CNN Pressroom - Anderson Cooper 360° today launches “Planet in Peril” – an ongoing series of worldwide reports focusing on the environment. The series will kick off from Brazil’s Amazon rainforest with a look at deforestation’s impact on global warming. Anchor Anderson Cooper will be joined by Jeff Corwin, a wildlife biologist and host on Discovery Channel and Animal Planet.

For years, scientists have linked the rapid deforestation of the Amazon River Basin to changes in the world’s climate. This month in Paris, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report from 2,500 scientists from 130 countries that cited deforestation as a leading contributor to global warming. In the coming months, Cooper will file reports from key locations around the globe, including China and Africa.

“So many environmental issues facing the Earth are inter-connected – from deforestation to population growth to global warming to species loss. To fully grasp the extent of these issues, we must examine all of them,” said David Doss, senior executive producer of Anderson Cooper 360°. “We are going to do our best to tackle these issues and offer viewers the complete story.”

Anderson Cooper 360° is a wide-ranging, unconventional news program that takes a full 360-degree look at the world’s events. The program showcases CNN’s worldwide newsgathering capabilities as well as Anderson Cooper’s unique sensibilities and perspective through a diverse range of live reports and interviews. Anderson Cooper 360° airs on CNN/U.S. each weekday from 10 p.m. to midnight. (ET)

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is one of the world’s most respected and trusted sources for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; four Web sites, including CNN.com, the first major news and information Web site; CNN Pipeline, CNN.com’s premium live news video service; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and partnerships for four television networks and one Web site.