ALERT

  • Issues & Research Highlights
  • About Us
  • Key People
  • Press Releases
    • Experts: New Highways Will Drive Environmental and Social Calamities in New Guinea
    • ALERT editorial in Jakarta Globe slams ape-killer project
    • Tapanuli Orangutan: A follow-up letter to Indonesian President Joko Widodo
    • Indonesian Firm Using “Deplorable” Tactics to Push Orangutan-Killer Project
    • INDONESIAN FIRM USING “DEPLORABLE” TACTICS TO PUSH ORANGUTAN-KILLER PROJECT (IN INDONESIAN)
    • Scientists: Dam Project Would Devastate World’s Rarest Ape (In English)
    • Scientists: Dam Project Would Devastate World’s Rarest Ape (In Indonesian)
    • ALERT Scientists Urge Indonesian President to Conserve Tapanuli Orangutan (in English)
    • ALERT Scientists Urge Indonesian President To Conserve Tapanuli Orangutan (In Indonesian)
    • Scientists critique Transport Strategy of Asian Infrastructure Development Bank
    • Conservation commitment for Papua, Indonesia
    • Mega-Highway Imperils Jewel of Nigeria
    • Environmental Emergency in Brazil
    • As Indonesia burns, its government moves to increase forest destruction
    • 'Sustainable' corporation accused of massive destruction in the Amazon
    • PNG government is failing its people and environment
    • Woodlark Island
    • Road Expansion Imperils Thai Natural Area
    • Boycotts Are Vital To Halt Environmental Damage
    • Roads imperil world’s last wildernesses
    • Tony Abbott’s ‘no more parks’
    • Chitwan National Park
    • Leuser Ecosystem
  • Leading Members' Blogs
  • Search our content
  • Contact Us
Monkey-mirror.jpeg

The Most Mind-Blowing Eco-Stories of 2018

January 18, 2019 by Bill Laurance

ALERT continued its remarkable growth in 2018—all thanks to you.  We’re now reaching around 15 million people yearly, with up to 2 million readers on any particular week.

Here are the most singular stories from ALERT in 2018—some of the hottest and most mind-blowing environmental issues of the year.

OUR TOP THREE BLOGS

Out of 37 new blogs in 2018, these three drew the strongest reactions from readers.

Is China So Big It Only Listens to Itself?

1. China listens to itself.jpeg

China is the overpowering driver of environmental change in the world today.  Does it care what anyone else thinks? Over 30,000 people commented on or liked this blog.


Fatal Fences Are Decimating Nature

2. Fatal fences.jpeg

Fences are spreading all over the planet, greatly disrupting wildlife movements.  Over 27,000 readers reacted to the story.


Investors Beware: Infrastructure Projects Are Collapsing

3. investors beware blog.jpeg

Some 25,000 people reacted to this account of the precarious nature of big infrastructure projects.  Many projects are now failing, leaving huge environmental damage and financial losses in their wake.

OUR TOP THREE VIDEOS

ALERT videos provide snapshots of critical eco-issues.  Out of nine new videos in 2018, here are the three most popular.

China’s Belt & Road: The Biggest Environmental Peril This Century

4. BRI risky video.jpeg

The Belt & Road is the biggest development project ever—involving thousands of projects and trillions of dollars across much of the world.  Its environmental impacts will be stunning. More than 800,000 people watched this video while 22,000 commented or shared it.

Hidden Challenges of the Trans-Papuan Economic Corridor

5. Bird of paradise- Greater.jpg

Papua, or Indonesian New Guinea, is one of the world’s greatest wild areas and an epicentre of biological and cultural diversity. It’s being sliced apart by a massive road network that will open up the forest like a flayed fish. This blog drew 730,000 viewers and over 12,000 reactions. 

Economic Risks of the Belt & Road Project

6. BRI economic risks.jpeg

Beyond its environmental impacts, the Chinese Belt & Road venture also has great economic risks, many hidden or poorly understood and with layers of corruption.  More than 370,000 viewed this video and 6,000 reacted to it. 

 

OUR TOP TWEETS

ALERT has blasted into the Twitter-Verse in a big way, with 307 tweets in 2018.  Here are the four tweets that drew the biggest reactions in terms of how many people read, liked, or retweeted them.

In New Guinea, massive road-building by Indonesia will fragment and deforest vast tropical rainforest and imperil indigenous groups, say experts

7. cassowary.jpeg

Asia’s aggressive poaching spreads: Chinese nationals in Bolivia are convicted of illegally trafficking poached jaguar teeth and body parts

8. jaguar.jpeg

Bad EIAs: Why we can’t rely on Environmental Impact Assessments to protect our environment

9. EIAs.jpeg

 

Spectacled flying foxes die during a heatwave in Cairns, Australia

10. flying fox.jpg

 

 

 

January 18, 2019 /Bill Laurance
Subscribe to Issues & Research Highlights - ALERT by Email
  • Newer
  • Older