The “terror factor” generated by the new BBC series Earth – which re-creates a climate change event that wiped out most species 250 million years ago – could help “spur us on to do something” about the environment crisis, according to its presenter, Chris Packham.
Using the latest scientific discoveries and visual effects, the BBC’s “biography of Earth” shows the parallels between a deadly change in the atmosphere caused by a series of cataclysmic supervolcano eruptions millions of years ago and mankind’s fossil fuel emissions, which Packham explains are “destabilising … with terrifying rapidity” Earth’s protective layer of gases.
The series combines the natural history of programmes such as David Attenborough’s Planet Earth with the planetary focus of Brian Cox’s Universe to show how their interconnectivity has created and sometimes almost obliterated life on Earth.
Earth started out as a history of the planet. The BBC’s head of science, Tom Coveney, explained: “This wasn’t conceived as a series about climate change, but it felt, as we were making it, that the parallels just jumped out.”
Packham said comparisons could be drawn with “the human impact on our planet” and previous climate change events such as the supervolcano eruptions that ripped through the planet’s crust during the pre-dinosaur Permian period, which the programme simulates. The resulting toxic fumes created a mass extinction event.
There would almost certainly be another supervolcano eruption one day, Packham said, adding that mankind was choosing to “experiment” with the atmosphere. He asked: “Do we want that on our conscience?”
Packham said showing the impact of climate change could scare people, but that this was part of his job: “Fear is a motivating emotion.” But he added: “We’re not terrifying people … just telling them what’s really happening.”
Such narratives could be depressing, he said, but “I do think we’ve got the ingenuity – we have the adaptability to survive. [However,] it’s the urgency that makes me despair.
“I don’t think enough of those people who are in the decision-making process are feeling it quite enough yet.”
Packham said society needed to “look at our global governors and make sure we elect people who are going to make those changes assertively and rapidly”. He said he hoped the series would help by showing how unique Earth is.
In a speech he wrote to end the series (which minimised its carbon footprint by filming in as few locations as possible) he argued that the power of humanity could mitigate climate change by “putting Earth first”.
He said the Open University and BBC Studios show had many “wow” moments that he hoped people would discuss “over a pint”, including that fungi once covered Earth and that it rained for 2 million years.
The naturalist is also exploring, for Channel 4, the topic of environmental activism, which he said he was “concerned … probably isn’t working as optimally as it needs to”.
He told the Guardian he had spoken to Greta Thunberg and Attenborough about what they could do next, asking them what happened after their meetings with world leaders: “To paraphrase, they both said, ‘They listened, but then they forgot it the next morning.’”
Packham is contemplating blocking some climate deniers who follow him on Twitter and told the Guardian that “we need regulation of social media”, saying: “I fear for young people.”
Recently the presenter won a libel case over an online campaign against him which he said highlighted the “oppression and repression that scientists are facing due to social media harassment”.
He downplayed comparisons to Attenborough, saying: “David is still very much alive and kicking. I never consider myself as a parallel to him at all. I think we’re very different – he’s brilliant, and I’m not quite so brilliant.”
Earth starts on BBC Two and iPlayer on Monday 17 July
