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The BBC has announced plans for a year-long series of special programming and coverage on climate change.

A raft of news services and shows are planned as part of the Our Planet Matters project.

These include a new monthly Climate Check podcast from BBC Weather, and coverage of debates and events around the globe.

Digital, TV and radio outlets will all take part.

Sir David Attenborough also plans a new hour-long documentary for the Our Planet Matters programmes. Extinction: The Facts will examine the fragile state of the natural world.

“We have to realise that this is not playing games,” Sir David told the BBC. “This is an urgent problem that has to be solved and, what’s more, we know how to do it.”

How can I follow?

Online, the BBC will produce new explainers, interactive tools and guides to help sort through the jargon and analyse what’s happening in the UK and across our changing planet. You can check back on everything that has been published so far here.

In a new series for BBC Two, Ade Adepitan travels to countries on the frontline of climate change to find out what humanity is doing to face up to possibly the greatest challenge in our history in a three part series, Ade on the Frontline of Climate Change.

Radio 4’s PM programme will air The Environment in 10 Objects. Each episode will look at the environmental impact of one household item, and how we can respond to the climate crisis at home.

A new weekly podcast on the World Service will examine climate change from scientific, business and policy perspectives with the help of journalists from around the world.

BBC Weather meanwhile plans to bring in a monthly Climate Check service, to help audiences see trends behind the daily weather.

Adam Bullimore, head of BBC Weather, says it will be a chance to “share something more with audiences than just the typical weather forecast”, and will focus on the impact of data like CO2 emissions and Arctic sea ice measurements on our planet.

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The BBC will also cover the build up to the COP 26 climate summit in Glasgow this November. On Friday, BBC Breakfast and the News Channel will be live from Glasgow’s Science Centre talking about plans to make Scotland’s biggest city carbon neutral by 2030, and how this will affect its people.

In the summer, the BBC will host a climate debate. Experts and people from around the UK will be brought together at the audience event.

What about abroad?

Our worldwide network of BBC correspondents will report on the effects of climate change on the environment and communities from all corners of the globe.

That even includes Antarctica. Chief environment correspondent Justin Rowlatt will be reporting from the remote Thwaites Glacier, where researchers are trying to find out the stability of the colossal ice mass.

All through 2020 the BBC will report on which countries, people and technologies are leading the way in tackling climate change.

Scientific work will also be a key focus. There will be coverage of how researchers are trying to understand the pace of climate change and its effects on the natural world.

How is the BBC doing on its own climate targets?

According to the BBC press office, the corporation reduced its carbon footprint by 78% last year by purchasing renewable electricity to match that used at major sites and is on track to remove all single-use plastics from BBC sites by the end of 2020.

The corporation now aims to go carbon neutral and has launched a project to identify what action is needed and how quickly it can be achieved.

“We’re committed to responsible travel policies including only travelling when necessary, using technology such as videoconferencing, improving the fuel efficiency of our vehicle fleet and introducing electric vehicles,” a statement reads. “Currently one of our contractors offsets CO2 emissions on our flights with them and we are exploring whether there’s scope to do more.”

BBC Director of News, Fran Unsworth, said: “We are very aware of our own impact on the environment and our responsible travel policy means we only fly when necessary.”

You can read the BBC’s Greener Broadcasting strategy here.

UK scientists say the recent fires in Australia are a taste of what the world will experience as temperatures rise.

Prof Richard Betts from the Met Office Hadley Centre said we are “seeing a sign of what would be normal conditions under a future warming world of 3C”.

While natural weather patterns have driven recent fires, researchers said it’s “common sense” that human-induced heating is playing a role.

Last year was Australia’s warmest and driest year on record.

UK researchers have carried out a rapid analysis of the impact of climate change on the risk of wildfires happening all over the world. Their study looked at 57 research papers published since the last major review of climate science came out in 2013.

All the studies in the review showed links between climate change and the increased frequency or severity of fire weather. This is defined as those periods of time which have a higher risk of fire due to a combination of high temperatures, low humidity, low rainfall and high winds.

The signal of human-induced warming has become clearer in different parts of the world with the passage of time. A paper published last year suggests the impact of climate change could be detected outside the range of natural variability in 22% of land that’s available for burning.

“Overall, the 57 papers reviewed clearly show human-induced warming has already led to a global increase in the frequency and severity of fire weather, increasing the risks of wildfire,” said Dr Matthew Jones, from the University of East Anglia, and the lead author of the review.

