Planet: Critical

Two technologies being promoted as climate solutions, biomass and hydropower, actually have big environmental consequences and might not be sustainable at all. Can we burn and dam our way out of the climate crisis?

We speak with Justin Catonoso, a Wake Forest University journalism professor and Mongabay reporter, who describes the loopholes in renewable energy policies that have allowed the biomass industry to flourish under the guise of carbon neutrality, even though the burning of trees for energy has been shown to release more carbon emissions than burning coal.

We also talk to Ana Colovic Lesoska, a biologist who was instrumental in shutting down two large hydropower projects in her Balkan country’s Mavrovo National Park. This recent Goldman Environmental Prize winner says there is a tidal wave of 3,000+ other hydropower projects still proposed for the region, and discusses whether hydropower can be a climate solution at all, at any scale.

Articles mentioned in this episode:

• Will new US EPA head continue his opposition to burning forests for energy?
• EU renewable energy policy subsidizes surge in logging of Estonia’s protected areas
• In the Balkans, grassroots opposition stalls another hydropower project

Read all of Mongabay's coverage of biomass here and hydropower here.

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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 nonproft media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, please visit the link above for details.

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.

Feedback is always welcome: [email protected].

Farmer and chef, Andres Jara, gives a detailed insight into the amazing potential of regenerative farming, and explains why he thinks the future of agriculture needs to be community-based.

Roots, Rice and Beans: https://rootsricebeans.com/

Stagsgroenteboer: https://www.stadsgroenteboer.nl/

The Sumatran orangutan is a lowland species that has adapted to life among this Indonesian island’s highlands, as it has lost favored habitat to an array of forces like deforestation, road projects, plus the trafficking of young ones to be sold as pets, so this great ape is increasingly in trouble.

On this episode, Mongabay speaks with the founding director of Orangutan Information Centre in North Sumatra, Panut Hadisiswoyo, about these challenges plus some hopeful signs.

His center is successfully involving local communities in this work: over 2,400 hectares of rainforest have been replanted by local women since 2008, creating key habitat for the orangutans, which also provides the villagers with useful agroforestry crops, for instance.

Related reading from this episode:

• Deforestation spurred by road project creeps closer to Sumatra wildlife haven
• Call for prosecution of Indonesian politician who kept baby orangutan as pet
• ‘We are losing’: Q&A with The Orangutan Project’s Leif Cocks on saving the great ape

Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts. We also offer a free app in the Apple App Store and in the Google Store for this show, providing instant access to our latest episodes and previous ones.

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! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, please visit the link above for details.

See all of 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.

Feedback is always welcome: [email protected].

Entrepreneur and printing engineer, Hunter Bliss, introduces stone paper, and explains how plastic could truly benefit a circular economy whilst revealing paper isn't nearly as sustainable as people think. 

Pebble Printing Group: www.pebbleprinting.com

White Paper: https://pebbleprinting.com/the-sustainability-of-stone-paper-in-european-book-paper/

Ever drink 'shade grown' coffee or eat 'bird friendly' chocolate? Then you've enjoyed the fruits of agroforestry, an ancient agricultural technique practiced on a huge scale across the world which also sequesters a staggering amount of carbon from the atmosphere.

Agroforestry is poised for growth as the world searches for solutions to the climate crisis, and this one is special because it also produces grains/fruits/vegetables/livestock, builds soil and water tables, and is highly biodiversity-positive.

Today we discuss its power and promise with three guests: Mongabay's agroforestry series editor Erik Hoffner; the director the Center for Agroforestry at the University of Missouri, Sarah Lovell, who discusses agroforestry’s history and extent in the United States, plus what the Biden Administration might do with it; and a true icon in the field, Roger Leakey, an author, researcher, and vice president of the International Tree Foundation. Leakey explains how helps build food security, boosts biodiversity, and reduces conditions that lead to deforestation and migration.

