KCET Airs Special Lineup of EARTH FOCUS Beginning May 14

New Episode about the Health Risks of Coal Ash Also Premieres on Link TV

BURBANK, Calif. - May 8, 2014 - KCET, the

nation's largest independent television station serving Southern and Central

Wednesday, May 14 at 8:30 p.m. The environmental news magazine

and longest-running environmental series on American

television, features investigative reports about how changes to the Earth's

resources and climate are affecting our planet.

EARTH FOCUS airs every Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on Link TV. Episodes are

also available to watch online at kcet.org/earthfocus or linktv.org/earthfocus.

"America's Dirty Secret: Coal Ash"

American power plants generate more than 100 million tons of

coal ash every year, the nation's largest industrial pollutant, after municipal

waste. People

in three adjacent Pennsylvania communities suffer from a rare blood cancer. In

Juliette, Georgia, where radioactive water flows from the tap, people are also

getting sick. What else do these communities have in common? Coal ash. It

contains toxins like lead, arsenic and mercury and it gets into ground water

from unlined ponds and pit storage sites. The federal government says it's

non-hazardous and regulation is left to state governments where the coal

industry has great influence. And it's always people who suffer the

consequences.

Wednesday, May 21

"Exposed: Killing Dolphins - Dying for Lobsters"

Thousands of dolphins are killed solely for shark bait each year off the

coast of Peru. An upsurge in shark meat consumption in Peru and the rise in the

cost of fish bait has helped drive the hunt to as many as 10,000 dolphins

killed each year according to some estimates. Jim Wickens documents this

illegal practice in an original undercover investigation for EARTH FOCUS. Brad

Allgood and Josh Wolff document the epidemic of decompression disease or bends

suffered by Miskito Indians involved in commercial lobster diving off

Nicaragua's coast in their film My Village My Lobster. Commercial

lobster diving in Nicaragua brings in over $20 million a year annually and 90%

of the lobsters caught are sold to premium US restaurants and supermarkets. The

casualties among the divers continue to mount but the problem remains ignored

by the Nicaraguan government and the international community.

Wednesday, May 28

"Asian Elephants in Peril"

Asian elephants, already endangered in Indonesia and Thailand, are

threatened further by human encroachment and illegal trade. In Indonesia, just

2,500 Sumatran elephants remain. As their last great forest habitat is being

logged to make way for palm oil plantations, elephants are pushed into conflict

with local people. In Thailand and Myanmar, an illegal and brutal trade in wild

baby elephants is contributing to declining elephant populations. On the

Thai-Myanmar border, at least 50-100 elephant calves and young females are removed

from their forest homes every year and are traded illegally to supply tourist

camps. Countless elephants die in the process, threatening the remaining

populations of this endangered species.

Wednesday, June 4

"Toxic Futures: Untold Stories of Chemical Pollution"

Exposure to toxic chemicals affects people in both the industrialized and

developing world. In a program based on the 2014 Pulitzer Prize winning book by

Dan Fagin, Tom's River: A Story of Science and Salvation, EARTH FOCUS

travels to Tom's River New Jersey to document how this small town - once site

of a recognized children's cancer cluster - waged a battle to save its drinking

water from toxic waste dumping by dye manufacturer Ciba Geigy and by Union

Carbide. Illegal gold mining in Peru extracts a high and tragic cost on health

and the environment. A look at the film Amazon Gold.

Wednesday, June 11

"Shades of Gray: Living with Wolves"

Gray wolves once ranged across North America. But by the 1930s, they were

nearly extinct - trapped, poisoned and hunted by ranchers, farmers, and

government agents. With protection under the 1973 Endangered Species Act, the

wolf population rebounded. But wolves lost federal protection in 2011. Now,

with hunting permitted in many Western states, the future of this once

endangered species may again be in question. Can we live with wolves? EARTH

FOCUS travels to Montana and Wyoming to find out.

Wednesday, June 18

There are tens of thousands of chemicals in our air, water, and in the

everyday products we use. They are largely unregulated and few are adequately

tested for safety. They contribute to disease and are linked to conditions such

as asthma, autism, ADHD, diabetes, cancers, infertility, cognitive disorders, obesity,

reproductive disorders and birth defects. EARTH FOCUS looks at endocrine

disruptors, ubiquitous chemicals that affect development, metabolism, fertility

and intelligence at extremely low doses and at what measures could be taken to

better ensure public safety.

