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Articles by Sam Schramski
Africa | Big Brother Wildlife
Surveillance technology designed to protect endangered species is being weaponised against communities living in natural areas across the African continent. Its repercussions range from harassment to physical violence. Modern wildlife conservation has, in effect, morphed into a video game with real-world consequences.
From Spy Tech to Army in the Parks: Inside Uganda’s Militarised Conservation State
In Uganda’s highly militarised conservation landscape, the deployment of advanced data-aggregation platforms like EarthRanger illustrates the profound dual-use risks of modern eco-surveillance By: Benon Herbert Oluka, Sam Schramski and Tulani Ngwenya Every Wednesday and Thursday, Uganda’s specially constituted wildlife crimes court comes alive with activity.
The War on Poaching Has Gone Full Tech Dystopia-and It May Not Be Working
Forget khaki shorts and binoculars: Modern wildlife conservation has morphed into something that looks less like protecting elephants and more like a video game, although with more real-world consequences. With AI-powered surveillance systems, military drones circling over national parks, ex-special forces contractors hunting poachers, and vast satellite imagery, the old safari ranger clichés are all at play.
In Search of a Little Downtime in Asia
The rapid expansion of AI and other digital tech is straining environmental resources across Asia. Uptime=cold, downtime=hot. It’s a binary that anthropologists have identified in research on data centers and the people who work in them. The idea is that cloud infrastructure workers associate cool temps with technology that works and overheating with equipment, and centers, that don’t. It’s also a meaningful framework to view the digital moment we’re in.
Uganda community group restores shea groves and livelihoods
In northern Uganda’s Pader district, a women-led cooperative is leading efforts to replant shea trees, restore deforested land and improve local livelihoods through the processing and sale of shea products. The Pader Shea Nut and Agro-processing Society, which started with just six members in 2004, has grown to more than 1,400 members.
Shea's silent guardians restore Uganda's traditional parklands
In Uganda’s Pader district, communities are reviving shea parklands — traditional agroforestry systems where farmers have maintained shea trees alongside crops for generations. These managed landscapes support both farming and biodiversity while providing crucial ecosystem services through carefully spaced trees and traditional management practices.
“Carbon Cowboys” Chasing Emissions Offsets in the Amazon Keep Forest-Dwelling Communities in the Dark Original
“The first time I heard about carbon credits, I didn’t understand what they were about at all,” says Queila Couto, a lawyer, while staring into the Itacuruçá River in the Brazilian state of Pará, “and it was bad.” Couto is a quilombola, an Afro-Brazilian descendent of escaped slaves, many of whom established homes in the most forested parts of the Amazon. She grew up in a community called São João, aware that it was inextricably linked to the river and trees.
Rural communities in the Amazon face a complex world of carbon credits
Every day, Célia Regina das Neves fishes among the mangroves in the Mãe Grande de Curuçá Extractive Reserve, a conservation area at the mouth of the Amazon River in Brazil. Neves relies on resources from the surrounding forests and mangroves for her livelihood, too. "I make baskets, and I make traps for shrimping," she said, referring to the plants in this lush landscape from which she weaves her gear, as well as the fishery that sustains her community.
They're trying to cure nodding syndrome. First they need to zero in on the cause
Nodding syndrome is a rare neurological condition that can result in head nodding and violent seizures. Some researchers think they know the cause, but questions remain. (Image credit: Pat Robert Larubi/Undark)
They're trying to cure nodding syndrome. First they need to zero in on the cause Original
From Ventorina Aculu, a mother of eight in her 60s, says she is proud to have given birth to her many children. Her distress only set in with her last two, both sons and now adults. Omac Alfred and Kibwota Johnson, both in their 20s, began to show signs of a rare disease in their infancy — a little understood neurologic condition characterized by repetitive head nodding and accompanied by a raft of other grave symptoms — which has now haunted the family for two decades.
Under Debate: The Origins of Mysterious Neurological Disease
Ventorina Aculu, a mother of eight in her 60s, says she is proud to have given birth to her many children. Her distress only set in with her last two, both sons and now adults. Omac Alfred, and Kibwota Johnson, both in their 20s, began to show signs of a rare disease in their infancy — a mysterious neurologic condition characterized by repetitive head nodding and accompanied by a raft of other grave symptoms — which has now haunted the family for two decades. “I don’t know what I am treating.
Scientists have their eyes on Chagas disease and the 'kissing bugs' that help spread it
This story is from The Pulse, a weekly health and science podcast. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Emily Pollom is a biologist, fascinated by living things, and it shows as she gives me a tour around her property in rural southwestern New Mexico. She points out the little details about the local flora and fauna, lost on most of us, before she starts to clean up a midden, a nest, built by woodrats. “These are the pallets, they love pallets.
‘It’s like cultural rescue’: Eelgrass festival in Mexico celebrates Indigenous Comcáac conservation efforts
Seagrass is on the decline in the world’s oceans, but the Indigenous Comcáac people of northern Mexico have managed to protect 96% of the eelgrass that grows in their waters. At a two-day festival on the coast of northern Mexico earlier this month, scientists, chefs and local residents gathered to celebrate eelgrass — a unique type of seagrass that grows in the Gulf of California.
