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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Factual: Science & Nature

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

Home Planet: Is renewable energy truly renewable?

13/12/2011

Is renewable energy truly renewable?

BBC Radio 4 - Home Planet, Is renewable energy truly renewable?

Could large numbers of wind turbines affect our climate?

Wind turbines extract energy from the atmosphere to convert into electricity. Is there a point at which they do this so well that it could alter our climate?

We know now that the dark side of the Moon is not dark, but it does always point away from the Earth. This week you want to know why and does it ever show another face? One listener challenges the panel to explain how some baby newts and toads got into a steep sided trough and why they could not get out again? Is renewable energy truly renewable or could we ever extract so much wind and tidal energy that it could effect our climate? And what did the dinosaurs ever do for us?.

On the panel this week are science writer Jo Baker of the journal Nature; marine and freshwater biologist Professor Graham Underwood of Exeter University and Professor Philip Stott and environmental scientist of the University of London.


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

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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