95 percent of all lemur species face high risk of extinction, experts say – “This is, without a doubt, the highest percentage of threat for any large group of mammals and for any large group of vertebrates”

2 August 2018 (Mongabay) – Together with other leading primate conservationists, Russell Mittermeier, Chief Conservation Officer for the NGO Global Wildlife Conservation and recently announced winner of the 2018 Indianapolis Prize, is sounding the alarm about the plight of lemurs.Mittermeier, who also serves as chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Primate Specialist Group, […]

A pet crayfish can clone itself, and it’s spreading around the world – “We’re being invaded by an army of clones”

By Sarah Zhang 5 February 2018 (The Atlantic) – No one knows exactly when the clones first appeared, but humans only became aware of them in the early 2000s. It was a German aquarium owner who first brought it to scientists’ attention. In 1995, he had acquired a bag of “Texas crayfish” from an American […]

Madagascar environmental activist convicted, sentenced – and paroled

By Edward Carver 2 November 2017 ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (Mongabay) – Last week, an environmental activist in southeast Madagascar was convicted, sentenced to two years in prison — and immediately released on parole. This follows a recent pattern in the country in which activists are often given suspended sentences, seemingly as a way of keeping them […]

Another Madagascar environmental activist imprisoned – “The criminal justice system is being used to silence and harass activists”

By Edward Carver 20 October 2017 ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (Mongabay) – In Madagascar, speaking out against corporate wrongdoing or government corruption can be dangerous business. So it took some courage for Raleva, a 61-year-old farmer, to stand up and ask questions at a meeting in his village in southeast Madagascar on 27 September 2017. A Chinese-Malagasy […]

Poorest countries suffer most from global warming

By Martin Wolf 18 October 2017 (The Irish Times) – Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”This sentence from the History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides is the philosophy of Donald Trump’s administration. Thus, […]

Global pollution kills 9 million people per year and threatens survival of human societies – “We fear that we are pushing the envelope on the amount of pollution the Earth can carry”

By Damian Carrington 20 October 2017 (The Guardian) – Pollution kills at least nine million people and costs trillions of dollars every year, according to the most comprehensive global analysis to date, which warns the crisis “threatens the continuing survival of human societies”.Toxic air, water, soils and workplaces are responsible for the diseases that kill […]

Half of world population will face deadly heatwaves by 2100, even with aggressive measures to control global warming – “We are running out of choices for the future”

19 June 2017 (University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa) – Seventy-four percent of the world’s population will be exposed to deadly heatwaves by 2100 if carbon gas emissions continue to rise at current rates, according to a study published in Nature Climate Change. Even if emissions are aggressively reduced, the percent of the world’s human population […]

60 percent of primate species face impending extinction, and 75 percent have declining populations globally

By Russell A. Mittermeier and Anthony B. Rylands24 January 2017 (mongabay.com) – The Year of the Monkey has just ended, and won’t come around again for another 12 years. In the meantime, what is happening with our closest living relatives, the nonhuman primates? A recent paper in Science Advances by 31 of us indicates that […]

Civil conflict and unpredictable weather cast “long shadow on food security” in 2016 – UN

8 December 2016 (United Nations) – This year, the world suffered many weather-related shocks and civil conflicts which pressured food security for many countries, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said today in a new report, which said that while the global agricultural situation is posited to improve in 2017, some 39 countries […]

UN warns 330,000 people are ‘one step from famine’ in Madagascar drought

By Peter Lykke Lind 25 November 2016 (Antananarivo) – The severe drought afflicting southern Madagascar has left 330,000 people on the brink of famine, a senior UN official has warned. Three successive years of failed rains have left the island nation wrestling with crop failure and a chronic lack of food and clean drinking water, […]

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