Choose your location
Yale Environment 360
Report Alleges UN Complicit in Violent Evictions from World Heritage Sites
A new report alleges the U.N. was complicit in the violent eviction of Indigenous people from six World Heritage Sites in Africa and Asia. These sites “are very often the stolen ancestral lands of Indigenous peoples, who are being kept out by force, intimidation, and terror,” said Caroline Pearce, director of Survival International, the group behind the new report. She said that UNESCO, the scientific and cultural arm of the U.N., “must remove World Heritage Status from any such site where abuses are taking place.”
Marina Silva on Brazil’s Fight to Turn the Tide on Deforestation
When Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected for a third term in 2023, he named Marina Silva — a former rubber tapper and senator from the state of Acre, and a veteran campaigner against illegal deforestation — as environment minister. Silva was not unfamiliar with the job: She’d held the same position during Lula’s first term in office, which began in 2003.
Greece Plans to Expand Protected Waters, End Bottom Trawling
Greece plans to create two large marine parks and end bottom trawling, it announced at an international conference on the protecting the world’s oceans. It also aims to cut the volume of plastic waste flowing into Greek waters in half. “The ocean has paid a heavy price for its...
Where the Xerces Blue Butterfly Was Lost, Its Closest Relative Is Filling the Gap
More than 80 years after the iconic Xerces Blue butterfly vanished from San Francisco, researchers have analyzed century-old specimens of the butterfly to track down its closest living relative, the Silvery Blue. Last week, they released a handful of Silvery Blues on the western edge of the city, where Xerces Blues once thrived.
Solomon Islands Tribes Sell Carbon Credits, Not Their Trees
When head ranger Ikavy Pitatamae walks into the rainforest on Choiseul Island, the westernmost of the nearly 1,000 islands that make up the South Pacific archipelago of Solomon Islands, he surveys it with the heart of a tribal landowner and the eye of a forester. Leading the way up a...
Study Reveals Vast Networks of ‘Ghost Roads’ in Asian Rainforests
A careful analysis of satellite imagery reveals thousands of miles of unmapped roads slicing through rainforest in Southeast Asia. So-called “ghost roads” are laid down by miners, loggers, poachers, drug traffickers, and land grabbers, often illegally. The research found the reach of such roads is “severely underestimated, with many roads being out of government control,” said study coauthor Bill Laurance, of James Cook University.
With Sea Turtles in Peril, a Call for New Strategies to Save Them
Sea turtles were already navigating the oceans when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. But these ancient creatures face an uncertain future. All seven sea turtle species are currently endangered or threatened, notes Christine Figgener, a German-born conservation biologist who has been working on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica for the past 16 years.
Biggest Corporations Falling Short on Climate Goals
The world’s biggest and richest businesses are falling short on work to cut emissions, a new report finds. “There still is a concerning lack of commitment and urgency from too many companies,” said Frederic Hans of the NewClimate Institute, the group behind the report. To have a shot at limiting warming to 1.5 degrees C, the world needs to cut emissions by 43 percent by the end of this decade. But an analysis of 51 corporate giants finds that firms are aiming to cut emissions by only 30 percent on average by the end of the decade.
Jared Kushner Has Big Plans for Delta of Europe’s Last Wild River
It is the jewel of the Adriatic. Its shimmering waters feed a rare colony of Dalmatian pelicans, the world’s largest freshwater birds, sustain the endangered Albanian water frog, and host loggerhead turtles on its encircling dunes. The Nartë lagoon is at the heart of the extensive and largely unspoiled delta of Albania’s Vjosë River, which researchers consider Europe’s most intact large river delta.
Potent Heat-Trapping Gases Being Smuggled Into Europe
Smugglers are illegally moving refrigerants into Europe that, when leaked from air conditioners and refrigerators, pose a significant threat to the climate. These refrigerants, called hydrofluorocarbons, only stay in the atmosphere for around 15 years, but they trap hundreds or thousands of times more heat than carbon dioxide. While regulators are working to curtail their use, the substances are still entering the E.U. illegally, according to a new report from the nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency.
Entries Invited for the Eleventh Annual Yale Environment 360 Film Contest
The eleventh annual Yale Environment 360 Film Contest is now accepting entries. The contest honors the year’s best environmental films from around the world, highlighting work that has not previously been widely seen. Submissions should focus on an environmental issue and be a maximum of 20 minutes in length. Films that are funded by an organization or company and are primarily about that organization or company are not eligible.
