Planet: Critical

Researchers analyzed spotted skunk DNA and found that rather than the four skunk species previously recognized by science, there are actually seven.

Referred to as the “acrobats of the skunk world” these small carnivores use impressive handstands to warn predators that a noxious spray is coming their way.

The plains spotted skunk (included among them) is in significant decline, but figuring out the different species lineages may inform and aid conservation efforts.

This episode features the popular article, "In search of the 'forest ghost,' South America's cryptic giant armadillo," by Liz Kimbrough:

https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/pepe-le-new-meet-the-acrobatic-spotted-skunks-of-north-america/

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 have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.

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: Western spotted skunk (Spilogale gracilis). Image by Robby Heischman courtesy of the Field Museum.

Liz Kimbrough is a staff writer for Mongabay. Find her on Twitter: @lizkimbrough_

The world economy demands clean energy and cheap commodities and these are being extracted at a furious rate in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

So the DRC is benefiting from all this activity, right?

Though extremely rich in natural resources, thanks to political instability plus a centuries-long legacy of commercial and colonial resource extraction, the value mainly accrues to the country's east and west, where corporations and governments benefit the most.

Joining the show to discuss are Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the Oakland Institute, who describes how Western investors like university pension funds and corporations profit from oil palm plantations where human rights violations and environmental abuses are common.

Then Christian-Geraud Neema Byamungu, a Congolese researcher who focuses on natural resource governance, tells us about how the growing demand for cobalt to make electric-car batteries has led to increased mining, the Chinese companies that dominate the DRC's mines, and why the contracts between those companies and the DRC are being called into question.

Further reading:

• ”As energy needs drive demand for minerals, forests face greater threats”
• ”Pension and endowment funds linked to conflict-plagued oil palm in DRC”

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 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.

Blair Fix is an economist and post-doc at York University, but he has done a lot of his research outside of the structure and security of the academy. Blair is in the same camp as Steve Keen, believing neoclassical and mainstream economists are not only holding back society’s progression, but putting humanity and the planet in danger.

We discuss his research that proves the relationship between power hierarchies and income inequality (sorry, Hayek, looks like free markets aren’t that free!), how to manage resource distribution, and why GDP is a flawed metric for success.

Listen here or catch it on Apple or Spotify.

Support Blair on Patreon and follow his research on Economics From The Top Down.

You can also follow Planet: Critical on Youtube and support the project on Patreon where I upload a bonus video every Saturday.

© 2022 Rachel Donald

So much of the hope we put in solutions for climate change falls away under a microscope. Did you know wind turbines aren’t recyclable, for example? Guess where they’re buried. Are enough people thinking about what happens when globalisation fails and post-industrial states like Europe and the US are left to mine their own materials? How can we mitigate climate change, truly, without plunging billions into poverty?

Simon Michaux is working to find solutions to all these questions. As an associate professor in the circular economy solution unit at the Geological Survey of Finland, Simon models the mining and energy industries to figure out what we can do sustainably—and what is nothing more than greenwashing. He drops more than a few bombshells throughout this episode concerning energy use and politics, but also reveals a new energy paradigm he’s working on that could provide genuine zero emission energy. 

Prepare to take notes—I did throughout. Listen here or catch it on Apple or Spotify.

You can also follow Planet: Critical on Youtube and support the project on Patreon where I upload a bonus video every Saturday.

© 2022 Rachel Donald

Since 2010, the Giant Armadillo Project has been researching the world’s largest armadillo, an animal that despite its size and range across almost every country in South America, is one of the world’s least recognized animals.

These researchers have made key findings, like the fact that their burrows, which can be up to 5 meters long, serve as shelter for at least 70 other species, including birds, reptiles and mammals.

The species is categorized as vulnerable to extinction, especially due to the advance of agribusiness.

This episode features the popular article, "In search of the 'forest ghost,' South America's cryptic giant armadillo," by Suzana Camargo:

https://news.mongabay.com/2020/09/in-search-of-the-forest-ghost-south-americas-cryptic-giant-armadillo/

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 have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.

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: Peering inside a giant armadillo burrow, image courtesy of the Giant Armadillo Project.

