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Frequently Asked Questions |
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What is How On Earth?
How On Earth is a three-part television series and comprehensive outreach campaign that captures the promise and challenge of restoring damaged ecosystems to a healthy and self-sustaining condition. The television series will be comprised of three one-hour programs profiling efforts to restore land, water, and wildlife species in North America. Working with our Advisory Board, we have identified compelling stories that represent a wide range of habitats and issues. The central theme connecting these stories is that environmental restoration, while often complex and costly, nonetheless can sometimes repair profoundly damaged ecosystems and thereby make vital contributions toward solving large-scale, systemic environmental problems. The series will be shot on High Definition TV and hosted by a knowledgeable celebrity. How On Earth also includes a comprehensive public outreach campaign,
including educational DVDs, broadcast roundtables, a web site, a curriculum guide, and a leader's guide. Why will viewers watch How On Earth?
To date, there has not been a public television series dedicated to highlighting the challenges and benefits
of renewing our natural heritage. Yet billions of dollars are being spent on environmental restoration, and
still more will be spent in the years to come. This is clearly a propitious moment to highlight restoration
efforts for the public.
What is different about this series? How On Earth is a multi-faceted effort designed to enhance environmental literacy and citizen engagement with environmental problems using restoration as the unifying theme. The stories, both in the TV series and the outreach materials, are about people passionately engaged in environmental renewal. These are also personal stories. Whether they are renowned scientists, kids from a classroom, church volunteers, inner-city youth, stay-at-home moms, farmers and ranchers, environmentalists, or corporate titans, all of our people are in the business of transformation. They are changing the depleted, despoiled parts of our land and waterscape into a robust, dynamic, life-sustaining resource. This locus of environmental restoration marks the convergence of activism and our latest scientific understanding, where new, innovative ideas are being put into practice. So it is that an innovative scientist/activist identifies how a nearly vanished, half-dollar sized oyster may hold the key for rejuvenating the San Francisco Bay and anchor the large-scale work to recover its estuarine habitat. Why? Because the oyster filters the bay water enough to allow sunlight to penetrate to the bottom and thereby sustain the eel grass needed to support myriad of benthic creatures that are the food source for fish, birds, and other wildlife. The web of life is stretched very taught so that tremors are carried far and fast. The people in our stories more than understand this, they experience it first hand - and this series will bring their stories to a national audience. What are the creative challenges to this series? Our biggest challenge is going to be representing demonstrable positive change to the landscape over the year that the project is in production. This can be solved with research into existing footage of stories and by choosing stories that the restoration work is already showing some positive results. Another challenge is the fact that not all stories end "happily ever after." We won't know for five years whether ranchers will let the Mexican Wolf propagate. We won't know if the Everglades restoration project will be successful. We won't know if every last black rat on Anacapa Island is gone. But this is the real life drama of these stories and the doubt and uncertainty that people engaged in restoration must contend with. Nevertheless, positive results are showing up and more restoration projects continue to be implemented. This is the stewardship of the future, and we have to present it as such. Having been involved in other series we recognize how challenging it can be to raise funds, but we think this is absolutely fundable. We have spent considerable time developing a funding strategy. We have connections with benefactors, and we have significant contacts and track records with several foundations. This project is not a gloom and doom piece nor is it one-sided advocacy piece. It champions collaboration, grass-roots initiative, and personal involvement. It has a strong community outreach and empowerment component for citizens to become involved in restoration activities. And, most fundamentally, it has as its focus a human initiative that is becoming the premier strategy in conservation and resource management. In short, it has all of the elements foundations are looking for when they seek assurances that their money will be well-spent. Its not only an idea whose time has come, its long overdue. Why is this team a good fit for this project?
We feel our team is a strong fit for this project. A project as ambitious as this is completely dependent on the caliber of individuals staffing it. We are fortunate to have assembled a highly qualified team of experienced people who are exceptionally motivated by – and committed to – this project. John de Graaf, Kevin White, and David Donnenfield are all award-winning producers, and have an extensive track record in producing programming on the topic of restoration. John Berger Ph.D. (ecology) has written a book titled Restoring the Earth on the subject. Peter Weinstein has extensive experience in educational outreach. All of the team members have held a long and abiding interest in environmental issues and the social agenda. Kevin, David and John de Graaf have a particular affinity for telling moving stories that focus on the individual as seen in their social issue documentaries. We have a stellar advisory panel to help us find the best possible stories and facilitate fundraising. And lastly, we have strong support from the government agencies and environmental groups that we have contacted. |
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