Death in the rainforest
Climate change may have doubled the death rate of rainforest trees over the last 50 years. Plus monkeypox, Covid infection in the gut and a vaccine against Epstein Barr virus.
Tree mortality in tropical moist forests in Australia has been increasing since the mid 1980s. The death rate of trees appears to have doubled over that time period. According to an international team of researchers, the primary cause is drier air in these forests, the consequence of human-induced climate change. According to ecologist David Bauman, a similar process is likely underway in tropical forests on other continents.
Also in the programme: the outbreaks of monkeypox in Europe and North America… Could SARS-CoV-2 infection lingering in the gut be a cause of Long Covid? News of a vaccine against Epstein Barr virus, the cause of mononucleosis, various cancers and multiple sclerosis.
Image:
Credit: Getty Images
Presenter: Roland Pease
Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker
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- Thu 19 May 202219:32GMTBBC World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Fri 20 May 202203:32GMTBBC World Service Australasia, South Asia & East Asia only
- Fri 20 May 202204:32GMTBBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean
- Fri 20 May 202208:32GMTBBC World Service
- Fri 20 May 202212:32GMTBBC World Service Australasia, Online, UK DAB/Freeview, News Internet & Europe and the Middle East only
- Fri 20 May 202219:32GMTBBC World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Sun 22 May 202201:32GMTBBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean & News Internet only
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