A Nuclear Power Revival Is Sparking a Surge in Uranium Mining
After sitting dormant since the 1980s, the Pinyon Plain uranium mine began operating in January on the Kaibab National Forest in Arizona, about seven miles south of the Grand Canyon. Thanks to new interest in expanding nuclear power, the price of uranium is on a tear, making undeveloped and long-shuttered mines viable. Pinyon Plain, which has some of the highest-grade uranium ore in the country, is one of the first uranium mines to open in the United States in eight years.
Noisy Summer Ahead for U.S. as Dueling Broods of Cicadas Emerge
This month will see swarms of big, noisy, chirping cicadas begin to emerge in the U.S. as two large broods take flight at the same time. Cicadas spend years underground, feeding on sap from tree roots. Eventually they arise for a single summer of mating and revelry, and then die. This summer two separate broods, one that emerges every 13 years and the other every 17 years, will come up at the same time.
In Denying the Anthropocene, Geologists Ignored Clear Evidence
Charles Darwin upset a lot of people with his 1859 publication On the Origin of Species. Like Copernicus and Galileo before him, Darwin radically revised the place of humans in the natural world. Victorian society believed that a beneficent creator made Earth and all its species in one fell swoop, installing Homo sapiens near the top of the great chain of being. Darwin showed otherwise: new life forms, including humans, come into being as generations adapt to change over millions of years, and all species share one immense family tree. Darwin was widely attacked; as his biographer Janet Browne put it, his theory outraged competitors and turned “friends into deadly foes.”
Unexploded WWII Bombs Have Grown More Dangerous Over Time
Long-buried bombs leftover from World War I and World War II have become more volatile, a new study finds, raising the odds that a dormant bomb detonates. During those wars, bombs sometimes lodged in the ground or sunk to the bottom of the sea, but did not explode. Leftover bombs are still sometimes unearthed in a back garden, found washed up on the beach, or caught in fishing net. Officials are typically able to isolate these bombs and detonate them in a secluded place — though not always. Occasionally, for instance, an excavator will strike a dormant bomb at a construction site, with deadly results.
Climate Change Is Altering the Earth’s Rotation, Affecting Global Timekeeping
The Earth is spinning slightly faster than it was a few years ago, but the rapid melt of polar ice is keeping that acceleration in check, with consequences for timekeeping, a new study finds. The planet’s solid inner core rotates unevenly, and at present it’s gaining pace, causing the Earth...
At 11,500 Feet, a ‘Climate Fast’ to Save the Melting Himalaya
This month, Indian activist Sonam Wangchuk conducted a 21-day “climate fast” in his native Ladakh in the Himalaya. He had two objectives: to call the world’s attention to the rapid meltdown of the planet’s “third pole” and to pressure India’s government to grant Ladakhis the power to legally protect the region’s resources.
This Map Shows Where Planting Trees Would Make Climate Change Worse
Though oft touted as a fix for climate change, planting trees could, in some regions, make warming more severe, a new study finds. Trees draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping to keep warming in check. But their dark, green leaves also absorb heat from sunlight. Snow and sand, by virtue of their light color, reflect more sunlight back into space. As such, trees growing in snowy areas or in the desert will absorb more sunlight than their surroundings, which may negate the climate benefit of soaking up carbon dioxide.
Octopuses Are Highly Intelligent. Should They Be Farmed for Food?
In the wild, octopods are solitary animals that roam freely in the sea. They spend their days and nights catching prey with their eight arms. With their big eyes, they observe closely what’s going on around them in reefs and on the ocean floor, tasting with their suction cups and changing the color of their skin to blend with their environment.
In Our Age of Fire Suppression, Only the Biggest Blazes Survive
While forest managers have proved adept of stamping out small wildfires, they have been less successful at suppressing larger, more devastating burns. The result is that wildfires are more severe, on average, than they would be without human intervention. This phenomenon, called “suppression bias,” is reshaping forests. Scientists compared “suppression...
Yale Environment 360
1K+
Posts
615K+
Views
Yale Environment 360 is an online magazine offering opinion, analysis, reporting, and debate on global environmental issues.
Welcome to NewsBreak, an open platform where diverse perspectives converge. Most of our content comes from established publications and journalists, as well as from our extensive network of tens of thousands of creators who contribute to our platform. We empower individuals to share insightful viewpoints through short posts and comments. It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency: our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. We strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation. Join us in shaping the news narrative together.