Planet: Critical

In a national park in southern Malawi, the reintroduction of cheetahs (and lions) is bringing four critically endangered vulture species back to the skies, after a 20-year absence: the big cats' kill sites have increased the food supply, encouraging the birds to return in a conservation 'win-win.' 

A project of African Parks and the Endangered Wildlife Trust begun in 2017, the team has since observed tagged vultures in parks outside Malawi, too. 

Read or share this popular article by Ryan Truscott here:

Cheetah reintroduction in Malawi brings vultures back to the skies

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.

Photo Credit: A cheetah. Image by Rhett Butler for Mongabay.

Please send feedback to [email protected], and thank you for listening.

Benjamin Franta is the founder of the Climate Litigation Lab at the University of Oxford, informing climate litigation around the world. The lab researches how to bring—and win— lawsuits against companies, institutions, and individuals who have aided and abetted public deception, the suppression of information, and put the whole world in danger by driving the climate crisis.

In the episode, Ben reveals the “fossil fuel playbook”, explaining the industry’s long history of suppressing information about its impacts on the climate, and twisting the arms of the powerful in order to stop governmental action. He also discusses the lawsuits happening around the world, the fossil fuel defence, and what we can learn from these cases to reform the intimate relationship between corporate and political interests.

“Those companies also knew, and we know this from their internal documents, that to avoid severe global warming they needed to act then. They needed to start replacing fossil fuels then. When governments tried to act, fossil fuel companies banded together and came up with a playbook to stop that from happening…

“We could see trials in this climate litigation. We could also see the biggest settlement in legal history potentially because the damages are so enormous.”

Planet: Critical investigates why the world is in crisis—and what to do about it.

© Rachel Donald

The Intag Valley in Ecuador is one of the world's most biodiverse places, its dense cloud forests bursting with plant and animal species. 

But the world's largest copper company wants to build a mine amidst its riches, so local leaders are organizing a conservation campaign: Mongabay's associate digital editor Romi Castagnino recently visited the area and joins this episode to discuss what she and staff writer Liz Kimbrough reported, and how that article sparked key support from one of Hollywood's top environmentalists, Leonardo DiCaprio.

Click 'play' to hear what she saw, and read Mongabay's full report from the valley here:

• In Ecuador, communities protecting a ‘terrestrial coral reef’ face a mining giant

This is the first feature in Mongabay's new series, Conservation Potential:   

• Mongabay’s Conservation Potential series asks: Where do we need to protect biodiversity?

Here's an update on the effort:

• Ecuador court upholds ‘rights of nature,’ blocks Intag Valley copper mine

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! [email protected].

Image: A silk eyed moth photographed on the arm of Liz Kimbrough. Image by Romi Castagnino for Mongabay.

Fadhel Kaboub is a former Associate Professor of Economics at Denison University where he researched political economy, decarbonisation, colonialism, and the financial and agricultural policies necessary to facilitate a global—and just—green transition. Since recording, Fadhel has been appointed Under-Secretary-General for Financing for Development at the international intergovernmental organisation, Organisation of Educational Cooperation.

This episode is thrilling. Fadhel explains the traps of inflation, debt, globalisation, and the financial and agricultural policies weaponised by the global north to exploit the global south. He walks us through the three structural traps which keep wealth pouring out of the global south into the global north, amounting to modern colonialism. And he explains why we can afford a just transition, revealing the exciting mechanisms of Modern Monetary Theory by exploring the solutions global south countries can implement to ensure their sustainable development.

"You can't decarbonise a system that hasn't been decolonized yet, economically speaking. Similarly, you can't democratise a system that hasn't been decolonised yet.

Because you can't meet the aspirations of your people and meet their needs in terms of food or housing or quality of life if your economic paralyses you and prevents you from serving those needs, and requires of you to serve the needs of the global supply chains in manufacturing or energy and so on."

Planet: Critical investigates why the world is in crisis—and what to do about it.

© Rachel Donald

It's tough to fund conservation, and deciding exactly how (and where) funding gets used is even trickier. However, researchers recently identified where and when to “get the most bang for our buck,” in a newly published study.

Many of the highest-conservation-priority areas identified fall within lower-income tropical countries. While substantial international funding is likely needed to conserve and restore forests, securing Indigenous peoples' land rights could be a low-cost, and equitable solution, since 80% of the planet's biodiversity lies within Indigenous peoples' territories. 

Listen to the popular article from Liz Kimbrough: Protecting global forests with a limited budget? New study shows where and when to start

Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to gain instant access to our latest episodes.

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.

Photo Credit: Tiger Leg Monkey Tree Frog (Phyllomedusa hypochondrialis). Image by Rhett Butler.

