Throughout April and beyond, PBS will celebrate Earth Day and the arrival of spring with programs that explore topics from the change of seasons.
New specials include a live interactive look at the arrival of spring in various ecosystems throughout the country, as well as programming from NATURE and NOVA, on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS Video App.
From April 29 to May 1, PBS will broadcast NATURE | American Spring LIVE, taking audiences on a real-time journey into spring’s arrival. In iconic locations across the country, from the Rockies to the Everglades, researchers and citizen scientists investigate how a range of organisms respond to the change in seasons. Each of the three episodes is based around a central theme chosen to reveal how spring triggers extraordinary biological change.
Acclaimed ABC News anchor Juju Chang will host the multi-platform event, which includes both live and pre-taped footage. A wide array of classroom resources will be hosted on PBS LearningMedia with activities to help teachers get students involved in hands-on science research. WNET, producer of NATURE, will also work with science and community organisations, as well as PBS stations nationwide to encourage audiences to participate in citizen science through training workshops, family events and more.
Sir David Attenborough’s NATURE “The Egg: Life’s Perfect Invention” invites viewers to take a closer look at nature’s best life support system. As the egg hatches, Attenborough reveals the wonder behind these incredible miracles of nature.
Other NATURE programs include encores of “Big Birds Can’t Fly,” showcasing ostriches, emus, kiwis and other flightless birds; “Sex, Lies and Butterflies,” about one of the greatest migrations on Earth; and “Equus: Story of the Horse,” a two-part history of mankind’s relationship with the horse.
Travel back to the 1980s with OZONE HOLE: HOW WE SAVED THE PLANET and hear how scientists and politicians persuaded the Reagan administration to address the hole in the ozone layer. President Reagan and Margaret Thatcher urged the world’s nations to come together and support the Montreal Protocol, an agreement to eliminate the use of common industrial chemicals that were destroying the ozone. Another natural phenomenon at risk – the Dead Sea – undergoes some major changes in NOVA “Saving the Dead Sea.” In an attempt to save the shrinking sea, engineers prepare a plan to connect it with the Red Sea by way of a massive desalination plant. But will this solution put the environment at risk?
Marvel at the remarkable people and wildlife inhabiting the Rocky Mountains in an encore of THE ROCKIES: KINGDOMS OF THE SKY and meet the scientist whose groundbreaking writings revolutionized our relationship to the natural world in an encore of AMERICAN EXPERIENCE “Rachel Carson.”
These programs are available for streaming simultaneously on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS Video App, which is available on iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Chromecast.