Do You Want to Be A Farmer When You Grow Up?
Do you ever fantasize about farming and growing your own food? Growing up, did you ever plan on living like Laura Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie? Or have you seen the organic farming and permaculture craze engulf the Internet, and you’ve decided it’s time to hop on board? There’s no doubt that in […]
Extent of Giant Peat Swamp Recently Discovered… Wait, What is a Peat Swamp?
In the Congo Basin of Central Africa, researchers have located a previously unknown peatland larger than New York State. This discovery highlights the importance of peatlands to the health of the global environment. What are Peat Swamps? Peat swamps are areas where the soil is so full with water that dead leaves and other types […]
One Huge Step for Conservation in the Eastern DRC
Last year marked a number of setbacks for conservation, though there were also a great number of successes! While we should stay ever vigilant in regards to the challenges to conservation, it is always in our best interest to look for the signs of hope – those happy victories which keep us going and believing […]
9,497 Days of Change (Happy Birthday, Roots & Shoots!)
26 years ago (or 9,497 days), Dr. Jane and a group of teenagers in Tanzania turned a back porch gathering into strategy session that would start them on a journey toward building a better future. Those 12 students would represent the very first Roots & Shoots group…the first of now thousands of groups in more than 100 countries […]
USDA Blacks Out Animal Welfare Information
On Friday, February 3rd, the USDA removed all animal welfare reports from its website, without any warning and without a firm statement declaring how long the documents will remain absent. These reports are usually fully accessible to the public, and are used to document the treatment of animals in captive facilities like labs, zoos and […]
A Lucky Day: World Pangolin Day!
At the recent International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) meeting on biodiversity in Hawaii last September I was asked by one of my good friends, Azzedine Downes, who happens to be President of International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) if I would give a short talk at a gathering they were organizing – about pangolins! Azzedine knows I […]
Special Figures Ahead of the Curve : A ‘Hidden Figures’ Review
The movie Hidden Figures, released during the 2016 holiday season, beautifully details the real lives of three extraordinary and bold African American women and their contributions to science in 1961: Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn, and Mary Jackson. Despite all they accomplished, their stories have been largely ignored for far too long. These women defied […]
Compassionate Young Leaders You Should Get to Know: René Jameson
For some, Valentine’s Day is about giving out candy grams in class, or handing a rose to a crush, but for René Jameson it is about sending love to the elderly folks in her community who may have not gotten a valentine in years. Each year, in her hometown of Greenwich, Connecticut, she makes over […]
This is Your Story : Hope in Action
What inspires us? A few stray notes rolling across piano keys? A dancing shadow against a brick wall? A woman who followed her dreams into the jungle, and ultimately left, in order to save it? The things that inspire us and those that inspire are everywhere. They are sometimes unexpected, and on some rare occasions, […]
JGI Jungle Journals: Notes from Gombe, Tanzania Part I
Dr. Jane Goodall had a single dream: to study wildlife in Africa. When she was 26 years old, she was given an opportunity, by a innovative scientist named Louis Leakey, to achieve this dream in a place called Gombe. Gombe, Tanzania, has since Dr. Goodall’s studies been the home of ongoing behavioral, biological, and other […]
