November 15, 2011
In celebration of NBC Universal’s “Green Is Universal” week, The Weather Channel announced that it will air “Changing Planet: Adapting to Our Water Future” at 5 p.m. ( ET ), 3 p.m. ( Arizona Time ), Nov. 17. An encore presentation will air Saturday at 2 p.m. ( ET ), 12 p.m. ( Arizona Time ).
NBC News chief environmental affairs correspondent Anne Thompson moderated the event, which was hosted by Arizona State University. The town hall is the last in a three-part series produced under a partnership between NBC Learn ( the educational arm of NBC News ), the National Science Foundation ( NSF ) and Discover magazine.
“We face great challenges now, and in the years and decades ahead when it comes to water – including its scarcity and its purity,” said Thompson. “It is important that we have these kinds of discussions about how we can work together to protect and conserve one of our world’s most important resources.”
This edition of “Changing Planet” brings together over 400 students and features four leading experts from science, academia and politics: Bill Richardson, former Governor of New Mexico; Grady Gammage Jr., senior sustainability scholar with the ASU Global Institute of Sustainability and senior research fellow with the ASU Morrison Institute for Public Policy; Pat Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority; and Heidi Cullen, former climate expert for The Weather Channel and current research scientist and correspondent with “Climate Central.”
Gammage is also the lead author of a comprehensive report examining the challenges of water in the Southwest issued by ASU’s Morrison Institute: “Watering the Sun Corridor: Managing Choices in Arizona's Megapolitan Are
In addition to the broadcast of the town hall held at ASU, The Weather Channel will also present encore broadcasts of the first two “Changing Planet” town halls. “Changing Planet: Our Lives” – moderated by Tom Brokaw and hosted by Yale University – will air at 6 p.m. ( ET ), Nov. 14. “Changing Planet: Clean Energy, Green Jobs, and Global Competition” – moderated by Anne Thompson and hosted by George Washington University – will air at 6 p.m. ( ET ), Nov. 18 at 6 p.m.
The “Changing Planet” town hall series is intended to encourage student learning and to open a dialogue about climate change by gathering scientists, thought leaders, business people, and university students to discuss the facts of climate science, the dynamics of its impact and to brainstorm solutions.
A special print adaptation of "Changing Planet: Adapting to Our Water Future" will appear in the December 2011 issue of Discover magazine, available on Nov. 15. The “Changing Planet” series is taped before a live audience at each university, produced by NBC Learn, and underwritten by NSF, in cooperation with Discover magazine. It is available for viewing on nbclearn.com/changing-planet , science360.gov and discovermagazine.com.
Viewers and readers are also invited to get involved through a series of citizen science projects developed to help researchers, including scientists with ASU's School of Life Sciences and Global Institute of Sustainability, to monitor ecological and environmental changes to the planet.