Mongabay Newscast

Roughly a billion people enjoy coffee daily, and more than 100 million people rely on it for income. However, the coffee industry is the sixth-largest driver of deforestation and is also rife with human rights abuses, including the labor of enslaved persons and children. But it doesn't have to be this way, says this guest on the Mongabay Newscast. Etelle Higonnet is the founder of the NGO Coffee Watch, having formerly served as a senior adviser at the U.S. National Wildlife Federation. The main commodity on her radar now is coffee. On this podcast episode, she explains how the industry can — and should — reform its practices. "It's so simple … pay a living [a] living income wage," she says, " and a lot of human rights violations will just dry up." To target deforestation, Higonnet says the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is "a beautiful law" that "simply put, would bar imports of coffee into the European Union if that coffee is tainted by deforestation or illegality. So, two things that are illegal off the top of my head are slavery and child labor." Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website. Please send questions, feedback or comments to podcast[at]mongabay[dot]com. Image Credit: A cup of coffee with beans and a teaspoon on a stump tabletop. Image by Anja (cocoparisiene) from Pixabay (Pixabay Content License). --- Timecodes (00:00) Coffee tied to slavery and deforestation (07:03) How we can stop it (12:36) Why are prices soaring? (19:25) How the EUDR can help (25:56) When will the EUDR come into effect? (29:40) Why the coffee supply chain is simple (33:54) What about certification schemes? (37:46) What coffee drinkers can do to act

Carlos Zorrilla has been living in an Ecuadorian cloud forest since the 1970s, and his last 30 years there have been spent fighting mining companies seeking to extract its large copper deposits. He and his community have successfully fought such proposals by multiple firms in one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet, but sometimes at great personal risk, he tells Mongabay's podcast. While his organization, Defensa y Conservación Ecológica de Intag (DECOIN), and allies in the local community notched a major victory against mining there in a 2023 court case, he explains they're still not out of the proverbial woods. "Every day, I have to think about mining [and] I'm not exaggerating, my life now revolves around mining. Even though we won a case, I know they're going to come back because the copper's there, and there's a lot of demand for copper." His advice to anyone who wants to protect their community from mining is to go on the offensive, early and aggressively, comparing the strategy to how one might view treating cancer. "You have to think of it like a cancer, that you need to treat it immediately and you need to look for signs that your body, in this case, your community, is sick,” Zorrilla says. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website. Please send questions, feedback or comments to podcast[at]mongabay[dot]com. Banner image: Carlos Zorrilla in the DECOIN office in Apuela, Ecuador. Photo by Romi Castagnino. ----- Timecodes (00:00) A victory for Intag Valley (07:19) The influence of ‘rights of nature' laws (09:57) The return of vulnerable fauna (15:56) Reprieve is only temporary (22:02) Mining companies omit important information (25:07) ‘How to stop' mining before it starts (30:52) “Every day, I have to think about mining”

Five years since Kim Stanley Robinson's groundbreaking climate fiction novel, The Ministry for the Future, hit The New York Times bestseller list, the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning writer shares reflections on themes explored in the book and how they apply directly to the world today.  The utopian novel set in a not-so-distant future depicts how humans address climate change and the biodiversity crisis, toppling oligarchic control of governments and addressing chronic inequality. Robinson explains how the novel works as  ”a kind of cognitive map of the way the world is going now, the way things work and the way things might be bettered. And also a sort of sense of hope or resiliency in the face of the reversals that will inevitably come along the way.“ In this conversation, he also explains how storytelling can help humans fight a “war of ideas” and speaks about challenging economic inequities with what he calls “postcapitalism.” Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website. For general questions or comments, email us at podcasts[at]mongabay[dot]com. Image Credit: Screenshot of the book cover for ‘The Ministry for the Future' by Kim Stanley Robinson, published by Orbit. Cover art by Trevillion Images. Cover design by Lauren Panepinto. --- Timecodes (00:00) What Stan would change about the book today (07:56) We're all ‘in a sci-fi novel we're co-authoring together' (13:37) Challenging capitalism with ‘post-capitalism' (19:43) Is ‘Degrowth' part of the Ministry for the Future? (23:45) About Frank (27:24) The inspiration for Mary Murphy (30:34) The threat of ‘wet bulb' 35C temps (36:37) How to fight a ‘war of ideas' (42:21) You cannot kill the future (46:26) Before you read the book… (49:27) Looking to Antarctica

Nearly half of the Republic of Congo's dense rainforests are protected under the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) framework to receive climate finance payments, but Mongabay Africa staff writer Elodie Toto's recent investigation revealed the nation has also granted nearly 80 gold mining and exploration permits in areas covered by the project, driving deforestation and negatively impacting local people and wildlife. As the world scrambles for new sources of gold during these uncertain economic times, she joins the podcast to explain what her Pulitzer Center-supported reporting uncovered: "It was beyond words, if I may say. I could see people using excavators to uproot trees. I could see them washing the earth and it basically looked [like] a war zone," Toto says on this episode of the podcast. Toto is also part of Mongabay Africa's team producing a new French-language podcast, Planète Mongabay, and discusses how the program makes environmental news more accessible to audiences who often prefer to get their news via audio or video. Subscribe to or follow theMongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website. Cover image: An excavator digs for gold at the Alangong-Bamegod-Inès mining site in the Sangha. According to environmentalist Justin Chekoua, “nothing seems to be done” to preserve biodiversity at the site. Image by Elodie Toto for Mongabay. ---- Timecodes (00:00) Rainforest given over to gold mining (10:17) Curious connections & justifications (17:34) The law of the land (22:03) In plain sight (25:33) Planète Mongabay

Carlos Mallo Molina has been awarded the 2025 Goldman Environmental Prize for protecting the marine biodiversity of Tenerife, the most populated of the Canary Islands. On this episode of Mongabay's podcast, Molina explains what led him to quit his job as a civil engineer on a road project impacting the Teno-Rasca marine protected area (MPA) and his subsequent campaign to stop the port project it was planned to connect to, which would have impacted the biodiversity of the area. His successful campaign contributed to the decision of the Canary Islands government to abandon the port plan.  Now, Molina and his nonprofit Innoceana are helping set up an environmental education center in its place. "I was going diving every weekend in my free time, and it was full of sea turtles, it was full of whales, it was full of marine life. And so, I think understanding how my impact was going to destroy [a] marine protected area … I think that was where I had my biggest click in my brain … I need to do something to change what I'm doing, in [a] way that I can protect this ocean," he says. Image Credit: Pinnacles of Fonsalía, Tenerife, Canary Islands. Photo by Innoceana. B-roll Credit: Goldman Environmental Prize Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website. --- Timecodes (00:00) From engineer to activist (05:31) The biodiversity of Teno-Rasca (06:58) Fighting for protection (12:13) Shutting the port down (16:29) A future of sustainable tourism? (21:02) Future projects (22:19) Carlos' connection to the ocean

A biotech company in the United States made headlines last month by revealing photos of genetically modified gray wolves, calling them “dire wolves,” a species that hasn't existed for more than 10,000 years. Colossal Biosciences edited 14 genes among millions of base pairs in gray wolf DNA to arrive at the pups that were shown, leaving millions of genetic differences between these wolves and real dire wolves. This hasn't stopped some observers from asserting to the public that “de-extinction” is real. But it's not, says podcast guest Dieter Hochuli, a professor at the Integrative Ecology Lab at the University of Sydney. Hochuli explains why ecologists like him say de-extinction isn't just a misleading term, but a dangerous one that promotes false hope and perverse incentives at the expense of existing conservation efforts that are proven to work. "The problem with the word de-extinction for many ecologists is that we see extinction [as] being an irreversible event that has finality about it, a bit like death. The idea that you can reverse those sorts of things is anathema, I think, biologically, but also philosophically and ethically," Hochuli says. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website. Image Credit: Thylacines, female and male in the National Zoo Washington D.C. Mike DiGirolamo is a host & associate producer for Mongabay based in Sydney. He co-hosts and edits the Mongabay Newscast. Find him on LinkedIn and Bluesky. ------ Time codes (00:00) They aren't dire wolves (03:57) Why extinction is final (04:50) Ecological barriers to ‘de-extinction' (12:25) Problems with species reintroduction (20:25) How ‘de-extinction' can mislead (25:32) Is conservation a zero-sum game? (31:58) Can this technology truly aid conservation? (39:24) Is the marketing hype justified?

