Climate Change and Health; Moth Snow Storm Feedback; Whale Brain Evolution; Pharoah's Serpent

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Science

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 November 2017

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Adam Rutherford talks to researchers on a major global study that aimed to quantify how climate change has already damaged the health of millions of people. Hugh Montgomery is the co-chair of the Lancet Countdown report and says that climate change is the largest single threat to global health. Climate scientist Peter Cox talks about his stark findings on the increase in the number of vulnerable people exposed to heat waves between now and the turn of the century.

We hear anecdotes and concerns from listeners following our item last week on the catastrophic decline in flying insects in the last quarter century and the disappearance of moth snow storms.

What can the social lives and brains of whales and dolphins tell us about the evolution of our species cognitive capacities and white matter? Adam talks to Susanne Shultz of the University of Manchester.

Everyone's favourite indoor firework, the Pharoah's Serpent, is under scientific scrutiny from chemists Tom Miller and Andrea Sella at University College London.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello you this is the podcast of Inside Science from BBC Radio 4 first broadcast on the second of November 2017
0:07.2	I'm Adam Rutherford bonfire night is looming and we take a look at the chemistry of by far the most memorable indoor
0:13.7	firework the Pharaoh's Serpent. We had a staggering response from you on last
0:18.6	week's discussion of the decline of flying insects and we'll be hearing some of your memories of the so-called
0:24.1	moth snowstorms and we've got the latest on hanging out with dolphins and
0:28.6	whales the evolution of their brains and what it tells us about our own.
0:32.4	Wales and dolphins because they live in a complete their brains and what it tells us about our own.
0:32.8	Whales and dolphins, because they live in a completely different environment,
0:36.0	they live underwater, they don't live in the forest, they don't eat fruit, they don't travel in the same way.
0:40.5	They're an independent group where we can say what really is the relationship
0:44.2	between brain evolution, social evolution and culture.
0:48.0	Cetacean brains coming up later. But at first we often talk about climate change here as you'd expect on a science
0:54.7	program we discuss things like Arctic ice and the warming oceans and the effect of
0:59.3	global warming on biodiversity. What we rarely mention is the impact that climate change is having on people.
1:05.8	A major international report published this week assesses how the change in climate is already affecting
1:11.0	the health of communities and no surprise it is the poorest nations
1:14.4	who are disproportionately affected.
1:17.0	The Lancet countdown on health and climate change analysed everything from malnutrition to heat waves to insect-borne diseases to mental health,
1:25.0	Hugh Montgomery is co-chair of this global analysis as well as being Professor of Medicine at University College London.
1:32.0	Climate change represents the greatest threat to human health of the 21st century.
1:36.0	And that's for a number of reasons.
1:38.0	Firstly, it's a false multiplier.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.