After 6 years and nearly 160 episodes, podcast host Mike Gaworecki is putting his microphone down. The show will go on, but we will miss his expertise and command of conservation science's myriad facets!
One of his favorite topics to cover on the show has been bioacoustics, the use of remote acoustic recording technology to study the behavior, distribution, and abundance of wildlife.
For his final time hosting the Mongabay Newscast, Mike shares an array of his favorite bioacoustics interviews that illustrate the breadth and potential of this powerful conservation technology.
Listen to his bittersweet farewell thoughts, and a range of recordings—from forest elephants to the Big Apple’s dolphins—that he shares, and hit play on these episodes for more goodness:
• How listening to individual gibbons can benefit conservation
• What underwater sounds can tell us about Indian Ocean humpback dolphins
• The superb mimicry skills of an Australian songbird
• The sounds of tropical katydids and how they can benefit conservation
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We all send our recycling somewhere for proper handling, but the operations of one such handling center in Poland makes one ask, is it being done right, or at all?
The European Commission estimates that the illegal handling of such waste represents around 15-30% of the total EU waste trade, generating EUR 9.5 billion in annual revenues.
So in part 3 of our investigative podcast series, the team dispatches Outriders journalist Eva Dunal to visit one such recycling facility in the pretty town of Zielona Góra close to the Polish-German border, and finds out just how unpopular it is with the neighbors, and especially the city council. They also speak with Jim Puckett, the 'James Bond of waste trafficking' at Basel Action Network, who reveals that much recycling is being 'laundered' via the Netherlands and shipped on to countries where such resources are often dumped, not recycled.
In a three-part, “true eco-crime” series for Mongabay’s podcast, our hosts trace England’s – and Europe's – towering illegal waste problem: investigative environmental journalists Lucy Taylor and Dan Ashby follow this illegal 'waste trail' from their quiet English town to the nearby countryside and as far away as Poland and Malaysia.
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This episode is "The Wastelands" and is part three of the investigative podcast series, "Into the Wasteland," developed with the support of Journalismfund.eu.
Banner image: The shuttered Eurokey plant in the town of Zielona Góra. Image by Eva Dunal/Outriders.
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The U.K.’s Environment Agency calls waste crime — where instead of delivering recycling or rubbish for proper disposal, companies simply dump it in the countryside — “the new narcotics” because it’s so easy to make money illegally. It’s estimated that one in every five U.K. waste companies operates in this manner ('fly-tipping'), and the government seems powerless to stop it: it’s so easy to be registered as one of the government’s recommended waste haulers that even a dog can do it — and at least one has, as this episode shares.
In part 2 of our new investigative podcast series, the team also speaks with a lawyer who describes her year-long campaign to get the government to deal with a single illegal dump site, but they fail to act before it catches fire, in an emblematic 'trash fire' for this whole issue. They also speak with a former official at Interpol who shares that his agency also lacks the resources to tackle the problem.
In a three-part, “true eco-crime” series for Mongabay’s podcast, our hosts trace England’s towering illegal waste problem: investigative environmental journalists Lucy Taylor and Dan Ashby follow this illegal 'waste trail' from their quiet English town to the nearby countryside and as far away as Poland.
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This episode is "The Jungle" and is part two of the podcast series, "Into the Wasteland," developed with the support of Journalismfund.eu.
Banner image: The U.K.’s recyclables, plastic packaging and waste soils the countryside across the country and as far away as Turkey (pictured). Image courtesy of Caner Ozkan via Greenpeace Media Library.
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The British countryside is increasingly under siege from a scourge of illegal waste dumping – polluting both water and air – but one man is bravely taking the criminals on, staking out their sites with night vision goggles, drones and more.
In a three-part, 'true eco-crime' podcast series for the Mongabay Newscast, investigative environmental journalists Lucy Taylor and Dan Ashby trace this illegal 'waste trail' from their quiet English town to the nearby countryside, and as far away as Poland.
Threatened, chased, but undeterred, waste investigator Martin Montague has also established a website, Clearwaste, to document incidents of 'fly-tipping' as the practice is known, and people use it daily to report tens of thousands of incidents all over the country, where illegal landfills are also on the rise.
Episodes two and three will air in the coming weeks and take the issue to a wider European scope, discussing it with Interpol and visiting a destination for U.K. waste in Poland.
Banner image: A mountain of UK plastic waste near Wespack Recycling Factory in Malaysia, via Greenpeace Media Library.
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This episode is "The Waste Mountain" and is part one of the podcast series, "Into the Wasteland," developed with the support of Journalismfund.eu.
