Environment

Whether they are researching the pace of Alaskan glacier melt or measuring the impact of Arctic sea ice changes on our our weather, climate scientists go to some of the most remote areas on Earth to help us understand our environment. The Juneau Icefield Research Program (JIRP) brings scientists and students together annually to study glaciers. Jeff Barbee reports on the 2013 JIRP expedition. Julienne Stroeve of the National Snow and Ice Data Center looks at the impact changes in Arctic sea ice may have on weather patterns.

George heads Down Under during fire season to see if climate change is slowly causing Australia to become uninhabitable. He joins a team of sophisticated firefighters in the South Australia, but what starts as a low-intensity bush fire quickly becomes a raging inferno.

The flow of the picturesque Chicago River was reversed to move polluted waters out of sight. 

The spirited Los Angeles River gushes from the mountains only to be forced into a concrete corset in downtown LA. 

Earth Focus examines how the worldwide demand for oil & gas is affecting the communities that supply it. We travel to the ANWR in Arctic Slope of Alaska. This area that is home to native species is being opened for oil exploration and drilling. While the controversial plan has no shortage of opponents, there are some powerful native communities who see this step as essential to their economy. Closer to home, we visit the oil rich town of Taft, California. The oil industry is large and in charge in this historic community.

On his first-ever expedition to Siberia, George witnesses the alarming effect of melting permafrost, visits a 12,000-year-old dog, and camps out with reindeer herders on the chilliest night of his life.

The untamed wilderness of the Colorado River is squeezed to a trickle with the push of one button.

The popular demand for avocados, once considered an “exotic” item, is having a devastating impact on a drought-stricken community in Chile. Lying within one of the largest avocado producing regions in the country, Petorca avocado plantations are in a battle over water rights, where claims of illegal water diversion is creating civil unrest.

George crisscrosses Laos to witness a nation entering the modern world. He comes across ancient farming techniques, visits a conservation center that provides elephants a new way of life, explores an abandoned cave city, and paddles an underground river that holds some timely secrets.

The Detroit River, still one of the busiest rivers in the world and a witness to the glory times of American industrialization, today sees desolation and the occasional sunflower field in downtown Detroit. 

Wood is found in countless products consumers use every day. In fact, lumber is closely connected to the world’s economy – a country’ s importation of lumber tends to rise in correlation with its gross domestic product. Following groups like “Guardians of the Forest,” we explore illegal lumber poaching in the forests of Brazil and Oregon, where citizens and scientists are working together to combat the illegal lumber trade.

George heads to the iceberg capital of the world — Newfoundland, Canada — for an up-close look at these floating giants from above, from below, and from the very top of a frozen mountain on the move.

The multi-cultural Miami River originates where Native Americans still value its resources, and ends where the super-wealthy park their yachts.

Five years ago, the Kenyan farmer Kisilu Musya started to document his family, his village and the impact that climate change is having on both. They face and film floods, droughts, storms and when Kisilu's house is destroyed by a storm, he starts a communal farmers' movement and calls for action against the extreme consequences of the weather. Kisilu makes it far in his struggle – all the way to both Oslo and the high circles of COP21 in Paris.

The realities of milk production are forcing dairy communities across the globe to rethink the dairy production process. In this episode, we travel to a village in Kenya where the commercialization of camel milk is proving a sustainable solution in the face of drought. In Northern California, the heart of the U.S. dairy industry is finding innovative alternatives to limit the use of water and manure emissions.

Ground zero for climate change and literally at risk of being wiped off the map, George is in Bangladesh during monsoon season to see how resilient and creative locals are adapting to their increasingly hostile environment.