It's a pristine, cavernous warehouse tucked into a South Florida neighborhood, but there's anything but 'business as usual' unfolding here. This is the unlikely epicenter of a green movement branching out to protect our most precious and vulnerable resource, children. Striding through its corriders is a woman driven to making our children's classrooms green and clean!
Click Here to Watch Michele's "EcoZone" Report from CBS4 News.
The Greening of a Hollywood Beach Giant
Steps from the glorious surf of Hollywood, Florida, mother nature kisses the shore of a hotel celebrated as 4 star, but what might really please mother nature is that it's now a"One Palm" hotel.
Click Here to Watch Michele's "EcoZone" Report from CBS4 News
Secrets in the Soil: A 5-Part Television Event
Michele Gillen's chilling investigation into a South Florida community where residents fear toxins in the soil may be making them sick. Meet a mom facing a life and death struggle with hopes of sending a message she believes might change your life forever.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH PARTS 1-3
CLICK HERE TO WATCH PART 4: The Reunion
CLICK HERE TO WATCH PART 5: Digging up the Dirt
CLICK HERE TO WATCH PARTS 1-3
CLICK HERE TO WATCH PART 4: The Reunion
CLICK HERE TO WATCH PART 5: Digging up the Dirt
Pioneering Eco-partnership Springs from Miami
Les Moonves, President and CEO of the CBS Corporation, heads to the Magic City to announce the partnership.
CLICK HERE for Michele Gillen's live coverage from the EcoZone.
CLICK HERE to learn more about the CBS/EcoZone partnership.
Follow Michele into the EcoZone
Making History: Miami's City Hall is the first of any major city to "go solar and green" and it's not costing taxpayers a penny! Join Michele on an exclusive tour of transformation and meet the men behind this mission!
CLICK HERE TO WATCH PART 1: Exclusive Eco-Tour
CLICK HERE TO WATCH PART 2: Kick-off and Ribbon-Cutting
CLICK HERE TO WATCH PART 1: Exclusive Eco-Tour
CLICK HERE TO WATCH PART 2: Kick-off and Ribbon-Cutting
Worlds "collide" to save Planet Earth
Enter the EcoZone and find out how your neighbors, elected leaders, industry, and the media are joining forces to protect you and Planet Earth.
Click here to visit EcoZoneMedia.com
Click here to visit EcoZoneMedia.com
Eye on the Environment
Nation's top journalists meet in Miami for SEJ event
Traveling from across the country, board members of the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) took up the challenge of protecting Planet Earth with top city officials and academic leaders, including City of Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and University of Miami President Donna Shalala.
SEJ is the oldest and largest organization of journalists dedicated to improvements in the quality, accuracy and visibility of environment reporting. Their visit included a site tour with an eye toward bringing a future convention here. The weekend was topped off with a panel of TV journalists, including NBC News National Correspondent Kerry Sanders, WTVJ Investigative Reporter Jeff Burnside and WFOR Chief Investigative Reporter Michele Gillen, who all talked about the significance of environmental coverage. Miami is ready to welcome SEJ back!
Traveling from across the country, board members of the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) took up the challenge of protecting Planet Earth with top city officials and academic leaders, including City of Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and University of Miami President Donna Shalala.
SEJ is the oldest and largest organization of journalists dedicated to improvements in the quality, accuracy and visibility of environment reporting. Their visit included a site tour with an eye toward bringing a future convention here. The weekend was topped off with a panel of TV journalists, including NBC News National Correspondent Kerry Sanders, WTVJ Investigative Reporter Jeff Burnside and WFOR Chief Investigative Reporter Michele Gillen, who all talked about the significance of environmental coverage. Miami is ready to welcome SEJ back!
Taking it all off for Art ... and the Earth
Hundreds bare all on a frigid glacier to bring attention to global warming and Michele Gillen turns the camera on the famed artist behind it all: Spencer Tunick.
Click here for the story.
To see Michele's piece on Tunick's latest Miami installation, click here.
Click here for the story.
To see Michele's piece on Tunick's latest Miami installation, click here.
World Exclusive
In response to a Michele Gillen investigation, a South Florida doctor is traveling the globe on an unprecedented medical mission to uncover what causes Lou Gehrig's Disease and what link it might have to Planet Earth.
Click here to watch the story.
Click here to watch the story.
Tibetan Oracle Speaks on Environment
Michele Gillen interviews Nechung Kuten, the Chief State Oracle of Tibet on healing, peace and the environment as he visits Miami for the first time in an unprecedented U.S. tour focused on igniting efforts to protect Planet Earth -- one nation, one community, and one family at a time. Stay tuned for the report.
Click here for the full report, as seen on WFOR-TV CBS4.
