According to a new analysis by a group of conservationists and researchers, expanding another 1.2% of Earth’s land-based protected areas would stop the extinction of most threatened animal and plant species.

The coalition of experts identified 16,825 potential conservation sites that need to be prioritized in the next five years in order to save thousands of rare species.

“Most species on Earth are rare, meaning that species either have very narrow ranges or they occur at very low densities or both,” said Dr. Eric Dinerstein, the study’s lead author and senior biodiversity expert at NGO RESOLVE, in a press release from Frontiers in Science. “And rarity is very concentrated. In our study, zooming in on this rarity, we found that we need only about 1.2% of the Earth’s surface to head off the sixth great extinction of life on Earth.”

Between 2018 and 2023, an additional 1.2 million square kilometers were protected to meet the world’s conservation targets. However, the research team asked whether the new conservation areas were adequately protecting essential biodiversity.

The scientists estimated that the new protected lands only covered a small portion of the habitat of threatened and range-limited species — 0.11 million square kilometers. They emphasized the importance of planning protected areas so that resources and conservation efforts are targeted as effectively as possible.

The team mapped the entire planet using six levels of biodiversity data. They identified the remaining rare and threatened species habitat using satellite images and combined them with maps of existing conservation areas. They termed current unprotected biodiversity hotspots Conservation Imperatives. These serve as the world’s blueprint to assist regions and countries with planning locally based conservation efforts.

If adequately protected, the sites they identified — covering roughly 405.25 million acres — could prevent all projected extinctions. Protecting only sites located in the tropics could avert most of them.

The research team found that 38 percent of Conservation Imperatives are near areas that are already protected, making it easier to make them part of current conservation sites or find additional means of protecting them.

“These sites are home to over 4,700 threatened species in some of the world’s most biodiverse yet threatened ecosystems,” said co-author of the study Andy Lee, a senior program associate and enterprise development manager at RESOLVE, in the press release. “These include not only mammals and birds that rely on large intact habitats, like the tamaraw in the Philippines and the Celebes crested macaque in Sulawesi, Indonesia, but also range-restricted amphibians and rare plant species.”

In calculating the cost of these protections, the scientists used data from 14 years of land protection projects, as well as accounted for the amount and type of land acquired and country-specific economic factors.

Professor Neil Burgess, head of the science program at the United Nations Environment Programme’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre, said the paper was a reminder “that achieving 30% coverage by protected and conserved areas on its own is not enough, and that it is the location, quality and effectiveness of these protected and conserved areas that will determine whether they fulfil their role in contributing to halting biodiversity loss,” as The Guardian reported.

Indigenous Peoples and communities with jurisdiction over the Conservation Imperative sites, along with worldwide stakeholders and other civil society members, will need to give their input on what is most effective for them.

“Our analysis estimated that protecting the Conservation Imperatives in the tropics would cost approximately $34 billion per year over the next five years,” Lee said. “This represents less than 0.2% of the United States’ GDP, less than 9% of the annual subsidies benefiting the global fossil fuel industry, and a fraction of the revenue generated from the mining and agroforestry industries each year.”

Protecting biodiversity is essential to tackling the climate crisis. In order to do so, the scientists underscored the importance of keeping the planet’s forests intact, as they are not only home to abundant wildlife, but act as vital carbon sinks.

“What will we bequeath to future generations? A healthy, vibrant Earth is critical for us to pass on,” Dinerstein said. “So we’ve got to get going. We’ve got to head off the extinction crisis. Conservation Imperatives drive us to do that.”

The post Protecting 1.2% of Earth’s Land Would Stop ‘Sixth Great Extinction,’ Scientists Say appeared first on EcoWatch.

Scientists from the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH), along with professionals in the chocolate industry, have found a way to make better use of cocoa fruit to produce not only more sustainable, but also healthier chocolate.

Currently, to make chocolate, producers use the beans found inside the cocoa fruit, but not the pulp or endocarp, an outer shell inside the exterior husk of the cocoa fruit.

However, the ETH researchers, along with experts from the cocoa-recycling company Koa and the confectionery company Max Felchlin AG, realized that they could also use the pulp, its juice and even the endocarp to create chocolate with less waste. The exterior husk could then be composted or reused for fuel.

According to the study, published in the journal Nature Food, the endocarp is rich in pectin. As such, the team was able to produce a gel from the endocarp by making this material into powder and mixing it with the fruit’s pulp and juice.

