charcoal trade

(Newser) - In Utah's backcountry, you're liable to see wide stretches of open space populated by little more than old brick huts. Their purpose, once essential to the state's economic life, came to be considered "almost like a criminal activity," an expert tells the Deseret News . In...

(Newser) - Mass-production of charcoal is so 18th century—but call it "biochar" and it may help save the planet, the Economist reports. Farmers could burn millions of plants into charcoal each year before the plants die and release stored carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, scientists say. Then, with the Earth's...

(Newser) - Who murdered seven mountain gorillas in the Congo last year? Perhaps, National Geographic finds, the question should be how any of the magnificent apes stay alive at all. A three-way military standoff—a holdover from neighboring Rwanda’s haunted past—enveloping Virunga National Park has left gorillas, people, and the...

(Newser) - Three African nations where the world's last 720 wild mountain gorillas live are finally working together to save the critically endangered animal, the Guardian reports. Until the 10-year plan was announced last week, mistrust and conflict had kept Rwanda, Uganda and the Congo from collaborating as another 10 apes were...