Nature and health News

RSS
163 stories
Fisherman from the Sawré Muybu Indigenous Territory with his catch from the Tapajós River. Image courtesy of Luis Ushirobira/InfoAmazonia.

Artisanal mines in Brazil a front for gold laundering, investigation shows

Mongabay.com 21 May 2026

Measures must be taken now to prevent pandemics at the source, says epidemiologist

Mike DiGirolamo 19 May 2026

More than a million live birds imported to Asia in 15 years, report finds

Mongabay.com 18 May 2026
Tufted-tailed rat (Eliurus sp) in Madagascar. Photo by Elise Paietta

In one forest, native rats remain. In another, only invaders.

Rhett Ayers Butler 7 May 2026
This red-tailed monkey was photographed at a hotel in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

As wildlife trade expands, so do pathways for disease spillover to humans

Cate Twining-Ward 4 May 2026
Tufted-tailed rat (Eliurus sp) in Madagascar. Photo by Elise Paietta

Why forest conservation is also public health

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Apr 2026
Excavations at the mine, which has been found to be the source of the pollution in two rivers in Karonga district. Image by Jordan Simeon Phiri for Mongabay.

Malawi government suspends coal miner’s license over river pollution

Charles Mpaka 20 Apr 2026
A yellow-fronted canary from South Africa. The songbird tops the list of wild birds exported from Africa to Asia.

Nearly a million birds shipped from Africa to Asia in 15 years; canaries top the list

Spoorthy Raman 15 Apr 2026
Sunset over the tropical Pacific Ocean off Hawai‘i. The new study points to the climactic interconnectivity of the world’s warming oceans, where humid heat waves often originate, and faraway terrestrial landscapes, where humid heat waves can threaten public health.

Tropics take the brunt as hotter oceans drive large-scale humid heat waves: Study

Adam Litchkofski 10 Apr 2026
A chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) is weighed at a live poultry market in West Harlem as a customer stands nearby. The stacking of live animal cages allows bodily waste to drop into the cages below, facilitating disease spread. Image by Cate Twining-Ward.

Avian bird flu surges in New York urban wildlife, increasing disease concerns

Cate Twining-Ward 7 Apr 2026
Muskoxen on Ellesmere Island. As a species, muskoxen have been around for a million years and are often called “ice-age survivors.” Though they have one of the lowest levels of genetic diversity of any mammal, the full suite of immune-related genes are intact in the species, says muskox expert Anne Gunn.

Canadian muskoxen hit by double punch of novel diseases and climate change

Ruth Kamnitzer 3 Apr 2026

Disastrous floods in Colombia reignite debate over hydroelectric dam

Euan Wallace 13 Mar 2026
Open burning of plastic in a community in Guiyu, China. This practice is fast becoming a common way to dispose of plastic and other waste.

Plastic household waste burned as fuel on rise in Global South, risking health

Sean Mowbray 5 Feb 2026
Soil microbes. Invisible to the naked eye, microbial communities play a huge role in planetary processes, such as nutrient cycling, and are vital to ecosystem and human health.

IUCN launches group to conserve at-risk microbes vital to life on Earth

Sean Mowbray 21 Jan 2026
Misty morning in Borneo. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

Rethinking how we talk about conservation—and why it matters

Rhett Ayers Butler 19 Dec 2025
A sewage outlet in Bangkok.

Marine heat waves and raw sewage combine to put human health at risk

Sean Mowbray 18 Dec 2025
Smoke rises from a coal-burning power plant. Refuse-derived fuel (RDF), which includes large amounts of plastics, is replacing fossil fuels in some energy and industrial furnaces. But critics say this practice is merely replacing one dirty fuel for another.

Boom in burning waste for fuel could put human health and environment at risk

Sean Mowbray 10 Dec 2025
Bamboo lemur in Madagascar. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

Lemurs are at risk. So are the people protecting them.

Rhett Ayers Butler 7 Dec 2025
Spraying pesticides on a field. Chemical pesticides have become ubiquitous in industrial agriculture, and have contributed to a rapid rise in chronic diseases, researchers say.

‘Silent epidemic of chemical pollution’ demands radical regulatory redo, say scientists

Mike Gaworecki 3 Dec 2025
Collage: Elise Paietta, postdoctoral research scholar during fieldwork, with tropical forest

How do we stop the next pandemic?

Abhishyant Kidangoor 26 Nov 2025
A forest fire in Acre, the westernmost state of the Brazilian Amazon. Image courtesy of Victor Moriyama/Clean Air Fund.

Soot: The super-pollutant choking a burning Earth, in photos

Shanna Hanbury 20 Nov 2025
American Avocet. Image by Michael Barry via Pixabay (Pixabay Content License).

Bird-watching for nature connection & social justice

Mike DiGirolamo 7 Oct 2025
Palm civet in a wildlife farm in Dong Nai Province, Viet Nam. Image courtesy of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

New global guidelines needed to rein in the wildlife pet trade (commentary)

Elizabeth Bennett 7 Oct 2025
Waorani leader Nemonte Nenquimo with elders and community leaders.

Protecting Indigenous Amazon lands may also protect public health, study says

Constance Malleret 19 Sep 2025
An Indigenous Tikuna man in the Amazon Rainforest in Colombia. Some researchers oppose the idea that human cultures would have been limited and determined by the environment, and that supports the notion that human cultures have modified the environment as desired. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Forests on Indigenous lands help protect health in the Amazon

Rhett Ayers Butler 12 Sep 2025
Waste burning in the Maldives. Open burning of plastic is a cheap way of reducing waste volume, but the practice is rife with health and environmental risks.

Global South bears growing burden of health threats from plastic burning

Mongabay.com 25 Aug 2025
The waters along the Baliara coast, home to the Bajo people, have been contaminated by mining waste. Image courtesy of Satya Bumi.

Indonesia’s Bajau fishers lament nickel mining’s marine pollution

Mongabay.com 21 Aug 2025

Argentina’s elephant seals face 100-year recovery after avian flu devastation: Study

Astrid Arellano 20 Aug 2025

As climate change burdens grow, community mental health alarm bells ring

Petro Kotzé 14 Aug 2025
Banner image of smoggy air in Dakar, Senegal, by Issiaga via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Study links long-term exposure to air pollution with increased dementia risk

Kristine Sabillo 5 Aug 2025
A waste site near Mombasa, Kenya. Separating plastic waste from growing mountains of domestic trash is a huge hurdle facing the world’s communities.

Open burning of plastic is an escalating public health threat, say experts

Sean Mowbray 17 Jul 2025
Banner image of buildings in New York, U.S., by Dietmar Rabich via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

104 companies linked to 20% of global environmental conflicts, study finds

Kristine Sabillo 30 Jun 2025

you're currently offline