We could still limit global warming to just 2˚C — but there's an 'if'
Nature Podcast
podcast@nature.com
4.5 • 893 Ratings
🗓️ 20 April 2022
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
00:46 What COP26 promises will do for climate
At COP26 countries made a host of promises and commitments to tackle global warming. Now, a new analysis suggests these pledges could limit warming to below 2˚C — if countries stick to them.
BBC News: Climate change: COP26 promises will hold warming under 2C
03:48 Efficiency boost for energy storage solution
Storing excess energy is a key obstacle preventing wider adoption of renewable power. One potential solution has been to store this energy as heat before converting it back into electricity, but to date this process has been inefficient. Last week, a team reported the development of a new type of ‘photothermovoltaic’ that increases the efficiency of converting stored heat back into electricity, potentially making the process economically viable.
Science: ‘Thermal batteries’ could efficiently store wind and solar power in a renewable grid
07:56 Leeches’ lunches help ecologists count wildlife
Blood ingested by leeches may be a way to track wildlife, suggests new research. Using DNA from the blood, researchers were able to detect 86 different species in China’s Ailaoshan Nature Reserve. Their results also suggest that biodiversity was highest in the high-altitude interior of the reserve, suggesting that human activity had pushed wildlife away from other areas.
ScienceNews: Leeches expose wildlife’s whereabouts and may aid conservation efforts
11:05 How communication evolved in underground cave fish
Research has revealed that Mexican tetra fish are very chatty, and capable of making six distinct sounds. They also showed that fish populations living in underground caves in north-eastern Mexico have distinct accents.
New Scientist: Blind Mexican cave fish are developing cave-specific accents
14:36 Declassified data hints at interstellar meteorite strike
In 2014 a meteorite hit the Earth’s atmosphere that may have come from far outside the solar system, making it the first interstellar object to be detected. However, as some of the data needed to confirm this was classified by the US Government, the study wasn never published. Now the United States Space Command have confirmed the researchers’ findings, although the work has yet to be peer reviewed.
LiveScience: An interstellar object exploded over Earth in 2014, declassified government data reveal
Vice: Secret Government Info Confirms First Known Interstellar Object on Earth, Scientists Say
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Transcript
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| 0:40.0 | we're going to take a bit of a dive into some of the stories that have appeared in the nature briefing over the past few days and weeks. And joining me to do so in this episode of the podcast are Nick Petrich How? Nick, how are you? I'm doing well, Ben. How are you? I am doing A-O-K. Thank you very much. And also joining us is Charmany Bundell. Sharmony, hi. Hello, I'm very excited. |
| 1:12.8 | All three of us for once discussing science. It's going to be fun. Yeah, it's a rarity, |
| 1:16.5 | isn't it? Well, let's crack on then. Nick, do you want to go first this week? What have you got? |
| 1:19.5 | I certainly can go first. So I've been looking into a couple of things that are sort of climate change related. And, well, the first one is very much related. There was a paper |
| 1:28.9 | that came out in nature that's been assessing how well we're going to do with climate change |
| 1:34.5 | based on the promises made at COP 26. And I was reading about this in the BBC news. And COP 26 was the |
| 1:40.6 | most recent one in Glasgow. Yes, COP 26 was the most recent one last year in November, |
| 1:45.9 | and this was a big one because it was five years on, well actually six years because of COVID, |
| 1:50.8 | from the Paris talks. And so this was a time where countries were supposed to be ratcheting up |
| 1:56.3 | their promises and sort of pushing the boat out a bit further. Yeah, and a bunch of promises were made, |
| 2:01.4 | and you talked about them on the podcast at the time. So this paper then is sort of breaking them |
| 2:06.2 | down and looking at what will happen as a result of them, is that right? Yeah, that's right. So the paper |
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