. We may also modify the weather by cloud seeding, though there is no scientifically accepted proof that rain or snow would not have occurred naturally in cases where seeding appears to have been successful. This program shows how migration in the Sahel has altered regional climate; examines the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Nothing is so familiar, and yet so elusive, as water. A running faucet would require 136 trillion years to discharge the Earth's 326 million cubic miles of water, but only fresh water-less than three percent of the global supply-can sustain life. As we transport, utilize, and consume water, we are tempted to view it as eternally plentiful. But its protracted cycle of falling from the sky,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: Forests protect and nurture humanity in a variety of ways. Why, then, does deforestation continue? Who is responsible for it? This program analyzes the problem through a socioeconomic lens, drawing connections between corporate interests, food security concerns, and annihilation of the planet's woodlands. Outlining the history of deforestation from Roman times to WWII, the film focuses on the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: After direct habitat destruction, nonnative species introduced by humans to new areas pose the largest threat to global biodiversity. This program looks at how scientists and conservationists are coping with a number of these critical situations, such as on Seychelles, where rats have caused 200 years of devastation; on Scotland's Outer Hebrides, where hedgehogs were released to control garden...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Use this program to correlate the precarious existence of endangered species and the forces of global trade. Visiting Indonesia, Japan, and the Florida Everglades, the video studies the difficulty of balancing economic and ecological well-being. The plight of animal populations-Sumatran elephants losing their habitat to palm oil plantations, Oriental white storks feeding in pesticide-ridden...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006