Reindeer are shrinking on an Arctic island near the north pole as a result of climate change that has curbed the amount of winter food available to the animals, scientists said on Monday. The average weight of adult reindeer on Svalbard, a chain of islands north of Norway, fell from 55kg (121lb) to 48kg (106lb) […]
Tag: global warming
World on track to lose two-thirds of wild animals by 2020
The number of wild animals living on Earth is set to fall by two-thirds by 2020, according to a new report, part of a mass extinction that is destroying the natural world upon which humanity depends. The analysis, the most comprehensive to date, indicates that animal populations plummeted by 58% between 1970 and 2012, with […]
Nasa: Earth is warming at a pace ‘unprecedented in 1,000 years’
The planet is warming at a pace not experienced within the past 1,000 years, at least, making it “very unlikely” that the world will stay within a crucial temperature limit agreed by nations just last year, according to Nasa’s top climate scientist. This year has already seen scorching heat around the world, with the average […]
The Earth stands on the brink of its sixth mass extinction and the fault is ours
Life on Earth is in trouble. That much we know. But how bad have things become – and how fast are events moving? How soon, indeed, before the Earth’s biological treasures are trashed, in what will be the sixth great mass extinction event? This is what Gerardo Caballos of the National Autonomous University of Mexico […]
Rare Seal Pups Stranded on Shrinking Arctic Ice
Mikhail Verevkin points his spyglass toward the Gulf of Finland and squints into the distance. “One, two, three.” He counts 19 animals lounging on rocks before looking up. They are all gray seals. The Baltic ringed seal is nowhere to be found. It’s April 20, the time of year when seal scientists like Verevkin, who […]
Climate change is ‘single biggest threat’ to polar bear survival
Global warming is now the single most important threat to the survival of the polar bear with retreating sea ice set to decimate populations, according to a new study by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It found a “high probability” that the planet’s 26,000 polar bears will suffer a 30% decline […]
4 Ways Polar Bears Are Dealing With Climate Change
The Arctic predators—which depend on constantly diminishing amounts of sea ice to catch marine mammals such as seals—are declining in number, and fast. There are fewer than 25,000 polar bears left in the wild, according to the nonprofit organization Polar Bears International. Near the southern Beaufort Sea (map), for instance, the population has dropped about […]
Scientists discover lizard that changes sex in the sun
A lizard that changes sex in the sun has been discovered by scientists. It is the first time the phenomenon has been seen in reptiles in the wild and could have implications for other animal species because of climate change. The cold-blooded Australian Central Bearded Dragon is widespread on red sandy areas in the semi-arid […]