Leaded Gasoline: Trading IQ for OctaneAs a gasoline additive, lead suppresses engine knock. Lead is also a well-known poison, and yet during the 1920s it was championed over safer alternatives—and even backed by the U.S. surgeon general. Why? This program presents the history of leaded gasoline and its impact on human health and intelligence, most notably as documented in Herbert Needleman’s controversial study of schoolchildren. Professor Needleman is featured, along with Bill Kovarik, of Radford University; Philippe Grandjean, of the University of Southern Denmark; and Angela Mathee, of the Medical Research Council, Johannesburg. (29 minutes)
In Our BackyardAn expose on the polluted industrial towns surrounding the St. Louis area, and their connections to a well known chemical company known as Monsanto.
Full Video (46:12)
Going to Green SeriesThe Going To Green Sustainability Curriculum is based on the award-winning PBS documentary series, Edens Lost & Found that deals with the restoration of America’s urban landscape through the creation of sustainable neighborhood ecosystems.
Modern Marvels: American Steel—Built to LastBy the 1950s, America was experiencing a great boom of modern industry. The strength of the steel industry was built on the backs of workers who faced hazardous conditions. Although the labor union held a successful strike in 1959, the industry would be temporarily devastated by increased importation of foreign steel. Distributed by A&E Television Networks. (45 minutes) Distributed by A&E Television Networks.
The Great Plow UpIn the early twentieth century, thousands of homesteaders and "suitcase farmers" converge on the southern Plains, where wet years, rising wheat prices and World War I produce a classic boom. Millions of acres of virgin sod are plowed up. Caroline Henderson stakes her claim in a strip of Oklahoma called No Man's Land, and for a while prosperity seems certain for her and the families of two dozen survivors who provide eyewitness testimony. Then, in 1931, a decade-long drought begins, exacerbated by the Great Depression. Huge dust storms carry off the exposed topsoil and darken the skies at midday, killing crops and livestock. "Dust pneumonia" breaks out, threatening children's lives. And just when it seems things could not get any worse, in 1935 the most catastrophic dust storm in history strikes on "Black Sunday."
Distributed by PBS Distribution.
Full Video (01:51:10)
Dive: Living Off of America's WasteEvery year in America we throw away 96 billion pounds of food - 263 million pounds a day. Inspired by a curiosity about society's careless habit of sending good, edible food straight to landfills, the multi award-winning documentary DIVE! follows filmmaker Jeremy Seifert and friends as they dumpster dive in the back alleys and gated garbage receptacles of Los Angeles' supermarkets. In the process, they salvage thousands of dollar's worth of good, edible food - resulting in an eye-opening documentary that is equal parts entertainment, guerilla journalism and call to action.
Full Video (52:47)
Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands: Expulsion from ParadiseIn the wake of World War II, in a move closely related to the beginnings of the Cold War, the United States of America decided to resume nuclear testing in the Pacific Ocean, on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall archipelago. After the displacement of the local inhabitants, 67 nuclear tests were carried out from 1946 to 1958, including the explosion of the first H-bomb (1952). Bikini Atoll has conserved direct tangible evidence that is highly significant in conveying the power of the nuclear tests, such as the sunken ships sent to the bottom of the lagoon by the tests in 1946 and the gigantic Bravo crater. Equivalent to 7,000 times the force of the Hiroshima bomb, the tests had major consequences on the geology and natural environment of Bikini Atoll and on the health of those who were exposed to radiation. Through its history, the atoll symbolises the dawn of the Nuclear Age, despite its paradoxical image of peace and of earthly paradise. This is the first site from the Marshall Islands to be inscribed on the World Heritage List.
Full Video (16:35)