One Man’s Pest
Photo by Bernard DUPONT via Flickr. The plane had just landed when the unmistakable smell of smoke began to waft throughout the fuselage. As the aircraft taxied on the runway of São Luís’s Marechal da Cunha Machado airport, the passengers on LATAM flight 3419 fidgeted in their seats. A minute earlier, they had heard a loud whacking sound, followed by a sudden crack, coming from just outside their windows.
Amid pollution and COVID-19, a quilombolas’ Amazon sanctuary turns hostile
Besides Marborges, mining companies also operate processing facilities with extensive slurry pipelines throughout the Jambuaçu Territory. Stretching 245 kilometers (150 mile), the pipelines of the transnational Norsk Hydro, cut across the entire expanse of Jambuaçu. Hydro transports bauxite ore (the raw material for aluminum) from the city of Paragominas, in the southeast of the state, all the way to Barcarena, a city near the state capitol of Belém.
The hand-to-hand struggle to fight Covid in Brazil's Amazonas state
A coronavirus variant from Manaus in northern Brazil, first detected in Japan earlier in January, is now the dominant form of the virus in the hard-hit South American city. As grave diggers struggle to keep pace with the soaring death toll, many residents are forced to fund their own supplies of vital oxygen. Manaus, the capital of Brazil's northern Amazonas state, has been hit hard by the pandemic's resurgence.
The Amazon's Burning Libraries
The arrival of the novel coronavirus in Munduruku territory, in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, has threatened the lives of the group and its entire culture. COVID-19 took the life of an important Munduruku leader, bringing both sadness to an embattled people and hampering language revitalization efforts. But the Munduruku are a warrior people defined by their fierceness and tenacity since even before Europeans arrived in the region.
Quilombolas, Invisible Protectors of the Forest, in Sight of COVID-19 (Portuguese)
Hydroelectric plants, mineral processing industries, ore pipelines, and an increasing number of ports for the export of commodities are all elements of the landscapes of the lower Tocantins River, in the Brazilian state of Pará—and also of the daily life of several Quilombola communities living along the shores of these waters. Examining land use planning, borders, and notions of development in this country means considering conflicts and violence—common occurrences in the case of the Amazon.
Double Exposure | Pulitzer Center
Story By Cícero Pedrosa Neto, Adriana Abreu, and Sam Schramski An aerial view of damage caused by a tailings dam leak at Norse Hydro's industrial complex in Barcarena in the Brazilian Amazon in 2018. The leak, caused by heavy rains, engulfed nearby communities in a flash flood that contaminated the Murucupí River. Image by Cícero Pedrosa Neto. Brazil, 2018.
Double Exposure
Double Exposure For centuries, the Quilombola people, descendants of escaped African slaves, have survived against insurmountable odds in the Amazon rainforest. Now industrial pollution and a pandemic are threatening their existence. An aerial veiew of damage caused by a tailings dam leak at Norse Hydro's industrial complex in Barcarena in the Brazilian Amazon in 2018. The leak, caused by heavy rains, engulfed nearby communities in a flash flood that contaminated the Murucupí River.
Amazon burning: Part 3
While only a few months removed, the fires in the Amazon, which stoked so much international attention in August and September, have largely been forgotten outside the region. In the Brazilian state of Pará, the flames were the cause of incredible damage. Deforestation, and forest fires in particular, have enormous implications for increased greenhouse gas emissions, and therefore the global climate. The plight of indigenous and other traditional peoples are also under growing threat.
Amazon burning: Part 2
While only a few months removed, the fires in the Amazon, which stoked so much international attention in August and September, have largely been forgotten outside the region. In the Brazilian state of Pará, the flames were the cause of incredible damage. Deforestation, and forest fires in particular, have enormous implications for increased greenhouse gas emissions, and therefore the global climate. The plight of indigenous and other traditional peoples are also under growing threat.
Overlooked complications from Brazil's forest fires: part 1
While only a few months removed, the fires in the Amazon, which stoked so much international attention in August and September, have largely been forgotten outside the region. In the Brazilian state of Pará, the flames were the cause of incredible damage. Deforestation and forest fires in particular, have enormous implications for increased greenhouse gas emissions, and therefore the global climate. The plight of indigenous and other traditional peoples are also under growing threat.
Deming does migrant detention differently
Deming, New Mexico is a small town near the US-Mexican border that finds itself caught in the middle of heated immigration debates. Starting in May, the US Border Patrol began dropping off asylum-seekers, mostly from Central America, at facilities on Deming's outskirts.
Why Scott Jurek Trail Runs Better Than a Robot Would
Wearing a headband of replica Tibetan prayer flags, Scott Jurek meets me in a park in Boulder, Colorado to demonstrate proper trail-running technique. This isn’t just jogging down a paved suburban street, but racing along forest and mountain trails that would tax even an unhurried hiker. Last year Jurek ran the entire length of the Appalachian Trail—2,189 miles in 46 days, the equivalent of nearly two marathons every day, over rocky terrain, up and down thousands of feet in elevation.
Future Murky For Brazil’s Arena Da Amazonia
The Amazon rainforest surrounds the concrete jungle of Manaus, the capital and most-populated city in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. In the heart of Manaus sits Arena da Amazonia, built between 2011 and 2014. The stadium was heavily scrutinized for its remoteness, construction costs and delays, and for the deaths of three workers. When the World Cup began, the city on Brazil’s distant frontier was giddy. Fans were overwhelmingly positive in the face of negative press.
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