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Host Mike G. speaks with Mongabay reporters whose new investigations reveal a major and illegal shark finning operation by one of China’s largest fishing fleets, and the role of a giant Japanese company, Mitsubishi, in buying that fleet’s products.
Through an exhaustive interview process with deckhands who worked throughout the company’s fleet, Mongabay's Phil Jacobson and Basten Gokkon revealed that Dalian Ocean Fishing's massive operation deliberately used banned gear to target sharks across a huge swath of the western Pacific Ocean.
The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission is currently meeting to discuss policies that would crack down even further on use of this gear, and we speak with Jacobson who is there covering the event.
We also speak with Japan-based reporter Annelise Giseburt who was able to verify that the illegal operation benefited greatly from selling a massive share of its tuna catch to the Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi.
The investigations:
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In a nation gripped by currency depreciation, harsh economic fallout and civil unrest, the Shouf Biosphere Reserve endures as a rare conservation success story in Lebanon.
Previously protected by landmines and armed guards, the region (a UNESCO biosphere reserve) forges ahead with community engagement in tree-planting projects while providing the community with food, fuel, and jobs.
Click the play button to hear this popular article by Elizabeth Fitt aloud:
From land mines to lifelines, Lebanon’s Shouf is a rare restoration success story
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Photo Credit: Farid Tarabay, forest guide, under the Lamartine Cedar, one of the oldest in the reserve. Image by Elizabeth Fitt for Mongabay.
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Healthy ecosystems are often noisy: from reefs to grasslands and forests, these are sonically rich places, thanks to all the species defending territories, finding mates, locating prey, socializing or perhaps just enjoying their ability to add to life's rich chorus.
Recording soundscapes in such places is one way to ensure we don't forget what a full array of birds, bats, bugs, and more sounds like, and it couldn't be more important, as the world witnesses a decline in many such kinds of creatures, due to the biodiversity crisis. Soundscape recordings provide a kind of sonic baseline which researchers can also pull data from.
On this episode of the podcast, host Mike G. plays a diverse selection of forest soundscapes from South America and Africa and discusses them with their creator, sound recordist George Vlad, who travels the world and shares the acoustic alchemy of nature via his impressive Youtube channel.
Join us to explore these sonic landscapes with Vlad and get inspired to find the richness of natural sounds near you.
Episode artwork: A writhed hornbill, a Philippines endemic species, singing. Image via Creative Commons (CC BY 3.0).
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On Costa Rica's Carribbean coast, sloths are losing their habitat to houses and roads, forcing them to cross between forest patches on the ground, making them vulnerable to traffic incidents and dog attacks.
However, the Sloth Conservation Foundation, created by British zoologist Rebecca Cliffe, is trying to change that by building rope bridges to allow these famously slow-moving animals to safely cross cleared patches of forest.
Read the popular article written by Monica Pelliccia and translated by Maria Angeles Salazar here:
Bridges in the sky carry sloths to safety in Costa Rica
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Photo Credit: Baby three-toed sloth hugging a stuffed panda in a Trio Indigenous community. Suriname, 2012. Image by Rhett Butler.
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“Ecuador had not declared community protected area management by Indigenous peoples until Tiwi Nunka Forest. This area is the first of its kind in Ecuador, and one of the few in the entire Amazon,” says Felipe Serrano on this episode.
His organization Nature and Culture International recently helped the Shuar Indigenous community in Ecuador win a historic victory to protect its ancestral territory from cattle ranchers, loggers and miners, and he discusses how the community succeeded on this episode.
We also speak with Paul Koberstein, editor of the Cascadia Times, an environmental journal based in Portland, Oregon, who with Jessica Applegate recently published "Deep Cut," an article at Earth Island Journal that details the flawed basis for the U.S. State of Washington’s new and flawed climate solution: cutting down forests.
Episode artwork: Members of the El Kiim community. Photo courtesy of Nature and Culture International.
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Cirrhilabrus finifenmaa is a spectacular new-to-science fish species and the first that has been named by a Maldivian scientist. Ahmed Najeeb, a biologist from the Maldives Marine Research Institute, named the fish, which means "rose" in the local Dhivehi language.
Fairy wrasses such as this are known for their elegant and colorful appearance with new species often being described. Read the popular article written by Liz Kimbrough, here: Spectacular new fish species is first to be named by Maldivian scientist.
This species, while new-to-science is already being traded. Many aquarium-traded fish are caught unethically. Read Robert Wood's 2019 commentary on buying aquarium fish ethically.
