Fund Supports Programs that Amplify Climate and Environmental Issues

Boston, MA (November 9, 2021) – Recognizing that the health and wellbeing of our planet and the urgent need to mitigate the effects of climate change are of critical importance, GBH, the nation’s largest public media producer, has launched the Planet Forward Fund. This focused fundraising initiative is designed to support programs that amplify climate and environmental issues with an eye toward illuminating practical, equitable, and sustainable solutions to the current climate crisis.

“Since its inception, GBH has engaged audiences with the most important and pressing issues facing Boston, the nation, and the world, and for almost 40 years, GBH has produced programs related to the environment and environmental justice,” said Jon Abbott, president and CEO of GBH. “Public media has an important role to play in providing information that helps illuminate the problem, as well as inspire us to take action as caretakers of our planet. This fund will help us continue that mission.”

In establishing the fund, GBH hopes to bring additional public attention to the problems of climate change, as well as to the climate solvers who are focusing on the future and charting paths toward solutions already within our grasp. The fund was launched with a lead challenge gift from GBH Trustee Lynn Dayton and her husband Bruce.

“The effects of climate change are impacting all of us, and we believe everyone has a personal responsibility to do more,” said Dayton. “GBH and its programs reach and inspire millions of people all over the world, and we have always been proud to invest resources with GBH. We hope our philanthropy will motivate others to support this important work now and well into the future.”

The Planet Forward Fund will support GBH’s significant portfolio of work related to the environment and environmental justice, conservation, and climate change, including productions from NOVA, FRONTLINE Studio Six, The World, and more. These include:

● SEA CHANGE is a new documentary series from GBH’s Studio Six exploring the spectacular wilderness and wildlife that still teem in the Gulf of Maine, from the tip of Cape Cod to the shores of Nova Scotia. The Gulf of Maine’s nutrient-rich bounty feeds over 3,000 species, from plankton to right whales, but the Gulf has warmed 99% faster than the global ocean. Many scientists believe the Gulf, and our oceans, are at a turning point. Can the Gulf retain enough of its biodiversity and regenerative strength to weather the human-induced storm? And what can it tell us about the fate of our oceans worldwide, and what must be done to save them?
● NOVA is developing Climate Across America (CAA), a multi-platform series for PBS that will showcase inspiring climate solutions being implemented in local communities across the country. This production will also help train national and local media makers to tell stories effectively –from solarizing communities and creating green jobs, to using Native American knowledge about controlling wildfires in the West, to no-till farming and farming the wind by Black farmers in the South. Climate Across America will also create an opportunity to evaluate current best practices in how to communicate about climate solutions to foster public engagement.
● FRONTLINE investigates the unprecedented legal effort by states and cities across America to hold the oil industry to account for climate change in Climate Wars: Oil on Trial. Against the backdrop of a year of climate chaos – wildfires in California, Australia, and Brazil, drought in the Horn of Africa, flooding in Southeast Asia, cyclones in Southern Africa – this multi-part series will explore the fifty-year story of how fossil fuel companies learned from their own scientific research in the 1970s and 1980s that CO2 emissions would change the climate with potentially catastrophic consequences, and yet set out on a decades-long campaign to hide or distort the science – a campaign that activists allege continues to evolve to this day.

“There never has been a greater need for trusted, fact-based reporting to inform the pivotal decisions of the next decade that will shape the future for the planet and for our communities. What we do now will determine the legacy we leave,” added Abbott.

Additional information about the Planet Forward Fund and GBH’s commitment to the environment can be found at wgbh.org/environment.

About GBH
GBH is the leading multiplatform creator for public media in America. As the largest producer of content for PBS and partner to NPR and PRX, GBH delivers compelling experiences, stories and information to audiences wherever they are. GBH produces digital and broadcast programming that engages, illuminates and inspires, through drama and science, history, arts, culture and journalism. GBH is the creator of such signature programs as MASTERPIECE, ANTIQUES ROADSHOW, FRONTLINE, NOVA, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE and Arthur and Molly of Denali and a catalog of streaming series, podcasts and on-demand video. GBH’s television channels include GBH 2, GBH 44, GBH Kids and national services WORLD and Create. With studios and a newsroom headquartered in Boston, GBH reaches across New England with GBH 89.7, Boston’s Local NPR; CRB Classical 99.5; CAI, the Cape and Islands NPR station and as a partner to NEPM in Springfield. Dedicated to making media accessible to and representative of our diverse culture, GBH is a pioneer in delivering media to audience members who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind and visually impaired. With PBS LearningMedia, GBH creates curriculum-based digital content for educators nationwide. GBH’s local programming includes Boston Public Radio, Greater Boston, Stories from the Stage, Open Studio with Jared Bowen, Basic Black and High School Quiz Show. GBH has been recognized with hundreds of the nation’s premier broadcast, digital and journalism awards. Find more information at gbh.org.