The world has experienced five mass extinctions over the course of its history, and experts claim we are seeing another one happen right now. A 2017 research paper claimed a ‘biological annihilation’ of wildlife in recent decades has triggered the sixth mass extinction and says the planet is heading towards a ‘global crisis’. Scientists warn … Read more
Coronavirus has left no corner of the U.S. untouched, but counties with large minority populations are up to 150% more likely to have been hard-hit by infections compared to mostly white regions of the country, new data shows. The virus spread like wildfire in communities of color, taking off fastest first in areas with large … Read more
Nearly half of all people in some areas with a large population of ethnic minorities are refusing the Covid vaccine when offered it due to fears about what it contains. In Birmingham, 50 per cent of those living in areas with high populations of Asian and African-Caribbean people turned down the vaccine when offered it. In … Read more
Lynx could be reintroduced to Scotland for the first time in 500 YEARS to help manage deer populations Eurasian lynx are native to Britain, but were driven to extinction 500 years ago They now live in mainland Europe, and are thought to pose no threat to humans A new study aims to understand if people … Read more
Conservationists have drafted the first ever global map of bee diversity to help track the distribution of populations of the vital pollinators. There are some 20,000 individual species of bee presently living on Earth — but accurate, compiled data on their distribution had been lacking. Researchers from China, Singapore and the US analysed and validated … Read more
Britain’s top tracker of big cats says that Britain has a population of leopards and pumas that is breeding and booming. Rhoda Watkins has spent more than 20 years investigating big cats using her specialist knowledge to monitor their behaviour. She has now gathered enough evidence to be certain of the presence of these animals … Read more
Wildlife populations around the world have declined by more than two thirds since 1970, according to a new WWF report that claims nature is in ‘freefall’ due to human activity including intensive farming and deforestation. The WWF Living Planet Index (LPI) found mammal, bird, amphibian, reptile and fish numbers fell by an average 68 per cent … Read more
Phytoplankton populations in the Arctic have INCREASED 57% over the last two decades, driven by melting sea ice and new sources of nutrients swept into the region by shifting ocean currents Researchers from Stanford studied phytoplankton populations in the Arctic They found phytoplankton populations grew 57% between 1998 and 2018 The growth was partially driven … Read more
Beekeepers in the US lost more than 22% of their honeybee colonies during the past winter, but experts say that’s the smallest loss in years and could be a sign the global honeybee crisis is slowing A beekeeper survey found US honeybee colonies declined 22.2% in the winter The declines were actually the second smallest … Read more
Antarctic penguins could experience a ‘population boom’ due to global warming as melting sea ice means they have to spend less time foraging for food. Japanese scientists describe the Adélie species of penguin, which is native to Antarctica, as a ‘rare global warming winner’ thanks to melting ice. In low-ice conditions, penguins are able travel more … Read more