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.

Hope in a Changing Climate

A film by John Liu. Theatrical screening at COP15 - the UN Copenhagen Climate Change Summit - "..the most important meeting in human history.." http://www.350.org/


Airing globally on BBC World November 27, 2009.
Directed by Jeremy Bristow, Produced by Louise Heren, Music composed by Al Lethbridge.

Please take a look at www.hopeinachangingclimate.org on Monday 30th Nov, where the film of the same name will begin screening, or if you get BBC World or will be attending Copenhagen in early December, then see below.

"Hope in a Changing Climate" will be aired globally by BBC World on November 27, 2009, and screened at the COP 15 climate change summit in Copenhagen from December 7 - 18.
This documentary demonstrates that it is possible to rehabilitate large-scale damaged ecosystems, to restore ecosystem functions in areas where they have been lost, to fundamentally improve the lives of people who have been trapped in poverty for generations, and to sequester carbon naturally. This approach has been dramatically proven on the Loess Plateau in China, the highland area spanning some 640,000 square km in north central China. It is the birthplace of the Han Chinese, headwaters of The Yellow River and home to a new environmental and economic paradigm; a degraded ecosystem of more than 35,000 square km of land now teems with life and supports the sustainable economic, social, and agricultural activities of its people.

"Hope in a Changing Climate" is the latest documentary produced by the Environmental Education Media Project (EEMP), an organization dedicated to placing ecosystem restoration at the center of the global discussions on climate change, poverty, and sustainable agriculture. Shot in stunning HD on location in China, Ethiopia and Rwanda, the film features a diverse collection of interviews, from world leaders such as president of Rwanda HE Paul Kagame, to local people telling their own stories. "Hope in a Changing Climate" is directed by Jeremy Bristow, producer of the award-winning BBC documentaries featuring Sir David Attenborough, "Are We Changing Planet Earth?" and "Can We Save Planet Earth?"

The film is presented by John D. Liu, an environmental filmmaker and ecological field researcher who has produced and directed documentaries for CBS, National Geographic and the BBC. Financial support for the film is provided by International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)-The Netherlands, Open University, The Rockefeller Foundation, the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, and The World Bank.