Costing the Earth
Programme looking at man's effect on the environment and how the environment reacts, questioning accepted truths, challenging those in charge and reporting on progress towards improving the world
Costing the Earth - 03/01/2008
1/6. Miriam O'Reilly looks at the nation's traditional orgy of spending over the festive period and its impact on the environment.
Details
Costing the Earth - 03/05/2007
Perth, the most isolated city in the world, has been forecast to become a future ghost metropolis by environmentalist Tim Flannery. The city is highly vulnerable to climate change.
Details
Costing the Earth - 04/10/2007
One of the key arguments against biofuels is the potential for food shortages as more land is given over to growing energy crops. Tom Heap investigates.
Details
Costing the Earth - 06/10/2010
The great Pacific Garbage Patch is now twice the size of France but we still use plastic for disposable items. Dr Alice Roberts finds out if anything can stop the fake plastic sea.
Details
Costing the Earth - 07/04/2010
The Stern Report put a price on carbon and this catapulted climate on to the world agenda. Tom Heap finds out if putting a price on nature can do the same for biodiversity.
Details
Costing the Earth - 10/01/2008
Tom Heap investigates the increase in Britain's rodent population. He looks at how we control rats in urban and rural environments and asks why the system appears not to be working.
Details
Costing the Earth - 20/09/2007
Tom Heap investigates the battle against domestic pests. From bedbugs to carpet mites and flies, the insect population in our homes is increasing.
Details
Costing the Earth - 26/04/2007
Tom Heap explores the impact of professional football on the environment. With travel and litter as well as lighting and water demands, just one match can have a huge impact.
Details
Costing the Earth - 27/09/2007
The world's population predicted to grow to 9 billion people by 2050. Tom Heap asks whether this is the one environmental issue we should be concentrating on above all others.
Details
Costing the Earth - 29/09/2010
Carbon Capture and Storage could solve the fossil fuel problem and the UK is set to become a world leader in the field. Tom Heap finds out if this quick fix can ever really work.
Details
Costing the Earth - 31/01/2008
Britain is committed to meeting EU targets to generate one fifth of our energy from renewable sources by 2020, but what are our chances of getting there? Tom Heap investigates.
Details
Costing the Earth - A Burning Solution
Burning woodchip can provide both heat and electricity. It is environmentally friendly: the carbon has already been captured by the tree as it has grown, and it is renewable, so has wood's time come?
Details
Costing the Earth - A Clean Break
Ecotourism is a tired but popular concept, and the travel industry is using the idea to market a growing range of products of highly dubious environmental benefit.
Details
Costing the Earth - All Wrapped Up and Nowhere to Go
Plastic bags and packaging are anathema to the environmentalist. Yet packaging can help to sell a product, and the issue is more complex than many of us realise.
Details
Costing the Earth - Antarctic Treaty
Tom Heap reports on the Antarctic Treaty, a little known beacon of global co-operation that has kept the soldiers at bay and the scientists in harness there for the last 50 years.
Details
Costing the Earth - Better Living Through Chemistry?
Tom Heap investigates how being exposed to a cocktail of pesticides could potentially damage our health.
Details
Costing the Earth - Biofuels
Biofuels: A look at the new generation of green fuels and how the technology can best be utilised in this country.
Details
Costing the Earth - Black Monday, Green Tuesday?
Tom Heap considers how the recession is likely to affect attitudes towards the environment. Is an economic slowdown a step in the right direction towards a greener planet?
Details
Costing the Earth - Blackpool: the New Dallas?
The Deepwater Horizon disaster proved the dangers of searching for our oil and gas in ever more challenging environments. Tom Heap asks if we can find them closer to home.
Details
Costing the Earth - Bring Me Sunshine
Bring Me Sunshine: Miriam O'Reilly looks at Britain's use of solar power and reports on plans to build solar plants in North Africa, producing electricity for export to Europe.
Details
Costing the Earth - Buildings
Buildings use more energy than all forms of transport put together. Tom Heap asks if we are looking in the wrong place for solutions to climate change.
