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The meteorologist, John Hammond explores how science fiction has served as a barometer for our wonder, curiosity and sometimes anxiety about the environment. With expert insight from Sarah Dillon - Professor of Literature and the Public Humanities and Professor of Human Geography Mike Hulme, we find out how writers imagined – sometimes very accurately – the changing world around them.

We explore near-future anxieties, when climate tensions reach boiling point in John Lanchester's 'The Wall', a stark drama of survival, isolation, and a world reshaped by rising seas.

Ravaged by the Change, an island nation has built the Wall, a high concrete barrier around its entire coastline. Joseph Kavanagh, a new Defender, has one task: to protect his section of the Wall from the Others, the desperate souls who are trapped on the rising seas beyond and are trying to get in. Failure will result in death or a fate perhaps worse: being put to sea and made an Other himself.

Read by Ben Norris
Produced by Mair Bosworth
Abridged for radio by Eileen Horne

And then following our drama - John's joined by Dr. Jennifer Francis, a Senior Atmospheric Scientist, to learn about the surprising effects of a warming world.

Changing Climates was presented by John Hammond and produced by Kerry McCarthy for ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 4 Extra.