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Photo Credit: A male rose-veiled fairy wrasse (Cirrhilabrus finifenmaa) from the Maldives. The species name ‘finifenmaa’ means ‘rose’ in the local Dhivehi language, a nod to both its pink hues and the Maldives’ national flower. Photo by Yi-Kai Tea © California Academy of Sciences
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"It might be the highest density of trout species on Earth," our guest Ulrich Eichelmann says of a suite of European rivers slated for damming to generate electricity – rivers which also host a vast wealth of birds, bats, bugs and beauty – plus a deep cultural heritage.
Rapid biological surveys are a well known way to establish the richness of an ecosystem and advocate for their conservation, and a corps of scientists have used this conservation solution to repeatedly prove that the rush to build hundreds of new hydroelectric dams threatens to drown this heritage, with impressive results:
A proposal to dam the last free-flowing river in Europe (the Vjosa) was halted in part on the basis of one such survey conducted by Scientists for Balkan Rivers which Eichelmann coordinates, after the team identified species new to science, in addition to great overall biodiversity.
The group has since turned its focus to other threatened rivers in the region, and he describes their activities, plus which rivers' ecologies they are investigating now.
Episode Artwork: The biodiversity of Balkan rivers is now becoming more widely known, and also their beauty, such as Kravice Waterfalls on the Trebižat river in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Photo by Goran Safarek for Riverwatch/EuroNatur.
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Nine leading forest and climate experts defined 10 principles for equitable and transformative landscapes in a "playbook" for ecosystem restoration.
The playbook authors say these steps could be game changing if followed. The plan outlines climate change and forest loss as political, economic and social problems, not just biophysical or environmental.
Hear more about the playbook by listening to this reading of the original popular article by Liz Kimbrough, New restoration “Playbook” calls for political, economic, and social change.
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Photo Credit: A toco toucan (Ramphastos toco) by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay
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In a historic move, The European Commission recently announced the protection of an area half the size of Belgium in the North Atlantic from bottom trawling, a fishing practice widely known as being the most destructive, particularly for deep-sea biodiversity and delicate marine ecosystems, such as cold water corals upon which other marine life (and humans) depend.
Activist and Goldman Environmental Prize winner, Claire Nouvian, joins the Mongabay Newscast to talk about this and her organization’s 7-year journey that led to a French ban on bottom trawling, and a later EU-wide ban.
She discusses not just the importance of deep-sea marine life but the effectiveness of grassroots activism and how consumers can avoid bottom trawling and support legislation to ban the fishing gear.
Related reading:
Episode Artwork: A deep-sea coral, Paragorgia johnsoni, with a large, brisingid sea star on its base, pictured in the New England Seamount chain. Image © The Mountains-in the Sea Research Team, IFE, URI-IAO, and NOAA.
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What's a climate-friendly and profitable way to farm? Some investors (and many farmers) say it's agroforestry, which combines trees & shrubs with annual crops for mutual benefits: shade-grown coffee or bird-friendly chocolate, for instance.
So why have the agriculture sectors of the U.S. and E.U. largely ignored it? That's a question Ethan Steinberg and his partners at Propagate Ventures sought to answer, and then raised $1.5 million in seed funding to help farmers in eight U.S. states transition from conventional agriculture to agroforestry.
Hear more about this growing trend in sustainable agriculture by listening to this audio reading of the popular article Investors say agroforestry isn’t just climate friendly — it’s also profitable by Stephanie Hanes on this latest episode of Mongabay Reports.
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Photo Credit: A model rubber agroforestry forest garden, incorporating animal husbandry (silvopasture). Illustration courtesy of Kittitornkool, J. et al (2019).
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Tropical forest news is coming fast lately, and we've got a top expert to discuss it with, beginning with the deforestation rate of the Brazilian Amazon in 2022 which is on pace to match the dismal heights of 2021; however, the upcoming Brazilian presidential election between incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and former president Luis Inacío Lula da Silva (Lula) could change forest conservation prospects.
Mongabay's CEO and sought after tropical forest news commentator, Rhett Butler, joins the Mongabay Newscast to share his analysis of how former president Lula could (once again) significantly decrease deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, like he's done in the past.
Rhett also shares his insight into a historic legislative move by the European Parliament to block 14 commodities linked to deforestation from entering the EU. The bill places the onus on the buyer to prove any 'dirty commodities' entering the EU are not linked to deforestation, whether legal or illegal. Rhett also discusses the renewed REDD+ agreement between Indonesia and Norway, which was canceled in 2021 when Norway failed to issue payment.
