• Animals

Top Ten Stories of 2020: Biodiversity Crisis Is Recognized, Movement for #30×30 Is Growing

• #30x30
• #COVID
• biodiversity
• climate change
• extinction
• habitat
• United Nations
• zoonotic pandemics

This year was supposed to be a big one for biodiversity with the Conference of the Parties for the Conference on Biodiversity meeting in the fall in China, of all places, and then the pandemic struck and pushed the meeting back by a year.  Nevertheless, the evidence of the importance of conserving nature and ensuring we do not experience a mass extinction crisis became even clearer, especially when compounded with warming across the planet.

• Animals

Trump Rolls Back Endangered Species Protections (Again)

• #30x30
• cllmate crisis
• critical habitat
• endangered species
• extinction
• extinction crisis
• rollback

This week, the Trump administration adopted a new rule that narrows the definition of what qualifies as a habitat under the Endangered Species Act. The new definition only allows “critical habitat” for plants and animals at risk to be protected under the Act.

Why This Matters: By slicing away at the places that the Endangered Species Act applies, more activities that further degrade the habitat will likely be able to proceed.

• Weather

Australia’s Extreme Heat Prompts Fears of Another “Black Summer”

• Australia
• Australian fires
• biodiversity
• brush fires
• extinction

The 2019-2020 Australian bushfire season burnt more than 18 million hectares across the country, destroyed more than 2,000 homes, and claimed the lives of 34 people and about one billion animals. The devastation was gutwrenching and a wake-up call to the entire world that climate change is our greatest existential threat. Yet as fire crews […]

• Politics

New Study Finds Species In Crisis Are “Clustered”

• Arctic
• birds
• extinction
• mammals
• marine mammals
• reptiles
• wildife

A study published last week in the journal Nature provides a new view on the extinction crisis — that most of the planet’s species are not in decline and the ones that are in deep trouble are “clustered.” 

Why This Matters:  Is the glass half empty or half full? It all depends on how you look at it. These scientists argue that “the way global averages were being estimated could be strongly influenced by a small number of populations that were experiencing extreme declines, even if most were stable.”

• Sustainability

Climate and Food Production Consuming Too Much Habitat

• #30x30
• agriculture
• biodiversity
• climate change
• extinction
• food

According to a new study in the journal Nature Communications, the development of natural habitat for agriculture and urbanization, as well as the transformation of habitat caused by climate change, are “major causes of the decline in range sizes, and two of the most important threats to global terrestrial biodiversity.” 

Why This Matters:  Food production processes emit lots of carbon, and now we see that food production also drives loss of habitat and thus species’ extinction.

• Animals

Do Animals (Besides Us) Vote For Their Leaders?

• Bees
• birds
• election
• endangered
• extinction
• honeybees
• pollination

We humans aren’t the only ones who have devised democratic methods for electing leaders. As our count for the presidential winner continues, the Guardian explains how other species “vote” for leaders that can make or break their survival. 

Why This Matters:  We need to ensure 30% of the planet is protected by 2030 because the human-induced imbalances in the natural world are impacting waggling honeybees and soaring birds, among other species.