Jennifer Languell
Jennifer Languell
Discovery Project Earth
Premieres Friday night at 9 p.m. with two episodes
Episode 1: Engineering the Future
Climate change is the greatest crisis humanity has ever faced. Now a group of scientists and engineers have radical plans to save the planet. In a series of epic experiments, the Discovery Channel puts their ideas to the test.
Episode 2: Wrapping Greenland
Covering the World’s glaciers in reflective geotextile blankets may sound like an extreme way to stop the global melt, but it’s a scheme that’s being taken very seriously.
FORT MYERS — Green.
She likes green.
Jennifer Languell knows how to speak green.
Green building, that is.
Languell is one of the “stars” of Discovery Channel’s new Project Earth series that premieres at 9 p.m. Friday night.
The “Navy brat,” as she calls herself, landed in Fort Myers 18 years ago after graduating with advance degrees in civil engineering from the University of Florida where she also taught building construction and civil engineering.
Some have questioned whether she is really a stand-up comedian because of her personality.
Languell owns Trifecta Construction Solutions, a consulting firm specializing in helping people and companies go green when building or remodeling structures.
She has worked with numerous companies throughout Florida including Collier Enterprises.
Valerie Pike, a project manager for Collier Enterprises, has worked with Languell for almost a year planning the town of Big Cypress — a premier, green-certified development through the Florida Green Building Coalition.
“Collier Enterprises’ experience with Dr. Languell is that she definitely knows what she is talking about,” Pike said. “One thing is for sure, a meeting with Dr. Languell is never boring. Dr. Languell is very organized and carries a wealth of knowledge in her head and in her rolling, designer briefcase.”
Just more than a year ago, Languell had no clue she was going to be tapped as the engineer for the new show.
Out of the green, er, blue, she received a telephone call on a Friday.
The message: Be in New York on Monday for an audition.
“I showed up and there were nine other people,” she said. “I had no idea what was going on.”
The other people had scripts and other items used when an audition is taking place. They had already made it through a first round.
Languell has a sense of humor that is readily apparent whenever someone meets her, so she took the audition in stride.
“I thought, ‘Hey, no big deal. I will do whatever they want me to do,’ ” she said.
On Day 2, they separated the 10 into two groups: a “loud and obnoxious” group and a shy group.
She was in the “loud and obnoxious” group.
“Literally, within less than two weeks, I had been notified I got the job and within a week, I was on a plane to Greenland,” she said.
Not only did she travel to Greenland, but also to France, England, Norway, Japan, South Africa, Canada and the Dominican Republic. The job also took her to Hawaii and Alaska.
One of the boats used during filming was purchased in LaBelle and retrofitted on Florida’s east coast.
“I initially was told there would be five months of filming and we would be in and out, a week here, a week there,” Languell said.
Her thoughts of shows such as this: the people would go back to a cushy motel room. But that wasn’t the case.
“There was no luxury,” she said. “Not a lot of the places have indoor plumbing.” And, there were the times spent in a tent — in the cold.
But, she was quick to add, “I can’t say it was all outdoorsy, there was plenty of scientific and lab work.”
Because she owns Trifecta, she was able — with the help of technology — to be away from her business for days on end and she wasn’t going to miss the opportunity of a lifetime.
Anyone who has seen the Discovery series “Planet Earth,” will relate to the new show.
“This was supposed to be before ‘Planet Earth,’ ” Languell said. “But the powers that be at Discovery said, ‘Well, we should do ‘Planet Earth’ first and make people fall in love with the Earth before we teach them.’ ”
The premise of the new show is to show people how to help themselves and the planet, and to take ideas — no matter how crazy they may sound — by leading scientists and see if those theories work. For instance, Languell and the show’s other two team members will research whether the melting of Greenland’s glaciers can be stopped by covering its land in protective blankets to seeing if they can reforest barren areas by planting thousands of saplings via a mass aerial drop.
Another facet of the show is to determine if the theories are viable or economically feasible in case “we ever get to the point where we do need to do something to intervene on a worldwide basis. Let’s make sure they work before we are in that position,” Languell said. “There’s definitely things we should be doing right now.”
For instance, she said, when people remodel their homes, they can use “green” materials, or if they need to replace a roof, they can upgrade to use solar power.
“The reality is, we’re not trying to save the planet,” she said. “If it wanted to, the planet could get rid of us in a heartbeat. We are trying to save our way of life.”
E-mail Valli Finney at vallimfinney@yahoo.com
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