Living Planet

It's hot out there. The heat wave sweeping across the northern hemisphere this week has farmers worried, especially where the high temperatures are combined with drought. We look at how farmers around the world are protecting their livestock and crops as the global temperature creeps ever higher.

Disgusting creatures like tarantulas, scorpions and cockroaches are important, too! Eels in Canada are being chopped up by dams — but they don't get the attention they deserve because they aren't cute like pandas. Poisonous scorpions are more important for our ecosystem than you might have thought. And the taste for tarantula in Cambodia has drastically decimated their numbers.

When it comes to protecting the environment, sometimes the most unusual ideas are the best ones. From using donkey dung to help save an endangered bat to brewing beer out of old bread, we examine some of the strange and innovative ways people are helping save the planet.

Women in Saudi Arabia made the headlines this week. They are now allowed to drive, thanks not least to the campaigning by some bold women. In this week's episode, we'll meet some other bold women: Abu Dhabi's first female falconer, an Indian activist fighting plastic pollution, an Italian investigative journalist uncovering a mozzarella scandal and a Canadian diver exploring underwater mysteries.

Most people think of insects as pests to get rid of. But our survival may be intimately tied to insects. The problem is: they are in decline. Find out how the Berlin philharmonics are drawing attention to the issue, why insects don’t live at the sea side, and what makes insects so special in the first place.

On today's show: Ever more people in the world are living in urban areas. But how can we make our cities sustainable? From the dangers of air pollution to shrinking natural spaces and our carbon foot print in cities — it's high time for action.

Fertile land in Nigeria is being eaten up drought, fueling conflict between herdsmen who need what's left to graze their animals and farmers who need it for their crops. Meanwhile in East Africa, tensions are rising over who controls the waters of the Nile.

It's time for a bit of spring cleaning, whether it's your summer wardrobe, the local beach – or even the air we breathe! From the heart of Europe to China – we're cleaning up our act.

There’s bat appreciation day, international day for biodiversity and the day of endangered species – we’re great at naming days after our animals, but is it enough? Are we treating our biodiversity wisely, or failing them badly?

This week, three stories from the African continent: In Rwanda, we explore the mountain gorilla's complex relationship with its human neighbors; in Kenya, we uncover the ugly side of the flower industry; and in the Congo Basin, we find out about how the world's second-largest tropical forest is under threat.