Antarctica stores enough frozen water to raise global sea levels by 58 metres. Why wait for this to melt when it could provide much needed water to drought-ridden areas and save lives? This is a question doctor-turned-author Paul Stidolph asks in his new book Forests in the Sahara. On this episode Paul talks harvesting ice, surviving mudslides in Nepal, the Japanese Hiroshima survivor he worked with in the monsoon, Cape Town, Australia, Sri Lanka, Uganda and singing sweet nothings on a schooner in the Seychelles.

On this episode we cover:

Why drought in Africa and the disappearing ice caps inspired his book, Forests in the Sahara

The sheer waste of drinking water from the ice

Harvesting water from the ice caps

Plants that can purify water like the drought resistant Moringa Oleifera

Taking ice from Alaska to India

Whether the idea is commercially viable

Pulling ice bergs from Antarctica to Cape Town or the Arabian Gulf

The vast amount of ice on ‘ice islands’ over 20km across

Ice islands off Greenland

How they would transport and store ice bergs

Salvage master Nick Sloane

The Costa Concordia

Why money is the wrong focus

How nation states need to get involved

How a sustainable loss should be an acceptable outcome

The ice bergs, pure drinking water, is disappearing

Rising ocean levels

Oil rigs and their work

How a huge plastic apron could keep the water safe

How has these resources

How tankers could take sections of ice

Working in a mission hospital in Nepal as a medical student

The Nepalese monsoons

How monsoons don’t mean drinking water

Storing water in caverns beneath the earth

The Japanese minister who was the closest survivor to Hiroshima who survived at the bottom of an ammunition depot

Walking through landslides in Nepal

How all hospital equipment had been carried on the back of porters on foot

The unbelievable floods of the monsoon

Surviving on one bucket of water a day

How water can become contaminated

His time in wildlife conservation at an animal ecology unit in a game part in Uganda

Studying elephants, warthogs, and Egyptian geese

President Obote and European colonial civil servants in Uganda

How travel can change you

How living in a different culture can enlighten

His round-the world trip taking in Australia, USA and Canada

Arriving in Florida in the middle of hurricane Wilma

Loving Europe and travelling around Greece

How Australians have a different view on life

Surviving white water kayaking in Australia

Bill Bryson and all the things that can kill you in Australia

Crossing active mudslides in wiped out villages in Nepal

Losing his fear in Nepal and changing his perspective on life

Sherry and snails in Jerez in Spain

How to pronounce Cadiz and Jerez like a Brit

Five year olds knocking back a cup of snails

Sri Lanka’s tea growing areas

How the coast has recovered from the Tsunami

Sri Lanka’s palaces and hot curries

Sri Lankan’s terrifying driving and tuk tuks

Serenading a schooner in the Seychelles