Reporter’s Journal: Times are getting dark
By Mongabay Special Reporting Initiative Fellow Ruxandra Guidi. Photo by Roberto Guerra. This is the season of hurricanes and heavy storms. But the archipelago of Kuna Yala, located south of the hurricane belt, is typically spared the damage and strong winds that hit islands further north in the Caribbean, year after year. In recent years, however, rains have forced the people living in these islands — an estimated 30,000 — to start...
BBC World Service: Climate Change and Community Forest Management in Kuna Yala, Panama
Mongabay SRI Fellow Ruxandra Guidi published a seven-minute segment on BBC World Service’s Science in Action program. The piece focuses on the indigenous Kuna of Panama, whose livelihoods and homes are already being affected by sea level rise and climate change, and the ways in which they are adapting to it while trying to preserve their customs and sovereign control of their forests. Listen to the full segment...
Change on the roof of the world: new book explores climate change and the Tibetan Plateau
Excerpt from the new book Meltdown: China’s Environmental Crisis by Sean Gallagher Adapted By Caroline D’Angelo With soaring mountains and vast grasslands, the Tibetan Plateau covers approximately one quarter of China. The plateau’s glaciers hold the largest store of freshwater on earth outside the North and South Poles. Though remote and sparsely populated, the plateau is of crucial importance to China and its downstream...
Does boreal deforestation help slow global warming?
A big fuss is being made about a new study published in Nature that suggests clearing of forests north of 45 degrees latitude cools climate — the opposite effect of deforestation in the tropics. But the findings aren’t much of a surprise — the same conclusions were reached in papers published in 2005, 2006, and 2007. In fact the same story seems to come out around this time — late November to early December...
Connecting the climate dots (video)
This video is based on an op-ed by Bill McKibben, author and founder of 350.org, with narration and illustration by Stephen Thomson of Plomomedia.com. To see additional coverage of the connections between climate change and extreme weather: Burning up: warmer world means the rise of megafires (05/12/2011) Megafires are likely both worsened by and contributing to global climate change, according to a new United Nations report. In the...
Will food dominate 21 century geopolitics? (radio)
One billion people in the world are going hungry–more than any other time in history. Yet food security remains a pretty low concern in most industrialized countries. That may not last long according to renowned environmentalist, Lestor Brown, who says that climate change, population growth, rising consumption of meat and dairy, and water issues could soon make food a flashpoint worldwide. Already, high food prices this year...
Carl Safina on the gulf spill (video)
Last month on the one year anniversary of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (dubbed the US’s worst environmental disaster), author Carl Safina spoke about the impacts of the spill and the even bigger disaster that the media has overlooked. Safina has recently come out with a book called: A Sea in Flames: The Deepwater Horizon Oil Blowout. For a recent interview with Carl Safina: The ocean crisis: hope in troubled waters, an...
Bill McKibben at Powershift: “there is no one else: it’s you”
Bill McKibben speaking at Powershift. Selection from the speech: “Twenty-two years ago, I wrote the first book about climate change and I’ve gotten to watch it all, and I know that simply persuasion will not do. We need to fight. Now, we need to fight non-violently and with civil disobedience. […] One thing you need to make sure that you manage to get across in your witness is that you are not the radicals in this fight....
Series of films explore challenges in Monteverde cloud forest (videos)
A new series of 11 films looks back on the last 50 years of history in the Monteverde cloud forest in Costa Rica, and looks forward to the future. According to Monteverde Now website: “‘Monteverde Now’ gives you access to place where change cannot be ignored-Costa Rica’s Monteverde Cloud Forest. It is a collection of 11 short films about people who live and work in one of our planet’s most diverse and delicate...
Coral reefs in 55 years (video)
It’s 2065, and something has happened to the world’s coral reefs… A video produced by Earth-Touch in association with the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), EDGE, and Global International.
Earth Hour on Saturday: will you turn out the lights?
A red sunset in Kenya. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. On Saturday, March 26th at 8:30 PM lights will go out across the world in the 5th annual Earth Hour. Will you join in? To date this will be the biggest Earth Hour yet with 131 countries and territories signed up to participate on all seven continents. Yes, that’s right, people working in Antarctica will be turning out their lights too. “Earth Hour is a chance for people and...
Video: coral reefs at risk
An updated comprehensive analysis by the World Resources Institute (WRI) along with twenty-five partners finds that 75% of the world’s coral reefs are threatened by local and global impacts, including climate change. To read more about the report: Coral crisis: 75% of the world’s coral reefs in...
10/10/10 – day of global climate action
Today people at 7347 events in 188 countries are participating in a global day of climate action organized by 350.org, a group working to create political movement toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions. People are digging community gardens, installing solar panels, planting trees, and cleaning up beaches to send a message to political leaders: “if we can get to work, so can you!” Learn more at 350.org. Activities suggested by...
Cities are at the edge of climate change
At a recent conference on designing wildlife habitats, you said cities are always warmer than surrounding areas because of the urban heat island effect. Cities are then precursors to climate change. In fact, “cities are at the edge of climate change.” What can cities’ experience with elevated heat levels teach us about best and worst ways to mitigate and adapt to climate change?
NY Time’s article on the true cost of eating meat
Mark Bittman, of the popular How to Cook Everything books, has written an excellent article on the environmental costs of eating meat, especially in the amounts that the average American consumes. Oh, and he’s not a vegetarian. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/weekinreview/27bittman.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin Some excerpts: “Americans eat about the same amount of meat as we have for some time, about eight...
Mainstream media still ignores global warming
It seems everyday there are more studies and reports coming out on the impacts of climate change–now and in the future (at mongabay we see A LOT of them). Yet, rarely do these studies make it to mainstream new sources. Either, the media is still run by science-skeptics or the newspapers, news shows, and online media sources actually believe that Brittany Spears’ latest cry for help, Clinton’s (take your pick:...
