Costing the Earth

By BBC Radio 4

What's Costing the Earth about?

Fresh ideas from the sharpest minds working toward a cleaner, greener planet

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Costing the Earth episodes:

01.19.2024
Introducing Rare Earth
Tom Heap introduces Rare Earth, a programme exploring major stories about our environment.
05.23.2023
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...
05.16.2023
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...
05.09.2023
Gardens of the Future
Climate resilient gardens are a feature of this month's Chelsea Flower Show, but how can the experts help the typical British gardener prepare for the future? To find out, botanist James Wong asks whether the way we garden could...
05.02.2023
Investigation DRS
Many of us can remember returning our pop bottles to the shop in return for cash and wonder why we can’t use a system like this today to reduce, reuse and recycle. In Scotland a Deposit Return Scheme has been...
04.25.2023
Water pollution solutions
Sewage is now discharged into our rivers and seas on a regular basis. It's joined by agricultural pollution and a host of microplastics. In this special debate programme, Tom Heap asks what's gone wrong with our water system. How did...
04.18.2023
Losing Our History
When castles collapse into the sea or ancient burial places succumb to floodwaters we lose a slice of our shared culture. Qasa Alom reports from the Norfolk coast on the threats to our heritage and asks if we all...
04.11.2023
Costing the Earth - The Power of Nature Writing
Costing the Earth - The Power of Nature Writing
04.04.2023
Energy Lessons
After a winter of spiralling energy prices, Tom Heap asks whether our attitudes to energy consumption have changed. What lessons have we learned in the last twelve months, both as individual consumers and as a society - or are we...
03.28.2023
The Sound of Nature
Waves crashing on the shore, footsteps crunching on the forest floor. Stress levels plummet when we immerse ourselves in nature. Nick Luscombe meets the Japanese scientists working to bring the healing power of nature into the heart of the...
03.21.2023
Jobs for a Green Future
UK commitments to phase out gas boilers and petrol cars may be good news for the environment, but do we have the skill to realise our ambitions? Where are all the trained workers able to fit heat pumps in our...
03.14.2023
Greening the City
New technologies are vital in the drive to turn our fossil fuel-based economies green and drastically slash carbon emissions. That technology requires investment and an enormous slice of the cash required is controlled by the financial markets of the...
03.07.2023
Prawn Free
Where do the prawns in your takeaway curry or pad thai come from? Peter Hadfield travels to South-East Asia to investigate the environmental impact of prawn farming. Producer: Alasdair Cross
02.28.2023
Surrendering to the Waves?
As sea levels rise, tough decisions are going to have to be taken about the flood defences of coastal Britain. How realistic will it be to continue to maintain them in future? In this programme, Qasa Alom asks whether we...
11.29.2022
A Greener Government?
Months of governmental chaos have seen contradictory policies on the environment come and go. Tom Heap asks where the Conservative Party now stands on the environment. Should we expect more onshore wind or a continuing ban, will...
11.22.2022
Community Energy
Community energy might conjure up images of off-grid villagers working together to put up solar panels on a remote community hall. This is one model, but Tom Heap finds that there are now many more ways to join the clean...
11.15.2022
How can I be a more sustainable parent?
Since becoming pregnant, environmental historian and broadcaster Dr Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough has aspired to bring up her two children as sustainably as possible. In 2017, a Canadian study recommended that people could reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by reducing...
11.08.2022
COP27: Meeting the Promises
The COP 27 summit in Sharm-El-Sheikh is welcoming world leaders and climate negotiators to Egypt. In a year that has been rocked by the war in Ukraine and global economic instability, can COP refocus the world’s attention on climate? ...
11.04.2022
CSI Oceans
Anna Turns investigates what over 30 years of post mortems on dolphins, porpoises, and whales has revealed about the state of the seas. The Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme in England and Wales, and the Scottish Marine Animal Strandings Scheme, have...
10.25.2022
The Lost World of Ice
The world's glaciers are melting at an unprecedented rate. 2022 has been a particularly disastrous year in the Swiss Alps, where new figures show that glaciers have lost 6% of their total volume of ice during this summer's heatwave. Three...
10.18.2022
Saving Vietnam's Wildlife
Life can be pretty tough for the pangolin. This scaly-skinned ant-eater is the most heavily trafficked mammal in the world. Followers of some branches of Chinese medicine believe pangolin parts can cure anything from blood clots to cancer and they're...
10.11.2022
The Prehistoric Hitchhiker's Guide to Climate Change
Early humans adapted and survived in the face of a changing climate. Eleanor Rosamund-Barraclough joins an archaeological dig in Malta to learn the lessons for our own time. A team led by Dr Eleanor Scerri of the Max Planck Institute...
10.04.2022
An Environmental Paw Print
For many dog owners, watching your pet race around after a crow or leap joyfully into a stream is a source of great pleasure...but these natural behaviours all have an impact on the environment. Estimates of the UK dog population...
09.27.2022
The True Cost of Energy
In the UK, more than half our electricity is generated without using fossil fuels. Despite that, the rocketing price of gas has lead to matching increases in our electricity bills. Why the disconnect? What could we be doing differently so...
09.21.2022
Wild Highway
Running 12500km from the Arctic Circle to the borders of Greece, the European Greenbelt is one of the most ambitious conservation schemes ever devised. The idea was to use the no man's land of the Iron Curtain that divided...
09.13.2022
Future Tourists
Nature and wildlife tourism has surged in recent years. Millions of us seem to want to want to follow in the footsteps of David Attenborough; meeting mountain gorillas, ticking off Africa’s big five mammals or hitting the waves to...
09.06.2022
