Climate change: Amitav Ghosh, underwater sculpture, Sebastiao Salgado

As world leaders meet at COP26, we speak to writers, artists, and musicians helping us understand climate change. Presented by BBC Environment Correspondent Matt McGrath.

Authors Amitav Ghosh and Diana McCaulay discuss turning climate fact into fiction. Ghosh grew up in India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, and now lives in America. A leading voice on climate change, his books on the issue include novel Gun Island; the new Jungle Nama; and non-fiction The Great Derangement, and the new Nutmeg’s Curse. McCaulay is a writer and environmental activist from Jamaica, and her latest novel, Daylight Come, is a work of climate fiction, set in 2084.

Plus, Sebastiao Salgado’s musical portrait of the Amazon. The acclaimed Brazilian photographer spent seven years documenting the rainforest and its indigenous peoples. Now he and Italian-Brazilian conductor Simone Menezes have set the images to music from composer Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Floresta do Amazonas to create an Amazonia concert. They joined us to describe the work and climate change in the rainforest. An exhibition of Salgado’s Amazonia photos is at the Science Museum in London.

And a world underwater – the sculpture park below the waves. Sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor’s unique installations can be seen around the world by divers, snorkellers, and the fish which swim around them, and tell a powerful story of climate change. He spoke to The Cultural Frontline about his latest work - an underwater forest off the coast of Cyprus.

Producer: Emma Wallace, Lucy Collingwood

(Photo: One of Jason deCaires Taylor’s underwater sculptures. Credit: Jason deCaires Taylor)