Erik Hoffner
@erikhoffner.bsky.social
Editor, photojournalist & award-winning podcast producer for nonprofit news outlet @Mongabay. Member of Society of Envi Journalists & Vermont Center for Photography
Wow. Based on underwater footage and firsthand observations, scientists conclude orca whales, which have been ramming boats off the coasts of Portugal and Spain, aren’t trying to harm humans. Instead, they probably just want to play. www.science.org/content/arti...
Are these killer whales out for revenge on humans—or just trying to play?
Iberian orcas have been ramming boats off the coast of Portugal and Spain. But what looks like vengeance may have a more benign explanation
science.org
1st episode of podcast season 5 is live! @billmckibben.bsky.social and I interviewed Dr. @leahstokes.bsky.social to reflect/debrief on the IRA, bemoan the absurdity of climate hushing, and hear her pitch for abandoning the term “carbon footprint.” ayanaelizabeth.substack.com/p/climate-hu...
Climate hushing, EVs 🔌 and creating “The Carbon Wave,” with Leah Stokes
We are live with podcast Season 5 🎙️✨
ayanaelizabeth.substack.com
Lowell passes about 100 miles west of Hawaii tonight. Hurricane warning for Kauai and Niihau, statewide emergency, up to 10 inches of rain in the forecast. Same week, LA got its first measurable rain in months, in September, off Marie from 770 miles out. Climate change is the threat multiplier.
Everyone's reporting on this looming horror show for #astronomy etc, now @the-independent.com too: "A runaway chain reaction known as the #Kesslersyndrome could see cascading collisions create a cloud of debris so dense that launching rockets becomes impossible – effectively trapping us on Earth."
A million satellites are heading to space. They could change the night sky forever
AI firms and governments are planning space-based data centres and Elon Musk claims it will take us closer to a sci-fi utopia. That maybe so, but it could also cost us our stargazing past, writes Anth...
the-independent.com
Trail camera below the house shows this bruin passed by at 9:05am during its Monday morning commute:
Backyard bolete bonanza ~ now have 2 groups of delicious porcinis growing under spruce & fir near the house Second fruiting this rainy summer 💯 Buried spores in soil here from gills of ones foraged elsewhere ~ this #fungi species is symbiotic w/ trees & prefer evergreen ones
Terrific short video exploring the sudden rise in #octopus numbers in England through various perspectives #scicomm 🧪 From research to fishing communities, kitchens and coastal waters, each scene tells a wider story about adaptation & change: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEK8...
Thinning hospital staff by day, Baystate CEO Peter Banko has apparently been waxing poetic by night, crafting lines like “You will have to fire your Spongebob.” In our latest, Will Meyer read and reviewed Banko’s book on how to fire people, and still feel good about yourself, so we don’t have to:
BOOK REVIEW: Baystate Health CEO’s guide on how to fire people
Peter Banko lands on such insights as “You will have to fire your Spongebob” as workers argue the healthcare company’s staffing shortages endanger patients.
theshoestring.org
This is part of the plan to starve universities and keep the one that remains beholden to the state. "The loss of 111,000 intl. students in the school year that has just begun will cost the US $3.4 billion and almost 40,000 jobs, says a new study" www.universityworldnews.com/post-mobile....
US$3.4 billion loss from drop in international students
The loss of 111,000 international students in the school year that has just begun will cost the United States US$3.4 billion and almost 40,000 job...
universityworldnews.com
Amazon's own balance sheet presents the most compelling evidence that we are stuck in the Enshittocene, the era in which everything is turning into a pile of shit, because the worst ideas of the worst people now make the most money. 1/
Again, Francis blew the doors off so Leo could set up shop - After Francis created the term ‘ecolological sin,’ Leo codifies it - to attack the environment is to attack your neighbours, especially the poor - this is singled out - & that’s a sin against God… www.americamagazine.org/news/2026/09...
Vatican theological commission defines ‘sin against creation and the Creator’ in new document
The more than 29,000 word text calls for ecological conversion due to “sin against creation and the Creator.”
americamagazine.org
"Our analysis of IEA data reveals that more than 70% of all critical minerals end up in products and infrastructure wholly unrelated to the green transition "Only 1/5 of projected mineral demand is actually needed" to scale up #renewableenergy for a net-zero future, says a new @mongabay.com op-ed
On renewable energy, it’s time to debunk the ‘transition minerals’ narrative (commentary)
There is an insidious lie that has taken root in the energy transition narrative pushed by the world’s most powerful financial, political, and environmental institutions: we need to massively scale up...
news.mongabay.com
Boardwalk imaged on 120 infrared film via extreme fisheye lens for dreamlike effect Totally manual camera I used adds to the drama — guessing at the settings & focus feels free vs the super automatic kits we typically shoot with these days See more here: www.instagram.com/erikhoffner
NEW ICE wants to build a nationwide database of voters, their voting history and, potentially, their party affiliations too. ....and it's willing to pay someone up to $5M to do it www.wired.com/story/ice-pl...
ICE Plans to Pay $5 Million to Create National Voting Database
As part of a broader DHS surge to investigate alleged voter fraud, ICE has announced it plans to pay up to $5 million to create what amounts to a federal voter database.
wired.com
That's a really interesting, thoughtful, and well-supported point that you've made there. Shame I've already decided to interpret it in the worst possible light and call you a monster for what I'm wrongly claiming you said.
