Does it surprise anyone that I’m a PBS addict?  I’m guessing no.

Last night, I watched National Geographic’s Strange Days on Planet Earth on PBS.  The episode, Dirty Secrets, was fantastic and I can’t wait to see more.

From PBS.org:

Imagine a healthy planet with healthy humans living on it: the world has embarked on a path to clean energy, clean air and fresh water; we are feeding ourselves without compromising land or sea and parents are starting to believe that their children will inherit a better, safer world…

Strange Days on Planet Earth is a multi-year landmark undertaking inspired by this vision of the future. Climate change… Ecosystem degradation… Clean energy… Poverty… Disease…  Strange Days on Planet Earth connects some of the greatest issues of our day. It presents problems, currently perceived to be disconnected, hopeless or even harmless, as globally connected, personally relevant and urgent. It brings into focus the realization that the decisions we make today will affect all life on Earth for years to come, and asks the simple but profound question: how do we move these decisions from minor to monumental?

At the heart of Strange Days on Planet Earth is the award-winning PBS series, hosted and narrated by Academy Award nominee Edward Norton. Strange Days first aired in the spring of 2005, reached 20 million viewers and won fourteen prestigious awards, including Best Series at Wildscreen, the environmental equivalent of the Oscars ®.  It became known for exposing the web of invisible connections of the Earth’s life support systems. In its second season, the series reveals the profound global consequences of our simple everyday actions, with special focus on global ocean and freshwater issues.

The footage was breathtaking, the science elements were well-explained and thorough, and Edward Norton sure is easy on the eyes.

Plastic is a major issue in water safety and the health of our oceans, rivers and streams.  One of the things that stuck with me from the show was the image of garbage caught in a net system meant to prevent it from reaching the ocean.  A scientist grabbed a juice box out of the mix and talked about how upsetting it was that we’ve created a substance (plastic) that basically lasts forever, yet we use it on one-use, throwaway items.

While there certainly are strange things going on with the environment these days, it’s not without hope.  There is so much we can do to improve the situation and protect our planet.

If you’re interested in watching Strange Days On Planet Earth, check your local listings here.

And if you want to learn from the guru of household plastic reduction, please visit Fake Plastic Fish.