Planet: Critical

Urban pests like rats have been in the news due to the US President calling Baltimore “rat and rodent infested.” He isn’t the first American politician to use this kind of rhetoric to demean communities that are predominantly made up of people of color (while ignoring the fact that policies deliberately designed to marginalize communities of color are at the root of the pest problems), he's just the latest.

Dawn Biehler actually knows what she’s talking about when it comes to rodent infestations in cities: the University of Maryland professor wrote the indispensable 2013 book Pests in the City: Flies, Bedbugs, Cockroaches, and Rats, and has just penned an op-ed in the Baltimore Sun newspaper looking at how racial segregation and funding inequities for urban housing and infrastructure contribute to rat infestations.

Biehler joins this episode of the Mongabay Newscast to discuss how this is an environmental justice issue, and how the problem can be dealt with in an environmentally sustainable manner, starting with investment in urban communities.

Here’s this episode’s top news:

• July 2019 was the hottest month ever recorded on Earth
• As Amazon deforestation in Brazil rises, Bolsonaro administration attacks the messenger
• In Indonesia, a court victory for Bali’s ban on single-use plastics

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David Quammen is an award-winning science writer, author, and journalist covering the most promising trends in conservation and evolutionary science for the past 30 years. We invited him on the show to discuss his latest feature for National Geographic, where he is a regular contributor, about Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique — once touted by none other than E.O. Wilson in a podcast interview with Mongabay as a place where inspiring restoration efforts are underway and benefitting nature, wildlife, and people. We also discuss Quammen’s most recent book, The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life, which explores the revolution in how scientists understand the history of evolution on Earth sparked by the work of Carl Woese, and his coverage of virology in light of the recent Ebola outbreak. He shares his thoughts on all of this plus what gives him hope that biodiversity loss and destruction of the natural world can be halted.

Here’s this episode’s top news:

• From over 100,000 species assessments in IUCN update, zero improvements
• June 2019 was the hottest on record: NOAA
• U.S. Virgin Islands bans coral-damaging sunscreens

Please invite your friends to subscribe to this show via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify or wherever they get podcasts.

Visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps.

See our latest news at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.

 

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Jessica Crance is a research biologist who recently discovered right whales singing for the first time. While some whales like humpbacks and bowheads are known for their melodious songs, none of the three species of right whale has ever been known to sing. Crance led the research team at NOAA that documented North Pacific right whales breaking into song in the Bering Sea, and on this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, she will play recordings of two different right whale song types and discuss what we know about why the critically endangered whales might be singing.

Here’s this episode’s top news:

• Japan resumes commercial whale hunting
• Heart of Ecuador’s Yasuni, home to uncontacted tribes, opens for oil drilling
• Zambia halts plans to dam the Luangwa River

Please invite your friends to subscribe to this show via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify or wherever they get podcasts.

Visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps.

See our latest news at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.

 

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We speak with Ivonne Higuero, new Secretary General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora — better known by its acronym, CITES. The first woman to ever serve as Secretary General, we discuss how her background as an environmental economist informs her approach to the job, how CITES can tackle challenges like the online wildlife trade and lack of enforcement of CITES statutes at the national level, and what she expects to accomplish at the 18th congress of the parties (COP) this August.

Here’s this episode’s top news:

• Arctic sea ice extent just hit a record low for early June and worse may come
• Nearly 600 plant species have gone extinct in last 250 years
• Sumatran rhinos to get a new sanctuary in Leuser Ecosystem

Please invite your friends to subscribe to this show via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify or wherever they get podcasts.

Visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps.

See our latest news at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.

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Jim Breheny is the director of the Bronx Zoo in New York City and joins the Mongabay Newscast to discuss the contributions zoos make to global biodiversity conservation. While many question the relevance of zoos in the 21st century, he argues that as humanity's influence extends ever farther and wildlife habitat continues to shrink, zoos are more relevant than ever since they could save a diversity of species like hellbender salamanders, which his institution is helping to breed and repopulate in the wild. He also discusses how zoos support field work to protect species in the wild, and shares their experience telling the story of zoos through its popular Animal Planet TV show ‘The Zoo.’

