logo
episode-header-image
Oct 2023
27m 27s

Why did Ecuador vote to stop drilling fo...

Bbc World Service
About this episode

The Yasuni National Park in Ecuador forms part of the Amazon rainforest and is one of the most bio-diverse places on the planet. It also produces 60,000 barrels of oil per day. In a recent referendum, held as part of Ecuador’s Presidential elections, people voted to stop drilling for oil – including the newly elected President Daniel Noboa. We visit the town of El Coca – the gateway to the park - where the result thrilled people who are concerned about the climate. But many, especially those whose livelihoods depend on the oil industry, feel the opposite. Presenter Sophie Eastaugh speaks to: Lisette Arevalo, reporter in Ecuador Alejandra Santillana, activist with Yasunidos group in Ecuador who campaigned for the vote Fernando Santos, Ecuador’s Energy & Mining Minister Tessa Khan, climate lawyer and cofounder of the Climate Litigation Network, UK Navraj Singh Ghaleigh, Senior Lecturer in climate law at Edinburgh University, UK

Email us: theclimatequestion@bbc.com

Presenter: Sophie Eastaugh Producer: Greg Brosnan Production co-ordinators: Sophie Hill and Jacqui Johnson Series Producer: Alex Lewis Editor: China Collins Sound mix: Tom Brignell

Up next
Oct 6
What do ice cores tells us about climate change?
What can ice cores tell us about the atmosphere millions of years ago? These cylinders of ice, drilled from glaciers and ice sheets around the world, preserve precious clues about our changing climate and records such as rainfall, temperature and greenhouse gases, even volcanic e ... Show More
26m 29s
Sep 28
Why don’t we use more geothermal energy?
Geothermal energy is renewable, reliable and powerful. So, why is most of it untapped? That’s what our listener, Anna in the UK, wants to know. Full disclosure, she’s a geologist and is thoroughly perplexed by the lack of uptake. Geothermal is renewable, reliable and abundant and ... Show More
26m 28s
Sep 21
How does extreme heat affect pregnancy?
Graihagh Jackson and the BBC’s former Global Health Correspondent Tulip Mazumdar investigate how extreme heat, fuelled by climate change, is affecting pregnant women in India. In the southern state of Tamil Nadu, Tulip hears the heart-breaking stories of some of the women affecte ... Show More
26m 28s
Recommended Episodes
Apr 2011
Ecuador
The Ecuadorian Amazon region is one of the most bio-diverse on the planet. In one area, nearly 600 bird species, 80 kinds of bat and 150 varieties of amphibian have been recorded. And it's possible that the density of one of the rarest wild cats, the jaguar, is twice as high as a ... Show More
28m 6s
Feb 2017
Black Gold in Paradise
Yasuni National Park in Ecuador is widely recognised as the most biodiverse place on earth. Around 10% of all known life forms can be found within a few hundred acres of this part of the Amazon rainforest. Yet the forest sits on top of thousands of barrels of crude oil and the Ec ... Show More
27m 25s
Nov 2023
The controversial climate summit held in an oil state: What is COP28?
It’s that time of year again where world leaders, business execs and loads of lobbyists and activists gather for a few weeks to try to make concrete plans to reduce emissions globally and compensate countries worst affected by climate change - it’s COP28 and hopes are high. This ... Show More
15m 54s
Sep 2023
How will climate change affect where we can live?
Extreme weather is forcing communities to leave their homes and it's becoming a bigger and bigger issue. What can we do about it? In this edition of BBC Inside Science, Gaia Vince and her guests discuss what climate displacement means for people all over the world. We hear from D ... Show More
28m 6s
Nov 2023
Climate emergency
Category 5 hurricane Otis, which devastated Acapulco, was supercharged by global warming; hurricane expert Kerry Emanual tells Science in Action. Also, Brazilian ecologist Erika Berenguer has witnessed the destruction caused by the prolonged drought in Amazonia, where the rivers ... Show More
26m 28s
Nov 2022
Stories from the New Silk Road: Ecuador
The Cordillera del Condor mountain range in the east of Ecuador is where the mountains meets the jungles and the Andes meets the Amazon. In this region a Chinese run copper mine, Mirador, has grabbed the headlines over recent years, leading to controversy, resistance and talk of ... Show More
27m 19s
Feb 2023
Professor Corinne Le Quéré, climate scientist
Corinne Le Quéré is the Royal Society Research Professor of Climate Change Science at the University of East Anglia where she studies the way marine ecosystems respond to climate change. She uses computer simulators of the ocean to assess how the carbon cycle functions and her cl ... Show More
37m 11s
Oct 2023
Why is Prime Minister Rishi Sunak rowing back on climate pledges?
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak gave a hastily arranged press conference this week in which he confirmed he would be rowing back on some previously made government commitments regarding net zero - the point at which we remove as much carbon from the atmosphere as we put in. The rea ... Show More
35m 10s
Nov 2022
Amplifying the voices of climate experts worldwide
In this episode of Future of Journalism, we look at a project to improve climate coverage by making scientists and experts from overlooked regions more accessible. The speakers: Diego Arguedas Ortiz is the Network Manager at the Oxford Climate Journalism Network. His work has bee ... Show More
25m 27s