Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 1h

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 · 13h

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 · 23h

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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Reposted by Erik Hoffner

ejgertz she/her/hers @ejgertz.bsky.social · 23h

When the president and his party keep making stuff up to justify military occupation of cities, it oughta lead the news coverage. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Republicans post fake image of Oregon protest – using photos of South America

A federal judge had blocked Trump’s request to deploy California national guard to Portland

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Erik Hoffner

UCLA Environment @uclaioes.bsky.social · 1d

In Los Angeles, Tony Pritzker applies an engineer’s discipline to environmental philanthropy—from stormwater systems keeping runoff out of Santa Monica Bay to a global prize at UCLA supporting emerging innovators.

“Science is science—and it’s fact-based,” he told @Mongabay.com 🧬🧪 ucla.in/4pZ8sQh

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 1d

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 · 1d

….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 · 1d

….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 · 1d

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 · 2d

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 · 2d

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 · 2d

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 · 2d

"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 · 2d

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 · 4d

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 · 5d

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 · 5d

💣 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 · 6d

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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Reposted by Erik Hoffner

Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 6d

Go, Jane, go! She's rounded up hundreds of Hollywood figures to revive the First Amendment organization her father championed. Fonda, in her late eighties, is in her prime as a climate champion and a powerful voice for justice.

Jane Fonda Relaunches Committee for the First Amendment With Support of 550 Celebrities Including Pedro Pascal, Viola Davis and More

Jane Fonda has relaunched the Committee for the First Amendment with the support of Pedro Pascal, Viola Davis and more.

variety.com

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Reposted by Erik Hoffner

Bill McKibben @billmckibben.bsky.social · 6d

Pope Leo--weirdly normal Midwesterner--gave a key climate speech yesterday that couldn't have been more different from Trump's disturbing and dangerous harangue of the generals
billmckibben.substack.com/p/a-differen...

A different kind of leader gives a different kind of speech

An afternoon with the Pope

billmckibben.substack.com

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 6d

Jane Goodall was a huge figure for everyone & also us at @mongabay.com 😔

An advisory board member & friend for years, she traveled 300 days/year right to the end, promoting conservation worldwide

Her memory is definitely a blessing

Here's the last conversation we had w/ her for the podcast:

Jane Goodall at 90: On fame, hope, and empathy

Jane Goodall turns 90 today. For the past few weeks, the world has been marking her birthday in a variety of ways, from a unique 90-dog salute on a beach in Carmel, California, symbolizing her life-lo...

news.mongabay.com

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Reposted by Erik Hoffner

Mark Gongloff @markgongloff.bsky.social · 7d

Don't sleep on Michelle Wu, one of this country's most quietly effective climate leaders, cruising to a second term in Boston. It's telling that business interests tried and failed to stop her and are pouting about it now

Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Boston Mayor’s Blowout Victory Jilts CEOs Seeking New Direction

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is coasting to reelection after her main opponent quit the race, giving her a commanding mandate that’s putting city business leaders on edge.

www.bloomberg.com

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 7d

Amazon forest trees have been growing larger for the past 30 years, a new study finds: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This may be caused by rising CO2 and/or increased nitrogen deposition from air pollution

It suggests they're offsetting some CO2 emissions, helping to slow #climatechange 🌳

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Reposted by Erik Hoffner

Mike DiGirolamo @mikedigirolamo.bsky.social · 7d

This week on the podcast for @mongabay.com I speak with @apcwildlife.bsky.social about his journey to wildlife photography, the healing he found behind the lens, and his work with Mongabay as the senior marketing associate.

“This huge hole in my life led me back to nature."

Mongabay staffer shares the joy and impact of wildlife photography

On this episode of Mongabay’s weekly podcast, we look at nature through the lens of wildlife photographer and senior marketing associate at Mongabay, Alejandro Prescott-Cornejo, the multilingual staff...

news.mongabay.com

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Reposted by Erik Hoffner

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗 @charlescmann.bsky.social · 7d

This might be the place to say that if you want to read a comprehensive indictment of the Army Corps' ecological sins you should turn to Marc Resiner's classic "Cadillac Desert." Revised edition from 1993--still an incredible, thoroughly reported, passionately written book.

Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Revised Edition

The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Revised Edition

bookshop.org

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