Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Erik Hoffner

Philip Jacobson @philjaco.bsky.social · 1d

Salient visual aids from @kuangkeng.bsky.social in our joint @ire.org #AccessFest25 panel presentation today

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 1d

At @mongabay.com we covered the likelihood of the slender billed curlew being declared officially extinct back in November, but it's still a sad shock:

Slender-billed curlew, a bird last photographed in 1995, is likely extinct

For decades, the slender-billed curlew, a grayish-brown migratory wetland bird with a long, arched bill, has evaded detection, prompting speculation about whether the species is still out there. Now, ...

news.mongabay.com

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 1d

Today, the IUCN has officially declared the slender-billed curlew (Numenius tenuirostris) extinct 😞

This is the 1st known extinction of a formerly widespread migratory bird species, whose range included Europe, North Africa & West Asia

The last confirmed sighting was 30+ years ago

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Reposted by Erik Hoffner

Mongabay @mongabay.com · 2d

[COMMENTARY]

“Octopus farming is a dead end masquerading as a solution. It does not address the root causes of wild population declines — it compounds them. The global community must resist exploiting another wild species under the guise of sustainability,” says a new op-ed.

** Views are author's.

Octopus farming is a dangerous detour for marine conservation (commentary)

Octopus populations across the globe are facing mounting pressures from overfishing, habitat loss and environmental change. In response, an unsubstantiated and misguided proposal has been introduced:…

news.mongabay.com

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 2d

Our new collab w/ @apnews.com on how #Mexico City's ancient agriculture tradition of floating gardens is growing again, is out

The @mongabay.com team published a cool companion video report you can watch here, www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqpD...

Great to get solutions like this out to a wide audience:

Women in Mexico step up to protect ancient Aztec farms and save a vanishing ecosystem

In Mexico, traditionally women did not inherit chinampas, island farms first built by the Aztecs thousands of years ago.

apnews.com

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 2d

SouthCoast Wind received permit approvals from the Bidens to put 141 turbines south of Martha's Vineyard. #RenewableEnergy

Now they're suing the trumps for "bad faith" & pursuing a political agenda to dismantle the offshore wind industry "with no legal basis to stand on" Vineyard Gazette reports:

Offshore Wind Project Calls Out Government's Wind Strategy

SouthCoast Wind, which plans to build 141 turbines off the coast of the Vineyard, is pushing back against what it calls a “bad faith” campaign from the federal government to shut down renewable energy...

vineyardgazette.com

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 3d

🍄 👀

Humongous #fungus amongus via @mongabay.com

"It is so large that I could sit on it, and it remained firmly attached to the tree.”

Massive fungus from India is newly described species

From the forests of northeast India’s Arunachal Pradesh state, researchers have described a new-to-science species of fungus with “exceptionally large” fruiting bodies that can hold the weight of a pe...

news.mongabay.com

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Reposted by Erik Hoffner

Institute for Nonprofit News @inn.org · 3d

The 2025 INN Index Report is here 📊

The data shows a nonprofit news sector that's financially stronger, increasingly local and more collaborative than ever.

inn.org/research/inn...

The 2025 INN Index

The 2025 INN Index reveals a nonprofit news sector that's financially stronger, increasingly local, and steadily more collaborative.

inn.org

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 3d

They caught all the 'bigs' & all 1 lb or larger get harvested now, plus ⬇️ water quality, warmer waters they don't like & diseases that thrive in those conditions

Mowat's book 'sea of slaughter' quoted an 1800s CT fishmonger complaining to his reps that it was 'becoming impossible to buy 20 lbers'

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 3d

Shifting Baseline Syndrome is where each new generation accepts a progressively degraded environment as "normal"

This leads to a failure to recognize the true extent of long-term environmental change & underestimation of #biodiversity loss

Here's how big lobsters used to grow just 100 years ago:

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 4d

Fascinating analysis by computer scientist Nate Soares w/ @rushkoff.com here

“If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies,” his new book, discusses the existential risks posed by #AI

Its unfettered development, untethered from a human based ethic, can lead to catastrophic outcomes he argues, persuasively:

Will AI Kill Us for the Lulz? Nate Soares: If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies

Podcast Episode · Team Human · 10/01/2025 · 54m

podcasts.apple.com

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 4d

I feel seen 👀

As Impact Editor for the award-winning environmental news outlet @mongabay.com, I collect & communicate our reporting's impact, which is central to our nonprofit journalism model, mongabay.org/impacts

@hanaatameez.bsky.social w/ @niemanlab.org reports this newsroom role is growing:

“Impact editor” is a relatively new job, and it’s already changing

Newsrooms can try to define impact even at the beginning of the reporting process, impact editors say.

www.niemanlab.org

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 5d

Good luck! Couple @mongabay.com colleagues of mine just north of LA had a banner year, they planted native milkweed this spring and had several dozen caterpillars, who ate all the plants down to nubs, so they got more plants and stuck those in pots inside netting b/c of skunk and raccoon predation 👀

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 5d

….and now for a dose of #conservationoptimism THIS is why we encourage & plant milkweed around our gardens

This monarch just emerged here near the Vermont/MA border 🎉

Drying its wings for a couple hours after emerging from its chrysalis, now it will fly 3,000 miles to overwinter in Mexico!

