/polopoly_fs

Lower emissions on the high seas : Nature News & Comment
▻http://www.nature.com/news/lower-emissions-on-the-high-seas-1.22916

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.47432.1509442681!/image/WEB_GettyImages-178799296.jpg_gen/derivatives/nature_homepage/WEB_GettyImages-178799296.jpg

In Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick, seafaring is the occupation of adventure-lovers. But since the maritime classic was published in 1851, the act of ‘sailing about a little’ has become a huge commercial undertaking. Today, a massive fleet of cargo ships transports 90% of global consumer goods. Shipping is efficient — but comes with an environmental cost that has not been adequately accounted for.

#climat #émissions_CO2 #CO2 #transport_maritime

Shrew skulls shrink for winter survival : Nature News & Comment
▻http://www.nature.com/news/shrew-skulls-shrink-for-winter-survival-1.22874

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.47277.1508769029!/image/shrew1_WEB.jpg_gen/derivatives/nature_homepage/shrew1_WEB.jpg

Lázaro and his colleagues are now investigating which brain structures change most from season to season, and whether the animals experience any cognitive impairments in winter. If they do, it might not matter too much, says Rychlik. “Their winter life is more boring,” he says. “They are less active, less involved in interactions, not busy with reproduction and searching for partners. They are just focused on foraging and saving energy.”

#musaraigne #cerveau #repos #hiver #adaptation

The rise and fall and rise again of 23andMe : Nature News & Comment
►http://www.nature.com/news/the-rise-and-fall-and-rise-again-of-23andme-1.22801

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.46922.1507718105!/image/Wojcicki.jpg_gen/derivatives/nature_homepage/Wojcicki.jpg

23andme has always been the most visible face of direct-to-consumer genetic testing, and it is more formidable now than ever before. In September, the company announced that it had raised US$250 million: more than the total amount of capital raised by the company since its inception. Investors estimate that it is worth more than $1 billion, making it a ’unicorn’ in Silicon Valley parlance — a rare and valuable thing to behold. But for scientists, 23andme’s real worth is in its data. With more than 2 million customers, the company hosts by far the largest collection of gene-linked health data anywhere. It has racked up 80 publications, signed more than 20 partnerships with pharmaceutical firms and started a therapeutics division of its own.

“They have quietly become the largest genetic study the world has ever known,” says cardiologist Euan Ashley at Stanford University, California.

Scientists, meanwhile, were dubious. Family history was and is still a more powerful indicator than genes are for predicting the risk of most diseases. “The evidence is increasingly strong that the benefits of direct-to-consumer testing for these kinds of indications are somewhere between small and zero,” says Stanford University lawyer and ethicist Hank Greely, a long-time critic of the company.

#Génomique #23andme

The rise and fall and rise again of 23andMe : Nature
►http://www.nature.com/news/the-rise-and-fall-and-rise-again-of-23andme-1.22801

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.46922.1507718105!/image/Wojcicki.jpg_gen/derivatives/nature_homepage/Wojcicki.jpg

Most scientists no longer see 23andme as a frivolous undertaking. The ability to recruit two million customers, and potentially many more, has been a huge draw, and researchers are lining up to collaborate with the company.

Largest-ever study of controversial #pesticides finds harm to bees : Nature News & Comment
▻http://www.nature.com/news/largest-ever-study-of-controversial-pesticides-finds-harm-to-bees-1.22229

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.45037.1498756082!/image/GettyImages-538390176_web.jpg_gen/derivatives/nature_homepage/GettyImages-538390176_web.jpg

However, the work was mainly funded by two major neonicotinoid makers, #Bayer CropScience and #Syngenta. They question the scientists’ conclusions and defend the pesticides, which are already banned or restricted in several countries. The researchers who did the work say they were totally independent.