Biological oceanographer John Ryan joins Mongabay's podcast to discuss his team's multiyear study that examined vocalizations of baleen whales, including blue (Balaenoptera musculus), humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae) and fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus), and how this science is critical for understanding their feeding habits, and thus informing their conservation. The study found that these whales' songs rise and fall with their food supply, which provides valuable insights into how changing ocean conditions can affect their health and guide management measures. “Some of the research we did tracking the movement and ecology of blue whales helped our sanctuary [to] act on this long-term concern about ship strikes, and to join a program that is called Protecting Blue Whales and Blue Skies,” the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) researcher says. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website. This episode is dedicated to the memory of Mongabay's East Africa editor, Ochieng' Ogodo. Read here about his life, legacy and achievements. Audio credit: Blue and humpback whale calls featured in this episode are courtesy of MBARI and John Ryan. Image credit: A humpback whale dips back beneath the surface of the ocean. Image courtesy of Cristina Mittermeier/SeaLegacy. ------- Timecodes (00:00) Marine heatwaves and their impact (06:33) Analyzing whale songs (12:30) A change in tune (20:13) Interspecies communication? (25:16) The reason behind the heat (27:36) Informing conservation (36:52) Credits

Two decades ago a group of NGOs came together with the government of Kazakhstan to save the dwindling population of saiga antelope living in the enormous Golden Steppe. Since then, the Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative has successfully rehabilitated the saiga (Saiga tatarica) from a population of roughly 30,000 to nearly 4 million. For this effort, it was awarded the 2024 Earthshot Prize in the “protect & restore nature” category. Joining the podcast to discuss this achievement is Vera Voronova, executive director of the Association for the Conservation Biodiversity of Kazakhstan, an NGO involved in the initiative. Voronova details the cultural and technological methods used to bring the saiga back from the brink and to help restore this massive grassland ecosystem. “When [the] initiative [was] started, the saiga would be always like the flagship and the priority species because we did have this emergency case to recover saiga,” she says. “But the whole … picture of restoring the [steppe] was always behind this, and will be now a long term strategy.” Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website. Image credit: Saiga calf. Photo by Kibatov Arman/ACBK. -------- Timecodes (00:00) Saving the saiga antelope (07:13) The Golden Steppe is massive (13:00) Using conservation technology (17:07) Incorporating local knowledge (20:56) Wild horses and agriculture (26:40) Community connection (29:37) Credits

Media outlets are downsizing newsrooms and the audience for traditional news is in decline, but Mongabay continues to grow thanks to its impact-driven, nonprofit model. Mongabay's director of philanthropy, Dave Martin, joins the podcast this week to explain the philosophy behind Mongabay's fundraising efforts, why the nonprofit model is essential for impact-driven reporting, and how the organization ensures editorial independence. " Those who fund us and read us, they're really expecting real-world impact and high-quality journalism. So, people are coming back to Mongabay because they're interested in what we're reporting on. There's a really high level of quality that is informing their decisions," he says. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website. Dave can be reached at dave@mongabay.com or on LinkedIn. Image Credit: Galapagos tortoise, Ecuador. Photo by Rhett Butler/Mongabay. ----- Timecodes (00:00) Dave's story (08:50) Why nonprofit news creates impact (15:08) Funding and ethical considerations (23:27) Explaining trust-based philanthropy (29:10) Reflections on the Los Angeles wildfires (32:19) Dave's favorite animals

Renowned author, activist and entrepreneur Paul Hawken joins Mongabay's podcast to discuss his new book, Carbon: The Book of Life, and argues that the jargon and fear-based terms broadly used by the climate movement alienate the broader public and fail to communicate the nuance and complexity of the larger ecological crises that humans are causing. Instead, Hawken argues that real change begins in, and is propelled by, communities: "Community is the source of change, and what we have [are] obviously systems that are destroying community everywhere." The tile of Hawken's book, carbon, is also the fourth most abundant element in the universe, and a fundamental building block of life. He argues it is being maligned in a way that distracts from the root causes of ecological destruction in favor of technological solutions that are not viable at scale, or international agreements that prioritize carbon accounting. Subscribe to or follow theMongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website. Image credit: A photograph of Paul Hawken, environmental activist and author. Image courtesy of Paul Hawken. ------- Timestamps (00:00) Language in the climate movement (18:10) What is a ‘nounism'? (23:45) Leadership is ‘listening to all voices' (33:49) Community drives change (40:24) Why does carbon get a bad rap? (50:01) Normalizing the conversation around climate (54:22) ‘Decentering' the Global North (59:19) Humans are not ‘alpha'

The Australian government recently shelved key environmental protection commitments indefinitely, including the establishment of an environmental protection agency, and a robust accounting of the nation's ecological health via an environmental information authority. The latest suspension was announced by the Prime Minister just ahead of a federal election. Australia initially proposed these “nature positive”  reforms in 2022 and hosted the first Global Nature Positive Summit in 2024 to great fanfare, but has not implemented any substantial domestic legislation to overhaul its old environmental laws. Joining the podcast to explain this situation is Adam Morton, the environment editor at The Guardian Australia. In this podcast conversation, Morton details what the Australian government promised, what it reneged on, the potential global influence of its backtracking, and why the nation's environment will continue to degrade without intervention.  "I think that the message internationally from this term in parliament has been that the resources sector is winning, and environmental protection is losing out. Now, that's a very simple dichotomy, and it doesn't have to be one or the other, but on every front at the moment, that's how it feels in Australia. That applies to fossil fuel extraction. It applies to native forestry [and] logging, which still continues in a significant amount," Morton says. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website. Image Credit: A koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) in Queensland, Australia. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. ----- Timecodes (00:00) Australia breaks a key promise (07:30) What does 'Nature Positive' mean? (16:39) Koala protection sidelined (20:53) How to 'right' the 'wrongs' (28:30) Credits

Recent and major shifts in international environmental policies and programs have historical precedent, but the context of global environmental degradation and climate change presents a planetary risk that's new, say Sunil Amrith. A professor of history at Yale University, he joins this week's Mongabay Newscast to discuss the current political moment and what history can teach us about it. " When we look at examples from the past, [societies' ecological impacts] have tended to be confined to a particular region, to those states, and perhaps to their neighbors. Because of where we are in terms of anthropogenic warming [and] planetary boundaries, I think the scale of any risk, the scale of any potential crossing over into irreversible thresholds, is going to have impact on a scale that I'm not sure historical precedents would give us much insight into," he says. Amrith is the author of The Burning Earth: A History, which examines the past 500 years of human history, colonization and empire, and the impact of these on ecological systems. In this conversation, he details some historical parallels, what lessons can be learned, and what periods of history resulted in the most peace and prosperity. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website. Image credit: Deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon. Photo by Rhett Butler/Mongabay. ------ Timecodes (00:00) Historical parallels to the current moment (09:43) The context of ‘planetary risk' (20:36) Lessons from history (26:10) Credits

A new framework for considering the needs of the “more-than-human world” when designing human-made systems is “ecological empathy,” the focus of Lauren Lambert, founder of Future Now, a sustainability consulting firm. Her research, Ecological empathy: Relational theory and practice, was published in the journal Ecosystems and People in late 2024, when she was at Arizona State University. She joins the podcast to detail the concept and its potential for reconnecting humans with nature for mutual benefit. "Ecological empathy as I define it [is] essentially a framework of practice for how to use empathy as a guide to connect to the more-than-human world, and integrate our interdependence and relationships with the more-than-human world in everyday thinking, everyday practice, and specifically in the places where we work," she says. Previous newscast guests like Carl Safina, argued for overhauling how humans raise and farm seafood. Ben Goldfarb discussed how road crossings can help humans move toward a less environmentally damaging road infrastructure network in his award-winning book Crossings, which documents what he calls “road ecology.” Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website. Image Credit: A Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita) in Indonesian New Guinea. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. ---- Timecodes (00:00) What is ‘ecological empathy'? (10:50) The limits of feelings (15:38) The theory of change (21:22) How do you apply it? (33:29) Real-world examples (44:29) What empathy is and isn't (52:30) Credits

