New Report: Imperiled Species of the World — The Red List

The International Union for Conservation of Nature recently issued its Red List report — assessing the status of species in the global environment.  The news is

The New York Times and Nathanial Gronewold of Greenwire report:

“In its latest four-year assessment of endangered species, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has added several new entries to the Red List of Threatened Species. Judging from the list’s expansion, the report warns, the world is unlikely to meet a goal of reversing a trend toward species depletion by 2010.  The report, ‘Wildlife in a Changing World,’ estimates that 22 percent of known mammals are either facing the threat of extinction or are already extinct. It also found great stress for amphibians, with more than 30 percent classified as threatened or extinct.

‘We now know that nearly one quarter of the world’s mammals, nearly one third of amphibians and more than 1 in 8 of all bird species are at risk of extinction,” IUCN warns. “This allows us to come to the stark conclusion that wildlife … is in trouble.”‘  See full article >>