Resistance to last-ditch antibiotic has spread farther than anticipated : Nature News & Comment
▻http://www.nature.com/news/resistance-to-last-ditch-antibiotic-has-spread-farther-than-anticipated-1.22

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.44708.1497043714!/image/GettyImages-608724594_web.jpg_gen/derivatives/nature_homepage/GettyImages-608724594_web.jpg

Concernant la #résistance plus importante que prévue à la #colistine, un #antibiotique de « dernier recours » (▻https://www.mypharma-editions.com/medicaments-essentiels-loms-emet-de-nouvelles-recommandations-sur)

Eighteen months ago, a gene that confers resistance to colistin — known as an ‘antibiotic of last resort’ — emerged in bacteria from pigs in China. Since then, the resistance gene, called mcr-1, has been found around the world at an alarming rate, according to several presentations at the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, last week.

In some places, nearly 100% of farm animals carry mcr-1, and an increasing number of people do as well. The gene’s spread is one of the clearest examples of how antibiotic use on farms can lead to resistance in human infections , says Lance Price, an antibiotic researcher at George Washington University in Washington DC.

Huge Arctic report ups estimates of sea-level rise : Nature News & Comment
▻http://www.nature.com/news/huge-arctic-report-ups-estimates-of-sea-level-rise-1.21911

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.43893.1493388154!/image/GettyImages-664085452_web.jpg_gen/derivatives/nature_homepage/GettyImages-664085452_web.jpg

Le réchauffement de l’Arctique plus rapide et plus dévastateur que prévu | ICI.Radio-Canada.ca
▻http://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1030107/rechauffement-climatique-arctique-fonte-changements-climat-meteo-sw

Certaines des grandes constatations du rapport :

L’océan #Arctique serait en grande partie libre de glaces pendant l’été d’ici 2030, ou même plus tôt.

Les #températures dans l’Arctique montent deux fois plus vite qu’ailleurs sur la planète. À l’automne 2016, les températures moyennes dépassaient les normes saisonnières de 6 degrés Celsius.

La fonte du #pergélisol, qui stocke environ 50 % du #carbone du monde, touche déjà l’infrastructure du Nord et pourrait rejeter des volumes importants de #méthane dans l’atmosphère.

Les ours polaires, les morses et les phoques, qui dépendent des glaces de la #banquise pour leur survie, connaissent de plus en plus de stress et de perturbations.

Les changements dans l’Arctique seraient à l’origine de changements météorologiques dans des régions aussi éloignées que le Sud-Est asiatique.

#climat #réchauffement

The massive East Antarctic Ice Sheet looks stable from above — but it’s a dangerously different story below.
▻http://www.nature.com/news/antarctica-s-sleeping-ice-giant-could-wake-soon-1.21808

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.43544.1491575043!/image/Antarctica-feature-graphic-13.04.17.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_630/Antarctica-feature-graphic-13.04.17.jpg

#antarctique #climat

Protect rights at automated borders.

Gemma Galdon Clavell calls for checks and balances to avoid the indiscriminate sharing of personal data.

In 2013, the European Union proposed expanding and harmonizing automated border crossings across the region. This Smart Borders initiative could soon be approved1. The automated gates (e-gates) in place in many EU airports are the first phase. The European Agency for the Operational Management of Large-scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (eu-LISA) is testing how to link them to databases and processes region-wide. Entries and exits will be stored in a database, replacing passport stamps. This information will be made available to border-control and immigration authorities, and will be linked to fingerprint records and watch lists held by police, customs and immigration agencies.

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.42583.1487953810!/image/WEBnature_graphic_migration_borders_2.3.17.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_630/WEBnature_graphic_migration_borders_2.3.17.jpg

What the numbers say about refugees. The biggest concentrations of displaced people lie far from the spotlight.

Growing concerns over an ‘invasion’ of refugees and migrants helped to elect Donald Trump and sway Brexit voters. Yet the data suggest that the situation is very different from how it is often portrayed.

Researchers warn that misleading reports about the magnitude of flows into Europe and the United States are creating unjustified fears about refugees. That is undermining efforts to manage the massive humanitarian problems faced by those fleeing Syria and other hotspots.

