Dimming the Sun

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2024

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Switzerland has submitted a proposal to create a United Nations expert group on solar geoengineering to inform governments and stakeholders. The idea was discussed at the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya, this week. Professor Aarti Gupta shares how, after tense negotiations, the different member states could not agree, and the proposal was withdrawn. Why is solar geoengineering a controversial issue? How would dimming the sun even work? And should we consider it a genuine option in our fight against climate change? Dr Pete Irvine and Professor Joanna Haigh join presenter Marnie Chesterton in the studio to discuss.

Animal welfare charities have been celebrating a ban on donkey skin trade, agreed to this month by 55 African countries. This will make it illegal to slaughter donkeys for their skin across the continent, where around two thirds of the world’s 53 million donkeys live. Victoria Gill tells Marnie that the demand for the animals' skins is fuelled by the popularity of an ancient Chinese medicine called Ejiao, believed to have health-enhancing and youth-preserving properties and traditionally made from donkey hides.

Lastly, Dr Jess Wade, physicist and science communicator at Imperial College London, discusses Breaking Through: My Life in Science. It’s the memoir of Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Dr Katalin Karikó, whose passion and dedication to mRNA research led to the development of the life-changing COVID mRNA vaccines.

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producers: Florian Bohr, Louise Orchard Assistant Producer: Imaan Moin Editor: Martin Smith Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

BBC Inside Science is produced in collaboration with the Open University.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.6	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
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0:20.4	makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.
0:36.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:41.0	This is the podcast version of BBC Inside Science first broadcast on The Leap Day, Thursday
0:47.0	the 29th of February 2024.
0:50.3	Hello, this week a mysterious global donkey shortage.
0:54.5	What does this have to do with the Chinese medicine being advertised here?
0:58.5	Puyleau d'O,
1:00.5	you'll see the mai fen, so mai fen, she'll puten, da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da And Katlan Karako did the science that led to the MRNA COVID vaccine.
1:15.2	But at the time her research was considered so unimportant that she was kicked out of her workspace.
1:21.0	Jess Wade joins me to discuss her memoir.
1:24.7	But first, as I'm recording this, the United Nations Environment Assembly is happening in
1:29.8	Nairobi, Kenya.
1:31.5	This time, Switzerland made a proposal to set up an expert group on solar geoengineering,
1:37.0	also called solar radiation management.
1:40.0	It's big man-made efforts to stop so much sun getting to the earth, thus lowering the earth's temperature.
1:47.0	So just to be clear, this wasn't a proposal saying, let's start doing this,
	...

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