Mongabay Newscast

Scientists have discovered a series of hydrothermal vents in the Mid-Atlantic ridge spanning hundreds of miles and teeming with life adapted to scorching plumes of hot water like shrimp, crabs, mussels, anemones, fish, gastropods, and more. This discovery, 40 years in the making, adds another layer of consideration to where deep sea mining can occur, which experts argue should not happen in these diverse underwater ecosystems, in part because they store vast amounts of marine genetic resources, besides their biodiversity. Listen to the new report from Elizabeth Claire Alberts: Seafloor life abounds around hydrothermal vents hot enough to melt lead. Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts from, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to gain instant access to our latest episodes and past ones. If you enjoy this series, 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: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for Mongabay. Image caption: A squat lobster perches atop a bubblegum coral in the deep sea. Image by Schmidt Ocean Institute (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Please send feedback to submissions@mongabay.com, and thank you for listening

This week we're sharing the first episode of a new season of Mongabay Explores, a deep dive into the Congo Basin which begins with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which contains 60% of central Africa's forest, but which also aims to open up protected areas and forested peatlands to oil and gas development.  This is big because the Congo Basin contains the world’s second-largest rainforest, a staggering 178 million hectares, containing myriad wildlife and giant trees plus numerous human communities: it is also one of the world's biggest carbon sinks.  We speak with Adams Cassinga, a DRC resident and founder of Conserv Congo, and Joe Eisen, executive director of Rainforest Foundation UK, about the environmental and conservation challenges and opportunities faced by the DRC & the Congo Basin in general.  For more Congo exploration coming on episode 2, find & follow/subscribe to Mongabay Explores via the podcast provider of your choice, or locate all episodes of the Mongabay Explores podcast on our podcast homepage here. Until episode 2 airs, please also enjoy the first three seasons of Explores, where we dove into the huge biodiversity and conservation challenges in Sumatra, New Guinea, and more.  Episode Artwork: A female putty-nosed monkey. Image by C. Kolopp / WCS. Sounds heard during the intro and outro: The call of a putty-nosed monkey (Cercopithecus nictitans). This soundscape was recorded in Ivindo National Park in Gabon by Zuzana Burivalova, Walter Mbamy, Tatiana Satchivi, and Serge Ekazama. Please invite your friends to subscribe to Mongabay Explores wherever they get podcasts.  If you enjoy our podcast content, 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: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok by searching for Mongabay. Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.

The South American nation of Guyana, whose economy has traditionally relied on tourism, agriculture, and fishing, has begun doing business with oil giant ExxonMobil to build a massive offshore oil drilling project along its coast.  The president has argued that the profits could pay for the nation's clean energy transition, while others argue that the nation's traditional economic models, biodiversity, and coastal population are at risk of severe environmental impacts from the project.  Award-winning journalist and podcast producer Amy Westervelt joins the Mongabay Newscast to share details of the situation, which is the focus of the 8th season of her acclaimed podcast series Drilled, and she opines about the power of podcasting and the current state of the global effort to tackle climate change: “What a total failure of international climate negotiations that Global South countries [are] in this position of having to use oil money to pay for climate adaptation. That’s ridiculous,” Westervelt says. Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips. 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! Related Reading: Oil production or carbon neutrality? Why not both, Guyana says Guyana’s future and challenges in oil: Q&A with filmmaker Shane Thomas McMillan Guyana seeks offshore oil wealth in a green economy See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find and follow Mongabay on all the social media platforms. Please share your thoughts and feedback! submissions@mongabay.com. Image: Series artwork for "Drilled" Season 8 by Matt Fleming. 

Recent breeding success at a nature reserve in South Africa has given conservationists hope for the survival of Africa's only resident penguin species, whose population has dropped by nearly 65% since 1989. Researchers are having success boosting breeding colonies near abundant food sources with the help of simple interventions like building nest boxes that mimic their guano burrows which keep the birds cool and safe in a world whose climate is becoming hotter and less predictable. Listen to the popular article from Ryan Truscott here: Breeding success raises hopes for future of endangered African penguin Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts from, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to gain instant access to our latest episodes and past ones. If you enjoy this series, 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: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for Mongabay. Image caption: African penguin. Image by Alberto Ziveri via Flickr (BY-SA 2.0) Please send feedback to submissions@mongabay.com, and thank you for listening.

Conservation technology is a rapidly growing field with exciting potential. From eDNA to bioacoustics and AI, there's a lot to keep track of in an ever-changing environment. Here to discuss it on the Newscast this week is new Mongabay staff writer Abhishyant "Abhi" Kidangoor who's joined our newsroom to focus on this quickly growing field: he shares details of his current conservation tech reporting projects and ones our readers can look forward to in the future.  Related reading: Bioacoustics in your backyard: Q&A with conservation technologist Topher White On the roof of the world, water is life. Or a sign of it, thanks to eDNA Beyond bored apes: Blockchain polarizes wildlife conservation community Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips. 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: news.mongabay.com or find and follow Mongabay on all the social media platforms. Please share your thoughts and feedback! submissions@mongabay.com. Image caption: Conservation technology and wildlife manager, Eleanor Flatt, installs a GSM camera trap in the Costa Rican forests protected and managed by Osa Conservation. Image by Marco Molina.

