Sulawesi nickel plant coats nearby homes in toxic dust
BANTAENG, Indonesia — Stepping into Mustajab Syahrir’s home in the village of Papan Loe feels like treading on a beach of fine sand. “What am I supposed to do?” Mustajab…
Indonesia’s grand EV plans hinge on a ‘green’ industrial park that likely isn’t
Since proclaiming independence in 1945, Indonesia's leaders have not been shy about their ambitions to transform the county into an economic powerhouse. For decades, economic plans relied heavily on extracting…
Nickel, Tesla and two decades of environmental activism: Q&A with leader Raphaël Mapou
GORO, New Caledonia – Known widely as the “Madagascar of the Pacific,” New Caledonia is coated in remnant Gondwana rainforest and surrounded by reefs rich in marine life that constitute one…
All eyes on Tesla as it invests in a troubled nickel mine
GORO, New Caledonia — On the south side of Grand Terre, the largest and principal island of New Caledonia in the south Pacific, mountains rise like a spine out of a…
EVs from Everest? Chinese lithium find in Himalayas raises concerns over water
The recent discovery near Mount Everest of “super large” deposits of lithium, the key element in the batteries powering electric vehicles, has raised concerns over the fate of water resources…
At a Native massacre site, tribes brace for a new, lithium-driven rush
On the border of northern Nevada and southeastern Oregon sits a caldera that formed around 16 million years ago through the collapse of a super volcano’s lava dome. Its formation…
Red seas and no fish: Nickel mining takes its toll on Indonesia’s spice islands
HALMAHERA, Indonesia — Yoksan Jurumudi came home with a long face after spending the whole day looking for fish in the waters off the Obi Islands in Indonesia’s North Maluku…
Podcast: Who benefits from resource extraction in the DRC?
Today we’re looking at the ways resource extraction is impacting the people and the environment in one of the world’s most important tropical forest nations, the Democratic Republic of Congo.…
Drive toward green cars shouldn’t rely on mining seabed, conservationists say
Conservationists are calling on electric car and technology companies to disassociate from deep-sea mining, an emerging industry that promises to procure the minerals necessary for battery storage applications, but that…
Indonesia bets on biofuels over oil, but EVs could render both moot
JAKARTA — The rapid development of electric vehicles looks set to overtake the biofuel infrastructure that Indonesia is investing heavily in, and could render the country’s alternative-fuel model redundant, new…
Locals stage latest fight against PNG mine dumping waste into sea
A coalition of more than 5,000 villagers and a provincial government in Papua New Guinea has built a legal challenge against the world’s most productive battery nickel plant. The company,…
Indonesian miners eyeing EV nickel boom seek to dump waste into the sea
JAKARTA — As Indonesia ramps up its mining sector to feed the world’s hunger for zero-emission vehicles, it is faced with a problem: what to do with all the waste.…
Idea that electric cars might produce as much emissions as fossil-fueled vehicles ‘essentially a myth’
Electric cars are intended to help mitigate the climate impacts of the transportation sector, which is responsible for about 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions. But since electric vehicles, in…
Shift to renewable energy could have biodiversity cost, researchers caution
Climate change has widely reported negative consequences, including exacerbating severe weather patterns, harming wildlife and potentially worsening human conflict and migration. In an attempt to minimize these planetary changes, the…
Bachmann was right? $2 gas, with a catch
One of Republican House member Michele Bachmann's most famous and controversial campaign promises — that Americans would see $2-a-gallon gasoline prices if she were elected president — may have come…
Toyota, GM: Hydrogen fuels cells are not viable
Toyota, GM: Hydrogen fuels cells are not viable in the near-term Toyota, GM: Hydrogen fuels cells are not viable mongabay.com March 5, 2008 Executives from General Motors Corp. and Toyota…
Honda sees no future for plug-in hybrid vehicles
Honda sees no future for plug-in hybrid vehicles Honda sees no future for plug-in hybrid vehicles mongabay.com October 23, 2007 Honda Motor Co. Chief Executive Takeo Fukui said plug-in hybrid…
Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles will cut pollution, emissions, oil use
Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles will cut pollution, emissions, oil use Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles will cut pollution, emissions, oil use mongabay.com July 20, 2007 Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) could…
Ford Motor to introduce plug-in hybrids, but lags behind rivals
Ford Motor to introduce plug-in hybrids, but lags behind rivals Ford Motor to introduce plug-in hybrids, but lags behind rivals mongabay.com July 10, 2007 Monday Ford Motor Co. announced a…
Google to be carbon neutral by year end
Google to be carbon neutral by year end Google to be carbon neutral by year end mongabay.com June 20, 2007 Google Inc. aims to be carbon neutral by the end…
Google will put $10M towards plug-in hybrid cars
Google will put $10M towards plug-in hybrid cars Google will put $10M towards plug-in hybrid cars Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com June 19, 2007 Google.org, Google Inc.'s philanthropic arm, unveiled an…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Indigenous communities in Peru ‘living in fear’ due to deforestation, drug trafficking
- Indigenous community in Peru losing forests to timber, drug, land trafficking
- Bolivian protected areas hit hard by forest fires
- The protected area that isn’t: Bolivia’s Ñembi Guasu beset by fires, farms, roads
Oceans
- Indonesian authorities nip island auction in marine reserve in the bud
- ‘It was a shark operation’: Q&A with Indonesian crew abused on Chinese shark-finning boat
- Fishers in Flores Sea opt to limit harvest of overexploited sea cucumbers
- As shark numbers plummet, nations seek ban on devastatingly effective gear
Amazon Conservation
- To be effective, zero-deforestation pledges need a critical mass, study shows
- Indigenous youths lured by the illegal mines destroying their Amazon homeland
- U.N. report calls for the ban of mercury trade and its use in gold mining
- Following the impacts of palm oil alliance: Violated regulations and penalty proceedings
Land rights and extractives
- To replace Western food imports, Cameroon gives community lands to ‘no-name’ agro-industry
- Indigenous youths lured by the illegal mines destroying their Amazon homeland
- About 72% of gold miners poisoned with mercury at artisanal mining sites in Cameroon
- ‘We go in and take Indigenous lands back from cattle ranchers’: Q&A with activist Pablo Sibar
Endangered Environmentalists
- Worries and whispers in Vietnam’s NGO community after activist’s sentencing
- Scientists call for end to violence against Amazon communities, environmental defenders
- Indigenous advocates sense a legal landmark as a guardian’s killing heads to trial
- In Brazil, an Indigenous land defender’s unsolved killing is the deadly norm
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
- After 20 years and thousands of trees planted, Kalimantan’s veteran forester persists
- Aziil Anwar, Indonesian coral-based mangrove grower, dies at 64
- A utopia of clean air and wet peat amid Sumatra’s forest fire ‘hell’
Conservation Effectiveness
- Mangrove forest loss is slowing toward a halt, new report shows
- ‘South Asia needs its own tiger plan’: Q&A with Nepal’s Maheshwar Dhakal
- Nepal was supposed to double its tiger population since 2010. It tripled it
- In prioritizing conservation, animal culture should be a factor, study says
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- Tunnel collapse at dam project in orangutan habitat claims yet another life
- Sulawesi nickel plant coats nearby homes in toxic dust
- Indonesia’s grand EV plans hinge on a ‘green’ industrial park that likely isn’t
- Java communities rally as clock ticks on cleanup of ‘world’s dirtiest river’
