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This is Hard Talk with me, Sean Lay.

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Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Sean Lay.

Sir David Attenborough, the doyen of the world's natural history broadcasters,

rates Tim Flannery as in the league of the all-time great explorers.

His latest exploration, Europe's first 100 million years, and what the future may hold for that continent.

Tim Flannery is one of the scientists who make complex ideas explicable for those who lack his understanding of the world around us.

It was he who was called upon by a former Australian Prime Minister

to convince his countrymen and women that climate change threatened their future.

Yet this year, the country's voters rejected the party promising to cut the country's emissions.

The UN Secretary General says just as things are getting worse,

political will seems to be fading.

Does this planet have a future, do we?

Tim Flannery, welcome to Hard Talk.

We've seen this year, certainly in Europe, some of the most extraordinary temperatures and weather events that we've experienced.

In some parts of Western Europe, a second heat wave in a matter of only a month.

Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany,

recording their highest ever temperatures.

Globally, the UN World Meteorological Organisation

says the last four years have been the hottest known to man.

And yet Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General,

...