Tom Brokaw, the former NBC anchorman, hosted Global Warming: What You Need to Know tonight on the Discovery Channel.

Brokaw, 66, says he was inspired to get involved after seeing the Al Gore documentary An Inconvenient Truth on global warming. Brokaw is no stranger to environmental issues ; his wife, Meredith, is VP of Conservation International.

The program - which was made by Discovery and the BBC - suggests that humankind is contributing to a rapid warming of the Earth’s atmopshere with potentially disastrous results, including rising sea levels, hurricanes, and drought.

The show encourages people to take means to slow the rate of global warming, such as conserving energy both on a small scale (unplugging electric appliances when out of use) and large scale (promoting energy-efficient mass transportation).

Next up for Brokaw are documentaries on illegal immigration and the black underclass.