Leading up to Earth Day, CBS News and Stations explores how plant and animal species are in decline and a warming planet is partially to blame, and how some heroic scientists are working to overcome these issues in PROTECTING LIFE ON EARTH, a daily multi-part Climate Watch series and half-hour special that begins airing on Tuesday, April 16 across CBS-owned stations in 14 owned markets.
CBS News will also air special reports beyond Earth Day through the end of the month and CBS Newspath will provide CBS-owned stations and affiliates additional Earth Day packages beginning April 22 through April 26.
The half-hour Earth Daydocumentary featuring national climate correspondent David Schechterwill air on all CBS-owned stations and be available on streaming channels leading up to Earth Day on Monday, April 22.
National climate correspondent Ben Tracy joins Schechter to present a series of Climate Watch reports to air beginning on April 18 on CBS News Streaming, CBS SATURDAY MORNING, CBS NEWS SUNDAY MORNING, CBS MORNINGS and CBS EVENING NEWS WITH NORAH O’DONNELL that will take viewers across land and sea.
In PROTECTING LIFE ON EARTH, Schechter takes viewers on a journey to see the impact of climate change in nature, from endangered parrots in Puerto Rico and lizards in Arizona on the brink of extinction, to an experiment that provides a foreboding look at tropical forests of the future in a warming climate.
Schechter shows viewers the innovative ways scientists are working to understand and overcome these problems created by humans.
The cross-platform initiative will also include CBS News reports by national climate correspondent Ben Tracy, such as his conversation with billionaire Bill Gates about his investments addressing the climate crisis for CBS SATURDAY MORNING airing on April 20.
Tracy also looks at how marine protected areas are rarely enforced for the April 22 editions of CBS MORNINGS, the CBS EVENING NEWS WITH NORAH O’DONNELL and CBS News Streaming. And Tracy talks with nature photographer James Balog for the April 21 edition of CBS NEWS SUNDAY MORNING.
PROTECTING LIFE ON EARTH is a collaborative effort from CBS News and Stations, the CBS Local News Innovation Lab, CBS Newspath, the CBS News climate unit and the CBS News and Stations data journalism team.
As part of this collaborative initiative, CBS-owned stations’ journalists across the country will focus on hyperlocal climate issues in their areas.
Among those stories are the impact of climate change on terns and terrapins on Long Island CBS News New York; whales off the coast of Los Angeles CBS News Los Angeles; piping plovers in Chicago CBS News Chicago; the death of Atlantic white cedar trees in southern New Jersey CBS News Philadelphia.
Texas’ work to save the song birds CBS News Dallas; the impact of climate on Walden Pond CBS News Boston; a series of stories from Monterey Bay on the restoration of a critical shoreline ecosystem called the Elkhorn Slough CBS News Bay Area; the decline in population of Monarch butterflies in North America CBS News Detroit;how climate change is pushing Minnesota’s boreal forest to the brink CBS News Minnesota;climate damage to Colorado’s bumblebees and hummingbirds CBS News Colorado; shrinking deer habitats in the Florida Keys CBS News Miami.
Declining salmon populations in California CBS News Sacramento; the impact of climate change on the Hellbender giant salamander CBS News Pittsburgh;and a look at the role of artificial habitats to boost the tern population in Maryland CBS News Baltimore.