Saturday, January 21, 2012
Living Planet: Fracking in the US and Europe
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Podcast Episode Summary
This week we look at two examples of fracking in the US and Europe; as South Sudan and its northern neighbor resume revenue-sharing talks, we look at the role of oil in their conflict; and a molecule to cool the planet – is its recent discovery good news for the climate?You can listen to the show online or subscribe to Living Planet as a podcast. Click on the links below for the individual items.Oil's role in SudanThis week Sudan and South Sudan resumed talks on sharing the proceeds of oil revenues.After decades of intermittent war, South Sudan gained formal independence from its northern neighbor last year. It inherited most of Sudan's oil, but it's not clear how the two countries should split the revenues. Many observers fear that if a fair and transparent agreement isn't reached soon, the two sides are destined to resume fighting. DW asked Dana Wilkins from the campaign group Global Witness, which focuses on corruption in extractive industries, to lay out the problem.
Interview: Dana Wilkins / Nathan WitkopFracking faces tighter controls in USWith the dangers of nuclear power playing out in Japan, tensions in the Middle East pushing up oil prices, and climate scientists arguing for the phase out of coal, the United States is desperate for some energy alternatives.One that has seemed promising in recent years is natural gas, which burns more cleanly than coal. With demand for gas driving up the price, hard to reach deposits have become lucrative. And that has led to a boom in "fracking" to get to them. It's a technique whose proponents say is vital for cleaner, stable energy and whose detractors say is an environmental and health risk.
Report: Sandy Hausman, Southwest VirginiaAustrians say they can do 'clean' frackingIt's not just North Americans who are keen on fracking. There's a boom in the technique happening around the world.
Here in Europe, many countries are concerned about the reliability of the region's main gas supplier, Russia, and fracking allows them to reconsider their own real estate for previously useless deposits. In Austria, proponents claim to have developed a cleaner method of fracking, but it still divides the community.
Report: Kerry Skyring, HerrnbaumgartenA molecule to cool the planetCould the planet be working harder than previously thought to naturally mitigate climate change?It's a question that's intriguing an international research team, which recently discovered a molecule first hypothesized in the 1950s. The naturally occurring compound is part of a class of molecules that help break down pollution and turn it – eventually – into clouds that may help cool the planet. To find out more about the discovery – published in Science magazine last week – we spoke to one of the researchers on the project.
Interview: Dr Carl Percival / Nathan Witkop
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