Probably prouder of this one.
CNN takes interdisciplinary view of climate change
By Kathy Blumenstock
The Washington Post
For CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, the story of Earth's fluctuating environment is best told through its effect on humans.
"A lot of people think they know about climate change peripherally," said Gupta, a neurosurgeon and one of three reporters on "Planet in Peril," the network's four-hour environmental documentary being shown at 9 p.m. today and Wednesday. "But when they see a woman whose island home is disappearing, who must be relocated, you hope that will resonate with them."
Gupta, Animal Planet host Jeff Corwin, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper and their production team spanned four continents and 13 countries to chronicle how environmental shifts -- climate change, deforestation, loss of species and human overpopulation -- are connected and form a growing threat to the planet.
"It's one of those stories so many people have relegated to the environmental unit, but we realized it affects everything, from the medical to the political," Gupta said. He cited the example of tropical diseases making their way north: "If temperatures are getting warmer, then you're going to see things that were once relegated to warmer climates in other places."
The two-part special includes segments on Greenland's receding ice sheet, Brazil's illegal logging camps, Alaska's diminishing polar bear habitat, Yellowstone National Park's reintroduction of species to their native environment, and the black-market sale of endangered animals, whose removal from the wild affects entire ecosystems.
Gupta also reports from Africa's Lake Chad. "We're not just going to talk about how one of the world's largest lakes has shrunk over the last 40 years, but about how climate plays into it," he said.
"The fish are smaller, so the people get less protein; there is more malnutrition. It affects their careers: There aren't as many fishermen. There are more farmers, which puts more strain on the land. There are a lot of non-intuitive things that jump out at you."
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