Rare Earth

Is there any true wilderness left on our planet? Tom Heap and Helen Czerski consider the fear and fascination of the wild. They're joined by the writer Cal Flyn who has spent the last few years travelling the world in search of wilderness for her new book The Savage Landscape. Also with them are Steve Carver, professor of Rewilding and Wilderness Science at Leeds University and Sophie Grig, Research and Advocacy Director of Survival International. The travel writer and broadcaster Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent escapes the studio to visit the largest rewilding project in Wales. Can the conservationists get local people onside and boost the area's wildlife without provoking a negative reaction from local farmers? Produced by Alasdair Cross and Sarah Swadling

How we get around town has never been more political, with controversies over low traffic neighbourhoods and 15 minute cities, and rows about congestion charging and public transport breaking out all over the country. Tom and Helen are in search of the kind of consensus that makes things faster, cheaper and smoother for all of us. What works and what’s been a complete flop? Should we all stop moaning and get on our bikes? Who is the reshaping of traffic flows working - and not working - for? And could Milton Keynes have all the answers?With contributions from:Chris Boardman, Commissioner of Active Travel England. Stephen Potter, Emeritus Professor of Transport Strategy at the Open University Karen Lucas, Professor of Human Geography at the University of Manchester and Director of the Manchester Urban Institute Natalie Ashton. Senior Engagement Officer (North) at Transport for All Presenters: Tom Heap & Helen Czerski Producers: Beth Sagar-Fenton & Alasdair Cross Assistant Producer: Toby Field Editor: Alasdair CrossRare Earth is produced in association with the Open University.

190 years ago Charles Darwin stepped ashore in Falmouth at the end of a five year voyage that would transform the way in which we all think about nature. But how does his work and that of his fellow evolutionary theorist, Alfred Russel Wallace stand up in a world of climate change and habitat destruction?To find out, Tom Heap and Helen Czerski are joined by Sandra Knapp of the Natural History Museum, naturalist and broadcaster Mike Dilger and by Armand Marie Leroi, professor of evolutionary developmental biology at Imperial College, London.Producer: Alasdair CrossAssistant Producer: Toby FieldRare Earth is produced in association with the Open University

For thirty years world leaders have been gathering to negotiate the planet's route away from climate disaster. For thirty years carbon emissions have been rising and hopes have been fading. Is it time to admit defeat and search for a new strategy to persuade corporations and individuals to cut their pollution and save the planet?As the COP30 summit begins in Brazil, Helen Czerski and Tom Heap will be joined by an expert panel eager to come up with fresh solutions that could accelerate climate action and bring a unified, international response to the existential crisis of our time.With them are Nigel Topping, Chair of the UK Climate Change Committee, Corinne Le Quéré, professor of climate change science at the University of East Anglia, Anna Åberg from the Chatham House think tank and Georgina Rannard, BBC Climate and Science correspondent.Producer: Alasdair CrossAssistant Producer: Toby FieldRare Earth is produced in association with the Open University

New technology gives fresh insights into the great animal migrations. Tom Heap and Helen Czerski discuss the great spectacles of the bird, mammal and insect worlds and consider how they're changing in an era of climate change and habitat destruction.They're joined by insect migration expert, Will Hawkes, David Barrie, author of Incredible Journeys and the leader of the ICARUS satellite monitoring project, Martin Wikelski from the University of Konstanz. Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent reports from the dangerous songbird migration route over Cyprus while ecologist and concept developer Mark van Heukelm reveals the secrets of the extraordinary fish doorbell and Martha Kearney visits Britain's migration hotspot, Fair Isle. Producer: Alasdair CrossAssistant Producers: Toby Field and Georgia ChristieRare Earth is produced in association with the Open University

Efforts to reduce our carbon emissions are falling far short of what’s necessary to keep our temperature rise below 2 degrees centigrade. Is it time to seriously consider another option- using technology to cool the planet? Tom Heap and Helen Czerski explore the controversial field of geoengineering.They're joined by Shaun Fitzgerald, Director of the Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge University, Peter Brannen, author of The Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything and by Alex Davey, Deputy Director of Science at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh.Producer: Alasdair CrossAssistant Producer: Toby FieldRare Earth is produced in association with the Open University

Can the insurance industry save the planet? With the nod from insurance companies a must for everything from coal mines to new homes, is the industry ready and willing to wield its power? When huge swathes of Los Angeles were destroyed by wildfire in 2025 the spotlight shone on the insurance industry. Would insurers pay out billions of dollars to rebuild in exactly the same way, in exactly the same place, in a region in which the risk of wildfire is only going to increase?Tom Heap and Helen Czerski take a deep dive into the role of the insurance industry in the climate crisis. Why can new homes in floodplains be insured? Are the rest of us subsidising risky behaviour with our own premiums? And are those in the industry trying to take revolutionary steps to prevent further climate damage? Contributors include: - Dr Lisa Dale, Senior Lecturer at Columbia University’s Climate School - Dr Franziska Arnold-Dwyer, Associate Professor of Law at UCL and author of 'Insurance, Climate Change and the Law’ - Lee Harris, insurance correspondent at the Financial Times - Lindsay Keenan, environmental campaignerProducer: Beth Sagar-FentonRare Earth is produced in collaboration with the Open University

A ban on commercial hunting for whales came into force 40 years ago. Tom Heap and Helen Czerski look back on the whaling industry with one of the last of Shetland's whalers and ask if our largest mammals have bounced back from the extinction that so many species were close to reaching.They're joined by Jayne Pierce of the South Georgia Heritage Trust, the marine biologist and author of Eat, Poop, Die, Joe Roman and by linguist Inbal Arnon. Joe talks about his latest study for Whale and Dolphin Conservation which reveals the importance of whales in moving nutrients around the ocean while Inbal talks about her work comparing how whales and human babies learn to communicate. Jayne discusses this weekend's festival in Dundee which commemorates Scotland's role in the whaling industry and marks the launch of the Whaler's Memory Bank, a project to capture the voices of the last of the men who spent the British winter in the Antarctic capturing and processing the whales that found their way into our margarines and military hardware until the 1960s. Special thanks to Gibbie Fraser, Helen Balfour and baby Idris.Producer: Alasdair CrossRare Earth is produced in association with the Open University