Species Extinction

The Extinction of Species ...... 3 Web of life unravelling, wildlife biologist says ...... 3 Nations risk economic collapse and loss of culture if it does not protect the natural world ...... 3 The thing about extinction ...... 3 Speeding Towards Biosphere Collapse ...... 3 NASA video showing climate shift 1880 through 2012 ...... 4 In 1964, Isaac Asimov Imagined the World in 2014 Embedded video ...... 4 Dr. Andrew Weaver - Climate Scientist on the Tar Sands ...... 5 The sixth extinction - Elizabeth Kolbert ...... 5 Nasa-funded study: industrial civilisation headed for 'irreversible collapse'? ...... 5 Stanford biologist warns of early stages of Earth's 6th mass extinction event ...... 6 Defaunation in the Anthropocene ...... 6 Salt-Water Fish Extinction Seen By 2048 ...... 6 The Nature of Things - Jellyfish Rule! ...... 7 Earth 'entering new extinction phase' - US study ...... 7 New report suggests Earth on the brink of a great extinction ...... 7 NASA Study Concludes When Civilization Will End, And It's Not Looking Good for Us ...... 7 Human and nature dynamics (HANDY): Modeling inequality and use of resources in the collapse or sustainability of societies ...... 7 Indicators of Ecological Collapse ...... 8 Last Hours Climate Change documentary from The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann ...... 8 The study - Impacts of Biodiversity Loss on Ocean Ecosystem Services ...... 9 Humans an Invasive Species Heading for a 'Crash,' Study Says ...... 9 20 Percent of Plant Species Could Go Extinct ...... 9 First Mammal Goes Extinct Due to Human-Caused Climate Change ...... 9 Crocodiles and Palm Trees in the Arctic? New Report Suggests Yes...... 9 Are We Looking At A Mass Extinction Event? ...... 10 Thom Hartmann, The Big Picture - Are We Looking At A Mass Extinction Event? ...... 10 Humans Are Driving 'Unprecedented' Mass Extinction in Oceans ...... 10 The Earth's Sixth Mass Extinction May Be Underway ...... 11 ‘By 2050 half the forms of life we know will be gone’ – conservation biologist Embedded video ...... 11 Welcome to the Anthropocene ...... 12 World wildlife 'falls by 58% in 40 years' ...... 12 World Wildlife Fund Living Planet Report 2016 ...... 12 Sixth mass extinction? Two-thirds of wildlife may be gone by 2020: WWF ...... 12 Blame for Extinction Spreads to Methane Gas ...... 13 Primates facing 'extinction crisis' ...... 13 Species’ traits influenced their response to recent climate change ...... 14 Climate-Related Local Extinctions Are Already Widespread among Plant and Animal Species ...... 14 Accelerated modern human–induced species losses: Entering the sixth mass extinction ...... 14 Biologists think 50% of species will be facing extinction by the end of the century ...... 15 Era of ‘Biological Annihilation’ Is Underway, Scientists Warn ...... 15 The Extinction Event Gains Momentum ...... 16 The Sixth Extinction: Climate Change May Wipe Out a Third of World's Parasites ...... 16 Canada's threatened species declining despite federal protection ...... 17 The chance of 'catastrophic' climate change completely wiping out humanity by 2100 is now 1-in-20 17 The study: New Climate Risk Classification Created to Account for Potential “Existential” Threats .... 17 Canada is actually running short of bugs ...... 18 Warning of 'ecological Armageddon' after dramatic plunge in insect numbers ...... 18 More than 15,000 scientists from 184 countries issue 'warning to humanity' ...... 19 First U.S. Bumblebee Officially Listed as Endangered ...... 19 Industrial farming is driving the sixth mass extinction of life on Earth, says leading academic ...... 20 Salt-Water Fish Extinction Seen By 2048 ...... 20 Bee gone: Scientists turn to technology as declining bee numbers threaten global food security ...... 20

1 15,000 Scientists From 184 Countries Are Warning Humankind We Are Screwed ...... 21 World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: ...... 21 Area of Global Dead Zones Doubling Every 10 Years ...... 21 We just went through 2018's Earth resources in only 7 months ...... 22 Unless It Changes, Capitalism Will Starve Humanity By 2050 ...... 22 Biological annihilation via the ongoing sixth mass extinction signaled by vertebrate population losses and declines ...... 23 Frogs Are Disappearing. What Does That Mean? ...... 23 Mammal diversity will take millions of years to recover from the current biodiversity crisis ...... 23 Humanity has wiped out 60% of animal populations since 1970, report finds ...... 24 Earth Has Seen CO2 Spike Before. It Didn’t End Well...... 24 Building blocks of ocean food web in rapid decline as plankton productivity plunges ...... 25 Living Planet Report 2018 - WWF ...... 25 More than 50 Australian plant species face extinction within decade ...... 26 Washington authorities to put Cooke Aquaculture’s salmon farms under “strongest water quality protections we can put in place” ...... 26 Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence cod could be extinct by mid-century: report ...... 27 Salt-Water Fish Extinction Seen By 2048 ...... 27 SongbirdSOS - The Nature of Things with David Suzuki ...... 27 Plummeting insect numbers 'threaten collapse of nature' ...... 28 World's food supply under 'severe threat' from loss of biodiversity ...... 28 Destruction of nature threatens humanity 'at least as much as' climate change, warns UN - 29 Apr 2019 ...... 29 Plant extinction 'bad news for all species' ...... 29 The Sixth Great Extinction Is Underway—and We're to Blame ...... 29 A New Study Reveals Just How Toxic a Bee’s World Has Become ...... 30 An assessment of acute insecticide toxicity loading (AITL) of chemical pesticides used on agricultural land in the United States ...... 30 Humans have driven nearly 600 plant species to extinction since 1750s ...... 31 Silent Skies: Billions of North American Birds Have Vanished ...... 31 'Alarming' extinction threat to Europe's trees ...... 31 Insects Facing 'Unnoticed Apocalypse' Due to Routine Use of Pesticides, Report Warns ...... 32 Apocalypse Now? Scientists Reveal What’s Behind Insect Cataclysm ...... 33 Humanity Has Killed 83% of All Wild Mammals and Half of All Plants: Study ...... 33 The biomass distribution on Earth ...... 33 Last year, 40% of honey-bee colonies in the US died. But bees aren't the only insects disappearing in unprecedented numbers...... 34 This bumble bee is ready for its closeup, if you can find it ...... 34 60% of world's wildlife has been wiped out since 1970 ...... 35 WWF: Canada endangered species face 'staggering losses' ...... 35 The Living Planet Report Canada 2020 ...... 35 The Living Planet Report Canada 2020 - VIDEO ...... 35

2 The Extinction of Species

Web of life unravelling, wildlife biologist says

Wildlife biologist Neil Dawe says he wouldn't be surprised if the generation after him witnesses the extinction of humanity.

All around him, even in a place as beautiful as the Little Qualicum River estuary, his office for 30 years as a biologist for the Canadian Wildlife Service, he sees the unravelling of "the web of life."

Indeed, it's an overabundance of people, perhaps by five-fold, which is driving resource extraction and consumption beyond a sustainable planet, he says.

"Economic growth is the biggest destroyer of the ecology," he says. "Those people who think you can have a growing economy and a healthy environment are wrong. "If we don't reduce our numbers, nature will do it for us."

A five-fold overabundance of people? Having our numbers pruned to a billion or so would have been a very good beginning. It might have given us time to decide what we wanted to be when we grew up.

But I can't quiet my niggling suspicion that his first sentence has it right. Climate change and ocean acidification could easily put a stop to the human adventure within the next couple of generations. http://www.democraticunderground.com/112753552 https://earthfirstjournal.org/newswire/2013/09/07/web-of-life-unravelling-wildlife-biologist-says/

Nations risk economic collapse and loss of culture if it does not protect the natural world

"What we are seeing today is a total disaster," said Ahmed Djoghlaf, the secretary-general of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. "No country has met its targets to protect nature. We are losing biodiversity at an unprecedented rate. If current levels [of destruction] go on we will reach a tipping point very soon. The future of the planet now depends on governments taking action in the next few years."

According to the UN Environment Programme, the Earth is in the midst of a mass extinction of life. Scientists estimate that 150-200 species of plant, insect, bird and mammal become extinct every 24 hours. This is nearly 1,000 times the "natural" or "background" rate and, say many biologists, is greater than anything the world has experienced since the vanishing of the dinosaurs nearly 65m years ago. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/aug/16/nature-economic-security

The thing about extinction

It is reckoned that the current rate of extinction is between a hundred and a thousand times faster than the average historical extinction rate for the planet. http://www.bbc.co.uk/lastchancetosee/sites/about/extinction.shtml

Speeding Towards Biosphere Collapse

Unfortunately for us, the most ominous and likely collapse is not that of the economy or nations, which 3 exist in many ways through our mutual agreement, but of the biosphere -the world ecosystem-, which exists independently of us. To reiterate the four most important facts leading to this conclusion are:

Ecosystems do not react linearly to change, but abruptly switch states (Scheffer, 2001).

That the global biosphere or global network of ecosystems, is threatening to collapse, if just 7% more ecosystems shift states (collapse at 50%, and we are currently at 43%) (Barnosky, 2012). Managers, planners, and politicians are not coordinating with scientists or experts (Staudinger: Technical Input to the 2013 National Climate Assessment, 2012).

