Rare Earth

Sylvia Barrett, Director of Policy and Campaigns at Campaign for Better Transport, discusses the crucial role of electrification in reducing transport emissions. Journalist Christian Woolmar provides historical insight into how early railways may have contributed to fossil fuel dependency. Rob Scargill, curator at the National Railway Museum, emphasizes the technological innovations on the horizon for decarbonization. Together, they debate how effective rail can be in combating climate change and the barriers it faces today.

Join insect migration expert Will Hawkes, ICARUS project leader Martin Wikelski, and author David Barrie as they dive into the fascinating world of animal migrations. They discuss how technology is transforming our understanding of these journeys, from butterflies to songbirds. Discover the innovative ICARUS satellite tracking system and how it's changing conservation efforts. They also explore the cultural significance of migration and the threats posed by climate change, highlighting the resilience of animals navigating their perilous paths.

The modern world is built on steel but can it ever be green? Tom Heap and Helen Czerski search for the holy grail of environmentally friendly steel.Panellists: Ed Conway – Sky Economics & Data Editor and Author of “Material World” Will Arnold – Head of Climate Action, The Institution of Structural Engineers Dr Abi Ackerman – Imperial College London Caroline Ashley – Director, SteelWatch Producer: Beth Sagar-FentonRare Earth is produced in association with the Open University

Efforts to reduce our carbon emissions are falling far short of what’s necessary to keep our temperature rise below 2 degrees centigrade. Is it time to seriously consider another option- using technology to cool the planet? Tom Heap and Helen Czerski explore the controversial field of geoengineering.They're joined by Shaun Fitzgerald, Director of the Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge University, Peter Brannen, author of The Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything and by Alex Davey, Deputy Director of Science at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh.Producer: Alasdair CrossAssistant Producer: Toby FieldRare Earth is produced in association with the Open University

A celebration of the wildlife that works while we sleep. Tom Heap and Helen Czerski explore the world of animals that provoke fear and wonder in equal measure.Producer: Emma CampbellRare Earth is produced in collaboration with the Open University

Can the insurance industry save the planet? With the nod from insurance companies a must for everything from coal mines to new homes, is the industry ready and willing to wield its power? When huge swathes of Los Angeles were destroyed by wildfire in 2025 the spotlight shone on the insurance industry. Would insurers pay out billions of dollars to rebuild in exactly the same way, in exactly the same place, in a region in which the risk of wildfire is only going to increase?Tom Heap and Helen Czerski take a deep dive into the role of the insurance industry in the climate crisis. Why can new homes in floodplains be insured? Are the rest of us subsidising risky behaviour with our own premiums? And are those in the industry trying to take revolutionary steps to prevent further climate damage? Contributors include: - Dr Lisa Dale, Senior Lecturer at Columbia University’s Climate School - Dr Franziska Arnold-Dwyer, Associate Professor of Law at UCL and author of 'Insurance, Climate Change and the Law’ - Lee Harris, insurance correspondent at the Financial Times - Lindsay Keenan, environmental campaignerProducer: Beth Sagar-FentonRare Earth is produced in collaboration with the Open University

80 years since the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Tom Heap and Helen Czerski ask how our relationship with nuclear power has evolved.At 8.15 on the morning of the 6th of August 1945 a new era began for this planet. For the first time humankind had the power not just to exploit or damage nature, but to destroy it utterly.Tom and Helen are joined by Mark Lynas, author of Six Minutes to Winter: Nuclear War and How to Avoid It and by Professor Timothy Mousseau of the University of South Carolina, a biologist who has studied the environmental impact of the nuclear disasters at Chernobyl and Fukushima. Also in the studio is Dr Fiona Rayment, President of the Nuclear Institute.Producer: Alasdair CrossAssistant Producer: Toby FieldSpecial thanks to Archie McWatt of the University of the West of EnglandRare Earth is produced in association with the Open University

A ban on commercial hunting for whales came into force 40 years ago. Tom Heap and Helen Czerski look back on the whaling industry with one of the last of Shetland's whalers and ask if our largest mammals have bounced back from the extinction that so many species were close to reaching.They're joined by Jayne Pierce of the South Georgia Heritage Trust, the marine biologist and author of Eat, Poop, Die, Joe Roman and by linguist Inbal Arnon. Joe talks about his latest study for Whale and Dolphin Conservation which reveals the importance of whales in moving nutrients around the ocean while Inbal talks about her work comparing how whales and human babies learn to communicate. Jayne discusses this weekend's festival in Dundee which commemorates Scotland's role in the whaling industry and marks the launch of the Whaler's Memory Bank, a project to capture the voices of the last of the men who spent the British winter in the Antarctic capturing and processing the whales that found their way into our margarines and military hardware until the 1960s. Special thanks to Gibbie Fraser, Helen Balfour and baby Idris.Producer: Alasdair CrossRare Earth is produced in association with the Open University

The transition to an economy based on renewable energy and electric cars needs huge quantities of materials like copper and rare earth metals. Sourcing them can be a problem. Mining damages the surrounding landscape and many of the materials come from unstable regions with poor records on child labour and environmental regulation. Are there alternative materials or do we simply need to consume less? Tom Heap and Helen Czerski investigate.Producer: Emma CampbellRare Earth is produced in collaboration with the Open University

Datacentres are big business, and vast numbers of them are being built around the world. In the UK, Amazon has announced plans to invest £8bn over the next five years building new datacentres, £3bn has been spent in the UK by Amazon’s cloud computing business since 2020 and Google is spending millions on a new centre in Hertfordshire. All this data handling is necessary because we're storing more of it and making more complex AI internet searches. The energy cost of this shift is so huge that the big tech companies are commissioning their own nuclear power stations. Each data centre requires energy to run and vast quantities of water to cool it. Both have significant environmental costs, particularly in the hottest and driest regions. Google's greenhouse gas emissions have increased by nearly 50% in the past five years, largely due to the energy demands of Artificial Intelligence.Tom Heap and Helen Czerski ask if we really need to handle all this data. Are there more efficient ways for us to store and search or should we be coming up with more efficient data centres which exploit renewable energy resources and cool themselves naturally with seawater or Arctic ice?To answer these big questions for our internet future they're joined by Tom Jackson, Professor of Information and Knowledge Management at Loughborough University Business School, Aurora Gomez Delgado from the campaign group Tu Nube Seca Mi Río (Your Cloud is Drying My River) and Mark Bjornsgaard from the data centre company, Deep Green.Producer: Alasdair CrossRare Earth is produced in association with the Open University