This episode's top news:

• The Great Insect Dying: A global look at a deepening crisis
• Twice as many fishing vessels now, but it’s harder to catch fish
• Brazil’s Congress reverses Bolsonaro, restores Funai’s land demarcation powers

Please invite your friends to subscribe to this show via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify or wherever they get podcasts.

Visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps.

See our latest news at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.

Thank you! And please send thoughts, questions, or feedback about this show to [email protected].

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Gabriel Melo-Santos studies Araguaian river dolphins in Brazil — his work has revealed that the species is much chattier than we’d previously known, and could potentially help us better understand the evolution of underwater communication in marine mammals. He plays some of the recordings he’s made of the dolphins, explains how he managed to study the elusive creatures thanks to their fondness for a certain riverside fish market, and discusses how the study of their vocalizations could yield insights into how their sea-faring relatives use their own calls to maintain social cohesion.

If you enjoy this show, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep it growing. Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet, so all support helps.

We love reviews, so please find the reviews section of the app that delivers your podcasts and say what you like about the Mongabay Newscast, and how we can improve. Thank you!

Also, please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify or wherever they get podcasts.

Thank you! And please send thoughts, questions, or feedback about this show to [email protected].

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Ecologist Julian Bayliss used satellite imagery, drones, and technical climbing to make a big discovery last year, an untouched rainforest atop a virtually unclimbable mountain in Mozambique (an “inselberg” or “island mountain”) that contains species new to science. Intriguingly, his team also found ancient human artifacts at its top, perhaps linked to people's prayers for the mountain's continued supply of fresh water to the surrounding lowlands. On this episode Bayliss discusses Mt. Lico's novel species like fish, crabs, and butterflies and shares the technical challenges and frustrations inherent in making a discovery of this kind. 

If you enjoy this show, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep it growing. Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet, so all support helps.

We love reviews, so please find the reviews section of the app that delivers your podcasts and say what you like about the Mongabay Newscast, and how we can improve. Thank you!

Also, please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify or wherever they get podcasts.

Thank you! And please send thoughts, questions, or feedback about this show to [email protected].

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Kinari Webb founded Health in Harmony, providing healthcare to people to save Indonesian rainforests. She realized that most illegal deforestation happens when villagers have to pay for medical care, because they have little to generate cash with, except timber. The program has reduced infant deaths by more than 2/3 and the number of households engaged in illegal logging dropped nearly 90%. Her story was one of the most-read articles at Mongabay.com in 2017, so now with Webb expanding the program to new regions, we asked her for an update.

If you enjoy this show, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep it growing. Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet, so all support helps.

We love reviews, so please find the reviews section of the app that delivers your podcasts and say what you like about the Mongabay Newscast, and how we can improve. Thank you!

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Thank you! And please send thoughts, questions, or feedback about this show to [email protected]. 

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Primatologist Cleve Hicks leads a research team that has discovered a new tool-using chimp culture in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After 12 years of research, their findings include an entirely new chimpanzee tool kit featuring four different kinds of tools. These chimps also build ground nests, which is highly unusual for any group of chimps, but especially for ones living around dangerous predators like lions and leopards. But these chimps’ novel use of tools and ground nesting aren’t even the most interesting behavioral quirks this group displays, Hicks says on this podcast.

If you enjoy this show, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge any amount to keep it growing. Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet, so all support helps.

We love reviews, so please find the reviews section of the app that delivers your podcasts and tell the world about the Mongabay Newscast, so that we can find new listeners. Thank you!

Also, please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify or wherever they get podcasts.

Thank you! And please send thoughts, questions, or feedback about this show to [email protected]. 

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Dr. Rebecca Cliffe joins us to challenge myths about sloths like the popular perception of them as lazy creatures: moving slowly is a survival strategy that has been so successful in fact that sloths are some of the oldest mammals on our planet. But Dr. Cliffe also warns of a “sloth crisis” driven by deforestation, roadbuilding, and irresponsible tourism including “sloth selfies,” and what you can do to help protect sloths.

If you enjoy this show, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge any amount to keep it growing. Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet, so all support helps.

We love reviews, so please find the reviews section of the app that delivers your podcasts and tell the world about the Mongabay Newscast, so that we can find new listeners. Thank you!

Also, please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify or wherever they get podcasts.

Thank you! And please send thoughts, questions, or feedback about this show to [email protected]. 

Get full access to Planet: Critical at www.planetcritical.com/subscribe