The Compass

Isabelle Legeron travels to California, a part of the world whose soil holds a complex history. She meets the indigenous Californians reviving ancestral methods of tending to the land, and the soil scientists exploring the impact of colonisation and agriculture on the soil of the Golden State. With indigenous Californian land steward Redbird (Pomo/Paiute/Wailaki/Wintu), director of the California Indian museum Nicole Lim (Pomo), indigenous ecologist Dr Melissa Nelson (Anishinaabe/Métis/Norwegian), indigenous educator Sara Moncada (Yaqui/Irish), professor Paul Starrs (USA) and soil scientists Suzanne Pierre (India/Haiti/USA), Kenzo Esquivel (Japanese/Mexican/USA) and Yvonne Socolar (USA).Presenter: Isabelle Legeron Producer: Sasha Edye-Lindner/ Kate Bland A Cast Iron production for BBC World Service(Photo: Native crops at Heron Shadow, California. Credit: Sara Moncada)

How is the world going to get to net zero by 2050 and who is paying the bill? Former governor of the Bank of England, and UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance, Mark Carney, recently put the figure we need to spend at 100 trillion dollars at least. Switching to renewable sources of energy, needs the global financial markets to pay for the necessary infrastructure. Costs will come down as the technology improves; take the example of solar panels where the last two decades have seen an astounding 96% drop, from 10 dollars a watt to 25 cents. Allan Little investigates innovate companies investing in green energy; direct air carbon capture technology and a plant producing the greenest aluminium in the world thanks to geothermal power. But the road to net zero is fragile, and vulnerable to geopolitical events. Every solution to global warming has an impact and unintended consequences. What is the real cost of getting to net zero?Presenter: Allan Little Producer: Anna Horsbrugh-Porter Editor: Susan Marli

For over 100 years, Iceland has produced renewable energy from geo-thermal and hydro power to heat its homes and power industry. Iceland harnesses the volcanic hot water under the earth’s crust and the energy from damming its plentiful rivers and waterfalls that run through the island. It produces five times more green energy than its population needs. But decisions Iceland has made in how best to use this surplus energy and the environmental and moral impact on its landscape and population have sparked controversy. There have been protests about the international aluminium companies; heavy users of electricity and the more recent advent of data-processing centres like the bitcoin and crypto-currency companies based there. These companies sell their green credentials to customers while consuming all the country’s excess power. When should Iceland say enough is enough? Presenter: Allan Little Producer: Anna Horsbrugh-Porter Editor: Susan Marling A Just Radio production for BBC World Service(Photo: Allan Littl

Allan Little investigates the best way to capture, store and redistribute the renewable sources of energy freely available all over the world – wind, solar and hydro. The sun gives earth enough potential power in one hour to provide the total energy needs of the globe for a year – if only we could catch and store it. From a purely economic angle, the costs of renewables are now cheaper than fossil fuels. So what is holding us back from harnessing the power of the sun and wind to secure our net-zero future? Vested interests in traditional energies for one, but also local controversies over the disruption involved in building big, renewable power stations; they’re often unwelcome and unwanted. Allan heads to one of the windiest places on earth, the Shetland Islands, north-east of the Scottish mainland. A remote, beautiful, isolated collection of archipelagos, Shetland is leading the way for transitioning out of fossil fuels to on and off-shore wind farms, green hydrogen production and the laying of thousands of

Allan Little looks at the challenges we face as we wean ourselves off gas and oil to renewable sources powering our cars, trucks, ships and aeroplanes. Green transport is crucial to a net zero future, but how transparent are the supply chains bringing the world the components we need? And how green is the electricity we are using to power electric cars anyway? Cobalt and Lithium, two essential minerals crucial for electric car batteries are mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Chile - and at great human and environmental cost. Transport accounts for over a third of our Carbon Dioxide emissions worldwide; there is no other option but to switch to electric vehicles. However motorists are often still sceptical about electric cars; they’re perceived to be expensive, difficult to recharge and unable to manage long distances. One of the biggest motor companies in the world, Ford, has just launched its first Electric Truck – targeting America’s blue-collar workers with this rugged, powerful, green machine

