The Documentary Podcast Folgen

The melting of polar ice sheets, the collapse of the Amazon rainforest, the seizing up of ocean circulation - these are just some of the calamities we risk bringing about through our unabated carbon emissions. Each of these tipping points on its own could have dire consequences for the wellbeing of all life on Earth, including us humans. Justin Rowlatt discovers how global warming may trigger irreversible changes to our planet.

It has a population of 215 million but very few Nigerians have been untouched by incidents of violence and lawlessness which appear to have increased in recent months. Schools, colleges, churches, trains and roads have all been targeted, and people report feeling unsafe wherever they go. We hear the anguish of relatives involved in the recent armed attack on a church in Ondo state in south-west Nigeria, in which 40 people were killed and dozens wounded. A young woman describes the terror of being abducted with her sister and other students.

Ukraine’s farms are under attack. Russian forces are burning or stealing grain and vegetables. The main growing regions in the south are under occupation, cutting off the country from its usual supplies of fresh food. What can the outside world do? Monica Whitlock reports from the village of Brożec in western Poland where farmers have rallied round to send seeds to smallholdings and allotments in Ukraine - ‘Victory Gardens’ in President Zelensky’s words. Each garden feeds far more than one family, as Ukrainian villagers take in internally displaced people from the cities. But as the season for harvest approaches, far more worrying problems face Ukraine’s beleaguered farmers. Producer Monica Whitlock