Her distinct accent could be the key to solving her puzzling disappearance in the Himalayas. — Then 19-year-old Alison MacDonald vanished on a backpacking trip to the Himalayas in 1981. Despite massive search efforts, including over a dozen visits to India and Pakistan by her parents, searchers never found a trace of Alison’s whereabouts. That is until searchers discovered a broadcast in which a Kashmiri separatist…

The desert was lush with cactus-like Echinopsis pampana only two decades ago. But today, this desert is a skeleton of its once vibrant ecosystem, thanks in part to wealthy collectors incentivizing poachers. — Haageocereus tenuis is a prostrate cactus species — prostrate, meaning it grows horizontally along the ground, which is a hard concept to imagine for those who are accustomed to saguaros and prickly pears. This cactus species inhabits only two square kilometers in a small area outside Lima. There remains only…

When conservationists focus primarily on saving popular animals, they are doing a great disservice to the world’s rich biodiversity. — While the Earth braces under a mass extinction due to human causes, it’s easy to be on the side of charismatic and recognizable species. When Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer shot and killed Cecil the lion outside of Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, it ignited outrage and thrust trophy hunting into the…

It’s not uncommon to completely lose touch with reality, forgetting they swallowed the pills, forgetting where they are, and even forgetting who they are. Seizures. Lifelike hallucinations. Psychosis. Coma. Death. — “First thing I want to say, I hate DPH. I think DPH is horrible. I took DPH because I wanted to mentally hurt myself. I will never take DPH again,” a user posted to the r/DPH subreddit as a preface to his experience taking…

From 1997 to 2018, the US Border Patrol reported 7,505 migrant deaths along the southwestern border. While this figure is mind-bogglingly tragic, the true number is likely much, much higher. — Not many people are searching Arizona’s isolated, scorching desert for the remains of missing migrants, whose families hundreds or thousands of miles away wait with bated breath for news. Finding missing migrants or searching for corpses isn’t in the Border Patrol’s job description, so a volunteer group called the Aguilas…

For the second time in 2020, Indian security forces killed Hizbul Mujahideen’s leader — a big setback for the militant organization. — “I protected my children under my wings like a hen does her chicks. I didn’t know he would run away like this… He wanted to be a doctor. He said he would help people. He didn’t become one but went into the medical line nevertheless. …

The newlyweds vanished on the record-breaking expedition that would have made Bessie the first woman to raft through the Grand Canyon. — 1928 was the year of adventurers. Charles Lindbergh earned a Medal of Honor for being the first solo pilot to cross the Atlantic on a non-stop flight. Amelia Earhart took off on her voyage to become the first female aviator to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Explorer Richard Byrd’s first expedition…

Jakarta is sinking. Fast. And they’re running out of time. — In 2019, Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced the impending move of the country’s administrative capital from Jakarta to East Kalimantan on Borneo island. …

The isle’s tribes fled here after escaping the Trail of Tears and Indian Removal Act. Now they’re fleeing climate change. — The residents of Isle de Jean Charles in Louisiana’s southeastern bayous are the first trickle in the coming wave of climate change refugees. For decades, the tribes (Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw and United Houma Nations) who once called the isle home have been relocating to safer land. …