Climate science for your iPod - January 6, 2009

Here are this week's climate related podcasts (and some on only tangentially relevant subjects!).

NOTE: Presentation of content in this list does not imply endorsement of the views expressed within and I may or may not have listened to it myself! Please highlight good, bad or interesting aspects in the comments. You can email suggestions for specific items to include next time or additional sites to keep an eye on to a.few.things.illconsidered@gmail.com

Happy listening!

Quirks and Quarks:

• Sucking CO2 (source page here) - "Ever wonder why we can't just build big machines to suck the troublesome climate-warming carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere? Excellent question. In fact, several groups of scientists are looking at ways to do just that. It's a difficult proposition, since any kind of carbon dioxide capture is a tough proposition, and the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere is only about 0.04%. Nevertheless, many scientists, including Canadian researchers like Dr. David Keith, Canada Research Chair in Energy and the Environment at the University of Calgary and Dr. Frank Zeman, the director of the Center for Metropolitan Sustainability of the New York Institute of Technology, are working on it. Both Dr. Keith and Dr. Zeman have worked on prototype air-capture systems, and they say the big problem is not whether it can be done, but whether it can be done cheaply and on a large enough scale to make a difference."
• Polar Bears Get Crackin' (source page here) - "With the Canadian Arctic warming up as a result of climate change, polar bears are having to cut short their hunting season and come off the sea ice earlier and earlier each year. For young bears, this means they have to forgo their most important food source -- seals. Dr. Robert Rockwell, an ornithologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, has been wondering what exactly the bears are eating, if they're not getting their fill of seal. It turns out they've discovered an egg-cellent new food source in the nests of snow geese."

Science Magazine:

• Climate Change (source page here) - "A listener asks: How can it be "global warming" when it's so cold outside? And the chilling effects of deadly disease on the climate of the past"

National Public Radio: Environment:

• Stunted Coral Highlights Troubling Ocean Trends (source page here) - "Coral in the Great Barrier Reef is showing significant signs of trouble, apparently the result of human activities.
  Scientists say one species of coral is growing much more slowly than it was 15 years ago. If current trends continue, this species of coral could stop growing altogether by the middle of the century.
  Scientists suspect that coral growth is being stunted by warmer ocean waters, as well as increasing acidity caused by carbon dioxide that's entering the ocean as a result of fossil fuel combustion."

BBC Radio 4 Material World:

• Cape Farewell Arctic Science (source page here for now) - "Quentin Cooper joins climate scientists, artists and musicians on a research ship in Disko Bay West of Greenland. Duration: 28mins | File Size: 13MB"

BBC World Service Discovery:

• Nordenskjold (source page here for now) - "Well Met in Antarctica: Gabrielle Walker retraces the epic 1901 journey of Swedish Explorer Otto Nordenskjold. Duration: 25mins | File Size: 12MB"