C4 schedule goes green for 2007

Published Monday 29 January 2007 at 15:25 by Liz Thomas

Channel 4 has proclaimed 2007 to be its “year of the environment” with a host of green programming tackling issues from global warming to household waste.

Dumped is a new twist in from the reality fold which will see ten members of the public forced to live on a Britain’s biggest rubbish dump. The series will follow contestants as they try and live a comfortable life using materials other people have thrown away. Meanwhile, God is Green follows former Dominican Friar Mark Dowd as he tries to investigate why the world’s major faiths are not becoming more involved in protecting the environment. The show sees Dowd challenge the Catholic church and urge Muslims to offset their flights to Mecca by planting trees.

Britain’s Worst Weather examines how the UK’s weather is becoming increasingly volatile with recent tornadoes in the capital and floods effecting whole areas of the country on an annual basis.

Kevin Lygo, director of television, said: “We want to engage as many people as possible in the environmental debate. Throughout the year we have a range of thought-provoking programmes, hearing from different viewpoints and challenging us to examine our own behaviour. All raise urgent and serious issues about our relationship with the environment.”

George Monbiot, one of the UK’s most prominent environmental campaigners, will be presenting a special report on climate change as part of Channel 4’s award winning current affairs strand Dispatches and on the other side of the argument, The Great Global Warming Swindle, features leading experts who challenge the view that man-made emissions are what is heating up the earth.

Tapping into the obsession with organic produce and food miles, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall sets up an organic market and cafe, arguing that shoppers should move away from the supermarket culture and buy locally-sourced produce.