What’s the cost of invasive species?

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 October 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Humans have introduced more than 37,000 alien species to places they do not naturally occur. A report launched this week by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services revealed the shocking extent of the damage. Gaia Vince speaks to one of the report’s chairs, Helen Roy. Also this week, the UK has now rejoined Horizon Europe, the EU’s £85bn flagship research funding programme. Gaia caught up with the Royal Society’s vice-president Linda Partridge to find out what this means. Early this week, the Indian space agency, ISRO, launched its solar mission to study space weather. But in addition, its lunar mission, Chandrayaan-3, also powered down. Gaia speaks to Mahesh Anand, a planetary scientist at the Open University, to find out more about India’s space ambitions. Meanwhile, here on Earth, many of us have been sweltering in heatwave conditions and communicating weather dangers have become a key focus for forecasters. Helen Roberts, the Met Office’s first ever sociometeorologist, explores how cognitive biases affect our responses to warnings. Presenter: Gaia Vince Producers: Hannah Robins, Laura Northedge, Alice Lipscombe-Southwell Research: Patrick Hughes Editor: Martin Smith

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts
0:05.2	This is the podcast edition of BBC Inside Science, first broadcast on the 7th of September
0:11.7	2023. I'm Guy Evans.
0:15.5	Hello, good news for UK scientists as the government announces we are rejoining the
0:20.6	EU's flagship science research funding programme after three years in limbo. We'll bring you
0:26.3	the reaction from the Royal Society. A landmark report reveals the shocking scale of
0:32.6	the damage and costs caused by invasive species globally. After a summer of extreme weather
0:39.6	around the world, we'll be hearing from the Met Office's first socio-meteorologist
0:45.4	about the role of psychology in shaping forecasts to protect those at risk. And, as India completes
0:53.0	submission to the Moon and launches another one to the Sun, we'll explore how they're
0:58.2	succeeding in space.
1:00.3	The good news here is that the India is not actually planning to stop just after the successful
1:05.0	landing of Chandrian 3. They already have Chandrian 4 in the making, which I believe would
1:11.1	be a sample return mission from the Moon. So it's not just landing in a controlled manner,
1:16.5	but then leaving the surface successfully and coming back to earth with those samples
1:21.0	that I really would dearly love to analyse in my labs.
1:24.0	But first, next to a problem on Lake Victoria, the largest freshwater lake on the continent,
1:32.8	is being invaded by the water highest-synth weed, which is paralyzing fishing activities
1:37.4	and lake transport. Behind the fence is a huge stand of Japanese knotweed, a fast-growing,
1:43.3	invasive plant that's now encroaching on their property.
1:46.5	It's a huge worry. I mean, it really is devastating. We'll not get this house sold. No one's
1:51.0	going to want to buy it.
	...

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