Conservation International Blog

1 week ago | conservation.org | Mary Kate McCoy

Underwater and out of sight, one of humanity’s most effective weapons against climate change is struggling. According to a new study, failure to protect the world’s seagrasses will come at a steep cost — in more ways than one. Protecting the world’s seagrasses could avert climate damages valued at over US$ 200 billion by preventing the release of 1.2 billion tons of carbon pollution — an amount equivalent to the annual carbon footprint of 100 million homes in the United States.

2 weeks ago | conservation.org | Mary Kate McCoy

Axolotls — the cute and charismatic creatures made famous by the video game “Minecraft” — are in a free fall. Pollution, modern farming and the introduction of invasive fish that prey on the critically endangered species have reduced their habitat to the channels of a single lake in Mexico. But a new study is offering a glimmer of hope: Captive-bred axolotls can survive in the wild, Justine McDaniel reported for The Washington Post.

3 weeks ago | conservation.org | Will McCarry

Editor’s note: From “blue carbon” to “ecosystem services,” environmental jargon is everywhere. Conservation International looks to make sense of it in an occasional explainer series we’re calling “What on Earth?"In this installment, we explore eDNA, a wildlife monitoring tool that is changing the way we study the natural world. I keep seeing this thing called "eDNA" in science articles. What is it?

1 month ago | conservation.org | Mary Kate McCoy

Off the coast of Hawai‘i, an unwelcome guest crowds the waters, devouring creatures that cross its path. How to stop them? A new effort wants to put them on your feet. Measuring barely a foot long (30 centimeters), lemon yellow with electric-blue stripes, ta’ape doesn’t look like much of a threat, yet it travels in the thousands, a moving wall of fish in Hawai‘i’s waters. For decades, the invasive species has feasted on native fish — and fishermen’s wallets.

1 month ago | conservation.org | Max Marcovitch

Dr. Neil Vora has spent much of his career chasing and treating infectious disease outbreaks, from the Ebola epidemic in West Africa to COVID-19 in New York City. His prescription for stopping the next one: Protect nature. Vora, an epidemiologist at Conservation International, believes that public health institutions often privilege treatment over prevention.