“This has been seen in many regions, including the western US and Canada, southern Europe, Scandinavia and Amazonia. Human-induced warming is also increasing fire risks in other regions, including Siberia and Australia.”

However, the review says that the dramatic fire situation witnessed in Australia in recent months is “challenging to diagnose”.

Naturally occurring weather patterns have played a significant role in creating the right conditions for wildfires. Conditions in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific have meant hot, dry spells across the country.

But the influence of human-driven climate change is also in the mix.

“This (the fires) would have happened naturally but we can be confident that they have been made hotter because of man-made climate change,” said Prof Betts.

Speaking at the launch of the global review, he pointed to the fact that Australia is now about 1.4C warmer than the global average temperature was in the pre-industrial period.

“Temperatures in December in Australia, that have occurred recently, they are extreme for now but they would be normal under a world getting on for three degrees of warming, so we are seeing a sign of what would be normal conditions under a future warming world of 3 degrees,” Prof Betts explained.

Right now, the world has warmed around 1C since the 1850s. Even with current government plans to limit emissions of CO2, the world is on course for around 3C of warming by the end of this century.

Other experts involved in the review say that people are seeing the signal of global warming “with their own eyes” when it comes to wildfires and heatwaves.

“These are impacts we are seeing for one degree of global climate change. The impact will get worse as long as we don’t do what it takes to stabilise the world’s climate,” said Prof Corinne Le Quéré, from the University of East Anglia in Norwich.

“And what it takes is to bring CO2 and other long-lived greenhouse gases down to net zero emissions. If we don’t do it, we will have much worse impacts – so what we are seeing in Australia is not the new normal, it’s a transition to worse impacts.”

The details of the papers included in the review can be found at the ScienceBrief online platform.

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A record number of elephants – 361 – have died in Sri Lanka during 2019, environmental groups say.

It is highest figure of elephant deaths to be reported since Sri Lanka became independent in 1948, conservationists said. Most were killed by people.

There are an estimated 7,500 wild elephants in Sri Lanka. Killing them is illegal, but the animals often come into conflict with rural communities.

Elephants are revered in Sri Lanka but some farmers view them as pests.

Sajeewa Chamikara, an environmentalist from the Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform, told the BBC that some 85% of elephant deaths last year may have been caused by human activity.

He said communities had used electric fences, poison and explosives concealed as food to kill the animals.

In September, officials said they suspected seven elephants found dead in a reserve were poisoned by local residents for destroying crops.

BBC World Service South Asia editor Anbarasan Ethirajan says the expansion of villages and farms in Sri Lanka has contributed to dwindling supplies of food and water for the animals.

Officials have promised to work to resolve the conflict by putting fences between elephant habitats and rural communities.

But Mr Chamikara said the government needed to do more to improve the quality of protected areas, such as tackling the issue of invasive plants which grow over grasslands that feed the elephants.

“Our development plan is not eco-friendly. We need a sustainable development plan,” he said.

Trains are responsible for killing some wild elephants during their migration. Others die of natural causes, he said.

Dozens of elephants are kept in captivity in Sri Lanka to raise income from tourists, while others are forced to march at local festivals.

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The first core stage for Nasa’s “mega-rocket”, the SLS, has left its factory in New Orleans for crucial tests to assess its readiness for launch.

The Space Launch System (SLS) is a critical part of the space agency’s Artemis programme, which aims to return Americans to the Moon by 2024.

The core stage is the centrepiece of the new rocket and will undergo comprehensive testing in Mississippi.

On Wednesday, it was placed on a barge which will sail it to its destination.

The rocket, which will be taller than a 30-storey building, is being built for Nasa by Boeing.

Nasa deputy administrator Jim Morhard attended the roll-out of the rocket stage from the Michoud Assembly Facility (Maf) in New Orleans where it was built.

He said it represented “an exciting leap forward in the Artemis program as Nasa teams make progress toward the launch pad”.

The rocket programme, which was announced in 2010, has been hit by delays and cost overruns.

Some in the space community believe it would be better to launch deep space missions on commercial rockets. But supporters of the programme say that Nasa needs its own heavy-lift launch capability.

After roll-out from the Maf, the core was loaded on to Nasa’s Pegasus barge to travel by water to the Stennis Space Center near Bay St Louis in Mississippi.

The test campaign at Stennis is called the “Green Run”, and will involve operating all the core stage systems simultaneously for the first time.

This will see the four powerful RS-25 engines fired for about eight minutes (or perhaps a little less), and throttled at different settings. This will mimic the levels of thrust needed during launch.

