SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
");background-position:center;background-size:19px 19px;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-color:var(--button-bg-color);padding:0;width:var(--form-elem-height);height:var(--form-elem-height);font-size:0;}:is(.js-newsletter-wrapper, .newsletter_bar.newsletter-wrapper) .widget__body:has(.response:not(:empty)) :is(.widget__headline, .widget__subheadline, #mc_embed_signup .mc-field-group, #mc_embed_signup input[type="submit"]){display:none;}:is(.grey_newsblock .newsletter-wrapper, .newsletter-wrapper) #mce-responses:has(.response:not(:empty)){grid-row:1 / -1;grid-column:1 / -1;}.newsletter-wrapper .widget__body > .snark-line:has(.response:not(:empty)){grid-column:1 / -1;}:is(.grey_newsblock .newsletter-wrapper, .newsletter-wrapper) :is(.newsletter-campaign:has(.response:not(:empty)), .newsletter-and-social:has(.response:not(:empty))){width:100%;}.newsletter-wrapper .newsletter_bar_col{display:flex;flex-wrap:wrap;justify-content:center;align-items:center;gap:8px 20px;margin:0 auto;}.newsletter-wrapper .newsletter_bar_col .text-element{display:flex;color:var(--shares-color);margin:0 !important;font-weight:400 !important;font-size:16px !important;}.newsletter-wrapper .newsletter_bar_col .whitebar_social{display:flex;gap:12px;width:auto;}.newsletter-wrapper .newsletter_bar_col a{margin:0;background-color:#0000;padding:0;width:32px;height:32px;}.newsletter-wrapper .social_icon:after{display:none;}.newsletter-wrapper .widget article:before, .newsletter-wrapper .widget article:after{display:none;}#sFollow_Block_0_0_1_0_0_0_1{margin:0;}.donation_banner{position:relative;background:#000;}.donation_banner .posts-custom *, .donation_banner .posts-custom :after, .donation_banner .posts-custom :before{margin:0;}.donation_banner .posts-custom .widget{position:absolute;inset:0;}.donation_banner__wrapper{position:relative;z-index:2;pointer-events:none;}.donation_banner .donate_btn{position:relative;z-index:2;}#sSHARED_-_Support_Block_0_0_7_0_0_3_1_0{color:#fff;}#sSHARED_-_Support_Block_0_0_7_0_0_3_1_1{font-weight:normal;}.grey_newsblock .newsletter-wrapper, .newsletter-wrapper, .newsletter-wrapper.sidebar{background:linear-gradient(91deg, #005dc7 28%, #1d63b2 65%, #0353ae 85%);}
To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
"The global community has an opportunity to translate this latest science of the pressures facing migratory species into concrete conservation action," said one U.N. official.
As world governments gathered in Uzbekistan Monday for the United Nations conference on migratory species, they centered the theme "Nature Knows No Borders"—an idea that a new landmark report said must take hold across the globe to push policymakers in all countries and regions to protect the billions of animals that travel each year to reproduce and find food.
The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) marked the opening of the 14th Conference of the Parties (CMS COP14) to the United Nations biodiversity treaty by releasing the first-ever State of the World's Migratory Species report, showing that nearly half of migrating species are declining in population.
The crisis is especially dire for more than 1 in 5 species that are threatened with extinction, and 70 species listed under the CMS which have become more endangered, including the steppe eagle, the Egyptian vulture, and the wild camel.
The populations of nearly all species of fish listed in the U.N. treaty, including sharks and rays, have declined by 90% since the 1970s.
The two biggest drivers of endangerment and threatened extinction are overexploitation—including incidental and intentional capture—and habitat loss, and both are directly caused by human activity.
Seven in 10 CMS-listed species are threatened by overexploitation, while 3 in 4 of the species are at greater risk of dying out due to habitat loss, as humans expand energy, transportation, and agricultural infrastructure across the globe.
The climate crisis and planetary heating, pollution, and the spread of invasive species—thousands of which are introduced by humans—are also major threats to migratory species, the report says.
"Unsustainable human activities are jeopardizing the future of migratory species—creatures who not only act as indicators of environmental change but play an integral role in maintaining the function and resilience of our planet's complex ecosystems," said Inger Andersen, undersecretary-general of the U.N. and executive director of the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP). "The global community has an opportunity to translate this latest science of the pressures facing migratory species into concrete conservation action. Given the precarious situation of many of these animals, we cannot afford to delay."
