25 of 35 Vital Signs for Earth Have Reached Record Extremes, Scientists Warn

A new report from a team of international scientists has revealed harsh realities on Earth, with 25 of 35 planetary vital signs reaching record extremes. Without immediate action, scientists warn that these extremes could threaten life on Earth.

In the new study, published in the journal BioScience, scientists presented a stark look at the state of the climate crisis.

“We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster. This is a global emergency beyond any doubt. Much of the very fabric of life on Earth is imperiled. We are stepping into a critical and unpredictable new phase of the climate crisis,” the scientists wrote.

Scientists use 35 different planetary vital signs to track the effects of climate change, including human population, global tree cover loss, meat production per capita, energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions, ice mass changes, glacier thickness and more.

Twenty-five of these vital signs are already breaking records, including human population, coal and oil consumption, ruminant livestock populations, U.S. heat-related deaths, carbon emissions, methane levels, fossil fuel subsidies, ocean heat content changes, ocean acidification, glacier thickness and tree cover loss, among others.

According to the scientists, the human population is increasing by around 200,000 people per day, while ruminant livestock populations are increasing by around 170,000 animals per day. They also found that fossil fuel consumption increased 1.5% in 2023.

A separate report, the 2024 Forest Declaration Assessment, recently confirmed a decrease in tree cover, with 6.3 million hectares of land deforested in 2023.

Although the scientists did find that renewable energy consumption increased in 2023, renewables are still not overtaking fossil fuel demand enough to limit severe impacts of climate change.

Further, scientists warned that atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane concentrations have reached record highs, the average surface temperature of the Earth is at a record high, ocean acidity has broken records, ocean heating is at an all-time high, and global sea levels are at the highest amounts ever recorded. 

On the other hand, Greenland and Antarctic ice masses have reached record lows, and the average global glacier thickness is at an all-time low.

We are already seeing the devastating impacts of these vital signs hitting extremes, with a 117% increase in heat deaths in the U.S. from 1999 to 2023. Last year, areas across Asia experienced deadly heat waves that killed thousands of people, the report authors warned.

Now, the U.S. is facing two back-to-back hurricanes amid rising ocean temperatures, which have nearly doubled in the past two decades, a recent report from EU Copernicus found.

The authors of the report on the planetary vital signs are warning that governments need to take immediate actions to protect life on Earth. They have recommended actions and policies such as establishing a global carbon price, replacing fossil fuels with renewables, limiting greenhouse gas emissions, encouraging plant-based eating, protecting and restoring ecosystems, and reducing overconsumption and waste, especially by the wealthy.

“A large portion of the very fabric of life on our planet is imperiled,” said William Ripple, a professor at Oregon State University College of Forestry, which led the study. “Ecological overshoot, taking more than the Earth can safely give, has pushed the planet into climatic conditions more threatening than anything witnessed even by our prehistoric relatives. We’re already in the midst of abrupt climate upheaval, which jeopardizes life on Earth like nothing humans have ever seen.”

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Global Deforestation Increased in 2023, Report Finds

Despite international pledges to limit and reverse deforestation by the end of this decade, the world is seeing an increase in deforestation, a new report has found.

The 2024 Forest Declaration Assessment report revealed that globally, deforestation increased in 2023, with 6.37 million hectares lost, including 1.4 million hectares lost in key biodiversity areas. The deforestation of 2023 led to 3.8 billion metric tons of carbon emissions. If deforestation emissions were represented as a country, they’d be the fourth biggest emitter behind China, the U.S. and India, the assessment said.

According to the assessment, this puts the world about 45% off track from reaching the goals set during COP26 in 2021. During that conference, more than 140 countries had pledged to stop and reverse global deforestation by 2030.

Further, more than 62 million hectares of forests saw a decline in ecological integrity, moving from a higher to a lower ecological integrity class. This equates to an area about two times larger than Germany, the report authors said.

There are several factors contributing to the increasing deforestation, the report noted. The biggest cause is agriculture, with 57% of deforestation in the past 20 years linked to agricultural commodities.

Another issue is the reliance on and pressure from fossil fuels, which reached record high levels last year, and the extraction of minerals for increasing renewable energy production. According to the report, fossil fuels still make up 80% of the world’s energy supply, and this number may only decline to around 73% by the end of the decade. 