The number of refugees and migrants entering the European Union is low compared with the bloc’s population. Nations in Africa and Asia are absorbing many more. “The number of refugees in Europe is a classic example of perception versus reality,” says geographer Nikola Sander at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.42711.1488366959!/image/refugees-feature-graphic-online01.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_630/refugees-feature-graphic-online01.jpg http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.42712.1488366985!/image/refugees-feature-graphic-online02.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_630/refugees-feature-graphic-online02.jpg

▻http://www.nature.com/news/what-the-numbers-say-about-refugees-1.21548
#statistiques #chiffres #afflux #mythe #préjugés #graphiques #visualisation
cc @reka

A giant neuron found wrapped around entire mouse brain : Nature News & Comment
▻http://www.nature.com/news/a-giant-neuron-found-wrapped-around-entire-mouse-brain-1.21539

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.42573.1487947588!/image/3_claustrum_neurons_AIBSa.jpg_gen/derivatives/nature_homepage/3_claustrum_neurons_AIBSa.jpg

Like ivy plants that send runners out searching for something to cling to, the brain’s neurons send out shoots that connect with other neurons throughout the organ. A new digital reconstruction method shows three neurons that branch extensively throughout the brain, including one that wraps around its entire outer layer. The finding may help to explain how the brain creates consciousness.

#cerveau #neurones #conscience

Five big mysteries about CRISPR’s origins : Nature News & Comment
▻http://www.nature.com/news/five-big-mysteries-about-crispr-s-origins-1.21294

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.41636.1484211579!/image/research.pasteur.fr_molecular-biology-of-gene-in-extremophiles.jpg_gen/derivatives/nature_homepage/research.pasteur.fr_molecular-biology-of-gene-in-extremophiles.jpg

For Mojica, exploring that diversity and answering basic questions about CRISPR systems hold more allure than the revolution they sparked. This puzzles many of his colleagues, he says. He has immersed himself in CRISPR–Cas biology for a quarter of a century, and although there’s a lot of funding available for those who wish to edit genomes, there is considerably less for the kind of work he does.

The quiet revolutionary: How the co-discovery of CRISPR explosively changed Emmanuelle Charpentier’s life : Nature News & Comment
►http://www.nature.com/news/the-quiet-revolutionary-how-the-co-discovery-of-crispr-explosively-changed-e

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.36034.1461592478!/image/PA-23209793.jpg_gen/derivatives/nature_homepage/PA-23209793.jpg

The microbiologist spent years moving labs and relishing solitude. Then her work on gene-editing thrust her into the scientific spotlight.

The unsung heroes of CRISPR : Nature News & Comment
▻http://www.nature.com/news/the-unsung-heroes-of-crispr-1.20272

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.37868.1468859480!/image/crispr_heroes.jpg_gen/derivatives/nature_homepage/crispr_heroes.jpg

The soaring popularity of gene editing has made celebrities of the principal investigators who pioneered the field — but their graduate students and postdocs are often overlooked.

#crispr-cas #recherche #financements #inégalités #star-system

Speedy Antarctic drills start hunt for Earth’s oldest ice
▻http://www.nature.com/news/speedy-antarctic-drills-start-hunt-for-earth-s-oldest-ice-1.21061

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.40826.1480430657!/image/nature-news-antarctica-drill-sites-01-12-2016-online.png_gen/derivatives/landscape_630/nature-news-antarctica-drill-sites-01-12-2016-online.png

In December, the first drill designed to search for a scientifically useful sample of ice that is at least 1.5 million years old will begin its work. It is part of a broader effort to locate the best place to extract a core containing Earth’s oldest ice, which would help to reveal how climate has shaped the planet’s past and how to predict future fluctuations.

[...] More than a decade ago, the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA) drilled the oldest existing core, which contains 800,000-year-old ice, from an ice dome in East Antarctica known as Dome C. The core reaches only as far back as the latter part of the Pleistocene epoch, when Earth began cycling between warm and cold periods every 100,000 years. Before 1 million years ago, the cycle occurred every 40,000 years (...), so scientists want an ice core that is twice as old as EPICA to better understand this transition.

Digging such a core would cost about US$50 million and take several years, so researchers want to be sure that the location is optimal — with ice that is sufficiently deep but not melted at the bottom by geothermal activity. “It’s absolutely crucial to thoroughly investigate all options,” says Eisen. Enter a new breed of drill, designed to do fast, cheap reconnaissance instead of extracting a single, intact ice core, as previous deep drills have done.

