You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

Hey Shortwavers, Emily Kwong here with reporter Camila Domenoski.

Welcome to the podcast dude.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

You're one of my favorites at NPR and all the time we say on this show that climate change

is complicated. And you just reported a story that is full of complications.

You went to Guyana, a country on the Atlantic coast of South America, and Exxon wants to step

up its offshore oil drilling there off the coast.

How did all that get started in Guyana?

Right, well there was basically no oil industry in Guyana at all until Exxon discovered

oil off the coast a few years ago and they discovered a lot of oil.

So the country is getting into oil production in a big way at exactly the moment that

around the world everyone's talking about the need to transition away from fossil fuels.

And as a business reporter, what do you make of that timing?

Yeah. I mean I think what's so interesting here is that Guyana, more than most countries,

is painfully aware of climate change of the need to switch away from fossil fuels.

I mean when I was down in Guyana we drove out east of the capital city, east and south and we

went through farming communities where I talked to person after person whose home was flooded

for months this summer, literally underwater because of climate change.

And yet the country is staking this big bet on oil production, right?

Because they're hoping that it's going to bring in a lot of money and Guyana needs the money.

And you spend three days in Guyana reporting on this tension.

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