Tracking coronavirus spread
Unexpected Elements
BBC
4.4 • 570 Ratings
🗓️ 1 March 2020
⏱️ 68 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The appearance of Covid -19 in Italy and Iran surprised many this week. As the virus continues to spread we look at ways to contain it.
Australia’s fires have burnt around 20 percent of the countries woodlands, what are the implications for the recovery of those ecosystems?
And what is the link between the world’s super rich and deforestation? Unsurprisingly it’s money.
And we hear about the unexpected cooling effects of hydroelectric dams.
Weather: wet, dry, cold, hot, sunny, windy or downright weird - there’s nothing quite like it as a conversation starter, from Austin to Jakarta. And judging from the large volume of emails about all things meteorological in the CrowdScience inbox, there’s plenty to talk about.
What’s the weirdest weather on Earth, and how big a chance is there of it happening? Why does it always seem to rain on the days when we’re not working? And – conversely – is there any way we could make it rain when and where we need it to? Presenter Anand Jagatia finds out the answers to these questions and more by bringing together a panel of experts under the CrowdScience umbrella: Prof Liz Bentley, Royal Meteorological Society; Dr Anthony Rea, World Meteorological Organization, and Dr Rebecca Buccholz, National Centre for Atmospheric Research.
(Image: Tourists wearing masks tour outside the Coliseum in Rome. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Oh, hello. You have chosen a BBC podcast, but before you listen to it, we thought you might |
| 0:04.7 | like our podcast too. You might. You might. It is called Sightracked with me, Nick Grimshaw. |
| 0:09.2 | And me, Annie Mack. And we talk about the week in music. All the news, all the cultural |
| 0:14.0 | happenings in the UK and beyond. And great guests. And it's on BBC Sounds. Yes, where you can |
| 0:19.7 | also enjoy lots of playlists, music mixes and |
| 0:22.6 | live radio, everything from my six music breakfast show to Radio 3 Unwind. But obviously start with |
| 0:29.3 | our podcast, sidetrack. Obviously. Obviously. So if you like music, listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:34.3 | Welcome to the Science Hour from the BBC World Service with me, Roland Pease. |
| 0:38.5 | In half an hour, crowd science will be answering your questions about the weirdest weather, |
| 0:43.3 | from raining frogs to UFO-looking clouds to ball lightning. |
| 0:47.8 | One went into a church and exploded and everybody thought it was a message from God. |
| 0:52.2 | But they can be the size of a tennis ball or up to two metres wide. |
| 0:56.8 | Wow. |
| 0:57.1 | So they can be huge things. |
| 0:58.3 | And it's a ball of kind of glowing light. |
| 1:00.5 | Well, listening to Annan Chagatier is almost like hearing a message from God. |
| 1:05.0 | The voices of weather come up on crowd science in half an hour. |
| 1:09.6 | But before that on science and action, I'll be returning to |
| 1:12.6 | developments in the coronavirus outbreak. But we are also blowing hot and cold, hot over the latest |
| 1:18.9 | analysis of Australia's recent outbreak of wildfires. We even as fire scientists, I don't think |
| 1:24.5 | really expected something this big to happen this soon. There have |
| 1:29.3 | been reports of increasing fire danger conditions decades ahead of us, but now we're in 2020 |
... |
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