The Natural World: Radio Gibbon

BBC 2 - 9PM
BBC HD – 10PM

“He’s the coolest naturalist on the planet!” The Times

In deepest Borneo a remarkable young Frenchman called Chanee is combining his passion for gibbons and his love of music. These magical singing apes of the rainforest are in danger of extinction and to help save them Chanee has set up a rescue centre, and become the world expert at matchmaking gibbons - only when a pair has successfully bonded can they be released back into the wild. To increase awareness of the gibbons' plight Chanee has created his own radio station, Radio Kalaweit, named after the local word for gibbon. Its cool music and cool message has now made it the most successful radio station in Borneo.

Producer MIKE BIRKHEAD
Series Editor TIM MARTIN

'Life: Extraordinary Animals, Extreme Behaviour' - Plants

Plants' solutions to life's challenges are as ingenious and manipulative as any animal's. Innovative time-lapse photography opens up a parallel world where plants act like fly-paper, or spring-loaded traps, to catch insects. Vines develop suckers and claws to haul themselves into the rainforest canopy. Every peculiar shape proves to have a clever purpose. The dragon's blood tree is like an upturned umbrella to capture mist and shade its roots. The seed of a Bornean tree has wings so aerodynamic they inspired the design of early gliders. The barrel-shaped desert rose is full of water. The heliconia plant even enslaves a humming bird and turns it into an addict for its nectar.

Visit the Life website

Hot Planet

Wednesday, 22:45 on BBC One (except Northern Ireland)

Professors Iain Stewart and Professor Kathy Sykes take a timely look at global warming ahead of the Copenhagen summit, exploring the world's leading climate scientists' vision of the planet's future.

Scientists predict that if global temperatures continue to rise at their current rate, Earth will be one degree warmer within 10 years, two degrees warmer within the next 40 years and three degrees or more warmer before the end of the century. If the Earth's temperature increases to three degrees warmer than the average pre-industrial temperature, the impact on the planet will be catastrophic. Across the Earth, ways of life could be lost forever as climate change accelerates out of control. This isn't inevitable, however: climate change is not yet irreversible.

Ingenious technology and science is currently being devised, advanced and tested around the world which could offer solutions for a sustainable future. The question that remains is, can the world embrace and implement them on a large enough scale within an effective timeline? If widespread damage to human societies and ecosystems is to be prevented, global temperature rise must be slowed and eventually reversed.

Hot Planet offers an accurate visual prediction of the planet's future, based on the findings of over 4,000 climate scientists.

Horizon: How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth?

9th December 2009: BBC2 9pm

In a Horizon special, naturalist and BBC broadcaster, Sir David Attenborough investigates whether the world is heading into a population crisis.
In his lengthy career, Sir David has watched the human population more than double from 2.5 billion in 1950 to nearly 7 billion today. He reflects on the profound impacts of this rapid growth, both on humans and the environment.
Yet, whilst much of the projected growth in human population is likely to come from the developing world it is the lifestyle enjoyed by many in the west that have most impact on the planet. Some experts claim that in the UK we use as much as 2.5 times our fair share of the Earth's resources. So finally, Sir David examines whether it’s the duty of each one of us to commit not only to smaller families, but change the way we live for the sake of all humanity and planet earth.

Director – Helen Shariatmadari
Executive Producer – Andrew Cohen
For further details, please visit the programme link below:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pdjmk