PREVIEW: Climate Change - Ade On The Frontline, BBC Two

The world is changing in ways never seen before. Humanity is up against a global problem that threatens our way of life.

In the first episode, Ade begins in the stunning Solomon Islands, travelling down the east coast of Australia, from the Great Barrier Reef to Tasmania. In the Solomons, Ade becomes one of the few Westerners to have travelled in a boat across former islands... that no longer exist. It’s a grim future that awaits many island chains around the world, from the Maldives to various Pacific islands.

Travelling on to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Ade discovers one of climate change’s most astonishing impacts: the ‘feminisation’ of Green Turtles. Over recent years, 99 percent of the Green Turtles born in the northern Barrier Reef have been female, because of the warmer sand temperatures that incubate turtle eggs.

Ade is visiting Australia during the 2019/2020 bushfire season, and in this episode he comes face to face with the crisis. Scary though it is, it’s an important time to be visiting this country. The fires brought change and helped many climate sceptics accept something needs to be done. Despite its economic reliance on coal, Australia is a country of solutions.

Ade’s final stop is Tasmania, which is already 100 percent powered by renewable energy. The hope is that soon the island can be used like a power station for the rest of Australia, exporting its wind and hydro power under the sea to the mainland.

But this island isn’t just about renewables. Ade visits a team with a striking new plan to offset emissions. Donning his scuba gear, Ade dives into the sea to find out about giant kelp. Warming seas are threatening the kelp, but Ade helps the team plant new varieties that can withstand the warmer water.

Tasmania offers hope for the future - as a climate expert who Ade meets at the end of his journey explains: “There’s no technological limitation, there’s no economic limitation that stands in the way of us fixing this completely.”

Climate Change: Ade On The Frontline airs Sunday 11th April at 8pm on BBC Two.