Click here for Kuten's message to viewers.
Click here for the Tibetan Oracle's official website.
New Video: South Florida's Sagamore Hotel Going Green
Now Online: The man who created one of South Beach's hottest hotels shares his passion to cool Planet Earth and keep his travelers safer than they might ever dream. Michele Gillen introduces us to Marty Taplin and the legendary Sagamore Hotel.
Click here for the video from Michele's report on WFOR-TV CBS4 in Miami.
Click here for the video from Michele's report on WFOR-TV CBS4 in Miami.
Thought for the Week
"To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived -- that is to have succeeded."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thought of the week submitted by Jill Sverdlove. We welcome yours. E-mail us at info@savingplanetearth.tv.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thought of the week submitted by Jill Sverdlove. We welcome yours. E-mail us at info@savingplanetearth.tv.
Francis of Assisi: Patron Saint of Planet Earth?
Travel with us back in time to meet one of the world's most beloved priests who reveled in the joy and sanctity of Mother Nature and all her living creatures. See his breathtaking corner of Planet Earth in Italy as he did and understand why this pioneering environmentalist treasured "Brother Sun" and "Sister Moon."
A Journey with Green Goddess Mother Earth
Can you guess where this haven on Earth is? Tell us at info@savingplanetearth.tv and win a "Saving Planet Earth" Teddy Bear!
The New Homeless
Editor's Note: The New Homeless: Who are they? They used to be nurses, tennis players, dancers and executives, now they wander searching for a safe place to live, suffering, they say, from an intolerance to chemicals. Caryl Shonbrun intimately takes us into a world of isolation where the dusty exhaust from a clothes dryer can steal one's breath away, separating families and leaving some wondering why their bodies are failing them and how might they help protect you.
The New Homeless
By Caryl Schonbrun
Imagine having to leave your home because it becomes contaminated with fumes from your next door neighbors home remodeling. Imagine having nowhere to go where you can feel safe and well. Imagine living in a tent on a mountain because it’s the only place you can tolerate. Consider - just for a moment - having an illness that keeps you away from the people you love and the places you call home, because of fragrances and toxins that make you severely ill.
This is now the life of my friend Jill, who suffers from an acute and severely debilitating growing sensitivity to chemicals. I know this story all too well myself. I suffer from the same and have had to move four times in the last five years to find, what for me is, a safer place to live. As a former nurse who once handled a break neck speed life, balancing a husband, daughter and career, my body inexpilicly began failing and frightening me. After years of searching for a diagnosis, my family and I came to realize that I had become intolerant to chemicials, even the most non- descript lurking in the particles of my kitchen cabinets. I thought we had finally won a reprieve when my husband and I built a non-toxic house in Colorado that would keep me safe from everyday exposures. It seemed to work well until I realized that herbicides being sprayed in my neighborhood were drifting in through my open windows. Most people don’t realize that some of the same products that they use to kill weeds, can potentially harm some people as well. A whiff of common spray that kills a pesty nest of ants and may not be even a nuisance to you... can leave someone with chemical sensitivity struggling for breath, in fear it might be their last.
In my case, my safe haven...a home built specifically as non-toxic in a rural community in Colorado, became my new prison. An open window left unguarded for a moment resulted in a chemical drift wafting into my home. A walk outside and an unexpected encounter with herbicides being sprayed, left me calling 911 for help more than once. In the ambulance I wondered why my body was betraying me and whether I would ever find a safe place to hide from what might harm me.
After a year of living like this, my husband and I now find ourselves forced to move once again. We will now build a new safe house in a rural area with 40 acres to keep all toxicities away from me. We will have to live further out from family, medical care, organic groceries, just so I can try to have some quality of life. We will finally be able to open windows again and try to heal. We must be ever mindful though that airborne toxin can still find its way to me and make me ill. It just has to go farther and try harder.
I had been working for the last two years to get my local city council to assist in curbing spraying and toxic practices when there are alternatives. And there are. We so did not want to leave our new home. But it was an uphill battle and the reason we have to relocate once again.
With all this moving and seeking a safe place to live, we are still considered the lucky ones. Lucky that we can manage to build a safe house not once, but twice. Lucky that we found some land with acreage only 20 minutes from town. Lucky that we have some resources left even after bearing such a huge financial burden. We are in the minority.
Others with this confounding and chilling condition end up like my friend Jill. A former executive, she has had to abandon her home, left to wander, still searching for a "safe place." She is litterally now pitching a tent on top of mountain property where she hopes she will build a new home.
