Report: Biodiversity loss, climate change driving an ‘escalating nature crisis’
Wildlife populations plummeted 69 percent worldwide between 1970 and 2018, according to a report released Wednesday by the World Wildlife Fund. Food systems were a key driver of this biodiversity loss, responsible for 70 percent of the population decline of land animals and half of the decline in freshwater species. Conservation alone will not be enough to halt these declines, wrote the authors, who said that scaling up sustainable food production is crucial. (No paywall)
Feds consider a formula for managing endangered species
The Trump administration is considering a different way to manage endangered species. The new approach is based on an algorithm that would channel funds toward plants and animals that have the greatest chance of survival—and away from others.
Putting rice in the coffee maker to flush out arsenic
"Cooking rice by repeatedly flushing it through with fresh hot water can remove much of the grain’s stored arsenic," says the journal Nature, citing newly published research on how to reduce levels of arsenic is one of the world's staple foods.