Mongabay Newscast

For this episode we speak with Jim Darling, a marine biologist whose team found that the songs of different humpback whale groups can be so similar to each other that the conventional wisdom of these being distinct groups might be wrong. These whales may be sharing and singing each others' songs across groups and regions, he thinks. Darling joins the show to play recordings of these remarkably similar humpback whale songs and discuss the implications. Please invite your friends to subscribe to this show via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever they get podcasts. Visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps! See our latest news from nature's frontlines at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay. Feedback is welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.

On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we speak with Reverend Lennox Yearwood about the upcoming UN Climate Summit in New York City and what it’s going to take to pass legislation and policies that can effectively tackle the enormity of the climate crisis. Undaunted by the challenge, Rev Yearwood rather is "very excited," he says, about the new energy and effective leadership he sees coming from youth, women, people of color, and more, who are all urging the world toward meaningful climate action. He is President and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus, a non-profit that advocates for social and environmental justice, and is a sought after speaker who also recently addressed the U.S. Congress on the topic of the environment. Yearwood talks about participating in the week-long Global Climate Strike during the UN meetings; providing a platform for indigenous leaders, people of color, and young people to speak on climate issues that affect them; and his “suites to the streets” approach to climate activism:  "Climate change is a civil rights issue. People have a right to clean air. People have a right to ensure that this planet is safeguarded for future generations." Please invite your friends to subscribe to this show via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever they get podcasts. Visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps! See our latest news from nature's frontlines at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay. Feedback is welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.  

For an encore edition during this show's brief hiatus, we replay one of our most popular Field Notes interviews of all time, featuring Australian researcher Anastasia Dalziell who's doing trailblazing work with superb lyrebirds. Listen to her recordings of these songsters and be amazed by these animals, who are so adept at replays themselves.  Host Mike G. explored with her the incredible ability these creatures have to mimic sounds in their environment, ranging from predators and possums to squeaky trees and other songbirds native to their forested habitat: even the clicks of camera shutters and chainsaws are 'replayed' by these animals.  Please invite your friends to subscribe to this show via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever they get podcasts. Visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps! Image credit: Superb lyrebird in Marysville State Forest, Australia (© Donovan Wilson/500px). See our latest news at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay. Talk to you again in two weeks!

Urban pests like rats have been in the news due to the US President calling Baltimore “rat and rodent infested.” He isn’t the first American politician to use this kind of rhetoric to demean communities that are predominantly made up of people of color (while ignoring the fact that policies deliberately designed to marginalize communities of color are at the root of the pest problems), he's just the latest. Dawn Biehler actually knows what she’s talking about when it comes to rodent infestations in cities: the University of Maryland professor wrote the indispensable 2013 book Pests in the City: Flies, Bedbugs, Cockroaches, and Rats, and has just penned an op-ed in the Baltimore Sun newspaper looking at how racial segregation and funding inequities for urban housing and infrastructure contribute to rat infestations. Biehler joins this episode of the Mongabay Newscast to discuss how this is an environmental justice issue, and how the problem can be dealt with in an environmentally sustainable manner, starting with investment in urban communities. Here’s this episode’s top news: July 2019 was the hottest month ever recorded on Earth As Amazon deforestation in Brazil rises, Bolsonaro administration attacks the messenger In Indonesia, a court victory for Bali’s ban on single-use plastics Please invite your friends to subscribe to this show via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify or wherever they get podcasts. Visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps! See our latest news at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.

David Quammen is an award-winning science writer, author, and journalist covering the most promising trends in conservation and evolutionary science for the past 30 years. We invited him on the show to discuss his latest feature for National Geographic, where he is a regular contributor, about Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique — once touted by none other than E.O. Wilson in a podcast interview with Mongabay as a place where inspiring restoration efforts are underway and benefitting nature, wildlife, and people. We also discuss Quammen’s most recent book, The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life, which explores the revolution in how scientists understand the history of evolution on Earth sparked by the work of Carl Woese, and his coverage of virology in light of the recent Ebola outbreak. He shares his thoughts on all of this plus what gives him hope that biodiversity loss and destruction of the natural world can be halted. Here’s this episode’s top news: From over 100,000 species assessments in IUCN update, zero improvements June 2019 was the hottest on record: NOAA U.S. Virgin Islands bans coral-damaging sunscreens Please invite your friends to subscribe to this show via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify or wherever they get podcasts. Visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps. See our latest news at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.  

