Author: BBC Radio 4

Posted on

39 Ways to Save the Planet - Zero Carbon Farm

Can British farmers transform themselves into carbon-cutting heroes? Arable farmer, Duncan Farrington has worked hard to reduce the carbon emissions from his farm. He's replanted hedges and trees and cut down on diesel-powered machinery. He's even persuaded some of his staff to cycle to work. But Duncan's farm isn't just zero carbon, it's actually sucking in and locking up vast quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Duncan explains to Tom how he's transformed the management of his soil and proven to doubters that commercial British arable farms can play their part in cutting the planet's carbon emissions.

Producer: Alasdair Cross Researcher: Sarah Goodman

Produced in conjunction with the Royal Geographical Society. Particular thanks for this episode to Dr Adrian Williams of Cranfield University and to Professor Andrew Barnes, Professor Mads Fischer-Moller and Professor Bob Rees of Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC).

Posted on

More or Less: Behind the Stats - Is Uganda about to become a middle income country?

In his State of the Nation address in early June 2022, Uganda?s President Yoweri Museveni said that Uganda was on the cusp of becoming a middle income country. That?s been contradicted by World Bank figures. In response to a question from a More or Less fan in Uganda, Tim Harford looks at how a country?s income status is calculated and what relevance it has. Featuring Rachel Sebudde, Senior Economist at the World Bank.

Posted on

More or Less: Behind the Stats - Does it take 10,000 litres of water to make a pair of jeans?

Various claims have been made about how much water is used in the production of a pair of jeans, that cornerstone of casual clothing. With growing worries over the environmental impact of denim production, More or Less decided to investigate - with the help of journalist and researcher Elizabeth L. Cline who has written extensively on sustainability and the fashion industry.

Posted on

More or Less: Behind the Stats - How many American women will have an abortion in their lifetime?

Earlier this month, the US Supreme Court overturned its 1973 ruling on Roe vs Wade - the case which guaranteed a constitutional right to a legal abortion across the US, sparking heated protests and debates across the country.

But how many American women will have an abortion in their lifetime? One statistic circulating online puts it at as high as one in three. Reporter Charlotte McDonald has been looking into the figures and has uncovered some surprising statistics.

Posted on

More or Less: Behind the Stats - Covid climb, childcare costs and why can?t the French count properly?

Covid cases are rising once again ? how accurately are official figures picking up the new wave and how worried we should be? We discuss inflationary spirals and how much wage and pension increases contribute to inflation. Also how many parents actually struggle with childcare costs? Can long waits at A&E be put down to the pandemic and why the French count differently to the British.

Posted on

Start the Week - Health, sickness and exploitation

When people feel ill they go to the doctor for a diagnosis and what they hope will be the first step on the road to recovery. But former consultant neurologist Jules Montague argues that getting a diagnosis isn’t as simple as it sounds – they can be infected by medical bias, swayed by Big Pharma or political expedience, even refused because the condition isn’t officially recognised. In The Imaginary Patient Dr Montague meets those who have had to fight to get the right treatment.

The GP Gavin Francis knows only too well how desperate patients can feel with undiagnosed symptoms, but in his latest work, Recovery: The Lost Art of Convalescence he’s looking at the other end of the medical journey. He warns that getting better can take longer and be far more complex than most people understand.

The academic, Jennifer Jacquet, is interested in how far patients can be pawns in the wider power plays in the corporate world and Big Pharma. In The Playbook: How to Deny Science, Sell Lies, and Make a Killing in the Corporate World, she uses satire to expose the extraordinary lengths that corporations will go to quash inconvenient research, target scientists and forestall regulations.

Producer: Katy Hickman

This is the last show in the series; back on Monday 12th September.

Posted on

More or Less: Behind the Stats - Ed Sheeran and the mathematics of musical coincidences

After beating a plagiarism claim in court, musician Ed Sheeran said that musical coincidences were inevitable with only 12 notes to choose from? but what do the numbers say? Mathematician and concert pianist Eugenia Cheng takes us through the mathematics of music and explains how the power of exponentials mean that just a handful of notes can open up a seemingly endless world of musical variety.

Presenter: Tim Harford Producer: Nathan Gower Programme Coordinator: Janet Staples Sound Engineer: Neil Churchill

Posted on

More or Less: Behind the Stats - Rail strikes, tyre pollution and sex statistics

Do rail workers really earn ?13,000 a year more than nurses? As rail strikes severely hit services we look at some of the claims being made around pay ? and explain how you can measure average pay in different ways.

Plus we investigate claims that Chancellor Rishi Sunak wasted ?11bn by paying too much interest on Britain?s national debt.

Is pollution from tyres really 2000 times worse than pollution from exhausts?

And we look at sex and statistics in America.

Produced in partnership with the Open University.

Credits: Presenter: Tim Harford Series Producer: Charlotte McDonald Reporters: Nathan Gower, Jon Bithrey Production Coordinator: Janet Staples Sound Engineer: James Beard Editor: Richard Vadon

Posted on

Start the Week - Justice, war crimes and targeted killings

Linda Kinstler’s Latvian grandfather disappeared after WWII and the family never spoke about him. But as she delved into Boris Kinstler’s life she found he had been a member of a killing brigade in the SS linked to the ‘Butcher of Riga’ Herbert Cukurs, before becoming a KGB agent and then vanishing. She attempts to uncover the truth in Come To This Court and Cry: How The Holocaust Ends, but also interrogates the uncertainties of memory, family, nation and justice.

Although Herbert Cukur’s name came up frequently at the Nuremberg war crime trials for the killing of tens of thousands of Jews, he managed to escape and find refuge in South America. It was there he was murdered by Mossad agents who left a note from Those Who Will Never Forget saying ‘the condemned man has been executed’. The Israeli investigative journalist Ronen Bergman has uncovered his country’s most secret activities in Rise and Kill First: The Secret History Of Israel's Targeted Assassinations (translated by Ronnie Hope).

The Nuremberg trials in the aftermath of WWII mark the birth of international law and set the framework of modern human rights law. The barrister and writer Philippe Sands has appeared frequently before international courts, and has been involved in many of the most important cases of recent years from Yugoslavia to Rwanda to Guantanamo. He explains what can be done when countries – like Russia – refuse to recognise the jurisdiction of international law.

Producer: Katy Hickman

Posted on

More or Less: Behind the Stats - How often do people have sex?

Magazine articles and advice columns are commonly littered with spurious statistics about how much sex we?re having. So how much do we really know ? and what are the difficulties of collecting information about such an intimate part of our lives?

Doctor Marina Adshade from the Vancouver School of Economics, who specialises in the economics of sex and love, answers questions posed by a curious More or Less listener in Japan.