By Ariel Mark 24 March 2014 (mongabay.com) – Over the past 25 years, West Africa’s primates have been put at risk due to an escalating bushmeat trade compounded with forest loss from expanding human populations. In fact, many endemic primates in the Upper Guinea forests of Liberia and Ivory Coast have been pushed to the […]
By Jeremy Hance26 March 2014 (mongabay.com) – Just days before Myanmar, also known as Burma, implements a ban on exporting raw logs, the Environmental Investigative Agency (EIA) has released a new report that captures the sheer scale of the country’s illegal logging crisis. According to the EIA, new data shows that 72 percent of logs […]
By Brad Plumer11 February 2014 (Washington Post) – There have been five mass extinction events in Earth’s history. In the worst one, 250 million years ago, 96 percent of marine species and 70 percent of land species died off. It took millions of years to recover. Nowadays, many scientists are predicting that we’re on pace […]
By Lucy Cormack13 January 2014 (Sydney Morning Herald) – Australia’s standing as the home among the gumtrees could be challenged, with increased climate stress causing extensive change to Australia’s eucalypt ecosystems. A study by the National Environmental Research Program’s Environmental Decisions Hub has found that climate stress on eucalypts will mean many of Australia’s 750 […]
10 January 2014 (Science) – Worldwide population estimates of large-carnivore species. Error bars represent the low and high range of the estimates when available. Population estimates were not available for all species. Species ranges vary widely, and range sizes can have a strong influence on species population levels (table S1). Sources: Gray wolf (90), all […]
By Matt McGrath, Environment correspondent9 January 2014 (BBC News) – Three quarters of the world’s big carnivores – including lions, wolves and bears – are in decline, says a new study. A majority now occupy less than half their former ranges according to data published in the journal, Science. The loss of this habitat and […]
Contact: Mart Dixon (1-347-840-1242; mdixon@wcs.org) Stephen Sautner (1-718-220-3682; ssautner@wcs.org)3 December 2013 NEW YORK – A new study led by the Wildlife Conservation Society and Zoological Society or London warns that the world’s largest tropical desert, the Sahara, has suffered a catastrophic collapse of its wildlife populations. The study by more than 40 authors representing 28 […]
By David Hill 15 October 2013 (theguardian.com) – The decision by Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa to abandon a plan to permanently forgo exploiting hundreds of millions of barrels of oil in return for at least US$3.6bn in compensation – the “Yasuni-ITT Initiative” – has sparked severe non-state media criticism in Ecuador, calls for a referendum, […]
By Sarah Griffiths17 October 2013 (Daily Mail) – From chipmunks to Mediterranean spiders, animals are evolving to cope with the effects of hotter temperatures, a scientist has claimed. DNA evidence suggests the European wasp spider is evolving into a new form and is moving to cooler regions to set up home in parts of northern […]
Contact: Press Officepress@pik-potsdam.de49-331-288-2507Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)8 October 2013 More than 500 million people might face increasing water scarcity This is shown by complementary studies now published by scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) [Comparing projections of future changes in runoff from hydrological and biome models in ISI-MIP, Asynchronous […]