More renewable energy production will be necessary to save forests from the impacts of climate change, but the authors warned that there needs to be circular methods for recovering and reusing minerals to avoid further forest destruction for mineral extraction.

Climate change and intensifying forest fires play another role in global deforestation. According to the report, more than 138 million hectares of tree covers burned from 2001 to 2023, and 30% of that tree cover loss happened in just the past four years.

The report highlighted the need for improved policies for forest conservation and better protections for communities that safeguard forests. In particular, the assessment noted that changing political leadership in places like Bolivia, Indonesia, and the U.S. could have wide-reaching impacts on global deforestation. 

Brazil served as one example of political influence on deforestation in the report. In September 2023, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon was down 66% compared to July 2022 under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who took office in early 2023.

“Thanks to the strong political resolve of the Brazilian government under the Lula administration, forest conservation is now a top priority after having been deprioritized by the previous administration — further underscoring that progress is not linear and depends strongly on political will,” the authors wrote.

But in Brazil and globally, far more work is needed to get the world back on track to meet the 2030 pledges.

“One year’s or even one decade’s reduction in deforestation does not imply that long-term goals have been achieved,” the report concluded. “Curbing deforestation and degradation is an ongoing effort, not a one-time achievement. Accelerated progress is possible — if governments, financial actors, and corporations step up to the challenge.”

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Global Deforestation Increased in 2023, Report Finds

Despite international pledges to limit and reverse deforestation by the end of this decade, the world is seeing an increase in deforestation, a new report has found.

The 2024 Forest Declaration Assessment report revealed that globally, deforestation increased in 2023, with 6.37 million hectares lost, including 1.4 million hectares lost in key biodiversity areas. The deforestation of 2023 led to 3.8 billion metric tons of carbon emissions. If deforestation emissions were represented as a country, they’d be the fourth biggest emitter behind China, the U.S. and India, the assessment said.

According to the assessment, this puts the world about 45% off track from reaching the goals set during COP26 in 2021. During that conference, more than 140 countries had pledged to stop and reverse global deforestation by 2030.

Further, more than 62 million hectares of forests saw a decline in ecological integrity, moving from a higher to a lower ecological integrity class. This equates to an area about two times larger than Germany, the report authors said.

There are several factors contributing to the increasing deforestation, the report noted. The biggest cause is agriculture, with 57% of deforestation in the past 20 years linked to agricultural commodities.

Another issue is the reliance on and pressure from fossil fuels, which reached record high levels last year, and the extraction of minerals for increasing renewable energy production. According to the report, fossil fuels still make up 80% of the world’s energy supply, and this number may only decline to around 73% by the end of the decade. 

More renewable energy production will be necessary to save forests from the impacts of climate change, but the authors warned that there needs to be circular methods for recovering and reusing minerals to avoid further forest destruction for mineral extraction.

Climate change and intensifying forest fires play another role in global deforestation. According to the report, more than 138 million hectares of tree covers burned from 2001 to 2023, and 30% of that tree cover loss happened in just the past four years.

The report highlighted the need for improved policies for forest conservation and better protections for communities that safeguard forests. In particular, the assessment noted that changing political leadership in places like Bolivia, Indonesia, and the U.S. could have wide-reaching impacts on global deforestation. 

Brazil served as one example of political influence on deforestation in the report. In September 2023, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon was down 66% compared to July 2022 under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who took office in early 2023.

“Thanks to the strong political resolve of the Brazilian government under the Lula administration, forest conservation is now a top priority after having been deprioritized by the previous administration — further underscoring that progress is not linear and depends strongly on political will,” the authors wrote.

But in Brazil and globally, far more work is needed to get the world back on track to meet the 2030 pledges.

“One year’s or even one decade’s reduction in deforestation does not imply that long-term goals have been achieved,” the report concluded. “Curbing deforestation and degradation is an ongoing effort, not a one-time achievement. Accelerated progress is possible — if governments, financial actors, and corporations step up to the challenge.”

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Ocean Warming Has Doubled in Past 20 Years: EU Copernicus Report

According to the latest Ocean State Report (OSR 8) from EU Copernicus, the world’s oceans are experiencing rapid warming, increasing acidification, more marine heat waves and more algal blooms in recent years compared to previous decades.

