Comments (0)

By Simmons Buntin, April 12, 2011 3:36 pm

Perhaps my favorite show!

Arthur Celebrates Earth Day with 5 New Episodes Beginning Friday, April 22, 2011 on PBS KIDS GO!

Features a Special Visit from NASA Astronaut Mike Finke, Thursday, April 28, 2011

BOSTON, MA (April 11, 2011) – PBS KIDS GO!’s iconic kids series ARTHUR continues its 14th season with five brand-new episodes highlighting environmental protection, cultural awareness, and teamwork beginning on Earth Day, Friday April 22, 2011, and continuing through Thursday April 28, 2011 (check local listings). The fun starts with a special Earth Day message from Arthur and his friends in Buster Baxter and the Letter from the Sea. In this episode, Buster discovers a message in a bottle on the beach while on vacation with the Read family. Could it be an urgent message from the people of the Lost City of Atlantis? Buster is determined to find out and sends messages back…by throwing his own bottles into the ocean. Join Buster and Arthur as they learn that keeping our beaches and waterways clean is the real message.

Online, kids are invited to take the Go Green Challenge (pbskids.org/arthur/thetreehouse/gogreen) on the ARTHUR website. In this special section, kids can join their favorite ARTHUR characters in support of a green cause. Whether it’s making better food choices with Buster, or saving energy with D.W., kids have opportunities to take simple green steps that can help save the environment. Also, kids will be able to print out a “Challenge Page” to keep track of their green actions.

“This Earth Day, we wanted to show kids how simple actions can affect the environment,” says Senior Executive Producer Carol Greenwald. “Through this episode and the Go Green Challenge, kids can learn simple steps that they can take to help protect the world around them.”

Throughout the week of new episodes, Arthur and friends will follow a soccer ball as it makes its way around the world.  In Follow the Bouncing Ball, airing Friday, April 22, 2011, Alberto Molina’s beloved soccer ball, signed by his favorite Ecuadorian soccer star, “El Boomerang,” is lost. Kids are invited to join Arthur in learning about new cultures and track all the places “El Boomerang” goes as it travels around the world (and into outer space!).

In a special episode airing Thursday, April 28, 2011, kids learn that teamwork can help their dreams soar when NASA Astronaut Mike Finke guest-stars on ARTHUR in Buster Spaces Out. Inspired by footage of the moon landing, Buster wants to go to outer space. Well, someday. For now, it would be really cool to build and launch a rocket.  So Buster enlists his friends to help…but they can’t agree on anything and the mission stalls.  Luckily, their new friend Astronaut Mike teaches them that only teamwork will accomplish this mission–and then it’s blast-off!

Tune in for these adventures and more as your favorite ARTHUR characters travel the globe in Around the World in 11 Minutes, start competing blogs in Muffy and the Big Bad Blog, try their hand at fashion design in All the Rage, cope with teasing in D.W., Queen of the Comeback, explore Africa in In My Africa, and discover knitting in Arthur Unravels. The full schedule of airdates is below (check local listings):

Friday, April 22, 2011 – Follow the Bouncing Ball, Buster Baxter and the Letter from the Sea
Monday, April 25, 2011 – Around the World in 11 Minutes, Muffy and the Big Bad Blog
Tuesday, April 26, 2011 – Arthur Unravels, All the Rage
Wednesday, April 27, 2011 – D.W., Queen of the Comeback, In My Africa
Thursday, April 28, 2011 – Buster Spaces Out, The Long Road Home

ARTHUR Online at PBSKIDSGO.org/arthur
The award-winning ARTHUR website is home to many games and activities, including the new game “Buster Baxter, Lung Defender.” In this game, kids fight common asthma triggers in a wild ride through Buster’s lungs. Supporting material for parents and caregivers can be found in the new Kids & Asthma section on the Parents & Teachers site. Also new this season, Arthur and his friends team up with Martha from Martha Speaks in a new game called “Marthur Stickerbook Mashup.” Kids can choose characters and props from each show to create unique mashup scenes. Finally, in a comic-creator feature inspired by Neil Gaiman, who guest-starred on ARTHUR last fall in Tales of the Grotesquely Grim Bunny, kids can create their very own comics, featuring Arthur and his Elwood City friends. The ARTHUR website is also home to most of the series educational materials including resources, lesson plans, and activities and has features to help kids understand their neighbors, near and far, and gain a better appreciation for the world around them. Kids can also watch video clips and full episodes of ARTHUR at PBSKIDSGO.org/video.

About ARTHUR
ARTHUR, based on Marc Brown’s best-selling books, reaches over 5.1 million people each week (NTI, Sept. 2010-January 2011).  ARTHUR has won numerous awards, including the George Foster Peabody Award, a BAFTA and six Daytime Emmys®– four for Outstanding Children’s Animated Program. ARTHUR is produced by WGBH Boston and Cookie Jar Entertainment Inc. Carol Greenwald is Senior Executive producer (WGBH) and Executive producers are Toper Taylor (Cookie Jar), and Marc Brown (Marc Brown Studios). The series is directed by Greg Bailey.

Funding for ARTHUR is provided by public television viewers. Corporate funding is provided by Chuck E. Cheese’s®.

