biodiversity

They said that a failure to agree on an "ambitious and transformative" biodiversity pact at COP15 in Montreal in December would risk undermining key global climate goals. The climate deal that is currently being thrashed out at COP27 should also recognise the role of nature, they added. At 2015's climate meeting in Paris, countries agreed to cut emissions in order to keep global warming "well below" 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and…

Sometime today, November 15, the 8 billionth human on Earth is projected to be born. It could be happening right now, as I write this (or you read this). Or maybe it happened hours ago. But regardless of the exact second, today we officially enter a world with an estimated 8 billion people in it, according to a new report from the United Nations.It’s the first time we’ve added a full billion people since 2011, when humanity reached the 7 billion mark. And things have slowed down from there. The rate of global population…

Photo: Anup Shah/TNC Photo ContestThe world is filled with breathtaking natural landscapes and displays of life in movement. And the recently announced winners of the Nature Conservancy’s annual Photo Contest provide many dazzling examples of both.This year’s contest was reportedly the largest yet, with the organization saying it received more than 100,000 entries from 196 countries and territories. 2022 also saw the introduction of a climate category, with images meant to illustrate the many ways that climate change is…

A version of this story appeared in Science, Vol 378, Issue 6619.Download PDF BERLIN—A modest cemetery in the heart of this 3.6-million-strong capital city is hardly a likely nature haven. Yet it was here in the Domfriedhof, in Berlin’s Mitte district, that Anita Grossmann, an ecologist at the Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin), turned up 19 wild bee species in a single parched and untended patch of grasses and flowers on the…

Today, Ethiopian farmers are feeling the pressure to grow modern monoculture crops, thanks in part to a national push to become an agricultural powerhouse. “If you export grains, you want them to be uniform,” says McAlvay. “The global market wants a certain type of wheat for their Wonder Bread. A mixture of three varieties of wheat and four varieties of barley with some other things thrown in really doesn’t make the cut.”Tesfanesh Feseha, a master’s student in botany who served as a field translator during McAlvay’s…

The biodiversity crisis is separate but connected to the climate crisis. In addressing biodiversity, we have the opportunity to repair our climate. That was a key theme during NYC’s Climate Week 2022 and the World Biodiversity Summit. Speakers joked that many struggle to define “biodiversity” — a term layered with scientific minutiae. ”Biodiversity” encompasses all flora and fauna, and the webs of ecosystems they live in, spanning time and space. There’s much in biodiversity that we don’t understand, and therefore…

Situated 16,600 feet above sea level and neighboring the Mount Everest base camp in Nepal, the Pyramid International Laboratory/Observatory is one of the world’s oldest and most prolific high-altitude research facilities. But it’s falling apart. The tragic period for the Pyramid began in the early 2010s, when the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) cut its funding short. As a result, a lot of ongoing research missions had to be suspended, and on-site researchers and maintenance staff had to leave. “It’s already been…

Credit: CC0 Public Domain The Ordovician is a critical transition for the coevolution of life and environments, as it witnessed stepwise rise of atmospheric O2 and secular decline of CO2, as well as the blooming of marine fauna and the colonization of early land plants. …

Halloween is the perfect season for horror and thriller movie marathons. But while paranormal or slasher films often dominate our screens, it’s time to give eco-horror a closer look. What could possibly be scarier than nature turning against humankind?Read more... Halloween is the perfect season for horror and thriller movie marathons. But while paranormal or slasher films often dominate our screens, it’s time to give eco-horror a closer look. What could possibly be scarier than nature turning against humankind?Read…

The goal of this scientific project is to better understand which native bees are pollinating which crops in these community spaces, and how gardeners can attract and protect them. For example, bees don’t like big, open spaces. They appreciate vegetal cover—places to hide from predators like dragonflies that are waiting to pick them off. Self-respecting gardeners might not like to hear this, because it means letting things get a little unkempt. “Those are things that, generally, people are trained not to do,” says Dean…