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 5d

….and now for a dose of #conservationoptimism THIS is why we encourage & plant milkweed around our gardens

This monarch just emerged here near the Vermont/MA border 🎉

Drying its wings for a couple hours after emerging from its chrysalis, now it will fly 3,000 miles to overwinter in Mexico!

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 5d

That gulf is a site in an EU 'life transfer' project restoring seagrass meadows for biodiversity, I think? Rays love sea grass...

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Reposted by Erik Hoffner

Gerry Flynn @geraldrflynn.bsky.social · 6d

Our latest data analysis shows nearly 1 million Ha of tree cover was lost across Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam in 2024.

Nearly a quarter of this was primary forest, but - more alarming - ~30% of tree cover losses occurred inside protected areas. Read the breakdown on @mongabay.com

Protected areas hit hard as Mekong countries’ forest cover shrank in 2024

BANGKOK — The Mekong countries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam lost a combined area of tree cover of nearly a million hectares in 2024, or an area almost the size of Lebanon. That’s a...

news.mongabay.com

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 6d

That filter on my live night sky app looks like an insect swarm of satellites now

They provide much needed internet connection for remote communities, scientists and safety personnel but the cost isn’t inconsequential

& if they cause a cascading aerial collision (Kessler syndrome)? Global chaos

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 6d

Yes, and # of them scheduled for orbit is only increasing, used to be the last real wilderness one could see, that's largely untouched by humans, but now we can't escape seeing the impact of our own species, even in the heavens. Internet search will reveal how much this is messing astronomy up, too.

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 6d

"We expect about 30K low-Earth orbit satellites and perhaps another 20,000 satellites at 1000 km from the Chinese systems," @planet4589.bsky.social told EarthSky

"It’s not clear if the Chinese will orbit-lower theirs or just accelerate us to chain-reaction Kessler syndrome." 👀 💥 😬

Avoidable chaos

1 to 2 Starlink satellites are falling back to Earth each day

earthsky.org

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 6d

1 or 2 Starlink satellites fall to Earth daily, says astrophysicist @planet4589.bsky.social

The top source on this says there will be *up to 5 reentries daily* as 30K satellites are set to crowd the sky

Might not be long before you see a fiery object slowly burn across the sky, w/ unknown impact:

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 8d

Sea level rise is coming for Martha’s Vineyard, the fancy island enjoyed by Americans, especially elites

Here’s a mansion that was *already moved back hundreds of feet* in 2013 & faces annihilation again already

Nearby beaches & dunes have shrunk so much they’re impassable for fishers’ vehicles

Mansion on Martha’s Vineyard, Chappaquiddick island

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 8d

What do Kenyan Uber drivers know about ethical wildlife tourism? 🦏 🦒

Imagine a tangle of vehicles jockeying with professional (or at least mildly trained) #ecotourism outfits

The pitfalls of hiring unethical safari operators are myriad as @mongabay.com points out: news.mongabay.com/2025/08/the-...

Uber and Bolt’s bet on Kenyan safaris sparks price cut fears

The ride-hailing firms are entering the lucrative safari market for the first time.

www.semafor.com

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Reposted by Erik Hoffner

Global Investigative Journalism Network @gijn.org · 8d

💣 The arms trade is big business — but when those weapons are used in war crimes, who’s accountable?

GIJN’s latest Investigating War Crimes chapter helps reporters dig into deals, follow the money, and uncover complicity.

📄 Find the details here 👇

gijn.org

Investigating War Crimes: Arms Trade

twp.ai

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Reposted by Erik Hoffner

Ashoka Mukpo @shokes.bsky.social · 10d

Jane Goodall was a great friend to Mongabay. Here's our obit for her, by founder @rhettayersbutler.bsky.social news.mongabay.com/2025/10/jane...

Jane Goodall (1934–2025): primatologist, conservationist, and messenger of hope

Jane Goodall, who revealed the intimate lives of chimpanzees and gave the modern world a language of hope, has died at the age of 91. Over the course of six decades, she moved from an unlikely young r...

news.mongabay.com

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