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Archive for August 17th, 2015
Global Extinction Rates: Why Do Estimates Vary So Wildly?
Posted by Yale Environment 360: Fred Pearce on August 17th, 2015
Yale Environment 360: Most ecologists believe that we are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction. Humanity’s impact on nature, they say, is now comparable to the five previous catastrophic events over the past 600 million years, during which up to 95 percent of the planet’s species disappeared. We may very well be. But recent studies have cited extinction rates that are extremely fuzzy and vary wildly. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, which involved more than a thousand experts, estimated an extinction rate that...
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Central Asian glaciers shrinking fast: study
Posted by Agence France-Press: None Given on August 17th, 2015
Agence France-Press: Central Asian glaciers have melted at four times the global average since the early 1960s, shedding 27 percent of their mass, according to a study released Monday.
By 2050, warmer temperatures driven by climate change could wipe out half the remaining glacier ice in the Tien Shan mountain range, reported the study, published in Nature Geoscience.
At stake is a critical source of water for people in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, as well as a section of northwest China.
"Glaciers...