Hollywood, Health & Society, a program of the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center, took more than 35 film and TV writers and producers on an exclusive, behind-the-scenes Storybus Tour to the sprawling JPL campus to learn about climate change and mitigation efforts—a few of them positively sci-fi-esque—from the scientists and engineers working on the front lines to address the crisis.

"JPL is at the forefront of climate science research," said Kate Langrall Folb, director of Hollywood, Health & Society, calling global warming the most important health issue of our time.

The tour featured presentations from some of JPL's leading experts, along with stops throughout the complex to see the mission control room for unmanned flights that included the 2012 landing of the Mars rover Curiosity, and the spacecraft assembly room, where technicians were meticulously piecing together the SMAP satellite for launch soon, which will map soil moisture. It's part of a new and ambitious campaign of exploration that targets Earth instead of distant galaxies called "Your Planet Is Changing/We're On It," which includes five science missions in the coming year designed to measure our home's vital signs.

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