Patrick Waeber
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powaeber.bsky.social
Patrick Waeber
@powaeber.bsky.social
Scientist, conservationist, and activist exploring the intersections of nature, society, and sustainability. Passionate about diversity, complexity, and the beauty of change. Big fan of forests and their untold stories. 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇲🇬🏳️‍🌈
"If we stay on the pathway we’re treading, it’s a very bad and grim future for corals…” --Prof Peter Mumby, University of Queensland

🌊
#CoralBleaching
#GreatBarrierReef
#ClimateCrisis
#Keep1_5Alive
‘Grim future’ for Great Barrier Reef unless global heating kept to 2C, study finds
University of Queensland modelling says reef will suffer ‘rapid coral decline’ in coming decades but could still recover if targets met
www.theguardian.com
November 5, 2025 at 1:11 PM
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” -- George Orwell 🐘🐍

In research too. The charismatic few get the funds, the fame, the data. The rest fade unseen, unheard, unstudied.

#ExtinctionBlindspot
#ResearchBias
#ConservationInequality #InstitutionalPush
Some animals are more equal than others: the dark side of researching popular species
Studying charismatic species increased the likelihood of negative workplace experiences for younger colleagues, women and researchers.
theconversation.com
November 5, 2025 at 7:42 AM
Satellites & people agree when forests fall, #Deforestation. Not when they fade, #Degradation.

🌳 Deforestation shows in pixels. Degradation endures in memory.
Local eyes see what sensors miss. This matters for governance.

#LocalKnowledge #WestAfrica #REDDplus #TechnocraticError #ClimateJustice
Combining remote sensing with local knowledge is vital for understanding forest change in West Africa - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - Combining remote sensing with local knowledge is vital for understanding forest change in West Africa
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November 1, 2025 at 9:17 PM
🌍 2024 pushed the planet harder. Hottest year. Record fires. Rising seas. Melting ice 🖤
The crisis worsened on all fronts. Yet warming can still be limited if action is fast and fair. 💙

#ClimateCrisis
#HeatRecords
#SeaLevelRise
#IceMelt
#ExtremeWeather
#COP30Belem
In 2024, the climate crisis worsened in all ways. But we can still limit warming with bold action
We are living in a hotter, more chaotic world, with more emissions, fires and fossil fuel consumption.
theconversation.com
November 1, 2025 at 9:22 AM
“We are all walking ecosystems". 🌍 🌎 🌏

The extinction crisis outside mirrors what happens inside us.
Lose nature, lose microbes, lose health. 🌿🧬💔

#BiodiversityHypothesis #Microbiome
#Nature
#Health
The nature extinction crisis is mirrored by one in our own bodies. Both have huge implications for health
Modern life is waging a war against ecosystems around us and inside us. Keeping our own microbes healthy is another reason to demand action to preserve the natural world
www.theguardian.com
November 1, 2025 at 9:12 AM
🌍 Africa’s wildlife is losing its “ecological power.” This is the energy that keeps nature working. Elephants, rhinos, lions and birds once moved nutrients, spread seeds and shaped the land. That flow has dropped by more than a third since pre-colonial times.

#Africa #Wildlife #Nature
Africa's wildlife has lost a third of its natural 'power', study warns
Africa's ecosystems are running on less than two-thirds of the natural energy they once had, according to new Oxford-led research published today in Nature. The study reveals a dramatic loss of wildli...
phys.org
October 31, 2025 at 2:22 PM
🧵 The Tropical Forests Forever Fund, hope or trap?

🌳 Carbon offsets are failing. Can a new plan save the rainforests? The Tropical Forests Forever Fund aims to treat forest protection as a global public good, backed by long-term finance. Ambitious. Risky. Needed.

#Rainforests #TFFF #COP30Belem
Carbon Offsets Are Failing. Can a New Plan Save the Rainforests?
Brazil is set to unveil an ambitious international plan that would provide up to $4 billion a year to countries that protect their tropical forests. Proponents see it as a potential game-changer for f...
e360.yale.edu
October 31, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Reposted by Patrick Waeber
In Sweden this is what my generation grew up with. Of course we called them forests. We are a text book example of the shifting baseline syndrome.
We are constantly told by the media and authorities that these are both 'forest'.

One is a complex, diverse native ecosystem, full of life. The other is an industrial monoculture deadzone.

