Excess Baggage - 20/02/2010

John McCarthy talks to author Laila Lalami about social changes over recent years in her native Morocco and asks whether the reality of Casablanca, where there is a stark contrast between rich and poor, lives up to its romantic reputation or offers an altogether different experience for the visitor. Writers Charles Emerson and Richard Sale have both travelled widely in the half a dozen countries which border the Arctic Ocean. Both tell of majestic beauty, a way of life for the indigenous people that goes back many millennia and a unique ecology. They discuss with John McCarthy how climate change is affecting access to the mineral wealth of the polar region and the possibility of conflict there.