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

Home Planet: Making Oil from Plastic and Seaweed

09/08/2011

Making Oil from Plastic and Seaweed

BBC Radio 4 - Home Planet, Making Oil from Plastic and Seaweed

Will it ever be viable to grow seaweed to make into petrol?

Some types of seaweed can be converted into fuel for cars, but can this ever replace petrol derived from oil?

This week Home Planet listeners ask the panel about two ways of producing fuel from sources other than crude oil. Is a process to turn discarded plastic into oil too good to be true? Or will the fuel of the future come from farming algae? 

One listener also wants to know whether computer models will ever become sufficiently good to be able to predict future climate. How do migrating swifts know when to stop flying north and why do predators often have such yellow eyes?

On the panel this week are ornithologist Graham Appleton of the British Trust for Ornithology; Professor Andrew Watkinson, Director of Living With Environmental Change and Professor Philip Stott, an environmental scientist from the University of London. 

The programme is presented by Richard Daniel.


Producer: Toby Murcott 
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.

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