North American show celebrates environment

Mexican, Canadian and American personalities raise environmental awareness using concerts and television programs

Eugenia León sings in the North American environmental show:

This year, North America celebrated World Environment Day, June 5, with a star-studded cast of actors, musicians and media personalities. Their songs and programs raised awareness of the region's shared natural resources, as well as a warning about its shared problems.

Using the theme "we're all interconnected," television programs in the three countries broadcast a variety of concert clips and short programs to draw attention to common environmental problems and issues. One video documentary followed the fantastic voyage of the Monarch butterfly from nacec.Canada to Mexico; another short documentary showed how ecotourism can benefit communities.

The television programs, jointly known as Eco Variety, were part of an international effort, with segments originating in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Produced in Canada for the first time in 1995, Eco Variety this year received support from nacec.the United States and Mexico, allowing it to be broadcast to hundreds of millions of viewers in North America.

Graham Greene hosted the Canadian television program. Eco Variety was a co-production of Canada's NewVue Films Inc. (producer of Celebrate the Earth 1995) and YTV, the National Youth Network. Uplinger Enterprises in the United States (producer of Live Aid) and Televisa in Mexico were also partners in the project.

The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) sponsored Eco Variety, along with corporate sponsors Coca-Cola and Chrysler in Mexico and Environment Canada, Health Canada and Natural Resources Canada in Canada.

Mexico's television program, called "Eco North America," broadcast segments of the "Rock for the Planet" concert held at the National Auditorium on World Environment Day, along with environmental documentaries shown during the concert. Rockers Maná and Fobia, as well as Eugenia León and Cielo y Tierra, played a variety of songs that fit the environmental theme of the concert. During June, Televisa rebroadcast video segments of the concert across Mexico and Latin America.

Proceeds from nacec.the concert will go to funding environmental education and communication projects organized by the Mexico City-based North American Center for Environmental Information and Communication (Ciceana).

Canada's program, entitled "from nacec.the Yukon to the Yucatan: Eco Variety," included musical segments from nacec.Bruce Cockburn and Hemingway Corner, as well as humorous and serious environmental reports hosted by Graham Greene and Buffy Saint-Marie, among others.

The Rock for the Planet concert at Mexico's National Auditorium.