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Six-Part Series Premieres Mon, Dec. 8, at 10 p.m. ET/PT

Halfway through this century, 75 percent of the global population will live in cities. The citizens of these sprawling, ever-growing metropolises will burn through resources like food, water and energy at a rate far outpacing that of people living in nonurban areas. Such mass consumption will result in a very large carbon footprint and large amounts of waste, which most scientists agree will speed global warming and pollute cities to the point that each is almost unlivable.

But science has the ability to change the future of Ecopolis. A blueprint for city life in the year 2050, Ecopolis can benefit from new “green” technologies being explored today that will lead to a more sustainable urban experience tomorrow.

In Science Channel’s groundbreaking new six-part series Ecopolis, Nobel Prize-winning scientist Dr. Daniel Kammen uses the Ecopolis blueprint as a test bed for new technologies that could reshape the environmental circumstances of the future mega-city. Each episode investigates several different visionary, technology-driven solutions to specific future mega-city challenges, such as how to produce enough food and water; find clean and reliable energy sources; reduce our reliance on oil for transportation; discover new ways to manage waste; and, increase the energy efficiency of city buildings.

Dr. Kammen evaluates each innovative solution based on scalability and its ability to reduce harmful carbon dioxide emissions. He chooses one technology per episode, according to which is most effective. In the final episode, he ranks the five previously chosen ideas to determine which is most urgently needed to help revolutionize the ecological fate of future cities.