BBC for Kids green lights a cool new show:

This Kid Could Change The World is a nine x 30-minutes factual series where children from across the country will have their passionate and innovative world-changing ideas put to the test.

A series of heats will gather the best ideas from across the country and the hopefuls will arrive at the HQ to put their ideas into action. Through a series of set tasks two expert innovators and a mysterious benefactor, The Big Cheese, will determine which ideas have the potential to succeed and which will fail out in the real world.

For the series finale an invited studio audience of kids will get to decide which idea gets set in motion by The Big Cheese.

The series is due to transmit in 2010 and will be executive produced for the BBC by Bridget Banton and by Andrew Nicolson for Shine North.

Fetch with Ruff Ruffman is a big hit in our house. My older daughter likes it so much she auditioned for Season 4 (one of the advantages of living near WGBH Boston, the show’s producer).

Turns out Season 4 will be science themed. Along with the science of sports and sound, light and heat, will be green and sustaintainability science.

www.pbskidsgo.org/fetch

Who knew? Not me.

A year ago, Mr. Rose, on his television show, moderated a freewheeling session with the brothers Rahm, Ari and Ezekiel Emanuel, a renowned bioethicist who described his brothers as being driven by an ethos: “What are you doing today to make the world better?”

In Ari’s case, that has meant driving a hybrid Prius and electric Tesla, keeping the roof of his home lined with solar panels and serving as a director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Action Fund. (emphasis added)

Via NYT

God I love kids.

Check out the finalists.

When Heartwood USA gets picked up as a series, we plan to do a lot with electric cars.  We’ve already mapped out two episodes:

Circuit Break’r
Carson and Hugo invent an electric car but before you can say “Plug ‘er in,” Dummkopf Power and Electric goes off-grid. But who blew the fuse that caused the blackout?

Sticker Shock
Carson’s plan to get everyone to drive a hybrid gets short-circuited when Trot and Crush grind out the gossip that hybrids can electrocute you!

Turns out our plotlines are mimicking real life.  A couple of weeks ago, Letterman brought on Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk and proceeded to crack jokes about electrocution. 

Quantum of Solace took it a step farther with exploding hydrogen fuel cells.

Via ecorazzi:

A professor at Salford University, Keith Ross, who is studying hydrogen and its viability as an alternative to oil says Bond’s depiction of the technology is “disturbing”. From the article,

“I was perturbed to watch the James Bond film’s climax,” says Professor Ross. “It was unrealistic and may perpetuate the fear that hydrogen should be avoided. Although potentially explosive in a confined space, the fuel can be handled quite safely. If released into the open air, hydrogen would only burn with a blue flame – a fact obviously of no interest to a film-maker! Like the famous photographs of the Hindenburg disaster, the scene’s images could well stick in the public’s consciousness.”

 Once again, Heartwood USA drives to the heart of the matter.

Vanity Fair discontinued its green issue series. Vogue and Rolling Stone pick up the baton.

Hyatt Hotels & Resorts teams with National Geographic Kids to re-launch its year-round Camp Hyatt program for K3-12 at Hyatt resorts in North America. The new kids program kicks off with the debut of a Camp Hyatt-National Geographic Kids Web site at www.camphyatt.com . Also beginning this month, new Camp Hyatt program elements, including exclusive National Geographic Kids’ activities adapted to each participating resort location, will be available. The website and Camp Hyatt programs aim to educate kids about animals, culture, recycling and water. (emphasis added)

via Cynopsis

The tie-in with National Geographic and Scholastic means content like this:

Great summary by Kate Sheppard in Grist about how dirty energy is outspending the Greens by better than 7-to-1:

“…businesses in the energy and natural resources sector as a whole spent $102.7 million…”

“… clean-energy businesses spent $14.4 million…”

“Environmental groups have spent even less—just $4.7 million so far in 2009. The biggest spender among green groups was the Environmental Defense Action Fund, which laid out $300,000.”

Ok. We’re getting our asses stomped. On the other hand, here’s the box office for some major motion pictures with Green themes:

Arguably, this is a form of lobbying for our issues.  Problem is, kids don’t vote. On the other hand, kids are increasingly annoying their parents into Green action.   On the other other hand, a lot of movies with Green themes are benders of consumption and banality mixed with a single Green cocktail. Hmmm.

From season 20, episode 17

“The Good, the Sad and the Drugly.”

Lisa Oogles “What Will Springfield Be Like In 50 Years?” for a school project and the results are shocking.

Via Huff Po

Via Cynopsis:

The Muppets of Plaza Sesamo and Mexican celebrities are addressing the new flu emergency in a series of pubic service announcements (PSA) aimed at kids.  Sesame Workshop and Mexico’s Grupo Televisa have produced four PSAs featuring the Plaza Sesamo Muppet’s Pancho and Lola as well as celebrities Lucero, Jorge Poza and Adrian Uribe, which empower kids with things they can do during this period.  The PSAs, which have already begun airing on Televisa, encourage kids to tell a parent if you feel sick, and if you are sick don’t go to school or outside, cover your mouth with a tissue or arm if you sneeze or cough and throw away that tissue in a covered trash can, and of course, wash your hands with soap and water several times a day for at least 20 second.  Plaza Sesamo’s Education and Research team worked with Mexico’s Ministry of Health to develop the PSA scripts.  The PSAs are being offered to several government organizations to extend the message in Mexico including the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, the Government Workers ‘ Social Security and Services Institute (el ISSSTE) and Mexico City’s public transit system.

This is pretty cool on a couple of levels. Plenty of kids are freaked about the swine flu (my 10 year old couldn’t get to sleep last night) and using their favorite characters to help explain and reassure is a no brainer. And I’m impressed at how quickly they were able to turn this around.