MAGA’s hunt for a “censorship–industrial complex” has failed to yield any evidence, yet the conspiracy theory persists—with real-world consequences, @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu argues:
The MAGA Right Is Only Pretending to Be Censored
The conspiracy theory that persists even though no evidence supports it
bit.ly
[Founder's briefs] Before Indonesia’s new capital city alters the surrounding rainforest, researchers are using bioacoustic recorders to establish a baseline of wildlife sounds. The project tracks species loss while preserving Indigenous Balik ecological knowledge. By Rhett Ayers Butler.
Recording a rainforest before Indonesia’s new capital changes it
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In the forests around Pemaluan in East Kalimantan, Indonesian…
mongabay.cc
Vital Impacts Fellowships & Mentorships applications are open again, supporting #photography documenting the people, places & issues shaping the planet's future $50,000 in fellowship funding & 10 mentorships w/ top #photographers offered by @vitalimpacts.bsky.social learn more here:
Vital Impacts Environmental Photography Fellowships and Mentorships - Picter
Empowering photographers and storytellers to tell powerful, long-term stories about the people and communities protecting our planet and wildlife.
site.picter.com
The Siraya Indigenous people's language was thought to be "extinct" for over a century after they were pushed and coerced to be assimilated to Taiwan's Chinese population. But they managed to revive it, with a Philippine connection playing a crucial role. From @mongabay.com:
Siraya language, deemed ‘extinct’ over a century ago, finds its voice again in Taiwan
TAINAN, Taiwan — Since she was old enough to understand it, Uma Talavan has known she belongs to the Indigenous Siraya people. She knew almost nothing of her ethnicity, however, the identity of which...
news.mongabay.com
New research models the #SpaceX plan for putting a million-AI-satellites in orbit --> Key finding: This for-profit project *no one asked for* could dominate the naked-eye sky at many times, almost everywhere on earth: spacedaily.com/t-one-millio... That's an #astronomy killer & beauty assassin 🔭⭐💫
[Commentary] Nigeria's new Lagos–Calabar Coastal Highway can deliver needed infrastructure while protecting vital mangroves and swamps. In a new op-ed, Mahmoud Ibrahim Mahmoud argues that using impact assessments allows development to proceed without destroying the natural systems.
Nigeria can build the new coastal highway and also protect natural areas (commentary)
Nigeria needs road infrastructure for improved living conditions. Anyone who has watched trucks crawl out of Lagos, farmers and fishermen struggle to reach markets, or small coastal businesses lose…
mongabay.cc
Success: a 'new gen' Hubble scope is aloft & named after Nancy Grace Roman, a pioneer and first female executive at NASA as well as the agency's first chief of #astronomy Called the "mother of Hubble" because of her contributions to that mission & research generally, this new scope may dazzle us:
'It's going to do things that currently are impossible': The Roman Space Telescope, NASA's next great observatory, is ready to launch Aug. 30
Roman's month of Milky Way observations would take Hubble about a century to complete.
space.com
Researchers want people #fishing the fall run to remember "30" 🧪 i.e. the max seconds to keep a #fish out of the water before release, to give it the best chance at survival ~ useful Globe article, www.bostonglobe.com/2026/08/28/s... ...featuring a photo of the *worst* way to release a striper:
SCOOP: Trump officials are pressuring the National Park Service to find a way to give a small piece of Yosemite to a private developer. The land would be used for a road, to give the developer rare private access to the heart of the park.
Trump’s Quietly Working to Give Part of Yosemite to a Private Developer
The National Park Service is under pressure to make an unprecedented deal that cedes a quarter-mile strip of the park.
notus.org
A Kathmandu-based @mongabay.com news team colleague says if you are looking to support flood relief efforts in #Nepal you can contribute directly to the Prime Ministers Disaster Relief Fund Each contribution supports relief & recovery efforts for affected families & communities: pmdrf.nchl.com.np
So embarrassing that Lake America is the smallest of the Great Lakes. One more Trump failure.
People are doing the simple math these days on the economics of LNG vs renewables. It pays to do the math.
Thailand to Shift From LNG Toward Renewables in Wake of Iran War
Thailand plans to shift away from imported gas and embrace renewables and nuclear power as it seeks to build an energy system that’s less vulnerable to external shocks like the Iran war.
bloomberg.com
When will environmentalists like Kichwa leader Quinto Alvarado get justice? This week in fact: A Peruvian court has sentenced 4 men for his murder, www.latimes.com/environment/... 1,000 days is pretty swift for such cases and is a just bookend on this @mongabay.com commentary I published in 2023:
When will families of slain Amazon land defenders get justice? (commentary)
On the afternoon of November 29, Quinto Inuma Alvarado, Indigenous Kichwa leader and chief of the Santa Rosillo de Yanayacu community, was murdered in front of his family with three gunshots. Nine yea...
news.mongabay.com
Dan Janzen is one of the most influential tropical ecologists of his generation. But there's more to his story than a solitary scientist working a remote Costa Rican dry forest. news.mongabay.com/2026/08/dani...
Daniel Janzen and the long work of bringing back a forest
In northwestern Costa Rica, the forest did not return all at once. First the cattle were removed. Then the fires had to be stopped. Introduced grasses made the old ranchlands burn too easily. Fence li...
news.mongabay.com
