something I shouldn't admit but which is nonetheless true is that when PR people send me pitches with AI art, it makes me want to cover their stories *unfavorably*

[Commentary] The idea that we must massively scale up mining for the clean energy transition is false, scholar Shaan Sood argues in an op-ed. Most "critical minerals" are actually used in industries unrelated to, or opposed to, clean energy, while extraction causes widespread harm.

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…

mongabay.cc

Development banks are funding transition mineral mines linked to water pollution, deforestation, and human rights risks, per a new report. Nearly 75% of African projects analyzed showed evidence of harm as nations scramble for critical energy minerals. Learn more in this story by Elodie Toto.

Development banks are backing problematic mineral projects, report finds

“Development bank-backed transition minerals projects are frequently associated with significant environmental, social, and human rights risks.” This is the conclusion of the latest report by the…

mongabay.cc

I still appreciate this from Ta-Nehisi Coates. “I want to be a really decent person and a great writer. That’s what I want out of my life. And that’s not small… Like, being a decent person is not a small thing and it’s not an easy thing, by the way. It really, really isn’t.”

Watching the rise of the far right in Europe partly on migration fears right as I'm re-reading about the late 19th century scramble for Africa. How do these people think we got this world? They shattered everyone else's.

PART TWO of my interview with Eva von Redecker is now out on Substack. We speak at length about phantom possession, populism, and counterweights to the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt. hannohauenstein.substack.com/p/eva-von-re...

Eva von Redecker: “Fascism Is Liberalism Broken Off to the Right” – PART 2

Political philosopher Eva von Redecker on how fantasies of possession and loss fuel fascism. This is *part two* of an in-depth interview.

hannohauenstein.substack.com

In Lagos, rapid development is stripping away natural flood buffers like mangroves and wetlands. As satellite data links declining vegetation to worsening flash floods, experts urge government action to strictly protect remaining coastal ecosystems. Fellow Kingsley Charles reports.

Rapid wetland loss and ‘real estate boom’ increasing flood risk in Lagos

In July, following relentless bursts of rainfall, flash floods covered pockets of Lagos, disrupting commerce and traffic in Nigeria’s commercial capital. Experts have found that the city now faces…

mongabay.cc

the AfD's rise in Germany is the bleak spiritual cousin of Israel's murderous ethnonationalism. if direct knowledge of where these madnesses lead us doesn't inoculate us from indulging them, where does that leave us?

Sally's reporting on migration routes and the people traveling them is the kind of thing that's going to be read and cited a hundred years from now, long after 99% of today's published output fades to dust.

Una Mullally@unamullally.bsky.social · last wk.

"They had dreams in mind: Babylon, some called it. Europe, a continent where crushing poverty seemed possible to escape." More excellent reporting from @sallyhayd.bsky.social

"They had dreams in mind: Babylon, some called it. Europe, a continent where crushing poverty seemed possible to escape." More excellent reporting from @sallyhayd.bsky.social

‘It was day 13 or 14 when people started dying’: More than 200 set sail for Europe. Only 36 survived

A harrowing story of death and survival on the Atlantic migration route from west Africa, ‘the deadliest in the world’

irishtimes.com

This is of niche interest but it's so revealing about what actually motivates Trump. In a conflict over control of West African iron ore exports, he picked a European/Indian company over a US/Canadian one. Why? Because they offered a bigger bag. www.africaintelligence.com/west-africa/...

Liberia • How Donald Trump secretly backed ArcelorMittal in Monrovia

Despite losing exclusive use of its railway in favour of US firm Ivanhoe Atlantic, Lakshmi Mittal's conglomerate remains particularly influential in Liberia. That position has been helped by the US

africaintelligence.com

The cruelty is the point. Shame on this administration and shame on the people who voted for this. www.springfieldnewssun.com/local/spring...

Springfield Haitian student takes his own life after being fitted with ICE ankle monitor, advocates say

A 20-year-old Wright State student took his own life on Interstate 70 out of anguish over a required ICE ankle monitor, according to local community advocates.

springfieldnewssun.com

I don't think it should be controversial to say, "we will not provide financial or military assistance to a country where the Minister of National Security brags about popping people's dreams of 'food' and 'education' then sending them to a prison where they are starved."

Nathan Tankus@nathantankus.bsky.social · 2w ago

Ben Gvir posted this video on twitter today which shows fat and happy Palestinians on a conveyer built going through the Israeli "prison" (torture camp) system and coming out emaciated and maudlin. This is textbook genocidal content.

In southeastern Liberia, a cocoa boom threatens some of West Africa’s last intact rainforests. Journalist James Giahyue speaks with Mongabay's @shokes.bsky.social about how poverty and local political involvement drive the rapid deforestation in the remote region. Read the full interview. 👇️

‘They will do it legally or illegally’: Interview with James Giahyue on Liberia’s cocoa boom

In 2024, the price of cacao on world markets spiked dramatically, nearly quintupling from what it had been a year earlier. Prices have since dropped, but along with a land crunch in Côte d’Ivoire,…

mongabay.cc

Restoring ecosystems doesn't only reverse nature loss, it's THE most powerful ally we could hope for against both climate collapse itself, and its consequences. As a further plus, it makes life SO much more beautiful!! Rewilding should be a global priority 🌍

Mongabay@mongabay.com · 2w ago

[Commentary] Is it possible to "grow" fire insurance? In Spain and South Africa, restoring degraded ecosystems is turning landscapes from fire hazards into natural buffers, protecting biodiversity and communities against catastrophic wildfire risks. By Claire Patterson and Penelope Choussat.

