Heatwave: the consequences

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2022

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The severity of last week's heatwave is changing the narrative. Gaia Vince talks to Simon Evans, deputy editor of the climate publication Carbon Brief, who has been following the media coverage of this heatwave, and Lorraine Whitmarsh, professor of environmental psychology at the university of Bath. What has the recent hot weather done to the plants in our gardens, and the crops in our fields? Dr Nicola Cannon from the Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester tells us the low-down. Expect your potatoes to get more expensive this autumn. The RHS want to know about how the heatwave has affected YOUR garden. You can help science by answering on this survey https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/NVNH5FN What if we could use all the excess heat from summer, and store it to heat our homes in winter. It's something a team in the Netherlands and Austria have been looking at, using a thermochemical battery. Wim van Helden from AEE Institute in Gleisdorf in Austria explains how they made a prototype, and what the stumbling blocks are to widespread use of their system. Is this thermal battery the holy grail of heat supply? We run it, and other options, past Michael de Podestra. An ex-measurement scientist at the National Physics Laboratory until his retirement two years ago, he has since become an expert in retrofitting his house to try and make it carbon-neutral.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ever wondered what the world's wealthiest people did to get so ridiculously rich?
0:05.5	Our podcast Good Bad Billionaire takes one billionaire at a time and explains exactly how they made their money.
0:11.9	And then we decide if they are actually good, bad or just plain wealthy.
0:15.5	So if you want to know if Rihanna is as much of a bad guy as she claims,
0:19.2	or what Jeff Bezos really did to become the first person in history to pocket a hundred billion dollars,
0:24.6	listen to Good Bad Billionaire with me, Simon Jack, and me, Zingsing.
0:28.5	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:31.0	This is the podcast version of Inside Science, which was first broadcast on 28 July 2022.
0:38.8	Hello, this week we're dedicating the whole episode to one topic,
0:43.2	reflecting on the unprecedented heat wave this month that broke all records in this country
0:49.2	and is continuing to wreak havoc across Europe and the US.
0:54.0	Sweltering conditions of pushed temperatures in parts of the UK to record or near record levels,
0:59.6	the authorities in Western France have warned of a heat apocalypse
1:03.0	as scorching weather continues to hit much of Europe,
1:05.8	and alarming insight into our fiery future as we continue to heat the planet.
1:12.1	This week, Seville became the first city to name a heat wave,
1:16.3	acknowledging that extreme heat, like violent storms and hurricanes,
1:20.8	are dangerous events.
1:23.1	Heat wave Zoe, with a daytime temperature exceeding 43 degrees in Seville,
1:28.7	is a category three event.
1:31.6	And in Britain too, we're undergoing a seismic shift in how we perceive and respond to extreme heat.
1:39.0	The severity of last week's heat wave and its repercussions,
	...

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