It's going to be difficult for us as a species...but I don't think it's over yet

CHRIS PACKHAM CHATS TO JESSICA RAWNSLEY AHEAD OF HIS NEW BBC SERIES, EARTH, WHICH CHARTS THE STORY OF OUR PLANET AND THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY IT FACES

- JESSICA RAWNSLEY

CHRIS PACKHAM'S latest BBC series, Earth, treads the line between hope and despair when it comes to the climate crisis.

It's something the naturalist, author and television presenter known for CBBC's The Really Wild Show and BBC's Springwatch grapples with himself on a daily basis.

"I see and feel climate change as a naturalist every day," he says. "I feel it every time I go out my door. I see species that have arrived and I note the absence of other things. I see the seasons have gone haywire since I was a kid.

"There are an increasing number of people who are aware of the dangers of our impact on the climate and biodiversity," he adds. "But I don't think enough of those people who are in decision-making processes are feeling it quite enough yet.

"We watch other parts of the world burn and get submerged underwater that we haven't felt much at home."

Chris fears that it will be "pain in some form that will prompt us to act". However his optimism comes from the knowledge that "we can fix it: we know what the causes of the problems are so we can stop it or slow it down".

Earth tells the remarkable, daunting, and often jaw-dropping story of our planet's four-and-a-half billionyear h tory.

Chris, alongside more than 200 scientists and some groundbreaking science, takes viewers to some of the most critical moments in the planet's past all the way from its unlikely existence to the arrival of human beings.

"This is a big story," says Chris, 62. "The greatest story ever told, in some ways."

It is a journey through Earth's history with an undercurrent of the climate crisis currently facing the planet and its inhabitants.