New Scientist - USA (2020-09-26)

16 | New Scientist | 26 September 2020

Space exploration Conservation

Joshua Rapp Learn Adam Vaughan

THE average age of people sent to

space has been on the rise since Yuri

Gagarin first blasted off in 1961,

and the vast majority of the 566

people who have left Earth are

male, according to a new analysis.

Svetlana Komarova at McGill

University in Montreal, Canada,

wanted to understand more about

how space flight affects bones,

but found that data on spacefarers

wasn’t in any central scientific

database. Such lists have only been

put together by space enthusiast

websites. “Only fans care,” she says.

Her team began to gather

information from space agencies

around the world and decided

to analyse the demographics of

spacefarers. It found that the

average age of crew has increased

from 34 in the 1960s to 45 in the

2010s (Life Sciences in Space

Research, doi.org/d9fd).

Komarova said this may reflect

the fact that in the early days, we

sent younger, stronger types as

we were mostly interested in how

space might affect humans. Once

we understood it was relatively

safe, the cost of launches meant

an increased desire for experience

and knowledge. “The demands

of space travel now require very

highly educated people,” she says.

“The requirements for astronauts

are driven by what they do in

the [space] station, and the

requirements are going up and up.”

Only 64 of all space travellers

have been female — about 11 per

cent — though the proportion has

increased since the 1980s. The

average age of women in space

hasn’t increased as much as that

of men, which Komarova speculates

could be due to the impact of the

menopause on older women. This

can lead to bone loss, and since

space travel also weakens bones,

older women may present a higher

risk than sending younger women

or older men, she says. ❚

Astronauts are

mainly men and

are getting older

A GLOBAL push to protect

biodiversity has failed to fully

meet any of the targets set by

governments a decade ago,

leading conservationists to

condemn nature protection

efforts as a “massive failure”.

A United Nations report

reveals only six of the “Aichi

targets” for 2020 have been

partially achieved. The other

14, such as eliminating subsidies

that are driving biodiversity loss

or halving the rate at which

natural habitats are being lost,

have been completely missed.

The goals were agreed by

almost 200 governments at

a 2010 meeting of the UN

Convention on Biological

Diversity (CBD) in Nagoya,

Japan. They aimed to stem

the destruction of species and

habitats, but the CBD analysis

shows that countries have

failed to address the structural

problems driving nature’s

destruction, such as economic

growth that can lead to forests

being converted to farmland.

Richard Gregory at the UK’s

Royal Society for the Protection

of Birds says the number of

missed targets means the report

makes for grim reading. “This

represents a massive, if not

catastrophic, failure at all levels,”

he says. Significantly, there are

positive signs when it comes to

policies supporting biodiversity

protection, but the drivers of

loss, such as land use change

and the current state of

biodiversity itself, mostly show

worsening trends, he adds.

Felicia Keesing at Bard College

in New York says that despite

the shortcomings, the analysis

shows “global coordination

can make a real difference in

protecting biodiversity”.

The report makes clear the

situation would have been even

worse without conservation

efforts. Up to four times as

many birds and mammals

would have gone extinct

without action in the past

decade, the authors estimate.

Tim Hirsch at the Global

Biodiversity Information

Facility in Copenhagen,

Denmark, one of the report’s

authors, admits the scorecard

is a “big disappointment”, but

says that doesn’t detract from

progress. Bright spots include

work on stopping invasive

species, the growth in protected

areas of land and ocean and

the doubling of financing for

biodiversity projects.

David Cooper at the CBD

rejects the idea efforts have

been a failure, but says there is

only so much conservationists

can do. “We can do things that

are specific for biodiversity, like

protected areas, but they’re

being overwhelmed by the

more society-wide, economy-

wide pressures that have not

changed enough.”

The analysis follows a warning

that a million species are facing

extinction and comes ahead of

a CBD summit in China in May

2021, originally due this October.

The aim is for governments

to hash out new biodiversity

targets that conservationists

hope will be more successful

than those agreed in Japan.

“If the covid-19 pandemic

doesn’t motivate us to make the

changes we need to make, I don’t

know what will,” says Keesing. ❚

World falls short on all

its biodiversity goals

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Forest cleared for oil

palm plantations in

Aceh, Indonesia

20

targets were agreed in 2010 to

tackle major threats to wildlife

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