Global Wildlife Declines
New research by the World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society of London has revealed that the global population of vertebrate species has dropped 52 percent in the past four decades. The Living Planet Report “points to human activities as the primary reason for the decline,” and names habitat destruction, pollution, and the introduction of invasive species as the biggest ongoing threats to biodiversity.
In the newest issue of Resources magazine, RFF’s Rebecca Epanchin-Niell highlights strategies to prevent and mitigate invasive species impacts, and notes that the economic and environmental damages caused by invasive species are likely to be exacerbated by the “wild card” of climate change. She writes: “The hallmark characteristic of invasive species is their adaptability, and it is possible they will be best positioned to take advantage of longer growing seasons, expanded ranges, and other phenomena associated with a warming world.”
US Emissions Rise
The US Environmental Protection Agency has reported that US greenhouse gas emissions rose in 2013, up 0.6 percent—or about 20 million metric tons—from 2012. The increase was “driven by the continued dependence on coal by power plants” in the electricity sector, a problem that EPA hopes to address through the building blocks used to create the “best system of emission reduction” in its proposed Clean Power Plan.
In a new Resources infographic, RFF’s Anthony Paul and Sophie Pan assess the four building blocks individually to determine the emissions reductions that would result if one or more did not survive legal scrutiny. Paul and Pan note in a blog post that block #1 (dealing with heat rate improvements at coal boilers) makes reduction contributions similar to those of blocks #3 (clean energy) and #4 (energy efficiency), with block #2 (concerning natural gas generation) making the largest contribution.