Steve Backshall Listens to the Whales
Steve Backshall explores whether slowing down and quietening noisy shipping could help protect Canada’s whale population. A busy shipping lane between Vancouver Island and the Canadian mainland – known as the Inside Passage - is home to a community of...
05.24.2022
Ukraine: A War on Nature
It's said that the environment is the silent victim of war. In this programme, Tom Heap finds out how the conflict in Ukraine is affecting environmental work in the country. With so many people forced to flee, what happens to...
05.17.2022
Sustainable Sport for the Future
Two of the biggest sports events of the year, the Commonwealth games in Birmingham and the FIFA world cup in Qatar have pledged to be the most sustainable and green sporting events to date. Both have made bold statements 'the...
05.10.2022
How Green Is My Money?
Making your finances work harder against climate change. Tom Heap speaks to Richard Curtis, British film director and architect of Comic Relief, about his Make My Money Matter campaign. This encourages everyone to find out where their pension money goes....
05.03.2022
Green Power in the Far North
Green industry is heading to Scandinavia's far north. Fossil fuel-free steel and clean, green wind energy are in great demand but what does this rapid development mean for the indigenous people of the region? Richard Orange reports from Sweden....
04.26.2022
Timber!
Millions of trees were brought down by this winter's storms. Storm Arwen in November proved particularly damaging, taking out whole swathes of woodland in Scotland and the north of England. It comes at a time when there is more focus...
04.25.2022
Government Energy Strategy
The government announced its new energy strategy last week, outlining plans to tackle energy supply over the coming decades. In this edition of Costing the Earth, Tom Heap chairs a panel discussion which looks into the detail of the strategy,...
04.19.2022
The World's Toughest Conservationists
It's not easy fighting for nature in many of the former Soviet states. Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent reports from Tajikistan, on the trail of the snow leopard and the extraordinary people who protect them. This high corner of Central Asia is home...
04.05.2022
Rip It Up And Start Again?
The pandemic has changed the way we work and shop meaning a growing number of offices and retail outlets are empty. So, what do we do with them? Knock them down and start again or find a sustainable way to...
03.31.2022
Northern Ireland's Environmental Future
In Northern Ireland peace and prosperity have long been prioritised over environmental protection. Tom Heap asks if a new generation can push nature and wildlife up the agenda. For decades a blind eye was often turned to suspect developments...
03.22.2022
Energy Prices
Energy prices have hit new heights. Gas and electricity bills will rocket for most people at the end of this month as the price cap is lifted and nobody filling their car could fail to notice record prices at...
03.18.2022
Carbon Farming
Landowners are being offered big money for land to absorb carbon dioxide emissions. What does it mean for British farming and the shape of the countryside? Tom Heap reports. Producer: Sarah Swadling
03.15.2022
Britain's Dark Waters
Perfluoroalkyl substances - or PFAS - are a group of thousands of man-made chemicals which have been widely used in everything from frying pans to firefighting foam. Anything which is non-stick, water-resistant or stain-repellent is likely to have been produced...
03.01.2022
The Right to Swim
On a hot summer's day the River Wharfe in Ilkley in West Yorkshire is a tempting place to swim. In 2020 it was designated as the first inland waterway to be safe for bathing. Just over a year...
11.30.2021
Seeing the Wood for the Trees
There have been big promises about tree-planting numbers over the last few years - but is there much point in planting more trees, if we're not looking after the ones we've already got? The Woodland Trust estimates that only 7%...
11.23.2021
All Aboard the Sir David Attenborough
The public wanted to name her Boaty McBoatface, but in the end she got a slightly more stately name. The UK's newest polar research vessel, the RRS Sir David Attenborough, has just set out on her maiden voyage to Antarctica,...
11.23.2021
Canoeing the Cam
Britain's rivers are in crisis, with only 14% of them deemed to be in a good ecological state. Chalk streams are particularly vulnerable, as so much is taken out of them for use in our water supplies. Pollution from sewage...
11.19.2021
How green is my golf course?
Golf courses do not have a good reputation when it comes to the environment. Keeping the greens and fairways looking immaculate usually means using pesticide, fungicide and fertiliser - as well as large amounts of water. Wildlife such as pecking...
11.19.2021
My Toxic Cocktail
We are all surrounded by synthetic chemicals in our everyday lives - from pesticide residues in food to chemicals used in the manufacture of household products - but most of us are not aware that they also make their way...
11.09.2021
COP26: A Turning of the Tide?
World leaders have offered up a suite of promises at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow but how many of them will make a real dent in our greenhouse gas emissions? Tom Heap talks to experts in sustainable finance,...
11.02.2021
COP26: The Unheard Voices
As world leaders gather in Glasgow you can be certain of one thing - the loudest voices won't be coming from the people most impacted by climate change. Inuit hunters on melting ice and Pacific islanders losing their homelands to...
10.26.2021
Six Months on St Kilda
Abandoned by its entire population in 1930, St Kilda has been uninhabited ever since. What's it like to spend six months with the birds on one of Britain's most isolated islands? Conor McKinney is a naturalist and broadcaster with what...
10.19.2021
Earthshot: The Winners
Taking inspiration from President Kennedy’s Moonshot which united people around a goal to put man on the moon and spurred the development of new technology in the 1960s, the Earthshot Prize is centred around five simple but ambitious goals for...
10.12.2021
Earthshot: More Fresh Ideas for the Environment
Taking inspiration from President Kennedy’s Moonshot which united people around a goal to put man on the moon and spurred the development of new technology in the 1960s, the Earthshot Prize is centred around five simple but ambitious goals for...

