The City with no water: Imagine having to spend half your salary or more buying water, sometimes only available illegally from criminals. Or if water taps in your area only ran once a fortnight in the middle of the night for less than two hours. That was the situation for millions in the city of Karachi, Pakistan back in 2016, where climate change and mismanagement saw the supply of water drastically reduced. Ordinary families were the hardest hit as Fazeelat Aslam reported.
With thousands of untested chemicals in our everyday products, have we all become unwitting guinea pigs in one giant human experiment? The powerful and inspiring new documentary The Human Experiment goes behind the scenes in the fight to protect us from these toxic products before they cause irrevocable harm to our health.
Synopsis from www.dw.com
For years chemical pesticides were considered an efficient way of protecting agriculture. But in the long term they don’t just harm would-be enemies, they also harm people and the environment.
Biological pest control is an alternative - who could fight pests more efficiently than their natural predators?
Scientists all around the world are studying animals that bring the dream of pesticide-free farming a little bit closer. They include ichneumon wasps, which burrow into the eggs of the snout moths or Asian ladybirds that eat aphids. Targeted breeding and release of insects like these could free affected agricultural land from pests naturally.
Meanwhile, an even more environmentally friendly approach is being pursued in India: ecologists want to combat pests by transforming existing agricultural land to provide the pests’ natural predators with good living conditions and so avoid the need to breed them in the first place. Several producers in Brazil and Europe are banking on biological pest control. But, whilst promising, these methods are still hit and miss and need a lot more work.
Not if BAYER with its ROUNDUP can help itScientists all around the world are studying animals that bring the dream of pesticide-free farming a little bit closer.
Twenty thousand private soldiers operate in Iraq. Who are these people? What do they do and why do they do it? ‘Shadow Company’ is a groundbreaking investigation into the secretive world of modern mercenaries.
Imagine living in a country where prices double every few weeks and a monthly salary of three million Bolívares isn’t enough to buy meat for one family meal. That’s the situation in Venezuela where the government is knocking five zeroes off the refurbished Bolívar in a desperate attempt to control hyperinflation. The Bolívar Soberano (Sovereign Bolívar), is anchored to the cryptocurrency, the Petro, which was launched earlier this year. In May 2018, Nicolas Maduro was re-elected president in a vote deemed by the EU and the US to be unfair. He promised to focus on boosting the economy, but Venezuelans are yet to see their lives improve. Families who only a few years ago went on holiday to Miami can no longer afford decent food and basic medication. France 24 reporter Claire Paccalin has been in Caracas finding out how Venezuelans are trying to adapt and survive from day to day.
Imagine living in a country where the price of everything doubles every 18 days and where in one year, the price of anything can rise well above 1,200 percent.
That’s been the recent reality for Venezuelans, whose economy has been ravaged by the fall in the global price of oil, declining productivity, and political turmoil.
Stephen Gibbs reports from Caracas, on life in the midst of hyperinflation.
The Children of Agent Orange (SBS 2018)This is a reportage based on the documentary Transgenic Wars by Paul Moreira. On 25th February 2015 it was broadcast on Dutch television by a program called Zembla. Hours before the broadcast, Monsanto contacted Zembla and threatened them not to broadcast it. Zembla didn't give in and showed it nevertheless. Thank you Zembla!
The Vietnam War ended more than 40 years ago, but for many locals the effects of the conflict are felt every day. We investigate how the use of Agent Orange by American forces continues to impact Vietnamese children.
50 years after the US military intervention in the Vietnam War, the weapons it used continue to harm the local population. Unexploded mines still take lives and the consequences of “Agent Orange” claim new victims. A defoliant used by the US Air Force to destroy forests where Vietcong guerrilla fighters were taking cover, “Agent Orange” is highly toxic to humans. The chemical not only severely harmed the health of those immediately exposed to it, but also led to birth defects in subsequent generations. Its impact is still being felt in Vietnam, where it is estimated that around 5 million people are suffering from its damaging effects. They call it their “orange pain.”
Synopsis from Wikipedia:
Ventura interviews a group of so-called "targeted individuals" (or "TIs") – people who claim that they are being manipulated and tortured by mind-control signals after they have spoken out against the government. He further looks into the technology that could be behind these attacks, such as microwave transmitting GWEN towers, and meets with insiders who claim to have worked on and developed the technology for the government that began with Project MKUltra.
The Children of Agent Orange (SBS 2018)
Elmo R. Zumwalt 3d, son of the admiral who ordered the spraying of Agent Orange in Vietnam, and who was exposed to the defoliant himself, died of cancer today at his home. He was 42 years old.
- Note the word "contend" !!!!Agent Orange contains highly toxic dioxin. Vietnam veterans contend that exposure to the defoliant causes cancer and other illnesses. They said it caused miscarriages by wives of servicemen and birth defects in their children.
Technology commentator Nicholas Carr discusses his book, "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains," presented by Harvard Book Store. Is use of the Internet causing us to lose the ability to concentrate and think deeply? Drawing from philosophy, neuroscience, and history, "The Shallows" explores how the Internet may be rerouting neural pathways.
Media LiteracyAn animated basic introduction to the concept of "media literacy". Media literacy curricula encourages students to ask questions about what they watch, hear, and read. Treating “media” as any sort of text that can be read, trained students will be able to detect bias and propaganda, and determine the reasons for these.