14/01/2017 Reporters - Short Edition

Welcome to Reporters.

I'm James Menendez.

From here in the World Newsroom, we send out correspondants to bring

you the best stories from across the globe.

In this week's programme...

The culture clash in the Amazon.

We report on Brazil's plans to build huge hydroelectric dams,

which could change the world's biggest rainforest for ever.

The impact of so many of these structures on the world's

greatest river system, its environment and its

people will be immense.

A visit to China's most polluted city.

We find the worst winter smog in recent years

is poisoning its people.

It's like living under a cloud.

The smog is harming my childrens' health.

And the sounds of Stonehenge.

David Sillitoe investigates how new technology is revealing more

of the ancient stones' secrets.

What this new VR technology is offering is a chance to return

back and see what this place used to look like in the past.

To Brazil's Amazon rainforest now, where a battle is under way

between its indigenous people and big business.

The Brazilian government is defending plans to build dozens

of huge hydroelectric dams, which they say are vital to meet

the country's energy needs.

But environmentalists say the plans are a disaster for the Amazon

and will result in more deforestation and global warming.

Wyre Davies has been to Belo Monte, the site of the first

of the new so-called mega-dams to assess their impact.

VOICEOVER: From the heart of the planet's greatest rainforest,

emerges one of the world's biggest civil engineering projects.

A monolithic monument to progress.

The Belo Monte dam is Brazil's answer to its growing energy needs.

Mired in controversy and allegations of corruption,

the $18 billion dam partially blocks the Xingu, a major Amazon tributary

and has flooded thousands of acres of rainforest.

There's a human cost too.

The local fishing has been decimated and thousands of riverside

dwellers or riberenos, have lost their land

and their livelihoods, forced into a completely

alien, urban environment.

We get angry, says this man, showing us his now

worthless fishing licence.

We see these corporations making millions from what used to be ours,

he says, and we can't even use the river any more.

Building the dam brought hundreds of jobs to the riverside town

of Altamira, but it also led to increasing deforestation

and the permanent loss of many low-lying islands.

Supporters of hydropower admit mistakes were made.

But they say the rivers and their energy are there to be

harnessed for the greater good of Brazil.

I would definitely defend the presence of Hydro S1

key technology in our portfolio of technologies.

In the developed part of the world,

almost 70% of the hydro potential has already been explored.

In Brazil, almost 70% of our hydro potential has not been explored yet.

Brazil says it wants to build at least 50 hydroelectric

dams across the Amazon.

The government is saying it is clean, sustainable energy.

But the impact of so many of these structures on the world's

greatest river system, its environment and its

people, will be immense.

Next in line for development, the Tapajos.

Described as the most beautiful river in the Amazon region and home

to the Munduruku indigenous people.

The plan to build several dams along its length

would transform this wide, shallow river into a

navigable water highway.

But it would flood forests and islands used

by the Munduruku for centuries.

Tribal chiefs say they will resist any attempts to build

dams on the river.

Clean energy and the promise of jobs versus the rights

of indigenous tribes.

And whether to exploit or to protect this fragile ecosystem.

Wyre Davies, BBC News, in the Amazon.

China is in the midst of its worst winter smog in recent years.

More than half of all of its cities are experiencing high

levels of air pollution.

Visibility in Beijing was reduced to less than 200 metres this week,

increasing use of coal and current weather conditions have left a cloud

of pollution over 3000 kilometres long across northern

and central regions.

John Sudworth has travelled to the worst polluted city in China

and sent us this report.

VOICEOVER: Somewhere, underneath this murky gloom is a city

of 10 million people.

And, for the unfortunate residents of this city, this is normal.

For the past 30 days, the average air quality in this city

has measured as hazardous on the official scale.

You can smell, even taste the coal dust in the air, the grim,

tangible reality of this country's model of economic growth.

And people have no choice but to live, eat and sleep in this

toxic smog, 24 hours a day.

It's like living under a cloud, this noodle seller tells me.

The smog is harming my children's health.

Of course I want to leave, this man says, but I can't

afford to, and anyway, the whole country is polluted.

It's not much of an exaggeration.

200 miles away, the pollution literally rolled into

Beijing earlier this week.

And stayed.

A toxic mix of coal dust from power stations and car exhaust,

the smog now regularly blankets a huge swathe of northern China.

And it's believed to cause more than a million

premature deaths a year.

TRANSLATION: As a lung cancer doctor, I have seen an increase

in patients in recent years, especially from heavily

polluted areas.

And when the smog gets worse, we see more kids with asthma.

Public concern has forced the Chinese government

to begin investing heavily in renewable energy.

Those working in the sector believe China can clean up its air,

just as wealthier, more developed economies once had to.

I am pretty positive for China's future.

Actually, they don't need that much time for the science research.

They don't need that much time to develop relevant technologies.

So I think a lot of things are more ripe for us

to make faster solutions.

Those solutions can't come fast enough for this city.

Fossil fuels may have lifted China's economy to ever greater heights,

but they are poisoning its people.

John Sudworth, BBC News, China.

STUDIO: Finally, there are many questions surrounding

the ancient stones

circle of Stonehenge.

But might sound help in the search for answers?

New technology is helping to recreate some of the strange

acoustics of the mystical English site from thousands of years ago.

Much of the stone circle has been lost over the years,

but as David Sillitoe reports, the technology can even help us

experience what the original prehistoric site might

have looked like.

EERIE SOUNDS.

People have been coming here for at least 4000, 5000 years.

So we are walking in the feet of history.

When the wind blows, some people say they hear a strange hum.

Thomas Hardy wrote about it in Tess of the d'Urbevilles.

And Dr Rupert Till is convinced the sound of Stonehenge

is part of its magic.

WIND BLOWS EERILY.

You here between each beat a little echo as the sound leaves you,

hits the stone and comes back to you here.

-- You hear between each beat a little echo

as the sound leaves you,

hits the stone and comes back to you here.

Bang. BANGING.

The problem, this is just a fragment of the sound people would have

heard 4000 years ago.

What this new VR technology is offering is a possibility,

a chance to return back and see and also hear what this place used

to look like in the past.

We've kind of reconstructed it by rebuilding Stonehenge digitally

and then using architectural software to reconstruct

the acoustics of the space, as it would have been

when all the stones were here.

So how different is the old sound to the sound we have today?

If I tap this drum now, you hear a little bit of an echo.

When all the stones are put in place, a much more

powerful sense of enclosure, a slight reverberation,

more echo and it changes more as you walk around.

BANGING.

And the reason he is convinced ancient people were interested

in sound is because of his work in caves in Spain.

Hundreds of metres underground, they found ancient instruments

and human marks on certain stalactites...

Stalactites that are musical.

19, 20, 21,

22, 23, 24, 25.

So today, it's just ruin beside a busy road.

This, a chance to say goodbye to the 21st-century and experience

the lost sound of Stonehenge.

David Sillitoe, BBC News.

STUDIO: Intriguing stuff.

That's all from Reporters for this week.

From me, James Menendez, goodbye for now.