Could leaving nature to its own devices be the key to meeting the UK’s climate goals? - Mark Lynas

The UK government’s official climate advisors recently reported that the country’s greenhouse gas emissions must fall to zero by 2050 in order to tackle the growing threat of manmade climate change.

However, it seems unlikely that we will be able to reach this target by simply burning less fossil fuel and cutting down on international travel. So what else can be done?

Environmental charity Rewilding Britain thinks that the answer is to let large areas of the country return to their pre-agricultural state to restore natural carbon sequestering environments such as peat bogs, heaths and salt marshes.

In this episode of the Science Focus Podcast BBC Science Focus commissioning editor Jason Goodyer talks to environmental researcher Mark Lynas about the potential beneficial effects of rewilding.

We now have more than 75 episodes of the Science Focus Podcast, each of which is still well worth a listen. Here are a few that you might find interesting:

• Can science explain everything? – Michael Blastland
• What if the Earth’s magnetic field died? – Jim Al-Khalili
• How can we save our planet? – Sir David Attenborough
• Are we facing an insect apocalypse? – Brad Lister
• Air pollution is killing us, here’s how you can stop it – Gary Fuller
• There is no Plan B for planet Earth – Lord Martin Rees

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