A wake-up call’: total weight of wild mammals less than 10% of humanity’s
From elephants to tigers, study reveals scale of damage to wildlife caused by transformation of wildernesses and human activity.
From The Guardian
Greta Thunberg, climate activists get court nod to sue Swedish state
A Swedish court gave Greta Thunberg and hundreds of other climate activists the go-ahead on Tuesday to proceed with a class action lawsuit against the Swedish state for “insufficient climate policy”.
From Reuters
Five things we’ve learned from UN climate report
The scientific body that advises the UN on rising temperatures has just released a new report. It’s an important summary of six key pieces of research completed over the past five years. BBC’s environment correspondent Matt McGrath considers the critical messages.
From the BBC
EPA sets ‘groundbreaking’ limits on toxic ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water
Extraordinary new limits introduced to require municipal utilities to remove six PFAS compounds from drinking water.
From The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/14/epa-drinking-water-limits-pfas-forever-chemicals
Crop Yields Reduced by Climate Extremes
From 1980 to 2009, farmers faced an ever-increasing chance of having to deal with a growing season that was too hot and dry for their crops, according to a new study from an international team led by researchers at Aalto University.
From Environmental News Network
https://www.enn.com/articles/72148-crop-yields-reduced-by-climate-extremes
Would a nature repair market really work? Evidence suggests it’s highly unlikely
Why should governments do all of the heavy lifting to arrest the steep decline of many ecosystems? Endangered species live on private land too – so why not give farmers and landholders incentives to look after them and restore habitat?
From: The Conversation
https://theconversation.com/would-a-nature-repair-market-really-work-evidence-suggests-its-highly-unlikely-199975
Breathing Is Going to Get Tougher
Not all pollution comes from people. When global temperatures increase by 4 degrees Celsius, harmful plant emissions and dust will also increase by as much as 14 percent, according to new UC Riverside research.
From: Environmental News Network
https://www.enn.com/articles/72059-breathing-is-going-to-get-tougher
How does biodiversity change globally? Detecting accurate trends may be currently unfeasible
Existing data are too biased to provide a reliable picture of the global average of local species richness trends. This is the conclusion of an international research team led by the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU).
From Phys,Org
https://phys.org/news/2023-02-biodiversity-globally-accurate-trends-unfeasible.html
Small isolated wetlands are pollution-catching powerhouses
Small isolated wetlands that are full for only part of the year are often the first to be removed for development or agriculture, but a new study shows that they can be twice as effective in protecting downstream lake or river ecosystems than if they were connected to them.
Source: Waterloo University
From Science Daily:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/02/230202112716.htm
Exclusive: Huge chunk of plants, animals in U.S. at risk of extinction
A leading conservation research group found that 40% of animals and 34% of plants in the United States are at risk of extinction, while 41% of ecosystems are facing collapse.
From Reuters