Hard to call it a "stain on the soul" when it's looking more like a verdict. This period isn't going to get washed away by an election or two, something has turned very rotten in America.

Bradley P. Moss@bradmossesq.bsky.social · 2w ago

These people had protected status. They lived here legally. They worked, they paid taxes. They made lives. Raised families. Now we’ve dehumanized them. Ripped away that protection and told them to get out. This is a stain on the soul of this Nation.

We are a broken nation. Hundreds of thousands of Haitians were living and working legally, paying taxes, and contributing. Haiti remains wholly unsafe. But Trump hates Haitians, and the White House wanted videos of Black people in chains, so they stripped them of status and turned on the cameras.

Back during Trump 1 I wrote about the very difficult circumstances Liberian deportees faced in Monrovia. I can’t imagine how much worse it‘s going to be there for people with no connections to the country at all popula.com/2018/08/31/i...

African Immigrants and Deportation in the Age of Trump

Immigrants from Africa and the iron gateways of mass deportation.

popula.com

Brazil's renewable energy boom is attracting massive data centers, but at a high cost. A joint investigation by Mongabay and @intercept.com.br reveals that nearly 80% of proposed sites overlap with traditional Quilombola and Indigenous lands, shifting industrial risks onto local communities. 🧵

Brazil’s unique data center boom rides on clean power despite social burden

Corporations benefit from wasted energy, while locals pay for grid upgrades and endure noise and water threats.

mongabay.cc

WHO says Ebola outbreak in Uganda over, as cases continue to rise in Congo reut.rs/45Ps8xi

WHO says Ebola outbreak in Uganda over, as cases continue to rise in Congo

The outbreak of the ​Bundibugyo strain of Ebola in ‌Uganda is over, a World Health Organization official said ​in a briefing ​on Wednesday, as she warned ⁠that cases continue to ​rise in Democratic Republic of ​Congo.

reut.rs

Stoked to finally share the latest episode of my interview podcast, Nullpunkt, in which I speak with @michaelbarenboim.bsky.social about Germany, Gaza, classical music, and more. youtu.be/xtmSZ4xDms0?...

Michael Barenboim: In Germany, Jews who reject Zionism are seen as not really Jewish

YouTube video by Nullpunkt – mit Hanno Hauenstein

youtu.be

bye dolly 😘. you were as real as real ones get youtu.be/yFzNje7wMlw?...

Dolly Parton 08 Living On Memories of You

YouTube video by littlesparrow185

youtu.be

genuinely cannot imagine anything like this ever happening again.

I guess I'll add that Dolly Parton is up there with Fred Rogers in terms of truly achieving what I think a Christian living their faith in public life should be like.

RIP to one of the most gifted songwriters to ever pick up a pen and a guitar. youtu.be/FkUB5XPXXZg?

Don't Let It Trouble Your Mind

YouTube video by Dolly Parton - Topic

youtu.be

In this essay Cofnas makes an *explicit* argument for using contract review as a method of removing academics on ideological grounds sooo 🤷🏻

Hari Kunzru@harikunzru.bsky.social · 3w ago

The terminally agora- brained who imagine that in defending Cofnas they’re defending an abstract space of disinterested academic inquiry may wish to look at his 2023 essay ‘How to Take Back Academia’, which makes it clear that he is engaged in a political project …

Natasha Cloud for president.

Yesterday I went down the rabbit hole of figuring out what letter signers said about Palestine. One US sociologist who signed in defense of Cofnas had written an article for the Manhattan Institute defending their university’s choice to call the cops on Palestine activists.

I Travel Like Sound Dog@chadstanton.blacksky.app · 3w ago

That’s part of the comedy here, they’ve won already! We’re already living in a world where states are forcing students to go to classes extolling Western Civilization. Pushing for protections for explicit racists who dream out loud about leading Harvard’s eugenics department is kid Icarus shit.

The single most impactful social/cultural development over the last decade (that virtually no retrospectives of "woke" have engaged in) is the new elite consensus that moral judgement is itself inherently illegitimate.

Aparna Nair@disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 3w ago

not only that, they are demanding that they not be called racist when they are observed to be signing up to support the racist

I'm sure all these names appear on a similar letter about the Trump Administration's attempt to put Columbia's middle eastern & african studies department into receivership, yes?

Jonathan W. Gray@elmcitytree.blacksky.app · 3w ago

There’s a petition signed by more than one hundred academics (& counting!) in support of Nathan Cofnas—the racist who instigated the pile on that led to J. Arday’s death—because he lost his postdoc. Apparently there’s nothing a white man can do that deserves consequences.