Deep Fried Planet

The current series of Deep Fried Planet has ended. But we’re not quite finished yet! In this extended special edition I speak to the initiator of the Universal Declaration of Planetary Rights, barrister turned activist Polly Higgins, about her campaign to make ecocide a crime. Can we really use the law to take us, as a society, from ecocidal to ecocentric? Join us for an in-depth discussion of an important topic.

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Hot on the heels of the global biodiversity conference in Nagoya, Japan we will be talking about biodiversity and how to stem the global tide of species loss. My guests are Dr Andrew Mitchell from the Global Canopy Programme whose new publication the Little Biodiversity Finance Book suggests that we need to understand the value of nature in pounds and pence before we can understand how best to preserve it. Also with me will be Juliette Jowit, environment editor at the Observer, to talk about the paper’s Piece by Piece project which brings together a diversity of local campaigns throughout the UK aimed at preserving local habitats. Last in the present series.

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It’s art but is it activism?… All over the world environmental activists are using a mixture of film, music, dance, performance and other creative outlets to get their message across. But just how effective is it? My guests are on the leading edge of where art meets activism, they are John Jordan from Liberate Tate and Emily James director of the film Just Do It.

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After a short break due to special programming, we are back and talking about water scarcity. Imagine a world without it; without the inability to simply turn a tap and get as much as you want or need. And unlike oil there’s no alternative water there’s no water substitute. Let this thought really settle in your bones and then perhaps crisis isn’t a strong enough word.To talk through the issue is Jacob Tompkins Director of the UK charity Waterwise and Professor Peter Guthrie head of the Centre for Sustainable Development at Cambridge University, and lead author of the report, Global Water Security: An Engineering Perspective, which was published earlier this year.

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If you’ve never foraged before the prospect could seem a rather daunting. You can get wet, you can get dirty. Occasionally, as I have found out, you get spectacularly stung by a rogue wasp that thinks your rosehips are his rosehips! All this for a handful of berries, some windfall apples or unusual greens? And yet the popularity of foraging is increasing – for pleasure but also as a form of activism and a statement of intent about localised food systems. On this week’s show I’m joined by food activist Darren Flint who runs independent foraging walks in south London, Paul MacKay from Transition Belsize in north London, and mushroom expert Andy Overall co-founder Fungi to be With.

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My guests this week are right in the thick of the microgeneration revolution, are Mary Walsh a lawyer and an expert in renewable energy development. Mary devotes her time and portfolio of skills to helping groups develop and/or finance new energy initiatives. Also with me will be Chas Warlow, project manager at one of London’s most ambitious microgeneration projects, Ham Hydro, a social enterprise which is harnessing the power of community to bring clean hydroelectricity to residents on both sides of Teddington Weir on the river Thames.

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My guests for this edition of Deep Fried Planet will be campaigning barrister Polly Higgins, whose new book ‘Eradicating Ecocide‘ argues that the best way to save the planet from corporate and political corruption and destruction is to make ecocide a recognised crime against peace. I’ll also be joined by activist-lawyer James Thornton, founder of the environmental law group ClientEarth, which works in Europe and beyond to find pragmatic ways to make the law work for the environment instead of against it. (Note: Resonance lost the original file of this so this edited highlight is all that remains of the show).

Here’s an edited highlight of the show.