Costing the Earth

Have we been lied to about the quality of the air we breathe? Do car manufacturers, regulators and farmers have some explaining to do about their emissions to the atmosphere? Tom Heap investigates. Producer: Martin Poyntz-Roberts.

Urban Britain is paving over its front gardens. Lawns, hedges and hollyhocks are being replaced by tarmac and car ports. Each garden may be tiny, but with over 50 million front gardens in the UK, the numbers really add up. It's an environmental problem, quite literally on our doorsteps, and Jheni Osman is finding out what can be done about it. In Ealing, West London, Jheni meets Leigh Hunt, Hortic...

As the oceans absorb manmade carbon emissions a chemical reaction takes place which is making sea water more acidic. This subtle shift in pH level is having a profound effect on the sea animals which use calcium carbonate to form their shells and skeletons and Marine Biologists are now discovering that this could have implications across the world's oceans. Already shellfish industries in America...

Britain still owns islands large and small across the globe, from Pitcairn to South Georgia and Bermuda to Ascension. Could we use the waters around these territories to protect vast swathes of the oceans from overfishing and development? Tom Heap meets the islanders and the conservationists eager to see if Britain really can lead the way. He takes to the water to see how Gibraltar is using its sp...

How noisy is the underwater environment? Tom Heap dips beneath the surface to find out if man-made noise is affecting the marine life that lives below the waves. Costing The Earth begins a new series with three programmes investigating the health of our oceans. The team tackles ocean acidification and how the UK plans to protect marine areas in its overseas territories but first Tom Heap delves in...

The little Scottish island of Eigg is teaching the world how remote communities can power themselves with clean, green energy. Tom Heap meets the locals who've built the pioneering system and the international visitors who are eager to learn their secrets. Producer: Alasdair Cross.

In May 1985 Joe Farman, Jonathan Shanklin and Brian Gardiner of the British Antarctic Survey published their paper in the scientific journal Nature. It revealed there was a large and expanding hole in the ozone layer above the Antarctic and that the cause was the chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs then commonly used in aerosols and refrigerants. The size and speed at which the hole had formed was alarmin...

How will the next government tackle Britain's environmental problems? The politics of the environment and our food supply are vital for the future of the planet. Tom Heap hosts a debate asking if this election campaign has raised the issues that need addressing. What specific commitments have the political parties made on nature? Where are the big ideas to tackle climate change? How can we secure...

China has powered its development with water. When it needed energy for industry it built the largest hydro-electric dams in the world. When the farmland and factories of northern China were threatened with drought an enormous canal was built to pipe supplies from the south. China has the engineering skill, the capital and the will to challenge the limits that nature sets on development. But the e...

Tom Heap investigates whether eco-cities are living up to their promise. In years gone by, Costing the Earth has visited two eco-cities, which both promised that rapid urban development could be green, sustainable and profitable. Dongtan in China was meant to be part of "the quest to create a new world", according to British designers Arup. Masdar in the Arabian Gulf was to have "changed the world...

The bulldozers have already begun work on London's 'cycle superhighways' or 'Crossrail for bikes'. Cycling enthusiasts have declared these segregated lanes to be the infrastructure which London needs to make cycling much more appealing for all. Andrew Gilligan, the Mayor's Cycling Commissioner says if Transport for London can get the engineering right then cycling in the capital will become safer...

Could the return of the Pine Marten mean the end of the Grey Squirrel takeover? Tom Heap examines emerging evidence that where Pine Marten populations are healthy, Grey Squirrel numbers crash and native Red Squirrels increase. Tom meets the researchers who found the connection in Ireland, and who are now investigating whether it's also happening in Scotland. The Pine Marten is itself recovering fr...

With arctic sea ice shrinking and Antarctic sea ice growing, Tom Heap asks what is happening to the climate. Despite the consensus of scientists around the world, there are still some anomalies in the computer models of the future climate. Tom Heap is joined by a panel of experts to tackle some of the difficult questions that lead to uncertainties in our understanding of the changing climate. The...