Jessica Crance is a research biologist who recently discovered right whales singing for the first time. While some whales like humpbacks and bowheads are known for their melodious songs, none of the three species of right whale has ever been known to sing. Crance led the research team at NOAA that documented North Pacific right whales breaking into song in the Bering Sea, and on this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, she will play recordings of two different right whale song types and discuss what we know about why the critically endangered whales might be singing. Here’s this episode’s top news: Japan resumes commercial whale hunting Heart of Ecuador’s Yasuni, home to uncontacted tribes, opens for oil drilling Zambia halts plans to dam the Luangwa River Please invite your friends to subscribe to this show via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify or wherever they get podcasts. Visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps. See our latest news at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.  

We speak with Ivonne Higuero, new Secretary General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora — better known by its acronym, CITES. The first woman to ever serve as Secretary General, we discuss how her background as an environmental economist informs her approach to the job, how CITES can tackle challenges like the online wildlife trade and lack of enforcement of CITES statutes at the national level, and what she expects to accomplish at the 18th congress of the parties (COP) this August. Here’s this episode’s top news: Arctic sea ice extent just hit a record low for early June and worse may come Nearly 600 plant species have gone extinct in last 250 years Sumatran rhinos to get a new sanctuary in Leuser Ecosystem Please invite your friends to subscribe to this show via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify or wherever they get podcasts. Visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps. See our latest news at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.

Jim Breheny is the director of the Bronx Zoo in New York City and joins the Mongabay Newscast to discuss the contributions zoos make to global biodiversity conservation. While many question the relevance of zoos in the 21st century, he argues that as humanity's influence extends ever farther and wildlife habitat continues to shrink, zoos are more relevant than ever since they could save a diversity of species like hellbender salamanders, which his institution is helping to breed and repopulate in the wild. He also discusses how zoos support field work to protect species in the wild, and shares their experience telling the story of zoos through its popular Animal Planet TV show ‘The Zoo.’ This episode's top news: The Great Insect Dying: A global look at a deepening crisis Twice as many fishing vessels now, but it’s harder to catch fish Brazil’s Congress reverses Bolsonaro, restores Funai’s land demarcation powers Please invite your friends to subscribe to this show via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify or wherever they get podcasts. Visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps. See our latest news at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay. Thank you! And please send thoughts, questions, or feedback about this show to submissions@mongabay.com.

Gabriel Melo-Santos studies Araguaian river dolphins in Brazil — his work has revealed that the species is much chattier than we’d previously known, and could potentially help us better understand the evolution of underwater communication in marine mammals. He plays some of the recordings he’s made of the dolphins, explains how he managed to study the elusive creatures thanks to their fondness for a certain riverside fish market, and discusses how the study of their vocalizations could yield insights into how their sea-faring relatives use their own calls to maintain social cohesion. If you enjoy this show, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep it growing. Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet, so all support helps. We love reviews, so please find the reviews section of the app that delivers your podcasts and say what you like about the Mongabay Newscast, and how we can improve. Thank you! Also, please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify or wherever they get podcasts. Thank you! And please send thoughts, questions, or feedback about this show to submissions@mongabay.com.

Ecologist Julian Bayliss used satellite imagery, drones, and technical climbing to make a big discovery last year, an untouched rainforest atop a virtually unclimbable mountain in Mozambique (an “inselberg” or “island mountain”) that contains species new to science. Intriguingly, his team also found ancient human artifacts at its top, perhaps linked to people's prayers for the mountain's continued supply of fresh water to the surrounding lowlands. On this episode Bayliss discusses Mt. Lico's novel species like fish, crabs, and butterflies and shares the technical challenges and frustrations inherent in making a discovery of this kind.  If you enjoy this show, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep it growing. Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet, so all support helps. We love reviews, so please find the reviews section of the app that delivers your podcasts and say what you like about the Mongabay Newscast, and how we can improve. Thank you! Also, please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify or wherever they get podcasts. Thank you! And please send thoughts, questions, or feedback about this show to submissions@mongabay.com.