Middle and working-class citizens in nations across the globe are feeling their purchasing power diminish while billionaires hoard historically high levels of wealth. People are looking for economic solutions out of the inequity that are in line with their ecological values and planetary boundaries. "People are really hungry for solutions [and] really hungry to find alternatives," says Alvaro Alvarez, the documentary  filmmaker of the new BBC documentary Less Is More: Can Degrowth Save the World? Alvarez joins Mongabay's podcast to detail real-life solutions using the concepts behind “degrowth” in the city of Barcelona, which he highlights in the film and which have garnered widespread interest. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website. Listen to a previous conversation on degrowth on the Mongabay Newscast here. Image Credit: La Brugera de Púbol, a sustainable living and educational eco-estate roughly 2 hours from the city of Barcelona operated by Mike Duff. Image courtesy of Alvaro Alvarez. ----- Timecodes (00:00) Degrowth momentum in Barcelona (06:26) Degrowth and housing cooperatives (09:01) Growing international support (13:06) Challenges and criticisms of degrowth (24:51) Degrowth and global inequality (32:42) Green gentrification (39:03) Challenging the ‘wealth=success' narrative (42:24) Keeping inside the planetary boundaries

A paper in the journal Nature Climate Change concludes there is limited accountability for corporations that fail to achieve their climate change mitigation targets. The analysis shows 9% of company decarbonization plans missed their goals, while 31% “disappeared.” However, 60% of companies met their targets. While this might initially seem like good news, it may not be leading to genuine climate action. This week's podcast guest, Ketan Joshi, a consultant and researcher for nonprofit organizations in the climate sector, explains that many corporations are not actually decarbonizing their supply chains, but rather relying on buying renewable energy certificates and carbon credits to "offset" additional carbon emissions from their business. While carbon offsets are often touted as a way to directly fund climate action on the ground, Joshi stresses there is no verifiable way to track how much is funding these projects. Typically, credits are purchased from a broker, and 90% of these intermediaries arranging such deals on the voluntary carbon market don't share their data. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website. Image Credit: The 2015 Paris Agreement stipulates that countries must reduce carbon emissions in order to limit warming to 1.5°C, or at least well below 2°C. Image by jwvein via Pixabay (Public domain). ---- Timestamps (00:00) Are companies actually decarbonizing? (16:06)  The rise of climate litigation (31:00) Carbon removal tech as an offset (42:00) What is GreenSky? (50:38) Credits

The bobcat population has rebounded over the past century, making it North America's most common wildcat: as of 2011, there were an estimated 3.5 million bobcats in the United States alone, a significant increase from the late 1990s. These intelligent felids, Lynx rufus, have benefited from conservation efforts that have increased their natural habitat. The species also thrives at the edges of towns and cities, where their presence can even reduce the spread of pathogens like Lyme disease that affect people, says podcast guest Zara McDonald, founder of the Felidae Conservation Fund. McDonald shares her thoughts on how the bobcat manages to thrive on the edge of urban areas, the state of wildcat conservation, and what she wishes more people knew about wildcats. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website. Image: A bobcat in Kalispell, Montana. Image by Outward_bound via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). ----- Timecodes  (00:00) Intro (02:58) The resilience of bobcats (08:13) The benefits of bobcats (16:19) The Felidae Conservation Fund (25:30) The state of wildcat conservation (30:47) Wildfires and their impact on wildcats (33:47) Thoughts on coexistence with wildlife

Nations across the world are working to expand their protected areas to include 30% of Earth's land and water by 2030. In Africa, this would encompass an additional 1 million square miles. Mongabay's Ashoka Mukpo recently traveled to three nations to assess the current state of conservation practices in key protected areas, to get a better picture of what an expansion might look like, and how the crucial role of rangers in enforcing their protection is evolving. While there, he traveled with passionate and dedicated rangers, but also documented allegations of ranger involvement in violent incidents in Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda.  He joins the podcast to describe the situation, which he says is commonplace in national parks across the continent. "The amount [of] violence and aggressive enforcement that is, I think, generally associated with wildlife rangers has led to a lot of mistrust, a lot of alienation, and a real sense that 'the purpose of these people is to kind of harass and impose a system that doesn't include us, on us,'" Mukpo says. Read more here: ‘Killed while poaching': When wildlife enforcement blurs into violence ‘Like you, I fear the demise of the elephants' Image Credit: Lion inside Queen Elizabeth National Park. Photo by Ashoka Mukpo for Mongabay. ---- Timestamps (00:00) Introduction (01:27) National parks, human rights and 30x30 (04:15) Allegations of violence in Queen Elizabeth Park (09:48) How did we get here? (13:26) Tension between communities and rangers (18:05) Signs of collaboration (21:27) The economics of Queen Elizabeth Park (24:16) Local people cut out from revenue (26:31) The bigger picture (30:28) Credits

Bryan Simmons, the vice president of communications for the Arcus Foundation, joins the Mongabay Newscast this week to share the philosophy behind the 25-year-old foundation, which funds grantees that work on LGBTQ rights and great apes and gibbons conservation. In this conversation with co-host Mike DiGirolamo, Simmons explains the link between economic development and justice for people and how this is correlated with conservation outcomes. “When people are not able to have their economic needs met, conservation begins to pay the price right away,” says Simmons. He encourages listeners to review recent reports regarding ape conservation and how this relates to human health, disease, and the ‘one health' approach to planetary stewardship. Find more at stateoftheapes.com. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website. Arcus is a funder of Mongabay, but it did not initiate this interview nor does it have editorial influence on Mongabay's coverage. Image Credit: Young lowland gorilla, Gabon. Photo by Rhett Butler for Mongabay. --- Timestamps (00:00) Bryan's journey to the Arcus Foundation (13:25) How social justice enables conservation (25:47) Threats to human rights and conservation (30:09) Concerns in the Congo Basin (33:26) Hope during a dark period (37:54) Empathy in apes

This week, Anthony James, host of The RegenNarration Podcast, joins Mongabay's podcast to share stories of community resilience and land regeneration in the Americas and Australia. James explains how donkeys (seen as invasive pests) are now being managed to benefit the land in Kachana Station in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. In this episode, James emphasizes the importance of harnessing what's in front of us, rather than fighting it. Across the many interviews he's conducted, it's become clear that this concept is something Aboriginal Traditional Owners are keenly aware of. “If you're there, you're kin. There's no sense of ‘being greater than,” James says. Related reading: Huge deforested areas in the tropics could regenerate naturally, study finds Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend. You can also subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify. Listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website. Image Credit: Jim Jim Falls, Kakadu National Park. Image by Parks Australia. Courtesy of the Director of National Parks, Australian Government, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. Timecodes --- (00:00) Why Anthony James started The RegenNarration (05:32) The story of Kachana Station (12:24) Turning problems into solutions (25:26) Community resilience amidst political strife (36:45) Where's the potential? (41:29) Credits

General frustration with the result of the most recent UN climate conference (UNFCCC COP29) spurred the former UN climate chief, Christiana Figueres – under whose leadership the Paris Agreement was struck – to co-author a letter to the UN urging an overhaul to the COP process, and calling it “no longer fit for purpose.” Figueres joins this episode to speak about why the world's governments seemingly cannot agree to move decisively on climate action, and what can be done about it. She shares why – despite these frustrations and disappointments – she remains optimistic about the global effort to decarbonize economies and transport systems, citing recent advancements in the deployment of renewable energy and the power of everyday actions: “I used to think that it was our collective responsibility to guarantee to future generations that they would have a perfect world. And now that I am a recent grandmother, I really look back at that and I go, ‘my God, we cannot guarantee to future generations that they're going to have a perfect world.' We cannot. So, what can we do? We can do our darndest and we can wake up every morning and make a choice and say ‘where am I going to put my energy today?'” she says. Figueres is also the co-host of the popular podcast, Outrage + Optimism, which features conversations and analysis about the climate crisis.  Related reading at Mongabay.com: · COP29 ends in $300 billion deal, widespread dismay — and eyes toward COP30 · Top Mongabay podcast picks for 2024 Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website. Timecodes --- (00:00) A disappointing COP process (03:33) Has the Paris Agreement failed? (08:01) The renewable energy adoption s-curve (13:34) Electricity generation vs. consumption (18:55) Decarbonizing without mandates (23:29) Are we standing still? (31:16) Courage in choosing optimism (41:25) Reflections from a Colombian forest (48:12) Rachel changes her mind

