Planet in Peril: a CNN documentary takes viewers around the world to observe some unsettling changes.

As CNN anchor Anderson Cooper knows, traveling with wildlife expert Jeff Corwin is not for the faint of heart. Cooper recently accompanied Corwin and CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, on a trek around the world.

"He goes out in the middle of the night into the jungle with nothing but a little flashlight on his head," Cooper said of Corwin. "I don't like bugs and creepy-crawly things, so that for me was ... my worst nightmare. And I went out with him probably about four or five times, until finally I said, 'That's it. I'm done.' At night, you can hear things flapping by your head, and there are bats, and you can't see anything. Jeff was always hoping to find something, and I of course was always hoping he didn't find something."

The CNN team traveled to Brazil's rain forest and several other "hot spots" to film Planet in Peril, a documentary about the environment. Their report focuses on four key issues facing the planet: climate change, vanishing habitats, disappearing species, and human population growth. They observed everything from rush hour in Beijing, China, a city of about 15 million people, to the melting ice sheet in Greenland.

"There's a lot of debate out there [about the environment], "Cooper told JS. "We really wanted to just take people to the front lines, and show them in a very real way some of the issues, and show them what is happening.... In most of the places we [visited], all of this is very real."

[ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED]

Consider these trends:

* The Earth's temperature has risen more than 1 degree Fahrenheit over the past 30 years.

* Every day, more than 70 species vanish from the planet.

* An area of forest four times the size of Switzerland disappears each year.

Of all that he witnessed during his travels, what image disturbed Cooper most? "When you're flying over the Amazon, you can see these curls of black smoke in ... this amazing sea of green trees. You can literally see the bulldozers bulldozing large plots of land."

Cooper says that Planet in Peril, which airs October 23 and 24, is designed to "inform and to educate. Then it becomes a question of how seriously do people want to take it, how important do [they] believe it is, and what do they want to do about it."

Web Watch: Planet in Peril www.cnn.com/planetperil

* Objectives

* Preparing to watch a news program that examines environmental issues.

* Words to Know

* documentary: a movie or television program about real events; from document: an original or official paper that is offered as the proof of something.

* habitat: the place where an animal or plant naturally lives and grows.

* Before Reading

Ask students what they know about the four issues covered by the documentary: climate change, vanishing habitats, disappearing species, and human population growth. How is each one fostered by people? How does each affect the planet?

Reading prompt: What proof do people offer of human-created changes to Earth?

* During Reading

(1) Scientists say that the largest contributor to climate change is the buildup of carbon dioxide, or C[O.sub.2], released by industry and automobiles into the atmosphere. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that the level of C[O.sub.2] has increased 35 percent since the Industrial Revolution of the late 19th century. The most dramatic change has occurred in tile last century. The IPCC says that an unchecked C[O.sub.2] rise could increase the Earth's temperature another 3.6 to 8.1 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100.

(2) According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the global population has risen from 2.9 billion people to more than 6.6 billion in the past 50 years. That number could grow to more than 9 billion by 2050, severely taxing the world's resources.

* After Reading

* Look around: Have students imagine how each of the four issues might affect their community. Could they stand to lose more woods, lakes, or other natural habitats? Are there animals or plants that would disappear if that happened? Is there a place to put more people if tile population increased dramatically?

* Keep It Going

The intense awareness of climate change and other environmental challenges has triggered some genuine change. Have students research what is being done locally, and how they can help.

RESOURCES

* INTERNET

* Planet in Peril. Official CNN Web site.

www.cnn.com/planetinperil

* Signs From Earth. National Geographic's site on global warming. magma.nationalgeographic. com/ngm/0409/feature1

* BOOKSHELF

* Global Worming: The Threat of Earth's Changing Climate, Laurence Pringle (Chronicle Books, 2003). A thorough presentation with colorful maps. Grades 5-8.

* Human Impact, Carol Garbuny Vogel (Franklin Watts, 2003). How people are affecting the Earth's seas. Grades 5 & up.

* A Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warrming, Laurie, David, Cambria Gordon (Scholastic, 2007). What it is, and how kids can help. Grades 5-6.