Details
Costing the Earth - Can Lawyers Save The World?
Climate change litigation is already big news in the US and the number of environmental cases in our own courts could be about to increase. Tom Heap asks what the law can do.
Details
Costing the Earth - Can you spare some change please?
The environmental series looks at the politics of famine. At a time of heightened food insecurity, are the food aid policies of many UK-based aid agencies making the problem worse?
Details
Costing the Earth - Carbon Labelling
Carbon Labelling: A new label on supermarket food will reveal how much carbon was emitted during its manufacture. Tom Heap tries to make sense of some of the possible dilemmas.
Details
Costing the Earth - Cerrado
The Cerrado is Brazil's savannah, a hugely rich eco-system that houses five per cent of the world's flora and fauna. Tim Hirsch reports on the gradual destruction of the grasslands.
Details
Costing the Earth - Cleaning Up the Ganges
The sacred Ganges river provides spiritual and physical sustenance for millions, but today it is filthy. Tom Heap asks if World Bank dollars can change India's life source.
Details
Costing the Earth - Costing the Earth
Perth, the most isolated city in the world, has been forecast to become a future ghost metropolis by environmentalist Tim Flannery. The city is highly vulnerable to climate change.
Details
Costing the Earth - Costing the Earth
Drought is set to be a permanent way of life in Australia even after the summer ends. How is the driest country on the driest continent going to manage its water supplies?
Details
Costing the Earth - Costing the Earth
Biofuels: A look at the new generation of green fuels and how the technology can best be utilised in this country.
Details
Costing the Earth - Costing the Earth
War on Waste: Miriam O'Reilly investigates the reality of recycling our rubbish rather than sending it to landfill. People are confused by the many different systems of disposal.
Details
Costing the Earth - Countdown to Copenhagen
Tom Heap looks behind the jargon and political scene-shifting to ask whether or not a definitive new deal on climate change will come out of the 2009 Copenhagen talks.
Details
Costing the Earth - Crisis, What Crisis?
Miriam O'Reilly investigates whether the crash in prices for old newspaper and plastic bottles has made recycling a waste of time.
Details
Costing the Earth - Deep Sea Treasure
Deep sea vents hide some of the last great mysteries of the planet. Tom Heap hears about the extraordinary sights wintessed by the latest team of explorers.
Details
Costing the Earth - Do Happy Animals Cost the Earth?
Do Happy Animals Cost the Earth? Tom Heap demolishes some myths about free-range farming and its benefits for both animal welfare and the environment.
Details
Costing the Earth - Eco-City Limits
Masdar in Abu Dubai could be the world's first eco-city. Tom Heap finds out whether the oil money that funds it means a fast building success or a green dream smokescreen.
Details
Costing the Earth - Energy Use High
Miriam O'Reilly investigates the government's school building programme and hears how unneccessarily complicated 'green features' are being built into some new schools.
Details
Costing the Earth - Flooding
As the changing weather patterns show increased rainfall in the UK, Charlotte Smith asks whether agricultural practices could or should play a greater role in flood prevention.
Details
Costing the Earth - Fusion Future
For 50 years, nuclear fusion has been touted as the safe, cheap, limitless fuel of the future. Tom Heap investigates the real potential of fusion power.
Details
Costing the Earth - Grapes of Wrath
Wine drinkers have enjoyed a decade of great taste and great prices. A host of environmental problems could be about to bring the golden age to an end. Tom Heap investigates.
Details
Costing the Earth - Green Cities
Green Cities: The urban environment is not traditionally associated with wildlife, but experts are finding that the city can provide a remarkable diversity. Tom Heap investigates.
Details
Costing the Earth - Green Cities
Green Cities: The urban environment is not traditionally associated with wildlife, but experts are finding that the city can provide a remarkable diversity. Tom Heap investigates.
Details
Costing the Earth - Green on Green
With the urgent need for alternative sources of energy, there are some difficult choices to be made between power generation and the environment.
Details
Costing the Earth - Greening Fido
According to researchers, a large dog could have a bigger carbon footprint than a 4 x 4. Is it really time to ditch the dog? Alice Roberts finds out.
