The “fear factor” generated by the new BBC Earth series – which recreates the climate change event that wiped out most species 250 million years ago – could “incite us to do something” about the environmental crisis, according to its presenter, Chris Packham. Using the latest scientific discoveries and visual effects, the BBC’s “Biography of Earth” draws parallels between the deadly change in the atmosphere caused by a series of cataclysmic supervolcano eruptions millions of years ago and humanity’s fossil fuel emissions, which Packham says are “destabilising” the Earth’s protective layer of gases…at an alarming rate. (Tara Conlan, The Guardian)