It’s all connected. Your world is affected by actions in places you may have never even heard of. “The vast rainforest of the Congo Basin, one of the most important in the world, has long been protected by its remoteness: In many places, roads are rare. But there is a river.” Log on to this incredible photo essay about the painstaking logging that’s decimating the world’s ‘other’ rainforest. NYT (Gift Article): Raft by Raft, a Rainforest Loses Its Trees. “The mighty Congo River has become a highway for sprawling flotillas of logs — African teak, wenge and bomanga in colors of licorice, candy bars and carrot sticks. For months at a time, crews in the Democratic Republic of Congo live aboard these perilous rafts, piloting the timber in pursuit of a sliver of profit from the dismantling of a crucial forest. The biggest rafts are industrial-scale, serving mostly international companies that see riches in the rainforest. But puny versions also make their way downriver, tended by men and their families who work and sleep atop the floating logs.”

+ NPR: “Yellowstone National Park remains closed after record-breaking floods hit Monday. Thousands of visitors and residents found themselves stranded as nearby communities saw evacuations and historic damage.”