Welcome to A World of Possibilities. We have created this page to highlight some of our more intriguing programming for those broadcasters who are considering carrying our show. We will change this list from time to time, so please check in often to see what's new.
Green Chemistry: Better Living Through Nature
The chemicals we manufacture for modern needs are complex synthetic compounds. Most are untested and some are toxic to nature and the human body. But the new science of green chemistry offers the possibility of products that are "benign by design," modeled on natural processes. Join us as we explore how by following the lead of nature we may be able to transform petro-chemistry into biochemistry.
International Trade: Free, Fixed, or Fair?
In the view of its proponents, free trade as promoted by the United States and other leading industrial powers is the swiftest and surest route to global economic development. But from the perspective of many in the developing world, it is the most effective means of extracting natural resources, exploiting low-wage labor, and producing goods from the world's poor at the lowest cost while earning value for those who already have more than enough. In response to these critiques, a market-based fair trade movement has sprung up in recent years from international development aid, social, religious and environmental organizations seeking to establish a more level playing field for international commerce. Focusing initially on such products as handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea, bananas, honey, cotton, wine, fresh fruit, chocolate and flowers, certified fair trade accounted for $4 billion in 2008. Though still a tiny fraction of global trade, in some commodities it represents 20-50% of the total volume. Criticized from the right as a subsidy that constrains free trade and from the left as too timid a response to the inherent inequities of the global trading system, fair trade is still in its infancy but growing by more than 20% a year. In this program we hear about the challenges of growing the movement from the founder of a leading fair trade certification organization and a farmer whose products are fair trade-certified.
Climate Collision: What Comes After Copenhagen?
The Copenhagen climate summit saw fierce jockeying for advantage among the great powers but few tangible results. Smaller nations and indigenous peoples were left out in the cold. Yet for them it’s not a matter of power politics. They face the power of nature thrown out of balance by heedless human activity. Seas and temperatures continue to rise, disrupting their ancestral livelihoods. In this program, native peoples from the Arctic and the Amazon to Pacific islands under siege by rising waters testify to what’s happening to them and will likely happen to many others in the decades ahead. Their responses to these changes offer much-needed guidance about how to develop the resilience and inventiveness that are essential to our long-term survival. We also hear from climate activists, including well-known representatives of indigenous peoples, about what can be done to build momentum for essential transformation outside the UN process in the wake of stalled international negotiations.