#climat #Antarctique

Brain implants allow paralysed monkeys to walk
▻http://www.nature.com/news/brain-implants-allow-paralysed-monkeys-to-walk-1.20967

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.40458.1478773480!/image/monkey-graphic-online_NATURE.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_630/monkey-graphic-online_NATURE.jpg

Monkey kingdom
China is positioning itself as a world leader in #primate research.
▻http://www.nature.com/news/monkey-kingdom-1.19762

#recherche #santé

Young scientists ditch postdocs for biotech start-ups : Nature News & Comment
▻http://www.nature.com/news/young-scientists-ditch-postdocs-for-biotech-start-ups-1.20912

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.40265.1478080471!/image/20140124_0177_web.jpg_gen/derivatives/nature_homepage/20140124_0177_web.jpg

young biomedical scientists who have started companies instead of taking the conventional academic path and pursuing postdoctoral studies after their PhDs. Among the factors driving this change are an infusion of money into early-stage biotech investing, the emergence of biotech incubators and the scarcity of academic jobs in science.

#recherche #privatisation #biotechs

HIV’s Patient Zero exonerated : Nature
▻http://www.nature.com/news/hiv-s-patient-zero-exonerated-1.20877

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.40115.1477490154!/image/WEB_GettyImages-658072731.jpg_gen/derivatives/nature_homepage/WEB_GettyImages-658072731.jpg

But an analysis of HIV using decades-old blood serum samples exonerates the French Canadian [Gaétan Dugas], who died in 1984. The paper, published on 26 October in Nature, shows that the virus had been circulating in North America since at least 1970, and that the disease arrived on the continent through the Caribbean from Africa.

Richard McKay, a historian at the University of Cambridge, UK, and study co-author, says that scientists have always questioned the idea of a single #Patient_Zero, because some evidence suggested that the virus entered North America several times.

(...) When scientists examined those genetic sequences in detail, they found them to be similar to HIV strains present in the Caribbean, particularly Haiti, in the early 1970s. However, the strains were different from one another, suggesting the virus had already

pour les lecteurs de And The Band Played On…

#sida #histoire #épidémie

How cats conquered the world (and a few Viking ships) : Nature News & Comment
▻http://www.nature.com/news/how-cats-conquered-the-world-and-a-few-viking-ships-1.20643

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.39233.1474364511!/image/C0101823-Egyptian_mummified_cat-SPL_WEB.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_630/C0101823-Egyptian_mummified_cat-SPL_WEB.jpg

Thousands of years before cats came to dominate Internet culture, they swept through ancient Eurasia and Africa carried by early farmers, ancient mariners and even Vikings, finds the first large-scale look at ancient-cat DNA.

The study, presented at a conference on 15 September, sequenced DNA from more than 200 cats that lived between about 15,000 years ago and the eighteenth century ad.
[…]
Cat populations seem to have grown in two waves, the authors found. Middle Eastern wild cats with a particular mitochondrial lineage expanded with early farming communities to the eastern Mediterranean. Geigl suggests that grain stockpiles associated with these early farming communities attracted rodents, which in turn drew wild cats. After seeing the benefit of having cats around, humans might have begun to tame these cats.

Thousands of years later, cats descended from those in Egypt spread rapidly around Eurasia and Africa. A mitochondrial lineage common in Egyptian cat mummies from the end of the fourth century bc to the fourth century ad was also carried by cats in Bulgaria, Turkey and sub-Saharan Africa from around the same time. Sea-faring people probably kept cats to keep rodents in check, says Geigl, whose team also found cat remains with this maternal DNA lineage at a Viking site dating to between the eighth and eleventh century ad in northern Germany.

“There are so many interesting observations” in the study, says Pontus Skoglund, a population geneticist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. “I didn’t even know there were Viking cats.”