Seventeen regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) regulate commercially valuable fish species across the world's oceans. The members of these organizations do not publicize their meetings and bar journalists from attending, presenting a barrier for public awareness. On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, Africa staff writer Malavika Vyawahare is joined by a fisheries expert, Grantly Galland, and an RFMO secretary, Darius Campbell, to explain how decisions are made in regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs), the consequences their decisions have on global fish populations, human rights and labor rights on the high seas, and how journalists can better cover these secretive organizations. “Decisions are being made by RFMOs that impact billion-dollar fisheries and take effect next year [so] these stories deserve to be told,” says Grantly Galland, a project director at the Pew Charitable Trusts. Also joining the conversation is Darius Campbell, secretary of the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission, an RFMO. “The sea is [vast and it's] very difficult to understand what's going on. Most of the [fish] stocks are very difficult to analyze and predict. And it's difficult to enforce [rules],” Campbell says. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones. Like our podcast? Please leave a review and share this episode with a friend. Image credit: Schools of fish at Cayman Islands, Caribbean. Image by Jason Washington / Ocean Image Bank. Timecodes (00:00:00) What is an RFMO? (00:07:37) Who are the key players? (00:13:18) Who holds the power? (00:20:32) Strategies for journalists covering RFMOs (00:29:47) Transparency and secrecy (00:38:59) Conservation and RFMO decision-making (00:48:10) Forced labor and human rights (00:53:29) What happens when an RFMO breaks the rules? (01:01:13) Common heritage vs high seas (01:07:13) BBNJ agreement (01:15:24) Citizen participation (01:19:09) Resources (01:21:39) Credits

A new forest finance fund known as the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) will work like an investment portfolio (unlike the familiar – and often ineffective – forest conservation loan or grant funds), and if enacted as intended, it will reward 70 tropical nations billions in annual funding for keeping their forests standing. Co-host Mike DiGirolamo speaks with three people who have analyzed the fund: Mongabay freelance reporter Justin Catanoso, Charlotte Streck – co-founder of Climate Focus – and Frédéric Hache, a lecturer in sustainable finance at the Paris Institute of Political Studies. They tackle the critical questions regarding what the proposed fund could – and would not – do. “I think that TFFF is an initiative that has great potential because it is put forward and supported by tropical rainforest countries. It is not [a] mechanism that has been defined by donors or by any experts. It is now pushed and promoted by the countries that harbor all this tropical forest,” says Streck. For additional background, find Catanoso's report on the TFFF for Mongabay here. View and hear our podcast team's picks of top 2024 episodes here. Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend, and leave a review. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones. Image caption: Cecropia tree in Peru. Image by Rhett Butler for Mongabay. ---- Time stamps (00:00) A brief primer of the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) (03:10) Details from Justin Catanoso (10:24) Digging deeper with Charlotte Streck (25:17) Critiques and concerns from Frederic Hache (35:50) Credits

Animal aquaculture, the farming of fish, has outpaced the amount of wild-caught fish by tens of millions of metric tons each year, bringing with it negative environmental impacts and enabling abuse, says Carl Safina, an ecologist and author. On this episode of Mongabay's podcast, Safina speaks with co-host Rachel Donald about his recent Science Advances essay describing the “moral reckoning” that's required for the industry, pointing to environmental laws in the United States, which put hard limits on pollution, as examples to follow. “In the 1970s in the U.S., we had this enormous burst of environmental legislation. We got the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act … all of these things were not because somebody invented something new. It's because we felt differently about what was important,” he says. The global fishing industry also contributes to forced labor and other worker abuses, as revealed by whistleblowers and media outlets, including Mongabay. Read our award-winning 2022 investigation, which revealed systemic abuse of foreign workers by China's offshore tuna fleet. Like this podcast? Share it with a friend, and please leave a review. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones. Image caption: An Atlantic salmon. In the U.S., the Washington state legislature banned farming of Atlantic salmon in 2018. A state official banned all commercial finfish aquaculture. Alaska and California have similar bans. Image by Hans-Petter Fjeld via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.5). --- Timecodes (00:00) Aquaculture and its impacts (15:32) How values shape environmental policy (32:56) The tragedy of the commons (35:52) Ecological empathy (45:07) Credits

Neil Vora MD is a former epidemic intelligence service officer with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with experience combating outbreaks of the deadly Ebola virus and running the New York City contact tracing program for COVID-19. He advocates supporting public health infrastructure to respond to diseases. He much prefers preventing outbreaks before they occur instead of rushing to respond to them, though, and the best way to do this, he says, is by investing in nature. On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, Vora shares his knowledge of why the “spillover” of zoonotic diseases — when a pathogen jumps from wildlife to humans — is increasingly occurring due to deforestation and land-use change. He also says that despite science's importance in studying and combating viruses, art and philosophy are necessary tools to drive the global change needed to prevent further outbreaks. “If we want to see societal transformation, we're going to need people feeling inspired, and that's where art and philosophy come in,” Vora says. Listen to Mongabay's previous Newscast episode covering the recent outbreak of avian influenza here. Like this podcast? Share it with a friend, and please leave a review. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones. Image Credit: Rainbow over Jambi, Indonesia. Photo credit: Rhett Ayers Butler / Mongabay ----- Timecodes (00:00) Introduction (01:06) Medical doctor and conservationist: Neil Vora (04:27) The link between deforestation and disease (07:33) The 'One Health' movement (09:41) How disease 'spillover' happens (13:06) What's happening with marburg and 'bird flu'? (23:10) Why we need art & philosophy to protect nature (26:31) Apocalyptic horror films as scenario explorations (30:04) Solutions and 'radical listening' (35:09) A rejection of nihilism

Todd Smith wanted to be a pilot since the age of 5, but an epiphany spurred by seeing a retreating ice cap in Peru revealed that his love of flying conflicted with the planetary harm his industry was causing. “That was the first seed that was planted, and I was witnessing in that moment climate change and mass tourism firsthand,” he says. Today, Smith is co-founder of Safe Landing, an organization dedicated to advocating for sustainable aviation reform to adapt to the realities of climate change and ensure the future employment of airline workers. On the latest Mongabay Newscast, he details his journey to leave the industry, and shares what he thinks the airline industry needs to change to in order to adapt to our new climate-changed reality. Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend and help spread the word about the Mongabay Newscast. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones. Image: Private jet flights account for a small fraction of aviation's overall emissions — around 4% — though the burden is up to 10 times more per passenger compared to a commercial flight, according to a recent report. Image by lillolillolillo via Pixabay (Public domain). --- Timecodes (00:00) Introduction: Todd Smith (02:10) From airline pilot to climate activist (12:10) The origins of Safe Landing (24:04) The future of aviation on a limited carbon budget (37:10) The inequities of flying (45:53) Credits

The new BBNJ (biodiversity beyond natural jurisdiction) marine conservation agreement is impressive in scope but has since been rebranded by some as the “high seas treaty,” which risks biasing its interpretation by emphasizing the historical, but outdated, freedoms enjoyed by seafaring (and largely Western) nations. Elizabeth Mendenhall of the University of Rhode Island joins this episode to discuss the treaty with co-host Rachel Donald, detailing the fascinating and complicated nature of ocean governance beyond the jurisdiction of states. The BBNJ agreement was designed to resolve some of these governance issues, but the text contains ample gray area in how the principles of “common heritage,” the concept that something belongs to all of humanity, will apply to the protection and extraction of resources from the water column and seafloor. “The treaty design that we ended up with [from] my perspective is not really suited to achieve what it is we say we want to do, which is to create a big network of marine protected areas that's effective in terms of protecting biodiversity,” Mendenhall says. To learn more and find links to the treaty documents, see the commentary Mendenhall co-authored for Mongabay about the topic earlier this year, here. Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend and help spread the word about the Mongabay Newscast. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones. Image Credit: Baleen whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). Image by ArtTower via Pixabay (Public domain). --- Timecodes (00:00) Introduction (02:51) How biodiverse are oceans? (05:20) What's at stake? (07:47) How are the oceans governed? (10:47) How international ocean management organizations work (17:13) What is the treaty for? (21:21) Is it a marine protected area if you can still exploit it? (27:55) BBNJ vs. 'High Seas' (29:09) Principles of High Seas and Common Heritage (35:35) Post-show (40:13) Credits