Maya Moumne is a Lebanese designer and activist who has devoted her professional life to understanding the mechanisms of propaganda in order to drive progression both in the Middle East and abroad through graphic design.

Maya co-runs Safar Studio, a graphic design studio who works closely with clients whose mission they believe in. Alongside this, for the past year she has been creating Al Hayya Magazine which launches in December. Al Hayya is a women’s magazine which does not, she says, celebrate women, but reveals the struggles and fight ongoing in the Middle East.

Listen to the episode here or catch it on Apple or Spotify. Enjoy!

Work with Maya, or subscribe to Al Hayya now.

Platform is for people who are pissed off with capitalism. Subscribe to get episodes like this delivered to your inbox every week.

Two top guests join this episode to discuss the importance of Indigenous rights to the future of biodiversity conservation and efforts to build a more sustainable future for life on Earth.

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz is the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and is the current executive director of the Tebtebba Indigenous Peoples’ International Centre for Policy Research and Education, based in Manila.

Tauli-Corpuz who is a member of the Kankana-ey-Igorot people of the Philippines describes the Global Indigenous Agenda released at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, why it calls for Indigenous rights to be central to conservation efforts, and what she hopes to see achieved at the UN Biodiversity Conference taking place in Kunming, China next year.

We also speak with Zack Romo, program director for the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) who was in Marseilles for the Congress and helped pass the motion to protect 80% of the Amazon by 2025. The rights-based approach that Amazon protection plan calls for, and what the next steps are to making the plan a reality, are discussed.

Here’s further reading and listening:

• ”‘The tipping point is here, it is now,’ top Amazon scientists warn”

• ”As COP15 approaches, ’30 by 30’ becomes a conservation battleground”

• ”‘Join us for the Amazon,’ Indigenous leaders tell IUCN in push for protection”

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 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.

Professor Steve Keen was one of the few economists to realise that a serious economic crisis was imminent in 2005. He publicly warned the world, and helped his native Australia navigate the 2008 crash without the major repercussions that crippled markets everywhere else.

He is now working on a new model of economics for a post-crash world. He joined me today to discuss why and how capitalism needs to be constrained, the economics of climate change and what mainstream economists and academics are getting wrong—to the detriment of us all.

Listen here or catch it on Apple or Spotify. Enjoy!

Support Steve’s work here.

You can also follow Planet: Critical on Youtube and support the project on Patreon where I upload a bonus video every Saturday.

© 2022 Rachel Donald

Gabon recently received the first $17 million of a pledged $150 million from Norway for results-based emission reduction payments as part of the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI).

Gabon has 88% forest cover and has limited annual deforestation to less than 0.1% over the last 30 years, in large part possible due to oil revenues supporting the economy.

With oil reserves running low, Gabon is looking to diversify and develop its economy without sacrificing its forests by building a sustainable forest economy supported by schemes such as CAFI.

Will other countries follow suit?

This episode features the popular article, "Gabon becomes first African country to get paid for protecting its forests."

https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/gabon-becomes-first-african-country-to-get-paid-for-protecting-its-forests/

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 have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.

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 Elephants in Longue Bai, Gabon, by Jefe Le Gran via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jefelegran/857116478

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

We look at some of the biggest news from the recent IUCN World Conservation Congress, like the upgraded conservation status of 4 tuna species, including Atlantic bluefin.

Is it really OK to eat such tuna now, as some media outlets reported? Are bluefin no longer endangered, but a species of 'least concern?' Well, it's complicated.

Mongabay staff writer Elizabeth Claire Alberts was at the event and discusses important news and motions that passed, like Indigenous peoples' role in conservation and a resounding rebuke of deep sea mining, for instance. 

Then, Pew Charitable Trusts’ senior officer for international fisheries Grantly Galland discusses the reassessments of tuna extinction risks released by the IUCN during the event, and he shares why species-level assessments don’t tell us the whole story about tuna populations.

Articles and podcast eps mentioned during the show: 

• ​​”‘Global Indigenous Agenda’ for land rights, conservation launched at IUCN congress” by Ashoka Mukpo 

• ”Podcast: Two tunas and a tale of managed extinction” (episode 118 of the Mongabay Newscast)

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 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.