So says Van Jones, president of the Ella Baker Center, about how imperiled our planet is if we don’t change our ways. Jones is just one of the guest experts in episode one of Big Ideas for a Small Planet called “Power,” airing April 1. This is the kickoff to the series’ second season on Sundance Channel’s The Green Presented by Robert Redford. I attended a preview screening last week in Manhattan where we were shown a handful of this season’s episodes, including “Power,” “Fashion,” and “Gadgets.” Each half hour episode of Big Ideas will be followed by a feature-length documentary.

The interstitial series “Eco-Biz” and “Ecoists” will, once again, be hosted by award-winning environmental journalist Simran Sethi, and community advocate and MacArthur Fellow, Majora Carter, presenting insights into green issues and stories of “eco-heroes.” I loved the segments on these “eco-heroes,” because they are everyday people–businessmen and women, farmers, teachers, researchers–whose life work has become dedicated to finding new and innovative ways for all of us to live greener lives. With the launch of The Green in 2007, the Sundance Channel became the first network in the US to dedicate a major regularly-scheduled program entirely to the environment. In its second season, the show will continue to offer focused, entertaining sources of information and inspiration on how every human being can become a greener citizen, by providing ideas and tangible ways to revamp all facets of our lives–the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the dwellings we inhabit, the products we buy, the cars we drive, etc.

Each episode revolves around a different green theme, spotlighting three specific innovators, from scientists to fashion and product designers, entrepreneurs to inventors, accompanied by the intelligent ponderings of people like geneticist and author, David Suzuki, GOOD Magazine founder, Ben Goldhirsh, and former Talking Heads frontman and bicycle advocate, David Byrne. They also have a wonderful slate of documentaries to accompany each episode, films like Oliver Hodge’s Garbage Warrior (see my blog post below), Jennifer Baichwal’s Manufactured Landscapes, The Nuclear Comeback by Justin Pemberton, Ian Cheney’s wonderful The Greening of Southie, Les Blank and Gina Leibrecht’s All in This Tea (the pretty picture is a still from Blank and Leibrecht’s film), Gregory Greene’s Escape from Suburbia, David Novack’s Burning the Future: Coal in America, Jeremy and Randy Stulberg’s Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa, Contested Streets: Breaking New York City Gridlock by Stefan Schaefer, Brenda Longfellow’s Weather Report, James Jandak Wood’s Crude Impact, Yves Billy’s Strait Through the Ice and Michael Taylor’s The Great Warming–an amazing line-up. Tune in and discover that, contrary to what Kermit the Frog says, it is pretty easy being green. The 13-week series runs from April 1 to June 24.