biodiversity

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She's Not an Art Historian. She's a 'Fruit Detective'

Smithsonian details the unusual niche of Isabella Dalla Ragione of Italy

(Newser) - Isabella Dalla Ragione spends a lot of time poring over Renaissance paintings and centuries-old frescoes. But as the Smithsonian explains, the 67-year-old isn't an art historian, exactly. Instead, she might be the world's most renowned "fruit detective." Dalla Ragione is an Italian agronomist who discovered that...

Saving Nature Will Require a Societal 'Transformation'

World Wildlife Fund calls for revamping food, energy, finance systems amid wildlife destruction

(Newser) - Enough is enough, says the World Wildlife Fund's Living Planet Report , released Wednesday, calling on governments and companies to "act rapidly to eliminate activities with negative impacts on biodiversity and climate" before it's too late. The report describes a 73% decline in the average size of monitored...

Want to Save Babies? Protect Bats
In Bat Die-Off, Human
Infants Also Paid the Price
NEW STUDY
Sep 7, 2024 8:00 AM CDT

In Bat Die-Off, Human Infants Also Paid the Price

New research shows that when bats died of fungal disease, infants also died, possibly due to pesticide

(Newser) - When a deadly fungal disease from Europe spread to bats in the United States, killing off colonies of the creatures, one scientist wanted to see what such a bat die-off would mean in other ways. What the University of Chicago's Eyal Frank found: that in counties where infected bats...

Bjork's New Single Is Part of Her Larger Mission
Bjork Releases
Single to Fight
'Frankenstein
Mutants'
CELEBRITY INTERVIEW
Nov 10, 2023 3:50 PM CST

Bjork Releases Single to Fight 'Frankenstein Mutants'

Iceland's most famous star has put out 'Oral' to help raise funds to fight salmon farming in her home country

(Newser) - Bjork is putting out a new single—but she didn't make it solely to indulge her creative and musical sensibilities. The 57-year-old Icelandic singer is using "Oral," put together with Spanish singer Rosalia and released Thursday, to raise funds to "help fight fish farming in Iceland,...

This Critter Hasn't Been Seen in London in 400 Years

Animals were hunted to extinction long ago, and now British capital is looking to improve biodiversity

(Newser) - Environmentalists and London's mayor have helped bring beavers back to the city for the first time in some 400 years in an effort to improve the British capital's biodiversity. As the AP reports, Mayor Sadiq Khan participated in releasing a family of beavers into a wetland area in...

Earth Has Breached Its 'Safe Operating Space for Humanity'

Planet's climate, biodiversity, and other key measurments 'are all out of whack'

(Newser) - Earth is exceeding its "safe operating space for humanity" in six of nine key measurements of its health, and two of the remaining three are headed in the wrong direction, a new study said. Earth's climate, biodiversity, land, fresh water, nutrient pollution, and "novel" chemicals (human-made compounds...

UN Members Sign Treaty That Affects Half of Earth's Surface

Pact will protect biodiversity of marine life in the high seas

(Newser) - For the first time, United Nations members have agreed on a unified treaty to protect biodiversity in the high seas, representing a turning point for vast stretches of the planet where conservation has previously been hampered by a confusing patchwork of laws. The UN Convention on the Law of the...

Nation That Balked at Landmark COP15 Deal Changes Tune

Biodiverse Democratic Republic of Congo now says it's on board

(Newser) - A historic deal signed Monday at the UN's COP15 biodiversity summit had a lone objector: Eve Bazaiba of the Democratic Republic of Congo, whose objection was ignored by COP15 President Huang Runqiu, China's environmental minister. Now, Bazaiba is walking back her objection, easing fears of a legal challenge...

Another Day, Another Dire Report on the Planet

Up to 40% of planet's land is now degraded and we need to address it to alleviate climate change

(Newser) - A new report from the United Nations says land degradation is already affecting half of the Earth's population, because there's a whole lot of land involved. According to the UN's second edition of its "Global Land Outlook" analysis, between 20% and 40% of the planet's...

For 23 Endangered Species, All Hope Is Now Gone

Ivory-billed woodpecker, nearly 2 dozen other species have been declared extinct by US

(Newser) - Wednesday is set to be a sad day for nearly two dozen endangered species, with all hope gone that we'll ever see them again. Federal wildlife authorities are expected to announce that the ivory-billed woodpecker, Bachman's warbler, and 20 other animals, as well as one plant, are now...

