Call to Earth Week
Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, together with the solutions. Rolex’s Perpetual Planet Initiative has partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action.
November 6th is Call to Earth Day and to celebrate we’ve organized a week long series of live lessons with inspiring scientists, explorers and conservationists who are on the frontlines of our changing planet.
If your class would like to organize a Call ot Earth Week activity, check out some more details here: https://www.cnn.com/world/call-to-earth-day-2025-guard-your-green-space-c2e-spc
Starting in November 2025, Oman 3165 is a seventy day journey by kayak along the coastline of Oman in celebration of World Maritime Day, capturing stories of innovation and biodiversity, celebrating Oman’s rich maritime heritage and using communication technology to inspire the next generation of ocean caretakers for a sustainable future.
Mark Evans has lived in Arabia for over 25 years, and is now based in Scotland. He was awarded the MBE by Her Majesty the Queen for his work using challenging outdoor journeys for personal development and learning and was awarded the Medal of Honour by the Sultan of Oman for his work establishing Outward Bound in the Sultanate.
Pippa Ehrlich is an Oscar- and BAFTA-winning filmmaker and journalist celebrated for her powerful conservation storytelling. She co-directed My Octopus Teacher, My Mercury and, most recently, directed Pangolin: Kulu’s Journey (Netflix, 2025). A member of Sea Change Project and advisor to Netflix Sustainability, she has earned over 20 international awards, including the Wildscreen Golden Panda, Jackson Wild’s Grand Teton and the National Geographic Wayfinder Award. Her background in environmental journalism and freediving informs her deeply immersive approach to filmmaking.
Alison is an ice core scientist and high-altitude mountaineer who explores the history of sea ice in polar and high-alpine regions using ice core chemistry. This involves long months of living in a tent and drilling ice cores in places like Antarctica, Alaska, and the Canadian High Arctic.
As part of Perpetual Planet Expeditions—a partnership between the National Geographic Society and Rolex—Alison led two expeditions to Mount Logan, Canada’s highest mountain. In 2021, she anchored an all-female team of scientists to install the highest weather station in North America near the mountain’s peak. Alison returned in 2022 to successfully retrieve a record-breaking 1,072-foot-long ice core that could contain one of the continent’s most important climate records and will shed light on how climate change impacts even the world’s highest peaks. Alison is an assistant professor and the director of the Canadian Ice Core Lab at University of Alberta, founder and co-director of Girls on Ice Canada.
Join photographer Ami Vitale as she shares photos and stories from her journey documenting the global effort to save the northern white rhino. Najin and Fatu are the last two northern white rhinos in the world, living under the protection of the amazing rangers at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. Through new science, there is a chance that the subspecies may yet be saved from the brink of extinction.
Ami Vitale is a National Geographic photographer, filmmaker, writer, and explorer who has traveled to nearly 110 countries, telling stories that celebrate the beauty and resilience of our world. Her work highlights the deep connections between people and nature and inspires hope and action. She is the founder of Vital Impacts, a nonprofit that uses the power of art and storytelling to support conservation and nurture new voices.
For at least 200 years, the Przewalski’s Horse has been absent from the Golden Steppe of Kazakhstan. Thanks to incredible conservation work at the Prague Zoo, they have been reintroduced to the wild and can once again be found in Kazakhstan. Join Filip Mašek, a spokesperson at the Prague Zoo to learn about the groundbreaking and decades-long conservation work that led to the breeding and reintroduction of the endangered Przewalski’s Horse.
Seaweed might be the greatest untapped resource we have on this planet. Join Vincent to learn how seaweed can feed a growing population, create jobs, help mitigate climate change, and bolster biodiversity. It shaped our past and it could very well save our future…plus it tastes great!
Vincent Doumeizel is the vice president, food, beverage and sustainability for the food programme for Lloyd’s Register Foundation as well as editor of Seaweed Revolution: A Manifesto for a Sustainable Future. Vincent is now co-leading the first international platform for seaweed stakeholders, the Safe Seaweed Coalition. He is also a member of the expert panel, working to define the algae strategy at the European Commission.
Gareth Thomas is a passionate conservation ambassador and the human face of Pangolin: Kulu’s Journey, the Netflix documentary that spotlighted Africa’s most elusive mammal. With a background as diverse as racing and professional poker, he now channels his energy into raising awareness and advocating for pangolin protection. Gareth has used his voice and platform to spotlight pangolin conservation – bringing emotional depth, storytelling, and lived experience to every conversation.