Evolution is far less likely than extinction (Schwartz, 2006). http://www.exposingthetruth.co/collapse/#axzz2dJ6nWU6c

Sources:

1) Scheffer, Marten. 2001. “Catastrophic shift in ecosystem states”. Nature Publishing Group. http://bio.classes.ucsc.edu/bioe107/Scheffer%202001%20Nature.pdf

2) Barnosky et al. 2012. “Approaching a state shift in Earth´s biosphere.” Nature Publishing Group http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2012/06/06/scientists-uncover-evidence-of-impending-tipping-point-for- earth/

3) Staudinger, Michelle D et al. 2012. „Impacts of Climate Change on Biodiversity, Ecosystems, and Ecosystem Services: Technical Input to the 2013 National Climate Assessment.Cooperative Report to the 2013 National Climate Assessment”. http://downloads.usgcrp.gov/NCA/Activities/Biodiversity-Ecosystems-and-Ecosystem-Services-Technical- Input.pdf

4) Schwartz. 2006. “Sudden Origins: A General Mechanism of Evolution Based on Stress Protein Concentration and Rapid Environmental Change” http://www.pitt.edu/~jhs/articles/Maresca_Schwartz_sudden_origins.pdf

5) http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jul/24/arctic-thawing-permafrost-climate-change

(mainstream source) http://theconversation.com/methane-and-the-risk-of-runaway-global-warming-16275

(comprehensive analysis)

NASA video showing climate shift 1880 through 2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO03ColwxHE&feature=player_embedded

In 1964, Isaac Asimov Imagined the World in 2014 Embedded video

In August of 1964, just more than 50 years ago, author Isaac Asimov wrote a piece in The New York Times, pegged to that summer's World Fair.

4 In the essay, Asimov imagines what the World Fair would be like in 2014—his future, our present.

Asimov rightly saw the central role of the planet's environmental health to a society: No matter how technologically developed humanity becomes, there is no escaping our fundamental reliance on Earth (at least not until we seriously leave Earth, that is). But in 1964 the environmental specters that haunt us today—climate change and impending mass extinctions—were only just beginning to gain notice. Asimov could not have imagined the particulars of this special blend of planetary destruction we are now brewing —and he was overly optimistic about our propensity to take action to protect an imperiled planet. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/12/in-1964-isaac-asimov-imagined-the-world-in- 2014/282728/

Dr. Andrew Weaver - Climate Scientist on the Tar Sands

Dr. Weaver says that “between 9 and 25 percent of all species on this planet are likely committed to extinction already because of …..” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25x_sSvZUIo

The sixth extinction - Elizabeth Kolbert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhEliHx5FWk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avoq05Z1K6w

Nasa-funded study: industrial civilisation headed for 'irreversible collapse'?

A new study sponsored by Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center has highlighted the prospect that global industrial civilisation could collapse in coming decades due to unsustainable resource exploitation and increasingly unequal wealth distribution.

Noting that warnings of 'collapse' are often seen to be fringe or controversial, the study attempts to make sense of compelling historical data showing that "the process of rise-and-collapse is actually a recurrent cycle found throughout history." Cases of severe civilisational disruption due to "precipitous collapse - often lasting centuries - have been quite common."

The research project is based on a new cross-disciplinary 'Human And Nature DYnamical' (HANDY) model, led by applied mathematician Safa Motesharri of the US National Science Foundation-supported National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, in association with a team of natural and social scientists. The study based on the HANDY model has been accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed Elsevier journal, Ecological Economics.

"The fall of the Roman Empire, and the equally (if not more) advanced Han, Mauryan, and Gupta Empires, as well as so many advanced Mesopotamian Empires, are all testimony to the fact that advanced, sophisticated, complex, and creative civilizations can be both fragile and impermanent." http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/mar/14/nasa-civilisation-irreversible-collapse- study-scientists

5 Stanford biologist warns of early stages of Earth's 6th mass extinction event

The planet's current biodiversity, the product of 3.5 billion years of evolutionary trial and error, is the highest in the history of life. But it may be reaching a tipping point. In a new review of scientific literature and analysis of data published in Science, an international team of scientists cautions that the loss and decline of animals is contributing to what appears to be the early days of the planet's sixth mass biological extinction event.

And while previous extinctions have been driven by natural planetary transformations or catastrophic asteroid strikes, the current die-off can be associated to human activity, a situation that the lead author Rodolfo Dirzo, a professor of biology at Stanford, designates an era of "Anthropocene defaunation."

Across vertebrates, 16 to 33 percent of all species are estimated to be globally threatened or endangered. Large animals – described as megafauna and including elephants, rhinoceroses, polar bears and countless other species worldwide – face the highest rate of decline, a trend that matches previous extinction events. http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/july/sixth-mass-extinction-072414.html

Defaunation in the Anthropocene https://www.scribd.com/document/247255571/Defaunation-in-the-Anthropocene

Salt-Water Fish Extinction Seen By 2048

The apocalypse has a new date: 2048.

That's when the world's oceans will be empty of fish, predicts an international team of ecologists and economists. The cause: the disappearance of species due to overfishing, pollution, habitat loss, and climate change.

The study by Boris Worm, PhD, of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, -- with colleagues in the U.K., U.S., Sweden, and Panama -- was an effort to understand what this loss of ocean species might mean to the world.

The researchers analyzed several different kinds of data. Even to these ecology-minded scientists, the results were an unpleasant surprise. "I was shocked and disturbed by how consistent these trends are -- beyond anything we suspected," Worm says in a news release.

"This isn't predicted to happen. This is happening now," study researcher Nicola Beaumont, PhD, of the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, U.K., says in a news release. "If biodiversity continues to decline, the marine environment will not be able to sustain our way of life. Indeed, it may not be able to sustain our lives at all," Beaumont adds.

Already, 29% of edible fish and seafood species have declined by 90% -- a drop that means the collapse of these fisheries. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/salt-water-fish-extinction-seen-by-2048/

6 The Nature of Things - Jellyfish Rule!

No brain, no backbone - so how could the strange and ancient jellyfish be taking over our oceans? http://www.cbc.ca/player/Shows/Shows/The+Nature+of+Things/ID/2662006149/

Earth 'entering new extinction phase' - US study

Even under our assumptions, which would tend to minimize evidence of an incipient mass extinction, the average rate of vertebrate species loss over the last century is up to 100 times higher than the background rate.

Under the 2 E/MSY background rate, the number of species that have gone extinct in the last century would have taken, depending on the vertebrate taxon, between 800 and 10,000 years to disappear.

These estimates reveal an exceptionally rapid loss of biodiversity over the last few centuries, indicating that a sixth mass extinction is already under way.

Averting a dramatic decay of biodiversity and the subsequent loss of ecosystem services is still possible through intensified conservation efforts, but that window of opportunity is rapidly closing. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33209548 http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/5/e1400253.full

New report suggests Earth on the brink of a great extinction http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/new-report-suggests-earth-brink-great-extinction/

NASA Study Concludes When Civilization Will End, And It's Not Looking Good for Us

NASA is now clarifying its role in this study. NASA officials released this statement on the study on March 20, which seeks to distance the agency from the paper: "A soon-to-be published research paper, 'Human and Nature Dynamics (HANDY): Modeling Inequality and Use of Resources in the Collapse or Sustainability of Societies' by University of Maryland researchers Safa Motesharrei and Eugenia Kalnay, and University of Minnesota's Jorge Rivas, was not solicited, directed or reviewed by NASA. It is an independent study by the university researchers utilizing research tools developed for a separate NASA activity. As is the case with all independent research, the views and conclusions in the paper are those of the authors alone. NASA does not endorse the paper or its conclusions." http://mic.com/articles/85541/nasa-study-concludes-when-civilization-will-end-and-it-s-not-looking-good- for-us#.SAy2jegId

The study

Human and nature dynamics (HANDY): Modeling inequality and use of resources in the collapse or sustainability of societies

There are widespread concerns that current trends in resource-use are unsustainable, but possibilities of overshoot/collapse remain controversial. Collapses have occurred frequently in history, often followed by centuries of economic, intellectual, and population decline. Many different natural and social phenomena

7 have been invoked to explain specific collapses, but a general explanation remains elusive. In this paper, we build a human population dynamics model by adding accumulated wealth and economic inequality to a predator–prey model of humans and nature. The model structure, and simulated scenarios that offer significant implications, are explained. Four equations describe the evolution of Elites, Commoners, Nature, andWealth. The model shows Economic Stratification or Ecological Strain can independently lead to collapse, in agreement with the historical record.

The measure “Carrying Capacity” is developed and its estimation is shown to be a practicalmeans for early detection of a collapse. Mechanisms leading to two types of collapses are discussed. The new dynamics of this model can also reproduce the irreversible collapses found in history. Collapse can be avoided, and population can reach a steady state at maximumcarrying capacity if the rate of depletion of nature is reduced to a sustainable level and if resources are distributed equitably. http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0921800914000615/1-s2.0-S0921800914000615-main.pdf?_tid=b6aa6990-ba21- 11e5-bce1-00000aab0f26&acdnat=1452709146_6f1d826a7f37ca9990cfabc81aa48097

Indicators of Ecological Collapse

The Oceans • On a whole, coral reefs are dying.25 • Oceanic dead zones found all over the world are increasing at alarming rates.26 • Concerning oceanic pollution, corporations “dump on equivalent, at the smallest, 5,000,000 gallons per day of toxins…everything from benzene, acrylic nitrile, mercury, copper, you name it, they got it.”27 • “In 1997, the US Academy of Sciences estimated the total input of marine litter into the oceans, worldwide, at approximately 6.4 million tons per year.”

