Environment
The Butterfly Effect
Drug cartels in northern Mexico are extorting locals and pushing illegal logging and avocado plantations. One victim is the country’s population of monarch butterflies, which migrate there by the millions in the winter and are at risk of losing a critical ecosystem.
The Flamingo Revolution
If completed, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s $6 billion development project in Albania would permanently alter one of Europe’s most pristine protected landscapes. The controversy has sparked an unprecedented anti-corruption probe and mass protests that Albanians are calling the Flamingo Revolution.
Israel’s Polluting West Bank Factories
Pollution from Israeli factories established illegally in the West Bank has poisoned the soil on Palestinian farms and damaged farmers’ health. Yet these unregulated industrial sites remain connected to European markets.
In Wisconsin, the Fates of Wolves and Humans Are Intertwined
The Ojibwe tribes regard their fate as intertwined with that of gray wolves. Amid renewed federal efforts to strip the animals of protections following a period of recovery, they are fighting for the wolves’ future, and their own rights.
Lebanon’s Beekeepers Are at Breaking Point
Lebanon's bees were already under siege from pesticides, climate change and economic collapse before Israeli bombardments devastated apiaries across the south. With hives destroyed, beekeepers displaced and the next generation fleeing the country, an ecological catastrophe is unfolding — the effects of which will outlast the war.
How the Scimitar-Horned Oryx Became a Conservation Unicorn
After decades of drought and poaching, the scimitar-horned oryx went extinct in the wild across the Sahel. But in the early 2000s, a team of conservationists devised an audacious plan: breed a “world herd” in captivity — from Abu Dhabi to Texas — to reintroduce the species to the wild.
Nigeria’s Coastal Heritage Is Being Swept Out to Sea
Once a thriving Christian commune, the small Atlantic village of Ayetoro is being rapidly eroded by rising tides. After successive government sea walls failed, residents have taken the battle against the encroaching ocean into their own hands.