Sharks at unprecedented risk of extinction after 71 per cent decline

Numbers of oceanic sharks and rays have declined at what researchers describe as an “alarming” 71 per cent over almost half a century, leading to what researchers say is an unprecedented increase in risk of extinction.
Conservationists have been warning for years about the unsustainable killing of the apex predators, based on regional reports and data on individual species, but a paper published today is the first to offer an authoritative global overview.

Gray whales are starving and dying off at an alarming rate along the Pacific Coast

Scientists are not exactly sure why the whales are dying, but in a newly released study, published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series, researchers conclude it is likely a result of starvation due lack of prey, perhaps caused by warming Arctic waters where they feed. If that’s true, the concern is that mass die-offs like this may become more frequent in the future as waters continue to heat up due to human-caused climate change.

The state of nature: 41 percent of UK species have declined since 1970s

Red squirrel in the natural environment

A new report has found that the UK’s wildlife is continuing to crash, with hundreds of species now at risk of disappearing from our shores altogether.
Over the past 50 years, urbanisation, agriculture, pollution and climate change have all caused the nation’s plants and animals to dwindle – a trend that has continued unabated within the last decade despite efforts to reverse these losses.

A quarter of all known bee species haven’t been seen since the 1990s

The number of bee species recorded worldwide has been sharply decreasing since the 1990s.
Eduardo Zattara and Marcelo Aizen at the National University of Comahue in Argentina analysed how many wild bee species are observed each year as recorded in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility – a publicly available platform where researchers and citizens can record sightings of bee species.

UN report: Pollution from planned fossil fuel production would overshoot Paris climate goals

In the 2015 international Paris Climate Agreement, nearly every country [see editor’s note] agreed to try and limit global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and preferably closer to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial temperatures. Achieving these goals will require dramatic changes, as the world has already warmed 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit), and temperatures, fossil fuel consumption, and carbon pollution all are continuing to rise.

Eating Our Way To Extinction

‘Eating Our Way to Extinction,’ a Cinematic Feature Documentary addresses the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about… Will we be the next species on the path toward extinction?