Living Planet: Environment matters around the world

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DATE : Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:30:00 GMT
Entered in Database : 2010-01-14 16:30:00
length : 14578382
Link to the Show / Show Notes

How European policy-makers are rethinking climate strategy post-Copenhagen, the state of Germany's Greens Party on its 30th birthday, Armenian conservationists' efforts to save one of the highest lakes in the world, and what the head of the UN's environment program thinks we need to do to halt current rates of extinction.
You can download the show or subscribe to Living Planet as a podcast. Click on the links below for individual reports.Top German climate advisor says the dice are not yet cast

The dust has begun to settle on last month's disappointing climate accord in Copenhagen and Europeans are asking themselves whether they have become powerless over the process.

One of Germany's top climate advisory organizations brought together scientists and politicians in Berlin this week to review the fallout from last month's climate summit in Copenhagen.

With the Christmas season behind us and the New Year underway, where do things stand in efforts to tackle global warming? Has Europe lost its influence at the negotiating table?

Report: Michael Mühlberger

Germany's Green Party is celebrating its 30th birthday this week. They've often been held up as a role model for Greens abroad, but are they already a spent force at home?

Over the past three decades, Germany's Greens have been a poster child for ecological movements in other industrialized countries. They've shown it is possible for green movements to move from the peripheries of power to the center.

Though they're now in opposition, they had something to celebrate this week as the party marked 30 years since its formation at a convention in the town of Karlsruhe. So why have they been successful in Germany and are they already a spent force? DW spoke to Hermann Ott – a lawyer by training and member of parliament for the German Greens.

Interview: Nathan Witkop

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...

Conservationists in Armenia have been struggling for decades to save Lake Sevan. It's one of the world's highest mountain lakes and a vital source of water for that part of the southern Caucasus.

Progress seemed to be at hand. In the past few years water levels began returning to a natural state after decades of misuse under Soviet rule - but now a new catastrophe is at hand.

Report: Mirko Schwanitz

The head of the UN Environment Program tells DW how he'd like to see the lessons of tackling climate change applied to saving the world's endangered species.

The UN has designated 2010 a special year for drawing attention to the rapid loss of the worlds various plant and animal species.

Rates of extinction are said to be so high right now, that German Chancellor Angela Merkel compared the scale of the crisis to the difficulties posed by climate change. But is it really that dramatic? DW spoke to Achim Steiner, the head of UNEP, the UN's environment program.

Interview: Nathan Witkop

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