One year ago I was on an all-female expedition to Antarctica aimed at heightening women's influence as decision-makers on issues that shape our planet. It wasn't long before I discovered I was the only African-born woman on the trip. The first thing I thought was: how did I get here and how can I use this experience …
NAIROBI – The announcement of the winners of this year’s Goldman Environmental Prize is an opportunity to celebrate activist leaders. But it is also a moment to recognize just how much courage their efforts (and those of a great many others) can demand. When my dear friend Berta Cáceres and I won the prize in 2015, Berta …
Heat waves across the world have killed tens of thousands of people since the turn of the century. In the U.S., more people die from deaths related to heat than all other natural phenomena combined. Parts of West Asia are expected to become inhospitable to human life by the end of this century. And in recent years, India …
Right now, 17 million people in the Horn of Africa are at risk of starvation. Massive crop failures, due to lack of rainfall, have led to a problem so dire that senior United Nations officials called this the worst humanitarian crisis they have faced. But they should have seen this coming: the region has experienced dry spells for the …
I grew up close to the tropics, in a north Indian city. During harsh summers the incandescent sun – the largest nuclear fusion reactor in the entire solar system – is unforgiving, and heat waves bake the ground and all that’s on it. Amidst power cuts, a searing hot wind blows. The feeling cannot be …