Podcast #53: US power plants, Farm in a box + Great Barrier Reef

This podcast includes the following stories:

1. US Environmental Protection Agency's bid to curb emissions from power plants
2. Inventor in Kenya wants everyone to become farmers
3. My web picks
4. UNESCO and Leonardo DiCaprio warn Australia over Great Barrier Reef

Listen to more CoolGreen episodes here

The Smallest Farm in the World
Satao - A Legend (Mark Deeble)
Armadillo of the World cup (BBC - Science in Action)

Farm in a box

An inventor in Kenya has come up with a farm kit he claims can grow enough plants and livestock to feed a family in a space the size of a small car.

The 'aquaponic' system combines growing beds with a tank for rearing edible fish or shrimps. The two systems work in harmony using minimal amounts of energy and water.

If this sounds like the stuff of science fiction, its creator assures me the idea has been around for centuries and is beguilingly simple. That said, he has little doubt about its potential to revolutionise the way food is produced in the future.

I meet Heino Dahmen in a sprawling garage on the outskirts of the port city of Mombasa. He has run this business and an adjoining shipyard on the Mtwapa Creek for 20 years, but now devotes almost all his time to a bewildering array of engineering projects.

Podcast #52: Japan whaling ban, Selling human waste + YearsOfLivingDangerously

This podcast includes the following stories:

1. What does the ban on Japan's Antarctic whaling mean?
2. Selling sewage to help boost sanitation in Kenya
3. My web picks
4. Deal to start mining the sea bed in Papua New Guinea
5. Reviews of the US documentary series Years of Living Dangerously

Listen to more CoolGreen episodes here

The Goldman Prize
Goldman Prize on YouTube
Costing The Earth debate on IPCC report (BBC)
Dan Charles' report on fish farming for All Things Considered (NPR)
Years of Living Dangerously on YouTube

Human waste as fuel

Dried human waste could be the next big business opportunity in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as helping to flush out the problem of poor sanitation, according to a start-up in the coastal city of Mombasa.

Waste Enterprisers believes the "faecal sludge" found in pit latrines and septic tanks could be used as industrial fuel in place of imported coal and other biofuels. 

The company's CEO, Dr Ashley Muspratt, said that dried waste has been shown to burn at least as well as coffee husks and palm nut shells in tests. Unlike these more common biofuels, there is a plentiful local supply of sewage all year round. 

"I like to talk about what we're doing as replacing [sewage] treatment plants with factories. When you talk about factories you're talking about bringing in a raw material and putting out a value-added product," Dr Muspratt said. 

A pile of dried sludge in Kampala (Moritz Gold / SANDEC)

Podcast #51: New ways of monitoring Earth from Space; Apple CEO takes on conservative think tank + The lonely tree

This podcast includes the following stories:

1. Two new schemes tom monitor rainfall and deforestation from Space
2. My top environmental web picks
3. Apple CEO Tim Cook tells climate skeptic think tank where to put their money
4. A community's attempt to save the tree it loves 

Listen to more CoolGreen episodes here

Global Precipitation Measurement mission (NASA)

Info graphic of Global Precipitation Measurement satellite (Space.com)

Global Forest Watch

The Passing of a Giant (Mark Deeble)

Nuclear Waste's Final Destination (BBC Costing The Earth)

Show Me The Way To Go Home (BBC Discovery)

A town's love for one tree (Guardian)

Podcast #50: What Warsaw achieved, chilling effect of the Arctic 30 arrests + the most anti-environment ad ever?

This podcast includes the following stories:

1. Typhoon Haiyan fails to whip up a frenzy of action in Warsaw
2. My top environmental web picks
3. Could the Arctic 30 arrests have a chilling effect on direct action?
4. Marine reserves in the Antarctic stymied
5. Is this the most anti-environment ad ever?

