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BBC Inside Science: Australian bush fires; Veganuary and LIGO

09/01/2020

Australian bush fires; Veganuary and LIGO

BBC Radio 4 - BBC Inside Science, Australian bush fires; Veganuary and LIGO

Gareth Mitchell discusses the Australian bush fires; Veganuary and LIGO

The weather and climate systems that exacerbated Australian bush fires; Veganuary - health and environmental impacts of going meat-free and LIGO detects more gravitational waves.

2019 was the hottest and driest year on record in Australia. The Indian Ocean Dipole and the Southern Annular Mode weather systems, plus existing drought conditions, all primed the continent for the horrific fire season currently raging in the east and south east of the country. Climate scientist at the University of New South Wales Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick is in no doubt global warming played a role in making these the worst fires in recent history. Making matters even worse is that the ferocity of the bush-fires is creating its own weather. Nicholas McCarthy at the University of Queensland studies fire-induced weather and he explains how this can help spread the fires further.

January is also Veganuary, a chance for you to try being vegan for 31 days. The reasons for giving up animal products in your diet  are varied, from reducing your carbon footprint to not eating animals and getting healthy. Reporter Geoff Marsh is interested in the evidence in favour for and against a vegan diet. 

A signal in April 2019 picked up by the LIGO Livingston Observatory has been confirmed as the gravitational ripples from a collision of two neutron stars. LIGO Livingston is part of a gravitational-wave network that includes LIGO (the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory), and the European Virgo detector.  

Producer - Fiona Roberts

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