Some of the bigger names among US scientists who are engaged in conservation work believe global bird extinction is several times higher than usually calculated. In the current Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences they estimate that one bird species disappears yearly, a considerably faster rate than in the widely-circulated tally of 130 bird extinctions since 1500. Worse yet, they estimate the rate will go up ten-fold over the next century, eliminating as much as 12 percent of all bird species as climate change, habitat destruction, and competition from invasive species take tolls. The team is led by Stuart Pimm of Duke and includes Peter Raven of the Missouri Botanical Garden and Paul Erhlich of Stanford University.

Stories:

SF Chronicle Jane Kay; St. Louis Post-Dispatch Molly McElroy;

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 5th, 2006 at 12:30 pm and is filed under Environment & Energy Stories, Science Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.