iNaturalist

The Earth is losing animals, plants and other living things so fast that some scientists believe the planet is entering its sixth mass extinction. But there’s some surprising good news: Urban areas may be key to slowing down or even reversing this crisis. This idea may seem counterintuitive, since studies show that urbanization is a big driver of biodiversity loss. Cities alter the environment with artificial lighting and noise pollution, which affect many species. And urban land cover is expected to increase by 2.5% globally between 2000 and 2030 as more people move to cities. As one measure of urbanization, half of the continent of Europe is less than 1 mile (1.5 kilometers) from a roadway or railway line. No location on the continent is more than 6 miles (10 kilometers) from these features. But there are ways for cities to use nature-based solutions to slow species loss within their borders. At a major international conference on biodiversity loss in 2022, global lead...