Extreme Green: Episode 2

Episode Two.

In order to suppress the greenhouse gases causing global warming, we need to turn to renewable sources of energy. Zay travels to the Orkney isles in Scotland where he investigates the power of wave and tidal machines being tested at the edges of the world. He remains on the North Sea to reveal the gigantic offshore windfarms being raised to fuel thousands of K homes and discovers that food waste and fermented crops make a gas-powered electricity sufficient enough to heat up a village.

From energy solutions to quations about our future food prospects. When climate change makes temperatures insufferable and floods lay siege to our crops, how are we going to eat? We look into the new science that is Precision Agriculture; from vertical farms to artificial intelligence innovations that will maximise crop production in a hot, hot world. We are talking data streams and digital applications in farming and the advent of raspberry-picking robot, as invented by the “Fieldwork Robotics” team! This is an astounding future where the farmer is becoming scientist.  

But none of this would work if we do not pay heed to conserving our biodiversity. Zay travels to the Biosphere 2 project in Tucson, Arizona. He encounters Dr Joost Van Haaren, who is experimenting with coffee and cocoa crops, raising their temperatures to simulate global warming and seeing if they withstand or wilt. We then turn our attention to visions of smart cities and look into how CO2 emission can be curbed both at home and in the workplace.  Zay visits the “Microsoft” campus in Seattle, USA, for insight into the company’s “Natick” project, which reduces data storage emissions by placing data centres underwater. We end the programme looking at city dwellings and the carbon-absorbing architecture of the Belgian archibiotect, Vincent Calleabut. We explore his 21,000-planted tree apartment block, the Tao Zhu Yin Yuan in Taipei, Taiwan. Zay concludes his epic journey by asking environmental sage,  Sir Jonathon Porritt, for a summary and counsel on all things he has seen extreme green.