J’ai déjà compilé ici les articles sur le thème de la collapsologie, la catastrophe imminente, sa date, ses causes etc. :
►https://seenthis.net/messages/499739
#effondrement #collapsologie #catastrophe #fin_du_monde #it_has_begun

En fait c’est plus ou moins une conséquence d’une littérature plus scientifique sur le thème de l’anthropocène, cette nouvelle ère géologique façonnée par l’humain. Si cette théorie, et le lien qu’elle aurait avec la collapsologie, est discutée, un retour sur les premiers articles est nécessaire. En effet, ce terme n’est pas sorti de nulle part et la plupart de ces articles, co-écrits pas de nombreux chercheurs, compilent des quantités impressionnantes de résultats qui pointent toutes dans la même direction : nous allons dans le mur...
#Anthropocene #Anthropocène

Paul J. Crutzen and Eugene F. Stoermer "The “Anthropocene”" Global Change Newsletter 41:17-18 (2000)
►http://www.igbp.net/download/18.316f18321323470177580001401/1376383088452/NL41.pdf

Paul J. Crutzen "Geology of mankind" Nature 415:23 (2002)
►http://www.geo.utexas.edu/courses/387h/PAPERS/Crutzen2002.pdf

Johan Rockström, Will Steffen, Kevin Noone, Åsa Persson, F. Stuart Chapin, III, Eric F. Lambin, Timothy M. Lenton, Marten Scheffer, Carl Folke, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Björn Nykvist, Cynthia A. de Wit, Terry Hughes, Sander van der Leeuw, Henning Rodhe, Sverker Sörlin, Peter K. Snyder, Robert Costanza, Uno Svedin, Malin Falkenmark, Louise Karlberg, Robert W. Corell, Victoria J. Fabry, James Hansen, Brian Walker, Diana Liverman, Katherine Richardson, Paul Crutzen and Jonathan A. Foley "A safe operating space for humanity" Nature 461:472–475 (2009)
►http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/docs/2009/2009_Rockstrom_ro02010z.pdf

Will Steffen, Åsa Persson, Lisa Deutsch, Jan Zalasiewicz, Mark Williams, Katherine Richardson, Carole Crumley, Paul Crutzen, Carl Folke, Line Gordon, Mario Molina, Veerabhadran Ramanathan, Johan Rockström, Marten Scheffer, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, and Uno Svedin "The Anthropocene : from global change to planetary stewardship" AMBIO 40:739–761 (2011).
►http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3357752/pdf/13280_2011_Article_185.pdf

Jan Zalasiewicz, Mark Williams, Alan Haywood and Michael Ellis The Anthropocene : a new epoch of geological time ? Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 369:835–841 (2011)
►http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/369/1938/835.full.pdf

Gaia Vince, An Epoch Debate, Science 334:32-37 (2011)
►http://sandpaw.weblogs.anu.edu.au/files/2012/06/An-Epoch-Debate.pdf

Erle C. Ellis, Anthropogenic transformation of the terrestrial biosphere, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 369:1010-1035 (2011)
►http://ecotope.org/People/ellis/papers/ellis_2011.pdf

Anthony D. Barnosky, Elizabeth A. Hadly, Jordi Bascompte, Eric L. Berlow, James H. Brown, Mikael Fortelius, Wayne M. Getz, John Harte, Alan Hastings, Pablo A. Marquet, Neo D. Martinez, Arne Mooers, Peter Roopnarine, Geerat Vermeij, John W. Williams, Rosemary Gillespie, Justin Kitzes, Charles Marshall, Nicholas Matzke, David P. Mindell, Eloy Revilla and Adam B. Smith « Approaching a state shift in Earth’s biosphere », Nature 486:52-58 (2012)
►http://ib.berkeley.edu/labs/barnosky/Barnoskyetal_nature_v486_n7401.pdf

Des articles plus récents :

Richard Monastersky "Anthropocene : The human age", Nature 519:144-147 (2015)
►http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/1.17085!/menu/main/topColumns/topLeftColumn/pdf/519144a.pdf

Simon L. Lewis and Mark A. Maslin "Defining the Anthropocene", Nature 519:171-180 (2015)
►http://anthropoceneinstitute.com/sites/default/files/Nature_Defining%20Anthropocene.pdf

