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

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 […]

Myanmar’s rare earth mining industry has become the world’s largest supply, yet the mines’ toxic by-products are poisoning nearby waterways, wildlife, and communities. Photo: Global Witness

Transition minerals: A climate solution that could cost the earth – “We need a just, fair, and equitable transition from fossil fuels to renewables”

10 July 2024 (Global Witness) – Renewable energy is often hailed as a panacea for the energy crisis. But without better consultation and regulation, plans to expand mining for minerals central to the energy transition could be disastrous for people and the planet. To tackle the climate crisis, we need to transition away from fossil […]

Maps of near-bottom dissolved oxygen in the continental shelf waters off the United States Pacific Northwest, 1950-2021. About half of the water near the seafloor off the Pacific Northwest coast experienced low-oxygen conditions in 2021. Data from 1950 to 1980 are from the World Ocean Database32, data from 2009–2018 are from the NOAA Groundfish survey, and data from 2021 are from this study. Graphic: Barth, et al., 2024 / Nature Scientific Reports

Pacific Northwest coast suffers from low oxygen, study finds – “As we keep changing the climate, it’s going to become the norm. What’s pretty remarkable is that 50 percent of the continental shelf is going to be low oxygen.”

By Amanda Zhou 10 June 2024 (The Seattle Times) – About half of the water near the seafloor off the Pacific Northwest coast experienced low-oxygen conditions in 2021, according to a new study. And those hypoxic conditions, which are expected to become common with global warming, threaten the food web, the study found. The study […]

Joshua trees, such as this 25-foot-tall specimen that is 150 to 200 years old, are threatened with removal for a solar project in Boron by Avantus, a California company that is mostly owned by KKR, the global private equity firm. Thousands of protected Joshua trees just outside this desert town, including many thought to be a century old, will be cut down to make way for the sprawling solar project. Residents worry that construction dust will spread valley fever. Photo: Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times

Solar project to destroy thousands of Joshua trees in the Mojave Desert – “Let’s destroy the environment to save the environment”

By Melody Petersen 31 May 2024 BORON, California (Los Angeles Times) – A renewable energy company will soon begin clearing thousands of protected Joshua trees just outside this desert town, including many thought to be a century old, to make way for a sprawling solar project that will generate power for 180,000 homes in wealthier […]

Hectares of primary forest lost each year in Indonesia, 2001-2023. For a second year, Indonesia saw an uptick in forest losses. Between 2002 and 2023, the country lost 11 percent of its primary forest — that is, mature natural forests that have not been touched in recent years. Data: Global Forest Watch. Graphic: M.K. Wildeman / AP

Deforestation in Indonesia spiked in 2023, but resources analyst sees better overall trend

By Victoria Milko 28 April 2024 JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) – From trees felled in protected national parks to massive swaths of jungle razed for palm oil and paper plantations, Indonesia had a 27% uptick in primary forest loss in 2023 from the previous year, according to a World Resources Institute analysis of deforestation data. But […]

Counts (S) of anadromous adults in eight populations of the Santa Monica Mountains BPG. Counts are adjusted by +1 so that zero counts show up on the log scale Graphic: Boughton, 2022 in SWFSC 2022

Steelhead trout, once thriving in Southern California, are declared endangered – “The negative trend toward extinction has not reversed”

By Ian James 23 April 2024 (Los Angeles Times) – Southern California’s rivers and creeks once teemed with large, silvery fish that arrived from the ocean and swam upstream to spawn. But today, these fish are seldom seen. Southern California steelhead trout have been pushed to the brink of extinction as their river habitats have […]

Moths attracted to a light trap in the Area de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) in Costa Rica in May 1984, May 2007, and May 2019. Photo: Daniel Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs

They turned cattle ranches into tropical forest — then climate change hit

By Justine Calma 27 April 2024 (The Verge) – Ecologist Daniel Janzen wades into the field, clutching a walking stick in one hand and a fist full of towering green blades of grass in the other to steady himself. Winnie Hallwachs, also an ecologist and Janzen’s wife, watches him closely, carrying a hat that she […]

Map showing global estuarine areal change, net change in estuarine surface area (ESA)(km2) per estuary. Line plots show gross area gained and lost as well as net estuarine area change per 1° latitude and longitude relative to the total area of gross gain and loss and net area change worldwide, respectively. Hotspots of ESA loss occur in Asia. Graphic: Jung, et al., 2024 / Earth’s Future

Humans converted at least 250,000 acres of estuaries to cities, farms in last 35 years

WASHINGTON, 9 April 2024 (AGU) – Worldwide over the past 35 years, dams and land reclamation activities converted 250,000 acres of estuary — an area roughly 17 times the size of Manhattan — to urban land or agricultural fields, with most land conversion and estuary loss in rapidly developing countries, a new study finds. The findings could […]

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

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 […]

Aerial view of an illegal gold mine surrounding Yanomami Indigenous huts in Yanomami Indigenous land, Brazil, 10 January 2024. Photo: Ueslei Marcelino / REUTERS

Gold miners bring fresh wave of suffering to Brazil’s Yanomami – “This is war because people are dying. Hundreds of Yanomami have died in the humanitarian crisis, and they are Brazilians too.”

By Ueslei Marcelino and Anthony Boadle 18 January 2024 (Reuters) – Brazil is losing the upper hand in its battle to save the Yanomami Indigenous people, who are dying from flu, malaria, and malnutrition brought into their vast, isolated Amazon rainforest reservation by resurgent illegal miners. A year after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva […]

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