Sierra Club airs television series

Robert Greenwald executive-produces series on ordinary people fighting extraordinary battles

The Sierra Club's half-hour television series with award-winning filmmaker Robert Greenwald ("Outfoxed", "Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Price") is being broadcast on the Sundance Channel. The series will air as part of "The Green", the network's weekly prime-time destination focusing on environmental topics, every Tuesday at 9 pm through March 18.

"Sierra Club Chronicles", produced by Greenwald's Brave New Films in association with Emmy-winning Sierra Club Productions, captures seven David-versus-Goliath stories: the dramatic efforts of committed individuals across the country working to protect the health of their environment and communities. Ranchers in New Mexico fighting oil and gas drilling, fishers in Alaska struggling for compensation from the Exxon-Valdez oil spill, neighbors of a chemical plant in Mississippi, 9/11 first-responders in New York City - all are united in common cause - the fight to protect their families, communities, lands, and livelihoods from pollution, corporate greed, and short-sighted government policies.

"All over America, there are inspirational, real-life stories of women and men defending their homes, health, and families from environmental hazards and threats," explained Club executive director Carl Pope. "Sierra Club Chronicles takes viewers directly into those communities and provides a first-hand look at these profiles in environmental courage."

To watch short clips or whole episodes on-line, or to order the complete first season on DVD, visit: www.sierraclub.org/tv

More information can also be found at www.sundancechannel.com

Remaining episodes

Feb. 26 - "Range Wars Rage On"

In the West the Bureau of Land Management has allowed increased drilling and drilling practices that are killing ranchers' cattle. A coalition of ranchers, including Republicans and Bush supporters, is fighting back.

March 4 - "Breathless in LA"

The Port of Los Angeles is one of the biggest and busiest ports in the United States and is surrounded by numerous oil fields. The city of Wilmington, a predominately Latino community, bears the burden of industrial blight, pollution, and the health hazards caused by the ships, trains and trucks that move goods from the harbor to cities and towns across America. Wilmington residents are fighting to protect their community from the excessive pollution of and around the port.

March 11 - "Storm in the Gulf"

The Gulf Islands National Seashore is a thin necklace of pristine barrier islands off the coast of Mississippi. When a powerful politician paved the way for the drilling of oil there, he did not expect opposition from a coalition of unlikely environmentalists, who prefer a lasting tourist trade and pristine beach to temporary gain.

March 18 - "Rats to Roses"

Since the mid-1970s residents of the most diverse and economically challenged parts of New York City have created small oases of hope and safety through some 800 "community gardens". In most cases, the gardens were once empty lots full of weeds, trash, and graffiti, but local residents got together to plant flowers, foliage, and in many cases to grow vegetables and fruits to feed the needy. This multi-year time arc witnesses the threat to and loss of the community gardens in New York - but also the commitment and resilience of community organizers.