Migratory species "reinforce" the fact that nature does not observe borders put in place by humans, Andersen added in a video posted on social media, and humans must work across borders to ensure these species are protected.
According to the report, nearly 10,000 of the world's key biodiversity areas are crucial for the survival of migratory species, but more than half are not designated as areas that must be conserved—and 58% are under threat due to human activities.
Mapping and taking adequate steps to protect "the vital locations that serve as breeding, feeding, and stopover sites for migratory species" is a key priority, said the CMS in a statement.
"Migratory species rely on a variety of specific habitats at different times in their lifecycles," said Amy Fraenkel, CMS executive secretary. "When species cross national borders, their survival depends on the efforts of all countries in which they are found. This landmark report will help underpin much-needed policy actions to ensure that migratory species continue to thrive around the world.”
In addition to increasing understanding of migration paths and minimizing human infrastructure in the pathways, the report recommended that policymakers "strengthen and expand efforts to tackle illegal and unsustainable taking of migratory species"; scale up efforts to tackle climate change and light, noise, chemical, and plastic pollution; and consider expanding CMS listings to include more at-risk migratory species in need of international attention.
"There are many things that are needed to be done on addressing the drivers of environmental change, such as agriculture for habitat destruction, the sprawl of cities, we have to look at rail, road, and fences," said Fraenkel. "One of the most important things for migratory species is something we call ecosystem integrity: they need particular sites to breed, feed, and travel. If those sites cannot be accessed or don’t exist any more, then it's obviously going to be detrimental."
The report focused on 1,189 migratory species identified by the U.N. as needing protection, but found that another 399 migratory species are either threatened or near threatened with extinction.
"People might not realize that whales, lions, gorillas, giraffes, and many birds are migratory species," Fraenkel said.
At the opening ceremony of CMS COP14, Andersen called on policymakers to live up to the conference's theme "by ensuring free passage of migratory species and by ensuring that, through multilateralism, we reach a hand across every border to ensure long-term sustainability, for people and for planet."
Reversing population decline is possible, the report emphasized, pointing to coordinated local action in Cyprus that reduced illegal bird netting by 91% and "hugely successful" conservation and restoration work in Kazakhstan, "which has brought the saiga antelope back from the brink of extinction."
"I ask parties to consider how to work in harmony with other processes for mutually assured success," said Andersen, "all in the interests of sustainable economies and societies."
"What we're losing are our only known living companions in the entire universe," one study author said.
In what researchers call a "biological annihilation," human activities are driving entire groupings of vertebrate species to extinction at a rate 35 times what it would have been without human interference.
The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Monday, found that 73 genera—the next thickest branch from species on tree of life—had been lost since A.D. 1500. Without the mass exploitation of the natural world that took off around that date with European colonization, the number lost in the past 500 years would have been only two, and it would have taken 18,000 years to reach 73 extinctions.
"Such mutilation of the tree of life and the resulting loss of ecosystem services provided by biodiversity to humanity is a serious threat to the stability of civilization," study co-authors Paul Ehrlich of Stanford University and Gerardo Ceballos of the National Autonomous University of Mexico wrote in the abstract.
Or, as Ehrlich summarized it in all caps on social media, "New approach to extinction crisis, very bad news."
Previous attempts to grapple with the sixth mass extinction had focused on the number of species lost or at risk. But looking at genera can provide a clear view of the "magnitude and impact" of these losses, the study authors wrote.
Why? Because when one species dies, other species in the same genus can fill its niche in the ecosystem and preserve much of its genetic code, Ceballos toldStanford News. However, when a genus disappears, it leaves a larger gap in both the ecosystem and the genetic record—one that it can take evolution tens to millions of years to fill.
For example, when the passenger pigeon genus went extinct in 1914, the white-footed mouse lost its main food competitor. This combined with a decrease in large predators caused white-footed mouse populations to explode, which has been fatal for humans, because white-footed mice are the primary carriers of Lyme disease.
"We are alarmist because we are alarmed."
"By losing all these genera, we are losing the foundations of the planet to have life in general and human life in particular," Ceballos told The Guardian.
