Poachers target South Africa’s ‘miracle’ plant with near impunity
NIEUWOUDTVILLE, South Africa — It is the devil’s breath, this wind, blowing dry and mercilessly across a plain left threadbare by decades of overgrazing. With this wind at their backs, small groups of...
View ArticleWatch: Satellite video shows world’s biggest iceberg, A23a, break free
About the size of Rhode Island, the iceberg known as A23a got stuck in an ocean vortex this summer, spinning in place for months. Now, it’s free, and heading back into open Antarctic waters. (Image...
View ArticleCoral destruction for toilet construction: Interview with a Malagasy fisher
TOAMASINA, Madagascar — Abraham Botovao, a boat skipper and the president of the Association of Progressive Fishers of Toamasina, has become accustomed to seeing an unusual activity while out at sea....
View ArticleSouth Korea slashes forest biomass energy subsidies in major policy reform
In a major policy shift, South Korea announced Dec. 18 that it will end renewable energy subsidies for new biomass projects, as well as for state-owned coal and biomass cofired power plants starting...
View ArticleElectrochemical removal of ocean CO2 offers potential — and concerns
Ocean-based carbon dioxide removal technology is ramping up, with startups and existing companies racing to develop electrochemical techniques that either remove carbon from seawater or prompt oceans...
View ArticleYour gadgets are actually carbon sinks — for now
At any given moment, crude oil is being pumped up from the depths of the planet. Some of that sludge gets sent to a refinery and processed into plastic, then it becomes the phone in your hand, the...
View ArticleAmazon’s Boiling River gives scientists a window into the rainforest’s future
“You’re engulfed in waves of steam and sweating buckets and there’s no cool water anywhere,” Kenneth Feeley, a professor at the University of Miami, tells Mongabay. He’s describing the Boiling River...
View ArticleBrazil’s illegal gold miners carve out new Amazon hotspots in conservation units
When President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in January 2023, illegal gold mining in the Brazilian Amazon was out of control. According to the research collective MapBiomas, illegal miners —...
View ArticleThe fuel that moves people: the Ecuadorian case
Throughout most of the twentieth century, the Ecuadorian authorities pursued a geopolitical strategy that reflected a long-held conviction that they were cheated out of large territories in the...
View ArticleBee-harming pesticides’ emergency approvals to end
Getty Images Emergency use of three pesticides that can be deadly to bees will soon be stopped for good, the government has said. Neonicotinoids were banned in 2018 but sugar beet farmers have been...
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