Frontiers of Earth Science
Discovery
BBC
4.3 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 19 January 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The very latest developments in the world of Earth science with Roland Pease, recorded at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting in New Orleans, where thousands of Earth, atmospheric, glacial, ocean and hydrologic scientists come together to promote discovery in Earth science for the benefit of humanity.
Twenty years on, we discuss the enduring lessons from the Hurricane Katrina disaster of 2005, hearing from Lieutenant General Russel Honoré who led the military relief effort, and Roland speaks to Jill Trepanier, hurricane climatologist from Louisiana State University.
We also hear about the mouth of the Mississippi River, known as the Bird's Foot Delta, south of New Orleans. Carol Wilson, assistant professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Louisiana State University, tells us how important these wetlands are as storm protections, yet they’re under threat from sea level rise and lack of sediment.
Roland takes a look at fifty-thousand-year-old Antarctic ice whilst speaking to Ed Brook, Professor at Oregon State University and director of COLDEX (Center for Oldest Ice Exploration), whose team is searching for ice which is potentially ten million years old. And he speaks to Allison Chartrand, assistant research scientist at the University of Maryland and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, who has been working to reveal the hidden landscapes of Greenland under the ice.
And Bob Hazen, scientist at the Carnegie Science Earth & Planets Laboratory, takes us back to the origins of life on Earth. He is investigating rocks which could be over four billion years old and may contain molecular fragments of ancient life.
Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Jonathan Blackwell
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Hello, I'm Greg Jenner, and good news, |
| 0:09.5 | Your Dead to Me, is back for a new series. |
| 0:11.6 | Here we go. |
| 0:12.1 | Yes, we'll explore Emperor Nero's notorious reign with Professor Marybeard and Patton Oswald. |
| 0:16.9 | I would not want my daughter having the remote control, not alone an empire. |
| 0:38.6 | We'll dissect the decadent life of Philippe Duke-Dolion with Tom Allen. I've often tried to pretend I'm an aristocrat. I'm being very quickly knocked down. And there'll be so much more with comedians like Olga Koch, Mike Mosniak, and Rihelina. I'm excited. You're dead to me. The comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:45.1 | Katrina was a generational storm, and to me a generational storm means that if you are of a certain generation, you can name exactly where you were and what you were doing during Katrina. |
| 0:49.8 | The annual global gathering of Earth scientists, the AGUE.U. Fall meeting is not just a chance |
| 0:55.2 | for them to share their latest discoveries. It's also a chance to relearn lessons from past |
| 1:01.3 | events like the disaster of Hurricane Katrina. That's what I was doing during the day. |
| 1:06.4 | At night, as Katrina was making its approach, I was reading John McPhee's Control of Nature, |
| 1:13.6 | a book that was written in, what, 1985, that described exactly what would happen to New Orleans. |
| 1:20.6 | They got hit by a category three. |
| 1:22.6 | Katrina hit in 2005. |
| 1:25.6 | My urgent question is the social science question of what does it take for us to take something |
| 1:34.1 | that we know is going to happen and act on it. |
| 1:40.4 | This was a PAC session that last month's AGU meeting, not just because it was the 20th anniversary of the storm, |
| 1:48.4 | but because the conference was being held in New Orleans, the city on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico that caught the brunt of the hurricane, |
| 1:56.6 | with a loss of 1,300 lives and a cost of $125 billion. |
| 2:02.8 | I'm run appease, and for this second edition of BBC Discovery from the massive 2025 American |
| 2:08.6 | Chiafiscal Union meeting, I'll be heading back to the beginning of life, to the fate of |
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