children's book author lynn cherry captures youth making positive changes for the earth in her original film series "young voices for the planet." coming up on "earth focus." >> the mountains of maryland, lynn cherry spends many of her days over a drawing table. she has been writing and illustrating children's books for over 30 years. >> the most popular is the great tree, and that's the tale of the amazon rain forest in which a

man goes down to the forest and cuts down a tree and all the animals whispering in his ear while he's sleeping and he wakes up and he has an epiphany and he doesn't cut the tree down. and it's about power for one person to do good or harm. >> lending her talalent as an artist, lynn has devoted much of her recent work to climate change, even publishing a book specifically designed for children and parents. >> i i think that my interest i the environment grew out of my love for nature. i had an experience when i was a little kid where i had these woods that i loved and i came pack and they were bulldozing it. they completely desestroyed it. it w was a really trtraumatic experience and that's when i began thinking t the adults don really know whahat they're thinking. i began to question. when i was first illustrating children's books and i would go out and i would talk to kids about the rain forest or about

rivers or about endangered species, sometimes they get really upset. sometimes they would cry.. and i realize this isn't really being very effective. i came to realize that if i shared with them success stories of other kids and as i'm traveling around the country, there are so many kids coming up to me and saying we saved this trtract of land d or we cleaned our local river. these stories, these are really powerful. and i realize when kids are engaged like that, that's the gift i wanted to give them. i wanted to show kids that t th had power. and ii could do that simply by sharing their stories, what they were doing. >> and sharing those stories effectively meant going beyond books to films that can easily be seen onlnline. her seriries, "young voices for the planet," shows how young people can make a global ifference.

> i'll race you! come back. et's to the creek. >> we went down two hills. >> do you hear that? that's the broad shoulder hawk. it's really close. do you want to go find it? come on. let's go this way. >> i love birds because they're so interesting. they are beautiful. they allll have personalities. i think the reason that a lot of people have chosen birds as the symbol of the environment is

because they have a sesee of freedom. they can fly. hey own the air. >> my dad hasas a family that lives on the coast of the gulf of mexico. those beaches are beautiful. or at least they were. the animals there were amazing. -- it was going back to them. and the brown pelicans. -- the gray her win who has heron who has become my best friend. she will swallow the fish head-first. >> catasastrophic disaster at s. a column of f fire blasting int the sky. the expxplosion happened aboard mobile offshore e drilling unit cacalled the deep water horiziz.

>> m more than 175 million galls of oil have spewewed into the gulf. >> when i first heard about the oil spill, you know, it broke my heart. >> my dad and m my g grandfathe were talking. >> olivia heard that it was spilling into the gulf. >> they were as angry as could be because they grew up loving those pristine beaches and those waters and seen those birds. >> after we spoke to my father-in-law, we had dinnerer d olivia, i had nevever seen her upset. >> i started breaking down crying at the table and i couldn't help it. it's the thought that was running through my head was it's nesting season for the birds. what are we going to do? >> she knew immediately that the brown pelicans would bebe feedi

their babies, that they would not leave their nests. >> i knew those birds were going to be affecteded and some of th won't make it. thinking about it, that whole night, i decided to write a letter. >> it was signed 11 years old and would like to help. >> the letter basically said i will do 500 drawings for people who donate, they would get drawings. and who most? maybe i'll raise $200. 'll try. i've drawn ever since i was a little girl and ever since i could hold a pencil. >> the donations started a couple of weeks after the explosion of the rig. >> the drawings were called for. it took me three months to finish them. [laughter]

>> it was such a media whirlwind. >> first, it went to the mobile press register. then it spread to the u.k. >> "the guarardian" u.k.k. publd an article sayaying school sham b.p. from there, it went viral. > and then it was going crazy. my mother was getting like 100 e-mailils an hour.r. >> belgian newspapers, italian tv. >> my mom was having a heart attack. >> "people." >> 144 million people have seen my story two months. 144 million people. it tells you people love to help but they just don't know how. that's why i think they need a role model like a youth that says even a child could do it,

so could i. i could make a difference. >> her illustrations are just beautiful. they really are. 1111-year-old girl. what's really astonishihing is w that message that kids can make a difference m made global big time. and that t was so important. yes, the $200,000 that cleaned off all those hundreds of birds, that was really great but also that kids now know millioions o kids now know that kids can make a big difference. >> olivia encouraged us to meet with our representatives in washington, d.c. to advocate for alternative energy and the birds . we actually met with ken salazar. >> we should stop offshore drilling. stopelying on other countries. have you ever seen a solar panel break down and it ends the whole eco-system and destroys the whole way of life for people and animals?

have you ever heard of a solar sill? you don't have to do whahat i d. but everything that you do for our planet helps. >> she just sees the big picture and she has the love for the birds. she understands that she has the power to maybe influence thehe y we allow o oil comompanies t to pollute. and she knows that there's a bigger policy issues and that we need to support renewable energy legislatively through congressional mandate. >> i've always enjoyed livivingn the e brook shirirs because e i it to be a very uniqueue close-knit place to live.

we have a very expensive vegetable garden. we've been getting beef and pork from a local farmer. and we get our own eggs from our hickens. so in eighth grade,, i saw whah ththe high scschool students we doingg with the studenent initiative and i thought i it w fantastitic and i knew i wantedo be a part of it the second i got into high school. > i first startrted working the food project my junior year. my friend, sophie randolph, graduated last year. she started the food ininitiati with z zoe borden. >> we both felt that an issue was school lunches. >> if i have to o eat pizza, i will. bubut i don't know. it's neverer looooked appealing me. >> i'm a vegetarian and they don't reallyy offer vegetarian options in the cav feara.