Mass Extinction • Nearly fifty percent of all species are disappearing.7 1 in 3 mammal species, 1 in 8 bird species,8 and 1 in 3 amphibian species are being threatened with extinction. Just two years ago, only 1 in 4 mammal species were threatened with extinction.9 • According to the World Resources Institute, more than 100 species go extinct every day.10 For the past 300 million years, excluding this century, approximately one species went extinct every four years. Today, scientists see one species going extinct every 15 minutes.11 • Species extinction has increased to rates of 10 to 100 times greater than that of 30 years ago.12 • Furthermore, current species extinction rates are thought by some experts to be grossly underestimated due to mathematical misdiagnosis.13 • If nothing is done, one-half of all species will be gone by the end of the century.14

Climate Destabilization Deforestation Toxification http://www.fertilegroundinstitute.org/indicators-of-ecological-collapse.html

Last Hours Climate Change documentary from The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZOoPl6GoAo&t=46m20s

8 The study - Impacts of Biodiversity Loss on Ocean Ecosystem Services http://micheli.stanford.edu/pdf/45-Wormetal2006Science.pdf

Humans an Invasive Species Heading for a 'Crash,' Study Says

"The question is: Have we overshot Earth's carrying capacity today?"

Human population growth has followed the trajectory of a typical invasive species, says a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature, and that suggests there may be a looming global population "crash."

"The question is: Have we overshot Earth’s carrying capacity today?" said Elizabeth Hadly, a professor in environmental biology at Stanford University and senior author of the paper, in a press statement.

"Because humans respond as any other invasive species," Hadly continued, "the implication is that we are headed for a crash before we stabilize our global population size." http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/04/08/humans-invasive-species-heading-crash-study-says? utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork

20 Percent of Plant Species Could Go Extinct

Climate change, deforestation, and pollution are wreaking havoc on the Earth's vegetation.

One out of every five plant species on Earth is now threatened with extinction. That's the disturbing conclusion of a major report released this week by scientists at Britain's Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. The planet's vegetation—from grasslands to deserts to tropical rainforests—is being hit hard by human activity. And deforestation, pollution, agriculture, and climate change are all playing a role. http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/05/climate-change-plants-hope-jahren-inquiring-minds

The report https://stateoftheworldsplants.com/report/sotwp_2016.pdf

First Mammal Goes Extinct Due to Human-Caused Climate Change

The Bramble Cay melomys—a rodent found only on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef—has been declared extinct, according to a new study from researchers at the Queensland’s Department of Environment and Heritage Protection and the University of Queensland.

Alarmingly, this could be the first mammal species wiped out due to human-induced climate change. http://ecowatch.com/2016/06/14/mammal-extinction-climate-change/

Crocodiles and Palm Trees in the Arctic? New Report Suggests Yes.

If we keep burning fossil fuels, Earth will be 8 degrees warmer, returning to the climate of 52 million years ago, according to new research. It's the most dire prediction yet.

9 n even the bleakest climate change scenarios for the end of this century, science has offered hope that global warming would eventually slow down. But a new study published Monday snuffs out such hope, projecting temperatures that rise lockstep with carbon emissions until the last drops of oil and lumps of coal are used up.

Global temperatures will increase on average by 8 degrees Celsius (14.4 degrees F) over preindustrial levels by 2300 if all of Earth’s fossil fuel resources are burned, adding five trillion metric tons of carbon to the atmosphere, according to the research by Canadian scientists published in Nature Climate Change. In the Arctic, average temperatures would rise by 17 degrees C (30.6 degrees F).

Those conclusions are several degrees warmer than previous studies have projected.

If these temperatures do become reality, greenhouse gases would transform Earth into a place where food is scarce, parts of the world are uninhabitable for humans, and many species of animals and plants are wiped out, experts say.

"It would be as unrecognizable to us as a fully glaciated world," says Myles Allen, head of a climate dynamics group at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Allen was not involved in the new study, but his research has focused on carbon’s cumulative impacts on climate. http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/37474-crocodiles-and-palm-trees-in-the-arctic-new- report-suggests-yes

Are We Looking At A Mass Extinction Event?

Some scientists now fear that as ice-melt accelerates in the Arctic, we could see that 1,500 billion tons of land-based carbon and 10,000 billion tons of sea-based methane released into the atmosphere from the permafrost and from beneath the Arctic Sea where it's been trapped for hundreds of thousands or even millions of years.

If that happens, some scientists estimate that we would see a mass extinction event on the level of the Permian extinction, when up to 96% of the all marine species and 70% of all land-based species on the planet were wiped out, and it's unlikely that humans would be one of the surviving species.

That path to extinction though, started with our addiction to fossil fuel. http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2016/08/are-we-looking-mass-extinction-event

Thom Hartmann, The Big Picture - Are We Looking At A Mass Extinction Event?

A very real threat to life on this planet is currently trapped deep under Arctic permafrost. And thanks to climate change - that permafrost is rapidly disappearing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgEImS3wh5g

Humans Are Driving 'Unprecedented' Mass Extinction in Oceans

People are driving marine ecosystems to "unprecedented" mass extinction, according to a new study published Wednesday in the journal Science.

Large-bodied animals will be the first to go, the study says—blue whales, great white sharks and bluefin

10 tuna, for example. Their size is part of their vulnerability, making them more susceptible to fishing and hunting by humans, "the dominant threat to modern marine fauna," the researchers found. http://www.ecowatch.com/oceans-overfishing-mass-extinction-2005701998.html

The Earth's Sixth Mass Extinction May Be Underway

A "mass extinction" event is characterized as a period during which at least 75% of the Earth's species die out in a geologically short interval of time. In the past 540 million years, only five such mass extinction events have occurred, but according to a review by Barnosky et al. (2011) recently published in the journal Nature, there are signs that we may be entering a sixth such event.

Mass Extinction Events The Earth's five previous mass extinction events occurred during the: Ordovician (443 million years ago, 86% of species extinct); Devonian (359 million years ago, 75% of species extinct); Permian (251 million years ago, 96% of species extinct); Triassic (200 million years ago, 80% of species extinct); and Cretaceous (65 million years ago, 76% of species extinct)

These previous mass extinction events (also known as the "Big Five") are hypothesized to have been caused by key synergies such as unusual climate dynamics, atmospheric composition, and abnormally high-intensity ecological stressors (or in the case of the Cretaceous, an asteroid impact and subsequent effects).

Barnosky et al. note that scientists are increasingly recognizing modern extinctions of species due to various human influences, including some of the same effects which caused the Big Five:

"through co-opting resources, fragmenting habitats, introducing non-native species, spreading pathogens, killing species directly, and changing global climate" http://www.skepticalscience.com/sixth-mass-extinction.html

‘By 2050 half the forms of life we know will be gone’ – conservation biologist Embedded video

Humanity should start saving nature and switch to 80 percent renewables by 2030, otherwise the Earth will keep losing species, and within 33 years around 800,000 forms of life will be gone, conservation biologist Reese Halter told RT’s News with Ed.

Humans have changed the Earth so much that some scientists think we have entered a new geological age.

According to a report in the Science Magazine, the Earth is now in the anthropocene epoch. Millions of years from now our impact on Earth will be found in rocks just like we see fossils of plants and animals which lived years ago – except this time scientists of the future will find radioactive elements from nuclear bombs and fossilized plastic.

The third thing that is striking is we’re losing species a thousand times faster than in the last 65 million years. At this rate within 33 years, by midcentury – that means 800,000 forms of life, or half of everything we know will be gone. The only way we can reverse this is to two things: save nature now, our life support system, and we do this by switching to 80 per cent renewables by 2030. It is a WWIII mentality. In America we have the technology; we have the blueprint. We lack the political will just right now. But in the next

11 short while we will, because it is a matter of survival. https://www.rt.com/op-edge/358053-earth-humans-geological-age-danger/

‘We’ve entered the age of climate instability’ – conservation biologist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrXIuxPSA8o&feature=youtu.be

Welcome to the Anthropocene http://www.anthropocene.info/

World wildlife 'falls by 58% in 40 years'

The Living Planet assessment, by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and WWF, suggests that if the trend continues that decline could reach two-thirds among vertebrates by 2020.

The figures suggest that animals living in lakes, rivers and wetlands are suffering the biggest losses.

Human activity, including habitat loss, wildlife trade, pollution and climate change contributed to the declines.

Dr Mike Barrett. head of science and policy at WWF, said: "It's pretty clear under 'business as usual' we will see continued declines in these wildlife populations. But I think now we've reached a point where there isn't really any excuse to let this carry on. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37775622

World Wildlife Fund Living Planet Report 2016

Whether or not populations are in trouble depends on the resilience and location of a species, and what type of threats that species faces. Here’s a closer look at some of the top threats:

Habitat Loss and Degradation Food Systems Climate Change Species Overexploitation https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/living-planet-report-2016

Full report http://assets.worldwildlife.org/publications/964/files/original/LPR_2016_full_report_low-res.pdf? 1477526585&_ga=1.154333245.465931577.1477558788

Sixth mass extinction? Two-thirds of wildlife may be gone by 2020: WWF

(CNN) — More than two thirds of the world's wildlife could be gone by the end of the decade if action isn't taken soon, a new report from the World Wildlife Fund revealed on Thursday.

12 Since 1970, there has already been a 58% overall decline in the numbers of fish, mammals, birds and reptiles worldwide, according to the WWF's latest bi-annual Living Planet Index. If accurate, that means wildlife across the globe is vanishing at a rate of 2% a year.

"This is definitely human impact, we're in the sixth mass extinction. There's only been five before this and we're definitely in the sixth," WWF conservation scientist Martin Taylor told CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/26/world/wild-animals-disappear-report-wwf/

Blame for Extinction Spreads to Methane Gas

Two hundred million years ago, at the end of the Triassic period, a mass extinction, often attributed to major volcanic activity, wiped out half of all marine life on Earth. But new research published in the journal Science suggests that the extinction was more likely to have been caused by the release of at least 12,000 gigatons of methane from the seafloor into the atmosphere.