In particular, the report highlighted that ocean warming has nearly doubled since 2005, and it had already been steadily increasing since 1960. The previous long-term rate of warming was at 0.58 watts per square meter. In the past two decades, that rate has reached 1.05 watts per square meter.

According to the report, 75% of northern hemisphere ocean surfaces are warming faster than the global average, while 35% of southern hemisphere ocean surfaces are warming faster than average. This warming leads to multiple disruptions to ecosystems, including increasing coastal erosion and flooding, decreasing sea ice and increasing tropical cyclone intensity. 

As the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported, hurricanes require water surface temperatures of at least 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius) and a storm or other weather disturbance that can pull in air. Studies have shown links between warming ocean surface temperatures and more intense tropical storms, a link that is supported by the latest Ocean State Report.

The Ocean State Report revealed several other concerning impacts of warming on global oceans, including more intense and deeper marine heat waves that reached as far as 1,500 meters below the ocean surface. As of last year, 22% of the global ocean surface experienced a severe to extreme marine heat wave.

Amid this level of ocean warming, sea ice has declined extensively, with a 4% loss per decade in the Arctic since 1979. In the Antarctic, sea ice loss reached a record low, with 1.9 million square kilometers of sea ice lost in 2023 compared to the average from 1993 to 2010. This Antarctic sea ice loss represents an area about three times larger than France.

Algal blooms are another problem brought on by changing ocean temperatures. In particular, an unexpected cold spell near Crete in 2022 led to a 50% more intense phytoplankton bloom than expected for the area. Extreme phytoplankton blooms can affect the entire ecosystem by blocking sunlight for marine life, and dying phytoplankton can further deplete oxygen in the water, worsening the acidification. According to OSR8, ocean acidification has increased 35% since 1985.

Another concern highlighted in the report is increasing wave heights, with the tallest 5% of waves globally reaching even greater heights in the past few years. Taller waves can increase risk of coastal flooding, coastal erosion, and destruction to coastal infrastructure. 

Some regions are already experiencing these impacts. As EU Copernicus reported, a storm brought 7-meter-tall waves that lasted more than 9 seconds in the port of Melilla, Spain in April 2022. 

“This, in turn, drove waves within the harbour to a record-breaking 1.41 m, disturbing maritime operations,” the report noted. “Simulations indicate that similar extreme waves are likely to happen in the region in 25 years time, significantly sooner than previous analysis suggested.”

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Researchers Develop a More Sustainable Method of Recycling Metal From E-Waste

A team of researchers has developed a more sustainable and affordable way to recycle metal found in electronic waste.

Researchers used electrothermal chlorination, or flash Joule heating (FJH), and carbochlorination to save several metals from e-waste by heating a material with an electric current. They published their findings in the journal Nature Chemical Engineering.

The team used a programmable current that could control temperatures from room temperature to 2,400 degrees Celsius that allows for free energy formation of metal chlorides. As explained in the study, “Once conversion to a specific metal chloride is achieved, that compound distills from the mixture in seconds. This allows both thermodynamic and kinetic selectivity for desired metals with minimization of impurities.”

This process allowed the researchers to collect multiple different metals, including tantalum sourced from capacitors, gallium from diodes and indium from old solar conductive film. Not only were the researchers able to extract these valuable metals from old electronic parts, but they also had a yield of more than 85% and metal purity levels of more than 95%.

Current methods of extracting metals from e-waste, such as hydrometallurgy and pyrometallurgy, are less sustainable. While hydrometallurgy has become more popular over pyrometallurgy because it is considered less energy-intensive, it is still water-intensive, Assembly reported. Further, both processes can produce waste and require a lot of acid to complete, Rice University reported.

The researchers believe their development could provide a method that requires less energy, produces less waste and emissions, and recovers more metal.

While researchers successfully collected certain metals in the study, they noted that this process has the potential to extract other critical materials from waste, such as lithium or rare Earth elements.

“We are trying to adapt this method for recovery of other critical metals from waste streams,” Bing Deng, current assistant professor at Tsinghua University and co-first author of the study, said in a statement.

The newly developed method could minimize the greenhouse gas emissions and environmental destruction associated with mining. With the rise in demand for electric vehicles and renewable energy, there has also been a rise in deep-sea mining and extractions for the metals needed for these technologies.