The resulting gel can be used as an alternative to powdered sugar in chocolate production and results in chocolate that still tastes like a sweet treat, but comes with around 30% less saturated fat and a 20% boost of fiber compared to conventional European dark chocolate.

“Fiber is valuable from a physiological perspective because it naturally regulates intestinal activity and prevents blood sugar levels from rising too rapidly when consuming chocolate,” Kim Mishra, lead author of the study, explained in a statement. “Saturated fat can also pose a health risk when too much is consumed. There’s a relationship between increased consumption of saturated fats and increased risk of cardiovascular diseases.”

The scientists found that it was difficult to achieve the right texture for their chocolate made with the entirety of the cocoa fruit, since it could become too clumpy if it had too much of the juice from the flesh. In tests with less of the cocoa fruit juice, the resulting chocolate wasn’t sweet enough to compete with conventional chocolate.

Eventually, the researchers found that adding around 20% of their cocoa-based gel provided the right texture and taste for the resulting chocolate. As Food & Wine reported, trained panelists from the Bern University of Applied Sciences were tasked with tasting the chocolates from the study experiments to help find the right balance.

The experiments worked, as evidenced by the team filing for a patent for their chocolate recipe made from cocoa fruit. According to the scientists, the resulting recipe will allow farmers to increase their income and offer more products by using more parts of the cocoa fruit.

“This means that farmers can not only sell the beans, but also dry out the juice from the pulp and the endocarp, grind it into powder and sell that as well,” Mishra said. “This would allow them to generate income from three value-creation streams. And more value creation for the cocoa fruit makes it more sustainable.”

As Food & Wine reported, if this approach to chocolate production scales up, it could reduce the amount of land needed for producing dark chocolate. But it will require updated tools and infrastructure for farmers, like drying facilities, that will need more time and money to develop before the scientists’ chocolate can become widely available.

“Although we’ve shown that our chocolate is attractive and has a comparable sensory experience to normal chocolate, the entire value creation chain will need to be adapted, starting with the cocoa farmers, who will require drying facilities,” Mishra said. “Cocoa-fruit chocolate can only be produced and sold on a large scale by chocolate producers once enough powder is produced by food processing companies.”

The post Scientists Invent a Chocolate That’s More Sustainable and Healthier appeared first on EcoWatch.

Native species are struggling to keep pace with invasive species in range expansion, which is important for adaptation and survival, a new study has found.

According to researchers, species need to be able to shift at least 3.25 kilometers per year to keep up with climate change. However, they found that native species are only moving at an average rate of around 1.74 kilometers per year.

In general, invasive species are spreading 100 times faster than native plants and animals, and even some that seem more sedentary are moving at least three times faster than native species, according to the study, published in the journal Annual Reviews of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics.

“We’ve known for a long time that native species aren’t moving nearly fast enough, but there are still some that are able to keep up,” Bethany Bradley, lead author and professor of environmental conservation at University of Massachusetts Amherst, told EcoWatch. “We hadn’t necessarily looked at non-native species specifically as a group of whether they were able to keep up or not. I think this analysis basically says that not only are non-native species really able to keep up, but the reason behind it is because we’re moving them around. They’re non-native species for a reason — because humans are moving them.”

The study revealed that invasive species were moving at a rate of around 35 kilometers per year without human actions. But when factoring in the ways humans contribute to the spread of invasive species, the shift can happen at a rate of around 1,883 kilometers per year, or around 1,000 times faster than native plants and animals.

To compare how human actions drove range expansion, the researchers analyzed data for 249 native species, 242 non-native species, and 192 non-native species introduced through human actions. For example, shipping containers or ships can spread invasive species, and the pets people keep can contribute to invasive species growth. Even hiking can contribute to spreading invasive plant seeds.

One challenge is a lack of regulations on invasive species. As Bradley explained, it can take a long time to establish policies that restrict the spread of invasive species through human actions, so these species can continue their expansion as humans continue moving them.

On the other hand, Bradley said that native species will actually need human intervention to help them adapt to climate change and the competition from non-native species.

“If we want native species to survive, then we have to choose there, too. We have to make an active choice to try to help,” Bradley told EcoWatch. “This is called assisted migration or managed relocation of trying to allow for native species to shift their ranges actively with climate change. That requires our help.”

Bradley recommended for gardeners to “not only think about native species so that you avoid introducing invasive species, but also think about native species because our gardens can serve as stepping stones to help those populations survive climate change,” and suggested using tools like Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center’s native plant website and the Missouri Botanical Garden website for finding native plants.

