A Perfect Planet BBC1, 8pm

In the final part of the epic series, David Attenborough has a stark warning to humanity about the damage being done by modern civilisation and technology to our precious planet and the fragile eco-system on which all known life depends.

Global warming fuelled by the greenhouse gases spluttered out by industry and transport is now resulting in shocking scenes, from elephants in Africa (right) orphaned amid an epochal drought, to forests shrinking to a fraction of their former size and icecaps melting to release an unthinkable flood to swell the oceans.

Attenborough gives us reason to pray that we are not on the brink of the sixth massive extinction event in Earth’s history, but at least there is some hope as campaigners and conservationists strive to preserve all we can of the natural world, while innovative sources of clean energy might have arrived in time to stop the worst happening.