4 | NewScientist | 3 November 2018THIS WEEK
THE world’s wild vertebrate species
have seen populations crash by 60 per
cent on average since 1970, according
to conservation group WWF.
The charity’s Living Planet Report
says that the driving force behind the
decline is rising human consumption
of resources. While climate change is a
growing problem, the biggest threats
to animals, as well as plants, are their
overexploitation and loss of habitat to
agriculture, which together account
for 75 per cent of extinctions since- Only a quarter of Earth’s land
is essentially free of the impacts of
human activities, and this area is
projected to shrink to a tenth by 2050.
The report urges world leaders
to make “the most ambitious global
agreement yet” to tackle the decline
in wildlife when they meet at the UN
Biodiversity Conference in November.
“We have an opportunity to design a
new path forward that allows us to
co-exist sustainably with the wildlife
we depend upon,” says Ken Norris
of the Zoological Society of London,
which contributed to the report.
A RASH of recent earthquakes has
forced fracking operations in the UK
to be halted several times.
All are linked to fracking for gas at
a site in Lancashire, pictured below.
Regulations say work must be paused
when fracking causes quakes of
magnitude 0.5 or greater. Since 22
October, several quakes have been
large enough to require this, the
largest measuring 1.1. The extraction
firm Cuadrilla also voluntarily pausedFERNANDO MAIA/EPA-EFE/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
fracking after some smaller quakes.
Experts say it is normal for fracking
to cause such “microquakes”, and
that many quakes of this magnitude
already occur naturally in the UK every
year, although they are too small to
be felt by people on the surface. But
there is a danger such quakes could
break the seal on the fracking site
borehole, allowing methane to leak
out and add to global warming, says
geologist Stuart Haszeldine at the
University of Edinburgh, UK.
Cuadrilla said checks showed that
the well had not been compromised
following the magnitude-1.1 quake.AS FEW as four in 10 mothers in
England breastfeed their babies
beyond the age of 6 weeks, according
to figures published by Public Health
England last week.
The World Health Organization
recommends that babies be breastfed
exclusively for the first 6 months of
life. But in many cases, women are
unable to continue breastfeeding for
various reasons.
Rates of breastfeeding for babies
between 6 and 8 weeks old have been
relatively stable in England for the last
four years, only varying by a couple of
per cent each year, according to data
collected by NHS England. That so few
mothers are meeting the guidelines
suggests that, in their current state,
they are unrealistic for many women.
Breastfeeding is strongly
recommended for a range of health
reasons. Breastfed babies are at lower
risk of cot death and allergies, and
are less likely to develop diabetes
or become overweight later in life.
Breastfeeding also reduces a mother’s
risk of breast and ovarian cancer.Low breastfeeding
rates in EnglandFracking quakes
pause operationsMassive drop in
animal numbersREUTERS/PETER POWELLBrazil’s climate blow
THE election of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s
far-right new president, looks likely
to further weaken protections for the
Amazon rainforest, making the goal
of limiting global warming to less
than 2°C even harder to achieve.
Bolsonaro has set out few specific
environmental policies, and his
statements have sometimes been
contradictory. But there is no doubt
that he wants to make it much easier
to clear the country’s rainforest for
new farms, mines and roads.
Because his party does not have a
majority in Brazil’s National Congress,
Bolsonaro cannot overturn laws that
limit deforestation by landowners
and that guarantee the land rights
of indigenous peoples. This obstacle
may not matter, though: if he slashes
support for the agencies that enforce
environmental laws, farmers andminers will be able to flout them
with impunity.
The Amazon rainforest is one of
the richest and most diverse habitats
on Earth, and it continues to remove
huge amounts of carbon dioxide from
the atmosphere each year despite
ongoing deforestation. But research
suggests it is soaking up much less
than it used to, so the task of limiting
future warming will get even tougher.
The stance of other nations could
be crucial. Some European countries
have suggested that they will not buy
agricultural products from nations or
companies that continue to clear land.
If the whole European Union
adopted this position, it could have
a major impact: the EU is one of the
biggest importers of Brazilian soya
and beef, the very products driving
deforestation.