Category: 9. Environment
-
Creation of a climate adapted urban oasis through the hyperlocal lens—Palm Springs Downtown Park in California, USA
The planting design prioritizes native species with vibrant blooms throughout the year, showcasing the botanical abundance of the desert and supporting native pollinators. Credit: RIOS Palm Springs Downtown Park is an inviting 1.5-acre urban oasis for residents and visitors to Palm Springs, a design-forward desert destination nestled along the base of the San Jacinto Mountains…
-
In coastal communities, sea level rise may leave some isolated
Numbers of coastal counties where it is predicted that only Black (red), only Hispanic (green), and both (blue) populations will be disproportionately at risk of isolation relative to the overall county population at varying levels of SLR. Credit: Nature Communications (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-43835-6 Amid the threat of dramatic sea level rise, coastal communities face unprecedented…
-
Nepal’s birds pay cost for country’s infrastructure development
Nepal’s pursuit of development for the welfare of its citizens has made striking a balance between progress and environmental protection more challenging, especially in the context of bird conservation, experts say. Throughout 2023, Mongabay reported on various issues related to Nepal’s avian diversity, highlighting the threats they face and the glimmers of hope that community-led…
-
Mongabay’s 10 most popular videos of 2023
Our top 10 videos for 2023 range from various Mongabay series, including “Chasing Deforestation,” “Consumed,” “Mongabay Sessions,” and “Mongabay Explains,” to engaging webinars and short documentaries. The top three videos with the highest viewership focused on sustainable farming in different parts of the world. Join us as we rewatch the most popular videos of the…
-
Lula vetos part of Brazil’s controversial pesticide bill
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday vetoed key parts of a controversial law that is set to loosen the rules around the use of pesticides in the country. Brazil, an agricultural giant, is the world’s biggest consumer of pesticides, many of which are classified as highly hazardous. The…
-
Venezuela oil giant says 80 percent of oil spill cleaned up
More than 80 percent of the spill at Venezuela’s El Palito oil refinery has been cleaned up, officials say. Venezuela’s state oil company said Thursday that an oil spill at a refinery on the country’s western coastline was no longer “active” and that more than 80 percent of the affected area had been cleaned up.…
-
Bangladesh’s ‘tiny houses’ tackle giant flood challenge
An architect in Bangladesh, one of the nations most at risk from flooding driven by climate change, has developed a two-story housing solution to help people survive rising waters. An award-winning architect in Bangladesh, one of the nations most at risk from flooding driven by climate change, has developed an ingenious two-floor housing solution to…
-
NREL research quantifies losses from cardboard, paper waste
Paper and cardboard waste landfilled in 2019 by type and state. The pie charts’ sizes represent the quantity of landfilled material in kilotons. The material types are shown as a percentage of total landfilled material in different colors. Credit: NREL Piles of cardboard and paper littering America’s landfills represent $4 billion in lost economic value,…
-
The year in rainforests: 2023
The following is Mongabay’s annual recap of major tropical rainforest storylines. While the data is still preliminary, it appears that deforestation declined across the tropics as a whole in 2023 due to developments in the Amazon, which has more than half the world’s remaining primary tropical forests. Some of the other big storylines for the…
-
Rush for ‘clean energy’ minerals in Africa risks repeating harmful extractivist model
The nonprofit Global Witness investigated lithium mining projects in Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Namibia, which appear to reproduce the same model of extractivism that has impoverished African countries for centuries. In March, residents of the Namibian town of Uis took to the streets to protest the activities of Chinese miner Xinfeng, alleging…