Our Commitment to the Environment

The threats caused by global warming are intensifying and demand our collective attention. The health and well-being of our communities here and across the globe depend on mitigating the deadly effects of climate change. We must work together to protect our planet and people and ensure a greener, sustainable, more resilient future for us all. Urgent and hopeful efforts are underway, as scientists and innovators leverage the power of technology and engineering to slow the unfolding crisis. But many challenges remain, and the scale and pace of our actions must increase.

This week, as world leaders gather in Glasgow for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, GBH would like to share our organization-wide commitment to engaging our audiences on this issue at this critical juncture.?As a leader in public media and in our community, GBH has an important role to play informing understanding and driving discourse, presenting programs, films, and information that help illuminate the profound challenges and what’s possible, as well as inspire us all to take action as caretakers of our planet.

We recognize that climate change is not only a science issue, it has direct and urgent implications for health, society and the economy. It is also an equity issue, as we have seen how climate change can adversely and disproportionately affect communities of color and exacerbate the disparities between nations. There never has been a greater need for trusted, fact-based reporting to inform the pivotal decisions of the next decade that will shape the future for the planet and for our communities. What we do now will determine the legacy we leave.

Climate change is not a new topic for GBH. For nearly 40 years, GBH has reported on and told stories related to the environment, environmental justice, conservation and climate change through the lens of science, investigative journalism, history and children’s programming and local and international news. In 1983, NOVA was the first series to air a documentary on global warming. Since then, we have presented these stories on television, radio and on digital and social media platforms.?

GBH News and our NPR member station, Cape and Islands Radio, will continue to report on how Massachusetts is tackling climate change, rising sea level and investing in solutions such as offshore wind.

And we have been hard at work on a pipeline of programs addressing climate change. Our major national productions FRONTLINE, NOVA, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE and our children’s series, Molly of Denali, will premiere timely climate-related programs. These include:

SEA CHANGE is a new documentary series from GBH’s Studio Six exploring the spectacular wilderness and wildlife that still teem in the Gulf, from the tip of Cape Cod to the shores of Nova Scotia. The Gulf of Maine’s nutrient-rich bounty feeds over 3,000 species, from plankton to right whales, but the Gulf has warmed 99% faster than the global ocean. Many scientists believe the Gulf, and our oceans, are at a turning point. Can the Gulf retain enough of its biodiversity and regenerative strength to weather the human-induced storm? And what can it tell us about the fate of our oceans worldwide, and what must be done to save them?

THE WORLD radio program has premiered a new solutions-focused weekly feature segment (“The Big Fix”) that explores how individuals, communities, and institutions around the world are tackling climate change.

NOVA is developing Climate Across America, a multi-platform series for PBS that will showcase inspiring climate solutions being implemented in local communities across the country. This production will also help train national and local media makers to tell stories effectively –from solarizing communities and creating green jobs, to using Native American knowledge about controlling wildfires in the West, to no-till farming and farming the wind by Black farmers in the South. Climate Across America will also create an opportunity to evaluate current best practices in how to communicate about climate solutions to foster public engagement.

FRONTLINE investigates the unprecedented legal effort by states and cities across America to hold the oil industry to account for climate change in Climate Wars: Oil on Trial. Against the backdrop of a year of climate chaos – wildfires in California, Australia, and Brazil, drought in the Horn of Africa, flooding in Southeast Asia, cyclones in Southern Africa – this multi-part series will explore the fifty-year story of how fossil fuel companies learned from their own scientific research in the 1970s and 1980s that CO2 emissions would change the climate with potentially catastrophic consequences, and yet set out on a decades-long campaign to hide or distort the science – a campaign that activists allege continues to evolve to this day. At the same time, this multipart documentary will detail how the companies worked to discourage the growth of renewable energy technologies.

To support GBH’s efforts in this space, we have established the GBH Planet Forward Fund, which will help to support and advance the climate-focused work of many of our programs. Gifts to the fund will power climate initiatives and science journalism that illuminate practical, equitable and sustainable solutions to the climate crisis.

For more on GBH’s Climate and Environment work, visit gbh.org/environment