Living Planet

This week on Living Planet, we head to South Africa, Kenya and Namibia to look at different ways conservation has taken root to sustain some of the region's most iconic species. We'll examine some of the problems with classical models of conservation and what alternatives there are to meet the needs of people who share space with these animals.

As the world opens up to tourism again, we hear from one place in the world that is being visited to death, and talk about why a lot of tourism — including the "eco" kind — needs a rethink. But don't worry, we also chat to a responsible travel expert about what we can do. Then, we go underground to explore how life down there supports life up here in all manner of complex, vital and magical ways.

This week on Living Planet – As Europe and North America deal with record-breaking heatwaves, we look at how cities from Ahmedabad, India to Athens, Greece handle the heat. When drought makes water a mere mirage – what are communities to do? Italy and Somalia are both struggling with diminishing water supplies. And in an odd twist, drought is also revealing some hidden secrets of the past.

This week on Living Planet – In India's cold desert, farmers have found ways to grow food year-round, but climate change is creating new obstacles. Our CO2 addiction is making living conditions worse for women around the world. And a volcanic eruption in the Canary Islands shows that what nature may need isn't always what humans want to deal with.

This week, Living Planet brings you another podcast we think you'll enjoy: the Africa Climate Podcast. As the climate — and the weather — changes, early warning systems are crucial to communities' safety and even to countries' economic growth. But how do these services work and who still has yet to get them?

We talk to environmentalist Bill McKibben about what the war in Ukraine really shows us about the climate crisis and a key aspect people have been missing in the fight against it. We also travel to a place bearing the consequences of Germany's exit from Russian coal. And, from Lithuania, we ask: how is the climate crisis changing the way we understand seasons?

We unpack the science of climate attribution, as scientists find South Asia’s extreme heatwave was made significantly more likely by climate change. In India, we hear how the record temperatures are inflaming the country's waste problem — literally. And, how transforming transport in Kenya could help the country cut emissions fast.

Australians are heading to the polls in what many see as a last-chance climate election, as the fossil-fuel-friendly country reels from years of extreme weather worsened by climate change. In India, a lesser-known consequence of burning coal is hurting people and ecosystems. And in Uganda, farmers are finding the chemicals they're putting on their crops are far more dangerous than they thought.

In today's episode, we dive underwater to visit creatures great and very, very small. Some of them are vocal, some are vital for the air we breathe and, sadly, many of them are threatened. How can we better protect life in the oceans? Plus — the environmental toll of your monthly bleed, and how menstrual products tell the story of the modern world, from capitalism to patriarchy to pollution.

On Living Planet today – European countries have been scrambling to find new energy sources to reduce their dependence on Russia, but some countries still need Russian exports, and not just for oil and gas. In India's thickly polluted capital, engineers are building special schools so that students can focus on their studies. And we tag along with refugees doing the work of recycling in Turkey.

We reveal an environmental crime that is contaminating the world's oceans and going largely undetected. We also hear about California's bid to turn an environmental disaster zone into a lithium goldmine. Plus, how extreme drought is thwarting Morocco's plans to become a pioneer of green energy.

Where do nature and art meet? From the vast majesty of the Antarctic to the neat symmetry of a beehive, environmentally-minded artists find inspiration in the sounds of the natural world. And from the Gambia to Namibia, outreach programs show the importance of citizens and scientists working together to conserve some of Africa's most iconic plants and animals.

Climate journalist Stella Levantesi, climate communication researcher John Cook and Wikimedia strategist Alex Stinson join Sam Baker for an engaging round-table discussion on how factually inaccurate and misleading information about the environment travels around the web - and what to do about it.

This week on Living Planet — a unique approach to dealing with illegal gold mining in Mozambique, how Indigenous crabbers in the Pacific Northwest of the US are greening their fishing fleet, and what you need to know from the latest IPCC report on climate change.

Today on the program, we speak with Fridays for Future activist Luisa Neubauer, who reflects on four years in a movement for climate action. California has a new law targeting food wasters, but it's not without a few hurdles. And why is tropical Costa Rica facing water shortages?

This week, Living Planet brings you another podcast we think you'll enjoy: Out There. When we move from one place to another, sometimes our standards and perceptions of the environment around us can change. Our baselines shift. In this story of air pollution, one journalist finds that comparing himself to others isn't always helpful.

As the climate heats up, we hear about the dry future predicted for one of Scotland's best known exports. We travel to East Africa, where Somalians — desperate for climate aid — are taking the salt out of seawater to solve worrisome water shortages. We also ask how — indeed, if — clean Bitcoin could fix the currency's carbon footprint, and learn how to zap the methane out of cow dung.

We ask a climate economist if Putin’s war in Ukraine could see the world fast-track a switch to renewables. From the Southern Hemisphere, we hear about the record-breaking "megafloods" devastating Australia's east coast and the twin threat of flooding and rising sea levels engulfing Indonesia. Plus, the Italian farm that wants to save its animals from setting hoof in the slaughterhouse.

In a week of landmark environmental announcements, we ask: is it too late to halt the climate crisis? We also hear about plastic recycling in Nairobi, as a groundbreaking UN resolution is passed in that same city that could ban global plastic production. Plus, the slimy, green future of plant-based protein.

Climate change can seem far away from our daily lives. But behind headlines about melting ice sheets, devastating droughts and the collision of wildlife and agriculture are ordinary people. This week we meet the Indian farmers, the Greenlandic sled dog owners and the average South Africans facing mental health struggles who are all living with the effects of climate change.

We get a sobering breakdown on the extreme weather events facing most Indians amid the unfolding climate crisis. A climate scientist tells us what "positive tipping points" are and how understanding them can help us get out of this mess. Plus, what's going on with France's new electronics right to repair regulations?

This week, we tackle a few thorny subjects. In South Africa, we look at poaching – not of animals, but of plants! Plants that could be sitting on your windowsill right now. We also take up the divisive topic of nuclear energy. And why protecting forests in the Democratic Republic of Congo is so crucial.

This week on Living Planet, we take a look at harmful chemicals that stay in our bodies, forever. Where do they come from and what risks do they pose? And we ask what the future holds, for athletes and winter sport enthusiasts, as the 2022 Olympic Games open in Beijing, China.

The highest peak on the African continent has inspired locals and travelers alike over the centuries. But climate change is melting its ice cap and impacting those whose livelihoods are tied to it – from tour guides who regularly climb the 5,895 meter dormant volcano to Maasai farmers who live around its base.

How a vulture restaurant is helping bring the bird back from the brink in Nepal. The quest to make a "super breed" of the beloved Ugandan banana so it can withstand the pests and diseases that farmers have fought for decades. And how the residents of Gothenburg in Sweden are redesigning their city to make it the best in the world when it's raining — which is pretty often.