Satire

It's Monday, May 22nd.

The soccer world is reeling. Juventus, Italy's most storied soccer team, is at the centre of a massive scandal. Four teams are implicated, along with 41 sports officials for alleged game-fixing.The Juventus' star goalkeeper Gian Buffon has also acknowledged he has bet on tennis, horse racing and even soccer games.

Currently, some are saying the scandal could get even worse...there are rumours that Buffon's wife bet on the coin toss at the Super Bowl.

This is The Current.

Soccer Scandal – Reaction

Well it is only the biggest sporting event of all time. And for 75 years -- ever since the first soccer World Cup in Uruguay in 1930 -- it's been getting bigger ... both in popularity and prestige.

But now, with the World Cup just 18 days away, one of its most historically successful teams finds itself preparing for the tournament under an ever-darkening cloud of corruption. And the controversy is shaking the foundations of the top pro league in Italy and undermining the case for "The Beautiful Game."

We aired what a good day sounds like for fans of Turin's "Serie A" Italian soccer team Juventus.

But after the Italian Financial Police raided the team's headquarters last week, Juventus fans -- and indeed soccer fans across Italy -- have been struggling to contain their disappointment.

Scandal Overview

Juventus fans are obviously troubled by the news that their team finds itself at the centre of a corruption scandal. But it's just one piece of a wide-ranging investigation that involves other top league teams ... as well as players and soccer officials, including referees.

John Molinaro is a Senior Writer with CBC Sports Online and a bonafide Juventus fan. He was in our Toronto studio.

Soccer – Toronto Streeter

And John Molinaro isn't the only one in this country feeling the scandal's sting these days. We aired what a few Forza Italia fans had to say in the sports bars of Toronto's Little Italy.

Soccer and Scandals

Well, the Juventus scandal may be shocking to fans here in Canada. But for people living in Italy, it's probably less surprising.

Paddy Agnew has been covering soccer for more than 20 years. He's worked for The Irish Times, the BBC World Service, Reuters as well as Italy's state broadcaster, RAI. He's also the author of Forza Italia: A Journey in Search of Italy and Its Football and he was in Rome.

Listen to The Current: Part 1

(Due to various rights issues some segments may be edited for internet use)

The Current: Part 2

Environmental Panel – Part One

Environmental issues never really go away but they do fall off the news agenda. In fact, it's really been more than a decade since things like energy efficiency or sustainable development were legitimate, mainstream issues.

But when celebrities start pulling up to the red carpet at the Oscars in hybrid cars. And Vanity Fair magazine runs a special environment issue and when the American media is talking non-stop about a climate change documentary featuring former US vice-president Al Gore. That's when you know the issue is really getting some traction again.

We aired a sample of the new documentary, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, featuring Al Gore. And it seems Mr. Gore is dismayed by Ottawa's recent stand on environmental issues like climate change.

In a recent interview with Maclean's magazine, he said he's worried that Canada is showing passive agression toward the Kyoto protocol. Indeed, there have been reports that Ottawa is pushing for more lenient targets in the Kyoto protocol, and there's even speculation that the federal government wants the protocol to disappear altogether.

But Al Gore and the Harper government seem to see eye to eye on this point: that the solutions to environmental problems lie in technology. Gore says our environmental problems are energy problems. And he believes that technology has the potential to address concerns like climate change by producing energy more cleanly, and helping us use it more efficiently.

It's an idea that seems to be spreading among environmental advocates that scaling back our way of life won't give us a more sustainable world ... technology will. We heard from Alex Steffen, the Executive Editor of the sustainability website, Worldchanging.com.

For the rest of the show The Current explored the idea of the potential for technology to keep us from ruining the earth while allowing us to continue living the way in which we have become accustomed.

To discuss this we were joined by Beatrice Olivastri, the CEO of Friends of the Earth Canada. She was in our Toronto studio. And David Keith is the Canada Research Chair in Energy and the Environment at the University of Calgary. He's also Canadian Geographic's Environmental Scientist of the Year and he was in Pittsburgh this morning.

Amory Lovins is the co-founder and CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute and the author of Winning the Oil Endgame. He was in Snowmass, Colorado.

Mark Jaccard is the author of the book, Sustainable Fossil Fuels: An Unusual Suspect in the Quest for Clean and Enduring Energy.

Listen to The Current: Part 2

(Due to various rights issues some segments may be edited for internet use)

The Current: Part 3

Environmental Panel – Part Two

We continued our discussion on what technology can do to address environmental dilemmas like climate change. Beatrice Olivastri, who is the CEO of Friends of the Earth Canada. She was in our Ottawa studio. And David Keith is the Canada Research Chair in Energy and the Environment at the University of Calgary. He was in Pittsburgh this morning.

We also heard from Jean-Pierre Pawliw who is the president of the Canadian Solar Industries Association.

To talk about why that conservation message has been sidelined, we were also joined by Keith Stewart, the Climate Change Campaign Manager at World Wildlife Fund Canada. He was in our Toronto studio.

And Ontario's Energy Minister, Donna Cansfield has been in the hot seat over the Ontario Liberal government's plan to phase out coal-fired hydro plants. Few doubt it makes good environmental sense. But some say it will lead to brownouts and an overburdened energy grid. Donna Cansfield joined us on the phone from her cottage this morning.

Listen to The Current: Part 3

(Due to various rights issues some segments may be edited for internet use)

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