Nations Agree to Slow Biodiversity Loss
For all the focus on the climate, we sometimes forget what is perhaps the original environmental issue: endangered species. The situation is dire. Despite a pledge by governments in 2002 to slow the rate of species loss by 2010, the year dawned with extinctions on the rise and little evidence that it would be curbed any time soon. The causes are many — invasive species, habitat loss, hunting and climate change — but the results are grim. Still, 2010 ended with a ray of hope for species. At the meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity in the Japanese city of Nagoya, countries from around the world pledged to expand the percentage of the world's land and water under some form of protection to 17% and 10%, respectively, while promising to work again to cut the loss of species. Time will tell whether these goals are met, or whether they will join the long list of broken promises by humanity to its fellow species — but at least it's a start.