Volcanic activity occurred over a period of 600,000 years at the end of the Triassic, while the extinction took place over a period of just 10,000 to 20,000 years, said Micha Ruhl, an earth scientist at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and the study’s lead author.

The study could be foreshadowing the effect of climate change on Earth, Dr. Ruhl said. An increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from fossil-fuel use could warm up the planet enough to release methane from the ocean floors, he said.

“Methane is a much stronger greenhouse gas than CO2, so potentially that could result in a strong increase in temperature and climate change,” he said. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/science/26obearth.html?smid=fb-share

Primates facing 'extinction crisis'

The world's primates face an "extinction crisis" with 60% of species now threatened with extinction, according to research. A global study, involving more than 30 scientists, assessed the conservation status of more than 500 individual species.

This also revealed that 75% of species have populations that are declining. The findings are published in the journal Science Advances.

Professor Jo Setchell from Durham University, a member of the team, explained that the main threats were "massive habitat loss" and illegal hunting. "Forests are destroyed when primate habitat is converted to industrial agriculture, leaving primates with nowhere to live," she told BBC News.

Other threats - all driven by human behaviour - are forest clearance for livestock and cattle ranching; oil and gas drilling and mining. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-38652196

The study http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/advances/3/1/e1600946.full.pdf

13 Species’ traits influenced their response to recent climate change

Although it is widely accepted that future climatic change—if unabated—is likely to have major impacts on biodiversity1, 2, few studies have attempted to quantify the number of species whose populations have already been impacted by climate change3, 4.

Using a systematic review of published literature, we identified mammals and birds for which there is evidence that they have already been impacted by climate change.

We modelled the relationships between observed responses and intrinsic (for example, body mass) and spatial traits (for example, temperature seasonality within the geographic range).

Using this model, we estimated that 47% of terrestrial non-volant threatened mammals (out of 873 species) and 23.4% of threatened birds (out of 1,272 species) may have already been negatively impacted by climate change in at least part of their distribution.

Our results suggest that populations of large numbers of threatened species are likely to be already affected by climate change, and that conservation managers, planners and policy makers must take this into account in efforts to safeguard the future of biodiversity. http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v7/n3/full/nclimate3223.html

Climate-Related Local Extinctions Are Already Widespread among Plant and Animal Species

Current climate change may be a major threat to global biodiversity, but the extent of species loss will depend on the details of how species respond to changing climates.

For example, if most species can undergo rapid change in their climatic niches, then extinctions may be limited.

Numerous studies have now documented shifts in the geographic ranges of species that were inferred to be related to climate change, especially shifts towards higher mean elevations and latitudes.

Many of these studies contain valuable data on extinctions of local populations that have not yet been thoroughly explored.

Specifically, overall range shifts can include range contractions at the “warm edges” of species’ ranges (i.e., lower latitudes and elevations), contractions which occur through local extinctions.

Here, data on climate-related range shifts were used to test the frequency of local extinctions related to recent climate change.

The results show that climate-related local extinctions have already occurred in hundreds of species, including 47% of the 976 species surveyed. http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2001104

Accelerated modern human–induced species losses: Entering the sixth mass extinction

Abstract

First, we use a recent estimate of a background rate of 2 mammal extinctions per 10,000 species per 100

14 years (that is, 2 E/MSY), which is twice as high as widely used previous estimates.

We then compare this rate with the current rate of mammal and vertebrate extinctions. The latter is conservatively low because listing a species as extinct requires meeting stringent criteria.

Under the 2 E/MSY background rate, the number of species that have gone extinct in the last century would have taken, depending on the vertebrate taxon, between 800 and 10,000 years to disappear.

These estimates reveal an exceptionally rapid loss of biodiversity over the last few centuries, indicating that a sixth mass extinction is already under way. http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/5/e1400253

Biologists think 50% of species will be facing extinction by the end of the century

One in five species on Earth now faces extinction, and that will rise to 50% by the end of the century unless urgent action is taken. That is the stark view of the world’s leading biologists, ecologists and economists who will gather on Monday to determine the social and economic changes needed to save the planet’s biosphere.

“The living fabric of the world is slipping through our fingers without our showing much sign of caring,” say the organisers of the Biological Extinction conference held at the Vatican this week.

Threatened creatures such as the tiger or rhino may make occasional headlines, but little attention is paid to the eradication of most other life forms, they argue. But as the conference will hear, these animals and plants provide us with our food and medicine. They purify our water and air while also absorbing carbon emissions from our cars and factories, regenerating soil, and providing us with aesthetic inspiration.

“Rich western countries are now siphoning up the planet’s resources and destroying its ecosystems at an unprecedented rate,” said biologist Paul Ehrlich, of Stanford University in California. “We want to build highways across the Serengeti to get more rare earth minerals for our cellphones. We grab all the fish from the sea, wreck the coral reefs and put carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. We have triggered a major extinction event. The question is: how do we stop it?” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/feb/25/half-all-species-extinct-end-century-vatican- conference

Era of ‘Biological Annihilation’ Is Underway, Scientists Warn

From the common barn swallow to the exotic giraffe, thousands of animal species are in precipitous decline, a sign that an irreversible era of mass extinction is underway, new research finds.

The study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, calls the current decline in animal populations a “global epidemic” and part of the “ongoing sixth mass extinction” caused in large measure by human destruction of animal habitats. The previous five extinctions were caused by natural phenomena.

Gerardo Ceballos, a researcher at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City,

15 acknowledged that the study is written in unusually alarming tones for an academic research paper. “It wouldn’t be ethical right now not to speak in this strong language to call attention to the severity of the problem,” he said.

Dr. Ceballos emphasized that he and his co-authors, Paul R. Ehrlich and Rodolfo Dirzo, both professors at Stanford University, are not alarmists, but are using scientific data to back up their assertions that significant population decline and possible mass extinction of species all over the world may be imminent, and that both have been underestimated by many other scientists. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/11/climate/mass-extinction-animal-species.html

The study http://m.pnas.org/content/114/30/E6089.full.pdf

The Extinction Event Gains Momentum

“In the next few decades we’ll be driving species to extinction a thousand times faster than we should be,” Dr. Stuart Pimm, conservation ecologist, Duke University.

“It is quite possible that the baby boomer generation is the most impactful generation that this planet has ever seen,”(Source: Racing Extinction directed by Louie Psihoyos, Discovery Channel, 2015).

Imagine for a moment that phytoplankton, the foundation of the aquatic food web startlingly dies off. All of a sudden gone! Phytoplankton feeds everything from microscopic zooplankton to multi-tonne Blue Whales (the largest animal on Earth). But first and foremost, every 2nd human breath is oxygen produced by phytoplankton. Without phytoplankton, life dies.

According to Dr. Boris Worm, marine research ecologist at Dalhousie University and head of the Worm Lab study of marine biodiversity: The planet has lost 40% of plankton production over the past 50 years, primarily as a consequence of climate change/global warming. “We are changing the geology of the planet. We are changing the ocean chemistry… The anthropocene means that what happens to this planet is now in our hands.” (Boris Worm, et al, Global Phytoplankton Decline Over the Past Century, Nature Vol. 466, Issue 7306, July 29, 2010 and interview in Racing Extinction)

“Falling oxygen levels caused by global warming could be a greater threat to the survival of life on Earth than flooding, according to researchers from the University of Leicester.” https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/08/08/the-extinction-event-gains-momentum/

The Sixth Extinction: Climate Change May Wipe Out a Third of World's Parasites

As the U.S. continues to deal with unprecedented floods and hurricanes, a new study has revealed climate change is also driving the mass extinction of parasites that are critical to natural ecosystems, and could add to the planet's sixth great mass extinction event that's currently underway.

The report in the journal Science Advances warns that about a third of all parasite species could go extinct by 2070 due to human activity. The loss of species of lice, fleas and worms could have profound ripple effects on the environment and might pave the way for new parasites to colonize humans and other animals with disastrous health outcomes.

We speak to Colin Carlson, lead author of the report "Parasite Biodiversity Faces Extinction and

16 Redistribution in a Changing Climate." He's a PhD candidate in environmental science, policy, and management at University of California-Berkeley. In 2011, Business Insider included him in a round-up titled "16 of the Smartest Children in History" alongside Mozart and Picasso. At the time he was 15 years old. He is now 21. https://www.ecowatch.com/sixth-extinction-parasites-2483999116.html? utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=154fb015e5- EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-154fb015e5-85899661 https://youtu.be/ARUY1wPfDI8

The report: Parasite Biodiversity Faces Extinction and Redistribution in a Changing Climate http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/9/e1602422

Canada's threatened species declining despite federal protection

WWF report shows populations of more than half our vertebrate species are shrinking

From woodland caribou to St. Lawrence beluga whales, Canada's threatened and endangered species keep declining despite federal legislation designed to protect them and help their populations recover, a new report by WWF-Canada shows.

In fact, species listed under Canada's Species at Risk Act (SARA) have declined even more quickly on an annual basis since the legislation was adopted 2002, according to The Living Planet Report Canada, set to be released Thursday morning by the conservation group.

The report analyzed publicly available population data from places like scientific databases and journals for 903 mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian and fish species in Canada. WWF-Canada used a peer-reviewed method developed by the London Zoological Society that is also used by the WWF to create global reports on vertebrate population trends every two years.

