The Xylom does such good work.

It's never good news when the people who do the news become the news. As Jeff Bezos takes a sledgehammer to The Washington Post, we need your support to carry on our coverage of how Trump & friends are making our world sicker, poorer, and dirtier. Read this urgent appeal from our Managing Editor:

It's never good news when the people who do the news become the news. As Jeff Bezos takes a sledgehammer to The Washington Post, we need your support to carry on our coverage of how Trump & friends are making our world sicker, poorer, and dirtier. Read this urgent appeal from our Managing Editor:

Since the 1970s, The Gambia lost 11,000 hectares of mangrove forests. In a plantation drive, women planted over 700,000 mangrove propagules & monitored the growth of the seedlings throughout the year. How did it help in creating an alternative livelihood for the locals? (Published Dec. 2024)

This is a smart list.

I founded @thexylom.com to cover *global* environmental and health disparities. As regime-aligned media turn more insular, we are committed to documenting how the world is sicker, poorer, and dirtier everywhere from South Texas to South Sudan, from Nepal to Ukraine. Please support my colleagues:

After COVID-19, South Africa eased its visa policies. Vetted tour operators in India and China can now submit applications online, doing away with manual, paper-based processes. However, this has also made it easier for biopiracy traffickers to smuggle the country’s rare plant species.

Why do I care about Ukraine correspondents who were left hanging out to dry? Because I sent one out to Kyiv and Lviv *twice* last year. These international desk cuts create an irreversible domino effect that endangers journalists and fixers on the ground: www.thexylom.com/post/ukraine...

cool go.bsky.app/AgZbvTK

Every month, we have a goal of gaining 15 new members, which covers the costs of commissioning five new stories! Support the only Asian American-run news outlet covering health, climate, and the environment, starting at $2/month:

#3 Yet while the Georgia Coastal Management Program has promoted measures like dune enhancement, its focus has largely been on Tybee Island, a popular beach destination. Sapelo Island’s wetlands remain absent from these efforts. www.thexylom.com/post/saving-...

SEJ conferences connect environmental journalists across beats, backgrounds and newsrooms, strengthening reporting through shared learning. @alexip718.com of @thexylom.com shares why working alongside journalists from different backgrounds builds cultural competency & leads to better storytelling.

STATEMENT: The Xylom joins a coalition of media outlets that regularly report on newsworthy events, led by @thecity.nyc and @freedom.press, to vigorously condemn the recent arrests of journalists @donlemonofficial.bsky.social and Georgia Fort. www.thexylom.com/post/the-xyl...

Get the latest news updates on how the Trump administration is making our world sicker, poorer, and dirtier. Get our free newsletter along with the Climate News Task Force bundle, featuring @canarymedia.com @sentientmedia.org @floodlightnews.org @agwaterdesk.bsky.social @planetdetroit.org:

After COVID-19, South Africa eased its visa policies. Vetted tour operators in India and China can now submit applications online, doing away with manual, paper-based processes. However, this has also made it easier for biopiracy traffickers to smuggle the country’s rare plant species.

"We call on federal authorities to drop all charges against Lemon and Fort and to publicly affirm their unqualified support for the work of professional journalists in this critical time."

STATEMENT: The Xylom joins a coalition of media outlets that regularly report on newsworthy events, led by @thecity.nyc and @freedom.press, to vigorously condemn the recent arrests of journalists @donlemonofficial.bsky.social and Georgia Fort. www.thexylom.com/post/the-xyl...

In this week's newsletter: From removing signs in National Parks to withdrawing from the Paris Agreement a second time, the Trump administration is taking advantage of a people vastly underestimating its appetite for climate action and being trapped in regime-aligned information bubbles.

#1 World Wetlands Day is observed every year on Feb. 2 to raise awareness about the importance of wetlands. Did you know that historical land-use changes, such as dairy farming and plantation agriculture can lead to large-scale carbon loss from wetland surface waters?

I edited a @thexylom.com story which cited research that found the tear gas concentration in Portland during George Floyd protests was high enough to cause severe and irreversible health effects, including asthma, shortness of breath, and panic. And in Nepal, hospitalizations more than doubled:

@thexylom.com was founded on a belief that everyone should be able to access life-saving reporting, not just those who could afford it. That said, while our investigative coverage is always free to read, it is not free to produce. Therefore, we've set a goal of raising $7500/month in memberships:

“Previously, I just used pesticides randomly, but this app makes my work easier,” a Tanzanian farmer says about an AI-based app. From Tanzania and Nepal to India and the U.S., farmers across countries show a clear curiosity about AI. Are bureaucratic hurdles slowing its wider adoption?

In this week's newsletter: From removing signs in National Parks to withdrawing from the Paris Agreement a second time, the Trump administration is taking advantage of a people vastly underestimating its appetite for climate action and being trapped in regime-aligned information bubbles.

Get the latest news updates on how the Trump administration is making our world sicker, poorer, and dirtier. Get our free newsletter along with the Climate News Task Force bundle, featuring @canarymedia.com @sentientmedia.org @floodlightnews.org @agwaterdesk.bsky.social @planetdetroit.org:

A year ago, the Trump administration paused all foreign aid in the health sector for 90 days. A new Health Policy Watch report says that it resulted in devastating consequences in sub-Saharan Africa. In July 2025, we reported that dismantling USAID in Zimbabwe triggered a shortage of HIV medicines

You can fund @thexylom.com's climate journalism starting at $2/month here! Small steps :D fundrazr.com/sustain-the-...