“This breakthrough addresses the pressing issue of critical metal shortages and negative environmental impacts while economically incentivizing recycling industries on a global scale with a more efficient recovery process,” said Shichen Xu, a postdoctoral researcher at Rice University and co-first author of the study.

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USFWS Proposes Expanding Habitat Protections for Florida Manatees

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has proposed new revisions and additions to critical habitats for West Indian manatees near Florida and Puerto Rico. 

The proposal includes a revised 1,904,191 acres for Florida manatees plus new habitat protections spanning 78,121 acres for Puerto Rico manatees.

“The Service is dedicated to the recovery and protection of manatees, which face significant threats such as declining food sources and water pollution,” southeast regional director Mike Oetker said in a statement. “Critical habitat designations ensure that federal agencies and the public are informed of the species habitat needs and better able to reduce threats and contribute to their long-term survival.”

Manatees approach a snorkeler in Florida’s Crystal River. Stuart Westmorland / CORBIS / Corbis via Getty Images

As Inside Climate News reported, nearly 2,000 Florida manatees died from 2021 to 2022, and another 130 manatee calves have died in 2024. Part of the threat to these manatees is pollution, which has affected their food sources. Officials began a program to feed manatees seagrasses in 2021, which was deemed a success in 2022.

The proposal for new habitat protections focuses on seagrass as an essential element for the manatees’ survival, particularly for the Antillean manatee found near Puerto Rico.

But other threats loom for the vulnerable manatees. USFWS noted that habitat loss, coastal development and human interactions, including boat strikes, all threaten these animals. Climate change, which can contribute to algal blooms, is also a threat to the manatees. Further, climate change can contribute to increasing frequency and strength of hurricanes, such as Hurricane Helene currently moving through the Gulf Coast. 

As USA Today reported, hurricanes can cause manatee strandings, and they are also at risk from injury from storm-related debris in the water. Powerful hurricanes can also destroy the seagrasses that manatees depend on for food.

Manatees are protected by the U.S. Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), West Indian manatees — along with West African and Amazonian manatees — are considered vulnerable to extinction.

USFWS is accepting public comments on the proposal until November 25. In the meantime, as Hurricane Helene makes landfall, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is calling on the public to report any stranded or injured manatee sightings by calling 888-404-3922. The commission emphasized not to touch stranded wildlife.

“The best way people can stay safe and help wildlife under storm conditions is to be alert and give wildlife their space,” the commission said.

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Engineers Create Building Bricks From 3D-Printed, Recycled Glass

The technology for 3D printing has come a long way from printing product prototypes from acrylic resin. In recent years, researchers have found ways to use algae as a bioplastic, pea protein to create sustainable plant-based salmon, and even everyday foods like peanut butter and banana to make cheesecake. Even buildings have been made using 3D-printed concrete.

Now, researchers have found a way to reuse old glass by 3D printing it into strong, durable and reusable building bricks that could help lower the embodied carbon in buildings.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), manufacturing construction materials makes up about 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, highlighting a need for more sustainable building materials.

With advancements in 3D printing, engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are exploring ways to reduce these emissions by developing reusable construction products with 3D printers that can build blocks from materials such as recycled glass.

Inspired by the circular potential of construction, the engineers used 3D printing technology from Evenline, a 3D printing company, to develop figure eight-shaped blocks made with soda-lime glass that could interlock like toy building blocks, or Legos, to improve the reusability of construction materials.

Manufactured glass bricks assembled together in a wall configuration at MIT’s Killian Court. Ethan Townsend

“Glass is a highly recyclable material,” Kaitlyn Becker, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, said in a statement. “We’re taking glass and turning it into masonry that, at the end of a structure’s life, can be disassembled and reassembled into a new structure, or can be stuck back into the printer and turned into a completely different shape. All this builds into our idea of a sustainable, circular building material.”

The engineers presented the results of three methods of manufacturing bricks — fully hollow with no interlocking, print-cast, and fully printed with interlocking components — in a study published in the journal Glass Structures and Engineering

They tested the bricks with a hydraulic press and found that bricks made mostly from printed glass with separate interlocking features on the bottom of the brick were the strongest and held up to the highest amount of pressure. In their testing, the engineers found that the layered blocks could withstand pressures similar to what concrete blocks can withstand.