The analysis shows that 451 — half the species in the study — declined in number between 1970 and 2014. http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/wwf-living-planet-index-1.4288173

The chance of 'catastrophic' climate change completely wiping out humanity by 2100 is now 1-in-20

• Experts performed calculations based on temperatures rising by 2100 • They created two new categories to classify the impacts of their findings • An increase greater than 3°C could lead to 'catastrophic' devastating effects • More than 5°C rise in heat could result in 'unknown' apocalyptic consequences • They equate this with a one-in-twenty chance that the plane you fly aboard on holiday will crash http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4888574/1-20-chance-climate-change-wipe-humanity.html

The study: New Climate Risk Classification Created to Account for Potential “Existential” Threats https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/new-climate-risk-classification-created-account-potential-existential-threats

17 Canada is actually running short of bugs

When the flying insects disappear, so do the birds that eat them.

Insects pollinate the plants to produce much of your food, from apples to corn that livestock eat. Agriculture Canada estimates that while bees are the main pollinators, other insects such as hoverflies pollinate about 39 per cent of agricultural plants.

And birders have watched in alarm as populations of many insect-eaters have crashed in recent decades: Swifts, swallows, nighthawks, martins and, of course, flycatchers are all a tiny fraction of their former populations. http://ottawacitizen.com/storyline/canada-is-actually-running-short-of-bugs

Warning of 'ecological Armageddon' after dramatic plunge in insect numbers

Three-quarters of flying insects in nature reserves across Germany have vanished in 25 years, with serious implications for all life on Earth, scientists say The abundance of flying insects has plunged by three-quarters over the past 25 years, according to a new study that has shocked scientists.

Insects are an integral part of life on Earth as both pollinators and prey for other wildlife and it was known that some species such as butterflies were declining. But the newly revealed scale of the losses to all insects has prompted warnings that the world is “on course for ecological Armageddon”, with profound impacts on human society.

The new data was gathered in nature reserves across Germany but has implications for all landscapes dominated by agriculture, the researchers said.

The cause of the huge decline is as yet unclear, although the destruction of wild areas and widespread use of pesticides are the most likely factors and climate change may play a role. The scientists were able to rule out weather and changes to landscape in the reserves as causes, but data on pesticide levels has not been collected.

“The fact that the number of flying insects is decreasing at such a high rate in such a large area is an alarming discovery,” said Hans de Kroon, at Radboud University in the Netherlands and who led the new research.

“Insects make up about two-thirds of all life on Earth [but] there has been some kind of horrific decline,” said Prof Dave Goulson of Sussex University, UK, and part of the team behind the new study. “We appear to be making vast tracts of land inhospitable to most forms of life, and are currently on course for ecological Armageddon. If we lose the insects then everything is going to collapse.” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/18/warning-of-ecological-armageddon-after-dramatic- plunge-in-insect-numbers?CMP=share_btn_fb

The study: More than 75 percent decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0185809

18 More than 15,000 scientists from 184 countries issue 'warning to humanity'

A similar warning was first issued by scientists in 1992 More than 15,000 scientists around the world have issued a global warning: there needs to be change in order to save Earth.

It comes 25 years after the first notice in 1992 when a mere 1,500 scientists issued a similar warning. This new cautioning — which gained popularity on Twitter with #ScientistsWarningToHumanity — garnered more than 15,000 signatures.

William Ripple of Oregon State University's College of Forestry, who started the campaign, said that he came across the 1992 warning last February, and noticed that this year happened to mark the 25th anniversary.

Together with his graduate student, Christopher Wolf, he decided to revisit the concerns raised then, and collect global data for different variables to show trends over the past 25 years.

Ripple found: • A decline in freshwater availability. • Unsustainable marine fisheries. • Ocean dead zones. • Forest losses. • Dwindling biodiversity. • Climate change. • Population growth.

There was one positive outcome, however: a rapid decline in ozone depletion. "The trends are alarming, and they speak for themselves," Ripple said, though he notes the improvement in the ozone hole illustrates that humanity can make change when needed.

After writing the viewpoint article, which was accepted for publication in the journal BioScience, he decided to see if he could once again collect signatures. http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/15000-scientists-warning-to-humanity-1.4395767

First U.S. Bumblebee Officially Listed as Endangered

The rusty patched bumblebee (Bombus affinis), once a common sight, is “now balancing precariously on the brink of extinction,” according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Once thriving in 28 states and the District of Columbia, but over the past two decades, the bee’s population has plummeted nearly 90 percent. There are more than 3,000 bee species in the United States, and about 40 belong to the genus Bombus—the bumblebees.

Advocates for the rusty patched bumblebee’s listing are abuzz with relief, but it may be the first skirmish in a grueling conflict over the fate of the Endangered Species Act under the Trump administration.

On January 11, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finalized the bumblebee’s listing as an endangered species. But on January 20, the bee got stung by the Trump administration’s efforts to postpone and review Obama-era regulations that hadn’t yet taken into effect. On February 10, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the bumblebee’s listing would take effect on March 21, more than a month after it was originally scheduled https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/03/bumblebees-endangered-extinction-united-states/ 19 Industrial farming is driving the sixth mass extinction of life on Earth, says leading academic

Industrial agriculture is bringing about the mass extinction of life on Earth, according to a leading academic.

Professor Raj Patel said mass deforestation to clear the ground for single crops like palm oil and soy, the creation of vast dead zones in the sea by fertiliser and other chemicals, and the pillaging of fishing grounds to make feed for livestock show giant corporations can not be trusted to produce food for the world.

Prof Patel, of the University of Texas at Austin, said: “The footprint of global agriculture is vast. Industrial agriculture is absolutely responsible for driving deforestation, absolutely responsible for pushing industrial monoculture, and that means it is responsible for species loss.

“We’re losing species we have never heard of, those we’ve yet to put a name to and industrial agriculture is very much at the spear-tip of that.” http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/mass-extinction-life-on-earth-farming-industrial-agriculture- professor-raj-patel-a7914616.html

Salt-Water Fish Extinction Seen By 2048

The apocalypse has a new date: 2048.

The researchers analyzed several different kinds of data. Even to these ecology-minded scientists, the results were an unpleasant surprise.

"I was shocked and disturbed by how consistent these trends are -- beyond anything we suspected," Worm says in a news release.

"This isn't predicted to happen. This is happening now," study researcher Nicola Beaumont, PhD, of the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, U.K., says in a news release.

"If biodiversity continues to decline, the marine environment will not be able to sustain our way of life. Indeed, it may not be able to sustain our lives at all," Beaumont adds. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/salt-water-fish-extinction-seen-by-2048/

Bee gone: Scientists turn to technology as declining bee numbers threaten global food security

The devastating consequences of our declining bee population are being highlighted on the first ever ‘Bee Day.’ Around 80 percent of crops are pollinated by insects. RT asks if there are any alternatives to secure our food future.

20 Whatever the reason, insect pollination directly contributes to the production of a huge portion of the world’s food supply, so the dramatic decline of the honeybee should be a warning: either we get to the root of the problem or develop a technological alternative capable of performing the same function. https://www.rt.com/news/427230-world-bee-day-pollination/

15,000 Scientists From 184 Countries Are Warning Humankind We Are Screwed

Human impacts on the environment are putting our future at risk, they say.

More than 15,000 scientists from 184 countries warn the evidence is clear: Current and future human health and wellbeing are at serious risk from climate change, deforestation, loss of access to freshwater, species extinctions, and human population growth.

Eminent scientists Jane Goodall, E.O. Wilson, and James Hansen are among those who have cosigned the warning, published Monday in the journal BioScience. The article, titled “World Scientists' Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice,” has 15,372 signatories in total, from a range of scientific disciplines. It is thought to be the largest-ever formal support by scientists for a journal article. https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/59yqj8/world-scientists-warning-to-humanity-second-notice- climate-change-environment?utm_campaign=global&utm_source=vicenewscafbca

World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity:

A Second Notice

William J. Ripple, Christopher Wolf, Thomas M. Newsome, Mauro Galetti, Mohammed Alamgir, Eileen Crist, Mahmoud I. Mahmoud, William F. Laurance, And 15,364 Scientist Signatories From 184 Countries http://scientists.forestry.oregonstate.edu/sites/sw/files/Ripple_et_al_warning_2017.pdf

The Journal BioScience https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/67/12/1026/4605229

Area of Global Dead Zones Doubling Every 10 Years

The name says it all, but dead zones are areas along the sea floor where oxygen levels are so low they no longer sustain marine life. Hypoxia, which is a deficiency in the amount of oxygen reaching the tissues of organisms, is a widespread and growing problem in Earth’s oceans as industrial waste, fertilizer runoff from industrial agriculture and anthropogenic climate disruption increasingly aggravate the crisis.

An international team of scientists, sponsored in part by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science has published one of the broadest studies to date about declining oxygen in the world’s oceans.

One of the co-authors of the study is Nancy Rabalais, a professor in the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences at Louisiana State University (LSU).

Rabalais, who is also a distinguished research professor at LSU’s Marine Consortium, told Truthout the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico has, over the 31 years it has been measured, averaged 5,806 square

21 miles in size.

“It remains the second-largest human-caused low oxygen area in global coastal waters,” said Rabalais, who discovered the Gulf dead zone and has been tracking it ever since. “In 2017, it was the largest ever measured: 8,776 square miles.” https://truthout.org/articles/area-of-global-dead-zones-doubling-every-10-years/

We just went through 2018's Earth resources in only 7 months

Thursday, August 2, 2018, 1:06 PM - We were supposed to make it last until the end of December, but we just used up our entire allotment of Earth's resources for 2018 in only 7 months. It's Earth Overshoot Day 2018, and it's earlier this year than ever before.

Earth's ecosystem is remarkable. If managed properly, it could sustain human civilization indefinitely. Up to a certain point, nature is capable of replenishing its yearly 'budget' of food, clean water, forests, etc, so that, even as we consumed those resources, we would not reduce Earth's surplus of resources.

