Premieres Wednesdays, April 20 - May 4, 2022 at 10 p.m. on KPBS TV + Sundays, April 24 - May 8 at 10 p.m. and Mondays, April 25 - May 9 at 7 p.m. on KPBS 2
The world is changing in ways we’ve never seen before. Humanity is up against a global problem that threatens our way of life. In this landmark new series, Ade Adepitan travels to places on the frontline of climate change, to see how life is being affected, right now.
But he’ll also scour the globe for solutions to climate change – the natural and technological fixes that can help us slow climate change, and adapt to the changes already taking place. Ade travels through the stunning water world of Bangladesh’s Ganges delta, and then into the remote Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan.
The Bangladesh delta is stunning and lush – but it’s also under threat from the increasingly extreme weather that climate change is causing. The cyclones rolling in from the Indian Ocean are an enormous problem for such a low-lying country: a quarter of Bangladesh is just a few feet above sea level. But Bangladesh is blessed with one of nature’s greatest defenses against the tidal surges caused by extreme weather: mangrove trees. Ade joins a government effort – racing against the tide – to plant huge new areas with mangroves.
One of the most striking signs of Bangladesh’s battle against climate change, is the Friendship Hospital. It isn’t built on land – it floats. In a landscape that’s constantly shifting with the water, where homes and hospitals can be washed away overnight, this is a way to make a building permanent when the land is anything but.
Traveling to Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, Ade finds out about one of the biggest ways that climate change will impact all of us, wherever we live: via migration. Tens of millions are expected to leave Bangladesh’s delta region, and many are coming to Dhaka, affecting housing, sanitation, and public services.
In Bhutan, Ade discovers how melting Himalayan glaciers are affecting the entire world. He also meets a yak herder, and hears how hard life is getting for normal people here. But with the Prime Minister of Bhutan, Ade discovers how little Bhutan has done to deserve its fate: the country isn’t just carbon neutral, it is carbon negative.
As the final stop on his Bhutanese adventure, Ade meets someone who’s been called ‘Bhutan’s Tree Warrior’ – having single-handedly planted more than 100,000 trees over the course of his life. It’s a reassuring sign of the things we can all do to help protect the planet.
EPISODE GUIDE:
Episode 1: “The Solomon Islands and Australia” premieres Wednesday, April 20 at 10 p.m. on KPBS TV + Sunday, April 24 at 10 p.m. and Monday, April 25 at 7 p.m. on KPBS 2 - Climate change is testing human ingenuity to the limits. In many parts of the world, it's already too late for prevention. This remarkable series asks: what's being done in this battle for survival, and is it working?
Ade travels to the frontline of the battle against climate change. He meets the ordinary people facing rising sea levels, drought, and forest fires, to see how they're fighting to save their way of life and adapt to their new world. And he meets scientists and tech entrepreneurs searching for solutions.
Episode 2: “Bangladesh and Bhutan” premieres Wednesday, April 27 at 10 p.m. on KPBS TV + Sunday, May 1 at 10 p.m. and Monday, May 2 at 7 p.m. on KPBS 2 - In Bangladesh and Bhutan, Ade sees the damage that climate change is causing and finds out how we can fight it, and how a whole country can go carbon negative.
Episode 3: “Scandinavia” premieres Wednesday, May 4 at 10 p.m. on KPBS TV + Sunday, May 8 at 10 p.m. and Monday, May 9 at 7 p.m. on KPBS 2 - In the final episode, Ade heads to Scandinavia. As he travels across the region, he learns about winter temperature rises, sees Copenhagen's attempt to go carbon neutral and meets Greta Thunberg.
Credits:
BBC. Director/ Producer: Eric McFarland. Executive Producer: Mike Radford