Colin N. Waters, Jan Zalasiewicz, Colin Summerhayes, Anthony D. Barnosky, Clément Poirier, Agnieszka Gałuszka, Alejandro Cearreta, Matt Edgeworth, Erle C. Ellis, Michael Ellis, Catherine Jeandel, Reinhold Leinfelder, J. R. McNeill, Daniel deB. Richter, Will Steffen, James Syvitski, Davor Vidas, Michael Wagreich, Mark Williams, An Zhisheng, Jacques Grinevald, Eric Odada, Naomi Oreskes and Alexander P. Wolfe "The Anthropocene is functionally and stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene" Science 351 (2016)
►http://faculty.eas.ualberta.ca/wolfe/eprints/Waters_et_al_2016.pdf

Clive Hamilton "Define the Anthropocene in terms of the whole Earth" Nature 536:251 (2016)
►http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/1.20427!/menu/main/topColumns/topLeftColumn/pdf/536251a.pdf

Autres articles sur le même sujet abordés sur seenthis :

L’apocalypse et l’anthropocène
entretien de Joseph Confavreux et Thibault Henneton avec Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, Vacarme, le 4 novembre 2013
►http://www.vacarme.org/article2301.html

Introduction à l’histoire environnementale
Jean-Batiste Fressoz, Frédéric Graber, Fabien Locher et Grégory Quenet, La Découverte, Repères, 2014
►https://seenthis.net/messages/514161

800 000 ans de hausse du taux de CO2 dans l’air
Audrey Garric, Le Monde, le 9 mai 2014
►https://seenthis.net/messages/255574

See How Humans Have Reshaped the Globe With This Interactive Atlas
Esri and Victoria Jaggard, Smithsonian, le 8 octobre 2014
►https://seenthis.net/messages/487592

L’Homme a fait entrer la Terre dans une nouvelle époque géologique
Pierre Le Hir, Le Monde, le 16 janvier 2015
►https://seenthis.net/messages/332016

Anthropocène ou pas ?
Rémi Sussan, Internet Actu, le 5 mai 2015
►https://seenthis.net/messages/367335

Avis de tempête sur le climat ? (2/4) : L’anthropocène : par-delà nature et culture
Adèle Van Reeth et Philippe Descola, France Culture, le 15 septembre 2015
►https://seenthis.net/messages/408840

Sixteen years of change in the global terrestrial human footprint and implications for biodiversity conservation
Oscar Venter, Eric W. Sanderson, Ainhoa Magrach, James R. Allan, Jutta Beher, Kendall R. Jones, Hugh P. Possingham, William F. Laurance, Peter Wood, Balázs M. Fekete, Marc A. Levy and James E. M. Watson, Nature Communications 7 (2015)
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/519461

Where in the World Is the Anthropocene ?
Hannah Waters, Smithsonian, le 30 août 2016
►https://seenthis.net/messages/520441

The Anthropocene Is Here : Humanity Has Pushed Earth Into a New Epoch
Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams, le 30 août 2016
►https://seenthis.net/messages/520010

L’Anthropocène et l’esthétique du sublime
Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, Mouvements, le 16 septembre 2016
►https://seenthis.net/messages/527997

A suivre...

#recension

The Anthropocene Is Here: Humanity Has Pushed Earth Into a New Epoch
▻http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/the-anthropocene-is-here-humanity-has-pushed-earth-into-a-new-epoch

The Anthropocene Epoch has begun, according to a group of experts assembled at the International Geological Congress in Cape Town, South Africa this week.

After seven years of deliberation...

Biodiversity: The ravages of guns, nets and bulldozers
▻http://www.nature.com/news/biodiversity-the-ravages-of-guns-nets-and-bulldozers-1.20381

There is a growing tendency for media reports about threats to biodiversity to focus on climate change.

Here we report an analysis of threat information gathered for more than 8,000 species. These data revealed a contrasting picture. We found that by far the biggest drivers of biodiversity decline are overexploitation (the harvesting of species from the wild at rates that cannot be compensated for by reproduction or regrowth) and agriculture (the production of food, fodder, fibre and fuel crops; livestock farming; aquaculture; and the cultivation of trees).

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.38249.1470654478!/image/IUCN_biodiversity_loss_by_threat_COMMENT_WEB.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_630/IUCN_biodiversity_loss_by_threat_COMMENT_WEB.jpg