bird decline – Desdemona Despair

The global Living Planet Index, 1970-2020. The LPI is based on 34,836 monitored populations of 5,495 vertebrate species. The white line represents the index value, and the shaded areas represent the statistical uncertainty surrounding the value. Graphic: WWF / ZSL

October 19, 2024

Global biodiversity report shows “catastrophic decline” in wildlife populations – “In just my lifetime, 50 years, we’ve seen a decline of 73 percent in the average size of these wildlife populations”

By Molly McCrea 18 October 2024 (CBS News) – A shocking new report on global biodiversity is detailing what it calls “a catastrophic decline” in wildlife populations ahead of a major international conference on biodiversity. On Monday, 21 October 2024, the United Nations will convene a two-week conference in Cali, Colombia called COP16. On the agenda […]

Map showing breeding colonies of emperor penguin in Antarctica. In 2023, 14 of the 66 colonies in Antarctica lost some or all of their chicks due to sea ice breakup. Graphic: British Antarctic Survey

April 27, 2024

Emperor penguins suffered mass breeding failures in 2023 amid record low sea ice – “They’ll either freeze to death or they’ll drown”

By Gloria Dickie 25 April 2024 LONDON (Reuters) – Record low sea ice in late 2023 led to breeding failures in one-fifth of Antarctica’s emperor penguin colonies, scientists with the British Antarctic Survey said on Thursday. Emperors – the world’s largest penguin species and one of only two endemic to Antarctica — depend on sea […]

Number of generic extinctions per century among in different classes of vertebrates. The low number of reptiles and amphibia, which underestimate the magnitude of extinction pattern, is probably the result of the lack of information in earlier centuries, where very few species had been described. The dotted line represents the background extinction rate. Graphic: Ceballos and Ehrlich, 2023 / PNAS

September 30, 2023

Study finds human-driven mass extinction is eliminating entire branches of the tree of life – “We’re losing our only known living companions in the entire universe”

By Sean Cummings 18 September 2023 (Stanford News) – The passenger pigeon. The Tasmanian tiger. The Baiji, or Yangtze River dolphin. These rank among the best-known recent victims of what many scientists have declared the sixth mass extinction, as human actions are wiping out vertebrate animal species hundreds of times faster than they would otherwise […]

Maps showing the global distribution of animals with decreasing (top), stable (middle) or increasing (bottom) populations combining data from all taxonomic groups. Numbers of species were counted within each 1° × 1° grid cell covering the globe, using a Behrmann’s equal area projection. Graphic: Finn, et al., 2023 / Biological Reviews

May 29, 2023

Global loss of biodiversity is significantly more alarming than previously suspected – “Almost half of animals on Earth for which assessments are available are currently declining. To make matters worse, many of the animal species that are thought to be non-threatened from extinction are in fact progressively declining”

23 May 2023 (Queen’s University Belfast) – A new study led by researchers from Queen’s University Belfast has shown that the global loss of biodiversity caused by human industrialisation is significantly more alarming than previously thought. The global-scale analysis has been published in the journal Biological Reviews. The study looked at changes in the population densities […]

Two of three male spotted owls released into the wild in the Fraser Canyon. Two died and the other was injured and returned to captivity. Photo: BC government

May 27, 2023

“All I see are ghosts”: fear and fury as the last spotted owl in Canada fights for survival

By Leyland Cecco 26 May 2023 Spô’zêm First Nation, Canada (The Guardian) – On a rainy spring morning, huddled under the shelter of an ancient cedar, Jared Hobbs hoots, whoops and squawks. In years past, he could lure curious owls by drawing on his extensive repertoire. Among them are the whoo whoo whoo whooo territorial calls, alarm […]

Global annual mean temperature anomalies with respect to pre-industrial conditions (1850-1900) for six global temperature data sets (1850-2022). Graphic: WMO

April 30, 2023

WMO annual report highlights continuous advance of climate change – “While greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and the climate continues to change, populations worldwide continue to be gravely impacted by extreme weather and climate events”

Geneva, 21 April 2023 (WMO) – From mountain peaks to ocean depths, climate change continued its advance in 2022, according to the annual report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Droughts, floods, and heatwaves affected communities on every continent and cost many billions of dollars. Antarctic sea ice fell to its lowest extent on record […]

Numbered tags are seen underneath the wings of this California Condor photographed north of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. There are 116 birds currently living in the wild north of the canyon along the Arizona Strip and in southwestern Utah. Photo: Jim Shane / Utah Division of Wildlife Resources

April 16, 2023

Avian flu is killing endangered California condors at alarming rate

By Dinah Voyles Pulver 12 April 2023 (USA TODAY) – The avian influenza stalking wild and domestic bird flocks across the country has killed at least six endangered California condors since March and is suspected of killing another dozen. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday it’s now attributing all condor deaths in the […]

Arctic annual air surface temperatures from October 2021 to September 2022 were the sixth warmest dating back to 1900. The image on the left depicts the departure from the average near-surface temperature across the Arctic during this period, with redder colors showing areas of greater than average warmth. The graphic on the right shows how the rate of Arctic air temperature warming has outpaced the rate of global warming. Data: ERA5 and NASA. Graphic: NOAA / Climate.gov

December 17, 2022

NOAA: Human-caused climate change fuels warmer, wetter, stormier Arctic

13 December 2022 (NOAA) – A typhoon, smoke from wildfires, and increasing rain are not what most imagine when thinking of the Arctic. Yet these are some of the climate-driven events included in NOAA’s 2022 Arctic Report Card, which provides a detailed picture of how warming is reshaping the once reliably frozen, snow-covered region which […]

Lake Sawa in Iraq, 6 July 2022. The lake is filled with only 5 percent to 10 percent of its initial area. Photo: Laurence Geai / Le Monde

September 5, 2022

Iraq’s fertile valley is dying – Authorities estimate that the Euphrates could dry up as early as 2040

By Hélène Sallon 21 August 2022 (Le Monde) – From the top of the old tourist complex built on the shores of Lake Sawa, in the province of Al-Muthanna in southern Iraq, the desert stretches as far as the eye can see. The buildings have been abandoned since the 2003 US-British invasion. “In the past, […]

Two bird species that are extinct but not listed as such, for fear of committing the “Romeo Error”. Both species are still listed as Critically Endangered by IUCN because of the slim chance that one or more birds may still be alive. Such species are therefore not counted among extinct species, and vast sums of money are often spent in the vain hope that they will be found again. I Left: Eskimo curlew (Numenius borealis (Forster)), from Audubon (1827–1838: plate 208; Wikimedia Commons). Right: Bachman's warbler (Vermivora bachmani (Audubon)), from Audubon (1827–1838: plate 185 (detail); Creative Commons, Rawpixel). Graphic: Wikimedia Commons / Rawpixel

January 19, 2022

Earth on trajectory to Sixth Mass Extinction say biologists – “Including invertebrates is key to confirming that we are indeed witnessing the onset of the Sixth Mass Extinction in Earth’s history”

By Marcie Grabowski 14 January 2022 (UH News) – Mass biodiversity extinction events caused by extreme natural phenomena have marked the history of life on Earth five times. Today, many experts warn that a Sixth Mass Extinction crisis is underway, this time entirely caused by human activities. A comprehensive assessment of evidence of this ongoing […]