The child climate activist of the 1990s
Long before Greta Thunberg, there was 12-year-old Severn Cullis-Suzuki, the girl who stood in front of world leaders and implored them to take action to save our environment. Speaking at the 1992 UN Earth Summit in Rio De Janeiro, Severn caught the attention of the media with her passion and anger. Severn has been speaking to Phil Marzouk about her feelings then and how they’ve changed over the intervening decades.Photo: Severn Cullis-Suzuki (2nd left) and her friends at the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992. Courtesy of Severn Cullis-Suzuki.
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How the world woke up to climate change
Professor James Hansen finally got US politicians to listen to his warnings about climate change in June 1988 after years of trying. He and fellow NASA scientists had first predicted global warming almost a decade earlier. Professor Hansen spoke to Ashley Byrne about his discoveries in 2018.This programme is a rebroadcast.It is a Made in Manchester production.Image: Map of the world. Credit: Science Photo Library.
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The world's first environment conference
The first international conference on the problems of the environment took place in Stockholm in 1972. It didn't concentrate on climate change but on the damage that was being done to animals and forests by the encroachment of humans and industry. It also highlighted some of the splits between rich and poor nations over who should make the greatest changes to save the planet. Maurice Strong, who organised the gathering, spoke to Claire Bowes about why it was so difficult to get the countries of the world to agree on change.Photo: Maurice Strong (right) shakes hands with Brazilian indigenous chief Kanhok Caiapo. AFP/Getty.
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Proving climate change: the 'Keeling Curve'
A young American scientist began the work that would show how our climate is changing in 1958. His name was Charles Keeling and he started meticulously recording levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. He would carry on taking measurements for decades. His wife Louise and son Ralph spoke to Louise Hidalgo about him and his work. (Photo: Thick black smoke blowing out of an industrial chimney. Credit: John Giles/PA)
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Britain’s lesbian families ‘scandal’
In January 1978 a London newspaper revealed how several British lesbians had conceived babies using donor sperm with the help of a respected gynaecologist. The doctor hadn’t broken any laws in providing the fertility treatment but the stigma surrounding homosexuality at the time meant the revelations started a media frenzy and a heated national debate. There were discussions in the press, in the streets and in Parliament. One MP called for a ban on the practice and called it ‘evil’, ‘selfish’ and ‘horrific’. Dr Gill Hanscombe had used artificial insemination to start a family with her two lesbian partners. When the press found out about them she was terrified that they were about to lose their jobs, and potentially their child. Produced and presented by Viv Jones.(PHOTO: Gill Hanscombe (left) with her partners Dee and Pru, and their son. Courtesy of Gill Hanscombe.)
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The Greenham Common women's peace camp
The anti-nuclear weapons protest was the biggest women-led movement in the UK since the Suffragettes. It began in 1981 when Ann Pettitt from Wales organised a women-led peace march from the Welsh capital Cardiff to the airbase at Greenham Common, where American nuclear-tipped cruise missiles were being kept. A small group of women decided to set up camp outside the fences of Greenham Common to continue their protest. Women from all over the UK joined the demonstrations, some travelled from Europe and beyond to lend their support. At its peak, thousands of women camped around the base, and some form of protest camp remained for 19 years until all the nuclear weapons were moved and the airbase was decommissioned. It's now an open nature reserve. Ann Pettitt has been telling Rebecca Kesby why the women were prepared to leave jobs and families to sleep out in the cold to try to stop a nuclear war. Photo: Women from the Greenham Common peace camp blocking Yellow Gate into RAF Greenham Common , 1st April 1983 . (Photo by Staff/Reading Post/MirrorpixGetty Images)
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Polish refugees in Africa
During World War Two, close to 20,000 Polish people found refuge in Africa. They arrived after surviving imprisonment in Soviet labour camps and a harrowing journey across the Soviet Union to freedom. Casimir Szczepanik arrived as a child in a refugee camp in Zimbabwe (then Southern Rhodesia). He talks to Rob Walker about his life there and the impact the war still has on him. Photo:Casimir Szczepanik and his mother in the refugee camp. Credit:Casimir Szczepanik
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The mysterious death of Samora Machel
When the socialist leader of Mozambique and some of his senior advisers were killed in a plane crash on the border with South Africa, many were suspicious. It was 19 October 1986 and the two countries were divided over Apartheid. The plane made a sudden direct turn straight into a range of mountains, and one of the air crash investigators at the scene, Dr Alan Diehl, told Rebecca Kesby there are reasons to suspect the plane was deliberately diverted off course.(Photo: The socialist leader of Mozambique Samora Machel delivers a speech. Credit: Getty Images.)
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