>> we represent ththe student body. they want t better lunches. >> i eat almost every day in the cafeteria. >> we saw a lot of processed foods in our lunches. it doesn't have as many nutrients as fresh foods. we get servedd cut peaches in syrup but we have these amazing peaches that are growiwing out here. . we have great apples that grow actually right next to us on a windy hill farm and we're getting sererved apples in plasc bags that are presliced. why t tap into our natural resources? that realllly started the discussion that if it was even fees tangible to the lununch ar and everyone said yeah, we should do that. >> it's really hard for schools to change because there are all these rules like health code and in the school cafeteria. people are really up against the wall. but these kids were able to figure out a way that they could

basically provide a lununch for the students for almost the same price. >> we planned a local lunch pilot day. > junune h has this phenomenal personality and we thought that instead of using canned vegetablbles, we should s suppl local vegegetables are sauteed, squash, onions, garlic, cheese. >> yep. >> the lurch was fantastic. and -- lunch was fantastic and people really loved it. >> our cafeteria purchases through cisco, which in tururn gets their fooood from o other sources. who knows where? shipipping this food all around this world to get into our cafeteria creates a huge amount of c.o.2.

a main contributor of global warming. for example, locally grown apple travels 61 miles whereas conventionally sourced apples travel 1,726 miles. so, you can see how much carbon that's really creating. it's a lot of carbon. we all r really carere about decreaeasing our c carbon footp which h we live in i it's such beautiful someplace and we want to preserve that. project sprout was started five years ago by three student who is decided that they wanted more local and fresh vegetableles fr the cafeteria. here is ourr greenhouse and her we grow radishs and l lettuce during the winter. other root vegetables that go up through the cafeteria. carrots, spinach, t tomatoes. >> peoeople come out on satutur where there's kids from the school or people around the community.

we weed the garden, plant the garden, harvest. >> that food in turn, gets served i in the cav feara. >> they bring in lunches from the local garden, like fresh veggies and food. so that's kind of nice. >> one of our main problems at project sprout is our main growinseseasons s in the summer when school is s not in session. so we've been working with the -- - co-oop opt to to create a bartering system. >> theyy will sell that produce and in the summer,, w when they neneed it in return, we'll simp give them that product i in exchchange. >> oncee we hahad the pililot l undeder or belt, we were grante one day a month that we could otally take over the menu. >> pressure food will have more

nutrients and kids will have ore energy during the day. >> kids can be engaged, they can do meaningful work in what is that other kids can't t possibl >> one of the mamain concerns a food -- that food servivices ha wawas they didn't have e enough stafaff. you haveve to prepare fresesh f. you can't just unfnfreeze it. you can't just take it out of a can. so it was more work and so that's where we step in and so i we will help with the extra work. we have students in the cateteria mixing after codeos, teachers cutting vegetables. but they were concerned we weren't foodod safe certified s we said we will l get food safe certified. charlie and i i went to a nine-hour seminar. we went what temperatures foods need to be cooked at. how to avoid contaminatition. we all passed with flying colors

and receceived our crededit accusation -- certification. >> we planned a rotating schedule so each one of us can plan without a local chef each month. >> in october, i worked with brian to get the red line. i went to the red line inn and we worked out menu. >> the red line ordrdered a pri winning g steer from the local fair. and brian said we want to use it for the local meatloaf. >> and he had all the local farms delivered to him and he got all of it and delivered to us a and he c cooked it w with students also helped out and it was a good day. >> not only was our meatloaf grass-fed, it was a a really grt opopportunity for us to show students where our food is coming from. we realize that local food day every mononth was a big process. >> we want to move of it the student hands into the cafeteria

hands because that would be a way tah make it long-lasting. >> so we're aimiming towardrd tt a local few items i in our luncs a fefew times a week. >> we purchased more frfrom loc farms and locacal grocery store than obviouslyly. that gives them some business and increase their local economy and i think that's a great goal to work towards. >> our generation, wear the ones that will going to have to be the problelem solver fofor tomo. and why nonot start here and reduce our carbon footprint and buy creatively? >> and that was creatively. this is not in the movie because since after thehe movie was don they starteded a store in their school. so they make food from all local ingrededients and they -- it's part of the business course at the school. and they're providing fresh local organic -- a lot of vegetarian food for the students all day. they to come by and have really good food.

