<p><a href="http://www.joost.com/0737ld5"><img src="http://j00.st/YZtHDvdhgRLqGKm9YMi8Dg.jpg" alt="sample frame" /></a></p><p>In 1997, noted Harvard ecologist E.O. Wilson wrote to a small community in the remote cloud forest region of Ecuador, urging them to continue their fight against the scourge of copper mining in perhaps the most biodiverse hotspot on Earth. Ten years later, the fight continues amid allegations of bribery, threats and coercion by the mining company. In conjunction with Earth Day, we celebrate this community-led resistance as an example of how even the smallest village can stand up against the most powerful global forces of industrial exploitation.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.joost.com/0737lcm"><img src="http://j00.st/FZsDmOU1DN2-ktR9Y4GtCg.jpg" alt="sample frame" /></a></p><p>After the avalanche took the life of Blake Morstad, it also left Sam Kavanagh hanging on by a thread in very dangerous circumstances. Still deep in the backcountry, Sam was hemorrhaging blood from his mangled leg. With weather conditions remaining unfavorable for rescue, the odds were mounting against his survival. In Part Two, Sam retells the story as it unfolded around him. Also, Doug Chabot of the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center, first on the scene after the avalanche hit, walks us through the chain of events leading up to the accident. What natural forces triggered the avalanche? What exactly is "buried surface hoar" ? Most importantly, what is "the human element - the stoke of the day," as Sam calls it, and how can we be aware of it?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.joost.com/0737lcs"><img src="http://j00.st/giZFeMJk0J_4uc1AOfqUqA.jpg" alt="sample frame" /></a></p><p>The Florida coast line is constantly shifting. Natural processes move the sand back and forth, north and south and occasionally a big storm removes it altogether. Of course unnatural processes are also affecting the beaches of the area. Huge sky scrapers, miles of beach front condos and the constant pressure of holiday makers on the beach. All these factors are playing their part on the ecosystem and the animals within it. Watch "Higher Ground" to find out where we're going wrong and what we can do about it.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.joost.com/0737ldb"><img src="http://j00.st/WS2YDBeHCh3shT-npjrGJQ.jpg" alt="sample frame" /></a></p><p>There are many stereotypes when it comes to environmentalists. Most people think of long-haired tree huggers who get around in torn jeans and Birkenstocks. But in the Big Hole Valley in Montana, the "greenies" look quite different. They are most often found on tractors tending to cattle or saddling up their horse in a barn. That's because the main push to conserve this beautiful valley comes from its ranching community. Conservation and ranching have often been thought of as mutually exclusive activities, but the farmers of the Big Hole are proving this wrong. So get your cowboy boots on and join us to see how conservation and traditional farming combine, in part one of "Fish and Cow."</p>
<p><a href="http://www.joost.com/0737lcv"><img src="http://j00.st/i_n1kI6vOS8zK-2Fvw2JWg.jpg" alt="sample frame" /></a></p><p>Just in time for the spring runoff, Bill Cummings, renegade canoeist from Montpelier, Vermont, arrives to usher in the next greatest trend in river sports . . . canoe-poling. Cummings stands in his canoe. He uses only an inch-thick pole to brave the whitewater. And he goes upstream.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.joost.com/0737lcp"><img src="http://j00.st/WpjEHvAjLPNhRssdPIk9eA.jpg" alt="sample frame" /></a></p><p>Last year, Arctic explorer Dennis Schmitt discovered that the world as-we-know-it is changing fast. In a remote coastal region of Greenland, "Warming Island" was created when the ice connecting it to the mainland melted away. The Greenland ice sheet - nearly three miles thick in places - is now melting at speeds once thought impossible. If the ice melts completely, sea level will rise twenty-three feet around the world. Karl Marx once famously said about modern life: "all that is solid melts into air." Though Marx was no environmentalist, he was very aware of the swift changes brought on by rapid exploitation of natural resources. These changes have begun to stretch the natural contours of our planet. But all is not lost, yet. "Warming Island" could also have been called "WARNING Island" because it is a harbinger of things to come. Now that the map has been erased, how will we choose to re-write it? Hopefully, with a trained eye and a skillful touch, we can create a collective picture of a long-term sustainable future. The world as-we-know-it may be disappearing, but as any explorer will tell you, a new world may also be on the horizon.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.joost.com/0737lck"><img src="http://j00.st/amLrzRoUxnOlH_DNXBqKEw.jpg" alt="sample frame" /></a></p><p>Dogs, surfers, and astronomers have long been fascinated by Earth's moon. In the 20th century, we went from admiring and conjecturing about the moon, to setting foot upon its rocky surface. This amazing journey has debunked numerous old myths...but has it validated others?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.joost.com/0737lcx"><img src="http://j00.st/koMm1cFRNFUULsWsN55sZA.jpg" alt="sample frame" /></a></p><p>The Water Carriers' is the story of Callie Blackwood, an American engineering student, and Nina Omwereme Oyamo, a 23-year old woman from the Shirali region of southwestern Kenya. The lives of these two women, from altogether different circumstances, intersect as Callie travels to Kenya along with an organization known as Engineers Without Borders. Their mission: to install an aquifer-driven well in the hopes of delivering clean drinking water to the Shirali area. This is the first episode in the three-part series. Stay tuned as the relationship between Callie and Nina continues to strengthen . . . and experience a day-in-the-life of a Kenyan water carrier.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.joost.com/0737ld3"><img src="http://j00.st/G-zrLYRs4QjfU2nC56zjqA.jpg" alt="sample frame" /></a></p><p>'The work is about something and it's not casual. It's not just an image. It's not a horse. It's not just a landscape . . . I actually think of the wilderness as being the soul. Our soul that we have cast aside. And in reclaiming it, re-integrating it, through honoring other species and not obliterating them and their habitat, we are revaluing ourselves and the wholeness that we can become." Growing up in Montana, Jacqueline Riedel Hud didn't want to be the cowboy or the indian - she wanted to play the part of the horse. Riedel's paintings reflect her lifelong struggle to distill an understanding of the intutive connections between the human and the natural world. In her work, one sees swirling vibrations, drumming hoofbeats and, above all, a multifaceted reflection of the long journey - towards a full appreciation for wild, hidden, and untamed places and far away from the ordinary constraints of the modern world.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.joost.com/0737ld8"><img src="http://j00.st/hMry_lJpGVtpLcm2u8zxkg.jpg" alt="sample frame" /></a></p><p>There's a new model of ranching emerging that emphasizes a holistic view of the ranch as a multi-dimensional resource and not just a home for cattle. Duke Phillips of Colorado is a pioneer in this approach, which provides him with a viable living, but also aligns his mission with tourists, environmentalists, and much of the general public. His ranch is proving that the maximization of profits with disregard to all other concerns is not a requirement for a rewarding vocation and lifestyle. Check out this episode of TERRA to see how Duke is "Ranching the New West"!</p>