Wednesday, June 25

EARTH FOCUS speaks with Jeremy Monroe about his film Willamette Futures,

which documents the effort to restore the watersheds of Oregon's largest river

system. Satirical writer George Wolfe's controversial act of civil

disobedience, leading a kayaking expedition down the cemented Los Angeles

River, is the focus of Thea Mercouffer's film Rock the Boat. The

expedition sought to have EPA declare the river navigable so that it could gain

protection under the Clean Water Act. The boating trip down the LA River became

a political movement which led to changes in federal policy and opened up

public access to a long-neglected waterway. The Colorado River is the most

dammed, and diverted river in the world. It struggles to support thirty million

people across the western United States and Mexico and is reaching its limits.

competing interests of cities, agriculture, recreation, wildlife and indigenous

communities with rights to the water.

Wednesday, July 2

 "Restoring the Earth"

It is possible to rehabilitate large-scale damaged ecosystems, to improve the

lives of people trapped in poverty and to sequester carbon naturally? John D.

Liu presents "Hope in a Changing Climate" which showcases approaches

that have worked on the Loess Plateau in China, Ethiopia and Rwanda. Produced

in collaboration with the Environmental Education Media Project (EEMP).

Wednesday, July 9

"Fracking Goes Global"

US domestic gas production is on the rise because of hydraulic fracturing,

or fracking, a controversial method of extracting natural gas from shale rock

by pumping millions of gallons of water mixed with sand and chemicals

underground at high pressure. Environmentalists say this gas boon threatens

water supplies and pollutes air. Now, as fracking expands around the world, so

does growing resistance. EARTH FOCUS looks at three countries on the new

fracking frontline: South Africa, Poland, and the UK. Reported from South

Africa by Jeff Barbee and Andrew Wasley from Poland and the UK.

Wednesday, July 16

"Killing Bees: Are Government and Industry Responsible?"

Honey bees, the essential pollinators of many major US crops, have been

dying off in massive numbers since 2006. This threatens the American

agricultural system and the one in twelve American jobs that depends on it.

There is growing evidence that a new class of pesticides - nerve toxins called

neonicotinoids, which are used on many US crops including almost all corn - may

be toxic to bees. The Environmental Protection Agency allowed neonicotinoids on

the market without adequate tests to determine their toxicity to bees.

Environmentalists want neonicotinoids banned until needed safety tests are

done. While the US government is slow to act and neonicotinoid sales reap

billions for the chemical industry, bees continue to die. An original EARTH

FOCUS investigation.

Wednesday, July 23

"Climate Science in Action"

From researching the pace of Alaskan glacier melt to how changes in Arctic

sea ice affect our weather, climate scientists go to some of the most remote

areas on Earth to help us understand our environment. The Juneau Icefield

Research Program (JIRP) brings scientists and students together annually to

study glaciers. Jeff Barbee reports on the 2013 JIRP expedition. Julienne

Stroeve of the National Snow and Ice Data Center looks at the impact changes in

Arctic sea ice may have on weather patterns. And Penn State climate scientist

Michael Mann on what we might expect to see happen to sea levels, if we

continue burning fossil fuels at current levels.

KCETLink, formed by the merger

between KCET and Link Media, is a national independent, nonprofit, digital and

broadcast network that provides high-quality, culturally diverse programming

designed to engage the public in innovative, entertaining and transformative

ways. With a commitment to independent perspectives, smart global

entertainment, local communities, and opportunities for engagement and social

action, KCETLink depicts people

and the world through a lens unavailable elsewhere in U.S. media. A

viewer-supported 501(c)(3) organization, KCETLink content is distributed nationally via satellite on Link TV - DIRECTV channel 375 and DISH

Network channel 9410 - and on KCET

in Southern and Central California via broadcast and cable, as well as through

various digital delivery systems. For additional information about KCET and

Link TV productions, web-exclusive content, programming schedules and community

events, please visit kcet.org or linktv.org.