In a previous study, Bradley and colleagues found that horticulture, including plant nurseries, was contributing to the spread of invasive plant species. Bradley noted that while nurseries were not setting out to spread invasive species, some popular ornamental plants sold in nurseries can contribute to their rapid spread. 

As part of that study, the researchers compiled a list of regionally invasive plant species as well as alternative, native options to raise public awareness. 

For example, the list noted that pampas grass (Cortaderia selloana) is an invasive species that can outcompete native plants and disrupt wetland habitats. For those in the northeastern U.S. who want a similar look in their garden, the list recommended planting golden feather grass (Sorghastrum nutans) as a native alternative.

To help prevent the spread of invasive species other than plants, Bradley recommended people who enjoy boating to thoroughly wash their boats to minimize spreading aquatic invasive species and for people who keep pets like snakes, fish and lizards to prevent those pets from getting loose or avoid releasing them into the environment.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has an interactive map resource on invasive species information and news by state for the public. In the U.S., some of the most invasive species include emerald ash borers, hemlock woolly adelgid, wild boars and domesticated cats.

The post Invasive Species Expanding Their Ranges 100x Faster Than Native Species, Study Finds appeared first on EcoWatch.

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The government of Hawaiʻi and a group of young people have reached a historic settlement that requires the state to decarbonize its transportation network. The agreement is the first of its kind in the nation and comes two years after 13 Hawaiian youth sued the state Department of Transportation for failing to protect their “constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment.” 

The settlement, announced last Thursday, requires the department to develop a plan and zero out greenhouse gas emissions from all transportation sectors by 2045. The agency is also required to create a new unit tasked with climate change mitigation, align budgetary investments with its clean energy goals, and plant at least 1,000 trees a year to increase carbon absorption from the atmosphere. 

“It’s historic that the state government has come to the table and negotiated such a detailed set of commitments,” said Leinā‘ala L. Ley, a senior associate attorney at Earthjustice, one of the environmental law firms representing the youth plaintiffs. “The fact that the state has … put its own creativity, energy, and commitment behind the settlement means that we’re going to be able to move that much quicker in making real-time changes that are going to actually have an impact.”

According to a press release from the office of Hawaiʻi Governor Josh Green, the settlement represents the state’s “commitment … to plan and implement transformative changes,” as well as an opportunity to work collaboratively, instead of combatively, with youth plaintiffs, “to address concerns regarding constitutional issues arising from climate change.”

“This settlement informs how we as a state can best move forward to achieve life-sustaining goals and further, we can surely expect to see these and other youth in Hawaiʻi continue to step up to build the type of future they desire,” Green said in a statement.

The 13 teenagers who brought the suit, Navahine v. Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation, have cultural practices tied to the land. They are divers, swimmers, beachgoers, competitive paddlers, and caretakers of farms and fishponds. Many are Native Hawaiian. In the lawsuit filed in 2022, they alleged that the state’s inadequate response to climate change diminished their ability to enjoy the natural resources of the state. Since they filed, at least two plaintiffs were affected by the Lāhainā wildfire, the deadliest natural disaster in the state’s history.

Hawaiʻi has been a leader in recognizing the effects of climate change. The archipelago is battling rising sea levels, extreme drought, and wildfires among other climate calamities. In 2021, it became the first state in the nation to declare a “climate emergency” and committed to a “mobilization effort to reverse the climate crisis.” But the non-binding resolution did not translate directly into statewide transportation policies that reduced greenhouse gas emissions, according to the youth plaintiffs. 

Between 1990 and 2020, carbon dioxide emissions from the transportation sector increased despite advances in fuel efficiency, and now make up roughly half of all greenhouse gas emissions in the state. The plaintiffs argued that the Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation is largely to blame. Instead of coordinating with other agencies to meet the state’s net-zero targets, it has prioritized highway construction and expansion. The agency operates and maintains the state’s transportation network in such a way that it violates its duty to “conserve and protect Hawai‘i’s natural beauty and all natural resources,” the plaintiffs noted. 

Other similar constitutional climate cases are pending across the country. Our Children’s Trust, a public interest law firm that represented the Hawaiian youth with Earthjustice, has also brought cases against Montana, Alaska, Utah, and Virginia on behalf of young people. Ley said Hawaiʻi is a “great model” for other states to follow. “This settlement shows that these legal obligations have real effects,” she said. 

The settlement requires the state transportation department to meet a number of interim deadlines and to set up a decarbonization unit. The agency has already hired Laura Kaakua, who was previously with the Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources, to lead the unit. Ley said that they plan to monitor every report the agency publishes, submit comments, and educate their young clients on how they can stay involved. 

