Living Planet

When communities face challenges they often find their own, homemade fixes. Community-run gardens around the world can be life-changing operations, and the bees that help pollinate them need our help. Meanwhile landscape restoration teams in South Africa are saving the ancient veld and recycling imported clothing has been a creative opportunity for one designer in Kenya.

We talk about the IPCC's grave warning to the world and why we urgently need clean energy alternatives, hear of solar success in Brazil's favelas, travel to one of Georgia's longest rivers where hydropower is clashing with precious wildlife habitats, and listen to Texans on how they feel about wind power picking up in the oil state.

In a special crossover episode with DW's Africalink and Living Planet, we dive into the issue of climate change across Africa. What does climate science and climate activism look like on a continent already dealing with climate impacts today? How can African nations address energy poverty without contributing more greenhouse gas emissions? And is it time for climate reparations?

As The Netherlands desperately tries to reduce its nitrogen emissions, Dutch farmers are up in arms about what that will mean for them. Melting glaciers on Mt Kilimanjaro cause drastic changes in Kenya and Tanzania. And the moment the most elusive wild cat in the world was spotted for the first time in a decade in Algeria.

From heatwaves and wildfires in North America to catastrophic flooding in Germany and China, the world over, climate scientists' predictions are being horribly realized. We hear from Californians on the frontline of drought, a disaster expert helps us understand climate risk, and a young Ugandan activist's mission to wake her countrypeople up to the climate crisis unfolding in their backyards.

When we think of the things that are most vital to our lives, what comes to mind? Water? Food? Air? This week on Living Planet we have stories exploring our most basic human needs. We venture to unique water systems under threat high in the Andes of Colombia and Ecuador. And slightly further North, we hear how cookstoves are changing the game in Guatemala.

On Living Planet, we often talk about all the greenhouse gas emissions people put into the atmosphere. But this week, we’re looking at ways to suck carbon dioxide back out of the air, in what’s known as carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). We visit the seas and the trees to see how this is being done, and we hear how carbon capture technology can help slow, or even reverse, climate change.

This week, we've got plastics on the brain — especially pervasive, single-use plastics — as a ban of these items comes into force in Europe. But will it make a big difference in grocery stores, and more importantly, in the environment? We also hear from an activist in Malawi who helped bring in that country's plastic ban. And with all these bans, are we really on our way to a plastic-free future?

Oil is big business. It's an industry that employs an estimated 6 million people from Russia to Saudi Arabia to the US. But oil is a leading contributor to climate change and can lead to leaks and spills that pollute waterways and ecosystems. As the world gets more serious about shifting away from fossil fuels, the future for oil looks tenuous.

We hear how the once decimated rocky reefs off the coast of Scotland have been replenished, travel to East Africa where farmers are cashing in on the Global North's avocado obsession without destroying the environment, and a professional frog nerd takes us through the bizarre and bountiful world of frog sounds.