Biodiversité

Bonn, Germany 25 October – A United Nations University report released today finds that drastic changes are approaching if risks to our fundamental socioecological systems are not addressed.

6  risk tipping points ahead of us: Accelerating extinctions, Groundwater depletion, Mountain glaciers melting, Space debris, Unbearable heat, Uninsurable future

We aimed to assess the impact of future climate change on fire activity in southeastern France and estimate changes in spatial and seasonal distributions.

Key results Fire activity could increase by up to +180% for +4°C of global warming, with large expansions of fire-prone regions and long seasonal lengthenings. Overall, changes will be dominated by intensification within the historical fire niche, representing two-thirds of additional future fire activity, half of this occurring during the high fire season.

Around the end of 2019, wildfires in Australia were breaking records in terms of intensity, extent, and places of occurrence – at a point when the fire season was only just beginning. Such events illustrate how natural disturbances are increasingly affecting the world’s forests as a result of climate change, shifts in land use, fire suppression, and other human-related factors.

In the last Century, we have learnt much about the fundamental ecological and evolutionary roles of natural disturbances.

Pourquoi considérons-nous l'environnement qui nous entoure comme une norme, un point de référence ? Faut-il lutter contre ce phénomène d'amnésie environnementale ? Et si oui, comment ? Nous avons posé ces questions à Aurélia Desplain, anthropologue rattachée au Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, à l'occasion du Turfu Festival, auquel elle participe cette année et dont Usbek & Rica est partenaire.

Une expédition scientifique d’ampleur inédite a gravi l’Everest pour mesurer les effets des activités humaines. Ses résultats mettent notamment en évidence un recul des glaciers et une pollution aux microplastiques.