Ross Kemp heads for the Amazon
Sky1/HD has announced details of Ross Kemp – In the Amazon (working title); a two-part documentary looking into the socio-economic and environmental pressures facing the Amazon regions of Brazil and Ecuador.
Ross Kemp – In the Amazon will be broadcast on Sky1/HD in April 2010 and will explore the legacy of devastation created by a burgeoning global desire for energy, food and mineral resources. The documentary investigates how oil companies are affecting large tracts of the Amazon in a desire to satisfy the planets energy needs, how the turf wars that arise over cattle ranching and soy plantations have escalated, how the global demand for cocaine is leading to further deforestation and how the rise in the price of gold has meant that people are tearing up the rainforest as they seek to earn a living.
Ross Kemp comments: “While filming in Nigeria last year, I saw first-hand how much man’s greed has cost the environment. By travelling to the Amazon, we hope to highlight some of the well-known and lesser-known causes of deforestation. I am no environmentalist, but no species has interfered with the earth’s temperature in such a short space of time as we have. That damage as yet is unquantifiable. However, the survival of the world’s rainforests, in particular the Amazon, is crucial to the future of the human race.”
Ross Kemp – In the Amazon will form part of a line-up of programmes commissioned by Sky1/HD and other channels to highlight the plight of the rainforests to be aired throughout April. In October 2009 Sky joined forces with its customers and WWF to launch Sky Rainforest Rescue – a three year project to help save one billion trees in the state of Acre in northwest Brazil. A donation of just £20 will help save 1000 trees and Sky will match every donation up to the joint target of £4 million. For more information visit: sky.com/rainforestrescue
Ross says "Sky’s Rainforest Rescue will offer an easy way for people to understand what is happening out there and demonstrate how we can all do something to help safeguard this natural wonder.”
Celia Taylor, Head of Factual and Features, Sky1/HD, Sky2, Sky3 comments; "Ross brings his unique take to a familiar subject, the destruction of the rainforest, and delivers a refreshing and revealing look at what is really going on in the Amazon. What he discovered has shaken me out of my complacency and I hope viewers will feel the same."