BBC World Service – Newshour Extra, The End of Oil?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03ddznd

In recent months oil prices have fallen to historically low levels. The impact is being felt from Saudi Arabia to Venezuela – revenues are collapsing, and producers are in trouble. Why has the price collapsed and what are the long term consequences? In this week’s Newshour Extra we ask whether global policies to cap carbon emissions could lead to a world in which alternative energy sources will force fossil fuels out of business. Join Owen Bennett Jones and his guests as they discuss the future of oil, and the changing world order it heralds.

Contributors:
Obiageli Ezekwesili – former Nigerian cabinet minister and World Bank official
Luay al-Khateeb – Brookings Doha
Jeffrey Mankoff – Centre for Strategic and Interanational Studies
Tom Burke – Environmentalist
Bill Walker – Governor of Alaska
Bjorn Otto Sverdrup – Head of Sustainability, Statoil

(Photo: An Oil drill against the backdrop of a setting sun. Credit: Getty Images)

Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice

BBC World Service – Newshour Extra, Reaching for the Stars

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p039nl27

http://bbc.in/1IVEHsU

What does the future hold for human space exploration? With more countries getting involved and costs falling, increasingly ambitious projects are being proposed. Is a permanent base on the Moon feasible? Are there vast mineral resources to be harvested in space? Will our descendants be forced to abandon planet Earth to live elsewhere? Join Owen Bennett Jones and his panel of extra-terrestrial experts – including science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson – as they discuss humanity’s future in space.

This week’s contributors: Lord Martin Rees, British Astronomer Royal; Dr Jill Stuart, specialist in space politics at the London School of Economics; Monica Grady, Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences at the Open University; Dr David Parker, chief executive of the UK Space Agency.

Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice