“Hi guys, I’m back, always listening but not sent in a question for you to discuss too often these days. Can I ask, who do you feel the BBC is lining up to replace Sir David Attenborough? Who do you think could replace him?”

That’s the first listener question sent for discussion, and that comes from Vandana in India.

There are people like Chris Packham and Simon Reeve, who though aren’t exactly being lined up to replace him, are perceptibly doing more.

Is there really a conscious choice to replace David Attenborough? We all know that we can’t. His influence will go on, as it is huge.

Stuart’s conclusion is that the BBC aren’t trying to replace him, and they really shouldn’t be, and should move onto someone else. William talks about the idea of replacement being incorrect, that you don’t replace, you get something new.

Pedro, a long standing listener from Portugal has sent in the second question for discussion today, and is as follows:

“40% of the Earth's surface, that isn’t frozen, is given over to intensive monoculture style farming, and the volume of plastic and concrete in the world is already more than the world's total biomass. To play devil's advocate for a minute, I could suggest humans are brutally efficient and growing and feeding most of the world populations, though distribution leaves a lot to be desired. The current process of sustaining our species means we are imitating the volcanoes that heated the world millions of years ago, by the volume of CO2 we are pumping out. Where do we search for hope though, do we look at humanity's own inventiveness to reverse this? For us to survive I feel we need to put planet Earth first, otherwise it will continue to evolve without us”.

William agrees with Pedro’s devil's advocacy, and that as a species we’re brutally efficient at survival. Even something like the black death didn’t kill us off, and in some ways did lead to how we live today.

Stuart finds the analogy that humans and their habits are like a giant volcano, interesting. It echo’s a thought he had in a previous episode where he believed that us humans are like a giant panda, an evolutionary dead end.

In conclusion, your co-hosts feel we as a species are often at our best when we’re pushed into action, when we’re cornered.

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