Listen to more CoolGreen episodes here

Dispatch from Kiribati (Business Week)
Surveying deforestation since 2000 (Google/USGS/University of Maryland/Living on Earth)

90 emitters responsible for climate change (Guardian)

Podcast #49: Peru's dolphin cull, making airlines pay for emissions + trees that point to gold

This podcast includes the following stories:

1. World's 'largest illegal dolphin slaughter'
2. Battle for control of airline emissions
3. My top environmental web picks
4. Banning damaging PIB dumping at sea
5. Australian bushfires: No climate change link, says PM
6. Trees that point to gold

Listen to more CoolGreen episodes here

Undercover dolphin slaughter footage (Jim Wickens/Mundo Azul/ITV News)

Jim Wickens' account of being shipwrecked

CSI Landfill (BBC Costing the Earth)

Podcast #48: Global reaction to the IPCC report, the latest on detained Greenpeace activists + turbine rock

This podcast includes the following stories:

1. Reaction around the world to the IPCC's fifth climate report
2. My top environmental web picks
3. Latest on 30 Greenpeace activists detained in Russia
4. Using goats at green mowers
5. The great gig in the sky (actually on a wind turbine)

Listen to more CoolGreen episodes here

Crowdsourcing climate data from smart phones (BBC Inside Science)
Interactive: How hot will it get in your lifetime? (Guardian)
Bill McKibben on his latest book (PRI Living On Earth)

Can we really divest fossil fuels?

There is a student movement sweeping college campuses in the US. It calls for colleges to pull their investments - or to divest - from fossil fuel companies.

At least 300 schools have active campaigns - some bigger than others, and some further along than others, but still 300 is impressive.

Their manifesto is an article by the journalist-turned-activist Bill McKibben which appeared in Rolling Stone magazine almost a year ago. It argues that divestment on college campuses helped bring about the end of Apartheid, so why not climate change?

Podcast #47: The Divest movement sweeping the US, Singapore haze + The month's best environmental web picks

This podcast includes the following stories:

1. The Divest Fossil Fuel movement sweeping the US
2. My top environmental web picks
3. Singapore battles the dreaded haze
4. Britain's energy quagmire
5. A farmer responds to the suggestion of feeding his cows insects

Listen to more CoolGreen episodes here

Podcast #46: Astronaut Chris Hadfield bows out, Why we should eat more insects + Our vocal ancestors

This podcast includes the following stories:

1. Astronaut Chris Hadfield returns to Earth a celebrity
2. Timetable agreed for ending EU fish discards
3. Eat insects, says UN
4. Top picks in environmental news
5. Peugeot pioneers air-powered car
6. Report: 97% of scientists agree on man-made global warming
7. Baboons reveal clues about our vocal ancestors 

Listen to more CoolGreen episodes here

Podcast #45: Is the US oil industry causing quakes? Pope Francis the Green + Teeny weeny froglets

This podcast includes the following stories:

1. Can pumping wastewater from the oil industry underground cause earthquakes?
2. The ExxonMobil pipeline spill in Arkansas
3. Combatting ash dieback by planting more trees
4. Stricter sulphur limits for car fuels in the US
5. Are MSC-labelled fish being mislabelled? (Answer: No)
6. Will Pope Francis be the greenest pontiff yet?
7. Breeding frogs in captivity to save a species 

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The road ahead: More extreme weather?

Photo by Les Dunford

Extreme weather increasingly prompts talk of climate change and the link between the two.

We saw that recently with Hurricane Sandy in the US, and before that with the spate of droughts and wildfires. Australians pondered whether the record temperatures seen at the start of the year will become a more regular occurrence.

Now it is the turn of Britons. The British Isles, which are normally basking in spring sunshine at this time of year, are instead lying under several feet of snow. Thousands went without power, lambs are dying in the fields and there was the usual 'travel chaos'.

It was all timed nicely to coincide with the departure of the government's chief scientist, who drew the link with climate change as his farewell message.

