Drilled presents: MongaBay Explores the Congo Basin: The "Heart of the World" Is at a Turning Point

Drilled

Critical Frequency

True Crime, Earth Sciences, Social Sciences, Science

4.8 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2023

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Congo Basin contains the world’s second-largest rainforest at a staggering 178 million hectares (just under 440 million acres). It is also one of the biggest carbon sinks on the planet, containing 29 billion metric tons of carbon in its vast peatlands under the rich forest. One of the basin’s key countries, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), aims to open up protected areas and forested peatlands to oil and gas development, with many experts warning of dire consequences to the rainforest and the world’s climate, should these peatlands be disturbed. Sound familiar? On the heels of our Guyana season, we wanted to bring you this deep dive from the great folks over at MongaBay on what's happening in the Congo right now. You can find the MongaBay Explores podcast here and MongaBay's regular Newscast here. Check them out! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to Drilled I'm Amy Westervelt. Our season on Guyana is officially
0:05.7	over, although we will continue to bring updates on that story. Today I'm
0:11.4	bringing you an episode from the excellent manga bay podcast because they have
0:16.4	a season going right now about another region that is experiencing a big
0:20.5	oil boom and dealing with a lot of contradictions around conservation and
0:26.2	oil development and climate policy, all of these things. This season that
0:31.4	they're doing on the Congo is fascinating. Look at what's happening there. This
0:36.5	is the first episode in that season. They are putting out episodes weekly right
0:41.5	now. I believe there are two or three out already. So go check that out.
0:45.8	Manga Bay actually has two podcasts. This one comes from the Manga Bay
0:50.6	Explorers podcast. It's a more occasional podcast that takes deep dives into
0:56.5	regions of great environmental interests like the Congo. So they'll do these
1:00.9	multi-part series where they take a close-up look at an area that is developing
1:06.5	in a particular way. Folks should also check out their flagship show The Manga
1:10.9	Bay newscast, which I recently appeared on to talk about journalism,
1:15.0	podcasting, climate action, and guilt. I'll stick links to both of those in the
1:20.0	show notes. Check them out and I hope you enjoy this episode.
1:25.0	The honor of all the chief justice and the associate. Most Americans have made up
1:30.5	their minds about the spring court. It's either restoring justice or
1:38.5	destroying America. The Supreme Court's not gonna save us. I'm Julia Lungoria and
1:43.6	in this season of more perfect or making sense of the Supreme Court today.
1:47.2	Listen to more perfect from WNYC studios wherever you get podcasts.
	...

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