Big Oil’s Big Lies: How the industry denied global warming

 More than 40 years ago, the world’s largest and most profitable oil companies began to understand the effects their products were having on our climate. Their own scientific research told them so – well before it became common knowledge.

But for the next four decades – time we could have better spent transitioning to greener forms of energy – they sought to discredit and downplay evidence of global warming and the calamities it would lead to; wildfires, rising sea levels, extreme storms and much else besides.

America’s Authoritarians: The US political divide

 

How the spread of wild conspiracy theories has undermined democratic institutions and social stability in the US.

With guns in their hands and faith in God at their side, many Republicans in the United States continue to believe that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump.

As a result, the country remains deeply divided over the last contest for the White House – and the violent attempts at the Capitol that followed to overturn the result.

The Curse of Uranium – Part 1

 Nuclear power could help reduce global warming, but are the environmental costs of uranium mining in places like Niger too high?

Every year Niger in West Africa produces thousands of tonnes of uranium – mostly for use in French nuclear power stations.

The Macron administration insists these are going play a vital role in France’s fight against carbon emissions and global warming.

Myanmar: An Uneasy Alliance

 

Can pro-democracy activists and ethnic nationalists join forces to overthrow Myanmar’s brutal military regime?

When Myanmar’s military regime ended its flirtation with the representative government in February 2021, it marked the moment by killing several hundred anti-coup protesters and detaining thousands more – including Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Prize-winning leader of the National League for Democracy.

So now some activists are taking a more aggressive approach to the Tatmadaw, as the country’s armed forces are known. They have been heading to remote jungle regions to seek support from armed ethnic organisations, which have been waging their own on-off war with the Myanmar military leaders for decades.

The Shameful Camp

 

Investigating the shocking living conditions at a Greek island camp for refugees trying to get into Europe.

At its closest point, the Greek island of Samos lies barely two kilometres off the coast of Turkey, which has long made it a target destination for refugees and migrants seeking to enter Europe.

Those who make it across the Aegean Sea are housed in and around a camp close to the capital Vathy. Some have been there for years, waiting for their paperwork to be processed through the tortuously slow Greek bureaucracy.

Brazil’s Amazonian Battle

 

Amid growing climate anxiety, we investigate the destruction of the Brazilian rainforest under President Jair Bolsonaro.

Since the late 1970s, some one million square kilometres of Amazonian forest have been destroyed, mostly through industrial activities and large-scale agriculture like cattle-ranching, soy farms and irrigation projects.

Sixty percent of the Amazon lies within Brazil, which is where the most rapacious deforestation has taken place.

The Bay of Piglets

 

We investigate a farcical attempt by mercenaries to capture and overthrow Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela.

Latin America has seen a remarkable number of revolutions and coups d’etat over the last century. However, whether military endeavours, covertly backed by foreign governments, or the result of purely domestic political pressure, they have not always been successful or achieved their aims.

Singapore’s Infected Dorms

 Investigating how the coronavirus spread among Singapore’s migrant workers.

As the coronavirus spread around the world in early 2020 and governments grappled with the speed and scale of the unprecedented threat, the consequences for millions of migrant workers in Asia and the Middle East – who often live far from home and in less-than-ideal conditions – attracted little attention.

Finland’s Climate Warriors

 Finland is committed to carbon-cutting targets in the battle against climate change but will its dependence on peat as a fossil fuel stand in the way?

Finland has set itself one of the world’s most ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets, promising to go carbon neutral by 2035. Even the coronavirus pandemic, which has diverted much of the international attention away from global warming over the last 12 months, has done little to deflect this mission, as Prime Minister Sanna Marin made clear when addressing the United Nations in July 2020.

Kenya: The Unfathomable Virus

 

With Kenyan tourism devastated by the coronavirus, what does it mean for those dependent on the safari industry?

When a deadly new virus appeared in Wuhan, China, in late 2019, few would have imagined its wide-ranging effects.

Within weeks COVID-19 was spreading around the world; within a year it had killed one a half million people and hospitalised tens of millions more, forcing nation after nation into lockdown and bringing many economies to a juddering halt.

