From "pizzly bears" to strange fish, hybrid animal sightings are on the rise.
Animal hybridization may be a good thing in some cases, helping species adapt to a rapidly warming planet, said Daniel Rubinoff, an entomology professor and director of the University of Hawaii Insect Museum.
For others it could spell the end of the line.
“It’s not to say that some hybridization isn’t natural, or even something that’s been occurring forever,” Rubinoff told CNN. “But the problem is that it’s too much too fast. This isn’t good, and climate change is not going to overall help our planet’s biodiversity or ecosystems.”
Not all scientists agree that climate change is speeding up species hybridization. Some argue the other major factor – both contributing to hybridization and species extinction – is habitat loss as human development encroaches on the natural world.
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📸: Vermont Fish & Wildlife
Material supply chains showed renewed complexity as Europe delayed enforcement of deforestation rules, affecting traceable sourcing of mass-timber and the embodied carbon in materials that underpin sustainable building practices. The deferral reinforces the need for lifecycle assessment and end-of-life reuse in construction, ensuring renewable building materials meet the standards of environmental product declarations (EPDs). Clients now prioritise deforestation-free, rights-respecting, low embodied carbon materials supported by circular economy in construction frameworks and robust whole life carbon assessments.
Rising energy prices across North America increase attention on energy-efficient buildings, deep retrofit strategies and life cycle cost optimisation. Developers are integrating eco-design for buildings that enhance operational performance while lowering the carbon footprint of construction. Water resilience is shaping sustainable building design in the UK, with drought prediction and reuse systems becoming part of life cycle thinking in construction and sustainable urban development.
The transition demands resource efficiency in construction and carbon neutral construction models that directly address the environmental impact of construction. Developers and contractors must commit to building lifecycle performance monitoring, circular construction strategies and sustainable material specification aligned with BREEAM v7 and similar frameworks. Environmental sustainability in construction now depends on design teams treating embodied carbon and whole life carbon as defining metrics for low-impact construction and durable, eco-friendly assets.
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