Gardens of the Future

Tom Heap introduces Rare Earth, a programme exploring major stories about our environment. 

Steve Backshall lives in a new build house which is very energy efficient and almost totally off-grid. However, achieving this has been extremely time consuming, expensive and pretty stressful. For this episode of Costing the Earth, Steve explores why -- when the cost of heating ...  Show more

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on our relationship with wildlife. The virus that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, is zoonotic, which means it originated in an animal. Experts believe the virus emerged in bats then jumped to an intermediary host, possibly pangolins ...

President Xi Jinping is investing seriously into his strategic vision of turning China into a nation of scientific pace-setters. China’s past contributions to modern science have been proportionally lacklustre, but with a reinvigorated focus over the past two decades, China is fa ...  Show more

China has this week reopened its borders for the first time in nearly three years. There have been scenes of joy and relief for many Chinese citizens after years of isolation. Ed Butler asks whether this is a turning point, as some are describing. What are the longer term economi ...  Show more

Poorer countries in search of Covid-19 vaccines are looking east. Agathe Demarais, global forecasting director at the Economist Intelligence Unit, describes how China and Russia are stepping in to provide vaccines where Europe and the US aren't. Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for ...  Show more