Details
Costing the Earth - Greening the Building
Greening the Building: Tom Heap asks whether the building industry is equipped to meet demanding government targets on energy-efficient homes.
Details
Costing the Earth - Guilt-Free Flying
Tom Heap and Iron Maiden frontman and professional pilot Bruce Dickinson ask if new technology can drastically reduce the aviation industry's emissions.
Details
Costing the Earth - Gulls: Code Red
Seagulls are breeding rapidly, thriving and getting bigger. With the decline of fishing in coastal waters, they have been moving to more benign conditions in towns and cities.
Details
Costing the Earth - Hurrah for the Eco Car
A new generation of greener vehicles using electricity or hydrogen fuel technology are being trumpeted as the future of the motor car in a world without oil. Tom Heap investigates.
Details
Costing the Earth - Katrina: An Unnatural Disaster
Bad weather shouldn't cause 1,800 deaths in the world's richest country. Five years on from Hurricane Katrina, Tom Heap investigates the real reasons for the New Orleans death toll.
Details
Costing the Earth - Keep on Trucking
Tom Heap finds out how much pollution is being generated around the world by the transport of freight by road and ship.
Details
Costing the Earth - Obama's Green Dream
Tom Heap asks whether political and vested interests will shatter President Obama's dream of leading the United States towards a greener future.
Details
Costing the Earth - Old Bricks, New Tricks
Miriam O'Reilly explores possible solutions to housing problems. According to the government, eco-towns could provide the answer, but some housing experts disagree.
Details
Costing the Earth - Plants to Pills
Tom Heap witnesses the international police operation against the trade in endangered species, following raids in the UK by Interpol's Operation Tram.
Details
Costing the Earth - Plenty more fish in the sea?
Miriam O'Reilly looks at attempts to manage the UK's fish stocks through the Common Fisheries Policy and their apparent failure.
Details
Costing the Earth - Protecting the Past
Alice Roberts investigates the threats posed to our great historic sites by climate change. Is there anything we can do to save the most vulnerable properties from extreme weather?
Details
Costing the Earth - Raising a Stink
Alice Roberts investigates the potential savings available by harnessing the power of sewage through anaerobic digestion and the fertilisation of farms using human waste.
Details
Costing the Earth - Rare Earth Metals
Rare Earth Elements are vital to our electronic goods and green technologies. Tom Heap learns that they are mined in China, which is threatening to cut off its supply.
Details
Costing the Earth - Rethinking Climate Change
2009 was a disastrous year for anyone who believed urgent action was needed in the fight against climate change. Tom Heap meets the scientists who want to see a radical rethink.
Details
Costing the Earth - Seeds of Discontent
Seeds of Discontent: Tom Heap asks whether genetically modified crops are the answer to feeding the world's ever expanding population.
Details
Costing the Earth - Sell-by Dates
We throw away over five million tonnes of food each year. Confusion over 'best-before' and 'use-by' dates is a major factor, but can we really do without them? Tom Heap finds out.
Details
Costing the Earth - Spring Forwards, Fall Backwards
On October 31st we'll all turn our clocks back by one hour. There's mounting evidence that we could save energy by cancelling this annual ritual. Alice Roberts reports.
Details
Costing the Earth - Summer of Mud
Many ideas have been tried to reduce the impact of summer festivals, but do they make any difference? How much do festival-goers and performers really care about the environment?
Details
Costing the Earth - Supergrid
Carbon-free energy could become a greater possibility if we help to form a Europe-wide 'Supergrid', but what is it, how will it work and who will pay for it? Tom Heap finds out.
Details
Costing the Earth - The Art of Protest
Dire warnings have been made from leading charities and officials that environmental campaigners are under threat from new rules and regulations. Tom Heap finds out what's at stake.
Details
Costing the Earth - The Battle for the Murray Darling
Drought is set to be a permanent way of life in Australia even after the summer ends. How is the driest country on the driest continent going to manage its water supplies?
