The Climate Question · BBC World Service

Could a love of nature bring out the eco-hero in you?

·26 min·2 clips

A fishing game reveals that watching nature videos makes people act sustainably, unlike city scenes.

A simple fishing game opens the question. Professor John Zelensky describes a virtual ocean where players earn 10 cents for each fish, then have to choose whether to leave enough for another season. The outcome lands quietly but clearly. People who first watched New York's skyline pushed for profit until the virtual ocean collapsed. People who watched a BBC documentary about forests held back more. From there, the episode moves outside. Near Nairobi National Park, children talk about watching nature, listening to it, and feeling calmer when they are stressed. Their answers are plain, which is part of the charm. They connect protection to animals they have actually seen, and to the danger when monkeys eat plastic or get trapped in it. Gabriel Ngalet then adds the education piece. As Nairobi Region Conservation Education Head for Wildlife Clubs of Kenya, he describes conservation activities that give young people closer contact with nature. The club's reach matters because, he says, more than 78% of Kenya's population are youth, many spending their days in schools and learning institutions. Trips to national parks can stick. Children who see elephants and lions for the first time may start to understand wildlife as part of revenue, employment, and daily care for the environment. Behaviour change is the thread running through the episode. It keeps asking whether nature feels easier to protect once it stops being abstract. The host ends small, with birds at a feeder and the odd little miracle of a seed becoming dinner. The tone stays careful. Nature is not treated like a magic fix. The episode simply asks whether felt contact with the living world can make environmental action more likely.

As heard by us

A calm, compact case that nature can nudge better choices.

The episode follows a clean line from a fishing game to skyline and forest videos, then into conversations in Nairobi with young people and conservation educators.

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Why you'd press play

You want a climate story that starts with a simple game and lands in real conservation work.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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