Bobby Bascomb is a freelance producer based in South Africa.
Bobby Bascomb is a freelance producer based in South Africa. Formerly she was a producer and reporter for the public radio program Living on Earth since 2006. With a background in environmental studies and geography, her reporting focuses on the often-complicated relationship between human development and environmental conservation. She has reported on critical environmental issues ranging from indigenous land rights to climate change.
Bobby has collaborated on a series of reports focused on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, including an hour-long documentary. That work explored a United Nations mechanism to mitigate climate change by reducing tropical deforestation. She also reported on the construction of a highly controversial dam installation on the Madeira River at the border between Brazil and Bolivia.
A new meta-study correlates phthalates in plastics with numerous health disorders, including obesity, male and female reproduction problems and mental health troubles.
A recent global survey illustrates the depth of anxiety many young people are feeling about climate change. Lise Van Susteren, a forensic psychologist, encourages adults to speak with children and youth about their doom to educate and alleviate anxiety.
Writer Sy Montgomery had the opportunity to rehabilitate two orphaned hummingbirds. The experience reminded her that "miracles happen all the time" and that these fragile yet fierce birds are "a great symbol of hope."
National Geographic has released “Secrets of the Whales,” a video documentary miniseries that seeks to unravel the secrets of whale behavior and understand whale cultures of orcas, humpbacks, narwhals, belugas and sperm whales.
Don't like the deafening sound of 17-year cicadas? Try eating one. You may fall in love.
Trillions of cicadas, underground for the last 17 years, have emerged in numerous eastern and midwestern states to spend a few days above ground climbing onto trees and walls, mating and making a wonderful ruckus.
The fracking boom has transformed large swaths of rural America, turning towns from idyllic to industrial and threatening the physical and mental health of many inhabitants.
The discovery of a fossilized tree in New Zealand is providing scientists with insight on how magnetic pole reversals could affect life on Earth.
The company that built and operates the Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River in Brazil has begun drawing down some 85% of the river, an amount scientists and Indigenous peoples believe will have catastrophic effects.
Music producer and National Geographic explorer Ben Mirin, creator of the website Beast Box, is "a messenger for the intricately tuned voices of the natural world."
Valer Clark has dedicated herself to finding ways to restore and maintain lands that have dried up in northern Mexico and the southwestern US since the 1970s when she purchased properties in the region.