As a taxonomic group, fungi are both ubiquitous and diverse, including molds, yeast, mushrooms, and a variety of other organisms. They are also largely neglected in global conservation efforts. Only 450 types have been assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature for inclusion on its Red List of Threatened Species. Groups like mammals, birds, and amphibians have been completely or almost completely assessed, while fungi account for less than a percent of all assessments to date. Policymakers and biodiversity institutions agree that fungi are fundamental to rich and sustainable ecosystems, but few have taken direct steps to explicitly include these organisms in their policy frameworks.
In response, a small team of fungal experts and legal scholars have banded together to try and tilt public and legal discourse in favor of fungal conservation, reports Jonathan Moens for Undark this week. The team aims to add another “F” — funga — to upcoming high-impact reports, declarations, conventions, and treaties that would otherwise focus on “flora and fauna.”
Also this week: Gauging a woman's sexual desire is tricky business, writes Teresa Carr. Some doctors are glad to have drugs to help boost women’s libido. But many experts say that the few such drugs on the market show little evidence of actually working, and that the industry falls short in trying to measure normal sexual desire.
And: Many non-English editions of Wikipedia — particularly those with small, homogenous editing communities — need to be monitored to safeguard the quality and accuracy of their articles, argues Yumiko Sato. But the Wikimedia Foundation, Sato asserts, has provided little support on that front, and not for lack of funds. Links to these stories and more below.
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BY Jonathan Moens
In the 1960s, fungi were given their own kingdom after decades of being classified as plants. But this recognition has been slow to seep into policy. The vast majority of environmental laws still default to the outdated phrase "flora and fauna." Now, there's a growing movement to save the mushrooms. Read on »
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BY Teresa Carr
In explaining the rationale for approving female-libido drugs, the FDA often cites an unmet need. Yet researchers are fiercely divided over the question of just how many women suffer from a lack of libido and how best to help them. One complication: There is no research standard for "normal sexual desire." Read on »
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BY Yumiko Sato
Opinion | Wikipedia’s crowdsourced approach to quality control has a fundamental weakness: It works only if the crowd is large, diverse, and independent enough to reliably weed out misinformation. That’s left less-trafficked, non-English versions of the encyclopedia especially vulnerable to manipulation and abuse. Read on »
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BY Max Norman
In "Believers: Making a Life at the End of the World," Lisa Wells explores the lives of “relatively ordinary people" who have chosen to live off the grid to reconnect and restore nature. Wells argues that alongside a crisis of engineering and politics, climate change has also ushered in a crisis of narrative. Read on »
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BY Susan J. Prichard, Keala Hagmann, & Paul Hessburg, The Conversation
Opinion | Residents of the West are no strangers to wildfire, but recent years have seen some of the most extreme fire activity on record. The cause? Climate change and a century of fighting nearly every fire. But the severity of future wildfires can still be mitigated by managing forests to foster resilience. Read on »
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BY Michael Schulson
In our weekly news roundup: new IPCC report on impacts of global warming, nasal spray vaccines in development, and more. Read on »
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