Romania: Rape of the Forest

 

Amid allegations of corruption and violence, Romania’s ancient forests are being devastated by illegal logging.

It is getting dangerous in Romania’s vast ancient forests. The figures are stark: Six rangers killed (two in 2019 alone) and a further 650 attacked with axes, knives and guns.

The Carpathians, where 70 percent of Europe’s virgin forest is found, straddle Romania and Ukraine and are now the scene of a desperate battle between what has been dubbed the “Timber Mafia” and those risking their lives to protect this precious environment.

Chronicles of a Pandemic

 

Did errors and delays at the World Health Organization make the global spread of the coronavirus inevitable?

When, on March 11, 2020, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, formally announced that the pathogen known as COVID-19 had developed into a pandemic, it came as little surprise to anyone. By then, from its origins in Wuhan, China, the coronavirus had been spreading internationally for at least two months – already infecting 118,000 people in 114 countries and alarming many more.

Germany: The Coal War

 

Germany is gradually closing down its coal industry, but will it happen fast enough to meet climate change targets?

A country that has relied on coal as an energy source for hundreds of years has had enough.

Germany has declared the industry must end.

The country's last black coal mines were closed in 2018, and now Chancellor Angela Merkel's administration has decided to phase out all remaining brown coal mines and coal-fired power plants.

Hong Kong: Endgame

 

Will a new Chinese government national security law finally spell an end to Hong Kong's cherished autonomy?

At 11pm on June 30, 2020, a new national security law came into effect in Hong Kong - just an hour before the 23rd anniversary of Britain's handover of the city to China.

The legislation, which sparked an immediate international backlash, has significantly tightened Beijing's grip on Hong Kong and has stifled the huge protests that began sweeping the territory a year ago.

Italy's Sikh Slaves

We investigate the exploitation of Sikh agricultural workers in Italy by organised crime amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The vast agricultural plains of the Agro-Pontino in central Italy is now one of the country's main areas of food production.

Yet it was not always the case.

This 100 mile-long stretch of land facing the Tyrrhenian Sea was marshland until a century ago when fascist dictator Benito Mussolini organised a mass migration from northern Italy to drain the swamps and turn them into fertile farmland.

Trump v California

The struggle between President Trump and the state of California, and what it means for the 2020 presidential race.

The state of California's progressive stance on issues from climate change to immigration has long epitomised liberal opposition to President Donald Trump.

He in turn portrays those values as a betrayal of the US heartland and his supporters in the Republican Party

Ireland's Mother and Baby Scandal

We investigate disturbing allegations about the fate of thousands of babies born to unmarried mothers in Ireland.

Coronavirus: Lockdown Iran

An intimate portrait of life under lockdown in Iran during the coronavirus outbreak.

When COVID-19 hit Iran earlier his year, filmmaker Jamshid Mojaddadi was working on a project about a zoo - not far from his home and office in Mashhad, a city in the northeast of the country.

Then, suddenly, like so many people in this extraordinary year, his life was turned upside down as emergency government restrictions began to bite, businesses shut down and people retreated behind closed doors.

Cut adrift from his crew and his usual subject matter, he began documenting his own daily life instead.

Assimilation Nation

People and Power investigates the contrasting experiences of people seeking refuge in Europe over the last few years.

Desperate for a better life, be it relief from war and persecution or simply an escape from grinding poverty and lack of opportunity, huge numbers of people from the Middle East and Africa have sought refuge in Europe in recent years - around 1.8 million of them since 2014.

Sometimes their dreams of sanctuary and welcome are realised; they make it to the continent, are granted leave to stay and, with help, begin the slow and difficult process of establishing a place for themselves. 

Alaska: At the Edge of the Earth

Why are some Indigenous peoples trying to stop a Trump administration plan to allow oil drilling in northern Alaska?

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a protected region in Alaska's far north, is one of the world's last few unspoiled environments - a remarkable wilderness that is home to endangered polar bears, grey wolves and wild caribou.

But now the Trump administration, brushing aside objections from Democrats in Congress, is pressing ahead with plans to let oil and gas companies drill in the refuge.