The more we saturate our planet and its atmosphere and our homes and schools with chemicals, the greater the chance some precious vulnerable bodies could pay a price. Their lives forever changed like mine. While odds are I can't meet you at a conference or meeting, I can offer you my voice. For years I kept my thoughts, my anguish, my hopes to myself. Now I will still live in isolation but I will speak out because I don't want you to joins the ranks...of the new homeless.
Caryl Schonbrun lives in Ft. Collins, Colorado with her husband Bob and daughter Jill. She has become an activist for Chemical Injury and works to bring awareness and solutions for people struggling with it.
By Caryl Schonbrun
Imagine having to leave your home because it becomes contaminated with fumes from your next door neighbors home remodeling. Imagine having nowhere to go where you can feel safe and well. Imagine living in a tent on a mountain because it’s the only place you can tolerate. Consider - just for a moment - having an illness that keeps you away from the people you love and the places you call home, because of fragrances and toxins that make you severely ill.
This is now the life of my friend Jill, who suffers from an acute and severely debilitating growing sensitivity to chemicals. I know this story all too well myself. I suffer from the same and have had to move four times in the last five years to find, what for me is, a safer place to live. As a former nurse who once handled a break neck speed life, balancing a husband, daughter and career, my body inexpilicly began failing and frightening me. After years of searching for a diagnosis, my family and I came to realize that I had become intolerant to chemicials, even the most non- descript lurking in the particles of my kitchen cabinets. I thought we had finally won a reprieve when my husband and I built a non-toxic house in Colorado that would keep me safe from everyday exposures. It seemed to work well until I realized that herbicides being sprayed in my neighborhood were drifting in through my open windows. Most people don’t realize that some of the same products that they use to kill weeds, can potentially harm some people as well. A whiff of common spray that kills a pesty nest of ants and may not be even a nuisance to you... can leave someone with chemical sensitivity struggling for breath, in fear it might be their last.
In my case, my safe haven...a home built specifically as non-toxic in a rural community in Colorado, became my new prison. An open window left unguarded for a moment resulted in a chemical drift wafting into my home. A walk outside and an unexpected encounter with herbicides being sprayed, left me calling 911 for help more than once. In the ambulance I wondered why my body was betraying me and whether I would ever find a safe place to hide from what might harm me.
After a year of living like this, my husband and I now find ourselves forced to move once again. We will now build a new safe house in a rural area with 40 acres to keep all toxicities away from me. We will have to live further out from family, medical care, organic groceries, just so I can try to have some quality of life. We will finally be able to open windows again and try to heal. We must be ever mindful though that airborne toxin can still find its way to me and make me ill. It just has to go farther and try harder.
I had been working for the last two years to get my local city council to assist in curbing spraying and toxic practices when there are alternatives. And there are. We so did not want to leave our new home. But it was an uphill battle and the reason we have to relocate once again.
With all this moving and seeking a safe place to live, we are still considered the lucky ones. Lucky that we can manage to build a safe house not once, but twice. Lucky that we found some land with acreage only 20 minutes from town. Lucky that we have some resources left even after bearing such a huge financial burden. We are in the minority.
Others with this confounding and chilling condition end up like my friend Jill. A former executive, she has had to abandon her home, left to wander, still searching for a "safe place." She is litterally now pitching a tent on top of mountain property where she hopes she will build a new home.
The more we saturate our planet and its atmosphere and our homes and schools with chemicals, the greater the chance some precious vulnerable bodies could pay a price. Their lives forever changed like mine. While odds are I can't meet you at a conference or meeting, I can offer you my voice. For years I kept my thoughts, my anguish, my hopes to myself. Now I will still live in isolation but I will speak out because I don't want you to joins the ranks...of the new homeless.
Caryl Schonbrun lives in Ft. Collins, Colorado with her husband Bob and daughter Jill. She has become an activist for Chemical Injury and works to bring awareness and solutions for people struggling with it.
Mercury Poisoning
Fish: it’s one of the healthiest food choices you can make, but this news series exposes potentially alarming levels of mercury in some kinds of fish. Some estimates say at least 7 million American women have mercury levels higher than what the government says is safe. Michele Gillen traveled the country to reveal this national problem. “Mercury Rising” goes beyond the headlines of a provocative study by a doctor whose work may change the way the nation chooses fish.
CLICK HERE for important phone numbers and websites that can provide you with more information on Mercury poisoning.
CLICK HERE for important phone numbers and websites that can provide you with more information on Mercury poisoning.
Saving Planet Earth heads to Copán
Coming Soon: Award-winning journalist Marcia Izaguirre will report from one of the most pristine corners of Planet Earth, Copán, Honduras, with exclusive interviews with the famed archaeologist who uncovered priceless treasures in this jewel of the Planet.
What can we learn from Copán? Stay tuned ...
What can we learn from Copán? Stay tuned ...
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