>> because the sea level change, miami, out of all the cities in the world will have the greatest economic loss. >> at a certain point, is there anything we can do? e have to start thinking that. we're the green team! >> melissa, maddie, melissasa a ninicole wanted to g go beyond classroomm with what they hahad learnened about energy and envivironmentatal science and ma difference in their school and community. >> we started d by turning off comperers. >> recycle. >> turn offf lights. >> we weather stripped the doors and windows so the air canan't escape so consererve air-conditioning. >> we turned off the about units and opened d the windows and doors. >> there arere so many littltle

ingsgs t that you can do that wl save enenergy and money. >> we have the green thermometer. we received energrgy that we we saving. >> it became a nonprofit school that reducuce our cararbon footprint.t. we saved ten's of thousands of dollars. >> we learned how our action affected the environment. >> we're able to vastly d decree the amouount of enenergy our sc used. >> going green is s a win-winin situationn for everybody.. my eigighth grade e year, we sa $39,000. and then the year after thahat,e saved another $14,000. >> we made a presentation for school boaoard members about ho the entire d district could be more environmementally frienend. >> and they y also saw the financial benefits of going green. >> the savings were astronomical. it was e exciting to go to scho board members. you could d say look, you have idea how much money you could be saving. >> what's really interesting about ththis storyry, i thinknk

that it t didn't just stop ther nicole's father owned buildings in miami. and at first, he was not supportive of what they were doing. then, when they saved $53,000, he went out and he exchanged the air-conditioning units in his buildings for energy store. and he saved a lot of money, thousands of dollars. and so, not onlnly did those gis affect their school,l, they end up helping their parents save money and their community save money and the businesses saveve moneney. so you canan see how what kids n do can cascade down through a commmmunity andd really, make a huge difference. >> small changes that add up to big savings. >> you can savee millions s of dollars and this is just one small county in florida. can you imamagine if anany othe county d did this? can n you i imagine if every ot state did this?

>> it's rigight o on every leve >> if you keepep tryrying, you t lose. you're saving money and more importantly, you're saving the planet. >> kids do have power. kids have a say in what happens. i felt like i could change things. could strap on my apabilities. >> my name is felix. i'm 11 years old from germany. two years ago, after the w wm weatather, my teacher ask me to gigive a presentation about t t climimate crisisis. >> fel c came homeme and said h, i have to make a p power firirm presentatition next week. i said but you need toto do tha i have no idea how to do that. >> finally, he w worked out by

himself. he was researching on the internet and he learned about -- >> i found out that this man planted 30 m million trees in africa in 30 years. so i thoht if he can plant 30 million trtrees, we studentsts germany can also plant one million trtrees. this is the first tree we have planted. it's an apple tree. this tree was that size when we planted it two years ago. each tree that we plant takes up 10 kilos of co2 everyry year. anand each tree is a s symbol f climate justice. wewe've already done sisix plant the academy. at the academy, thererere scientists giving presentatioio, sometimes i'm giving presentations. my presentation is about climate

justice. client justice means that every person in the world is allowed to pollute the air with two tons of c carbon. now as of today, in the u.s. america pollutes the air with 20 tons of carbon a year, an average german or european, 10 ons of carbrbon a year. and africa, a half a ton. today, i'm working together with thousands of other students in germany and many other countries to plant one million trees in ach country. we're learning about different kinds of trees. >> we're here in the forest and we're planting some trees to help climate change. > we have already planted 29 0,000 trees in germany.

anand 550,000 trees are already pledged. there are adults and politicians that changeded how to talk and really understood what i talked about. >> he knows that children can do something. they can change a lot. and they can make a difference. [applause] >> if the adults don't do enough, we have to do it because we will liveve on earth f for anothehe80 or 9090ears. and our children will live even longer. >> felix really cares about future generations. and at the end of the movie, of all the movies, this is the one that where tears flow because it is -- when he sits there in the woods in this beautiful forest and he says that if the adults aren't going to do something, then we have to do it.

then it just hits you. it really gets to your heart. all ththe young people who i filmed possesess a huge sensnse compassion for the rest of the world and empathy. so, they have the ability to think beyond themselves and their own personal wants and needs and they have a sense of themselves in a continuum that it's not just we're here now, but there are generations to come. and so, each ending is very -- it's sort of turning it over to the audience and saying now, you can make a difference. yes, we made a difference, but you can make a difference. so, for instance, in olivia's oil spill, at the end, she says you don't have to do what i did, but whatever you do counts. and alex says kids have power. so at the end of each movie, that's the end of the message is that kids have power and kids can make a difference.

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like t the non-aligned movementn [applause] danny: i do want to first of all thank kenny [indistinct] and also nina simone for--simon for her--for their extraordinary work and for providing me with this opopportunity to b be herere ate 24th celebration of bioneers. i tried to remember the last time i was here, and it must've been at least a decade ago. and it's has grown