Connect with us

CBS News

Global biodiversity report shows “catastrophic decline” in wildlife populations

Avatar

Published

on


A shocking new report on global biodiversity is detailing what it calls “a catastrophic decline” in wildlife populations ahead of a major international conference on biodiversity.

On Monday, Oct. 21, the United Nations will convene a two-week conference in Cali, Colombia called COP16. On the agenda are climate change and the protection of life. But hanging over this meeting is a new report by the World Wide Fund for Nature (formerly the World Wildlife Fund). The 2024 Living Planet Report details “a catastrophic 73% decline in the average wildlife populations over just 50 years.”

The concern is centered at points around the world – from the grassy fields in the Serengeti to the urban jungles of the San Francisco Bay Area. Creatures big and small are under threat.

“That means in just my lifetime, 50 years, we’ve seen a decline of 73% in the average size of these wildlife populations,” noted Dr. Robin Freeman, global biodiversity expert with the Zoological Society of London.

Among the biggest threats are humans and a warming planet. Both are leading to an accelerating change that will make it impossible for species to successfully adapt.

“Species are very often exquisitely tuned to local environments that have taken thousands to millions of years through co-evolution to kind of establish and create the selection across their genome as to what features are going to survive,” noted Stanford biology professor Dr. Elizabeth Hadly. “When we are changing things so rapidly, we unravel those connections, extinction happens in a heartbeat.”

Humans are encroaching into the critical habitats of multiple species and putting many ecosystems at risk, thereby threatening the planet’s biodiversity. The impacts are affecting the elephants in tropical forests, the hawksbill sea turtles off the Great Barrier Reef, and even the migrating birds that pass through the Bay Area.

“Most of our native birds need a lot of biodiversity in the plants and the insects in order to survive,” explained Dr. Katie LaBarbera, senior biologist and science director for the Land Bird Program at the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory, who noted how around the world, some bird populations are in decline.

In addition to birds, some fish are in trouble. According to the WWF report, in California, the number of winter-run Chinook salmon dropped 88% since 1970. The Shasta Dam blocked off access to their historical spawning ground, while climate change threatens the Sacramento River – an important migration route.

Chief Caleen Sisk, spiritual leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, and tribal members are working with Maori people of New Zealand and federal fish biologists to return Chinook salmon to the McCloud River and to find passage for them. 

In the 19th century, millions of salmon eggs from the McCloud River were exported to 30 states and 14 different countries to create new salmon runs. New Zealand was the only location where the new run thrived, and in 2005, the Māori invited the Winnemem Wintu to bring wild salmon eggs back home to the McCloud.

“The water system here in California really are dependent on how we take care of the salmon,” said Sisk. “If the salmon survive, people will survive. If we want to drain the rivers and rename them as warm water rivers people will also suffer.”

These Bay Area experts say protecting the planet’s wildlife is an urgent wake-up call that no one should ignore.

“Biodiversity can never be recreated,” said Hadly. “It is what we rely on for our food, for our medicine, for our housing. It is so critically important for our humanity.”

“The bits of nature that we have around us are really precious and we’re not going to save them if we don’t first really appreciate them,” added LaBarbera.

“I wish that we could educate everyone about our salmon,” said Sisk. “They’re not just a food to eat. They dig down into the gravel and they let all the silt go out to the sea and they let that river breathe into the groundwater systems.”

The hope with this upcoming conference is that nations will agree to new standards on how to restore nature and halt the decline.



Read the original article

Leave your vote

CBS News

12/18: CBS Evening News – CBS News

Avatar

Published

on


12/18: CBS Evening News – CBS News


Watch CBS News



Last-minute government funding bill in limbo after opposition from Trump, others; Lawmakers target AI-generated “deepfake pornography”

Be the first to know

Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.




Read the original article

Leave your vote

Continue Reading

CBS News

Wisconsin school shooter was in contact with California man plotting his own attack, court documents say

Avatar

Published

on


The shooter who killed a student and teacher at a religious school in Wisconsin brought two guns to the school and was in contact with a man in California whom authorities say was planning to attack a government building, according to authorities and court documents that became public Wednesday.

Police were still investigating why the 15-year-old student at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison shot and killed a fellow student and teacher on Monday before shooting herself, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told the Associated Press Wednesday. Two other students who were shot remained in critical condition on Wednesday.

A Southern California judge issued a restraining order Tuesday under California’s gun red flag law against a 20-year-old Carlsbad man. The order requires the man to turn his guns and ammunition into police within 48 hours unless an officer asks for them sooner because he poses an immediate danger to himself and others.

Carlsbad is located just north of San Diego. 

According to the order, the man told FBI agents that he had been messaging Natalie Rupnow, the Wisconsin shooter, about attacking a government building with a gun and explosives. The order doesn’t say what building he had targeted or when he planned to launch his attack. It also doesn’t detail his interactions with Rupnow except to state that the man was plotting a mass shooting with her.

CBS’ San Diego affiliate KFMB-TV reported that law enforcement searched the man’s home Tuesday night after the order was signed by the judge. 

Police, with the assistance of the FBI, were scouring online records and other resources and speaking with the shooter’s parents and classmates in an attempt to determine a motive for the shooting, Barnes told the AP.

Police don’t know if anyone was targeted in the attack or if the attack had been planned in advance, the chief said. Police said the shooting occurred in a classroom where a study hall was taking place involving students from several grades.

“I do not know if if she planned it that day or if she planned it a week prior,” Barnes said. “To me, bringing a gun to school to hurt people is planning. And so we don’t know what the premeditation is.”

On a Madison city website providing details about the shooting, police disclosed Wednesday that two guns were found at the school, but only one was used in the shooting. A law enforcement source previously told CBS News the weapon used appears to have been a 9 mm pistol.  

Barnes told the AP that he did not know how the suspected shooter obtained the guns and he declined to say who purchased them, citing the ongoing investigation.

No decisions have been made about whether Rupnow’s parents might be charged in relation to the shooting, but they have been cooperating, Barnes told the AP.

Abundant Life is a nondenominational Christian school that offers prekindergarten classes through high school. About 420 students attend the institution.

The Dan County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the two people killed Wednesday as 42-year-old Erin West and 14-year-old Rubi Vergara.

An online obituary on a local funeral site stated Vergara was a freshman who leaves behind her parents, one brother, and a large extended family. It described her as “an avid reader” who “loved art, singing and playing keyboard in the family worship band.” 

West’s exact position with the school was unclear.   



Read the original article

Leave your vote

Continue Reading

CBS News

12/18: The Daily Report – CBS News

Avatar

Published

on


12/18: The Daily Report – CBS News


Watch CBS News



Lindsey Reiser reports on the status of government funding to avoid a shutdown, what a new interest rate cut means for your wallet, and the top entertainment stories that defined 2024.

Be the first to know

Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.




Read the original article

Leave your vote

Continue Reading

Copyright © 2024 Breaking MN

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.