Should Antarctica be off limits?

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 15 August 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Antarctica is a 'natural reserve, devoted to peace and science' - that’s according to an international treaty.

But with visitor numbers at a record high, how does tourism fit into that – and what kind of impact is it having on its fragile ecosystem? We discuss whether tourists – and even scientists – should be allowed to go at all.

Swimming in the Seine has been banned for more than a century because of pollution concerns. The main culprit? Human waste. We find out if it really will be safe in time.

And every summer we ready ourselves for 'flying ant day' – that one day where winged ants take to the skies across Britain. Or do they?

Presenter: Victoria Gill Producers: Sophie Ormiston, Ella Hubber and Gerry Holt Editor: Martin Smith Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Rory Stewart and I want to talk about ignorance. I will die without having read
0:08.2	everything that was written in classical Latin. Because ignorance isn't simply the opposite of knowledge.
0:14.7	It's part of what it means to be human.
0:17.5	Just about every game I can think of involves ignorance.
0:22.1	There's no adventure without ignorance. There's no there's no narrative.
0:25.0	The long history of ignorance from Confucius to Kianan
0:29.0	with me Rory Stewart,
0:31.0	listen on BBC Sounds.
0:35.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:38.0	Hello, you lovely curious-minded people.
0:41.0	Welcome to BBC Inside Science the podcast
0:43.9	originally broadcast on the 18th of July 2024 I'm Victoria Gill and as I
0:48.8	contemplate a weather forecast for the weekend ahead of continuous heavy rain
0:52.4	today we're going to talk about holidays for the weekend ahead of continuous heavy rain.
0:52.8	Today we're going to talk about holidays.
0:55.2	We're examining tourism though in one unique and very special place,
1:00.0	a land dedicated to science.
1:02.2	We're asking, should Antarctica be off limits and just
1:05.7	ahead of the Paris Olympics we're dipping in to find out if the famous and famously
1:10.4	polluted River Sen will be triathlon ready by next week.
1:14.7	But first, earlier this year I followed a team of scientists to the bottom of the world
1:19.4	on a trip to study Antarctica's humpback Wales.
	...

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