They could not be more different.
October 30, 2025 at 11:02 AM
In the salt flats of Salinas Grandes, where salt shaped land and life, lithium mining now drains water for batteries.
Communities resist.
They defend water.
They defend culture.
They defend their right to a future.

#Lithium #LithiumBrine #WaterIsLife #IndigenousRights #JustTransition #Argentina
Lithium mining may threaten a precious resource — water: Voices from the land (commentary)
This series, Voices from the Land, brings together opinion pieces led and written by Indigenous peoples from around the world. Through these commentaries, we share our lived realities and reflections ...
news.mongabay.com
October 30, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Mountain-dragons (Rankinia diemensis) and their reptile kin are being forced upward by warming peaks. There’s no higher ground left to flee to. Hope lies in keeping cool refuges linked and alive.

#ClimateCrisis
#BiodiversityLoss #ConservationPalaeobiology #Conservation
#PalaeoRefugia
Rare reptiles are moving up mountains as the world warms. They can’t keep doing it forever
Isolating the impacts of climate change is hard. But a new study shows how ancient fossils can help.
theconversation.com
October 30, 2025 at 8:01 AM
A female lynx shot in Fribourg. Wild. Silent. Free. Killed by cowardice and ignorance. She harmed no one, took only what the forest gave. We lost respect for the wild.

#Lynx
#Switzerland
#Poaching
#JusticeForWildlife
Female lynx poached in Switzerland
Unknown persons have poached a lynx in Switzerland.
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October 29, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Reposted by Patrick Waeber
Unlocking rivers: build a world that's more Arnie
October 29, 2025 at 8:09 AM
Mosquitoes found in Iceland 🇮🇸 for the first time. Probably carried by wind or ship. Warmer winters and more ponds now let them breed. Even near the Arctic. A small sign of a big shift.

#ClimateCrisis
#WarmingNorth
#NewNormal
#DiseaseRisk
#ThawingWetlands
Mosquitoes found in Iceland for first time as climate crisis warms country
Three specimens discovered in what was previously one of the few places in the world without the insects
www.theguardian.com
October 29, 2025 at 12:02 PM
🐀 Known only from one museum specimen, the Subalpine Woolly Rat (Mallomys istapantap) was found alive in Papua’s highlands after 30 years 🌿
Science rediscovered it. Indigenous hunters made it possible. Knowledge flows strongest when shared 💚

#Biodiversity #IndigenousKnowledge #LocalKnowledge
“Lost” giant rat found alive in Papua mountains after 30 years
In the mist-shrouded mountains of New Guinea, a Czech researcher has achieved a world-first — capturing photos, video, and data of the elusive Subalpine Woolly Rat, Mallomys istapantap. Once known onl...
www.sciencedaily.com
October 29, 2025 at 8:26 AM
🐟 “Arnie” the Murray cod (Maccullochella peelii) swam 530 miles upstream. A record journey across Australia’s Murray-Darling rivers. When rivers stay connected. Water flows. Life flows 💪

#RiverConnectivity
#Monitoring
#Australia
#Biodiversity
A freshwater fish named Arnie just swam a record 530 miles, mostly upstream, Australian scientists say
The Murray cod, named Arnie after Australia's recently retired Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus, was first tagged in 2022.
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October 29, 2025 at 7:52 AM
1/3
🧠 Steven Pinker’s concept of common knowledge:
“It is the state in which I know something, you know it, I know that you know it, you know that I know it, I know that you know that I know that you know it, and so on, ad infinitum.”

#CommonKnowledge

share.google/Xwl0FOWUf6uz...
How do you know what I know you know? Steven Pinker on common knowledge
From using words to overthrowing regimes, shared awareness is necessary for people to coordinate. The cognitive scientist explains to Nature how it works.
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October 28, 2025 at 1:16 PM
What a cool looking shark!

#ThresherSharks
🦈Thrilling news from the #SipawayIsland #MPA:

Researchers confirmed the sighting of rare Thresher Sharks in the area's shallow waters. This incredible discovery has proven that decades of conservation efforts have resulted in a thriving marine ecosystem

cebudailynews.inquirer.net/665382/thres...
Thresher sharks spotted off Negros Occidental
Thresher sharks were spotted by a diving team at the Sipaway Island Marine Protected Area (MPA) in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental.
cebudailynews.inquirer.net
October 28, 2025 at 12:45 PM
🌍 Humanity now moves more living mass each year by walking, driving, flying and cycling than all wild land animals, birds and insects combined.
Even our walking alone exceeds the movement of all terrestrial wildlife.

