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Recent and major shifts in international environmental policies and programs have precedent in history, but the scale and urgency of their potential impacts present a planetary risk that’s new, podcast guest Sunil Amrith says. A professor of history at Yale University, he joins the show to discuss the current political moment and draw comparisons across

A useful framework for considering the needs of the “more-than-human world” when designing human-made systems is “ecological empathy,” the focus of Lauren Lambert, founder of Future Now, a sustainability consulting firm. Her research on the topic, Ecological empathy: Relational theory and practice, was published in the journal Ecosystems and People in late 2024, when she

- The escalating armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has had significant — and overlooked — environmental impacts. The rate of tree cover loss in Kahuzi-Biega and Virunga National Parks has sharply increased since the conflict reignited in late 2021.- Armed groups, both state and non-state, have profited by taxing the illegal charcoal and timber trade coming from inside these protected areas.- Yet the impacts are complex: the broader geopolitical context also provides incentives for the M23 group to support conservation efforts in order to project themselves as providers of good governance in the region.- This article is an analysis. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.

With the purchasing power of middle and working-class citizens shrinking as billionaires hoard ever more wealth, many people are searching for a new economic reality in line with their ecological values and planetary boundaries. “People are really hungry for solutions [and] really hungry to find alternatives,” says Alvaro Alvarez, a journalist and filmmaker of the

- Around 3.6 million households in the Philippines are not connected to the national power grid. In the country’s mountainous north, some villages have overcome this challenge by building and maintaining small-scale hydroelectric generators.- These micro-hydro systems have small environmental footprints and have allowed electricity to reach villages before road networks do, thanks to communal efforts to haul equipment through the mountains on foot or on horseback.- This region has a long history of conflict over planned mega hydroelectric dams, and an NGO that helps communities build and maintain micro-hydro systems says they are working in an environment of increasingly hostile scrutiny from the military.

- Mongabay traveled to rural villages and urban wildlife markets, gathering testimonies from hunters who have violated cultural taboos to kill apes, as well as the traffickers and traditional medicine practitioners who trade in ape parts.- Hunting remains a key threat to the survival of gorillas and chimpanzees in Nigeria.- In the traditions of many Nigerian clans, apes — especially gorillas — are imbued with a deep spiritual significance and recognized for their close relation to humans.- In some cases, these beliefs contribute to the protection of apes and strong taboos against hunting or harming them; in other cases, they fuel a demand for ape parts for ritual and medicinal uses.

- Randy Borman, a leader of the Cofan people of the Ecuadorian Amazon, died on February 17th.- Born to American missionaries in the Amazon, he was raised among the Cofán people and became a lifelong advocate for their land and rights.- Borman led efforts to gain legal recognition for over a million acres of Cofán territory, ensuring long-term Indigenous control of a vast stretch of rainforest.- Randy coordinated and helped lead four Rapid Biological Inventories with Chicago Field Museum biologists and local scientists to establish protected areas.

A recent paper in the journal Nature Climate Change concludes there is limited accountability for corporations that fail to achieve their climate change mitigation targets. Lofty sounding initiatives like “carbon neutrality” or “net zero emissions” goals are often met with positive fanfare, but when companies eventually fail to reach them, there are scant consequences. According

- The eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has witnessed armed conflicts running for decades, with a recent onslaught by M23, a Rwanda-backed rebel force, displacing hundreds of thousands of people.- Conflicts in eastern DRC stem from ethnic tensions linked to the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, political and corporate corruption, and the lingering effects of Western colonialism, exacerbated by natural resource extraction.- Experts say that minerals are a significant factor in violence, but not the sole cause, even as armed groups like M23 have used their trade for financing operations.- The ongoing instability in the eastern DRC necessitates a comprehensive approach beyond addressing conflict minerals and delving into the historical roots of the conflict, says an expert.

The bobcat population has rebounded over the past 125 years, making it North America’s most common wildcat: as of 2011, there were an estimated 3.5 million bobcats in the United States alone, a significant increase from the late 1990s. These intelligent felids, Lynx rufus, have benefited from conservation efforts that have increased their natural habitat.