Eco-Eye with Duncan Stuart

Life on Earth is constantly changing and evolving. However, in recent years this change has become more serious as more species become extinct and our air and water is increasingly polluted. In this episode, Anja explores our impact on the ocean and its inhabitants from the seas' smallest component, plankton, to its largest, the whale, along with the invaluable ecosystem services they provide.

In this episode, Dr. Lara Dungan looks at some of the issues and concerns that affect our health and lifespan, including how and where we live, travel, and work to the air we breathe, the water we drink, and even the packaging that our water comes in. All of this combines to have a huge impact on our health.

Dr. Lara Dungan takes a closer look at the technologies that could enable us to live in a world of no fossil fuels and no pollution while allowing us to grow our economy and improve our lifestyles. Exploring futuristic electric cars, ocean energy, new solar panels, and homes of the future, she will explore cutting edge tech that could help us power our future generations.

Communities all over Ireland rely on the ecosystem services provided by our rivers and streams. Anja examines the Blackwater River as a microcosm of many of Ireland's water catchments, exploring the issues affecting rivers and communities throughout the country. She'll follow the water from source to sea, looking at the impacts on the river and the people that rely on it.

In this episode, Lara looks at the effects of nature on our well-being, both mentally and physically, before uncovering some interesting connections between the effects of nature and green space on society itself.

In this episode, Anja Murray tackles the plight of the Curlew, having gone from over 5,000 breeding pairs to just 122 in a generation. Ireland's favorite bird and its haunting call are on the brink of extinction. Anja travels across the country to find out what has caused this collapse and what, if anything, can be done to save it.

Lara Dungan explores the reality of climate change in Ireland. She speaks with homeowners who have had their coastal residences ruined by erosion and coastal flooding, and she'll meet with experts who outline the bigger picture of climate change in Ireland.

Anja Murray discovers the amazing variety and ecology of seaweed around Irish coasts. Long harvested by local communities along the west coast, Seaweed has now become a valuable resource worldwide and the episode examines what risks there could be from mechanical harvesting, and how seaweed can be harvested sustainably.

Lara learns about her own carbon footprint and how to minimize it. She travels to eco-friendly community Cloughjordan in Tipperary County, and then Freiburg, Germany, one of the most sustainable cities in the world. She'll learn a number of lessons about energy, heat, agriculture, and transport to bring back to Ireland.

Lara explores ocean energy and what it means for Ireland's future. Starting in the new 'Lir' test center in Cork, Lara investigates the latest in ocean energy technology and the innovators behind it. Moving up the west coast, Lara discovers the vast wealth of energy sitting just off our shores and how we could be on the brink of revolutionizing our energy production.

Anja explores how nature can be rebalanced with human intervention, and why intervention is needed in the first place. Humans have been changing nature for a millennia, but now we must step in to manage the delicate balance of our remaining habitats.

Dr Lara Dungan explores why our society has turned its back on being active. With easy unhealthy choices everywhere, what hope do we have to reverse the trends? She discovers that the built environment around us has been geared for the car, making it more and more difficult to get around using our legs and feet. She will explore the reasons for this and figure out what we can do to change.

30 years ago there were over 500 pure, unpolluted freshwater sites in Ireland. Now there are only 21 left. Ecologist Anja Murray explores the decline of Ireland's high status water sites, home to the endangered freshwater pearl mussel. On her journey she learns what can be done to bring them back to better health.

In Ireland, over 1,500 annual deaths are caused by air pollution. Dr. Lara Dungan investigates the main sources of air pollution in Ireland, including traffic emissions and solid fuel burning. She digs into the health impacts and possible solutions of this silent killer.

After air pollution, noise is the second biggest environmental health issue. What level of noise has an impact on human health? Duncan and Lara investigate some of the ways in which noise can negatively affect human and marine mammal health, the solutions, and whether Ireland has sufficient protection for the general public.

Ireland's rivers and lakes are a central part of our unique biodiversity and ecosystems. In this episode, Anja will discover the impacts of non-native species in Irish water bodies, speaking with experts and anglers about the best ways to contain these species.

Ireland & Luxembourg are the only EU countries projected to miss both our emissions and renewable energy targets in 2020. In this episode, Lara explores the need to reduce our transport emissions and what trading the petrol car for electric innovation, public transport, and other transit options could look like in Ireland.

Hazardous chemicals permeate our homes, our bodies, and our environment. The episode will focus on the problems associated with household & garden chemicals and some of the solutions.

Ecologist Anja Murray meets with scientists and citizen scientists to try to understand why pollinator numbers, including wild Irish bees, are falling so rapidly.

Dr. Lara Dungan investigates the true cost of waste in Ireland and the people and companies trying to move away from plastics and keep Ireland green.

Anja and Lara explore Ireland's coastline. Anja meets a conservation group in the Maharees desperately trying to save their community from coastal erosion. Lara meanwhile is investigating the blue health effect, but also stumbles on a frightening superbug found on a beach in one of Ireland's most iconic tourist towns.

Anja investigates the man made barriers to fish migration in Ireland. On rivers like the Nore, the legendary salmon has to face 500 barriers before reaching its spawning grounds, whereas on Ireland's biggest river, the Shannon, wild salmon are almost extinct.

Dr. Lara Dungan explores the latest in electric cars and battery technology. Will the rapid growth in the range of electric vehicles be enough to get Lara over her "range anxiety"?

New research suggests Irish bird populations have seen dramatic declines across the country. If the declines continue at this rate, some of Ireland's most iconic birds could be extinct here within just 30 years. This episode will see ecologist Anja Murray investigate the reasons behind this alarming decline and what, if anything, can be done to slow or stop the falling numbers.

Agriculture is facing huge shocks from climate change; it's become hard to predict the seasons, but the world's agri-food system is also one of the biggest causes of climate change. How can our food systems, particularly livestock farming, become more sustainable and resilient in the face of climate change?