• Curious about where current theory stands on the origin of the uneven distribution of biodiversity? Here’s some pop science from Seed for you.
• Is the Fish & Wildlife Service discouraging public comments*? ESA Blawg is on the case!
• There are about 30 Amur Leopards left in the world. Somebody got a photograph of one of them with a kill.
• IUCN has released a report (pdf) during the WCC this week that suggests that, out of 17,000 species analyzed, about 7,000 are at risk of extinction from climate change. The report is nice to read, and nice to look at it. It does not appear to address the fact that all the species on earth today have, through their ancestors, survived billions of years of climate change: that is, there’s no room for adaptation/evolution. I’m not, by any means, optimistic about the future of our planet’s biodiversity, but the idea that none of these species will be able to adapt to new environmental conditions is nonsense. We don’t know enough to say how, or which ones, will do so, but it’s just not presented in this report. To paraphrase one noted ecologist at my fair university, “Our ability to predict where and how extinctions will occur is very soon going to be surpassed by our ability to observe them.”
• Government officials in Sumatra have agreed to try to protect its forests. Yeah, those forests, the ones that under current deforestation rates (and subsequent peat burning) are contributing the equivalent of about 50% of Australia’s carbon emissions.

*(Yes)