As the former ‘British Empire Games’ draws nearer, actor and musician Kema Sikazwe finds out what the world of museums can learn from the communities, artists and curators who are struggling to reclaim global stories about their culture and identity.Kema sees photographer Vanley Burke’s new exhibition, Blood and Fire, curated with Candice Nembhard at Soho House, former home of Matthew Bolton. At the Museum and Gallery, he meets members of We Are Birmingham who have remodelled the iconic round room.With the Commonwealth Games in full swing, Kema also hears how refugees, and members of the LGBT+ communities are ensuring their voices are heard within the cultural festival accompanying the sporting eventsPresenter: Kema Sikazwe Producer: Will Sadler and Andy Jones A Radio Film production for BBC World Service(Photo: Kema, Gaby and Masharah. Credit: Andy Jones/Radio Film)

Travelling from Lusaka to the Gwembe Valley and then on to Kabwe, Kema Sikazwe hears from people living in communities where artefacts were taken.In the shadow of the Kariba Dam, Kema meets people who were forced from their land when the valley was flooded who explain how promises made at the time have not been kept.Finally, at the lead-mining site where the Broken Hill Skull was discovered in Kabwe 1921, Kema meets former workers who describe how their homes remain contaminated, more than 25 years on, the UN estimates they are among 300,000 people living on toxic ground.Producer: Andy Jones and Will Sadler A Radio Film production for BBC World Service(Photo: Kema Sikawaze stands next to the Broken Hill man skull. Credit: Radio Film)

Returning to Zambia for the first time since he was three years old, Kema Sikazwe continues his journey exploring the impact of colonial legacies through museum collections.Since 1972, Zambians have campaigned to reclaim the ‘Broken Hill Skull’ from Britain. Kema learns what has led to the current stalemate, as the repatriation movement gathers pace.Kema also meets Zambian creatives who are fabricating their own interpretations of history with ‘digital repatriation’ initiatives, creating new artefacts in response to stories inspired by 3D scans and photographs.(Photo: Kema Sikazwe holds up a matchbox designed using motifs inspired by Zambian objects taken from the country. Credit: Radio Film)

Actor and musician Kema Sikazwe is on a mission to uncover his own personal history as he leaves the UK to return to his homeland of Zambia for the first time since he was three years old.As Kema travels, he learns how museums are telling the uncomfortable stories behind some of the objects in their collection. He joins pupils from his old primary school learning why The Great North Museum in Newcastle is offering to return an ancient musical instrument to Nigeria. Arriving in Birmingham, Sara Wajid, co-director of Birmingham Museums explains how 'decolonising museums' goes way beyond returning objects. He also meets legendary photographer Vanley Burke, putting together a new exhibition with curator Candice Nembhard at the former home of a famous industrialist in Handsworth.Meeting the young members of We Are Birmingham, Kema hears how they have been challenged to transform the iconic round room at Birmingham’s Museum and Art Gallery, and seeks their advice on how best to approach his own forthcoming journey.

The borders of the Balkans have been splintered, cracked and remade countless times over centuries. Suspicions and hatreds, ancient and modern, still scar the landscape. Travelling through the southernmost regions bisected by the Iron Curtain, Mary-Ann Ochota meets the conservationists convinced that a shared love of the region's landscape and wildlife can heal division.From Trieste in Italy, a staging post for generations of refugees- including the Ukranian exodus of 2022- she travels south-east to Lake Prespa where North Macedonia, Greece and Albania meet.Conflict and poverty have driven people from this beautiful place but in their absence nature has thrived. Can joint efforts to protect the region's bears, lynx and endemic fish and flora boost the economy and persuade the young people to stay and the diaspora to return?(Photo: Three Cold War borders meet in the centre of Lake Prespa, one of the most wildlife-rich places in Europe)

In May 1952 East Germany sealed its entire border with the capitalist west. Over the next 37 years 75,000 people would be arrested trying to flee the Communist East and hundreds would die in the attempt. Today the barbed wire and machine guns are gone and the old border has been transformed into a protected wildlife zone. It's a home to lynx, wolf and wildcat and a vital corridor for migrating birds and mammals. Mary-Ann Ochota begins her journey along the old border, meeting the people doing their bit to turn a birdwatcher's fantasy into the world's longest nature reserve.(Photo: Mary-Ann Ochota walks the route of the Iron Curtain through central Germany)

Ladakh is a region at the centre of the 50-year-long border dispute between India and China, which flared up again in June 2020. Journalist and broadcaster Ed Douglas speaks to local village leaders whose communities are struggling to preserve their lives and livelihoods amidst perpetual military unrest. He also speaks to former politicians and political experts about the consequences of what happens here for the wider geopolitical stability of Asia’s two biggest countries, and those caught in between.(Photo: Himalaya monks. Credit: Dinesh Deokota)

