Sustainababble
Episodes
276 episodes
#124: Work less
Work can be massively tedious. But would doing less of it - e.g. working 4 days rather than 5 - really be better for the planet? How would we pay the bills? And what would we do with all that extra time?We chat to Aidan Harper of the 4 Day Week ca...
#123: Brazil
Beautiful Brazil looks set to elect a git. He goes by the name of Jair Bolsonaro and he is bad news for rainforests and those that live in them. We ask our Brazilian chum Fernanda Balata whether her country has gone totally nuts.Closer to home, we...
#122: 1.5 Degrees
Climate scientists have piped up again! 2,000 international brainboxes report that the nitty gritty of *actually* doing what the world said it would do in Paris three years ago is, well, gritty. Very gritty. Like 12 years to avert irreversable cli...
#121: William Doyle meets Sustainababble
As East India Youth, electronic musician William Doyle has been nominated for a Mercury music prize and travelled the world promoting two highly successful albums. But the physical and emotional stresses of his own touring led him to ask whether m...
#120: Hedgehogs
Poor little sods are in big trouble. We pick over the plight of our prickly pals and ask: whose fault is the demise of the hedgehog? What's Boycie from Only Fools and Horses got to do with it? And can Ol be trusted to look after a hedgehog in dist...
#119: Vybarr Cregan-Reid meets Sustainababble
Vybarr is not only the most fabulously named babble guest we've had, but also the author of TWO incredible books about humans and our environment.His new book - Primate Change: How the world we made is remaking us - uncovers the extraordinary tale...
#118: Heat
There's a plan to make cold things hot - and hot things cold - using the lost rivers that wind under cities like London. Sounds like magic? Is magic. SCIENCE MAGIC.Just how *do* we warm ourselves up in winter without knackering the planet? Or shou...
#117: Trump Baby
Trump Baby will fly!Remarkably, permission has been granted for a 6 metre inflatable, nappy-wearing, perma-tweeting, orange skinned crying baby to fly above parliament when The Donald makes his controversial visit to blighty.As TB prepares for lif...
#116: Solar
Solar boomed in the UK a few years back, but now hardly any of it's going up. Which seems a shame what with this INFERNAL sunny weather.What's happened? Why are we stalling just as other countries go nuts for the most popular green technology? And...
#115: Population
More and more people on Earth = nailed-on environmental catastrophe. Yes? We talk to Alistair Currie from Population Matters to find out.Dashedly thorny issue, this. Isn't the real issue how much of a mess rich people are making of the planet, not...
#114: Organic Farming
Helen Browning is an organic farmer and Chief Executive of the Soil Association. For one very lovely summer's day, she was also our host and tour guide at her mixed organic farm in Wiltshire - introducing us to pigs, piglets and cows on the way.We...
#113: Periods
There's no escaping that throwaway plastic menstrual products are just as bad for the fishes as throwaway plastic anything else.But what are the alternatives? Does anyone use them? And what the hell gives two men the right to blather on about peri...
#112: Cricket
Ooh, dash it. Seems we may have to add cricket to the very long list of things that climate change is going to nause up entirely. We investigate, once Ol has explained to Dave what cricket actually is.More rain? Bad for cricket. Hotter summers? Ba...
#111: Tourism
New research suggests - somewhat irritatingly - going on holiday is four times worse for the climate than previously thought.Flying, lavish eating, hotel maintenance & souvenirs all add up to a speedo-tightening 8% of global CO2 emissions.So shoul...
#110: Shipping
Captain Birdseye and his pals have finally come to the climate party. An unprecedented agreement - signed just down the road from Babble HQ - will see global shipping cut CO2 in half. About time too.We dig around below deck to see what's really go...
#109: Neoliberalism
'Neoliberalism', then. What the hell is it? Is it wrecking the planet? Is it responsible for Ol's hair? And what's it all got to do with the price of bees? Strap yourself in as mega-brain Christine Berry explains all.With the patience of a saint,...
#108: Carbon Bubble
This week we meet one of the most influential people on climate change you've probably never heard of.Mark Campanale is Founder & Executive Director of Carbon Tracker, a think tank whose ground-breaking Unburnable Carbon report made the entire fin...
#107: Sheffield’s Trees
Sheffield's gone to war with itself over its trees. Is it all Margaret Thatcher's fault? What have bunnies, squirrels and geckos got to do with it? And who the hell is Amy?We have a natter to splendid Sheffield tree campaigner, Fran Halsall.Also ...
#106: Russia
You'll have noticed that Russia is cross with Blighty for being cross with Russia for allegedly attempting to bump off a spy and his daughter. Allegedly.All this crossness has made people jittery about whether Blighty's gas supply might suddenly d...
#105: Batteries
Scientists with beards have invented a battery. Trust us, it's more interesting than it sounds.Despite shameful scientific illiteracy, even the 'Babble gets that this invention - a rechargable proton battery, no less - is potentially Very Importan...
#104: Cats
Vicious, bird-killing machines totally devoid of conscience, or unfortunate scapegoats (scapecats?) for humanity's somewhat more ruinous ecological destruction?One thing's for certain: lots of people have VIEWS when it comes to cats. So this week...
#103: Monkey Exhausts
In 2014, ten monkeys were watching cartoons in a sealed chamber, into which ACTUAL SCIENTISTS pumped exhaust fumes from a VW Beetle. For four hours.Why? Who was behind it? And why did people get so much more upset about the gassed monkeys than abo...
#102: Students
Good-for-nothing lay-abouts, potnoodling their future away while the rest of us do REAL JOBS and PAY TAX.Maybe. But do today's students in fact care quite a lot about the planet? Do they get taught about it? Do they get angry about it? Or is the s...
