On a cold February day in Washington D.C. in 2015, United States Senator Jim Inhofe pulled an infamous political stunt on the senate floor. He unraveled a snowball that he had gathered earlier that day, using it as a prop to “disprove” the reality of climate change. He ended his statement by playfully hurling the […]
Killing for conservation
The moral debate surrounding the lethal control of invasive alien species Historically, humans have been translocating animal and plant species from one region to the planet to another, from seeds and exotic birds from the new world to rice and spices from Asian regions. Some of these translocations are well documented, like the introduction of […]
Understanding the scale and cost of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fisherie...
Since 1961, the average annual increase in global fish consumption has outpaced population growth and exceeded consumption of meat from all terrestrial animals combined 1. Accordingly, fish stocks have been increasingly exploited, with 33% of fish stocks overfished and 60% fully exploited in 2015 1. Demand for fish is driven by population growth, human migration […]
Wind Farms in Greece
Despite some beliefs, climate change is real and humans are the ones to blame for. The increase of greenhouse gases – mainly CO2 – in the atmosphere, is the key driver of climate change. Emissions from human activities are responsible for 100% of the warming observed since 19501. One such activity is the production of […]
A bird from the Netherlands and an airport in Portugal: local political decision...
Birds undertake epic migrations across the globe. Knowing no borders, they connect many countries – and even the seas beyond national jurisdictions – in the search for safe heavens where to rest, refuel and spend the winter. But these are no easy journeys. Migratory birds face multiple threats and many populations across the world are […]
Wildlife over-exploitation and the Coronavirus
Underrate threat After habitat loss by agricultural expansion and logging, over-exploitation stands as the main threat for wildlife worldwide. The extraction of fauna from their natural habitats is known as defaunation, if done faster than natural populations can recover, it is known as over-exploitation. Defaunation can be divided into two categories: Subsistence hunting and commercial […]
Is there a future for our planet? Or: How not to lose hope in a world with dysto...
Emergency to act! Recently, more than 11’000 scientists from 153 countries signed a paper in which they warn humanity that the planet earth is facing a climate emergency unless major transformations are made in global society (1). The scientists point out that the climate crisis is strongly linked to the excessive consumption of a wealthy […]
Corporation and conservation partnership
COP 25 is taking place right now in Madrid, and we can observe big corporations sponsoring all types of events. Among them is Endesa, an energy company responsible for 10% of the emissions in Spain1. Big corporations sponsoring environmental events is common, and more and more they are present in the environmental debates and the […]
A good case of conservation in action : Nepal
Introduction The rate of resource use and its implication on environment has been well documented. According to the Living Planet Index report of 2018, 60% of wildlife population has declined over the last 40 years. It is also looking more and more likely that we will be unable to meet the goals we have set […]
Are species important for the conservation of biodiversity?
Biodiversity is an abstract concept without a universally accepted definition (Meinard et al., 2019), with measures often incorporating both processes and entities. These may include: the functional diversity of a system, reflecting its biological complexity; phylogenetic diversity, whereby the distances between evolutionary lineages are summed; or species densities, relative abundances and total richness. Choosing an […]