Unfortunately, we are not managing Earth's ecosystem properly. Instead, due to overpopulation, land-use, over-fishing, deforestation, pollution and climate change due to fossil fuel burning, and a host of other practices, we are in a pattern of 'ecological overspending'.

As of August 1, we have now exhausted Earth's total annual resource budget for 2018.

This is known as 'Earth Overshoot Day', and it represents the day of the year where we have moved past consuming just the resources Earth can produce in that year, to pick away at more of the surplus Earth has been able to build up over time. https://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/earth-overshoot-day-2018-we-have-consumed-one- year-worth-of-global-resources-in-just-7-months/107742

Unless It Changes, Capitalism Will Starve Humanity By 2050

Capitalism has generated massive wealth for some, but it’s devastated the planet and has failed to improve human well-being at scale.

• Species are going extinct at a rate 1,000 times faster than that of the natural rate over the previous 65 million years (see Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School). • Since 2000, 6 million hectares of primary forest have been lost each year. That’s 14,826,322 acres, or just less than the entire state of West Virginia (see the 2010 assessment by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN). • Even in the U.S., 15% of the population lives below the poverty line. For children under the age of 18, that number increases to 20% (see U.S. Census). • The world’s population is expected to reach 10 billion by 2050 (see United Nations' projections).

How do we expect to feed that many people while we exhaust the resources that remain? https://www.forbes.com/sites/drewhansen/2016/02/09/unless-it-changes-capitalism-will-starve-humanity- by-2050/#2c9fa6c47ccc

22 Biological annihilation via the ongoing sixth mass extinction signaled by vertebrate population losses and declines

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Dwindling population sizes and range shrinkages amount to a massive anthropogenic erosion of biodiversity and of the ecosystem services essential to civilization. This “biological annihilation” underlines the seriousness for humanity of Earth’s ongoing sixth mass extinction event. http://www.pnas.org/content/114/30/E6089

Frogs Are Disappearing. What Does That Mean?

For ages, they have been symbols in human culture — of fertility, gastronomy and now the alt-right movement. But these noble amphibians are declining in numbers.

THE DUSKY GOPHER FROG, once endemic to the longleaf pine savannas of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana — and now listed among the 100 most endangered species on earth — is tiny, dark and warty. The creature is often described as both secretive and shockingly loud, with a rumbling, back-of-the-throat mating call that is uncannily close to the human snore. It hides from the sun almost its whole life, finding shelter in burned-out tree stumps. And although it’s armed against danger (its glands secrete poison), in the presence of a predator, the three-inch-long frog lifts its front legs to cover its eyes, like a child pretending to be invisible: You can’t see it if it can’t see you.

As of 2015, around 135 dusky gopher frogs were estimated to remain in the wild, mostly at a single pond in Mississippi, their breeding sites fragmented by new roads and the timber industry. The fate of the species may lie in the hands of the Supreme Court, which, as it begins a new term in October, will consider as its first case Weyerhaeuser Co. v. United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The lawsuit concerns the government’s designation of privately owned land in Louisiana as a critical habitat for the endangered frogs, setting property rights (and a potential $34 million loss in development value for the $27 billion Weyerhaeuser Company) against environmental conservation. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/18/t-magazine/frogs-extinction-food-fertility.html?smid=fb- nytimes&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwAR0Pwr32Jzo7ZWJ4iYMdlFpiKNfn02M8w_g9UmmXh6toRPLZdA6tlX7RI1g

Mammal diversity will take millions of years to recover from the current biodiversity crisis

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Abstract

The incipient sixth mass extinction that started in the Late Pleistocene has already erased over 300 mammal species and, with them, more than 2.5 billion y of unique evolutionary history. At the global scale, this lost phylogenetic diversity (PD) can only be restored with time as lineages evolve and create new evolutionary history. Given the increasing rate of extinctions however, can mammals evolve fast enough to recover their lost PD on a human time scale? We use a birth–death tree framework to show that even if extinction rates slow to preanthropogenic background levels, recovery of lost PD will likely take millions of years. These findings emphasize the severity of the potential sixth mass extinction and the need to avoid the loss of unique evolutionary history now. http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/10/09/1804906115

23 Humanity has wiped out 60% of animal populations since 1970, report finds

The huge loss is a tragedy in itself but also threatens the survival of civilisation, say the world’s leading scientists

Humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970, leading the world’s foremost experts to warn that the annihilation of wildlife is now an emergency that threatens civilisation.

The new estimate of the massacre of wildlife is made in a major report produced by WWF and involving 59 scientists from across the globe. It finds that the vast and growing consumption of food and resources by the global population is destroying the web of life, billions of years in the making, upon which human society ultimately depends for clean air, water and everything else.

“We are sleepwalking towards the edge of a cliff” said Mike Barrett, executive director of science and conservation at WWF. “If there was a 60% decline in the human population, that would be equivalent to emptying North America, South America, Africa, Europe, China and Oceania. That is the scale of what we have done.”

“This is far more than just being about losing the wonders of nature, desperately sad though that is,” he said. “This is actually now jeopardising the future of people. Nature is not a ‘nice to have’ – it is our life- support system.” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/30/humanity-wiped-out-animals-since-1970-major- report-finds

Download full report https://s3.amazonaws.com/wwfassets/downloads/lpr2018_full_report_spreads.pdf

Download summary report https://s3.amazonaws.com/wwfassets/downloads/lpr2018_summary_report_spreads.pdf

Earth Has Seen CO2 Spike Before. It Didn’t End Well.

It’s unclear exactly what happened 252 million years ago as the planet warmed, but 90 percent of species went extinct.

Asteroid impacts used to be science popularizers’ favorite existential threat, but space rocks have been displaced by atmospheric carbon. This is not just fashion but the result of a new reading of our planet’s past.

In the 1990s, scientists thought asteroid impacts had triggered five mass extinctions, including the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Now, they’ve come to realize that the other four of the Earth’s mega-disasters probably came from within — triggered by belches of carbon into the atmosphere and oceans.

The worst of the five was an event called the end-Permian. It started with volcanic eruptions, which ignited carbon-rich sediments, infusing the atmosphere with a jolt of new carbon dioxide. Within a few thousand years, more than 90 percent of species went extinct.

Some people present this as a cautionary tale. Is that reasonable? It happened 252 million years ago, and the temperature rose more than the worst-case projections for fossil-fuel-induced global warming. On the other hand, it was a pretty good proof of principle.

24 The principle isn’t just that increasing carbon dioxide makes things get hot, but that fast changes in ocean and atmospheric chemistry can trigger a reordering of the living world. That in turn causes more chemical changes, leading to cascading changes in the biosphere. In the end-Permian, there was a collapse of plankton and fish and an explosion of bacteria that emit sulfur compounds and possibly others that exhale heat-trapping methane. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-12-21/lessons-on-global-warming-from-prehistoric-end- permian-ex tinction

Building blocks of ocean food web in rapid decline as plankton productivity plunges

They're teeny, tiny plants and organisms but their impact on ocean life is huge.

Phytoplankton and zooplankton that live near the surface are the base of the ocean's food system. Everything from small fish, big fish, whales and seabirds depend on their productivity.

"They actually determine what's going to happen, how much energy is going to be available for the rest of the food chain," explained Pierre Pepin, a senior researcher with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in St. John's.

Pepin says over the past three to four years, scientists have seen a persistent drop in phytoplankton and zooplankton in waters off Newfoundland and Labrador.

"Based on the measurements that we've been taking in this region, we've seen pretty close to 50 per cent decline in the overall biomass of zooplankton," said Pepin. "So that's pretty dramatic." https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/ocean-phytoplankton-zooplankton-food-web- 1.4927884

Living Planet Report 2018 - WWF

The Living Planet Report documents the state of the planet—including biodiversity, ecosystems, and demand on natural resources—and what it means for humans and wildlife. Published by WWF every two years, the report brings together a variety of research to provide a comprehensive view of the health of the Earth.

We are pushing our planet to the brink. Human activity—how we feed, fuel, and finance our lives—is taking an unprecedented toll on wildlife, wild places, and the natural resources we need to survive.

On average, we’ve seen an astonishing 60% decline in the size of populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians in just over 40 years, according to WWF’s Living Planet Report 2018. The top threats to species identified in the report link directly to human activities, including habitat loss and degradation and the excessive use of wildlife such as overfishing and overhunting. https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/living-planet-report-2018#

The report https://c402277.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/publications/1187/files/original/LPR2018_Full_Report_Spreads.pdf

25 More than 50 Australian plant species face extinction within decade

Study finds just 12 of the most imperilled species are listed under national environment laws as critically endangered

More than 50 Australian plant species are under threat of extinction within the next decade, according to a major study of the country’s threatened flora.

Just 12 of the most at-risk species were found to be listed as critically endangered under national environment laws – the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act – and 13 had no national threatened listing at all.

The scientists behind the research, published in the Australian Journal of Botany this month, say the results point to a need for re-evaluation of Australia’s national lists for threatened plants.

It is the first major assessment of the status of Australia’s threatened flora in more than two decades.

Plants account for about 70% of Australia’s national threatened species list, with 1,318 varieties listed as either critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable. Among those on the list are acacia pharangites (wongan gully wattle), banksia vincentia, caladenia amoena (charming spider-orchid), caladenia busselliana (Bussell’s spider orchid), calochilus richiae (bald-tip beard orchid) and eremophila pinnatifida (dalwallinu eremophila).

The research team assessed species that met criteria for either a critical or endangered listing at national or state levels to track their rate of decline.

