A climate researcher who was fired from his job for refusing to take a flight back from a work trip has been awarded compensation in court for unfair dismissal.

Gianluca Grimalda has been reducing his air travel since 2010. But in 2023, his employer, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) in Germany, terminated his contract after he refused to fly and expedite his travel from Papua New Guinea to Germany.

Grimalda said in a statement that the institute had approved his plan to return by “slow travel” from his field work in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. However, he was unable to appear on the agreed date due to “visa deferrals, security threats, volcano activity and other logistical impediments.”

The case became the first known instance of an employee being sacked for declining to ride an aircraft to reduce carbon emissions.

Grimalda told Mongabay by email that “slow travel” means avoiding plane rides, unless there’s no alternative. “However, sometimes it’s just a matter of time,” Grimalda said. “Sooner or later you’ll find a ship or some means of transport alternative to the plane. … I think I will never fly any more.”

His research trip in 2023 meant taking 40 days to travel from Europe to Bougainville and 72 days to return. According to his calculations, carbon emissions from this slow 28,000-kilometer (17,400-mile) round trip was 10 times lower than flying.

On Jan. 10, Grimalda and IfW agreed with the settlement proposed by the Kiel Regional Labor Court, which included an undisclosed severance amount and stated the contract was terminated “because of incompatible ideological convictions between the parties”. The court ordered IfW to exonerate Grimalda from any breach of contract.

Grimalda said he will donate 75,000 euros ($78,000) from his payment to environmental protection and climate activism.

Grimalda’s lawyer, Jörn A. Broschat said in the statement the case shows the “growing intersection between labor law and climate-conscious practices.” He said lawmakers and workers’ groups should consider the climate principles of employees as part of labor rights.

Grimalda said flying can contribute to 90% of a researcher’s personal carbon footprint. He added that while he does not want to detract from the responsibility of corporations and the rich, “people trust scientists, and scientists’ behavior can have broad ramifications across society.”

Academics “modifying their personal contribution to greenhouse gas emissions is an important way to demonstrate credibility,” French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) research director Wolfgang Cramer said in the statement.

Grimalda said he has mixed feelings about the win since he loved the job he lost. He has yet to find a new job but he plans to go back to Papua New Guinea to continue his research.

“I hope that my case will inspire more employees, institutions and companies to actively support the transition from fossil fuel-based economies to decarbonized and people-centered societies,” he said.

Banner image of Gianluca Grimalda on a cargo ship courtesy of Gianluca Grimalda.

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon dropped by 7% in 2024 compared to 2023, according to an analysis by Imazon, a Brazil-based organization that uses satellite imagery to monitor changes in the world’s largest rainforest. However, the news was not entirely positive for conservation efforts: forest degradation skyrocketed by 497%, driven primarily by fires that scorched vast areas of drought-stricken rainforest.

The findings align with official data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE). In November, INPE released preliminary figures showing a 31% decline in deforestation for the year ending July 31, 2024. However, INPE’s DETER alert system also recorded a sharp rise in forest degradation.

Imazon reported 36,379 square kilometers of degraded land in 2024, the highest level in 15 years. By comparison, only 6,092 km² of degradation was registered in 2023.

Pará led all states in deforestation for the ninth consecutive year, with 1,260 km² of forest loss, followed by Amazonas with 820 km². Pará also topped the list for forest degradation, with 17,195 km² affected.

Severe droughts have worsened the Amazon’s challenges. Two consecutive years of extreme dry conditions fueled fires in areas that are typically too humid to burn.

The Amazon is increasingly vulnerable to climate change, compounded by ongoing deforestation and forest degradation. Scientists warn that these pressures are destabilizing the ecosystem, leading to widespread tree die-offs in the southern and eastern regions. If these trends continue unchecked, they could disrupt continental rainfall patterns and trigger a sharp decline in species that depend on the rainforest.

Deforestation in the Amazon has been slowing over the past three years, but degradation poses a growing threat to its survival.

Header image: Greenpeace Brazil conducted an aerial survey in southern Amazonas and northern Rondônia to monitor deforestation and fires in July 2024. Photo © Marizilda Cruppe / Greenpeace.

The Marshall Islands government has announced it will protect an area of the Pacific Ocean described as one of the most “remote, pristine” marine ecosystems on Earth.

The 48,000-square-kilometer (18,500-square-mile) marine sanctuary covers two of the country’s northernmost uninhabited atolls, Bikar and Bokak, and the surrounding deep sea, and it is the first federal marine protected area (MPA) established by the Pacific Island nation nestled between Hawaii and the Philippines.

“The ocean as our ancestors knew it is vanishing,” Hilda Heine, the president of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, said in a press statement announcing the measure on Jan. 28. “Without sustainable ocean ecosystems, our economy, stability and cultural identity will collapse. The only way to continue benefiting from the ocean’s treasures is to protect it.”  

