Listen :
Availability:
Available to listen.
Last broadcast on Tue, 29 Dec 2009, 15:00 on BBC Radio 4 (FM only).
Synopsis
Richard Daniel and the team discuss listeners' questions about the environment and the natural world.
The focus is on energy and climate change. Starting with a question about carbon dioxide in the atmosphere - is there a point when it will reach saturation and emitting any more of the gas will not have any effect? Nuclear power is being offered as a solution to reducing carbon dioxide emissions but how efficient is it? And if it produces waste heat, doesn't that add to the problems of a warming planet?
Then there's the recently revived idea of whether vegetarians produce less greenhouse gas than meat-eaters. Are sea level rises really such a problem when we have centuries of experience building sea defences? And what caused the ebb and flow of ice ages in historical times?
On the panel are development expert Prof Sue Buckingham of Brunel University; geologist and energy specialist Dr Nick Riley of the British Geological Survey; and Prof Andrew Watkinson, director of Living with Environmental Change.
Guest: Dr Nick Riley
British Geological Survey (BGS)
Guest: Professor Sue Buckingham
Centre for Human Geography
Brunel University
Guest: Professor Andrew Watkinson
Director of the Living With Environmental Change Programme,
University of East Anglia
How does carbon dioxide cause heating of the atmosphere?
Useful Links: History of Climate Change Science
A detailed and historical perspective on the discovery of greenhouse gases and their effect on the climate from the American Institute of Physics.
Useful Links: The Physical Science Basis
A link to the very detailed description of the impact of greenhouse gases from the IPCC report.
Changes in Atmospheric Constituents and in Radiative Forcing
Useful Links: Climate Change
A comprehensive guide to climate change science from New Scientist magazine.
Can vegetarianism halt climate change?
Lord Stern has suggested that changing to a vegetarian diet would reduce the amount of greenhouse gases produced by farm animals but will the human digestive system make up the difference in methane?
Useful Links: Ruminant Digestive System
A brief description of the ruminant digestive system.
Useful Links: Ruminant Digestive System
A detailed description of the ruminant digestive system.
Useful Links: Human and Ruminant Digestive System Comparison
A short essay comparing the human and ruminant digestive systems.
A Comparison Between the Human and Ruminant Digestive System
How do ice ages start and end?
Useful Links: Milutin Milankovitch
An article describing Mulitin Milankovitch and the Earth Orbital cycles he discovered that are currently thought to trigger ice ages.
Useful Links: The Ice Ages
A short BBC article on the ice ages.
How efficient is a modern nuclear power station?
Useful Links: Nuclear Power Reactors
A description of the different types of nuclear power station currently in operation around the world, including diagrams of their processes.
Broadcast
-
Tue 29 Dec 200915:00
© 2012~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~08~RS~){kind=small}