Archive for October 2021
COP26 president says Glasgow climate goals harder to achieve than Paris
COP26 president Alok Sharma on the long road ahead for climate negotiations.
Read MoreA Big New Forest Initiative Sparks Concerns of a ‘Carbon Heist’
Major funding to finance forest conservation projects is set to be announced at the UN climate summit. But some environmentalists contend the LEAF program could exclude the Indigenous people who have long protected the forests that the initiative aims to save.
Read MoreWhat Big Oil knew about climate change, in its own words
Transcripts and internal documents show how the industry shifted from leading research into fossil fuels’ effect on the climate to sowing doubt about science.
Read MoreScientific Questions Arrive in Ports
Satellite observations of nitrogen dioxide near key U.S. ports suggest that increased shipping activity and backlogs may be affecting air quality.
Read MoreIn Zimbabwe, an irrigation project threatens a tribe’s land and trees
CHILONGA, Zimbabwe — It’s taboo for Elizabeth Munene, a 37-year-old villager from Velemu village in Chilonga, a rural outpost nestled in Zimbabwe’s Lowveld area, to cut down trees indiscriminately. “We were taught that deforestation affected our environment. The punishment for such a crime is to give a goat to the local village head. This sets […]
Podcast: Indigenous bioacoustics listens to the land for conservation and tradition
Today we listen to some bioacoustic recordings informing Indigenous-led conservation initiatives. Listen here: The world is increasingly coming to recognize just how important Indigenous-led conservation and Indigenous land rights are if we’re to address environmental crises like climate change and biodiversity loss. And for good reason. Studies have found that indigenous lands are home to […]
Inga tree points to way out of slash-and-burn for Central American farmers
Like many rural families in Central America, Martín García and his sons devoted part of every growing season to slashing and burning a new strip of their land, knowing that it was the only way to make it fertile enough to yield food for everyone. They couldn’t grow on the land they had used in […]
Indigenous leaders to push for land tenure rights as climate solution at COP26
Indigenous leaders from around the world are heading to the COP26 United Nations climate summit this weekend, where one of the main topics on their agenda will be highlighting community land tenure as an often-overlooked way to mitigate climate change. Research demonstrating that granting Indigenous peoples and forest communities formal titles to their lands as […]
Indigenous Papuans won their forest back from a palm oil firm, but still lack land title
SORONG, West Papua — Indigenous people in Indonesia’s West Papua province are fighting for the rights to their ancestral forests, now that the local government has rescinded licenses for oil palm concessions on their lands. For years, the residents of Segun village in West Papua’s Sorong district feared that their forests would be razed to […]
Cooking with the sun: Entrepreneurs help launch Mexico’s solar revolution
Cooking with firewood, diesel and gas all add to climate change and is harmful to health. So innovators have launched solar cookery enterprises that could transform Mexico’s fossil fuel-dependent businesses.