Earth Day television programs

During the week before Earth Day on April 22, Wisconsin Public Television and FRONTLINE present different programs related to our continuing struggle to lessen our footprint for future generations. Be sure to tune in.

“Earth Day and Beyond: Gaylord Nelson’s Good Fight,” a one-hour documentary about the late U.S. senator from Wisconsin for whom the Nelson Institute is named, will air on The Wisconsin Channel, the digital multicast service of Wisconsin Public Television, several times this month. The broadcast times are:

* Fri, 4/17/09 at 7:00 p.m.
* Sat, 4/18/09 at 2:00 a.m.
* Mon, 4/20/09 at noon
* Tue, 4/21/09 at 6:00 a.m.

Nelson conceived the first Earth Day, celebrated on April 22, 1970, to put environmental issues on the national political agenda. Its success paved the way for 28 major federal legislative acts, including the act that created the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Source: The Nelson Institute Blog

More than three decades after the Clean Water Act, two iconic waterways—the great coastal estuaries Puget Sound and the Chesapeake Bay—are in perilous condition. With polluted runoff still flowing in from industry, agriculture, and massive suburban development, scientists fear contamination to the food chain and drinking water for millions of people. A growing list of endangered species is also threatened in both estuaries. As a new president, Congress, and states set new agendas and spending priorities, FRONTLINE correspondent Hedrick Smith examines the rising hazards to human health and the ecosystem, and why it’s so hard to keep our waters clean.

FRONTLINE Examines Newest Health Hazards in Nation's Contaminated Waterways

FRONTLINE Presents
Poisoned Waters
Tuesday, April 21, 2009, from 9 to 11 P.M. ET on PBS