“Often in the climate field, young people feel betrayed by their government,” Ley said. “But this settlement affirms for these young people that working with the government can be effective and that this is a way that they can make a difference in their lives and in the world.”

Editor’s note: Earthjustice is an advertiser with Grist. Advertisers have no role in Grist’s editorial decisions.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline A group of young people just forced Hawaiʻi to take major climate action on Jun 24, 2024.

A large citizen science survey of rivers in Britain — the Great UK WaterBlitz Report — has found that 75 percent are ecologically unhealthy due to agricultural runoff and pollution from water companies.

Monitored by Earthwatch Europe volunteers, the survey found that waterways in the basin of the famed River Thames — as well as other rivers in the East Anglia and southeast regions of England — were in the worst shape, reported The Guardian. In those parts of the country, 89 percent were found to be in poor ecological health.

“The picture around London and the Thames river basin is particularly dire,” said Dr. Sasha Woods, Earthwatch Europe’s director of science and policy, as The Guardian reported.

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The worst water quality was found in the counties of Cambridgeshire, with 89 percent of rivers having unsatisfactory nutrient pollution levels, and Hertfordshire with 91 percent.

“Unsurprisingly, counties in the Thames region — Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire — and counties in the Anglian region — Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire — are some of the counties with the highest percentage of unacceptable water quality measurements,” the report said.

Gwent and Northumberland had the lowest levels of nutrient pollution with water quality of 100 percent.

The results of the report back up Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) findings that the country’s waterways are not in an acceptable state and that the government is not on course to satisfy the European Union’s Water Framework Directive (WFD), which has been incorporated into British law, reported The Guardian.

Since the 2016 Brexit vote, the United Kingdom’s Environment Agency (EA) has only been testing the water quality of rivers every three years instead of annually. The results of the survey have been given to the EA.

The WFD requires all rivers to have “good” ecological quality by 2027. However, Parliament lowered the requirement to 75 percent of waterways, which experts think is unlikely to be achieved without drastic measures.

The citizen science monitoring — conducted from June 7 to 10, 2024 — involved thousands of volunteers collecting more than 1,300 samples. They measured levels of phosphates and nitrates, nutrients commonly found in sewage — both untreated and treated — and in fertilizers from agricultural runoff.

Elevated nutrient levels can lead to uncontrolled plant and algal growth, high bacteria levels and lower water oxygen levels, all of which can kill plants and animals such as fish, mammals and insects.

“These results are truly disturbing – there are no parts of the UK unaffected by nutrient pollution… our rivers have been historically stressed by farming, and we’re seeing this being made worse by inappropriate or limited sewage treatment,” Woods said, as The Guardian reported. “There is a pressing need for both improvements to wastewater treatment processes and reductions in agricultural pollution to reduce threats to vulnerable freshwater systems. The government has committed to protect 30% of land for nature by 2030 – that will be meaningless if the rivers and streams running through the land, the arteries of life, are diseased.”

Jane Stewart, a citizen scientist born in Colchester who participated in the study, recalled growing up near the River Colne.

“I played on the banks of the young river, upstream in Halstead as I grew up in the 70s, using river clay to make pinch pots and catching minnows and sticklebacks in the shallow river with my friends. More recently I lived on the estuary of the river in both Brightlingsea and Wivenhoe, known for herrings and boat building. I have gone from seeing the river running clear and full as a young person, to now, in my old home town the river being clogged with plants and algae due to the run-off of nitrates. Old mills are sold on for luxury properties and the river has lost its purpose,” Stewart said in the report.

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Woods emphasized that the report was only possible because of the support of citizen scientists across the UK, reported The Guardian.

“This event has enabled people to better understand the health of their local rivers and catalysed grassroots action,” Woods said. “We want to see more citizen science testing and better use of this data by bodies such as the Environment Agency to help build a more positive future for our rivers.”

The post 75% of British Rivers in Poor Ecological Health, Citizen Science Survey Finds appeared first on EcoWatch.

According to Saudi Arabia, at least 1,301 people lost their lives due to intense heat during the Hajj pilgrimage.

Most of those making the pilgrimage did not have permits and were left exposed to the scorching elements.

“Regrettably, the number of mortalities reached 1,301, with 83% being unauthorised to perform hajj and having walked long distances under direct sunlight, without adequate shelter or comfort,” the Saudi Press Agency said, as reported by AFP.

Arab diplomats said 658 of those who perished were Egyptian, 630 of whom were not registered as pilgrims.