“We have more understanding of what the material’s limits are, and how to scale,” explained Michael Stern, former MIT graduate student and founder and director of Evenline. “We’re thinking of stepping stones to buildings, and want to start with something like a pavilion — a temporary structure that humans can interact with, and that you could then reconfigure into a second design. And you could imagine that these blocks could go through a lot of lives.”

The results show promise in using a material other than plastic or concrete for constructing with 3D printers, and these engineers join many other professionals in working to reduce construction emissions with this technology.

This summer, the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center (ASCC) unveiled an affordable housing project for Austin, Texas. For this initiative, which is set to start printing in 2025, the center is using wood residuals for constructing 3D-printed homes. 

According to Habib Dagher, executive director of ASCC, this method could become “very competitive with current housing construction costs,” he told CNN. The current challenges to scaling 3D wood printing include 3D printing this material at high speeds and meeting existing building codes, which Dagher said can take a long time to change.

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Earth Is Close to Passing 7 of 9 Planetary Boundaries, Report Says

Scientists have found that Earth may soon pass another planetary boundary, meaning it could be operating outside of the safe limits for seven of the nine defined planetary boundaries.

The Planetary Health Check report, prepared by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), is a new assessment that determines the state of the planetary boundaries. For its first edition, the report found that Earth is near the boundary for ocean acidification.

“Our updated diagnosis shows that vital organs of the Earth system are weakening, leading to a loss of resilience and rising risks of crossing tipping points,” said Levke Caesar, scientist at PIK and a lead author of the report.

The planetary boundaries are a framework in which Earth has nine major areas that it can operate safely: climate change, biosphere integrity, land-system change, freshwater use, biogeochemical flows, novel entities, stratospheric ozone depletion, atmospheric aerosol loading and ocean acidification.

The framework was first developed in 2009 by Johan Rockström, former director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre and current director of PIK, along with 28 scientists from around the world. When the framework was introduced, scientists determined that Earth had passed three boundaries, including climate change, biosphere integrity and biogeochemical flows.

By 2023, scientists determined Earth had crossed three additional boundaries, including land-system change, freshwater use/change and novel entities, which includes plastics.

But now, ocean acidification is close to passing its boundary, putting marine life at risk. According to scientists, there are two main reasons for increasing ocean acidification.

“One is [that] the indicator for ocean acidification, which is the current aragonite saturation state, while still being in the safe operating space, is approaching the threshold of transgressing the safe boundary,” Caesar said, as reported by The Guardian. “The second is that there are actually several new studies that were published over the last years that indicate that even these current conditions may already be problematic for a variety of marine organisms, suggesting a need [to] re-evaluate which levels can actually be called safe.”

According to the data, climate change, biosphere integrity, biogeochemical flows, and novel entities have breached into high-risk zones, and the six breached boundaries have all worsened since the last evaluation of the boundaries. The atmospheric aerosol loading boundary has improved slightly overall, but the authors warned that some areas are still seeing increases because of factors such as deforestation, industrial emissions and wildfires.

“The overall diagnostic is that the patient, Planet Earth, is in critical condition. Six of nine Planetary Boundaries are transgressed. Seven PB processes show a trend of increasing pressure so that we will soon see the majority of the Planetary Health Check parameters in the high-risk zone,” Rockström said of the most recent report.

Scientists plan to publish a Planetary Health Check report annually to monitor progress on the boundaries on the planetary boundaries and help work toward reversing human impact on the planet. Further, the Planetary Boundaries Science (PBScience) initiative led by Rockström will incorporate knowledge from Indigenous communities on how to be better stewards of the planet.

“For centuries, Indigenous Peoples have lived in harmony with the land, learning how to use the environment to support themselves and to replenish what is taken for the overall health of Earth,” Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, chair of the Planetary Guardians, said in a statement. “We are killing ourselves with overdoses of chemicals, destruction of nature, skyrocketing temperatures, and increasing pollution. As industry has accelerated, Indigenous Peoples have seen their homes degraded and destroyed. It is imperative that this decline is reversed.”

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3,601 Chemicals in Food Packaging Detected in Humans

A new peer-reviewed study has revealed that many chemicals from food packaging are present in human bodies, indicating that the chemicals are transferring from the packaging to the food itself.

Although these chemicals are found in other products, food packaging presents a particular risk to human health due to the direct consumption of contaminated food. Further, chemicals from plastic packaging, including food storage containers, can react and leach into food when heated, such as in a microwave.

