Tuesday night the PBS science program NOVA will feature an Earth Day look at "the Car of the Future." WGBH, the Boston PBS station that produces NOVA sent us an advance copy of the show to take a look at. Tom and Ray Magliozzi, who are perhaps better known to fans of the NPR show Car Talk as Click and Clack, travel the world from Iceland to China and back to their alma mater at MIT. The "Tappet Brothers" are definitely an acquired taste and not everyone is fan of their shtick on the radio show. However, those who have not acquired that taste need not worry as their presence in Car of the Future is actually fairly minimal. John Lithgow does most of the narration tying the various segments together.

For those that are regular readers of our little corner of the web, most of what is discussed in the show will be familiar territory. Nonetheless the show is still a good primer on all of the various technologies that are being worked on including cellulosic biofuels, batteries, plug-in hybrids, weight reduction and more. The guys visit with Amory Lovins at the Rocky Mountain Institute, Martin Eberhard at Tesla (while he was still there), Andrew Frank at UC Davis and plenty of others. During a segment filmed during the introduction of the Chevy Volt last year, Tom and Ray speak with GM VP Energy and Environment Beth Lowery about choice. Keep reading after the jump.

Update: Check your local listings for time, but NOVA typically runs at 8 or 9 pm on most PBS stations.

According to a story in the LA Times, Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" didn't reach Christian evangelicals, a group that is eager to join the fight against global warming. Tonight on many PBS stations, Bill Moyers presents "Is God Green," a documentary supported by Rev. Richard Cizik of the National Assn. of Evangelicals.

Said Cizik in the Times: "We tried to get evangelicals to go see 'Inconvenient Truth,' but they just wouldn't go, even when we offered free tickets. I respect Mr. Gore for telling the truth, but he's not the best messenger in our community. For our people, this has to be presented as a moral issue. And a lot of people simply wouldn't accept Al Gore, God bless him, as a spokesman on moral issues."

So the immoral former vice president gives way to Moyers, a reborn Christian. Moyers is charged with presenting an issue that puts green evangelicals in a politcal quandary. They support Pres. Bush and his opposition to abortion and gay marriage but are also resentful of his close ties to oil companies and reluctance to stop global warming.

Moyers feels the Republication addiction of many religious leaders such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson demonized the environmental movement because it was supported by Hollywood liberals.

There are religious leaders who still call global warming "the greatest hoax ever perpetuated on the American people," so Moyers and his followers have a tough assignment. Should be worth watching.

[Source: LA Times]

Related posts:

• News release from National Council of Churches
• PBS: Moyers on America