The same day, a Democrat who requested the hearing lost to a challenger who accused her of supporting “overreaching” oil and gas regulations and earned a cross-party endorsement from her predecessor. For the first time since Reconstruction, Republicans control all South Texas State Senate seats.

South Africa is home to more than 20,000 plant species. It's rare plants have a huge demand in China & Dubai, which is why cases of biopiracy are on the rise. Traffickers pay as little as a 20-kilogram box of cigarettes to smuggle plants from botanical gardens, says a reformed gang member.

As political and financial pressures on independent news outlets continue to ratchet up, The Xylom relies on a stable source of reader revenue to keep investigating how regimes and industrial polluters are making our communities less clean and less safe. Help us meet our target of $7,500/month now:

In the Philippines, some renewable energy activists have subsequently been charged, their organisational and personal bank accounts frozen. Here are the lived realities of red-tagging. This article was first co-published in English by Kodao Productions and @dialogueearth.bsky.social:

South Africa is home to more than 20,000 plant species. It's rare plants have a huge demand in China & Dubai, which is why cases of biopiracy are on the rise. Traffickers pay as little as a 20-kilogram box of cigarettes to smuggle plants from botanical gardens, says a reformed gang member.

NEW: Exploiting the rampant poverty and unemployment in South Africa, international traffickers lure local youth into stealing rare plants for sale in Asian and Arab countries. Though laws have been strengthened, a technological solution would be more effective in curbing biopiracy.

In the Philippines, some renewable energy activists have subsequently been charged, their organisational and personal bank accounts frozen. Here are the lived realities of red-tagging. This article was first co-published in English by Kodao Productions and @dialogueearth.bsky.social:

A year ago, the Trump administration paused all foreign aid in the health sector for 90 days. A new Health Policy Watch report says that it resulted in devastating consequences in sub-Saharan Africa. In July 2025, we reported that dismantling USAID in Zimbabwe triggered a shortage of HIV medicines

NEW: Exploiting the rampant poverty and unemployment in South Africa, international traffickers lure local youth into stealing rare plants for sale in Asian and Arab countries. Though laws have been strengthened, a technological solution would be more effective in curbing biopiracy.

“Previously, I just used pesticides randomly, but this app makes my work easier,” a Tanzanian farmer says about an AI-based app. From Tanzania and Nepal to India and the U.S., farmers across countries show a clear curiosity about AI. Are bureaucratic hurdles slowing its wider adoption?

January 26 is World Environmental Education Day, observed to raise environmental awareness. Check out our story from March 2025 on how Atlanta doctors are making a difference by discussing climate change with patients. (Co-published by the Atlanta Community Press Collective & 285 South)

"[R]ed-tagging." Philippines has "accused individuals and groups involved in community projects, such as disaster relief and delivering solar-powered water pumps, of having links with communism or terrorism." "This has nothing to do with anti-terrorism." #Philippines #Nonprofit #Water #Climate

In a Notice and Comment Hearing in January 2024, TCEQ officials admitted off the record that they have never denied a federal operating permit for oil and gas facilities, prompting a former high-ranking TCEQ official to accuse the agency of being a "rubber stamp." www.thexylom.com/post/you-nee...

Last year, for @thexylom.com, I found that Texas land-grant, sea-grant, and R1 (Very High Research Spending and Doctorate Production) universities made 1,129 successful H-1B skilled worker petitions in the first nine months of FY2025 alone. Greg Abbott is engineering a severe workforce shortage:

Philippine renewable power advocates falsely accused of having links to terrorism have seen their bank accounts frozen, some even abducted. This has led to delays or cancellations of local climate projects. This story was first published by Kodao Productions and @dialogueearth.bsky.social.

In our latest newsletter, our Managing Editor, Laasya Shekhar, shares how a recent @yaleclimatecomm.bsky.social study on climate attitudes in India reflects her personal climate anxiety, and what she is doing about it in her community. buttondown.com/thexylom/arc...

"Red-tagging" is happening everywhere

Philippine renewable power advocates falsely accused of having links to terrorism have seen their bank accounts frozen, some even abducted. This has led to delays or cancellations of local climate projects. This story was first published by Kodao Productions and @dialogueearth.bsky.social.

January 26 is World Environmental Education Day, observed to raise environmental awareness. Check out our story from March 2025 on how Atlanta doctors are making a difference by discussing climate change with patients. (Co-published by the Atlanta Community Press Collective & 285 South)

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said yesterday in Davos that the world needs to more than double oil production. What would that look like for Americans? In 2025, with @floodlightnews.org @drilledmedia.bsky.social @deceleration.news, we investigated the tragedy of Ingleside on the Bay, Texas:

In November 2024, Jim Klein, the only elected official who testified against the federal operating permit renewal of Canadian-operated Enbridge Ingleside Energy Center, the largest crude oil export terminal in the country, lost reelection to the owner of a multimillion-dollar oil and gas business.

Ingleside on the Bay is over 80% white, has the second-highest home prices in the region, and voted for Trump by 50 points three times. Half of all U.S. crude oil exports pass right next to the town, though. It's seen two oil spills and a 17-fold increase in toxic chemical risk in just five years.

In our latest newsletter, our Managing Editor, Laasya Shekhar, shares how a recent @yaleclimatecomm.bsky.social study on climate attitudes in India reflects her personal climate anxiety, and what she is doing about it in her community. buttondown.com/thexylom/arc...

Then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi predicted that the environmental damage from exporting would be offset by 10 times. In reality, one Koch-owned facility was fined only $21,800 by the TCEQ for 15 straight months of high-priority Clean Air Act violations — their profit every two minutes.