Just when you think you know something about trees, you learn even more! Such an interesting episode with Dr Ruth Swetnam, Carbon & Research Manager for the Atlantic Rainforests Programme at the Wildlife Trusts. Ruth is a Chartered Geographer and Landscape Specialist with particular expertise in digital mapping (GIS), Environmental Science and Landscape Ecology.

Ruth tells us about temperate rainforests in the UK and her very important work in restoring these rainforests. Temperate rainforests in the UK are unique ecosystems that provide cooling effects, mitigate climate change, and reduce forest fire risk. They are more resilient to diseases and storms compared to conifer plantations. Temperate rainforests are full of deciduous trees, with their slower growth and deeper roots, are essential for carbon storage and forest regeneration.

We found this podcast fascinating and can't believe how important furry ferns actually are! If you would like to learn more about the work of the Wildlife Trust, here are the links.

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/temperate-rainforest-restoration#:~:text=The%20100-year%20temperate%20rainforest,even%2C%20than%20its%20tropical%20counterpart.

You can also find a summary of the work being carried out on temperate rainforests in the UK here.

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/sites/default/files/2024-08/Temperate%20Rainforest%20Programme%20Annual%20Report%202023-24.pdf

If you would like to chat to Ruth, please contact her through the Wildlife Trusts website.

We really hope you enjoy this episode of the podcast, and leave loving the weather just a little bit more.

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Gemma and Aisling were invited to speak to some of the incredible people behind the new Carbon Garden at Kew Gardens in London which opened in July 2025. This is part 2, part 1 was released on the 27th of August 2025.

This extraordinary new space explores the story of carbon and how important it is to life on Earth. More than just a beautiful garden, this project communicates the scale of the climate crisis while celebrating the remarkable power of plants and mycorrhizal fungi as our planet's natural allies. With 35 carefully selected trees and 6,500 beautiful plants, the Carbon Garden is one of Kew Gardens' most ambitious garden projects in recent years.

The garden is filled with lots of brilliant features including a rain garden and a stunning central pavilion, which has been inspired by fungi and made with natural materials. Some of the planting also takes inspiration from the climate stripes, which were created by Professor Ed Hawkins at the University of Reading.

This episode focus’ on carbon storage and LiDAR measurement and what the team hope to learn and understand about carbon storage.

Each of the guests were unique, fun and above all so passionate about what they do. It was lovely to hear their story in person.

In part 2 we talk to Professor Justin Moat, Senior Research Leader and Spatial Analyst and to Dr. Phil Wilkes, Research Leader.

You can find out more about the Carbon Garden at Kew here https://www.kew.org/kew-gardens/whats-in-the-gardens/carbon-garden

And if you would like to know more about Professor Ed Hawkins Climate stripes - https://showyourstripes.info/. We recorded an episode with Professor Ed on June 18th 2025 https://rss.com/podcasts/for-the-love-of-weather/2078913/ or search Professor Ed Hawkins, for the love of weather podcast.

We really hope you enjoy this episode and leave loving the weather a little bit more.

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Gemma and Aisling were invited to speak to some of the incredible people behind the new Carbon Garden at Kew Gardens in London which opened in July 2025. This is part 1 with part 2 to follow in two weeks.

This extraordinary new space explores the story of carbon and how important it is to life on Earth. More than just a beautiful garden, this project communicates the scale of the climate crisis while celebrating the remarkable power of plants and mycorrhizal fungi as our planet's natural allies. With 35 carefully selected trees and 6,500 beautiful plants, the Carbon Garden is one of Kew Gardens' most ambitious garden projects in recent years.

The garden is filled with lots of brilliant features including a rain garden and a stunning central pavilion, which has been inspired by fungi and made with natural materials. Some of the planting also takes inspiration from the climate stripes, which were created by Professor Ed Hawkins at the University of Reading.

Each of the guests were unique, fun and above all so passionate about what they do. It was lovely to hear their story in person.

In part 1 we chat to

Richard Wilford – Designer of the Carbon Garden and Head of garden design at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew

Kevin Martin – Head of Tree Collections at Royal Botanic Garden Kew

Laura M. Suz – Senior research leader in mycology at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew

Resources:

Kew Gardens - https://www.kew.org/kew-gardens

Kew Gardens Carbon Garden - https://www.kew.org/kew-gardens/whats-in-the-gardens/carbon-garden

Climate stripes - https://showyourstripes.info/

We really hope you enjoy this episode and leave loving the weather a little bit more.

If you want to hear a little more weather and climate chat - please hit subscribe, like and share with a friend.

You can follow us here…

Instagram - @fortheloveofweather - https://www.instagram.com/fortheloveofweather

BlueSky @4loveofweather - https://bsky.app/profile/theloveofweather.bsky.social

Subscribe on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ForTheLoveOfWeather

Please welcome award winning climate activist Laura Young aka @lesswastelaura to the podcast.

If you haven’t heard of Laura, she is the person that changed the law in under 500 days to ban disposable vapes in the UK. She is also an award winning climate activist as well as being named in the King's Foundation's 35 under 35.

Laura talks about her current PhD research on enhancing Scotland’s resilience to climate change. Her research explores both physical changes to the environment as well as the negative physiological impact and financial burden that are often overlooked after the initial weather event.

