Environmental stories from around the web, November 30, 2018

  • There are many important conservation and environmental stories Mongabay isn’t able to cover.
  • Here’s a digest of some of the significant developments from the week.
  • If you think we’ve missed something, feel free to add it in the comments.

Tropical forests

Is a plan by a Norwegian oil company to protect tropical forests just an excuse to keep drilling? (The Guardian)

Brazil will no longer host the U.N.’s climate conference in 2019 (The Guardian).

A U.N. representative weighs in on a controversial dam in Malaysian Borneo (Free Malaysia Today).

Activists from Greenpeace boarded a palm oil tanker off the coast of Spain (Maritime Executive).

Indigenous groups have a plan for a Mexico-size protected area — in the Amazon (The Independent, The Bobr Times).

A new study reveals the hurdles to sharing the benefits of REDD+ in Mexico (CIFOR Forests News).

Thailand is testing out a new forest monitoring system (The Nation).

The Congo rainforest is home to a vine that makes a cancer-killing chemical (Medical News Today).

Colombian religious leaders are taking a stand to protect their country’s forests (National Catholic Reporter).

Authorities say Nigeria is losing 3,500 square kilometers (1,350 square miles) of forest each year (Sun News).

Other news

The Trump administration releases a pivotal climate report on Black Friday afternoon (Common Dreams, The Bulletin, Gizmodo, The New York Times, Washington Monthly, The Huffington Post).

NOAA’s climate report warns that climate change could chop billions off the U.S. economy (The Atlantic, Reuters, The Guardian, NPR, Science Magazine, Inside Climate News, CNN, Los Angeles Times, Texas Tribune, The Washington Post, E&E News, Politico, The New York Times).

An action-item list for dealing with climate change in the U.S. (The New York Times).

The scientists behind the NOAA climate report are “driven by money,” Rick Santorum says (Media Matters).

Trump is leading the world’s climate change denialists, Al Gore says (The Washington Post).

Recent IUCN updates indicate that a handful of threatened species are recovering (Nature News).

Illegal logging is destroying a UNESCO-recognized forest in Albania (Balkan Insight).

A U.N. report finds that countries are behind in their pledges to cut carbon emissions (The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Nature News, CNN).

Blue economy conference starts in Nairobi (Devex).

More than 140 pilot whales have died after stranding on a beach in New Zealand (The New York Times).

Biologists find a new species of shark in the deep ocean between India and Sri Lanka (Hindustan Times).

Marine mammals in Puget Sound have tested positive for a highly antibiotic-resistant “superbacteria” (KUOW).

The challenge of cutting our global addiction to energy from coal (The New York Times).

Violence continues in the struggle for land between the Tanzanian government and the Maasai (Conservation Watch).

Zanzibar struggles with illegal logging (IPP Media).

Banner image of a Maasai herder in Tanzania by John C. Cannon/Mongabay. 

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