The Mossy Red-eyed Frog is among hundreds of species threatened with extinction at the hands of chytrid fungus. Jonathan Kolby/Honduras Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Center It started off as an enigma. Biologists at field sites around the world reported that frogs…
Fourth National Climate Assessment: Key Scientific Advances and Extreme Events
The National Climate Assessment The Global Change Research Act of 1990 mandates that the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) deliver a report to Congress and the President no less than every four years that “1) integrates, evaluates, and interprets…
Audubon Warns Interior’s Industry-Friendly Plans Put Sage-Grouse at Risk
On December 6, 2018, the Department of the Interior announced its decision to replace the landmark 2015 Greater Sage-Grouse conservation agreement with a new set of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plans that more heavily favor oil…
Representatives of Climate Action Coalitions Speak at RNRF’s Fall Meeting ‘Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement: What’s Next?’
Community, city, and state level action on climate change has intensified to fill the gap left by the federal government after Donald Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement in June 2017. Mayors, city officials, and business leaders…
Two Degrees Decimated Puerto Rico’s Insect (and Bird and Lizard) Populations
While temperatures in the tropical forests of northeastern Puerto Rico have climbed two degrees Celsius since the mid-1970s, the biomass of arthropods – invertebrate animals such as insects, millipedes, and…
New IPCC Assessment Outlines Challenges of Limiting Global Warming to 1.5ºC
Limiting global warming to 1.5ºC would require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society, the IPCC said in a new assessment. With clear benefits to people and natural ecosystems, limiting global warming to 1.5ºC compared to 2ºC…
Far From Home
As a young girl, Elizabeth Brabec [a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects] knew her mother’s garden was different. Where the neighbors grew lettuce and carrots and cucumbers in neat rows, her family’s garden featured mounded beds of…
Pew Charitable Trusts’ Project on Deep Seabed Mining Described at RNRF Round Table
Conn Nugent, director of The Pew Charitable Trusts’ seabed mining project, hosted the RNRF Washington Round Table on Public Policy on September 6. He spoke about current preparations for international deep seabed mining and Pew’s work to advance responsible seabed mining…
Wild Salmon Recovery in the Western United States: Four Facts and a Corollary
For more than 160 years there have been concerted efforts to recover salmon runs. During the past three decades, the number and cost of formal recovery efforts for wild salmon have substantially increased in large part in response to requirements…
Smart Policies for a Changing Climate: The Report and Recommendations of the ASLA Blue Ribbon Panel on Climate Change and Resilience
Climate change is a threat to people and the ecosystem services on which we depend.1 Extreme weather events are on the rise.2,3 Flooding, drought, and wildfires are more frequent and more severe.4 Higher temperatures are increasing community health risks.5 The…