biodiversity | Common News Update

Mar292022 by adminNo Comments

Biodiversity: Pressure grows for deal to save nature

Science

Getty ImagesA global agreement to reverse the loss of nature and halt extinctions is inching closer, as talks in Geneva enter their final day.International negotiators are working on the text of a UN framework to safeguard nature ahead of a high-level summit in China later this year.Observers have slammed the "snail's pace" of negotiations and are pressing for a strengthening of ambitions.Divisions remain, including over financing the plans."The science is very clear, we do not have any more time to waste; we need to take action now," Bernadette Fischler Hooper, head of international advocacy at WWF-UK, told BBC News. "Not only on biodiversity loss, but also on climate change which is a very inter-linked issue. So that is what's at stake here; it's actually the future of the planet and its...

May282021 by adminNo Comments

U.N.: Fixing climate, biodiversity and land degradation will cost $8.1 trillion

Science

May 27 (UPI) -- Planet Earth is in desperate need of funding, according to the United Nations. According to a new report -- published Thursday by the U.N. Environment Program and the World Economic Forum -- an $ 8.1 trillion investment in nature is required to solve the planet's compounding climate, biodiversity and land degradation crises. Advertisement To curb climate change, reduce biodiversity losses and heal the planet's degraded habitat, scientists suggest annual funding for nature-based solutions will need to reach $ 536 billion by 2050, a four-fold increase over current expenditures. The authors of the new report suggest one of the most effective ways to invest in nature is to redirect capital flows away from fossil fuels -- by ending oil and gas subsidies, for example -- and towa...

Apr52021 by adminNo Comments

Wildlife biodiversity is a boon to human health, seafood nutrition

Science

April 5 (UPI) -- Biodiversity provides human health benefits on the land and in the water, according to a pair of newly published studies. Previous studies have highlighted many of the ways biodiversity offers indirect benefits to human health -- by encouraging pollination, for example. But new research suggests biodiversity also provides direct health benefits by keeping humans from getting sick. Advertisement According to one new study, published Monday in the journal PNAS, biodiversity helps minimize the risk of zoonotic disease outbreaks. "There's a persistent myth that wild areas with high levels of biodiversity are hotspots for disease," lead study author Felicia Keesing said in a press release. "More animal diversity must equal more dangerous pathogens. But this turns out to be wr...

Oct262020 by adminNo Comments

Accessible healthcare could help slow climate change, reverse biodiversity losses

Science

Oct. 26 (UPI) -- To protect forests and vulnerable ecosystems, erect healthcare clinics. That's what nonprofit organizers did in Indonesia, where deforestation rates in neighboring Gunung Palung National Park declined dramatically during the first 10 years of the clinic's operation. The affordable healthcare clinic was set up in 2007 by a pair of nonprofits, Alam Sehat Lestari and Health In Harmony. Prior to the arrival of the clinic, the forests of Gunung Palung were shrinking annually as a result of uncontrolled illegal logging. Advertisement To curb the losses, the clinic offered discounted services to villages that enacted community-wide logging reductions and other conservation-minded reforms. Researchers described the clinic's environmental and public health successes in a new paper...

Dec192019 by adminNo Comments

When lawns go unmowed, biodiversity gets a boost

Science

Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Put the mower in the shed and forget about it. Lazy lawn care is a boon to invertebrate and plant diversity, according to new research. As part of a new meta-analysis study, scientists amalgamated the findings from dozens of studies on lawn management and biodiversity. "Even though the studies were often very different (i.e. measured different organisms, were conducted in different countries, etc.), we still saw quite dominant effects," Chris Watson, lead researcher and a professor at the University of Quebec in Trois-Rivières, told UPI in an email. The studies showed broadly that biodiversity benefits from a hands-off approach to lawn management. Watson and his colleagues also found that intensive mowing increased the odds of invasion by herbivorous beetle larvae and a...