More than 15 years in the making, the United Nations has finally reached an agreement on a landmark, legally binding treaty to protect international waters, where a myriad of wildlife big and small live. Why did it take so long, and what happens next? Hear all about it by listening to this audio reading of the popular article by Elizabeth Fitt:  As U.N. members clinch historic high seas biodiversity treaty, what’s in it? Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts from, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to gain instant access to our latest episodes and past ones. If you enjoy this series, 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: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay. Image caption: A humpback whale in Antarctica. Image by Christopher Michel via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Please send feedback to submissions@mongabay.com, and thank you for listening.

The American approach to food production is negatively impacting the environment and depleting natural resources like topsoil and groundwater at an alarming rate. Top agriculture author, journalist, and Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future research associate Tom Philpott highlights these problems on this episode first by discussing two regions where such impacts are acutely felt, the Central Valley of California and the Great Plains, and then explains how these problems are spreading to the rest of the globe. But the author of Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It, Philpott also says there's hope via sustainable practices like agroecology and agroforestry, new land tenure models, and more. A former food reporter and editor for Mother Jones and Grist, he discusses steps that can be taken to reform our food systems for a healthier and more sustainable future at this moment as a new growing season is about to begin in the Northern Hemisphere. “We don’t have to have an agriculture that consumes the very ecologies that make it possible, and leads to this catastrophic loss of species that we’re in the middle of right now,” our guest says. Related reading: From traditional practice to top climate solution, agroecology gets growing attention ·      ‘During droughts, pivot to agroecology’: Q&A with soil expert at the World Agroforestry Centre ·      American agroforestry accelerates with new funding announcements Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips. 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: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay. Please share your thoughts and feedback! submissions@mongabay.com. Image caption: Corn is a common food and fodder crop of the Great Plains, and has also long been used to make ethanol. But its most common cultivation methods lead to massive soil erosion, pollution of waterways, and heavy use of chemical herbicides and pesticides. Image courtesy of Tyler Lark. 

Liz Kimbrough, a dedicated writer on conservation, delves into the inspiring resurgence of Western monarch butterflies, with their population soaring to 335,000 in 2022—an impressive comeback from the brink of near extinction. She discusses the critical need to protect their overwintering sites, which face ongoing threats. The conversation highlights both the triumphs in conservation efforts and the urgent challenges ahead, painting a vivid picture of the delicate balance between success and vulnerability for these iconic pollinators.

This podcast episode won a 2024 Indigenous Media Award. National Geographic photographer Kiliii Yuyan joins the show to discuss his visits to five Indigenous communities and the value of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) for protecting the world’s biodiversity, which is the subject of his new project, "The Guardians of Life: Indigenous Stewards of Living Earth." An effort in collaboration with previous guest Gleb Raygorodetsky and with support from the National Geographic Society and the Amazon Climate Pledge, the project takes Yuyan to five different Indigenous communities across the world. Yuyan shares insights on the TEK of the Indigenous communities he’s visited and his own reflections as a person with Indigenous ancestry doing this work, plus what he wishes more journalists would do when sharing the stories and unique knowledge of Indigenous communities. Related reading: Indigenous lands hold the world’s healthiest forests – but only when their rights are protected Will the world join Indigenous peoples in relationship with nature at COP-15? (commentary) Podcast: How marine conservation benefits from combining Indigenous knowledge and Western science Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips. 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: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay. Please share your thoughts and feedback! submissions@mongabay.com. Image Caption: Larry Lucas Kaleak listens to the sounds of passing whales and bearded seals through a skinboat paddle in the water. Image (c) Kiliii Yuyan.

As the world pursues reforestation on an expanding scale, a recurring question is: how do we pay for it? One emerging solution is to grow and harvest timber on the same land where reforestation is happening, as exemplified in Brazil's Atlantic Forest. Another approach is to grow timber trees and natural forests on separate plots of land, with a portion of the profits from timber harvests supporting the reforestation. However, some experts worry that relying too much on timber revenues could harm ecosystems and existing forests, resulting in additional harvesting. Can we balance the need for funding with the need to preserve native ecosystems? On this episode, listen to the popular Mongabay article by Gianluca Cerullo that discusses all this: Dollars and chainsaws: Can timber production help fund global reforestation? Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts from, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to gain instant access to our latest episodes and past ones. If you enjoy this series, 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: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay. Image caption: Native regeneration under 50% dead standing eucalyptus trees in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. Image courtesy of Paulo Guilherme Molin/Federal University of São Carlos. Please send feedback to submissions@mongabay.com, and thank you for listening.