If the Himalayan glaciers melt, a billion lives and whole ecosystems will be at risk. Journalist and broadcaster Ed Douglas joins innovative community projects in Ladakh and Nepal looking to mitigate the impact of climate change now and in the future. Their success or failure will determine the future environmental security beyond their local region, to all of Asia.Presenter: Ed Douglas Producer: Clem Hitchcock Editor: Susan Marling A Just Radio production for BBC World Service(Photo: A valley in the Himalaya mountain. Credit: Ed Douglas)

Spanning five countries, the Himalaya is home to peoples who have adapted to living in the harshest of conditions. Journalist and broadcaster Ed Douglas, author of the first major history of the Himalaya has been visiting these remote communities for 30 years. Now they are opening up to him about the challenges of living on the roof of the world. Ed's friends from the Sherpa and Rai groups in Nepal reveal how genetically and practically they have evolved to be able to live long term at such altitudes and how seismic political and economic shifts in lands far below are forcing fundamental changes in their way of life up above. Ed also reveals the often overlooked cultures and achievements of the diverse ethnic groups that make up this region including interviews with artists, musicians and record breaking athletes.Presenter: Ed Douglas Producer: Clem Hitchcock A Just Radio Ltd production for BBC World Service(Photo: A Nepali woman in the mountains. Credit: Dinesh Deokota)

Do we still have faith in money? Trust expert and fellow at the Said Business School at Oxford University, Rachel Botsman, investigates the shifting power plays in the global management of money, gathering pressures towards decentralisation and optimism in the world of finance.Presenter: Rachel Botsman Producer: Frank Stirling and Leo Schick A Storyglass production for the BBC World Service(Photo: A man uses contactless payment with QR code in supermarket. Crdit: Getty Images)

Rachel Botsman, a Trust expert and fellow at the Said Business School at Oxford University, looks into the psychology and the morality of money. Among others, she talks to Jain accountant Atul K. Shah, activist and onetime refugee Ghias Aljundi and psychologist and happiness guru Dr. Laurie Santos.Producer: Frank Stirling and Leo Schick(Photo: Businessman reaching out for falling bank notes. Credit: Getty Images)A Storyglass production for BBC World Service

In the second episode Rachel explores the subject of value. Beginning with the volatility of Bitcoin, she goes on to find out about growing up in Brazil's years of hyperinflation, living in the gift economy of an Indonesian island and whether money is the root of happiness.Producers: Frank Stirling and Leo Schick(Photo: A representation of the virtual cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Credit: Edgar Su/Reuters)A Storyglass production for the BBC World Service

Do we still have faith in money? Trust expert and Fellow at the Said Business School at Oxford University, Rachel Botsman, talks to people from all over the world about their relationship with cash, with banks, with currencies, with credit cards and crypto. In this first episode she asks how much we should trust money. With politician and former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, economist and author Eshwar Prasad and investor and entrepreneur Soulaima Gourani.(Photo: Thousands of citizens gathered in front of the Greek parliament and around the Constitution Square, to protest against the vote on second bailout reforms. Credit: Dimitrios Sotiriou/Getty Images)

The newest player in the Niger Delta is not a multinational company, it is Nigeria’s enormous illegal oil industry. Oil thieves cut the pipelines, siphoning off oil, which they refine in the bush and sell on the black market. BBC West Africa correspondent Mayeni Jones meets an oil thief king pin, as well as an exuberant local politician, taking on this illegal business and treks deep into the forests of the Niger Delta to visit an underground refinery. And we catch up with Victoria Bera. For decades, she has been in a prolonged legal battle against Shell in courthouses around the world. Will she finally get the justice she seeks? Presenter: Mayeni Jones Producer: Josephine Casserly Editor: Bridget Harney(Photo: Illegal oil refinery in Emuoha, Niger Delta. Credit: Fyneface Dumnamene)

BBC West Africa correspondent Mayeni Jones travels to the creeks of the Niger Delta to investigate the impact that oil pollution continues to have on communities and their environment. What she finds is alarming. And she speaks to Shell to ask them who is to blame for the ongoing environmental damage. Presenter: Mayeni Jones. Producer: Josephine Casserly Editor: Bridget Harney(Photo: Landscape destroyed by oil pollution. Image courtesy of Fyneface Dumnamene)