Just prior to the latest world biodiversity summit (COP 16 in Colombia), a similarly-themed event was hosted by the Australian Government in Sydney: the Global ‘Nature Positive' Summit featured Indigenous leaders, scientists and conservationists, but political leaders in attendance provided little insight into when key reforms to the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act would take place, which experts, lawyers, and activists have been calling for. For this episode, Mongabay speaks with delegates to the summit including Barry Hunter, a descendent of the Djabugay people and the CEO of The North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance (NAILSMA), Éliane Ubalijoro, the CEO of CIFOR-ICRAF, and also Ben Pitcher, a behavioral biologist with the Taronga Conservation Society. These guests share their expertise on the state of biodiversity, what kind of action they want to see from leaders, and what can be done to safeguard species while ensuring First Nations rights. Image Credit: Barry Hunter on his Country (Djabugay Country) at Mona Mona. Image by Seth Seden. ---- Timecodes (00:00) Introduction (02:05) A lack of government action (04:04) Interview with Barry Hunter (15:31) Interview with Eliane Ubalijoro (20:24) Interview with Ben Pitcher (28:16) Credits

The Mongabay Newscast recently traveled to San Francisco to join an event hosted by the popular radio show and podcast, Climate One, reflecting on both Mongabay's 25th anniversary and Jane Goodall's 90th birthday, for a live audience of 1,700.  First, Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler discusses the news outlet's biggest successes and impact over a quarter of a century, and then Climate One founder and host Greg Dalton engages Butler and Goodall in conversation about the state of environmental news, the biggest issues they're working on, their inspirations, and what Goodall wants more people to think about during what she calls a crucial election year.  Here's additional discussion of Mongabay's 25th anniversary, Mongabay at 25: A reflection on the journey and future This is our previous episode where Goodall shares additional thinking on these issues: Jane Goodall at 90: On fame, hope, and empathy Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend and help spread the word about the Mongabay Newscast. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones. Image Credit: Rhett Ayers Butler and Jane Goodall in conversation in San Francisco. Image by Alejandro Prescott-Cornejo/Mongabay. --- Time Codes (00:00:00) Introduction (00:00:59) Rhett's reflections on 25 years of Mongabay (00:02:27) What makes for a successful newsroom? (00:07:50) Looking to the future (00:17:47) Jane Goodall and Rhett Butler in conversation with Climate One (01:17:30) Credits

An array of top voices are interviewed or heard on this episode straight from Climate Week in New York, a global gathering of leaders and experts working in the climate and environmental sectors on proactive policies and practical initiatives. The podcast speaks with several individuals on topics ranging from a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty that's gaining steam currently to ways of improving the financing of Indigenous communities and conservation organizations working in Africa, and many others. Here's who appears on the show: Allison Begalman, co-founder of the Hollywood Climate Summit Amitabh Behar, executive director of Oxfam International Tzeporah Berman, chair of the fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty Luisa Castaneda, deputy director of Land Is Life Paul Chet Greene, member of the House of Representatives of Antigua and Barbuda Susana Muhamad, minister of environment and sustainable development of Colombia Mohamed Nasheed, former president of the Maldives Maria Neira, director of the Department of Public Health and Environment at the World Health Organization Sam Shaba, CEO of Honeyguide Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend and help spread the word about the Mongabay Newscast. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones. Image Credit: Indigenous activists during an End of the Fossil Fuels event during Climate Week 2023. Image courtesy of the Confederation of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA). --- Time Codes (00:00) Mongabay at Climate Week NYC (01:34) Mohamed Nasheed (04:35) Paul Chet Greene (05:52) Amitabh Behar (07:23) PLANETWALKER with Allison Begalman (12:15) Funding justice with Luisa Castaneda (18:19) Community-led conservation with Sam Shaba (24:44) The fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty (29:19) Juan Bay and the Waorani Nation endorsement (36:49) Maria Neira from the World Health Organization (38:39) Susana Muhamad on Colombia's endorsement (44:07) Tzeporah Berman talks treaty (53:32) Rainforest reception and a song

Drylands are vast and home to a wide array of biodiversity, while also hosting a large portion of the world's farmland, but they face continued desertification, despite many of them recently experiencing increased vegetation levels. Five million hectares (12 million acres) of drylands, an area half the size of South Korea, have been desertified due to climate change since 1980, but elevated CO2 levels are also driving a regreening of some areas, which some argue is a positive effect of pumping CO2 into the atmosphere. However, our guest on this episode says this isn't necessarily good news: remote-sensing researcher Arden Burrell describes how the CO2 fertilization effect is greening some dryland ecosystems, and why this worries scientists who say it may mask land overuse and decreased water resources. Read the study here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-024-01463-y Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend and help spread the word about the Mongabay Newscast. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones. Image Credit: Green areas saw a growth in foliage from 2000 to 2017, while brown areas represent a reduction. Image courtesy of Joshua Stevens/NASA Earth Observatory. Time Codes --- (00:00) Introduction (02:50) Drylands and desertification (04:19) Impacts of climate change on drylands (09:33) The CO2 fertilization effect (23:34) Digging into the models (30:16) Implications for land overuse (35:54) Post-show (41:42) Credits

Marine biologist and climate policy advocate Ayana Elizabeth Johnson joins this episode to discuss her latest book, What If We Get It Right? Visions of Climate Futures, a compilation of essays and interviews with experts and authors in the climate and environmental fields. Her book sensitively probes the problems human society faces and potential pathways to address environmental injustice, from the unsustainable industrialization of our food systems to the inequity (or lack) of climate policy in many places. Co-host Mike DiGirolamo speaks with Johnson about key insights from her book's array of interviews, plus lessons learned from fighting for climate policy herself in the form of a “Blue New Deal.” Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend and help spread the word about the Mongabay Newscast. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones. Image Credit: Ayana Elizabeth Johnson holding a copy of her book “What If We Get It Right? Visions of Climate Futures.” Image courtesy of Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. --- Timecodes (00:00) Introduction (01:06) What If We Get It Right? A brief review (05:10) The barriers to change (09:20) What is 'biophilia'? (10:42) Agriculture doesn't have to be this way (12:52) Unsung advice (16:12) It's all about heat pumps (18:36) The role of media in covering protests (21:50) An ocean policy odyssey (25:43) Credits

The Phnom Chum Rok Sat community forest used to support local and Indigenous groups in Cambodia's Stung Treng province, as well as a thriving local ecotourism venture, but that all changed this year when mining company Lin Vatey privately acquired roughly two-thirds of the land and began clearing the forest. Mongabay features writer Gerry Flynn investigated how this happened with freelance reporter Nehru Pry, and speaks with co-host Mike DiGirolamo about how the 10 individuals behind the land grab, many of whom have connections to powerful Cambodian military officials and their families, managed this land grab. Local community members who have resisted currently face legal intimidation and arrests. While community forests, such as Phnon Chum Rok Sat, are supposed to belong to the public, this kind of corporate acquisition of land is commonplace in the nation, Flynn says. “As we see a lot in Cambodia, it's public forests being turned into private fortunes.” Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend and help spread the word about the Mongabay Newscast. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones. Image Credit: Lin Vatey's original mining site inside Phnom Chum Rok Sat threatens to consume the entire forest according to documents seen by Mongabay. Image by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay. --- Timecodes (00:00) Introduction (02:56) A once vibrant community forest (06:04) Cordoned off from the land (08:48) Liv Vatey moves in (17:03) Letter number 1456 (26:24) Arrests and intimidation (30:06) Ecotourism efforts shut down (34:14) The 'mental gymnastics' of a government spokesperson (37:12) Credits

“Legal personhood” and laws regarding the “rights of nature” are being trialed in nations worldwide, but whether they lead to measurable conservation outcomes is yet to be seen, says environmental economist Viktoria Kahui. Still, she says on this episode of the Mongabay Newscast that she's very hopeful about them. There's a global debate surrounding these laws' efficacy as a tool for conservation, and growing uneasiness about how they may impose a Western viewpoint upon something as inherently complex and extralegal as nature. Some critics argue that such a concept not only transcends the legal system but also cannot be subjected to it without harming the people and places these laws are intended to empower. Yet Kahui argues that there's potential for rights-of-nature laws to develop in context-dependent scenarios, where humans can advocate on behalf of nature in places like Ecuador, which she says is a particularly powerful example. Read more about legal personhood and the rights of nature here: Is ‘legal personhood' a tool or a distraction for Māori relationships with nature? New guidebook supports U.S. tribal nations in adopting rights-of-nature laws Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend and help spread the word about the Mongabay Newscast. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones. Image Credit: Blue water of the Quinault river, Olympic Rainforest. Image by Rhett Butler. Time Codes --- (00:00) Introduction (00:58) The global debate on rights of nature (03:52) Can these laws protect biodiversity? (07:58) Challenges for legal personhood (14:10) The advantage of using rights of nature (24:21) Philosophical qualms with anthropocentric laws (28:55) How laws can shape our relationships with nature (33:00) The 'big possibility' (40:56) There's no silver bullet (44:01) Credits