Details
Costing the Earth - The Big Clean Up
The shambolic rejuvenation of Corby's steelworks may have put an end to the boom in building on brownfield sites. Alice Roberts investigates.
Details
Costing the Earth - The Carteret Islands - Sharks In The Garden
The Carteret Islands, a small atoll in the South Pacific, are slowly being submerged by the rising sea, forcing the evacuation of the islanders to nearby Papua New Guinea. Presented by Tom Heap.
Details
Costing the Earth - The Environmental Cost of Ageing
Tom Heap examines the carbon footprint of older people. This age group could play an important part in preparing for climate change in an ageing society.
Details
Costing the Earth - The Great Flood of Paris
Paris suffered Europe's worst urban flood in 1910. Tom Heap discovers how the city was almost destroyed by nature and discovers the lessons learned for flood management today.
Details
Costing the Earth - The Great Green Gadget Makeover
New electronic technology accounts for a vast amount of our electricity usage each year. Tom Heap meets a self-confessed gadget addict.
Details
Costing the Earth - The Great Mineral Heist
Who stole the minerals from our food? Alice Roberts investigates the decline in crucial nutrients in fruit, veg, wheat and rice.
Details
Costing the Earth - The Greens Revolution
Tom Heap, who vowed as a teenager, on environmental grounds, that he would never play golf, re-examines his prejudices and finds out if his view of golf is still a valid one.
Details
Costing the Earth - The Ice Cream Man Cometh
Tom Feilden reports on a project by Jerry Greenfield, one half of Ben and Jerry's ice cream brand, to enable people to gain first-hand experience of global warming.
Details
Costing the Earth - The New Diggers
Alice Roberts travels across Britain to meet the new breed of growers, guerilla gardeners and part-time farmers determined to make Britain's wasteland fertile once more.
Details
Costing the Earth - The Revenge of the Stairs
In the 19th century we defeated the great urban killers, cholera and TB, by redesigning our cities. Can we battle the modern menace of obesity in the same way? Tom Heap reports.
Details
Costing the Earth - The Shipping News
Following the beaching of the MSC Napoli in Lyme Bay last year, Miriam O'Reilly looks at what the shipping industry is doing to prevent another catastrophe for marine birds.
Details
Costing the Earth - The Three Peaks Challenge
Alice Roberts asks if the 60,000 walkers who annually take part in the Three Peaks Challenge are damaging the environment.
Details
Costing the Earth - The Wind Rush Generation
The Wind Rush Generation: Miriam O'Reilly reports on the effectiveness of wind energy and finds that we are paying more to subsidise a still unreliable source of electricity.
Details
Costing the Earth - Totally Uncool
Tom Heap investigates those businesses and organisations that over-use air conditioning, and in doing so make a significant contribution to global warming.
Details
Costing the Earth - Turbines in the Back Garden
Is it worth coating your roof in solar cells? New rules should make it profitable for individuals to make their own electricity. Tom Heap crunches the numbers.
Details
Costing the Earth - Turbines or Tearooms
Much of the British countryside is off-limits to green energy development. Is it time to site badly-needed wind turbines within National Parks? Tom Heap investigates.
Details
Costing the Earth - Virtual Warming
Counting the carbon cost of our love affair with computers, the programme discovers that every twitter or Facebook posting has an energy demand far higher than we might realise.
Details
Costing the Earth - Volcanoes: Friend or Foe
Volcanoes have provoked enormous environmental changes since the birth of the planet. Tom Heap investigates the effects of the latest Icelandic eruption.
Details
Costing the Earth - War on Waste
War on Waste: Miriam O'Reilly investigates the reality of recycling our rubbish rather than sending it to landfill. People are confused by the many different systems of disposal.
Details
Costing the Earth - Whose Amazon Is It Anyway?
How the climate change debate and arguments surrounding the protection of the Amazon rainforest are playing out in Brazil.
Details
Costing the Earth - Working from Home
No-one enjoys the commute to work but could remote working really save substantial emissions? Dr Alice Roberts investigates the true environmental cost of working from home.
Details