To the Point
The Oceans: Our Last Frontier
The gold rush is on for the world's oceans and their resources. They promise not just oil, but precious minerals, potential biofuels, food sources, medical discoveries, and strategic advantages for the world's superpowers. Will this new Blue Economy stress the ocean's already fragile ecosystem beyond its breaking point?
By Barbara Bogaev • • 52m ListenThe gold rush is on for the world's oceans and their resources. They promise not just oil, but precious minerals, potential biofuels, food sources, medical discoveries, and strategic advantages for the world's superpowers. Guest host Barbara Bogaev explores whether this new Blue Economy will stress the ocean's already fragile ecosystem beyond its breaking point.
Later on the program, a new book traces the flaws in our modern day criminal justice system to an unlikely source: Prohibition. A new look at the war on alcohol.
Photo: Takopix
In this episode
3 storiesBill Cosby Faces Criminal Charges in Sexual Assault Case
More than 50 women have accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault. Now, for the first time, the 78-year-old comedian is facing felony criminal charges . The charges were brought by Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele in Pennsylvania.
Read the story7 minGold Rush on the Seas: The New Blue Economy
The ocean is our last frontier still largely unmapped and unclaimed, but that's rapidly changing. Russia, China, the US and other nations are vying for seabed and exploratory rights to resources like oil, minerals, potential lifesaving medicines, alternative energy made from algae, food derived by seaweed and many more riches.
Read the story35 minProhibition and America's 'War on Alcohol'
Juice joints, hooch, flappers and speakeasies often come to mind when we think of the Prohibition Era, and historians have often treated it as a little more than a misguided moralistic hissy fit. The influential Richard Hofstadter called prohibition “a means by which the reforming energies of the country were transmuted into mere peevishness.”
Read the story8 min
