Environmental Education Media Project

Media Contacts: Jonathan J. Halperin, jhalperin [at] eempc.org, +1 703-993-5234

FAIRFAX, VA -- The Center for Climate and Society at George Mason University today announced the appointment of two new research faculty members, as well as a pending affiliation with the Environmental Media Education Project's (EEMP) Campaign for Climate Stability, Ecosystem Restoration, and Poverty Eradication.

John D. Liu, founder of EEMP, and Jonathan J. Halperin, Executive Director, are already involving Mason students and faculty in their work making a film that the BBC World Service will broadcast on November 27, 2009, and that The World Bank and IUCN will screen in Copenhagen during the climate change summit (COP15) in December. Their work is supported by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)-The Netherlands, Open University, The Rockefeller Foundation, the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, and The World Bank. 

Crews are filming in China, Ethiopia, and Rwanda under the guidance of Jeremy Bristow, producer of the BBC series on climate change with David Attenborough.  A team of faculty and students at Mason are also already working to develop educational materials and discussion guides for use in stakeholder meetings around the world during the broadcast and screening.

According to Liu, there has never been greater need for the academic community to get out into the field, and never before have we so needed the help of scholars to better understand the deeply complex and wonderful relationships that exist in nature. If we really understand, at a deep level, how ecosystems work, we can then restore vast swaths of degraded land that have held people in entrenched poverty for generations.

The film being developed for the BBC and Copenhagen builds on John Liu's work and his recent film, "Lessons of the Loess Plateau," that documents the ten-year restoration of an area the size of Belgium -- from a degraded and denuded barren landscape to one where ecosystem function has been restored, rainfall infiltrates the soil, and people are working and eating and expanding sustainable agricultural practices.

From the perspective of Mason's goals and aspirations as a university, Paul Schopf, head of the Center on Climate and Society, explained that "for us this is a wonderful opportunity to put to test our understanding not only of natural systems, but also to see how the strengths of our film and media programs, our satellite imaging capacity, and our knowledge of climate communications can make a significant difference. Copenhagen will define the terms of our work in climate for a decade, and this collaboration gives us another powerful opportunity to help shape our own future."

While additional funds are still needed and more people are being sought to join the team at Mason, Jonathan Halperin observed that "we are now in a unique position to send a powerful message that, in fact, there are solutions to the most pressing challenges we face as a civilization. We know how to do large-scale global ecosystem restoration in ways that stabilize climate, end endemic poverty, and model sustainable agriculture. The relationship with Mason creates new opportunities to both enrich and project our voice ever more successfully."