Homeowners and towns along the U.S. East Coast are increasingly building “living shorelines” to adapt to sea level rise and boost wildlife habitat in a more economical and less carbon-intensive way than concrete seawalls. These projects protect shorelines using a clever mix of native plants, driftwood, holiday trees, and other organic materials. Peter Slovinsky, a coastal geologist with the Maine Geological Survey, joins the Mongabay Newscast to discuss the benefits of living shorelines, how they are implemented in his state, and what other techniques coastal communities should consider in a world with a warming climate and rising seas. Read Erik Hoffner's original reporting on living shorelines here. Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend and help spread the word about the Mongabay Newscast. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones. Image Credit: Salt tolerant plants are part of a ‘living shorelines' project on the Blue Hill Peninsula in Maine. Image by Erik Hoffner for Mongabay. Time Codes --- (00:00) Introduction (02:19) What is a “living shoreline?” (04:55) Green over gray (13:06) How to make a “living shoreline” (18:59) Case studies and urban applications (24:50) Adaptation methods that deserve more consideration (31:13) Reconsidering retreat (32:48) The geologist's greatest fears and biggest hopes (39:35) Credits

The current clade of H5N1 or bird flu is an "existential threat" to the world's biodiversity, experts say. While it has infected more than 500 bird and mammal species on every continent except Australia, the number of human infections from the current clade (grouping) 2.3.4.4b is still comparatively small. U.S. dairy workers have recently become infected, and the virus could easily mutate to become more virulent, our guest says. Joining the Mongabay Newscast to talk about it is Apoorva Mandavilli, a global health reporter for The New York Times. Mandavilli details what virologists and experts know about the human health risks associated with this latest clade, what nations are doing (or not doing) to help contain its spread, and why. She also details how environmental degradation and industrial agriculture help create the conditions for outbreaks like this to occur. Read Sharon Guynup's reporting on it here. Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend and help spread the word about the Mongabay Newscast. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones. Image Credit: Highly pathogenic avian influenza killed thousands of black-browed albatross (Thalassarche melanophris) chicks in the Falkland Islands and Islas Malvinas, where two-thirds of the entire population lives. Image © Julia Emerit and Augustin Clessin. Time Codes --- (00:00) Introduction (02:44) The evolution of H5N1 (05:47) Clade 2.3.4.4b (08:21) Challenges in monitoring the spread (11:10) What are the human health risks? (16:34) A spotlight on industrialized animal agriculture (18:26) A vaccination strategy? (20:05) What lessons are we learning from other pandemics? (23:08) The degradation of nature and the frequency of disease outbreaks (25:57) Credits

Top National Geographic photographer Kiliii Yüyan speaks with the Mongabay Newscast about traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and why Indigenous communities are the world's most effective conservationists. Yüyan spoke about this with us in March 2023 and we're sharing the episode again after it recently won a prize from the Indigenous Media Awards for 'Best coverage of Indigenous communities'; in the audio category. While the National Geographic version of "Guardians of Life" is now published, the collaboration between Gleb Raygorodetsky and Yüyan will be published in book form in 2025. Sign up at Raygorodetsky's website here to be notified when it's out. Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend and help spread the word about the Mongabay Newscast. *Come celebrate Jane Goodall's 90th birthday, and Mongabay's 25th anniversary, during an event hosted by the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco (or virtually) by purchasing tickets atthis link. To get $10 off, use the promo code C1PARTNER. * Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones. Image Credit: With a dip net, Karuk fisherman Ryan Reed searches for Chinook salmon under the watchful eye of his father, Ron, on California's Klamath River at Ishi Pishi Falls in October 2020. The Reeds caught no fish in stark contrast to earlier times. Before California became a state, the river saw about 500,000 salmon each fall, but last year just 53,954 mature Chinook swam up, a 90 percent decline. The nation now restricts salmon fishing to Ishi Pishi Falls, but with the slated removal of four dams, the Karuk hope the salmon will return. Image (c) Kiliii Yuyan. Time Codes --- (00:00) Indigenous peoples: the world's best conservationists (02:31) Who are the Guardians of Life? (07:30) Some of Kiliii's favorite memories (10:39) 'People are not separate from nature' (18:04) 'Two-eyed seeing': combining Western and Indigenous science (23:30) Advice from an Indigenous storyteller (27:26) The Impact of storytelling (30:52) A kayak is not a ship (34:02) The Guardians of Life book (39:50) Credits

Mongabay newswire editor Shreya Dasgupta joins the Mongabay Newscast to detail her new three-part miniseries, Wild Frequencies, produced in collaboration with the Mongabay India bureau. Dasgupta details her journey with Mongabay-India senior digital editor Kartik Chandramouli. They travel the country speaking with researchers, listening and studying to the sounds produced by bats, Asian elephants, sarus cranes, wolves and many other animals. The emerging field for which this study is named, bioacoustics, is helping researchers lay foundational knowledge crucial for conservation measures. Listen to the miniseries on the ‘Everything Environment' podcast or by clicking the links below: Wild Frequencies: Find Them Wild Frequencies: Know Them Wild Frequencies: Us and Them Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend and help spread the word about the Mongabay Newscast. *Come celebrate Jane Goodall's 90th birthday, and Mongabay's 25th anniversary, during an event hosted by the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco (or virtually) by purchasing tickets at this link. To get $10 off, use promo code C1PARTNER. * Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones. Image Credit: An Indian flying fox (Pteropus giganteus). Image by sunnyjosef via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0) Time Codes --- (00:00) Enter: Bioacoustics (02:51) What Is the New 'Newswire' Service at Mongabay? (05:50) What is Wild Frequencies? (08:45) Going a Little Batty (17:59) The Complicated Lives of Sarus Cranes (21:44) Animal 'Societies' We Don't Normally Hear In Cities (30:07) Credits

Scientists described Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) over 10 years ago, a pathogen that causes the deadly disease chytridiomycosis which is currently devastating salamanders and frogs around the world, contributing to a global amphibian decline. But thanks to a successful cross border (U.S., Mexico & Canada) effort to keep it out, it has yet to arrive in North America: the Bsal Task Force is made up of scientists from each nation using education, outreach, science and policy to keep the disease from reaching the continent. Founding task force co-chair Deanna Olson of the U.S. Forest Service joins the podcast to discuss its successes, lessons learned that can help managers prevent other wildlife disease outbreaks, and the challenges that lie ahead. To learn more about Bsal and the task force, please see Mongabay's six-part podcast series, published in 2020 on Mongabay Explores: Podcast: International task force unites North America to protect salamander diversity Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website under "Podcasts" or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones. Search "Mongabay Newscast." Image: A fire salamander in Normandy, France. Image by William Warby viaCreative Commons license. --- Timecodes (00:00) Introduction (03:05) What is Bsal? (05:57) The Bsal Task Force Assembles (08:02) On the Hunt for a Silent Killer (17:49) The Team Behind the Scene (21:36) Lessons Learned and Broader Implications (25:30) Community Involvement and Cultural Significance (29:08) Policy Gaps and Biosecurity Challenges (40:56) Scientific Innovations and Experimental Approaches (48:14) Not "If" But "When" (50:58) Credits

U.S. states such as Vermont and Massachusetts are cutting thousands of acres of forest for solar power projects, despite the fact that this harms biodiversity and degrades ecosystems' carbon sequestration capacity. Journalist and author Judith Schwartz joins the Mongabay Newscast to speak with co-host Mike DiGirolamo about the seeming irony of cutting forests for renewable energy, and why she says states like hers are 'missing the plot' on climate action: she lives near a forest in southwestern Vermont where a company has proposed an 85-acre project that would export its electricity 100 miles south, to customers in Connecticut. A recent report found that such deforestation in nearby Massachusetts is unnecessary to meet that state's clean energy commitments, and would be better achieved by using already developed land like rooftops and parking lots, instead of farms or forests. Yet the acreage lost to solar energy projects in Massachusetts since 2010 has already released the equivalent of the annual emissions of more than 100,000 cars. Read Judith Schwartz's commentary for Mongabay about this situation here. *Come celebrate Jane Goodall's 90th birthday and Mongabay's 25th anniversary during an event hosted by the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco (or virtually) by purchasing tickets at this link. To get $10 off, use promo code C1PARTNER. * Listen to the entire conversation on the Mongabay Newscast wherever you get your podcasts from. If you want to support the podcast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing. Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet, and all support helps! See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates. Please send your ideas and feedback to submissions@mongabay.com. Image: An array of ground mounted solar panels. Image by Derek Sutton via Unsplash --- Timecodes (00:00) Introduction (03:09) The Irony of Clearing Forests for Renewable Energy (10:19) AI and Data Centers Increasingly Demand More Energy (16:24) Forests and Heat Mitigation (25:46) Community Awareness and Action (35:10) Credits

