Home Planet - 24/08/2010

The waste from a nuclear power plant contains materials that can be turned into atomic bombs. Nuclear fusion has long been promised as the fuel of the future. It doesn't produce the same type of waste but one Home Planet listener wants to know whether it might have some as yet unseen military purpose. With all the concern about carbon dioxide, where does the gas come from to produce fizzy drinks, and does it make a significant contribution to our carbon footprint? Will the move to electric cars require more fossil fuel power stations to charge them? Could water be an alternative, greener way to cool the steamy London Underground? And we are due for another ice age, can we pump sufficient carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to stave it off? Richard Daniel is joined by this week's panel: Dr Ros Taylor of Kingston University; Science Writer Ehsan Masood and Mike Hulme, Professor of Climate Change at the University of East Anglia. Contact: Home Planet BBC Radio 4 PO Box 3096 Brighton BN1 1PL Or email [email protected] Or telephone: 08700 100 400 Producer: Toby Murcott A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4.