Giant Pandas in China No Longer Endangered
Big News for
China's Giant Pandas
Jul 9, 2021 2:02 PM CDT

Big News for China's Giant Pandas

They're now considered a vulnerable species in the wild, not endangered

(Newser) - Giant pandas outside of captivity in China just saw a status upgrade. Thanks to conservation efforts, they're no longer considered an endangered species, but a vulnerable one, reports the Guardian , which notes there are about 1,800 pandas currently in the country's wild. Environment Ministry rep Cui Shuhong...

We've Lost 68% of Wildlife Populations Since 1970
Nature Is 'Unraveling'
Before Our Eyes
NEW REPORT
Sep 10, 2020 8:36 AM CDT

Nature Is 'Unraveling' Before Our Eyes

It's time to overhaul our food system: WWF report

(Newser) - Nature is "unraveling" at a rate not seen for millions of years. That's according to a new report from the World Wildlife Fund, which finds wildlife populations have fallen by an average of 68% since 1970. In Latin America and the Caribbean, populations have fallen by an average...

6th Mass Extinction Is Speeding Along. It's 'Entirely Our Fault'

Humanity is 'sawing off the limb on which it is sitting'

(Newser) - Biodiversity is critical for human life, which makes the latest study on it especially troubling. In research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on the sixth mass extinction we're currently undergoing, scientists looked at threatened-species data from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature,...

Sorry, Climate Change. There's Another Problem
Sorry, Climate Change.
There's Another Problem
opinion
Mar 11, 2020 6:00 PM CDT

Sorry, Climate Change. There's Another Problem

Tamar Stelling has a new way to measure Earth's loss of species

(Newser) - Climate change isn't our only environmental problem—and evidence lies in the North Sea. Back in the 16th century a Dutch fishmonger could witness "whales everywhere, as far as the eye can see," writes Tamar Stelling at the Correspondent . "Some majestically spring from the water as...

Huge Biodiversity Report Sees 'Grave Impacts' for Humans

UN report says nature is in worst shape it's ever been in

(Newser) - Scientists say nature is in more trouble now than at any other time in human history, with extinction looming over 1 million species of plants and animals. That's the key finding of the United Nations' first comprehensive report on biodiversity, per the AP . The report, released Monday, says species...

UN Environment Report Names Our 2 Most Pressing Problems

Report uses word 'risk' 561 times in 740 pages

(Newser) - Earth is sick with multiple and worsening environmental ills killing millions of people yearly, a new UN report says. Climate change, a global major extinction of animals and plants, a human population soaring toward 10 billion, degraded land, polluted air, and plastics, pesticides, and hormone-changing chemicals in the water are...

200K Mice Plagued the Islands. Amazingly, There Are Now None

A seeming victory for biodiversity on New Zealand's Antipodes Islands

(Newser) - A subantarctic archipelago is making "huge news": The New Zealand Herald reports there are officially no more mice on the country's Antipodes Islands, which once housed up to 200,000 of the rodents. They caused a big threat to the World Heritage Site by preying on native birds,...

Sexed-Up 'Bachelor' Birds Could Save Their Species

Single male hihi birds can cut down inbreeding, ensure genetic diversity

(Newser) - Is the male hihi bird native to the Jersey Shore? Because, like The Situation and Pauly D, the single male birds in this endangered species (they're actually only found in New Zealand) are decidedly boorish, creeping for already taken ladies to mate with. But this actually might save the...

30 New Fly Species Found Buzzing in Hazy LA
30 New Fly Species Found Buzzing in Hazy LA
NEW STUDY
Mar 26, 2015 1:45 PM CDT

30 New Fly Species Found Buzzing in Hazy LA

Entomologists surprised at numbers in 3-year study

(Newser) - It started with a friendly wager. An LA Natural History Museum trustee bet Brian Brown, the museum's entomology curator, that the city's smog-filled nooks were no place for new insect species to be found. The first bug Brown caught proved to be previously undiscovered, inspiring the Biodiversity Science:...

World's Oldest Trees Dying at Alarming Rate
 World's Oldest Trees 
 Dying at Alarming Rate 
new research
Dec 7, 2012 7:09 AM CST

World's Oldest Trees Dying at Alarming Rate

Research shows 10 times the normal death rate

(Newser) - In what one researcher calls a "very, very disturbing trend," new research finds that the planet's oldest trees have started dying at 10 times the normal rate, a change that could greatly damage the planet's ecosystems and biodiversity. Researchers blame logging, development, drought, and climate change...

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