The study, published in the journal Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, looked at the data on more than 14,000 food contact chemicals (FCCs) and compared it to five biomonitoring programs, three metabolome/exposome databases and existing scientific studies on FCCs.

Of the more than 14,000 known FCCs reviewed in the study, scientists found that 3,601 of these chemicals had been found in human bodies. Some of these FCCs included chemicals of known concern, such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), bisphenols and phthalates, that have been linked to health risks. About 80 of the FCCs found in human bodies were considered hazardous or of high concern, NPR reported.

“Many FCCs are of concern for human health because they have hazard properties such as carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, and reprotoxicity (CMR), endocrine disrupting properties, bioaccumulation potential, and/or persistence,” researchers wrote in the study.

But as the researchers noted, some of the chemicals, such as synthetic antioxidants and oligomers, require more research to determine how exposure could impact human health. The missing or incomplete data means that many more chemicals could pose higher risks to human health. 

But even for the chemicals with known links to health risks, scientists said it can still be difficult to identify or avoid them, NPR reported.

As a result of their findings, scientists from the nonprofit Food Packaging Forum Foundation developed a database on these chemicals and a free, interactive dashboard for people to learn more about FCCs and how exposure to these chemicals may affect human health.

“Our research helps to establish the link between food contact chemicals and human exposure, highlights chemicals that are overlooked in biomonitoring studies and supports research into safer food contact materials,” said Birgit Geueke, lead author of the study.

As NPR reported, chemicals found in plastics and food packaging can accumulate in the body, but they can also clear out of the body within several days after limiting exposure. One way to limit exposure includes storing food in metal or glass containers rather than plastic, but experts are also recommending more information and labeling on food packaging to help consumers avoid potentially harmful chemicals.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is set to hold a public meeting this Wednesday, September 25, to share more information on updates to its process for assessing chemicals in food and food packaging and get feedback from the public and stakeholders.

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Construction Begins on New Bison Bridges in UK

Construction has started in the UK on two of four new bison bridges that will enable the animals to cross through forested areas while allowing human visitors to observe the wildlife from the bridges above.

The project, totaling £1 million (about $1.33 million), includes four bridges that people can use to safely observe the UK’s first wild bison herd in thousands of years, according to Kent Wildlife Trust, which, alongside Wildwood Trust, has been a leader of the wild bison restoration project in the UK.

Kent Wildlife Trust reported that bison are labeled as dangerous under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976. This prevents bison from sharing the same spaces as humans. By installing pedestrian bridges, the bison can have a greater range, while the humans can watch and learn more about these creatures.

With the bridges, the bison will expand their roaming area from 50 hectares to around 200 hectares, as The Guardian reported. Currently, the bison are restricted to fenced regions because of the official dangerous wildlife designation.

While the bridges help expand the range for the bison, conservationists are hoping to push UK officials to update rewilding laws to allow for bison preservation and expansion projects that won’t require expensive steel fencing.

“We recognise that miles of fencing and bridges is a barrier to rewilding projects, but we must demonstrate what can be achieved so we can advocate for change. Bison are no more dangerous than domestic cattle and, in other parts of the world, they roam freely in public areas,” said Simon Bateman-Brown, head of land management at Kent Wildlife Trust, as reported by The Guardian. “Our long-term vision is to remove the steel fencing and have the herd contained via electric fencing, but until the government makes the law fit for rewilding, we will continue to make a case for projects like this, so they can be replicated.”

Two of the bridges are expected to be complete before the end of 2024. 

With the wild bison restoration and accompanying bridges to expand their range, the bison can help contribute to the local ecosystems and may even have beneficial climate impacts. According to a recent study by scientists at Yale School of the Environment, 170 bison in a rewilding project in Romania contributed significantly to carbon sequestration. As Kent Wildlife Trust reported, the findings of that study showed the rewilded bison helped store carbon emissions equivalent to removing around 84,000 gas-fueled cars from the roads.

“Whilst the monitoring system for our Blean Bison project is still in its infancy, we are already seeing the positive impact the herd in Kent is having on their environment — they’re opening up spaces in dense woodlands to make room for far more species and are helping to create micro habitats for other wildlife to thrive,” said Paul Whitfeld, director-general of Wildwood Trust. “We expect to see them improving soil and carbon sequestration too.”

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