Extrapolation of witnessed species decline shows mean biodiversity loss predictions under continued climate change within the 21st century may be on the conservative side.
If however survival conditions are optimal, like a gradual increase of the environmental stressor, ‘modest’ inter-population contact – and indeed if such extrapolation from a microorganism to a blue whale would be as legitimate as the researchers in their Science … Continue reading
The cumulative effect of environmental threats like climate change, ocean acidification and overfishing, brings the world’s interconnected ocean close to a phase of extinction of marine species that is ‘globally significant’ and unprecedented in human history, an international panel of … Continue reading
For the layman paleoclimatology is ‘proof’ that any climate change is natural. For educated thinkers the lessons from the long ago contain the biggest warnings for the current artificially created state of our planet.
The Earth is en route to its sixth mass extinction, say a group of paleobiologists in the latest edition of Nature.
We may not know the exact sum figures of biodiversity, nor the precise percentages of species decline. It may also be irrelevant. Although ecology is in fact all about counting – we have to become aware that we are loosing … Continue reading
It paints a sad picture, the latest assessment of the world’s vertebrates by the IUCN. Of the almost 26,000 vertebrates on the IUCN Red List as much as a fifth face a serious risk of extinction. With an average of … Continue reading
The United Nations have declared the year 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity. This Monday a big biodiversity conference starts in Nagoya, Japan, in order for countries to define and agree upon a combined strategy to slow the decline. … Continue reading
Twenty percent of the world’s plant species are directly threatened with extinction – mostly due to human activity, says a group of scientists from Britain’s Botanic Gardens at Kew, London’s Natural History Museum and the International Union for the Conservation … Continue reading