ICN Sunday Morning: Pandemic Roulette

ICN Sunday Morning: The Search for Super Reefs

Go behind the scenes with executive editor Vernon Loeb and oceans correspondent Teresa Tomassoni as they discuss the search for heat-resilient coral reefs that are somehow defying the odds to survive a warming planet. The world has already lost more than half of its coral reefs, and most of what remains is at risk of disappearing in the next 25 years. But new research offers a ray of hope: Even as hotter temperatures devastate coral reefs, some still possess an extraordinary ability to endure. Teresa traveled to the Marshall Islands to follow Woods Hole scientists tracking down these super reefs. She explains the specialized technology aiding this research, the role governments play in coral conservation, and how unlocking the secrets of coral resilience might help scientists and conservationists restore, or even cultivate, reefs in other parts of the world.

ICN Sunday Morning: Pandemic Roulette

Go behind the scenes with managing editor Jamie Smith Hopkins and ICN reporters Katie Surma and Kiley Price as they explain what sloth deaths in Florida reveal about the global wildlife trade and risks to public health. Billions of live animals move through the legal and illegal wildlife trade, a massive industry a former CDC epidemiologist described as “pandemic roulette.” Traded animals move to places they never would have been otherwise, encountering species—and pathogens—they never would have been exposed to in their own habitats. As a result, diseases can spread, mutate and ultimately sicken humans. “Zoonotic” diseases jumping from animals to humans have driven many of the world’s most consequential outbreaks, including HIV/AIDS, influenza, West Nile virus and, many scientists believe, COVID-19. Katie and Kiley dug into this story after reporting on mass deaths at Florida’s Sloth World, an investigation that led to calls for reform from lawmakers, a state-led criminal investigation and a short-term ban on sloth imports. Today they explain what scientists learned from the dead sloths, who’s responsible for zoonotic disease oversight of imported wildlife, and what agencies could be doing to lower the public health risks of the global wildlife trade.

ICN Sunday Morning: The Terrible Combined With the Good

Go behind the scenes with executive editor Vernon Loeb and North Carolina reporter Lisa Sorg as they explain how a new N.C. ratepayer bill would put the brakes on data centers while incentivizing the use of fossil fuels. The Ratepayer Protection Act, making its way through the North Carolina legislature, conjoins two opposing ideas. On one side, the bill would rein in data centers and their ravenous power consumption, and shield North Carolinians from paying higher electric bills as a result of data centers’ operations. On the other, the measure would liberate Duke Energy from limits on fossil fuel, upending key aspects of state energy policy and, in some respects, reversing nearly 20 years of painstaking work on climate change. “It’s the terrible combined with the good,” a local advocate explained. “They should be two separate bills.” Lisa, who has been following this legislation, explains how these two ideas got put together in the first place, where the opposing ideas fit in the state’s political landscape, and what’s at stake for North Carolina if the bill passes.

ICN Sunday Morning: The Okefenokee’s Bid for International Recognition

Go behind the scenes with executive editor Vernon Loeb and ICN contributor Ryan Krugman as they discuss the Okefenokee’s bid for recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage site. A vast swamp in southeast Georgia, the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is an environmental wonderland: a protected wilderness of blackwater channels, peat, and dense wetland forests, supporting a rich array of wildlife and plant life. By July, the Okefenokee could be internationally recognized as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site. But this effort to protect the refuge depends partly on another layer of federal and international politics, since President Donald Trump moved to withdraw the United States from UNESCO earlier this year. Ryan, an ICN contributor who recently spent four days paddling the Okefenokee, explains how a U.S. UNESCO withdrawal could affect the bid, how the Okefenokee meets UNESCO’s standard of “outstanding universal value,” and what it’s like to experience the wildlife refuge firsthand.

ICN Sunday Morning: Mining the Metal of the Future

Go behind the scenes with senior editor Michael Kodas, ICN reporter Wyatt Myskow and Columbia Journalism Investigations reporter Johanna Hansel as they discuss the complicated push to build up lithium mining in the United States. Today, just one lithium mine operates in the U.S. By 2030, at least six new projects are expected on American soil, with 13 more close behind, mostly in the dry Southwest. That’s only a sliver of what’s coming. Companies have already staked claims for more than 100 lithium mines, according to a new database from Columbia Journalism Investigations and Inside Climate News. This surge underscores how quickly the U.S. is emerging as a major player in the global lithium market, a metal central to electric vehicle batteries. The Biden administration promoted the boom as a way to bolster U.S. energy independence, and under the banner of “Drill, Baby, Drill,” President Donald Trump has accelerated it—while the costs mount. Socially and economically vulnerable communities, especially Indigenous tribes, are absorbing many of the impacts. Wyatt and Johanna, whose reporting alongside CJI’s Carla Samon Ros has produced a new series on U.S. lithium mining, break down the rush to build these projects, what it means for local communities and fragile ecosystems, and what can be done now to improve the path forward.