Healthy Eating: What to do about meat and dairy?

 

We go to the UK and Chile to explore ways to break our addiction to animal protein and eat dishes that are healthy for both people and the planet.

As populations grow and incomes rise, we are eating more and more meat and dairy. Intensive livestock farming, however, requires huge amounts of resources and is highly polluting. Yet, animal protein is essential to the 1.3 billion people who depend on livestock to survive.

Wild Recovery: Protecting nature and preventing the next pandemic

 

earthrise looks at protecting wildlife and preventing pandemics through the stories of two endangered mammals which have been investigated for links to COVID-19.

COVID-19 is just one of many illnesses that have spilled over to us from wildlife. Ebola, SARS, HIV/AIDS – three out of four emerging infectious diseases come from animals.

Feeding the Billions: A New Frontier for Sustainable Eating | earthrise

Zero waste restaurant and jellyfish dinners: Alternative food solutions could help alleviate an impending food crisis.

With global demand for food set to increase by nearly 70 percent by 2050, sustainable food production is one of the biggest challenges for the future.

The food industry is one of the most ecologically damaging industries and we will need to completely rethink its approach if we are to keep meals on the table for generations to come.

"Food is the single biggest impact that humans have on nature. We are deforesting the earth to grow more food. It's by far the biggest user of fresh water, the single biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions, and the biggest reason why we're in the middle of the mass species extinction event, the sixth that planet Earth has faced. At least a third of the world's food is currently being wasted," says Tristram Stuart, food waste campaigner and author.

Climate change: Coping with extremes

We travel to southern Kenya and Myanmar to see how locals are coping with extreme weather conditions.

Navigating drought in Kenya

In drought-stricken Kenya life for all residents, and particularly the herding community, has been nothing less than devastating. Erratic weather patterns and the increasing effects of climate change have led to a lack of vegetation and water resources jeopardising the survival of livestock and the pastoralist way of life.

Driving Change

earthrise travels to China and the US to see how the world's environmental leadership is changing hands.

China and the United States are the world's two biggest carbon dioxide emitters, but what approach are these countries' governments taking in the fight against climate change?

In Shenzhen, one of China's most populous cities, new regulations to tackle air pollution are helping to unleash a revolution in clean energy and transport. Meanwhile, the tone has changed in Washington, DC, with the Trump administration rolling back much of the environmental policies that had been made over the past decade.

Earthrise: In Your Backyard

From Canada's tar sands to Chinese advertising billboards, we explore the psychology behind dealing with climate change.

Climate change is no mystery. We know what we have to do to limit emissions and we know we need to change our behaviour and yet we fail to take the kind of action necessary. Why? In this earthrise film we delve into the complex psychology of human behaviour around climate change and how we can turn apathy into action.

Regular earthrise presenter Gelareh Darabi travels back to her roots in British Columbia, Canada, where she meets Robert Gifford, an environmental psychologist. Professor Gifford has written extensively about the relationship between the human brain, psychology and climate change. "We are still very much focused on survival and the 'now'," he says. "We get comfortable in our lifestyles and interpret any sign of uncertainty as sufficient reason not to act." But there is a ray of hope in his research. "Humans display an unwavering attachment to their place of dwelling," he adds.

Melina Laboucan Massimo is a prominent activist who comes from the Laboucan Cree nation tribe in Canada. Their community's backyard is the famous Alberta tar sands; the size of Greece, it is the largest industrial project on earth. Massimo has been actively fighting exploitation of the tar sands for nearly a decade and her motivation is her close connection to her ancestral land.

Take the Power Back

How ordinary people are mobilising to disrupt the fossil fuel industry by redirecting investment


The business of unearthing coal, oil, and gas reserves to power the world is a multitrillion-dollar industry. But scientists say that in order to avoid catastrophic consequences, at least two-thirds of these reserves need to remain underground to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius.

Ordinary people are joining forces to create a global grassroots movement, geared towards taking on some of the biggest organisations and encouraging them to divest: take their money out of the fossil fuels, and, in some cases, invest it in climate solutions. In the past three years, more than 400 institutions worth $2.6 trillion have pledged to divest, including the Rockefeller Foundation, an institution that made its fortunes from oil.