Life Without Lights - Ghana

Year-round in Ghana, the sun sets at 6pm and rises at 6am – thus, the residents of communities lacking electricity live half of their lives in the dark. Over ten years ago, the government of Ghana began a massive campaign to provide the country’s rural north with electricity, but the project ceased almost immediately after it began. 

Living without lights is more than just a minor inconvenience. Electricity provides a paramount step on the ladder of economics, and northern villagers know what is being kept from them: lights to study and cook by, machinery and refrigeration, and a standard of living that would attract teachers, nurses, and other civil service workers from the city, not to mention foreign tourists. Potential economic growth is stifled and poverty’s cyclical nature is perpetuated.

Natabar Sarangi - The Source

Natabar Sarangi is just one of a growing number of farmers throughout the world who realise that if we do not begin to repair the damage taking place to our agricultural systems and our environment, we will lose not just our cultural identity but our fundamental right to a truly sustainable system of food security. 

It's about a global phenomenon taking place where a nonsustainable system systematically destroys a sustainable one, where short term profit has the power to overwhelm common sense and the consciousness of many millions, where progress is not progress but the wanton destruction of an ecosystem and environment we will never be able to replace.

Seven Billion

This month's issue of the National Geographic Magazine focuses on the fact that there will soon be seven billion people on the planet.

In the image above by Randy Olson, Kolkata's steaming streets are crammed with vendors, pedestrians, and iconic Ambassador taxis, throbbing with some 16 million people—and more pour in every day from small towns. In 1975 only three cities worldwide topped ten million. Today 21 such mega cities exist, most in developing countries, where urban areas absorb much of the globe's rising population.

Education In The Mangroves

Since the end of World War 2, the world has lost approximately 50% of its mangroves, mainly as a result of destruction by humans for coastal developments.  Found mainly in the tropics and subtropics, mangroves are a unique species of trees and shrubs that thrive in saltwater. They are valued for their ability to protect coastlines, harbor wildlife and have a nutrient base on a par with the rainforests.  

Photographer and videographer Sean Gallagher travels to South-East China to report on a project aiming to save the remaining pockets of mangroves in China, on assignment for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

Home On The Water: Louisiana's Disappearing Coast

Long before the BP oil spill, the environment and residents of southeast Louisiana have been exploited and abused. In this multimedia piece, Kael Alford describes her five year journey to document the coast of Louisiana and the devastating impacts that the oil and gas industry has had on the environment and communities there. She describes the attachment residents feel toward their landscape and heritage.

Natabar Sarangi - The Source

Natabar continues to find, save and share his indigenous rice seed with local farmers. To date he has managed to re-introduce over 350 varieties.  But it’s not just about the indigenous rice seed of India or about the survival of a sustainable agriculture system with the knowledge of over ten thousand years. It's about a global phenomenon taking place where a non-sustainable system systematically destroys a sustainable one, where short term profit has the power to overwhelm common sense and the consciousness of many millions, where progress is not progress but the wanton destruction of an eco-system and environment we will never be able to replace.

Natabar Sarangi is just one of a growing number of farmers throughout the world who realise that if we do not begin to repair the damage taking place to our agricultural systems and our environment, we will lose not just our cultural identity but our fundamental right to a truly sustainable system of food security.

Greenpeace: Voices Of Change

Over 6 million individuals will be affected by climate change...one of them is you.  Make your voice heard at greenpeace.org/my voice.

Visions Of The Artic

The arctic is a fragile ecosystem teaming with life. Not a "flat white nothingness" like pro-oil politicians have labeled it. This video by Florian Shulz was made to bring you an intimate portrait of a place few people have ever seen. After the ecological tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico, it is time to rethink offshore oil drilling in arctic waters. 

Environmental Photographer Of The Year Award

An amazing picture of thousands of rays swimming through the ocean in a colossal school has scooped top prize in the CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2010 awards. The group of Munkiana Devil Rays were spotted in Baja California Sur, Mexico, by German conservation photographer Florian Schulz.

Insect Macro Photos

Although I'm not a huge fan of macro photography, I found these beautifully lit insect shots by Leon Baas to be visually stunning.

The Pierced Heart Of Madagascar

The island’s geographic isolation created a wonderland of biological richness. Now population pressures and political turmoil speed the plunder of its rosewood, minerals, and gems.  View more images by Pascal Maitre here.

Out Of The Box

When Guy Watson first started growing organic vege on Riverford farm he had three acres of land, a wheelbarrow, and a dream to put fresh produce on the family table at a price everyone could afford.

Black Market

Every year, some 30,000 primates, two-to-five million birds, and ten million reptile skins enter the Asian wild animal market, the third-largest illegal smuggling operation in the world.

Photojournalist Patrick Brown goes deep inside this vast, dangerous world. He risks his own personal safety to take us on a fascinating journey through the lives of myth-bound Chinese villagers, the status-seeking nouveau riche, third-generation smugglers, and corrupt officials that make this market possible.

In cultures where tiger skins, rhino horns, and bear bile are imbued with mythical properties, these wild animal parts are bought and paid for at astonishingly high prices. In Black Market, we come to understand that the price for these rarities may be the very survival of endangered species world-wide, as well as the ecological stability of the planet.

Ivory Wars

Deep in the heart of Africa, Chad's Zakouma National Park is an oasis of sanctuary for the continent's surviving elephants, the last place on earth where more than a thousand can be found in one herd. Protected by armed guards, the park is a gem of abundance and diversity.

Yet just outside its borders, poachers lie in wait for the animals. When the perennial rains arrive, the elephants move toward better forage outside the park's perimeter, and into the poachers' hands. The hunters kill them for their ivory tusks, which fetch high prices on the black market, and leave the carcasses intact, apart from the gaping holes where the tusks once were.

Conservationist/Videographer J Michael Fay and National Geographic photographer Michael Nichols traveled to Zakouma during the wet season in 2006, documenting its wonders and discovering the delicate nature of this rare refuge.