Short Takes

Companion legislation to the America Grows Act, which was introduced in the Senate last month, has been introduced in the House by Representatives Cheri Bustos (D-IL), Kim Schrier (D-WA), and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA). If enacted, the legislation would authorize a five percent annual funding increase over the next five years for research at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). According to a new report by the Audubon Society, a U.S.-based conservation group, two-thirds of bird species in North America are at risk of extinction due to global temperature rise. The report concluded that 389 of the 604 types of birds studied, including the wood thrush, the Baltimore oriole, common loon, and mountain bluebird, could vanish as a result of threats to their habitats from rising temperatures, higher seas, heavy rains and urbanization. Earlier this year, a report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) warned that a million species of plants and animals worldwide face extinction within the next few decades as a result of land-use change, climate change, invasive species, and pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recommended that two of its federal advisory committees, namely the Environmental Laboratory Advisory Board (ELAB) and the National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology (NACEPT), be disbanded to comply with the President's Executive Order issued in June 2019 requir...
Source: Public Policy Reports - Category: Biology Authors: Source Type: news