Fishing and other extractive activities, which were already minimal due to generations of custodianship by the Utrik community, will now be strictly forbidden, future-proofing the area against threats and formalizing protections.

The area is teeming with rare and endangered marine wildlife, including green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) and fish species such as the Napoleon wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus) and the bumphead parrotfish (Bolbometopon muricatum). Researchers also noted there is a high potential for discovering new species of fish and invertebrates in the deep seas.

In the lead-up to the MPA’s creation, National Geographic’s Pristine Seas team led by marine biologist Enric Sala, in collaboration the Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority, spent almost 650 hours diving in the Marshall Islands to study marine life as part of a five-year expedition across the Pacific.

Their findings were significant: The region had the highest reef fish biomass in the Pacific Ocean. Giant clams (Tridacna maxima) were found in huge numbers. Deep-sea sharks, many of which are threatened, were abundant. And the atolls not only had the highest coral cover in the central and western Pacific but were also found to be especially resilient to global warming.

“Bikar and Bokak’s coral reefs are a time machine, like diving in the ocean of 1,000 years ago,” Sala wrote in a press release. “They are our best baselines for what the ocean could look like if we truly let it be.” 

The expedition also visited neighboring Bikini Atoll, where the U.S. conducted 23 nuclear bomb tests in the 1940s and ‘50s, and found that marine life had still not recovered, noting the presence of “pulverized, dead reef with not much living on it.”

The federal government of the Marshall Islands, which reclaimed independence in 1983, is now incorporating traditional knowledge in its conservation strategy called Reimaanlok. The approach, which means “look toward the future” in Marshallese, includes coastal communities in decision-making processes on how to manage the nation’s oceans and land.

Banner image: The Marshall Islands’ new marine sanctuary will protect one of the most pristine areas of the Pacific Ocean. Image courtesy of Manu San Félix/National Geographic Pristine Seas.

The ongoing Los Angeles fires have burned more than 16,000 structures, many of them full of synthetic materials that, when burned, release chemicals toxic to both humans and wildlife.

When things like furniture, electronics, flooring, paint, insulation and water pipes burn, they can release a toxic cocktail of chemicals, such as dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and asbestos — all known carcinogens. For humans, such chemical exposure can cause “more diabetes, more heart disease, more high blood pressure,” Dr. David Carpenter, a public health physician at the University at Albany, U.S., told Mongabay by phone. “And same thing goes for wildlife.”

Past studies have found that wildlife exposed to human-made chemicals like dioxins and PCBs develop serious health problems.

Lee Kats, a biology professor at Pepperdine University in California, U.S., said the biggest danger for wildlife in an urban fire is being caught in the plume of toxic smoke. “It could potentially be even lethal if they’re actually receiving the plume directly,” Kats told Mongabay by phone.

Kats, who has been studying the effects of fire on wildlife for more than 30 years,  said that in 2018 he noticed something unusual: After that year’s Woolsey Fire — also in L.A., which burned 1,600 structures, one-tenth the number that burned this time around — he observed amphibians including newts and California tree frogs that were “emaciated, clearly operating under stress.”

“They’re clearly not being able to maintain weight,” he said. “Often it translates into some wounds, sores. They’re not injuries. Often cataract like cloudiness on the eyes and, frankly, significant mortality. None of those things are necessarily what you would expect just from a wildfire, like off in the woods.”

Wildfires often damage fish and amphibian habitats, Kats added. When forests burn, ash frequently washes into waterways, and without tree roots to keep soil intact, riverbanks easily erode. Consequently, streams become filled with soil and debris, and pools that are normally about 2 meters (6 feet) deep shrink to just centimeters within a few months.

“What we see historically is, oh, gosh, there’s no place for them [fish and amphibians] to lay their eggs. The adults have done their migration to the creek and they kind of throw their hands up like, ‘Where am I supposed to go? There’s no habitat here,’” Kats said.

That reduced habitat for breeding can lead to a drop in population, he added, “but never after a wildfire [do] these animals look sick.”

Kats cautioned that his observations are correlation, not causation. He hasn’t yet formally studied the Woolsey Fire streams or published his observations.

He said the fundamental problem is that with climate change, “frequency of wildfire is increasing. While many of these organisms are adapted to wildfire, they’re not adapted to it if the wildfires are coming through every six or seven years.”

Banner image of wildlife during a fire in Bitterroot National Forest. Image courtesy of John McColgan via the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources.

Back-to-back storms have ravaged the U.K. and neighboring Ireland and France, causing torrential rains, power outages and flooding the past several days and overall “wild weather,” the Associated Press reported.

Storm Éowyn first struck the Britain and Ireland on Jan. 23, bringing with it heavy rains and strong winds, followed by Storm Herminia soon after.

The Met, the government’s weather bureau, said in a Jan. 27 release that “it will be an unsettled start of the week” with national severe weather warnings in place.