Please send feedback to [email protected], and thank you for listening.

Kim Stanley Robinson is a science fiction writer and author of the acclaimed novel, The Ministry for the Future. Set in the near future, this work of climate fiction explores the geopolitical, technological, political and economic demands of the climate crisis, imagining how nations around the world will respond to its impacts—resulting in the destruction and reimagining of the world order.

Stan joins me to discuss the role of writing, of art, of fiction in particular in the face of a crisis. He gives a fascinating overview of science fiction’s response to the world over the past few decades, exploring the role of stories, narrative, and how citizens can both grapple with and demand change in their societies.

“History is malleable and is constantly changing in people's heads. I say there was a moment that was intensely revolutionary in the new wave science fiction between 1965 and 1975. Then, along with Reagan and Thatcher, came this kind of reactionary, defeatist science fiction, sometimes called cyberpunk. And that was dispiriting, and science fiction kind of lost its way and fantasy came in to replace it.

“So I have a macro story for even my own field that is very personal, but what I can say is that now it has blown up. There are scores of writers with scores of stories coming at it from every possible angle trying to say, we can make a better world. In other words, I think utopia keeps rising to the top; the story of things getting better is something that people are hungry for, and so people keep writing it. And sometimes it does feel like magical thinking. Other times it's like social planning.”

Planet: Critical investigates why the world is in crisis—and what to do about it.

© Rachel Donald

A decline in botany degree programs, paired with a growing lack of general plant awareness, has scientists concerned about society's ability to tackle existential threats like biodiversity loss and climate change, so Leeds University Ph.D. researcher Sebastian Stroud is our guest on this episode of the Mongabay Newscast. 

While humans depend upon plants for many critical everyday needs, our ability to identify them seems to be decreasing as fewer educational programs continue to study them. Stroud joins us to discuss a recent study he co-authored about this and how we can combat the lack of plant awareness. 

Related reading:

• Can ‘plant blindness’ be cured?
• Mongabay’s plant conservation coverage

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! [email protected].

Image: Orange orchid with magenta spots. Torajaland, Sulawesi, Indonesia. Photo by Rhett Butler. 

Max Ajl is a fellow at Ghent university researching the climate and agrarian issues. He's also the author of the acclaimed A People’s Green New Deal, a “radical alternative” to the Green New Deals peddled by government institutions over the past years.

Max joined me to discuss the necessity of land reform in the global green transition, explaining the importance of peasants, the relationship between land, production and debt, and how the post-colonial nations can liberate themselves from the late stage capitalist economy inflicted upon them by the global north.

“In many post-colonial countries, if the issue is that you have an excess of labour, which is the case across Latin America, Africa, West Asia, you actually have capacity to mobilise labour and apply it to land. And the best way to do that is to carry out an agrarian reform, to actually increase the size of the units of land available to the poorest people…

“Automatically, you would increase national production and you would increase the wellbeing of the poorest sectors of your population. So this is actually a developmental imperative. Therefore, unless there's some overriding ecological reason to say we shouldn't be doing that, then it should be an overriding developmental imperative in any form of green transition.”

Planet: Critical investigates why the world is in crisis—and what to do about it.

© Rachel Donald

The Paru State Forest is the world's 3rd-largest sustainable-use tropical forest reserve, and is home to a tree standing 30 stories tall.

But in October of last year, its home state of Pará was the 5th-most deforested in Brazil, alarming experts and environmentalists that its giant trees (including the massive red angelim) are at risk.

Listen to the popular article from Sarah Brown, Amazon’s tallest tree at risk as deforestation nears, by clicking the play button. 

Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to gain instant access to our latest episodes.

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.

Photo Credit: The Amazon’s tallest tree grows in the Paru State Forest and is one of several giant trees in the region. Each one can sequester up to 40 tons of carbon, nearly as much as a hectare (2.4 acres) of typical forest. Image © Havita Rigamonti/Imazon/Ideflor.

Please send feedback to [email protected], and thank you for listening.

Brian Czech, founder of the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy, is an ecological economist and former conservation biologist. Brian joined me just after returning from COP15 and, thankfully, says the fallacy of economic growth is finally being discussed at these critical conferences.

On the episode, Brian explains the relationship between economics and the planet’s biosphere before introducing steady state economics, an economic model which prioritises stability and the protection of planetary boundaries. He also describes his time working for the US government, and walks us through the trophic theory which dismantles any techno-utopian argument that we can innovate our way out of the climate crisis and continue to enjoy growth for growth’s sake.

Planet: Critical investigates why the world is in crisis—and what to do about it.

© Rachel Donald