The environmental problems caused by fracking in America have been well publicised but what’s less known are the gas industry’s plans for expansion in other countries. This investigation, filmed in Botswana, South Africa, Alaska and North America, reveals how fracking plants are quietly invading some of the most protected places on the planet - including Africa’s national parks.
Economic reforms have led to a divided China, which threatens not only individual survival, but even economic growth and the entire Chinese society. In this episode, we hear stories and interviews about the middle class, about poverty in rural areas and about the precarious existence of hundreds of millions of migrant workers on the fringes of the cities.
Based on an essay written by noted best-selling novelist Jonathan Franzen for The New Yorker, ‘Emptying the Skies’ chronicles the rampant poaching of migratory songbirds in southern Europe. Songbird populations have been drastically declining for several decades, and a number of species face imminent extinction. The film explores the wonder of these tiny globe-flying marvels, millions of which are unlawfully slaughtered each year for large sums on the black market.