They did this by reviewing all available literature on the plants – including recovery plans, conservation advice and peer-reviewed research – and conducting interviews with 125 botanists, ecologists and land managers with expertise on particular geographic regions or species. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/26/more-than-50-australian-plant-species-face- extinction-within-decade

Washington authorities to put Cooke Aquaculture’s salmon farms under “strongest water quality protections we can put in place”

“We must protect our waters and native salmon from another disastrous collapse,” said Maia Bellon, director of Ecology.

The Department of Ecology (simply known as “Ecology”) wants to ramp up water quality permits for existing Atlantic salmon farming operations in Puget Sound, according to a press release on their official site.

Though as Cooke Aquaculture is the currently only salmon farmer left in the state, the new rules will only apply to them. The state Department of Ecology is taking comment now on permits for four Cooke Aquaculture Atlantic salmon farms — three in Kitsap County and one in Skagit Bay.

Farming salmon in net pens in Washington’s marine waters is being phased out starting in 2022 as part of House Bill 2597. This means Cooke is allowed to continue with Atlantic salmon farming until 2022. Cooke leases the area for its operations from the Department of Natural Resources. https://salmonbusiness.com/washington-authorities-to-put-cooke-aquacultures-salmon-farms-under- strongest-water-quality-protections-we-can-put-in-place/

26 Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence cod could be extinct by mid-century: report

What man began, grey seals may finish, according to new research published in a fisheries journal

There is a high probability that Atlantic cod will be locally extinct in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence by mid-century — even with no commercial fishing, according to a new report.

The paper, published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, says the death rate now stands at 50 per cent for adult Gulf cod five years and older.

The likely culprit? Grey seals. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/southern-gulf-of-st-lawrence-cod-could-be-extinct-by-mid- century-report-1.4966889

Salt-Water Fish Extinction Seen By 2048

The apocalypse has a new date: 2048.

"This isn't predicted to happen. This is happening now," study researcher Nicola Beaumont, PhD, of the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, U.K., says in a news release.

"If biodiversity continues to decline, the marine environment will not be able to sustain our way of life. Indeed, it may not be able to sustain our lives at all," Beaumont adds. Already, 29% of edible fish and seafood species have declined by 90% -- a drop that means the collapse of these fisheries.

But the issue isn't just having seafood on our plates. Ocean species filter toxins from the water. They protect shorelines. And they reduce the risks of algae blooms such as the red tide. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/salt-water-fish-extinction-seen-by-2048/

SongbirdSOS - The Nature of Things with David Suzuki

SongbirdSOS is the artfully-shot story of the mass depletion of songbirds in the Americas, an alarming thinning of populations that has seen declines of many species since the 1960s. https://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/episodes/songbirdsos

27 Plummeting insect numbers 'threaten collapse of nature'

More than 40% of insect species are declining and a third are endangered, the analysis found. The rate of extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles. The total mass of insects is falling by a precipitous 2.5% a year, according to the best data available, suggesting they could vanish within a century.

The planet is at the start of a sixth mass extinction in its history, with huge losses already reported in larger animals that are easier to study. But insects are by far the most varied and abundant animals, outweighing humanity by 17 times. They are “essential” for the proper functioning of all ecosystems, the researchers say, as food for other creatures, pollinators and recyclers of nutrients.

Insect population collapses have recently been reported in Germany and Puerto Rico, but the review strongly indicates the crisis is global. The researchers set out their conclusions in unusually forceful terms for a peer-reviewed scientific paper: “The [insect] trends confirm that the sixth major extinction event is profoundly impacting [on] life forms on our planet.

“Unless we change our ways of producing food, insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades,” they write. “The repercussions this will have for the planet’s ecosystems are catastrophic to say the least.” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/10/plummeting-insect-numbers-threaten-collapse-of- nature

World's food supply under 'severe threat' from loss of biodiversity

Plants, insects and organisms crucial to food production in steep decline, says UN

The world’s capacity to produce food is being undermined by humanity’s failure to protect biodiversity, according to the first UN study of the plants, animals and micro-organisms that help to put meals on our plates.

The stark warning was issued by the Food and Agriculture Organisation after scientists found evidence the natural support systems that underpin the human diet are deteriorating around the world as farms, cities and factories gobble up land and pump out chemicals.

Over the last two decades, approximately 20% of the earth’s vegetated surface has become less productive, said the report, launched on Friday.

It noted a “debilitating” loss of soil biodiversity, forests, grasslands, coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass beds and genetic diversity in crop and livestock species. In the oceans, a third of fishing areas are being overharvested.

Many species that are indirectly involved in food production, such as birds that eat crop pests and mangrove trees that help to purify water, are less abundant than in the past, noted the study, which collated global data, academic papers and reports by the governments of 91 countries. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/feb/21/worlds-food-supply-under-severe-threat- from-loss-of-biodiversity

28 Destruction of nature threatens humanity 'at least as much as' climate change, warns UN - 29 Apr 2019

Diplomats from 130 nations gathered in Paris today to validate a grim UN assessment of the state of nature and lay the groundwork for a rescue plan for life on Earth.

The destruction of nature threatens humanity "at least as much as human-induced climate change," UN biodiversity chief Robert Watson said as the five-day meeting began.

"We have a closing window of opportunity to act and narrowing options."

A 44-page draft "Summary for Policy Makers", obtained by AFP, catalogues the 1,001 ways in which our species has plundered the planet and damaged its capacity to renew the resources upon which we depend, starting with breathable air, drinkable water and productive soil.

The impact of humanity's expanding footprint and appetites has been devastating.

Up to a million species face extinction, many within decades, according to the report, and three-quarters of Earth's land surface has been "severely altered". https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2019/0429/1046290-un-nature/

Plant extinction 'bad news for all species'

Almost 600 plant species have been lost from the wild in the last 250 years, according to a comprehensive study.

The number is based on actual extinctions rather than estimates, and is twice that of all bird, mammal and amphibian extinctions combined.

Scientists say plant extinction is occurring up to 500 times faster than what would be expected naturally.

In May, a UN report estimated that one million animal and plant species were threatened with extinction.

Why does plant extinction matter?

All life on Earth depends on plants, which provide the oxygen we breathe and the food we eat.

Plant extinctions can lead to a whole cascade of extinctions in other organisms that rely on them, for instance insects that use plants for food and for laying their eggs. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48584515

The Sixth Great Extinction Is Underway—and We're to Blame

Nobody can say with certainty how many species there are on Earth, but the number runs well into the millions. Many of them, of course, are on the order of bacteria and spores. The other ones, the ones we can see and count and interact with—to say nothing of the ones we like—are far fewer. And, according to a new and alarming series of papers in Science, their numbers are falling fast, thanks mostly to us.

One of the first great rules of terrestrial biology is that no species is forever.

As increasingly accepted theories have argued—and as the Science papers show—we are now in the

29 midst of the sixth great extinction, the unsettlingly-named Anthropocene, or the age of the humans.

The numbers are sobering: Over all, there has been a human-driven decline in the populations of all species by 25% over the past 500 years, but not all groups have suffered equally. Up to a third of all species of vertebrates are now considered threatened, as are 45% of most species of invertebrates. Among the vertebrates, amphibians are getting clobbered, with 41% of species in trouble, compared to just 17% of birds—at least so far. The various orders of insects suffer differently too: 35% of Lepidopteran species are in decline (goodbye butterflies), which sounds bad enough, but it’s nothing compared to the similar struggles of nearly 100% of Orthoptera species (crickets, grasshoppers and katydids, look your last). https://time.com/3035872/sixth-great-extinction/

A New Study Reveals Just How Toxic a Bee’s World Has Become

Here’s what happened when farmers started using a new class of insecticides.

Honeybee populations are holding steady because honeybees are essentially winged livestock, so they benefit from management by beekeepers who scramble to maintain populations by splitting healthy hives. Bumblebees and other wild pollinators don’t have such caretakers, and their populations are dropping.

The best science suggests that a complex web of threats—including exposure to pesticides, loss of foraging habitat, and parasites—is attacking pollinator health. A new study published Tuesday in the journal PLOS One found that one of those factors, a class of chemicals called neonicotinoids, has seen a dramatic expansion since 2004. As a result, bees and other pollinators have encountered landscapes increasingly loaded with harmful pesticides. https://www.motherjones.com/food/2019/08/a-new-study-reveals-just-how-toxic-a-bees-world-has- become/

An assessment of acute insecticide toxicity loading (AITL) of chemical pesticides used on agricultural land in the United States

We present a method for calculating the Acute Insecticide Toxicity Loading (AITL) on US agricultural lands and surrounding areas and an assessment of the changes in AITL from 1992 through 2014.

The AITL method accounts for the total mass of insecticides used in the US, acute toxicity to insects using honey bee contact and oral LD50 as reference values for arthropod toxicity, and the environmental persistence of the pesticides.

This screening analysis shows that the types of synthetic insecticides applied to agricultural lands have fundamentally shifted over the last two decades from predominantly organophosphorus and N-methyl carbamate pesticides to a mix dominated by neonicotinoids and pyrethroids.

The neonicotinoids are generally applied to US agricultural land at lower application rates per acre; however, they are considerably more toxic to insects and generally persist longer in the environment.

We found a 48- and 4-fold increase in AITL from 1992 to 2014 for oral and contact toxicity, respectively. Neonicotinoids are primarily responsible for this increase, representing between 61 to nearly 99 percent of the total toxicity loading in 2014. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0220029

30 Humans have driven nearly 600 plant species to extinction since 1750s

Humanity has caused an average of more than two plant species a year to be wiped off the Earth since the middle of the eighteenth century, according to the first comprehensive attempt to chart worldwide plant extinctions.

