Earth Beat, 6 January 2012. We showcase the best of 2011. A garbage anthropologist. Rats that sniff out landmines. Two men who crossed a landscape – in the canopies of its trees. A man who's lived off the land for over 30 years. Plus saving Iraq’s marshes, cleaning Dehli's air, naked hiking and swimming the Amazon. A selection of our most interesting people and topics from the last year. Comment on the show.

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Saving the Iraqi marshlands

Azzam Alwash grew up in the marshlands of southern Iraq. As a boy he remembers paddling through the reeds and hunting ducks with his father.

That was all before Saddam Hussein’s regime deliberately drained the marshes to flush out the rebel Marsh Arabs after the First Gulf War.

Now Azzam has returned after years in exile and is helping to restore one of the largest wetlands in the world (more photos below).

Azzam is the director of environmental NGO Nature Iraq.

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Spring clean

With our consumption ever-increasing and landfill space ever-decreasing, it’s good to ask exactly what trash is to us. What does it mean?

Robin Nagle is anthropologist-in-residence at the Department of Sanitation, New York City.

And if anyone knows the consequences of that big spring clean or waste in general, it’s her.

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Breathing clean air in New Delhi

Kamal Meattle is an entrepreneur and successful businessman in New Delhi, a city where pollution reportedly contributes to the deaths of 10,000 people a year.

He was forced to work in a completely sealed office complex to avoid contact with the city’s air, which was killing him.

Kamal decided to use plants to grow clean air in his office. Incoming polluted air is purified, filtered, ionized and then oxygenated by a system of 1,200 plants. It’s helped save his life.

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Requiem for a rare river dolphin

We hear about species on the brink of extinction all the time, but for many it’s already too late, like the Yangtze River dolphin (or baiji).

It achieved goddess status in China, but that wasn’t enough to ensure its survival.

Conservationist Sam Turvey was one of those who tried to save the baiji and describes its demise as a national tragedy and an international disgrace (more photos below).

Sam's book is Witness to Extinction: How We Failed to Save the Yangtze River Dolphin.

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HeroRATS

Bart Weetjens (pictured below) got a hamster for his ninth birthday, setting in motion a long-standing fascination with rodents.

As time went on, he discovered that the rats’ exceptional sense of smell makes them excellent landmine detectors.

Bart talks to host Marnie Chesterton about how you train HeroRATS and how the rodents have reclaimed previously dangerous land in countries such as Mozambique.

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Attacked by a bear

Earth Beat producer Anik See speaks with mountain enthusiast Colin Croston, who encountered a grizzly bear and her cub on the way back from a climbing trip. It’s a tale of surprise, shock and survival.

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Swimming the Amazon

Long-distance swimmer Martin Strel talks to Marnie about the biggest gamble of his life: swimming the Amazon River.

In 2007, Martin added the Amazon to an impressive list of rivers that he has swum from end-to-end including the Mississippi, the Danube and the world’s most polluted river, the Yangtze.

View a photo slideshow of Martin's Amazon swim.

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Hiking naked

Imagine stripping off and stepping out in the sunshine for a stroll.

For many of us it’s a terrifying thought, but for others it’s the only way to connect with the environment (more photos below).

Shane Steinkamp has been hiking in his birthday suit for more than 20 years and tells Marnie it’s the only way he can experience the wilderness.

Because being naked means he can connect with the natural world. Shane Steinkamp's Hiking Journal

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Living off the land

Eustace Conway has been living off the land for more than 30 years.

He has built his own home, does all his own blacksmithing, makes all his own tools and medicines, doesn’t personally use electricity or running water, grows and hunts for his own food and makes his own clothes. And he has since he was 17 (photos below).

For nearly 20 years, including his college years, Eustace lived in a tepee in the Appalachian mountains, where he still lives today, and fended for himself. And it all began at a very early age.

Further reading: GQ article - The Last American Man. Shawnee Street Media blog - On Turtle Island.

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Ready for the end

'Preppers' are people who are getting ready for the end of life as we know it by becoming as self-sufficient as is humanly possible. They grow their own food, dig for water, and have carefully-honed survival skills. One of them, Skip Corryel, told Marnie how he’s prepared for an apocalypse.

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Treeverse

Ever wondered what it feels like to be a monkey? Well you could do worse than ask Brian French or Will Koomjian.

Because these avid arborists recently crossed a forest without touching the ground.

They told Marnie why it took five days to traverse – or Treeverse – a kilometre through an oak forest in Oregon (more photos below).

Read more here: Ascending the Giants.

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The death of green – an obituary

Green might still be ok as a paint colour, but as a concept one could argue that it’s kind of had its day.

Because as environmentally-friendly products gradually become the norm, there’s no longer a need to identify them as ‘green’.

Writer Joel Stickley laments the end of a (green) era.