Mongabay’s entire series on agroforestry can be viewed here, but here are some features discussed on the show:

• “Investors say agroforestry isn’t just climate friendly — it’s also profitable”
• “An ancient ‘indigenous technology’ with wide modern appeal”
• “Trees are much more than the lungs of the world”
• “Agroforestry: An increasingly popular solution for a hot, hungry world”

Episode artwork: chocolate thrives under a mix of fruit and timber trees, image via World Agroforestry.

Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store and in the Google Store to have 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 nonproft media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, please visit the link above for details.

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.

Feedback is always welcome: [email protected].

The Sumatran elephant is a small species of Asian elephant whose numbers are dwindling as their lowland forest habitats are converted to crops like oil palms. Experts say that Indonesia has 10 years to turn this trend around and save them from the eternity of extinction--and that doing so will have many additional benefits for human communities and wildlife. 

To explore the issues surrounding the species' conservation, we spoke with 3 guests: Leif Cocks, the founder of the International Elephant Project, Sapariah “Arie” Saturi, Mongabay-Indonesia's Senior Writer who's reported regularly on the issue; and Dr. Wishnu Sukmantoro an elephant expert at Indonesia's Bogor Agricultural University.  

Two recent articles Arie reported for Mongabay on the topic:

• As a forest in Sumatra disappears for farms and roads, so do its elephants
• On plantations and in ‘protected’ areas, Sumatran elephants keep turning up dead

Episode artwork courtesy of World Wildlife Fund's Sumatran elephant program.

Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast on the Google Podcasts app, Apple Podcasts, Android, Stitcher, via Pandora or Spotify or Audible, or wherever they get podcasts.

We now offer a free app in the Apple App Store and in the Google Store for this show, so you can have 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! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, please visit the link above for details.

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.

Feedback is always welcome: [email protected].

Asylum lawyer, Alina Kilpatrick, reveals the harrowing and deadly journey her clients face through the Northern Triangle—only to be met with cruelty at the US border. 

Sacred Heart Center: https://shcrichmond.org/en/

Platform Enterprise Newsletter: stories.platformenterprise.com

Distinguished poet and activist, Lisa Luxx, gives a detailed explanation of her philosophy of sisterhood, her collaborative work to create an economy that supports women—and her struggle to come to terms with poetry after Beirut's deadly 2020 explosion. 

Lisa's website: https://www.lisaluxx.com

Lisa's twitter: https://twitter.com/lisaluxx_

Trust Your Outrage: https://lisaluxx.bigcartel.com

Elaa Beirut: elaabeirut.com

Platform Enterprise Newsletter: podcast.platformenterprise.com

From fires to COVID, 2020 was a *bit* of a rough year for forest conservation efforts. But what’s in store, and hopeful, for 2021?

On this episode, we catch up with Mongabay's founder and CEO Rhett Butler to hear what's on his radar for the year--from the Amazon to Africa and Indonesia--plus for a forest focus on Africa, we ask Joe Eisen, the executive director of the NGO Rainforest Foundation UK, for his take on the past year and the major issues and events likely to impact Africa’s tropical forests over the course of 2021.

Here's Rhett's latest article: Rainforests: 11 things to watch in 2021

Related episodes mentioned during the show:

• “New Latin American treaty could help protect women conservation leaders — and all environment defenders” (28 October 2020)

• “What can we expect from tropical fire season 2020?” (13 May 2020)

• “Reporter Katie Baker details Buzzfeed’s explosive investigation of WWF” (29 October 2019)

Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast on the Google Podcasts app, Apple Podcasts, Android, Stitcher, via Pandora or Spotify, or wherever they get podcasts.

We now offer a free app in the Apple App Store and in the Google Store for this show, so you can have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips, please download it and let us know what you think via the contact info below.

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 nonproft media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, please visit the link above for details.

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.

Feedback is always welcome: [email protected].

Brad Vanstone is the founder of Willicroft, one of the fastest-growing vegan cheese companies in The EU. He discusses the EU's recent policy failure,  Willicroft's work to transition local farmers to plant-based agriculture, and why their cheeses will soon be nut-free. 

Willicroft: https://willicroft.com

Platform: @platformenterprise