The World We Share

A Guatemalan indigenous land rights activist wins the Goldman Environmental Prize

Rodrigo Tot is a 60-year-old farmer and an indigenous land rights activist from Guatemala. He represents an isolated, small Q’eqchi farming and fishing community of about 270 members in the long-running fight to secure legal ownership over their communal lands. Tot and his community stood up to the government and nickel miners expanding into their

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International, The World We Share

Extra moisture caused most of the world’s large animals to go extinct 15,000 years ago

Not so long ago, giant vertebrates ruled the world. There was a giant hornless rhino and a ground sloth larger than a modern elephant, among others. However, most of them went extinct 11-15,00 years ago, leaving behind just a few large animals. It’s uncertain what exactly caused their extinction. Various theories have included them being

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Science, Medicine, & Education, The World We Share

Humans, monkeys care for baby Francois langur

SAN DIEGO (Press Release) — A partnership is unfolding at the San Diego Zoo between primate keepers and the Zoo’s François’ langur monkeys. Animal care staff, using assisted-rearing techniques, are getting some unique help from the François’ langur monkey group to raise an endangered 7-week-old baby langur, named Chi (pronounced chee). The monkeys are actively assisting

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San Diego County, The World We Share

What’s the deal with this beaver herding a bunch of cows?

An animal behaviorist shares his thoughts about the viral video Steve, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 2.0 An American beaver (but not the one from the video) The latest sensation taking the internet by storm is this video of a beaver “herding” cows in Canada: According to the rancher who took the video, there are

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International, The World We Share

These trash pickers used to have miserable jobs. Now they run their own recycling cooperative.

After his father died when he was only a teenager, Yassine Mazzout started working nights at the landfill next to his home near Morocco’s capital Rabat, salvaging items that could be recycled or sold from the mountain of filth. “At 15, I should have spent my evenings playing with other kids,” said Mazzout. “But I

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Middle East, The World We Share

Antarctica is covered in hundreds of meltwater rivers and streams, and we had no idea this was happening

The first continent-wide survey of meltwater on Antarctica found alarming high numbers of pools, ponds, channels, rivers, and streams flowing across all sides of the continent. Scientists have always known that the Antarctic Western Peninsula is melting at an alarmingly high rate but they didn’t expect the whole continent to be awash with meltwater during

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International, The World We Share

Guantanamo base kills plan to save feral cats

MIAMI — Guantanamo’s commander has concluded he does not have the authority to allow teams of volunteer cat lovers to scoop up feral cats across the base to neuter and vaccinate them and spare them from extermination. A nonprofit organization called Operation Git-Meow presented the proposal last month to the U.S. Navy base commander, Capt.

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International, The World We Share, USA

A South Carolina family who thought their home was being broken into found their perp chilling on the porch

The Polston family awoke to what they thought were the sounds of an Easter morning break-in, only to discover moments later that their perp was not a human but a nearly 10-foot-long alligator who had wandered from his golf course home, loped up a flight of stairs and smashed through an aluminum screen door to

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The World We Share

Sierra Snowpack Bigger Than Last Four Years Combined: NASA

New NASA data show that snowpack in the Tuolumne River Basin in California’s Sierra Nevada — a major source of water for San Francisco and California’s Central Valley — is currently larger than the four previous years of snowpack combined. NASA’s Airborne Snow Observatory (ASO) measured the Tuolumne Basin snowpack on April 1, a critical

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The World We Share, USA

San Diego’s unofficial canine ambassador recovering

By Donald H. Harrison Photos courtesy of Karen Beth Pearlman   SAN DIEGO – One might describe Chloe, an 8-year-old cocker spaniel, as San Diego County’s unofficial canine ambassador. For years, her owner, Karen Beth Pearlman, has been posting Facebook photographs of Chloe visiting various San Diego County venues, from the beach, to the valleys,

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Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County, The World We Share, USA