There's also an inherent sadness to the disappearance of so much unique life.
"What we're losing are our only known living companions in the entire universe," Ehrlich told Stanford News.
Ceballos and Eherlich expected genera extinction rates to be lower than species ones, but found in fact that they were about the same. The pair looked specifically at birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. Beyond the 73 extinct genera, the planet also lost 10 families and two orders: the elephant bird and the New Zealand moa. Birds overall lost the most genera, with mammals coming in second.
What's more, if the climate emergency, the illegal wildlife trade, and habitat loss continue and all endangered genera go extinct by 2100, their extinction rate would jump to 354 times what it would have been without these human actions.
"People say that we are alarmist by saying that we expect a collapse," Ceballos told The Guardian. "We are alarmist because we are alarmed."
However, both authors emphasized that it was not too late to act.
"As dramatic as the results are, what is important to mention is that we still have time," Ceballos added. Though he noted that "the window of opportunity is closing rapidly."
A group of bipartisan lawmakers introduced two bills on Wednesday to boost conservation of the western monarch butterfly to save the population from total collapse.
The legislation comes at a critical moment for the iconic species. The Xerces Society said in January after its latest annual western monarch count that 1,914 monarchs butterflies were recorded overwintering on the California coast--a figure the conservation group said reflected a staggering 99.9% drop from numbers in the 1980s and was an indication the species was heading toward extinction.
"In only a few decades, a migration of millions has been reduced to less than two thousand butterflies," Stephanie McKnight, a conservation biologist with the Xerces Society, said at the time.
The butterflies also have no endangered species protections, neither at the state or federal level.
Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-ORe), who are leading the reintroduction of the The Monarch Action, Recovery, and Conservation of Habitat Act (MONARCH Act) and the Monarch and Pollinator Highway Act, are hoping to stop the precipitous decline.
The MONARCH Act would direct $12.5 million per year to projects focused on conserving the butterfly and an additional $12.5 million per year to implement the Western Monarch Butterfly Conservation Plan, a proposal of conservation strategies organized by the the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.
The Monarch and Pollinator Highway Act would establish a federal grant program for "pollinator-friendly" roadsides.
Panetta, in a statement Wednesday, lamented the "potential extinction of this magnificent pollinator" and said the pieces of legislation were "a small example of how we must continue to fight the effects of the climate crisis by working to preserve the future of a species that means so much to our ecosystem and to us on the Central Coast."
According to Stephanie Kurose, a senior policy specialist at the Center for Biological Diversity, the MONARCH Act gives "these beautiful orange-and-black butterflies a fighting chance at survival."
The measures were welcomed by other environmental experts like Dr. Sylvia Fallon, senior director of wildlife at NRDC, who highlighted the multiple threats the butterflies are facing.
"These bills will provide a lifeline for monarch butterflies whose populations have declined dramatically due to pesticide use, climate change, and habitat loss," said Fallon.
"We need comprehensive conservation plans that help restore the milkweed and overwintering habitat monarchs depend on, or risk losing them forever in as little as two decades," she warned. "This legislation is an important part of ensuring future generations can continue witnessing one of wildlife's most astounding migrations."
The butterfly crisis was unmistakable this winter in Pismo State Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove, which is in the district of Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.), who co-introduced the measures with Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) in the House.
While 6,700 monarchs were spotted at that location in 2019, a mere 200 were seen this winter.
Visiting the grove last month, Carbajal pointed to the then-forthcoming legislation and said that he, along with Panetta and Merkley, were "trying to not only draw attention to (the species' risk of extinction) by writing letters as we did to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife to allocate funds, but moving legislation forward that will actually do what needs to be done: protect (the butterflies) and enhance the conservation itself."
"We're trying to yell at the top of our lungs, 'We're in crisis,'" said Carbajal. "This is a species in my district that is likely to go extinct unless we do something about it, and I feel it's my responsibility to scream loudly."
In a statement Wednesday, Carbajal warned again that the butterflies "are on a path to extinction" unless urgent action is taken.
"The MONARCH Act and Monarch Pollinator Highway Act," he said, would make "critical investments in conservation projects so we can restore their habitats and preserve this beloved pollinator for future generations to experience and enjoy."