The botany world’s best guess was that fewer than 150 species had gone extinct, but that was based on the Red List of Threatened Species, which is known to cover only a small proportion of all plants.

The true number appears to be around four times higher, at 571 plant species being driven to extinction between 1753 and 2018. A Swedish and British team came to the figure after analysing a previously unpublished database kept by Kew Gardens. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2205949-humans-have-driven-nearly-600-plant-species-to-extinction- since-1750s/

Silent Skies: Billions of North American Birds Have Vanished

Though waterfowl and raptor populations have made recoveries, bird populations have declined since 1970 across nearly all habitats

More than half a century ago, conservationist Rachel Carson sounded an alarm about human impacts on the natural world with her book Silent Spring.

Its title alluded to the loss of twittering birds from natural habitats because of indiscriminate pesticide use, and the treatise spawned the modern conservation movement.

But new research published Thursday in Science shows bird populations have continued to plummet in the past five decades, dropping by nearly three billion across North America—an overall decline of 29 percent from 1970.

Ken Rosenberg, the study’s lead author and a senior scientist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the nonprofit American Bird Conservancy, says the magnitude of the decline could significantly affect the continent’s food webs and ecosystems.

“We’re talking about pest control, we’re talking about pollination [and] seed dispersal,” he says, referring to the roles birds play in ecosystems.

Because it is relatively easy to monitor birds, he adds, their presence or absence in a habitat can be a useful indicator of other environmental trends.

Based on the paper’s results, he says, “we can be pretty sure that other parts of the ecosystem are also in decline and degradation.” https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/silent-skies-billions-of-north-american-birds-have-vanished

'Alarming' extinction threat to Europe's trees

The conker tree has been put on the official extinction list.

Ravaged by moths and disease, the horse chestnut is now classified as vulnerable to extinction.

31 The tree is among more than 400 native European tree species assessed for their risk of extinction by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

About half face disappearing from the natural landscape.

Craig Hilton-Taylor, head of the IUCN Red List unit, described the findings as "alarming".

"Trees are essential for life on Earth, and European trees in all their diversity are a source of food and shelter for countless animal species such as birds and squirrels, and play a key economic role," he said.

Experts are now turning their attention to plants, with an assessment of all 454 tree species native to the continent.

The report found: • 42% are threatened with extinction (assessed as Vulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered) • Among endemic trees - those that don't exist anywhere else on Earth - 58% are threatened. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49838650

Insects Facing 'Unnoticed Apocalypse' Due to Routine Use of Pesticides, Report Warns

Insect populations across the world are plummeting at a startling rate. A report led by The Wildlife Trusts highlights just how dramatic the decline has been over the last few decades—a trend the paper's authors call "the unnoticed apocalypse."

Six-legged bugs might not attract as much attention or sympathy as larger, cuddlier mammals, the authors say, but their decline has been more dramatic and may have greater ramifications for humanity. The study points to evidence that suggests insect populations may have shrunk 50 percent or more since the 1970s, due to a combination of factors including habitat loss, climate change and pesticide use.

The report incorporates dozens of studies from across the globe that together build a dystopian picture of a worldwide insect apocalypse. In the U.K., where The Wildlife Trusts is based, butterfly numbers fell 46 percent between 1976 and 2017. In Puerto Rico, the biomass of insects and spiders collected in sweep net samples fell 75-88 percent between 1976-1977 and 2011-2013. Meanwhile, in the U.S., five bumblebee species have experienced huge declines over the last 25 years, both in terms of range and abundance. One of those species—Franklin's bumblebee—is now globally extinct.

One of the steepest declines mentioned was revealed in a widely-circulated study, published in 2017. It found the total biomass of insects caught in German traps fell 75 percent between 1989 and 2014. This number hit 82 percent in midsummer, when insect activity peaks.

"We are witnessing the largest extinction event on Earth since the late Permian and Cretaceous periods," one paper mentioned in the report and published in Biological Conservation in 2019 stated. https://www.newsweek.com/insects-facing-unnoticed-apocalypse-routine-use-pesticides-report-1471516

32 Apocalypse Now? Scientists Reveal What’s Behind Insect Cataclysm

Scientists have long been speculating about the potential reasons for the declining number of insects and the birds that depend on these critters for their survival, with new research potentially shedding some light on this problem.

An insect apocalypse with a massive decline in the number of arthropods is underway due to the prevalence of artificial light at night, also known as light pollution, a new study published in the journal Biological Conservation claims.

Scientists from Tufts University in Massachusetts reviewed the results of more than 200 independent studies to conclude that it is artificial light at night (ALAN) that could be a significant factor driving the so- called insect apocalypse due to its influence on reproductive success, hiding from predators, and the search for food by various insect species, potentially contributing to the loss of about 40% of all species in the next few decades.

“Artificial light at night impacts nocturnal and diurnal insects through effects on development, movement, foraging, reproduction, and predation risk”, the paper claims.

“We also emphasise that artificial light at night is not merely a subcategory of urbanisation. The ecological consequences of light pollution are not limited to urban and suburban centres, but widespread along roadways and around protected areas”, researchers added. https://sputniknews.com/science/201911231077382906-apocalypse-now-scientists-reveal-whats-behind- insect-cataclysm/

Humanity Has Killed 83% of All Wild Mammals and Half of All Plants: Study

Of all the birds left in the world, 70% are poultry chickens and other farmed birds.

When it comes to planet Earth, humans are very tiny.

The weight of all 7.6 billion humans makes up just 0.01% of all biomass on Earth, according to a report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday.

Bacteria, by comparison, make up 13% of all biomass, plants account for 83%, and all other forms of life make up 5% of the total weight, according to the report. https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/humans-destroyed-83-of-wildlife-report

The biomass distribution on Earth

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Significance The composition of the biosphere is a fundamental question in biology, yet a global quantitative account of the biomass of each taxon is still lacking. We assemble a census of the biomass of all kingdoms of life. This analysis provides a holistic view of the composition of the biosphere and allows us to observe broad patterns over taxonomic categories, geographic locations, and trophic modes.

Abstract A census of the biomass on Earth is key for understanding the structure and dynamics of the biosphere.

33 However, a global, quantitative view of how the biomass of different taxa compare with one another is still lacking. Here, we assemble the overall biomass composition of the biosphere, establishing a census of the ≈550 gigatons of carbon (Gt C) of biomass distributed among all of the kingdoms of life. We find that the kingdoms of life concentrate at different locations on the planet; plants (≈450 Gt C, the dominant kingdom) are primarily terrestrial, whereas animals (≈2 Gt C) are mainly marine, and bacteria (≈70 Gt C) and archaea (≈7 Gt C) are predominantly located in deep subsurface environments. https://www.pnas.org/content/115/25/6506

Last year, 40% of honey-bee colonies in the US died. But bees aren't the only insects disappearing in unprecedented numbers.

• During the winter, about 40% of honey bee colonies in the US perished. • Honey bees pollinate $15 billion worth of US crops every year. Their decline has a major impact on our food production and supply. • But the honey bee is just one of many insects in decline — 40% of the world's insect species are in decline, according to a February 2019 study. • The die-offs are happening primarily because insects are losing their habitats to farming and urbanization. The use of pesticides and fertilizers is also to blame, and so is climate change. • The rapid shrinking of insect populations is a sign that the planet is in the midst of a sixth mass extinction. https://www.businessinsider.com/insects-dying-off-sign-of-6th-mass-extinction-2019-2

This bumble bee is ready for its closeup, if you can find it

Bumble bee researchers are asking for help from regular New Brunswickers in their effort to find signs of a critically endangered bee species.

The rusty-patched bumble bee was once commonly found in southern parts of Eastern Canada into the 1970's.

"At one time in southern Ontario, if you saw a hundred bumble bees, odds are 15 would have been rusty- patched bumble bees," said Sheila Colla, an assistant professor of environmental studies at York University.

"They were the fourth most common species here."

But something went wrong in the 1970s, and the species, whose scientific name is bombus affinis, began to disappear dramatically.

In the last two decades or so, only two have been found in Canada, both by Colla herself at Pinery Provincial Park, about 50 kilometres northwest of London, Ont., on the shore of Lake Huron. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/bee-study-photos-nb-1.5619311

34 60% of world's wildlife has been wiped out since 1970

Well over half the world's population of vertebrates, from fish to birds to mammals, have been wiped out in the past four decades, says a new report from the World Wildlife Fund.

Between 1970 and 2014, there was 60 per cent decline, on average, among 16,700 wildlife populations around the world according to the 2018 edition of the Living Planet Report released Monday.

"We've had a loss of nearly two-thirds, on average, of our wild species," said James Snider, vice-president of science, research and innovation for WWF-Canada.

"The magnitude of that should be eye opening… We really are reaching a point where we're likely to see species go extinct. That's true in Canada and abroad." https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/living-plant-wwf-2018-1.4882819

WWF: Canada endangered species face 'staggering losses'

Canadian wildlife at risk of extinction has undergone "staggering" losses over the past 50 years, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) conservation group says.

In a report, the charity says that species at risk of global extinction have seen their Canadian populations fall by over 40% between 1970 and 2016.

Populations of species that are at risk of extinction in Canada itself fell even more dramatically - by 59%.

The report said human activity was mostly to blame.

The report also pointed to recent research that found that indigenous-managed lands had more species than other parts of Canada, and better supported at-risk wildlife.

The report suggested working with Canada's indigenous people to create more Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas.

Canada is not alone in this crisis. A recent study found that humans have pushed 500 mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians to the brink of extinction. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54004835

The Living Planet Report Canada 2020 https://wwf.ca/living-planet-report-canada-2020/

The Living Planet Report Canada 2020 - VIDEO https://youtu.be/e_Qht_YJhSM