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BBC Inside Science

Good COP Bad COP, Shotgun Lead Persistence, and Featherdown Adaptation

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.51.3K Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2021

⏱️ 31 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On Thursday, The UN Environmental Programme published a report called Making Peace With Nature. It attempts to synthesise vast amounts of scientific knowledge and communicate “how climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution can be tackled jointly within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals”. But it also offers clear and digestible messages that governments, institutions, businesses and individuals can act upon. Concluding BBC Inside Science’s month-long look at some of the challenges ahead of COP26 in Glasgow later this year, and its sister biodiversity meeting in China, Vic speaks with the report’s co-lead Prof Sir Robert Watson FRS and the Tyndall Centre’s Prof Rachel Warren, also a contributing author. Can all the ills of the natural world really be tackled at once? Game-shooting, for sport and food, has traditionally used the toxic metal lead for ammunition. In other parts of the world its use has been banned for the dangers to the human food chain and to the pollution in natural environments, and even deaths of wildfowl from poisoning. But not so in the UK. A year ago, as reported on Inside Science at the time, the shooting community announced a voluntary five year transition period to alternative shot materials. But researchers including profs Rhys Green and Debbie Pain from Cambridge University have discovered that a year on, little seems to have changed. Gathering game sold for food across the UK, they found that all but one bird in their sample of 180 contained lead shot. Meanwhile, up in the Himalayas, Smithsonian scientist Dr Sahas Barva was enjoying the scenery on a cold day off in 2014 when he saw and heard a tiny Goldcrest, thriving in temperatures of -10C. Wondering how such a tiny thing could keep its body insulated, he decided to investigate feathers, and utilizing the huge numbers of specimens in the Smithsonian’s collection he found some striking commonalities in the thermal properties and adaptations of birds everywhere. The higher up they live, the fluffier their coats. Presented by Victoria Gill Produced by Alex Mansfield Made in association with The Open University.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to introduce myself.

0:03.7

My name's Stevie Middleton and I'm a BBC Commissioner for a Load of Sport Podcasts.

0:08.4

I'm lucky to do that at the BBC because I get to work with a leading journalist, experienced

0:12.2

pundits and the biggest sport stars.

0:14.3

Together we bring you untold stories and fascinating insights straight from the players'

0:18.5

mouths.

0:19.5

But the best thing about doing this at the BBC is our unique access to the sport in world.

0:25.0

What that means is that we can bring you podcasts that create a real connection to

0:28.8

dedicated sports fans across the UK.

0:31.2

So if you like this podcast, head over to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more.

0:40.4

Hello, you lovely curious minded human.

0:42.4

This is the podcast edition of BBC Inside Science, originally broadcasted on 25 February 2021.

0:49.2

I'm Victoria Gill.

0:50.4

This week we'll be looking at how to use science to end our decades-long war with nature.

0:56.5

We're asking why shooting organisations appear to be reluctant to abandon toxic lead ammunition,

1:01.8

and we're heading into the Himalayas to reveal the fluffy, snugly secret of feathers.

1:07.0

Now this month, ahead of COP26 in Glasgow at the end of the year, we've been looking at the

1:11.6

science behind some of the biggest challenges facing our planet.

1:15.6

And last week as the world welcomed the United States back to the Paris Climate Agreement,

1:20.4

the UN published a major report outlining how humanity might just

1:24.8

extricate itself from three combined human-made environmental crises.

1:30.2

The UN Environment programme described its report, which is called Making Peace with Nature,

...

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