Garment factories burning coal is bad, and must stop. The fashion industry has largely aligned on this fact by now, with most high street brands (absent Patagonia, PVH, C&A and some others) having signed the UNFCCC’s Fashion Charter commitment to no onsite burning of coal at factories supplying T1 (final assembly and packing) and T2 […]
In the quiet Swiss town of Davos, Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain unfolds as young Hans Castorp’s brief visit to a sanatorium turns into a seven-year exploration of ideas, intrigue, and debates. The story ultimately becomes a metaphor for Europe’s isolation and decline before World War I. Since the novel’s publication in the early 20th […]
This article was produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center Rainforest Investigations Network in collaboration with the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP). It is the first part of a two-part series, read part two here. Environmentalist Justin Landry Chekoua says he’s shocked by images of century-old trees uprooted and rivers contaminated in […]
Attending the UN climate (COP28) and biodiversity (COP16) conferences during the past two years, it strikes this observer that the UN specialist environmental agreements on climate, biodiversity, pollution, hazardous waste, desertification, and so forth, all tacitly assume a global political context other than the one we are in. This political context is something we as […]
Wikipedia defines a ‘nothing-burger’ as “a situation that receives a lot of attention but which, upon closer examination, reveals to be of little to no real significance.” That unfortunately applies to the Forest Service’s national old-growth amendment (NOGA), which despite President Biden’s executive order directing the agency to conduct an inventory of mature and old-growth […]
Recognition of the need to restore degraded landscapes is accelerating at pace. The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (the UN Decade) has triggered a global movement to rally individual action, financial investment, and political backing to prevent, halt and reverse the loss of nature. In October, at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP16) conference […]
When considering the vastly unequal realities of the current global order, it is clear that the ongoing impact of the colonization of the Global South is wide ranging and all-encompassing. From legacies of racial subjugation, to the disproportionate impact of climate change, to the rise of populist authoritarianism, the colonial project is strong. But one […]
In recent years, there has been an enormous increase in awareness about the importance of rainforests to global ecosystems and economies. Meanwhile, another biome – one that covers more than half of the Earth’s terrestrial surface and is similarly important to tackling climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation – has been overlooked. Rangelands, despite […]
When most people think about climate change, images of melting ice caps or rising sea levels come to mind. However, the reality is far more intricate and urgent. The effects of climate change, such as fires, droughts, and extreme weather events are not just environmental threats, but crises that directly impact human well-being and wildlife […]
The boat comes to a halt, shuddering against the dirt bank that rises from the edge of the Ucayali River. Sixto, tanned and with a frown cutting deep furrows across his forehead, jumps ashore. He strides up to a flat area dotted with banana plantations, yucca crops and scattered foliage. He raises his hand and […]
The hum of a small plane is heard overhead during a community assembly, but no one looks up. Conversation rises naturally over the sound as the engine’s intense roar fades into the background. The aircraft takes five minutes to pass over an Indigenous community located between the districts of Yuyapichis and Puerto Bermúdez, its course […]
A Tanzanian journalist contributed to this report, but has requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the story. OLOLOSOKWAN, Tanzania — Just days after rangers from Serengeti National Park confiscated Lankenua Sainguran’s cattle and pushed her family into poverty, the German ambassador to Tanzania ceremonially handed over the keys to new facilities for the […]
The audience erupts into cheers and applause. The emcee has just announced the four finalists of the “Miss Juan Chávez Muquinuy” beauty pageant, who take the stage for their final walk down the runway. The competitors are all schoolgirls between 13 and 15 years old, parading in tops, shorts and platform heels. It’s 8 p.m., […]
December 2009, Copenhagen, three in the morning. Tired of waiting for any official announcement from the COP15 presidency, a journalist friend and I decided to sleep right there in the convention center. Me on the chair, him on the table! Like us, others were dozing off in the corners of the press room. It was […]
Mongabay and Earth Genome detected 67 clandestine airstrips used for transporting drugs in the Peruvian regions of Ucayali, Huánuco and Pasco. The analysis used artificial intelligence (AI) and satellite imagery cross-referenced with official sources and on-the-ground observation to verify that each airstrip is associated with narco activity. Thirty-one airstrips are concentrated in Atalaya, which has […]
As we’ve watched the biodiversity COP in Colombia and then the climate COP negotiations in recent weeks, the urgency of addressing the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss has never been clearer. The need for bold action is undeniable, and the solutions we implement must be just as transformative. One area that holds […]
Agriculture and nature are closely intertwined, with millions of farmers around the world relying on nature-based activities as their source of livelihoods. Yet the adverse impacts of agriculture on the environment, climate, and biodiversity cannot be understated. From degraded soil and water resources to deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions, unsustainable agricultural practices place enormous burdens […]
‘Out of sight, out of mind’ is a typical approach to waste and is one of the main reasons why the waste trade persists. The world discovered that toxic waste was being dumped in Africa and other developing countries in the 1980s, and since 1988, more than a quarter of a billion tons of plastic […]
The first United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that I worked on was in 2009. I didn’t actually go but rather volunteered for Farhana Yamin representing the Marshall Islands, doing some research. She invited me to come and her delegation would pay half of my ticket and accommodation. She said she would give […]
The evidence is irrefutable: Sweden has spent the last few years trying to frustrate any EU-proposed measures to protect forests. A brief – and far from comprehensive – snapshot of this unhappy record reads as follows: In 2021, a leaked EU Forest Strategy draft revealed European Commission (EC) plans to reduce the clear-cutting that’s ravaged […]