Australian agronomist Tony Rinaudo's reforestation project in Niger was failing – with 80% of his planted saplings dying – until he stumbled upon a simple solution in plain sight: stumps of previously cut trees trying to regrow in the dry, deforested landscape. The degraded land contained numerous such stumps with intact root systems, plus millions of tree seeds hidden in the soil, which farmers could encourage to grow and reforest the landscape, something he refers to as 'an invisible forest in plain view.' Today, the technique known as Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) is responsible for reforesting six million hectares in Niger alone. Rinaudo speaks with Rachel Donald on Mongabay's podcast about his journey implementing this technique and its massive potential to help tackle biodiversity loss and food insecurity through resilient agroforestry systems. Read more about FMNR at Mongabay, here. *Come celebrate Jane Goodall's 90th birthday, and Mongabay's 25th anniversary, during an event hosted by the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco (or virtually) by purchasing tickets at this link. To get $10 off, use promo code C1PARTNER. * Love our podcasts? Please share them with a friend! If you want to support the podcast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing. Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet, and all support helps! See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates. Please send your ideas and feedback to submissions@mongabay.com. Image: Results of Farmer Natural Regeneration in Luhundwa, Tanzania, from 2019 – 2022. Photo courtesy of LEAD Foundation. --- Timecodes (00:00) Introduction (02:43) The Concept of FMNR (04:42) Underground Forests & Hidden Potential (07:33) Roadblocks and Revelations in Niger (14:00) The Social and Environmental Benefits of FMNR (20:28) Regenerating Earth's Degraded Land (25:11) "We don't have centuries to make a change." (30:59) The Power of a Social Movement (42:41) Undeployed Solutions (47:55) Credits

The premier of the Malaysian state of Sarawak recently announced new dam projects on three rivers in Borneo without the informed consent of local people. The managing director of the Sarawak-based NGO SAVE Rivers, Celine Lim, joins the podcast to discuss with co-host Rachel Donald how these potential dam projects could impact rivers and human communities in Borneo. She also reflects on lessons learned from a recent visit with Indigenous communities in California, who successfully argued for the removal of dams on the Klamath River and are now restoring its floodplain. She says her community relies on the Tutoh River for food and transport, so the announcement “definitely threw the community into a frenzy because no one knew of this plan before the announcement.” Read the full story from Danielle Keeton-Olsen and view footage of the guest's trip to California with the Borneo Project here at Instagram. Love this conversation? Please share it with a friend! If you enjoy the Mongabay Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing. Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet, and all support helps! See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates. Please send your ideas and feedback to submissions@mongabay.com. Image Credit: A man steers his motorboat near Long Moh village on August 26, 2023. The village is located along the Baram River. Image by Danielle Keeton-Olsen for Mongabay. --- Timecodes (00:00) Introduction (02:36) A lack of consultation (10:05) Legal rights and UNDRIP (13:42) Impact of hydropower projects on Sarawak (20:39) A relationship with the river (27:58) Solidarity and solace on the Klamath River (33:10) Breaking down the cognitive dissonance (43:16) Credits

Last year, Mongabay launched a brand-new bureau dedicated to covering the African continent daily in French and English. The team is led by veteran Cameroonian journalist David Akana, who chats with co-host Mike DiGirolamo about the importance of covering the African continent and why news that happens there is of keen interest to audiences worldwide. Akana details his team's coverage priorities, including solutions-oriented stories, which he says are vital to delivering a fair picture of the continent. "The bottom line here is that whatever happens – whether it's in the business of forests [or] biodiversity or climate change in the Congo Basin [it] has linkages to anywhere else in the world," he says. View all of Mongabay Africa's coverage at its website, here. *Come celebrate Jane Goodall's 90th birthday, and Mongabay's 25th anniversary, during an event hosted by the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco (or virtually) by purchasing tickets at this link. To get $10 off, use promo code C1PARTNER. * Read a related Q&A with David Akana here. Love this conversation? Please share it with a friend! If you enjoy the Mongabay Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing. Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet, and all support helps! See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates. Please send your ideas and feedback to submissions@mongabay.com. Image: David Akana giving an interview at COP 28 in Dubai, UAE. Image courtesy of David Akana. --- Timecodes (00:00:00) Introduction (00:02:18) David's Journey to Mongabay (00:06:28) Focus Areas of Mongabay Africa (00:10:46) Challenges in African Media Coverage (00:12:09) A Multilingual Reporting Strategy (00:15:27) Engaging With African Audiences (00:18:46) Making An Impact in the Congo Basin (00:22:40) Importance of Congo Basin Coverage (00:26:16) Future Vision for Mongabay Africa (00:29:40) Why Everyone Should Be Reading African News (00:33:23) David's Favorite Spot In Nature

The biotic pump theory has been controversial in the climate science community ever since Anastassia Makarieva and Victor Gorshkov published their paper about it to the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics in 2010. If true, the theory sheds light on how the interior forests of vast continents influence wind and the water cycles that supply whole nations, flipping traditional hydrological and atmospheric science on its head. Anastassia Makarieva joins this episode to discuss the theory and its implications for future climate modeling with co-host Rachel Donald. Want more? Read a related Amazon-specific interview with Makarieva and Antonio Nobre here. Love this conversation? Please share it with a friend! And if you really enjoy the Mongabay Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing. Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet, and all support helps! See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates. Please send your ideas and feedback to submissions@mongabay.com. Image: Physicist Anastassia Makarieva co-developed the biotic pump theory of how forests direct the movement of moisture. Image ZED/Grifa Filmes. --- Timecodes (00:00:00) Introduction (00:02:41) Understanding the Biotic Pump Theory (00:09:38) Tipping Points (00:15:31) The Climate Regulating Function of Ecosystems (00:25:51) Lagging Behind the Data (00:33:20) Building a Different Climate Model (00:41:04) Addressing the Controversy (00:45:41) Territory, Boundaries and Water (00:52:13) Credits

Burning wood to generate electricity – ‘biomass energy' – is increasingly used as a renewable replacement for burning coal in nations like the UK, Japan, and South Korea, even though its emissions are not carbon neutral. On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, reporter Justin Catanoso details how years of investigation helped him uncover a complicated web of public relations messaging used by industry giants that obscures the fact that replanting trees after cutting them down and burning them is not carbon neutral or renewable and severely harms global biodiversity, and forests. Catanoso lives near biomass industry giant Enviva in North Carolina and has reported on their practices extensively, including the claim that they only use sustainable wood waste in their product, which his investigation disproved. Though it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this year, it remains the single largest producer of wood pellets globally. “When those trees get ripped out, that carbon gets released. And that comes before we process this wood and ship it…then we burn it and don't count those emissions.  This is just [an] imponderable policy,” he says in this episode. Read Justin's coverage of the UK biomass firm Drax and their attempt to open two large wood pellet plants in California to ship 1 million tons annually to Japan and South Korea, where they will be burned in converted coal plants. If you enjoy the Mongabay Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing. Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet, and all support helps! See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates. Please send your ideas and feedback to submissions@mongabay.com. Image: Wood pellets for biomass energy. Image courtesy of Dogwood Alliance. --- Timecodes (00:00:00) Introduction to Biomass and Carbon Emissions (00:03:08) Understanding the problems with biomass fuel (00:08:18) Clear-Cutting in North Carolina and British Columbia (00:12:48) Physics Doesn't Fall for Accounting Tricks (00:19:55) Understanding the Arguments from the Industry (00:25:30) Picking Apart the Logic (00:28:26) Why We Don't Have Long-term Solutions (00:34:27) Overcoming an Impossible Situation (00:39:55) Post-chat (00:49:28) Credits