What's Costing the Earth about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Costing the Earth episodes:

Introducing Rare Earth

Steve Backshall Goes Off Grid

Save the Microbes!

Gardens of the Future

Investigation DRS

Water pollution solutions

Losing Our History

Costing the Earth - The Power of Nature Writing

Energy Lessons

The Sound of Nature

Jobs for a Green Future

Greening the City

Prawn Free

Surrendering to the Waves?

A Greener Government?

Community Energy

How can I be a more sustainable parent?

COP27: Meeting the Promises

CSI Oceans

The Lost World of Ice

Saving Vietnam's Wildlife

The Prehistoric Hitchhiker's Guide to Climate Change

An Environmental Paw Print

The True Cost of Energy

Wild Highway

Future Tourists

Steve Backshall Listens to the Whales

Ukraine: A War on Nature

Sustainable Sport for the Future

How Green Is My Money?

Green Power in the Far North

Timber!

Government Energy Strategy

The World's Toughest Conservationists

Rip It Up And Start Again?

Northern Ireland's Environmental Future

Energy Prices

Carbon Farming

Britain's Dark Waters

The Right to Swim

Seeing the Wood for the Trees

All Aboard the Sir David Attenborough

Canoeing the Cam

How green is my golf course?

My Toxic Cocktail

COP26: A Turning of the Tide?

COP26: The Unheard Voices

Six Months on St Kilda

Earthshot: The Winners

Earthshot: More Fresh Ideas for the Environment