Veronika Wild

  Worried about Earth’s future? Well, the outlook is worse than even scientists can grasp Daniel Mariuz/AAP Corey J. A. Bradshaw , Flinders University ; Daniel T. Blumstein , University of California, Los Angeles , and Paul Ehrlich , Stanford University Anyone with even a passing interest in the global environment knows all is not well. But just how bad is the situation? Our new paper shows the outlook for life on Earth is more dire than is generally understood. The research published today reviews more than 150 studies to produce a stark summary of the state of the natural world. We outline the likely future trends in biodiversity decline, mass extinction, climate disruption and planetary toxification. We clarify the gravity of the human predicament and provide a timely snapshot of the crises that must be addressed now. The problems, all tied to human consumption and population growth, will almost certainly worsen over coming d...

Thousands of birds prepare to migrate at Lake Myvatyn, Iceland's Ramsar Wetland   Lovely weather for ducks! It’s been raining solidly since I hung the washing out yesterday. Makes me think of wetlands, as does a photo my prospective daughter- in –law just took in her backyard.  Victoria and New South Wales are experiencing devastating floods . Ducks everywhere should be celebrating especially as they don't seem to have too many other things to quack about these days.  I was going to write more on oceans today, but I have just found out that it was World Wetland Day on February 3 rd . Bet you didn’t know that. I didn’t either, though I read many electronic newspapers.  Not even the BBC news mentioned it until Feb 23, and even then I missed it. One of the dangers of the electronic news is that it is very much tailored to what it thinks you are interested in.  It is true that I haven’t specifically clicked on wetlands for about ten years, but that doesn...