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)

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 #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)

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 

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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 

Listen to more CoolGreen episodes here

Podcast #41: Aussie bushfires, A setback for Shell's Arctic drilling plans + Your chance to be an astronaut

 This podcast includes the following stories:

1. Bushfires engulf southern Australia
2. Beached Kulluk drilling platform proves a major headache for Shell
3. Report: Half of the food produced on Earth is wasted
4. Transocean to plead guilty over Gulf oil spill
5. Kenya's largest ivory poaching massacre
6. Lake Ellsworth team downs tools
7. Ghana bans imports of fridges
8. Record price paid for bluefin tuna in Japan
9. Wanted: Volunteers to colonise Mars

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Lake Ellsworth scientists down tools

The team of British scientists trying to drill down to Lake Ellsworth in Antarctica have decided to down tools for the season. The decision to quit came after technological problems and a fuel shortage, but principal investigator Martin Siegert said they would return:

Lake Ellsworth lies below more than 3km of ice and has been sealed off for tens - probably hundreds - of thousands of years. For that reason it is a time capsule. The scientists are hoping the sediments on the bottom of the Lake will reveal clues about early forms of microbial life and about how the climate has changed since then.

But just getting down to the lake is a feat of engineering. Scientists are using a novel type of drill which blasts the ice with hot water. The team spent the best part of a week shovelling snow into artificial reservoirs - a little like large paddling pools - from where it will be melted in a furnace and pumped to the coal face, or in this case, the ice face.

When the drill head reaches the edge of the lake, a specially designed probe will drop down into the Lake and take samples of the sediment within. It is absolutely critical that the probe and all the other equipment is completely sterile since any residue from the surface would contaminate the samples.

You can read more about the Lake Ellsworth team in all their multimedia glory here.