Herminia pummeled southern England with wind gusts of up to 84 miles per hour (135 kilometers per hour) over the weekend, while more than 2,380 properties had power outages, according to the National Grid.

Around 100 people were evacuated from floods in places like Somerset in southwest England. Schools were also closed, and flights and trains throughout the country were delayed or canceled.

Meanwhile, Storm Eowyn left around 60,000 properties in Northern Ireland without electricity. North Ireland’s first minister had called for support following the devastation of the “once-in-a-generation” storm.

Scotland was also heavily affected by Eowyn, with its first minister, John Swinney, calling it a “warning that climate change is with us.” He said reconnecting tens of thousands of homes to electricity was a “colossal” task and that almost 8,000 remain unconnected.

Two young men were killed in separate incidents of falling trees in Scotland and Ireland.

Meteorologists have termed Eowyn a “bomb” cyclone for its rapid and severe intensification. Meteorologists Suzanne Gray and Ambrogio Volonté from the University of Reading wrote in The Conversation that a strong temperature contrast between the cold air in the eastern U.S. and warmer air in the western North Atlantic have made the jet stream over the North Atlantic Ocean stronger, which in turn fueled the storm’s development.

The strong jet stream was even reported to have pushed a British Airways flight to a near-record ground speed of 814 mph (1,310 km/h), just 21 mph (34 km/h) shy of the subsonic speed record of 835 mph (1344 km/h). By maximizing the tailwind, the Airbus A350 was able to reduce its flight time by an hour.

The link between climate change and the strong winds of storms like Eowyn is yet to be assessed, meteorologists told local media.

Gray and Volonté also wrote that “to date, the observed trends in storminess have not provided a conclusive link with climate change.”

Herminia has wreaked havoc in France as well, causing flooding that left cars submerged. The city of Rennes experienced its worst flooding in 40 years, the city’s mayor told media.

Residents in western France had to escape flooded homes using boats, AP reported, and around 400 residents had to be evacuated to gyms that have been turned into temporary shelters.

Banner image of St. Bernard’s Church in Ireland following Storm Éowyn, by Riversting via  Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The Democratic Republic of Congo has commissioned year-long audits of French-British multinational Perenco to assess “the reality” of its oil production and environmental impacts.

The DRC’s Ministry of Hydrocarbons has appointed U.K.-based Alex Stewart International (ASI) to examine the technical and operational aspects of Perenco’s oil production activities, including a review of the company’s declared production figures, local media reported.

A second firm, consultancy Environmental Resources Management (ERM), is investigating the company’s environmental impact.

“Perenco DRC was notified of the audits in December 2024 and is working closely with the Ministry through the process,” a company spokesperson told Mongabay by email.

Perenco is the only oil producer in the DRC, operating onshore and offshore fields in the coastal Muanda region of Kongo Central province. It began operating at Muanda in 2001, close to the DRC’s only marine protected area. Residents and various NGOs have since accused the firm of polluting the environment through its oil spills, improper burial of toxic waste, and natural gas flaring that’s impacted residents’ health and livelihoods, Mongabay previously reported.

In 2013, a government-sanctioned commission found the soil at Muanda was heavily polluted and there was a doubling of reported cases of respiratory illness in local health centers soon after Perenco arrived. The commission recommended that the DRC government “enforce environmental laws and require Perenco to redo its social and environmental impact study,” Mongabay reported.

Given the lack of action since then, however, French NGOs Sherpa and Friends of the Earth France, supported by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA-US), filed a lawsuit against Perenco in November 2022. They asked a civil court in Paris, where the company is headquartered, to hold it liable for the environmental harms it has caused in the DRC.

“The fact that the Congolese government has sought to mandate audits on Perenco’s oil activities highlights the opacity surrounding the group’s operations, which Sherpa and its partners have been denouncing for several years,” Théa Bounfour, senior advocacy and litigation officer at Sherpa, told Mongabay by email.

Perenco’s spokesperson told Mongabay the company “recognises that [environmental] incidents relating to its activities have occurred in the past,” but added these incidents “are very localised, minor and limited.” They said “malicious acts” on their facilities like pipelines are “quite common” and “systematically reported to the local authorities.”

ERM’s spokesperson declined to comment on the environmental audit, citing confidentiality of their client’s work.

Meanwhile, ASI’s audit will scrutinize Perenco’s operations, including its long declared production cap of 20,000-25,000 barrels per day.

Regarding the DRC authorities’ questioning of the accuracy of these figures, Perenco’s spokesperson said daily oil production over the past five years has ranged from 15,000-25,000 barrels, averaging 19,500 barrels per day. The variations, they added, are the result of either investments, when production goes up, or natural declines of mature oil reservoirs, when output drops.

Banner image of Perenco oil facilities at Muanda, by papagaio-pirata via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).