Our Changing Planet - Education / Higher Ed.

Our Changing Planet is an informative public television series about climate and environmental change, and opportunities to preserve Earth's life-sustaining natural resources for future generations.

See visible, life-altering changes taking place globally as Earth's climate warms, from animal extinctions, to vanishing glaciers, to melting polar ice sheets and permafrost, to rising seas that threaten coastal communities and low lying islands.

Learn about environmental damage from the corrosive effects of acid rain; the hole in ozone layer that allows harmful ultraviolet radiation to reach Earth's surface; extreme weather events like hurricanes, heat waves, cold snaps, and droughts; the use of fossil fuels and the build-up of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere; alternative energy sources such as wind and solar power to reduce our dependence on coal and oil; and space-age technology that helps farmers grow crops in a more Earth-friendly way.

What effect does a growing world population and expanding economy have on Earth's resources? What are the hidden environmental costs behind the everyday products we simply throw away? Will we exhaust Earth's freshwater resources? How do plant and animal species respond to human transformation of the land and rivers for housing, industry, transportation, farming, ranching, mining and forestry?

All episodes are written and produced at UMAC, the Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium at the University of North Dakota. Full episodes, complete with closed captioning and supporting links and information are available at www.umac.org/ocp.