ByGeorge!
April/May 2009

GW Professor Moving the ‘Planet Forward’ with Pioneering Program

GW professor and CNN special correspondent Frank Sesno hosted the premiere television episode of Planet Forward
March 31 at GW’s Jack Morton Auditorium.

A unique viewer-driven project co-produced by GW is stimulating a global debate on climate change and the energy crisis.

“Planet Forward” taps into new media with a Web site and television program to engage citizens worldwide on a variety of pressing ecological and energy issues. Along with GW, Planet
Forward is co-produced by Nebraska
Educational Telecommunications in
collaboration with Public Agenda,
Sunburst Creative Productions,
Middleburg College, Roger Williams
University, and the University of Nebraska College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Launched in early March, the Web site, planetforward.org, features news, surveys, a blog and online discussion. People from across the globe have submitted everything from photo essays and videos to songs and op-ed pieces on the site.

On March 31, GW professor and CNN special correspondent Frank Sesno moderated a live taping at the University’s Jack Morton Auditorium featuring a panel discussion and conversation with Carol Browner, assistant to the president for energy and climate change, as well as selected content from the Planet Forward Web site. The episode, which focused on the use of alternative energy sources and the feasibility of moving away from fossil fuels, broadcast on PBS April 15. President Steven Knapp joined Sesno and the University community for a special viewing of the premiere in Funger Hall.

The idea for Planet Forward came to Sesno in 2006 as a way to combine the University’s resources and new media with growing global concern over energy use and climate change.“By merging these ideas, we could help facilitate a national discussion and debate over these issues,” says Sesno. “I also want to show our
students how, in a new digital age, we can effectively inform and engage the public.”

Planet Forward illustrates how the Internet has begun to drive debate, says Sesno, adding that the online discussion involves different perspectives and spans various topics—including windmills, clean coal and nuclear plants—that can affect jobs, businesses, and the traditional way of life. “We are interested in seeing if we can build
excitement around a topic that people clearly feel strongly about, so that they will engage across platforms,” he says.

At the March 31 taping, Shai Agassi, founder and CEO of Better Place; James Connaughton, former chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality; and L. Hunter Lovins, president and founder of Natural Capitalism Solutions, reviewed online submissions and discussed alternative energy sources. After the panel, Browner spoke with Sesno and the creaters of selected online submissions and told
the audience that she was confident the new administration could change the energy future of the United States. “We owe it to our citizens and the citizens of the world to be the kind of leader we should have been and know we can be,” said Browner.

Sesno said that there is no better time than now to start moving the “planet forward.” “We are on the verge of a transformative technological breakthrough and President Obama has made this issue a cornerstone of his agenda,” he said. “We are having a
conversation from the bottom up and incorporating new voices. And these voices come with an energy and urgency because they are the people who are doing the work. These issues have become a national priority and people all across the country are
becoming involved.”

 


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