Our Planet Earth

Our Planet Earth is a 3 minute feature that runs on Evolution 107.9, which is BCIT’s very own radio station. The feature covers issues that we face in the environment today. In a typical episode, whoever is producing the feature that week will sit down with an expert in the field of whatever topic that episode will gravitate around. For example, if the episode is on plastic, a good person to talk to could be someone who works at a landfill, or even better, a manufacturer that uses plastic. Essentially the goal is to have an informative and educational episode on the topic. The angle of the topic may vary depending on who’s doing the episode that week. All episodes of Our Planet Earth are produced at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) at the Burnaby campus by the Radio Arts and Entertainment students. 

Among the vast umbrella of issues our planet faces is the emission of greenhouse gasses, in particular those emitted by cars. I sit down with Motoring TV Test drive host Russ Bond in this episode about vehicle fuel emission. We talk about different types of vehicles and whether or not electric cars are the way of the future or not. The answer may surprise you!

 

We’ve all heard of rehab *cough* Johnny Manziel. But there is also rehab for birds. Yup! But it’s not due to disease or illness or addiction. It’s when they get injured and are unable to fly. They’re taken to rehab to help them fly again. Then they’re released into nature again! We chat with Mindy Dick of Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Society (OWL) about it.

 

There’s this thing that happens only once a year. It happens in Port Coquitlam. The Hyde Creek Salmon Festival. Basically, the chum and coho salmon return to their spawning grounds at Hyde Creek. It’s a free family event. We chat with the director, Susan Ingram about what the festival’s all about, its importance, and what it means to the community.

 

Every summer, a natural phenomenon happens that ravages devastation across the world. Wildfires. In BC, the summers are known to scorch away hundreds of hectares of forest. The summer of 2015 was brutal for that, a lot of forest was lost. We chat with Ryan Turcot, a provincial fire officer, about the natural phenomenon.