Edens Lost & FoundThe PBS Series

Harry Wiland & Dale Bell

The Challenge:

Sustaining Our Children

The Challenge

• For the first time in human history, the majority of the world’s population live in cities.

• Cities cover two percent of the Earth’s surface. • They consume seventy-five percent of the planet’s

natural resources. • Their populations are the biggest polluters but also

the most vulnerable to weather-related catastrophes.• And they are far ahead of their national government

in giving urgency to global warming.

The Solution

• The answer to our ecological crisis also answers our social crisis.

• The surest path to promote safe and peaceful communities is ecologically sound economic development.

• To quote Tom Friedman: “Green is the new red white and blue.”

• This approach can lead us to a new, green economy – one with the power to lift people out of poverty while respecting and repairing the environment. It appeals to America’s creativity and sense of justice.

• It can begin in our schools with an environmental studies curriculum and with service learning.

Service Learning

Checking-in• When I came in everything was blasting• My experience in producing Edens Lost & Found taught

me that there was another alternative - changing habits is possible

• Service Learning = Greater Awareness• How Service Learning promotes a greater change of

consciousness• Service Learning is the of grass roots action• It can be every community’s social contract• And of course, you don’t have to be a student to do

Service Learning

Service Learning Challenges

• Striving for greater cultural diversity to reflect who we are as Americans

• Promoting Service Learning through greater use of the media and through viral marketing

• Helping us all to turn off the lights when we are not using them

Service Learningis a moral imperative

• Our Service Learning heroes highlighted in Edens Lost & Found may be carving the only viable path away from ecological and social catastrophe

• It is a pathway to sustainability and a healthy society• It is the same social contract that runs through

Edens Lost & Found• Service Learning is romantic and offers instant

gratification

Ashoka Fellowshipwww.ashoka.org

• Social entrepreneurship and global cooperation.• America exercising her role as a leader.• Global Warming and meeting the challenge of

developing nations: Brazil, China, and India.

Ashoka’s Mission

• What is social entrepreneurship?– Unleashing the same innovative and entrepreneurial mindset which

has driven business sector growth over the last two centuries – Ashoka is leading a dramatic transformation in society, fueling the

citizen sector in unprecedented growth. – Ashoka develops models for collaboration and designs

infrastructure needed for this growth.– Need for Ashoka to leverage media to be more effective

• Hybrid Models including Google.com/org

• For more information: www.ashoka.org

Getting Started(from the companion book)

• “Edens Lost & Found was born on the sunny streets of Venice, California, about 5:30 AM some 3 years ago. It was way too early for the rollerbladers, bodybuilders, and sidewalk musicians, but it was not too early for revolutionary ideas. One of us, Harry, was accustomed to walking his dog at that early hour. From time to time, he’d bump into another Venice resident, Andy Lipkis, who used the early morning hours to walk his pooch and clear his head. The two guys got to talking.”

What Andy Had to Say• For the first time in history 80% of Americans are living

either in cities or in their rapidly growing suburbs. • Every year, we gripe that our taxes are rising, but we

hardly think about the high costs of having so many people living in a single place. – Building and repairing roads– Traffic– Crime as a by-product of environmental degradation– Heat Island Effect – Guaranteeing clean water when we turn on the tap – Managing floodwaters (or what happens when we don’t) – Inefficient Heating/Cooling of our homes and businesses– CO2 emissions and Global Warming

Simple Solutions

• On those early walks, Andy rattled off some of his crazy ideas: that trees are excellent, inexpensive tools for improving cities because they clean air, shade buildings and people, capture and store water, block winter winds, and reduce the need to crank up the old air conditioner during warm weather. He was not alone, he said, in thinking this way.– Other solutions?

Other Leaders

• There are other people in cities across the country who are putting their thoughts together on these and other issues.– Debra Shore of Chicago Wilderness – Joan Reilly and Blaine Bonham of Pennsylvania

Horticultural Society & Philadelphia Green

– Miranda Maupin & Tom Phillips, designers of Seattle’s sustainable Hi-Point housing development.

Debra ShoreChicago Wilderness

Commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District!

Sustainability

• Throughout our work in public television we had long been interested in environmental issues. The moment we heard the word sustainability, we felt as if we’d seen the crest of the new wave. Here is a definition:

– The practice of providing for the needs of the present population in a way that doesn’t jeopardize the ability of future generations to provide for themselves. This involves the use of resources that can be replaced, reused, and/or renewed so they are not depleted. It affects every aspect of modern-day life, from economic and technical development to food production.

The Media Model

• PBS Broadcast• Town Hall Meetings• Community and Educational Outreach• Companion Book• Academic Curriculum• Academic Symposia - LA & PA• Video Resource Library• Service Learning Programs in High Schools and

Community Colleges• Action Guides

PBS Broadcast

• The Rock in the Water• National Audience• Leveraging Media

Outreach Programs

• Educational• Community• Coalition Partners

Academic Curriculum

• ISTEP• NAAEE• Accreditation

– Pilot Programs Needed

• Chelsea Green Publishing

Sustainability Video Resource Library

• 20 titles Including:– Watershed management– Renewable sources of energy– The build environment & green building practices– Renewable energy resources– Green collar careers– Environmental justice– Green spaces/healthy neighborhoods– Mass transit– Integrated Resource Management & Planning– Sustainable Agriculture

Town Hall Meetings

• PBS regional broadcast• Possible Locations in 2007

– Philadelphia – Los Angeles – Newark – Chicago– Your city or region

Edenslostandfound.org

• www.edenslostandfound.org – A virtual meeting place– Resource for DVDs and books– Free Resource files

• Text• Video• chat

Selected Cities

• First Season– Chicago– Philadelphia– Seattle– Los Angeles

• Edens Special Broadcast (Proposed)– New Orleans

• Edens Overseas (Proposed Second Season)– London– Amsterdam– Copenhagen– Tokyo– Nairobi– Shangai

Edens Lost & Found: For Our Children

An new frontier for exploration,discovery, and hope

The Media & Policy Center FoundationHarry Wiland & Dale Bell

2007