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Red list: thousands of species at risk of extinction due to human activity
Unsustainable farming, fishing and climate change has intensified the struggle for survival among vulnerable animals and crops, says IUCN at the release of its latest list of endangered species
Thousands of animal species are at critical risk of going extinct due to unsustainable farming and fishing methods and climate change, a conservation group has warned as it released the latest red list of endangered species.
In a rare piece of good news, the International Union for Conservation of Nature [IUCN] praised New Zealand for its success in turning around the fortunes of two species of kiwi, prompting it to upgrade them from endangered to vulnerable.
Continue reading...Pizza night aboard the International Space Station
Brexit poses huge risk to Britain's food standards, report says
Rush to secure trade deals could lead to a lowering of standards and poorer quality food in supermarkets
Brexit poses huge risks to food standards in the UK and will have “seismic implications” for its food and farming systems, according to a new report.
Author Dan Crossley, executive director of the Food Ethics Council, said that the UK faced a stark choice between promoting a high quality, ethical and sustainable system and “a race to the bottom” driven by a desire to secure post-Brexit trade deals “at any cost”.
Continue reading...Australia's frog count: App calls on citizen scientists
Royal Society Publishing Photography competition 2017 - in pictures
The Royal Society’s annual contest celebrates the power of photography to communicate science, and the role great images play in making science accessible to a wide audience. This year the competition has proved more popular than ever, attracting more than 1,100 entries.
Continue reading...IUCN Red List: Wild crops listed as threatened
Climate change is radically reshuffling UK bird species, report finds
New migrants are arriving while rising temperatures drive others away, and egg laying is taking place earlier in the year
Climate change is radically reshuffling Britain’s birds, with some species disappearing while new migrants are settling. Timings are being reset too, with egg laying getting earlier in the year, while autumn departures for warmer climes are delayed by up to a month.
The State of the UK’s Birds report for 2017, published on Tuesday, reveals the profound impact of global warming on Britain’s bird life, which is set to become even greater in the future.
Continue reading...Oceans under greatest threat in history, warns Sir David Attenborough
Blue Planet 2 producers say final episode lays bare shocking damage humanity is wreaking in the seas, from climate change to plastic pollution to noise
The world’s oceans are under the greatest threat in history, according to Sir David Attenborough. The seas are a vital part of the global ecosystem, leaving the future of all life on Earth dependent on humanity’s actions, he says.
Attenborough will issue the warning in the final episode of the Blue Planet 2 series, which details the damage being wreaked in seas around the globe by climate change, plastic pollution, overfishing and even noise.
Continue reading...Country diary: this bird could be spooked by its own shadow
Rockland Broad, Norfolk The water rail’s distressed call tells you everything about its solitary life buried in deepest cover
As the light falls in my neighouring parish and the mercury drops, so the bird sounds acquire extra layers of intensity. I’m thinking of the hysterical chinking of blackbirds in the ivy and the disembodied sharp pitt notes of Cetti’s warblers. Most evocative of all, however, are the water rails.
Related to the moorhen and coot, this arch introvert is long-legged and long-billed, with a curious laterally compressed body that enables it to thread tiny gaps between reed stems. It is common in our valley but I seldom see one. Tonight there are four, and the way they answer each other’s sounds at 100-metre intervals across the marsh tells you everything about their solitariness and oddity.
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