About WGBH Boston
WGBH Boston is America’s preeminent public broadcasting producer, the source of one-third of PBS’s prime-time lineup along with some of public television’s best-known lifestyle shows, many public radio favorites, and a roster of children’s programs that empower kids with innovative, entertaining, curriculum-based content. Among the WGBH produced children’s titles: Arthur, Curious George, Postcards from Buster, Between the Lions, Design Squad, Martha Speaks and Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman. WGBH is the number-one producer of websites on pbs.org, one of the most trafficked dot-org websites in the world, and a pioneer in educational multimedia and in technologies and services that make media accessible to the 36 million Americans who rely on captioning or video descriptions. WGBH has been recognized with hundreds of honors: Emmys, Peabodys, duPont-Columbia Awards . . . even two Oscars. In 2002, WGBH received a special institutional Peabody Award for 50 years of excellence. For more information, go to www.wgbh.org.

About Cookie Jar Group
Cookie Jar Group develops, produces, distributes and markets quality products to children, their caregivers, parents and teachers. Cookie Jar Group’s products reflect its commitment to providing the best in children’s published content, animated and live action programming and innovative educational and entertainment-driven products worldwide. The group of companies consists of Cookie Jar Entertainment Inc. and Cookie Jar Education Inc. Cookie Jar Entertainment Inc., Cookie Jar Group’s entertainment operation, is a leading, global, independent producer, marketing and brand manager of such renowned children’s properties as The Doodlebops, Caillou, Arthur, Spider Riders and Johnny Test. Combining globally renowned intellectual properties with an industry-recognized management team, Cookie Jar Entertainment Inc. is a market-driven, brand building company that is committed to children first and foremost and is dedicated to the development and production of quality programming that embraces the whole child, with animated and live-action series that entertain, inspire and enlighten children and family audiences worldwide.

About PBS KIDS GO!
PBS KIDS GO! offers early elementary children the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television, online and community-based programs.  For more information on specific PBS KIDS GO! programs supporting literacy, science, math and more, visit PBS.org/pressroom.

Comments (0)

By Simmons Buntin, October 4, 2009 4:53 am

New Report Identifies Top Threats and Recommendations to Protect Parks

Winter clouds over Saguaro National Park east of Tucson. Photo by Simmons Buntin.

11 Climate-Related Dangers in Parks in AK, AZ, CA, CO, FL, ID, IN, MD, MT, NJ, NY, ME, NV, NM, NC, ND, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, and WY.

Editor’s note: Video is available at: http://www.vimeo.com/nrdcbroadcast/videos

Denver and New York (October 1, 2009) — Climate change from human activity is the leading threat to wildlife, plants, water and ice in 25 of America’s national parks, according to a new report by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Rocky Mountain Climate Organization (RMCO).

The report, National Parks in Peril, comes on the heels of the introduction of clean energy and climate legislation in the U.S. Senate, as well as Ken Burns’ national parks series on PBS, which has put parks in the center of America’s national conscience.

The RMCO/NRDC report outlines 11 climate-related threats and the needed remedies for the following national parks (in alphabetical order):  Acadia National Park; Assateague Island National Seashore; Bandelier National Monument; Biscayne National Park; Cape Hatteras National Seashore; Colonial National Historical Park; Denali National Park and Preserve; Dry Tortugas National Park; Ellis Island National Monument; Everglades National Park; Glacier National Park; Great Smoky Mountains National Park; Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore; Joshua Tree National Park; Lake Mead National Recreation Area; Mesa Verde National Park; Mount Rainier National Park; Padre Island National Seashore; Rocky Mountain National Park; Saguaro National Park; Theodore Roosevelt National Park; Virgin Islands National Park/Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument; Yellowstone National Park;Yosemite National Park; and Zion National Park.

“As a country, we need to ensure that our parks have a future that is as promising as their past,” said Theo Spencer, senior advocate for the Climate Center at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Clean energy legislation is now moving in Congress that would help preserve our national treasures, while creating more jobs, economic growth and national security.”

The report outlines climate-related threats in 25 parks spanning 22 states. The top risks include: loss of snow and water, rising seas, more extreme weather, loss of plants and wildlife, and more pollution.

“Climate disruption is the greatest threat ever to our national parks. We could lose entire national parks for the first time, as Everglades, Ellis Island, and other parks could be submerged by rising seas,” said Stephen Saunders, president of the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization and the report’s principal author. “To preserve our parks, we need to reduce the heat-trapping gases that are threatening them, and begin managing the parks to protect resources at risk.”   

Remedies, which are outlined in the report, include enacting comprehensive clean energy legislation, including reducing carbon pollution by at least 20 percent below current levels by 2020; increasing investment in energy efficiency; and accelerating the development of clean energy technologies. The National Parks Service also needs to prioritize this issue by enacting policies to mitigate the impacts of global warming; and should have more funding for research and to reduce the effects of climate change.

Bill Wade, chair of the executive council of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees (CNPSR) and former superintendent of Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, said: “National parks are often referred to as the ‘canaries in the mine shafts’ when it comes to climate change. By their very characteristics and locations, impacts and effects of climate change are noticed in national parks first and are a forewarning about what will happen elsewhere. That’s why this report is particularly important.”

For the full report, including the list of the National Parks, go to:  www.rockymountainclimate.org

The report and more information about national parks and global warming is also at: http://www.nrdc.org/land/parksinperil/