Living Planet: Environment matters from around the world

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DATE : Thu, 7 Jan 2010 16:30:00 GMT
Entered in Database : 2010-01-07 16:30:00
length : 14579646
Link to the Show / Show Notes

This week on Living Planet we take a look at an ambitious proposal for a green energy grid to hook up nine countries around the North Sea, what the UN's 2010 year of biodiversity means and how the rate of evolution is now being measured in the test tube.
You can download the show or subscribe to Living Planet as a podcast. Click on the links below for the individual reports.Europe plans ambitious North Sea renewables grid

Europe is planning a massive electricity grid to run under the North Sea, connecting different EU countries with each other as well as to clean power.

It's set to be the biggest transnational power network of its kind. Europe is planning a massive submarine electricity grid below the North Sea. It could pave the way for the continent's energy independence, and solve one of the main problems holding back renewable energies: their reliability when it comes to supply. The 10 year investment comes with a hefty price tag – 30 billion euros – and plenty of unanswered questions. But environmentalists and energy experts alike are hailing the scheme as one of the most exciting advances in clean energy yet.

Report: Tanya Wood

The UN has designated 2010 the year of biodiversity, but what difference will that make to current alarming rates of of extinction.

Last year rounded off on a negative note for the environment. The failure of the Copenhagen climate conference to deliver an ambitious, legally binding agreement to tackle carbon emissions was a major blow to the campaign against global warming. To keep up the pressure on world leaders to do something about how humans impact on the world we live in, the UN has designated 2010 the year of biodiversity. With species becoming extinct at a rate that some experts put at 1,000 times the natural progression, there's no doubt that humans face an enormous challenge to reduce their environmental footprint. But what does biodiversity actually mean, and what good does it do to dedicate a whole year to it?

Report: Ben Knight

With the planet's various environments changing at such a rapid pace, species ability to adapt to their surroundings is being overtaken by events, but how rapidly do things evolve?

Breakthroughs in DNA technology are making this easier than ever to measure. A team of German and American scientists have just released a study in Science magazine that examined 30 generations of a kind of mustard plant. Over the course of the study they inspected every aspect of the plants' DNA to look for mutations. Their experiment helps explain how relatively quickly species adapt to changing circumstances. DW spoke to Stephan Ossowski, one of the scientists from the Max Planck Society involved in the project and a lead author of the article in Science. So would anything in the experiment have come as a surprise to the man who came up with the theory of evolution - Charles Darwin?

Interview: Nathan Witkop

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