Tuesday Video— Planet Forward
Tomorrow night at 8pm, be sure to tune into “Planet Forward,” a viewer-driven special on PBS about our energy future. It all started HERE, on the Planet Forward Web site, which revolved around citizen and expert submissions; the show features the best of the online submissions which will then be discussed and debated by a diverse panel of experts, scientists, business leaders and policymakers. 
Frank Sesno, a former CNN Washington Bureau Chief who will host the program, explained his vision of this innovative special: “We created Planet Forward, we wanted to do something different. We wanted to take this huge issue facing us — how we move to a sustainable, 21st century approach to the energy we use – and explore it in a way that is open, inclusive, creative and smart. We wanted to combine the power of the internet and the reach of television to bring together citizens, experts and decision-makers in a place where imagination and ideas would prevail. Sure, serious business — but also spontaneous and fun and unexpected."
One example: After a video clip about mountaintop-removal mining, panelist L. Hunter Lovins tells one of former president Bush’s top environmental advisers, Council on Environmental Quality Chairman James Connaughton, “Jim, you just saw a mountaintop being ripped into a valley. You cannot say that coal is clean.”
Unfortunately, Planet Forward is not going to be an ongoing series despite originally being conceived as such. We think this model is a brilliant idea---discussion starts online, then builds to a unique television show, and then turns back to an online discussion. Let’s hope the special is popular enough that we haven’t seen the last of Planet Forward on PBS.
Once again, check it out: planetforward.org.
