The African elephant, the world’s largest land mammal, is threatened by poaching, human development, and climate change. As director of the Biodiversity and Ecosystems Services Branch of the UN Environmental Program, Max Gomera advocates for the elephant. Ensuring elephants and other animals thrive is important for the human species. In this episode, Gomera talks about improving the relationship between elephants and humans, and how our meat consumption is negatively impacting wildlife habitat. Gomera is an Aspen New Voices Fellow and spoke at Spotlight Health. The views and opinions of the speakers in the podcast do not necessarily reflect those of the Aspen Institute.
Rising sea level and contaminated fresh water could make an island paradise in the Indian Ocean uninhabitable. The effects of climate change on the Maldives are difficult to ignore. Maldivian climate activist Thilmeeza Hussain says these changes are impacting everyday life for the 400,000 people who live there. Will Maldivians become climate refugees? How can this island nation be saved? Hussain is an Aspen New Voices Fellow and a speaker at Spotlight Health. The views and opinions of the speakers in the podcast do not necessarily reflect those of the Aspen Institute.
Since Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, the government has reported zero new cases of Zika. But doctors on the ground are finding an alarming number of new infections among pregnant women. The government’s claims that the Zika crisis is over is being called into question: Could there be no new official cases because officials have just stopped counting? For this PBS NewsHour report from The GroundTruth Project and Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, Beth Murphy tracks the course of Zika in Puerto Rico over the course of two years. For more on this story, listen to the Reveal episode “The Storm After the Storm.”