#Anthropocene
#Mobility
#Biomass
Human biomass movement exceeds the biomass movement of all land animals combined - Nature Ecology & Evolution
Quantifying the global estimated movement of biomass on Earth, the authors show that land animal biomass movement is around 40 times smaller than all human biomass movement, with marine animal movemen...
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October 28, 2025 at 9:54 AM
🌍 In the 1850s, humans and their livestock weighed about as much as all wild mammals 🐋🐘 combined.
Today, they outweigh them nearly 20 to 1.
A quiet biomass revolution. Life reshaped to serve one species.

#Anthropocene #Biomass #WildlifeLoss #Beef
The global biomass of mammals since 1850 - Nature Communications
Here, the authors estimate mammalian biomass from the 1850’s to today, tracking an increase of over five-fold in human and domesticated mammal biomass and a two-fold decrease in wild mammal biomass. R...
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October 28, 2025 at 9:14 AM
🎉 Big win for our oceans! The Green Sea Turtle is no longer endangered thanks to decades of conservation work 🐢🌊 Every patrol, nest protected and net redesigned counts. Let’s keep it going!

#MarineConservation #Hope #Bycatch #PlasticPollution #ClimateChange #Poaching #ConservationNeverStops
Green Sea Turtles No Longer Endangered in Conservation Win
Once classified as "endangered" on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, green turtles' status was recently downgraded to "least concern".
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October 27, 2025 at 12:47 PM
💔 The slender-billed curlew (Numenius tenuirostris) is now officially extinct. Last seen in the late 1990s. Lost to drained wetlands, vanishing stopovers, and the guns of a careless age. An irrational, dangerous world erasing what it barely knows.
The slender-billed curlew, a migratory waterbird, is officially extinct: IUCN
The last known photo of the slender-billed curlew, a grayish-brown migratory waterbird, was taken in February 1995 at Merja Zerga, on Morocco’s Atlantic coast. There will likely never be another one. ...
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October 26, 2025 at 9:34 AM
🧵 Twilight Zone Mini Series

1️⃣ 🌊 Deep below sunlight’s reach, 200 to 1000 m down, lies the ocean’s “twilight zone.” Teeming with life and vital for storing carbon. #IUCN just took the first step to protect it before industries move in.

#OceanConservation #DeepSea
#Mesopelagic
#Climate
#Biodiversity
Global conservation body takes first step to protect ocean’s twilight zone
The mesopelagic zone is the chilly, dimly lit layer of ocean found 200-1,000 meters (660-3,300 feet) below the surface, which scientists say plays key roles in the marine food web and carbon cycle. On...
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October 26, 2025 at 8:58 AM
💚 The dugong (Dugong dugon), gentle gardener of the sea, drifts toward silence. Its cousin, the sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas), is already gone. Protect seagrass, protect life, before the ocean falls quiet 🌊

#Dugong #Seagrass #ExtinctionCrisis #BluePlanetCrew
Don’t let the dugong follow the sea cow | Letters
Letter: Diofel Tampoy reflects on an article about the first marine species to be eradicated by humans, the subject of a novel by Iida Turpeinen
www.theguardian.com
October 25, 2025 at 11:55 AM
🔥🌡️"What goes up must come down." Life runs faster as it warms… until it doesn’t.
Evolution hits its thermal ceiling. And so do species under climate change.

#ThermalLimits #ThermalOptimum #UTPC #AdaptOrBurn #ClimateChange
What goes up must come down: The 'universal thermal performance curve' that shackles evolution
Scientists from Trinity College Dublin have unearthed a universal thermal performance curve (UTPC) that seemingly applies to all species and dictates their responses to temperature change. This UTPC e...
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October 25, 2025 at 11:39 AM
🌿 #InternationalGibbonDay
Swing high, sing loud! 🎶

20 gibbon species exist. All on the IUCN Red List, meaning threatened with extinction. They all need forests, space, and our care. Let’s keep their songs alive 💚

#SaveTheGibbons
#LesserApes
#IUCN
#TrueBrachiation
International Gibbon Day: Spotlighting the overlooked, underprotected ‘lesser apes’
Gibbons, commonly called lesser apes, aren’t as well-known as some of their great ape cousins like chimpanzees or gorillas. But the lives of these highly arboreal primates are no less fascinating. The...
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October 25, 2025 at 11:19 AM