Earth Day in April

Peril & Promise: NYC Rising: Power to the Block. Brooklynite Donald Baird's start-up BlocPower is targeting a low-tech problem with high-tech solutions. With about 70% of New York City’s greenhouse gas emissions coming from its buildings, for Baird, the solution is simple: bring clean energy to those who need it most, block by block.

Earth Day is April 22, a time to show support for our planet’s environmental health and protection. It began in 1970, when the conservation-minded Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin envisioned Earth Day as an opportunity for teach-ins, a practice started by anti-war activists. The first Earth Day engaged elementary schools to colleges across the country in 1970, with major support from the United Auto Workers (UAW).

Earth’s fragile ecosystems, biodiversity and human population are threatened by climate change. THIRTEEN presents Nature year-round to share the latest learnings on species’ behaviors and adaptations to the environment. On April 13, we premiere Nature: American Arctic. More programs during April include Changing Planet and Earth Emergency (April 20), and on Earth Day, the 90-minute drama The Trick. This conspiracy thriller tells the story of the real-life 2009 Climategate scandal, when scientists’ decades of climate change research was questioned in the first “fake news” attack.