“The rise in temperatures during the hajj season represented a big challenge this year,” said Fahd al-Jalajel, Saudi Arabia’s health minister, as The New York Times reported. “Unfortunately — and this is painful for all of us — those who didn’t have hajj permits walked long distances under the sun.”

The Hajj is a spiritual journey Muslims are encouraged to take once in their lives if they are able. Almost two million people perform the ritual annually, many of them losing their lives due to heat stress, chronic disease or illness.

Last year, 774 of those making the pilgrimage died from Indonesia alone. It was not clear if this year’s death toll was higher than normal, since Saudi Arabia does not provide those statistics on a regular basis.

According to Saudi officials, this year 1.8 million people made the pilgrimage, 1.6 of whom were from abroad, reported The Guardian.

Temperatures in Mecca were as high as 125.2 degrees Fahrenheit during this year’s Hajj.

Egypt’s cabinet said the higher number of unregistered Egyptian pilgrims dying on the journey was due to some companies that “organised the hajj programmes using a personal visit visa, which prevents its holders from entering Mecca” through official channels.

Egypt’s prime minister Mostafa Madbouly on Saturday ordered that the licenses of 16 tourism companies be taken away over illegal pilgrimages, according to the cabinet. Madbouly also referred the managers of the companies to the public prosecutor.

Permits for the Hajj are given to countries based on a quota system, then distributed to individuals via a lottery. However, the high costs of the Hajj — which can be thousands of U.S. dollars — leave many without a permit, risking arrest and deportation.

The pilgrimage involves rituals in and around Mecca that often include hours of walking in the hot sun.

Madbouly offered his “sincere condolences and sympathy” to the deceased pilgrims’ families and committed to giving them the necessary support, CNN reported.

Ahmed from Indonesia recounted seeing many getting ill and dying from the unbearably hot temperatures, adding that he did not see any health workers or ambulances on the roadway.

“Along the way home, I saw many pilgrims who died. Almost every few hundred meters, there was a body lying and covered with an ihrom [white fabric] cloth,” Ahmed told CNN. “Every time there is a distribution of water from local residents or certain groups, it is immediately overrun by the pilgrims.”

The death toll could still rise, as governments become aware of unregistered pilgrims from their countries.

The post At Least 1,301 People Die During Mecca Hajj Pilgrimage in Intense Heat appeared first on EcoWatch.

A ban on single-use plastic items like bags and straws is closer to becoming reality in Massachusetts after the state Senate approved a broad bill addressing plastics last Thursday. The Senate passed the bill by 38-2.

The ban, which has now moved to the state House of Representatives, would ban plastic bags at retailers, charge a $0.10 fee per paper bag used and require straws and plastic utensils to be made available only by request. The $0.10 fee per paper bag would allocate 50% of the collected fee toward retailer expenses and the other 50% for environmental initiatives, South Coast Today reported.

The bill would also establish a recycling program for large plastic items, like car seats, according to a report from The Associated Press.

“This vital legislation is another step forward towards eradicating plastics, a top environmental offender, in our everyday life,” said Sen. Michael Rodrigues, chair of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, as reported by The Associated Press.

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In addition, the bill will make a previous executive order from Gov. Maura Healey, banning state agencies from buying single-use plastic bottles, into law. That executive order was signed in September 2023, PBS reported.

If the bill passes, it will make Massachusetts the 13th state to establish a plastics ban. The state already has many plastic restrictions in place locally, with around 70% of the population across over 160 towns and cities under bans on single-use plastic bags.

According to the Sierra Club, Massachusetts threw out about 900,000 tons of plastic in 2022 alone, and a ban on single-use plastics could help reduce the amount of plastic going to the state’s landfills each year.

In a report published in early 2024, researchers found that plastic bans, particularly bans on plastic bags, have made a big impact in the U.S. Bans in New Jersey, Philadelphia and Vermont — along with bans in Portland, Oregon and Santa Barbara, California — have cut single-use plastic bag consumption by around 6 billion bags per year.

“Today, state leaders have chosen to take a big step toward reducing waste and protecting our neighbors and local wildlife from the dangers of excessive plastic usage,” Jess Nahigian, state political director for Sierra Club Massachusetts, said in a statement. “Plastics harm our ecosystems and communities. Cutting down on plastics is a necessary step toward achieving our state climate goals and creating a more sustainable home for future generations of Massachusetts residents. This is an important and vital step in plastic reduction, and Sierra Club Massachusetts encourages the Massachusetts House to pass this bill.”

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