成人论坛

Profiles of pioneering scientists, campaigners, and communicators of the last 60 years, who have swum against the tide to influence our opinion and behaviour on the environment.

Over the course of three weeks, we hear about people like Rachel Carson who first wrote about the damaging effects of crop spraying in her 1962 book The Silent Spring; James Lovelock, who devised his Gaia theory to explain the way the earth’s system works; Petra Kelly, who galvanised support for the Green Party in Germany in the 1980s; and Kenyan activist Wangari Maathai who proposed nationwide campaigns of tree planting to protect the delicate eco-systems of cities in sub-Saharan Africa.

French underwater diver Jacques Cousteau educated us about the fragility of marine ecology, Chico Mendes took on rainforest loggers in Brazil and poet Judith Wright put land rights at the centre of environmental thinking in Australia. British scientist Joe Farman gets a place in the series for discovering the hole in the ozone layer, as does Margaret Thatcher for her belligerence in forcing climate change onto the global agenda.

Each 'Original Green' is presented by someone with an interest in the environmental debate, including meteorologist Peter Gibbs, film maker Jack Harries, naturalist Gillian Burke, Free Diver Tanya Streeter and Green politician Caroline Lucas.

• Producers: Dan Hardoon, Natalie Steed, Emily Williams and Emma Barnaby
• Series Producer: David Prest
• A Whistledown production, in partnership with The Open University, for 成人论坛 Radio 4

Publicity contact: Radio 4 Publicity