May 22, 2012
Life on Earth is old. Fossil records indicate that the first simple organisms emerged about 3.8 billion years ago, and it took another 1.8 billion years for multicelled organisms to evolve. Life is also extremely diverse. Best estimates put the current number of multicelled species on Earth at about 10 million — probably the greatest number of species that has ever inhabited our planet at a given time.
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May 21, 2012
May 17, 2012
Africa is at a crossroads. The continent is currently home to a billion people, most of whom are directly dependent on local ecosystems for their survival. Yet as global demand for food, water and energy continue to surge, much of the pressure to provide these resources rests on Africa, which holds more than half of the planet’s available arable land.
On top of existing challenges, Africa is poised to triple its population by the end of this century. Yet the continent’s rich natural...
May 15, 2012
Two years ago in Nagoya, Japan, 193 countries meeting for the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) agreed on 20 targets to reduce global pressures on our natural world. Known as the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, these goals cover everything from avoiding extinctions of threatened species to reducing subsidies that are harmful to the environment to protecting 17 percent of the Earth’s land and 10 percent of...
May 10, 2012
In my decades of traveling the world, I’ve gotten to see firsthand many of the fascinating human cultures inhabiting our planet, from the Kayapó of the Brazilian Amazon to the San people of the Kalahari to the multitude of cultures of Melanesia.
Many people from these cultures, including a wide variety of indigenous peoples, live in the most biologically rich regions of our planet — regions that hold the key to maintaining global...
May 3, 2012
Last year, CI cameraman John Martin traveled to Colombia to document the threatened páramo ecosystems that supply critical fresh water to Bogotá. Back in March, we brought you the first two parts of John’s behind-the-scenes look at filming spectacular aerial footage; here’s the conclusion of his story. Check out his previous posts....
April 19, 2012
Children in Tanzania. (© Benjamin Drummond)
For those of us who have made...
April 18, 2012
California has long had the reputation for being one of the U.S.’s most beautiful and environmentally-conscious states. This week, as leaders in business, government and the environmental movement gather in southern California to discuss sustainability at Fortune Brainstorm GREEN, we’re bringing you a series of blogs spotlighting the natural beauty of the California coast — seen through the eyes of photographer and...
April 16, 2012
Two indri in Madagascar. (© CI/Photo by Russell A. Mittermeier)
This week, a group of international...
March 28, 2012
Logging in Odzala, Republic of Congo. (© CI/ photo by Haroldo Castro)
This week in London,...