International Conservation & Development

When it comes to wildlife conservation a huge personality or bags of charisma tends to help your cause. But scientists are beginning to call for more attention to be paid to those that fail to make the list of nature’s big and beautiful.

Ryan Carle's Switzer-funded work in Chile with the Pink Footed Shearwater for Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge was recently featured in a Spanish-language publication in the region. Read more

Was the four-year-old military conflict in Syria, which has claimed the lives of over 200,000 people, mostly civilians, triggered at least in part by climate change? A new study by Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory says “a record drought that ravaged Syria in 2006-2010 was likely stoked by ongoing man-made climate change, and that the drought may have helped propel the 2011 Syrian uprising.”

Switzerland announced its post-2020 climate action plan yesterday, making it the first country to officially submit its contribution to the international climate agreement to be finalized in Paris at the end of this year. More countries are expected to propose their commitments, known as intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs), over the coming months.

The Chinese government banned the environmental documentary Under the Dome, which went viral upon release garnering 200 million views in the week after it was released on the Internet for free on Feb. 28. The film exposes the devastating impact China’s polluting industries have wreaked on the environment, bringing home the issue for Chinese citizens by focusing on Chinese cities’ appalling air quality. ...

When it comes to wildlife conservation a huge personality or bags of charisma tends to help your cause. Prefacing any group of animals or plants with the words 'big', 'great' or 'giant' seems to win them fans. Big cats, great apes and giant redwoods are all the focus of on-going research, campaigns and policies attempting to preserve them for future generations. The public are easily drawn to helping iconic and visually-impressive species, which in turn leads to their plight being prioritised.

A healthy ocean ecosystem is a public good—both locally and globally. Mangroves, corals, and salt marshes protect coastal towns from storms. Oceans store carbon and produce oxygen that benefits us all. And areas of high biodiversity support global fisheries and are essential for resilient and productive oceans.

At first glance, California and Syria appear to have little in common other than Mediterranean climates. But two new studies – focusing on severe droughts in these places half a planet apart – highlight a yawning gap in the abilities of developed and many developing countries to adapt to the effects of climate change. Each study, appearing in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, documents ways in which global warming is boosting the likelihood of additional droughts as severe and prolonged as those the two have experienced.

Clean energy innovation and decarbonization efforts will be overwhelmingly concentrated in rapidly industrializing countries, where demand for energy is high and deployment opportunities are broad, says a new report from a group of 12 energy scholars.