logo
episode-header-image
Sep 2023
28m 50s

What does a sustainable life look like?

Bbc World Service
About this episode
Many of us are worried about the environment, but the aim of living in a truly sustainable way is hard to pin down. Do we all need to stop buying things? Is it down to governments to make the changes for us? Is there somewhere in the world painting a picture of the end goal? It’s a question that has bothered CrowdScience listener Cate for 20 years! She’s w ... Show More
Up next
Today
Are atoms immortal?
Atoms are the building blocks of our world. Many have been around since right after the Big Bang created the universe nearly 14 billion years ago. And if life on Earth is made of atoms that are from all the way back then... will those atoms keep existing forever? That’s what Crow ... Show More
26m 28s
Oct 3
Why are some animals black and white?
Listener Jude in Canada wants to know why some animals are black and white. Why do zebras risk being so stripy? Why do pandas have such distinct marking? And do they have something in common? Presenter Caroline visits Pairi Daiza, a zoo in Belgium. Together with her guide for the ... Show More
27m 2s
Sep 26
Answers to even more questions
Sometimes in science, when you try to answer one question it sparks even more questions. The CrowdScience inbox is a bulging example of that. We get tons of new questions every week and many of those are following up on episodes we’ve made. Sometimes you want us to go deeper into ... Show More
26m 28s
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2023
Going carbon neutral: Lessons from Denmark
Bornholm – a Danish island in the Baltic Sea – is trying to go carbon neutral by 2025. It is a lofty ambition that would put the island decades ahead of most countries. This dream has been 15 years in the making; a crash in fish stocks meant Bornholmers had to reinvent themselves ... Show More
27m 27s
Feb 2024
The Life Scientific: Mercedes Maroto-Valer
How do you solve a problem like CO2? As the curtain closes on the world’s most important climate summit, we talk to a scientist who was at COP 28 and is working to solve our carbon dioxide problem. Professor Mercedes Maroto-Valer thinks saving the planet is still Mission Possible ... Show More
27m 23s
Nov 2021
Geoengineering The Planet
Even with the best efforts, it will be decades before we see any change in global temperatures through our mitigation efforts. Given the pace of global heating and the time lag before our emissions reductions have any impact, scientists are exploring additional ways of reducing g ... Show More
27m 23s
Nov 2023
Big promise, little success: The state of carbon capture
The U.S. is spending billions on carbon capture as a climate solution, but is it realistic? The method has been around for 50 years and used primarily as a way to extract more oil. To find out how and if carbon capture can work as a climate solution, Akshat speaks with Emily Grub ... Show More
34m 15s
Oct 2023
Why is Prime Minister Rishi Sunak rowing back on climate pledges?
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak gave a hastily arranged press conference this week in which he confirmed he would be rowing back on some previously made government commitments regarding net zero - the point at which we remove as much carbon from the atmosphere as we put in. The rea ... Show More
35m 10s
Apr 2022
How can the UK get to zero carbon?
Energy is essential: every living thing needs energy to survive, and today’s industrialised societies consume enormous quantities of it. At the moment, the vast majority of this comes from burning fossil fuels that emit carbon. But the government is committed to reaching net zero ... Show More
27m 46s
Jun 2022
The Life Scientific: Pete Smith
Pete Smith is very down to earth. Not least because he’s interested in soil and the vital role it plays in helping us to feed the world, mitigate climate change and maintain a rich diversity of species on planet earth. He was born in a pub and failed the 11+ exam (designed to ide ... Show More
27m 43s
Aug 2023
Your carbon footprint should bring you joy
The concept of a “carbon footprint” began as a distraction from Big Oil: get people to focus on their own actions rather than the impact of large emitters. Oil companies come up with PR campaigns all the time, but the carbon footprint took off because it taps into a question we k ... Show More
34m 57s
Aug 2021
Methane - a climate solution?
The latest IPCC assessment raised alarm about the rate at which manmade emissions are contributing to climate change. Much of the focus for action is on reducing levels of carbon dioxide, however there is a more potent greenhouse gas, methane, produced by natural and industrial p ... Show More
1h 7m