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Russia’s war in Ukraine has encouraged a rapid increase in the deployment of drones that use fibre optic cables to protect them from being jammed or downed by electronic warfare: the drones trail kilometres of plastic cable across frontlines. In this post Leon Moreland explores the environmental risks posed by this new form of battlefield plastic pollution.

Le ministre de l’intérieur américain a notamment annoncé le rétablissement d’un programme permettant d’exploiter le pétrole et le gaz dans l’ensemble de l’Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, une aire protégée qui s’étend sur plus de 630 000 hectares.

The average size of monitored wildlife populations has shrunk by 73% since 1970.

Human activity has caused species groups to go extinct 35 times faster than they have over the past 500 years

Protecting and enhancing populations of key wildlife species across the world could significantly enhance natural carbon capture and storage and play a critical role mitigating climate change, according to new YSE-led research.

The steady destruction of wildlife can suddenly tip over into total ecosystem collapse, scientists studying the greatest mass extinction in Earth’s history have found. Many scientists think the huge current losses of biodiversity are the start of a new mass extinction. But the new research shows total ecosystem collapse is “inevitable”, if the losses are not reversed, the scientists said.

Small patches of land given over to wildlife-friendly planting can make a big difference to pollinator conservation, a new study suggests. Bee and other pollinator populations in Europe and North America are in decline due to a range of factors including habitat loss and insufficient flowers for food.

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Pet cats kill songbirds by the million, as well as rodents and other wildlife. But how much of a threat do they really pose, and should they be kept indoors? Expert opinion is divided

The IPBES #PandemicsReport is one of the most scientifically robust examinations of the evidence and knowledge about links between pandemic risk and nature since the COVID-19 pandemic began - with 22 of the world's leading experts from fields as diverse as epidemiology, zoology, public health, disease ecology, comparative pathology, veterinary medicine, pharmacology, wildlife health, mathematical modelling, economics, law, and public policy as authors of the report. The expertise of the 22 authors was further augmented by contributions and knowledge resources from the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, and the World Health Organization - as well as a peer review process.

Humankind is revealed as simultaneously insignificant and utterly dominant in the grand scheme of life on Earth by a groundbreaking new assessment of all life on the planet. The world’s 7.6 billion people represent just 0.01% of all living things, according to the study. Yet since the dawn of civilisation, humanity has caused the loss of 83% of all wild mammals and half of plants, while livestock kept by humans abounds.

Global shipping is moving invasive species around the world. Can world governments agree on necessary preventative measures?

The ivory-billed woodpecker, along with 22 other species of birds, fish, mussels and other wildlife, is set to be declared extinct and removed from the endangered species list, US federal wildlife officials announced Wednesday.

It is hard to believe it’s happening again, even harder to believe that so few people seem to know or care. A massive famine is unfolding in Tigray in northern Ethiopia. Five million people are in need of food aid, and perhaps 900,000 are already starving.

Situated deep in the middle of Brazil, Xingu Indigenous Park encompasses some of the most biodiverse rainforest in the country and is home to dozens of Indigenous communities and a multitude of wildlife. It also sits in the country’s infamous “Arc of Deforestation,” a vast swath of land heavily degraded by industrial agriculture that stretches from one side of Brazil to the other and which is punctuated in just a few places by islands of protected forest.