Planet in Peril press release

Animal Planet’s Jeff Corwin, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta at the premiere of CNN's "Planet in Peril" at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on October 17, 2007 in Hollywood , California . Part I of “Planet in Peril” debuts on CNN on Oct. 23 at 9 p.m. ET; Part II on Oct. 24 at 9 p.m. ET.


CNN is pulling out all the stops for the PiP premiere.

PLANET IN PERIL, PART I

Tonight, this worldwide investigation, reported by CNN's Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and Animal Planet's Jeff Corwin starts in the back alleys of Bangkok ’s colorful and chaotic “JJ Market,” a major center of the global black market animal trade. Steve Galster, co-founder of the conservation group Wildlife Alliance, that has confiscated more than 17,000 wild animals, takes the crew through training with Thai law enforcement as they protect native and endangered species from illegal traders.

Next, the documentary travels to Madagascar , home of rare amphibians caught during a Wildlife Alliance raid, to reveal from the air how the island nation has destroyed nearly 85 percent of its forests – where some of the world’s rarest species live – as many as 22 varieties discovered within the last 15 years. Elsewhere, the team reveals efforts to save other endangered species including a wounded tiger in Cambodia ’s Bokor National Park and a young elephant hobbled by a poacher’s snare. In China , the team examines how the most populous nation in the world houses 16 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world and will likely become the No.1 emitter of greenhouse gases within the next year.

In U.S. , the team discovers that of the roughly 80,000 chemicals and synthetics that exist in myriad products available in the U.S. , only 25 percent are tested for safety. Nearly every American shows signs of PCBS, mercury, lead and other contaminants within their blood streams, and children show higher concentrations than adults.

PLANET IN PERIL, PART II

In Part II, CNN's Anderson Cooper and Animal Planet's Jeff Corwin skim across the Greenland ice sheet on a snowmobile to a giant gap in the ice, where a river rushes beneath a glacier. They witness similar effects on the ice along Alaska ’s Beaufort Sea , and discover how these changes are affecting the survival of the polar bear.


From the Arctic, the team travels to the South Pacific’s Carteret Islands , which might be one of the first places on Earth to feel the full effects of rising sea levels and ocean temperatures. Meanwhile, waters recede in the central African desert where CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta visits a family of fishermen who used to live on the banks of Lake Chad but now walk miles just to get water. Examining deforestation, Cooper and Corwin travel to Brazil ’s Amazon basin where patches of rainforest the size of New Jersey are cut down annually. They confront poachers in a tense stand-off between illegal hunters and government agents.

Also in this episode, Cooper takes questions posed by skeptics of climate change and looks at whether pollution from petroleum companies in Texas is a source of pediatric leukemia.

Also for the countdown, CNN's red logo turns green.