She has a wealth of knowledge and ideas about nature based solutions to the changing climate. But it is not just her ideas on nature based solutions that are intriguing but also her community led initiatives of sharing resources, like a tool library.

She is passionate about using the community around you and coming together to make it a better place for everyone with less waste.

We feel very lucky to have chatted to Laura and were so inspired by how she sees the world and the future. She was just such a pleasure to chat to and we look forward to seeing what she brings to the future.

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Please welcome to the podcast, meteorologist and weather presenter Clare Nasir. Aisling and Gemma have wanted Clare on the podcast for many years so this podcast feels extra special. She brings to life the joy and journey that weather has brought her along.

Clare started her career at the UK Met Office, training to be a meteorologist before moving to a broadcast meteorologist role. She has since worked for every major UK channel, covering weather but also bringing climate communication to a new level. She is a voice of authority, calm and sense and loves to share her knowledge with the next generation offering her time as a mentor. In a full-circle moment, Clare is now back working with the Met Office, presenting weather forecasts as well as their climate videos.

In this episode, we chat with Clare about her remarkable career and the work she's doing as a mentor and consultant for startups focused on sustainability and adaptation. We also discuss the UK heatwave of July 2022, when the UK recorded 40°C for the first time on record. Clare shared how it felt deeply personal and how the communication around this event was different, with attribution science allowing us to make direct links to climate change.

Clare is an accomplished author of several books, including the children's book 'Colin the Cloud' and 'What Does Rain Smell Like?' We honestly don't know where Clare finds the time to do everything she does but we are big fans.

We really hope you enjoy this episode and finish it loving the weather a little bit more.

If you want to hear a little more weather and climate chat - please hit subscribe, like and share with a friend.

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Tara Thompson is a communications specialist working with world-leading Earth Observation scientists, ensuring expert facts are at the forefront of the climate conversation in policy making and within the media.

In this episode Tara tells us about a recently launched Biomass satellite fondly called ‘Space Brolly’ because of its incredible 12 metre long antenna.

Tara tells us about how this is the first time precision data will be collected for global forests, with the Biomass satellite making continuous passes of the Earth’s lungs.

Biomass is capable of seeing through the trees canopies, using advanced P-band radar technology. This technology can be used to measure the structure and carbon content of forests providing an understanding like never before on how much carbon is sequestered by forests. This data will be vital in informing better climate policies and how do we best protect the world’s forests.

Tara is optimistic about the future of climate change and how all climate science is helping to shape a better world. In our ‘get to know me round’ we learn Tara’s favourite season as well as reflecting back on a childhood in the west of Ireland, where her first spark of joy for the weather was born.

We really hope you enjoy this episode of the podcast, and leave loving the weather just a little bit more.

If you want to hear a little more weather and climate chat - please hit subscribe, like and share with a friend.

You can follow us on Instagram @fortheloveofweather and on X and BlueSky @4loveofweather. If you would like to follow more about Earth’s satellites check

https://www.nceo.ac.uk/ and https://space4climate.com/

You can subscribe on Youtube -

https://www.youtube.com/@ForTheLoveOfWeather

In this episode we chat to Alice Stevens, creator of welly walks. These are bright yellow tech wellies that people can walk around in. Depending on the weather, the wellies would say different poems, sensing the weather with low tech barometric sensors to understand the weather at the moment. She is also the creator of rain trail which uses paint to reveal illustrations that would only appear if it rained. She has many more projects in the pipeline such as ‘blissful rain, isinit?’, a dialogue around using positive language around rain.

Alice is a Senior Lecturer in Graphic Design at Arts University Bournemouth and is currently doing a PhD in the intersection of British Weather, Creative Practice and Ecolinguisitics. This is a field of language that studies that explores the relationship between language, human societies, and the natural environment and says that if we hide away in building we lose connection and conversation about the weather and climate.

She leaves us with some poignant thoughts about the importance of using positive language around the environment, for example talking about 'blissful rain'. She is working on a new installation ‘WeatherKin’ that will be used in bus shelters that shares other people positive memories of rains.

You can find Alice on LinkedIn https://uk.linkedin.com/in/alice-stevens-222667a0.

We really hope you enjoy this episode of the podcast, and leave loving the weather just a little bit more.

If you want to hear a little more weather and climate chat - please hit subscribe, like and share with a friend.

You can follow us on Instagram @fortheloveofweather and on X and BlueSky @4loveofweather.

You can subscribe on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ForTheLoveOfWeather

June 2025 started off cool but is set to be a record breaker for parts of the UK.

At the time of recording there was still a few days to go in June but some regions will have their hottest June on record, tumbling a 49 year record.

During the summer of 1976, there was a well documented heatwave and up until now was the hottest June on record for quite a few regions in the UK.

There are a lot of fun facts in this short podcast including a little chat about 'swullucking'!

We really hope you enjoy this episode of the podcast, and leave loving the weather just a little bit more.

If you want to hear a little more weather and climate chat - please hit subscribe, like and share with a friend.

You can follow us on Instagram @fortheloveofweather and on X and BlueSky @4loveofweather.

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