logo
episode-header-image
Nov 2015
27m 46s

In Conversation with David Attenborough

Bbc Radio 4
About this episode

David Attenborough and a panel of influential thinkers on the natural world join Tom Heap to preview this month's Climate Summit in Paris. Can the world's leaders come to an agreement to save a warming planet?

The director of Titanic, Avatar and Terminator, James Cameron tells Tom that a vegan diet can slash our carbon emissions. Former Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd recalls what went wrong at the last climate summit in Copenhagen and explains why he's so much more hopeful of real commitments on carbon emissions from the Paris meeting.

David MacKay, the government's chief scientific advisor on energy policy until 2014, tells Tom that Europe's renewable energy policy is unfit for purpose and David Attenborough raises the thorny issue of our rising population.

Producer: Alasdair Cross.

Up next
Jan 2024
Introducing Rare Earth
Tom Heap introduces Rare Earth, a programme exploring major stories about our environment. 
54s
May 2023
Steve Backshall Goes Off Grid
Steve Backshall lives in a new build house which is very energy efficient and almost totally off-grid. However, achieving this has been extremely time consuming, expensive and pretty stressful. For this episode of Costing the Earth, Steve explores why -- when the cost of heating ... Show More
27m 23s
May 2023
Save the Microbes!
It's said that a teaspoon of soil contains more life than all of the humans on earth. Microscopic life that is - bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematode worms and microarthropods like springtails and mites, but there's increasing evidence that this invisible world, the earth's microb ... Show More
27m 37s
Recommended Episodes
Aug 2023
Prof Jim Skea: living in an era of 'global boiling'
July 2023 has been confirmed as the hottest month ever on Earth. A combination of heatwaves across the Northern Hemisphere, unseasonable warmth in parts of South America and Antarctica, and global sea surface temperatures around 0.51°C above the 30-year average, meant it broke al ... Show More
26m 22s
Nov 2021
Geoengineering The Planet
Even with the best efforts, it will be decades before we see any change in global temperatures through our mitigation efforts. Given the pace of global heating and the time lag before our emissions reductions have any impact, scientists are exploring additional ways of reducing g ... Show More
27m 23s
Nov 2021
Can COP26 deliver on climate change?
The science is unequivocal: human-made climate change is leading the world into an environmental crisis, and time is running out to prevent permanent damage to ecosystems and make the planet uninhabitable for many of us humans. As communities around the world increasingly experie ... Show More
39m 53s
Nov 2021
Jet fuel from thin air
Scientists in Switzerland have developed a system which uses solar energy to extract gases such as hydrogen and carbon dioxide from the air and turns them into fuels for transport. So far they have only made small quantities in experimental reactors, however they say with the rig ... Show More
1h 13m
Apr 2022
How can the UK get to zero carbon?
Energy is essential: every living thing needs energy to survive, and today’s industrialised societies consume enormous quantities of it. At the moment, the vast majority of this comes from burning fossil fuels that emit carbon. But the government is committed to reaching net zero ... Show More
27m 46s
Oct 2023
Why is Prime Minister Rishi Sunak rowing back on climate pledges?
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak gave a hastily arranged press conference this week in which he confirmed he would be rowing back on some previously made government commitments regarding net zero - the point at which we remove as much carbon from the atmosphere as we put in. The rea ... Show More
35m 10s
Jul 2020
Al Gore on the new urgency of the climate crisis
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore has been a leader in climate advocacy for over 40 years. He argues that amid the global pandemic and worldwide calls for racial justice, climate action can help create a “clean, prosperous, just future” for all. He also highlights youth’s vital ... Show More
48m 28s