In this week's Costing The Earth Tom Heap asks what the falling price of oil means for the environment. First thoughts would be 'not good'. Lower prices mean that people don't need to be so careful how much fuel they use so what will the consequences of this be? Will this halt the steady decline in car sales? Will people turn their heating up a notch when they're feeling chilly? Those are the dire...

A report from the United Nations published this week highlights for the first time the international impacts of volcanoes. Previously regarded as a local problem for people in Iceland, Indonesia or Central America the UN now recognises that our interconnected world can be split asunder by relatively small eruptions. The 2010 eruptions in Iceland disrupted air travel for weeks, costing the global e...

The UK's housing crisis is acute. We need to build but where? Many critics point to the ample green space which surrounds some of our most overcrowded cities and towns. The green belt celebrates 60 years since it became part of National Policy but its history stretches back far further. The idea of a stretch of land which separates the urban from the rural has been commended as the defining planni...

A failed breeding experiment has led to a hybrid creature running riot in the Grand Canyon. The Beefalo is now growing in number rapidly and causing damage to the landscape, threatening the environment and eco-system and trashing ancient monuments of Native Americans. Yet with a hunting ban in the National Park how can they be controlled? Tom Heap goes in search of the legendary creature and the a...

Bristol has been named as Europe's Green Capital for 2015. Tom Heap finds out if local people will see real improvements in their city. Trapeze artists and a high wire act on a bicycle, spanning two former warehouses, heralded the start of Bristol's Year as European Green Capital for 2015. The award is a few years old now and goes to a city with outstanding green credentials and ambitions. So how...

Iceland is warming faster than most countries, two to four times faster than the global average temperature rise. A quirk of geography means that the island's plants and animals are having to cope with rapidly rising temperatures whilst their neighbours in the rest of northern Europe warm much more gradually. Glaciers are melting, trees are growing much faster and arable farming is suddenly possib...

Australian Premier, Tony Abbott is determined to develop his Northern Territory. With the enormous markets of South-East Asia on the doorstep of Darwin there's huge potential for oil, gas, mining and agriculture in the thinly-populated north. Locals welcome the prospect of jobs but there's a real concern that the extraordinary landscape of the north could be lost. Mining and intensive agriculture...

The melting sea ice of the Arctic creates opportunities and threats for the people and wildlife of the region. This week the leaders of the polar nations are in Iceland to map out a future for the region at the Arctic Circle conference. Will oil and gas production ravage the north or bring jobs and money to impoverished local people? Will Russian designs on Arctic riches provoke conflict or link t...

Despite being protected on paper, many of the world's and the UK's rare plants and flowers are being targeted by thieves and smugglers. From the moment a new species is discovered it can have a high price on its head, with collectors going to the ends of the earth to source a prized specimen. Tom Heap discovers how easy it is to find rare plants for sale on the net and how such trade not only thre...

Tom Heap meets Darren Reynolds, a health and environment professor, who has developed a mini treatment plant that can turn dirty water into clean drinkable water. The technology could be transported around the globe and put to use in places where clean water is scarce, such as in areas where there is a humanitarian crisis. Costing The Earth discovers how the machine works and looks at other techno...

Cleaning the ocean floor, one dive at a time. Miranda Krestovnikoff reports from the sea bed as she joins a new marine clean-up squad. Miranda joins NARC - Neptune's Army of Rubbish Cleaners - in their war against marine litter. Dave Kennard and his band of ocean cleaners dive off the coast of Pembrokeshire recovering fishing gear, bottles, cans and a whole miscellany of unwanted rubbish. They've...

The small islands of the Caribbean are acutely vulnerable to rising sea levels and a potential increase in the frequency and severity of hurricanes. Tom Heap travels to the Turks and Caicos Islands to ask if they're prepared for the worst nature can offer. Producer: Alasdair Cross.