4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 30 December 2023
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Kate Adie presents stories from China, Bolivia, the US and Italy.
BBC China correspondent Stephen McDonell arrived in Beijing as a student 20 years ago and jumped straight into the city's buzzing nightlife. But the bohemian club scene he fell in love with was rapidly replaced by shiny new shopping malls, and towering skyscrapers as China's wealth and ambition grew. Along with the economic boom came substantial military expansion and a tightening of control in political and cultural life under Xi Jinping's leadership. Stephen ponders if change is always for the better.
The southern US state of Louisiana is on the front-line of climate change. Its famous wetlands are now disappearing at a rate among the fastest in the world, and the state has lost nearly 2000 square miles of land over the past century leaving coastal communities increasingly vulnerable. Beth Timmins has met residents fearful for their future.
The invasive Paiche fish is so large and voracious it’s been called King of the River by fishermen in Bolivia. It’s thought that the breed escaped from fish farms in Peru and swam downstream, to take over the waterways of the Beni region in northern Bolivia. This mighty invader has changed the lives of locals as Jane Chambers learned.
And wild boars are on the rampage in Italy in rural areas - and now in cities too. Last year hunting laws were relaxed, to allow for the animals to be captured and killed in urban areas. This move was welcomed by Italy’s farming lobby – but has faced considerable criticism from city-dwelling conservationists. Nicholas Walton tells the story of how matters recently came to a head in his local village group-chat.
Series Producer: Serena Tarling Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman
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0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
0:06.0 | Good morning. |
0:07.1 | Today in the US state of Louisiana, down in the Bayous, |
0:11.7 | we see signs of the inexorable loss of land as rising sea waters creep into its coastal |
0:18.0 | communities and take over. |
0:20.9 | We go out on the Amazon hoping to catch a pieche, one of the gigantic fish which have eaten |
0:27.4 | their way through the ecosystem in the rivers and streams of Northern Bolivia, and in Italy, |
0:34.0 | Italy, wild boars are on the rampage, |
0:37.0 | but there's friction on how to deal with the problem |
0:40.0 | between traditional farming communities and their newly arrived neighbours from the big cities. |
0:47.0 | But first China has undergone a remarkable and rapid transformation since the turn of the century. Its unparalleled |
0:55.7 | economic boon has spawned new mega cities across the country not to mention a |
1:01.4 | world-beating transport system. |
1:04.0 | Meanwhile, a rapidly expanding middle-class quickly developed a fondness for Western designer labels and luxury goods. |
1:12.0 | Under the leadership of President Xi Jin Ping, and luxury the world's biggest Navy. President She is China's most dominant leader in generations, |
1:26.8 | having consolidated his own power through the curtailment of democratic freedoms, |
1:32.1 | increased censorship and creeping control over social and |
1:36.6 | cultural life. |
1:38.8 | Our correspondent Stephen McDonnell has experienced this historic period of change firsthand, seeing up close China's seismic, economic, political and cultural shift. |
1:51.0 | After 20 years of living in Beijing he reflects on the excitement he felt when he first arrived in China and he ponders where the change is really for the better. |
2:03.2 | Columns of trucks were roaring through the winter night, headlights pushing into the smoggy air, |
2:08.4 | as I was driven along the fourth ring road, looping from the old airport towards the student district of Wodauco. |
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