The Political Butterfly Effect

Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

BBC Radio 4 LW

The Political Butterfly Effect: Did an engine failure fuel the climate crisis?

Did an engine failure fuel the climate crisis?

BBC Radio 4 - The Political Butterfly Effect, Did an engine failure fuel the climate crisis?

Jim Waterson explores a single moment that inadvertently shaped modern history.

Did the failure of a boat engine off the coast of Cuba in 1999 set off a chain of events that led to the current climate change crisis?

When five-year-old Cuban Elián González arrived in the USA under tragic circumstances in 1999, he found himself at the centre of a political storm over whether he should be returned to his home nation. 

The decision over his fate would reverberate at the highest levels of US politics and around the globe for decades to come - with inadvertent consequences shaping how the world reacted to climate change.

Presenter: Jim Waterson
Producer: Robbie MacInnes
An SPG production for BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Documentaries

Factual

Factual: Politics

The Guardian's media editor, Jim Waterson, explores how different the world would look were it not for the occasional, well-timed flap of a butterfly's wings.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Political Butterfly Effect

Did an engine failure fuel the climate crisis?

Genres

Series

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4