Related reading from Mongabay:
To hear our early 2022 conversation with Rhett, listen to Mongabay Newscast episode 136 here:
Podcast: The 411 on forests and reforestation for 2022
Episode artwork: Amazon rainforest canopy in Brazil. Image by Rhett Butler.
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Can an albatross detect illegal fishing vessels? Findings from published research say yes: over the course of six-months, 169 albatrosses fitted with radar-detecting trackers covered 47 million square kilometers of the southern Indian Ocean found radar signals from 353 ships.
Many of these vessels had no AIS signal, which is an indicator that a ship has switched it off in an attempt to remain hidden, but little did they know that the albatrosses revealed them.
Science journalist Shreya Dasgupta reported on the study for Mongabay in 2020, here:
Any illegal fishing going on around here? Ask an albatross
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Episode Artwork: A wandering albatross chick on its nest on Possession Island in the Crozet archipelago of the southern Indian Ocean. The species is listed as vulnerable by the IUCN. Image by Alain Ricci via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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There's less than 10 years remaining to save Sumatran elephants, says guest Leif Cocks, founder of the International Elephant Project, so we followed up with him to learn what is being done to save the critically endangered species' shrinking habitats, and to discuss the growing movement to recognize their 'personhood' and thereby ensure their interests are considered in development decisions.
Leif also shares his thoughts on a planned hydropower dam in North Sumatra, sited in the only habitat where the last, critically endangered Tapanuli orangutans live. This project has also, tragically, claimed the lives of 16 workers in less than 2 years.
Related Reading via Mongabay:
To hear our previous conversation with Leif on Sumatran elephants, see season 2, episode 6 of the Mongabay Explores podcast, here:
Podcast: With just 10 years left to save Sumatran elephants, what can be done now?
Episode artwork: Sumatran elephants play in water. Image by vincentraal via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).
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Just kidding, you really shouldn't eat this.
Last February, researchers described a new-to-science species of frog literally unearthed in the Peruvian Amazon during a rapid inventory of the lower Putamayo Basin. The image of the frog circulated on Twitter where it was likened to the chocolate frogs as seen in the Harry Potter film franchise. One user described the frog as a 'smooth lil fella.'
The full scientific description of the tootsie-roll resembling amphibian is available here in the journal Evolutionary Systematics.
This episode of Mongabay Reports, features the popular article Chocolate frog? New burrowing frog species unearthed in Amazon’s rare peatlands.
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Photo Credit: Synapturanus danta by Germán Chávez.
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Since 2020, the "Prints for WIldlife" campaign has raised over 1.75 million for conservaiton funding for NGO, African Parks through a collaborative photography based initiative selling over 15,000 unique wildlife prints.
Normally in competition with each other, 100+ wildlife photographers have come together to participate in this campaign. Joining the Monagabay newscast is one such photographer, Marcus Westberg, to discuss the unique collaborative nature of this campaign, and ethical wildlife photogrpahy practices.
Related Reading:
African Parks secures $100M for conservation in Africa
Episode artwork: Two Grauer’s gorillas in Kahuzi-Biega National Park, DR Congo. Grauer’s gorillas are the world’s largest primates, and highly threatened, their population having declined close to 80% in just a few decades. Image by Marcus Westberg
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Cricket One is one of the world's largest cricket farms, and it's serving up an impressive palette of insect protein. Vietnam-based reporter Mike Tatarski reports on companies cashing in on the insect protein wave: coupled with the fact that insects (like crickets) use far less feed than cattle, and produce no methane, there is potential for the industry to replace animal-based protein sources.
Could delicacies such as the scorpion skewers served at Bugs Cafe in Cambodia make their way to the West?
This episode of Mongabay Reports features the popular 2020 story as read by Mike DiGirolamo. Find the full article here:
From scorpion skewers to cricket flour, bug protein is becoming big business
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Photo Credit: Bugs Cafe in Siem Reap aims to turn insects into artfully presented cuisine, like this scorpion skewer. Image by Rishabh Malik for Atmos/Mongabay.
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Blockchain is an increasingly popular technology with quite a few applications and iterations, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), but can they aid conservation? The answer is complicated. Some conservation groups are trying to use them for fundraising. Other conservationists are exploring the technology for the ability to track and trace payments for ecosystem services. However, downsides abound and depending on which form of the technology you use, they can be impractical, environmentally damaging, or both.
