Living Planet: Environment matters from around the world

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DATE : Thu, 4 Feb 2010 16:30:00 GMT
Entered in Database : 2010-02-04 16:30:00
length : 14578174
Link to the Show / Show Notes

Mexico gives Davos a taste of what to expect of its stewardship of climate talks later this year; Morocco's plans to modernise its port facilities pay scant regard to its coastline; Romania considers reopening a controversial gold processing plant 10 years on from a devastating cyanide spill; and the UN asks us to consider what we wear when it comes to saving species.
You can download the show or subscribe to Living Planet as a podcast. Click on the links below for the individual reports. Davos gets a taste of what to expect from Mexico on climate talks

Many in Davos were keen to hear how Mexico intends to pick up where Denmark left off.

The World Economic Forum wrapped up in Davos, Switzerland, at the weekend. The annual get together for the world's rich and powerful provided the first opportunity for movers and shakers to reflect on what went wrong two months ago, when 120 world leaders failed to hammer out a deal on climate change at Copenhagen.

Report: Manfred Götzke / Mark Hallam

The Spanish port of Algeciras may lose some business but will Morocco lose far more?

The north of Morocco gradually slid into economic depression from the time it lost its special status as an International Zone. With high unemployment, and almost total neglect by the former King Hassan II, the area has only recently begun to re-emerge on the international radar. With a new port under construction, Tanger Med, and a nearby economic tax free zone, the government is setting Tangier up in opposition to its Spanish counter part, Algeciras, directly across the Strait of Gibraltar - but at what cost to the environment?

Report: Sylvia Smith

Romanian authorities want to re-open a gold processing plant that was the site of a devastating cyanide spill 10 years ago.

It was called the worst environmental disaster since Chernobyl. In January 2000, a retaining wall collapsed in an artificial lake at a gold processing plant near the northern Romanian mining city Baia Mare. It released some 100,000 tons of cyanide and heavy metals that quickly moved from one river to the next through Romania, Hungary, Serbia, and Bulgaria. Though gold processing ended in Baia Mare in 2006, new proprietors are looking to resume production with the same old technologies, but they're meeting resistance from locals.

Report: Keno Verseck / Rick Demerest

The United Nations would like people to consider what they are wearing next time they worry about the rapid loss of the world's species.

One novel way of drawing attention to record extinction rates is with a fashion show. Conventional cultivation of fabrics like cotton takes a heavy toll on the environment – mainly due to increasing applications of fertilizers in the never-ending struggle with pests. So at the EcoChic fashion event in Geneva last month, the message was all about looking good in a sustainable kind of way. But is this anything more than a gimmick?

Report: Lisa Schlein

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