Twelve thousand years ago, dire wolves ruled the Ice Age wilderness of North America—until mysteriously vanishing forever. Now, scientists at Colossal Biosciences have used ancient DNA and cutting-edge biotechnology to bring them back. Join Matt James, Colossal’s Chief Animal Officer, to discover how his team revived the dire wolf, and are now working to “de-extinct” other lost species like the woolly mammoth, Tasmanian tiger, and dodo. Learn how these same technologies are being used to protect endangered animals, restore ecosystems, and inspire a new generation of conservation science.
In 2023, Hari became the first double above-knee amputee to summit Mt. Everest. He’s a father of three, husband and veteran who lost both his legs to an IED in Afghanistan. He’s determined to positively transform how people with disabilities are perceived and how they perceive themselves. Around 12-15% of people around the world have some kind of disability, that’s nearly one billion people. His main message is that whatever is thrown at you, you can live your life to the fullest.
When not speaking and motivating other, Hari is working towards his goal of summiting the highest mountains on all 7 continents and reaching both poles, a feat known as the Explorer Grand Slam. He recently completed his 6th summit, reaching the summit of Puncak Jaya, the highest mountain in Oceania!
Dive deep into our planet to explore underwater caves that few if any people have ever explored before! These caves may be out of sight, but they are important reservoirs of drinking water and hide unique life found nowhere else on the planet.
Maria Bollerup is a highly experienced, technical cave diver. Through her organization, Nixie Expeditions, she specializes in extreme exploration for environmental conservation, leading multi-disciplinary teams of divers, cavers, scientists, and storytellers focused on water around the world.
We’re taking you behind the scenes on the R/V Sikuliaq to show where we work, eat, and sleep while studying the Arctic Ocean. This session dives deeper into how our team gathers data on waves, ice, and ocean conditions, and includes a meet-and-greet with some of the younger scientists on board. They’ll share what motivated them to pursue careers in science and what life is really like on an Arctic research ship.
Join wildlife veterinarian Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka to explore the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest of Uganda – home to half of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas. She’s the Founder and CEO of Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), an award-winning NGO and non-profit that protects endangered gorillas and other wildlife through One Health approaches. In 2015, she founded Gorilla Conservation Coffee to support farmers living around habitats where gorillas are found which won the People. Environment. Achievement award in 2024. She became a National Geographic Explorer in 2017 and won the Sierra Club EarthCare Award in 2018. In 2021, she won the UNEP Champion of the Earth Award in Science and Innovation and the Aldo Leopold Award from the American Society of Mammologists. In 2023, her memoir “Walking With Gorillas: The Journey of an African Wildlife Vet” was published.
Join Paul live from his epic Out of Eden Walk as it has transitioned to North America! We’ll be catching up on his recent journey through Japan and Alaska. Past connections with Paul on his journey have included China, Myanmar, India, and Kyrgyzstan.
Paul’s 21,000-mile Out of Eden Walk is a decade-long experiment in slow journalism, walking from Ethiopia to Tierra del Fuego. Moving at the beat of his footsteps, Paul is walking the pathways of the first humans who migrated out of Africa in the Stone Age and made the Earth ours. Along the way he is covering the major stories of our time—from climate change to technological innovation, from mass migration to cultural survival—by giving voice to the people who inhabit them every day.
For the past 15 years, Under The Pole expeditions have gone to the Geographic North Pole, spent two years in Greenland wintering in the ice and sailed through the Northwest Passage and to Svalbard. These expeditions stand out for the rarity of the images brought back, others for the value of the scientific work and technological innovation in an environment where humankind can only stay on borrowed time: the ocean. To succeed in exploring polar, temperate, and tropical environments—seldom visited because of their difficult access—requires unconventional resources.
Joining us will be Claire De Courcy, the awareness manager at Under The Pole expeditions. She’ll share some of their past explorations and what’s coming up for future explorations.
Join us for a virtual field trip to meet some exciting birds of prey. The Vermont Institute of Sciences (VINS) mission is to motivate individuals to care for the natural environment through education, research, and avian wildlife rehabilitation. The operate New England’s premier avian wildlife rehabilitation clinic at the Nature Center. VINS has been a leader in environmental education and wildlife conservation and care since 1972.
Last Year's Call to Earth Week Lessons
Andrés is a geoscientist, conservationist, author, science communicator and educator, who became the first scientist granted permission to study the Boiling River of the Amazon in 2011. A tri-citizen, Andrés grew up between Peru, Nicaragua, and the United States, all countries where he now has active projects. His primary geoscientific focus is in the field of volcanology and geothermal studies, looking to understand geothermal systems for academic, conservation, and geothermal energy exploration.
