Oil spill logistics

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
An oil well off the Louisiana coast is still leaking oil into the Gulf of Mexico after a rig blew up last week. A similar incident occurred last year off the northern coast of Australia. To find out what happened there and what might happen here, anchor Marco Werman speaks with Louisa Rebgetz of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Between Ghana and Benin

For today’s Geo Quiz we’re looking for the country between Ghana and Benin in West Africa. One of this country’s most popular tourist attractions is the crumpled remains of an airplane…

Lebanon’s “Appalachian Trail”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
Ben Gilbert reports on what some are calling Lebanon’s Appalachian Trail.” It’s a refurbished mountain trail that is a key part of Lebanon’s nascent eco-tourism business.

• Photo gallery

Geo answer–Tourism in Togo

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
The answer to today’s Geo Quiz is Togo. A few months back, Togo took out an ad in the New York Times, saying it was open for business for tourists. But what would a tourist go to Togo to see? One American family went to find out as we hear in a report from Anna Boiko-Weyrach.

Recycled trash to fuel Haiti

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Before the recent earthquake, Haiti was no stranger to natural disasters. In recent years, thousands of people have been killed by floods and landslides. To understand why the toll is so high, one need look no further than the country’s bald mountains. Haiti has lost about 97 % of its forests. And the main culprit is the nation’s most popular cooking fuel: charcoal. Reporter Amy Bracken looks at one effort to provide a tree-saving alternative: briquettes made from trash. Download MP3 (photo: Amy Bracken)

• View pictures and read the transcript
• Amy Bracken’s Haiti Journal (March)
• Haiti’s traumatized quake survivors

Cleaning up Mount Everest

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
A team of Sherpas is gearing up to ascend Everest in an effort to remove thousands of pounds of garbage from elevations known as the ‘death zone.’ The group may also recover the remains of climbers who died on Everest. The BBC’s Joanna Jolly speaks with anchor Marco Werman.

Obama steps up support for NASA

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
President Obama is asking for more than a 60 percent increase in funding for NASA’s earth sciences budget over the next five years. Much of that money will go toward research on climate change. The World’s Environment editor Peter Thomson speaks with anchor Marco Werman.

Whale meat investigation

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
Whale meat has recently turned up in restaurants in Los Angeles and South Korea. Today, scientists are closer to knowing the source of that illegal trade. The World’s Jason Margolis has more.

Colorado River water rights

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Under a longstanding treaty, the Colorado River irrigates 3 million acres of farmland and supplies water to 30 million people in the United States and Mexico. Between population growth and a decade long drought, the Colorado is under such stress that Western states – desperate to maintain water supplies – want to purify agricultural runoff currently diverted into Mexico. But as The World’s Lorne Matalon reports, Mexico covets that water, because it has given birth to a productive wetland. Download MP3

• Lorne Matalon’s Mexico stories
• See photos from the Colorado River

Science forum debate

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
A lot of listeners have commented online about a story aired early this week on geo-engineering — artificially cooling the planet to counteract global warming. The vast majority of commenters in The World Science Forum say it’s a dangerous idea. Marco Werman speaks with The World’s science correspondent, Rhitu Chatterjee.

Swedish town lobbies for nuclear waste facility

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
In Sweden residents of two communities actively lobbied to have a nuclear waste repository built in their neighborhood. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Jacob Spangenberg, mayor of the winning town … Osthammar.

Ship perched precariously

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
The maritime authorities in Australia are trying to stabilize a coal carrier which has run aground near the Great Barrier Reef. The Chinese-registered ship is balanced precariously and the fear is that it could break up, spilling hundreds of tons of oil into the sea.

Engineering the Climate: Who Gets to Decide?

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

With countries largely stalemated over cuts in greenhouse gas pollution, many are looking to massive technological interventions to help cool the planet. But as The World’s Alex Gallafent reports, that raises a huge ethical question: Who gets to decide whether and when to use these? Download MP3

The World’s Science Forum

What’s your take on geoengineering? Should we try a technological fix to climate change? Bring your thoughts and questions to one of the people in this story – Scott Barrett of Columbia University. He’s the guest on our latest Science Forum. Join the discussion!

EU environmental laws influence US

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
Over the last two decades Europe has been forcing more and more companies to make sure their products don’t harm human health… or end up in the environment. And that principle is now starting to take greater hold here in the US. Liam Moriarty of station KPLU in Seattle reports.

Veterans campaign for clean energy

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

A group of military veterans is barnstorming across America on a bus. They’re trying to get their message out: America’s dependence on foreign oil ties our hands in foreign policy and entangles the US military in battles with hostile regimes. The veterans are calling on US leaders to get the nation running on clean energy. The World’s Jason Margolis took a ride on the bus. Download MP3

• Operation Free
• Environment stories on The World