As the polar ice caps melt, scientists are mapping the floor of the Arctic Ocean – including the natural resources like natural gas and oil. On today's first Underreported, McKenzie Funk describes the Healy Mapping Mission and how countries around the world are trying to lay claim to what’s underneath ...

The emergence of Swine Flu has set off a pandemic panic, but why? Dr. Robert Klitzman is Director of the Ethics and Policy at the HIV Center at Columbia University and researches why our culture overreacts to some diseases like Swine Flu but under-reacts to other ...

Economists are always worried inflation, but now some economists are worried about the possibility of price deflation in Spain. On today’s first Underreported, Nelson Schwartz, European economic correspondent for the New York Times, explains what’s driving down prices in Spain and what that tells us about the country’s economy. You ...

Civilian contractors like KBR have been used extensively in both Iraq and Afghanistan to support the American war efforts there, and up to 31,000 of them have been injured. Find out why these injured contractors have to fight insurance companies, including AIG, to get the medical care their injuries require. ...

Iraq's LGBT community is facing a wave of violence and persecution. Iraqi Police sources say that in the past month alone, the bodies of six young men have been found in Sadr City, some with placards labeling them "perverts" or "puppies", the derogatory Iraqi term for gays. We’ll speak with ...

We take a look at the status of cleanup efforts in the heavily polluted Newtown creek on Brooklyn/Queens border. Alex Matthiessen and Phillip Musegaas are with the Riverkeeper organization.

Neodymium is a rare earth metal and important component in the electric car engines and wind turbines that are being touted as the future of alternative energy. But, neodymium is not without it’s problems. We'll look at what neodymium is and why we may soon face a global shortage of ...

In the 1982 the State of New Jersey began investigating the presence of the dangerous chemical hexavalent chromium on a 16-acre site in Jersey City. Today, the site remains contaminated. We’ll talk to Nancy S. Marks, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, about why it’s taken so long ...

The Obama Administration is hoping to take the county in a new direction on energy. We’ll get the latest news on the Department of the Interior’s hearings on US energy policy from Wall Street Journal energy reporter Brian Baskin.

Nuclear energy is slated to become a bigger part of America's energy mix, but who will work at the plants once they've been built? Dr. Ivan Oelrich joins us to talk about the shortage of nuclear technicians and operators in the United States today. Dr. Oelrich is Vice President for ...

In Germany, savers are pulling their money out of traditional banks and depositing the money into German Car Banks. BMW’s Bank has seen deposits jump almost 70% over the past five months and the cash infusion is helping the company cope with the frozen credit markets. Jonathan Rosenthal is European ...

Musina, South Africa is just across the border from Zimbabwe and home to a refugee camp there. Earlier this week, the South African government decided to close the camp which provides medical care, housing and food to its thousands of residents. We'll talk to Rachel Cohen, head of mission in ...

Remittances (money sent home from immigrants) are Mexico's second-largest source of foreign income after oil and they dropped significantly in 2008 for the first time on record. The decline could signal trouble for the Mexican economy, but it also has real impacts on Mexican’s living in the United States. Sam ...

A large portion of China and India’s fresh water supply comes from glaciers found on the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas. According to a new report by the World Economic Forum, those glaciers will be gone by 2100. That means the water sources for 2 billion people will simply dry ...

AQ Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, has admitted to selling nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran, and North Korea. Late last week a Pakistani ordered Khan's release after five years of house arrest. David Albright, President of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, ...

In his final days before leaving office, President Bush created the largest marine sanctuary in the world off the coast of Hawaii. But, he also opened up large parts of the American coastline to oil drilling. Michael Sutton is Vice President of the Monterey Bay Aquarium ...

Thailand recently banned the latest edition of the Economist magazine and jailed an Australian writer – both over negative comments about the Thai royal family. Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch tells us more about the Thai monarchy and press freedom, and gives us an update on the ...

In the Central North Pacific, plastic outweighs surface zooplankton 6 to 1. Find out why the problem of garbage and plastic floating around in our oceans could be one of the most pressing environmental disasters we face now. Dr. Marcus Eriksen of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation sailed ...

Find out about the growing trend of Islamic finance – banking and investing based on the Koran – and how it’s faring in the current global economic crisis. Journalist Carla Power is and author of the Jan./Feb. Foreign Policy magazine article "Faith in the Market."

Barack Obama will arrive in DC for the inauguration by train, and Joe Biden is also known as “Amtrak Joe” thanks to his years of daily commutes to Washington via Amtrak. Is this a sign that the next four years will be more rail-friendly than in previous administrations? We look ...