Conservation

At least one-third of the forests on the planet are cut down for use in the timber industry, worth $1.5 trillion annually, according to The Conversation. The trees are used in paper manufacturing and timber milling, among other applications, but they are increasingly threatened by wildfires. New research by scientists from Australia and the United […]

Among autumn’s falling leaves, you might see a familiar flash of black and orange against the blue sky. Once again, migratory monarch butterflies are on the move from their summer breeding grounds to their overwintering habitats. These spectacular insects travel up to 2,500 miles across the Americas, sometimes covering 50-100 miles a day. Like migrating […]

Biologist Sir David Attenborough, who is 97, has been documenting the natural world and, more recently, the effects of climate change on ecosystems and biodiversity, for most of his life. More than 50 animal taxa have been named after the English natural historian, and one of them, the egg-laying mammal Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna, was recently […]

The European Union (EU) has agreed on a provisional agreement for a Nature Restoration Law — first proposed by the European Commission in June of last year — that would require member states to introduce measures for the restoration of 20 percent of the bloc’s land and sea ecosystems by 2030. More than 80 percent […]

Since its invention more than 100 years ago, plastic has become increasingly ubiquitous in the environment, from the depths of the ocean to within algae beneath Arctic sea ice. Tiny microplastics have been detected floating high in the atmosphere above the French Pyrenees, as well as in human blood. Plastics persist in the environment because […]

Researchers from University of California, Davis have published a study that outlines how artificial light pollution from things like city lights and highway traffic is threatening the habitats of mountain lions in Southern California. “Well-lit streets, neighborhoods and commercial areas will reduce and fragment the areas available to mountain lions to move around,” Fraser Shilling, […]

The most recent assessment of 14,669 threatened European plant and animal species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species has found that 19 percent are at risk of extinction. Some of the main reasons for the decline in biodiversity are habitat loss, changes in agricultural land use, overexploitation of […]

Often when we talk about the health implications of particular chemicals, the conversation tends to focus on the human impact, yet animals also suffer when harmful chemicals accumulate in their bodies and ecosystems.  A new map highlights how pervasive the problem is for wildlife around the world by showcasing the scientific evidence linking so-called flame-retardant […]