Osa Conservation just finished building a huge canopy tower that reaches high into one of the most under-explored ecosystems on the planet! Join us as we climb the tower, pausing at each level of the canopy to explore and learn about this incredible ecosystem, packed with biodiversity. There are a ton of discoveries to be made high in the canopy, including thousands of undiscovered species!
Virtual field trip to the Hertfordshire Zoo in the UK.
Ben is a co-founder of Bureo, an organization focused on creating innovative solutions to ocean plastic pollution. Through the team’s initiative, Net Positiva, Bureo has created Chile’s first ever fishnet collection and recycling program. Net Positiva provides fishermen with an environmentally sound end-of-life solution for their fishing gear, while Bureo receives highly recyclable raw materials to create innovative products that bring net positive solutions to the world. Products include: skateboards, sunglasses, surfboard fins, and Jenga games.
Join us live from the Toucan Rescue Ranch in Costa Rica!!! We’ll learn all about the two and three fingered sloths and meet some of the incredible animals they’re rehabilitating. At TRR they have focused on care, rehabilitation, and release of national wildlife since 2004. TRR provides sanctuary while giving treatment, rehabilitation, and when possible, release to their natural environment. They specialize in toucans, sloths, and owls, however, we have a large array of wildlife from weasels, porcupines, cats, kinkajous, parrots, and so forth.
Nicole has explored from the heights of outer space to the depths of our oceans. A veteran NASA Astronaut, her experience includes two spaceflights and 104 days living and working in space on both the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS). A personal highlight of Nicole’s spaceflight was painting the first watercolor in space.
Nicole is also a NASA Aquanaut, who in preparation for spaceflight and along with her NEEMO9 crew, lived and worked during an 18-day and longest saturation mission to date on the Aquarius undersea habitat.
As an Artist, and now retired from NASA, Nicole combines her artwork and spaceflight experience to inspire creative thinking about solutions to our planetary challenges, to raise awareness of the surprising interplay between science and art, and to promote the amazing work being done every day in space to improve life right here on Earth. She is the founder of the Space for Art Foundation.
Andy is an Emmy Award winning cinematographer and television presenter whose filming adventurers have taken him around the world. He uses the newest camera technology and innovative filming techniques to show a different side of the planet’s most feared and misunderstood predators. Andy specialize in filming sharks, but his projects have included king cobras, killer whales and polar bears. He has more than 100 film credits to his name for the world’s top networks, including National Geographic, BBC, Discovery, Animal Planet and more. His life-long mission is to inspire people to care about our planet and its vanishing wildlife.
For two years, the tall ship Oosterschelde will be sailing around the world following Charles Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle. Along the way we are conducting research, training young conservationists and hosting the World’s Most Exciting Classroom event each week.
The Oosterschelde will be in Hobart, Tasmania and we’ll have a live uplink from the ship, connect with coral biologist Emma Camp who is studying climate resistant super corals, meet a young Darwin Leader, learn about Tasmanian wildlife, try a new experiment and much more!
For years, Derek Gow worked his 400-acres in western England as a conventional sheep and cattle farm. But as both a farmer and conservationist, he knew that wasn’t right for nature. Now, he’s using his experience with British rewilding projects to return his land to what it once was: a healthy, biodiverse ecosystem.
Alysa is a conservation biologist specializing in polar bears; she is based out of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada but spends every fall and part of every summer in Churchill, Manitoba, sometimes called the Polar Bear Capital of the World. Alysa has been studying Canadian polar bears for almost a decade now, focusing largely on the western Hudson Bay subpopulation, one of the first to show impacts of climate change. She currently works for Polar Bears International, supporting research and directing conservation outreach programs, all with a mission to protect the polar bear and its sea ice home for future generations.
KM is a community organizer and conservationist based on Palawan island in the Philippines. She is co-executive director and co-founder of the environmental nongovernment organization Centre for Sustainability PH (CS). CS spearheaded the declaration of Cleopatra’s Needle Critical Habitat, protecting 41,350 hectares of some of the Philippines’ last remaining primary forest in Puerto Princesa, an area rich in incredible biodiversity of plants and animals. Her work at CS is driven by the belief that by connecting communities with their immediate and surrounding environments, we can understand and find sustainable solutions to our planet’s greatest environmental challenges.
Join us as we head to Cornwall in the UK to explore the world’s largest indoor rainforest, you have to see it to believe it! From towering trees to cascading waterfalls, this is one virtual field trip you won’t want to miss. In this session we welcome your students to the Eden Project, UK. Broadcasting live from the Rainforest Biome we begin by giving a brief introduction to Eden – it’s story, mission, the physical site and the construction of the biomes. We then dive into a general tour of the stunning Rainforest Biome, as we go, highlighting weird and wonderful plants and stories from across the world’s rainforests.
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