Extinction VCC News
[Apr. 25, 2026] Wildlife bridge in California close to finish: Katharine Gammon reports in her article “California’s wildlife bridge became a target for the right. Now it’s eyeing the finish line” published in the Guardian that this important wildlife bridge over a very busy 10-lane part of the 101 Freeway came under attach by the Murdoch-owned California Post, which “published an op-ed in March, penned by two writers from the conservative Manhattan Institute, that criticized the $114m project for going over budget, calling it a “jobs program for environmentalists” and a “multimillion-dollar bridge to nowhere”. Other conservative commentators piled on; from Fox News to Trump’s transportation secretary, Sean Duffy.” Despite all this rightwing hate, the bridge is already occupied by wildlife and will be fully operational in December 2026.
[Apr. 25, 2026] Sumatran orangutan use canopy bridge first time: This certainly is good news: Isaaq Tomkins reports in his article “‘Cries of delight’ as Sumatran orangutan filmed using canopy bridge to cross road for first time” published in the Guardian that after a wait of two years, a young male of this endangered species was filmed for the first time crossing the bridge over the Lagan-Pagindar road, which provides an essential route for local people but which became a barrier for animals. Beautiful to watch the video, but is there really hope in this?
[Apr. 09, 2026] Rice's whales are on the course to extinction: As emphasized by Oliver Milman in his article “Rice’s whales existed before humans. Now Trump could make them extinct published in the Guardian, there are only 50 of these whales left, and all of them are in the Gulf of Mexico. The scraping of all protections for these whales by the U.S. President puts this small group of high risk.
[Apr. 09, 2026] Climate Change Can Cause Extinction: In an article titled “Mass drowning of chicks puts emperor penguins at risk of extinction” and published in the Guardian, Damian Carrington reports about a mass drowning of emperor penguin chicks that resulted from massive melting of sea ice in the course of a changing climate. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has declared the species officially in danger of extinction.
[Apr. 02, 2026] Freshwater Fish Populations are crashing: Billions of fish make epic migrations. Such fish migrations happen in rivers across the world, but many are rapidly collapsing. Damian Carrington in an article in the Guardian refers to the Global Assessment of Migratory Freshwater Fishes which indicates that freshwater fish populations worldwide have crashed by about 81% since 1970. This report was discussed at the recent COP15 of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals held on 23-29 March 2026 in Campo Grande, Brazil.
Platform News
[Apr. 25, 2026] World Happiness Report Finds Positive Impacts of Collaborative Platforms: The World Happiness Report 2026 has a strong focus on the impacts of social media and the Web in general on human happiness. The results of most studies indicate that the use of most social media seems to have a negative impact on happiness, while those tools that generate trust and collaboration have a positive impact. The report sumarizes: “Internet activities fall into two groups. Communications, news, learning, and content creation are associated with higher life satisfaction. Social media, gaming, and browsing for fun are associated with lower life evaluations.” This supports the mission of Place4Us as a trust-focused collaborative platform for intercreativity and learning.
[Apr. 25, 2026] Neurodivergence VCC opened: The "Made by Neurodivergence VCC" has been initialized and is open now.
[Apr. 21, 2026] SlaveryToday VCC opened: The "Fighting Modern Slavery VCC" has been initialized and is open now.
[Apr. 19, 2026] Earth Energy Imbalance is Increasing Rapidly: Finally the extreme increase in the Earth Energy Imbalance (EEI) is slowly starting to make headlines - far too late, though. The article “ What are zettajoules – and what do they tell us about Earth’s energy imbalance?” by Jonathan Watts published in the Guardian explains some of the basics. Importantly, the EEI double within only 13 years. In another article by Watts also in the Guardian and titled “ Earth being ‘pushed beyond its limits’ as energy imbalance reaches record high” the author points out that the World Meteorological Organization warned that Earth is struggling with a record energy imbalance, which is warming the oceans to unprecedented levels, making weather more extreme and threatening health and food supplies. Considering that Earth is more like a pool house with a very large pool than a greenhouse, the ocean is only delaying the heating of the atmosphere but not preventing it.