The SLS core stage contains two propellant tanks – one to hold liquid oxygen and another for liquid hydrogen. Together, they hold a combined 733,000 gallons (2.7 million litres) of propellant to power the engines.

The SLS was designed to re-use technology originally developed for the space shuttle programme, which ran from 1981-2011.

The RS-25 thrusters are the same ones that powered the orbiter, and the SLS core stage is based on the external tank that fed the shuttle engines with propellant (albeit with significant modifications).

Two solid rocket boosters (SRBs) – similar to those that helped launch the shuttle – will sit either side of the SLS core.

The rocket will provide the power required to send the Orion spacecraft – Nasa’s next-generation crew vehicle – on its way to the Moon. The rocket’s maiden launch (Artemis-1) is expected to occur some time in 2021.

Last year, John Shannon, who has been Boeing’s head of the SLS programme since 2015, told me: “I suspect that once SLS is in the national capability, there won’t be a need for another heavy-lift vehicle like it for many years. So this is really a once-in-a-generation opportunity.”

The core is the largest stage Nasa has ever had built at the Louisiana factory, including the Saturn V rocket stages for the Apollo programme.

“This is a historic moment for Nasa’s Artemis programme and a proud time for the… team as the first flight article leaves the factory floor,” said Julie Bassler, the Nasa SLS Stages manager.

Meanwhile, Nasa and its partners have completed production of the Orion spacecraft for the first Artemis mission. It is currently undergoing final testing at the Plum Brook Station in Ohio.

For the Artemis-1 mission, Orion will be sent on a loop around the Moon to test the hardware in deep space. The spacecraft will carry no crew.

The first mission to carry crew will be Artemis-2, which should send four astronauts on a lunar flyby.

Artemis-3, which is being targeted for 2024, will see a man and a woman land at the lunar south pole – the first time astronauts will have travelled to the lunar surface since 1972.

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It’s one of the more remarkable specimens taken into London’s Natural History Museum. It’s certainly one of the most “fantastic”.

The horn comes from an Erumpent, a fictional beast created in the mind of author JK Rowling.

It’s going to feature in a major new exhibition at the South Kensington institution this spring, in which the extraordinary creatures of the Harry Potter universe are used to shine a light on some of the “magical” animals that exist in the real world.

The NHM is describing the show as its most ambitious to date.

It’s a joint venture with Warner Bros, who own the film versions of Rowling’s Potter books and their Fantastic Beasts spin-offs, together with the BBC, whose Natural History Unit in Bristol, will be filming a companion programme.

“We want to show people that the natural world is just as amazing as the mythical, wizarding world,” said Clare Matterson, executive director of engagement at the NHM.

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The exhibition will put 50 specimens from the museum’s world famous collections next to props from the Potter movies. Interactive displays will compare and contrast different animals.

“You’ll recall the Erumpent’s mating dance from Fantastic Beasts. We’ll be making comparisons with the peacock spider, which has its own extraordinary movements that it uses to attract a mate,” explained the NHM executive.

“Then there’s something in the magical world called a Demiguise, which, as the name suggests, has ways of making itself disappear. And, of course, there are all sorts of examples in the natural world but one of the most famous is the octopus which can change its colours and camouflage itself, blending into its natural surroundings.”

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The exhibition will also point out some of the direct links between fact and fiction.

A good illustration is the giant oarfish, the world’s longest bony fish. This animal is thought to be the inspiration for many of the myths that exist around sea serpents.

It’s a theme that will be picked up in the BBC companion programme, which will be fronted by actor Stephen Fry, best known in this context as the voice of the Harry Potter audio books.

The BBC One special is going to visit places such as the frozen steppes of Siberia and the caves of Madagascar to explore the origins and stories of mythical beasts and to draw the connections with species that are alive today or have not long gone extinct.

Stephen Fry said: “I could not be more delighted to be a part of this magnificent opportunity for us Muggles to show the wizarding world that the fantastic beasts in our world are more than a match for theirs.

“Joining forces with the combined powers of the fabulous BBC, its legendary Natural History Unit and the magical Natural History Museum we hope to be able to bring you closer than you’ve ever been to some of the most spectacular and extraordinary creatures ever seen.”

Clare Matterson added: “Ultimately, what we’re trying to do is get that important message across that we should care more about the animals on this extraordinary planet we inhabit.”

Tickets for the exhibition – Fantastic Beasts: The Wonder of Nature – will go on sale soon.

The show will run for seven months before heading out on an international tour.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos