Rare Earth

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Factual: Science & Nature

Our relationship with the natural world explored by Tom Heap and Helen Czerski.

Tom Heap and Helen Czerski tackle a major story about our environment, work out how we got here and meet the brave, clever people with fresh ideas to help us - and nature - thrive.

Tom Heap and Helen Czerski tackle a major story about our environment, work out how we got here and meet the brave, clever people with fresh ideas to help us - and nature - thrive.
 
They won’t shy away from the big stuff - temperatures rising while wildlife declines - but this won’t be a weekly dose of doom-laden predictions and tortured hand-wringing.  Rare Earth is here to celebrate the wonder of nature and meet the people determined to keep it wonderful.

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Rare Earth: How do we get our healthy rivers back?

How do we get our healthy rivers back?

BBC Radio 4 - Rare Earth, How do we get our healthy rivers back?

Tom Heap and Helen Czerski investigate the health of our rivers.

With so many of the UK's rivers in poor ecological health, Tom Heap and Helen Czerski ask what went wrong and what we can do to try to put things right.

With river pollution more in the news than ever before, and sewage now a hot topic, Helen Czerski and Tom Heap investigate how we can restore the health of our rivers. They talk to the Rivers Trust, which this week released its latest ‘State of our Rivers’ report, and ask whether water quality has got better or worse since the last survey three years ago. 

They delve into the history of our water system – from the creation of the Victorian sewer network after the “Great Stink” of 1858, to the 21st century Thames Tideway Tunnel, London’s super-sewer currently under construction. But have we got our whole water system wrong? Tom and Helen ask whether regarding water as a one-way disposal system has partly created the mess our rivers are in today. They also hear about some waterfleas with remarkable powers to suck pollutants out of water.

Produced by Emma Campbell for BBC Audio Bristol in conjunction with the Open University

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Rare Earth

How do we get our healthy rivers back?

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