Episode #44: The battle to stop ivory poaching, Fish fraud in the US + The electric Grand Prix

This podcast includes the following stories:

1. Efforts to stop the deepening crisis over ivory poaching
2. Fish fraud: A third of US products mislabelled
3. More than 7,500 dead pigs found in Chinese river
4. Keystone XL passes environmental impact report
5. Mars Rover finds evidence that life could have existed
6. 2012 saw second steepest CO2 rise since records began
7. President Obama appoints environment champions
8. Should weather forecasters talk about climate change
9. Formula One to go electric 

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Back from the dead?

An animal specimen discovered in the basement of the Natural History Museum in London has raised hopes that a species long thought to have been extinct in Australia may still be living in the remote outback.

An echidna in the wild in New Guinea (Tim Laman)

The long-beaked echidna looks like a cross between a platypus and a porcupine, but with the elongated snout of an anteater. It is one of just five mammal species on Earth that lays eggs.

It was thought that the last few animals were living in the rainforests of New Guinea where hunting has driven them to the brink of extinction.

But a surprise discovery in the museum's huge collection of preserved animals has raised the tantalising possibility that they have been living in Australia's remote North-West all along.

Podcast #43: Europe's horse meat scandal, The sound of glaciers + An Australian species back from the dead?

This podcast includes the following stories:

1. Europe's horse meat scandal
2. EU ministers vote for a phased ban on fish discards
3. EU plans boost to cap and trade scheme by withholding new permits
4. Global Ocean Commission formed to look at threats to the High Seas
5. Chinese businessman offers reward for river dip
6. The sound of glaciers melting
7. Museum find raises hopes for 'extinct' Australian oddity

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Is Kraftwerk anti-nuclear?

German electro band Kraftwerk have updated the lyrics of their 1975 song Radioactivity to cement its status as an anti-nuclear anthem.

As pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk's whole image was futuristic and utopian. With lyrics like "I programme a home computer, beam myself into the future" and "fun fun fun on the Autobahn" there was usually an underlying suggestion that the future - and especially future technology - would be beneficial to the human race. 

The original lyrics of Radioactivity were minimal and passed no explicit judgement on nuclear energy.

Kraftwerk performing Radioactivity in London in February 2013

But again there was an implication that the technology was helpful:

Radioactivity
Is in the air for you and me 

But come 1991, the song was updated to list the names of famous nuclear disasters: Chernobyl, Fukushima, Harrisburgh… The following lyrics were also added:

Chain reaction and mutation
Contaminated population
Stop radioactivity
Is in the air for you and me

Q&A: Beijing Smog

Since the start of the year, China's capital Beijing has been swathed in smog so thick that it is causing health concerns as well as inconvenience. Here's the story unpacked:

Why is this newsworthy?
Apart from anything else, the photos are pretty remarkable. Where there were skylines, there are now shadows in a soupy grey haze. And as pictures from NASA's Terra satellite show, the air pollution appears to have wiped the city clean off the Earth. It is also a big deal because air measurements show that levels of certain substances are way above what is considered safe for humans.


Aerial view of Beijing on January 3


Aerial view of Beijing on January 14

Podcast #42: President Obama's climate pledge, Beijing air pollution + Why mackerel is off the menu

This podcast includes the following stories:

1. President Obama's inaugural address
2. Why mackerel could be off the menu in Europe
3. NASA prepares to launch latest Earth-monitoring satellite
4. A global treaty to phase out mercury
5. BP to pay penalties totalling $4bn
6. Shell not responsible for oil leaks in Niger Delta
7. McDonald's to use sustainable fish
8. Beijing's air pollution goes off the scale 

Listen to more CoolGreen episodes here

Is Climate Change back on Obama's agenda?

We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. 

Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms.

An excerpt of President Obama's inaugural address today. It has been widely remarked upon that the address was both more specific on policies than expected, and that climate change was given a prominent mention.

1.5 of the 18 minutes of the speech was devoted to the issue. That may not sound like a lot, but given the deafening silence on the campaign trail, and for much of his first term, it is significant.