In Brief: 36.2

Biodiversity 2010: While world leaders concentrate on carbon emissions, the greatest mass species extinction in 65 million years continues largely unabated.

The Convention on Biological Diversity, an international treaty originally signed by 168 countries in 1993, was created to reverse this trend of species loss. In 2002, the signatories committed to Biodiversity Target 2010, a long-term effort to significantly reduce biodiversity loss throughout the world by setting real targets. Convention officials hope that renewed communication campaigns in 2010 – the UN-dubbed “International Year of Biodiversity” – will create awareness and generate action. …