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Home Planet

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Factual: Science & Nature

Programme answering listeners' questions about planet Earth and our impact upon it

Home Planet: 01/02/2011

01/02/2011

BBC Radio 4 - Home Planet, 01/02/2011

Why does it appear to be colder just as dawn breaks?

A listener has recorded temperatures just as dawn breaks, and found it to be colder than the rest of the night. Why?

The darkest hour is just before dawn, but is it also the coldest. One listener has measured the temperature at that time and found a dawn chill. Why might that be the case? 

We're all encouraged to use low energy light bulbs, but has the change from less efficient incandescent bulbs reduced the nation's electricity bill? Are we at risk of squandering our supplies of helium gas?

Does more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere really mean a warmer world and how do you measure their capacity to trap heat in the first place?

Answering the questions this week are science writer Dr Jo Baker of the journal Nature; Mike Hulme, Professor of Climate Change at the University of East Anglia and Professor Philip Stott, an environmental scientist from the University of London. 


Presenter: Richard Daniel
Producer: Toby Murcott
A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4.

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