Putting a dollar amount on a single species, or entire ecosystems, is a contentious idea, but in 2023, the New York Stock Exchange proposed a new nature-based asset class which put a price tag on global nature of 5,000 trillion U.S. dollars.  This financialization of nature comes with perverse incentives and fails to recognize the intrinsic value contained in biodiversity and all the benefits it provides for humans, argues Indigenous economist Rebecca Adamson, on this episode. Instead, she suggests basing economies on principles contained in Indigenous economics. "The most simple thing would be to fit your economy into a living, breathing, natural physics law framework. And if you look at Indigenous economies, they really talk about balance and harmony, and those aren't quaint customs. Those are design principles," she says. Hear a related Mongabay podcast interview on the connection between nature and financial systems with author Brett Scott, here. We also recently spoke with National Geographic photographer Kiliii Yuyan about what Indigenous knowledge has to offer conservation, here.  If you enjoy the Mongabay Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing. Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet, and all support helps! See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates. Please send your ideas and feedback to submissions@mongabay.com. Image: The doll orchid. Image courtesy of Bhathiya Gopallawa.  --- (00:00:00) Introduction (00:01:30) The Financialization of Nature (00:07:35) Indigenous Economic Principles (00:14:04) Can Putting a Price on Nature Save it? (00:27:15) Redistribution and Reciprocity (00:33:15) The Ubiquity of Violence (00:38:37) The Wealth Gap and Its Implications (00:41:31) The Power of Shareholder Activism (00:44:36) Indigenous Economic Systems and Modern Applications (00:51:57) A Critical Analysis of the Financialization of Nature (01:00:27) Religious Perspectives on Environmental Awareness (01:04:24) Credits

Two experts join the Mongabay Newscast to discuss the decline in koala populations in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), even as city councils and the government green light development projects on koala habitats that aren't being replaced by biodiversity offset schemes, ecologist Yung En Chee of the University of Melbourne, explains. Meanwhile, the promised Great Koala National Park has been delayed by NSW Premier Chris Minns, even as his state allows logging of koala habitat within the park borders while he tries to set up a carbon credit scheme to monetize the protected area, says journalist Stephen Long with Australia Institute. “I'm not sure how long this failure has to persist before we decide that we really ought to change course,” says Chee of the biodiversity credit schemes, which seem to be based on outdated data, and don't come close to satisfying their ‘no net loss' of biodiversity goals. See related coverage: How a conservation NGO uses drones and artificial intelligence to detect koalas that survive bushfires, here. If you want to read more on biodiversity offsetting and 'no net loss,' please read this resource from the IUCN. If you enjoy the Mongabay Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing. Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet, and all support helps! See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates. Please send your ideas and feedback to submissions@mongabay.com. Image: Gumbaynggirr Country is home to the dunggiirr, the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus), one of the totem animals for the Gumbaynggirr people. Koalas numbers are estimated to be in the tens of thousands in the state of New South Wales. Image by Steve Franklin via Unsplash (Public domain). -- Timecodes (00:00) Introduction (01:34) The Koala Crisis in New South Wales (04:33) Where is the Great Koala National Park? (06:39) Logging Activities and Government Delays (09:53) The Problem with Carbon Credits  (16:46) Interview with Yung En Chee (18:38) Biodiversity Offsets: Concept and Criticism (20:15) Failures in Biodiversity Offset Implementation (31:23) Double Dipping and Offset Market Issues (35:22) Conclusion

On this episode of Mongabay's podcast, Rachel Donald speaks with campaigner and activist Jon Moses about the ‘right to roam' movement in England which seeks to reclaim common rights to use private and public land to reconnect with nature and repair the damage done from centuries of exclusionary land ownership. In this discussion and the new book Wild Service: Why Nature Needs You he's co-edited with Nick Hayes, Moses recounts the history of land ownership change in England ('enclosure') and why re-establishing a common ‘freedom to roam'—a right observed in other nations such as the Czech Republic or Norway—is needed. English citizens currently only have access to 8% of their land, for example. “There needs to be a kind of rethinking really of [what] people's place is in the landscape and how that intersects with a kind of [new] relationship between people and nature as well,” he says on this episode. If you enjoy the Mongabay Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing. Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet, and all support helps! See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates. Image credit: Participants of the 'Love Your River' event on the River Derwent. Image courtesy of Jon Moses. --- Timecodes  (00:00) Introduction (02:19) The 'Right to Roam' (06:06) The historical context of 'enclosure' (13:42) The modern struggle to reclaim access to nature (27:49) Cross cultural perspectives, and breaking the barriers (38:32) Post-chat (50:19) Credits

On this episode of Mongabay's podcast, we speak with a co-founder of the award-winning Canadian nonprofit news outlet ‘The Narwhal,' Emma Gilchrist.   She reflects on Canada's unique natural legacy, her organization's successes, the state of environmental reporting in the nature-rich nation, how she sees ‘The Narwhal' filling the gaps in historically neglected stories and viewpoints, and why something as universally appreciated as nature can still be a polarizing topic.   She also details a legal battle her organization is involved in that could have significant implications for press freedom in Canada.   If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!   See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates.   Image credit: Bow Lake in Banff, Canada. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler.   --- Timecodes    (00:00) Introduction (02:30) The mission and impact of 'The Narwhal' (05:16) The Canadian environmental paradox (24:40) Fighting for press freedom (29:31) An uncertain political landscape (34:50) Post-chat: independent outlets make waves (45:58) Credits

In recognition of her leadership and advocacy, Indigenous Wirdi woman Murrawah Maroochy Johnson has been awarded the 2024 Goldman Environmental Prize.    She joins the Mongabay Newscast to discuss a landmark victory for First Nations rights in Australia, led by her organization Youth Verdict against Waratah Coal, which resulted in the Land Court of Queensland recommending a rejection of a mining lease in the Galilee Basin that would have added 1.58 billion tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere over its lifespan.   The court case set multiple precedents in Australia, including being the first successful case to link the impacts of climate change with human rights, and the first to include on-Country evidence from First Nations witnesses.    If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!   See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates.   Image credit: 2024 Goldman Prize winner Murrawah Maroochy Johnson. Photo courtesy of Goldman Environmental Prize.   --- Timecodes    (00:00) Introduction (02:51) An unprecedented victory (05:33) Including on-Country evidence (16:17) Future legal implications (20:34) Challenges of navigating the legal system (26:14) Looking to the future (28:16) Credits

Indigenous rights advocate and executive director of SIRGE Coalition, Galina Angarova, and environmental journalist/author of the Substack newsletter Green Rocks, Ian Morse, join us to detail the key social and environmental concerns, impacts, and questions we should be asking about the mining of elements used in everything from the global renewable energy transition to the device in your hand.   Research indicates that 54% of all transition minerals occur on or near Indigenous land. Despite this fact, no nation anywhere has properly enforced Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) protocols in line with standards in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Further, local communities too seldom benefit from their extraction, while suffering their consequences in the form of reduced air and/or water quality.   This conversation was originally broadcast on Mongabay's YouTube channel to a live audience of journalists but the conversation contains detailed insight and analysis on a vital topic listeners of the Newscast will appreciate. Those interested in participating in Mongabay's webinar series are encouraged to subscribe to the YouTube Channel or sign up for Mongagabay's Webinar Newsletter here.    If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!   See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates.   Image credit: A symbol for a renewable charging station. (Photo courtesy of Nicola Sznajder/Flickr)   --- Timecodes    (00:00) Introduction (02:57) Why are they called 'transition minerals?' (07:04) Geopolitical tensions and complications (16:04) Realities of mining windfalls (26:30) Cartelization concerns (32:50) Environmental and human rights impacts (39:46) Reporting on Free Prior and Informed Consent (46:49) Recycling (54:45) Additional Indigenous rights concerns (57:04) Certification schemes and community-led mining initiatives (01:03:22) Deep-sea mining (01:09:21) Credits

On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, journalist Dahr Jamail joins co-host Rachel Donald to discuss the ways many international conflicts are based on resource scarcity.   Notable as an unembedded reporter during the US-led Iraq invasion, Jamail expands on the human and ecological costs to these conflicts, the purported reasons behind them, how those justifications are covered in the media, and the continued stress these conflicts put on society.    "There was a saying a ways back by Lester Brown [who] said 'land is the new gold and water is the new oil.' And I think that that perspective is really kind of driving what we're seeing," Jamail says.   If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!   See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates.   Image credit: A U.S. Army soldier watching a burning oil well at the Rumaila oil field in Iraq in April 2003. Image by Arlo K. Abrahamson/DoD via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).   --- Timecodes    (00:00) Introduction (01:57) From Alaska to Iraq (10:59) Resource scarcity and the geopolitics of war (29:31) New horizons and new tensions (35:09) Post-show discussion (50:05) Credits