Author, Brett Scott, joins the Mongabay Newscast to discuss these complicating factors, some of which he writes about in his new book Cloudmoney: Cash, Cards, Crypto and the War for our Wallets. Also joining the Newscast is journalist Judith Lewis Mernit, who reported on the Bitcoin mining surge in the US state of Texas and the rising energy prices pushed on to consumers.
Related Reading:
Beyond bored apes: Blockchain polarizes wildlife conservation community
Episode artwork: Flowering rainforest tree in the Colombian Amazon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay.
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Sonso Chimpanzees in Uganda began using a new method to drink water pooled in logs, 'moss-sponging.' Previously known to use balled-up leaves, the chimps began using this new technique with moss, researchers believe, because it is more effective at getting water into their mouths.
But then, the technique spread to a neighboring community of chimps, leading researchers to believe that this is evidence of cultural evolution in chimpanzees, a behavior previously only thought to exist in humans. Researchers published their findings in a study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences back in 2018.
This edition of Mongabay Reports is based on the popular article, Tool innovation shows cultural evolution at work among chimpanzees, by Nina Finley.
To also read & share the story, go here: https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/tool-innovation-shows-cultural-evolution-at-work-among-chimpanzees/
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Photo Credit: Karibu, a member of the Sonso chimpanzee community in Uganda, uses a moss-sponge she made to sip water from a small rainwater pool. Scientists say the recent emergence and spread of this socially learned behavior is evidence of cultural evolution in chimpanzees. Image by Cat Hobaiter
Please send feedback to submissions@mongabay.com, and thank you for listening.
A multi-billion dollar, 958 mile-long, railway project known as the 'Maya Train' threatens to displace locals and degrade or destroy habitats across five states in the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico. Despite the many legal roadblocks the project has run into, the Mexican government is pushing it through, citing its eventual benefits for tourism and cargo transportation.
This week we speak with Mongabay's Mexico City-based staff writer Max Radwin about the project and the impacts it could have on habitats and the lives of locals. We also speak about the legacy of large infrastructure projects that President Andrés López Manuel Obrador is leaving in Mexico.
Related Reading:
Full steam ahead for Tren Maya project as lawsuits hit judicial hurdles
‘What’s lacking is respect for Mayan culture’: Q&A with Pedro Uc Be on Mexico’s Tren Maya
Episode artwork: Forest clearing in the municipality of Solidaridad in Quintana Roo for construction of the Maya Train. Image by Fernando Martínez Belmar.
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.
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A report published in the journal Nature concludes that New Guinea is the most floristically diverse and speciose island on the planet. In addition to being the second largest island in the world, New Guinea is the world's largest tropical island. More than two-thirds of its 13,634 plant sepecies are endemic, occurring nowhere else in the world.
New Guinea is not without its conservation challenges. If you are a regular listener of the Mongabay Explores Podcast you'll recall our third season, which explains the historical context, challenges, and drivers of deforestation on the island over seven episodes. Despite these challenges, New Guinea still retains 80% of its original forest cover, making it the final frontier of tropical species discovery and also the third largest rainforest on the planet, just after the Amazon and Congo basin.
To also read & share the story, go here: https://news.mongabay.com/2020/08/new-guinea-has-the-most-plant-species-of-any-island/
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.
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Photo Credit: Image by Rhett Butler.
Please send feedback to submissions@mongabay.com, and thank you for listening.
Human-made 'gray' infrastructure is crumbling, causing some urban areas to lose up to 40% of this precious resource: several major cities across the globe now regularly run out of water or have shortages. Yet our pervasive attempts to control water have actually made accessing it harder, especially as humanity faces the silmultaneously occurring biodiversity, climate and water crises.
Author and journalist Erica Gies joins the Mongabay Newscast to discuss her new book 'Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge.' She covers non-invasive solutions ('slow water') that could help humanity not just mitigate our water problems, but also restore biodiversity that's been degraded by 'gray' infrastructure.
Cities such as Chennai, India, are already embracing these slow water practices, many of which are rooted in traditional hydrological knowledge, while other areas like coastal Louisiana contemplate managed retreat from rising water. Solving water access and water infrastructure design isn't a simple one-size-fits-all solution, but there are many measures socieities could take today, and on a local level, to make things easier for us in the future.
Related Reading:
'The volume of water is beyond control’: Q&A with flood expert M. Monirul Qader Mirza
Beyond boundaries: Earth’s water cycle is being bent to breaking point
Episode artwork: A person in an inflatable boat paddles down flooded Highway 610 in the Houston area as rains associated with Hurricane Harvey continue to fall in the area. Image by Mannie Garcia/Greenpeace.
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.
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