Japan Looks to Big Increase in Renewables

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Anchor Marco Werman speaks with The World’s environment editor Peter Thomson about Japan’s decision to re-evaluate its heavy reliance on nuclear power and put more emphasis on renewable energy and conservation. Download MP3

Conservation and the Spirit World

The most intriguing session I attended at this year’s AAAS meeting was led by Stanford ecologist José Fragoso. In it, Fragoso described how he and his colleagues are working with indigenous groups in Guyana and Brazil to find out how cultural change affects the diversity of species in the surrounding forests and savannas.

A new focus for safari tourism

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Safari tourism in Africa is changing. Tracking down big game is still central, but more and more tourists are also involved with conservation and helping local communities. Correspondent Jake Warga reports. Download MP3

Tanzania’s conservation vs development battle

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Can wildebeests and trucks coexist? That’s the question at the heart of today’s Geoquiz. Hundreds of thousands of wildebeest migrate every year through a protected area in northern Tanzania. Now the Tanzanian government wants to build a road through the region. Opponents say this would threaten the entire ecosystem. So, what’s the national park that’s home to all these wildebeests? (Photo: Benedict Moran) Download MP3

• Slideshow: See Benedict Moran’s photos of Tanzania
• Bringing solar power to Tanzania
• Eco-Islam in Africa

Mexican Wind Power for US Homes?

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

San Diego’s electric utility wants to build a big windfarm across the border near Tijuana. Mexican conservationists are worried about impacts from a project that wouldn’t benefit the area. Ilsa Setziol reports. Download MP3 (photo of turbines near La Rumorosa: Ilsa Setziol)

• First US offshore wind farm approved
• Geo Quiz: Antarctica wind farm
• Environment coverage on The World
• Follow Ilsa Setziol on twitter

Conservation Refugees: An interview with Mark Dowie

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The Mountain gorilla (pictured) is one of the endangered species protected in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda. But what about the Batwa people native to that protected land? In his new book Conservation Refugees, journalist Mark Dowie explores how land conservation affects the lives of the people on and near the preserves. Download MP3 Photo: Sabine’s Sunshine

• More on Mark Dowie’s book
• More on the Batwa people in Uganda
• More on Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

What are you doing to conserve water?

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
Seawater covers 71 percent of the planet. Fresh water is a much more precious commodity. So, a Brazilian environmental group has come up with a novel proposal for conserving clean water. SOS Mata Atlantica is urging people to urinate in the shower. Doing so could save households more than a thousand gallons of water a year in toilet flushes. Leave your comment…(photo: flickr.com/photos/gehat)

Old Forests vs. New: Do Critters Care?

Correspondent Julia Kumari Drapkin reports from Panama on the debate over the conservation importance of tropical forest that are growing back after being cut. View the audio slideshow