The series moves to China, whose soaring population and rapid industrialization have created a boom in urbanization that is unprecedented in human history. In an attempt to tackle this global issue, the episode explores design solutions in both theory and practice, including Steven Holl’s Linked Hybrid Project, which when completed will be the largest residential, geothermal heating/cooling and greywater recycling system in the world. Also featured is architect, designer and winner of three U.S. Presidential Awards William McDonough. Recognized by Time magazine as “Hero of the Planet,” McDonough talks about his innovative plans to make China an entirely sustainable country and how it will demonstrate the ways architecture can be both profitable and environmentally intelligent.

This episode takes the notion of the three R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle) to grand proportions by looking at Boston’s “Big Dig” and the massive amount of waste that accompanies the $15 billion project. Paul Pedini, a civil engineer on the project, had the idea to build his own home from the Big Dig waste. The success of this project has sparked plans to create an office complex in Massachusetts from the same recycled material. These innovative projects serve as prototypes to demonstrate to city officials that there is value in recycling on such a grand level.

In this episode, Mayor Richard Daley take viewers on a tour through Chicago and showcases his mission to make it “the greenest city in America,” even turning City Hall into a green-roofed structure.

The first episode begins in New York, a city that is leading the charge to green its industrial skyline with several groundbreaking projects. New York combats the urban myth of the bustling city as a “concrete jungle.” This episode explores some of Manhattan’s most prominent and technologically advanced structures like One Bryant Park and The Solaire, as well as the innovative minds behind them, and illustrates how the ubiquitous skyscraper can surprisingly be a model of environmental responsibility.

From the outset FIGHTING GOLIATH: TEXAS COAL WARS was intended to serve as a tool for raising awareness, inspiring action, and creating a meaningful dialogue about how to overcome one of the greatest threats to public health contributors to global warming faced by the U.S.—conventional coal-fired power plants.  FIGHTING GOLIATH follows the story of farmers, ranchers and Mayors fighting against the construction of 18 new coal-burning power plants in Texas.  TXU Corp. withdrew eight of the 11 permit applications shortly before the case went to court, when it was announced that shareholders would sell the utility to private equity firms.  The film was produced by the Redford Center at the Sundance Preserve and Alpheus Media, and directed by Mat Hames and George Sledge. 

Following the lives of people that push, pull or pedal some kind of vehicle to earn their living on Brazil’s city streets, ON WHEELS BRASIL establishes a relationship between the wheel’s movement and the inconstancy of life itself, primarily for those without stable jobs and who have to create and improvise daily just to survive.

UNCOVERED: THE WAR IN IRAQ chronicles the Bush Administration’s determined quest to invade Iraq following the events of September 11, 2001. The film deconstructs the administration’s case for war through interviews with U.S intelligence and defense officials, foreign service experts, and U.N. weapons inspectors—including a former CIA director, a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia and even President’s Bush’s Secretary of the Army. Their analyses and conclusions are sobering, and often disturbing, regardless of one’s political affiliations. Produced and Directed by Robert Greenwald.